Jordie Sparkle

So, I'm starting college in less than a month, and I'm really excited about it.  There is a small group of incoming freshman who've created this music exchange thing where we're paired up, and we send some of our favorite music to each other. I want to send something fun, fresh, excited, and a bit intelligent if that makes any sense. Really, I just need something to help me get started.

songs about rabbits?
thanks.

A cop started following me about a block away from my house. I turned into my neighborhood thinking that once I opened the gates, he would leave me alone or give me a break 'cause I was already home, but nope. He followed me into MY DRIVEWAY with my garage door open and everything and then he turned on his friggin' lights! So...

I'm kind of in the mood to make a mixtape... So far I got "Cop Killa" and "Fuck the Police". haha. Any other suggestions? I'll take any genre of music, I listen to it all. :)

(x-posted to indierockmix)

Looking for songs about Geeks or Nerds...anything along those lines! I'm making a mix for my trip to Comic-Con!! Thanks!

I'm leaving, I'm sorry. You're my best friend, and I don't want you to be angry with me, but I have to go, it's the only way I can fix myself.

Songs?

Does anyone need a table?  Its not the greatest thing but if you need one I'm just giving it away if you can come to pick it up (I don't have a truck).  Its long, wood, and has two attaching legs.  Its pretty sturdy, but we no longer need it because we got a smaller one to save space.  Please comment if you're interested!

Hey kids, it's been awhile. On August 15th 2007 we started Better than Loneliness at the old Biltmore Hotel. When it closed for renovations we moved to The Astoria from October '07 - May '08. In celebration of the one year anniversary (to the day!) BTL is back from the dead for one night only at The Sweatshop and holy shit am I stoked for our special guest.



BTL 1 YR ANNIVERSARY @ THE SWEATSHOP (1947 E. HASTINGS)

PAUL DEVRO (MAD DECENT)
www.myspace.com/pauldevro
www.maddecent.com

RESIDENT LOVERS - NEIL HILLBRANDT & DANNY MCCASH

3 TIME BTL CHAMP - JIM SUMMERS + MORE!

VISUALS BY DNGROUS ADDRESS
PHOTOS BY ADAM K

RSVP ON FACESPACE

my boyfriend is going to halifax for 10 months for school. we're both currently in montreal, and he's leaving in about a month. we plan on staying together for the 10 months with visits about every 2 months. i'm feeling terrible about this, i'd like some songs that will make me both happy and sad. they could be about long distance relationships, trust, hope, love etc.
thank you

So I met this girl about a week ago and we had this amazing night of just going out and talking for hours and hours. Soulmate is a bit of a stretch but she just seems so perfect for me even though I don't know her. Unfortunately, she is moving to D.C. in a week and I wanted to make her a mixtape of songs that she might like with subtle messages in it as well. Nothing blatant that will freak her out, but cute-catchy, I'll miss you, we just met and I think I am in love, remember me, type songs.

And I appreciated it

"The breeding properties of M&Ms"

I already looked through the tags and none of the posts under "father" really did it for me. Coming up is my dad's birthday and I really want to make him a good mix. I've been away at school and my family has had a tough year. I need good songs that have to do with dads in a really positive light. He's my buddy, so I really want to make this special.

So far I have:

Alaska in Winter - A Love Note from Your Piano (he loves good atmospheric, pretty, basic songs so anything like that is a go for "filler")

Travis - My Eyes

Tokyo Police Club - Listen to the Math

And currently I'm deciding which song off of Pet Sounds will go on the CD.

Any other options that may have more of a "dad, hang in there, you're doing great" vibe?

Thanks in advance!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/quick-newsy-thing.html

A sneak preview of the Sandman 20th anniversary poster: http://celebritygossip.epicureforum.com/great-comics-artists-draw-sandman-characters-for-special-edition-poster-119.html

And Henry Selick told me that We will have our two top puppet fab people - Georgina and Martin - at the NECA toy booth with lots of Coraline puppets. Exhibit Hall - Booth 4345 (across from Warner Brother's 4329 booth)

So if you want to see what the puppets -- our actors from the film -- look like, now is your chance.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/one-of-clarion-posts-i-wasnt-going-to.html

Several people wrote to ask why I wasn't doing a Coraline movie panel in San Diego on Saturday, as mentioned on this blog a few months ago. Laika had asked me to do it originally (and that was when I mentioned it here) but, as far as I know right now, all the Coraline people are madly beavering away trying to get the film finished in time, they've never mentioned it again and it's not on the Comic-Con schedule.

