ELYSIAN FIELDS

Friday, May 1, 1998

Wally very kindly came by my office this afternoon, to give me a tape of his show, the one I was on last night. I had my headphones on, listening to a CD that I hadn't listened to in a while: Howard Hanson's Romantic Symphony, conducted by Gerard Schwartz with the Seattle Symphony. I think the last time I tried to play it, it malfunctioned in the CD player and I thought it was too scratched to work anymore. I really enjoy Howard Hanson, and I had it turned up loud! So I was startled when Wally stuck his head through the red velvet curtains and tapped me on the shoulder.

We grabbed a conference room and watched parts of it. He'd also included his InSantacide adventures in Los Angeles. Finally we got back to the actual show. Watching myself on TV will take some getting used to, but the show itself went well, I think.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I came home and took a nap, then did some work on this month's design. The picture of me was taken by a friend last December. I wanted to combine some ferns and flowers to make some ornamental motifs. The curves of fiddlehead ferns always please me.

I found the funky font I did "Anita" in, at the Alphabet Street font site. He calls it "Fascination" but the real name is Snipple, from Chank. (Shades of the White Knight's song in Through the Looking Glass!) The other font is Britannic Bold.

All image editing was done in Microsoft Image Composer 1.5. I used Demetrius's cool technique (no plug-in needed) on the main heading. The best resouce for learning about IC is the newsgroup on the Microsoft newsserver.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I'll admit that I didn't finish work on the new design (and this is being written on Saturday morning). I thought that there was a get-together happening at the Elysian Brewery, which I visited with Burr (now known by another online name that may not be revealed) a few weeks ago. I had run into my friend Lesley Reece at the grocery store last Saturday, and she had told me about a gathering at this pub. But I must have spaced on the date (perhaps it was last Sunday?) because those folks didn't show up. But I was enjoying myself, drinking ginger beer and watching the people in the pleasant, airy space, as the twilight drew in.

After a while, Randy Byers and A.P. McQuiddy showed up and joined me, which was fun. We talked about the movie they had just come from, and I bugged Randy to update his web page, which he bore with patiently. It was fun talking to them, although I can't resist teasing A.P. sometimes. When he talked about how he turns away from activities or topics that get too popular with the general public, I accused him (jokingly) of snobbery. But I know I have similar feelings, especially in regard to books that are extremely popular.