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December 31, 2011

My picks for 2011

SPEEDWOLF - Ride With Death (Hells Headbangers)
U.X. VILEHEADS - Hardcore XI (Adult Crash)
CÜLO - Life Is Vile... And So Are We (Deranged)
NO PROBLEM - And Now This (Deranged)
BEASTIE BOYS - Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 (Capitol)
VACANT STATE - Fill The Void (Deranged)
DENIAL FIEND - Horror Holocaust (Ibex Moon)
CRUEL FORCE - Under The Sign Of The Moon (Heavy Forces)
BURNING SONS - Reduced To Equality (Mystic)
BRADYS PROBLEM - Bradys Problem (Crastyass)

MAJOR DAMAGE - Major Damage (Even Worse)
NUKKEHAMMER - Soviet Rust Belt (Solar Funeral)
IMPALERS - Impalers (Todo Destruido)
CÜLO/TENEMENT - Split (Cowabunga)
CRUEL FORCE - Ancient Black Spirit (Heavy Forces)
BLOODY HAMMER - When In Rome (Bat Shit)

VOID - Sessions 1981-83 (Dischord)
FAITH - Subject To Change Plus First Demo (Dischord)
BY A THREAD - By A Thread (Revelation)
POISON IDEA - Darby Crash Rides Again (TKO)
NEGATIVE APPROACH - Nothing Will Stand In Our Way (Taang!)
SAURON - Thrash Assault (Planet Metal)
ACCÜSED - Nasty Cuts: The Best Of The Nastymix Years (Unrest)

December 18, 2011

ASSAULT - Survival In The Street CD (1987)

Assault were a Vancouver speed metal band who recorded a few demos and this one album. I got this CD off ebay for a fairly reasonable price. Since it was only released on vinyl and cassette back in the day, it's obviously a bootleg. It was put out by a Spanish 'label' called Strike Force Records in 2005, but they did a great job because it doesn't sound like it was taken from the record. Maybe they had access to the original masters or just ripped it from cassette, who knows.

1. Survival In The Street
2. Thunder Road
3. I.C.U.C.
4. Shuffle Off The Buffalo
5. Fight To Win
6. The Fire Within
7. Misery
8. Let The Beast Run Wild

December 5, 2011

VA - Do Not Open Till Christmas tape (1986)

Here's my obligatory Xmas post. This comp originally came out on cassette in 1986 and featured mostly unreleased songs from Pacific Northwest bands. Someone burned it onto a CD-R, which I picked up at Red Cat Records a few years ago. Bit of a weird mix, but I'll take this over the shitty holiday CD's they sell at Starbucks. I don't really get what Slow's version of 'Hair Of The Dog' by Nazareth has to do with Xmas, but who cares?

Side One 1985
1. Shanghai Dog - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
2. No Fun - No Fun At Christmas
3. Bolero Lava - This Little Boy
4. The Spores - Christmas Jeers
5. The Grapes Of Wrath - Happy Christmas (The War Is Over)
6. Der Blitzen - O Tannenbaum
7. 54/40 - Christmas Time
8. The Reptiles - Merry Christmas

Side Two 1986
9. The Subterraneans - You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch
10. Slow - Hair Of The Dog
11. Green River - Away In A Manger
12. The Soreheads - You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch
13. No Fun - Xtoovvvvv
14. A Merry Cow - Don't Believe In Christmas
15. Zamboni Drivers - Jesus Christ
16. The Reptiles - Christmas Heat

December 2, 2011

SAURON - Prepare To Die demo (2003)

From their Myspace page,

"Sauron stands in opposition to "clean" and "professional." Thrash metal is, was, and always will be dirty, violent, and evil. If we wanted to be professional musicians, we would be playing shitty covers of crappy blues and classic rock songs in bars full of idiots who know nothing about music. Or we'd be trying to make it big playing catchy pop music of some sort. Our shows are intended to be fast and loose. Attitude and energy matter a lot more than tightness. We strictly tune to "good enough for thrash." We're usually drunk when we play, and our fans wouldn't have it any other way. If you have a problem with this, go fuck yourself. If you don't like our music, go fuck yourself. If you don't like the fact that we have songs about Satan and the Lord of the Rings, go fuck yourself. Our releases come out when they are ready to. They take forever because a) we have other shit to do, b) we want them to be as good as they can be, and c) we're busy drinking. Deal with it. We're broke, so we don't have the best gear. In fact, it's all pretty much crap that we bought on the cheap or were given. At least we are better off than the old days, when we had our own guitars and drums and just borrowed everything else. Again, deal with it. We came here to thrash. Fuck off and die!"

This demo tape came out a year before their debut CD, "Thrash Assault", which I recommend if you're into bands like Kreator, Destruction and Bathory. Shortly after I posted this, I discovered Planet Metal Records has just reissued 'Thrash Assault'. As a bonus, they've included this demo and an unreleased song, "March Of The Vandals". So do yourself a favor and buy that shit and while you're at it, check out their 2nd album 'Satanic Assassins' on Witches Brew.

1. Prepare To Die
2. Bestial Warlust
3. Unholy Art
4. Thrash 'til Death
5. The Return Of Darkness And Evil (Bathory)

November 21, 2011

SPEEDWOLF - Bark At The Poon demo (2009)

One of my favorite new bands right now. If you've never heard Speedwolf, they a play a mix of blackened speed, thrash and punk with vocals that remind me of a cross between Lemmy and Danzig (except on 'Death Ripper'). I got this four song cassette from the band themselves, and for a few extra bucks they threw in a CD-R of this demo plus two cover songs that aren't on the tape. They just released their debut full-length, "Ride With Death" on Hell's Headbangers. Definitely one of the best albums of 2011. If you like this demo, support these guys and buy the record!

1. Speedwolf
2. Time To Annihilate
3. Death Ripper
4. I Am The Demon
5. Witching Hour (Venom)
6. Cold Gin (Kiss)

November 10, 2011

VA - We're Not Contageous tape (2011)

Not much to say here, just a cassette-only compilation of some new underground hardcore. I'm pretty sure most of the songs on here are exclusive to this tape. In fact, I think even a few of the bands can only be found on here (for now). Lots of fun sound bites of old commercials and movies between the songs too.
1. Dry Hump - Dry Hump
2. Male Nurses - Make Me Free
3. Cülo - Midnight Mind
4. Violent Night - Untamed Mind/Mad At The Streets
5. The Secret Prostitutes - Lelucon Sinis
6. Cülo - (unlisted track)
7. Dry Hump - We're Not Contageous
8. Reformed Homosexual - Nonsense
9. Sgt. Slaughter - Home Of The Strange
10. Long Pigs - Cut Off
11. Earth Pig - Dead End/No More Shock Treatment
12. The Secret Prostitutes - Gimmie Money
13. Male Nurses - Lude Boy (Social D)
14. Würm Tongue - Boot Lickers
15. Reformed Homosexual - Constant Strides

November 2, 2011

NO FUN - Fall For A Cliche EP (1978)

This is the long out of print first release by the self-proclaimed 'Beatles Of Surrey'. They formed in the mid 70's and were around in some shape or form for about 30 years, making them one of Vancouver's longest running groups. Although they were a part of the original local punk & new wave scene and appeared on the 1979 LP, "Vancouver Complication", they weren't a punk rock band. Still, listen to 'Now I Ain't Got No Face' below and tell me that isn't as punk as anything DOA or The Subhumans ever put out.
They followed up this EP with a couple more 7"s, then released a bunch of cassette-only albums on their own label, Werewolf T-Shirt Records. None of which have ever been re-issued, unfortunately. They were known for putting on themed events like their yearly 'No Fun At Christmas' gig. Singer/guitarist David M performs solo acoustic shows occasionally.

1. Fall For A Cliche
2. Interlute
3. Paisley Brain Bolts Of The Mind
4. Now I Ain't Got No Face
5. Planet
6. China Shop Raid

October 20, 2011

THE BILL OF RIGHTS - Meltdown '85 EP (1985)

Medium speed punk with social and political lyrics. "A Shot in the Ass" is the most memorable and the hardest of the six songs. The simple melodies are something catchy but never really grab you and knock you down.
-Thomas (from Flipside #45, Spring 1985)

Bone-crunching punk (without being metal), these guys deliver intelligent lyrics to boot. This, their second 7", is produced by Dave Gregg of DOA, and there are some slight similarities in their punk "rock" approach. Powerful.
-Tim Yohannan (from Maximum Rocknroll #21, January 1985)

1. The Core
2. Blind Society
3. C-9
4. What Do You Say
5. A Shot In The Ass
6. Conquest For Wilbur

October 12, 2011

THE BILL OF RIGHTS - No, Rights, No Chance! EP (1984)

Debut release from this Surrey band. Nothing amazing here, but not bad either. Personally I prefer their 2nd EP, 'Meltdown 85'. I did see this posted on another blog, but the link was dead. So here it is.

1. Decide
2. Drunk Government
3. No Rights, No Chance

October 8, 2011

VA - Cryptic Compost tape (1987)

Put out by C.O.H. fanzine. This cassette is made up mainly previously unreleased demo and live recordings of varying sound quality and volume. Good mix of local punk, hardcore and thrash metal.

1. Adversity - Skate For God
2. Adversity - World's Gone Crazy
3. Adversity - Differences
4. Dead Society - VD & Glue
5. Dead Society - Virgin Killer
6. Lethal Virus - Alcohol
7. Lethal Virus - NIENAWISC
8. Spores - Up The Boss
9. Spores - The Nasty Song
10. Dioxin - Nuclear Holocaust
11. Dioxin - America
12. Death Sentence - No Way
13. Death Sentence - Hitler-Ronnie
14. Fratricide - Scream Bloody Vengeance
15. Fratricide - Blood Red Dream
16. Karrion - Necro Nightmare
17. Karrion - They Must Die
18. Witches Hammer - Deadly Mantis
19. Witches Hammer - Final Storm
20. Odds Crypt - Faces Of Death
21. Odds Crypt - Winged Mantis
22. Odds Crypt - Vado Mori
23. Subverse - Iconoclast
24. Subverse - 101%

October 2, 2011

TOE TAG - C.S.M.F.D. EP (2008)

Toe Tag's second 7 inch. Most of these songs were re-recorded for their 2009 split CD with World Of Lies. They haven't released anything since, aside from a few compilation tracks. In the meantime, check out Blaine's new side project Denial Fiend, featuring members of D.R.I., Down By Law and Six Feet Under.
1. Bat Pussy / Car Bomb
2. Hate Your Friends
3. Cock Sucking Mutha Fucking Diablo
4. El Clipo / Head Inna Sack

September 26, 2011

TOE TAG - Machete Killah EP (2007)

Debut 7 inch from these Seattle HC/Thrash veterans. Toe Tag formed in 2005 after Blain Cook, Alex Sibbald and Steve Nelson jumped ship from The Accüsed. While they still retain the Splatterrock-type lyrics from their previous band, musically they sound more like The Fartz (the reunited line-up that Blaine and Alex played in together). Great band to see live as well.

1. Machete Killah
2. Junior's Eyes (Black Sabbath)

September 23, 2011

THE BILL OF RIGHTS - Surf, Skate, Ski & Skank tape (1985)

Along with Death Sentence, House Of Commons, A.K.O.B., The Spores, etc, The Bill Of Rights were another band who seemed to have that mid 80's Vancouver sound. Whatever that means. Prior to this tape, they put out two 7 inch EPs (No Rights No Chance and Meltdown '85). This was recorded live at CO-OP Radio on September 7, 1985 and featured mostly newer material and covers of old surf classics.
1. Out Of Limits
2. Pipeline
3. Walk Don't Run
4. Surfrenzy
5. The Unknown Surfer
6. Shot In The Ass
7. Slowdown
8. You Better Hide
9. Drunk Government
10. Pig
11. Urban Cowgoof
12. Wipeout
13. T-BOR Blues

September 21, 2011

AKOB - Explosion Blues EP (1985)

A.K.O.B. was Neil Embo's band after leaving House Of Commons and before joining Forbidden Beat. 'Officer Friendly' was originally an old HOC tune titled 'Colwood RCMP', later renamed 'Live For Today'. This EP was given to me on a CD-R by Mr. Embo himself. It's a different mix than the 7 inch and includes two bonus tracks from the Undergrowth '85 compilation.
01. Explosion Blues
02. Diddling With One's Own Thing Blues
03. What's Going On Blues
04. Officer Friendly Blues
05. Plastic Peoples Blues
06. Pogo Blues
07. 5 Finger Discount Blues

September 20, 2011

PERSONALITY CRISIS - Creatures For Awhile 'Deluxe Edition' (1983)

Easily one of the greatest (and most underrated) punk rock albums to ever come out of the Great White North. Tracks 1-12 are from the 2009 War On Music reissue, 13-16 were alternate tracks from the 1990 Overground reissue. Hence the reason I call this the 'Deluxe Edition'. These were all ripped by muggins here and not downloaded from somewhere else. Give'r!!!
01. Vampire's Dream
02. Mrs. Palmer
03. Twilight's Last Gleaming
04. The Advocate
05. Double Take
06. People in Glass
07. The Look
08. Creatures for Awhile
09. Scavengers
10. Wild Game
11. Namedropper

12. Tyrants
13. Losing Time
14. Wonder What They're Thinking
15. Empty Sky
16. Waiting

September 19, 2011

FATAL RAGE - Self Titled LP (1983)

Catchy old school punk rock from New Jersey. The vocals kinda remind me of Shawn Stern from Youth Brigade. Too bad this LP's never been reissued, because it's long out of print and pretty hard to come by. I don't even own this album. But instead of just posting a link from another blog, I borrowed my friend's copy and ripped it myself. Luckily his record was in great shape because I think it came out sounding better than the other rips I've heard online. You tell me.

01. Struggle
02. Assault
03. Jump & Die
04. Die Lady Di
05. Fatal Mistake
06. V.O.A.
07. Copy Bands
08. I'm Appalled
09. Yelling/
Kick That Fucker

September 18, 2011

FORBIDDEN BEAT - Driving You Insane EP (1986)

'If there is such a thing as a "Vancouver vocal sound" (DOA, DEATH SENTENCE), then this band has it. With former members of BILL OF RIGHTS and HOUSE OF COMMONS, you'll find four largely mid-tempo punk songs, lots of guitar, and plenty of drive. It rocks.'
-Tim Yohannan (from Maximum Rocknroll, May 1986)

1. It's A Mad, Mad World
2. Starve The Rich
3. Open Your Mind
4. Death By Insanity

It's A Mad, Mad World

PIPEBOMB - Self Titled EP (1996)

Pipebomb were a short-lived East Vancouver band that played old school USHC. While that style is fairly common nowadays, not a lot of bands were doing it in the mid 90's. Their only other release was a self-titled tape that included a few songs off this 7 inch. And no, 'Filler' is not a Minor Threat cover.

1. I Don't Care
2. Kill Whitey
3. Fuck Vancouver Pigs
4. Filler
5. Hatred For Authority
6. I.R.A.
7. Hari Rama
8. Beer Run

September 17, 2011

FRATRICIDE - Radio Session (1987)

Awesome crossover hardcore from Vancouver. Got this off Soulseek a few years back. This was recorded live at CRFO Co-Op Radio on January 2nd, 1987. Tracks 2, 3 and 4 were used for the B-side of their posthumous 'Scream Bloody Vengeance' 7 inch.
1. Merchants Of Death (Instrumental)
2. Poison Control
3. Beaten Senseless
4. Final Solution
5. Rising Force
6. Razor Piss
7. End The Suffering / Rip Wide The Sky
8. Scream Bloody Vengeance
9. Grave
10. Our Circled Adventure
11. Clear Mind Clear Thought
12. Blind Faith
13. Going Under

September 16, 2011

DEATH SENTENCE - Demo tape (1984)

Here's some more rare 80's Vancouver punk. I found this tape at Joey Shithead's yard sale back in 1998. What a score! In my opinion, this raw lo-fi recording is some of their best material. The first three songs appeared on the Undergrowth '84 cassette compilation, while the rest of it has never been released (as far as I know). Here's a review from MRR...

'A very classy, powerful power thrash outfit that doesn't resort to metal riffs. If anything, they owe more to earlier punk, but they're firmly rooted in modern sounds, blasting it out with strong lyrics and hooks to boot--"live" proof that Vancouver is not dead. Hot!'
-Tim Yohannan (October 1984)

01. Get Out of Our Way
02. Real World
03. Ultra Violence
04. Statue of Misery
05. Mein Kampf
06. Fascist Gun in the West
07. RCMP
08. So Civilized

September 15, 2011

HOUSE OF COMMONS - Live (1984)

Ok, this is my first post... so what better way to kick it off than with a rippin' live set from House Of Commons? If you've never heard HOC, go check out their 1983 LP, "Patriot". This show was recorded live in December 1984 at Luv Affair nightclub in Vancouver. Enjoy!
1. Here Today Gone Tomorrow
2. MDA
3. Insane
4. Live For Today
5. Low
6. Killer's Pride
7. Endangered Species (UK Subs)
8. Gotta B Alive
9. Peter Gunn
10. Attitude
11. 1999
12. American Patriot
13. Slut (GBH)
14. Way Down South
15. Raid


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Eastern Cape Projects

Eastern Cape project : Cofimvaba District, St Marks Village

In the attached pictures you will see a water pipeline that was established over 9 kms from the Lei Dam 18 to the village of St Mark’s in the Cofimvaba District, Eastern Cape in 2012. MENNGOS has been working with this community since 2007. Growing vegetables and fruit trees were identified as a point of entry into development for the community. Until 2007 no other organisation had undertaken working with the community of St Mark’s. In the ensuing years the plot garden project grew in leaps and bounds and more villagers and structures got involved. Between 2007 to 2010 permaculture training that  took place on site, in the communities by MENNGOS, and the community had to undertake to only grow organically. Natural cow dung compost was freely available and the community plot farmers were taught skills in how to use it to  first break down the bacteria by spreading it out in the sun to dry before using it and to consistently compost their gardens. To  make liquid manure to nourish the vegetables,herbs and fruit trees. In the ensuing periods the growing community were taught by a local to make seedlings from seeds with special soil she taught them to make and MENNGOS taught the community to save seeds for re-planting, maintaining the organic seed trend.  But, sadly it was always punctured by a serious lack of water intermittently causing the crops to fail and in the hot sun burn when no water was available. Water conservation methods did not work due to the serious absence of summer rain.

By 2009 a serious drought affected all growing in the area and MENNGOS as an organisation had to review their ongoing support if we were to be adding value to this community. It was resolved together with the local leadership, which in St Marks is the Tribal authority,to try and raise the necessary funds to run a new pipeline from the Lei Dam 18 to the community which is 9 kms away. By 2012 sufficient funds were raised by MENNGOS to facilitate this endeavour and the local leadership undertook to get the Youth who were unemployed to clear the dense bush terrain to make way for a clearing to lay new water pipes from the Lei Dam 18 that would directly, to the community.

This arduous task took place over 3 months with the youth been paid on a weekly basis. This work was conducted under the leadership of David Mfebe, a Tribal member of the community. David managed the workload with MENNGOS financial support and some technical expertise from the Department of Rural development. More in depth technical expertise came from from the contracted company who was  to assist with the final 9 km pathway from the dam to the community and who was responsible for laying the new improved water pipes to the village and the technical workings of the water flowing to the village as the end result. This procedure took another few weeks and the contracted company moved into the village to conduct the work. All accommodation and food was supplied by the community as part of their personal investment into the project.By 2013 with various adaptions the water started flowing and the community was able to grow again.

To increase the ability to grow and expand on the project, MENNGOS, initiated a Big garden competition which culminated in September 2013. 34 plot gardens took part and the prizes included 10 water tanks of 10 000 litres that could be won for using previously trained methods of permaculture and water conservation methods. Other smaller prizes which related directly to gardening and growing of vegetables. Other categories included most improved gardens, gardening under harsh conditions as some areas it was very difficult to grow in as the ground is very rocky.

The overall winner who was awarded a water tank and garden implements had not only planted wisely, by inter-planting his crops with different vegetables, but included ducks with a duck pond all made by himself to ward off the snails. he also raised goats and chickens for natural fertilizer which he used in his plot garden and applied various water conservation methods. The water tank would assist the winners to harvest rain-water which could be used for home and garden use.Thus adding another 100 000 litres of water when it was full to the water resource poor area.

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22 February 2013

New Dead Legacy x Dave Merrell t-shirts – John Lennon, Amy Winehous & Kate Moss

This month sees Dead Legacy and their Dave Merrell artist collaboration bring out new t-shirts with illustrations of three iconic British talents. Manchester illustrator, Dave Merrell provides the stunning sketch work for the range. Keeping colour to a minimal, Merrell adds depth to the designs with the use of shading and hard pencil lines.
Dead Legacy keep the focus ﬁrmly on the design with simple D/L black stitch detailing on the left sleeve for branding. Regular slim fit in 100% cotton. Price £32.99
John Lennon
Amy Winehouse
Kate Moss

The Dead Legacy x Dave Merrell collection is now available exclusively from www.deadlegacy.com
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1 comment:

  1. Not a big fan of such kind of tees, my boyfriend also dislikes them, i don't know why people wear these.


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Precision Hitting and Practice

It frustrates me to no end to hear people speak of Mike Austin’s instruction as if it was devoted only to power.
Note the effortlessness and accuracy (check out the barrel) of these partial shots utilizing the same motions and technique.
Also, note how Mike Austin had me practice – picking targets at various distances.

Get your game on and go practice these partial shots. You’ll be amazed at the effortless power and accuracy.

Copyright December 2010 llenroc enterprises LLC


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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

In the Garden

When I first started this blog last summer, I wasn't working. Like millions of other Americans I had lost my job and was collecting from the unemployment insurance fund. I spent a lot of time online, and I discovered Jake and Steve's Youtube videos, which led to their respective blogs. I was fascinated with the term "synchromysticism". All my life I had seen connections between things, but I didn't understand the symbolism and siguls corporations use, and studying these helped me to understand the world better. The truth is, I don't know squat about astrology or astronomy, but I do understand hidden meanings behind movies, comics, and novels. I also know that some huge conspiracy was afoot, one that is behind 9-11 Autism, the Global Warming scare, and the crashing of the economy. I wanted to contribute to the conversation, so I plowed some dirt and planted a few seeds in this garden. As I sought out other "synchromystic blogs" I found that there are many talented and brilliant writers in this community, and I'm honored that they (you) would sometimes pass by the Garden and have a look. I understand that it's easier to read a blog if it's broken up with different pictures, it gives the mind a chance to indulge and refresh itself, so for that reason, here's a comic book cover of a magician pulling a kid pretending to be a white rabbit out of a hat.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

I haven't posted or read anything on the blogosphere for the past week, I've been trying to find work, and I've been doing a little writing for peanuts. I hear the peanuts are coming soon, but I'm still waiting. I took some time to catch up tonight, and I re-discovered why I love to read synchromystic blogging. here are a few of them.

Michael Skaggs at the Hidden Agendas outs another mind conditioning science story as part of an eugenics agenda.

Jenn at the HiddenDakini continues coverage from the coalescense festival.

Wise Woman at Too Long in This Place wrote a post about the collective consciousness of man repressing memories of a great disaster, and it touched something in my consciousness and really blew me away.

Aferismoon explains some Tarot symbols to in In-4-structure.

Dedroidify gives us a funny story from a philosopher about enlightenment and bliss.

Christopher Knowles at the Secret Sun spotlights comic great Jack Kirby's Devil Dinosaur series.

If I missed you I'm sorry and feel free to add your latest work, and I want to take this moment in time to thank all of you for putting out such great blogs.

aferrismoon said...

Definitely think the continued COMIX inspire many ideas. The Richie Rich one that I used threw out a lot of info.
Perhaps don't ignore the insurance ones either , even though they may not seem so 'synchro' or a bit 'dry'. I teach English at a couple of Insurance comapanies, and there are some odd things that happen within MTPL [ Motor Third Party Liability], not that I wholly grasp them, but I feel that is one of th things about insurance.
Happy Gardening

Michael Skaggs said...

I agree with Aferris, ever since seeing Richie Rich [which I read as a kid] here at M.C. I wanted to get ahold of some of them to browse!

Thanks for the plug Ed, the blog sphere appreciates a stroll through Mercury's Garden to recoupe' from the psycho-poo.

Peace my friend!

Jenn said...

Ed, it's great to see you back and i hope your dry spell ends soon! I'm doing my rain dance for you :D

wise woman said...

Hi Ed
Am at a bit of a loss for words to explain how touched I am by this 'view of the gardener' - you remind me to look not just at the articles, but to the soul that creates them.

I wish you every good thing.

Ed said...

Thank you my friends. You all have such great blogs, and thanks for all the great work you do.

Michael Skaggs said...

Hope you find something worth "your time" for work--plus maybe this will give you an opportunity to seek your bliss in a certain area/field?

Whats the way the Japanese symbolize Crisis? I think its made up of the symbol for Danger plus the symbol for Opportunity, or Danger+Opportunity = Crisis. Perhaps opportunity will come from all this.

Be well Ed.

aferrismoon said...

Hey , check Secret Sun's post from the 28th, same day as this, the first pic is of a Kirbyesque GARDEN of Eden + a cover with Caveman and woman, not dragging each other.
Its a fine synch, and considering the Garden metaphor, it got seeded and grew in the same moment.
GN[53] = Hebrew for garden and also gene.

Ed said...

Michael- I've been working on my writing and trying to find the right market. It's a lot of work setting up.

Aferrismoon- the Garden has synched with the Secret Sun so much i've started to take it as commonplace. One time we wrote posts that mentioned "Brave new World" on the same day and almost to the minute of each other.


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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Quote of the Day

A scene from the classic film Lawrence of Arabia came to mind during my session today at the 32nd Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham:
"You know, Lieutenant, in the Arab city of Cordoba were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village."
— Sir Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Medieval Video Games

Apparently, it is "medieval week" in The Sims Social, a Facebook-based game that is a spin-off of the original computer game that cost me many hours of my wayward youth. Click to enlarge any of the images in the illustrated review that follows.

There is, naturally, a fire-breathing dragon at the base of a rickety tower:

... and knights in shining armor sending people off on quests and offering to let them use their golden loos beforehand (because everyone knows that wealthy kings and knights would go off on adventures and bring back enough gold to cast all their indoor plumbing solid from the stuff).

There is even non-standard orthography:

...oh, and free snails (?!).

Perhaps that is because they're like little knights, running around in a suit of armor? No, surely it's because everyone knows that the middle ages was slimy, kind of gross, and hard. (I suspect that it's just too much to hope that this is actually a sly reference to medieval snail marginalia.)

I'm generally opposed to medieval kitsch, but somehow, medieval kitsch in video game form (Assassin's Creed, anyone?) kind of charms me. This, though, is taking me back to my original, unqualified position that medieval kitsch just isn't a good thing. It's not a clever enough satire for it to be really enjoyable, which is unfortunate. In fact, it's misleading entirely in that it's more like a send-up of Shrek than anything else. (Sorry, I know. Leave it to the specialists to analyze the fun out of everything.) There is actually a whole standalone Sims Medieval game which I bought for myself to play after my doctoral defense. I still haven't opened the package, because it turns out that after I filed my dissertation, the last thing I wanted to do was to spend more time at my computer. I have a sense from the reviews, though, that it'll be a more amusing thing altogether. Further bulletins as events warrant, as we say when there is breaking medieval news, and some real content, inshallah, as soon as I finish a book chapter for which I have a major deadline closing fast.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Bad Metaphor Time!

I thought this weekend that I had painted myself into a corner with the argument in my book chapter in progress, but in fact, I had just run out of paint. Today's activity? Get more paint.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 101 Years On

The old Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is now an NYU classroom building, and every year there is a small memorial for the young women who were killed there:

Today's Activities

Contemplating the infinity of Baghdad and Berlin and making good use of semicolons.

The Week In Links (Are We There Yet? Edition)

The Observer's special section on Spanish food, including an interview with Claudia Roden:

OFM Spanish Food Special

And because apparently the Guardian conglomerate wants all its readers to have a really good time in Spain:

A Local's Guide to Seville

And two articles on nightlife in Madrid.

As seen @fsharden: What are you supposed to do with Spanish literature?

It's been interesting to see how biographical writing has gone from being what I envisioned as the theoretical framework for eventual book #2 to insinuating itself into the revisions of my dissertation book. The material does, obviously, lend itself to that kind of reading, but it's also obviously what's on my mind these days. So it was interesting to read the preliminary thoughts of another academic on the matter:

Questioning Biography Writing

The first image in this slideshow is right around the corner from my department:

Occupy Wall Street March in Pictures

Edited later in the day to add a bonus link: I'm not really sure what to make of this. It's not the old straw man that accuses professors at research universities of having cushy jobs because we "just" teach six hours a week, with the implication being that we're just hanging out the rest of the time, rather than doing the research and writing that is both expected of us and that definitely takes well above 60 hours per week. But it seems like it's a bit at the top of a slippery slope:

Do College Professors Work Hard Enough?

Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Placebo for Writer's Block

My "dissertation book" is going to look nothing like my dissertation. (And thank God for small favors, too!) It's going to deal with the same group of translators but address and fundamentally different question and treat the parameters of the corpus slightly differently. So the groundwork is pretty well done, but I'm still working out a lot of the new argument. I'm really fortunate in that I'll have an opportunity to workshop a chapter of the book with a really amazing mix of peers and very senior colleagues in just a drop over two months. It does, though, mean that I have to get the chapter into shape. And I've been feeling really badly blocked, getting no work done, and making my writer's block worse by virtue of wasting time and energy on freaking out.

Part of the problem is that I actually do very little revising. I tend to walk around with an awful lot going on in my head, looking like I'm being terribly unproductive, but with all of it stewing around and sorting out. In an ideal version of this process, by the time I sit down to write, I come up with a basically finished product in purple (or at least lavender) prose. What I do write during this period looks like writing but isn't: It's very long-form notes that incorporate observations on what I've read and the beginnings of my own ideas about the material. As a process, I've discovered that this doesn't work especially well when I have proximate deadlines or lots of balls in the air to juggle. But it's been hard to break the hold of the fantasy of sitting down and writing something close-to-done on the first go. I couldn't get less-than-perfect or less-than-complete onto the page. It was a problem for the short schedule for my dissertation, as well. I think I've managed a better work-around this time, though, one that will hopefully be useful in the future since I don't see the workload letting up any time soon.

I added the following note to the top of my document:

Prefatory note for the Tel Aviv workshop: This paper represents the framework for what will become the first chapter of my book, currently in progress, that examines the changing attitudes towards Arabic as a source language amongst the various generations of Tibbonid translators. My own approach to academic writing is one in which I carry much of my material in my head until I am ready to sit down and write a fully elaborated and articulated argument; before that point, what looks like writing is merely a very particular style of note-taking. In a very real sense, then, what follows — coherent, directed and working towards a specific point though it all may be — is an elaborate set of notes that I will use to unpack and elaborate upon the textual problem that is of greatest interest to me, which for the moment is encapsulated in the paragraph on page 8. — SJP

It's definitely not my intention to leave that note atop the draft that I ultimately circulate before the workshop, but for the first couple of days, I at least allowed myself to think that in the worst case scenario, I could actually get away with leaving such a huge caveat in place. And it's silly but it worked. Thinking about it as just one more set of long-form notes rather than as a book chapter completely freed me up to just get some work done, to get something down on paper that I could edit, refine and add to later.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

"Open" Access

Edited on 3/19/12 to add: Site statistics tell me that this post has been linked to at another blog, so I just wanted to add, for any reader who came here via there, that I don't actually agree with the commentary that was made there with respect to my post. Yes, I think that this practice is outrageous and rather akin to usury. Yes, I reserve special ire for Brill and Routledge/T&F because their costs are so unspeakably outrageous. But I don't actually either predict or hope for the downfall of the publishing house or the academic press as institutions, even and particularly university presses in spite of their recent trend towards publishing fewer books in any given year. I think that the editorial process is incredibly valuable and can't easily be replicated in a self-publishing environment. And I think that the rise of digital humanities is really exciting, but I also know, because I do know a bunch of really interesting people doing work in this area, that that's not simply going to take the form of digitization of scholarly monographs; it's a different thing entirely -- a completely different conception of how to present information -- that is still going to leave room for the traditional academic book. Plus just as a rule, I don't generally condone wanton name-calling. Re-edited on 4/1/12: And if I were going to engage in extended name-calling of other people in the profession, at a minimum I'd do it with a more extensive vocabulary.

I woke up this morning to notification that I have the option of approving open access for a short essay that I have forthcoming. Open access is great, since many academic journals are archived digitally in a way that requires affiliation with an institution that subscribes to them for access; and since many university libraries are cutting back on their subscription budges and many academics just don't have jobs, the more open access, the better, really. I was slightly aware that there is frequently a cost to the author to make his or her work available freely online, so with a bit of trepidation, I clicked on the link in the email, which took me to the following screen.

(Click to enlarge to a readable size.)

That there would be a cost to me is an understatement, as it turns out. $3,250?!

Open access isn't one of those things I feel tremendous passion about, nor is it one about which I've done tons of research and reading about how it can work in pushing digital humanities forward. I do have colleagues who advocate for it, and in what little reading I have done, I have seen that some universities want to move towards requiring open access for anything that will be included in the tenure dossier. But when the cost to offer that kind of access to a piddling little under-2000-words essay -- not even a major research article! and not even everything I'm going to publish this year! -- is greater than the sum total of my annual research budget, there's really not much I can do. T&F guidelines say that I can put a post-production typescript up on my own web page, so I'll definitely do that, but my ability to participate in creating a centrally-located archival database of a journal is totally curtailed.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

A Bit of a Grading Conundrum

I pride myself on writing really extensive comments on my students' work. A page, at a minimum, is the norm for me per essay. Now that I'm teaching large classes, this is becoming a bit more of a challenge, but I think it's worth it.

To a certain extent, my comments are highly stylized; that's not to say that they are repeated student to student, but rather that I definitely still use many of the techniques that I learned through the Knight Institute at Cornell, which definitely has a very prescribed program of how student writing should be commented-upon and marked. But it works, so I stick with it. Examples of the techniques include: descriptive rather than prescriptive commenting and sticking to the text both to model good analysis and to avoid passions running high when papers are returned (ie, "The essay lacks specific citations" rather than "You didn't cite your sources").

But this most recent assignment for my intro lecture course offered students a choice of three essay prompts, one of which tended more towards creative writing: Students had read a work of short fiction in which a Christian count laments his flagging popularity and his adviser recounts to him the story of an Umayyad caliph who expanded the Great Mosque of Cordoba, making that his legacy; I asked the students who chose that option to write their own short work of fiction in the same style, reflecting some aspect of the ways in which Christians and Muslims viewed each other's cultural achievements. But now that I have the assignments in hand I'm not really sure how to write comments on these effectively. If anyone out there has experience in marking and commenting on more creative-type writing (I hate the term, because it implies, especially to students who may not really know any better, that a really good analysis isn't creative, but that's beside the point) in a literature/history class, I'd very much appreciate hearing how that worked out.

Edited on 4/2/12 to add an image of the assignment sheet to facilitate the discussion happening in the comments thread:

(Click to enlarge to readable size.)

The Week in Links (The I'm Not in Boston at the 222nd Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society Edition)

Don't you hate it when your 14th-century Slovakian castle catches on fire?

Slovakian Medieval Castle Burns Down

Egyptology. The state pen. This week's curious news from the ancient Near East:

Hieroglyphics Turn Prisoner Away From a Life of Crime

Of course I'm biased because it's part of my university, but ISAW does a very nice little exhibition. I haven't seen this one yet, but if it's like their others it'll be well worth a trip:

Artifacts Show Sophistication of Ancient Nomads

I'm familiar with loads of versions of the life of Alexander the Great (because, as this video explains, "Alexander was great at being a dead person"). This one is possibly my new favorite. In addition to being amusing, it's interesting in the way it treats the question of what is construed as "greatness" in history:

Alexander the Great and The Situation... the Great?

Always nice to see the dead-and-deadlies (that's ancient and obscure languages, for readers not up on the terminology) featured in the press:

An Indigenous Language with Unique Staying Power

Rule, Britannica:

Encyclopedia Britannica Halts Print Publication after 244 Years

Expensive, Useless, Exploitative

Oh, and this was just cool:

Art Historians Say They Have Found Evidence of a Hidden Leonardo da Vinci

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Book Review: The Lifespan of a Fact

The new book The Lifespan of a Fact is a glossed reprint of an essay written by John D'Agata. The glosses are the transcript of correspondence between the author, the man assigned to fact-check the essay, and their editor. They record a debate over the value of facts, the nature of precision, and the values upheld by non-fiction writing.

I approached the book expecting to very sympathetic to the author against the fact-checker, because there are occasional moments in my own writing where I find that if a fact were only slightly different, the whole thing would sound a lot better or the narrative would be a bit better crafted. But I found myself surprised by the extent of what D'Agata thought was necessary: Is the all-time record of 118 degrees really that much more dramatic than the real temperature on the day in question, the record for that year of 113? Did the month's worth of factoids that he collapsed into the single day of the suicide that was the subject of his essay really pack that much more of a punch having happened on the day of his death than in the month in which he died?

It did leave me wondering how many of the discrepancies were written into the text because D'Agata simply has a superior ear and I can't appreciate the difference, and how many of them were left because he has become a diva and is no longer obligated to play by even some semblance of the rules; and I'm pretty confident in my ear. Like I said, I started out reading totally sympathetic to his position, having argued over questions of style with many an editor and occasionally having wished fervently that small details (both in academic and essayistic writing) could have been just a little bit different, but the extreme to which it seems to be carried out is, well, extreme.

As a book, The Lifespan of a Fact is a fascinating exercise and a beautiful example of a modern glossed text. But it left me more interested in the facts than the lifespan. I came away with exactly the opposite conclusion of the one I had expected and hoped to draw. I think I failed to take the larger point of the glosses to heart; but it's a compelling voice that Fingal has that was able to convert an inveterate storyteller to the side of fact.

Monday, March 12, 2012

A Canticle for Daniel, Part I

This will be a three-part series. The prologue is here.

Sometimes I wonder about the validity of the hedonistic, comfortable life I lead with my head buried deep in books or in the thirteenth century. Particularly if I've had a frustrating time teaching, I have a sense that I'm doing nothing to improve the world or make a mark. So I suppose that one small, quiet thing that I can do is to make different types of knowledge accessible, organized in an original and thought-provoking fashion — that is, be a certain type of long-form talking head and hope for the best. The medieval can be a guide, but so, too, is the twentieth century with its nationalism, new borders, cycle of despotism and the fearless reporting that was the first draft of it all. What follows is a most literary excerpt from that first draft, a lesser-known 1934 essay by Jorge Luis Borges entitled "Yo, judío," translated here by Eliot Weinberger:
Like the Druzes, like the moon, like death, like next week, the distant past is one of those things that can enrich ignorance. It is infinitely malleable and agreeable, far more obliging than the future and far less demanding of our efforts. It is the famous season favored by all mythologies.
Who has not, at one time or another, played with thoughts of his ancestors, with the prehistory of his flesh and blood? I have done so many times, and many times it has not displeased me to think of myself as Jewish. It is an idle hypothesis, a frugal and sedentary adventure that harms no one, not even the name of Israel, as my Judaism is wordless, like the songs of Mendelssohn. The magazine Crisol, in its issue of January 30, has decided to gratify this retrospective hope; it speaks of my 'Jewish ancestry, maliciously hidden' (the participle and the adverb amaze and delight me).
Borges Acevedo is my name. Ramos Mejía, in a note to the fifth chapter of Rosas and His Times, lists the family names in Buenos Aires at that time in order to demonstrate that all, or almost all, 'came from Judaeo-Portuguese stock.' 'Acevedo' is included in this list: the only supporting evidence for my Jewish pretensions until this confirmation in Crisol. Nevertheless, Captain Honorio Acevedo undertook a detailed investigation that I cannot ignore. His study notes that the first Acevedo to disembark on this land was the Catalan don Pedro de Azevedo in 1728: landholder, settler of 'Pago de los Arroyos,' father and grandfather of cattle ranchers in that province, a notable who figures in the annals of the parish of Santa Fe and in the documents of the history of the Viceroyalty — an ancestor, in short, irreparably Spanish.
Two hundred years and I can't find the Israelite; two hundred years and my ancestor still eludes me.
I am grateful for the stimulus provided by Crisol, but hope is dimming that I will ever be able to discover my link the Table of the Breads and the Sea of Bronze; to Heine, Gleizer, and the ten Sefiroth; to Ecclesiastes and Chaplin.
Statistically, the Hebrews were few. What would we think of someone in the year 4000 who uncovers people from San Juan Province everywhere? Our inquisitors seek out Hebrews but never Phonecians, Garamantes, Scythians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Ethiopians, Illyrians, Paphalagonians, Sarmatians, Medes, Ottomans, Berbers, Britons, Lybians, Cyclopes or Lapiths. The nights of Alexandria, of Babylon, of Carthage, of Memphis, never succeeded in engendering a single grandfather; it was only to the tribes of the bituminous Dead Sea that this gift was granted.
In Borges' reality, to be made a Jew is an act formed of malice and "outing;" in the present reality to be baptized is articulated an act of kindness. But the Mormon act is nothing more than the flip side of what was done to Borges in Crisol; both make being Jewish a flaw to be identified and remedied. Borges, though, walks cleanly down the line between what is and what might have been, fantasizing and stopping short of becoming his own inquisitor. Though he might have wished it to be different, he does what he can with the past he can identify and leaves the rest to hope, prayer, imagination.

He extends the same courtesy to his ancestors: In the realidad histórica, there are two: the visible Spanish viceroy and the missing Israelite. As an essayist, all he can do is present the gaping short distance between them rather than remedy it.

He also raises one of the interesting archival problems that the Mormon baptismal project creates. Intimating an answer of not much at all, Borges asks: "What would we think of someone in the year 4000 who uncovers people from San Juan Province everywhere?" What would we think? By posthumous baptism, the Latter-Day Saints are creating a world where future historians will find Mormons everywhere. They are creating a world where the five-hundred-years-from-now versions of ourselves will find people of San Juan Province everywhere. They're not making themselves the new Israel like early Christians did, or even like the Boston Puritans who made their colony a beacon on a hill as a light unto the nations; instead they are making themselves a latter-day Israel, the unqualified obsession of the modern age.

This is the enrichment of ignorance.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Last Couple of Weeks in Links

Theft of art from a cemetery in Cairo. If you're in a position to circulate these images to a relevant audience, please do it. Hopefully the pieces can be recovered:

Two Historic Qiswa Were Stolen!

More from Cairo, earlier in the, uh, millennium:

Practical and Theoretical Medicine in Medieval Eastern Societies: The Case of the Cairo Genizah

Ancient Greeks, meet Ottoman Jews. Homer, now in Ladino:

Holocaust Survivor Revives Jewish Dialect by Translating Greek Epic

Another video about ancient Mesopotamians because yo mama... well, because my mama studies these guys:

Mysteries of the Ancient Unknown: Yo Mama Jokes

Cornell has very strong statements on civil discourse and I found them to be really useful in establishing a good classroom environment, so I'm always interested to see what other universities issue. This one isn't for general use in that way, but of interest nonetheless:

A Statement Concerning Personal Attacks on our Student, Sandra Fluke

"Where books are burned, in the end people will burn." Please let's don't go down that road, not here:

Rudolfo Anaya on Mexican-American Studies and Book Burnings

So excited that this has finally opened at the Angelika:

The Stuff of Life in Bitter Marginalia

Some thoughts on literary translation:

Tomas Transtromer's Poetry and the Art of Translation

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Miterm Course Evaluations

Today we asked the students in the intro lecture course the fill out midterm course evaluations. This was partially for our own informational purposes (ie, for the stated purpose of a course evaluation) and partially to give the students a sense of ownership in the course and combat what is sometimes a common perception in larger classes that we don't particularly care what they think or what they want to accomplish in the class.

The evaluation consisted of four fill-in-the-blank statements with three blanks each: 1) Three things I do to support my own learning in this course are... 2) Three ideas, concepts or skills I have learned so for in this course are... 3) Three things that I would like to do more of, less of, or differently are... and 4) Three things that I wouldn't change at all are... The purpose of the first two questions was really to remind students that they are partially responsible for their own learning and to remind them that they have actually learned things, thereby cutting down on responses along the lines of this course is useless or you make it too hard for us, responses that are neither constructive nor valid. We didn't completely eliminate those, but they were definitely not the overwhelming majority (or even close to it). I also got some really useful suggestions from a senior colleague about other ways to word those two prefatory questions that I'm anxious to try in the future.

The most useful outcome of this exercise was a number of comments that said that the class felt too much like parallel tracks and that aren't enough points of context between the Iberian and Latin American material. I think that that's a fair critique and something that can be modified in any of several ways for the rest of the semester and for future iterations of the course.

One slightly troubling thing was that several students wrote that to support their own learning, they google. I'm not quite sure how to handle that, except perhaps to spend more time teaching them about research resources and how to critically analyze pages that they find via Google. I'm really pleased, at least, that none of them wrote that they use Wikipedia. Small victories.

Some of the feedback was more typical student complaints and misperceptions of what this kind of course should look like. We got pretty consistent complaints about the amount of reading, which we'll address by telling them that 100 pages a week (and sometimes a lot less) is a completely reasonable amount for an introductory lecture class. (I'll not tell them that a friend of mine who is a high school teacher was outraged that our students would complain about that workload because she gives her students more than 100 pages to read per week.)

We also got a few negative comments about the fact that we both prepare written lectures and read them. I can't speak to why my colleague does it, but for me, it serves a lot of needs that allows me to be a better teacher: First and foremost, I stutter a little bit when I'm nervous. Having everything written out in front of me cuts down on that. It also allows me to model good rhetorical form. I like a carefully turned phrase, but I'm not one of those impresarios who can speak in purple prose off the cuff. Writing it all out allows me to be eloquent in a way that I couldn't be in speaking from notes. And the material that I'm presenting does have lots of moving parts: If I forget to explain what the caliphate is, the whole setup of the arrival of Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula is going to make a lot less sense. Writing it out means that I don't forget to mention any little details. I suspect that as I get more comfortable with the lecture format and with this set of lectures in particular I will be able to move at least partially away from the much more prepared format, but I'd definitely still defend its validity.

Overall, though, it's really good that they voice these concerns because it points out to us the places where we can offer a bit more meta-narrative and explanation . Ideal would be that we didn't have to do those things; but doing so isn't a bad mediation between our expectations and their perceptions.

In that same vein, though, we also got this gem (unedited for punctuation, grammar, etc.): "Why do you guys write an essay to lecture off of and read it verbatim. We would read the essay without a professor. Professors should lecture from memory if they really know what they're talking about." Where to begin even? Perhaps with the fact that this student couldn't read the "essays" without the professors because they wouldn't exist? Perhaps with the fact that if a student can't handle 100 pages of reading a week then, no, we really can't expect them to read another 20? Perhaps with the fact that writing it out keeps me from forgetting to mention something, not from forgetting it completely? Perhaps with excuse me??

I'm optimistic that the exercise will have served its purpose, but honestly, I'm a little bummed out, too, even if it was just one off-base, cocky, know-it-all comment.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

"My Name is Daniel Pearl... My Father is Jewish. My Mother is Jewish. I am Jewish."

I don't really want to write about politics or contemporary religion in this blog. I wrote about Occupy when it was on campus, because that seemed relevant to my academic life. I think I'm going to make an exception, though, now that the the latest story has emerged with the identity of another dead Jewish person who has been baptized in the Mormon Church. At some point, as academics, we have a responsibility to engage with the modern world. I've written before about my threshold for disregarding that modern world as being pretty high. But I've reached it. Maybe it's because I'm Jewish, maybe it's because I'm a scholar of religious conflict and coexistence, maybe it's because I miss the younger, invincible version of myself who fearlessly wanted to be a war correspondent. Whatever the reason, I'm climbing the privileged cloistered walls of the academy and of the middle ages to say this:

Cut it out. Now.

This is a man who died trying to bring us a story that would have made us all more human because it would have allowed us greater insight into the war being waged in our national name. He was courageous and he died professing his religion. He suffered for being a journalist, and he may have even suffered more for being a Jew. The title of the video that depicts his death was "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl." Those are the two things he died for: The story and the faith. Leave him, in death, with both of them.

Since Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, began his campaign for the Republican nomination for the presidency, the media have focused much more attention on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some of that media coverage has been deeply unfair: How many stories about Mormon sumptuary strictures included the phrase "magic underpants"? But some of it has also drawn attention to the deplorable practice of baptizing dead people as Mormons. Recently, most attention has gone to the posthumous baptisms of the parents of Elie Wiesel and Simon Wiesenthal, all of whom perished in the Holocaust, but it turns out that President Obama's mother was also baptized after her death from cancer. We are taught as children not to speak ill of the dead because they cannot defend themselves; surely co-opting and commandeering the spiritual lives of the dead who have no choice in associating themselves or not with a particular set of beliefs should fall under the same prohibition.

The pace of the internet and the blogosphere is such that I wanted to post something while this was still newsworthy and not a week or a month from now when I will have had more time to reflect in a historically-informed and rigorous fashion. I've been struggling for a while to formulate, in intellectual terms, what bothers me so much on the gut level about this practice of posthumously baptizing Jews as Mormons — that is, to perform my responsibility as an academic and offer some kind of thoughtful and contextual commentary on a serious issue of the contemporary world. On some level, my rational self argues back: They're dead. And none of it's real. So why get so exercised about it? But every time I see a story like this one, it eats away at me. I'm still shaking now thinking about Daniel Pearl. I'm not yet ready to function with my academic hat on. Not about this. I'm still just trying to put one foot in front of the other wearing my human hat. So there will be more about this topic in this space.

But for now, please, just leave my dead alone.


text:
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there’s nothing sadder than a bunch of wilting flowers. so we asked the experts behind national flower delivery service BloomThat for some tips on how to keep your bouquets looking fresh and well-arranged.

1. PICK SEASONAL FLOWERS. an easy way to help blooms last longer is to choose those that are at the peak of their growing season. some fun fall faves: peonies, calla lilies, tulips, sunflowers, zinnias + garden roses.

2. UPCYCLE YOUR CONTAINERS. jam jars, pitchers + decanters make great vases. flowers with a fuller bloom, like peonies, look best in containers with a wide base and small neck, while big bouquets need vases with a wide opening.

3. CUT AND REPEAT. cut stems at a 45-degree angle before arranging them in a vase with cool, clean water. refresh the water every other day and give the stems a fresh cut each time.

4. ADD SOME SUGAR. cane sugar, the primary ingredient in most flower food, helps blooms last longer and gives stems extra strength. add a teaspoon each time you refresh the water.

5. DROP A PENNY. this simple trick works best on tulips. when you notice the stems starting to curve down, drop a penny in the water and they should perk right up.

6. PLUNGE THIS BLOOM. if your hydrangeas are starting to droop, “plunge” their heads in cold water on waterfall mode for one minute. shake off excess water, then follow tips 3 + 4 to help them bounce back to life.

7. OPEN THOSE BUDS. if your arrangement is for a special event or occasion and you want the blooms to open up quickly (i.e. same day), use warm water in the vase and they’ll open at a faster pace.

BLOOM BONUS: get a free limited edition foaming hand wash when you order these fresh stems from BloomThat from august 29th to september 9th. valid while supplies last.

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12 things all eldest siblings are expected to do
You’re the free entertainment (Picture: Getty)

Whether or not you’re smarter than your younger sibling, there are certainly other expectations you’ve had to live up to as the first-born child.

1. You’re a free babysitter

12 things all eldest siblings are expected to do

Your early teen years were largely spent babysitting your younger sibling/s.

2. You’re supposed to be a good role model

After all, your younger siblings will idolise you for a little while, so you need to set a good precedent.

3. If the whole ‘role model’ thing doesn’t work out, you become a cautionary tale instead

‘Do you want to fail your exams/break your leg/get stupidly drunk like your big sister/brother?’

4. You’re the guinea pig for experimental parenting techniques

By the time the second kid shows up, your parents have honed their skills. But not before you were subjected to poorly-fitting nappies and being watched like a hawk.

5. You’re expected to be the mature one

From about the age of five onwards.

6. You’re basically a sheep dog for your siblings

Once your parents have you to run around after the younger ones, they can sit back and relax.

7. You’re expected to do everything before your younger sibling/s

16 things you’ll only know if you’re the eldest sibling

Which is fine when you’re kids, but once you’re both adults it becomes a bit harder. And if they manage to buy a house/get married before you, you’re going to get a lot of sympathetic looks.

8. You have to constantly watch and entertain your siblings

12 things all eldest siblings are expected to do

They’re young and stupid and likely to get themselves killed if you’re not there to get them out of trouble.

9. You will need to answer any number of awkward questions for them

For some reason, your younger sibling felt that it would be less embarrassing to ask you about sex than to ask your parents. Less embarrassing for who, you wonder? Because it certainly wasn’t less embarrassing for you.

10. You have to share

All your old toys and clothes are no longer yours. And when you’re the first-born, sharing only goes in one direction.

11. You’re supposed to be the successful one

You have a headstart on your siblings, so everyone expects you to be doing better than them.

12. And now people expect you to be the smart one too!

12 things all eldest siblings are expected to do

Life’s hard.

MORE: 21 times your sibling filled you with rage

MORE: The youngest sibling is the funniest, study reveals


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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Gomez out 6-8 Weeks

The Mets placed outfielder Carlos Gomez on the 15-day disabled list with a fracture of the hook of the hamate bone of his left hand. New York recalled David Newhan from New Orleans (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League. Gomez will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks. I am very sad to hear this.

Now Lastings Milledge might get his chance..... Brian Moritz reports that OF Lastings Milledge will join Double-A Binghamton today as he continues to rehab from a hand injury.

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Toxic Treat Warning For Dog Owners

MIAMI (CBS4) – Chancy, a 10-year old Pug… dead from kidney failure. Teri, dead from kidney failure. 9-year old Sampson, a Fox Terrier exactly the same. And Roja also died from kidney failure.

Keith Graves was Roja’s owner. “The vet said she was suffering from kidney failure and that she had a toxin in her kidney.”

What do all these dogs have in common? They all ate Waggin Train Chicken Jerkey treats.

Waggin Train is made in China by Nestle Purina. The company insists its products are safe. But according to the owners of the dogs that ate the Waggin Train Chicken Jerkey Treats, they all displayed similar symptoms: lack of appetite, lethargy, vomiting and diarrhea.

Candace Thaxton was Chancey’s owner.  “Chancey was one of the friendliest dogs.”

After Candace lost her beloved Pug, she got a new puppy, a mixed breed named Penny. Candace soon began feeding Penny Waggin Train Jerky Treats and suddenly Penny was vomiting just like Chancey had before dying.

“We took the puppy into the vet the next morning and the results came back that the puppy was in kidney failure,” said Candace.

Penny recovered, as did Sophie, who first got sick on a Saturday. Her owner stopped giving her the chicken jerky treats for two days… then started doling them out again.

“On Monday she started the lethargy and vomiting and the diarrhea all over again.”

Since 2007, the Food and Drug Administration has been actively investigating illnesses associated with chicken jerky treats made in China. The latest warning came in November of 2011. At that time, only 70 complaints had been filed. Today, the FDA reports nearly 1,000 such reports.

That spike prompted the FDA to send inspectors to China. So far, their report has not been made public. The FDA can only say that “no specific products have been recalled because a definitive cause has not been determined.”

Although dogs have fallen ill and even died all across the country…

“I’m devastated because I know it came from my hand. I fed him the treat that killed him,” said Sampson’s owner, Terry Safranek.

… we discovered that the product remains on local store shelves.

“I hope people get rid of them,” said Bonnie Rohn, Teri’s owner.

“I say shame on the pet stores and the companies that are having them made in China,” exclaimed Sophie’s owner, Sandi Stephens.

Dr.  Shannon Jordan, a veterinarian, says don’t wait for an official recall. “If you have a bag in your cupboard… throw it out.”

And don’t wait to get your dog help. “You may start off with simple signs of not eating and vomiting and it may progress to the point where we can’t… those kidneys can’t repair themselves,” said Jordan.

There are chicken jerky treats that are made in the USA, so read the packaging carefully if the “MADE IN CHINA” label is one you want to avoid.

Also, an online campaign is collecting signatures on a petition to demand the Chinese products be recalled.

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CBS4 Exclusive: VP Nominee Paul Ryan Discusses Florida

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Fresh off accepting the Republican nomination for Vice President, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan said he and running mate Mitt Romney can relate to Floridians and know exactly what they want: jobs.

“I spend a lot of my time here in Florida. My mom retired in Florida; she lives by Lauderdale-by-the-Sea,” Ryan said. “What we know is we’ve gotta get people back to work. The unemployment rate in Florida is 8.8 percent.”

Congressman Ryan also said the foreclosure problems in Florida, combined with lack of jobs, is what has to be fixed and that the blame for all of the problems rests at the feet of President Barack Obama.

“Look at the foreclosure rate, look at how many homes are underwater,” Ryan said. “Getting people back to work, by getting strong economic growth, we can help heal the problems, the wounds that have been imposed here under the Obama economy.”

The problem for Romney-Ryan has been how to attack the unemployment issue. States like Florida have seen unemployment improve, which the state’s Republican governor Rick Scott wants to tout.

However, when Scott touts Florida’s economy, it flies in the face of Romney-Ryan’s claim that unemployment is getting worse in the country. Rumors swirled earlier in the year the Romney campaign was asking Scott and other swing state Republican governors to not tout the state’s improving unemployment numbers.

Ryan’s mother, which he referenced in the interview, has become a central figure in the campaign because she uses Medicare. Ryan’s original budget plan sought to turn Medicare into a premium voucher program instead of the system that is in place today.

Watch CBS4’s exclusive one-on-one interview with V.P. nominee Paul Ryan in its entirety:

Ryan and Romney have been careful to say that while they will propose and seek to make major changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs, they say they won’t touch the benefits of those already on the systems.

“My mom organized her retirement around Medicare,” Ryan said. “She planned her life around this promise. This promise needs to be kept.”

Ryan also took aim at President Obama on what the Republicans have deemed is a “raid” of Medicare funds to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. Ryan once again neglected to mention that his own budget plans keep those same cuts in place to help sustain Medicare.

“When President Obama took $716 billion away from Medicare to pay for Obamacare, that’s unacceptable,” Ryan said. “We want to get rid of this raid of Medicare. Restore the promise, so that people who moved here like my mom, and organized their retirement around the government promises, we need to keep these promises. The best way to do it is reform it for my generation, for your generation.”

Ryan and Romney were campaigning in Florida and then will be splitting up to campaign across the country. Romney is planning a trip to Hurricane-stricken Louisiana as early as Friday. Romney accepted the GOP nomination for president Thursday night in Tampa.

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Miami-Dade NAACP Discusses Zimmerman Verdict Plan

MIAMI (CBS4) — The Miami-Dade NAACP is preparing it’s Zimmerman verdict plan.

On Thursday, the NAACP will hold a special meeting at the Martin Memorial AME Church at 147th Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard in Richmond Heights.

The goal is to unite the community to be calm, whatever the outcome.

Wednesday night, the NAACP brought together community leaders at the New Harvest Missionary Baptist Church on NW 27 Avenue just north of 119 Street.

NAACP Legal Redress Committee Chair Christopher Benajmin, a Miami lawyer, briefed the gathering on the trial.

“The defense has rested,” he said.  “We could have a verdict very soon.”

UM Law Professor Donald Jones said the Zimmerman case reflects a massive racial divide in the country.

“If Justin Bieber was wearing a hoodie, throwing gang signs, wearing gold, have a tattoo, but no one is going to shoot him on his way home from the 7-11.,” said the Professor.

“I think there is an unmistakable issue of racism,” he added.

George Zimmerman claims self defense in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and Wednesday night’s meeting talked about the fact Zimmerman claimed Florida’s “Stand your ground law” which led to a delay in his being arrested.

State Senator Dwight Bullard and State Representative Cynthia Stafford says the law needs to be fixed.

“Around Christmas time, if I’m looking for a parking place, waiting ten minutes and then some one scoots into the space I was waiting for, If I go up and knock on the window, I might be dead,” said Stafford.

In the audience, NAACP Youth Leaders, who will be sharing the message of “Keep Calm for Trayvon.”

“We want you to do the right thing when the verdict comes down,” said Louyankkah Justilien. “We don’t want you to go to jail.”

State Representative Barbara Watson says Miami doesn’t need a repeat of the riots 30 years ago. “In some areas, we have never overcome some of the tragedies that impacted our community in the 80’s,” she said.

“When we make smarter choices, it advances the cause of unity and peace and progress, not just for people of color, but for humanity as a whole,” added Pastor Marvin Lue of Miami’s Trinity CME Church.

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Firefighters Called To Hialeah Shooter’s Apt. As Families Mourn

HIALEAH (CBS4) — Sunday night, firefighters and police put on gloves and forced their way into the apartment where the Hialeah shooting rampage all started.

They assisted with helping clean up water from broken pipes.

Water had been leaking from the apartment onto the floors below.

Firefighters cleaned up the mess, but life here may never get back to normal.

The apartment is where police said Pedro Vargas lived with his mother.

He allegedly set a pile of cash on fire and then for some reason, started shooting and killing one person after another.

For a second night, candles burned outside the five-story apartment building in memory of six innocent lives lost.

Police said Pedro Vargas went on a shooting rampage killing five people who lived in his building and one man across the street.

“Too sad, too sad,” said Elsa Hernandez, a neighbor.

Across the street from the apartment complex, a memorial honors Carlos Gavilanes, a father who was coming home with his son when bullets flew at them.

Neighbors said he yelled for his son to run ahead, likely saving the boy’s life.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry so the child go in front,” said Hernandez.

The neighbors said the child watched his father die while, held him and cried for him.

Hernandez recalled the words he said. “No daddy, no die, no die, please, please, come back.”

The victims were parents and grandparents, sons and daughters and the youngest victim was just 17- years-old.

Pricilla Perez was killed along with her mother and stepfather when police said Vargas forced his way into their apartment.

Perez’s grandmother said she was a good student who wanted to be a pediatrician and her cousin has no doubt she would’ve been a success.

“She had her heart in the right place and it’s just…she had a good future coming toward her,” said Jovanny Perez, 17.

Families still can’t comprehend why and how all this happened.

Shamira Pisciotti’s parents Italo and Camira Pisciotti were building managers.  She said they were trying to put out a fire Pedro Vargas set in his apartment when they were shot.

Pisciotti said her parents were just trying to help Vargas’s elderly mother get out safely.

“My father tried to help the mother and he took out the gun and started shooting,” she said.

“Something you can’t repair it’s gone, all you have is a memory left,” said Perez.

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Graham Alexander Transitions From Broadway To The Music Industry

Graham Alexander, who starred in RAIN on Broadway in NYC stirred quite the attention of critics and audiences alike while performing in the show. These days however he is off doing what he does best as a singer/songwriter releasing an album in December (2011) accompanied with a new catchy video that is taking the internet by storm. Check out the album and video at! What do you think?

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Friday Finds: 7

Happy Friday everyone! This week has been a whirlwind-- probably because I was traveling for 9 hours on Tuesday and have been playing catch up ever since. That, plus I'm loving spending time with my family and being at home! Well, let's get to it. Here are my favorite finds this week.

1. Anthropologie is having an additional 25% off SALE items. There are so many great pieces you can use for Fall. Use the code SALEONSALE at checkout. Here are my faves:

2. J.Crew is having a 30% off SALE items, too! Use code PICKASALE.

3. Have you seen this LA home tour on Style Me Pretty Living?! It's drop dead gorgeous!

4. West Elm is holding a 15% off dining room sale. They have some great pieces!

Happy weekend, friends! Hope you enjoy it :)

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Thank you for stopping by! If you have a specific question, please email me at I always reply to emails! Have a blessed day! xoxo

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Utah Cafeteria Manager Who Tossed School Lunches Doesn’t Want Job Back (Tribune)

She calls board’s report misleading, and “it was easy to take it out on a 62-year-old lunch lady.” BY BENJAMIN WOOD THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 24, 2014 05:18PM UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2014 09:31AM A school nutrition manager said she was upset and angry after reading a report blaming her for the fallout when 17 students’ school lunches were thrown away at Uintah Elementary School in January. “I read the report,” Shirley Canham told … Continue reading

The Spying School Superintendent – SSS

TEXT OF THE LETTER SENT TO THE SUPERINTENDENT ABOUT HIS SPYING ACTIVITIES:     24 September 2014 DELIVERED VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Mr. McKell Withers, Superintendent Salt Lake City School District 440 East 100 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84111-1891 Re: GRAMA REQUEST: Monitoring Elected Officials   Superintendent Withers, It has been brought to my attention that you are utilizing School District resources to monitor my activities and communications. Can you please advise me, where in … Continue reading

GRAMA Request: Police Interrogation of Lunch Lady

  19 September 2014 HAND DELIVERED Salt Lake City Police Department Service Desk 475 South 300 East Salt Lake City, UT 84111 Re: GRAMA: Police Report     Dear SLCPD Service Desk, Pursuant to Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA), Utah Code §63g-2-204: I am requesting a copy of the police report in reference to Shirley Canham a former employee of the Salt Lake City School District. Specifically, she worked at Uintah Elementary School located at … Continue reading


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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Supreme Court Sides With Inmate in Cross-Gender Strip Search Case | The Blaze

Supreme Court Sides With Inmate in Cross-Gender Strip Search Case | The Blaze

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with an Arizona inmate who claimed that his civil rights were violated when a female cadet searched his genital area and buttocks. The court did not issue any comments on the ruling, though they agreed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that Maricopa County is liable for damages. CNN has more:

Charles Byrd had been arrested in 2004 and held as a pretrial detainee at a minimum-security jail in Phoenix. Corrections officers had ordered a nonemergency search of the entire housing unit, where some 90 inmates were detained. Officials had justified the search because of recent fights and suspicions of contraband in the facility…

Byrd claims the woman cadet — wearing latex gloves — conducted a search that lasted about a minute and included squeezing and kneading his private areas. The cadet testified the search lasted 10 to 20 seconds and was conducted in accordance with accepted procedures. The inmate filed a grievance and later a lawsuit, claiming his due process rights and his right against unreasonable searches were violated.

The Christian Science Monitor draws an interesting distinction between this case and the ongoing debate in America over TSA screenings and obtrusive search policies:

The case comes at a time of heightened public awareness of intrusive searches as a condition of air travel, including intimate pat downs and technology capable of simulating a strip search.

With the Supreme Court ruling that Byrd’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated, this case could open the door to others like it. What do you think? Is this ruling correct or did the jail have the right to frisk and search the inmate?

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Top 10...Christmas Traditions (Dec. 15, 2011)

This week on Top 10 our lovely host, Beth asks us to name our Top 10 Christmas Traditions.  I do not think this will be too hard but I will see where it goes.

1. As I blogged about here the tradition of the Advent Candles

2. It has become a tradition to visit Our Lady of the Snows. The
    place is so beautiful. Here a few photos from there.

The Grotto

A million lights

3. The kids and I always watched this on Christmas Eve or Day
     depending on when we had Christmas together. We still do! ;)

4. We also watch Charlie Brown Christmas, Miracle on34th St.,
     and many others. My favorite one though is this one:

5. Putting money in the kettles. There is this lady here locally that sings carols as you go in to the store. Makes me smile.

6. Singing Christmas carols to the neighbors. Yeah, we really do.
    A few years ago when I was in high school, I roped my friends
    in to going house to house to sing. When my kids got older, I
    took them and their friends.

7.  Since I married Tamirisc, it is the annual taking of our Christmas
     photo for our cards. This becomes craziness because Tamirisc
     usually does not cooperate. Oh, then there is our family
     Christmas photo! See what I mean?

Tamirisc goofing off in 2009 for our cards.

Tamirisc goofing off this year for our cards!

Christmas " Family Photo" prior to marriages in 2007

Can you say awkward Christmas "Family photo"  in 2009?

8. Listening to Christmas music.

9. Decorating! My Mother starts the weekend after Thanksgiving
    and almost up to her annual party.Traditionally, she did inside
    and Dad and I did outside ( to stay out of her way). I missed not
    being able to decorate with my Dad. Actually, he just kind of
    supervised. lol

One of the Nativity in our condo last year

My niece surrounded by some of my Mom's decor

Part of my snowman collection

10. Family!! There is nothing like family for the holidays. We are a
      rather large family as families go. This year though it is different
      as we lost two of our members this year and that is tough on us
      and certainly different. We miss them loads!

Extended family with Grandma 2009

Some of us with Dad last year
Peace...Naila Moon

  1. Sorry for the crazy editing. THis is the way it came out in Blogger. I had it all correct to begin with. Go figure.

  2. I know the losses are hard. Hopefully the happier memories will see you through.

Thank you for reading and dropping by. I always appreciate your comments. ~Naila Moon


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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Day 4 in Ethiopia

Joan babysat Ella while I was at the airport straightening out my cargo problem.
This is one of the guards at the guesthouse. We gave him an ExxonMobil cap and he loved it. He is so sweet with all the children.

Mekdalawit kept Ella this night so Joan and I could go out to dinner.
The cargo...the van is full of boxes too.
This was the most frustrating day I had in Ethiopia. I had sent tons of donations to Ethiopia by cargo when our whole family went at the end of April to visit Ella. Unfortunately the donations did not make it before we had to return in Doha. So bright and early Thursday morning I set out with a driver in a van to go to the cargo place at the airport and collect the donations. Joan stayed with baby Ella and took extra good care of her while I spent hours at the airport getting the cargo. The bright spot in the whole affair was a great macchiato I got at a cafe in the cargo terminal of the airport. I ended up having to pay lots of money since they had to store my items for so long. In the end, I successfully collected the donations...after going through a multi-step process, which includes the inspectors digging through your stuff and then stuffing it back in your containers.

Joan and I had planned to go out that night to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant, but after the long day I had we decided to just go to a local cafe near the guest house, Caribo. I had invited our driver to go to the restaurant to Ethiopian restaurant with us and serve as a guide. I didn't figure he would go with us to the Caribo restaurant. To my surprise he did and we ended up enjoying his company very much. He told us the story of how he met his wife and it was very sweet.

Wubeski stayed with Mekdalawit, the manager of the guest house while we were out and was sleeping when we got back. Mekdalawit is just one of the amazing young women that works for AAI.

The next day would be our last in Ethiopia.


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Middletons Tours

Tel: 01827 849 700

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Westonbirt National  Arboretum and Tetbury
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Knutsford Market - A pretty special event. One of the largest food, drink, art & craft markets in the UK. Fabulous shops and restaurants and a great buzz in the town!

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Get up close to the Wildlife at Longleat. Visit the beautiful Edwardian House festively decorated. Plus experience its iconic outdoor lantern display - The Festival of Light!

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Tatton Park Including 2 Course Lunch 'The Duncow'. This year the Mansion is themed around the 12 days of Christmas while the impressive gardens will be in their winter colours!

Bakewell Market & Chatsworth House at Christmas

Join us for a fabulous festive day. We visit firstly lovely Bakewell in the Peak District - its market day! Then 'Oh Dickens it's Christmas at Chatsworth'. Each season the house is transformed into a fabulous display of sparkling lights, decorated trees and displays of foliage.

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The delights of the Wye Valley - Blow away the Cobwebs - join us for Lunch and Sightseeing!

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A carpet of Snowdrops - The first sign of life after a long winter. Plus a 2 course Lunch at The Down Inn

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Bristol Including SS Great Britain
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One of the most historic ships in the World. Enjoy hearing the stories of life on board both upper and low deck. Be amazed as the tales unfold. Free time for shopping/lunch in Bristol

Brecon Beacons Railway Including Lunch
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Matilda The Musical - Manchester Palace Theatre

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I've been PUBLISHED by Stampington ... on page 60!

I've had a very exciting week!  Last Friday I received an email from GreenCraft, one of Stampington's magazines, that they were going to feature two of my art projects from a recent challenge in the fall issue of GreenCraft and they asked me to write the article.  I had created a set of seven containers for my art brushes using tin cans covered with images of birds, bird nests and eggs from two of Stampington's calendars.  I also created a banner using dresses cut from their calendars, adding sets of legs to some of the dresses and hanging them from a twine clothesline with little wood clothespins.  I spent several hours this weekend writing and editing this article, list of materials and tips, and will be sending it to them today.

Yesterday I headed out to run errands and drove up to my mailbox.  Inside was a thick magazine wrapped in clear wrap.  I thought it was a catalog and turned it over.  There on a yellow page was a letter from Stampington saying "Congratulations! You've been published in...Somerset Studio Gallery.  We would like to congratulate you on being published and hope you enjoy this complimentay copy that you can share with family and friends before it hits the newsstands!"  It went on to wish me luck in my artistic endeavors and hope that I would continue to share my creations with them.

I was puzzled and decided that they had sent me a copy of Somerset Studio Gallery by mistake.  I thought that because I was working with GreenCraft magazine that there was a mix-up.  Then in a few minutes, I began to wonder if my art really was in this issue of Somerset Studio Gallery.  I decided to look through the magazine..and on page 60, I found my art!

They published my poppy art that I submitted months ago.  This canvas was a combination of my original drawing and painting of poppies mixed with textured rocks made from house paint, scraps of paper and a quote from John Keats.  This is one of the few pieces I've done where I drew something and painted it; I usually use vintage photos.   (Check back here next week for the tutorial on using house paint for texture.)

I was so surprised - I almost couldn't believe it!  The first time you see your art published, you see your name and city, and you want to tell everyone!  I closed the magazine, drove towards Crystal River, then reached for my cell phone to call my family in Orlando and my friends with this good news.  I've been published!!!  But I had left my cell phone at home.  I made those calls last night and am sharing the news today with my Melange Team on Etsy, on Facebook and with this blog article.  I've been submitting art to Stampington for over two years and dreaming of being published some day.

So within five days, I've received news that my art will be published by Stampington two times.  The Summer 2011 issue of Somerset Studio Gallery where my poppy art is on page 60 will be in bookstores soon. The   GreenCraft fall issue with my article will be out August 1.  This feature will include links to my shops, my blog and my email too.

Thanks for sharing my celebration over my good news and joining in my happy dance!

Linda Harbin

MidwestieLady on Etsy
MidwestieLady on ArtFire
ISeeAnimals shop on ArtFire

  1. That is just marvelous midwestielady. I am so happy for you. I bet you are thrilled.

  2. Absolutely a thrill, Linda!! Congratulations, you are on your way, two pieces within days.....I knew you could do it!!

  3. Congratulations Linda! It's a beautiful piece, I can see why they published it!!!