LIFE LESSONS: Aggie Chemist Enjoying Two-Way Teaching Adventure in Afghanistan

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Admin

COLLEGE STATION — A small eight-year-ancient Afghan boy hugged Brad Nolen’s leg tightly. Nolen had just dismissed his third-grade science class in Kabul, the capital of the war-torn country of Afghanistan, and the child was ecstatic about the experiment he had just finished in class — an ecosystem in a bottle.

Although it was nothing more than dirt, grass and a few twigs inside an empty plastic cylinder, the child was overjoyed with his fascinating creation. It was one of the first times Nolen, a 2008 Texas A&M University chemistry graduate, realized his mission to spend at least a year of his life teaching in the down-trodden country was personally sparking a child’s enthusiasm to learn.

“I just thought, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever been hugged by a small kid,’” he recalls. “‘This is nice.’”

Nolen has been in Kabul since August, living and working in a medium-security compound roughly equivalent to two city blocks in a southwest region of the city known as Kart-e-Char. nearly 8,000 miles removed from his hometown of Carrollton, Texas, Nolen says he has found his passion helping to provide an education for underprivileged children who might otherwise have gone without one as an instructor at the International School of Kabul (ISK), where he teaches elementary-level science, seventh-grade life sciences, ninth-grade biology and 11th- and 12th-grade physiology.

Initially known as Kabul International Academy (KIA), the ISK was established in 2003 to serve the children of four major groups: Afghan families returning from living outside the country; the international aid community; the diplomatic community; and international business families. What began with elementary-level classes for only eight students has grown so substantially that there are currently plans for a new, permanent campus. last may the school celebrated a major milestone when members of its inaugural graduating class in 2007 graduated from college.

“We’re the only school in the country that’s doing what we’re doing,” Nolen notes. “It feels good to know that the teaching I’m doing here really matters. That’s what helps get me up in the morning.”

The school “building” in which Nolen makes his daily difference is small more than a makeshift row of houses that have been remodeled to resemble a school as closely as possible, with at least one room in each house designated for a different subject. the campus is just huge enough to accommodate Nolen, his modest-sized unit of roughly 40 co-workers and the approximately 360 children who attend class there.

Nolen says despite the country’s more public struggles, Afghanistan remains a nation that values quality education and the teachers who make it possible in spite of the many hardships and obstacles. Each morning he is keenly greeted by his pupils — a proper greeting being a genuine display of respect, according to Afghan custom. Following this exchange, it’s all educational from there.

Thanks to grant money from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Nolen’s school has been adequately equipped with laptop computers, textbooks, copiers and other vital resources. in addition to traditional textbooks and paper handouts, he prepares labs and shows videos — just about anything that would be expected of a typical American science class. he says the investment (both his and the USAID’s) is already paying off: his students can‘t seem to get enough.

“The kids here are all so eager to learn, and they’re ready,” he adds. “They all do their homework, and I don’t even have to try; they just do it. I feel like I can really be a teacher here.”

Nolen admits he had no idea what he wanted to be when he enrolled at Texas A&M in August 2004 to began his collegiate career. Devoid of specific professional goals, he drifted between majors, first choosing chemical engineering and ultimately chemistry. even after selecting chemistry and excelling in his coursework to the point that he earned a prestigious Dow Aggies Endowed Scholarship in Science, Nolen still wasn’t sure what he would do with the degree. While toiling in a laboratory somewhere wasn’t appealing, neither was being a to-do man for a large company. Teaching was the only other option that piqued his interest.

As a junior at Texas A&M, Nolen was selected for the Texas A&M Public Policy Internship Program, under which he interned for a semester in Washington, D.C. with the Association of American Universities (Texas A&M is one of its 61 member institutions) working on physical science policy and science education issues. this experience, coupled with that of previous summers spent as a counselor at Camp of the Hills in the Texas hill country west of Austin working with underprivileged children, led him to apply to Teach for America (TFA), a non-profit organization that aims to eliminate educational inequality by recruiting “the nation’s most promising future leaders” to teach for two or more years in low-income communities in the U.S. It seemed to be the most direct route into education, and in 2008, after graduating with cum laude honors from Texas A&M, he was sent to an inner-city school in Charlotte, N.C. to teach biology.

Leading a classroom of young minds in an urban school setting was a unique but sometimes trying experience, Nolen says. Beyond the day-to-day demands inherent in instructing and inspiring, Nolen felt mired by a mounting sea of red tape and restrictions — paperwork, documentation and myriad measurements and standards that became part and parcel of U.S. public schools under no Child Left behind.

At the conclusion of his two-year commitment in Charlotte in may 2010, Nolen chose to give teaching another try in a new environment through Oasis International Schools, an educational program that establishes and maintains American-style, English-speaking schools around the world, including the ISK.

Through Oasis, he was given two choices as to where he could teach: China or Afghanistan. If Nolen had to dedicate at least the next year of his life — thousands of miles from home, no less — to educating foreign children, he says he wanted to make sure the sacrifices would be worthwhile. After consulting his wife Kayla and their respective families (who adamantly urged the couple to pick China), the Nolens began packing for the ISK in Afghanistan.

“We’ll be staying at least two years, and now I feel like we could stay longer at this point,” Nolen says. “Learning English, as well as the education they are receiving, is going to open so many doors for them down the road.”

Though Nolen has settled into his role as an educator in an embattled country, his first view of Afghanistan upon exiting his plane onto the tarmac last August left him admittedly nervous and unsure of his most recent educational life-leap. the armed soldiers and guards pacing within and around the compound in which Nolen now resides is a stark reflection of the less-than-favorable reputation that’s branded Afghanistan for the past 30 years.

But, Nolen says the situation is not as bad as television often portrays. although most definitely a country at war, Kabul is bustling with life characterized by a pretty normal routine. Carts and cars zip down busy streets, accompanied by the occasional military vehicle or two. everywhere there are merchants beckoning patrons into their crowded shops. in fact, Nolen and the other residents of the compound are allowed to venture into the city whenever they please as long as the color-coded security level remains at “blue.”

The civilization has already left a lasting impression on both Nolen and his wife Kayla, who graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor’s of arts degree in international studies and works as an administrative assistant for the elementary school. What was once a stinging culture shock has given way to familiarity, thanks in part to the open-armed welcome of his students, with many of whom they have formed close bonds. these days, it’s not out of the ordinary for the Nolens to be invited to the homes of his students for dinner with them and their families.

“One thing that’s great about living overseas is that it gives you a chance to examine yourself and the culture you come from,” Nolen says. “It kind of allows us to reckon about our own values. I hope that when this is over, I’ll have come away with a bigger view of people and the world.”

Conversely, Nolen’s heritage and culture are equally intriguing to the Afghan children. he is quick to take advantage of any opportune moment that allows him to discuss his alma mater, even encouraging his science-oriented seniors to consider Texas A&M when choosing a college. in addition, he notes that his Aggie Ring is a constant source of amazement, the symbolism of which Nolen enjoys explaining for them. they even got a first-hand lesson in classic Texas college football rivalries when another teacher — a Texas Tech University graduate — once taught Nolen’s class to greet him with, “Hook ‘em, Horns!” as a prank.

Nolen says he often reflects on his undergraduate years and remembers how his seemingly arduous classes eventually taught him to work hard without expecting an immediate payoff — a lesson he’s now bringing to his students in Afghanistan. he admits his science classes are admittedly demanding by design and that his students are required to put forth considerable effort to earn an ‘A.’

“I believe in holding high expectations for your students, no matter their background or personal difficulties,” Nolen says. “Setting a realistic but ambitious goal is really the key to good teaching. If you don’t have a vision for your class, you don’t have a game plan.”

To learn more about the International School of Kabul (ISK), visit iskafghan.org/index.html.

For more information on teaching opportunities in chemistry and other subject areas through the Texas A&M College of Science, go to aggieteach.tamu.edu/.

Contact: Chris Jarvis, (979) 845-7246 or edu

Posted in national Law Textbooks | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sparks fly over L.A. City Council redistricting proposal for Westchester

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Admin

A proposed redistricting plot that would shift most of Westchester away from Los Angeles City Councilman bill Rosendahl’s 11th District drew angry reactions Wednesday from local leaders, while a plotted change for the Harbor Area district was far less controversial.

Rosendahl called the plot to carve out a big chunk of Westchester and go it into Councilman Bernard Park’s 8th District “insane,” a “shock” and “an insult to the Westchester constituents.”

