3 hours to Coupland

Douglas Coupland is speaking tonight at Broadway! I'm really excited, because I think Coupland is possibly my favourite author. I was thinking about it last night talking to Matt;

I think part of the reason is because I feel like I've grown up with his books - they seem to fit quite nicely along the timeline of my life from the mid-nineties onwards.

The first book of his which really had an impact on me was Microserfs - I liked the other books, but this felt like the one where his characters became really 3-d, and also, coming at the time that we were starting Active Ingredient, it felt like someone was putting our lives down in a book! - It has some amazing passages in it - my favourite moment is the revealing of the tiny white lego house, and "Hello Jed" - If you haven't read it, I won't explain those bits further, I don't want to spoil it.

What strikes me about all the books is the warmth, and I think love for the characters - It doesn't read like Bret Easton Ellis, whose books I have always found difficult - a bit nasty (except Glamorama, which is really good). I'm a bit soft, so I don't mind admitting to a few near-sobs at the end of his books! - I was really angry at the end of Microserfs because I didn't want the characters to end!

Some favourite Douglas Coupland moments (remembered moments, so may not be accurate if they even exist at all);

"My name's Jared, I'm a ghost" - Girlfriend in a Coma. The opening line.

The Dead Speak from Life after God - beautiful - made into short films for MTV, you can see them on www.coupland.com

Letter to Kurt Cobain from Polaroids from the Dead

A story from an anthology about the turn of the millenium - can't remember what it's called, but it's about a special effects guy.

and many, many more... His latest books, Eleanor Rigby and Hey Nostradamus! may be his best yet, I loved them both - tonight we'll get a reading from JPod, which Jeanie has sneakily started reading already and has probably finished by now.

How Coupland, blogging about Coupland. I think I'll spend the rest of the afternoon drawing flames in Biro on pictures in the Ikea catalogue.

Second Life report
We're nearly there with the first episode of Ricard's machinima series - all the characters are finished and tidied, with their facial animations on, and I'll be able to post some screenshots from the pilot episode and a URL to the site next week.