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Currently viewing the tag: "Shape of Despair"
Chalice of Suffering – Lost Eternally Review
On April 24, 2019 By Cherd of Doom
"Grief can seemingly last forever. Whether you're actively working through it or just passively experiencing its various stages, grief is a marathon, not a sprint. Excitement, on the other hand, is always fleeting. Moments of joy, fright or rage flare up and burn out quickly. Excitement is not a state that can be sustained for long. Grief, sorrow, despondency, these can last indefinitely. There's a reason grindcore albums never break 30 minutes while funeral doom albums stretch well past an hour. If it takes time to experience, it will take time to express. But listening to the genre at its best isn't about being patient, as if there's some reward at the end. It's more about allowing yourself to be borne along by the slow process. Minneapolis, Minnesota's Chalice of Suffering—612, represent—is here to take you on a long journey through the deepest despair." Playing the long winter game.
Abyssic – High the Memory Review
On February 28, 2019 By Cherd of Doom
"Metal, as a rule, is an exercise in excess. Of the 'popular' musical styles, it's the loudest, the heaviest, the angriest, the most extreme. Thematically, topics of death and darkness are presented with superlative hyperbole. For non-fans, it's all about as subtle as a volcanic explosion. We, of course, know better. Within each metal sub-genre, bands fall on a relative spectrum ranging from 'tastefully restrained' to 'over-indulgent like, whoa.' But what does the latter look like when the sub-genre is already known for being the -est? Say, funeral doom? It looks something like Norway-based Abyssic's second full-length, High the Memory." The duck confit of doom.
Maestus – Deliquesce Review
On February 6, 2019 By Cherd of Doom
"Funeral doom is the cilantro of the metal world. Those who like it tend to love it. Others wonder why anyone would want to eat a little leaf that tastes like soap listen to a twenty-minute song with four beats per minute. On the occasions it's reviewed here, there are usually a few predictable cries from the peanut gallery of "Only listened to 30 seconds! Why this boring? Me want fast!" That's right. I made you sound like Cookie Monster." C is for Cookie and it's better than you deserve.
Obseqvies – The Hours of My Wake Review
On July 13, 2018 By Grymm
"I've branched out quite a bit over the years in my time with Angry Metal Guy & Affiliates, LLC., and over the years, you notice a bit of bleed-through when it comes to discovering new bands. Many are trying to push boundaries as hard and as far as humanly possible in hopes to get noticed by music reviewers such as myself. Others hope that by emulating a well-proven and time-tested sound but with as much conviction as possible, they can win us over by virtue of hooks, clever melodies, and just straight-up heart and soul. What the fuck am I getting at, you may ask? The latter is the path of the day here, as Finnish funeral doombearers Obseqvies hope to draw my eye (of solitude) with their debut album, The Hours of My Wake. With three songs at almost an hour in length, did they succeed?" Time, taking its toll on you.
Collapse of Light – Each Failing Step Review
On April 19, 2018 By Steel Druhm
"Personal loss and despair have always been prime fodder for doom metal. The style basically exists to simulate the experiences of grief, sorrow and deprivation, tearing open the worst emotions in human existence and daring us to confront them. When you stop and think about it, it's hard to understand why anyone would seek such music out. We will all suffer genuine loss. We will all hurt deeply and profoundly, and sometimes we will never truly move beyond it. Why then would we seek out facsimiles of such heartache? I don't have the answer, but I do know that Collapse of Light have come to expose all your deepest pain and sadness on their debut Each Failing Step." Triumph in failure.
Clouds – Departe Review
On November 16, 2016 By Steel Druhm
"Sometimes a piece of music is entirely about a single, specific feeling, be it rage, joy or sadness. Departe, the second album by atmospheric post-doom super group Clouds, is definitely about the latter, and it attempts to drown the listener in a vast sea of chilling, cloying melancholy without offering the slightest hint of hope or beam of light. Formed by members of The 11th Hour, Eye of Solitude, Rapture, Barren Earth and Shape of Despair, the line up reads like doom royalty and their vast experience helps make this one of the bleakest, most depressive listens of this year or any other." Got something in your eye? You're about to.
Madam X's Top 10(ish) of 2015
On December 26, 2015 By Madam X
"This year saw many a change... Old friends were lost and new friends were found, likewise there were job and career changes, but through it all AMG and its growing feeling of community shone bright and strong."
Jonne – Jonne Review
On July 29, 2015 By Steel Druhm
"I'm aware many readers think I pick promos to review based solely on the presence or absence of a sword wielding barbarian on the cover. I can certainly see the reasoning behind that school of thought, but you'll note there is no such angry warrior here, only a solitary dude in feathers and native garb. That dude is none other than Jonne Javela, vocalist and guitarist of Finnish folk-metal pioneers, Korpiklaani, and Jonne is his new solo album." Finland's woodland spirits are loose and feeling frisky.
Record(s) o' the Month – June 2015
"Summer is a time when thoughts inevitably turn to love, sun worshipping, cold beers and good friends. Maybe that's why the AMG staff was so egregiously delinquent with their Record(s) o' the Month selections for June. More likely it's because they're all a bunch of slack-jawed yokels with the work ethic of a entitled Siamese cat." The summer is here but the AMG staff is not, so forgive the lateness of this lot.
Shape of Despair – Monotony Fields Review
On June 18, 2015 By Jean-Luc Ricard
If sitting alone in a darkened room, lighting a few candles, uncorking a good claret, and settling in for an uninterrupted hour of beauteous funeral doom sounds like your idea of a fun night in, you're probably already a fan of Shape of Despair. Discovering that they were finally releasing a new LP after eleven years of waiting left me pert with anticipation." Slow and low, that is the tempo.


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Laccognathus is an extinct genus of amphibious lobe-finned fish from Europe and North America. They existed from the Middle Devonian to the Late Devonian (around 397.5 to 360 mya). The name comes from Greek for 'pitted jaw'.

Description
Species of Laccognathus were characterized by the presence of three large pits (fossae) on the external surface of the lower jaw which may have had sensory functions. It is the origin of the genus name, from Greek λάκκος ('pit') and γνάθος ('jaw'). Laccognathus grew to approximately  in length. They had very short dorsoventrally flattened heads, less than one-fifth the length of the body. Like other sarcopterygians, their fins arise from pairs of fleshy lobes.

The skeleton of Laccognathus was structured such that large areas of the skin were stretched out over solid plates of bone. This bone was composed of particularly dense fibers—so dense that cutaneous respiration (exchange of oxygen through the skin) was not a likely trait exhibited by Laccognathus. Rather, the dense ossifications may have served to retain water inside the body as Laccognathus traveled on land between bodies of water.

Taxonomy
Laccognathus are classified under the family Holoptychiidae in the extinct order Porolepiformes. They are not direct ancestors of tetrapods like the clade Tetrapodomorpha, but instead belong to the clade Dipnomorpha. Their closest living relatives are the members of the subclass Dipnoi (lungfishes).

Species
The following are the species classified under Laccognathus. A fourth undescribed species recovered from the Middle Devonian of Latvia may exist.

†Laccognathus panderi Gross, 1941
Recovered from the Middle Devonian and Late Devonian formations of various parts of eastern Europe.
†Laccognathus grossi Vorobyeva, 2006
Recovered from the Middle Devonian Gauja Formation of Latvia.
†Laccognathus embryi Downs et al., 2011
Recovered from Late Devonian Fram Formation of Ellesmere Island, Canada, the same locality from which Tiktaalik was found.

See also

 Holoptychius
 Sarcopterygii
 List of sarcopterygians
 List of prehistoric bony fish

References

Porolepiformes
Prehistoric lobe-finned fish genera
Extinct animals of North America
Fossil taxa described in 1941