The district today is roughly bounded by Mulholland Drive to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, Imperial Highway to the south, and the San Diego (405) Freeway to the east. It includes the communities of Westchester, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, Del Rey, Mar Vista and Palms.

Rosendahl said his understanding is that the district has seen population gains of about 10,000 residents, which has prompted the need to “redistribute” some of the territory.

“But instead of trimming along the edges, the commission is considering amputating the bulk of Westchester,” he said in an email to constituents. “Doing so would divide communities that share a neighborhood council, a chamber of commerce, and a community plot area.”

According to the proposed maps, the revised 11th District would retain Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, the part of Westchester that extends west of Lincoln Boulevard, and Loyola Marymount University. but it would mostly exclude the nearby neighborhoods around the university.

The eastern 11th District boundary in the area – which now generally follows the San Diego (405) Freeway – would be pushed substantially westward toward the coast, and fall just outside Los Angeles International Airport.

Rosendahl said it doesn’t make sense to “tear” Westchester away from LAX, which affects residents’ quality of life and economic activity in the area.

“We didn’t get the map until late last night. there was obviously a lot of jockeying going on,” he said Wednesday. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s insane. It’s an insult to the democracy. It’s an insult to the Westchester constituents.”

Under the city charter, the City Council district lines must be redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts in the latest census.

At a Wednesday evening meeting of the 21-member Redistricting Commission in Van Nuys, the dramatic revisions were quickly denounced by several miserable council members – as well as some of the members of the commission itself.

“Quite frankly, I am embarrassed to be associated with this product,” said Commissioner David Roberts, who argued the panel failed to consider communities of interest in making the maps.

Parks claimed that his South L.A.-based 8th District, which would pick up Westchester, had been “junked” by the redrawn lines. and Councilwoman Jan Perry said the proposed boundaries would represent “economic apartheid” by splitting her South L.A. and downtown neighborhoods.

As word spread earlier this week about the remapping proposal, community leaders in Westchester voiced strong opposition, and joined Rosendahl’s call to keep the district whole.

A petition was making the rounds even before the start of the Redistricting Commission meeting, and residents were urged to attend a Feb. 2 hearing in Westchester.

The prospect of Westchester being split from Playa del Rey would be a significant shift, local leaders said.

“We share all sorts of things,” said Cyndi Hench, president of the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa. “We share schools, we share parks. the neighborhood council boundaries were drawn years ago because it is a community of interest. We have more in common with the Westside and the beach cities than we do with cities east of Inglewood.”

Scott Carni, who serves on a local parks advisory board, called the go “a politically motivated power grab.”

“I don’t know how a supposedly nonpartisan commission could ever bifurcate this community,” he said, adding that the area has been well-represented by Rosendahl. “It’s been a wonderful and natural fit.”

Probably least affected in the proposed changes is the 15th Council District, although that San Pedro-to-Watts district also could see a historic change to its northern boundary.

“This is a first draft only, but it would be a historic change of Council District 15,” said Jerry Gaines, the district’s redistricting panel representative. Under the tentative plot, Watts would shift into the 9th Council District.

“These maps are works in progress,” Gaines said. with an additional 12,000 residents in the 15th District, “we had to shrink.”

“It was very vital to me that the community of Watts was kept together and that the (Watts) Neighborhood Council was kept together,” Gaines said.

The Harbor Gateway North Neighborhood Council, under the draft map, would also remain intact and within the existing 15th District as it is now, Gaines said of the next northernmost area to Watts.

The Jordan Downs housing development and Jordan High School would be shifted out of the 15th District into the 9th District, he said.

The 15th District – made up of San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway and (for now) Watts – is geographically limited when it comes to changing its boundaries, Gaines said.

“We can’t do anything to the east, west or south,” he said. “We’re probably the least affected because of our thermometer or cul-de-sac shape.”

The Redistricting Commission will take public comment on the maps until March 1, when a final proposal must be submitted to the City Council. the council has until July to vote on the new lines.

Arturo Vargas, chair of the Redistricting Commission, acknowledged at Wednesday night’s meeting that, at this point, the maps are still “a work in progress.”

kristin.agostoni@dailybreeze.com

donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com

Posted in street Maps & City Plans | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Four books about canine friends

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Admin

1 Jill Abramson didn’t want a new dog. the executive editor of the new York Times was still mourning the loss of her stubborn, beloved Westie, but her husband fell in like with a friend’s British standard retriever, and soon a puppy named Scout joined the empty nesters. Based on her popular blog, The Puppy Diaries (Times, $22) is “part memoir, part manual, part investigative report.” when Scout pees on their bed, it’s a Swedish Duxiana mattress; and the boots she chews are Lucchese. Abramson was recovering from depression and injuries suffered when a truck ran over her, so it’s impossible to begrudge her the luxuries, but the Occupy Wall Street crowd is unlikely to embrace this memoir. She fusses over Scout like a helicopter parent, ruefully noting, “Henry and I used [training] books the same way our parents had turned to Dr. Spock to help raise us.” when books fail, she contacts experts such as Temple Grandin and Cesar Millan.

2 Pushcart Press founder Bill Henderson had the sound idea of chronicling his life through the dogs who shared it, and All my Dogs (Godine, $19.95) handily wins best in Show. from Trixie, who taught him “to play without stopping,” to tragic Ellen and Rocky, Henderson honors each one. Sophie, an adopted Labrador, saved his second marriage and watched his daughter grow up. “Opie was a rescue beagle — rescuing not him but rather his elderly owners.” Patient Lulu helped Henderson when he had cancer diagnosed. Accompanied by lovely drawings by Leslie Moore, memoirs like this don’t happen along very often.

3 Julie Klam’s Like at First Bark (Riverhead, $22.95) is a witty memoir about how Klam’s plunge into the world of dog rescue helped transform her life. an abandoned pit bull ends up serving as a therapist for Klam and her husband at a low point in their marriage. Klam loses her heart to a Boston terrier with numerous medical issues. And in the final section, she finds herself running through new Orleans swamps with other volunteers trying to help a stray with a jar stuck on its head. “Dog rescue in Manhattan is a small different,” she admits.

4 “If you live a good life, you get to come back as a gay couple’s dog,” writes Alec Mapa in I’m Not the Largest Bitch in This Relationship (New American Library; paperback, $14), edited by Wade Rouse. These pieces eschew sentiment for snark, with contributors including memoirist Jen Lancaster, mystery writer Rita Mae Brown and “Avenue Q” co-creator Jeff Marx. Other entries are more thoughtful, such as comedian Bob Smith’s description of deciding to count his life in dog years after having ALS diagnosed. Rouse, who includes a very amusing essay about his own mutt, is donating 50 percent of the book’s royalties to the Humane Society.

Zipp reviews books regularly for the Christian Science Monitor and the Post.

Posted in clinical Medicine Books | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Covering Battery Park City

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Admin

At P.S./I.S. 276’s second annual winter carnival on Jan. 21, third-grader Darshan Singh, 8, thought of telling jokes to raise money for the school — an idea that netted $103. his father, Harry, held a sign that said “$1 for a joke” as Darshan’s brother, Veer, 3, watched.

P.S./I.S. 276 winter carnival:A snowstorm couldn’t dampen spirits at P.S./I.S. 276’s second annual winter carnival on Jan. 21. there were games, face painting, crafts and a delectable array of international food prepared by the school’s parents. Money raised by the PTA-sponsored carnival will go for such things as more books for the library, the librarian’s salary, the music program, chess lessons and teacher enrichment.

Several businesses contributed to the fundraising event, among them Manhattan Youth, Abel/Noser Corp., the Albanese Organization, Brookfield Office Properties and 1 Rector Park. one third-grader, Darshan Singh, 8, made his own contribution. he came up with the idea of telling jokes — one joke for $1 — that brought $103 into the school’s kitty. Darshan was adamant that there would be no free jokes and no refunds. Some examples from Darshan’s repertoire: How do French fries get married? (With onion rings.) When is chicken soup terrible for you? (When you’re the chicken.) what starts with T, ends with T and is full of T? (A teapot.)

“We have a variety of fundraisers throughout the school year,” said Gabriela Newman, a member of the winter carnival committee and the mother of a second-grader. she said the fundraisers include run For Knowledge in September, held in collaboration with PS/IS 89, a pie sale in November, a holiday bazaar in December, and an auction in may.

The school at 55 Battery Place currently has approximately 520 students from pre-K through third grade plus a middle school. Next year, fourth grade classes will be added.

