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Class Notes - 1950s
Evedene Russell Bennett B.A. became fascinated by the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After researching the topic, she wrote three articles focused on different aspects of Lewis' purported suicide. Her research led to General James Wilkinson, who had the motive and means to commit murder. One of her articles, titled "Heal My Wounds," was published in Private Investigator as a "cold case" on the bicentennial of Lewis' death.
|Arts & Sciences Reunion June 23−26, 2011
Robert Ringo J.D. of Corvallis was selected Veteran of the Year by the Veterans Commemoration Association in Albany. Ringo served with distinction as a bombardier during World War II. After returning home, he launched a successful law practice and volunteered many hours for his community.
Robert E. Jones J.D. was honored by the Federal Bar Association for volunteer mentoring. He is a senior U.S. district court judge for the District of Oregon in Portland.
Winifred Mercer B.M. and Robert "Bob" Mercer B.S., J.D. '57 have retired and are enjoying life on the Oregon Coast. Winifred taught K-8 music and private piano lessons for 57 years. Bob practiced law for almost 50 years.
Dan Johnson B.S. has retired from his dental practice. Since 2003, he has spent most Wednesdays teaching fifth and sixth-grade science courses at the Sauvie Island School. He also worked as a volunteer dentist in the Marshall Islands for a year and spent a challenging 49 days at sea sailing home to Astoria. Johnson has served for more than three years as a "member of the public" on many fee arbitration cases. The Oregon State Bar's Fee Arbitration Program recently asked him to be on its board.


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Everyone is welcome!
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: July 8Live Music with the Taylor King Band
Later Event: July 12Acoustic Jam Night
Where the famous movie Key Largo was filmed
Join us for live music, waterfront views, a dog-friendly backyard and the best sunsets in town.
Happy Hour is Monday - Friday from 4pm to 6pm.
Opened in 1938 and run by the Whitehurst family since 1963, the Caribbean Club is the oldest bar in the Upper Keys and one of the last relics of Old Key Largo.
Everyone is welcome!

subset: commoncrawl


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05 April 2014, Stuben/Arlberg. The World's Biggest Longboard and Old-School Snowboard Event celebrates its 15th Anniversary!
Who would have thought during the first Longboard Classic that this event still stokes snowboarders fifteen years on?! The once small event was created based on having fun snowboarding. It has grown into the world's largest snowboard race in terms of attendance. A yearly growing number snowboarders make the pilgrimage to the Arlberg to become part of the "Woodstock of Snowboarding"! Snowboard legends from all corners of the world love it as much as snowboard pioneers and today's groms!
This year we are particularly happy to welcome Chuck Barfoot from Santa Barbara/USA to the Longboard Classic. Back in the late 1970s Chuck regularly surfed with Tom Sims and built his own boards. Chuck is one of the four Godfathers of Snowboarding – next to Jake Burton, Tom Sims and Dimitrij Milovitch.
In April 2014, the race will once again kick off on Saturday. It begins with a Le-Mans-style mass start on the Albona Ridge up on 2,408 meters of altitude. The participants battle for the titles LBC Masters, Old School and No School. However, it is not so much about making it onto the podium as it is about meeting old friends, making new ones and enjoy snowboarding together with like-minded people. That's the essence of the LBC!
On Friday night things kick off in the "Mondschein-Bar" with the DJ collective Mortal Kombat. On Saturday the band A NUDE A will take the stage prior to the prize-giving. Longboards and freeride equipment can be tested at several booths.
During the film night on Saturday true snowboard history gems will flicker on the screen! You can look forward to some rare snowboard flicks! Longboard Classic veterans already know what goes down afterwards: a real snowboard party – loud, wild and all night long! Party with your friends!
Optional advance registration is possible on the LBC Facebook page. The official registration will take place on the event day in the big tent from 7.30 to 10.30 in the morning.
More information on the program, accommodation as well as photos, clips and a hall of fame from the past 14 years on www.longboardclassic.com.


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December 26, 2011
CR Holiday Interview #7 -- Jeff Parker
I've known
Jeff Parker
for years as a friendly, engaging convention presence and skilled writer of the most mainstream of mainstream comics. He entered into the funnybook business as an artist during the tail end of the 1990s sales surge, performing work for take-you-back publishing names like
. Parker re-emerged in 2003 with the self-published stand-alone graphic novel
. It was stylishly designed and executed, and I remember Parker from that period mostly for the work he did on-line writing about then-mysterious elements of self-directed bookstore distribution.
Jeff has since gone on to success as a writer for
properties, including lengthy runs on
X-Men: First Class
(a rare X-Men book in its ability to garner buzz in an era where the luster has faded a bit from that once-dominant market force),
Agents Of Atlas
(one of the five best titles of the post-bankruptcy era), and currently
and whichever of
comics is anchored by the red version
(spoiler for lapsed fans: there's a red version of the Hulk now). He has also made honorable work of his own creation or co-creation, such as the late-period Wildstorm project
Mysterius The Unfathomable
Tom Fowler
), the ongoing webcomic
Erika Moen
) and the claustrophobic
Steve Lieber
Parker is in many ways the living embodiment of Marvel's deep writing bench from the last decade, a period where the publisher has been the mainstream's dominant player and not by a small margin. It's hard not to like him or fail to wish him well. I was thankful that the busy creator agreed to talk to me, if only to get what I assume will be reputation-destroying dirt on Parker's frequent convention running mate and occasional collaborator Lieber. -- Tom Spurgeon
I don't know all that much about your early background. I assume that you had some experience with comics and superhero comics growing up, although I could be terribly wrong. What about your comics-reading past lives most directly in your writing experiences now?
I learned to read on comics -- my dad owned Chuck's Curb Market (the Chuck was his dad) and when I wasn't doing my chores like racking bottles and sweeping the parking lot, I was camped on the Coca Cola cooler by the spinner rack reading everything there was. My earliest loves were
the Fawcett
Dennis the Menace
, and I read tons of all the
Harvey Comics
-- which thanks to
the Dark Horse compilations
, my kids are enjoying now. And of course I read all the superhero stuff. Whatever distributor my dad bought from mostly carried
, so those were the heroes I was most familiar with. I'd also read
the Warren Magazines
The Spirit
. I didn't think of the books as being on any hierarchy, I guess since they were all available to me they were all "comics" and more or less equal in my eyes.
Colleen Coover
and I have this discussion a lot; she always saw it the same way.
wasn't any more legitimate than
Hot Stuff
; they were just either good stories or they weren't.
So it's the ecumenicism of your early comics reading experiences that sticks with you?
I think so. I think it's why I can enjoy making comics aimed at children and tawdry adult stuff like
equally. My comfort zone is nice and broad.
Is it fair to say you first found some work in the mid-1990s with people like Caliber and Malibu and then didn't work for a significant after that? Why such a brief early period in comics? That was an interesting time for comics generally; what stands out about those experiences now?
I did some no-pay work for Caliber, like most everyone has to. Free work, I mean, starting out. I was still in college at the time. Shortly after that I joined
Artamus Studios
in NC, with
Mike Wieringo
Chuck Wojtkiewicz
Richard Case
and others, and I kept drawing sample pages and putting them in everyone's Fed-Ex shipments so their editors might take a look while getting the pages they were actually waiting on. I got a couple of
Wonder Woman
fill-ins, as that was the book where DC tended to try new artists out. It sold the same no matter who drew it, so it was perfect for that. Some
Fantastic Four
samples stuck in inker
John Lowe
's box landed at the right time on
Hank Kanalz
' desk at Malibu when he needed an artist.
I had a productive but short run at Malibu drawing
and other stories for them, and had sold some that I wrote and was going to draw as well -- then "
" happened, if you remember that. It's when Marvel bought the company and shut it down. They played hardball with competition in the '90s! Because the books were all still selling well, the companies would never cancel books selling that much now.
That's was my first experience with making real, livable steady wages in comics. I was getting used to that! And then poof. From that point I would pick up an issue or short piece here and there, I couldn't find much. The comics industry's famous bubble had burst from speculators leaving the market, and it was shrinking fast -- not unlike it's doing now. My most regular work in the mid-'90s was drawing stories in the
Big Book Of...
series. I liked that because I like doing research-based material, and editor
Jim Higgins
kept trying to get something going with me in the other books his office worked on, mostly the
But ultimately Andy Helfer would always shoot down my pitches, saying they were too complicated. And they kind of were. I was not good at the art of the pitch then; I couldn't keep anything short with a strong hook -- even if I had one. I kept writing these sprawling outlines and pitches because I liked figuring everything out to the ending so I wouldn't screw myself with a half-baked idea. What I didn't understand was that you can write all that, but then start over with a simple, boiled-down summary that invokes and teases all the possibilities; let their imaginations contribute so they get excited.
If there was work in comics, I couldn't find it with a telescope. I worked for a while as a delivery driver, and started working on my
graphic novel after hours. That would interest publishers for a few months, but nothing ever developed. But I slowly kept working on it, because I wanted to create a book like the kind I wanted to read. Ultimately, I felt like comics just wasn't going to happen, I had crossed the 30 mark, and my mom needed help with bills. I wrote to
Phil Crain
, who used to be one of my editors at Malibu and now worked for
Sony Animation
, to see if they were hiring. He sent me a storyboard clean-up tryout, which is the entry point for working in TV cartoons. I jumped on it, sent it back, and they hired me to work on the
Big Guy And Rusty The Boy Robot
show -- that was in '99. I finally uprooted, packed everything I needed in the back of my little truck, got a camper shell for it, and headed west, sleeping in national parks most of the way.
This is a very standard question, for which I apologize, but it's one of continuing interest to me. How different a writer are you for that artistic background? It's actually a pretty common thing for someone that makes a living as a mainstream comics writer, but it's hard for me to figure out any connecting thread between those that are, or, for that matter, those that aren't.
