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One Brain at a Time - Chapter 4
A chorus of hope: Will a doctor's mission take hold here and in Africa?
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Here's where ideas come from: Somewhere inside your brain, a signal shoots through a neuron at 200 mph toward a sac of molecules. Bam! When the signal hits that sac, it pushes the molecules out of the neuron, like a gust punching through an unlatched door. These molecules are on a mission now and fasten quickly to a nearby neuron, which sends the signal toward other neurons, over and over, until you think of a good place to get pizza or remember a funny joke or daydream as a choir sings softly in Swahili deep in the African bush.
It's late April 2010, end of the rainy season in Tanzania, and the choir sounds like velvet inside Haydom Lutheran Hospital's circular chapel. Outside, patients in brightly colored wraps and dusty sandals wait quietly to be seen by the hospital's staff. Inside, Dilan Ellegala, a neurosurgeon from Charleston, nods off in a hard-back chair as the singers cast their spell.
Ellegala is groggy from the flight to Africa, 7,900 miles from his home on Folly Beach, seven time zones from his wife, Carin, and newborn daughter, Else. He wears a blue long-sleeve shirt with the button-down collar undone. He feels himself relaxing, matching the easy pace of the Tanzanians around him, reconnecting with the place where it all started.
It was here four years ago in Haydom where Ellegala came up with the idea to train local Tanzanian medical technicians to do brain surgery, teach a man to fish. It was here on the edge of the Rift Valley where Ellegala spent six months training one of these technicians, Emmanuel Mayegga, to insert shunts and remove tumors. It was in this dusty village surrounded by fields of maize and sunflowers that Mayegga did so well that he trained a Tanzanian doctor, Emmanuel Nuwas, to do basic brain surgery, and that this encouraged Nuwas to train yet another young doctor. All this in a remote bush village in a country that previously had just three native neurosurgeons for 40 million people.
Brain surgeons know that neurons can atrophy over time, especially if not pressed into action, and when this happens, passion can turn into depression, movement into paralysis. So since his first trip to Haydom, Ellegala has been building a nonprofit to teach more Tanzanians brain surgery and expand this concept to other medical specialties, keep those neurons firing.
Funny how electrochemical impulses and molecules in a person's brain can fire neurons in the heads of others. Top neurosurgeons from Cornell, Harvard, Duke and five other noted teaching hospitals in America and Europe have signed up to help. At a dock party on Folly Beach, Ellegala met Doyle Word, a 6-foot-4 retired CEO looking for a new challenge. Want to be executive director of a nonprofit? Sure, Word said, and within months skillfully negotiated agreements with the Tanzanian government to expand brain surgery training to hospitals in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, the country's two largest population centers. Ellegala's wife came up with a new and catchier name for the nonprofit, Madaktari Africa, playing on the plural Swahili word for doctor.
Yes, four years later, as he listens to the choir, Ellegala knows that his "teach forward" idea is growing beyond him. Nearly 500 volunteer doctors and medical students, including 25 from the Medical University of South Carolina, have traveled to Tanzania to train local health care workers, instead of just treating the ill and injured.
Ellegala has told his story to department chairs and top administrators at MUSC. They could block the neurons right there, tell him to focus on your cerebrovascular practice. Stick to Charleston! They do the opposite instead, parlaying Ellegala's work into plans for a new global health center. The center will coordinate MUSC's growing overseas research and clinical programs, put MUSC on the international map.
In a few days, Ellegala and Word will even speak at the World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam, a gathering of African presidents and business leaders. One of their pitches: It's more effective in the long run to build human capacity -- make better doctors and nurses -- than throw billions of dollars at specific diseases.
They learn that the president of Tanzania may want to chat.
The student of his student
But right now Ellegala wants to find out how Dr. Nuwas is doing. After the chapel service, Ellegala strolls onto the hospital grounds and spots Nuwas, who wears a bright white doctor's jacket over a gray pinstriped shirt. Ellegala grins and gives Nuwas a bear hug. Next to Nuwas is Dr. Emanuel Hayte, the young medical school graduate Nuwas is training.
They walk to the hospital's radiology room and sit at a computer. Nuwas points to CT scans and quietly tells Ellegala how he recently removed a brain tumor the size of a Texas grapefruit.
Ellegala's eyes light up. This is no ordinary medical procedure; to get at the tumor, Nuwas had to blindly weave around fragile blood vessels, like a pilot flying low through a mountain range at night. It requires confidence and intense concentration.
"This is as complex a brain surgery as you'll find anywhere in the world!" Ellegala says, shaking Nuwas' hand.
It's a triumph for Nuwas, but also for Ellegala. "This is what it's about," Ellegala says, transferring knowledge, one person at a time, over and over, until the day Tanzania's health care system doesn't need overseas doctors anymore.
Nuwas tells him the patient is doing well. Ellegala slaps Nuwas' hand again, as if his team just scored a winning basket. "What you're doing is beautiful! You're the second generation. This will be in the Journal of Neurosurgery one day!"
