do puppets dream of plasticine sheep?

I am reporting today from the greater Portland area---from the film set of Coraline, Neil’s newest book come to life on film. This beautifully odd story about "other mothers" and secret doors is being made by Henry Selick @ Laika. Henry, who created the amazing Nightmare before Christmas, Tim Burton’s vision, had a cocktail party for Neil where we met his family and many of the Laikans who have been working so hard for so long on the film. To make about one minute of finished film, can take up a week of time, maybe more, all told. (this is approx, mind you)



Here is a photo of our resident DJ Harry, Henry’s son, who was responsible for the beautifully diverse & surprising music at the party. I met Heather, Henry’s wife, who was a fascinating woman, a gracious hostess and very devoted to her man. The house was studded with art and props from the films that Henry has created, i am so in awe of his vision and talents. The first thing I saw when i walked in was an original Mark Ryden painting, *sigh.




Yesterday we went on a studio tour of construction and sets (there are over forty active sets!)
We were on hot sets that I did not photograph, sensitive properties that are not yet to be released to the public. What I can say, this movie is going to be ageless, transcend the years, the set of the "other house" and the glittering sky there is one thing i will always remember....A dream sequence waiting to be dreamt.




This is where Maddy made quite a splash as the on-air correspondent at the behind-the-scenes DVD extras etc

Maddy interviewed Henry & her Dad and the wardrobe lady, Deb and the head of puppets, George---
she was a natural, had no hesitation in going after the question, making sure she was looking at the right camera, everything went so smoothly. Here she is having her hair & make up done...









This is Shelley, Henry’s amazing assistant, & girl Friday and superwoman, Look at her tights. Astounding. She & her man Kevin came out to see me on the Tool tour, so it was her turn to show me her town, her gig & her way around the magic. Ask Lorraine, she will testify. (And our FabLo’s standard bar is set so very high.)

Shelley fed us breakfast & she fed us well.

However, during the filming i heard a rumbling that i thought was an errant cell phone...it turned out to be head of marketing’s stomach growling. It was so cute, she and i shared a moment of levity on the completely quiet & serious set.

Right now i am sitting next to Boss while he does a signing for the crew of Coraline, an internationally mixed bunch. They have been working so hard on the film, and it gives them a chance to meet the mind from which such a story sprung. Neil, as always, was very generous with his time, for a sincere thank you to the crew.







We walked in the sprinkly rain from the hotel to a sushi bar, w/Merrilee, Neil’s literary super-agent who came in from NYC to see the progress. A nourishing meal of fresh fish & rice, and good conversation.



This is Maddy about to eat the chocolate pig that Laika left for her in the hotel room.




Speaking of hotel,----- yesterday I rode up in the elevator 9 floors chatting away with the ever-lovin’ SHaQ! SHaquille O’Neal...in town to play w/Phoenix against Portland...
He asked me if i was from Portland, i said, no i am from where you once where....hmmmph. man, he really is tall. More photos tomorrow, i can’t download the ones i just took of the signing line, until we return to hotel. Tonight we see lots of old friends, and i am looking forward to hanging out with Nancye & William on my last night in Portland...
then off to the frozen lands. I will get my winter fix & my Quiche & MiM & Princess & Misty fixes.
xo

oscars & wallet chains

ok, in this town, oscar fever is no kidding around.
especially after the three month writer's strike...
hollywood needed some flash & some infusion of cash that parties & prep will bring.



i know the oscars were last week, but i have been a little bit behind & now playing catch-up. been working some of the Eagles rehearsals at the Forum--witchy woman!

two days before the oscars, Drew took me down to the site for a look at the set-up.
the sky was stormy, but sun was giving a strange light. We took the roof off of Ghosty and drove over to the hollywood & highland complex.