I go into every project thinking about the final execution -- drawing is the second half of writing. I don't like writing a script without knowing who the artist is, I like to look through my collaborator's work, and ask them for a wish list of things he or she likes to draw or has always wanted a chance to draw. Often I work with artists who also write, like
Kev Walker
. And because he has strong opinions on what makes a good story, he'll push my scenes around, break them down differently, suggest new dialogue. Some people will change things without giving you explanations, but Kev always gives his reasoning, and makes it easy for me to amend the script for the letterer to not get lost. I think that all helps make the story take on life, become a breathing creature.
Some writers will try to tailor a story to the artist but typecast that creator based on what they've seen before -- not necessarily what the artist wants to be known for. I asked my editor
Mark Paniccia
if I could work with
Tomm Coker
when he gave me a western story to do in a Marvel special, because Tomm was always getting moody stories set inside brick warehouses, and he was sick of it. So I wrote a story in the outdoors with lots of horses, and he killed on it. It was beautiful.
I tend to approach every story thinking about the visual possibilities, and I just assume the character conflict/challenge will present itself next in the brainstorming. That may sound backwards to many, but I think sliding the visual aspect down the line puts you in the position of finding set pieces for your story that might be artificial. And what I want out of most comics is for them to transport me, show me something I can't see every day. Saying "Let's see Superman spend months walking around ordinary people and not interact as a modern mythical hero" sounds interesting, but when it's actually drawn, it's not. That's the kind of thing you can do as a single issue, to break up a lot of high-action stories and cleanse the palate for the next big thing.
You wrote very eloquently in some different places about your experience shepherding
through the marketplace of its time. Does that experience continue to inform how you approach the industry, this nuts-and-bolts experience that not a lot of people have?
Yes -- publishing your own work makes your realize the true lay of the land. You won't waste time with notions of "close-minded retailers" or "habitual readers"; you'll understand how you need to take every chance to make overtaxed buyers and sellers aware of your books. It's probably why I do way too many interviews and podcasts; you never know which thing is going to break through. And you never know which reader is going to be the one who will champion your books in forums or blogs and convince others to give it a try. Or which retailer will be the one who follows you and says, "Hey, Parker always swings for the fence and he never ships late. I'm going to offer a couple of his books to readers with a buy-back guarantee." And I've known retailers to do that; it's immensely moving to me. I'm so grateful to those people. That's what Charles Lawrence of
the Nostalgia Newsstand
would do for me when I was in college. He profoundly informed my tastes.
It's interesting to me that you formed your answer around the direct market paradigm, because I know you also had experience with bookstore distributors. What is your sense of that market these days? Does Marvel do everything it can to maximize its bookstore saturation? Because that's not their reputation.
Well, it's what I deal with mostly at the moment. We'll see when I have my next complete GN out, which should be next year. I don't mean to sound all on top of things, because I'm not. To me, the bookstore market is a bigger mystery than ever, as so many have gone away. Similarly, I really don't know what Marvel does to that end; I deal with completely different offices. I need to try to do more appearances at stores, but now I've got this whole family I don't like to abandon for weekends.
To your point about working with artists... how much time do you have for that kind of collaborative effort the way that mainstream comics are created? How much of what you're able to do in general writing a comics title feels the impact of these very rigid and demanding publication schedules?
You're right that there's monthly deadline pressure, but there's plenty of time for quality interaction in the process if the editor makes it possible and the creators make it clear they're open to it. Typically we keep everyone involved in a book in an e-mail loop so everyone sees each step as it comes in. Color notes are thrown back and forth, suggestions are made, and inevitably someone points out that I wrote two page tens. [Spurgeon laughs]
Once in a while some special or event book happens where you're thrown together with new people that no working rhythm has been built with, and yes, it can all get sad real fast. But luckily, that's been infrequent for me. That reminds me: I like working with someone at least a little bit before embarking on a big project with that person. I wish a warm-up or trial for new teams were possible all the time.
Unpack that a little bit. With whom have you worked that you had a tryout period? How did that change what you did in the not-tryout portion of that relationship?
Gabe Hardman
and I worked on a "Hulk meets Frankenstein" story for our first assignment together, and that made us working together on
Agents of Atlas
pretty smooth because I started to realize: I can say almost anything and Hardman will somehow read my mind and get it. A big part of the job is that
Vulcan mind-meld
, getting the artist, writer and editor to all see the same story before it starts becoming graphics. (That nerd ref is on the house, by the way). I often work with artists from other countries, so with them I drop idioms that won't translate well, and speak very directly -- "
looks frightened.
is confused and turning to look to foreground." I realized with Gabe I could refer to things like classic or obscure film and never lose him. I didn't have to overwrite a description to get what I hoped for, he's going to sell a scene as hard as he can. Also I could use understated humor like I prefer because he'll play it straight, no hamming it up. All of my jokes fall apart when the character is obviously joking. Except maybe with
, because you can't see what his face is doing.
How did you end up working for Marvel in 2005? As I recall, they put you to work on a variety of titles, including a lot of the Marvel Adventures stuff. What did they see in you as a writer, do you think?
The main thing I believe was that I could do a story start to finish in 22 pages. I had done some work for Mark Paniccia at various companies, whereever he would end up, because he liked my art. When he came onto Marvel, he looked at a book I'd given him, a
Lone Star Press
comic put out by
Bill Williams
that had "Ape Company" in it, a short homage to
Joe Kubert
where apes fight in World War 2. It was a story that came to me one night and I laughed and felt compelled to get out of bed and go lay out the entire thing in my sketchbook. Then Bill was kind enough to pay me for it and run it in his book. I still have the whole thing online in
a dusty corner of my webspace
Mark had just been placed in the
Marvel Adventures
office and the mandate was that continuity could
matter, all of these books had to stand alone. I think he reasoned that if I could write an entertaining 10-pager, then twice that much space should work fine, and gave me a fill-in on
MA: Spider-Man
. I don't know that I thought, "This is an important showcase for me." I think for once I went in thinking purely of entertaining myself, which took away any second-guessing and worked wonderfully. I wrote a story where the
Human Torch
and Spidey accidentally bring the Kirby monster
to Earth, and because of other Johnny Storm hijinks, Goom only speaks hip-hop lingo. I heard that it made all the editors in that office laugh and read several parts out loud to each other. That, for writers starting out, is a Good Sign.
Then the current writer of
MA: Fantastic Four
just sort of dropped off the radar, and they had to scramble to replace him. I was offered the chance to finish a script he had begun, which I did immediately. A couple of weeks later they gave me the whole book, and later that led to launching
title of that line
. If I had to wring a lesson out of this, it is follow your muse -- if you're inspired to do something, do that thing even if it looks like it will not amount to much. You never know where your career tree will branch from and continue.
MacKenzie Cadenhead
, who I worked with on those books, went to work for
which led to me talking to
Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics
and making "Walk-In," a sci-fi story I'm very proud of. I kept coming in to pinch-hit whenever Paniccia needed an extra Hulk book, and now I write
. Also: your openings in work-for-hire books are usually created by someone else dropping the ball.
Hey, I don't think I've ever talked to anyone that worked for Virgin. What was that experience like; what sticks out for you now? Did you perceive of anything that might have indicated they would be around in a drastically altered form rather than their original, coming-on-like-gangbusters conception?
Yes, they had the classic enigmatic gameplan that never gave the key part of the equation to show where money would come from. They did almost nothing to promote their books, not even providing links to solicits so I could spread them -- they didn't think (in my opinion) the comics were important beyond being a thing to then base other media off of. I think you have to make the comics profitable as a foundation, even if you're trying to be a multimedia entity.
They would line up interviews that had nothing to do with the books. Like when I followed
Andy Diggle
on the
book, some sleazy British tabloid journo called me to talk about it, to which I could only say I never talk to Guy Ritchie, etc, before we finally got to his objective, which was asking me
would be a good choice to play the Gamekeeper in a film? I don't remember who I suggested before he asked, "What about
Vinnie Jones
-- he'd do, wouldn't he?" I said something like, "Oh yeah, sure; he's good," and the next week, bam: these sound-bite articles pop up everywhere VINNIE JONES EYED FOR GAMEKEEPER FRANCHISE! [Spurgeon laughs] So that's really all that mattered there, trying to make movies and stuff happen. Mackenzie and everybody else good bailed on the company, and I was soon done with my parts.
I think they were in many way concurrent projects, so unless you correct me I'll ask about the
work you did and then I'll ask you about
Agents of Atlas
. It seemed to me that you started to find your level with the X-Men stuff -- it did not seem the work of a newly-minted writer. Would that be a fair characterization? Was that a difficult gig on any level?
Everyone thinks that was probably a simple job for me, and it was the toughest of all that I've done for Marvel. Because it was a "dance within the raindrops" thing where you couldn't contradict established continuity. Which is tough because there are whole decades where I never read the X-Men and had no intention of going back and reading all those books. So I tried to find things that would work, like having them run across
The Lizard
, my favorite Spidey menace, meeting up with
, and so on.
Agents of Atlas
stories were more complex but much easier to write because I didn't have those continuity restraints.
Roger Cruz
brought a lot of energy to the book, and I think we did create something that was a good entry point to the world of the X-men.
Do you have any insight as to why those characters didn't get all the way over the way that other early-era Marvel characters did? Why was it more effective in its later incarnation?
I don't want to commit comics heresy here, but I don't think
related to teens as much as they could say, ex-fighter pilots in terms of characterization. And gods, of course. It was easy to see why they wanted it to take off: make this mutant thing work and we never have to come up with bizarre incidents for origins again. As I kept examining it, I wished more and more they had made
a girl so you had more possibilities other than everyone fawning over
Jean Grey
. And Jean could have a buddy -- which I eventually did with
Scarlet Witch
when Colleen Coover started doing shorts for the book. Honestly I feel they had some good stuff that just needed more fleshing out, but they were doing so many books at that point that X-Men was last at the end of the day.
