Thursday, July 31, 2008

Cy Twombly at the Corcoran


Artist Jay Rolfe saw this Cy Twombly painting at the Corcoran's exhibit "American Evolution." By the time this was painted in 1968, Twombly had been living permanently in Rome, Italy for a number of years. This painting, "Synopsis of a Battle," is typical of many famous Twombly paintings. It is painted like a blackboard and then drawn or written on with paint, crayon, or pencil as if it were chalk. What's the point? Who knows. But they sell for a lot of money.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Good Afternoon, Future of the Internet, Solar Concentrating

,

Google DC Talks: The Future of the Internet

Good Afternoon

Good afternoon, I am not going to post a huge amount today. I started reading a bit of The Future of the Internet And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain. This book is about the excesses of the internet like Web 2.0, iPhones, Opensource, and various other slightly incomprehensible things. This book is attempting to suggest a practical way to deal with these things. Making these things seem practical is rather impractical to me, but it should be rather interesting reading.

I also learned something kind of interesting by following my stock, Capstone Turbine. They are working with a company called HelioFocus to develop a hot air powered turbine where the air is heated by solar concentrators. The concept is quite interesting.

http://www.capstoneturbine.com/news/story.asp?id=476

Mostly, I have been resting today and getting some extra sleep. I'll probably go drive around this afternoon a bit after I take a long nap.

Between the zinc tabs, the vitamin c, the tylenol, and napping, I sm starting to feel a lot better. My head doesn't ache as much.

I took a short drive on both the highway and the city streets. I think the car will pass inspection now. I drove down to Circuit City and looked at the computers. I still have an inkjet printer. Now, they sell these printers with a fas, scanner, copier, and printer all built into one unit for about $150.00. Also, I still don't have a flatacreen, which I can get for about $200.00. I have a big old clunky monitor. To tell you how old my computer is, there is a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive in it.

It still works. I keep on promising myself, I will get an upgrade. If I got the cheapest computer from Dell, it would still outperform my current computer. I have the patience to look for a package deal, computer, monitor, and printer as a bundle.

I do have a cable modem however. Fiber optic is much faster. I might look at Verizon which just got the right to sell fiber optic around New York.

I feel like I fell off the tracks today. I seem to be losing focus right now on this blog. I think I will be back on point tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Gene Davis "Black Popcorn"


Gene Davis was a Washington DC painter who died in 1985 and was known for his colorful striped paintings. This example was at the recent "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery. Davis painted "Black Popcorn" in 1965. The Phillips Collection, also in Washington DC, has a number of colorful Davis striped canvases.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Blogging Break Today

The Sick Doctor

Blogging Break Today.

Time for a rest.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Kenneth Nolan at "American Evolution"


At the Corcoran Gallery's "American Evolution" exhibit, artist Jay Rolfe saw Kenneth Nolan's "Brown Stretched" painted in 1966. It's a large diamond shaped canvas with 4 color bands on it. It is a so-called non-objective painting, which means that it doesn't mean anything, it's just there and you can think what you want. Rolfe likes the shape. The pattern and colors don't excite him.

Kenneth Nolan's "Brown Stretched" is the photo of the day.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Good Afternoon

Cruikshank, The Headache


Good Afternoon


I am going to pick up my car this afternoon. Today has been interesting.... It was a two car alarm night outside last night. It made me a little groggy. Combined with the car thing, I felt a bit disoriented this morning.


I got a notice in the mail requesting me to disband a corporation in New York State. I have to do it by August 28, 2008, or they will charge me an approximated tax. There is a sixty dollar fee for disbanding the corporation plus I have to fill out some corporate tax forms. I haven't done anything with it for several years. I am going to see an accountant, because it looks like it could be deadly if I make a mistake...


I formed the corporation in 2002 to see if I could show a business card and get a few part time jobs. Someone offered me some consulting work searching the internet for company information, people, and other things. Fortunately, I got my job at my current position. It is very easy to from a sole proprietorship and get a business card. I got my last batch of business cards at Vistaprint for the cost of shipping. Now, I find it costs as much to dissolve a corporation as found a sole propietorship. It is pretty ironic. It looks like a way for the government to generate cash like parking tickets.


I have done this kind of thing before. I did a little bit of human resource sourcing for someone. I can't say who because of disclosure problems. I also have done searching for information over the internet and magazine databases searching on a contract basis once or twice. It really is not that exciting looking for people or searching databases. I can do it, but it is not something I would want to do on a permanent basis. Books and graphic novels are far more interesting.


Anyways, I am trying to rest my brain a bit this morning. I am feeling a tiny bit under the weather, combined with the latest stressful events, I want to make sure I don't get very sick. This nursery rhyme from Mother Goose reminds me a bit of how I feel.


The Ten O'Clock Scholar


A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar!

What makes you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o'clock,

But now you come at noon.


I was looking around the internet a bit when I came across an interesting announcement, apparently Acacia Book One: the War With the Mein which I reviewed on this website earlier is going to be made into a movie.

I had an interesting afternoon. I went and picked up my car. They told me that I had to drive the car a lot more then return on Saturday to have them do another inspection. I spent four hours driving around the neighborhood. I drove to the Barnes and Noble bookstore in the mall. I stopped for a minute but didn't find anything I wanted. I noted down a few graphic novels. Then I drove to Target in another mall. Then I drove down to the supermarket and back. Then I drove down to chinatown. I had some noodles. I like to have specific places to go when I drive...
I would rather be at home reading than driving.

Sometimes, you want to figure out what happened. Apparently when you replace the battery in a car it resets the sensors for smog and other conditions. The battery was replaced before the New York state car inspection. This effectively set most of the sensors to zero. Now, in order for the sensors to test things properly, the car has to be driven under a variety of conditions. This includes hghway and city conditions. My understanding after reading various things on the internet, this might take a few days.

Today was an example of human folly.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Car Troubles, Queens Library

Postage Stamp of the National Library of Faroe Islands.


Car Troubles

Like many of you, I have car troubles. I had to take my car in for an inspection. They told me that it hadn't been driven enough, I had to take it out and drive it around for at least an hour on the freeway or else the inspection equipment wouldn't pass the car. It has been quite an annoyance.

