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'The SpongeBob Musical' will debut in Chicago next year before heading to Broadway.

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I'm at my sister's wonderfully Halloweeny house. It is decorated fabulously and creepily. Tonight I want to share with you the creepy doll head parts. (And to make it even more thematic, here is Jonathan Coulton's "Creepy Doll" video to listen to you while you peruse.



You can also see another live performance of Creepy Doll with the addition of Neil Gaiman's menacing presence. Or see the lyrics here.)

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Like all of you, I believed that all episodes of the mid-80s Jonathan Coulton sitcom MONKEY SHINES (in which I guest-starred as the irascible drunken writer next door) had been wiped and lost for good. A great loss to the world of entertainment, and to fans of Paul and Storm (who actually got their start on the show, and not, as most trivia articles claim, as the pair of bloodsucking dentists in that X-Files episode).

People talk about Bosom Buddies, Cheers, The Golden Girls and then the ones who were there say "...and Monkey Shines," and the room falls silent, pondering the magnitude of the loss.

So I was amazed when I heard that the title sequence had been rediscovered.



Ah, how it all comes back: that loveable little reformed jewel-thief monkey butler.... always good for a misunderstanding that would guarantee hilarious consequences for everyone, and, of course, a hug at the end...

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- or at least, the dim (it was *really* dark once the lights were all the way off). My daughter and I went to see a live production of Beauty and the Beast this evening. We had front-row balcony seats so I had this great view of the stage, which I attempted to sketch, on my knee, in barely any light, during the 15 minute intermission. (Straight lines and perspective on your knee? not so much...)

I *wished* I could have drawn more in the dark - I'm afraid I wasn't terribly captivated by the production. The costumes and sets were wonderful (and I would have happily sketched those if I could have seen my pencil) but we watched the Disney video of B&B 20 bazillion times when the kids were little, and most of these performances were not an improvement on the versions seared into my memory. They were adequate (with a few notable exceptions*) and pleasant enough I suppose. The additional songs felt mostly unnecessary. I think I fell asleep at one point. Not the most notable play I've attended recently.

(*Exceptions - the actor playing Lumiere was fabulous. I loved pretty much any second he was on the stage. (As much as I adored Jerry Orbach's incarnation of him in the Disney version, this *still* worked.) Also, the Wardrobe was played to great effect by Ellen McLain - she, who is the voice of GlaDOS, the computer from the wildly popular game Portal. My son kept trying to get me into Portal (I'm afraid it made me nauseous), but I must say that I adore the theme song - also sung by Ellen McLain, and written by Jonathan Coulton - which I will leave you with. Probably the more clever and enjoyable entertainment of the evening. I'm suddenly feeling a strange and compelling craving for cake):



(Or you can watch Jonathan sing it himself here).

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Let's see. I gave the talk in Las Vegas (enormously fun, especially the Q&A bit. Incidentally, for anyone who was there, I checked and the news story I mentioned occurred neither in Pittburgh nor Detroit, but in Philadelphia). Then from there I found myself whisked to a room at the top of a Casino, sitting at another table and signing more books for the people who had funded and helped the Book Festival, and for those who had sprung for an expensive ticket. It was a lot like a normal signing only nobody could hear anything over the music, so if I signed your book to Brian and it should have been to Ryan... er, sorry.

Then I spent most of the day on a plane. (I was meant to be working. Instead, in what is becoming a familiar refrain on this blog, I slept.) Last night I saw Thea Gilmore and Nigel Stonier supporting Joe Jackson (they were wonderful), and met their son Egan again: he's now bigger and blonder.

Now typing in Logan airport -- I've flown up for a family event. Hoping that everything goes according to schedule and I can make it (my cousin Scott's bar mitzvah) and get back to New York in time for the event tonight. I bet I can. It just adds a little excitement to the day.

Charlie Fletcher did the kind of interview in Scotland last week that left me worried that he wouldn't have any interview material as we'd spent the whole time chatting happily. I shouldn't have worried -- his interview is up at http://living.scotsman.com/features/Neil-Gaiman-interview-One-foot.4674238.jp, although I think he would like you to know that he didn't write the headline.

The Dangerous Alphabet confuses the New York Times reviewer (well, she describes it as "funny, frightening and confusing all at once"). "The humor seems better aimed at older kids than the publisher’s recommended “5 and up.” Call me a goody-two-shoes, but I won’t be reading the words “Q is for Quiet (bar one muffled scream)” to my kindergartner anytime soon," she says. Still, it seems like the kind of mixed review that would let people who would like the book know it was out there...

Here's a complete version of the Manchester Creepy Doll (although I am a bit invisible, for reasons that will become obvious):



And finally, an article about tonight's event in New York (and a bit about tomorrow's event) as well as an interview with Charles Brownstein of the CBLDF:

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/11/neil-gaiman-com.html

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Yesterday is all a bit of a blur. This is, I suspect, mostly because I set my alarm for an hour too early this morning and didn't notice until I went out into the hotel lobby to stumble out into the day and realised that it was only a quarter to eight, not a quarter to nine, which meant I'd had about four hours sleep, not about five. I hope I can sleep on a plane or in a car between here and Manchester tonight.

Lovely interviews, lovely event, lovely signing (except possibly for the young lady who fainted in the signing line, and even she popped up at the end to let me know she was feeling better), and lovely incredibly late night dinner afterwards.