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The things we lose
So many people I know are struggling with the ache of loss right now -- if not mourning a loved one's death as I am, then the grief that comes from coping with a world pandemic that goes on and on, with climate changes that are escalating, with the unfathomable loss of people, places, and entire species we witness daily. For me, even the small ordinary losses (objects mislaid, papers misplaced, plans cancelled and opportunites missed) seem to bite a little sharper than they used to do, because loss is cumulative. A lost necklace is only a lost necklace, of course, but when such a small thing can bring me to the edge of tears I know it's not an object I am grieving but every damn loss of the last two years.
In her book A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit writes:
"It is the nature of things to be lost and not otherwise. Think of how little has been salvaged from the compost of time of the hundreds of billions of dreams dreamt since the language to describe them emerged, how few names, how few wishes, how few languages even, how we don't know what tongues the people who erected the standing stones of Britain and Ireland spoke or what the stones meant, don't know much of the language of the Gabrielanos of Los Angeles or the Miwoks of Marin, don't know how or why they drew the giant pictures on the desert floor in Nazca, Peru, don't know much even about Shakespeare or Li Po.
"It is as though we make the exception the rule, believe that we should have rather than that we will generally lose. We should be able to find our way back again by the objects we dropped, like Hansel and Gretel in the forest, the objects reeling us back in time, undoing each loss, a road back from lost eyeglasses to lost toys and baby teeth. Instead, most of the objects form the secret constellations of our irrecoverable past, returning only in dreams where nothing but the dreamer is lost. They must all still exist somewhere: pocket knives and plastic horses don't exactly compost, but who knows where they go in the great drifts of objects sifting through our world?
"Once I found a locket with a crescent moon and a star spelled out in rhinestones on one face, unreadably intricate initials on another, and two ancient photographs inside, and someone must have missed it terribly but no one claimed it, and I have it still. Another time, traveling down a river in one of the last great wildernesses, a roadless place the size of Portugal, I lost a sock early in the trip and a pair of sunglasses later, and I think of them littering the wilderness so clear of such clutter, there still or found by someone who must have wondered about them as I did the woman with the locket.
"On that trip I leaned over the side of the raft and stared straight down for hours at the floor of the river whose name almost no one knows that flows into another little-known river, stared at thousands of stones sliding by, gray, pink, black, gold, under the clearest water in the whole world, floating for miles and days on water I drank straight out of the river. Material objects witness everything and say nothing. Animals say more. And they are disappearing.
"That things should be lost to our knowledge is one thing, in which we don't know where we are or they are; that things should be lost from the earth is another."
In her wise book Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams writes:
"The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands."
Wild mercy for the planet. Wild mercy for ourselves. The dark of the year approaches, dear friends. Let's be kind to each other right now.
The passages above are quote from A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (Viking, 2005) and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family & Place by Terry Tempest Williams (Pantheon, 2000). All rights reserved by the authors.
A related posts: On the language of loss and love, The writer's god is Mercury, and The dance of joy and grief.
in Loss, Thoughts during a pandemic | Permalink | Comments (6)
Guest Post: Tenderness, the Breaker of Curses
Continuing on with the theme of water, today's Guest Post is by my friend Briana Saussy. Bri is a writer, teacher, and community-maker based in Texas, deeply rooted in the myth & fairy tale tradition. She's the author of Making Magic and Star Child, both of which I highly recommend. In the following piece, she looks at the symbolic, mythic, and magical connection between water and tenderness. After the long, long months of the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the world on fire in too many places both literally and metaphorically, this reminder be tender to ourselves and others is timely indeed. Bri writes:
"To be cursed is to be dried up, devoid of moisture and suppleness, brittle and lacking the essential ingredient of life: fresh, circulating water. The most harmful afflictions of body, mind, spirit, and soul are those that seek to take away, ignore, and otherwise exploit our ability to be tender towards ourselves and towards one another. The remedy for this affliction may take many different forms, but always includes blessing what is tender within you.
"In many different cultures, the evil eye is understood primarily as a 'drying' condition, one in which your money dries up, your health dries up, your fertility and verve for life also dry up. In opposition, to be blessed is to be moist, supple, full of flowing water, clean, bathed, and tender like new shoots of grass, tender like fresh green wood sprouting forth from a tree, tender like the water filled skin of a newborn baby nestled up safely in your arms. Losing one's tenderness, therefore, is tantamount to losing one's life.
"The loss of tenderness and thus of life is not difficult to achieve. Let yourself be taken over by anger, envy, jealousy, hatred, and fear, and you will know how easy it is to do. You can observe for yourself the negative consequences of being taken over by these emotions, how they cause a withering and a contraction in your life and relationships. But even so, we may come to doubt the need for tenderness. Why be tender in a world and in a time that seems so often to only reward the tougher-than-nails? How does one cultivate tenderness in the face of violence, bloodshed, and injustice? What is tenderness other than one more vulnerability, easily overcome by those who are 'stronger'? How do we stay tender in times such as these and how do we bless our tender places?
"We bless our tender places by calling in the waters. We call in the waters so that we might cry good and salty tears, make nourishing soup, wash the dust off our clothes, and irrigate the seeds we have planted. So that we may drink of the waters and bathe in them, washing ourselves clean, literally renewing ourselves. We call in the waters from within, reaching deep and accessing the sacred well that may be blocked or polluted, but is simply waiting to be set free, waiting to be cleansed so that it can run, rush, and spring forth from the solid ground of your very life.
"Tenderness -- and the circulating life waters corresponding to it -- points to the deepest parts of our resilient nature. Resilience is a power, and it is what makes for much needed hardiness of life and soul.
"Sometimes it seems that there is no water to call in, no source of nourishment, of life-celebrating and life-protecting magic. But finding the water, finding the sources of life and nourishment, is not an easy task. Especially not when you look around and all you see is hard, sun-baked rock, packed gravel, and too much asphalt.
"I have lived most of my life in desert regions, and so I know from firsthand experience the water that is there, hundreds of feet under the ground and flowing in madly rushing rivers or collected in fathomless lakes. You don't see it, but it is there. When the territory around looks most inhospitable to tenderness, then you know that you are in exactly the right spot to fill yourself up with all that gives life, all that keeps you supple, all that keeps you tender. You may have to dig for it, you might have to learn to collect it drop by drop from precious rainfalls, you may end up going on a pilgrimage to find it; but it is there, waiting to be called upon.
"To bless tenderness is also to protect it. In desert areas that are hot, arid, and dry, the culture is one of toughness, and even the plants with their prickles and thorns seem to just be waiting for their chance to chew you up and spit you out. If you neglected to look closely, you would be forgiven for thinking that toughness and hardness is all that matters. But soulful seekers do look closer, and what we find are that the plants with the best boundaries are the same that have the most tender, water-filled skins. They give us the blessing way. Find the water, find the sources of life, and when you do, keep them safe; build a good boundary around them. Don't just let anyone access your tenderness, choose actively and with discernment who and when and where receives the privilege of your softness.
"To bless our tender places is to ask for and gladly accept help. In many cultures there are Gods and Holy Helpers who bring the waters of life, bring the rains, bring the thunderclouds that roll in with their big noise, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and reminding you that you are very much alive, creating with every breath you take, holding an infinite cosmos within your very body. We are not islands meant to do it all on our own. We have two-legged and four-legged, winged, clawed, fanged, and finned relatives who are here and ready and willing to help point us in all the right directions; so we look to them and we listen.
"Finally, tenderness is meant to be shared. Like water, it requires a solid vessel, the boundary of the cacti, to keep it stored up safely; but once we are filled up with it we cannot help but overflow. The overflow happens in many ways -- through tears and laughter and deep kisses and long touches, through creative work and vibrant dance, and the sweet sound of the saxophone or drums under the stars. These are all medicines, results from the blessing and safe keeping of your tenderness, that literally spill forth and out into the world much like water, nourishing much like water, and restoring so many that are on the brink of death back into life.
"Tenderness is no small thing. It is, in truth, a source of the greatest strength. It is not the weak spot or the pain point to be covered up, but rather a sign post, the tracks in the snow, that carry you forward to your own headwaters, no matter where it leads. So remember that anytime the flow feels blocked, anytime your skin feels shrunken and life feels too dry, relationships too brittle, and your broken places too yawning and jagged; remember when you feel raw and exposed, vulnerable, or too tender, remember what lessons tenderness has to teach you about your own hardiness, your own deeply resilient nature. It may be time to bless your most tender places and call forth the waters once more."
The paintings today are by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), an English artist in the "Second Wave" of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
All rights to the text above reserved by Briana Saussy. Related posts: Water, wild and sacred and Let's talk about magic.
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Re-kindling the fire within
Here's another older post on dealing with creative burn-out: specifically the kind of burn-out that comes during or after a period of trauma (illness, tragedy, grief, etc.). We've all been going through collective trauma since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that journey isn't over yet. What kind of art will come out of it? How might it change (or is it already changing) the kind of work we do? And what about artists (and there are many) who feel unable to work at all, the creative well gone dry under the pressures of all that we've been living through? There are no simple answers, of course, but the discussion is one worth having. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the Comments below.
Information on the pictures here can be found in the picture captions (run your cursor over the images to see them).
In her beautiful Guest Post on this blog, Nomi McLeod discussed the ways "The Handless Maiden" fairy tale spoke to her at a difficult time of life, and how the art she created based on the tale both documented her journey through the dark of the woods and helped her to comprehend it. This is a subject that particularly interests me: the means by which writers, painters, and other artists respond to trauma, crisis, and grief, alchemizing hard experience into story, image, and other creative works.
There are so many different ways this occurs. Sometimes the transformation from life experience to art is immediate and direct: an outpouring of creative energy in the middle of the crisis as it unfolds. Frida Khalo's self-portraits are one example of this, sometimes painted from the confines of her sickbed; another is the "savage creative storm" that caused Rilke to write Sonnets to Orpheus upon hearing the news of a family friend's death. I had a similar experience once myself, after learning that my stepfather had died: working night and day for almost two weeks, I produced, unplanned and almost without conscious thought, my "Surviving Childhood" series of drawings. (These are very large charcoal drawings made on rolls of butcher's paper, and unsuitable for reproducing here.) The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde is another example of work produced in the eye of the storm; as is the art created by Henri Matisse after an operation left him bed- and chair-bound; Angelo Merendino's "The Battle We Didn't Choose," a photographic response to his wife's diagnosis with breast cancer; Hannah Laycock's "Perceiving Identity" series about living with multiple sclerosis; the final essays of Oliver Sacks, written in the last months of his terminal illness; and the work of Mohammed Al-Amari and other Syrian artists documenting the ongoing refugee crisis....to name just a few.
It is rare, however, that a serious illness or other crisis allows the time, space, and temper of mind required for art-making, and so the second category is a larger one: art in response to a crisis that has ended, but that still feels somehow unresolved. Through this kind of work, we return to the dark parts of our lives and transform our muddles of emotion and reaction into something more ordered, more comprehensible, more universal...perhaps even beautiful, if painfully so. Nomi's "Handless Maiden" falls in this category, as does the unflinching work of German artist Käthe Kollwitz in response to World War I, or the devastating "Hiroshima Panels" of Japanese artists Iri & Toshi Maruki. More recent example include Beckie Kravetz's powerful "Witness" sculpture installation; Meg Zivahl-Fox's "Nettles and Deliverance" collages (using fairy tale imagery in response to childhood trauma); Richard Johnson's heart-breaking "Weapon of Choice," a photographic series on verbal abuse and bullying (in response to his own childhood experiences); and CELL, a puppetry project exploring Motor Neurone Disease. (Two of the puppeteers behind the project lost family members to MND.)
There are many fine examples of art born from hard experience in literature too, especially in the genre of personal essay and memoir, including If This is a Man by Primo Levi, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Early Spring by Tove Ditlevsen, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Dideon, One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman, Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro, Hillbilly Gothic by Adrienne Martini, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Wintersen, The Color of Water by James M. McBride, Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, I Want to Be Left Behind by Brenda Peterson, The Woman Who Watches Over the World by Linda Hogan, Education by Tara Westover, My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell, The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, Tristimania by Jay Griffiths, Heavy Light by Horatio Clare, A Still Life by Josie George, and numerous others. When we turn to the field of poetry, there are almost too many examples to list, but I'll mention two that have touched me deeply: Jane Kenyon's poems on her battle with depression (found in Constance and Otherwise), and Jane Yolen's The Radiation Sonnets, written during her husband's treatment for cancer, and after his death. I also recommend "Finding Poetry in Illness," a moving article by Jennifer Nix.
Personal experience is often used in the creation of fiction too, of course, although here the alchemical magic is so strong that we're not always aware (nor should we be aware) of the ways in which strands of the author's own life may be woven with other material to create the tapestry of a novel or story. One interesting example is Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, in which the main character shares the author's name and some of the details of her life -- and yet this is a work of fiction, not memoir, with autobiographical elements skillfully juggled and altered in the service of art. Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is another excellent book of this type, as is Heinz Insu Fenkl's gorgeous Memories of my Ghost Brother: published as a novel in one edition and as a "magical realist memoir" in another, but actually falling into the interstices between those two literary forms. A fourth example is Jo Walton's wonderful fantasy novel Among Others -- which, she is clear to note, is not straight autobiography with magical trimmings but a "mythologization" of her Welsh childhood and family dynamics, written (to use Rilke's phrase) in a "savage create storm" of 36 writing days.
Although powerful work can be born of hard life experience, there are also times when calamity silences us: when shock, or grief, or sheer emotional exhaustion serves to snuff out one's creativity altogether. For those of us used to moving through life by breathing in the world and breathing out art, this silence is an unsettling, even terrifying thing. It is not quite the same thing as depression; it's more like finding the inner room where we go to create is now shuttered and bolted against us. It's like trying to speak without language. It's like living without breathing. It's not living at all.
Perhaps the alchemical process of creativity has not stopped altogether at such times; perhaps it's still moving, but moving so slowly it does not appear to be moving at all. Our creative daemon has gone underground: not hibernating but germinating, like a seed buried deep in the frozen earth, gathering strength and preparing to break through the soil when the proper time comes. Meanwhile, the winter drags on and we move through our days unaware of things stirring below. Winter is bleak, and endless, and we worry: What if this time the spring doesn't come?
I think of trauma as cold, and sharp, with edges that hurt when you bump up against it. It's the sliver of glass from the Snow Queen fairy tale, and the kiss that turns Kay's heart to ice, making him numb to love, to passion, to everything that he once held dear. And yet, even numbness has its use. In a crisis, sometimes we just have to keep moving, putting one foot in front of another, weighted with burdens too heavy to carry but which we must not put down. At such times, it can feel like a mercy to leave the weight and heat of emotion behind us. There are decisions to make and things to be done and miles to cross before we can sleep; there's no time for emotion, no room for it in the basket of boulders we carry.
The problem here is that inspiration arises from an inner fire that feeds on all the stuff our lives: both the dark and the bright, our emotions included. Take emotion away and the fire diminishes. It sputters. It goes out altogether. Numb, like Kay, we may think we are fine, we may think we are coping magnificently... but we sit down to work and the fire just isn't there. And that's hardly surprising.
What is a surprise (or so it was to me) is that the end of a crisis and the thawing of the heart are two things that don't always happen in tandem. A long illness has ended, or a painful problem resolved, or grief has finally loosened its grip and we've emerged from the deep dark forest at last, ready to live Happily Every After...or at least to enjoy a hard-won period of calm and creative renewal. Instead, we just sit there, frozen and numb, not even moving forward now, creativity gone (and our sense of self with it), smiling tightly when dear friends say: At last it's all over! We're glad that you're back!
But in fact, we're not back, at least not fully. Spring is here, but our souls are still clenched underground. We must call them back up to the light.
In an earlier series of posts, we looked at illness as a mythic/metaphoric journey to the Underworld and back -- and I'd like to propose that the journey through crisis or grief might be viewed in a similar manner. The process unfolds in mythic time, or wild time, not on clock time, on schedule, on human demand. It's a journey as perilous as it is profound and it needs to be acknowledged. It needs to be honored. We cannot return from the mythic Underworld as precisely the person we were when we started, and we do not return as the same artist either. Coaxing the soul back up to the sun involves learning just who it is we've become, and what fairy tale gifts we have brought from below. This post-crisis process cannot be rushed; it needs quiet reflection, solitude, time. And yet time, in our pressured and fast-paced world, is precisely what we rarely have.
For those of us working professionally in the arts, the strictures of the marketplace require that work be produced in a regular manner. We spend years mastering the discipline required to create works of art to schedule and deadline -- and when that discipline fails us, when the fire's been dampened and the work just will not come, what on earth does one do?
I wish I had an easy answer to that question...or even a difficult one. But every artist is different, every journey is different, and each of us must discover our personal way of re-kindling the fire (though in a perfect world, a charitable foundation aimed at giving working artists the time and resources to do so would not go amiss). What does help, I think, is to recognize the process occurring; to be patient (both with yourself and with others' reactions); and to accept, without shame, the problems that arise when deep healing processes conflict with careers run on clock-time, not soul-time. It also helps to know that other creative artists have gone into the dark before us, and returned, and then burned brighter than ever -- often using the Underworld's painful gifts to enable their very best work.
One book I keep returning to lately is "An Unreal House Filled With Real Storms" by Elizabeth Knox: a slim volume containing an essay composed for the 2014 Inaugural Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture. In this powerful piece, Elizabeth weaves the story of her mother's final illness and several other hard life experiences into reflections on writing, on the nature of genre, and on the work of her friend Margaret Mahy. The essay has been a touchstone for me not because it gives me concrete answers or instructions to follow in times of hardship, but because it shows how another writer, and one I respect, has grappled with such issues too. I've re-read my copy so many times now -- usually on coffee breaks in the woods -- that it's worn, leaf-strewn, coffee-stained, and dog-eared at favorite passages...such as this one, in which Elizabeth relates a conversation with her husband, Fergus:
"A few weeks back I was trying to explain to Fergus how I see things differently now. How my world view has changed. It had been heroic, by which I mean that everything, obligingly, had a shapeliness -- everything fell into story -- and revealed itself that way, becoming beautiful, and habitable for heroes. Then I got sad; sad for such a sustainable period of time that my world view became an abject one.
"The context of the conversation was this: what the hell could I say in my Inaugural Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture, with the tectonic plates of my world view still in motion? What could I say when, as I saw it, it was my job to be inspiring? How was I ever to find inspiration in my discouraged soul?
"In trying to communicate this to Fergus, I began thinking about what I learned from my mother -- and not from her death. What she tried, from my infancy, to consciously impart: the vital goodness of kindness and civility in life."
Kindness and civility, yes. Potent magic for the thawing of hearts.
Everyone goes through the deep dark woods at some point in life; artists are not unique in this. But the impact of the journey on the work we do, and even on our ability to do it, makes the questions we ask in trauma's wake somewhat different than in other professions. After a searing experience, how do we re-open ourselves to inspiration? How can we bear such vulnerability? And yet, if we stay protectively closed, how will we bear the alternative: living our lives with our fires banked and the door to art locked against us?
With these thoughts in mind, I came across the following passage by M.C. Richards, from her book Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. She's talking about love, but her words seem to me to apply to creativity as well. (For some of us -- and Richards is one, I think -- they are two sides of the same coin.) She asks:
"How are we to love [and how are we to create] when we are stiff and numb and distinterested? How are we to transform ourselves into limber and soft organisms lying open the world at the quick? By what process and what agency do we perform the Great Work, transforming lowly materials into gold? Love, like its counterpoint, Death, is a yielding at the center...figured forth in intelligent cooperation, sensitive congeniality, physical warmth. At the center the love must live.
"One gives up all one has for this. This is the love that resides in the self, the self-love, out of which all love pours. The fountain, the source. At the center. One gives up all the treasured sorrow and self-mistrust, all the precious loathing and suspicion, all the secret triumphs of withdrawal. One bends in the wind. There are many disciplines that strengthen one's athleticism for love [and creativity]. It takes all one's strength. And yet it takes all one's weakness too. Sometimes it is only by having one's so-called strengths pulverized that one is weak enough, strong enough, to yield. It takes the power of nature in one which is neither strength nor weakness but closer perhaps to virtu, person, personalized energy. Do not speak about strength and weakness, manliness and womanliness, aggressiveness and submissiveness. Look at this flower. Look at this child. Look at this rock with lichen growing on it. Listen to this gull scream as he drops through the air to gobble the bread I throw and clumsily rights himself in the wind. Bear ye another's burdens, the Lord said, and he was talking law.
"Love is not a doctrine, Peace is not an international agreement. Love and Peace are beings who live as possibilities in us."
During periods when I've been unable to cross through the doorway into the room of creation, I've taken courage in knowing that others have also stood at that threshold and found a way in. Their entrance might not be one I can use, but I've learned I am capable of finding my own.
If you've been on that journey, if you are on it now, then this is the thing that I want most to tell you: You have my compassion, and you have my respect. The winter does end. Hearts thaw. Seeds grow. A spark hits dry tinder, and the fire roars.
Pictures: (from top to bottom) "The Two Fridas" & "Tree of Hope, Remain Strong" by Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), and a photograph of Kahlo painting while recovering from one of her many operations. "The Sorrow of the King" by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) , and a photograph of Matisse at work even though confined to bed."Hunger: Mother & Sleeping Children" and "Survivors: Widows & Orphans" by Käthe Kollwitz' (1867-1945). "Rescue," one of the Hiroshima panels of Iri & Toshi Maruki. Recommended works of memoir, poetry, & fiction. Figures from "Witness," a sculptural installation by Beckie Kravetz. A photograph by Angelo Merendino from The Battle We Didn't Choose project. "Stray" by Jeanie Tomanek. "The Angel of Moving Safely Through the Darkness" from my Angel series of paintings. "Life Vs. Death" and "Cradle" by Nomi McLeod. "Bunny maiden with scars," from one of my hospital sketchbooks. "The Tree of Doors" from Nettles and Deliverance by Meg Zivahl-Fox. The Victoria University Press edition of the Inaugural Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture by Elizabeth Knox. "Crumbs" by Jeanie Tomanek. "Crossing an Iced-Over Stream" and "After the Deluge" by Gina Litherland. "Coyote Woman" from my Desert Spirits series.
Words: The passage by Elizabeth Knox is from An Unreal House Filled With Real Storms (Victoria University Press, 2014). The passage by M.C. Richards (1916-1999) is from Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person (Wesleyan, 1989). All rights by Elizabeth Knox and the estate of M.C. Richards. All rights to the words and pictures above reserved by the authors and artists or their estates.
in From the archives, Thoughts during a pandemic | Permalink | Comments (28)
On creative burn-out & the practice of swaling
I wrote the following post ten years ago, and had long forgotten about it until Lisa Leslie, Tiffany Trent, and Stephanie Burgis kindly shared it on social media this week. (Many thanks to the three of you.) After a year and a half of living with the stresses, fears, and sorrows of a world pandemic, and the many changes it has brought to our daily lives, and thus to our art-making, quite a lot of people I know are feeling burned-out right now, their creativity flagging. If you're one of them, I hope these words from painter Jane Champagne and others might help....
In a previous post on artists' blocks and creative burn-out, I quoted the Canadian artist Jane Champagne (1930-2008) as saying, "Sometimes, if you just wait it out, and go on about your business without trying to force a solution, it comes -- almost as if the old artist has to die before the new one can be born."
Australian artist Christina Cairns responded: "I especially like the Jane Champagne quote. It reminds me of the affinity between artist and Shaman, that a kind of death needs to take place for the new life to begin. And also of that need not just for solitude, but of 'fallow' time to allow the seeds of new ideas to emerge into the light in their own time."
This in turn reminded me of am article I wrote some years ago, called "The Dark of the Woods," which discussed the importance of journeys into darkness and despair in myths and shamanic traditions world-wide. Here's the opening passage:
" 'In the mid-path of my life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood,' writes Dante, in The Divine Comedy, beginning a quest that will lead to transformation and redemption. A journey through the dark of the woods is a motif common to fairy tales: young heroes set off through the perilous forest in order to reach their destiny, or they find themselves abandoned there, cast off and left for dead. The road is long and treacherous, prowled by wolves, ghosts, and wizards -- but helpers also appear along the way, good fairies and animal guides, often cloaked in unlikely disguises. The hero's task is to tell friend from foe, and to keep walking steadily onward."
"In older myths, the dark road leads downward into the Underworld, where Persephone is carried off by Hades, much against her will, and Ishtar descends of her own accord to beat at the gates of Hell. This road of darkness lies to the West, according to Native American myth, and each of us must travel it at some point in our lives. The western road is one of trials, ordeals, disasters and abrupt life changes -- yet a road to be honored, nevertheless, as the road on which wisdom is gained. James Hillman, whose theory of 'archetypal psychology' draws extensively on Greco-Roman myth, echoes this belief when he argues that darkness is vital at certain periods of life, questioning our modern tendency to equate mental health with happiness. It is in the Underworld, he reminds us, that seeds germinate and prepare for spring. Myths of descent and rebirth connect the soul's cycles to those of nature."
It's hard, however, to descend to the Underworld with equanimity. I have no fear of darkness per se, but what I hate is the feeling of emptiness that marks creative burn-out for me: a flatness, a lack of enthusiasm for paint or words or light or color or any of the daily, common things that usually fill my heart to bursting with beauty, wonder, and inspiration. It's a kind of death, living in that grey, muffled Underworld where I can see, but not touch, the bright world above. Each time I descend, I despair utterly, forgetting all that I know about myth, and life, and art. Forgetting that there's nothing to truly fear down here. The Underworld is not one's permanent destination; it's simply the mythic/shamanic/creative passageway to next part of the cycle, rebirth: the ascent to a new self, to a new stage of life, and to a new way of making art.
Going back to the "Dark of the Woods" article:
"Rites-of-passage stories...were cherished in pre-literate societies not only for their entertainment value, but also as mythic tools to prepare young men and women for life's ordeals. A wealth of such stories can be found marking each major transition in the human life cycle: puberty, marriage, childbirth, menopause, death. Other rites-of-passage, less predictable but equally transformative, include times of sudden change and calamity such as illness and injury, the loss of one's home, the death of a loved one, etc. These are the times when we wake, like Dante, to find ourselves in a deep, dark wood -- an image that in Jungian psychology represents an inward journey. Rites-of-passage tales point to the hidden roads that lead out of the dark again -- and remind us that at the end of the journey we're not the same person as when we started. Ascending from the Netherworld (that grey landscape of illness, grief, depression, or despair), we are 'twice-born' in our return to life, carrying seeds -- new wisdom, ideas, creativity and fecundity of spirit."
Yet it's hard not to panic when one finds oneself in an artistically fallow period; it's hard (at least for me) to accept, even to welcome, this part of the creative cycle. "I've lost my spark, my inspiration," I wailed recently to my friend and writing-buddy Wendy Froud. "I don't seem to even want to write anymore. What if I've lost the spark for good? I'll have to get a job at the hardware store...and I'll probably just suck at that too...."
"Your muse will come back," Wendy assured me, laughing, "and she'll come sooner if you turn your back on her. Do something else. Take a walk. Read a book. This happens to me too; it happens to everyone. But I find if I do something else for a bit, inspiration comes back in no time."
"I've lost all my fire," I whined to my husband. "I've never felt this empty before."
"Sure you have," he reminded me patiently. "It happens whenever you're over-tired, or over-stressed, or when some new idea is gestating in the dark. Listen to your body, listen to your spirit. They're both telling you that you need some time off. The fire will come back, it always does. And it will come back stronger than ever. "
He's right, of course; I have been through this before...and you'd think by now I would recognize the pattern. As Jane Champagne says: sometimes the old artist has to die before the new artist is born. And the "death" part takes as longs as it takes. It doesn't care about schedules and deadlines.
As younger writers or artists, with energy to spare, we often pushed ourselves to produce and produce and produce, living on caffeine and nerves and adrenaline...and that's fine, even fun, at a certain age, but not sustainable over a lifetime of work. Now, as a woman deep into her middle years, I know I must find a different rhythm -- one that is cyclical, seasonal, sustainable. To quote Christina Cairns again:
"Everything else in the natural world works in cycles of activity and inactivity, fallow and productive. Why should we humans think we are any different? And yet we push ourselves, or allow others (clients, deadlines, family and so on) to push us to keep going, not stop (or feel guilty if we dare to), and keep producing. No wonder the well gets empty, the creative flowering grows weaker and less beautiful. But it's not just in the arts, it's everywhere. I just noticed a headline yesterday, that Australian workers are working longer than ever hours, and yet are more inefficient than ever before...hmmmm, I wonder why?!"
Here in Devon, there's an old rural tradition of swaling: a controlled burning of overgrown heath land that clears out dead vegetation and allows for new growth. Perhaps creative burn-out can be viewed as an inner form of swaling, creating the space and enriching the soil where fresh ideas can germinate. A burn-off rather than a burn-out, clearing the ground for years of life and art still to come.
So here's a toast to creative burn-out and burn-off, and to the tender new growth that emerges from them. I'm emerging at last from my own fallow time (a period of weeks that has felt like years)...and Howard is right: the spark of inspiration is not only returning, it's coming back stronger than ever. But someday, I know, I'll return to the Underworld, or awake, like Dante, in the dark of the woods. And when I do, I'll try to remember not to panic. To remember that it's all part of the creative/mythic journey. And to move through it with just a little more grace.
"Dark of the Woods: Rites of Passage Tales" was published in the "Healing & Transformation" issue of The Journal of Mythic Arts, Winter 2006; all rights reserved. The journal stopped publication in 2008, but some of the articles published in JoMA are archived here.
In the quiet of the woods
After months and months of dealing with Long Covid (on top of a long-term health condition), I can't manage long walks with Tilly yet, so we usually head to the woods close by -- where I sit while Tilly prowls through the underbrush, never straying far. Sometimes I read, sometimes I write, and sometimes I do nothing at all, absorbing the quiet while beech, holly, oak and ash all absorb me in turn.
Once she's explored the terrain, Tilly sits close: ears cocked, nose twitching with every scent. I watch her and wish I could see as she sees, hear as she hears, live as fully in this bright moment in time -- remembering that I am an animal too, made of water and wind and the dust of stars.
The life of a freelance writer and editor is measured in hours of productivity, and it takes some effort to slough off guilt when time spent silent among the trees results in no tangible accomplishment: no pages written or manuscript read or email answered or paycheck earned. And yet I'm convinced that it's on such moments that every other part of my creative life rests.
The land is muse, teacher, and mentor. It is doctor, pastor, and therapist. It is the place where I return to myself when the jangle of life, the demands of work, and the ceaseless clamour of the Internet lead me astray. In the quiet of the greenwood it all fades away. I can hear my own softer voice once again.
But now I am justifying time spent outdoors by emphasizing the manner in which it supports my productivity back in the studio -- and while this is true, it is not the only truth. Quiet moments are worth much more than this. I will not measure their value in output, in books and paintings made and sold. I will not hang a price tag on my love for the natural world. I am not a consumer of the forest, obtaining my money's worth from the trees and grasses, the fungi and moss. I am just a woman sitting in the green arms of the Mother who made me. Just sitting. Just healing. Just being, for these precious moments, alive and present.
I am not dismissing the importance of productivity for those of us working in the arts, or of enagagement with the media and marketplace which places our work in the hands of others, for I believe that art is important, even sacred, and is capable of no less than changing the world.
But then, so is this: these quiet hours in the dappled light of the greenwood, with my good dog beside me. It changes my world. It changes me. And that's all the value it needs.
"I pin my hopes," said the Quaker writer Rufus Jones, "to quiet processes and small circles, in which vital and transforming events take place."
I pin my own hopes to the rustle of leaves, the murmur of water, the grace note of the birdsong overhead; to the ordinary, daily domestic act of rising in the morning and walking the dog. And to art, of course, but also to this. To the quiet of the woods.
The quote by Quaker historian and philosopher Rufus Jones is from a letter to Violet Holdsworth, 1937. The poem in the picture captions is from Swan: Poems and Prose Poems by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press, 2012). All rights reserved by the authors' estates.
in In praise of slowness, Thoughts during a pandemic | Permalink | Comments (9)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There are many different ways to cook an egg. One of which is boiling it in the microwave. Learn the tricks from the following article.
Eggs have only 70 calories and are a good source of proteins. Here are a few tips on how you can get perfectly cooked eggs each time.
When you want to soft boil or hard boil eggs, make sure that there are no visible cracks on the shells. Cracks let the yolk and white to come out and ruin the chances of getting a perfectly cooked egg. So to avoid it, make sure the eggs are at room temperature before boiling it. Take a sufficiently large pot, to make soft or hard-boiled eggs. This will ensure that the eggs do not bump into each other and break while cooking.
Cooking eggs is not rocket science. It takes a little bit of dedication and a whole lot of attention to get it right. With the following steps, you will be able to cook eggs to perfection each time.
Boil water in a microwave safe bowl. Leave about an inch of room in the bowl for the eggs.
Take room temperature eggs and place them in the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a microwave safe plate. This will help circulate the heat throughout the eggs.
Turn the microwave on and set it for about 7 minutes.
The time required to boil an egg will also depend on whether you want soft-boiled or hard-boiled egg.
When the eggs are done, let it sit in the hot water for another 5 to 7 minutes. Do not touch the water or the eggs as you may burn your hands.
After the water has cooled down a little, run cold water over the eggs and peel them.
I hope with this write-up, you know the proper method and the time required for the task. Now that the egg is boiled, season it with salt and pepper or any seasoning of your choice.


