Archive for October, 2006
October 19th, 2006
Alison is sitting behind me, trying hard to concentrate on her strips before she cavorts off to Europe. But she keeps standing up and expressing to me how “Awed!” and “Overwhelmed!” she feels as little paypal notifications appear in her email. She would like to extend her tremendous gratitude to all of you for participating in this crazy website, monetarily or not. The total, as of 5:52pm EST, was a mind-blowing 449.95! She stated, “I feel like a Democratic candidate in a contested district!”.
Here’s Alison’s levels of priority. Julia has alighted on the fancy ergonomic chair, while I am sitting on a folding chair. Given my own appreciation of the company of cats, I willingly oblige.
October 19th, 2006
Man! Since “DTWOF Fan” made that post yesterday about raising $500 before the impending 500th episode, 90 bucks have come in from 5 different people. Okay, first of all, I am not “DTWOF Fan,” though that would have been brilliant. Secondly, I’m really, really touched that people are pitching in like this. Third, I feel kind of sheepish about it, though not so sheepish I won’t take the money. And fourth, $500 happens to be the exact amount of my outstanding debt to my web designer. Is that wild? I just promised him last week that I’d try to pay this off by the end of the month.
On another note, I’m happy to say that my camera, which I left behind on my travels last week, has returned home. After the jump, I’ll post a short photo essay about my brief sojourn in Toronto. Read the rest of this entry »
October 17th, 2006
Fresh fortnightly.
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October 13th, 2006
I never should have tempted fate by saying Toronto this morning was my worst airport experience to date. It’s midnight, and I just got home from Chicago an hour ago. I spent eight and a half hours in O’Hare. I woke up to leave Toronto at 6:30 this morning. Forget driving–I could have walked from Ontario to Burlington in that time.
The worst thing—apart from having my flight get pushed later and then canceled, and then having the next flight pushed later and later, and the airport wifi being down, and the squatting on the floor next to outlets to charge my phone and laptop, and the endless double takes in the ladies’ room, and the small fortune I spent on disgusting food—the worst thing was that the reason the whole airport was bollixed up was because Bush flew into Chicago today. There was some weather problem too, but I prefer to blame that bastard.
On the upside, I saw tons of lesbians.
So I landed in Burlington and hiked out to my car and started it up, and the guy on the radio was just announcing the next piece. Philip Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi. Life out of balance.
October 12th, 2006
Thank you so much, everyone, for all your posts on the progress of the Marshall Public Library situation. This is getting even more complex than the Michigan Womyn’s fest trans policy posts.
It sounds like the latest development is some kind of procedural stall, temporarily removing the books (Fun Home, and Craig Thompson’s Blankets) until the library develops a collections policy. Whatever.
But look! The Marshall Democrat-News is quoting folks from this blog in their coverage of the issue. Pretty sweet. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
October 12th, 2006
Worst airport experience to date: Toronto. I arrived there at 7:30am this morning, which seemed excessively early for a 10am flight. But when I got inside the terminal, the line for check-in was so long it spilled out of the staked-off corral for what seemed like hundreds of yards. Read the rest of this entry »
October 12th, 2006
I did a really fun event last night with Ivan Coyote in Toronto. This great indy bookstore Pages produces something called the “Not A Reading” series. I think the idea is, it’s not just people reading from books but doing some element of performance as well. Which I qualified for with my powerpoint show. It was held in the bar of a groovy hotel, and the audience was very hip and jaded. The place was packed, with people sitting on the floor and standing in the back and spilling beer. The brilliant comedian Elvira Kurt emceed. Ivan did not read from her just-out first novel Bow Grip, but performed three amazing stories. Then there was a break, then Elvira performed more—a very funny bit about now nice it would be if adults could get carried around in those baby slings—then I read.
I don’t know what it is about Toronto, but for some reason I’m like a rock star here. I mean, people like me well enough in the States, I’m not complaining. But in Toronto I get a subtly different response—there’s an actual thrill in the air. It’s great, but I never know quite what to do with it. Like, afterward, some of the people who came up to get their books signed were so flustered to meet me they couldn’t speak clearly. Rock star!
It was a great evening. But it sucked the last drop of life out of me, after a day spent traveling from Michigan and doing an intense interview with the editor of the magazine Exclaim! and going to bookstores and signing stuff. I got 5 hours of sleep before starting out on my journey home.
I’d show you pictures, but I left my camera in Toronto. I’ve been doing so well keeping track of all my electronic devices and chargers and batteries on my travels—I think forgetting the camera is a sign that I’m finally starting to unravel.
October 11th, 2006
I got quite a cardiovascular workout at the University of Michigan yesterday. Breakfast at 7 with Gabe from the Office of LGBT Affairs. Then at 8, the awe-inspiring cartoonist Phoebe Gloeckner picked me up at 8 and drove me to the School of Art and Design, where I spoke to her graphic novel class for an hour. Then I was whisked back to the Office of LGBT Affairs (love that name) where I met with the infamous Holly Hughes and some of her grad students from the School of Art and Design. Then I did a brown bag lunch discussion, for which I felt somewhat ill-prepared. I need to work on my extemporaneous speaking skills
After that, I talked one-on-one with some flabbergastingly smart and directed students. Then I went back to my room and lapsed into a coma for an hour and a half. Then I woke up and finished preparing my powerpoint thing for the evening. Then I had dinner with a bunch of folks from the O of LGBT A. Then we rushed across campus and set up for my presentation. Then I talked about DTWOF and read from Fun Home to a delightful crowd. Then I signed a slew of books. One of the people in line turned out to be an elementary school chum, Becky Foster, so after signing more books for the bookstore and posing for pictures with the O of LGBT A people, Becky and I went out for a drink. I had more human interaction in those fifteen hours than I’ve had in the past five years.
I was much too frenzied to think about taking pictures of all this. But here’s a shot from the extremely pleasurable dinner I had the previous night with Holly Hughes and her partner Esther Newton, who both teach at U Mich.
And here’s a shot from the booksigning kindly shared by Garrett of Daddy Zine.
October 6th, 2006
Media Bistro has a nice little post about the effort to ban my book Fun Home and Craig Thompson’s Blankets from the Marshall, Missouri Public Library. The board of trustees met Wednesday night and tabled the final decision until next week.
October 4th, 2006
I had a great time today at Oberlin, my alma mater. Here I am wandering about nostalgically.
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