BookExpo America Draws 20,000 to Javits Center - NYTimes.com:
"E-book sales are no longer growing at a nerve-rattling pace. The unpleasant and expensive price-fixing lawsuit last year, pitting the Justice Department against five major publishers, has been settled. Independent booksellers added 65 stores to their ranks in 2012, according to their trade association, despite competition from Amazon."
Thursday
Monday
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| English: Walt Whitman. Library of Congress description: "Walt Whitman". (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
via
Bartleby's
Walt Whitman (1819–1892).
Leaves of Grass. 1900.
Prayer of Columbus
A batter'd wreck’d old man,
Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home,
Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months,
Sore, stiff with many toils, sicken’d, and nigh to death,
I take my way along the island’s edge,
Venting a heavy heart.
I am too full of woe!
Haply, I may not live another day;
I can not rest, O God—I can not eat or drink or sleep,
Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
Breathe, bathe myself once more in Thee—commune with Thee,
Report myself once more to Thee.
Thou knowest my years entire, my life,
(My long and crowded life of active work—not adoration merely;)
Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth;
Thou knowest my manhood’s solemn and visionary meditations;
Thou knowest how, before I commenced, I devoted all to come to Thee;
Thou knowest I have in age ratified all those vows, and strictly kept them;
Thou knowest I have not once lost nor faith nor ecstasy in Thee;
(In shackles, prison’d, in disgrace, repining not,
Accepting all from Thee—as duly come from Thee.)
All my emprises have been fill’d with Thee,
My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee,
Sailing the deep, or journeying the land for Thee;
Intentions, purports, aspirations mine—leaving results to Thee.
O I am sure they really come from Thee!
The urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will,
The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words,
A message from the Heavens, whispering to me even in sleep,
These sped me on.
By me, and these, the work so far accomplish’d (for what has been, has been;)
By me Earth’s elder, cloy’d and stifled lands, uncloy’d, unloos’d;
By me the hemispheres rounded and tied—the unknown to the known.
The end I know not—it is all in Thee;
Or small, or great, I know not—haply, what broad fields, what lands;
Haply, the brutish, measureless human undergrowth I know,
Transplanted there, may rise to stature, knowledge worthy Thee;
Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turn’d to reaping-tools;
Haply the lifeless cross I know—Europe’s dead cross—may bud and blossom there.
One effort more—my altar this bleak sand:
That Thou, O God, my life hast lighted,
With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,
(Light rare, untellable—lighting the very light!
Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages!)
For that, O God—be it my latest word—here on my knees,
Old, poor, and paralyzed—I thank Thee.
My terminus near,
The clouds already closing in upon me,
The voyage balk’d—the course disputed, lost,
I yield my ships to Thee.
Steersman unseen! henceforth the helms are Thine;
Take Thou command—(what to my petty skill Thy navigation?)
My hands, my limbs grow nerveless;
My brain feels rack’d, bewilder’d; Let the old timbers part—I will not part!
I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me;
Thee, Thee, at least, I know.
Is it the prophet’s thought I speak, or am I raving?
What do I know of life? what of myself?
I know not even my own work, past or present;
Dim, ever-shifting guesses of it spread before me,
Of newer, better worlds, their mighty parturition,
Mocking, perplexing me.
And these things I see suddenly—what mean they?
As if some miracle, some hand divine unseal’d my eyes,
Shadowy, vast shapes, smile through the air and sky,
And on the distant waves sail countless ships,
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.
.
..
.ero
..
.
Sunday
Malcolm X Speaks, 1965
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| Malcolm X (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
via
The Quotations Page
http://www.quotationspage.com
"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
~~Malcolm X,
Malcolm X Speaks, 1965
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Malcolm_X/
..
.
Thursday
Sunday
» Mother’s Day for Peace Zinn Education Project
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| President Woodrow Wilson's Mother's Day Proclamation of May 9, 1914 (Presidential Proclamation 1268)., 05/09/1914 - 05/09/1914 (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives) |
"Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870
By Julia Ward Howe
Arise, then, women of this day!"