When I think about Mercy three people come to my mind. The Good Samaritan, Mother Teresa, and the Apostle John.
Why would someone risk their own safety, upend their schedule, deplete their bank balance, and become dirty and bloody to help a person of another race and social class? And why would Jesus tell us, "Go and do likewise"?
The Good Samaritan did not ignore the battered man on the Jericho road. Like him, we are aware of people in need around us—the widow next door, the family strapped with medical bills, the homeless man outside our church. God calls us to help them, whether they need shelter, assistance, medical care, or just friendship.
Mother Teresa, at the age of twelve, felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.
On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. Now that is Mercy!
Do you have a real heart for people? Do you feel tenderness toward others? Are you concerned with finding ways of showing kindness? You may have the gift of mercy.
Why should we show mercy to people? It is a way to show the love of Jesus Christ. People need the Lord! There is nothing else that can fill the BIG HOLE in our life but HIM!
Jesus was the very embodiment of God's love - He was God's "only begotten son," sent to this world as an expression of God's infinite love for mankind. Jesus always acted in a merciful, loving way to people in need. He saw and responded to inner needs as much as to outer material or physical needs. His desire and goal was that mankind be reconciled to God the Father and experience God's forgiveness and unconditional love.
John 3:17 NASV "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved"
If you ever doubt the mercy of God, just look at the cross. The bond between God the Father and God the Son is closer than any human bond ever could be. Think of your relationship with your spouse, parents, or children and multiply the strength of that bond exponentially. That's just an idea of the kind of love the Father has for the Son. Yet despite that bond, the Father showed us mercy by sending His Son to die.
God loves you with a loyal love that's full of mercy. He's not just some cosmic grumpy old man who sits up there in the sky waiting for you to mess up so He can judge you. No, He's a loving father who earnestly desires for you to know and love Him.
But He also gives you and me the responsibility of telling others about Him. And the best way to tell others about His mercy is to demonstrate it every day. So, let the world see the love of Jesus Christ both in you and through you. When you live like that around others, they will see a window to the character of God.
2 Corinthians 4:1 ESV says, "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart." Please don't give up, you are changing the world for Jesus!


text:
Current Page Parent Game
EA's attempted resurrection of its early 2010s glory days may be set to continue, with fresh reports suggesting that a new Dead Space will be announced next month. The publisher has scheduled its annual EA Play event for July 22nd, and the leaks seem to have begun already.
After GamesBeat journalist Jeff Grubb teased a significant announcement set for EA's show over the weekend, Eurogamer claimed to have knowledge of "an established, fan-favourite IP" in development at EA Motive. Gematsu later corroborated that claim, adding that they have heard that the game in question is, in fact, a "reimagining" of the Dead Space series. However, these reports remain unconfirmed for the time being.
Nevertheless, EA has been bringing back some of its ageing franchises in recent years, which may lend some credence to the rumours. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is one example, after the lackluster reception to Mass Effect: Andromeda saw the series reportedly shelved for a period. Others include last year's Burnout Paradise remaster and the long-awaited Skate 4.
The reports also state that EA Motive will be taking the reigns on this project following the closure of original developer Visceral Games back in 2017. To date, Motive has collaborated with DICE on the single player campaign of Star Wars: Battlefront II and led development on last year's Star Wars: Squadrons.
Either way, we'll know the truth this time next month.
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Canada announces plans to land a rover on the moon
HOW TRAVIS BARKER'S 2008 PLANE CRASH HELPED HIM KICK OPIOID ADDICTION