...

Stopped there and stumbled off into the day. Went to The Main Street Trading Company in St Boswells, Scottish Borders, and talked to about forty ten year olds, and did a very small signing. The shop -- a sort of dream bookshop and small town cafe -- is quite beautiful, and it was a wonderful break in between all the giant events to just chat to some children, answer questions, and, later, have a bowl of butternut squash soup. (I also suspect the shop of being peculiarly magic: you might claim that it's coincidence that Nick Sweeting from Improbable Theatre Company was in the shop visiting his parents when I was signing, and that I had almost popped in to see him on Monday in London but ran out of time, but it's a magnificently unlikely coincidence.)

I slept in the car back to Edinburgh, slept on the plane to Manchester.

Manchester was great. I got to be the first author up on that stage to have an opening band -- two of them, in fact, as Paul & Storm and Jonathan Coulton played a very short concert -- one song each -- for the people there. And I finished signing some hours later, and walked to the Jonathan Coulton gig in time for the final encore, "Creepy Doll" where I recited the second voice, overacted as requested, and played tambourine.

What is it with the tambourine thing anyway? I manage to spend an entire life, joyfully tambourineless, and now I have played it on stage in front of people twice in a month. Do I look like someone who would be happier holding a tambourine?

Saw Leah Moore and John Reppion, and then Paul & Storm and Mr Coulton. Paul filmed me for a strangely silly secret project of theirs.

Also, hurrah for 24 hour room service, even if they had run out of everything except irish stew.

So. Bed now, for another night of not-enough-sleep, then I get up and fly to Dublin.

Nearly forgot, Chip Kidd wants suggestions: http://www.goodisdead.com/index.php?/journal/entry/mr_sandman_bring_me_a_dream/

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Lots of tour and signing questions starting to come in. But first...

Hi Neil,
Hopefully this email comes after you're dug out of the deluge of other mails. I was recently in Minneapolis and sorry to see that Dreamhaven is downsizing/moving/firing all their employees. If you know yet, what does this mean for them running your commercial site? I terribly liked being able to visit and pickup signed copies or buy something and leave it for when you were next in town.
Thanks,
Kyle

I don't honestly know. I haven't spoken to Greg Ketter about what he'll be doing with Neilgaiman.net in the new, one-man Dreamhaven. I'll certainly still sign stuff when I stop by, but I'm not entirely clear what he'll be stocking at this point. If it looks like neilgaiman.net isn't going to work through DreamHaven in the future, then I'll have to figure something else out. Either way. I'll keep everyone informed through the blog as soon as I know what's happening.

Dear Neil,
I was just wondering if you ever found out what was going on as regards a signing on the Manchester stop of your tour? You mentioned it might be somewhere other than the talk? I was just wondering as I hadn't seen it mentioned on Manchester's website. Anyway, look forward to hearing (and possibly meeting, if there is a signing) you in Manchester!
All the best,
James

I think that the plan to have a talk and a separate signing was wisely abandoned, and as far as I can tell, http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/martinharriscentre/mhceventspage.php?eventid=598
is the event -- reading and Q&A and signing and all. This at the instigation of my friend Geoff Ryman, who was teaching at Manchester, who then went off to teach in San Diego for six months.

The tragedy of that evening is that Paul & Storm and Jonathan Coulton will also be playing at Manchester University that night -- their doors open at 7:30. I suspect that with military precision and planning it might be possible for someone to see me talk and read and then get off and catch most of P&S and all of Mr Coulton, given that we're both at the University, and, if I've read the web site maps right, doing our stuff within about 500 feet of each other.)

(The good news is that Jonathan Coulton and P&S will be playing The Shepherds Bush Empire on Oct 30th -- the day before I'm doing the London reading, so there shouldn't be any conflict there.)

hi neil!
My girlfriend and i are going to your talk/reading/q and a in Edinburgh and it says you will sign copies of The Graveyard Book i presume this means they will be available there? also would it be totally inappropriate to ask you to sign anything else? i realise there will be a lot of hopefuls there and i wouldn't want to delay anything.
Thanks!

No, it's not inappropriate to ask me to sign something else. (Here's the link to Fidra's blog, with lots of information.)

For the UK this time, the rules are going to be pretty much as laid out in http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/05/so-youre-going-to-signing.asp. (The only modification is sometimes I reserve the right to not pose for photographs, now that everyone has an image-capturing device or two on them. You can take any photos you like of me scribbling, you can take photos of you next to me, if you're lucky I'll try and look up when it's time for the flash to go off, but while it doesn't add a long time to each signing, if you multiply it by hundreds of people, it can add a few hours to the signing line. But I'll cheerfully sign, mostly because it's only in London that I ever have to worry about more than 300 people showing up.

For the US tour (NOT the National Book Festival, but everything from New York to St Paul, and I'll repost it all here in easily copyable form as soon as I get all the data) the plan is to make them more of An Evening With Neil Gaiman than a signing, mostly because the numbers at the signings had just got too big to cope with easily, often 700 -1200 people, and it's no fun for anyone when I finish signing every night at one or two in the morning. So each stop will get a complete chapter/story from The Graveyard Book (except for LA and Boulder, who will split Chapter 7), and a long Q&A and talk, and we'll do something more like the event two years ago at Cody's (captured forever by Fora TV). Signed books will be available, but I'll have signed them and doodled in them that afternoon...

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