Jamaica Day 7

So it was our final day in Jamaica. It was a beautiful day. First we started with a nice leisurely breakfast and then sat on the beach digesting for a few hours. The sun was out, and all was right with the world. By about the third drink I decided seashell hunting was in order. I found none. We read and sunned and had much fun. The resort had a beach jeopardy game that we handily won. Yessss. The trip to the luminous lagoon worked out and we scarfed some burgers and hopped into the super nice taxi. I had been a little worried about it because most taxis are corollas or nissan sunnys, but this one was the driver's personal suv. Sweet. The driver was a regular resort bus driver but had her son drive us down there. He was a little younger than us and a really cool guy. I felt a little bad because it was a hour and a half drive down there, and hour of sitting for him, and then an hour and a half back. He played the radio and told us stuff about the "real" Jamaica. It was pretty fun. In fact, he and Emily hit it off discussing the ins and outs of Snape's role in Harry Potter. It was pretty cool. The luminous lagoon was absolutely amazing. Disturbance in the water made all the little bio luminescent organisms flare up. We got to swim in the water, and it was like you were glowing. Each movement made the water sparkle and shimmer, leaving trails of light in the water. When you liften your hand/leg/beard out of the water all the little creatures would flare like sparks. To make them glow bright, the lagoon is totally dark. Floating on your back and looking at the stars reflected by brilliant points of light in the water was stunning. It is probably one of the most moving and amazing things I have ever seen. I feel like I can't describe it well enough to do it justice, so I have sort of stumbled about with it. Emily said it was like Avatar in real life. It is silly, but that is how all of natural Jamaica feels. Beautiful. I have to go pack now, but I will try to add some details later.
Love

Jamaica Day 5 and 6

So I got a little lazy, and this is my update for the past two days. Let's see, on Wed (day 5) Em's and I had a hearty breakfast (first the hotel brought us breakfast in bed, but we scoff at just one breakfast. So we went down and ate another!), sat on the beach, chased the surf, and looked for seashells. I also met this man named Carlton, who said he was my friend. He was not. I bought a drum and a cup and even brought the guy lunch (against resort rules). He gave me a necklace "for free" but all of his "handmade" items I later found at the regular tourist trap shops for half the price. Sigh. I thought we had something Carlton... 5 or 6 cups of coffee (and one nap) later, we caught the bus to the catamaran. It was a little rainy, but rum punch has a way of making every stormy boat ride into the best one! Emily got a little sick, but I was too busy laughing at a) people falling over, b) people drunkenly puking, c) people falling over more, and (of course) d) people falling over. It was soooo much fun. I just kept on drinking and dancing. When we got to the harbor we jumped off the boat and swam around. One drunk lady kept trying to float upside down, but we wouldn't let her. Emily was super excited because we got to take quality underwater photos of ourselves and also unsuspecting tourist butts. Good times. We finally got back on board and went home. One thing that was cool was that the catamaran launched from the first hotel built in Jamaica. It was really old and a little dilapidated, but was supremely awesome. It made you just want to go around and explore. It really wasn't that old, but being 10 feet off the ocean and predominantly open to the elements tends to wear on a place. Then we napped. Then we ate. Dinner was at the final restaurant in the hotel and was not very impressive. The food here has been weird, either it's awesome or it sucks. There is not much in between. So a lot of times it is a gamble. But the nice part about it is you can just keep on ordering whatever you want.
addendum: After dinner we went to bed, but woke up at 2am hungry and thirsty. So we went downstairs to the cantina and had hamburgers and french fries and sweet delicious Ting. Mmmmm...


