Issue 5

Welcome to Issue 5, we are back and better than ever before!

This weeks issue brings you 3 great theme inspired posts from 3 fantastic writers (if they’re not on your blogroll already they should be) who were given the challenge of writing about something that has bothered them this week, plus a blog review of yet another great blog and a music review from one of our favourite writers, Altjiranga Mitjina.

There have of course been some changes since last week. Now, rather than bloggers sending their entries in as and when, we are asking those interested in writing for us to let us know, either via our comments or by sending us an email, and we will select each weeks writers from the list via email and give them a theme to write on. As an added incentive to challenge our writers we have decided to make our favourite entry each week the feature piece and make their blog the Blog Of The Week.

So huge congratulations to Sara from Suburban Oblivion for becoming our featured writer this week with her honest and heartfelt post ‘What about the rest of us’.

As always, each and every post you can see on this page is part of this weeks issue, so scroll right down to the bottom, leave some comments for our writers and click on over to see them at their own blogs for more of their writing.

If you wish to see your writing here with links to your blog along side other great writers simply leave us a comment or send us an email and we will get in touch.

What About The Rest Of Us?

Written by Sara from Suburban Oblivion

I got my copy of Redbook magazine a couple of days ago. This is usually an exciting thing for me- I admit I love stealing 5 minutes here and there and hiding in the bathroom to read about all the things people do and wear and buy when they aren’t the mother to 3 kids. I know a lot of women with families do read this magazine, but they have so much content that is NOT about children that reading it makes me feel like for 5 minutes, I am not just someone’s mom. I am woman, hear me roar.

As I began to flip through the pages of the new May issue, my heart sank. This was not just any issue; it was the Mother’s Day edition. Then as I continued towards the back cover, I first was irritated, and finally became angry. Page after page, piece after piece on wonderful, cookie-baking, business-owning, charity-driven, self-sacrificing Mother of the Year nominees.

What about the rest of us?

Try as I might I couldn’t find a single page pertaining to my own history with the woman who gave me life. There were no “20 Ways to Celebrate Not Turning Out Like Her”. Nothing about women who had dealt with abuse at the hands of their mothers, yet managed to break that cycle and not pass it down to their own children. No pretty little poems for those who witnessed more than any child ever should of drug abuse, no song lyrics about mothers having affairs on the fathers, no opinion pieces from those who finally, for the sake of their own sanity, broke ties and never looked back. Nothing but happy, happy, happy little bits of fluff for happy little families.

Society ingrains in you the idea that the mother is the most sacred of all things, and because her blood runs through your veins, and she gave you life, she is to be all but worshipped. What society (as well as Redbook) fails to prepare you for is if you are instead born to the kind of parent who prefers to worry more about their desires than their child’s needs. Those preaching the bond of family suddenly fall silent, and you are left to deal with it alone, while all around you the world celebrates the gift of motherhood.

They say it takes all kinds, and I believe that. I believe most women probably are good mothers, and I try my best to be one of them. I believe that cutting my mother out of my life was one of the healthiest things I have ever done for myself, despite what society thinks. I also believe that the world has a lot of women like me who might look at a Mother’s Day issue of a magazine and hope that maybe there is some acknowledgment out there that we are ok, and that not every mother is worth celebrating.

VHw8XXTu

Written by Meg from Simply Nutmeg

You know what really bothers me, sets me smack in the middle of a post partum, hormonal hissy fit? Those damn word verifies. I know they're all over the net, and I understand they're a necessary evil to control the Viagra and teen booby trolls. Hell, I even have one on my own website. But mine is simple; you just type in a four letter word. You don't have to squint and hold your computer screen at arm's length to read it, and it's the same every time you have to enter it. It's also a real word so you don't spend precious blog-reading time trying to decipher gibberish.

My problem is that I'm old enough to need reading glasses but not old enough to admit it, or to go out and spend the three dollars they'd cost me at Walmart. I can't really see those stupid letters when you run them all together. I'm also not all that computer savvy. For the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to make my letters squiggly when I type them in. I've looked all over my keyboard and I don't see any squiggly letters. Then there's that line going through them. I've tried the hyphen, the underscore, I've tried to switch to HTML and use the cross-out feature. I can't get a line through my son-of-a-bum letters.

I really rail when the row of letters dips down a little in the middle. I thought maybe that was like an Etch-a-Sketch feature so I tried shaking my laptop over my head. Freaking letters stay straight! I've tried F1 through F12 - no go. I've E-mailed the folks at Blogging Basics 101 (where there are no stupid questions), but they haven't written a post about it yet. Maybe I need to upgrade my laptop. Or maybe I need to say yes to one of those 'updates are ready for your computer' messages.

Whatever the glitch turns out to be, I would just like to make it known that if you have a blog out there with a word verify, I'm probably reading it, I'm out there lurking, and I'm trying like hell to share with you my brilliant comments!

A writer, editor, teacher, and mom to four little menches, Meg is just hoping her blog addiction will keep her off that crack-cocaine! You can tune in to her cyber sitcom at http://www.simplynutmeg.com.