Dude-Sure La Jolla is ten miles away from downtown San Diego, it's also only ten minutes away! So why can't you stop by the con one day? After all how hard can teaching be? Aren't your fan worth it? Late - Chip

They definitely are -- that's why I'll be doing a reading at Mysterious Galaxy tomorrow, and a signing (but I think all the signing numbers are already given out).

As for teaching not being that hard, I'm sure you're right. But whether it's hard or not isn't really the point. The work days start at 8:30am and go till about midnight. Clarion is boot camp for writers -- it's intensive story round table criticism in the morning. In the afternoon while the students write stories (they write at least six stories in six weeks, sometimes more), I'll be doing an hour of individual work with each student (there are 18 of them this year), and giving talks on specific subjects that students want to know stuff about (talks still to come: Writing Comics, Writing for Film and TV, and one on Story and Myth), introducing evening guest speakers (tonight we had author David Brin, with comics genius Scott McCloud and editors Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Liz Gorinsky coming in later in the week), while nights are spent reading the stories we'll be critiquing the following morning.

It's really a fun and fascinating experience for me as a visiting instructor: I'm over my initial terror and I think the students are learning lots -- probably more from each other than from any of the instructors. But it's not a schedule that's really made for nipping in to Comic-Con and doing an imprompu panel or signing. Depending on how many of the individual student conferences I have on Saturday, I might be able to get into the con for a few hours, but if I do I'd spend the time trying to say hello to old friends, or even try and catch some panels. Then I'll need to get back earlyish on Saturday to meet Geoff Ryman and Nalo Hopkinson, who together are teaching the last two weeks, and to fill them in on anything they could need to know.

(I was made very happy to learn that some of the Clarion students learned about it from this blog, by the way.)

Mr. Gaiman, my name is Bruno D'Alincourt, and my question is, how you draw up its dialogues?
If you speak alone, get you.
If you use your cats.
His family.
Your friends.
Or another case to let their texts flow as if they were called in real life.
I know that the dialogues that make the story (For more fícção or description that is) more 'family' possible, as had already been counted and so many can identify with it.
Since already thank you very much.
But unless we see more, having a good morning, good afternoon and a good night.
And you are truly happy.
What all you want God to give you twice.
And do not forget what happened to the man who has everything I wanted ...
... He had a happy life for all forever.
I hope that this humble reply fan.
Me sorry for my English badly written, promise better.
Anything we see in the future.

I don't really know what it is you're trying to find out, Bruno, but I think you ought to know that what the translator program turned it into was practically poetry, if it wasn't already.

Ghost House
piano punk fronted by Vancouver music veteran Jesse Gander.
Vonnegut Dollhouse
local spacey-proggy-weirdy-rock with lady and gentlemen vocals and sci-fi-synths, performing newer, weirder, spacier, and rocking-er material.
Erin Arding & The 60 Hz Hum
Lady-led catchy as hell melodic power-pop! With tasteful harmonies, woodley guitarage and excellent drumming.
Jeremy Stewart and The RestGritty, soulful, powerful, folk n' roll. Stories in songs, will take you on an auditory journey.
The ArbitrarysMelancholic indie with a pop sensibility, employing boy/girl vocals, a result that is anything but arbitrary.

Railway Club, Seymour & Dunsmuir! 9pm doors, show will start around 9:30.

facebook info:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=39409214376#/event.php?eid=39409214376&ref=mf

My friend Joey from A Softer World Dot Com did an interview with me, and I think it turned out really cool! He asked questions that I don't normally get asked. Since we've been friends for years, we ended up with a back-and-forth turned out well and very honest, I think. It's the first interview I ever did where I asked the interviewer some questions too!

check it out

Here's my favourite part of it. I'm trying to answer a question from Joey about where I see myself in five years, about whether or not I choose adventure over stability. I end up here:


You know as well as I do that, as cartoonists who do our work online, who pay someone else to handle t-shirt shipping, all we need to make our comic is a laptop and some internet access. We can work from anywhere and there's literally no business reason to stay in any city for any reason of time. I think it's one of the few jobs where you can do that. But I've lived in Toronto for the past four years and I only traveled to Spain to present a paper for my grad work. So I look back at that and I say, wow, there's not much adventure there. Even with no reason to stay in place, I haven't moved.