Day 6
We awoke to a belly busting breakfast. Then I groaned for about 20 minutes. Emily went and sat on the beach while I napped for a bit, then I joined her. The drinks they serve are a little heavy handed on the alcohol, so we had to pace ourselves. The seller on the beach didn't have that much great stuff (I'm not sure if I explained in an earlier post, but each day a different local vendor gets to bring some items and set them up on the beach for us to peruse at our leisure. It' s cool because it helps local economy, and it is an easy / lazy way to get people presents). Emily had gone off to have brunch (the meal between breakfast and lunch here) and this guy comes paddling up on a surfboard with a wooden box mounted in the front and a "seat" in the back. So it was like a little flat bottom kayak. In the box he had tons of shells laid out. I was not so interested (I have my own shell pursuits thank you) when he lifted one to his lips and blew it like a big ol horn. I had to have one. Mine doesn't sound so much like a majestic horn as a mortally wounded donkey, but I will keep practicing. While I was doing that Emily was eating. Just as I got back, triumphantly waving my shell, she was mopping up the last drop of katsup with her last french fry, and immediately began asking about dinner. But it was time for shopping!!! I wasn't very excited about it (I'm not really into "things") but I couldn't keep emily away. So we loaded up and headed out. The driver first stopped at a local market with "homemade" items before taking us out to the real shopping center. I immediately got screwed on a purchase. Apparently my beard/face says two things to Jamaicans:
1. This guy is retarded.
2. He REEALLLLY wants to buy your pot.
When in fact only number one is true, that still doesn't stop them from offering me pot constantly. But I am easily duped and feel bad for sellers. Emily says that offering more than the asking price is "bad bargaining" but I feel guilty sometimes. Once we got to the real shopping center we picked up some t shirts, and some delicious beer ice cream. I loved it. I also got some souvenirs for peeps, and a steel drum!!! It sounds pretty awesome and I played and danced around with a shop lady. I wanted a bag from Jamaica too, so I made Emily bargain one down for me. It is sweet, with multiple pockets, rasta colors, a little thing that says "star space" and other choice accoutrements! She got it for me for $24, down from the original asking price of $27. I offered $ 30, but Emily thought that was the wrong plan and took over. We arrived home spent and dirty. The sad news yesterday was that we had planned all week to do Dunn's River Falls on friday. Then we noticed the board that said "Dunn's River Falls Everyday!!!" in big bright letters, and underneath in much smaller letters "except Friday." We were both a little heartbroken, because we already missed the reggae dance class (during the wedding), but there are bigger things in life to think about. Plus they have bacon, so all is not lost. We ate a big dinner and were going to check out the band (who has almost 70 friends on myspace, despite the staffs assurances that they were "very famous in Jamaica") but instead we watched the waves crash from our balcony and went to bed. So that catches us up for now, and I will try to add one tonight as well.
Peace, love, etc.

Jamaica Day 4 -- MARRIED!!!

So the biggest news is Emily and I are married! It was so much fun. We woke up this morning and got all prettied up (Emily got her hair done, nails did, etc.) and headed down. The weather was a little overcast and rainy so we did it in the old 1940s dining room (it reminded me of the Arlington, which made it even more special). They got us all married up with an awesome Jamaican minister, then we ate lots of cake. We even did the Jamaican "feeding the bird" photos. It was hilarious! They all loved our smurf cake toppers, and we even got props on our wedding music. Here's the track list (it was pretty short):
1. "It's Only Time" by Magnetic Fields
2. "Morning Sigh" by Health (the local one)
3. "Ring of Gold" by the Melodians
4. "Question" by Old 97s
Then we went out on a sweet photo shoot. The photographer was really fun and let us do silly things (i.e. Emily lying on piano, me with my butt in the air, Emily attempting to carry me, etc.) Trust me, you will see them! I have never seen Emily look more beautiful, and it was absolutely magical.
Then we went back to our room and napped (10:00 am weddings are hard, especially if you have french toast and bacon, but only two plates, for breakfast). Then they brought us champagne and chocolate (which emily licked off the plate, she has a problem...), and also fun "just married" t-shirts. While we were at dinner they turned down the bed and sprinkled flowers on it. Nice. Tomorrow they will bring us breakfast in bed and then we get massages. Life is pretty hard here for us :)
This afternoon we mostly puttered around and took photos, but did manage to catch a fantastic steel band this evening. I wanted one of their cds but they wanted $30 for it and it didn't even have the song I wanted so I passed on it. They were pretty awesome though. Another cool thing that happened today is that the photographer is also a musician and we started chatting about music (he was the one that liked the melodians). He invited us maybe (he had to check to make sure it was happening) to a locals club on Friday to check out the best local reggae/gospel/etc. talent. It sounds pretty cool and I hope we get to go. Tomorrow we have some shopping trip and then the catamaran cruise. We may try to slip in a little snorkeling. Going on the nine mile tour really whet my appetite to see more of the "real" jamaica, but I doubt that the shopping trip will take us outside normal tourist zones. But I can watch it while we drive through! That's pretty much it. The people in the information/internet center all got a pretty big kick out of me asking Emily just now if we did anything today besides get married. It sounds I little silly I suppose. Off to sleep now, have to get well rested to munch up that big ol breakfast! I think I've gained 50lbs here...

