Violette & Co., Paris
October 27th, 2006
I don’t have any visuals from my booksigning last night because of a long complicated saga about my camera which I will recount below. But I had a very lovely evening at Violette et Compagnie, la librarie des filles et des garçons manqués, the bookstore “for girls and tomboys.”
Catherine and Christine, who run the bookstore, were très charmantes. As I learned from my editor, authors don’t really do readings in France, but actors will read from their books. So I didn’t read. Christine began the evening with a very thoughtful description of my book. And then I did a short powerpoint presentation about how I drew Fun Home, and a very nice South African woman named Fiona translated. I like having a translator. I wish I had one all the time, even in English, who would constantly be clarifying what I was trying to say.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tintin à Paris
October 25th, 2006
Here’s the sky about an hour ago, on the street near my hotel.
Here’s the logo on a truck I saw on the street today. I forget what kind of truck…some kind of mechanical service or other. But it might look familiar to Tintin fans.
I’m finding that Tintin is a kind of lingua franca. At dinner last night where some people didn’t speak English, we resorted to naming our favorite Tintin books.
I have to go. More later.
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My Paris schedule
October 24th, 2006
Thank you, everyone who’s been updating the blog about where and when I’m appearing in Paris! I finally got a programme from my French publisher.
Jeudi 26 Octobre, 19h
Librairie Violette & Co.
Vendredi 27 Octobre, 19h.
Librairie Les Mots à la Bouche.
Samedi 28 Octobre, 14h-17h
Le Festival du Film Lesbien et Féministe au Trianon, Paris 9e.
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing at a film festival. But I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Oh. Then on Sunday, I’m going to Brussels.
Dimanche 29 Octobre
15h, Bruxelles. I think that’s the name of a big comic book store there.
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les premiers choses premier
October 24th, 2006
I just arrived in Paris, so what do I do first? Get online.
Okay. NOW I’m gonna go out and walk around.
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Institute for Contemporary Arts, London
October 24th, 2006
My event last night at the ICA went really well. It was part of a series called Comica. The room was sold out, and had a great tech setup so everyone could see the drawings clearly. The brilliant and effervescent-to-the-point-of-exploding Lea Delaria interviewed me onstage after I read. This blurry picture captures a bit of her kinetic energy.
Talking with Lea was really fun. I’d been somewhat nervous, not knowing quite what to expect from the woman famous for saying about Hillary Clinton, “Finally, a first lady we can fuck.” She did grill me rather minutely about my masturbation habits, but other than that I think our conversation was very seemly and apropos. One topic she was interested in discussing was my obsessive tendency to record my own life, which reminded me to take a picture of the audience for the blog. So here they are. I think this made them a little nervous. Or maybe they were just appalled at such obstreperously American behavior. That guy in the front row is Paul Gravett, the Comica organizer
I signed books for a long time afterward—the museum bookshop sold out.
Then I hung out in the bar with some friends. Then we all walked back to Bloomsbury where they got on the Tube and I returned to my hotel.
That’s Jane Hoy on the left, and her girlfriend Helen Sandler—Helen’s directing the York Lesbian Arts Festival which is happening this weekend and which I’m very sorry to be missing. To my right is Lenna Cumberbatch, drag king extraordinare and my erstwhile webmeister.
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word freak
October 23rd, 2006
Dateline London.
I did a brief booksigning this afternoon at Gay’s the Word. Then made a pilgrimage to Dr. Johnson’s house, the guy who wrote the first major English dictionary. Here’s the famous garret where he did most of the work, with a crew of amanuenses. (look it up.)
They had a closet of Georgian costumes for kids to put on, and there was no one around, so…
Here’s a passage from the dictionary.
And here’s a monument outside to Dr. J’s cat, Hodge, “a very fine cat indeed.” He’s sitting on a dictionary, with oyster shells at his feet. Apparently Dr. J. would personally go out to the fish market and fetch oysters for him, rather than having his servants do it, so that the servants wouldn’t feel resentment toward the cat.
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Wrote this Sunday morning but couldn’t get online to post it
October 23rd, 2006
Just arrived in London. First of all, I just want to say how boggled I am by the money everyone has been sending to the site. Thank you all so much. At last count it was about $1500. A most timely and welcome influx. I’ll talk more about the whole payment/donation scenario in a later post, after I’ve given it more thought. It’s complicated, and I have mixed feelings about it.
I had a crazy time getting ready to leave on this trip. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie updates you on the pledge drive
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.
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the fundraiser
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 »
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