My car is still in the garage getting maintenance done. They have to change the oil, rotate the tires, change the battery, and a bunch of other things to get the car in proper shape.

Right now, I am sitting at the main library in Queens, New York. Queens Library has the highest circulation of any library system in the United States. In other words, more people use it than any other library system. In some ways, it is laid out very differently than most libraries I have been to.

First of all, the library is heavily merchandised with lots of display racks for a variety of subjects including computers, self-help, mythology, new books, bestsellers, and any of a number of different subjects. You could spend a whole day wandering through the merchandised sections of the library. The bookshelves run along the walls, while the merchandised sections are in the center. Green and white signage hangs from the ceilings which is quite visible.

I went through and looked at a bunch of different subjects and wrote down a variety of new titles for computer books. They have more computer books than I have seen in most large bookstores. They also have a greater variety of subjects on computers. I still have a couple thousand dollars of computer books to order.

Sometimes when I go to libraries or bookstores I carry a small notebook to jot down titles which I am interested in. I have several pages of books jotted down after this visit. After walking through the computer books section, I walked through the social science section and noted down a few books that looked interesting. One title which really stood out was The Blue How To Profit By Investing In A Better World by Daniel De Faro Adams and Joe Andrew.

After I was done with the more serious works, I went to the manga and graphic novels section. There were a few things that interested me. Herge's Tintin can be quite controversial, but I think we might want to get a couple for the adult section. Some people consider them to be quite ethnically and racially biased. I also am going to probably order a few books by Goscinny who does the Asterix books. These in a sense are comics classics. I am also considering getting a few reprint volumes of Segar's Popeye.

Not everything in comics is about graphic novels and manga. We still have to get editorial cartoons and comic strips. Aaron McGruder is fairly popular at our library. We also don't have many popular strips. I intend to get a few of Scott Adam's Dilbert books for our collection after looking at the queens collection.

We have a very large African American population where we work. Three cartoonists which stand out who are African American are Lance Tooks, Aaron McGruder, and Kyle Baker. All do excellent work.

The computer station where I am sitting is very busy. There is a very large line to use the computers. It has a very large variety of people in the lines. Queens is also one of the most ethnically diverse places in the United States.

It is odd looking at the screen because they have set the standard type to very large to help the visually impaired. It is like reading a large print book. I don't particularly find it comfortable.

I have an hour to sit here before I go back to check on my car. I checked back on my car and it won't be ready until tomorrow. It is one of those things where unexpected things happen. I'll deal with it as I go along.

I don't really have to worry about driving it unless it is the weekend or I have a specific trip I have to make. I usually take the train to work.

Something I noticed about the Queens main branch is that it is not that effectively designed for reference work. Because almost all the collections are focused on high circulation and there is not as much reference material, there are a lot less people seeking reference questions.

People come in to check out material and use the computers more than anything else in Queens. There were no really identifiable special collections at all. I did not even see a multicultural collection. There is a very large Job Information Center collection. This seems to be the main specialized collection for reference in Queens.

It seemed that an emphasis on circulating material limits the amount of research being done. A research collection is structured differently than a circulating collection. In a more research oriented collection like New York Public Library there tends to be a lot more older material and much greater depth to the collection. It also is much more prestigious because of the depth of the collection. Most of the material in Queens was new material on the shelves. I did not find this particularly appealing. It reminded me too much of a bookstore model for libraries.

Cecilia Beaux


Cecilia Beaux was a Philadelphia artist who painted marvelous portraits. Artist Jay Rolfe has seen many in museums, especially the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This one was in the "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery. It was painted in 1921 and is titled "Sita and Sarita." The cat and the sitter's playful hand add life to Beaux' technical mastery.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Moonrise, Misty River, Boots

When I first started painting last year, my medium of choice was acrylic. I loved the ability to use lots of paint and get texture with huge dollops of paint on the surfaces of my paintings. I gradually learnt to temper my enthusiasm and to moderate my painting techniques.
And then I decided to do watercolours. I have always loved watercolour work and decided to try my hand at it. The first results were the little pics of the archway, harbour and window box, plus the two just posted. The seascape of the moonlight (3rd pic) is possibly the very first watercolour I did. I then discovered oils and that certainly took up my time and effort just learning to deal with the medium.


My efforts with watercolour went by the wayside. Until this year when I scratched through my watercolour box and decided to try my hand again. The two pics at the top are the result. The boots are Margie Johnson's, as part of a still life, and the water one comes from a pic from a magazine.

Peony Posy, French Village


Whilst doing an early spring clean of my painting/ sewing/ beading room, I came across these two little watercolours that I had done at the same time as the Harbour, archway and window box, so I thought I'd put them up as well.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Morning Thoughts, Conan The Conqueror

Robert E. Howard


Morning Thoughts

I have started reading Fueling Our Future An Introduction to Sustainable Energy by Robert L. Evans (Director Clean Energy Research Centre The University of British Colombia) , Cambridge University Press, c2007.

This looks to be a rather interesting book. It will be interesting to read a non-Us perspective on renewable energy. There are sections in the book on ocean energy which is not often covered in books on renewables. The author is also comparing nuclear, clean coal, and renewables as future energy sources. The author also compares two future transportation infrastructures, one based on plug in hybrid electric vehicles, and one based on a hydrogen transportation infrastructure.

This book is proving to be very fascinating reading. I have learned quite a few new things like the process of extracting oil from tar sands and oil shale. It also describes how it may be possible to extract methane from coal seams.

Robert L. Evans also gives a description of how carbon capture technology for coal plants would work that makes far more sense than any other description I have read. Often carbon dioxide is pumped into wells to force oil to flow out of nearby wells better. These are called CO2 injection wells. The drill holes with the carbon dioxide are then capped. The oil wells become carbon dioxide storage sites.

I often think not enough people are aware of all the technological options for renewable energy. Very few people know about wave energy, plasma conversion, solar updraft towers, biomass co-firing, landfill gasification, micro-hydro, hybrid turbine electric engines, and hybrid electric trains. There are many other options which could expand the mix of renewable energy options.

Conan The Conqueror

Robert E. Howard only wrote one full book length Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon, or Conan the Conqueror.

