As you may recall, I passed along last month the news that my fave contemporary author Neil Gaiman would be appearing at UCLA for a UCLA Live event in February and last night was the night. I was lucky enough to attend Gaiman’s reading last night and had an absolutely amazing time:

Charming as ever, Neil delighted the sold out Royce Hall last night … telling stories and reading from his amazing body of work. He read a chapter from his last book The Graveyard Book and also read a chapter from his current book Odd and the Frost Giants. The highlight for me, tho, was a poem he read titled Instructions that will be included in a new book that is due out later this year. It is an absolute pleasure hearing this man read his work aloud … I hope Gaiman will be coming to your city in the near future because, I’m telling you, he is utterly fantastic.

His reading last night reminded me that I had yet to read his latest release Odd and the Frost Giants, much to my chagrin:

So I managed to read it in full last night. It’s a fantastic read … about a crippled boy who helps the Norse gods save the city of Asgard from the Frost Giants. It’s a short book, a quick read and utterly charming through and through. Neil Gaiman is such a talent, we are very lucky to have his stories.

Also last night, David’s oldest sister Lara arrived for the weekend … his brother Aram arrives this evening … and then the weekend officially gets underway. Rain or shine, this weekend is gonna rock. Have a good one, y’all!!

Last night the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards were handed out in rainy SoCal at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA … and, I gotta say, the show did a pretty fantastic job with spreading the wealth to many deserved winners. No one movie or TV show ran away with all the awards … Dexter was the only TV series to win 2 awards while Avatar, Crazy Heart and Up were the only movies to win 2 awards as well (with the former film taking home the biggest movie awards of the night). Here are a few pics from the rainy red carpet arrivals last night:

I am *amazed* that the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards this year did not plan for the rain. We knew all week long that it was going to rain yesterday … hell, it even started raining early enough in the day to give folks the head’s up that they might want to plan for a wet red carpet and yet … there was no planning involved. Everyone on the red carpet, celebs and reporters alike, were just meandering around like wet lost sheep. How dreadful. Many of the celebs had to scramble to find umbrellas and people to hold their umbrella’s for them … only Mariah Carey came prepared with her very own personal valet/husband Nick Cannon who is always at the ready to hold her umbrella for her whenever she needs him. Such a good boy.

But, the show did go off without a hitch. Ricky Gervais, IMHO, wasn’t that great of a host but he did a passable job I thought. And as I mentioned earlier, I was very pleased with many of winners last night — save for just a few winners I did NOT agree with at all. After the jump, check out some photos from the show itself and find out who won and who I thought got robbed …

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Neil Gaiman, who recently announced to the world that he and girlfriend/artist/musician Amanda Palmer have are engaged to be wed (I understand he proposed to her on New Year’s Eve by drawing a ring on her finger with a Sharpie marker!!!), is featured in this week’s issue of The New Yorker. For some strange reason, The New Yorker finally decided to feature Gaiman and his “beloved text” Coraline 8 years after it was published and about a year after it was made into a movie. Trust me, tho, as an active reader and subscriber of The New Yorker, I am not complaining … it is amazing to see one of my favorite authors featured in their pages. Here is an excerpt:

Gaiman, who is forty-nine and English, with a pale face and a wild, corkscrewed mop of black-and-gray hair, is unusually prolific. In addition to horror, he writes fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, and apocalyptic romps, in the form of novels, comics, picture books, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Now and then, he writes a song. Gaiman’s books are genre pieces that refuse to remain true to their genres, and his audience is broader than any purist’s: he defines his readership as “bipeds.” His mode is syncretic, with sources ranging from English folktales to glam rock and the Midrash, and enchantment is his major theme: life as we know it, only prone to visitations by Norse gods, trolls, Arthurian knights, and kindergarten-age zombies. “Neil’s writing is kind of fey in the best sense of the word,” the comic-book writer Alan Moore told me. “His best effects come out of people or characters or situations in the real world being starkly juxtaposed with this misty fantasy world.” The model for Gaiman’s eclecticism is G. K. Chesterton; his work, Gaiman says, “left me with an idea of London as this wonderful, mythical, magical place, which became the way I saw the world.” Chesterton’s career also serves as a warning. “He would have been a better writer if he’d written less,” Gaiman says. “There’s always that fear of writing too much if you’re a reasonably facile writer, and I’m a reasonably facile writer.” Gaiman’s two most recent novels, “Anansi Boys” (2005) and “The Graveyard Book” (2008)—a retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” set in a graveyard—débuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list in their respective categories, adult and children’s literature. Yet Gaiman remains somewhat marginal. The Times of London recently referred to him as “the most famous writer you’ve never heard of.” The New York Times waited to review “The Graveyard Book” for several months after its publication, by which time it had won the 2009 Newbery Medal, one of the highest honors in children’s fiction, and been on the best-seller list for eighteen weeks. “I have at this point a critic-proof career,” Gaiman said. “The fans already knew about the book.”

If anything, I’m hoping THIS New Yorker piece will enlighten others as to the talent and genius of Neil Gaiman and will inspire new fans to seek out his work and fall in love. As I mentioned above, the piece begins its focus on the theme of children’s Gothic literature, and in particular, Gaiman’s novella Coraline but it then goes on to discuss Gaiman’s long history as a writer. The full article/interview can be read online HERE or in the pages of this week’s issue of The New Yorker. It’s a fabulous read, almost as fabulous as Gaiman’s own work. If you are not familiar, I urge y’all to seek him out and see for yourselves why I am such a big fan :)

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Happy congratulations are in order today for my fave contemporary author, Neil Gaiman, and the love of his life, singer/artist Amanda Palmer, who got themselves engaged to be wed this week. It’s unclear when exactly the couple got themselves engaged but Neil broke the news on his official website last night! Here is the photo and full text of Neil’s happy (but brief) announcement … They’re gettin’ hitched, y’all!!