Block play: A young child who is fortunate enough to live in Battery Park City (or anywhere near by, for that matter) has unparalleled educational opportunities available through the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy’s programs and through the parks themselves, where the natural world can be experienced and explored. to its already impressive roster of classes and programs for children ranging in age from babies to teens, the Parks Conservancy is adding Block Play for three- and four-year-olds.

Modular blocks were developed by (and perhaps invented by) Caroline Pratt, who, in 1913, founded the City & Country School in Greenwich Village. Pratt came from an industrial arts background and had unconventional thoughts about how children learn. rather than giving children pre-made toys, she gave them materials with which to exercise their imaginations and create what they needed. Modular blocks have enabled generations of City & Country children to learn about spatial relationships, the fundamentals of mathematics and how to work cooperatively. Beginning at the age of two and continuing until they are seven, they build entire cities from blocks, populating them with everything that they experience. Stores sell merchandise and payments change hands. there are homes, hospitals, police stations, fire departments, boats that steam up and down the rivers. Signs have to be written, and the children learn to read and write. Working with blocks that are fractional sizes of larger blocks, they learn math skills.

The B.P.C. Parks Conservancy Block Play sessions will be led by Doug van Horn, a programming leader at the Conservancy and a former teacher at City & Country. the program takes place at 6 River Terrace and is limited to 10 children per session.

Tuesdays, Feb. 21 to April 10, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m., three-year-olds and caregiver; 1:30 p.m.-3 p.m., four-year-olds and caregiver. the fee is $160. Call (212) 267-9700, ext. 348 to register.

Benvenuti opens: Samantha’s at 235 South End Ave. closed a year ago, ending a 15-year run in Battery Park City. But on Jan. 23, a successor opened with Nick Liuzzi, formerly a partner in Samantha’s, now the sole owner and manager. the new store, Benvenuti, sells pizzas and Italian specialties such as homemade mozzarella, fresh pastas, soups (Italian wedding, pasta fagioli and minestrone are on the menu), Italian cookies and a variety of cheeses, olives and artisanal breads.

Liuzzi’s grandfather came from Bari, a city of around 320,000 on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy, where the family still owns three supermarkets. That’s where Liuzzi spent his high school years. “I grew up in the family business,” he said. “I love to cook. My love and my passion is Italian cuisine.”

The opening of Benvenuti was greeted with applause by some customers. Shirley Feinberg, who has lived at Gateway Plaza for 24 years, stopped in to say hello on opening day. she recalled that on 9/11, Nick drove her and her husband, Wilfred, to Bowling Green so that they could escape.

“This is family over here,” Liuzzi said, as she told the tale. “This is kids I saw grow up, that I knew as babies. This neighborhood is my family.”

For now, Benvenuti is open from Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., with catering available. For deliveries, call (212) 945-2100.

TriBattery Pops seeks musicians: the TriBattery Pops, founded nine years ago by B.P.C. resident Tom Goodkind, is seeking a few more musicians. “Another tuba, trombone or sax would really go well!” Goodkind said. Auditions are not required.

The band practices at 7 p.m. on the last two Fridays of the month, January through may, at the Church Street School for Music and Art, 74 Warren St. “This year, we’re celebrating the end of the Mayan calendar by wearing black,” Goodkind said.

Goodkind is proud of the fact that Stan Lee of Marvel Comics designed the TriBattery Pops logo. “I grew up next door to Stan and we’re still close,” he explained. “He did a comic strip for the new York Daily Mirror based on the way I talked as a three-year-ancient in the 1950s. the invisible girl, Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four, is styled as my mom.  I wrote a strange tales comic for Stan when I was 10.  all this can’t make up for when my mom threw out all my collectors edition comics when I turned 18 – including 10 Spider Man no.1s! When I started the Pops, I questioned Stan to design our logo, and he commented, ‘Wait a minute, Tommy. I have to place Steve Spielberg on hold.’  in less than a week Stan drew for me three batteries against a skyline of new York City.”

Goodkind said that, “Being in the Pops is a lot of fun and requires little work.”

To sign up or for more information, email TomGoodkin@aol.com.

To comment on Battery Park City Beat or to suggest article thoughts, email TereseLoeb@mac.com.

All reader comments are moderated. We appreciate your comments and question that you keep to the subject at hand, refrain from use of profanity and maintain a respectful tone to both the subject at hand and other readers who also post here. We review all posts prior to their appearance on this site.

Posted in justice League Of America Comics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Craven schools unveils new superintendent

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Admin

Members of the Craven County Board of Education voted in a new superintendent of schools Wednesday morning.

Lane B. Mills of Wilson, who currently serves as an associate professor of educational leadership at East Carolina University, will be the new superintendent effective Feb. 20. He will oversee more than 2,000 employees and receive an annual salary of $166,000.

Mills, who holds a doctorate in school psychology from the University of South Carolina, said he looks forward to meeting his staff and teachers and working with them.

Larry Moser, who is currently Craven County Schools superintendent, is retiring Feb. 1 after three and half years in that position and 34 years in the school system. his last day is Jan. 31.

“Having spent all my time teaching and coaching, I have a high regard for this system and I want it to continue doing excellent things,” Moser said before Mills was announced as the school board’s choice. “I want to compliment the school board for a very thorough and exhaustive search for my replacement. I think he has a wide array of experience.”

After the board unanimously voted for Mills as superintendent, Moser gave him some advice: to have his portrait as superintendent that will hang in the hall of the central administrative offices done quickly.

“I look at my portrait done (nearly) four years ago and I look at me now, and I look a little different,” Moser said, causing the board members and teachers to laugh.

Moser said he had mixed emotions about retiring, but when he does, he plans to continue to volunteer his time to the school system. He is also on the YMCA Board of Directors and plans to spend time with his wife and 85-pound lab, Marvin.

Linda Thomas, vice chairman of the Craven County Board of Education, said prior to Mills’ position at ECU, he was assistant superintendent of Wilson County Schools.

Under his leadership in technology, Wilson County Schools received the Governor’s Programs of Excellence Award for integrated technology and was a national award winning system for the Ohana Foundation Technology Leadership Award. Mills was also one of four national finalists and winners of the Technology and Learning Magazine’s Ed Tech Leaders of The Year, Thomas said.

“I think the superintendent of Craven County Schools will need to spend a great deal of time over the next several years reassuring students, staff and parents that our work in this time of uncertainty is making a difference, that everybody is valued and that we are doing all we can to take care of our family,” Mills said in a prepared statement read by Thomas.

Mills is a sought-after keynote speaker and a faculty lecture award winner, Thomas said. He has been published on topics ranging from “Using Emotional Intelligence in Formative Evaluation” to “going Green with Technology” in professional publications, she said.

In 1989, Mills graduate cum laude from ECU with a BA in psychology/sociology. He received his master’s in school psychology in 1992 from the University of South Carolina. along with a doctorate in school psychology, Mills holds a professional educator’s license from the N.C. Board of Education for superintendent, principal K-12, school psychologist and curriculum specialist.

Mills’ wife, Melissa, is serving as the media coordinator for an elementary school. she has also served as a public library director and library assistant at an academic law library.

The couple has two daughters, Grayson, 10; and Emerson, 6.

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at efitzgerald@freedomenc.com.

Posted in philosophy & Psychology Books | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Are You Reading? with Comic Book Resources

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Admin

Hello and welcome to a special birthday bash edition of our weekly “What are you Reading” feature. Typically the Robot 6 crew talks about what books we’ve read recently, but since it’s our anniversary, we thought we’d invite all our friends and colleagues from Comic Book Resources and Comics Should Be Excellent! to join in the fun.

To see what everyone has been reading, click below …

Timothy Callahan

Uncanny X-Force #1-19, by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Dean White, and others. I’ve been reading — and enjoying — this series since the first issue debuted, but I carved out a couple of hours recently to reread the entire run to see the whole Archangel saga play out as a single tale. I wondered if this was, perhaps, the defining run for the character — the way the Brubaker/Fraction Immortal Iron Fist defined Danny Rand, or the way Jason Aaron provided the definitive Ghost Rider. and upon rereading, I have to say “yes.” this first year-and-a-half of Uncanny X-Force is the definitive Angel/Archangel tale, and what’s so great about it is that Remender built upon the mythology of the character’s past instead of trying to revert him to some oversimplified version of the original Lee/Kirby creation. Also, this series is just packed with characters and plot points and yet maintains a deep emotional core. Excellent stuff, all around.

