Where We Were This Weekend...

...Wish You Were Here.

(Actually, I Wish We Were Still Here!)

It was a great weekend.
Have a great Tuesday & Wednesday, all -- I'm off teaching at CCS...
see you here on Thursday morning!

[Photos (c) 2006 Marjory Bissette; thanks, sweetie!]

Midday Update --

Sad news:

Horror writer Charles Grant passed away this weekend.

The horror boards are buzzing, and I may have more news to share later this week, but this is a sad day for all who read and most of all those who knew and loved Charlie. He was a writer's writer, a passionate and articulate advocate for the art and a formidable presence in the genre, and he will be sorely missed.

I have my own Charlie Grant stories to share, from my active years with the Horror Writers Association (then Horror Writers of America), but today's not the day to do so... I'm honored to have known the man at all, and feel blessed to have had some chats, laughs and head-butting with Charles off and on in the late '80s and early '90s.

R.I.P., Charlie.

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Good news:

Me old amigo Phil Nutman just emailed me this weekend from a-way down south in Georgia to alert me to his latest installment of the online media journal Up Against the Wall, now in its 2nd 'issue' at www.upagainstthewallmag.com

The latest installment features Phil's interview with Psychedelic Furs front man Richard Butler, whose new Sentimental Airlines is (in Phil's opinion) "one of the best CDs of the year." Also: Al Kaufman's interview with Daren Wang of Verb, who wants to change the way you think about literary magazines, and Al's chat with musician Dan Bern on the heels of Bern's anti-Bush campaign; and more, including music reviews (Arctic Monkeys, Mott the Hoople, Goldfrapp, and made-in-VT movie Disappearances star Kris Kristofferson) and lots of movie stuff. There's Phil getting all weepy over the new Lassie movie and DVD reviews of my fave '70s biker opus The Losers, the shaggy-dog-biker-bastard offspring Werewolves on Wheels, Jim Van Bebber's stunning The Manson Family, that beloved Richard Matheson/Dan Curtis made-for-TV chestnut Trilogy of Terror, women-in-prison depravities Bare Behind Bars and Amazon Jail, MVD's Pornstar Pets (guest-reviewed by Justin Griffin) and -- for more wholesome appetites -- BBC America's uncut DVD set of the Christopher Eccelson season of Dr. Who (reviewed by Shawn Carter).

Great reading, leading to good reading/listening/viewing, all!

And what the hell, while you're at it, you should also check out Phil's website at www.PhilipNutman.com

Monday Morning Shake

Easing into the week after a marvelous weekend, and tackling prep for the intensive second week of the new semester at the Center for Cartoon Studies.

I'll be posting off-and-on in the next 24 hours, and be offline until Thursday AM -- which is likely to be my weekly rhythm hereafter, giving my CCS teaching schedule.

So, from now on this blog will offer rare Tuesday AM posts, and I'm unlikely to ever be posting Wednesday, but I'll be here as often as I can be the rest of the time.

_________________

Among the prep duties of the day is the pleasant "task" of reading a short story by Ross Wood Studlar, the CCS senior I'm working with one-on-one (as his thesis advisor). This story may prove to be the springboard for Ross's thesis project -- we'll see, that's up to Ross! -- but it's a great beginning of the process, and I'm feeling good overall about the coming year.

Last week, the incoming CCS freshmen students completed their first collective comic as part of our first drawing workshop session -- yes, already, a new comic!

Hi-Octane High Emotion may never command the covetous attention of the comic-buying masses, but it emerged from a lively roundtable drawing exercise of my invention, gave us all a way to sample what we're capable of, and yielded at least a few corkers and one gem of a one-pager I can't stop laughing at.

OK, more later today --