This year, the use of social media in the Olympic Games will be subject to many restrictions. The Organizing Committee has banned athletes to publish any pictures and videos on the network, so that non-sponsors use the opportunity to be photographed. In the period of the competition the spectators can as well as not release photographs of the scene with the Twitter and Face book. But the marking policy of Nike is so various that it can often discover a new theme and window. Overall, the Nike has inferior position of not becoming the Olympic supporters, which stimulates more afflatus and originality.
As to modern soccer Shoes, in reality, they are not the first pair of soccer Shoes. From the 1950s, the advanced technology has been applied to the design and manufacturing of soccer Shoes, in this way, these soccer Shoes can be more functional and fashionable, moreover, they tend to be lighter. As a matter of fact, for Adidas company, it aspires to increase more skills to its soccer shoes. While as to the rest big companies,manteau canada goose pas cher, they also introduced their unique soccer Shoes into the market. Nike soccer shoes seemed to be beyond consumers' expectations, and among kinds of Nike football shoes,http://www.qyjtzj.com/guestbook.asp, Nike mercurial vapors can be regarded as the best one to illustrate this point, in fact, since the introduction of Nike mercurial Vapor 4 shoes in the World Cup,http://www.ijbrug.nl/ijburg/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=337&offset=0&find=&sort_mode=created_desc&blogId=428&comments_threshold=0&comments_offset=10&comments_sort_mode=commentDate_desc&comments_maxComments=10/, Shoes of the former model are the most favored ones in the world.
From the year of 1963 to 1964, Bill Bowerman worked as a track coach in University of Portland. Then in 2000,http://svn.sdrstick.com, he started the business of retail trade of excellent-quality shoes in Hong Kong. Jeff Johnson who was the former opponent of Knight joined Nike company in 1965 and worked as the first full-time salesperson by selling shoes which were put in the back of his van at the local and regional track. His way of selling shoes continued until the opening of the first retail outlet at3107 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica California. You can see where the Blue Ribbon Sports is situated today by clicking here.
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text:
Where does the tourist go in Napa Valley?
POSTED ON March 8, 2015 | IN Wine Photo of the Day | BY Joe Becerra
Robert Mondavi is one of Napa Valley's most popular wineries
Quick tips on avoiding the tourist crowds in the Napa Valley
Spring is almost here. You would not know this by the high 70-degree temperatures in the Napa Valley these past February and March weeks. The tourist is back in full force in the Napa Valley. Tourism brings in more than five million visitors per year to the Napa Valley. The savvy and veteran tourist to the Napa Valley is anxious to avoid the crowds that flock to the tasting rooms and clog the highways. Find out where the tourist goes in the Napa Valley and avoid those spots. The Robert Mondavi Winery, featured in our Wine Country Photo of the Day, is one of Napa Valley's most popular wineries. On weekends the parking lot is jammed, and the tasting rooms are as busy as can be. Robert Mondavi and many other popular wineries are along Highway 29 between Yountville and St. Helena.
Tips for avoiding the crowds
Avoid Highway 29 altogether and fast track over to the Silverado Trail. Head up the Silverado Trail north to the Deer Park Road. Cross over Deer Park to Highway 29 and visit wineries between St. Helena and Calistoga. Along this stretch we like St. Clement, Ballentine, Madrigal Family Winery and Markham.
Traveling to Calistoga, we have the wineries on our Calistoga Wine Trail that are all small, fun, and not so crowded. These wineries are just north of Calistoga.
Hidden Wine Trail: These are some wineries scattered throughout the Napa Valley that are off the beaten path or, for some reason, bypassed by tourists. Pick a couple to visit. They are usually open by appointment only, so reserve your spot in the tasting room. Wineries by appointment are obviously less touristy.


text:
var Lab = require('lab');
var Cryptiles = require('../lib');

// Declare internals

var internals = {};