The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. I’m only about 50 pages into this novel so far, and though I’ve read a decent amount of Faulkner — and plenty of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, the other two big American Moderns — I’ve never taken the time to read this acclaimed masterpiece. I’ll reserve complete judgment on it until I’ve finished it, of course, but I already know that it lacks a direct through-line like you’d find in my favorite Faulkner book, As I Lay Dying. when I used to teach that novel, we would explore Faulkner’s use of heteroglossia — basically, the multiplicity of narrative voices — and he’s clearly up to the same tricks in The Sound and the Fury. my prejudice against this novel, and the reason why I’ve avoided it for so long, is that I assume it will be more of a portrait of a time and a place than an actual, compelling tale. I have always been more of a tale guy than a portrait guy, personally, but we will see what treasures this novel holds.

Tom Spurgeon’s Holiday Interview series. every year, during the Christmas season, Tom treats us to daily interviews with some of the most interesting people in and around the comic book industry. from Kim Thompson to Jeff Parker to Tucker Stone, we get a profile of the current state of comics from all angles, and the interviews go far deeper than the standard online promotional pieces. these are actual conversations with people who have things to say. every one of them is worth reading, even if you don’t think you’re interested in the topic at first.

Timothy Callahan writes CBR’s When Words Collide column. He also writes about comics for Tor.com and has his own blog.

Chad Nevett

1. a bunch of Joe Casey comics. anyone who knows me probably isn’t surprised by that statement, but, look at December: Doc Bizarre, the Officer Downe hardcover, new issues of Haunt and Gødland, and the conclusion to Vengeance. All that was missing was a little Butcher Baker… any month with that much Joe Casey is going to seem a little crazy. Doc Bizarre is some madcap fun, Officer Downe manages to be even more fucked up, and Vengeance ends on such a crazy high note that I think I need to send Mr. Casey a big thank you letter for writing a comic book series so squarely aimed at yours truly. I know I’m not the only one who marked out at Z making a cameo appearance at the end…! I’m still not entirely sure about Haunt (aside from loving Nathan Fox’s art). Casey obviously has some plans, but it’s hard to see where they’re heading. I dug the new issue, though. Ending the year with that small stack of December Joe Casey comics is pretty nice.

2. The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman. probably the last book I’ll finish in 2011 (I finished reading it late Friday night) and it was a big leap from his first novel Downtown Owl. I’ve really loved Klosterman’s non-fiction (or semi-fiction, maybe?) work for years. funny, insightful, and always interesting in his essays on pop culture in all its forms. I tend to blow through his books, because they’re so damn enjoyable. His fiction, on the other hand, hasn’t always grabbed me. Downtown Owl was entertaining and had its moments, but it was certainly something that I read because I like Klosterman’s writing. The Visible Man has me thinking that Klosterman may have some strong fiction chops. It’s a novel framed as a non-fictional account of a therapist and her (failed) treatment of a man who wears a suit that renders him virtually impossible to see by reflecting light in such a way that you see what’s on the other side of him. The protagonist ‘Y____’ reminds me a lot of a character who has stepped out of a Paul Auster book. Forceful and strange with a strong and unique perspective on the world and himself. Some of the thoughts discussed are wonderful. The tales he tells of observing people in their homes without detection are rather engaging — to the point where the novel suffers a little when it moves away from those tales. The ending is what it is… it doesn’t live up to the potential the book or Y____ showed, but… entertaining book that made me stop and think from time to time. and has me wondering what Klosterman’s next novel will be like.

3. Banner by Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben, and Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos. a couple of Azzarello books that I’ve been meaning to get for a while. I read Banner years ago on Marvel’s website and it’s both very like and very unlike Azzarello’s other writing. The language games are there in spots, but his dialogue is very sparse — he really steps back and lets Corben run the show to a degree. Filthy Rich had its moments, but is so rooted in being ‘pulp’ that it doesn’t do much more than work within the confines of the genre. It’s a fun little exercise. Santos’s art is wildly inconsistent — but, when he’s on, he does a mean Frank Miller impression.

Chad Nevett talks about comics in several different places around the web — at his personal blog GraphiContent, at Comics Should Be Excellent! and as a reviewer for Comic Book Resources. He also writes about wrestling for 411mania.

Bill Reed

These days I’ve found myself reading more and more webcomics, and as someone who still hasn’t figured out how an RSS feed works, that involves me remembering to read a strip on a specific schedule, and then clicking or typing myself over to the designated webspace from which the particular comic springs forth. I would really pay real dollars for the following:

Al’Rashad, from Christopher Bird and Davinder Brar, which goes up weekly at Mightygodking, a clever, funny, and superbly drawn fantasy adventure comic that features pirate action, bizarre bazaars and the wiliest mop-haired street orphan since Flim-Flam from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

Bearmageddon, artist Ethan Nicolle’s other, non-Axe-Cop webcomic, which has been slowly building its way to the titular Grizzly apocalypse, and has just recently leaped into the Kodiak carnage we’ve been waiting for, with well-meaning hippies versus nature’s hungry killing machines. Nicolle’s gorgeous cartooning and Noah Maas and company’s vibrant colors give the series the most beautiful mayhem since, well, Axe Cop.

Bucko, by Jeff Parker and Erika Moen, a freewheeling (really, fixed-gear) epic for our times, populated by hipsters, cyclists, Juggalos, and fartmongers, the strip turns Portland into a magical, madcap fantasy land filled with delightful, deranged characters, the true Oz of the Northwest. Moen’s lines have been getting sparer and more confident, the art style becoming more refined, like the evolution of a newspaper comic strip, only at hyperspeed.

Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether by Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, a beautifully realized space pirate cowboy adventure serial that opens with a tremendous swordfight on a space zeppelin before segueing into Sam Elliot kicking ass. I shouldn’t have to say any more, but I will: it’s the best artwork of Burchett’s career, and the included script with each new installment provides a great insight into the collaborative process, specifically in terms of how artwork interprets and diverges from the narrative skeleton.

Bill Reed contributes regularly to Comics Should Be Excellent! and has his own personal blog.

Ryan K Lindsay

11.22.63: I’m a massive Stephen King fan. always have been and always will be. Most of his recent fare hasn’t been anything compared to his late 70’s stuff (but what is?) though his small tales continue to thrill and I loved under The Dome right up until the cop out ending. I am, however, thoroughly enjoying 11.22.63.

There might not be any subtext to this book but you must cast that aside and revel in the fact King is one of the premiere storytellers when it comes to sinking you right into the narrative. There are some King tics that’ll stand out (constantly naming songs to set the tone and you’ll hear his unmistakable voice coming through some of these characters) but the swell of this tale is captivating. King turns a phrase well but mostly he just wants to tell an enjoyable tale and he really is.

There has been more than one occasion in this book where I have stopped because the events have floored me. That’s the sign of a excellent book to be read. Oh, and this is my first novel read on the iPad and I’m completely digging the way it goes. I have no issue with it at all.

The Cape: this is the sort of comic that makes me excessively proud to be a comic fan. just by tangentially knowing this product through purchasing, reading, enjoying and reviewing this book, my life is better and I’ve spread the love out into the world. this book started with the acorn of an idea from a Joe Hill small tale, and now Jason Ciaramella and Zach Howard have grown it into a mighty tree with a canopy of rich thoughts and a nasty lead character at the peak.

If you haven’t picked up The Cape then you need to do it. If you have any member of your family who digs on subversive fare then buy this for them. The level of incredible this comic goes to will win you over completely. Comics need to try this hard more often.

Simonson’s Everything: I listened to Walt Simonson on Word Balloon, and it’s put me in a spin. I’ve owned the SIMONSOMNIBUS (The Mighty Thor Omnibus) for half a year and my New Year’s Resolution is to burn through it all. I might even annotate my thoughts. I also found some Simonson fantastic Four issues on ComiXology for only $1.99 so I snapped those up. and I’ve also pulled down my ancient Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown issues for another spin through.

I’m a big back issue fan, as a kid I loved coming back from the comic shop (an hour train ride to and back) and spreading all my swag out on the bed and spending the day losing myself in ancient Marvel U history. It’s now nice to have my pick of them in authentic ancient school issues, a massive omnibus presentation, and crystal clear on my iPad. we do truly live in the future – here’s to 2012.

Ryan K Lindsay is a reviewer for CBR and a podcaster with Kurtis J Wiebe and Jeremy Holt on The Process, where they talk about comic writing. He is planning to have a very big 2012 in all things comics.

Greg McElhatton

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey: I still remember when Kushiel’s Dart was published in 2001; I was living in Falls Church and the local Borders had copies of it everywhere. Clocking in around 700 pages, it looked interesting but daunting at the same time. There are nine books in the series now, and I’ve still never gotten around to reading them. Fortunately for me, my book club picked it as the January 2012 book, which means I finally have an excuse to dive in. I’m still in the early pages and it’s slow-moving, but Jacqueline Carey’s prose is comfortable and I’m interested in what I’ve seen so far about this alternate history. half of the fun is piecing together what’s different when it comes to an alternate history, and this one is no exception.

Embassytown by China Mieville: I’ve put Embassytown temporarily aside so I can finish up Kushiel’s Dart, and already I’m dying to get back to China Mieville’s latest novel. Mieville’s thoughts are always wonderfully huge and crazy, and Embassytown is no exception. what starts out as a simple “humans co-existing with aliens on another planet” tale has rapidly turned into a mixture of social dynamics and linguistic oddities. Similar to his novel The City & The City (with its two cities that exist side-by-side where the inhabitants have learned to block out the opposite side), it’s hard to describe the joy and wonder of Embassytown without giving away a lot of the wonderful surprises, but if you can make it to the point where you first meet the Ambassadors, you’ll quickly learn just why Embassytown is in a class of its own. If you’ve never read a Mieville book before, Embassytown is a great place to start.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks: I’m a little mortified to admit that Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is my first exposure to Carl Barks (after decades of being interested in finally seeing why he’s so revered as a comic creator), but it certainly won’t be my last. Fantagraphics’ first volume of Barks material is a great place to start; a mixture of epic quests, small tales, and gag strips that are all impressively funny and awesome. There’s something wonderfully evil about a strip where a witch is forcing the Duck nephews to weep so that she can turn their tears into a potion to ruin all Christmas trees, only to turn around and have a hilarious transformation sequence to break up the gloom and make you laugh.

A friend once said, “everything excellent in the DuckTales cartoon was first done by Carl Barks” and I can see that now. this is one of those rare comics that really is meant for all ages, or for that matter all interests; the only reason it took me a few weeks to finish the book is that halfway through, my non-comics-reading boyfriend started flipping through it and then temporarily claimed it as his own so that he could finish it first. Trust me when I say, that’s high praise indeed.

Greg McElhatton writes reviews for Comic Book Resources and Read About Comics, and he has a cool personal blog as well.

Dave Richards

Gorgeous, Naked & Dead and Out There Terrible by Josh Stallings: If you’re like me, you love a great crime tale regardless of whether it’s published in four color or prose formats and these two prose novels which I recently learned were some of the best crime tales I read all year. In beautiful, Naked, & Dead, Stallings’ stellar debut novel, you’re introduced to Moses McGuire; an ex-marine, ex-con, and strip club bouncer as he goes on a quest to avenge a friend’s murder. In the even better follow up novel, out There Terrible, Stallings sends Moses to Mexico for a confrontation with human traffickers. If you love the work of Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron and Greg Rucka pick these two books up. you won’t regret it.

Batman: Noel by Lee Bermejo: I got this as a Christmas present and read it Christmas eve. I don’t think I really need to say a whole lot about Bermejo’s art. It’s beautiful, breathtaking and speaks for itself for the most part. His renderings of Gotham City and the Joker were especially impressive in this. I believe this is Bermejo’s first book as a writer though and he does a pretty great job with it. He tells a fun tale that does a nice job working the framework of Dickens’ a Christmas Carol into a Batman tale. Bermejo also did a great job with characterization, especially Superman who serves as the Ghost of Christmas Present. All in all this was a fun holiday read and might just become a Christmas Eve tradition for me.

Hellboy: House of the Living Dead by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben: House of the Living Dead is a tale that involves Hellboy, a Frankenstein style monster, a werewolf, a vampire and Mexican Lucha Libre style wrestling. That’s a pretty awesome recipe, and Mignola and Corben cook it up very well for this original graphic novel. In the tale it’s 1952, and an alcoholic Hellboy is working as a masked wrestler. Thanks to the machinations of a mysterious foe he has to wrestle a scientist’s monstrous creation to save a young girl. The result is a fun, strange, exciting tale with a lot of heart.

Dave Richards covers all things Marvel for Comic Book Resources.

Greg Hatcher

Well. I’m sort of reading all three of these at the same time, alternating.

1. The new Kamandi omnibus, because it arrived recently and Kamandi is awesome. I could go on and on but Alex Cox really said it all here a couple of years back…

2. The Green Hornet Casefiles. I love the Moonstone prose anthologies and already own a bunch of them– the Avenger, the Phantom, Kolchak, the Domino Lady. But I think the ones featuring the Green Hornet may be my favorites and this is the new one. Full disclosure– editor Win Eckert and I occasionally correspond and he asked permission to use a quote of mine for a cover blurb on the deluxe edition. But I went out and spent my own money on this because I loved the first one so much. New, original prose adventures featuring the Green Hornet and Kato– and it’s clearly MY Hornet and Kato, the Van Williams and Bruce Lee version from the mid-sixties. what with Kevin Smith and Matt Wagner and Seth Rogen and God knows who else doing versions of the Hornet these days, it can get confusing. But this version’s mine. Rocking it ancient-school.

3. for Christmas my wife Julie found me Bennett Foster’s Rider of the Rifle Rock, a vintage Western hardcover from 1939. It’s a great tale of how young Chet Minor learns how to be a real man again after a riding accident that leaves him crippled. I love ancient westerns and I’m a sucker for a redemption tale. this really is pretty simple to find–reprinted in hardcover under the “Sagebrush Western” imprint not to long ago–but mine’s the original one. because my wife is even more awesome than Kamandi.

You can read more from Greg Hatcher every Friday at Comics Should Be Excellent!

Pól Rua

Infinite Kung-Fu by Kagan McLeod (Top Shelf Publishing): First, read that again… Infinite. Kung. Fu. Roll it around inside your head for a bit. give it a bit of reverb. Now try saying it out loud, feeling each syllable thunder off your lips. That’s some serious righteousness right there, and a comic book would have to be pretty damn excellent to live up to a name like that. So, it’s damn lucky that Kagan McLeod has the chops (and the kicks, stomps and strikes) to do just that and exceed it.

First of all, he’s excellent. Crazy excellent. He has a kinetic, graphitti-inspired art style that leaps, glides and dives across the stage like righteous combat lightning. But, in conjunction with that, he’s also a hell of a storyteller. He effortlessly translates the classic style of 1970′s Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema into comic form, using an incredible degree of craft, draftsmanship and skill to convey all the style, dynamism and impact of martial arts combat into pictures which seem to come alive on the page. and what’s more, he knows his stuff, combining bone-shattering kung fu, Taoist mysticism, bloodthirsty zombies, ruthless villainy and funky blaxploitation-fuelled grooves seamlessly together without the disparate elements clashing with each other. In small, this is an amazingly excellent comic, and Top Shelf have really put it all together into a gorgeous package.

Moriarty and the Hound of the D’urbevilles by Kim Newman (Titan Books): Kim Newman is one of my favourite writers. He’s an incredibly literate pop culture critic and commentator and an astoundingly skilled storyteller. He uses similar techniques to Phillip Jose Farmer (in his Wold Newton tales) and Alan Moore (in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) in a way that’s playful, frequently funny as hell and always utterly captivating.

In this collection of small tales, we are introduced to Professor James Moriarty, a genius obsessed with the “mathematics of crime,” who has made his life’s work the imposition of pure reason onto the chaotic realm of criminal endeavor. Our point-of-view on this extraordinary criminal is Colonel Sebastian Moran, big game hunter, ex-soldier and rapacious scoundrel, as a kind of anti-Watson. like many of his other tales, most notably the Anno Dracula series (an alternate world in which Count Dracula became ruler of the world in the late 19th Century) and the Diogenes Club (about an organization of paranormal investigators stretching from Victorian London toThatcher’s Britain), Newman liberally sprinkles his tales with obscure and not-so-obscure references to various historical and literary character. these don’t impede the storytelling–each tale is an engaging and entertaining work of fiction in its own right–but they provide an additional layer of entertainment, where the tales can also be read as a fascinating literary game.