While there has been a Conan movie made starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, there never was a Conan movie made based on Conan The Conqueror. There were plans for years that Schwarzenegger would make a King Conan film based on this book. It never happened due to differences in opinion on how the movie should be made. I hear rumors that they may make a new Conan movie. I hope they don't choose a bodybuilder or someone from World Wrestling Entertainment.

I always thought that Schwarzenegger was too slow moving to be Conan. They need someone who is very quick, athletic, and able to express a lot of rage.

I would not mind if they restarted the franchise, but please choose the right person for the role. King Conan would be a fabulous movie if it was done right. Supposedly New Line Cinema is releasing a new version of the Conan movie in 2009.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Morning Thoughts

Morning Thoughts

Please excuse me if I haven't been doing too much writing this morning. I've been soaking in nostalgia for a bit. I rather like to do this. It reminds me of when I was younger and more carefree. It has been enjoyable lazing about and reading Savage Sword of Conan.

I had my morning coffee already, but haven't had a chance to read the paper yet. Sigh...
It is nice to have a day off on Saturday.

This afternoon, I did not do much either. I even skipped my daily chores today. I am off on Monday, so I am relaxing.

I finished watching The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. The plot didn't matter in the slightest to me, neither did the actors. I wanted to watch the stop motion animated monsters. They were a lot of fun to watch. Ray Harryhausen somehow gives his monsters more character than a lot of actors. I liked the roc, the cyclops, the dragon, and the animated skeleton. They were fun to watch just moving around. I especially liked the fight sequence between the dragon and the cyclops.

Monsters are fun to watch on film. I prefer if they are just presented as monsters with few ulterior motives. King Kong is a great monster. Mighty Joe Young is a great monster. Harryhausen did a lot of the stop motion animation for the original Mighty Joe Young. Godzilla is also a great monster because she seems to be a force of nature primally destructive. There is something primal about watching monsters destroy things and make loud noises. They are like hurricanes or earthquakes. I personally am not interested in particularly scary monsters. I want some of my monsters to be destructive not have motives.

Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 1, 2, and 3, Dark Horse Press-- Thoughts

Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 1, 2, and 3, Dark Horse Press-- Thoughts

I have been reading the Savage Sword of Conan compilations. Volume one contains issues 1-10, Volume 2 contains issues 11-24, Volume 3 contains issues 25-36. Savage Sword of Conan was a magazine size comic book produced during the 1970s. Roy Thomas is the writer of all these stories. Roy Thomas essentially popularized Conan for the comics format. This was after L. Sprague De Camp started creating new Conan stories for the paperbacks.

These collections are a veritable whose who of fantasy and comic artists. Some of the cover artists represented are people like Frank Brunner, Ken Barr, and Boris Vallejo. It is a veritable who's who of fantasy artists. The internal artists in these books are also very interesting, Barry Windsor Smith, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Alfred Alcala, Gene Colan, Carmine Infanto and Others. The cover art on Volumes one and two is by Boris Vallejo. Almost all the stories are beautifully drawn.

It is Conan in his classic form. The first volume is mainly Roy Thomas adapting the original Robert E. Howard stories for the comic book format. This is the classic barbarian with a sword tales. The stories are predictable full of violence, gold, monsters, and all those fantasy things which expect in a classic swords and sorcery sense. The whole set is very nostalgic, very predictable, and very fun to read. The third volume in the series has Roy Thomas adapting a number of the L. Sprague De Camp Conan stories to comic book form. L. Sprague De Camp is my favorite writer of the derivative Conan works.

Conan lives in these works. He lives for fighting, women, gold, strong drink, song, revenge, rage, and all those manly man things which makes him the king of swords and sorcery characters. The monsters in the stories are the things which crawl out of the pit, skeletons, giants, snakes, spiders, winged demons, and unnamable slithering horrors from before time. Also the dangerous jungle things, the giant apes and cats are of course represented. The tribes are the afghulis, the vanir, the picts, the kushites. He goes by many names, Amra the lion, Conan the Throat Slitter, and King Conan.

This series focuses mostly on when he is a wandering adventurer, thief, and mercenary. There are some episodes about when he becomes King of Aquilonia. Conan mainly discriminates against civilization, preferring to be with the wild fighting men of all races and cultures. It is machismo at its fullest. Women are not treated well in these stories. I would call some of these stories quite misogynistic. The exception are women who can use a sword, or who help Conan escape from danger. He turns Zenobia a slave into his queen in Aquilonia for saving him. He does not believe in slavery and keeping women as slaves.

Conan faces a variety of adventures with traps, tricks, and skulduggery. There are all the things you would expect, poisoned wine, pits with snakes, giant magnetic tables which trap swords, evil wizardry, treacherous thieves, sinking boats, deserted islands, long lost civilizations, and slavery. Conan is not a good guy, he is in it for his own ends. He kidnaps princesses for ransom, steals jewels, practices piracy and raiding, and fights for whoever who will pay him initially.

He however, does have a sense of honor, hates wizardry, hates monsters, hates slavery, and ultimately sides with men over the things from the pit or the dark past. In other words he has a well developed sense of character.

There is also an underlying rage in the Conan character. He is a berserker and often cannot stop himself from fighting. This rage fuels him to constantly seek new people to fight with. Also in his early life, he cannot hold onto wealth spending it freely on strong wine and women. There is a certain tragic sense to the character which many people do not see. His life is one of anger at having lost his family at an early age. He rages against the Vanir who raided his hill village. He is very much drawn with heavy eyebrows and a deep, dark brooding look in the comics.

One of the main differences I see between Conan and many characters is people assume the stories are only about fighting. Conan uses subterfuge, trickery, and his skills in hiding, tracking, and climbing to escape from his enemies many times. His instincts keep him alive on many occasions. He is often captured, beaten down by groups of men, and must escape.

In the books, Conan is not described like a bodybuilder. He does not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger who I thought butchered the role in some ways. There is some of this in the comics, but not as much as in the movies. He does not pose in bodybuilder positions in the comics. He is described as being lithe and moving like a tiger. I especially like how John Buscema draws him.