The Problem Is Civil Obedience: Howard Zinn
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| Howard Zinn (Photo credit: Truthout.org) |
The Problem Is Civil Obedience: Howard Zinn 1971/2007 from Mark Tribe on Vimeo.
The Problem Is Civil Obedience: Howard Zinn 1971/2007
Public reenactment of a speech given by author and activist Howard Zinn at a peace rally in Boston Common on May 5, 1971. Zinn defends the use of civil disobedience to protest the war in Vietnam and calls on Congress to impeach the president and vice president of the United States for the high crime of waging war on the people of Southeast Asia. Matthew Floyd Miller, a New York-based actor delivered the speech on location in Boston on July 14, 2007. This five-minute video is based on a 17-minute speech.
Saturday
Free Comic Book Day - Hugh Jackman 2013 - YouTube
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| Free Comic Book Day 2012 (Photo credit: andyi) |
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| FourFavorites2801 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Jo-Jo1401 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Actor Hugh Jackman at the 83rd Academy Awards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English writer Neil Gaiman. Taken at the 2007 Scream Awards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Woodrow Wilson, May 11, 1914 (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress) |
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| English: Ed McGuinness signing at Free Comic Book Day 2008 in Rochester, NH. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Terrific 01 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Beware 01 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| FourFavorites0301 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| FourFavorites0501 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| FourFavorites0801 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Neil Gaiman (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Cover of the 2007 Dark Horse Comics Free Comic Book Day issue, featuring the first printed story of The Umbrella Academy, “…But the Past Ain’t Through With You.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Cover scan of a Great Comics comic book (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Cover of Pablo Neruda |
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| Cover of Neil Gaiman |
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| Cover of James Joyce |
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| Comic book superheros (Photo credit: Helgi Halldórsson/Freddi) |
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| Comic Book Guy (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore) |
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| Adventures into Darkness: Horror stories (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| In a more appropriate context, Rulah Jungle Goddess battles a congress of gorillas to rescue an explorer (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| photo of Mark Marderosian at Free Comic Book Day, That's Entertainment, Worcester MA (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: The writer Alan Moore Español: El escritor Alan Moore (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
hey guys, its me, Ed R.
do you have children in your life?
then, spare me a moment i want to share a secret with you.
but first let me tell you what today is, among other things.
today May 4th, 2013 is Free Comic Book Day
every year, on the first Saturday in May,
comic shops the world over, together with comic book publishers, conspire to get you and your kid/s into a comic book shop.
they do this by giving away free comic books.
and all you have to do is show up.
at the end of this message i have posted a list of
some of the comics that are to be given away free today only, collector's items, really.
now to my secret, i learned to read with comic books,
i know that's not so strange. here's the strange part,
i learned to LOVE TO READ with comic books.
and stranger still, i learned to love science, art, history, politics, and the humanities because i was introduced to these concepts through comic books.
uh-huh, truly. :-)
i hear you saying, but Ed, my child/ren already have children's books, my children already love to read.
that's okay, i read children's books as well. still do, Young Adult books like THE HUNGER GAMES are still a favorite.
of course i'm currently reading James Joyce and Pablo Neruda but name-dropping lacks luster without the likes of comic writers Alan Moore, Josh Whedon and Neil Gaiman on the list. all favorites of mine, and yours too if you ever set foot into a movie theater,
for which they write wonderful scripts.
comic books, there's something special about them,
about the way that our mind has to fill in the blanks between panels.
the most important part of the stories
in comic books have no picture, no words, only our mind carrying us from one panel to the next, without our consent or knowledge, yet much to the benefit of our imagination. if you spend any amount of time in a gym, you already appreciate that our imagination requires exercise just as our bodies do.
so, if you have the chance to do it, drop in to
a comic shop today for a few minutes, let your kid/s pick up some free books, they'll love you for it, and you may find an enjoyable freebie for yourself as well.
Find a shop near you now with the CSLS Store Locator
as promised here's a link to a listing of
many of the free comics to be given away today
(some have dowloadable previews)
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