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This evening I attended the fabulous launch party for Delia Sherman's new ya novel The Freedom Maze. The party was thrown at the Center for Fiction (formerly, the Mercantile Library) in the midtown area. Pouring rain did not stop the many attendees from having a great time, with period drinks, plus wonderful food. I helped judge the cake contest and although someone did try to bribe me, he was too late. We had already made our picks. Top prize went to Alaya Dawn Johnson's fabulous orange spice with tart cherry cake which had multiple layers of flavor--almost like a Christmas fruit cake but much much better.

Delia read from her novel, a gentleman played piano, and some attendees even sang. But....the evil Genevieve Valentine persuaded me to head downtown to see Drive, the movie based on James Sallis's novel-in the east village. We left (in the rain) with Liz Gorinsky, who was heading home and made the movie with time to spare.

I'd been meaning to see it so was happy to have the unexpected opportunity. A stunt car drive/mechanic gets caught up with some very bad gangsters by trying to do a favor for a neighbor he likes. Cutting to the chase--the movie's terrific! Both G and I adored it. The original score is fabulous (G says it's gotten a lot of buzz for the Oscar). It's by Cliff Martinez and has a driving beat from the opening scene. The acting by Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks*

, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, and the rest of the cast was perfect. It's graphically violent so do beware if you have problems with that. Highly recommended.

Over the weekend I watched Priest on DVD, which sucked, although I do enjoy watching Paul Bettany and Maggie Q in anything. And the vampires were really creepy/disgusting and monstrous. That was refreshing. I also went to the movies over the weekend to see Margin Call, an excellent underrated movie that came out a few months ago about Wall Street -you wanna know what happened with Lehman? You can get a bit of a look at it by watching the movie. Acting by Paul Bettany (synchronicity strikes again), Demi Moore (oh sweetie, you shouldn't have had the work done on your face), Jeremy Irons, Kevin Spacey (his best acting in awhile), Peter Sullivan was all spot on. Good show. It is SOOOO nice to have seen two great movies in the theater in a row. Bravo!!


* I just want to add that I always hated Albert Brooks in his "comic" roles, finding him whiny and obnoxious. But some time in the past 10-15 years he's become a fine dramatic actor in movies like My Firs Mister and Drive.

Just to catch up a little. A friend of mine graciously invited me to accompany her to the world premiere of W at the Ziegfield on Tuesday and to the part afterwards at the Metropolitan Club just off Central Park west. My friend's sister works for one of the producers of the film. I've never been to such an event and although C told me to dress in work clothes (and some of the people did) she dressed up and of course the stars did as well. I missed most of those who attended the screening and the party (there were hundreds of people there) but kept "running into" James Cromwell, who plays Bush Sr. so finally, at the party I told him I enjoyed his performance. I also saw Ellen Burstyn at the party, and apparently was standing in front of or behind Jeffrey Wright but didn't realize it. (C told me afterwards and she was all excited).

The movie didn't start till 8:10 or so (it was supposed to start 7:30) and got out around 10:30. It was ok (you can read the reviews today, and I agree with most of them) --it felt somehow disconnected, but I thought most of the performances terrific: Josh Brolin as W, Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney (ohmigod=perfect), Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush were the best. Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld barely registered (he just was barely in the movie) and the same with Thandie Newton as Rice--I later heard that most of her part was cut--it felt pretty truncated. She barely talked, mostly reacted. Toby Jones made a pretty good Rove. What interested me most was how the movie comes straight out accusing Rove and Cheney of manufacturing the entire WMD call to war and Bush's basic lack of interest in governing and how easily manipulated he's been by Rove and Cheney throughout his presidency. And to my surprise, I actually felt sorry for him being so way in over his head. Mostly to show daddy he has the right stuff.


C& I walked over to 60th, off 5th avenue and waiting on a fast moving line to get in.
The party was in a gorgeous private club with very high ceilings, several large rooms, each with buffets consisting of: cold cuts, southern cooking, salmon, macaroni and cheese, Mexican food including custom made fajitas, fresh fruit, a raw bar with oysters freshly being shucked throughout the party, and peel your own shrimp, and plenty of other stations I never got to or have forgotten. Plus platters of two bite hamburgers on little buns with tomato (not easy to gobble with one hand--I dripped something on my skirt). Open bars with champagne, wine, and hard liquor. Very cool music. It's strange to be utterly out of one's element. C and I hung out together, not knowing a soul there--we were supposed to meet her sister there and only finally found her two hours later. We roamed from room to room looking for K. We agreed that we kind of felt that we had more in common with the waitstaff than with most of the other guests, although you could tell a lot of them were like us, invited by those connected the film. It was kind of fun to just stand or sit, eat, drink, observe with no obligation to mingle as in an sf/f convention or event. Kind of relaxing almost ;-). We finally left at about 1 am and the party was still going, but C had to work the next day and I'd had enough.

The rest of the week I've been reading, going over contributor revisions, the usual. Wednesday evening we had a spectacular turn out for the 85th anniversary party for Weird Tales, organized by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Segal. The readers: Jeff Ford, Karen Heuler, and Micaela Morisette were all very very good. They all read stories or pieces of stories that have appeared or will be in Weird Tales. I've read work by Heuler before but not by Morisette. She's a real find. I need to read the whole story when it's published in the December issue--it's about cannibalism and Morisette's reading made it sound soooo sensuous.

I'll be posting the photos some time before Sunday (I need to empty the camera before I go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens that day).

A Whisper of Blood continues to sell better and better.
Terri Windling and I met today to follow up on the various anthologies we're hoping to co-edit.

I'm about to receive contracts for two reprint anthologies I'm editing. I'll be posting about one of them here to ask for story suggestions. (as soon as I have the contract in-hand).

It's been a fairly productive week.