Then in the next incarnation,
[Len] Wein
comes in making everyone just angry as hell at each other, I wonder if that was because
Dave Cockrum
was drawing angry faces and Len had to make the dialogue match up -- and that was what the readership was ready for. Bickering teams that didn't feel like the stoic old Justice League Moose Lodge. Also, Dave's costume looks were really wowing the fans; they loved drawing all of these
heroes and mutants he was designing. Then it got more soap operatic, which fits a concept set around a school. I think the thing that may have kept Marvel trying to arrange the puzzle and make it work was simply the cool name. "X-Men! It's a great title and we have to make it work!"
Are you far enough away from
Agents Of Atlas
to kind of walk us through why that series is no longer with us? Because it seems like it had a pretty remarkable run for that kind of off-brand property. Is it frustrating to work on a title like that in these very stratified, sales-rigid times? I imagine there can't be much hope that something like that will stick around in perpetuity.
Yeah, and I still don't get what makes it off-brand, but I usually followed creators on titles once I hit a certain age. I never understood when I would read a fan discussing why we'd have a talking gorilla. Why is that more silly or left field than a guy who sticks to walls or an orange rock man? We had more high concept story and big action scenes than most Marvel or DC books, and top level artists and colorists.
The Fantastic Four
also seemed kind of weird when it debuted, as did
. If you don't try something different every now and then, you'll never find out what might work.
Yes, it was frustrating in the sense that if this book had come out in the late '80s when it looked like the market was open to comics tackling everything, it would probably have become an institution. But we still got away with a lot of entertaining stories, so I see it as a win.
From your perspective, what does Marvel get out of working with a property like that? Is it just out of an ethos of managing certain properties, being good caretakers of the overall library, maybe, or hoping that lightning catches in the bottle... ?
Sometimes editors and creators have to try to indulge their own tastes and whims, or what's the point of working in escapist stuff like this? Mark Paniccia really loved the book, as did I and most every artist who worked on it, from
Leonard Kirk
Carlo Pagulayan
to Gabe Hardman. Also many people at the offices were fans and wanted to see it exist. It's the ideal way to do it -- let's create this thing and try to figure out how it can make money, instead of, "Hey, I bet
will make money." As you know, it's not the usual way it goes.
You were talking last night -- last night as we're having this exchange, which would be several days now -- on Twitter about layering into your work certain kinds of structural or thematic conceits, like showing the number three in various ways around the
Agents Of Atlas
3-D Man
. Can you give a couple of specific examples of that kind of thing, either with
Agents of Atlas
or another title? Do you feel that readers can sense that kind of effort when it's done right, or is that something solely for your enjoyment?
Yes, we kept putting threes around 3-D Man, details you'd probably never notice: like he drives a Maserati because
it has the trident badge
. He subtly shapes his own reality.
There are lots of rules imposed on characters, though most are about keeping them being themselves. Not just so they sound right, but because they need to shape the plots in the way only that character can.
is always relentlessly sweet and very pure, even when she's making everyone want to have sex which, as a siren, is what she does. To her sex is natural and healthy and everyone should have plenty of it, and because we don't show it as dirty we never caught flack for objectifying characters. When
probably showed more near-nudity than any other Big Two book rated T-Plus. She always affects the story by trying to stop fights, which seems like a no-no in an action-adventure book.
I also have this meta approach that probably only makes sense to me, but it helps me keep characters on point, like the way I see
Luke Cage
. To me, Luke understands on some level that he's rooted in blaxploitation movies of the '70s and has a very dry sense of humor about it -- not to the extent that he knows he's a character in fiction, but it's a practice that keeps him feeling like Luke Cage when I write him, though he never says "Sweet Christmas" or wears chains and a tiara.
I think anyone who writes a lot and wants to keep the inspiration coming has to develop arcane systems that wouldn't make a lot of sense explained to a fiction writing class. Another of my things is to actively work in whatever bits of culture or environment that are present in my life at the time of each piece. Like a recent issue of
adopting an on-the-nose, teacher-pupil relationship from
My Fair Lady
, which is on often in my house as my kids like musicals. Similarly in
I used the Maria in the Convent setup from
Sound of Music
for Venus' origin. I make a woman prisoner say an
Aziz Ansari
joke to Luke Cage about licking a tattoo.
This stuff could be in-jokes, except I go to the point of including it in daily process. The
Life Model Decoys
are described as 200, 700 and 900 series by MODOK: a reference to old models of Volvos, which I like to work on. By doing this constantly, it keeps me taking in details around me differently -- it's all story material. And my hope is that it keeps me from falling into routine. I never, though, refer to the culture directly, like name-dropping a band or movie -- I don't think I do, anyway. That feels forced and doesn't work; it always reminds me of Batman referring to a
Janis Joplin
album and impressing Robin in a '60s issue of
A couple of follow-ups spring to mind there. First, you mentioned Venus and sex. How much are sex and sexual motivation available to you as a writer on Marvel's books right now?
You know, I don't get a lot of notes on the sex stuff. I think if anything, I'm the one who errs on the side of prudishness. On books where I've been teamed with European artists, and I know it sounds like generalization, but many of them go into
Milo Manara
territory when drawing the women and I've sent lots of "reign it in!" notes.
Why do you have that impulse, do you think? Is it just that you want to be mindful of female readers? Is it something about the juvenile nature of the genre? There's occasionally a lot of focused attention on female readers and whether or not superhero material in general is a friendly place for those readers. I know we're walking in The Land Of Broad Generalizations to even talk about this, but how sensitive are you in general to gender-based criticisms of your work and superhero comics generally?
I don't mind someone thinking the women characters are hot, but I generally don't want them vogueing and acting like scenery instead of being characters. Not objects. Feedback from female readers suggests that I'm on the right track, but it's likely due to working around a lot of women cartoonists at
more than me having magnificent judgment.
Another follow-up. When you're talking about some of the ways you try to keep the work fresh and interesting to you, how not to fall into certain bad habits, it makes me wonder how you approach telling these kinds of story more generally -- what is your particular enthusiasm for a story in
or for your version of
? Is it an intellectual exercise for you: telling the best kind of story of its type you can? Do you find the process enjoyable divorced from the material you're doing? Do you find specific value in the thematic or metaphorical power these characters can have? Where do your specific creative interests align with books like the ones you're doing now? What intrigues you about working with this kind of material?
When these books are working at their best, it's because the tone is right. When I began
, it kind of was an intellectual exercise, how I could make the kind of stories that the book was expected to -- the artist and I didn't synch up well. He was in this photo-realistic vein that the book had gradually gone to, and didn't do much in the way of the emotive acting I was calling for because I wanted this dark comedy tone. Since I tend to go to artist's strengths, I backed off of what I wanted and did what worked with the drawing. I think it worked, but it didn't have a particularly strong voice.
Then Kev Walker was placed on the book and I had more say in the cast, and boom. Kev was a 180 for the art and with his
Mike Mignola
style he pushed every moment. Now I could not only do the dark comedy, I needed to go even further with it to match Kev. Instantly the book found it's strong voice -- as Kev has said, the concept as we do it works when it's skating the edge of absolute ridiculousness. That tone wouldn't work for everything, but it fits a group of comic book supervillains to a tee.
No matter the tone, though, I firmly believe in that approach of walking the edge of ridiculous or ludicrous for key story beats. If you don't, if you play it safe, you just won't create anything memorable. But the tone you establish is what backs you up on those chances you take, allows them to be pulled off.
This may dovetail a little too close into that last question, but it occurs to me you're working on two of Marvel's rarer commodities: post-1980 concepts that have hit for the company. Do you have any sense what others enjoy about the two titles you're working on, why they work when so many other characters and concepts they've introduced fail to catch hold?
I constantly try to figure why
gets that pass it does where it's okay to not have headliners. It's like the readership came to a formal accord in Geneva and said "Okay, on this one book, you can have B-listers. But we will not tolerate it elsewhere." But maybe it's as simple as being the place you don't have to wait so long for favorite villains to cycle back through, you can go get their version of things regularly.
Red Hulk got onto the radar in a way that's hard to do now because previous writer
Jeph Loeb
knows how to make people mad, and that was exactly what got them to turn out for the book. And you know, it was still the thing
[Walt] Simonson
lured readers into
with when they saw
Beta Ray Bill smashing Thor's logo and jacking his book
. "They can't get away with this! I better start buying this title and keep an eye on it!" The Red Hulk was rampaging through, disrespecting the other big heroes, and got loud attention. Then Loeb and
Ed McGuinness
had the character finally get beaten by classic Hulk, his big fall.
When I came on, my assessment was that the dynamic couldn't continue like that to sustain the character and I wanted to explore a man who has lost his old life and is gradually learning that's it not all over for him. But he's got to reap the whirlwind of all the sins he sowed. And of course there must be big sci-fi and lots of fighting because this book is called
. Big moments and quiet personal ones all together, and it worked because artist Gabe Hardman can sell all of that, his drawing makes it believable.
My tiny attention span also works for me on this stuff, because unless something's going down, I lose interest. I'm very big on the Raymond Chandler rule of if it starts getting too quiet, someone needs to come charging in with a gun.
It sounds like a lot of what you're getting back from your work comes down to feel -- how you think you've engaged the artist, for instance. Can you name a couple of things you've done the last, say, five years where you really felt you'd done a good job, that the work achieved what you wanted it to achieve? For that matter, how much do you reflect on older work at all?