Jamaica Day 3

It's pretty late so I won't write too much. Today was crazy busy and I am exhausted. Nine Mile is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Jamaica is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Today's Lion Zion Bus (wink) carried us through a city, tiny towns, beautiful rain forest, fields, pastures, gorgeous island streams and majestic mountains. The drive was a little harrowing but our driver did a great job and we all came out okay. Marley's mountain home was simply stunning. We rested on his favorite meditating rock, saw his grave, checked out some gold records, etc. But by far the most amazing part was just being outside in such an amazing place. It was a spiritual fuel. That sort of sounds silly, but I believe it 100%.

It was pretty chilly today (75 or so) and Em's and I debated about wearing a hoodie. Everyone here was bundled up in their finest winter gear. Our host this morning just shivered almost the whole time she was having breakfast. I love it here.

Tomorrow I get married. Eek. I'm a little nervous just because it sort of crept up on me :)
I think that's gonna be it tonight. I am so dang tired. Emily and I are having a fantastic time, and seeing some incredible things. It is just nice to have such a total validation of our idea of having a magic wonderful wedding here. The trip has been great and even though some of the marriage stuff is just formality, icing on our proverbial cake relationship :), it is going to be wonderful to keep going on this trip with someone I absolutely love and adore. Things sometimes get rough, but I know that everything is going to be all right. (thanks bob)
Love and _Vm
jj

Jamaica Day 2

Hello all! It's day two in Jamaica, and what a great day it was. Em's and I slept in and then opened up our beautiful double doors onto the balcony to have a little blue mountain coffee. Then we came down for breakfast, then a nap, then a snack, more coffee, made some reservations and appointments, took a nap, laid in the sun, napped had a snack, ate lunch, more sun, more napping, ate again, etc. I think you are beginning to get the picture. The day was slow and wonderful. It is storming a little, but that just adds some excitement! We ate dinner at the asian fusion restaurant (whose chef was the hardest person to understand ever!). I do well with the Jamaican patois, even though the staff seems to English it up a little with the other hotel guests (who are all "from foreign"), but the chef was from Vietnam and had a Vietnamese/Jamaican accent. Very tough. Her food was great though. There was hardly anyone in the place since it is just some no wall gazebos jutting out over the ocean on a little platform. It was a bit cold and windy (also some rain) but totally manageable. I ordered the beef appetizer three times it was so good! I think that is what prompted the chef to come give me her recipe! The highlight was a couple falling in the rain. I know that is evil, but it was hilarious.

