jwz

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 040.

Tonight was the final Pop Roxx event.

To commemorate this, we gave away a bunch of compilation CDs of most of the bands who have played at Pop Roxx over the last two and a half years. It wasn't all of the bands, because there were too many to fit on an audio CD, so I had to leave a few off.

This week's mixtape is the "director's cut" of that CD: it's almost the complete set of Pop Roxx bands. (And yeah, I'm slightly breaking my "C90" rule for this one.) I'm only missing tracks by three bands (Pretty Vicious, Landshark, and Sunday Drivers). Somehow I managed not to get CDs by those bands, and I wasn't able to track down MP3s by them this week, alas.

We had a lot of great bands at Pop Roxx! I'll miss it.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/last-post-for-bit.html

The long-awaited Snow, Glass, Apples perfume will be making its debut at San Diego Comic Con! The SGA package includes Neil Gaiman’s short story in chapbook format, beautifully illustrated by Julie Dillon, and a 5ml bottle of perfume inspired by the tale. This set is a limited run of 1000. 250 will be sold by CBLDF at Comic Con 2008, and the remainder will go on sale July 30, 2008 on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site and will be available as long as supplies last. All proceeds from this project go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!

In our Saturday night auction, we have a number of tremendous items. The coolest is Ryan Graff's Endless Reflections, offered here to commemorate Sandman's 20th. Serious bidders should come by the CBLDF booth (1831) to learn more about this book, which is probably the rarest of all Sandman items. We also have some other cool items including:

1) Dave Sim, Neil Gaiman, "Lithograph 1: Neil Gaiman," signed by Sim, collage retouch by Gaiman (prints/original art)
2) Neil Gaiman, The Dangerous Alphabet #260/400 (prints)
3) Neil Gaiman, Murder Mysteries HC, #122/250 (book arts)
4) Neil Gaiman, The Sky At Night broadsheet #1/5 (prints)
5) Neil Gaiman, Stardust Movie Premiere ticket, signed (ephemera)
6) Cerebus #147, featuring Neil Gaiman's 24 Hour Comic, signed with sketch by Sim (comics)
The full list is terrific, and has some other great pieces, including work by Jack Kirby, Jeff Smith, Matt Wagner, and many more. Full list is here: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000365.shtml

The auction is Saturday at 7:00 in Room 2 of the convention center

skirtman

Today’s forecast called for mid-nineties and sunny, perfect for working on my tan and generally relaxing. As I type it is indeed mid-nineties, and raining. I’m sure the rain won’t last long, but it’s moderately annoying to be driven inside and have cloud cover.

On an unrelated note, I want to go out to eat tonight. It would be nice to go someplace I’ve never been before. It would be even nicer to have someone go with me, but that’s not to be.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/339300406/strange-as-it-s.html

We've been shooting nights this week on Criminal Minds, and I've worked every single day, which doesn't leave any time to write, or do much of anything else. I got home at 4 this morning, didn't fall asleep until 5, and then had to explain to my dogs that, no, just because I was in bed and the sun was coming up, I'm not interested in getting up to do stuff with them.

So I only got to sleep for seven disturbed hours, and I feel like I'm on the road to Bat Country right now. Luckily for me, I don't go to set until 5:30 tonight, and I don't have any dialog today.

Despite the havoc the last few days have unleashed on my body (which is very confused by the hours I'm forcing it to keep, and [spoiler]) I have loved every second of the experience.

I'm keeping a production diary, which I can't release until my episode airs in October, but I can safely say that working on this show, with this cast and crew, creating this character, has reawakened my slumbering love of acting. I'll have more to say about that when I can really analyze how I feel about it and why. (short short version: I miss the camaraderie of being in a cast, and I'd forgotten how good it feels to discover interesting moments with the director, writers, and other actors. I work best while collaborating, it seems.)

Anyway, I feel so blurry that the doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's laughing at me, so I'm going to sign off. But before I do, a couple of things:

• I missed the Watchmen trailer. It was up and then down while I was at work. Dang. Oh! Wait, there it is on iTunes. Wow, that was awesome.
• 
  
• I am too tired to see Dark Kinght (I didn't correct that, because it illustrates exactly how tired I am. Yes, I misspelled the title of the freakin' Batman movie I've been waiting my whole life to see. Jeebus) today, and probably won't get to see it and the Watchmen trailer until next week, right before Comic-Con.
• 
  
• I did not miss Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and neither should you. It's absolutely magnificent, the whole cast is outstanding, and my fellow ACME alum Felicia Day is sensational. I want the soundtrack, and I want it NOW! Shane Nickerson said that it's probably the best thing he's ever seen that was made for the Internet, and better than most sitcoms. I totally agree, and wish Shane would stop saying these things before I get a chance to say them.
• 
  
• Wheaton's Books in the Wild at Flickr has 77 members and 48 supermegaawesome contributions. Yay!
• 
  
• This is a reminder to everyone who has tickets that I will be at Comic-Con from Thursday until Saturday of next week. I'm probably going to sell out the second printing of Happiest Days while I'm there. I'll be with my friend Rich Stevens at the Dumbrella booth, which is number 1335. MC Frontalot is going to be there, too, so if you're looking to fill that final square on Nerd Bingo, come and see us.
• 
  
• On Thursday, I'll be on a panel called Star Trek Without a Blueprint: How books and comics keep expanding the boundaries of the Star Trek universe. We'll be talking about the future of Star Trek publishing in room 32AB from 4:00-5:00. I'll be on the panel with Andy Mangels (moderator and Star Trek author), Margaret Clark (executive editor, Pocket Books), Andy Schmidt (senior editor, IDW) and Star Trek authors Kevin Dilmore, Dave Mack, Scott Tipton, and Dayton Ward.
• 
  
• Finally, TrekMovie has the poster we've all been waiting to see. It looks awesome.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

jwz

Satire at the ballot box to 'honor' Bush

They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in. During the inauguration, the group also wants supporters to participate in a "synchronized flush" -- a way to send a gift to the renamed plant, which supporters say, would be a "fitting monument to this president's work."

It sounds like a harmless joke, or maybe a college civics lesson gone awry. But they have already collected 8,500 signatures in support of the plan - 1,300 more than the minimum needed to put the question to city voters in November.

The biggest opposition in this Democratic stronghold, McConnell said, is people who oppose naming anything after the 43rd president.

Officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns the plant, say they get the humorous intent. But they note that the plant is an award-winning facility that keeps the city's streets and the ocean clean.

"If you are looking for a place to make a negative statement about the Bush administration's impact on the environment, this would be the last place to do it," agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said.

jwz

HELL YES:

San Francisco smokers are already banned from lighting up inside restaurants, bars and public buildings. Now Supervisor Chris Daly is proposing tougher restrictions, including no smoking in taxicabs, at outdoor cafes, in lines at the ATM, at farmer's markets and within 20 feet of the entrance to businesses.

The city's Department of Public Health says there's no safe level of second-hand smoke. "There's been research that shows the exposure in outdoor areas. The levels can be as toxic as indoor levels," said Alyonik Hrushow from the San Francisco Health Department.

Smokers may feel like pariahs in this city, but according to the American Lung Association, San Francisco is behind other cities including Belmont, Berkeley and Ross when it comes to trying to limit second-hand smoke.

This will be a slight hassle for us at the club, since we'll have to make people move farther down the block to smoke, but that's fine with me, because I find it absolutely disgusting to have to walk through that gauntlet of stench on the sidewalk in front of the exit door.

You're welcome to smoke, and to play with your own poop. Just keep your smoke, and your poop, off of me.