PW Comics Week

I've a had a few more articles in PW Comics Week recently.

On Tuesday, my article on Norton's plans to republish the works of graphic novel's pioneer Will Eisner ran.

I had two articles in the November 14 issue--one on Brooklyn-based Gigantic Graphic Novels and a second on Larry Gonick's forthcoming History of The Modern World. If you haven't read any of Larry Gonick's history comics, I urge you to do so--they combine impressive research, worthy of any traditional historian, with lively drawings and a sense of humor. He is on a mission to make people care about history.

Thanksgiving Pics

Thanksgiving in Oswego

I spent Thanksgiving in Oswego, with Dad and the Necks. Not surprisingly, we ate a lot of tasty food. Kym and Bets planned a wonderful menu, a highlight was the shrimp/kale/collard green/garlic bread stuffing that Kym prepared.

I kept singing “They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard” - yes, I get a little hyper around the holidays. We downloaded it from youtube so we could watch it on Hosmer’s machine. The painful days of dial-up were relived by us all, but the tune was a hit, and soon the female members of the Neck family began to sing it over and over, while dancing in step.

Jerry showed us a charming and funny black and white early music video of his grandfather, who was a big band musician, also on youtube. It took 20 minutes to download, but was worth every minute. Jerry plays the violin, and Friday night he played for all of us. Hearing live (violin!) music in the living room was great.

John moved from one slightly broken appliance to another, fixing things. He has wonderful pictures of the walk he participated in along the border - I am looking forward to seeing them online soon.

Pictures will follow, eblogger will not let me upload them now (probably all the other bloggers are putting their thanksgiving pics online).

Africa Comics in the New York Times

The New York Times has a long article on the Africa Comics Show--as of 1:52 EST it on the opening page of the website.

The Family that Eats Together . . .

Through a series of events, there ended up being 4 family dinners between Friday and Monday. In other words, one every night. Here are some pictures.

Kym and Eric at Gandhi

Indian Food

Jody and Calvin at Festival Mexicano

Calvin with his beautiful new computer

Jody's tasty roast chicken

Eric, Kym and me at Artuos.

If Frank Miller directed Lord of the Rings

Yes, someone has combined two of my favorite movie "franchises", Sin City and Lord of the Rings. See White City on YouTube.

Here is Heidi MacDonald's post on the Beat, where I found this.

More Happy Democrats

My dad recently sent me this picture. The title was "More Happy Democrats."

Africa Comics Exhibition

The Studio Museum in Harlem has an exhibition of Africa Comics that just opened. Calvin has an essay in the catalog, and was involved in bringing this work here. Mary Angela Schroth is one of the curators, a friend who lives in Rome and runs a gallery there (in a space owned by the Vatican - the co-director is a priest - only in Italy).

I got to the opening too late to see the show, but Kym assures me it is terrific.

Healthy Dinner

Last weekend, Kristen had some friends over to enjoy the view from her new high rise apartment. It took me a little while to get up, as three people were stuck in one of the elevators. But I arrived safely, and Kristen fed us with a very healthy snack of fried ravioli and fried Nutella dumplings. Lucie was uncharacteristically aloof, sitting on the bed and looking out at us from across the room. After we headed home, Neilson another snack (two hotdogs) at Grey's Papaya.

Secret Life of a Knitter

So as I have mentioned before, I am rather addicted to the knitting. Well, let's just be honest, the closer and closer I get to my orals, the more obsessed I become in the quest for peace of mind through knitting. Or at least something to keep my hands and mind occupied with when they are too exhausted to concentrate on theory but still too active to keep still. I like to imagine that I am not only doing myself a favor, but all those who must put up with me in this rather crazed time.

Because of the recent ramp-up in my knitting obsession, I have been trolling knitting blogs, only to discover that some knitters have secret lives. No mere knitters, but super-knitters. I know everyone talks about how 'this isn't your grandmother's knitting anymore' and it generally drives me nuts, but seriously, who knew bat-girl knit? And she's hot. I wonder what her utility belt holds?

Jamie Oliver, a.k.a. the Naked Chef, Comes to Town

Yesterday was a good day. I had a meeting with my advisor that went fairly well and then I headed down to Union Square to stake out a seat in the Barnes & Noble so that I could listen to Jamie Oliver talk about his new book and his struggle to improve school lunches in England.