I've finally worked with two old friends who are both heavy-hitters in the world of visual storytelling, Steve Lieber and Tom Fowler. And of course with both I worried that I might strain friendships by jumping into a direct professional role with them, but it didn't, both resulted in all of us making books we were insanely proud of. Steve and I indulged our love of naturalistic adventure material with
, which required a lot of research and let us touch on some very human interaction along with it.
Tom and I created
Mysterius The Unfathomable
as one of the last books
put out, thanks to
Ben Abernathy
inviting us to do something we wanted. Like
, it's an art
tour de force
, but more in the direction of
Jack Davis
. And I was able to explore having an unlikable, nearly amoral protagonist because being interesting is really what counts with characters. In both books we did a lot of collaboration and back and forth, and came out with nuanced stories that worked on multiple levels. That is really the kind of experience I have always hoped for with making comics. Now if I can just make it wildly successful on the money end...
I haven't heard a whole lot from Marvel's creators in this very tumultuous year, either on the slide the wider industry experienced in the year's first half, or DC's
New 52 rally
and how that might be a game-changer, or your own company's
. I suspect you have to tread carefully talking about that stuff at all, but I wondered if I could get you to speak on this: how positive are you about the arc of your mainstream writing career? How satisfied are you with the way things are, both for yourself and your peers generally? Is comics a good place to work?
It's pretty tumultuous, as you say, and I'd be lying if I depicted myself as cool and calm about it. I just hope I've built up enough of a loyal readership at this point that they'll advocate for me and support my projects. I wish I could assure everyone that this mainstream ship is going to keep steaming on, but I only have so much control over that. As for output on my part, though, I'm extremely positive. I feel like the sheer number of works under my belt have given me a confidence to craft bigger things, and ideas are coming to me every day. And more original properties are on the way, like a book that Oni will be putting out next year.
How much common ground do you have with your writing peers? Does that extend to creators of generations past? Do you feel part of a continuity, considering the kind of work you do?
It's weird, sometimes I feel surprised that I do this for a living, like I'm from some other industry or background entirely and am looking at the comics scene remotely. Then other days, usually in the middle of writing or drawing, I feel like
Milton Caniff
E.C. Segar
Wally Wood
were not-so distant relatives of mine, and I'm stepping on their shoulders and bracing my own for other cartoonists coming up.
I love talking with peers on-line via Twitter -- the limited space available it makes it easy to stay short and not disrupt work life, and I see that I have lots in common with artists who work in completely different ends of the medium. I'm glad comics folk have embraced it; it's a great equalizer, properly used. It's cut the largely perceived divide between indie and mainstream material down to the mere crack it really is.
Do you find that you share common ground with other comics-makers on various industry issues? The conventional wisdom is that the current group of creators of which you're a member is both highly mercenary and in many basic ways largely satisfied with the current business landscape as it pertains to creators. Is that a fair assessment? Do you feel like a group like the
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
is specifically important to what it is you do? Are there other issues in which you're personally invested?
Really -- that's the perception?
I think so.
I think creators are more worried than ever and want change, and feel nearly powerless to do much about it. It seems to me that many comics people sympathize with
the Occupy movement
, as I do. Almost no publishers currently invite artists to create new properties that they don't at least have media rights to for a while. The biggest companies are really concerned with their trademarks now that they're subsidiaries, and when there's less opportunity for creating original material, we're all more expendable. If my peers and I seem highly mercenary, it's probably because everybody is as we head to this event horizon where comics either becomes less relevant or makes a sustaining breakthrough.
Maybe you're getting that take from a lot of people putting up a brave face in tough times? Because this is still the entertainment industry, and one of the main rules of survival is never show weakness. And yet I still see creators bare that chest when they don't have to, letting the world know that things are dire. Which usually leads to things becoming really dire, because nothing scares away business faster than looking like you need help. It's a sad fact, but I've seen little to contradict it. Sometimes I message people and advise them to take down needy posts, and try to explain it. You might get a lot of supportive comments, but you won't get work.
The Legal Defense Fund... Historically, the CBLDF has been more focused on trying to hold the line of censorship at the retail level. That is important to what I do, if further along on the line. Obviously the other topic of the day is digital distribution, which I don't want to hear anyone expound on much more at this point, much less myself. But to not slip away scott free, I will say that I don't think it will work until we make 22-page units available at the .99 cent price, and not categorize books by publisher, which makes no sense to anyone outside the comics world.
You mentioned this in oblique fashion early on, but how important has it been for you to work at Periscope, and have the continuing exposure it provides to other comics-makers? In general, do you still feel like you're adding to your skill set, that you're still influenced by other artists despite being a working professional? Can you talk about one thing you feel is different about your work now than, say, two years ago and where that change came from?
I'm probably more open to being influenced by other creators than ever. I can come in and see
Jonathan Case
painting a beautiful cover or
Ben Dewey
completing another hilarious gag panel for his
Tragedy Series
tumblr, and get completely inspired. It always reminds me to entertain myself first. Some recent addition like
Natalie Nourigat
may bring up a question about the industry and
Ron Randall
Karl Kesel
will give the perspective of how it was when they broke in in the '80s... and then go on to show how to ink a page like a badass. Or
David Hahn
will bust somebody hilariously for using a tired trope and make us all think about the mechanics of scenes.
It's about as healthy a work environment as you'll find in comics or any other field. Also, going back to my sageness about not complaining in public, it lets all of us vent about whatever is eating us at the time, get that out of the system instead of saying it somewhere so Rich Johnston will play it back at you ten years later. The studio turns big problems small, and keeps us focused on the process, and making deadlines. I wish every artist or writer who can be around people had an environment like this to work in. Of course it didn't just happen, we had plenty of email debates, meetings, good and bad choices until we finally figured how to manage and cultivate such a diverse group.
And we get the best guest stars -- at different times we've had
Kate Beaton
Scott Kurtz
Kris Straub
Val Mayerik
Jen Sorensen
Cully Hamner
Carla Speed McNeil
Steve Rude
Paul Gulacy
Meredith Gran
Ellen Forney
Linda Medley
Derek Kirk Kim
Paul Chadwick
Hope Larson
Lucy Knisley
... we rarely want to sit out a day because we might miss somebody great.
Even though we're focusing on your mainstream work for this piece, you do have webcomics experience, most notably your current project
. Let me ask you this. You and Steve Lieber had a very interesting experience with your print comic
-- totally creepy book, by the way, I'm still twitchy about a couple of those claustrophobic scenes --
in terms of how you approached and interacted with those that uploaded it for free on-line consumption
. I read an exchange where you indicated that even though you were able to sell some books right then -- something that was widely discussed -- you were saying you didn't do what was necessary to build on that exposure. What could you have done to use that experience to sell books over the long term, and why didn't you?
We would have needed advertising to pick up the ball from that point on, I think. And that would require money, which wasn't something we had lying around. Or, I think had it been more of a genre book, that internet attention could have been enough for the lightning-in-a-bottle reaction that turns underfunded original works into something with legs. It's hard to explain the appeal of the book in a pitch, which translates to "it's these people being chased through a cave." As you say, the key is that we went to great lengths to put the reader in that position so they can get as tangible an experience as possible while reading, at least as much as Steve and I were capable of. By nature it's not as sexy as "zombie apocalypse soap opera."
One through-line to this chat, as well as some others you've done, is your desire that people follow creators rather than creations and your tendency to do so without thinking. I was actually surprised that this isn't the norm, or at least isn't common enough you wouldn't feel it necessary to comment on it, but you'd know before I would. Do you get any sense that
out there is following you, specifically, and if so, what they're responding to? Is there someone whose work you follow that I wouldn't believe you if you casually mentioned it over coffee?
Not long ago at
Seattle's Emerald City show
a guy came up and looked thoroughly through every pile of books I had on the table, and then asked, "Is there anything else you've done? I have all of these." He had become a dedicated reader of mine, and I was kind of caught off guard by it. I've been that way to several creators over the years --
Roger Langridge
has something in print? Buy.
Kyle Baker
? Buy.
Mark Schultz
, ring that up. And I was surprised to discover people doing it with me. It made me very happy, to be sure, but I was still unprepared. It's because during all those times no one is paying attention to you, you have to come up with other things to drive you, you get into this mode of thinking, "No one may ever really notice me, so it can't matter to my process." But of course it does, it's everything.
I'm having a hard time thinking of someone who'd be a surprise to you that I like. Of course I like
Chris Onstad
and Kate Beaton, doesn't everyone? It would be more interesting to list people whose work you'd assume I like that I don't, but there's no way I'm going to create internet drama like that. Remember in the early '00s when no one had any money for advertising so everybody kept picking online fights for free publicity? I hope that never comes back.
[laughs] I don't know that you'd agree, but it feels to me like we could be due for some significant changes in how mainstream comics are made and oriented towards an audience, from directions discussed or perhaps not-yet-discussed. What do you foresee as specific challenges one, two, five years from now? For instance, we've just come off of a very writer-centric period, and now more people are playing with
scripting or something similar.
It feels like it to me, too, based purely on the cyclical nature of the industry. Some other genres have to get rolling again soon. I take every chance I'm offered to write a horror or sci-fi story, for the most part. You never know where the running vine will find the right conditions and bloom. I wish we could drop caring about continuity, but people have been saying that for 30 years or more. Superhero books work best when they accept cycles and start over more often to clean the slate.
Seriously, what's wrong with Steve Lieber? That guy... I told people we'd get to the bottom of Steve Lieber in this interview, but I'm afraid that might be another 10,000 words... so I think we might have to
Seal Team Six
it. If you had to tell just a couple of Lieber stories, what would they be?
Man, don't get me started on him. We don't have enough room here on the internet.