King City by Brandon Graham (Image Comics): If there is any justice in the world, Brandon Graham is one name you will be hearing a lot of in the upcoming years. He is ridiculously talented, and has an undeniable style and energy. Imagine, if you can, a tale that combines the freewheeling whimsy and character-drivenstorytelling of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim with the streetwise neo-futurism of Ellis and Robertson’s Transmetropolitan or Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid or THB, and you have the world of King City. It’s a world of costumed spy gangs and giant atomic monsters, alien pornography and Sasquatch inn-keepers, but it’s more than that…

It’s a world where our hero, arriving back in town after a long stretch, dreads seeing his ex-girlfriend as he re-connects with ancient friends. It’s a world where a young woman worries about her lover, a recently returned war veteran whose only solace for his night terrors is a drug which may be slowly killing him, but it’s more than THAT…

It’s a comic where the creator throws in puzzles and games even, in one place, a board game all of which are really parts of the tale and serve a plot purpose. this is FANTASTIC comics. Playful comics. Fun Comics. All delivered with a charm, verve, wit and skill that deserves wider attention. The trade paperback collection should be out in February which I’m as excited as all get out about.

Pól Rua is an artist and occasionally contributes to Comics Should Be Excellent!

Kelly Thompson

Warren Ellis’ Secret Avengers run (Secret Avengers #16 – #20): There’s still one more issue left in Warren Ellis’ wonderful Secret Avengers run, but he has been blowing my mind with these incredible superhero comics. With incredibly smart standalone tales with limited casts that all feel like they tie together even though they don’t depend on one another to make sense Ellis has been making some of the best superhero comics I’ve read in 2011. it doesn’t hurt that he’s got a rotating cast of incredible artists helping him bring these tales to life. Reading this small run reminds me how great a wonderful 20-page superhero comic can be. I wish comics could do more of this and I will be decidedly sad to see this run end. I’ll be first in line for the trade when released as well – it’ll make for a hell of a strong collection.

Hinges by Meredith McClaren: I’m been reading Meredith McClaren (artist for Jen Van Meter’s upcoming Hopeless Savages Volume 4) brilliant webcomic Hinges for a while now and I am just constantly blown away by her beautiful haunting work. The mastery of craft in her pages – from the well-developed drawing style, to pitch perfect color choice, to even her stylized execution of word balloons – is just phenomenal. The tale of Hinges is frequently text free, relying on McClaren’s strong artistic chops to tell the tale – but even without words it’s emotional and haunting. McClaren is a major new talent in comics and I simply can’t wait to see what she does next.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9 by Andrew Chambliss and Georges Jeanty: The first arc of Buffy The Vampire Slayer‘s new series has wrapped and I have to say, I’m pretty enchanted with it. The end of Season 8 had me frustrated and confused, but as always with Joss Whedon, he’s managed to bring things back around to a place where I’m re-engaged and highly intrigued by where he wants to take these characters that I adore. The comics have been a funny animal, since they’re able to do things and go places that the television show never could and because of that they have different boundaries and rules, but somehow, thanks to great creators and a strong guiding hand from Whedon, the characters, which are the important part in all of this, remain as fascinating and as emotionally engaging as ever. Steve Morris’ stunning covers aren’t hurting the series any either!

Kelly Thompson writes (and podcasts) for Comics Should Be Excellent! and reviews comics for CBR. you can also read more from her on her personal site.

Brian Cronin

This week saw the release of two noteworthy Vertigo issues, one an ending and one a beginning.

The final issue of DMZ gave a powerful conclusion to Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s brilliant series. Wood chose to use the “leap forward a bunch of years” approach to a finale, which I am always a fan of. I especially loved how Wood chose to give the focus of the final issue to New York City itself…it was a very satisfying goodbye to the book. Much like the tributes within the comic, the subtly of the farewell worked beautifully.

As we say goodbye to the DMZ, we say hello to yet another fascinating new character in Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire. One of the most impressive aspects of Snyder’s work in this series has been his ability to quickly develop compelling new characters. this was on fine show in the start of the new American Vampire storyline, where Snyder gave a brilliant take on the 1950′s greaser hood archetype.

Brian Cronin runs our sister blog, Comics Should Be Excellent! and was part of The great Curve team way back in the day, before we were ever Robot 6. He’s also the author of Was Superman a Spy?: and other Comic Book Legends Revealed.

Sonia Harris

The brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diáz: I initially picked this paperback up because I liked the cover art and the grainy texture of the coating they had used on it. then when I flipped it open, the quote on the first page is “of what import are brief, nameless lives… to Galactus??”, which is from the fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966. How could I resist? inside the book chronicles the life of an unattractive geeky boy and his oddly endearing family life. I’m half way through and so far I’m loving the constant references to comic books which I know and love. it gives me another way to know the environment the author is describing and I am more involved than I might otherwise be. The book is heavily peppered with long footnotes, explaining all of the cultural and historical references the author makes, which gives the book a conversationally tangential air. So far the author has mentioned Gilbert Hernandez’ love & Rockets characters enough that I am basically imagining this as another “Palomar” tale, not so much as a visual reference but as a way to know the mood and feel behind Diáz’ immigrant tale.

JLA Vol. 3, Deluxe Edition by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and John Dell: along with Vol 4, this was a thoughtful holiday gift I received after I read the first two volumes of Morrison’s groundbreaking JLA run and wrote about them in my column. it is lucky I received this, since I don’t know if I would have bought the book myself as I felt like I’d just read a ton of this run and didn’t want to risk spoiling it. of course once I started reading I was extremely pleased about it. The groundwork Morrison initially laid, now builds to great effect. He continues to develop and elaborate on the storylines of the team and individual characters to the point where I found myself really wanting to read the crossover tales that were referenced (and I usually hate crossover tales.) In amongst his complex and gloriously random storylines, there is a basic humanity to the character’s conversations which is terrifically endearing, it works to anchor and ground the fantastic tales. As it started, it continues, with Morrison giving everyone their own voice and distinctly relatable character. Now I’ve still got volume 4 to read next and I’m excited to get to it.

Sonia Harris writes her column–Committed–every Wednesday on Comics Should Be Excellent!

9 Comments

- the last week or so and maybe a couple more to come:Brain Cheese BuffetFreakangels – last collection, conclusionBig Book of ConspiraciesWednesday Comics (collected)HabibiMilk and Cheese: Dairy Products gone BadThe Postmortal: a Novel

and all the usual titles which I wish I could trim down but am fining impossible to do so. So much simpler to add new titles to the stack *sigh*

I just read a two-part tale from the early 90′s “Spider-Man” title, #27-28, called “something About a Gun”. It’s written by Don McGregor and drawn by Marshall Rogers, and is about Spider-Man trying to find a bullied kid named Elmo Oliver, who finds a loaded pistol and plans on taking down the bully (a victim of child abuse) who constantly antagonizes him. Spidey hopes to stop Elmo from making a terrible mistake. It’s a really excellent tale, and is a excellent subliminal PSA.

I also read The All-New Batman: The Courageous and the Bold #14, which featured Ragman, and the first issue of the new Defenders title. I don’t read (or necessarily like) a lot of modern comics, as they’re either too complex in their storytelling, too schlocky in their depictions of violence and the like, and of course, the constant stream of event comics. I make a few exceptions here and there, and am still on the fence over whether or not to follow The Defenders. I do plot on continuing on Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, and the new Transformers title written by Simon Furman when it comes out. same with the current GI Joe title by Larry Hama.

Posted in the Rover The Wizard Comics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dr. Joe Harrop: 2011 – Year of grumpiness – Red Bluff Daily News Online

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Admin

We welcome reader feedback! Learn more about our new commenting system. when posting, please keep this in mind:

DO: discuss the subject, express yourself creatively, be polite, and cite and link to sources.DON’T: attack others, make unverified factual claims, excessively copy others, or use foul, derogatory, racist or violent language.

Users are solely responsible for their comments. we reserve the right to remove any comment and revoke posting rights for any reason. please flag questionable posts click on the “Report” box Report link box by the comment. Thanks.

Posted in whoopee Comics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Design your destination wedding

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Admin

PANAMA CITY BEACH — the beach is a gorgeous place for making memories, a perfect place for a destination wedding.

Arrive early and there also are opportunities for bachelor and bachelorette parties, which could be something as simple as a wine tasting at a local winery or your own celebration at a hotel suite. Spend a day at the spa or let a party bus escort you and your friends in the nightlife.