If you like swords and sorcery, high adventure, or machismo with a sword you might like these stories. They are classic stories and are very nostalgic. You might have read these stories if you were a teenager or adult during the 1970s. These stories are definitely not for children. The comics were not restrained at all, they did not bother to follow the comics code when they made these comics.

The only drawback with the series is that the covers which are shown are not in color like the originals. Also, the original size of Savage Sword of Conan was larger than the collected books. This causes some shrinkage in the size of the pictures and makes the print smaller making them a little less detailed. Also, these reprints only contain the main stories, not the smaller side stories in the original magazine size comics.

Still, this is a very complete series. You get 544 pages of comics in Volume 1 and 2. For the price of $19.95 it is a good deal. I am surprised that Marvel comics which owns the rights, let Dark Horse comics print the books. These books were on the Diamond Comic Distributors list of top 50 bestselling graphic novels.





Don't Make Me Think A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability, Second Edition, Steve Krug-- Review

Don't Make Me Think A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability, Second Edition, Steve Krug-- Review

Don't Make Me Think is a book about web usability. Usability is basically how easy it is too efficiently use a website. It tests how to make a website easier for the average visitor.

This book gives you insights into how to make a website easy to use. The first principle is to make your website as obvious as possible. For example, if the visitor is looking for employment information, it should use the most obvious words to describe employment like jobs or resume.

The other point it makes is that people don't read websites they do magazines or books, they scan through a website quickly. Most people do not want to scroll through screens of information. They want to go to the first place which gives them relevant information. They are seeking "satisficing", that is the place where they will get the information they need, not the best information.

Steve Krug describes how a website is more like a billboard than a magazine. The title should be prominently displayed on all the pages, and there should be a link back to the home page on every page. The most important piece of information on the web page should be the most visible.

Links should be obviously shown as links. This is why I usually put the full url in my blog posts for sites that you can visit.

Steve Krug quotes from The Elements of Style, "Omit needless words." He further says you must eliminate happy talk, marketing talk, and jargon from your site. People do not have very much patience on the internet.

There are some interesting concepts described about how people find things. He has many diagrams on how people seek out to buy things on the web. These diagrams explain how to make the experience quicker and easier. He also describes how to create a visual trail for the user on a web site. This often called "breadcrumbs." At times this gets a bit complex.

There is also a description of the basic elements of a homepage for a business. This book is mostly focused on business and professional websites, not the home user. It often describes how a development team in a business would build or test a website. This is my first experience with this kind of material.

Some of the elements in a professional homepage are search functionality, timely content, and shortcuts. He mentions that the title of websites should have a catchy tagline attached to them. This should explain exactly what the website is about.

The final chapters are how to do usability testing in a very inexpensive manner. He describes the basic setup with a camcorder, cabling, computers, and screen capture software. Then he tells how you can test a website with small groups of people to see whether or not it is easy for them to use. I understood the majority of this. However, it is not something I am planning on doing immediately.

Immediately after the cheap usability testing, he gives an outline of the context of what generates goodwill and bad will in a website. For example, some of the elements which generate goodwill are making it easy to recover from errors, putting in printer friendly pages, and knowing what the main thing people want in your website then implementing it.

The last few pages have several books which he recommends you read to improve your web site usability. Some of them look quite interesting. I may order several of them for my library. There is an index in the back of the book as well.

The book is illustrated in full color. There are pictures on almost every page. The artwork is pleasant to look and relevant to the content of the book. The book itself is designed so it is easy to read. The author claims you should be able to read through the book in about two hours. It took me three hours with several interruptions.

This book is very basic. It gives you an idea of what web usability is. I think it is helpful for basic tips on how to improve a website. The material is not advanced or complicated. It is the kind of thing you can read in an afternoon. This is a beginners book. If you already have advanced usability skills, it might not help.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Chairman "Mao" at the Corcoran


This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

This is the last weekend for this exhibit "American Evolution" at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, "Mao" by Andy Warhol is the second image, along with Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington" to greet the visitor at the entrance to the "American Evolution" exhibit which artist Jay Rolfe recently viewed at the Corcoran Gallery. Here is the Corcoran Gallery's image of that painting. It makes for a very interesting juxtaposition with "George Washington." "Mao" is much more colorful, larger, and depicts a world leader from another country and culture rather than from our country.

Good Morning, Good Afternoon

Brain in a vat. I don't know why I chose this image. Maybe, I feel a bit dreamy today.


Good Morning

I read Black and White on the train in to work today. I reserved By Schism Rent Asunder, a new David Weber in his series Armageddon Reef. This series reads very differently than his books published under the Baen label. This book is published under the Tor label so the editing should be considerably different.

I also found a review for The Automotic Detective on http://www.sfsite.com/ This is the exact link to the review http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ad276.htm . I liked the review enough to recommend it. It is accurate.

Good Afternoon

During lunch, I noted down the outline for the review of Don't Make Me Think A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. I am not going to write it out today. One review in a day is enough. I think more than one review would be rushed and a little sloppy.

I am feeling a little better than this morning with two cups of coffee fortifying my thinking.

One of the reasons I am doing this blog is for self motivation to get myself to do a little bit every day of different library and literature related things...

I weeded some of the graphic novels in the adult section. I did not get rid of a lot of the classics. People still read Milton Caniff, Rube Goldberg, Jules Feiffer, Al Capp, Gary Trudeau, and Berke Breathed. I know these are often quite old, but people are still checking them out. As soon as the new graphic novels I order are here, they go out very quickly.

Often the people who sit at the computers have a waiting time of half hour or longer. Many of them read graphic novels while they are waiting for their turn on the internet computers. Graphic novels are quick and easy to read.

I checked out a few graphic novels for me to read this weekend. I always check out the books which I am going to use. It is the right thing to do for librarians. Check out your books. It increases the amount of circulation for your library. Libraries are partially funded by circulation.

I have the following graphic novels, The Facts In The Case of the Departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, and Todd Klein, Usagi Yojimbo The Mother of Mountains Volume 21 by Stan Sakai, and The Savage Sword of Conan Volumes 1, 2, and 3 written by Roy Thomas. These are Dark Horse comics compilations. They should remind me of when I was younger and liked to read Conan. It is a bit nostalgic to look at these three volumes.