After a wonderful lunch of sushi & shabu shabu...




we did the oscar exhibit, where they have everything a movie fanatic like me could desire. some of the Hitchcock storyboards from "the birds".


a tv news crew was filming while Drew did his acceptance speech. this year he didn't knock over the podium, he was ready for the short leash they had the (very heavy) award on.


and so. diablo cody won an oscar, good for her. it confirmed my belief that really you can accomplish magic if you put your mind to it. i wasn't such a huge juno fan, the dialogue felt a very self-conscious to me, a hipper-than-thou scene. i thought the stand-out performance was jennifer garner. so very still in the role. go little elektra.
anyway...we looked out over the red carpet, and watched the lighting techs & riggers get things ready for the event.




oh, and look at the wallet chain Drew made for himself...



true confession, when he first told me he made jewelry, i secretly steeled myself...what if i didn't like what he made? but no, i love his chain mail work, it is beautifully crafted.

going to make a webpage for him to sell his work, he has some gorgeous designs. for christmas we got together on a pair of earrings for his sister Heather, i want to make more jewelry with him...!



Malena wants him to do a chain mail line for her collection (malenacollection.com)
here she is wearing some of the jewelry we did for her line...

new orleans to LA in 3 days....

we did it.
from mardi gras to superbowl to home.
here are some photos...
i flew into New Orleans on thursday,
on the plane with me? hulk hogan.
just so happened he was to be king of bacchus.
my airplane was nuts, they were all taking photos of the old wrestler.
who knew how popular he was? didn't realize....

Red picked me up at the airport
and we went into town.
weather conditions cancelled the first parade of the weekend,
so we went across teh street from our hotel to meet
our friend judd in town wtih kevin costner,
who was representing the endemyion (sp?) crew.

beads were being thrown from balconies.


we went to the dungeon, where Red got proposed to.



next day we got up and had a little gumbo in the quarter before pushing off.


this one is for the psychic mlle. Malena:



we headed off on the I-10 west and stopped off to see Miss Abby, home on a break from bon jovi tour.
she took us to the LSU campus to introduce us to Mike, the tiger, who was snoozing in the sun. he stole my heart:



we had perfect sandwiches here on the recommendation of Scotty:



we mostly followed the bad weather, here was the fallen sign of our cheap hotel in texas:



then we stopped in the caves of sonora, for a little tour. peacocks greeted us in the parking lot, fearless birds.



the caves were warm, humid and dark. our guide was very imformed, and i had never really been that far into a cave before.
he said that the show caves were very controversial because of man altering nature. i understand that argument, but i was very grateful to have been able to visit a site like that.
look:





this was called the horseshoe lake--my favorite spot in the cave:




the hotels were different than on tour, our shampoo came in soy sauce packets:



it was a good and easy trip for the most part, we stopped and photographed things all along the way.
we saw a serious accident in phoenix, right as the superbowl was starting, hope they are ok.
the sunsets were beautiful and we only ran into some rain in california...





the skyline coming into hollywood, home sweet home: welcome to LA, Red.

oh-so-busy (& it's still january)

2007 went out with fireworks, 2008 moved in like a hurricane.
i’m well behind in my journal here, but a quick catch-up is in on today’s menu....

we ended the Tool tour with 3 days in Las Vegas.
On the last night, the Palms gave us the bowling suite (can’t recall real name of it)
and we bowled non-stop---

this was right by the windows looking down...the views were amazing of the glittering skyline
and it was the bar-none, best end-of-tour party i have ever been to. (& that is saying something)


My lovely parents came to visit and stay in the treehouse with me for the holidays, my friends rallyed to take them to a Redskins bar here in LA called joxter daly's...i even saw an old friend from high school there, Denny Dixon--uncanny.
and we had the best time. (and my Dad's team won--)
I miss them still. Come back--please!?



