Gaiman and Whedon in one Evening.

Neil Gaiman stepped up to the podium, "Victoria had been hidden from me until the American Gods tour, " he said, "And when I saw it, I thought, 'What a lovely place. And such fresh sushi!'" he added, to audience applause.



The rest of the speech, reading, and Q&A were just as pleasant, funny and entertaining; there was much applause and laughter from the full (but not packed) house at the Alix Goolden Hall last night. When asked what other job he might do, if not writing, he considered perhaps a job that didn't exist, "Freelance Religion Designer," an answer which garnered some of the biggest laughs of the evening.

When Gaiman was done reading, and everyone lined up for the signing part of the evening, hubby and I looked at our watches and realized that since we had nothing we needed to be signed, we had enough time to zip across town to see the late showing of Serenity, so we did just that.

Lemme tell ya, that late show was one of the most pleasant moviegoing experiences I've had in a long time. Here's why:

1. The movie itself was great (review will follow soon).
2. The theatre was virtually empty -- we were able to sit in the middle of the theatre with no one too close to us. By the time the lights went down, I'd guess there were fewer than 25 people in the audience.
3. The pre-show ads/trivia/soundtrack was not running (hubby thought that the show might be satellite-delivered from Ontario so, since it was after midnight there, no show was running on the west coast).
4. We used a 2-for-1 ticket so our cost was $9.95 (plus the overpriced coffees we purchased, at $3 each, but at least we didn't buy popcorn).

So, yes, my brain was well-exercised last night, I felt all literate and in-on-the-in-jokes by the time we got home (at which point, we turned on The Daily Show, just to keep the brain in motion a leeeetle longer).

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By the way, if you missed the Time Magazine interview with Gaiman and Whedon, you should stop reading my silly blog and go read it instead.