Also, I have The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain. This should be interesting. Finally, I am looking at Fueling Our Future An Introduction To Sustainable Energy by Robert L. Evans.

Black and White Tekkon Kinkreet All In One, Taiyo Matsumoto, Review

Good Morning

I was reading Tekkon Kinkreet Black & White All In One by Taiyo Matsumoto on the train in from work. It is a really incredible manga. Some of the content defies definition. It is about an orphan pair of children who look to be about ten or eleven years old in a run down city, Black and White. There are some very unusual things about them. They are extremely violent, they also can fly which makes for a very strange story. In an odd way, they are almost super powered.

They are in conflict with various denizens of the city including the yakuza, foreign criminals, and other street gangs. They seem to be the spirit of a city which has turned into a rather nasty slum. The characters are interesting. They get help from a drunken old man sometimes. Interspersed with their violent dealings are various episodes like visiting a video arcade, eating apples, going to the public baths, pickpocketing money during a boxing match, and mugging people for their watches.

The art work is stunning. It has an odd feeling, somehow. It is mostly drawn in black white. The drawings are not traditional, they have a rough quality to them which makes them both childlike and at the same time very dark. Towards the end of the story, Black gets separated from White and takes on the spiritual aspect of the Minotaur, the destroyer of men. He fights two assassins who also can fly and kills them. At moments there are pictures of a good Black and a Black that is the essence of evil.

White weres a kind of a weird outfit with a lion mask, and regular all white childrens clothes, Black wears a necklace of a big skull, aviator goggles, and black clothing. This makes them odd. They also sometimes carry big metal pipes.

There is a lot of strangeness in this story. For example, Black and White meet another pair of street children, Dawn and Dusk with powers. You see them on top of buildings, sitting on telephone wires, jumping on moving cars. The two children are completely without fear. Also, they sleep in an old rusted out car. There is a little plot of land where White has planted an apple seed.

The villain is a foreign asian man with rings on his fingers and in his ears. He is trying to build an amusement building for children and take over the town. The villain wants to change the whole character of the city into something like Disneyland. He wants to unite the yakuza and tear down the old strip mall which they hang out at.

Sometimes the police talk to them. They don't know what to make of the children. They have a record of violence. In one scene they attack another little kid and take his backpack. The whole story is very surreal. The story at least ends with peace in the city.

This story is definitely not for children. It is an adult story despite having super powered street orphans as the main characters. The main characters, Black and White sing naughty childrens rhymes, swear, and cause mayhem. The villains are violent. There is some nudity and sexuality. One of the yakuza is depicted talking to his wife while he is in bed about having a child. There is an odd mix of real life and otherworldly powers.

The book is an odd size 7 inches by 10 inches making it very large for a manga. The panels are also larger than usual. They are not laid out in a traditional manner and vary from page to page. The book was turned into an anime film in 2006. It is very avant garde. I am surprised that this was published. It is very unusual.  There is a parental advisory symbol on the front of the book which says "Parental Advisory, Explicit Content."


This week in my life

I have all kinds of fun things to blog about today. First, I'm a finalist in the Aspen Gold Reader's Choice Awards. Yay for me!

Second, I did another race. Here's a pic (I'm #522):


Third, I'm giving a workshop on bringing your story to life via collages. For all you SPECIALISTS fans out there, here's the one I did (zoom in and see if you can make out your fav character):


And lastly, NATIVE TONGUE comes out in exactly 6 days!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington"


Artist Jay Rolfe learned that Gilbert Stuart's Anthenaeum portrait of George Washington, the one you always see, was so popular that many people wanted to buy a copy. So Gilbert Stuart made a number of what he called "plurality" paintings, his copies which were almost identical. Many museums have one, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery has two.

In the "American Evolution" exhibit, the older George Washington portrait, painted in 1796-1803 was juxtaposed with Andy Warhol's painting of "Mao" who was the leader of the most populous country in the world. They were right next to each other as the introductory paintings to the whole exhibit. You can see what they looked like next to each other by scrolling back to the post on this blog for July 19, 2008.

Today's photo of the day is the 1803 "plurality" version of Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington." It was painted 170 years before Andy Warhol's "Mao."

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Afternoon Thoughts


Unknown Master Artist, Vanitas With Sun Dial

Afternoon Thoughts


This morning, I spent three hours answering peoples reference questions. It was rather interesting and busy.


Anyways, I am reading Steve Krup, Don't Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Second Edition, New Rikers, c2006. Usability is how to make it easy to use and navigate websites. This book makes many suggestions on how to do this. It is a quick read. I am already half way through the book.


I will work on writing a review of The Automatic Detective tomorrow. Sometimes, I have to let a book sit in my head for a little bit before I start writing a review about it. I don't even seem to think about it in my conscious mind.


The room is set up for my poetry open microphone this afternoon, I have to pick out some poetry books to bring down for the audience to look at. A bit later the refreshments will be set up.

The Public Domain How To Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art, & More-- Attorney Stephen Fishman--Review

The Public Domain How To Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art, & More-- Attorney Stephen Fishman--Review



This is an excellent overview of how to find and use material that is in the public domain. It is quite an interesting book. There is a lot of material that is in the public domain. You have to be very careful with copyright. The United States government for example encourages people to put copyrights on things even if they are in the public domain. The maximum fine for putting a copyright symbol on a public domain item is $2500. This is a pittance compared to what most companies stand to gain by claiming copyright.



Copyright is used to ensure that authors gain money and recognition for their work. According to the author, almost everything in the United States written or published before 1923 is no longer under copyright. There are ways which publishers get around this.



For example, the author, Stephen Fishman describes how Lexis licenses the use of its databases creating a contract for use of legal documents. The legal documents themselves are in the public domain, but the contract spells out how the database will be used. Another example is that the cartoon Krazy Kat is in the public domain, but, the name Krazy Kat is still trademarked. Also, if a person appears in a photograph, they may have rights of publicity which are different than copyright.



I learned a lot from reading this book. Some of it is directly applicable for my job. For example displaying a book in a library or museum is not a violation of copyright because the book is not being distributed or intended to be distributed.



