I love the books in His Dark Materials, so when this started going around, I got totally sucked in. And may I say, as a marketing ploy, this is great because it makes the movie look darn good.

My friend Jodi is in town for his sister’s graduation. We only got to hang out about an hour today since he was on his way to see a show. Today was Last Thursday on Alberta St., so we walked and looked at the funky art. I swear, there was a group of musicians on every street corner. Two groups were doing bluegrass even–Dad, don’t ask me what they were playing because I didn’t recognize the tune.

On the way back, we ran into some friends of ours who didn’t know Jodi was in town. It was fun and too brief. He’s stopping by tomorrow to drop off some stuff for us to haul to NYC with us. That should be a briefer and less fun visit, since it will involve hefting boxes. Apparently one of them contains an accordion.

Apparently, the illustration I posed for is not going in the NY Times this weekend. What’s more, I’m not allowed to show you the version that’s been cut. It was too suggestive, apparently, although I’m not sure if that’s a quote or a paraphrase.

Evocative combination of live actor and animation.

I spotted this on Jay Lake’s blog