One thing that Emily said I should put up that I almost forgot about was a story from the bus ride. I have been offered weed twice, but the first was by far the most memorable. The day we got here I had been in heavily heated / air conditioned planes, hotel rooms, buses, etc. all day. That said, once we got to the immigration and custom line I was quite thirsty. The resort had a waiting room with free red stripe which I happily gulped. What I didn't think about was the bumpy, swervy, horn blowing 3 hour ride to the hotel. When the bus made a pit stop halfway through I was more than greatful. As I rushed into the boys room to pee I was also thinking about getting a Ting (local JA grapefruit soda) on the way out. Beer doesn't really quench thirst. I peed so long that eventually it was just me and the bus driver tinkling merrily away. He leaned over and said, "Hey mon, you like Bob Marley?" I was startled, and the conversation went a little like this:
"Huh?"
"I said, do ya like Bob Marley mon?"
"Who doesn't!" I exclaimed
"No mon, I mean BOB MARLEY," this last was accompanied by the international "I'm puffing on a joint" sign language.
"Oooohhh." I said. Then stood there looking startled. Keep in mind we are both still peeing.
"I can get it for ya mon, I got the best, jus' let me know."
"Your a good bus driver." Yes, that's what I said. He looked at me like I was retarded. I just nodded and said, "Real good. Thanks. Yeah. I'm good."
By this point I notice that I have stopped peeing, put up and stuff, flushed, and turned to face
him. It is always weird to talk to someone peeing anyway, but acting mildy "special" and then continuing the converstion mere inches from a urinal was just bizarre. I quicklty washed up and left, but still radiated shame. I am not cool.
I bought a Ting on the way out and chugged it in the bus. I tipped him quite well when we got off, thankful for his offer (maybe he thought I was cool enough) but embarrassed by my own lack of smoothness in the situation.

That's about all. Tomorrow we go to mecca, BOB MARLEY'S birth/burial site! I am super psyched. I just finished a book about the making of Exodus and really wish I had brought my reggae rough guide. I even impressed (sort of) a staff person here with my rootsical knowledge. Maybe other peeps think just knowing marley is enough... Emily is ready to go so that's it for now. I'll try to add some tomorrow.

_Vm = it means peace!

Day 1 o Jamaica!

Emily and I woke up early this morning, had a snack and shower and they caught the hotel shuttle to the airport. Puffing my last preflight ciggy, I met a nice girl who had been trapped in airports for three days going from London to Vegas. It was 5:40 in the morning and she was sipping a beast light (ugh) and puffing away. Once on the plane I was psyched to listen to the dub playlist I had made for myself, but found that my cheap headphones didn't quite have the bass fidelity to make the lower sounds audible over airplane roar. It was all good though as I had loaded a lot of Miles. There is no better music to fly to than Miles! The plane was almost empty so we each got our own row. I spent most of the flight daydreaming about meeting cool musicians and thinking of ways to record stuff. Most specifically Craig and I, but also Mitch. I think it would be good practice and he really sounds great. I still haven't heard back from my "advisor" at GTCC yet, but I am only slightly worried. I alluded to going back to school in the last post but didn't go into detail. I am missing the first week of classes (oops) but as soon as I get back from Jamaica I am starting the recording engineering program at GTCC!. I signed up late so I didn't get all of the classes I wanted, but I'm excited about the ones I did get. The advisor guy I spoke to was helpful and cool.

So Emily and I have gotten in and gotten settled. Our room is awesome and I am already so full of fried calamari and rum that I can't even see straight. We got in around 11 and then took an adventurous bus ride across the island. Our hotel is really old and cool, and I already have a nickname, Jesus. I flash the pope sign to the staff like it is a gang sign and they all seem to get quite a kick out of it! We ate, took a nap, ate, took a tour, ate, drank some, ate and then napped again. In just a bit we will go back to eat again. I think I will look like a big balloon when we are married. Nothing is going to fit! :)

Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow, but it is sure to be fun. The place is beautiful, but it is definitely not "real" Jamaica. Hopefully we will get to see some of that, but we may able to. The drive up was amazing, and the mix of almost unbelievable wealth and poverty was insane. I felt like I was in some post-cyberpunk novel! Goats and digicell my friend!

