Saturday, October 6, 2007

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).

neil

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'.

menneil
mindthegap
stardust

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):

ruperteverett

Here's Michelle Pfeiffer:

michellepfieffer

Ricky Gervais:

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

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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)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alexa Are you teaching the creative writing class? because you should...loved the blog as always!
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Alexa Are you teaching the creative writing class? because you should be! Loved the blog as always. Nancy

Anonymous said...

I'm current now on your postings. Hopefully you will "get back" to using Beatles lyrics as blog titles...so far I've been able to identify the songs/albums. Have you found the original Hard Rock yet? Its near Wellington circle I think? Dad