In my blog, I use many pictures produced by the United States government. Most of the material published by the United States government is not protected by copyright. There are some exceptions like the Smithsonian and some documents produced by the Department of Commerce. It is fun to look through the photographic archives of the Library of Congress available on the web.



The book covers a huge variety of different formats including writing, photographs, art, maps, software, television, radio, recordings, music, architectural drawings, choreography, and more. There are also sections on the copyright and the internet and international copyright.



Just because someone put something on the internet does not make it public domain. Even if a person does not put a copyright notice up, they can claim that their publisher forgot to put the notice up and they are protected by copyright.



Also virtually all software is protected by copyright. No software was produced before 1923 in the United States, the same goes for television. There are a variety of software licenses which organizations have created including creative commons, freeware, and shareware. These are licenses for use which are legally different than the terms of copyright.



The way the Author describes "fair use" is quite interesting. There is no equivalent of fair use in most other countries than the United States. Also, many countries have very different copyright terms than the United States. Publishing something on the web can put you in jeopardy of violating international copyright laws.



The one idea in fair use that I get is the right to criticism. I have a right to take small pieces of an authors work from a book so I can criticise the content. The same goes for film. I do this all the time on my blog.



This book was fascinating to read. Because it was was written by a lawyer for laypersons, the book was very precise and clear in its language. It is also very intense in depth reading. It took over a week for me to read the book. There is a set of related internet links and books at the end of each chapter to provide further understanding of the subject matter being covered. There are also numerous black and white photographs throughout the book. The book is c May 2008, Nolo Press, 4th Edition. It was listed as a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title. Choice reviews academic books. Nolo Press publishes many books of law for the layperson.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Evening Thoughts

Statue of Niccolo Machiavelli. Supposedly Machiavelli used to like to put on his court robes at night before he sat down to read so he could be in his imagination with the great thinkers throughout history.


Evening Thoughts

Today has been very busy. I haven't really had a chance to write the reviews of two books which I have read, The Public Domain, and A. Lee Martinez, The Automatic Detective. I enjoyed reading both titles. I forgot to bring a pen on the train this morning. Maybe, I am making an excuse. I try to write a little bit on my blog every single day.

I tried to read the manga, Ruruoni Kenshin by Nobuhiru Watsuki a bit this morning, but found myself a little bored. It seemed a bit too formal in some ways to me. The little bits of history on the characters were interesting, but overall the story did not excite me that much.

When I read the history of Japan, I prefer to read about Japan before westerners came. This is just a personal bias. The setting in this manga is during the Meiji period. This means there are elements added like guns and other elements.

The volume I read was the Vizbig Edition, Volume 1, which compiles Volumes 1-3 into a single trade paperback volume. I think people who like more formal traditional manga will like this work. It combines sword fighting with romance and intrigue.

This morning I spent some time weeding the computer books. I am trying to thin out the collection of items that are not being used before more of the new books start coming in. We have to keep many of the older books because of the issue of legacy computing.

Underlying programs like c, perl, java and html remain the building blocks of newer programs like xhtml, c++, css, and other computer programs. Also many people still use older editions of windows, we still get requests for windows 95, 98, and XP. The same thing applies to things like unix and linux. Not everyone is hurriedly switching over to Vista or Ubuntu.

Books on the older programs are often no longer sold in the bookstores even though people are using them. They turn to the library because it is the only place where people can get the material. Not everyone wants to switch to a newer fancier system.

I spent several hours looking at computer books to see if we still need them. I also spent some time looking at some of the new books which just came in. I am going to wait and see what is coming in before I order more new books. I will probably also weed our current graphic novel and manga collection, both to reduce the number of books that are not circulating, and make the newer material look more visible. Very crowded, packed shelves make it hard to find new material. I like to have around 6 inches to one foot at the end of each shelve.

Tomorrow, I also have my poetry open microphone. We moved it down from four o'clock to five o'clock to have a chance for more adults to come. Hopefully, we'll also get a new microphone. I think, I will be ready for the program. I also usually pick out a variety of poetry books for people to look at which I bring down on a book truck. In addition, we will be serving light refreshments. I like to serve water and juice. I don't like serving soda, especially when little children are around, it makes them very jumpy.

I picked out a few books from the new books to look at. One is a manga, Tekkon Kinkreet Black and White All In One by Taiyo Matsumoto. There is a parental advisory on the cover for content. Also, there is a label which says now an animated film. Another book which looks interesting is Don't Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition, by Steve Krug. The final book which I plan on reading is The Future of The Internet And How To Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain.

Once again, I am starting to pile up books to read. Oddly enough, I didn't really have any magazines to read today. I read the paper this morning with my coffee, but that is an almost ritual thing.

John Singer Sargent


Artist Jay Rolfe saw a beautiful, and very large, in fact life-size, portrait by John Singer Sargent of "Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White (Mrs. Henry White)" painted in 1883 at the "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. It is today's photo of the day.

The exhibit closes after this Sunday July 27, 2008, so if you are interested in the exhibit, this is the last few days.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Curse of the Bayou...New Review

"The third time really is the charm for author Mary Cunningham, as her latest installment in the Cynthia’s Attic series is the best of the trio. While books one and two are delightfully entertaining, within a few pages of book three, it is apparent that the writer has grown right a long side her two main characters. Blending parallel universes with very real human issues while allowing the reader to suspend the need for reason is a huge undertaking, and one that Cunningham has met and far exceeded with Curse of the Bayou."

To read the entire review click here
RJ's Cafe: 3rs Reading Den

Colorful pirates, SuRana--a shape-shifting puma, and an old Cajun guide named Mud Bug join Cynthia and Gus as they explore…

CURSE OF THE BAYOU


ISBN: 978-1-59080-575-6
Quake, a division of Echelon Press, LLC


from the acclaimed author of
THE MAGIC MEDALLION
Best Books 2006 National Book Award Finalist
And
THE MISSING LOCKET

The latest quest for the adventurous, twelve-year-old best friends finds them in a Louisiana bayou. There, they search for answers in the disappearance of Cynthia's great-grandfather, Beau Connor, who was on his way down the Mississippi River to sell a flatboat full of produce.

