Of Audiobooks, Readings, Parties and Houseguests - in short, the usual
Yes, hi, remember me?
I'm afraid I've been cheating on you again with dear little shortform, instant gratification Facebook. (And Tumblr, although she's not much of a conversationalist. [I do love those pictures of hedgehogs, though!] And, of course, Twitter, the scamp!)
So here's the latest:
Despite taking Very Good Care of myself for the past 3 days and feeling Much Better Really, all hopes of recording THE FALL OF THE KINGS audiobook today were slashed when I woke up with laryngitis. (After, admittedly, a night of sneezing & coughing - sheesh! It's like the Crud was a lousy Opening Act for a standard head cold.)
I will listen to audition tapes from actors for the Illuminated scenes, instead. Again, this audiobook will be a mix of me reading everyone (and all the narration), and key scenes being cast with Genuine Actors for the dialogue. Since Delia is co-author - and, really, as I read aloud I remember just how much of this she really wrote! - she gets to play too - and will, like Neil Gaiman, have a cameo in a scene or two. We've decided this time to Illuminate mostly the scenes with masses of Students (or older professors) in them - we're casting a terrific ensemble of male voices old and young, that should be a real joy to listen to - and I can't wait to hear what Sue & David do with the background ambiance for the various taverns and classrooms, not to mention Nate Tronerud's music for the Book of the King's Wizard, and the Hunt.....
I guess I can tell you now that we keenly wanted to cast Paul Gross (Slings & Arrows) as Basil St Cloud - and it looked for a while like we were going to succeed - so much so, that I was devoutly watching S&I VDs every night before my recording sessions, to get the voice & intonation. And as a result, we have many hours of me sounding kinda like Geoffrey Tennant (and doing a very nice Theron, too, if I do say so myself - I lean into the mike a little for him - which is great, except when my chair squeaks, which it started to do as the weather got dry down there in the Brooklyn Basement.....oy), and now must cast someone else who does, too, for the scenes we're using him in (mostly the Big Lecture scenes). I think we've found him, but will say nothing til the ink is dry. (Gross was willing, but the schedules wouldn't line up; he's apparently spending all his time in Afghanistan, filming.)
Got back from Family in Florida trip in time to host Hen Party for my friend, BBC radio drama producer Judith Kampfner on Dec. 28. (We'd got back the night before - meant to be a day before that, but were delayed by storms, so got an extra day in the sun, and the chance to take nephews to ritual CheeBurger CheeBurger lunch....) All we did was clean the house, and J's relatives brought in food, drink, and a Victorian Murder Mystery LARP. None of us had ever played one before, and it was tremendous fun, and a terrific icebreaker for women from all over the world who'd come in for the wedding. Nothing makes you feel cuddlier about a businesswoman from London than to see her in a false mustache and your old velvet bathrobe (of course we laid out costumes!), denying she was at the scene of the crime! As a result, the wedding was Old Home Week.
New Year's Eve was unexpectedly exciting: Neil invited us to the Amanda Palmer concert in a huge former warehouse out on the pier, where she did original songs, and covered the entire PURPLE RAIN album, with special guest John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch), who is just amazing onstage. The acoustics were lousy, but the show was remarkable: What a gifted and generous performer and producer Amanda is! Neil was adorable, up onstage with all the rock stars looking very bookish. The audience was sublime - it felt great to be a part of it. (And it was a real nerdfest: We came in between sets, to find people in the balcony reading while they waited for the next act....!)
We spent the next few days exhausted, sadly missing some parties, then roused ourselves to go see Big Apple Circus (best one ever! 19c theme! though sad no more pony-riding goats), and have dinner with some of Delia's Clarion students (in town for a reunion - nearly half the class, from all over! I'm impressed. Applications are open for this year's class, though neither of us is teaching there - we'll both be at Hollins - which you can also still apply to).