We saw my favorite merch guy in Vegas, he was out with Bjork, and we met up days later at the Tori Amos show @ Nokia theatre (home of my Eagles workathon).
She put on a brilliant show, and it was the last night of their tour, so we got to relax a little with my old crew. Drew came with me, he had never seen a Tori show. Amazing sound. I can’t get “Secret Spell” out of my head (from her new ADP album)

Then I worked the Van Halen show in anaheim, a different kind of amazing.
The set list included everything from “jamie’s crying” to “ & the cradle will Rock”—they ended with “Jump”---I should have taken photos, but... they are in my head.
Eddie ran off stage and hugged an unsuspecting local security guard, this guy looked like he won the lottery, Eddie is such a star...turns out Eddie’s son, Wolfgang (who is playing bass with them on the tour) is a big Tool fan, he played a little riff from “Schism” during sound check...a rider detail—no brown M&Ms...


New Year’s eve was spent at Coop & Ruth’s—i believe you should spend New Years the way you want sort your year, so mission accomplished.

Then i flew out to the snowy tundra of Minneapolis...


and photographed some frozen bees.





(Boss modeling the new “I Believe” shirt available @ www.neverwear.net)

when I returned, Drew was working the STar Trek: The Tour down in Long Beach.
I went and couldn’t get over it-- Go!
It is there until March... my guardian of forever...uhuru! kirk's uniform! you can walk on the Bridge.....endless..














I can’t take so much time off between journal entries because i still have so much more to put in here---but I am flying to New Orleans for Mardi Gras (accidently) and will post the photos upon my return...


Next post: the Malena Collection that we have been working on----

http://malenacollection.com/store/
look at this beauty,,,,we had so much fun photographing the jewelry on Malena,
more soon!

as promised....

the most Christmassy sign ever Spokane, WA


the beautiful Davenport in Spokane, WA


view from my Kelowna, BC hotel.....beautiful and icy cold


view from the Victoria hotel...waterfront, we dined on the freshest fish....



miss Cyn @ her booth in Seattle----best globs ever.


salmon waiting to be thrown in Seattle Pike Market----


worked in LA with my hero Ali, here she is on the porch of the treehouse
modelling a Neverwear girls shirt---we have a new design up: www.neverwear.net
Neil gives us a great nod in his last journal entry: www.neilgaiman.com
thank you, boss!


Jello & the boys on stage San Francisco

travelling kitten & a jello shot

Here is is almost ten days since we left Canada....
so busy.
The tour took us through Portland & Seattle where I saw Nancye & Cyn,
those girls & their towns are so high on the applause meter for me, i really am a true fan.
Nancye came and helped me do my job, she even drew the secret santa names....
I got to visit Cyn at the hippest craft fair, one that ate a goodly chunk of my per diems....
but am now in possesion of some fine crafted wares, by local artisans that i met in person, not some nameless faceless toiler...
i do have photos of everything, but am in a rush to post this, we are heading to Vegas tomorrow for a day off @ the palms resort where i will see mister Drew, home fiinally form timberlake,
and i don't know that time will allow for tinkering on the internet webs...did i mention that some suites at the palms have bowling alleys in them??? what!!??? i actually remember some torried stories from motley tour of the girls that came to see the boys in those suites...
can i mention how much i LOVED Spokane? we stayed in the enchanting Davenport, complete with stained glass tigers.
i organized, with Ngoc's generous help, a crew outing of Beowulf in imax (not in 3-D but hey...) & then went to the peacock lounge for a glass of wine. It was so wintery, so christmasy. I will post a big bunch of photos, i do swear.
Last night we were in LA, and the guest list was silly with those famous types, but Anne really hates it when i name drop so i shan't. We stayed at the hilton downtown and jon there treated us like royalty. we played the nokia theatre where i was for my run with the eagles about 6 weeks ago, and i was having "witchy woman" flashbacks. I will be there for the tori show when i get home, and that is something to look forward to!
This morning we woke up on the streets of San Francisco. Jello biafra of the dead kennedys is slated to sing a song on stage with the band, they are about to launch into "holiday in cambodia"---i have to see this. pinch me, i am dreaming....