Seattle
June 18th, 2006 | Uncategorized
Friday night I read at the University Bookstore here. Another delightful audience who asked questions that ranged from the intimately emotional to the delightfully technical. (What does your family think? What kind of pen do you draw with?) But that’s the cool thing about graphic storytelling. You can’t avoid talking about the physical product as well as the content.
And last night Bailey-Coy, the LGBT bookstore here, set me up to read at the Wild Rose Bar. God, it was nice to be in a lesbian bar. And it’s so nice that this one is still here. I did a Dykes to Watch Out For slide show here in 1988!
Here’s Maggie, who had the most remarkable comics tattoos.
Driving back to the hotel at dusk, I got a heart-stopping glimpse of Mt. Rainier. Or rather a tiny slice of Mt. Rainier, between the clouds. God! It was all pink and ghostly and floating impossibly high up in the sky. You can’t possibly see it in this terrible photo I took from the car, but I’m posting it anyway.
9 Responses to “Seattle”
No, no. Thank YOU.
It was cool to meet you; if I didn’t say it, thanks for signing two books. A quick tally of reactions from the Seattle cartoonists who met you on this trip results in a gender split: the women all wish they could marry you, the men all wish they could wear a sharp suit jacket and black shirt like you do. (And we all wish we could draw like you do.)
Maggie is a national treasure. Check out her right arm: Janis by Crumb, a Bode babe, Patti Smith, Lenny Bruce .. people often think she has Jack Kerouac on her left arm, but it’s a young Maximillian Schell.
The same French performance artist who wanted to see the grave of Kurt Cobain also kept screaming, “The volcano! The volcano!” every time he spotted Rainier. As though it were going to erupt that very minute. He’s right; there is something very exciting about living under an oft-hidden giant mountain that could lay waste to the terrain.
I hope you got another glimpse on your flight out this morning.
Alison, I hope you have some warm memories of the Pacific Northwest from your tour here. I have flown east from Portland or Seattle many times and with it so sunny today, I hope you got a spectacular view of all the mountains! Perhaps you even got a view of Mt. St. Helens smoking crater? Too bad our Dyke bar closed here in Eugene 🙁 If I get up into Seattle I will sure check out the Wild Rose Bar there. Sounds like a really fun place to do a presentation. Once again, hope you had a great time in the NW.
Has anyone else noticed that in the second picture Alison looks like a Vicar!!!…hail Rev. Alison.
This blog is great i feel like i am on the tour with you and i am already exhausted. Are you planning to bring the book tour to the UK?
I do look rather vicarish. I have to be careful what I wear with that t-shirt. No plans yet for a UK tour. But I’m glad you’re finding this one exhausting. Me too, but in a good way.
ack! I am so sorry to see that I missed you while you were in town. I hope you enjoyed the Rose.
what a fantastic idea to have a powerpoint going while you read the narration. hope you’ll come to cleveland sometime.
http://www.austinkleon.com
[…] What I discovered, by my own observations, and then by reading Tufte’s devastating pamphlet, THE COGNITIVE STYLE OF POWERPOINT, was that certain information — statistics or charts or logical arguments or even prose stories — is all but ruined by the low-resolution, low-information output Powerpoint slide format, while visual images thrive (David Byrne took advantage of this in his book of Powerpoint art.) Add to that, I’ve always wondered how you could do a cool author reading for a graphic novel. Turns out the answer is powerpoint. First, I saw the LOST BUILDINGS DVD project that Chris Ware and Ira Glass did for NPR. Ira read the story, while Ware’s images were projected on a giant screen. (See a preview.) Then I found out that for her readings, Alison Bechdel projects the comic panels from FUN HOME in Powerpoint, while reading aloud from the narration. […]
Punjabi Ringtones
Download Cool Ringtone Right This Time: Punjabi Ringtones