Emily says it is time to eat again, so I suppose that is it for now. I hope we can go see Marley's burial site tomorrow (got to pay respek) and will try to get online again in the evening and update. Don't worry there are lots of pics! Dottie, James, and Mary Ann gave Em's and I a sweet waterproof camera that I have been lugging around snapping everything in sight.
Love til next time
_Vm

Before Marriage (he he B.M.)

So I have been amassing notes along the way for a huge monster blog and figured I might as well get them out of the way since I am getting married. This may not do them justice but it is all the light of day that they will probably ever see. I just put up the annual reading list and while I have no interest in going through an commenting on all of them I do have some thoughts on some of the more recent selections. First off:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is one of the better books I have read this year. The story of a dying small town Kansas preacher who leaves a journal for his young son to read is WAY better than some of the other supposedly awesome books I was supposed to read. It is funny, but I found more spirituality in this than in any of the stuff from the Hare Krishna festival. That may sound like a weird statement, but I suppose I am always searching for something that moves me. And not just catharsis, but serious movement. A new angle or way to look at things. The book made me pull out my bible. Which should tell you something.

Another great book i read recently was Genesis by Poul Anderson. He is one of my fave sci-fi writers and this book was pretty out there and awesome. It was admittedly a little abstract, but there were some really cool parts. Here is an excerpt that sums up in a pretty easy way the timeline of earth compressed into a year. I have seen others like this, but Anderson's writing and the simple beauty and wonder of so much time compressed into meaningful chunks made me smile.

"Lets split the difference and call the date three-point-six-five-billion B.C.E....then one day stands for ten million years. Life began when January the first did, and this is midnight December the thirty first, the stroke of the new year. So-along about April, single cels developed, nuclei, ribosomes, and the rest. The cells got together, algae broke oxygen free into the atmosphere, and by November the first trilobites were crawling over the sea floor. Life invaded the land around Thanksgiving. The dinosaurs appeared early in December. They perished on Christmas Day. The hominids parted company with the apes at noon today. Primitive Homo sapiens showed up maybe fifteen minutes ago. Recorded history had lasted less than one minute. And here they were, measuring the universe, ranging the Solar System, planning missions to the stars."
Poul Anderson, Genesis p. 16-17.

It's stuff like that that makes me like sci fi. The thought and ideas that make you go, "cool." I hve in my notes the thought that I need to expand upon this, i.e. the connection of futurist Sterling with the ubiquity of iphones or rfids, or the connection of Gibson to the interwebs, but I don't think anyone but me would be really all that interested in it. Maybe it is something I need to find a stoner friend to talk with who would be equally amused/amazed. I was gonna write a whole bunch of other stuff but it is pretty late and we need to head out. So here are the brief versions.
-We loved Avatar. It was pretty
-Audrey is the cutest baby that ever existed. Period.
-I love my synth
-My professor Parke Puterbaugh wrote a badass book about Phish. It were good.
-I am taking classes at GTCC (more later)
-I sure am excited to be marrying emily. Got my dub mix all ready to go!
-We nailed down the reception location and date
-I bought a classical guitar for $15 (thanks Goodwill!)

There's more but emily is insisting I finish packing and get in the car. So love to everyone that sees this and I hope I see you all soon.

2009 Reading List

So this is the 3rd or so year I have done this. It really helps to have a nice little list you can check back on when your memory fails you. Plus it is an easy way to update! So here it is...

