word on the street

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my music partner, JODI! And congrats again to Jodi for being highlighted in the Sept. 8 issue of Billboard magazine! (with a photo, even) If you're at all interested in songwriting, you should check out her Muse's Muse songwriting site. And do drop by the annual Urban Tapestry Birthday Party for her and Allison.


Dandelion Wine (consisting of Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers) now has a Web site, thanks to the talents of Beckett Gladney. Beckett says that the site is still under construction, and welcomes feedback and suggestions on how to improve the site. I'll be contributing something to the site soon especially since I notice a few embarrassing photos of me sprinkled here and there, including one of me getting a Northumbrian Smallpipes lesson from Al Thomson of Curraugh (band consisting of Dave, Tom, and Al). :-D


Hey, someone from Canoe interviewed me today about my comic strip, Waiting For Frodo (which is now being regularly updated, by the way). And thanks to TheOneRing.net for including my update news on their main page today (as of 3 pm, the comic strip has received over 1000 visits).





Went to Word on the Street yesterday, after brunch at Grapefruit Moon with our friend Bryan. Without booth obligations, I could wander freely throughout without worrying about time. I did feel a pang when I came to the Writer's Block section, where Inkspot used to be. :-( Ah well, perhaps someday I'll set up another booth, this time marketing my zillions of bestsellers and other publications! It's good to dream, anyway.


Jeff and I got together with our friends Cory Doctorow and Amanda Foubister on Queen Street at the outdoor patio of the Rex Hotel. Cory was carrying an impressive number of tech toys with him than anyone else I know (see above photo). I've added his blog to my link list. Cory's one of those people whose whirlwind energy and enthusiasm affects everything within a certain radius...the very air vibrates, colours are brighter (yes, just like the ad for that bleach ad on television!). And when he leaves, the world seems to pale a bit, and your own life seems dulls by comparison, at least temporarily, until you come to your senses and realize that if you kept up his manic schedule your brain would probably explode.





In the evening, we went to my sister's for dinner. Sara and Annie wore their Hallowe'en costumes to show Jeff and me. Sara is going to be Arwen (as portrayed in the Lord of the Rings trailer); Annie is Ariel (from the Little Mermaid). We watched the trailer for the movie on their computer, and Sara knew Every Single Word.


For the first time in many years, I'm actually going to be in town when Sara and Annie are out trick or treating! Very hyped about this; I'm hoping they'll let me tag along.


Going to see the late show of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Jeff and some other friends tonight. I've never seen the entire thing before, so it should be an experience if I can keep my eyes open that long. I knew several Monty Python sketches by heart years before I saw the actual sketches. One of my clearest memories is of rooming with Michelle Sagara (who also writes as "Michelle West") at Maplecon years ago. Our Python fanatic friends were next door. Knowing our impatience with their frequent quoting from the show, they stuck a ghetto blaster up against the thin wall separating our rooms (our accomodations were in a college dormitory) and played "The Parrot Sketch" at full blast. As memory serves, the perpetrators included Bruce Macintosh, John Chew, and Jeremy Graham.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Cory Doctorow with his tech toys. The yellow bag has the boingboing.net logo.


- Sara as Arwen (as in the Lord of the Rings movie trailer).


Today's Poll: (Suggest a question)



Are you a Monty Python fan?