This Australian LYF
A 'colleague' of mine at Rookie (I use the word colleague jokingly around my family because they know that all I do is watch TV and look at books with pictures of people with stigmata in them and hardly ever do anything worthwhile) invited me to see her husband
speak at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne tonight. I feel really super special because I was on the guest list and got to sit front centre in the 'dress circle' and I felt even more super special because Ira talked about Rookie right there on stage in my 'home town' and asked if anyone knew about it and people cheered and it wasn't just me and Anaheed (my wonderful 'colleague') cheering, it was people from Melbourne who I hadn't told to read it which was amazing.
Then I got to go BACKSTAGE and see the room that had the mirrors with lights around them and talk to people and THEN I went out for DINNER with Anaheed and Ira and talked about you know, Rookie business and oh yeah on the way to dinner people like stopped us in the street because oh yeah Ira is famous and that's all I've got, now I'm home and happy and excited to be writing this.
Tomorrow I'm going to go Ice-skating and then I'm going to go dancing and suddenly my holidays have picked up. I'm beginning to realize that Rookie really is reaching a lot of people which is something I have difficulty comprehending as we all write and draw this stuff from our bedrooms and send it to our editors via wireless networks and inboxes and stuff. The absence of the physicality of print has made this seem not quite real - but to hear Ira talking about it tonight in front of an audience of a few hundred people really solidified it for me, and I feel good about that solid feeling.
I don't have any appropriate pictures that go with this post so you will have to be content with this Youtube gem that I've been meaning to post for ages. It's a sort of campfire folk song sung by
who according to our reliable friend Wikipedia is known as the 'Mother of Folk'. Her voice is so striking and haunting and honest and I hope it is one of the most beautiful things you've heard in a long time.