This past Monday (after I went to Brooklyn Basement to read more KINGS), we joined some of them for a GLBT reading at Bluestockings Books, which was epic. Here is wonderful organizer (and writer) Sam Miller's wonderful writeup - with pictures! My friend Anthony LoRusso also did some video of my rather scatty intro, which is here.
The next night, Delia (did I mention that while all this is going on, she's on Death March to finish her MG novel, THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE?) cooked an entire banquet for our annual Twelfth Night Feast and Playreading party. Small this year - just the original members, Dan & Pat - plus houseguest Karen Joy Fowler, who gave us a terrific Ellen Terry in Virginia Woolf's FRESHWATER - the only play short enough for us ever to have actually finished reading between dinner and dessert - which was, as always, a King Cake (Galette des Rois - we always get a French one) - this time, from Financier. I didn't think anything could be better than Silver Moon, but I stand corrected. What could be bad about a great deal of butter held together with a little flour & almond paste? Delia got the feve*, richly deserved, and was sung to ("Joy, health, love and peace....") by those who remembered the words (that would be me - Pat just fakes it).
I've been sick since then. It's not very interesting. I am very, very miffed, because these were the 3 days in a row his month I had scheduled to record KINGS, and I was very much hoping that with the momentum I would be able to finish the book. And now, we've had to push everything back to next month (because of various schedules), and I Am Not Happy. But it will all come out all right, I'm sure.
Oh, and please don't say, "It's no wonder you're sick!" Because, as you may know from previous posts, this is kind of normal for us. There's just a lot of crud going around. We both pray Delia doesn't get it - at least, not before she turns in her draft.
In closing, I would like to say that if you haven't read David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS yet, you must. Don't even think about the movie, or be swayed by it in any way - the entire book is about WRITING and LANGUAGE, forcrissake! It boggles my mind to think that anyone would want to film it - although I suppose it is perfectly natural, if you're a filmmaker and are as blown away by it as I was, to want to Play Too. But still.
*Question: Does anyone think that the word favor (in the Tudor sense) comes from the same thing as feve? Or is it just me?
I'm afraid I've been cheating on you again with dear little shortform, instant gratification Facebook. (And Tumblr, although she's not much of a conversationalist. [I do love those pictures of hedgehogs, though!] And, of course, Twitter, the scamp!)
So here's the latest:
Despite taking Very Good Care of myself for the past 3 days and feeling Much Better Really, all hopes of recording THE FALL OF THE KINGS audiobook today were slashed when I woke up with laryngitis. (After, admittedly, a night of sneezing & coughing - sheesh! It's like the Crud was a lousy Opening Act for a standard head cold.)
I will listen to audition tapes from actors for the Illuminated scenes, instead. Again, this audiobook will be a mix of me reading everyone (and all the narration), and key scenes being cast with Genuine Actors for the dialogue. Since Delia is co-author - and, really, as I read aloud I remember just how much of this she really wrote! - she gets to play too - and will, like Neil Gaiman, have a cameo in a scene or two. We've decided this time to Illuminate mostly the scenes with masses of Students (or older professors) in them - we're casting a terrific ensemble of male voices old and young, that should be a real joy to listen to - and I can't wait to hear what Sue & David do with the background ambiance for the various taverns and classrooms, not to mention Nate Tronerud's music for the Book of the King's Wizard, and the Hunt.....
I guess I can tell you now that we keenly wanted to cast Paul Gross (Slings & Arrows) as Basil St Cloud - and it looked for a while like we were going to succeed - so much so, that I was devoutly watching S&I VDs every night before my recording sessions, to get the voice & intonation. And as a result, we have many hours of me sounding kinda like Geoffrey Tennant (and doing a very nice Theron, too, if I do say so myself - I lean into the mike a little for him - which is great, except when my chair squeaks, which it started to do as the weather got dry down there in the Brooklyn Basement.....oy), and now must cast someone else who does, too, for the scenes we're using him in (mostly the Big Lecture scenes). I think we've found him, but will say nothing til the ink is dry. (Gross was willing, but the schedules wouldn't line up; he's apparently spending all his time in Afghanistan, filming.)
