Wednesday, August 17, 2005

A missed opportunity...or not.



See the guy with the shaggy hair, dressed all in black, in the picture? That's Neil Gaiman. THE Neil Gaiman. The one who brought you The Sandman Anthology, American Gods, Neverwhere..and that wonderful funny novel, Good Omens, in collaboration with Terry Pratchett, amongst many other stories.

Honestly, I thought there weren't many people who knew about Neil Gaiman. The Sandman catered to niche graphic novel readers..as it ain't exactly a conventional comic. Plus, his stories, mostly contemporary fantasy, with bits of mythtology and horror weaved into the storylines,do not belong to the category of mainstream fiction either.

Boy, was I dead wrong.

I knew he was coming to Singapore in early July since like...June, when I saw the promotional poster at Kino. Thing was,news of him coming to Singapore have been hinted in his journal since like...forever. Some of us at Katoots have even thought of starting an online petition to get him to ACTUALLY come to Singapore.

When I first saw the poster at Kino, it was like a dream come true. I vowed to get my books and comics signed by the maestro. And since, I thought..well,as he ain't THAT popular in Singapore, it may be an easy task.

Did I say I was dead wrong?

Fast forward to 5 July 2005. The book signing at Kino was scheduled to start at 6.30pm. I wanted to take some time off to go early and queue, but as there was quite a bit of work to be done, I left the office at 5.30pm. I'd planned to take the cab and reach Kino at 6pm...which would give me a leeway of 30mins.

Happily I boarded the cab and reached Kino at 6pm. Went in through the main entrance and saw that there weren't a lot of people. Was secretly pleased. But as I passed the magazine section and walked further in... LO AND BEHOLD! HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE were already in queue. The queue snaked along the shelves and around the central area (i.e. where the escalators are.) of the store. Security began to count the number of people and after like...200-300 people, they told the rest in queue to come back later at 8.30pm, where he would hold an extra session.

I was contemplating of whether I should hang around and wait...but as I didn't foreseeably see myself getting his autographs that night, I left with the hope of getting them the day after, where another session would be held at Borders@Wheelock at 6.30pm too.

So the next day, I left the office early at 4pm. When I reached there at 4.30pm, my heart sank even further. I asked around and found out that the queue started forming at 1pm and by 5pm, the queue was...to put it simply, kinda like the "Hello Kitty" queues.

I began to ask myself, "Do I really want his autograph THAT much?"

Not really. I mean, it's great to have them...but if not,well,nothing lost either.

So I called a friend and waited for him to arrive so that we could go for dinner. When he arrived, he told me how long the queue was...*basically, it almost went around the whole of Wheelock Place* and I just smiled and said, "Fuck lah..let's go eat."

We had a leisurely dinner @ Far East and when we finished at 8pm, we decided to take a walk down to Taka to shop. I harboured hopes that if the queue was short enough by then, I'ld queue, get my autographs and get out. So we walked to the junction just opposite Wheelock...and saw that there were still people queuing OUTSIDE Wheelock Place.

I'll pass.

Never knew he was so popular in Singapore.But I'm okay with NOT getting his signature.I mean, it's just a signature after all. To me...Content is what really matters.

And so, I hope he keeps those stories coming. Next big project: Mirrormask.

Check the links below for the trailers and teasers!

http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/IJKLM/MirrorMask/trailer-page.html

And this clip is nice too..it's a creepy rendition of The Carpenter's Close to You, but it adds just the right touch to the theme of the clip.

http://movies.aol.com/movie_exclusive_mirrormask_movie_clip

*Sour grapes? Maybe..but life goes on lah. hehe. Hua hee tio ho!*

1 Comments:

Blogger Ruki said...

Hey, i put the Mirrormask trailer on my blog first! Meow.

1:08 AM  

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