We became friends years ago when both of us were trying to get work in the early '90s and we both cared about traditional drawing, which wasn't really in style at the time if you remember. Steve was walking around at a convention seeing who was doing what and saw a page on my table where I drew somebody's hands well, so he introduced himself. Isn't that a shitty team-up origin story? That's why bio comics don't rule the industry. There you go, Bluewater: that one's on the house. But it does remind me of a Lieber practice from a few years later.
In the mid-to-late '90s at a lot of the shows you'd be trying to talk over music blasting from one of the nearby small publishers doing Bad Girl comics like
London Night
. Inevitably some young artist would drop a portfolio of horrible drawings on top of all our art and comics asking how and when he could start doing covers, etc. and Lieber began this evil routine where he'd flip through their half-drawn, indecipherable pages and look really interested. This was after years of throwing pearls before swine, giving all this hard-earned storytelling and drawing advice that they wouldn't listen to, you'd glance up and notice they're not even paying attention to you trying to break down their work and formulate strategies. So Lieber started killing double birds with single stones -- he would tap on the portfolio like someone just laid a real treasure map down in front of him, and then say in a confiding tone: "You don't don't want to waste time with me, I'm just another freelancer. You know whose going to want to see this? Chaos Comics." And then he'd point them over to the loudest table -- sometimes he'd switch it up depending on who was bothering us the most but it was usually Chaos, and the young artist would then jet over there. They almost always name-dropped Steve, which I could tell because I would keep seeing heads look up and search around with that Who The Hell Is Steve Lieber look on their faces.
That just reminded me of an actual anecdote, maybe his greatest moment at a show that I witnessed. Because this was at the time the industry was really hitting the depths, right before I went to work in animation. At
a Heroes Convention in Charlotte
, this one art dealer was coming around and taking advantage of all the desperate artists and buying up pages at one flat, abysmally low rate. Something like "I'll take this whole stack for ten bucks a page." It may not have even been that good, it might have been like seven bucks per. And goddamn his wretched soul, he was getting pages because people needed the money. He came up to me and laid out his sweet deal, and it's the kind of thing so incredulous I often don't have time to get mad. To make it worse he even detailed how he would later take the art and put it in a nice frame with a matte and make a real presentation out of it. Like I gave a shit how he would present the art I practically gave him and then make a thousand percent profit. Of course Steve is listening to this next to me and had gotten angry on behalf of some other artist who did sell out to him. There was no danger I would sell, and I'm pretty sure Lieber would have dived between the guys hand with money like a slow-mo bullet interception, but I just said simply, "If I sell just one of my pages for the price I have on it, then I'll get the same thing, so no thanks." He tried a little more hard sell, pointing out that the show was almost over, and so on, but I returned to the sketch I was working on.
So the dealer then moved down one space to start presenting his sack of beans to Lieber, who immediately put his hand out cop style and said very authoritatively, "Step away from my table, you bottom-feeder." Tom, it was such a magic moment. I remember Chuck Wojtkiewicz' wife Marc with her mouth agape because she had never seen Steve be anything but friendly to people at shows. The guy moved on straight away.
Is there a story from this year where you thought your own contributions were particularly strong?
I was very happy with
the Omegex story in
, where we examined
General Ross
' past. Gabe Hardman as usual sold the hell out of these moments that were pure golden age Americana and big sci-fi battle. And in the middle of these titans clashing, we have three women characters observing and influencing the whole thing, acting as The Fates. I felt we pulled of a lot of neat stuff with that.
And for that story I got to introduce Uravo, a young lady
, of the bald omniscient aliens who always claim not to interfere with Marvel history. I was afraid my favorite exchange went unnoticed because it was a back up story, but bless his heart Chris Sims
called out the moment
where another Watcher tried to put the moves on her.
Ralph Macchio
suggested we take that out, but there was no way I was losing that bit, it was maybe the best thing I wrote all year.
What's the last great comic that crossed your desk?
I was pretty excited when
Chris Schweizer did the
Crogan's Adventures
Crogan's March
; he's a born cartoonist. The last thing I think I bought several copies of to bring in the studio was
the recent
comic that Kevin Nowlan drew
. Any time Nowlan does a whole issue of something, it's an event and I don't know any of my friends who don't get excited. I grabbed up several copies and brought them in because I knew everyone would want it. I was lucky to get to work with him a little on
X-Men: First Class
. He even inked my drawing!
Jeff Parker On Twitter
* photo provided by Jeff Parker
* Hot Stuff is just as good as Batman
* Malibu's
* Parker writes a western for Tomm Coker
* those Agents Of Atlas, post tryout period
* Goom smashes things, lays down rhymes
* Jean Grey needed a girlfriend, got one in Scarlet Witch
* Gorilla-Man
* Venus
* Red Hulk
* Luke Cage, Thunderbolt leader
cover, by Tom Fowler
* sketch by Periscope studiomate Colleen Coover for a forthcoming project
* from
* from
-- Parker working in another genre
* Jeff Parker with Steve Lieber
* a Watcher macking on another Watcher
* more Thunderbolts (below)
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Portrait of "Spurge" by
Sam Henderson
Logo courtesy of Eric Reynolds.


text:
Running hard
Stepping to the starting line, Saman Hassan gazes out at one of the loveliest landscapes in Fairfield County.
Under a brilliant sweep of blue sky, he can see much of the 285 acres of athletic fields, meadows and wooded trails that make up New Canaan's Waveny Park.
In a moment, Saman and his seven teammates from Bridgeport's Bassick High School will take on 130 teenagers over 3.1 miles for the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference cross country championship.
His competitors fan out on either side of him. They're mostly wearing tiny shorts and sleek singlets that bear the names of their 17 respective schools. Bassick runners don't have uniforms. Instead of showing their school's traditional green and white, they line up in a motley mix of basketball jerseys, T-shirts, baggy shorts and high-top sneakers. Saman's gray T-shirt is too big. His mesh shorts are bright red.
But on his feet, he's got the team's only racing shoes.
When it's time to start, a pace car rolls to a spot about 50 yards ahead. Spectators crane their necks.
On the line, Saman recalls everything his coach has said. He hopes to prove his coach right.
Then he locks his eyes forward, on the man lifting a starting pistol in the air.
"On your mark!" the man calls out.
Each fall, as the leaves turn red and yellow, a cross section of high schoolers participates in arguably the simplest of sports. Over the three-month season, dozens of cross country runners will be recruited by college coaches, a few even being offered athletic scholarships.
In a sense, cross country epitomizes the sort of "bootstrapping" that's supposed to boost a person like Saman up the economic ladder. Just lace up a pair of shoes, head out to the street and keep logging miles until you're holding pace with people who only months before seemed uncatchable.
But the promise of the sport rarely registers at Bassick High, a tired-looking sprawl of brick buildings that rises from a blighted landscape in Bridgeport's West End. The school may lack a baseball, soccer and football field. But even those sports are more popular than running.
"This is probably the most dreaded sport in an inner city," says Bernie Lofton, a 55-year-old security guard, who ran for Bassick in the 1970s and has coached the team for most of the past decade.
For years, Bernie has lived in an apartment behind the barbed-wire-topped fencing in back of the school. He understands the temptations that so often seduce his students -- starting with the corner stores on both sides of Bassick advertising cigarettes and ice-cold beer.
Bernie considers sports a sanctuary from the streets, and cross country a refuge for anyone who can't find a spot on another roster.
When summer comes and most cross country coaches worry their runners aren't training enough, Bernie worries that another teenager he's coached will wind up in a gang or a prison cell -- or even the morgue.
Every so often, though, he gets a runner like Saman, a natural talent who's eager to take the coach's advice.
Bernie wants Saman to believe he can outrun the perils of Bridgeport, that he can compete with just about anyone in Fairfield County.
Saman was practically born on the run, in the Kurdish city of Zakho, at the northern tip of Iraq.
His father, Ikram, helped the U.S. and coalition forces during the Persian Gulf War. When civil war broke out there in 1996, the family fled with American troops aboard a Humvee into neighboring Turkey. Saman learned to crawl as a refugee at a home in Indianapolis. He learned to walk and run in a heavily Kurdish neighborhood of Bridgeport, within walking distance of Bassick High.
Today, Saman lives with his parents and eight siblings in that same neighborhood, though many of the Kurdish families have left. His father was recently laid off from his job as a valet parking attendant in New Haven. They reside in a large, two-story home that they rent from the Bridgeport Housing Authority. They have a wrap-around porch, a basketball hoop in the driveway and a satellite dish out front that beams Middle Eastern programming to their living room television. Oriental rugs cover their floors. "Allah" written in Arab script hangs above their doorways.
Saman learned early that Bridgeport can make a lousy sanctuary. When he was young, he lost an older brother who was struck and killed by a speeding car. In middle school, he nearly lost a second older brother, who was shot in the leg when he was held up on his way home from work.
Growing up, Saman loved video games and basketball, especially the Boston Celtics. He was a little shy when he arrived at Bassick. He'd sometimes wander the long, dreary hallways, looking for his older sister.
"Like a lost puppy," recalls Awaz, now 20.
Last year, as a sophomore, he went out for track and field after being cut from basketball. The coach gave him green racing shoes, and Saman's confidence grew when he discovered he could run a mile under 5:20 in them. At a sports banquet last spring, teachers told his mother that he has talent.
But instead of training over the summer, he played video games and basketball. He worked late at night around the corner, stocking shelves at the Kurdish Mini Market.
He only started running in September -- and even then, just about 15 miles a week. By early October, he won a race in Ridgefield against several schools by something like 100 yards. He did a cartwheel across the finish line, as if he was barely winded.
But it came with a catch. Hoping to get everyone back to Bridgeport before nightfall, Bernie had put all of his runners in the junior varsity competition.
Saman wouldn't race the varsity runners until several weeks later.
