The voice casting for Coraline looks promising at least: Keith David (cat), John Hodgman, French & Saunders
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 26 January 2009 15:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I love Keith David!
― chap, Monday, 26 January 2009 15:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I have high hopes.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 January 2009 15:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Meantime, Newbery Award ahoy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/books/27newb.html?_r=1&8dpc
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 January 2009 23:25 (fifteen years ago) link
The film is good -- nice 3D -- even if they added a co-conspirator boy and kinda muffed the 'second climax.'
Of course, it's more American than the book (not just the setting change). I'm kinda curious about what the Stephin Merritt stage musical version will be like...
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 2 February 2009 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I am looking forward to this, the animation looks lovely.
― Nicolars (Nicole), Monday, 2 February 2009 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, should be a treat. It will be interesting to compare it to MirrorMask since Gaiman's said that was essentially his own demi-adaptation of the book's story.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 2 February 2009 21:12 (fifteen years ago) link
the single They Might Be Giants song kinda sticks out, though.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 2 February 2009 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link
They Might Be Giants? o_O
― Nicolars (Nicole), Monday, 2 February 2009 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Quite a bit of the score employs children's choral stuff. Nothing scarier.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 2 February 2009 21:29 (fifteen years ago) link
ha I thought that was TMBG, other dad even looked just like John Flansberg.
― GLEEPGLOP BLOOPBLORP (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 05:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Before this (Coraline I mean) I hadn't seen a 3D film since the red & blue specs days and so maybe I was just a little blown away by what technology now affords but holy shit I really enjoyed this movie. When she first opened the door to the stretchy blue tunnel I actually caught myself gasping.
― GLEEPGLOP BLOOPBLORP (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 06:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Also as far as his books go I think I benefited from reading Anansi Boys first of his books, I do still like it but it's not nearly as enveloping as American Gods or The Cemetery Book.
He has a short story about, um, some kids and a weird house in a garden with a warning on it or something I read one night and found actually frightening...I have a terrible memory though and don't remember it's name or what compilation it's from.
― GLEEPGLOP BLOOPBLORP (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 06:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Did anyone else see Coraline, then? Just got back from a 3D showing, since those are about to stop, I hear -- great film, echoing Morbz and Nickalicious in praise for it, another Selick slam-dunk and I was pleased to see how relatively packed the theater was for it a couple of weeks after release. Thinking of it, MirrorMask and Stardust as a sort-of group in three different ways to adapt similar variants makes for good contemplation.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 February 2009 23:30 (fifteen years ago) link
mirrormask wasn't an adaptation of anything, i don't think? unless that's not what you mean.
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Sunday, 22 February 2009 23:43 (fifteen years ago) link
In the promo/commentary/whatever on the MirrorMask DVD Gaiman talks about how MirrorMask and Coraline (the book) were simultaneous riffs on the same general idea -- I forget the exact details.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 February 2009 23:45 (fifteen years ago) link
So, it turns out Lucien the Librarian in Sandman might've been a self-portrait.
http://blog.shelfari.com/.a/6a00d8341e478253ef0120a4e31b10970b-pi
http://blog.shelfari.com/.a/6a00d8341e478253ef0120a4e31b06970b-pi
http://blog.shelfari.com/.a/6a00d8341e478253ef0120a4e31ae8970b-pi
http://blog.shelfari.com/.a/6a00d8341e478253ef0120a4e31ae0970b-pi
That's quite a lot of books! I wonder what percentage of them he has actually read? Anyway, gotta love the jackalope head on the wall.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Gaiman reads Hiaasen? GET OUT.
― there's a better way to browse (Dr. Superman), Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:44 (fourteen years ago) link
Also interesting that he keeps a paperback of Carrie among his multiple editions of Coraline...
― there's a better way to browse (Dr. Superman), Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Good thing the dude doesn't move very often.
― god bless this -ation (Abbott), Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:52 (fourteen years ago) link
back when i used to read his blog (sigh) i was quite in envy of the fact he had a basement library. it just seemed like the coolest thing you could have. but er that looks like daylight, so i guess he's moved?
loving this comment on the link:
LOL,
My library's about 50% larger, not to mention far more varied. Significant lack of Asian lit in NG's library, lots of pulpish stuff like King. I'm sure that his is more valuable by virtue of some of the first editions I saw in the photos, but he's thin on a lot of literature and important writers (Ellison, Lessing, Grass, Murasaki, Tasso, Calvino, etc) and essayists. FYI, I read 2-3 books a day, which over 30 years brings my personal reading total up to about 25,000 books, most of which I've retained in my personal library
thanks for that dude
― thomp, Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:53 (fourteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope
This joke was employed by Ronald Reagan to reporters in 1980 during a tour of his California ranch. Reagan had a rabbit head with antlers, which he referred to as a "jackalope", mounted on his wall. Reagan liked to claim that he had caught the animal himself.