With the help of a magic trunk in Cynthia's attic, this time-traveling duo venture back to 1914 New Orleans. The warm welcome and advice from old friend, Gabriella, is small comfort when Mud Bug warns them to stay away from Buzzard Jack LaBuse, the meanest, orneriest pirate this side of the Mississippi, his gang of misfits, Snags, Darby, and Salty Sam, their thieving parrot mascot.

A trip to the Connor's Southern Indiana farm reveals a strange connection between Beau and Buzzard Jack, and a family curse that might be responsible for Cynthia's great-grandfather's disappearance. Returning to New Orleans, a harrowing ride on a roller coaster sends them farther back in time to 1844, straight into the clutches of the evil pirate, fighting for their lives. A mysterious treasure and heart-stopping adventure lead to a final confrontation in the girls' mission to save Great Granddaddy Beau.




Thoughts For Today

Thoughts For Today

I read the July 7 Publishers Weekly this morning. There was an interesting title listed for graphic novels. It is War Eagles by Carl Macek. There is an introduction by Ray Harryhausen. Ray Harryhausen currently is working on a new animatronic film called War Eagles. This is the graphic novel adaptation of the film.

Also, we had a Dominican lady come in and talk about her new poetry book. We may be doing a poetry reading in Spanish which should be quite interesting. We just have to make the arrangements for the program.

I am almost done reading The Public Domain.

I have a copy of Usagi Yojimbo Tomoe's Story, Volume 22 by Stan Sakai. I think this is my favorite manga and possibly one of the best comic series I've ever read. I love the story and the style of the artwork. Usagi Yojimbo means "rabbit bodyguard". The main character is Miyamoto Usagi, a wandering rabbit ronin inspired by Miyamoto Musashi. It is an anthropomorphic or furry comic book. Stan Sakai was inspired to write the story while he was a letterer for Groo the Wanderer.

It has numerous elements from Japanese folklore including ghosts, tengu, spirits, and demons. There are also ninja, assassins, bandits, and other adventures which Usagi runs into. He fights numerous duels with the sword. There are also different furries some of them present unique challenges. Stan Sakai has a website at: http://www.usagiyjojimbo.com/

Ellsworth Kelly "Yellow With Red Triangle"


This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

Artist Jay Rolfe viewed Ellsworth Kelly's "Yellow With Red Triangle" at the Corcoran Gallery recently. It was painted in 1973. This photo, from the Corcoran's website, has the red a little too orange. It was definitely an orange red, but there was more red in it than shows in the Corcoran's image. Jay Rolfe's photo taken in the gallery which had a yellow-beige wall, shows a little more of the red.

For my Son 18"x24"


It's my son, Howard's, birthday tomorrow and this is the 'gift' I will be taking to the family when I make my way over to Sweden in February next year. I really enjoyed painting my grandson and thanks to Margie Johnson for her guidance.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Acacia Book One The War With The Mein-- David Anthony Durham-- Review

Acacia Book One The War With The Mein-- David Anthony Durham-- Review

This is the story of an invasion of a fantasy empire, Acacia, by a foreign people the Mein. The Acacians are a dark skinned desert people represented by the Acacia tree. The Mein are a light skinned people from a cold northern land that remind me a bit of the Finns or Laplanders.

The Mein are seeking vengeance for the Acacians driving them north into the frozen tundra for many generations. They had to survive in a harsh environment. The Mein worship their ancestors and wish to seek revenge for the slights received by the Acacians years ago. They also despise the Acacians slave keeping and trade in the drug called the mist.

The opening story is a story of brutal conquest. I rather like it because the writer does not hold back, he describes all the tools of war. The Mein use disease on the Acacians, surprise attack, subterfuge and treachery in their initial bid to seize power. There is a wonderful description of the assassination of the Acacian emperor. The assassin announces his name after he succeeds to prove he did it.

However, after the conquest initially succeeds, the Mein fail to capture the royal family. This leads to the second part of the book where the royal family grows up. One of them becomes a raider, another a living goddess, another a hunter and warrior, and the last a captive of the Meinish court.

There is a sense in the writing that the author is drawing from North African and Scandinavian history to create a unique clash of cultures. This makes the story very interesting. You can even see in parts where he is using the story of the Barbary pirates. The Mein are not mainland Europeans.

Mixed in the unique setting is the use of very dark subject matters, the drug trade, and the slave trade in building imperial power. The drug is Mist a kind of will sapping substance which is smoked.

The magic in this story is not the kind of thing where wizards throw thunderbolts and summon strange creatures. It is much more subtle. There is a strange and terrible race in support of the Mein, the Numrek, a race of giant cannibals who ride furry rhinoceros creatures who come from deep in the frozen ice fields. The magical elements when they are described don't seem too gripping. They need to provoke more of a sense of wonder.

The writing is solid but not astounding. I think he could have described the physical surroundings of the characters a little better.

It is the uniqueness of the setting, and the willingness to cover dark topics which separates this novel from other fantasy novels. Also, there is a focus on the details in the battles which is unique. The author does an excellent job of describing bow, spear, sword, knife and axe fighting. He even describes a set of martial forms which the Acacians use in their fighting.

The final part of this book is how the Acacians retake their throne. This part of the story has a lot of court intrigue in it. It has an interesting surprise ending which is very different from what I expected. I will definitely read the second book in this series when it comes out.

Richard Diebenkorn "Ocean Park #83"


Artist Jay Rolfe saw several of Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series of over 140 paintings while in Washington DC. This example, at the Corcoran Gallery, is "Ocean Park #83" painted in 1975. The first image is from the Corcoran's website. The second image is a photo Rolfe took. He thinks this painting looks better framed and on a wall with the floor visible.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.


Morning Thoughts

19th Century Phrenology Chart. Nothing like a little pseudoscience.


Morning Thoughts

I have been looking at Baker & Taylor online for a little bit. They have a section of selection lists for libraries. I have been looking at their starred reviews lists of books as well as some of their specialized e-lists on different subjects. Some of them are useful for selecting items. Baker & Taylor is a very large book distributor. We buy most of our books through Baker & Taylor. So do a lot of the public libraries in the United States. We do our own technical processing.


