wind-up sushi

I somehow managed another eight hours sleep without waking even once. I have so desperately needed this sleep, it's a great relief. Anyway, yesterday was a very busy day. I signed and personalized eBay books. I did a Photoshop collage thing for the cover of A Little Damned Book of Days and e-mailed the .psd to Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press. Spooky and I read back over the finished Chapter Eight. I like it a lot better than I thought I would. It was so hard and took so much time to come together — eleven or twelve days instead of the expected seven — that I was worried I might not like the end product. But it works. It's a strange, hallucinatory, sleepwalking sort of chapter, which is entirely appropriate. So, yeah, lots and lots yesterday. I'm not quite sure how today's gonna go, but I do need to give part of it over to phone calls.

Last night, we concluded the Herzog binge with the very excellent The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), which immediately lodged Suzanne Vega's "Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)" in my head, where it's still on repeat this morning despite the fact that I have the iPod blaring in my ears. I have always loved that supremely creepy song. After the movie, I played an hour or more of Final Fantasy X-2. I've reached the farplane (and would someone please find a Paine LJ icon for me, please?).

It's not too late to bid on the limited edition hardback of Revelations which Christa's put on eBay. All proceeds from the auction go to Poppy. Please bid. I've decided that when Christa's auction finishes, I'll be offering one of my copies of the lettered, traycased edition of Wrong Things to the same end. All proceeds from that auction will go directly to Poppy.

We've got Hideous Construction Noise across the street. It started day before yesterday — painters using some sort of sander thingy the strip paint. Of course, before that, we had the noise of a an old stone wall being razed so a new stone wall could be built, from the same frelling house.

Got any lingering doubts that the Bush Family is racist, classist, insensitive, and utterly frelling clueless? While touring the Astrodome on Monday, former first lady Barbara Bush said, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this — this is working very well for them." Yes, she really did. She said that.

One of my favorite places in New Orleans was the Aquarium of the Americas, and I was heartbroken to read that many of the creatures, especially fish, housed at the Aquarium have died as a result of the disaster. The AotA's Gulf Coast exhibit was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen in any aquarium — swarms of fish, sharks, and sea turtles around the mock pilings of an offshore oil rig. It was amazing. The good news is that many of the animals have survived, including sea otters, penguins, leafy and weedy sea dragons, birds (macaws and raptors), a huge 200-lb. sea turtle, and the white alligator.

Addendum 1: "Wooden Horse"

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
A small white wooden horse
I'd been holding inside

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

In the night the walls disappeared
In the day they returned
"I want to be a rider like my father"
Were the only words I could say

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

Alive
And I fell under
A moving piece of sun
Freedom

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
I know I have a power
I am afraid I may be killed

But when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive
Alive
(Suzanne Vega, 1987)

Addendum 2: mail for Poppy

I just got off the phone with Poppy. She related a more detailed account of the pet rescue than she'd posted in her LJ. I promised that I'd send her a care package of books and "goofy stuff to make them feel better" (her words) early next week. After I hung up, I started thinking, so very many people have asked me to relay messages to her, how about this — if you'll send me actual hardcopy messages/letters (postcards would be ideal) to Poppy and Chris at my p.o. box (Caitlín R. Kiernan, P.O. Box 5290, Atlanta, GA 31107), and do so immediately, tonight and tomorrow, then I'll include as many of them as possible in the big box I'm sending out to Poppy. I think this would cheer her up quite a bit. She's seen some, but not all, of the response from her fans and says the donations people have made have been enormously helpful. She said, "I'm just so grateful. I'm heartened by it." Anyway, yes, if you want to send Poppy a message, a fan letter, whatever, send it to me, and I'll do my best to see that she gets it.

I'd also be grateful if someone would please crosspost this offer in any LJ communities devoted to her fans.

There's a Baptist church somewhere in BFE Texas (maybe Woodland?) making CNN with a sign, right out front of the church, that reads "The Big Easy is the Modern Day Sodom and Gommorah." I keep hearing about all the "good" Xtians, the ones who aren't judgmental and who don't preach hatred and damnation, who aren't jonsing for that Good, Old-Fashioned, Old Testament hellfire and whatnot. I'm assuming these assholes aren't among them.

Keeping an eye or three on Hurricane Ophelia, sitting there off the coast of Daytona. Hopefully, she'll head out to sea.

Thanks to setsuled for the new icon, by the way.