• The Sky People, S.M. Stirling
• Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure, Carol Brightman
• Dr. Identity or Farewell to Plaquedemia, D. Harlan Wilson
• Phish: The Biography, Parke Puterbaugh
• Prince: A Thief in the Temple, Brian Morton
• Ororo: Before the Storm, Marc Sumerak & Carlo Barberi
• Yokkaiden Vol. 2, Nina Matsumoto
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
• Genesis, Poul Anderson
• Consider the Lobster, And Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
• 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Japanese Art of Chingodu, Kenji Kawakami
• The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, annotations by David Dodd, foreward by Robert Hunter
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Election Day, Guggenheim, Romita Jr., & Kitson
• Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity, Neal Asher
• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility, Brian Micheal Bendis, Mark Bagley
• Dutchman's Flat, Louis L'Amour
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 1, ed. by Jonathan Strahan
• The Big Khan, Neil Kleid, Nicolas Cinquegrani
• Tomorrowland: 10 Stories About the Future, compiled by Micheal Cart
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 2, ed. by Jonathan Strahan
• There Ain't No Bugs On Me, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Bruce Whatley
• A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, Josh Neufeld
• Burn, James Patrick Kelly
• Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!. Scott Morse
• Space Boy, Orson Scott Card
• A War of Gifts, Orson Scott Card
• Generation A, Douglas Coupland
• West of Dodge, Louis L'Amour
• Clubbing, Andi Watson & Josh Howard
• Brass Man, Neal Asher
• The Skinner, Neal Asher
• Man-Kzin Wars IX, Niven, Anderson, Chafe, & Colebatch
• Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert
• In the Garden of Iden, Kage Baker
• The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume Four: Trips 1972-73, Robert Silverberg
• Living With the Dead, Rock Scully with David Dalton
• The Water of Life: A Tale of the Grateful Dead, Alan Trist & Jim Carpenter
• Prador Moon, Neal Asher
• The Hunter, Richard Stark & Darwyn Cooke
• Hondo, Louis L'Amour
• Concrete: Fragile Creature, Paul Chadwick
• The Empress of Mars, Kage Baker
• The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2, Peter & Barbara Jenkins
• Embroideries, Marjane Satrapi
• Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison, Geoffrey Giuliano
• One More Saturday Night: Reflections with the Grateful Dead, Dead Family, and Dead Heads, Sandy Troy
• There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story, Gary Larson
• Black Milk, Robert Reed
• With These Hands, Louis L'Amour
• Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil, Puckett, Kelley, Johnson & Drew
• Push, Freeman, Bernardin, Redondo & Minier
• Off the Mangrove Coast, Louis L'Amour
• Mister X: The Archives, Dean Motter
• May There Be a Road, Louis L'Amour
• Heroes Volume 1, Various
• Freddie and Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody, Mike Dawson
• Children of the Sea, Daisuke Igarashi
• Button, Button: Uncanny Stories, Richard Matheson
• Beanworld: A Gift Comes!, Larry Marder
• Batman: Face the Face, James Robinson, Don Kramer, & Leonard Kirk
• All Star Superman Volume 2, Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• Ultimate Power, Bendis, Straczynski, Loeb & Land
• Batman: Cacaphony, Kevin Smith & Walt Flanagan
• John Constantine: Hellblazer-The Roots of Coincidence, Andy Diggle & Leonardo Manco
• Jonah Hex: Bullets Don't Lie, Justin Gray, Darwyn Cooke, Jimmy Palmiotti & J.H. Williams III
• Gotham Central: Book Two-Jokers and Madmen, Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka & Micheal Lark
• Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Micke McKone & Shane Davis
• Zen Guitar, Philip Toshio Sudo
• The Black Star Passes, John W. Campbell
• The Engineer Reconditioned, Neal Asher
• Glacier Terror, David Thompson
• Winterkill, David Thompson
• The Legend of the Mountain, Will Henry
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• No One Writes to the Colonel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Leaf Storm, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, Timothy White
• A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L'Engle
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
• High Country Showdown, Ray Gaulden
• Nemi II, Lise Myhre
• Bob Marley: The Life of a Musical Legend, Gary Jeffrey & Terry Riley
• The First Fast Draw, Louis L'Amour
• War Party, Louis L'Amour
• The Rabbi's Cat 2, Joann Sfar
• Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest, Walter Noble Burns