The Death Of Captain America

Written by Altjiranga Mitjina

“Every country has the government it deserves”

- Joseph de Maistre

By now everyone has seen it. It was page one material last month when it first came out. What am I talking about? Captain American #25. By now most of you have probably seen the now familiar panel from the issue of Captain America lying on the court house steps bleeding. The issue sold out the day it went on sale which made it difficult to find and get hold of a copy. Marvel Comics has just published a second printing of the comic this last week. I was unable to score a copy of the comic when it first came out, but this time when I was at my local comic book shop I saw an copy of the 2^nd printing sitting on the racks and decided to give it a look.

For a brief recap of what is going on: This issue follows the end of the top selling Civil War mini series. In this mini series the Marvel Heroes are faced with the task of registering their identity and their role as a hero with the United States Government. Some heroes do so willingly, others decide that this act is a violation of what they represent. Captain America is one of the heroes that decides that he cannot register with the government. Thus follows a big fight that goes on for most of the issues of the mini series between the two sides until it comes to an end on the streets of New York City when Captain America realizes that both sides have ended up fighting each other more for the sake of the fight and a careless attitude of who gets hurt. He surrenders to the authorities who take him into custody.

This is where the issue of Captain America opens. With him being transferred from jail to the courthouse for his arraignment. While doing the perp walk he is shot and supposedly killed.

Lots of attention over a comic book character you might think. There’s lot of real people dying that don’t get the type of attention that this fictional hero got. After the loss of all those lives at Virginia Tech it seems to be kind of silly to be getting all hot and bothered over the death of a make believe character.

Yet I believe we are defined in some sense by our fictional heroes as well as those of flesh and blood. Who we are is reflected in the actions of these larger than life characters that we give life to on paper or on the big screen.

Captain America stood for truth and justice and an America that was a land for everyone. In Frontline, a companion comic to the main Civil War series, Cap is chided for not knowing what My Space is, for not being up on who the hot new singer is, for not knowing how to google for an answer; in other words for being old fashioned and out of date. Cap stood for his principles and when he realized that he was not following them like he should he was willing to stand down and face the consequences of his actions.

In today’s marketplace the hero is sometimes not much better than the villain he faces. Too often the hero is as quick to shoot first and ask questions later than to try and reason out an answer.

We live in age where the anti-hero is all the rage, where dark and gritty is the preferred story telling device. Captain American reflected a man who was a Hero and who stood in the light. His stories did not sell, his brand of Hero is not what we are looking for today. So they have to kill him.

Will he be back? This is comic books, no one dies forever in these tales of four colors. But before the true man behind the mask is back we will probably see a version of Captain America that is closer to Wolverine and the darkness of the human soul than the optimistism he once stood for.

As a country we may get the government we deserve, but as a country maybe we get the heroes we deserve also.

Blog Review

The picture really does say it all.

The Astonishing Adventures of The Incomparable Lord Likely is one of the daftest, laugh out loud funny, wonderfully politically incorrect blogs I have ever read.

“Being a hard-working member of the aristocracy is tiresome fare indeed. When not deciding which hat to wear, or attending private functions, or stabbing a beggar, there's countless other tasks which all vie for my finite attention.”

I defy anyone to keep a straight face as they follow this obnoxious Victorian aristocrat, who’s main hobbies seem to be assaulting Botter, his much beleaguered man servant, assaulting vagrants, taking Lord Palmerston (as he is wont to calling his manhood) for outings, and being generally unpleasant, superior and obnoxious to all, as he assaults, curses and drinks his way through each extraordinary episode.

Best enjoyed by starting at the beginning (Feb 2007), this well written and well presented blog is a must add to all blogrolls; so do yourself and your funny bone a favour and head on over there today and tell the old c*nt that TopBlogMag sent you.

North American Ghost Music

Written by - Altjiranga Mitjina

Classic Rock. Rap. Alternative Rock. Hip Hop. Emo. Punk. Gothic. Heavy Metal. Rock and Roll. Americana. There are as many different names for the music as there are listeners. For an artist today trying to figure out where they fit into the musical scene has to be a daunting task. Should they try to be more punk. Or perhaps throw some emo into their sound, that seems to be the hot new thing.

Or perhaps they could not worry about where they fit into the scheme of things and just try to put out some great music. Which is what Shannon McNally has decided to do. Put out some great music and let the fans decide what they want to call her music. She calls it North American Ghost Music. Which is as good a description as anything I can think of.

Shannon is from my home town of New Orleans by way of New York. Her influences are such groups like the Band, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and the writer John Steinbeck. She graduated college with a degree in Social Anthropology. Supporting herself as a model she decided to turn what was a hobby of making music into her passion. Her debut album Jukebox Sparrows came out in 2002.

Her music is a wonderful gumbo of soul, Americana, New Orleans Funk and whatever else she can throw into the mix with a voice that gives goose bumps to listeners. Her songs tells stories of rebels and visionaries, such as Geronimo on the song from the album with the same title.

Her live shows are as good if not better than the source material. She puts on an amazing show, telling stories of her life intermixed with the songs that she brings to life on the stage.

Since her first album she’s released Geronimo, South Side Sessions and a live album called North American Ghost Music. Each album just gets better than the previous. Her newest should be out anytime, on it she teamed with legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickeson.