Posts Tagged ‘Neil Gaiman’

From the book description:

One of fiction's most audaciously original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age — complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime.

Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.

When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed — before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun … just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.

Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny — a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."

Amazon link
eReader ebook link (eReader also has a deal for Anansi Boys and American Gods together for $19.95)

Got "Neil Gaiman's A Short Film About John Bolton" from Netflix. Didn't know what to expect, only that I typed in gaiman for the heck of it and it popped up.

Turns out to be a 15 minute film on the artist John Bolton, who does naked female vampires (along with other works, including Gaiman's "Harlequin Valentine") and is a creepy little bastard. Only he's not, as you come to realize through the film and the "making of" video. It's cute, and even though the ending is telegraphed from a mile away it's still fun to watch.

What makes the DVD worth buying, though, is the extras, which include "Neil Gaiman: Live at the Aladdin," This is the video of the last stop of his last tour for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and it's great. He reads several stories and poems, answers questions, and generally holds the room's rapt attention for an hour or so. If you like his story "Chivalry," you'll love hearing him read it. Also very stirring to hear him talk about censorship and witch hunts towards comics.

After I watched it I came downstairs and renewed my CBLDF membership…

With Special Guest Star Neil Gaiman!

The sweeps are here! It's that magical time of the year when television studios throw away their last shreds of self-restraint, dignity, and continuity to openly beg for viewers by promising extravaganzas, controversy, and bizarre plot twists. More than usual, I mean.

"Sweeps" refers to the time when a couple million randomly selected people across the country are asked to record what programs they're willing to publicly admit they watch. This information is then used by network affiliates to negotiate their ad rates. Of course, the networks quickly realized that those numbers could be artificially pumped up to fool advertisers into thinking that more people watched television than actually exist on Earth. This led to the practice of using sweeps to showcase the networks' most thoughtful and insightful shows.

Ha! No, seriously, this led to ridiculously over-hyped spectacles like sit-com weddings, gratuitous nude scenes, and Geraldo Rivera.

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