When it is time for the huge day, capture the natural setting with a professional beach photographer; you can skip shoes and feel the sand between your toes. make the beach part of your venue, dressing up or down. According to TheWeddingReport.com, demands for tuxedo rental went down to 54 percent in 2011, and some of this year’s biggest colors are purples, green and jewel tones.

Celebrate and eat with friends and family at one of your favorite spots or catered by your favorite restaurant. Dessert buffets with nontraditional choices such as cupcake tiers and cake pops are fun twists for the reception.

And when the celebration has finished, the honeymoon can continue as you stay and relax at the beach.

The cake

“There are two wedding seasons in Florida,” said Renee Schaarschmidt, owner of Fatty Patty’s Cakes & Café. “Spring season is March to May, and the other is mid-September to mid-October.”

Schaarschmidt would know, having done 18-20 weddings a weekend during the peak season and averaging seven a weekend in the off season. Fatty Patty’s received the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s choice Awards for cake design.

Fatty Patty’s has decided to slow it down a little, taking fewer orders as Schaarschmidt catches her breath, but still usually averages about 100 weddings plus in a season.

“June is relatively busy, but May is busier. January and February are the slowest months,” she said. “It’s a challenge to do wedding cake in the area with heat, humidity and beach breeze.”

Schaarschmidt points out it is better to keep cakes at room temperature.

“At home, when you take it out of the fridge, it sweats,” she explained. “the change in climate inside to outside is similar.”

The best cake for an outside wedding?

“Stay away from mousse fillings and stick with buttercreams, preferably a fondant-covered cake for an outside wedding. when it heats up, (it is) less apt to slide and move,” she said. “Stay away from jams.”

“the slide” has never happened to them, but Fatty Patty’s also refuses to take an order Schaarschmidt doesn’t believe will work for the climate. “if someone is dead set on certain cake and I feel uncomfortable, I won’t do it. I’d rather lose a sale, than lose a cake.”

For more information, visit FattyPattys.com.

The ring

When Laura Moynahan designs engagement rings for a. Jaffe, she doesn’t take the task lightly.

“I know, and every girl knows, you will be wearing this ring for the rest of their life,” Moynahan said. “It’s your huge princess moment, a day to be entirely about you with a gorgeous dress and gorgeous jewelry.”

The a. Jaffe jewelry line was founded by Abraham Jaffe in new York City in 1892, and for the last year and half Connecticut-born Moynahan has sought to carry on classic style with current appeal. Jaffe has a history of cutting-edge design, creating the first luxury solitaire and multistone engagement rings sold in the U.S.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of three-stone rings but we have some gorgeous solitaire rings, some floral rings,” Moynahan said. “it looks like the diamond is held in the petals.”

The a. Jaffe Floral Collection includes rings, diamond earrings, bangles, pendants and necklaces. the magnolia motif earrings from the Floral Collection won in the Platinum Fashion Earrings category during the JCK 2011 Las Vegas Show.

“It’s kind of like artwork,” Moynahan said. “For art and jewelry, the same thing is true. does it look gorgeous to you? does it make you happy? then it’s fantastic jewelry. You’re going to know the stone when you see it and everything else won’t matter. you are going to know that’s the one, just feel it’s gorgeous. everyone comes with their own taste, aesthetics. It’s your ring, your relationship, your wedding.”

What does Moynahan reckon about wearing other jewelry on the huge day?

“What I would do is keep it simple,” she said. “you really want people to be looking at you, for jewelry to enhance and not overpower, such as a white diamond, white metal, studs, also pearls. a diamond will attract people’s eyes, pearls will make you look prettier. This is the time you really want to keep it more classic.”

Moynahan, who admits she inherited her grandmother’s like of jewelry, also sees the creation of jewelry as “gorgeous.”

“creating jewelry is creating something with the best stuff God creates: gemstones, precious metals,” said Moynahan, also a gemologist. “It’s kind of a miracle that a certain amount of temperature helped to make the gems, then somebody found that thing, which is not huge. It’s a precious combination of light and color, a thing made you always can wear and look at — that’s gorgeous.”

Designing bridal fashions takes that beauty even deeper.

“it might be tenth ring you’ve done today, but for one girl, it’s the only ring,” Moynahan said. “all the like that he has for her and the future, nobody can take it for granted. you have to know that when it gets to the end you are going to have given them the ring that had extra care worthy of that moment.”

“I reckon men can go far more wild than women,” Moynahan said. “it doesn’t have to be single gold band anymore. whether it’s titanium or black diamonds, it’s open to have more fun and still be masculine. I absolutely like the men’s bands from the Morse Code.”

The a. Jaffe Morse Code collection for men features an outside row of diamonds, alternating from baguettes to princess to emulate “I Like You” in Morse Code, spelled out on the inside.

“we do so much custom work,” Moynahan said. “the sentiment is he can still be out with all his buddies; it’s not hearts and flowers, but masculine, a clean cool Morse Code thing.”

The materials, she said, also are more durable for men these days.

“It’s nice if it means something, too,” Moynahan said. “This is about like.”

Maharaja’s, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, has the exclusive to sell a. Jaffe in Northwest Florida. the store, which carries nine engagement and wedding brands, also is the only Panama City area retailer to carry Hearts on fire. Other brands at Maharaja’s include Christopher Designs, H.J. Namdar, Peter Storm, Sylvie Collection and Tacori. find out more at ShopMaharajas.com.

Posted in buses & Coaches Magazines | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Movie Preview: Alibi examines Hollywood’s upcoming trends for 2012

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Admin

The year 2012 looks … a lot like previous years in Hollywood. the explosions are epic, the stars are plentiful and the trends are limited. so what might the movie-loving masses be watching in cinemas over the next 12 months? Here’s a sampling of the good, the bad and the over budget. (Keep in mind, all opening dates are subject to change.)

In Your Face

Around Thanksgiving, Disney popped a newly 3D-ized version of its 1994 hit the Lion King into theaters. the revamped release was intended as advertising for Disney’s upcoming Lion King Blu-Ray/DVD. but the 3D version finished up adding a whopping $94 million to the Lion King’s already epic lifetime yucky. Lightbulbs started flashing in the heads of Hollywood executives, and now you can expect all sorts of ancient films to get the 3D upgrade. In fact, Disney will be cranking out its very next rerelease shortly with Beauty and the Beast 3D (Jan. 13). that will be followed later in the year by Finding Nemo 3D (Sept. 14).

George Lucas, still tinkering with his Star Wars films, gives us Star Wars: Episode I—the Phantom Menace 3D (Feb. 10). not to be outdone, James Cameron offers up Titanic 3D (April 6).

Although they aren’t technically rereleases of ancient films, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D (Oct. 5) andHalloween 3D (Oct. 26) do have a certain familiar ring about them.

Sequelitis

The three-dimensional films in the recently rebooted Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween series lead us, naturally, into this year’s many sequels. Nicolas Cage, for reasons known only to himself, dons the leather jacket and flaming skull once again in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Feb. 17). Later this summer, Christian Bale straps on the cape for the third and final time inThe dark Knight Rises (July 20).

The action movie smorgasbord that was the Expendables returns—having recruited Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren—with the Expendables 2 (Aug. 17). Meanwhile, the G.I. Joe: Retaliation (June 29) producers wisely kill off most of their original cast (sorry, Channing Tatum and Dennis Quaid), replacing them with Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis.

Liam Neeson, who’s starting to look like a pretty irresponsible parent, loses another family member in taken 2 (Oct. 5). Neeson also does a cameo (in lousy 3D, no doubt) in Wrath of the Titans (March 30), a follow-up to the surprise hit remake of Clash of the Titans.

Men in Black 3 (May 25) shows up as a belated sequel to the hit 1997/2002 films. Inevitably, CGI toons Madagascar 3 (June 8) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (July 13) come back with more animated animal hijinks. Twihards can finally breathe a sigh of relief when Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2(Nov. 16) hits theaters. In the “They’re still making these?” category, we get Step up 4 (July 27)—which will undoubtedly have a stupid number-based pun added to the title by the time it hits cineplexes.

One-upping the Step up franchise is Scary Movie 5 (April 20) and Resident Evil: Retribution (Sept. 14), the fifth outing in Milla Jovovich’s unending zombie series.

Of course, with sequels come prequels. Peter Jackson gifts us with a bonus Tolkien adaptation, the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Dec. 14)—a prequel to his hit Lord of the Rings series. Finally—although it’s been kept under tight wraps—Ridley Scott’s space saga Prometheus (June 8) is considered a prequel to his 1979 smash Alien.

