seeing mr neil
Aug. 9th, 2013 01:49 pmVeronica Mars is not The Wire and it is unfair to hold the one to the narrative standards of the other.
That said, it is painful to go from watching very smartpeople plotting, proper procedures, and social commentary, to broadcast-television bubblegum noir whose main saving grace is snappy dialogue.
There's nothing wrong with VM per se and I'm sure I'll adjust after another couple of episodes. It's just jarring.
We went and saw Mr Neil last night. Sadly semilocal J-- couldn't make it, so we took her ticket along with us, and managed to sell it to a guy who showed up to talk to a friend of his who was waiting in line ahead of us.
I'm still willing to show up to things an hour before the doors open to get a decent seat. And Mr Neil was great as always. He read from Ocean, and took a bunch of audience questions, and read from the forthcoming Fortunately, The Milk, which I will also have to acquire, and was fun and funny and personable.
Then came the signing. Here it became apparent that I'm getting old and crotchety. The light was awful for writing and not much better for reading, the chairs were comfy but not overly so, and since the reading was at 6:30 (doors at 5:30, we were in line by 4:30) there had been no dinner. After about twenty minutes the combination of all these things plus the dawning realisation that I had nothing really to say to him and would have maybe thirty seconds to say it in anyway was enough for me to give up on the whole enterprise.
Still, well worth going. I'm sad he's not doing any more book tours, but given that he was likely there until after midnight signing things I cannot say that I blame him.
Yeah, writing. I've been using the Neo to write on the Skytrain etc: it's lighter than Taranis the Macbook and it's got fewer distractions. Got around 750 words on a sword-and-sorcery-type story in the past few weeks, and am approaching the point where I don't quite know what happens next: I know where it's going but not how it gets there. I am told that's the fun part.
That said, it is painful to go from watching very smart
There's nothing wrong with VM per se and I'm sure I'll adjust after another couple of episodes. It's just jarring.
We went and saw Mr Neil last night. Sadly semilocal J-- couldn't make it, so we took her ticket along with us, and managed to sell it to a guy who showed up to talk to a friend of his who was waiting in line ahead of us.
I'm still willing to show up to things an hour before the doors open to get a decent seat. And Mr Neil was great as always. He read from Ocean, and took a bunch of audience questions, and read from the forthcoming Fortunately, The Milk, which I will also have to acquire, and was fun and funny and personable.
Then came the signing. Here it became apparent that I'm getting old and crotchety. The light was awful for writing and not much better for reading, the chairs were comfy but not overly so, and since the reading was at 6:30 (doors at 5:30, we were in line by 4:30) there had been no dinner. After about twenty minutes the combination of all these things plus the dawning realisation that I had nothing really to say to him and would have maybe thirty seconds to say it in anyway was enough for me to give up on the whole enterprise.
Still, well worth going. I'm sad he's not doing any more book tours, but given that he was likely there until after midnight signing things I cannot say that I blame him.
Yeah, writing. I've been using the Neo to write on the Skytrain etc: it's lighter than Taranis the Macbook and it's got fewer distractions. Got around 750 words on a sword-and-sorcery-type story in the past few weeks, and am approaching the point where I don't quite know what happens next: I know where it's going but not how it gets there. I am told that's the fun part.