• Harp, Pipe, & Symphony, Paul Di Filippo
• Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica, Stephen Davis & Peter Simon
• Asimov's Choice: Black Holes and Bug-Eyed Monsters, ed. by Isaac Asimov
• Trader to the Stars, Poul Anderson
• Utah Blaine, Louis L'Amour
• Tau Zero, Poul Anderson
• High Trail, Vivian Breck
• You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day, Mo Willems
• Green Arrow and Black Canary: A League of Their Own, Jusdd Winick, Mike Norton & Wayne Faucher
• The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone, Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele
• The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Century: 1910, Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
• Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Ed Brubaker, Doug Mahnke & Patrick Zircher
• Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come, Geoff John, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham & Fernando Pasarin
• Starman Jones, Robert Heinlein
• The New York Four, Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly
• Token, Alisa Kwitney & Joelle Jones
• The Big Book of Hell, Matt Groening
• X-Men: Magneto-Testament, Pak & Di Giandomenico
• Nemi, Lise Myhre
• Kitt Peak, Al Sarrantonio
• Batman: Hush, Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, & Scott Williams
• The Sheriff of Yrnameer, Michael Rubens
• The 14th Dalai Lama, Tetsu Saiwai
• A Graphic Biography of Malcolm X, Andrew Helfer & Randy DuBurke
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga Vol. 3, ed. by Ilya
• Batman: Harley and Ivy, Paul Dini, Judd Winick, Bruce Timm & Joe Chiodo
• Faking It: How to Seem Like a Better Person Without Actually Improving Yourself, Amir Blumenfeld, Neel Shah & Ethan Trex
• Joker, Brian Azzarello & Lee Bermejo
• Renegade: The Lost Books, Ted Dekker
• Robin: A Hero Reborn, Grant, Dixon, etc.
• Superman: The Coming of Atlas, James Robinson, Renato Guedes & Wilson Magalhaes
• A Drifting Life, Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Life Sucks, Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece
• More Science Braintwisters and Paradoxes, Christopher P. Jargocki
• Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter, Michelle Mercer
• Punk Rock Etiquette: The Ultimate How to Guide for DIY, punk, indie, and underground bands, Travis Nichols
• The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, AJ Mackinnon
• The Rabbi's Cat, Joann Sfar
• Too Much Hopeless Savages Vol. 3, Van Meter, Norrie, Campbell
• Putomayo Presents World Playground Multicultural Activity Kit (Super fun!)
• The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of The Life of Poppa Neutrino, Alec Wilkinson
• Clapton: The Autobiography, Eric Clapton
• Rabbi Harvey Rides Again, Steve Sheinkin
• JLA Unlimited: The Ties That Bind, Various
• Iron and Silk, Mark Salzman
• Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, Blair Tindall
• The Universal Composer: Beethoven, Edmund Morris
• Re-Gifters, Mike Carey, Sonny Liew & Marc Hempel
• Batman-Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
• Dungeon-Monstres Vol. 2: The Dark Lord, Sfar, Trondheim & Blanquet
• The Eternal Smile, Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim
• Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, ed. by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow & Jerry Ma
• The Strange Intruder, Arthur Catherall
• Jean and Johnny, Beverly Cleary
• Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, David Cordingly
• So You Want to Join the Peace Corps...What to Know Before You Go, Dillon Banerjee
• More Than Drumming: Essays on African and Afro-Latin American Music and Musicians, ed. by Irene V. Jackson
• The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, Mark Schultz with Zander and Kevin Cannon
• America The Beautiful, Moon Unit Zappa
• Runaways: Dead End Kids, Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan
• Arab in America, Toufic El Rassi
• Holes, Louis Sachar
• Will Eisner's The Spirit-Book One, Darwyn Cooke
• Vroom With a View-In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa, Peter Moore
• My Old Man and The Sea: A Fathers and Son Sail Around Cape Horn, David and Daniel Hays
• Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 12: Grasscutter, Stan Sakai
• The Real Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso
• The Sunny Side, A.A. Milne
• Black Jack Vol. 1, Osamu Tezuka
• Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction, ed. by Al Sarrantonio
• Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Burne Hogarth
• Demo, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
• Walt Disney: Creator of Magical Worlds, Charnan Simon
• Walt Disney, Maxine Fisher
• Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
• Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, Daniel Clowes
• The Batman Chronicles Volume 2, Various
• Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures Vol. 6, Various
• Walt Disney's Uncle $crooge Adventures the Barks/Rosa collection Vol. 1: "Land of the Pygmy Indians," and "War of the Wendigo," Carl Barks and Don Rosa
• Walt Disney's Treasures Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special, Various
• The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, Mark Twain
• Pluto 001, Urasawa Tezuka
• Graphic Classics: Oscar Wilde, Various
• Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People, Mark Millar with Adam and Andy Kubert
• OMAC: One Man Army Corps, Jack Kirby
• Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
• Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
• We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women In Rock, Gerri Hirshey
• The Soddyssey and Other Tales of Supernatural Law, Batton Lash
• Spiderman: Doom with a View, Various
• Spyboy: Final Exam, Peter David and Pop Mhan
• Monster Zoo, Doug TenNapel
• Street Figher Alpha: Vol. 1, Masahiko Nakahira
• Fantastic Four: Monsters, Moles, Cowboys, and Coupons, Various
• The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
• Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot, Andrew Auseon
• Sidescrollers, Matthew Loux
• Light Brigade, Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejberg
• Graphic Classics: Jack London, Various
• The Tale of One Bad Rat, Brian Talbot
• Livewires: CLockwork Thugs, Yo!, Adam Warren & Rick Mays
• Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2, Various (delightful)
• As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, Derrick Jensen & Stephanie McMillan
• The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba
• Soundtrackers: Reggae, Bob Brunning
• The Sun, Steele Hill and Michael Carlowicz
• Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc, Polly Schoyer Brooks
• Distant Stars, Samuel R. Delany
• My Brother, Jamaica Kincaid
• Dororo Vol. 1, Osamu Tezuka
• Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls, and Makeup, Tom Weaver
• The Fifties, David Halberstam
• Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film, Vivian Sobchack
• Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
• A People's History of American Empire, Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle
• The Cockatrice Boys, Joan Aiken
• One Love, One Heart: A History of Reggae, James Haskins
• Moomin Vol. 3, Tove Jansson
• The End League, Vol. 1: Ballad of Big Nothing, Rick Remender and Matt Broome
• Ex Machina: Ex Cathedra, Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris
• Meridian: FLying Solo, Barbara Kessel and Joshua Middleton
• Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville, Ted Stearn
• Girl Stories, Lauren R. Weinstein
• Black Beauty, Walter Farley
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
• Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars, John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque
• Jamaican Warriors: Reggae, Roots, & Culture, Stephen Foehr
• Archie Americana Series: Best of the Sixties, Various
• The Replacements-All Over But The Shouting: An Oral History, Jim Walsh
• Owly-The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer, Andy Runton
• The Castaways, Rob Vollmar & Pablo G. Callejo
• Garcia, the Editors of Rolling Stone
• Action Philosophers! Vol. 1, Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey
• The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Yann Martel
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
• Bourbon Island 1730, Appolo and Lewis Trondheim
• Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music, Irwin Chusid
• Accordion Crimes, E. Annie Proulx
• Tortures of the Tower of London, G. Abbott
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• The Unruly American Revolution, Gary B. Nash
• Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventures Vol. 1 and 2, Evan Dorkin
• Maximum Light, Nancy Kress
• A Feast of Snakes, Harry Crews
• Cash: The Autobiography, Johnny Cash (with Patrick Carr)
• Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, James Triptree Jr.
• Souls, Joanna Russ
• The Saturn Game, Poul Anderson
• Iceborn, Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter
• Galactic North, Alastair Reynolds
• Crazy Loco, David Rice
• Love Hina: Volumes 1-14, Ken Akamatsu
• Nova, Samuel R. Delany
• Beaker's Dozen, Nancy Kress
• The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
• Neutron Star, Larry Niven
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, ed. by Gardner Dozois