There's a reason for that, of course: I have friends here, it's easier to work in a single place, I've been trying to get to a place where I don't have to worry about money. It is the trap of saying "I'll travel when I can afford it" and then doing it when you're old and can't enjoy it as much, but for now it seems reasonable. Plus I really like it here?

To answer your question as honestly as I can, I've wanted since I was very little to not have to worry about money. I've never been poverty-level poor (I mean, there's been years where I've been officially beneath the poverty line, but that wasn't poverty: that was being a student and living the Student Lifestyle), but I've been in a place where you know you can't afford a better-quality food, where you can't do certain things because of money, and I'd prefer not to have those problems if I can. I sort of have troubles with money in general, with how it determines so much of our lives but with how we all try to ignore it, but I would like to be (and stay) in a place where I can pick up some new comics and games and not worry about how much they cost.

This is terrible; you're asking me where I want to be in the future, what I want my life to be like, and the only thing I can tell you is "Man, all I know is I don't want to be POOR."

So listen, you choose adventure over stability more often than I do. When you get an advance on a book, you tend to live it up for a few days, be really generous to your friends, and then it's back to same old Joey. You've slept in way more dumpsters than I have. How come you always make rent?



Read on to find out the answer!

I'd like songs about depression. Not just about a kid who's sad or something, but ones that get to the core of what it's really like to feel depression. They can even be seemingly happy songs with a depressive undercurrent (think Barenaked Ladies' "Brian Wilson.") Thanks!!!

someone requested songs to play at her dinner party, and i came up with this list. i actually really like it so i decided to take a couple of seconds to put it in a decent order and post it, so that someone else may enjoy it. they're just pretty songs that it's kind of impossible not to like.

"Skylark" by Arrah and the Ferns
"Wild World" by Cat Stevens
"Those Dancing Days Are Gone" by Carla Bruni
"Enchanted" by Patrick Wolf
"Fake Palindromes" by Andrew Bird
"It's True" by New Buffalo
"Strawberry" by Paul Baribeau
"Slip Into Your Skin" by Patrick Watson
"This Masquerade" by the Carpenters
"I'll Be on the Water" by Akron/Family
"Tindrer" by Under Byen
"Bowl of Oranges" by Bright Eyes

Full Moon Sways

Song about an angel - Sunny Day Real Estate
Make a plan to love me - Bright Eyes
Pictures of Houses - Tilly and The Wall
Moon on the Water - Beat Crusaders
Your love is sweeter than wine - Black Tape for a Blue Girl
Friday I'm in Love(acoustic) - The Cure
Three Miles Down - Saves the Day
Take me Down - Smashing Pumpkins
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
Somebody - Depeche Mode
I Promise You Walls - Shiny Toy Guns
Glaring Dream(secret dream remix) - Gravitation OST

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/last-post-for-bit.html

I'm at Clarion. Which is in San Diego, about ten miles from where Comic-con will be. I don't have any plans to be at Comic-con, my plate is pretty full here. I also won't be blogging -- I want to give teaching my full attention; I haven't done this before.

But Charles Brownstein from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund asked me to get the word out on a couple of things:

1) Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab have done a limited edition of their amazing "Snow, Glass, Apples" scent. It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.) It's coming out with a limited edition illustrated chapbook of the story, with art by Julie Dillon. There are going to be a few signed ones, and some unsigned. The donation for the unsigned ones will be $50. As they say:

The long-awaited Snow, Glass, Apples perfume will be making its debut at San Diego Comic Con! The SGA package includes Neil Gaiman’s short story in chapbook format, beautifully illustrated by Julie Dillon, and a 5ml bottle of perfume inspired by the tale. This set is a limited run of 1000. 250 will be sold by CBLDF at Comic Con 2008, and the remainder will go on sale July 30, 2008 on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site and will be available as long as supplies last. All proceeds from this project go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!

