When I was in college, my friends Dave and Mark told me about an indy series they loved called Empire Lanes, written and drawn by Peter Gross. And over time, I started seeing him appear on books I read like Doctor Fate, Hellstorm, and Books of Magic. At the time he drew this in my book for me (back in 2002 at San Diego Comic-Con), he was drawing Lucifer, a hugely successful spin-off from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, and that is of course the title character himself.
He’s since worked on a lot of other series, but his latest is The Unwritten (reuniting him with author Mike Carey who also wrote Lucifer) which is a fantastic book about the secret world behind books and fans. Love his art.
I find nothing more overwhelming than a massive “to do” list, where you have 87 things that all have to be done right now. Unfortunately as of late I’ve let myself get tricked into looking at the big picture, when what I need to do is stop and focus on small details and victories that I can get done, and let them add up over time.
(Earlier this year I did that to get rid of a lot of old clothes and things I no longer needed, and it worked pretty well.)
On the bright side, now that I’ve started to shift back to smaller projects, things are getting done. One of the big projects that’s been on my list for a while is to clean up the bookshelves, which are choked with extra stacks of books on their side here and there and everywhere; it’s a royal mess. I’ve been focusing on just one or two shelves at a time; pulling the extra books off, finding homes for them, and (in the process) trying to figure out if there are other things on the shelves they’re going towards that I could instead find a good home for, or donate to charity. I’d say about half of the bookshelves in my room are now looking great, so I’m getting there.
The one downside is that I now have about eight bags of stuff that need to be sorted through in order to leave, but that has to wait until the library starts taking donations again, which will be later this month.
The other project, which I’m aiming to start tackling next week, will be to go through my t-shirts and polo shirts and weed out ones I no longer wear and donate them. I have way too many of both type of shirt and could really stand to get rid of a lot. (I like to pretend I could get rid of half of them. If I actually hit 25% I will be pleased.) Since the temperature is shifting to cooler weather it’s time to rotate back out the long-sleeved shirts anyway, so it’s as good a time as any.
Last but not least, after having let it stall out 2 1/2 years ago (yeesh), I finally started scanning in more of the beautiful sketches artists have drawn for me in my wine-themed sketchbook, and starting tomorrow they’ll start showing up on Wednesdays again. You can see the past drawings through this link, and it’ll be fun to start sharing some more of them. The sketches I scanned in yesterday only take me to the end of July 2002, so there are still a lot to come. I finally finished up the book at SPX this year, so it felt like the time was right to get them up and out there again.
I asked this question ages and ages ago online, but it’s been long enough (and there’s been enough of a rotation of people since then) that it’s worth asking again. Got lots of very interesting answers last time around.
If you could choose in advance one song to have played at your funeral (or memorial service or what have you), what would it be?
Knowing many of my friends, the answer will be non-serious but truthful, and that is a-ok.
Earlier in the year, I bought from Woot.com an expensive high-quality cooking knife. It was such a great deal that I couldn’t resist. When it showed up, I remember being entranced just by the patterns in the steel.
When I finally got my kitchen rearranged, I put the kitchen knife up on a magnetic wooden block on the wall, where it’s been just staring at me, waiting to be used. As silly as it sounds, I’ve been holding off, waiting for some sort of special reason to do so. Fast forward to today, when I was preparing to chop up a huge butternut squash for dinner. And suddenly I thought, “Why am I waiting to use this knife for ‘something special’ when I could use it now?”
And oh, was it a lovely experience. That knife cut through the squash like it was butter, not butternut. Totally in love with the knife. Probably the best Woot purchase I’ve made to date. And now I totally want to chop up more things with it! I also feel slightly silly for not having used it up until now. A good knife really is worth its weight in gold.
Been awfully busy lately, and that means the blog is the first thing to not get updated. I then tell myself, “I’ll have to update my website with all of the interesting things I’ve been doing.” Except, of course, it’s not terribly interesting, really. But a few things of note as of late…
Worst Open House Ever?
Probably not. But Charlie and I did look at some open houses over the weekend (not that we’re buying in the near future, but to get an idea of right now what is available in our suspected price range) and there was one house that stood out in particular for being unwelcoming. First, when we got there, the front door was locked. As we were standing right next to the front window (with the realtor slumped on a couch), he saw us trying to open the door and hopped up and opened the door. “I don’t know how that happened,” he said. Because of course the door locked its own deadbolt.