A radiologist from Belgium walks in. He's here for a few weeks, he says. Visiting doctors are indispensable at this hospital, as they are in many hospitals in developing countries. But they can be difficult guests, even when they're well-meaning. Ellegala sees it all the time, the German doctor who makes eye contact with him instead of Nuwas, or in this case, the cheerful Belgian who has no idea that Nuwas has the makings of a first-class surgeon but lectures him as if he were a medical student. Nuwas fiddles with a pink card; Ellegala smells trouble.
It comes the next morning when the Tanzanians don't show up for the morning meeting. Ellegala lets the visiting doctors talk for a few minutes, then breaks in. "Guys, look around the room. There's something wrong with this picture," he says. "There isn't a single Tanzanian here. We are failing our primary job here, and that's to train people."
After the meeting, Ellegala mutters, "Changing the mind-set; it's a constant battle."
Bringing it home
Two days later, Ellegala and Word climb into a small plane on Haydom's airstrip, site of Ellegala's wedding two years earlier. A Christian group operates the plane to ferry missionaries and researchers in and out of remote areas of Tanzania. The pilot says a prayer, then fires up the propellers. The plane rumbles down the grass runway and lifts off, vaulting over Haydom's boulder-strewn plateau toward Dar es Salaam. Ellegala's thoughts turn to South Carolina.
Tanzania, South Carolina, you want connections? Here's a few, he says. "You can have tropical medicine classes at MUSC, and people will come to MUSC for that reason." A top university needs these kinds of programs to remain competitive. "We'll get recruits and talent in South Carolina that we otherwise wouldn't have, and that benefits patients in South Carolina."
The plane flies over huts surrounded by circular thickets designed to ward off wild animals. Here's an idea that came straight out of Haydom, Ellegala continues. "Patients who live outside Haydom either can't travel to the hospital or are intimidated, so I remember one time coming back to the U.S. thinking the same is true in South Carolina. There's still a stigma in some areas about going to downtown Charleston." So, bam, he puts together a business model for neurosurgery outreach clinics in Murrells Inlet and Bluffton. "They're the most profitable clinics our department runs now."
The plane lands in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in a country where the average person makes a dollar or two a day. Word notices the taxi drivers here fill up after they get their passengers, a sign that the driver can afford gas only with a paying passenger. After the fill-up, the taxi heads downtown to a hotel. They meet Sunil Patel, co-chair of MUSC's neuroscience department in the lobby, along with a Tanzanian doctor who's worried he has an aneurysm.
The Tanzanian is the personal doctor for the country's president. He pulls out some CT scans. Ellegala and Patel hold them up to the afternoon light filtering through the lobby's windows and agree that he needs an angiogram, a test that uses dye to identify blood vessel problems. But this equipment, common in U.S. hospitals, isn't available in Tanzania. Kenya is the closest option, and Ellegala says he'll escort him there tomorrow. If it is an aneurysm, they may fly him to MUSC for surgery.
Ellegala's cell phone rings. A man's voice comes on the line, Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania. "Please take care of my physician," he tells Ellegala.
Tanzania, South Carolina. You want connections? Here's one with a twist: two neurosurgeons from Charleston fly to Tanzania to help the country become less dependent on foreign doctors, then help the president's doctor fly to another country for tests and treatment. Ellegala dons a tan suit and gets ready to leave for Kenya.
"You already know the diagnosis, don't you?" Ellegala says to Patel with an admiring smile.
Patel answers with confidence, "I believe our friend is OK."
The mentor
Ellegala is off to Kenya, but Patel is just getting started. "I get anxious when I haven't helped someone in a few days," Patel says. Corny? Not from Patel. He lives on five hours of sleeps, gets emotional when he talks about how patients surrender their bodies to doctors in an almost spiritual way. "I get nervous when I don't see blood," he jokes on a tour of the main hospital in Dar es Salaam. Patel has flown across the ocean for just a few days to meet with Tanzanian business and hospital leaders. This work is that important to him. "I see this as a place to train!" he tells the hospital's executive director. "I see it as a place where people become neurosurgeons!"
Patel wasn't always so enthusiastic. After he hired Ellegala in 2007, he feared that his new recruit's focus on global health would divert him from his work at MUSC. Patel had a department to run, after all, and when one of his neurosurgeons was in Africa, he and others in the department had to fill the gap. He wasn't convinced until he flew here in 2009 and met Nuwas.
"That's when it sank in for me," he says on a rooftop restaurant before he sets out on another business meeting. "There's no doubt this is a financial burden on MUSC right now. When you have neurosurgeons out of the country, it's lost revenue. But there's no doubt it's a positive for MUSC, as well."
An example? Patel says he often uses a single $40 suture to close a surgical opening, while other doctors and residents sometimes use 20. At $40 a pop, these extra sutures add up. But doctors who practice in Tanzania and places where resources are limited typically become more efficient and creative. "Ultimately, coming here makes them better doctors," he says.
The conversation shifts to Ellegala. Patel is a respected neurosurgeon but may be a better psychologist.
The series
TODAY: Ellegala and MUSC team up to create an international model for health care training in developing countries.
"He has a vision," Patel says, but sometimes he sees a streak of arrogance in his colleague. "Insecurity is usually the root of arrogance," and it's surprisingly common in neurosurgeons, who often feel a profound need to prove themselves. Ellegala must be mindful of this, he says. Visionaries can be frustrating to deal with; they know what needs to be done and get frustrated when others don't see what they see. He says Ellegala has burned through assistants at MUSC because of this. He expects too much sometimes, wants things done too quickly, but he'll learn. He says a songwriter is successful only when that song has been passed to others. "Right now, he's the one singing the song, though others are learning."
Meeting the president
It's an eventful week. Patel's diagnosis is correct; the angiogram shows the president's doctor is fine. Relieved, Ellegala heads back from Kenya to Dar es Salaam for the World Economic Forum. He and Word give a presentation and field questions from top business and government officials. And, yes, the president wants to meet.
They spend an hour and a half at the president's home. They make a pitch: Why not expand this training program throughout the country? Self-reliance is the goal, they say, success is having an exit strategy, not a permanent presence. And for a man running a country that once lived under the thumbs of colonial rulers and now depends on the charity of overseas donors and doctors, why wouldn't this tune be music to his ears? He tells them this project should be part of the country's long-term plans.
Later, Ellegala and Word fly back to Haydom and meet with the vice president and the governor of Dar es Salaam. They talk to fundraisers in Washington and e-mail news to leaders at MUSC. The neurons are firing now on two continents; the chorus grows louder.
A doctor is born
During this whirlwind, Ellegala's first brain surgery student in Tanzania, Mayegga, stops by the hotel for a visit.
There they are, teacher and student: Ellegala, the son of Sri Lankan immigrants, an ambitious adrenaline-junkie who spends more than a decade to become a vascular neurosurgeon, then risks everything to help a struggling country help itself. And Mayegga, born in the African bush, hunted by a python as a child, so poor he made charcoal to pay for his school clothes, became a medical clinician, a brain surgeon, and now a medical school student in Dar es Salaam - probably one of the few people in the world to learn brain surgery before getting a medical degree.
Read series
Ellegala listens to Mayegga talk about his future as a doctor, and somewhere in his brain, impulses speed through neurons, break free and transmit signals to others, creating a thought: Yes, there's nothing like saving someone's life, but there's something even more satisfying, a feeling that's almost eternal, when you teach someone to save lives and know they will teach these skills to others. After all, in Latin, the word for doctor isn't healer.
It's teacher.


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PS: You don't have to have a blog to participate
You don't need to link this post to your blog to enter
You just need to join in my celebration by leaving a comment!
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies" Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Elaine, soooo very generous! Love Civil War fabbies. Please enter me. I know you're having a b'day but I've seen your photo & know you're not Civil War vintage!! LOL
Have a super wonderfilled b'day.
Hugs, Barb
Happy birthday Elaine! I don't know which birthday this is, but enjoy it! Each birthday is a gift.
Happy (early) Birthday .... please throw me into the pot.
Happy early birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu!!!!, hope you have lots of fun, God bless you!
Happy Birthday Elaine....I hope you will enter me in you B'Day Bash give away..... even though I don't know you and am new to this site. I hope to get more acquainted with all the quilters...Artists and Crafts people!
Hi Elaine!!
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear ELAINE......Happy Birthday to you!
How's that for a birthday wish?
What a lovely give-away! Please throw my name into your birthday hat...love Civil War fabric! AND have a good one!!
Happy Birthday Elaine....I hope you will enter me in you B'Day Bash give away..... even though I don't know you and am new to this site. I hope to get more acquainted with all the quilters...Artists and Crafts people!
( obviously real new here as I am trying to figure out how to use all the bells and whistles)
I hope that you have a fabulous birthday Elaine. Each birthday is a way of celebrating the gifts of life. May you have a very special day and a year filled with many wonderful experiences.
Warmest regards from another Canadian quilter,
Happy Birthday, Elaine! I wish you a happy and healthy year.
Happy birthday, I hope it's full of happy-ness!
oh, have a very Happy Birthday, Elaine! I wish you all of life's best in the coming year. Please enter me in your giveaway...civil war fabrics are soooo yummy!!
Please throw me into the draw, and happy birthday.
Happy birthday! Great giveaway! Please throw me into the pot.
Happy birthday! Greetings from Norway, hoping to have a chance in your giveaway :o)
Your not getting older - your getting better!! Put me in for your give away please.
Alright! Yah. I love civil war fabrics. And Happy Birthday.
What a wonderful way to celebrate, my daughter was also born on the 3rd, have a very happy day and may all your dreams comes true. Deb
Happy Birthday!
Love "civil war fabrics"!
Love, Linda - email@example.com
Happy Birthday Elaine. Would love to win the fabrics so add me in please. Hugs, Jeanette
Birthday Blessing to you may your day be special. Thanks for the very generous giveaway.
I truly hope you have a very Happy Birthday! And what a wonderful way to celebrate it with a giveaway. But I don't think you are old and need to feel you warrant a Civil War birthday theme. You are very young so bring out the balloons, cheerful colors and let's party!
Best wishes on your birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day!
happy happy happy birthday
thank you what a wonderful birthday present the winner will receive, nothing better than civil war fabrics!
I hope your birthday is one of the best and may you have many many more :) Hugs and happy birthday to you :) I love Civil WAr fabrics as they will look great for my Dear Jane quilt I am slowly doing. Thanks for the giveaway :) Hugs Vicki
Happy happy Birthday Elaine! I'd love to be entered in your sweet birthday giveaway ;-) Hope your day is a great one.
Very thoughtful of you to give presents for your birthday.....thank you. Civil War fabrics are my favorite so it would really be nice to win. :)
Happy birthday and thank you for the chance!
Congratulations! Please add my name to the giveaway.
I don't think you are quite as old as the Civil War. LOL! But Civil War fabric makes a good give-away. Enjoy your birthday and think young.
Civil War fabric is very appropriate - ha ha ha!!! that's a good one!!!!
thinking ahead to my own birthday - i wonder if there is War of 1812 repro fabric? ha ha ha!
Happy Birthday, Elaine! You're not that old, you know, but wising you many more to come.
Happy birthday to you.....(can you hear me singing it?)
I do hope you have the loveliest of days and many shared and caring thoughts from family and friends.
God's richest blessings to you.
How delightful...Happy Birthday to you Elaine!
Dear Elaine,
Have a wonderful birthday. I wish we were all together for this.
Hugs Honey,
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!! How nice of you to share your birthday w/us all. Love, if you could enter me into the pot. I have lots of CW in progress.
Happy Birthday!~ although I doubt very much you can equate your age with the CW, it did give me a good giggle. ;-) LOL Hope you have a great week and a super Thursday!
Elaine, when you atart comparing yourself to vintage type material it is time to start counting back the years. So take a year off your age and Have a Very Happy Young Birthday! The color range of the CW fabrics is wonderful and just fits my style.
Usually the birthday person gets the gifts not gives, but who am I to stand in the way of your totally cool give away? May you have many many more Happy Birthdays!!!
Happy Birthday Elaine! Wishing you many more. :)
Hapy birthday, Elaine, and many, many more.
Thanks for giveaway, please, count me in
Wishing you a very happy birthday!
I hope you have a Great Birthday!
Sending you wishes for a wonderful birthday. I'm sure you're not quite old enough to have quilted with Civil War fabrics the first time they were popular.
Can a person ever have "too many"? Please toss me in and stir the pot.
Hi Elaine! Happy early Birthday wishes for you! I hope you will have a wonderfull day! I love CW fabrics, but this post was mainly to wish you well! Big Hugs from the Netherlands! Marianna
Have a great birthday Elaine. I love Civil War also - thank you so much for the chance to be in this give-away.
What a wonderful way to share your birthday...... thank you so much.
Hi Elaine... First of all I want to Wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY... Enjoy the day to the fullest...I would like to be added to your Birthday Giveaway... Thanks and keep up the great job on your blog ... I just love what you do... Thanks :)
Happy Birthday, Elaine! One can always use more Civil War fabrics. Whatever birthday it is, you should enjoy it!
Happy Birthday! Please enter me in your contest -- glad to have found your site (via SewCalGal)
Hope you have a great birthday! You have a very nice way of celebrating it by having a giveaway.
Hope to win,
Lotta in Sweden
Happy Birthday! They get us every year, whether we're ready or not. Love the fabrics! - Marlene
Happy birthday blessings being sent your way! Give us a hint? Which one is it? hehe.
Happy happy Birthday Im sure you arent too old. Melisa
Happy Birthday Elaine :-) I love Civil War :-)
Cheers Lynne
Happy birthday to you....
Happy birthday to youooooo....
Hah-pee birth-daaaay... hah-pee birth-daaaay....
Hah-peeeeee birth-daaaaaaaaay.... to youoooooooooo....
*howling like a dog in heat, by now*
Hope you get to spend an "Elaine" day, old p.j.s and all!!!!
Guess who?
Happy 'early' birthday to you! I'm sure you're not at THAT level of "older"! Haha. What a great giveaway! Thanks so much! I love the civil war era!
Happy Birthday for the 3rd of December.
I wish you wonderful day and an ever better year to follow!!!
Many Happy Returns!
I know what you mean about feeling older - but not Civil War surely. Many Happy Returns - Let the Good Times Roll. And - please enter me in your giveaway. Thanks.
Happy Birthday on Thursday! Civil War fabrics are so wonderful. But don't compare yourself to Civil War fabrics, unless it's to say you're wonderful. And you are!!! And your giveaway is another indication to all of us that this statement is true.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Happyy Birthday!!! I hope your wishes come trouth and I would like to participate on your giveaway game!
Congratulation Elaine, I'm singing very loudly, but I doubt you can hear me. Best wishes for the new year in your life - AND thank you for the chance to win some lovely fabric. Hugs Brigitte from Poland

subset: commoncrawl


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So, Criminal remains the only comic I ever felt strongly enough to create a dedicated blog around, and then Bubba Beasley came along and added his own passion and insight, and he still writes for ACB today. When looking for someone to write about Ed and Sean's latest (and very possibly greatest) Criminal emission, Bubba was the natural go-to guy. But he's not the only one weighing in on The Last of the Innocent. Members of our regular Flashmob Fridays team also have stuff to say about what I think is one of the best comics of the year, so I'll get out of the way. Let the Flashmobbing begin.
Bubba Beasley:
It is remarkable that "The Last of the Innocent" may be the most critically acclaimed story arc in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' comic CRIMINAL. The series started very strong in late 2006, and it kept raising the bar with each of its first four arcs: the first arc introduced the introspective but brutal series, the second arc wove a different heist into every issue, the third arc presented a trio of stories that were all self-contained but intricately related, and the fourth was a surprisingly twisted thriller that worked because of careful writing rather than any cheap gimmicks.
After that, it appeared that the series might have peaked. The pair shifted their focus to two arcs of the "apoclyptic pulp noir" INCOGNITO, for which Fox acquired the film rights last year. Between those two arcs we had the fifth CRIMINAL story, and it wasn't just a sequel to the popular story "Lawless," it was a somewhat less effective retread. In both stories, Tracy Lawless investigated a murder mystery and indulged in a very imprudent affair, all while being unknowingly pursued, but in "The Sinners" these elements weren't as organic to the unfolding plot.
(Looking beyond Brubaker's creator-owned work for Marvel's Icon imprint, I've also noticed some frustration and even boredom among fans of his lengthy, otherwise crowd-pleasing run with Captain America.)
Before this latest entry, I had basically steeled myself to accept the possibility that CRIMINAL had started the slow drift from the jaw-dropping to merely the very good, and so "The Last of the Innocent" is as much a surprise as anything that has come before it. It's phenomenal even compared to the earlier, great work. It's a real achievement for Brubaker and Phillips, in more ways than most readers may realize.
1) The story arc establishes CRIMINAL as Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' collaborative magnum opus; it's hard to imagine that their working relationship, already ten years old, will produce another work that is such a sustained and ambition project. With "The Last of the Innocent," the pair have published 26 full-length issues of CRIMINAL, finally surpassing SLEEPER's 24-issue run. There's no telling how many more stories the two will end up telling in this world. Brubaker has continued to tease "Coward's Way Out," a sequel to the debut story arc, and he may still be planning to conclude the series with the story of the crucial murder that was hinted at in "Coward."
2) The story arc defines CRIMINAL as a true anthology series set in a single, shared universe. Going by the previous arcs, one would have assumed that the series would focus on a small group of career criminals, fathers and sons. A short-story contribution to Dark Horse's 2009 anthology Noir, the CRIMINAL "emission" called "21st Century Noir" was wholly unmoored from the series' established cast and locations. With "The Last of the Innocent," we have a protagonist who was neck-deep in debts to the mob, on speaking terms with the crime boss Sebastian Hyde and his enforcer Teeg Lawless, but he's clearly not part of their organization.
The series consists of self-contained stories where the focus shifts from one character to another, and this is probably one significant reason that the series hasn't maintained a single numbering sequence through its numerous arcs. It went from a 10-issue first volume to a 7-issue second volume and finally to a series of mini-series, the idea being that new readers can jump onto every new #1 issue. This is probably why readers overlooked the milestone of its twenty-fifth issue: that issue was numbered "The Last of the Innocent" #3.
Take the trade paperback for this latest mini-series, and look at its spine. The number "6" should be there but isn't, and only the description on the back cover mentions that it is "the sixth standalone graphic novel" in the series. I'm guessing that each trade collection will be treated as an essentially self-contained publication.
I personally think the best reading order is the publication order, as one can trace the continued growth of both writer and artist. With each new arc, both tend to push themselves just a little bit further. But readers really can start with any book in the series, and "The Last of the Innocent" wouldn't be a bad introduction at all.
3) The story arc plants CRIMINAL firmly and almost exclusively within the medium of comic books. It was announced just two months ago that the first arc "Coward" is being adapted to film, but in a Word Balloon podcast in April, Ed Brubaker explained that this latest arc is "belligerantly a comic book," a story that could really only be told well in this particular medium. It's about comic books, in the sense that the characters riff on classic characters from comic books and comic strips: in addition to Archie and his gang, I caught analogues to Dagwood and Richie Rich, and a grown-up Encyclopedia Brown makes an appearance. It's also about the nostalgia that comic books evoke, and it uses the tropes and language of comic books to distinguish the dispiriting present from the idealized (but far from ideal) past.
I'd argue that the entire series would be difficult to adapt. It doesn't have the high concept of SLEEPER's super-powered espionage or INCOGNITO's pulp trappings, and unlike Sin City -- noir comic's other anthology series in a shared universe -- CRIMINAL doesn't use garish images to tell simple stories, both of which made it easier to condense several of Frank Miller's stories into a single, brazen film.
No, CRIMINAL is subtle and even restrained. Notice how, in both "Coward" and "The Last of the Innocent," the most brutal violence isn't shown in detail for shock value. The violence is made clear only to those paying close attention to both the images and the text.
The series' narration frequently serves as a counterpoint to the art, and the two rarely convey redundant information, but the monologue reads far better on paper than it would sound out loud. The artwork is about as realistic as Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth's Stumptown, but I'd argue that it's much more moody, with the shadows conveying more than just physical reality and Val Staples and Dave Stewart's colors doing more than just provide visual variety -- and none of this would be easy to capture in a film or television series.
Even the structure of the series would hinder any complete adaptation. The series spans decades, which would probably require multiple actors for the same role, and it doesn't focus on a single character, ensemble, or even location. (Midway through its run, the TV series ER had cycled through an almost entirely new cast while keeping the setting of County General Hospital.)
An individual story could be captured in a single film, but would the actors' contracts include options for their cameos in other CRIMINAL films? Is it even clear how often an actor would be needed for a comic series that's still being published? An anthology series of made-for-TV movies, for a network like HBO or Showtime, would be ideal but is unlikely in the extreme.
Ultimately, a film adaptation of a single CRIMINAL story may serve the same purpose as the flashier comic series like INCOGNITO and the upcoming horror noir FATALE. My hope is that they all point potential readers to the pure crime comic and to the stories that are best suited for the medium.
4) The story arc even arguably places CRIMINAL in the same area code as the comic medium's greatest works. Before this arc, I would note that it's simply well executed. CRIMINAL is neither an autobiographical indie comic or a post-modern approach to the caped superhero, and it's not the exercise in formalism that was a major part of Watchmen or Asterios Polyp. It's a genre comic, focused on crime and noir, and it generally uses only those techniques and tools that help effectively tell an extremely well-written but sometimes conventional narrative.
Not every great work has to redefine the medium entirely. Not even every masterpiece can be a Citizen Kane, and I used to think CRIMINAL could be a Casablanca, a classic that transcends the merely competent execution.
But then "The Last of the Innocent" hit, and here we have a story that trades on literally none of the series' strength while adding layers of subtext and meaning for those who are quite familiar with the family-friendly comics of old. The conversation about CRIMINAL's place in the canon will almost certainly begin here...
...and all of this is worth noting in addition to the story itself. Beyond establishing the series' context within the creators' body of work and the medium of comics, and beyond defining the series as an anthology that was tailor-made for the medium, "The Last of the Innocent" tells one helluva crime story.
One reason the story's so good is that its protagonist is so bad.
It's easy to miss, but the story revolves around the most purely sociopathic protagonist that we've seen in the CRIMINAL universe. The story obviously plays on the theme of nostalgia, but the main character was seduced by a particular kind of nostalgia, the ache for the teenager's hedonistic irresponsibility. He didn't miss a life of innocence or true intimacy, he missed a life of getting high and getting laid, not worrying about himself or other people. Even Teeg Lawless, who would terrorize his family, was driven to commit unspeakably violent acts in order to protect his family.
Here, the creators' restraint obscures the main character's pathology so that we end up almost empathizing with him: the amoral characterization is found most clearly in what Brubaker and Phillips don't show us: in a story that is told almost entirely from the killer's point of view, the missing pieces reflect his damaged pyche.
You don't see a sense of personal responsibility on the part of Riley Richards, all-American teenager turned cold-blooded killer. You see his bad habits in adolescence and the worse habits in adulthood -- the gambling and sexual depravity (subtly shown) -- and the reader can project a path from the teenage pot use to the life-threatening gambling debts, but the path isn't even suggested. There's the idealized past, there's the bleak present, and Riley seems unwilling to see the causal chain from one to the other, to see that it was his choices that made his life miserable.
Even after he's secured his "return to innocence," Riley promises himself that he'll keep living the high life in the big city, sowing the seeds of ruin for his new life as he tried to run away from the consequences of his old life.
You also don't see any real sympathy for the people in Riley's life. He's aware of the deeply traumatic event that probably led to his wife's acting out in youth and in adulthood, but that doesn't seem to make him more compassionate toward her; he uses her in his youth, and he resents her after they marry. He may be right that people don't need an excuse to be so screwed up, but he has no charity toward people in any case.
His father who died early in the story, his widowed mother, his friends and enemies: none of their lives truly matter to Riley, and he treats them as objects to be used or obstacles to be overcome.
Even toward the end of the story, when Riley sobs after his last brutal crime, it's not clear that he mourns for his victim or merely for the self-inflicted loss in his own life.
There might be an explanation if not an excuse: you don't see responsibility or sympathy, but you also don't see a fully formed picture of a grown man who has accepted adulthood without becoming jaded. Maybe there are no good, responsible husbands and fathers in the bleak world of CRIMINAL, but if there are -- candidates such as his own father are only barely sketched -- they are entirely outside of Riley's perception.
C.S. Lewis wrote, "It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
Maybe Riley Richards didn't see the option of hatching, so he chose to go bad.
"The Last of the Innocent" doesn't flinch from showing us how bad, but it makes the wretched man's motives understandable if not the least bit admirable. It puts a very human face on a monster.
It would deserve high praise for that even without the subtext of Archie, Betty, and Veronica. That subtext makes a great story that much more outstanding.
Scott Cederlund:
In the comics of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, characters like Holden Carver in Sleeper and Tracy Lawless in Criminal have all been sucked into the mire and darkness of cities where laws and are practically meaningless and powerless. "Right" and "wrong" have completely different meanings in these comic book pages. Brubaker and Phillips's modern crime stories reflect some primal fear that the law doesn't exist for anything other than to keep our own criminal instincts in check. They create comics about these hearts of darkness that exist in the men that are actually the heroes of their stories. Riley Richards in Criminal: The Last of the Innocent is a slightly different type of "hero" for Brubaker and Phillips. He has the same kind of blackish heart but he gives in to the darkness that Carver and Lawless spend their stories trying to rise above.
Returning to his childhood home, Richards gets swept up in an Archie Comics-like nostalgia for his teenage days. Memories of the girl next door Lizzie, his best friend Freakout, and the girl Felicity (along with her family money) he would end up marrying and even the lurid EC Comics he read with their injury-to-the-eye motifs make his teenage years seem so much better than his present where his wife's father barely tolerates him while she's screwing his high school rival. So Richards thinks that the way to get back to happier days is to kill his wife and return home. The girl next door and even the EC Comics are still there. His best friend is there too but Freakout (a nickname which should be some kind of indication) still fights his own demons that Richards has tried to ignore while he was wrapped up in his own life. It's a simple plan; kill his wife and return to the girl next door without a care in the world.
Of all of Brubaker and Phillips characters, Riley Richards is the one who wins. He gets exactly what he wants. It's not a dream and it's not an imaginary story as Richards's plan works to near-perfection. Even better yet, he gets his wife's fortune, much to the ire of his father-in-law. He wins and that's what makes Criminal: The Last of the Innocent so frustrating. Going back to the idea of Brubaker and Phillips' heroes, the struggle between a desire to do good and an instinct to do bad does not exist Riley's character. Once he gets the idea that Felicity has to go, there is no turning back for Riley as the story becomes about the journey to him finding his own happiness. Unlike other characters in other Brubaker and Phillips's stories who have gotten dragged down deeper and deeper into the darkness mostly through their own weaknesses and failures, Riley's story is about him rising up into that darkness, accepting it and controlling it so that he is never overwhelmed by the circumstances around his life. There is no failed heist or tragic death for him to try to overcome. There is no outside force manipulating Riley into actions he doesn't want. There is only his plan and it's all about his control of the world around him.
For a book about crime, Criminal: The Last of the Innocent is also about comic books in the same way that the earlier volume Criminal: Bad Night was about comic strips. In both stories, Phillips plays around with the protagonists' views of reality and the audiences experience of their point of views. Jacob in Bad Night saw the world through the eyes of his Dick Tracy-ish character. That comic strip character was the voice whispering in the back of Jacob's mind, pushing his action and controlling him. Riley isn't quite that delusional but when he first sees Lizzie, for one brief moment she's the perfect Dan DeCarlo woman, sitting behind the wheel of a convertible. While Riley's memory of the past is filtered through Archie Comics, there's that little bit of the present that's still that simple and clear to him and that's what he wants back. Other than in a dream sequence, Phillips's scratchy reality and the clear line Archie memories never inhabit the same time space. That one moment where Lizzie brings all of the memories and feelings back to him is where she's that perfect girl again. He sees the past as an Archie comic but he also sees Lizzie that way, a memento of an easier time.
So the killer is the hero of his own story as Brubaker and Phillips finally get to craft a Criminal story where the protagonist gets everything that he wanted. Instead of the usual sympathetic guilt we feel at the end of one of their Criminal stories, we feel a bit of revulsion as we see Riley frolic on a private beach knowing that he got away with it. Maybe it's because we're some kind of passive accomplice, not able to warn any of the victims in his way as he takes a murderous path to regain his own innocence. The Last of The Innocent is a different kind of crime story for Brubaker and Phillips. For once, they let us follow the story of a winner and it leaves you feeling guilty in the end.
Johanna Draper Carlson:
I've previously reviewed Criminal: The Last of the Innocent here, but when I did so, I resisted talking about the ending. (That's for two reasons: to avoid spoilers, and because I originally wrote about the story when only three of the four issues were out.) I'm going to discuss the conclusion here instead, so SPOILER ALERT for what follows.
When I first read the final issue of this storyline, I was disappointed by the lack of justice I perceived. Riley gets away with three murders, at least for now, and winds up with a fortune and the girl he thinks he truly loves. Then I realized that I was assuming, because this was a comic book published (however indirectly) by Marvel, that a certain moral code would be upheld, where criminals get punished. That didn't necessarily apply to a noir story. (Perhaps if I'd read any of the other Criminal stories, I'd have known better going in.)
This is also a temporary situation. We've seen, at the beginning of the book, how much Riley can screw up a good thing by, as one of the bad guys he owes money to puts it, "gambling an' whoring." Nothing's really changed about him, and the situations we've seen him go through have likely only accentuated his recklessness and stupid choices when it comes to future decisions. He's got a new temporary addiction, his new girlfriend, but how long will it take before he gets bored of her and screws things up? In such a light, the "new beginning" Riley narrates on the last page feels artificial, just like the imposition of the old-school art style over the grungy backgrounds.