The Friday before the FCIACs, Saman meets his 20 or so teammates in the cool, tiled hallway outside the Bassick gym -- right by the police barricades and metal detectors students pass through each morning on the way to class.
As they stretch, Bernie asks which of their two routes they want to run for practice today: the 1.5-mile "Chinese Run," which loops through the West End between three Asian restaurants, or the two-mile "Hood Run"?
Opting for the latter, they bounce into the cracked parking lot. Before long, Saman pulls ahead. As usual, he settles into a pace of about 6:20 per mile, which is faster than most of his teammates can even race.
He heads north, passing low-rent apartments, multifamily Victorians and grocery stores that have signs in windows that read "Food Stamps" and "WIC." He insists the Air Jordan hightops he trains in are comfortable.
"That way," he says, between breaths, "when I put on my other shoes in the race, I feel so light."
Nearing the border with Fairfield, the streets get wider and cleaner. He gets within eyeshot of Brooklawn Country Club, with its rolling golf course, stately clubhouse and swimming pool. Further up the road, the Fairfield Warde High School runners will be jogging and stretching until the sun sinks low.
But Saman turns at the city limit, as if there's some invisible wall. Heading back to Bassick, he overtakes a line of teammates who have opted for shortcuts.
Half an hour later, he's already walked home. He lingers on the front porch, gazing from a chair at the street and mulling his future.
He'd like to go to college, he says, but he hasn't really thought about how to get himself recruited for running. Ultimately, he wants to work with computers someday.
As for next week's FCIAC race, he wants to stay up front with the leaders. He wants to know if Bernie is right.
Recently, he heard many of his competitors run six to eight miles a day. That's further than pretty much anyone he knows has ever run in a single day. It's too late for him to experiment with that sort of training.
But there's always next year.
"If they can do it," he says, "why can't I?"
* * *
Days later, on the eve of the race, Bernie slumps on a wooden table in the Bassick hallway, ready to make his end-of-the-season sales pitch.
"Fellas," he tells his runners, "it's tough being part of our cross country situation. But this community is proud of y'all. They even call me sometimes: `I seen your boys running through the hood.' "
Then his face stiffens. He singles out a 16-year-old, who may have about as much natural running talent as Saman. But the student also has a swagger with a hardened edge. He's missed about half the recent practices and several races. Bernie fears he's been seduced by the street, a culture from which it's hard to return.
"You wasted your season," Bernie says. "You were off finding yourself on the streets when you should have been finding yourself in the gym."
Here comes the pitch: Bernie acknowledges the real reason most everyone on the team runs cross country. He warns them that very few of them will make the school's basketball team in the November tryouts. He begs them not to yell at teachers or drop out of school if they get cut. He suggests they sign up for indoor track.
Then it hits him -- the Board of Education, recently scrambling to make budget cuts, has canceled indoor track.
Looking pained, Bernie invites a guest -- a former runner and basketball player at Bassick -- to offer some advice.
Troy Brunson, now a student at New Haven's Gateway Community College, stares out at the group, including at Saman, who is seated up front.
"Basketball ain't the only way to get to college free," he says. "Y'all can also do cross country, track."
He pauses.
"They give scholarships for that. And they look for minorities."
* * *
The next day, Saman climbs onto an already packed school bus, bound for New Canaan. It's filled with teammates and classmates who want to come and watch, as well as the handful of runners from city rival Central High, to save on transportation costs.
Saman sinks into a backseat, staring out the window as Fairfield County flashes by. The bus pulls through the depressed West End, climbs onto Interstate 95, speeds through Fairfield and Westport and Norwalk. Then it heads north into New Canaan, where the homes seem huge and the cars all seem to glisten.
There is electricity in the crisp fall air at Waveny Park. Hundreds of teenagers jog and stretch and pace in anticipation of the championship race. Saman and his teammates walk across the expansive grassy field to the starting line. All around them, competitors are running out in short bursts, loping back. Huddling together, they chant their respective school names.
Bernie gathers the Bassick boys.
"This is gonna hurt, fellas, but that's good," he says. "You can recover tonight. I'll bring over chicken."
With everyone laughing, he repeats what he's been saying for days: Show some self-respect. Beat city rivals Central and Harding high schools. Those are the guys you'll know for the rest of your lives. Your cousins and friends. Your kids will go to school together. So earn some bragging rights.
Moments later, when the starting gun sounds, the runners take off in a scrum of flying elbows and pumping legs. Congregating near the front are clusters of Danbury orange, the blue of Westport's Staples and Ridgefield black.
Saman sinks into the chase pack. He passes the mile in about 5:35, good for 90th place. Over the second mile, the pack strings out. Bassick runners fade to the rear -- that is, except for Saman, who slowly begins to pick off runners.
Midway through the second mile, the runners take the cinder path that meanders through the New Canaan woods. Saman disappears into the forest in about 75th place.
Minutes later, the leader emerges, striding back into the sweeping sunken meadow, a half-mile from the finish. Henry Wynne, of Staples, who will compete for the University of Virigina next year, bounds up the final hill, looking perfectly relaxed. He wins in a course record 15:23.
Not far behind him are runners from Ridgefield, Wilton, Danbury, Darien. Then dozens more. Finally, Saman pops out of the woods himself, a smudge of red and gray in a long line of sleek uniforms.
Heading up the final hill, he can see the backs of runners from Wilton, Norwalk, Trumbull and Fairfield.
He pumps his arms madly, his green racing shoes snapping at the back of his mesh shorts. He surges past one of them, two of them -- then four more coming up the final straight.
The crowd is cheering wildly, a cross-section of Fairfield County parents, coaches and students, pressing in to form a funnel that narrows to the giant clock ticking at the finish line.
Saman crosses the line in 18:19, a 39-second personal best, an average of 5:54 a mile.
He staggers through the finishing chute, gasping for air. Leans over and grabs his thighs.
"What place did I get?" he asks.
"Seventy-first." His head drops.
* * *
In fact, Saman finished two full minutes ahead of Bassick's second runner, who came in 108th place out of 139. He was another minute ahead of the team's third finisher, who came in 115th. Bassick finished 14th out of 18 teams -- safely in front of Central and Harding, and just ahead of Stamford.
Bernie bounces in circles around his runners, who are pulling on sweatshirts, sipping sports drinks, slinging headphones around their necks.
"Fellas, that was an excellent job, an excellent job!" he says. "You didn't just beat the city schools, you destroyed them!"
Trophies aren't given out for 14th or 71st place, so Bassick won't stick around for the awards ceremony. Besides, Bernie promised to get everyone home before nightfall.
Walking back to the bus, Saman's spirits seem to be lifting. With a friend, he recounts passing six runners up the final stretch. Then he picks his way to the back of the crowded bus, slumping in his seat.
Outside, runners from other teams are still jogging in their cool-downs, still stretching their legs. Others are making their way to the awards ceremony. Saman stares quietly out the window.
When the bus engine rumbles to life, bound for Bridgeport, a student seated several rows up turns and shouts something, which elicits cheers and applause.
"Yo, Saman!" he calls out. "Greatest runner ever!"
For a moment, every face on the bus turns to the back.
The fastest kid in Bridgeport stands and smiles.
Researcher Erin Walsh contributed to this story.
email@example.com; twitter.com/timloh


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Conditions Found that Promote Proliferation of Blood-Forming Cells in Fetal Liver
Six Faculty Members at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Named 2014 AAAS Fellows
98.6 °F Ideal Temperature for Keeping Fungi Away and Food at Bay
Professor, Department of Systems & Computational Biology
Professor, Department of Pathology
Professor, Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience
Chair, Department of Systems & Computational Biology
Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Systems & Computational Biology
My research agenda addresses quantitative problems in evolutionary and developmental biology by using a combination of computational, mathematical and experimental tools. Starting with biologically relevant models, we comb for data from existing studies, and in close collaboration with experimentalists, we generate new data. In turn, this data allows us to refine the models, thus guiding both experimental and modeling processes. The ability to test models in this way is facilitated by data generated from systematic genomics efforts undertaken in recent years. Central to my approach is an evolutionary perspective in examining the hypotheses arising from the combination of theoretical model and biological data.
Mark L. Siegal, Daniel Promislow and Aviv Bergman, 2005, Functional and evolutionary inference in gene networks: Does topology matter? Genetica, special issue on "The microevolution of development: Patterns, processes, and mechanisms".
Aviv Bergman and Mark L. Siegal, 2003, Evolutionary Capacitance as a General Feature of Complex Gene Networks. Nature 424, 549-552.
Joanna Masel and Aviv Bergman, 2003, The Evolution of the Evolvability Properties of the Yeast Prion [PSI+]. Evolution 57(7) 1498-1512.
Mark L. Siegal and Aviv Bergman, 2002, Waddington's Canalization Revisited: Developmental Stability and Evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Vol. 99 No. 16 10528-10532.
Samuel Karlin, Luciano Brocchieri, Aviv Bergman, Jan Mrzek and Andrew J. Gentles, 2002, Amino Acid and Charge Runs in Complete Eukaryotic Genomes and Disease Associations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Vol. 99 No. 1 333-338.
Samuel Karlin, Aviv Bergman and Andrew Gentles, 2001, Annotation of the Drosophila genome. Nature 411, 259-260.
More Information About Dr. Aviv Bergman
Material in this section is provided by individual faculty members who are solely responsible for its accuracy and content.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Michael F. Price Center
1301 Morris Park Avenue , Room 153C
Bronx, NY 10461
Discover.com highlights a mathematical model developed by Drs. Aviv Bergman and Arturo Casadevall to support Dr. Casadevall's theory that warm-blooded mammals evolved to defend against fungal infections.