The bookstore staff was somewhat annoying and bossy. They seemed anxious that all the foodies in the audience might demand personalized autographs or storm the stage in all the excitement. In reality it was a very calm, sedated, even boring crowd, but I didn't care, I love Jamie Oliver. I love to read his books. The pictures are always fabulous and the recipes hold up to scrutiny as well.

In order to have a decent seat I had to sit down an hour before the event and wait. Not being good at waiting without entertainment I decided to enjoy two of my favorite hobbies at once, knitting and television. I pulled out some socks to knit on and tuned in my ipod to the TV guide podcast that Molly had told me about several months ago. I made some real progress on the socks while listening to 4 strangers talk about Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Borat, and more. It was the perfect antidote to all the serious grad-school type thinking I had been engaged with earlier in the day.

Eventually Jamie arrived and bounded up onto the stage. He turned out to be quite the camera ham, reminding me of Molly, but it was amusing to watch him lean against the table in a classicly jaunty fashion while mugging for the photographers. Unfortunately my seat was directly behind the photographers so I couldn't get any of these photos without standing up on my chair and given the unnecessarily uptight attitude of the B&N security staff, I was afraid of being thrown out of the event. While that would have made for a good story, I wanted my autograph. I had been looking forward to this all day damnit. But some other time I'll risk expulsion for the sake of the story, I promise. It will have to be an author that doesn't really interest me, however. I did manage to get some badly exposed and somewhat fuzzy pictures of Jamie.

He then took the podium and talked for a bit about his love for Italy and his desire to escape into that country and its food after 2 1/2 years of fighting with budgets and government administrators over school lunches. Sounds like the perfect escape to me and Jamie's Italy was the result. It is a gorgeous book. Jamie hopes we all take it to bed with us to read. Don't worry Jamie, all your books make my bedtime reading list. Cookbooks in general make for very nice bedtime reading. Matt and I already own several of Jamie's books, but I didn't have his first one so I decided to have him sign the original The Naked Chef, which he talked about haunting him to this day. There are worse things to be haunted by, believe me.

He also talked about how he finds the whole American author-talk/book signing rather odd, actually he said it was simply not normal. Apparently in England when you go to a book signing the author does not give a talk. You just get in line and get your book signed and then leave, none of that annoying listening to the author talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. Not that he was talking about either of those things. I liked listening to him actually, but it would have been nice to get a more personalized autograph. His little editor assistants were very efficient in moving the crowd along and checking every book to make sure that it was an official Jamie Oliver book and that no one took up more than a nano-second of Jamie's time. They seemed very concerned by the threat of the fake book, acutally. Still, it is a nice big signature with a lovely sharpie so I'm happy enough. Besides, I had on my Mexican football jersey for Cruz Azul, and that certainly got the Brit's attention, which of course was why I had it on.

Later in the evening it got me free beer from a bartender from Mexico City who was also delighted with my shirt. Then I came back to Jody's apartment and the good news about the election. It is a magical shirt. I must wear it more often.

Here is a picture of Jamie's first book with the socks I was knitting while at the event. Note the jaunty lean mentioned earlier.

And here is Jamie's autograph for which I braved the over-amped B&N security and the somewhat bitchy editor's assistants. It was worth it. Have to love a man who cooks and appreciates a good sharpie.

Molly's Shirt Was Right!

Molly ran the Marine Corps Marathon with a shirt that read "10 Days until Majority." I loved it, but tried not to get my hopes up--the Democrats have let us down so many times. But, at least in terms of the House, Molly was right! And CNN just called Montana as Democratic victory--so come on Webb, creepy sexist that you are!



My father sent me the following picture last night, along with the message, so long in coming, "Happy Democrats!"





(I believe this is at the celebration for Bill Ritter, Colorado's new governor.)

Voting Update

I vote in Greenwich Village, which is probally one of the easiest places to vote in the country. I was there at 7 AM--one of the little old ladies running the poles offered me some buttered roll and there was no wait. But my dad just called me and said things are in complete chaos in Denver, with three hours lines. Yikes.