But then, we stepped in and were greeted with an overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke. As we gasped for air, then realtor dealt the final blow. “When I got here for the open house I found out that one of the contractors working on the house is not feeling well and he’s lying down in the master bedroom, so I’m going to have to ask that you not go in there.”
“We’ll just come back,” Charlie said, as he and I scrambled towards the door. Which of course, meant, never. Talk about three strikes and you’re out…
Small Press Expo 2010 A Success
This year’s Small Press Expo (a show I first attended in 1995, first volunteered for in 1997, and have helped run in some capacity since 1998) was a huge success, hurrah! It was also my last year as the grand poobah of the Ignatz Awards, so having that off my shoulders (more or less) was also a big relief. I finished up my wine sketchbook, which I started back in 2001. I am determined to buckle down and scan the rest and start posting those sketches here… soon… honest.
Autumn = Soup Weather
I love making soup in colder weather, both on the stove and in my crock pot. I also finally decided to give Soupergirl a try, a local chef who sells her homemade soups that you order in advance. I’m going to keep making my own soup, of course, but I’m dying to see how hers taste too. Especially since hers is a zucchini pear soup, something that sounds strange at first and then intriguing, and more importantly I’d never have thought to try it on my own.
Upcoming Documentary I Can’t Wait To See
Waiting for “Superman” is opening this weekend in the DC area, David Guggenheim’s new documentary on the public school system in the United States and its decline over recent years. Part of the focus is on the DC school system and DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself. For the record, while I don’t think she was perfect (and made some mistakes along the way), I do think that Rhee was one of the best things to happen to DC public schools in the past few years.
While I was brushing my teeth this morning, the phone rang. Thinking it might be work, I spat out my toothpaste and rinsed quickly, then hurried to the phone… where it turned out to be a telemarketer. I picked it up, told them no and to not call again, then hung up and gathered everything up for work.
It wasn’t until I was halfway to work that I realized that thanks to the interruption in the schedule, I had not taken my allergy medicine or vitamins. Grrrrr.
(Ironically, the telemarketer was from a magazine that I like, offering one of those “we’ll send you this best of book, if you don’t like it you can send it back and the postage is on us” and it’s a book I wouldn’t have minded. But I have a firm “I will not buy anything from a telemarketer” policy in place. No exceptions. I just hate the practice, even when the people on the phone are perfectly nice and pleasant.)
On the bright side, allergy shots in general are definitely doing something right. (As are the pillow and mattress covers that I finally bought, which among other things block dust mites.) I would have been majorly stuffed up and feeling distinctly unpleasant by now, two years ago. Instead, just a tiny bit stuffed up. But still.
And on a different note, as this is my last year in running the Ignatz Awards, it has been a wonderful feeling to clear a lot of the stuff connected to it out of my office this week. Between that and getting rid of some other stuff on my own, it is almost completely presentable. Yay!
Last weekend, Charlie and I took a couple of days off and headed up to see some friends and go out to their family home in Sag Harbor. It was a great trip; nice food, good friends, a whole lot of doing nothing. Aside from running a 12-miler on Saturday morning, there really wasn’t lot of effort pushed into anything, which is exactly what I had hoped for. It’s weekends like that where I dream about being fabulously wealthy and living a life of luxury. I suppose it wouldn’t be quite as exciting if I got it all the time. But you never know. I’m willing to take that chance.
Only real disappointment was that I forgot to ever take my camera into town, which is a shame because there were several great photo opportunities along the way. *sigh* So I have almost nothing to share but a few pictures from around the house.
But it was a lovely trip. I kind of wish I was still sitting by the pool and reading a book, or browsing through crazy litle stores. Until next time, certainly.
Don’t accidentally leave a mini-watermelon on your counter Thursday morning, before leaving for four days and having turned up the air conditioner to 82 degrees. It’ll cave in during your absence and ooze liquid all over your counter, somehow looking like a crime scene in an R-rated movie. The smell is distinctly not good, too.
I’ll spare you the photos because even I couldn’t bear snapping a shot of the yuck.
One of the best things about summer, I’ve decided, is the sudden bounty of fresh local vegetables. I needed to use some of the remnants of this week’s CSA share, but was feeling uninspired. Ended up just cutting up a couple of squash, a white onion, and half a pint of yellow cherry tomatoes. Dumped them on a pan, put a few drops of red chili oil on top of them, some fresh ground salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven.
It’s amazing how good veggies that were picked just a few days ago that never had to be frozen will taste in a situation like this. Ahhhh. Summer, you’re not so bad after all. I almost (but not quite) forgive you for those 100+ degree days last month.
Earlier in the year, I bought from 