// Test shortcuts

var expect = Lab.expect;
var before = Lab.before;
var after = Lab.after;
var describe = Lab.experiment;
var it = Lab.test;

describe('Cryptiles', function () {

    describe('#randomString', function () {

        it('should generate the right length string', function (done) {

            for (var i = 1; i <= 1000; ++i) {
                expect(Cryptiles.randomString(i).length).to.equal(i);
            }

            done();
        });

        it('returns an error on invalid bits size', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.randomString(99999999999999999999).message).to.equal('Failed generating random bits: Argument #1 must be number > 0');
            done();
        });
    });

    describe('#randomBits', function () {

        it('returns an error on invalid input', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.randomBits(0).message).to.equal('Invalid random bits count');
            done();
        });
    });

    describe('#fixedTimeComparison', function () {

        var a = Cryptiles.randomString(50000);
        var b = Cryptiles.randomString(150000);

        it('should take the same amount of time comparing different string sizes', function (done) {

            var now = Date.now();
            Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(b, a);
            var t1 = Date.now() - now;

            now = Date.now();
            Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(b, b);
            var t2 = Date.now() - now;

            expect(t2 - t1).to.be.within(-20, 20);
            done();
        });

        it('should return true for equal strings', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(a, a)).to.equal(true);
            done();
        });

        it('should return false for different strings (size, a < b)', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(a, a + 'x')).to.equal(false);
            done();
        });

        it('should return false for different strings (size, a > b)', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(a + 'x', a)).to.equal(false);
            done();
        });

        it('should return false for different strings (size, a = b)', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison(a + 'x', a + 'y')).to.equal(false);
            done();
        });

        it('should return false when not a string', function (done) {

            expect(Cryptiles.fixedTimeComparison('x', null)).to.equal(false);
            done();
        });
    });
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: php function class_exists causes crash in production environment I'm using the Zend Framework, version 1.10.7 for my application
    error_reporting(E_ALL);
    $application->bootstrap();
    echo 'ha';
    var_dump(class_exists('Default_Model_FeedReader_Csv_HappyHome'));
    echo 'hoi';

The output the this piece of code is only "ha". Error reporting is on, but there are no errors. The script simply stops executing after class_exists is called.
With this code
error_reporting(E_ALL);
echo 'ha';
var_dump(class_exists('Default_Model_FeedReader_Csv_HappyHome'));
echo 'hoi';
$application->bootstrap();

the output is as expected, "ha bool(false) hoi" (Here the autoloader is not registered because $application->bootstrap() is not yet called).
The problem is that this crash only occurs in production environment and not on my local development machine. Has somebody an idea what the issue is?

A: Stupid question from me. Linux is of course case sensitive and Windows not, that's why a class name could not be found. I have te solution

A: Just to know, what were the real class and/or file names ?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


At the end of the Dough cycle, remove the dough from the breadmaker. Press and hold the START/STOP button for several seconds to end the cycle. Place on floured counter and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle cornmeal on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Roll dough into a large rectangle. Place rectangle onto pan. Using your fingers, make dents in the dough. Let rise 30 to 45 minutes. Sprinkle dough with basil and cheese.
Bake at 400°F for 20 to 25 minutes.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.


text:
'Thousands' of ISIS Terrorists Released in Afghanistan as US Expects 'Future' Attacks: Pentagon
By Jack Phillips
August 27, 2021Afghanistan
Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby (R) and Army Major General William Taylor (L), Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, participate in a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 23, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Several thousand ISIS-K terrorist members escaped Afghan prisons when the country's government fell and the Taliban took over earlier this month, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday.
"Clearly it's in the thousands," Kirby said in response to a question about the number of ISIS terrorists who escaped in recent days. The Taliban, he said, emptied the prison at Bagram airbase—located outside Kabul—which had ISIS members.
The United States, he added, believes there are "specific, credible threats" against Kabul airport. "We would expect future attempts" against the facility, Kirby said.
The terrorist group, which has its origins in Syria and Iraq and has operated in Afghanistan since at least 2015, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Kabul airport that left dozens of people, including 13 U.S. service members, dead on Thursday. ISIS-K is also known as Islamic State Khorasan, an antiquated term to describe the region that encompasses Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other Central Asian nations.
Reports have said that ISIS-K is primarily comprised of disgruntled former Taliban members. The two terrorist groups have fought each other during sporadic bursts of fighting over the past several years.
In 2017, former President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. military airstrike that dropped the largest conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal, known as the "mother of all bombs," or MOAB, on caves that were being used by ISIS-K in Afghanistan.
ISIS-K in 2020 attacked an Afghan prison that left at least 29 people dead and freed a number of its members. A suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled with explosives into the prison's main gate before other ISIS terrorists moved through the gap, firing on the prison guards.
Clothes and blood stains of Afghan people who were waiting to be evacuated are seen at the Kabul, Afghanistan, airport on Aug. 27, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
Several days ago, ISIS released a statement through its weekly Al-Naba publication and accused the Taliban of collaborating with the U.S. and Western forces. ISIS previously has accused the Taliban of being apostates and not following Sharia law closely enough.
Following Thursday's attack, President Joe Biden and other White House officials said that the United States would retaliate against the terror group.
"Know this," Biden said to the attackers during White House remarks. "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay."
Without elaborating, "We will respond with force and precision, at our time, at the place we choose, and at the moment of our choosing," Biden added. The U.S.-led evacuation of Kabul will continue, he added.
The president said, "There is no evidence thus far that I've been given by our commanders in the field that there has been collusion between the Taliban and ISIS in carrying out what happened today."
However, on Friday morning, Kirby said that U.S. officials are not sure whether the Taliban was involved in the terrorist attack or not.
Biden has faced a torrent of criticism from members of both major political parties for how his administration has handled the withdrawal of Afghanistan and the subsequent collapse of the Afghan government and army. The White House has also taken flack for contradictory statements made by various officials, including Biden, in recent days.
During Thursday's press conference, Biden took some responsibility for the security lapse that allowed the terrorist attack, although he again pinned some of the blame on the deal that former President Donald Trump made with the Taliban, although Biden went back on key provisions in the Trump deal.


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Foundation Jumps Aboard Momnibus
Valerie Holloway
The Preeclampsia Foundation announced its support for the Black Maternal Health Caucus's (BMHC) Momnibus, a set of nine individual bills critically important to solving our nation's maternal health crisis. Co-led by Congresswomen Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams, the new bills, introduced by different BMHC members, address the unique dimensions of the Black maternal health crisis in the United States. The bills aim to fill gaps in existing policies and programs to comprehensively address multiple dimensions of the Black maternal health crisis in America.
Momnibus is composed of nine individual bills which:
Make critical investments in social determinants of health that influence maternal health outcomes, like housing, transportation, and nutrition.
Provide funding to community-based organizations that are working to improve maternal health outcomes for Black women.
Comprehensively study the unique maternal health risks facing women veterans and invest in VA maternity care coordination.
Grow and diversify the perinatal workforce to ensure that every mom in America receives maternity care and support from people she can trust.
Improve data collection processes and quality measures to better understand the causes of the maternal health crisis in the United States and inform solutions to address it.
Invest in maternal mental health care and substance use disorder treatments.
Improve maternal health care and support for incarcerated women.
Invest in digital tools like telehealth to improve maternal health outcomes in underserved areas.
Promote innovative payment models to incentivize high-quality maternity care and continuity of health insurance coverage from pregnancy through labor and delivery and up to 1 year postpartum.
"The crisis, at the center of the U.S. maternal health crisis, is that black women are having worse outcomes and are more likely to die as a result of a maternal health complication", says CEO Eleni Tsigas. "These women are not statistics, they are our daughters, sisters, wives and friends."
Tsigas said the Momnibus speaks to the priorities of the Preeclampsia Foundation to address significant racial and ethnic disparities in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including:
Addressing disparities amongst black and other racial and ethnic populations to improve access to needed treatments and access to perinatal and postpartum care
Use of remote monitoring technologies
Realizing the need for maternal mental health for those with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
Support for implementing the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) bundles, the evidence based best practices of care for hospitals and healthcare providers
Engaging the patient during the course of her care
Use of patient/family input into data collection (including Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRC)
Seeking patient input in the development of quality metrics
"As a patient advocacy organization, we are particularly pleased that the patient voice is represented. Capturing the lived experience of the patient and incorporating the patient/family voice in data collection and quality measure development is crucial to solving this crisis", concluded Tsigas.
You can download a two-page briefing for sharing with your legislators.
Advocacy Impact
We did it! Act2SaveMoms has become a law December 22, 2018: This is a great day for preeclampsia and the beginning of the end of needless deaths. Late last night, President Trump...
TAKE ACTION Legislative advocacy simply means educating others about preeclampsia and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and helping to influence government policy. We have successfully fough...
Board Member Urges Policymakers to Join the Battle Against Preeclampsia
In an opinion piece in The Hill (5/7), Rakhi Dimino, MD, a Houston-based obstetrician who serves on the Preeclampsia Foundation's Board of Directors, writes that findings from two rece...
Preeclampsia Foundation Supports Emergency Funding for CDC's Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies Program
Preeclampsia Foundation signs bipartisan letter asking House leaders to include funding for a key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that helps identify emerging threats to mothe...
President Signs Critical Maternal Mortality Legislation
This is a great day for preeclampsia and the beginning of the end of needless deaths. Late last night, President Trump signed into law the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act. We are very proud and incredi...
House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Critical Maternal Mortality Legislation
The Preeclampsia Foundation commends the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health for holding the hearing, "Better Data and Better Outcomes: Reducing...
Senate Committee Passes Lifesaving Legislation to Address Maternal Mortality and Severe Morbidity
WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 26, 2018 – Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed the Maternal Health Accountability Act (S1112). Introduced by Senators He...
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Queen green olives stuffed with jalapeños are a fiesta for the senses. Spicy jalapeño pepper is balanced by the buttery olive flesh.
Gives a latin flair to your average appetizer. Serve alongside traditional Mexican dishes or chop and add to nachos for an extra kick.