Halloween in New York and Denver

Here are some photos of my neighborhood, which is on the Halloween Parade route, on October 31.




And here is some video of Anders enjoying the holiday dressed as Yoda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQz4IagfRP4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipKRazcI8wk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia5pjPccbM4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRPSnwXA_c

Note to Jane C.--we want to see the photos of the giant pumpkin!

Borat!

Last night Kym, Eric and I went to see Borat. Given the enormous publicity push this movie has received, it was playing at surprisingly few theaters. Which meant it was kind of scene at the theater. Kym went and bought the last three tickets at 4:30--for an 8 o'clock show. There was huge line outside of the theater and a mob scene inside. We did manage to get seats together--in the first row.

Ultimate Family Death March Part 3

After getting my medal and space blanket, I wandered through the food line and picked up a yogurt drink, bagel and, best of all, mini-Crunch bars. I called my father and when I told him the last 10 miles were some of the least pleasant of my life, the woman in front of me burst out laughing. Then I went to the family reunion area, where I thought the plan was to meet until the "C" flag. But there was no C flag--there was an A/B and down the street an H/I/J. Hmmm. I stood around for awhile (after an unsuccessful attempt at sitting down) and ate a bagel, then decided to head down to the UPS trucks to pick up my post-race clothing. There was a festival of sorts, although all of the food for sale seemed like things designed to make post-race runners feel ill--brisket and eggbeater omelets for instance.

I was putting on my hideous yellow race shirt--which was quite warm, at least--when Kym called with the news she and Molly were done. While on the phone, I looked up and saw Billy, Eric, and Marc standing just about 10 feet away from me. Yea! Billy had just helped a stabilize a guy who had collapsed by the UPS trucks, but luckily we were all in one piece. After all six of us got together, we tackled the Metro--the ride itself wasn't too bad, but the huge crowd in the station meant it took us about 15 minutes just to get through the gates.

Marc, Eric, and I were supposed to leave that night, but for a variety of reasons we all ended up spending the night, which was probably for the best. We lay around Kym and Molly's room, consuming Fritos and chips, and later pizza and beer.






There was a little tension over what to watch on television, which broke down along gender lines. (What is it about the marathon that brings out this kind of disagreement--last year the infamous Veronica Mars debate broke out after the race.) The compromise was the Broncos game, followed by Coming to America (which we all agreed on), followed by Desperate Housewives (which most of us ending being asleep for.)

I fell asleep on top of the bed. Eventually I sort of woke up and Kym suggested politely that I might be more comfortable under the covers. The last thing I heard before I fell back to sleep was Kym telling Molly, "Take your medal off. You might strangle yourself."

The next morning Kym, Molly and I passed the morning watching Martha Stewart and Anders' lasted YouTube entries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN535PBA5G
Anders on his Tractor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OplgSMBKqLs Anders Raking 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apT7q1x2_1A Anders Raking 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9deegAPFX4I Anders making browning

I was walking about as well as Anders at this point. (By the way these videos are great, but the one titled Anders Raking 1 takes on a kind of creepy Blair Witch Project vibe at the end).

Molly, Kym, Eric and I eventually headed off to the I-Hop. (Marc and Billy had already left.) Eric and I were really hobbling, though Kym and Molly seemed to feel fine. (Let me note here that after the race they both looked great--as if they had just gone for a long walk.) We ate heartily to replace those 2600 calories we had burned the day before.

It was time to go home. Eric and I look the train, where we managed to snag one of the 4 seaters, meaning we could stretch out our legs. There were a lot of runners on the train, identified by their shirts, their medals, or their inability to walk. (Note--the hideous shirt actually looked good on Eric.)


Some of the crew are already planning their next marathon. I can't promise I am committed to that. As Frank Shorter said, "You’re not ready to run another marathon until you’ve forgotten the last one."

Viggo!

Not just Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Isildur's heir- he publishes books too! Read Janet Maslin's article about Viggo in the Times.

Tylenol Picture

Here is the picture we had taken at the Tylenol booth at the Expo. We got in a little trouble for taking too many samples of the Tylenol 8 Hour, but we were happy to have them after the race.

Judge me by my size, do you?

These pictures arrived on my cell phone last night. Anders looks like he is having fun dressed as Yoda.