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FMS(4) NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual FMS(4) NAME fms -- Forte Media FM801 audio device driver SYNOPSIS fms* at pci? dev ? function ? audio* at audiobus? mpu* at fms? opl* at fms? DESCRIPTION The fms device driver supports the Forte Media FM801 sound card. SEE ALSO ac97(4), audio(4), mpu(4), opl(4), pci(4) HISTORY The fms device driver appeared in NetBSD 1.5. NetBSD 5.1 June 22, 2005 NetBSD 5.1
You can also request any man page by name and (optionally) by section:


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BBC News
- General election 2019: Brexit Party will not stand in Tory seats
- Hillary Clinton: 'Shameful' not to publish Russia report
- Fishlake flooding: Fears for village as more rain due
- England v Montenegro: Raheem Sterling to miss Euro 2020 qualifier at Wembley
- James Le Mesurier, White Helmets co-founder, discovered dead in Turkey
- General election 2019: Lib Dems launch legal action over ITV debate
- Drayton Manor death: Jurors find Evha Jannath died accidentally
- Lewes Castle: Medieval 600-tonne wall collapses on house
- Labour promises free jobs retraining for adults
- Scottish gallery to pull BP Portrait Award exhibition from 2020
- Welsh Assembly standards boss resigns over AM's secret recordings
- Instagram influencer behind 'bullying' anonymous account
- General election 2019: How political parties choose election candidates
- General election 2019: The town that won't get a choice
- Hugh Grant and Guy Ritchie recreate fathers' Army picture
- People's Choice Awards: How a fan's One Direction fantasy won a top film prize
- Shop worker: 'I am verbally abused on a daily basis'
- General election 2019: The jobs eight out of 10 Britons do
- Housing ladder: 'We live apart to save more money to buy a home'
- The black princess who 'took on a white world'
- 'How skiving made me a better parent'
- Collard: Soul singer on sex, spirituality and 'looking up to oddballs'
- Election 2019: Brexit Party to leave Tory seats and more from Monday
- Black henna: Kent children 'blistered and scarred' after Egypt trip
- Armistice Day: Two-minute silence held for those who died in conflict
- Flooding: Barlings Eau river breach leaves farmer cut off
- Steve McQueen's Year 3 children exhibition unveiled at Tate
- Royal family and political leaders gather for Remembrance Sunday at Cenotaph
- The Papers: Farage urged to give Tories 'free run' at marginals
- Tyler Peck death: Mum 'gave son, 15, drink and drugs'
- Deposit return scheme 'could increase plastic waste'
- NI parties hit out at veteran prosecution pledge
- Cancer patient from Blackwood is first in Wales to get the genetic treatment
- Southwell Minster scanned using 3D technology
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Gold Coast Wax Museum in Surfers Paradise is Australia's largest Museum of its kind, featuring more than 110 life-size wax effigies, copies of the British Crown Jewels and dioramas of Australian history.
Come face to face with Presidents and former Prime Ministers, Entertainers, members of the Royal Family, Dictators, and many others whose lives have all left an indelible mark on their world. You will find dozens of others from the Arts, Politics, Entertainments, Science, Medicine, and the Military.
The Gold Coast Wax Museum is listed as a Great Wax Museum of the World. The figures have been crafted by leading overseas sculptors to international standards, equal in quality to the world's best.
The incredibly intricate detail includes hair applied one strand at a time, requiring many working hours, and the eyes are so real they seem to follow you around.
In the Famous People section, wander through at your leisure viewing the people who have been authentically reproduced.
The Chamber of Horrors (set in its own medieval dungeon) is a guided tour covering the grim, staggering record of Human Cruelty throughout the ages. More spine chilling than fiction, it is the only display of its kind in the world.
|Cost AUD
|Valid From
|$25.00 - $25.00
|Child at AUD25 this covers both sections - The Famous People and The Chamber of Horrors. Age four to 13.
|Indicative Prices
|$25.00 - $32.00
|Adult AUD32 Both sections - The Famous People, The Chamber of Horrors. Concessions and Backpackers AUD30. Family Ticket (two adults, two children) AUD96.
|Opening Hours
|All year
|10am - 6pm
|25 December 2019
|25 April 2020
|2pm - 6pm
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Ten things to watch for in the Super Bowl
It's Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh, Ray Lewis' final game no matter what, Joe Flacco's shot at the ultimate contract-negotiating pitch and the first appearance by a read-option and "Pistol" offense in Super Bowl history.
You know all about those storylines by now. And you'll be hit over the head with them for the next two weeks. But there's much more to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans on Feb. 3 than just those angles. There are Xs and Os factors, as well as other interesting elements of the game, that should be explored, beginning now.
SUPER BOWL:Harbaugh brothers set to square off
So here you have them, 10 things you need to know about the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL's biggest game:
1. The stage won't be too big for Colin Kaepernick.
If he didn't wilt in the noise of the Georgia Dome, down 17-0 and with little working on offense Sunday, he won't melt under the lights in the Superdome on Super Bowl Sunday. That calm little hesitation before giving the ball to Frank Gore on the game-winning touchdown in Atlanta was a veteran move that froze the Falcons' defense in a clutch spot. He'll be fine on the game's biggest stage. He's ready for it.
2. An indoor game has to favor the Niners, no?
Kaepernick didn't get out and run much on Sunday, but he's certainly capable of doing it. "(The Falcons) were playing the quarterback on a lot of things we were doing," Kaepernick said. "So Frank (Gore) was hitting them up the middle." It would be wise for the Ravens to have a similar approach and err on the side of focusing on Kaepernick. They don't want their aging linebackers, like retiring Ray Lewis, to have to play catch-up with him in the open field.
3. The Ravens will try to spread out the 49ers' defense.
That's what the Falcons did for much of Sunday's game with three-, four- and five-receiver sets. The Niners love to play man coverage with two safeties over the top. That will provide plenty of opportunities for the Ravens' multiple threats to get open underneath.
4. David Akers might not even suit up for this one.
The Niners' kicker had a brutal regular season (only 29-for-42 on field goals), and the team signed Billy Cundiff, but cut him before Sunday's game. Akers missed a 38-yard field-goal attempt against the Falcons when it hit the left upright. It could've tied the game. "I'm just glad it didn't affect anything," Akers said, adding: "I'm here until they tell me otherwise." Cutting a kicker before the Super Bowl would be incredible, though not entirely unexpected.
5. Memo to CBS: Get the Harbaugh Cam ready. In addition to the shots of the Harbaugh parents in the stands, CBS should have a camera on 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh at all times. How about a picture-in-picture so we can watch the gyrating, screaming and flopping all game long? Harbaugh's sideline antics will be on overdrive for this one, no? Then again, maybe it'll be just like any other day on the field in Santa Clara. "He's like that at practice," safety Donte Whitner said. "That's why we love him. That's why my family loves him. And it's real, it's real."
6. Anquan Boldin is going to show up for this one.
He had eight catches for 84 yards with the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. These past two years in the postseason, the Ravens wide receiver has been putting up big numbers and clutch performances – 26 catches for 450 and four touchdowns in his last five playoff games. After the wild card-round victory over the Indianapolis Colts, Boldin told USA TODAY Sports, "I just feel like this is our year." Last week, he boldly stated the Ravens would win in Foxborough. Don't expect Boldin to back down now. And don't expect him to come up small in New Orleans, either.
7. Dennis Pitta must come up big for the Ravens.
San Francisco had trouble covering Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez on Sunday, because linebacker Patrick Willis couldn't stay with Gonzalez. So that's where the mismatch could be for Baltimore – Pitta on Willis. The Niners made an adjustment late in Sunday's game to put cornerback Carlos Rogers on Gonzalez for a key stop on third down before the game-winning touchdown, so let's see if they limit their linebackers' exposure.
8. The tight end on the other side is pretty important, too.
Vernon Davis had five catches for 106 yards in Atlanta on Sunday. Do the Ravens have the guys to cover him? We doubt it. Not all game long, anyway. "We always tell Vernon, 'Sooner or later, it's coming, my friend,'" 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman said. "And it came (Sunday)."
9. Watch out for the Niners' Aldon Smith.
The kid is due for a huge game. He hasn't had a sack since Week 14. This is the game in which the linebacker could erupt for one of those multi-sack performances he's had this year. (Seven games of more than one sack, to be exact.) This Ravens' offensive line could provide the chance to do it. Their tackles have been playing better, but they can be beat, both with speed and power. Smith, who has both attributes, is a huge key for the Niners' defense.
10. Vonta Leach head-to-head with the 49ers' linebackers? Wow.
In a league that's extremely spead out on offense and is sending the fullback the way of the Dodo, those collisions designed to create room for Ravens running back Ray Rice will be special to watch.


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Q&A With Sophomore Defender Sara Spaventa
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In her second year as a starting defender for the UC San Diego Women's Soccer team, sophomore Sara Spaventa is one of the mainstays for Coach Brian McManus's defending conference champions. The Santa Barbara native has been a big contributor to the 14th-ranked Tritons' 10-2 start, which has included five shutouts in the last seven games. "Sara's always been a solid player, but now she's playing a lot smarter, showing more patience, and making the right decisions at the right times," says McManus. "She rarely gets beat and is starting to get forward more often when the situation allows for it." At the midpoint of the regular season, Spaventa took time to talk about her soccer career and her club's outlook for the remainder of the year.
Q: As a sophomore,
you're already the "veteran" on UCSD's defensive back line. What do you see as
your role with that unit?
SPAVENTA: It's funny to be referred to as a "veteran" when I am only a sophomore, especially because when I look at the two freshmen who help compose our defensive back line, I don't consider them to be freshmen at all. They both play with such composure and confidence that they come across as much older and much more experienced than they really are. Last year I was lucky enough to be able to play with Amanda Esquivel in the back, a player who I really admire and looked up to as a freshman. It definitely hurt us to lose her on the right side, and therefore I just hope I can fill that loss as best as I can and lead our defensive back line as she did for me last year.