New comics are IN right now! Here're some of them!
•TMNT Shredder in Hell 1 (Mateus Santolouco): Oh, look at you now, Shredder. You thought you had all the answers. You knew all the techniques of the shadow kill. You understood how to bring the worst of humanity under your heel. You paid a retainer to the best chef in the world whose specialty was turtle soup. But in your mad quest for all that knowledge, all that power, you forgot the three basic tenets of life as a Japanese character: Live by the anime. Die by the anime. Get tentacle tickled in hell by the anime.
Natasha Romanoff – super spy, trained assassin, Avenger, and at the moment officially dead – spent New Years with Captain America at a costume party… taking down a fascist uprising before it could rise too far. (Avengers have not properly observed a holiday since their founding.) Since Nat's resurrection (not worth getting into), she's not so much getting her vigilante legs back as much as holding her brutal vindication back. Rather than force herself into Cap's code, she travels to clear her head and blow off some stress in the central hub of all crime and abuse on the planet: Madripoor. Turns out when you've got to spill blood righteously, Madripoor can deliver a truly horrible crime lord right to your door in 30 minutes or your next weapon is free.
This book feels like it's split into two parts. The first is a Cap team-up featuring the Black Widow. It's Cap's mission following Cap's parameters for the restoration of Cap's public image. Nat's only there to lend a shadowed hand and demonstrate how unsteady she is. The second is Nat's trip to Madripoor, which unfolds what's going on with her, why she went there, and how she intends to restore her sense of balance. Some of the ideas presented are openly horrible, but by only showing reactions to those things and not the things themselves, the narrative gets to twist your gut into a knot and not bat an eye when the censors come a'calling. It's not gentle, but it is clever.
This version of the Black Widow isn't all dangerous curves; she's streamlined, efficient, built for work and not play. If you need hourglass figures, there are plenty around, along with impossibly buff characters and their ridiculously elaborate attire. While the narrative's delivery is straight as an arrow, the art is the office prankster that meets all deadlines, works with teams, and will fill a cubicle with balloons if given half a chance. I won't say who, but there's an adaptation of a role I always enjoyed, and after the appearance here it's only more endearing.
Black Widow reads like a babushka doll – larger than life on the outside, easier to hold and examine the deeper in you go.
•Appalachian Apocalypse 1 (Tucci/ Nicolle): Finally! A Civil War reenactment featuring the actual soldiers that fought and died there. I can't wait to see Confederate officers beat up their descendants for daring to drink beer and stream "the game" during what was actually a pretty crappy day. Oh, and you know how Grandma tells that story about how your ancestors fought for noble causes in that war? Brace yourself for a first-person second opinion.
•Creepy Creations HC Volume 1 (Ken Reid): So are the creations that creepy, or are these the creeps that create? You know what, don't answer that. Ever. I might want to sleep in the future.
•Flash Rogues Reverse Flash TP (Various): Discerning cover readers know that when a cover needs to attract AND repulse its audience, villains indulging in their villainy prints the golden ticket. By that measure alone, one might think this cover succeeds. Those same people probably think Johnny Mnemonic succeeded, and I am here to tell you it did not.
Current Avengers readers may've noticed the king of Atlantis tearing through the map and setting up a firm line between land dwellers and sea dwellers, along with a squad of oceanic killers ready to shred anyone that tries crossing that line. To most everyone on the planet, this is the latest in a series of policy shifts from a temperamental monarch in desperate need of beating down. To Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and the few surviving Invaders of WWII, this is something else. They can't be sure, since any time Namor's in crisis he pushes everyone away, but if this is not a heavy resolve to change the balance of the planet, if this is the self-destructive behavior of a friend in pain, they owe it to each other to help.
Namor's always had motives and goals that turned as severely as the tides (CC Note: Really?), and now he's added to his already OP power set to make that work to his advantage. Between that, signs of PTSD, rivals all around him, and the belief that the world actually is out to get him, it's should be impossible for anyone to feel sorry for him. And yet you do, not because of the overwhelming good he could bring to the world if he got his stuff together, but because there're a few stubborn old fighters that've seen his compassionate side and just want to see it again. It shrinks the crossover threat of the season down to an episode of angst and explosions, but again, the Invaders have always been about that.
True to stories about war, be they internal or external, the artistic direction lines itself with reality wherever it can, yet can't resist throwing in a sculpted torso or scene of devastation for dramatic effect. If a particular character is well into old age, they are drawn to show every wrinkle, every loose piece of flesh, anything that might make them appear to have one foot in the grave. But then there's the literal poster boy of America sporting cheekbones and forehead furrows carved out of solid granite, with grit – not a poster boy look. Overall the visuals are as subtle as plastic explosive, but also as effective.
Invaders reads like a old-timey horror show – maybe the real monster isn't the twenty-foot long barracuda that blasts lasers from its eyes, but fighting between ourselves.
•Amazing Spider-Man 13 (Spencer/ Ottley): Okay, before we get too excited about how cuddly Spidey and JJJ are in this shot, let's remind ourselves of a few things. 1) JJJ is NOT a cuddler. Every one of his exes will testify to this (or would if they lived) (CC Note: That's cold!). There's got to be some significant context we're missing. 2) Scorpion is feeling a lot of something at the image of them leaving, possibly jealousy, possibly constipation, it's hard to tell. 3) I've got nothing, but these things come in threes, don't they?
•Return of Wolverine 4 of 5 (Soule/ Shalvey): Logan, Mr. Howlett, Wolverine, Patch, whatever you're calling yourself these days: sometimes you just have to accept that she's not that into you.
Ares, the Greek god of war, revealed unto the peoples of the world that he was turning over a new leaf: pointless and endless wars were out, resolution and end to conflict was in. Diana of Themyscira accepted this with skepticism and a mountain of salt, but started believing the dude might be genuine. Only now Ares has taken sides in a bitter civil war, kidnapped leaders from both sides, and sharpens his axe to start chopping mortals up if the other side doesn't start surrendering. There's no more time for speeches or lessons – if Wonder Woman wants to stop Ares from ushering in a new age of theocratic rule, she needs to take down a god now.
For all the myth and attitude and set pieces brought in from Greek legend, there's even more that grounds this story into the world we live in today. Strife, resentment, recovery, abandoned love, doubt, faith, and more besides but I think I make my point. This has been a story about how two divine brings would approach some of the tragedies that start within one country and affect whole continents, a subject that's got plenty of real world source material to draw from. And if that weren't heavy-handed enough for you, said divine beings only speak in polished pearls of dialogue bordering on the lyrical, a trait more curious by the humans speaking mostly the same way. The characters all behave and interact consistently, it's just their words that sound overprocessed.
Visually, I've got no beef with this. Most of the major attributes are standard house style – poses, body composition, background and panel layout – but not all. Faces and heads don't come from the same template, rather each features distinct shapes and structural points, rendering each a study of that character's look. It's this and other subtle inclusions that allow Diana and Aphrodite – two Greek women not used to paying for their own drinks – to convince readers that they're two very different people. It takes a keen eye to identify, and a bit of study, but that effort does pay off.
Wonder Woman reads like a famous civil rights speech – practiced and constructed phrases with a definite message if you just read the words, but pairing it with the place and its people make it a Moment.
New comics OUT! See you next week!


