Fear of Blogging Goes to More Places, Gets a Cat, and Plants a Farm

Where to start? How about the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 18^th?  I marched with the SPCA because animals are my friends and because we have gotten so many of our cats from them.  The SPCA contingent was placed right after Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and in front of Animal Care and Control (where we acquired our new cat, but more on that later), so our 3 animal groups all marching together with lots of cute dogs surely were the cutest contingents in the parade.  Not only were the dogs cute but we were pretty cute too.  The SPCA asked us to wear animal prints so, being the thrift shopping queen of San Francisco, I scoured the thrift stores and found a leopard print tunic, which, along with makeup done by volunteers from Sephora, turned me into a leopard for a day.

Oops, let’s back up to Wizard World in Sacramento, which took place on June 19^th – 20^th. and where I spotted the perfect Vampirella, and the first cosplay Vampi that I completely approved of.  Of course, she didn’t have a clue when this strange lady walked up to her and said, “I approve of your costume,” but she gamely thanked me.  Steve said I really should tell her who I was, so I found her booth and explained that I had designed the costume she was wearing, which made her happy, and we took lots of pictures.  The costume was made by her talented sister!

LYDIA THE TATTOOED LADY

Well, actually her name is Jennifer Cholin, and I found her behind her table at the American Librarians Association convention here in San Francisco on June 26^th and 27^th. She is covered with gorgeous tattoos of Nell Brinkley girls taken from my book, and the tattoo artist did an excellent job.  I love you, Jennifer!

Yes, it was a busy June.

IF IT’S JULY IT MUST BE COMIC CON

And a lot happened at comic con!  One small disappointment: usually there have been great freebies and giveaways at comic con, but this year – is it the economy? – giveaways consisted mostly of things I didn’t want, like posters (I mean, how much wall space does a person have, anyway?).  The one exception was troll dolls.  On the first day of the con, people in troll wigs stood on corners across the street from the convention center giving out troll dolls in blazing colors: purple, hot pink, glittery green.  The one thing they asked in return was that we take a photo and put it up on the internet, so here I am with my troll doll and the nice person in a troll wig.  Thank you for the best giveaway at the con!

• Ah, the Eisners! I actually got to accept TWO (2) Eisners!  The Eisners, named for the great cartoonist Will Eisner, creator of the immortal Spirit comics and so much more, are the Oscars of the comic industry.  “Graphic Details,” a book about the traveling exhibit of confessional comics by Jewish women, won an Eisner. Cartoonist Miriam Libicki and I, both contributors to the book, got to accept it for editor Sarah Lightman.  Here we are with Sarah’s Eisner, Miriam the very image of a sexy mother with her new baby and her low-cut satin dress. And then I got to accept ANOTHER Eisner, this time for Marge Henderson Buell, creator of the immortal Little Lulu, who was voted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.  Accepting an Eisner for someone like Marge Henderson Buell is a real honor!

Another honor: watching a play that was adapted from your book, and that’s what happened to me at the Moxie Theater on July 11^th when I attended the premier of “Eternally Bad,” taken from my book of the same name about dark goddesses. You cannot imagine how good it feels to watch a brilliant cast repeating brilliantly funny lines and think, “No way, did I write that?”  And I did!  Here I am with the cast.  Thank you, guys and goddesses, for interpreting my words so beautifully!  And look at the poster!  That’s Brazilian Bombshell Era, from Tarpe Mills’ Golden Age comic, Miss Fury.

CHESTER

If you’ve been reading my blog, you remember that wonderful, adorable, irreplaceable Winston the Wonder Cat departed this planet for the Great Cushion in the Sky in March.  There will never be another like him!  However, by April, I began going into withdrawal.  “Must…get…another…cat,” I muttered between gritted teeth, “Must…get…a Persian!”  Thus began a cat hunting odyssey of visiting the SPCA once, twice a week. But no Persians, and once one is addicted to Persians, one HAS TO have a Persian.  Next stop was Animal Care and Control, just around the corner from the SPCA, and it was there I found Chester, peering out at me with big frightened eyes in the Lost Cat section.  He doesn’t have the grumpyface that Winston had; his eyes are very round and always look a little worried or frightened or whistful and his smooshy face is flat as a pancake. I had to phone every day until he was finally available, and since they don’t put cats on hold, I had to come right down to get him. Poor Chester was found with a bunch of feral cats that no doubt were mean to him and took his food, because the poor dear was so frightened that he hid under the bed in the guest bedroom for a day.  He is still very timid, and only lets us pet him sometimes, and at other times runs away, but very slowly he is getting used to us and realizing we don’t want to kill him, and we have faith that he will eventually become the pussycat god intended him to be.

FEAR OF BLOGGING PLANTS A VICTORY GARDEN

Yes, that is a corn and pumpkin patch on the sidewalk in front of our house, planted by my daughter and me.  People walk by and take pictures. We are learning as we go along, and next time we won’t plant too many pumpkin seeds.  The pumpkins are out of control and we had to fence them in!  As for the corn, it’s as high as an elephant’s eye.

ROAD TO RIO

I asked no other thing,

No other was denied,

I offered Being for it,

The Mighty Merchant sighed,

Brazil?  He twirled a button

Without a glance my way,

But Madame, is there nothing else

That we can show today?

Poor Emily Dickinson never attained her heart’s desire, as symbolized by Brazil, and I almost went the way of Emily Dickinson!  On August 16^th I’m leaving for a conference in Sao Paulo, where I will be a keynote speaker, but two weeks ago I learned that I will need a visa.  Here’s the link to the conference: http://www2.eca.usp.br/jornadas/index.php

Would you have expected to need a visa to visit Brazil?  Me neither!  So, how hard can it be to get a visa for Brazil? Answer: VERY hard!  You can’t go in to the consulate; you have to fill out interminal pages of applications online, and after you’ve sent them in, they give you a date on which you can actually go in and apply some more – and the date they gave me was September 1^st, which wasn’t gonna be much help since I’m flying to Brazil on August 16^th.  Luckily professor Nobu Chinen, who invited me to speak at the conference, came to my aid.  He sent an email to the Consul General, and they made an “exception” for me, and last Friday I finally had my visa in hand, but not before giving them a U.S. post office money order for $160.00!  See you in Sao Paulo!

Wait, wait, one more thing: it’s the 50^th anniversary of the iconic underground newspaper, the Berkeley Barb!  Big celebration at the Berkeley Public Library on Thursday, August 13!  Me, keynote speaker at 11 A.M!  Much easier to get to Berkeley than to Brazil, so come say hello! http://www.berkeleybarb.net/

Are we there yet?