Dear The World,

we are going to get married,

signed,

Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman

I am completely and utterly thrilled by this news. It is plainly obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with Neil and Amanda that they are truly, madly and DEEPLY crazy in love with one another … news that they’ve decided to make things official and become a happily married couple is not surprising in the least. I hope you’ll join me in wishing them all the happiness in the world as they embark on this matrimonial journey together and that the couple will, truly, live happily ever after. Congrats!!!

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Amazing news for SoCal fans of author Neil Gaiman (who just released his first short film titled Statuesque) … UCLA is hosting an evening with Gaiman at on campus at Royce Hall as part of their UCLA Live series next month. Having been lucky enough to attend one of Gaiman’s speaking engagements in the past, I can assure you that it would be WELL worth your time to check him out in person. Here are some deets about his appearance at UCLA on February 4:

After years as the most famous writer you’d never heard of, Neil Gaiman’s recent Hollywood successes have propelled him into celebrity orbit. After co-writing the films “Beowulf” and “Stardust,” the animated version of his novella, “Coraline,” was released in 2009 to unanimous rave reviews. But Gaiman has been a prominent and prolific creator of comics, novels, film, journalism and poetry for more than two decades. He created the best-selling DC Comics series “Sandman,” which was the first comic ever to receive a major literary award. “The Graveyard Book,” published in 2008, received the Newbery Medal, the top prize for children’s literature. At the podium, Gaiman shares stories of imagination and urges audiences to take note of the creative ideas that linger in each of us.

Since this info has newly come to my attention, I can assure you that I will do everything I can to attend. Not only is Neil Gaiman a masterful writer but he is an equally adept public speaker and I cannot *wait* to hear him live again. If you are in the area, I really suggest you get your tickets to see him at UCLA next month. Click HERE (UCLA students can buy their tix HERE) to procure your tickets and hopefully I’ll see you there :)

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Amazing author and storyteller Neil Gaiman (who I love more than words can say) has written and directed a short film titled Statuesque which stars actor Bill Nighy and musician (and Gaiman girlfriend) Amanda Palmer. I understand the film debuted on UK television last week but has since made its way to the Internets so that the rest of us can check it out. Here are a few screencaps along with some deets about the film itself:

If you made a short list of the most important comic book writers of the last two decades, one of the names right near the top of that list would have to be Neil Gaiman, whose 75-issue run on “The Sandman” (1989-1996) stands as a towering achievement in graceful storytelling and genre ambition. He’s gone on to plenty of other great successes (“Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book” may actually live up to the overused and always suspicious term “instant classic”), and today we bring you a project that pulled him away from his familiar perch behind the writing desk. The whimsical short film “Statuesque” was written and directed by Gaiman and stars Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer.

The film is only a little over 8 minutes long and features no dialogue at all but it very clearly and lovingly tells a Gaiman story (that may or may not have one of those clever twists he so famously weaves into his work) that fans both new and old will, I think, love immensely. After the jump, watch Statuesque by Neil Gaiman in full …

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Each year the Hugo Awards, named in honor of Hugo Gernsback — the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, present awards to deserving artists who excel in science fiction or fantasy works and achievements (kind of like the “nerd Pulitzers“) and this year, those awards were handed out at a ceremony in Montreal, Canada over the weekend. My fave contemporary author, Neil Gaiman, took home his 4th Hugo Award — this time for his novel The Graveyard Book — and Buffyverse maestro Joss Whedon took home an award for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. Here are a couple photos of Gaiman at the Hugo Awards this weekend with his newest trophy (Whedon was not in attendance) and some deets about Neil’s much-deserved win:

Twin Cities-area writer Neil Gaiman added to his steadily growing collection of awards, picking up a Hugo Award for best novel for “The Graveyard Book” Sunday night in Montreal. This is Gaiman’s fourth Hugo, and the second major award for “The Graveyard Book,” which won the Newbery Medal in January. It is the first time a book has won both the Hugo, awarded for science fiction and fantasy, and the Newbery, which is the highest honor for children’s literature. “It’s wonderful seeing two such different worlds embracing the same book,” said his publicist, Elyse Marshall of HarperCollins. Gaiman had confessed on his blog last winter that when he won the Newbery he had to tell himself not to swear like he did when he got the Hugo. Marshall said he did not swear at the podium Sunday, “although he did swear on Twitter.” (His Twitter message from Montreal is just three words. The second and third words are, “It won!”) Gaiman, who started out writing comic books and fantasy, is a prolific author who lately has concentrated on children’s books. He has three books out in 2009 — “Blueberry Girl,” published in March; “Crazy Hair,” in May, illustrated by Dave McKean, who also worked with Gaiman on “Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book”; and “Odd and the Frost Giants,” due in September and already nominated for a World Fantasy Award. (It was published last year in Great Britain.) “Coraline” was made into a hit movie this year, and “The Graveyard Book” is being made into a movie to be written and directed by Neil Jordan. It is the story of a little boy named Nobody Owens, whose entire family is murdered. Nobody escapes as a baby and makes it to the graveyard, where he is raised by ghosts.

Much love and congrats to Neil and to Joss (who won the award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form) on their respective wins. I was NOT aware that The Graveyard Book was being written and directed by Neil Jordan (of The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire fame) … that should make for a very interesting movie. If you are interested, you can click HERE to see the full list of Hugo Award winners this year!

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