― thomp, Sunday, 6 September 2009 18:55 (fourteen years ago) link
but er that looks like daylight, so i guess he's moved?
No, the windows are clearly at ground level, on the top of fairly high walls = the shelves are all underground. On his blog today he laments that the upstairs library where all the cool reference books live isn’t shown.
I know he’s looking at moving back to Britain in the next few years, will probably have to book an entire ship if and when.
― Young Scott Young (sic), Monday, 7 September 2009 06:17 (fourteen years ago) link
i did wonder about that. it's sort of insufficiently basementy for my liking. although i guess it's a much more ecological way of having a basement library.
― thomp, Monday, 7 September 2009 10:44 (fourteen years ago) link
Longish article on Gaiman in the New Yorker. I had no idea that he was mixed up in Scientology.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow, that's for sure. Very interesting.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe one day Suri Cruise will become a famous author.
― ô_o (Nicole), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:30 (fourteen years ago) link
Great article - thanks for the link.
― Bill A, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:41 (fourteen years ago) link
He's marrying Amanda Palmer, though I suppose thats old news now?
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
!! News to me! I just found out a couple of weeks ago that he and mary were divorced. I need to keep up.
― the architecture of horniness (askance johnson), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I think they only publically admitted they were even dating about a month back.
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:16 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah that was the other thing I was all ORLY about. Engagement via Sharpie, hm.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:17 (fourteen years ago) link
So do you think amanda palmer was a gaiman fangirl as a youth and now she has grown up to fulfill her teenage fantasies (as well as those of thousands of similar girls)?
― the architecture of horniness (askance johnson), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
gaiman is surrogate for robert smith obv
― Do the english boil pizza? (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:20 (fourteen years ago) link
lol
― the architecture of horniness (askance johnson), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:21 (fourteen years ago) link
One thing's for sure: She enjoys nekkid antics on the red carpet
― Snake Effect Low (Pancakes Hackman), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
I tried having a crush on Neil Gaiman in high school and it never really worked.
― sedentary lacrimation (Abbott), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:29 (fourteen years ago) link
I just wasn't goth enough to get worked up over him.
― ô_o (Nicole), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:40 (fourteen years ago) link
i enjoyed sandman up until i realized neil gaiman ends all of his complex multi-issue storylines with the same damn whimpering deus ex machina non-ending every time out. i'd still probably rate a couple of the short story issues. (i haven't dared approach his novels for this very reason vis a vis time-investment.)
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:47 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm not very goth and don't care about Gaiman's writing but I would fuckin' wreck that.
― ctrl-s, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I only know anything about either Gaiman or Palmer because of my friends going on and on about either/both all the time. I've only ever read one Gaiman book (the one he did with Pratchett) and I'm no Dresden Dolls fan at all.
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm a sentimental fool and all but the neil gaiman & amanda palmer thing delights me so much-- they are such a power couple!
― lords of hyrule (c sharp major), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:49 (fourteen years ago) link
At Worldcon, the international science-fiction convention, where he was the guest of honor in August, people walked around wearing pins that read “Neil Gaiman! Squeeeeeee!”—an expression of hysterical enthusiasm.
Ian R-M has so much to answer for.
― WmC, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 04:57 (fourteen years ago) link
"Squeee" has been around a lot longer than our young mr cuddlestein. God, I hate that word.
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 06:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Fair to blame Jhonen Vasquez for that one. Wonder what he's been up to, post-Invader Zim?
― Kylie is a vacant Phifer (kingkongvsgodzilla), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 11:43 (fourteen years ago) link
Have we mentioned his non-fiction biography of Douglas Adams, written in an annoying faux-Adams styleeee?
― The New Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 12:48 (fourteen years ago) link
The NYer link notes the faux-Adamsness. (Americans should beware, their editions are often heavily revised by other hands.)
― Your Sinclair magazine (sic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 23:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Wonder what he's been up to, post-Invader Zim?
Apparently he's working on a (presumably animated - fuck, I hope so) movie version of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac! I was no fan at all of Zim, but THAT as a dark, scribbly animated movie could potentially be freaking awesome.
It could also be hideous. Please don't anyone let Tim Burton touch it.
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 23:40 (fourteen years ago) link
okay this is weird, i found out today that one of my close associates is his son, which was very strange as most of our other associates operate on a vastly different arts/culture platform and have no idea who NG is. son and dad are quite, quite different afaict.
― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 21 March 2010 04:42 (fourteen years ago) link
you work at g00gl3?
yeah he's said that he doesn't understand half of what his son tells him about his job, and usually just smiles and says "That's brilliant."
― Roz, Sunday, 21 March 2010 07:09 (fourteen years ago) link