(I just want to say that Beth at Black Phoenix has proved herself an amazingly staunch supporter of the CBLDF, and has been a complete joy to deal with in all this.)

2) You remember I signed a hundred tee shirts for the fund? (I signed them in thick fabric paint.) They will have some of them for sale at San Diego. Probably $50 each, with a few of the rarer tee shirts going for more.

3) and then there's the auction on Saturday night. As Charles said in his letter,

In our Saturday night auction, we have a number of tremendous items. The coolest is Ryan Graff's Endless Reflections, offered here to commemorate Sandman's 20th. Serious bidders should come by the CBLDF booth (1831) to learn more about this book, which is probably the rarest of all Sandman items. We also have some other cool items including:

1) Dave Sim, Neil Gaiman, "Lithograph 1: Neil Gaiman," signed by Sim, collage retouch by Gaiman (prints/original art)
2) Neil Gaiman, The Dangerous Alphabet #260/400 (prints)
3) Neil Gaiman, Murder Mysteries HC, #122/250 (book arts)
4) Neil Gaiman, The Sky At Night broadsheet #1/5 (prints)
5) Neil Gaiman, Stardust Movie Premiere ticket, signed (ephemera)
6) Cerebus #147, featuring Neil Gaiman's 24 Hour Comic, signed with sketch by Sim (comics)
The full list is terrific, and has some other great pieces, including work by Jack Kirby, Jeff Smith, Matt Wagner, and many more. Full list is here: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000365.shtml

The auction is Saturday at 7:00 in Room 2 of the convention center

The Lithograph #1, is the third of these, and the second to go on sale. (The second one we did was lost by the post office between my house and the CBLDF, and despite being insured for $1000, the Post Office declined to pay. Sigh.)

Anyway, I took Dave's original multiple portrait of me, and then painted it, attacked it with a knife, and collaged strange machines onto it. It's one of a kind...

Hi Neil!

I greatly enjoyed the story and photos of all the signed black t-shirts, and of your first black t-shirt. But something's been bothering me ever since, and I only just managed to put it into words.

My brain can't quite cope with the thought of you having a *first* black t-shirt, in much the same it struggles to cope with the Big Bang. What came before?

Mili

Grey. But it didn't work, because, I discovered, there are brown greys and blue greys and greenish greys and they don't really match, and if you want to dress in grey you have to work at it. Black is so much easier...

Who do I have to approach to get you for a UK bookshop event? How small a shop are you willing to do?

You talk to the publisher. In the case of The Graveyard Book, you'd talk to Bloomsbury. And I go where I'm sent, but try and do shops that are big enough that the people who've come for a reading or a signing fit inside the shop and don't have to stand outside in the rain.

It's time to put on makeup. It's time to dress up right. It's time to raise the curtain on Sanctuary tonight ... that's right, the weekend's biggest alternative-themed club party is back for another installment of drinks, dancing & debauchery. So grab a posse, grab a cab ... or wot-evah, and SHOW US WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF, PARTY PEOPLE!

SANCTUARY
SATURDAY JULY 19 / CLUB 23 WEST
2 ROOMS OF DJs & DANCING

- 23 West Cordova (across from the Army & Navy in Gastown)
- 9PM-3AM / two for one entry all night with cab receipt
- free before 10 / free for students before 11 / $5 dressed up / $6 not

Main Room :



Alt-club-muzik / Electro / Industrial / New Wave / 80's / 90's / 00's, with DJs Vortex & R-Lex!

Here's a few bands you can expect to hear, just for starters : Scandy, The Presets, The Faint, Covenant, Tones On Tail, Joy Division, Justice, Mindless Self Indulgence, Talking Heads, Die Forme, VNV Nation, Ladytron, Electric Six, Apoptygma Berzerk, SITD & more ...

Second Room :



Music delivered with brass knuckles, courtesy of DJs Lucent & Euanator!

Expect to hear some, all, or none of the following : Numb, Skinny Puppy, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, Memmaker, C/A/T, Fiendflug, Combichrist, Slayer, The Prodigy, NIN, Dead Kennedys, The Sex Pistols, Suicide Commando, Ministry and more more more!

More info, including our bitchin'-crazy-sweet party highlight videos, at :
www.sanctuarysaturdays.com