Got back from Family in Florida trip in time to host Hen Party for my friend, BBC radio drama producer Judith Kampfner on Dec. 28. (We'd got back the night before - meant to be a day before that, but were delayed by storms, so got an extra day in the sun, and the chance to take nephews to ritual CheeBurger CheeBurger lunch....) All we did was clean the house, and J's relatives brought in food, drink, and a Victorian Murder Mystery LARP. None of us had ever played one before, and it was tremendous fun, and a terrific icebreaker for women from all over the world who'd come in for the wedding. Nothing makes you feel cuddlier about a businesswoman from London than to see her in a false mustache and your old velvet bathrobe (of course we laid out costumes!), denying she was at the scene of the crime! As a result, the wedding was Old Home Week.
New Year's Eve was unexpectedly exciting: Neil invited us to the Amanda Palmer concert in a huge former warehouse out on the pier, where she did original songs, and covered the entire PURPLE RAIN album, with special guest John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch), who is just amazing onstage. The acoustics were lousy, but the show was remarkable: What a gifted and generous performer and producer Amanda is! Neil was adorable, up onstage with all the rock stars looking very bookish. The audience was sublime - it felt great to be a part of it. (And it was a real nerdfest: We came in between sets, to find people in the balcony reading while they waited for the next act....!)
We spent the next few days exhausted, sadly missing some parties, then roused ourselves to go see Big Apple Circus (best one ever! 19c theme! though sad no more pony-riding goats), and have dinner with some of Delia's Clarion students (in town for a reunion - nearly half the class, from all over! I'm impressed. Applications are open for this year's class, though neither of us is teaching there - we'll both be at Hollins - which you can also still apply to).
This past Monday (after I went to Brooklyn Basement to read more KINGS), we joined some of them for a GLBT reading at Bluestockings Books, which was epic. Here is wonderful organizer (and writer) Sam Miller's wonderful writeup - with pictures! My friend Anthony LoRusso also did some video of my rather scatty intro, which is here.
The next night, Delia (did I mention that while all this is going on, she's on Death March to finish her MG novel, THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE?) cooked an entire banquet for our annual Twelfth Night Feast and Playreading party. Small this year - just the original members, Dan & Pat - plus houseguest Karen Joy Fowler, who gave us a terrific Ellen Terry in Virginia Woolf's FRESHWATER - the only play short enough for us ever to have actually finished reading between dinner and dessert - which was, as always, a King Cake (Galette des Rois - we always get a French one) - this time, from Financier. I didn't think anything could be better than Silver Moon, but I stand corrected. What could be bad about a great deal of butter held together with a little flour & almond paste? Delia got the feve*, richly deserved, and was sung to ("Joy, health, love and peace....") by those who remembered the words (that would be me - Pat just fakes it).
I've been sick since then. It's not very interesting. I am very, very miffed, because these were the 3 days in a row his month I had scheduled to record KINGS, and I was very much hoping that with the momentum I would be able to finish the book. And now, we've had to push everything back to next month (because of various schedules), and I Am Not Happy. But it will all come out all right, I'm sure.
Oh, and please don't say, "It's no wonder you're sick!" Because, as you may know from previous posts, this is kind of normal for us. There's just a lot of crud going around. We both pray Delia doesn't get it - at least, not before she turns in her draft.
In closing, I would like to say that if you haven't read David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS yet, you must. Don't even think about the movie, or be swayed by it in any way - the entire book is about WRITING and LANGUAGE, forcrissake! It boggles my mind to think that anyone would want to film it - although I suppose it is perfectly natural, if you're a filmmaker and are as blown away by it as I was, to want to Play Too. But still.
*Question: Does anyone think that the word favor (in the Tudor sense) comes from the same thing as feve? Or is it just me?