Q: Talk about the
individual and team responsibilities of your position?
SPAVENTA: As a right defender I have the responsibility of helping to attack through the outside, man-marking one of the opposing team's forwards, sending long balls in from the wing to help us gain an advantage, as well as helping to coach and instruct the players in front of me. Our defensive line can see much more than the midfielders and forwards on the field, and therefore Brian has been instilling in us that we need to talk more from the back so that our formation is organized. Since our back line is composed of all underclassmen, we are much quieter than we probably should be at times, but Brian is working with us to help us gain the confidence to have strong voices and really act as leaders on the field despite our age and class.
Q: What factors are
you processing when an opposing team is mounting an attack on the Triton goal?
SPAVENTA: The first thing I do as a defender is make sure I am close enough to the forward I am marking and that she is not behind me. I also have to make sure that I am a couple steps behind her so that if a midfielder sends in a long ball I have enough space to get to the ball behind me first. Other than that the defenders usually make sure no one on the opposing team is free and that our defense is organized so that if one player gets beat either the sweeper or other outside defender can pressure the ball while the other drops behind her to cover.
Q: How important is
verbal communication between the defenders and goalkeeper?
SPAVENTA: Verbal communication is extremely important between the defenders and goalkeeper, especially on crosses and corners. We are fortunate enough to have an amazing goalkeeper behind us who isn't afraid to speak up and instruct our defensive line on when to step up and when to back off from balls.
As far as our defensive line is with talking, we have definitely become much more confident on and off the ball as we have progressed into the season and the more we play with each other the more comfortable we have become with coaching one another and talking with our goalkeeper. Without communication between the defenders and the goalkeeper it is hard to stay organized and it becomes very easy to make simple mistakes such as not going for a ball when we should.
Q: Your team is very
young as a whole. What do you think it's capable of this year and what do you
see as the keys to reaching that potential?
SPAVENTA: Although our team is young, we don't play young by any means. All of our new freshmen play as if they are much older than they are and all of the returning sophomores have worked to act as leaders on and off the field despite our age. One advantage of all being young and of similar age is that we have become extremely close as a team and this has helped us gain team chemistry on the field.
In addition, we have four years to play together so by the time we are all juniors and seniors our team will know each other inside and out. As far as this year goes, I feel like our team can accomplish anything we set our minds to. We continue to become stronger each game we play, and I truly feel we have the caliber of player to accomplish great things and possibly even win a championship. Of course we still have many more games we have to win and think about before we can even consider regionals, but I definitely don't think our age will be a factor in whether or not we are capable of winning.
I believe the key to reaching our potential is merely confidence, continuing to work together and feed off one another, continuing to communicate on the field, and maintaining the enthusiasm and love we have for the game and competing.
Q: You started 21 of
23 games as a freshman last fall.
Did you expect to have that big of an impact your first year?
SPAVENTA: I came in last year not knowing what to expect. Of course I prayed I would get playing time, but I definitely did not expect to become a starting defender and have as big of an impact as I did my first year. I actually came in as a sweeper, and then Brian moved me to the outside left defensive position which I had never played before. It took me some time to learn how to play there, but thankfully I had Amanda Esquivel on defense with me and our goalkeeper Jessica McGovern, who both had great faith in me and really coached me on and off the field. I am also thankful that Brian had the confidence in me that he had to start me as a freshman and to never give up on me at a new position.
Q: Where do you think
you've improved the most between freshman and sophomore seasons?
SPAVENTA: Between freshman and sophomore year I have become much more confident attacking up the line. I have also become less timid and shy on the field and not afraid to go in hard on tackles.
Q: What, if anything,
scares you on the soccer field?
SPAVENTA: To be honest, I am always nervous before games. I'd say the one thing that scares me the most is having the feeling that I can't keep up with the forward that I'm marking or that I am letting my team down. However, it really helps to have teammates who are so supportive and who build me up before every game because confidence is one thing that I use to struggle with as a player.
Q: Your brother, Drew,
played basketball at UCSD. Did that have any influence on your decision to come
to La Jolla? Why?
SPAVENTA: Yes, that definitely had a huge influence on my decision to come to UCSD. My brother loved playing basketball here and had nothing but good things to say about the school. I always had the intention of playing soccer in college but originally thought I wanted to attend college back east. However, after I came on my recruiting trip and met Brian and the soccer team, I fell in love with the program and was sold on coming here.
Q: You have a twin
sister, Juli, who now goes to UCLA. After playing with her for years, did it
seem strange not to be on the same team?
SPAVENTA: It was so strange last year not only playing on a team without my sister, but more so not going to school with her. I was use to having my sister to build me up and have my back on the field. In club and high school whenever a player tackled me hard in a game I would look to my sister and she would always be like "Don't worry, I'll take care of her for you." When we decided to go to different schools it was a very weird feeling. However, it has forced me to become stronger as a player and really look to myself and my teammates for the support she use to give me.
Q: How would you
describe the relationship among the players on this year's UCSD squad?
SPAVENTA: I am absolutely in love with the team! Everyone is so supportive, enthusiastic about playing and practicing, and we really build off one another. We are together 24/7 on and off the field, and since we are all about the same age we have become very close, very fast. I can look to my teammates for just about anything and I am just so thankful to be surrounded by such amazing people.
Q: Which teammate
would best fit each of these four descriptions---brain, personality, organizer,
enforcer? Why?
SPAVENTA: Enforcer: Anne Wethe… Brain: don't really know… Organizer: Lisa Bradley… Personality: Everyone.
Q: What type of
standard team activities take place on UCSD Women's Soccer road trips?
SPAVENTA: Other than practicing, going out to eat as a team, and sleeping, I really couldn't say how we occupy our time, although we tend to find the most random and hilarious things to do.
We usually get together as a team and play a "traditional UCSD Women's Soccer road trip game" and sometimes Brian will take us to a random field where we'll have some type of competition between the freshmen and the upperclassmen.
Q: What has kept you
playing soccer over the years?
SPAVENTA: I would say the friends you make and the competitive nature of playing a sport.
Q: What makes head coach Brian McManus different from other coaches you've played under?
SPAVENTA: There is way too much to say about Brian as a coach. He is definitely the best coach I've ever had and I couldn't imagine playing for anyone else. The way he pumps you up for games and really just cares about the players is unbelievable.
Q: What do you do to
relax when you're not playing soccer?
SPAVENTA: I listen to music, go to the beach, and just spend time with friends.
Q: You're a psychology
major. What type of long range plans, if any, do you have at this point?
SPAVENTA: I am probably the most undecided and indecisive person you'll ever meet, so I'm just going to have to say my long range plans are a huge question mark. I just hope to be completely happy with wherever my life takes me.
Q: What would make the
2009 season a success in your eyes?
SPAVENTA: The 2009 season is already a success in my eyes, but a national championship wouldn't hurt at all!
Previous Q & A Articles
Karen Reis (Women's Volleyball) October 2, 2009
Daniel Pavitt (Men's Soccer) September 23, 2009
Daniel Anderson (Cross Country) September 11, 2009
Peter Gresham (Men's Water Polo) September 2, 2009
Alexia Zatarain (Women's Soccer) August 24, 2009
Elaine Chen (Women's Volleyball) August 12, 2009
Jared Kukura (Men's Soccer) July 30, 2009
Dawn Lee (Former Women's Soccer Standout) July 8, 2009
Rob Mamula (Director of Athletic Performance) June 18, 2009
Garrett Imeson (Baseball) June 8, 2009
Leon Baham (Men's Track & Field) May 21, 2009
Kristyn Lesovsky (Softball) May 8, 2009
Kazumi Negishi (Men's Tennis) May 5, 2009
Laiah Blue (Women's Track & Field) April 16, 2009
Ryan Andre (Men's Crew) April 2, 2009
Josh Tanner (Baseball) March 24, 2009
Anju Shimura (Women's Swimming) March 7, 2009
Stephanie Bocian (Women's Water Polo) February 20, 2009
Lauren Chastain (Softball) February 5, 2009
A.J. Maulhardt (Men's Basketball) January 28, 2009
Annette Ilg (Women's Basketball) January 22, 2009
Steven Hardy (Men's Swimming) January 13, 2009
Frank Fritsch (Men's Volleyball) January 5, 2009
Kendall Bohn (Women's Swimming) December 22, 2008
Kelvin Kim (Men's Basketball) December 15, 2008
Michelle Osier (Women's Basketball) December 5, 2008
Sylvia Schmidt (Women's Volleyball) November 7, 2008
Denny Harper (Men's Water Polo Head Coach) October 17, 2008
Ron Larsen (USA Volleyball Assistant Coach) October 13, 2008
Jessica McGovern (Women's Soccer) October 6, 2008
Bre Schofield (Cross Country) September 26, 2008
Tony Fernandez (Men's Soccer) September 18,2008
Kimberly Carpenter (Women's Volleyball) September 12, 2008
A.J. Kotanjian (Men's Water Polo) September 2, 2008
Peter Akman (Men's Soccer) August 21, 2008
Natasha Belak-Berger (Women's Soccer) August 15, 2008
Jake LaVieux (Men's Cross Country) August 8, 2008
Dr. Penny Rue (Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs) July 30, 2008
Michelle Torres (Women's Volleyball) July 15, 2008
Jon Pascale (Men's Soccer Head Coach) July 1, 2008
Julie Ertel (Athletics) June 16, 2008
Clint Allard (Men's Basketball) June 9, 2008
Jen Myers (Women's Crew) May 27, 2008
Casey Ryan (Men's Track and Field and Men's Basketball) May 21, 2008