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Kuga, Shunji. "Filling the Gap: How the Japanese Have Read and 'Seen' Crane's Works." Stephen Crane Studies 19 1 (2010): 2-13. Print.
Hoffman, Daniel. "A Possible Source for 'a Mystery of Heroism'." Stephen Crane Studies 19 1 (2010): 14-17. Print.
Monteiro, George. New Crane Letters. 2010. Print.
Dooley, Patrick K. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Scholarship: Book Chapters and Articles through 2007." Stephen Crane Studies18.2 (Fall 2009): 10-29.
Monteiro, George. "Is 'A Newsboy Capitalist' Crane's Work?" Stephen Crane Studies 18.2 (Fall 2009): 30-32.
Sorrentino, Paul. "A Fascinating Fact about a Member of the Stephen Crane Society." Stephen Crane Studies 18.2 (Fall 2009): 33.
Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane's Depictions of Irish Americans." Stephen Crane Studies 18.2 (Fall 2009): 2-9.
Monteiro, George. "Real Battles, Actual Badges." Stephen Crane Studies 18.1 (Spring 2009): 32-33.
Pike, Helen-Chantal. "Stephen Crane: On the Boardwalk in New Jersey." Stephen Crane Studies 18.1 (Spring 2009): 25-31.
Sanner, Kristin N. "Searching for Identity in The Red Badge of Courage: Henry Fleming's Battle with Gender." Stephen Crane Studies 18.1 (Spring 2009): 2-16.
Smith, Timothy d'Arch. "An Agnostic Old Gentleman." Stephen Crane Studies 18.1 (Spring 2009): 17-24.
Clendinning, John. Rev. of A Community of Inquiry: Conversations Between Classical American Philosophy and American Literature by Patrick K. Dooley.Stephen Crane Studies 17.2 (2008): 20-22.
Dowling, Robert M. "'Do Not Weep, Maiden': Nellie Crouse and Stephen Crane's 'War is Kind.'" Stephen Crane Studies 16.2 (Fall 2007): 15-20.
Hayes, Kevin J. "The Third Violet in Fort Worth." Stephen Crane Studies 16.2 (Fall 2007): 26-27.
Monteiro, George. "Judge William Howe Crane Gets His Wild Boar." Stephen Crane Studies 16.2 (Fall 2007): 21-25.
Vanouse, Donald. "The Horizons of the Rich in the Writings of Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 16.2 (Fall 2007): 2-14.
Solomon, Eric. "A Note on the Ford Madox Ford-Stephen Crane Connection." Stephen Crane Studies 16.1 (Spring 2007): 14-24-25.
Dowling, Robert M. "The Case for George's Mother." Stephen Crane Studies 15.2 (Fall 2006): 18-37.
Monteiro, Geroge. "Another Copy of the 1893 Maggie." Stephen Crane Studies 15.2 (Fall 2006): 38.
Schaefer, Michael. "Sequential Art Fights the Civil War: the Classics Illustrated Version of The Red Badge of Courage." Stephen Crane Studies 15.2 (Fall 2006): 2-17.
Church, Joseph. "Uncanny Moments in the Work of Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 20-27.
Colvert, James B. "Limitations of Perspective in the Fiction of Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 6-8.
Dooley, Patrick K. "Stephen Crane's Distilled Style (and the Art of Fine Swearing." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 28-31.
Kuga, Shunji. "Momentous Sounds and Silences in Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 17-19.
Link, Eric Carl. "Bitter Questions: Six Crane Moments." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 3-5.
Nagel, James. "Limitations of Perspective in the Fiction of Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006): 9-12.
Paschke-Johannes, J. Edwin. "Existential Moments in Stephen Crane's Poems." Stephen Crane Studies 15.1 (2006):32-36..
Clendenning, John. "The Thematic Unity of The Little Regiment." Stephen Crane Studies 14.2 (2005): 2-9.
Dooley, Patrick K. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Scholarship: Book Chapters and Articles through 2004." Stephen Crane Studies 14.2 (2005): 10-23.
Mariani, Giorgio. Rev. of The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James by Mark McGurl. Stephen Crane Studies 14.2 (2005): 24-27.
Campbell, Donna. Rev. of A Question of Character: Scientific Racism and the Genres of American Fiction, 1892-1912. Stephen Crane Studies 14.1 (2005): 28-29.
Edwards, Bradley C. "Stephen Crane's 'The Five White Mice' and Public Entertainments in Mexico City in 1895."Stephen Crane Studies 14.1 (2005):16-27.
Evertson, Matthew. "Strenuous Stories: The Wilderness Tales of Stephen Crane and Theodore Roosevelt." Stephen Crane Studies 14.1 (2005): 2-15.
Fagg, John. "Arcane Subjects/Urbane Tones: Stephen Crane's Sullivan County Sketches." Stephen Crane Studies 13.2 (2004): 10-20.
Monteiro, George. "Helen Trent." Stephen Crane Studies 13.2 (2004): 32-33.
Schaefer, Michael. "Stephen Crane in the Time of Shock and Awe: Teaching The Red Badge of Courage During the Iraq War." Stephen Crane Studies 13.2 (2004): 2-9.
Crowley, John W. Rev. of Stephen Crane's Blue Badge of Courage by George Monteiro. Stephen Crane Studies 13.1 (2004): 19-21.
Monteiro, George. "Crane's Letters to Nellie Crouse: An Unpublished Essay." Stephen Crane Studies 13.1 (2004): 2-13.
Nagel, James. Rev. of Badge of Courage: The Life of Stephen Crane by Linda H. Davis. Stephen Crane Studies 13.1 (2004): 22-24.
Vanouse, Donald. "The 'Rejoinder' to Stephen Crane from a Royal Irish Constable." Stephen Crane Studies 13.1 (2004): 14-18.
Wertheim, Stanley. Rev. of Maggie, A Girl of the Streets and Other New York Writings, ed. Luc Sante. Stephen Crane Studies 13.1 (2004): 25-26.
Dooley, Patrick K. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Scholarship: Book Chapters and Articles through 2002." Stephen Crane Studies 12.2 (2003): 2-19.
Boyer, Marilyn. "The Treatment of the Wound in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage ." Stephen Crane Studies 12.1 (Spring 2003): 4-17.
Hilt, Kathryn. Rev. of A Garland of Writings: Stephen Crane's Literary Family, ed. Thomas A. Gullason. Stephen Crane Studies 12.1 (Spring 2003): 18-21.
Monteiro, George. "The Publication of 'A Fishing Adventure' in Collier's Weekly ." Stephen Crane Studies 12.1 (Spring 2003): 2-3.
Nelson, Ronald J. "Crane Studies in Cincinnati." Stephen Crane Studies 12.1 (Spring 2003): 22-28.
Obituary: William G. Crisman. Stephen Crane Studies 12.1 (Spring 2003): 30.
Dudley, John. "Crane's Dispatches from Cuba: The Dynamics of Race, Class, and Professionalism in 'The Correspondents' War." Stephen Crane Studies 11.2 (Fall 2002): 11-22.
Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane in Cuba: From Jingoism to Criticism." Stephen Crane Studies 11.2 (Fall 2002): 23-32.
Campbell, Donna. "Crane Studies in Cambridge." Stephen Crane Studies 11.1 (2002): 26-28.
D'Alessandro, Frank. "The Preservation of Asbury Park's 'Arbutus Cottage.' Stephen Crane Studies 11.1 (2002): 3-6.
Nelson, Ronald J. "Crane Studies in Charleston." Stephen Crane Studies 11.1 (2002): 21-26.
Schaefer, Michael W. Rev. of The Virtues of the Vicious: Jacob Riis, Stephen Crane, and the Spectacle of the Slum by Keith Gandal. Stephen Crane Studies 11.1: 13-20.
Wert, Justin R. "At-Risk Student Responses to Crane's Maggie." Stephen Crane Studies 11.1: 7-12.
Dooley, Patrick K. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Scholarship: Book Chapters and Articles Through 1999." Stephen Crane Studies 10.2 (Fall 2001): 12-34.
Vanouse, Donald. "Crane Studies in Long Beach." Stephen Crane Studies 10.2 (Fall 2001): 35-37.
Zhu, Weihong Julia. "The Absurdity of Henry's Courage." Stephen Crane Studies 10.2 (Fall 2001): 2-11.
Hayes, Kevin J. Review of The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and Other Selected Writings , ed. Phyllis Frus and Stanley Corkin. Stephen Crane Studies 10.1 (Spring 2001): 21-23.
Monteiro, George. "The Publication of 'Diamonds and Diamonds.'" Stephen Crane Studies 10.1 (Spring 2001): 8-10.
Sorrentino, Paul. Review of A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia by Stanley Wertheim. Stephen Crane Studies 10.1 (Spring 2001): 15-17.
Robertson, Michael, David Holmes, and Roxanna Paez. "An Ironist at the Seashore: Possible Additions to the Crane Canon." Stephen Crane Studies 9.2 (2000): 2-34.
Clendenning, John. "Prat Falls: A Revisionist Reading of 'The Clan of No-Name.'" Stephen Crane Studies 9.1 (2000): 2-8.
Hayes, Kevin J. "How G.I Joe Read Stephen Crane." Stephen Crane Studies 9.1 (2000): 9-14.
Monteiro, George. Review of O Sapo no Horizonte: Poemas de Stephen Crane, translated by Hélio Osvaldo Alves. Stephen Crane Studies 9.1 (2000):17-18.
Pizer, Donald. Review of Understanding The Red Badge of Courage: A Student's Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents . Stephen Crane Studies 9.1 (2000): 19-20.
Vanouse, Donald. "Report: Crane Studies in Baltimore." Stephen Crane Studies 9.1 (2000): 20-22.
Warren, Robin O. "The Cuban Insurrection and Northeast Florida in 'Stephen Crane's Own Story' and 'The Open Boat'." Stephen Crane Studies 8.1 (1999): 8-19.
Vanouse, Donald. Review of Stephen Crane, Journalism, and the Making of Modern American Literature by Michael Robertson. Stephen Crane Studies 8.1 (1999): 23-26..
Nelson, Ronald J. "A Possible Source for the Palace Hotel in Stephen Crane's 'the Blue Hotel'." Stephen Crane Studies 8.2 (1999): 2-12.
Brennessel, William W., and Patricia A. Plumley. "An Annotated Bibliography of Ph.D. Dissertations, Ii, Iii, Ii." Stephen Crane Studies 7; 7.1; 2 (1998): 13-20.
Brennessel, William W., and Patricia A. Plumley. "An Annotated Bibliography of Ph.D. Dissertations, II, III, II." Part III. Stephen Crane Studies 7.2 (1998): 13-20.
Scharnhorst, Gary. Review of Reluctant Expatriate: The Life of Harold Frederic by Robert M. Myers. Stephen Crane Studies 7.2 (1998): 6-12.
Hilt, Kathryn. "Changes at Crane Birth Site." Stephen Crane Studies 6.2 (1997): 15-16.
Myers, Robert M. "A Review of Popular Editions of The Red Badge of Courage ." Stephen Crane Studies 6.1 (1997): 2-15.
Pastore, Stephen R. "The Aesthetics of Stephen Crane's The Black Riders and Other Lines : A Bibliographical Study." Stephen Crane Studies 6.2 (1997): 6-14.
Monteiro, George. "Stephen Crane: Dramatic, Musical, and Fictional Adaptations." Stephen Crane Studies (1996): 5-24.
Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Articles and Book Chapters through 1996." Stephen Crane Studies (1996): 28-32.
Crane, Stephen Kellogg. "Stephen Crane's Family Heritage." Stephen Crane Studies (1995): 1-48.
Crane, Robert K. "Family Matters: Stephen Crane's Brother Wilbur." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 13-18.
Gullason, Thomas. "Stephen Crane at Layfayette College: New Perspectives." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 2-12.
Inge, M. Thomas. "Sam Watkins: Another Source for Crane's The Red Badge of Courage ." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 11-16.
McInerney, John. "Constructing Crane for the Screen." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 19-24.
Monteiro, George. "Justice to Lyndon Pratt: Crane in American Prefaces." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 17-18.
Musto, Tom. "Filming To Escape My Fate." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 24-25.
Penney, Scott. "The Veracious Narrative of 'An Experiment in Misery': Crane's Park Row and Bowery." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 2-10.
Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Articles and Book Chapters through 1993." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 22-25.
Wertheim, Stanley. "Stephen Crane Memorialized." Stephen Crane Studies (1994): 19-21.
Hayes, Kevin J. "Crane Reviews in the Manchester Guardian." Stephen Crane Studies (1993): 38-49.
McElrath, Joseph R., Jr. "Stephen Crane in San Francisco: His Reception in The Wave ." Stephen Crane Studies (1993): 2-18.
Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Articles and Book Chapters since 1991." Stephen Crane Studies (1993): 22-26.
Wertheim, Stanley. "Who Was 'Amy Leslie'?" Stephen Crane Studies (1993): 29-37.
Colvert, James B. "Stephen Crane and Postmodern Criticism." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 2-8.
Crisman, William. "Signaling under Fire: Stephen Crane's Spanish-American War Writings at the American Literature Association Conference, 1991." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 9-11.
Crisman, William. "Stephen Crane and the Group: A Retrospective of the Crane Session at the American Literature Association Conference, 1990." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 21-24.
Holton, Milne. "Stephen Crane's 'Death and the Child': The Context of the Text." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 1-8.
Monteiro, George. "The Mule-Drivers' Charge in The Red Badge of Courage ." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 9-14.
Wertheim, Stanley. "New Stephen Crane Letters and Inscriptions." Stephen Crane Studies (1992): 15-20.