I spent some time looking through the Strand Books website http://www.strandbooks.com/ . They are arranged very differently than Amazon or Barnes and Nobles. The Strand has a number of categories for books which are interesting like substance abuse and social work which are worth looking at. We have a fairly high demand for items in these categories.


I also took a few minutes and looked at the different categories at Powell's bookstores. Powell's is another megabookstore like the Strand. I find Powell's categories to be much more refined than Barnes and Nobles or Amazon. http://www.powells.com/psection/psection.html

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez has come in for me to read. I didn't realize until I picked up the book that the author also wrote Gil's All Fright Diner, a humourous horror novel about preventing the end of the world.

I am also thinking about what I am going to do for my Open Microphone Poetry Reading on Thursday. We moved the time down to 5:00-6:00 p.m., it really should be later, but there is no one who can fill in for the time slot.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Morning Thoughts

A bust of Homer in the British Museum in London.


Morning Thoughts

Good morning. I had my morning coffee, so I am not feeling too bad. I watched a little bit of the 7th Voyage of Sinbad. It is much better than Harryhausen's other films. I rather like the Valley of the Cyclops. The animation for the cyclops is quite interesting. I like the way it uses a tree to smash several of Sinbad's companions.

There is a lot in this movie so far which is quite interesting. Sinbad often creates his own problems when he hires criminals who would be facing the gallows to voyage with him to the Vally of the Cyclops.

The special effects, even if they are old are quite interesting. The miniature princess that is three inches tall is entertaining, so is the scene of the four armed snake woman.

The way the story is told reminds me a little bit of the Odyssey. It is an old fashioned adventure story with gold, magic, and monsters. I will write more about it as I watch some more of the film.

I took a break from the movie and am reading a bit more of Acacia: The War With the Mein. The story is interesting, it seems to draw from African myth and legend, as well as North African history. The scenes with pirates remind me a bit of the pirates of the Barbary coasts from North Africa. The setting is a bit different than your usual fantasy setting. It seems to mix a bit of African history with Roman history.

I also like some of the themes in the novel so far. For a while, the Acacians ruled the known world through a combination of a drug called the mist and various forms of slavery including child slavery. Now they are being attacked by the Mein who consider the Acacians unjust and dishonorable.

I finished reading the novel this afternoon. It has a rather interesting and surprising ending. I will write up a review later this week.

Entrecard is still having some problems. Apparently Amazon S3 which provides remote memory storage and other applications to Entrecard is having some problems with their cloud computing system. Cloud computing is a form of distributed computing.

Amazon S3 rents applications and memory to other companies through the internet. In other words you can rent chunks of memory, internet bandwidth, and complex computer programs by the hour at reasonable rates.

Unfortunately when Entrecard added Sezwho and Diggit, it looks like the new applications disrupted the cloud computing system on Amazon S3. It is rather interesting to follow.

It is a bit annoying. It means that I will be getting less blog traffic through Entrecard. Hopefully, Entrecard and Amazon S3 will fix this soon. Still, it is rather fascinating to follow the process. I am learning something about how social networking systems can have problems.

I am trying to understand this stuff in terms of Occam's Razor, otherwise it would be completely over my head. "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."

While I was at the laundromat during the evening folding clothes, I was watching television. I have a television but it doesn't work properly, you have to subscribe to cable to get any channels so I don't watch it at home. The television I have at home has a built in VCR and DVD player which is easy to use. I watch movies on my television but not any television shows.

Anyways, I was watching the news on television at the laundromat when I saw a rather interesting advertisement. Apparently T. Boone Pickens the oil billionaire has an energy plan which he is advertising on television. I went to the site and it was very straightforward. Invest in wind power, solar power, and natural gas. Straightforward, easy, something which we can definitely do. I liked it enough that I looked at the website. He says some things which are quite correct. Oil peaked in 2005 and we are sending too much money to foreign powers. Here is the link: http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/

Iron Man-- Peter David

Iron Man-- Peter David

This is a paperback novelization of the movie by Peter David. Because it is a novelization of a movie, it has to stick to the story in the movie. The paperback was released a month before the movie was released. There is a picture of Iron Man's face on the cover. The goal of these type of paperbacks is to encourage you to go out and see the movie.

The story modernizes the comic book iron man. Iron man was retired in comic book form a while ago. Marvel comics is reviving the franchise.

Tony Stark is a world leading weaponry salesman. His goal is to sell weapons to the United States so the United States military can be the best in the world.

Stark makes a trip to Afghanistan and is driving in a convoy when it is hit by insurgents. He is captured. The terrorist insurgents demand he fix some of his own weaponry so they can use it against American troops. He sees firsthand that the enemy is using his weaponry.

Instead, Tony Stark builds a prototype of his iron man suit and fights his way out, escaping to freedom. He makes a vow to stop selling weaponry the world over. His experience creates a change of heart. Also, he gets shrapnel near his heart signifying a physical change. He has to have a magnetic chest plate put in to stop the shrapnel from entering his heart.

The story is very straightforward, the writer, Peter David makes it come across easily. There is not a lot of angst or deep thought. It is action oriented and about change.

When he gets home, he announces the change in his company. However, many people in the company don't want to change. They plan for Tony Stark's downfall. Thus we have the classic Judas story, where there is a traitor in the midst.

Tony Stark builds a new more powerful iron man suit and goes to defeat the terrorists, destroying the weapons which were manufactured by Stark Industries.

When he gets home, he must face the Judas, an appropriately named villain, Mr. Stane. Mr. Stane has built a suit similar to Iron Man's which he plans to sell as a weapon of war, the Iron Monger. A major battle ensues where Iron Man destroys the Iron Monger.

This is very straightforward action. Iron Man even plays Metallica and Black Sabbath rock music while he is fighting the villains. Peter David does a good job creating a straightforward story of good versus evil. Tony Stark starts out as a millionaire playboy without a conscience and gets a conscience through directly experiencing the bad guys.

The book was quite easy to read. I finished it in about two and a half hours. It is the kind of thing which you can read in an afternoon.

Peter David has written numerous Star Trek novels, for Babylon 5, for Marvel and DC comics, as well as a few of his own novels like Tigerheart. Tigerheart is advertised on the inside front cover of the Iron Man paperback. He is an entertaining bestselling writer.