Remakes/Reboots

TV’s teen cop drama 21 Jump Street (March 16) makes a comedic comeback with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum fighting crime in high school. Let’s hope it fares better than 1999’s the Mod Squad. former “21 Jump Street” star Johnny Depp, meanwhile, is doing his own TV series remake with Tim Burton’s vampire soap opera rebootDark Shadows (May 11). Burton continues to ride the remake wave this year, delivering Frankenweenie (Oct. 5), a feature-length version of a stop-motion cartoon small he first made back in 1984.

Colin Farrell replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger in a ground-up remake of Total Recall (Aug. 3). Karl Urban (Bones from Star Trek) replaces Sylvester Stallone in Dredd (Sept. 21)—a low-budget reboot of the sci-fi comic book series “Judge Dredd.”Jeremy Renner, who’s poised to replace Tom Cruise as the star of the Mission: Impossible films, is also poised to replace Matt Damon inThe Bourne Legacy (Aug. 3).Brit Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) is our newest Peter Parker in the rebooted origin story the Incredible Spider-Man (July 3).

Nostalgia for the ’80s is alive and well in the long-shelved remake of Red Dawn (Nov. 2)—which features evil, invading North Koreans as opposed to evil, invading Russians. Hoping to ride the wave of ’30s nostalgia is the Farrelly brothers’ modern-day reboot of the Three Stooges (April 13).

Keanu Reeves stars in 47 Ronin (Nov. 21), the newest iteration of the famed Japanese legend that has been told multiple times on film—but never with Keanu Reeves. Probably for good reason.

Like his last film Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (Dec. 25) isn’t exactly a remake. It’s more of a freeform rumination on the spaghetti Western genre that borrows its title from a series of Italian-made cult films.

Books, Comic Books and Fairy Tales

Potential 2012 hits that aren’t remakes, reissues or sequels get their inspiration from all manner of literary sources. Dr. Seuss’ the Lorax (Mar. 2) is a computer-animated version of the picture-book classic. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Mar. 2),Snow White and the Huntsman (June 1) andJack the Giant Killer (June 15) retool well-known fairy tales for modern audiences.

The Avengers (May 4) unites the stars of Marvel Comics’ many hit movies series—giving Ghost Rider, Batman, Spider-Man and Judge Dredd a run for their superhero money in 2012.

John Carter (March 9) comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp sci-fi series John Carter: Warlord of Mars. the Hunger Games (March 23) is the much-anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ smash YA sci-fi series. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (June 22) brings Seth Grahame-Smith’s literary mashup to the big screen. the Fantastic Gatsby (Dec. 25) is Aussie Baz Luhrmann’s version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal novel with Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular dandy. Victor Hugo’sLes Misérables (Dec. 7) features Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. As French people. Yann Martel’s brainy fantasy novel Life of Pi (Dec. 21) is helmed by artsy director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Contrastingly—and on the very same weekend—Max Brooks’ postapocalyptic novel World War Z (Dec. 21) stars Brad Pitt and has lots of zombies.

Posted in twinkle Comics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Link up start-up

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Admin

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 By Marwa Farag

“This chair has nostalgic value,” Alexander Atallah ’14 said, nestling himself on a nondescript canvas chair in an equally nondescript freshman dorm room. “It’s where we came up with our business plan.”

Atallah and Bryant Tan ’14 fit the Stanford student template to a T. Intelligent and entrepreneurial, the two bonded over a mutual like for Physics 61, eventually partnering up to create a social networking website for dorms.

The site, Dormlink, allows students to connect with others within their dorm or house on campus. Its features include the Corkboard, where students can post messages and pictures, the Stuff page, where students can catalog items that they are willing to lend or sell, and the Classes page, where students can find others in the dorm taking the same classes.

Students can also integrate Google calendars on the site, like and unlike posts, sort content by popularity, create “profile pages” for their rooms and create projects of their own that others can collaborate on.

The idea for the cross between Facebook, Craigslist, Google Docs, Courserank and dorm mailing lists came from a casual comment in Atallah’s dorm.

“Someone said we should make a Dormbook, a Facebook just for dorms,” Atallah said. he then approached Tan, who he had met while working on Stanford’s Solar Car Project.

Tan, an international student from London who also photographs for the Daily, had worked for a small software company called Firefly in the UK. the company worked on content management systems, sites where users can create content and control what they see without needing technical knowledge.

“He told me about Firefly, and because the idea for Dormbook was essentially to make a content management system, I was like ‘Oh that’s convenient!’” Atallah said.

They later realized that Facebook could sue them for the name “Dormbook” if they were ever to make profits and instead chose on “Dormlink.” So far, the website has only been released to two all-frosh dorms in Wilbur Hall, Cedro and Otero. But despite its limited release, the site has experienced early popularity.

“In the first 24 hours we had about 2,000 hits,” Tan said. “Now we have 113 users.”

While they have ambitions to expand across the Stanford campus, to other colleges and eventually even overseas, their current plan is to release the website to more dorms slowly, through live demos in dorm meetings.

Atallah, the Daily’s Web editor, found his passion for programming after taking on a challenge to design a website for a children’s museum in his hometown in Colorado. he had wanted to go to debate camp but didn’t have the cash, so instead, chose to design the site.

He went on to create applications and programs to “help out companies” that he liked. an internship at a firm in Washington, D.C. last summer also led Atallah to build a map application that showed all the businesses in the U.S. importing goods under a trading preference program. the same application was later used in lobbying the Senate Finance Commission.

“The incredible thing about CS is that you can create cool tools that help others at no cost to you, except time,” he said.

Indeed, the only cost Atallah and Tan have incurred so far is printing. even Atallah’s laptop, which hosts the website, is held open by a granola bar to prevent it from falling asleep.

“There are programs that prevent Macs from falling asleep,” Atallah clarified.

“But the granola bar is better,” Tan said, citing its cost-effectiveness in comparison to purchased software.

Like Atallah, Tan has extensive programming experience–he began programming at age 13.

“I found tutorials online and found code examples and kind of worked it out,” he explained.

“We can pretty much place on our business plan that Bryant [Tan] can code and do physics quicker than any of your people can,” Atallah joked, likening Tan to Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerberg–“but quicker.”

Tan first started making “dynamic websites” when a friend asked him to make a site related to football.

“But by football I mean soccer, not egghand,” he laughed, poking his British humor at American football. “Or handegg, rather.”

The pair balances each other out well. Atallah comes from a strong debate and youth-in-government background and is considering a degree in economics, physics, computer science or symbolic systems. Tan, who completed A-Levels–similar to Advanced Placement courses in the U.S.–in the UK and was the top scorer in the country in Physics, did not take a single humanities course in his last two years of high school. he is considering electrical engineering and computer science.

“They seem to work really well together,” said Professor Cliff Nass, who they consulted about launching a start-up. “What you really want to see from a venture capitalist point of view is passion, and those guys have that…They’re both passionate about solving a problem that they have perceived.”

The problem, according to Tan, is that they “want dorms to be able to share things that matter to them in a more private environment than Facebook can allow.”

Tailoring their site exclusively to such a niche group of users gives them a unique advantage over larger companies, they believe.

Atallah and Tan see numerous potential uses for their site, including holding dorm elections online or sharing photos over vacations–all privately.

“My dorm is using it to figure out what kind of music everyone likes,” Atallah said about the “Projects” feature.

The underlying premise is that, contrary to the global behemoth that Facebook has grown into, the site is limited to a smaller, more intimate community that values privacy. This allows for freer expression and an increased willingness to engage in commercial transactions via the Stuff feature.

The enterprising freshmen are continually thinking of new additions for Dormlink, including an interactive map feature on which people can tag places of interest, and a “Whiteboard” feature that would operate like Microsoft Paint, where students can practice “Social Doodling” on each other’s virtual rooms–similar to writing on an actual whiteboard outside one’s dorm room.

Atallah and Tan do recognize, however, that their ambitious start-up faces significant hurdles.

“We recognize that something like 95 percent of start ups fail,” Tan said.

“If people don’t end up using it very much, this will have been a fun side project,” Atallah added.

And if they happen to end up in the 5 percent of start-ups that do succeed, Tan and Atallah will not be the only beneficiaries–Tan’s roommate, Kevin Hurlbutt ’14, has a stake in the matter too.

Looking up from his laptop, he announced, “I’m going to sell that chair for so much money.”

Posted in language Study Books | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment