August 29, 2003  
It's always nice when a new album finally "clicks". The first time I listed to the new Radiohead album "Hail to the Theif" I was sort of unimpressed. It seemed okay but not as intense as "KID A" or as broken hearted as "Amnesiac"...or purely rock-out brilliant as "The Bends" (my personal favorite). But everything fell in place when two nights ago at around 1:00AM (the best time for Radiohead) I put on "Hail to the Theif" while writing up my page breakdown/outline for Quicken Forbidden #13. Thinking about Jax and how I wanted to organize the events for the next issue, trying to work out all the internal problems I was having with cramming two issues worth of story into one book...just made the songs all that much more relevant and purposeful. It's a really great feeling when I have to stop writing and just go "yeah that's perfect" and listen to the song. The ideas that have been in the back of my head all fall in to place and the music accompaniment is right in tune. I get kind of emotional and worked up when it all just feels connected. I'm fully aware of how cheesy that sounds, but it still feels true.
This happened a lot when I was listening to the last 2 Radiohead albums while writing Issue #12 and it's why I ended up making a mix CD so that I could attempt to transfer some of those emotions to John when he adapted my script and doodles into finished comic pages. I doubt John was affected in the same way, but I was really happy with the way that book turned out so I'll pretend it did! In fact, I ended up making several copies of the Mix CD (which also had some Elliot Smith, Cranes, Doves, Divine Comedy and Sigur Ros) to give to people with the hopes that they'd think about those songs when reading the book. I'd really like to do a packaged CD/book type things someday but I somehow doubt we'd be able to get the rights to all the exact songs.
So for now I'll keep dreaming of the day the Jax Epoch movie gets made and the producers convince Radiohead or the Cranes to do the soundtrack. But knowing me I'd settle for Debbie Gibson too.

2:54 PM

August 28, 2003  
Doing research for an upcoming magazine, I came across this neat site called the
The Lost Files of Lemony Snicket
based on the confidential files, stolen from the Library of Records in Heimlich Hospital (in the Hostile Hospital). I'm noticing a lot more sites like this popping up as more people start realizing how filled with to the brim with cryptic background details, clues, inside jokes etc. the Series of Unfortunate Events are. The site obviously hasn't been updated in a while since anyone who pays attention to the Daily Punctilio knows that Buttermilk is OUT and Parsley soda is once again IN (although for Klaus it will always be OUT). There's another really great site that is keeping detailed track of all the IN'S and OUT'S of V.F.D...but if you haven't already read/decoded the Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket...it might be too much information!

5:15 PM

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