You cannot imagine how his ideas caught me...inflamed me.

So it's been a while, but I have plenty to show for it.

On October 7th, I found myself in Chelsea, the really rich part of London. I was there to check out a vintage clothing fair, but I noticed on the map that it was near Tite Street, where Oscar Wilde once lived. So I stopped by to take a picture of the Blue Plaque:



It was a really quiet street in a really quiet neighborhood, and I had a hard time imagining Oscar living there. Which might partly explain why he spent a good deal of the 1890s living in hotels. I meant to stop by the hotel where he was arrested, which was also nearby, but I had a hard enough time finding Tite Street.

The next weekend, BC had planned a trip to Rye and Hastings, two historical port towns in Sussex. So I got to hang out with Jenny and Jeanne while we toured two castles, one in each town.

Bodiam Castle, near Rye:





Hastings Castle, stronghold of William the Conqueror:




Also there was a fire festival in Hastings Saturday night. I asked the tour guide, and apparently these are very common all over Britain this time of year. They're not really tied to any historical event or holiday, but she said they are probably rooted in pre-Christian autumn equinox/Halloween celebrations. Today they are celebrated by a procession of various bonfire societies, who dress up and carry torches through town, collecting money for charity. Afterwards, they all throw their torches on to a massive, three-story woodpile:



It looks like this:



(also, there are fireworks):



I got some video of some firedancers:



This past week, Heather came to visit from Italy. I had class a lot of the time, but we managed to visit Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross station together, as we had planned to since forever:





Which combined with the fact that Heather had reread Deathly Hallows on the plane, and the recent news about Dumbledore (which, frankly, should not have come as a huge shock to anyone who read Deathly Hallows carefully), meant that we spent basically her entire trip discussing Harry Potter. It was like 8th grade again, except now we have the full story, much of which makes us cry.

She left on Friday, and after I saw her off at the train station to go to the airport, I went straight to Bishopsgate Institute, where I had tickets to a very rare reading by none other than Alan Moore, the notoriously reclusive comic book writer, Magus of Northampton, and Greatest Living Englishman (among his other fake titles). He was there with Michael Moorcock and Iain Sinclair, who were all reading from a prose anthology about London. It was a fairly free-form event with free wine and the opportunity to speak with him personally before the event started. So naturally I got a picture with him:



Yes, he does look a little scary (you should see him when his hair is down), but he is in fact very pleasant and patient with quivering fangirls. I get the sense that he would go out and mingle with fans more (like most comic writers do), but that he doesn't want the distraction from his writing. Now that he's semi-retired, I suspect he'll be making more public appearances as time goes by.

Also, a few days before, my Facebook buddy Stephen Fry (who is currently in New England filming a documentary), asked me to pass on his "very best wishes" to Alan. Alan responded that he was very pleased to hear them, that he doesn't blame Stephen for the V for Vendetta film (which Stephen was in) and that he is a big fan of Stephen's, and that he and Melinda Gebbie (his wife) watch QI every week. I sent Stephen a message, but he hasn't logged into Facebook for at least a week, so who knows when he'll get it.

I managed to grab a seat in the front row, right in front of him! I recorded Alan's reading, which combined with his hypnotic voice, was absolutely wonderful.



Afterwards, everyone hung around for autographs, and I got,
The Ballad of Halo Jones (his 'feminist space opera'):



Watchmen:



From Hell (about Jack the Ripper):



The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (vols. 1 & 2):



By the end of the night, he must have been tired of seeing me, so I resisted the urge to hang around and just watch him, so instead I went back to my dorm and called my home comics shop to brag a bit (only for five minutes, Mom and Dad).

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm going to the National Gallery on Wednesday, so I'll have pictures from that soon.

(Today's subject quote is from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore is talking about the love of his life, I'm talking about Alan Moore.)

Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story.

So, much of this past week was spent stalking Neil Gaiman (or at least, two days of it was) On Tuesday, he had his own event and signing at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, which was absolutely phenomenal. He talked about how he got into writing comics, moving to America, getting recognized at his local movie theater and being told that he would never have to pay to see a movie there again (much to his embarrassment), and his recent meeting with the reclusive Steve Ditko (co-creator/artist of Spider-Man).



For me, he signed a poster of "A Study in Emerald" (his Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes pastiche), the exquisite illustrated hardcover of Stardust, and a sticker that says "Mind the Gap"-- a warning used by the London Underground warning passengers about the gap between the train and the platform, which Neil Gaiman took for his novel Neverwhere, turning "the Gap" into a hideous monster one should 'mind'.





One thing about Neil Gaiman is that, like me, He is a huge fan of Futurama, and it is his sincerest wish that one day he could appear on the show as his own head in a jar. Now that the show has been uncancelled, it's a definite possibility that it could happen, in a few years time. However, I got tired of waiting and drew this picture:



I gave him the original as he was signing, and he was so pleased with it, he hugged me!!

He was ostensibly there to promote Stardust, the film adaptation, because the premiere was on Wednesday, which I went to to hang out in front of the theater and watched famous people come in. Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good spot, so I only managed to get a few good photos and even fewer autographs, but one of them was Rupert Everett!! (who I have been hopelessly in love with since he played Algy in The Importance of Being Earnest):



Here's Michelle Pfeiffer:



Ricky Gervais:



Charlie Cox (the fresh-faced lead of Stardust):



Another person I saw was Peter Serafinowicz of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, and he was actually was quite close to me at one point. Unfortunately he had moved on by the time I had worked out who he was and had reasoned that I desperately wanted his autograph. This feeling of lost opportunity was compounded on Thursday when his new sketch show premiered on BBC2, and was absolutely hysterical. I also saw Jonathan Ross (BBC's answer to Jay Leno) from a distance; he was there because his wife wrote the screenplay, and because he's friends with Neil (Ross is the one who instigated the meeting with Steve Ditko).

Anyway, Stardust came out in America about two months ago, so I've already seen it, and it's probably too late to tell anybody who reads this to go see it, but if you do get the chance to see it, or when it comes out on DVD, I highly highly recommend that you see it. It's a sort of fairy tale romantic comedy in the vein of The Princess Bride (which I still can't believe doesn't interest you, Kara; if it was animated you'd be all over it, I know it.)

And that's about it for this week. Now that classes have started up, I haven't had as much free time, but I'm going try to make it to some museum or other this week. Or possibly a play, since I'm expected to go to certain ones from my Creative Writing: Drama class.

(Also, You may have noticed that this post, unlike the past two, does not have a Beatles lyric for a subject. I decided since this post had nothing relating to the Beatles in it, and everything relating to Neil Gaiman, I'd just quote him, from Sandman #38)