The third thing I thought, and this is where I surprised myself, was "well, why not?" (This was only after the third and later re-readings, when I'd gotten over being shocked.) The promise of the modern comic industry is continual re-invention, no matter what horrible events reside in a character's past. Superman goes from being a vigilante thug to a representative of legal authority to depowered modern guy to collaborator in forced mind-erasing to young punk. Archie hangs out with the Punisher and KISS while going to prom hundreds of times and never learning not to ask out two girls at once. Given the medium, why not show a happy ending and the potential of starting anew, regardless of one's past?
The question now is, how believable do you find Riley's assertions when he's been lying to himself and others the whole story?
Joseph Gualtieri:
In A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction, Linda Hutcheon repeatedly refers to parody as being perhaps the key characteristic of postmodern art, "the perfect postmodern form...for it paradoxically both incorporates and challenges that which it parodies" and that "Parody seems to offer a perspective on the present and the past which allows an artist to speak to a discourse from within it, but without being totally recuperated by it."
Criminal: Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is a parody of Archie Comics in general. That's nothing new, of course, given the age of the franchise. The most notorious parodies of it are probably "Goodman Goes Playboy" by Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman (available for free on the Comics Journal website) and Weird Comic-Book Fantasy, a play by future comics scribe Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa originally titled Archie's Weird Fantasy until a lawsuit forced changes to it (if anyone knows how to get a copy, please leave a comment below). As with Kurtzman and Elder, Brubaker and Philips add explicit sex and drugs to the Archie milieu with Last of the Innocent, but their parody goes far beyond such crude humour.
The bulk of the Last of the Innocent occurs in 1982, but it frequently flashes back to the late 1960s in a deft technical maneuver. In past Criminal volumes, Brubaker and Philips have used a comic strip within the comic, Frank Kafka, Private Eye, as a counterpoint to the action (and in the fourth and best volume, they introduce us to the creator of the strip). They reprise that device here in a more complex way by providing one-and two page flashbacks that are also presented as gag pages or scripts from "Riley Richards" comics illustrated by Phillips in a faux-Dan DeCarlo style. The first few of these flashbacks are largely in the "Goodman Goes Playboy" mode of adding sex and drugs to the characters, but two pages from the end of the first issue has the first real break from portrayal of an idyllic past in the flashbacks, as Richards remembers finding a dead body along with Freakout (the Jughead character). To bring Hutcheon back, the flashbacks are the primary way Brubaker and Philips, parody Archie, offering a clear way to "incorporates and challenge" the source material.
The next issue Richards makes his way into the local police records to research the death, which was part of a series, with the aim of framing his wife's lover for her murder as well as the unsolved ones from the past. Serial murder would, on the surface, seem to be just one more element added to Brubaker and Phillips's sordid version of Archie, but the way they use it is devastating. The discovery of the dead body comes during a long monologue by Richards worth quoting at length:
That night I have the weirdest dream… I'm flying over Brookview… But the town is the same as when I was a kid...Like I'm a tourist in my own past [...] I see all the lazy Sundays in the world. And I have this strange feeling... that I can go back and fix all the mistakes I made. Like I could do it all over again. And be back in the warmth of those endless summers...
Immediately after waking from the dream, Richards resolves to kill his wife, Felix/Veronica. There's a clear connection here between Richards's romanticized view of the past and the murderous decision that drives the rest of the series. Further, this is the opposite what Brubaker and Phillips do; for the creators, the flashbacks are a way for offering comment on the source material, for Richards, memories are something to wallow in and wish for an imagined Golden Age, not gain perspective.
In the final issue, the second to last flashback is from Freakout's perspective and reveals the truth behind the 1960s serial killing — that they were done to provide cover for a couple carrying on an affair to murder the woman's husband. Discussing the matter with Richards, Freakout tells him that they (and the police) were the only people who knew the murder weapon. Richards is rendered silent for a panel and then admits, "Actually, I forgot about that part..." His memory is exposed as not just idealized, but factually incorrect. Richards commits a second murder, leaving a tainted syringe for Freakout, and returns home to Lizzie/Betty, concluding "the last person — maybe the only person — who really knew me...is lying on a slab in the Brookview County Morgue. So now I can be whoever I want," as the art shows Richards and Lizzie in Phillips's usual style slowly transform into the faux-DeCarlo style even as the world around them doesn't change.
Towards the series' end, Richards and Lizzie are living in a beachfront house that once belonged to Felix, he thinks, "I always knew coming here with Lizzie would be better," which is in marked contrast to his memories in issue two, where he's sexually active with Felix while Lizzie will barely do anything with him of that nature. Looking in on a sleeping Lizzie after a day of sex at the beach house, he thinks, "How can she have stayed so pure. I hope some of that will rub off on me..." Lizzie is "pure" because she's barely a character in the comic. Beyond asking her about dating one old classmate, Richards makes no inquiries about how she's spent the last decade or so; he treats her as if she's spent the whole time waiting for him, and can restore the false the innocence to him that he so longs for.
I can scarcely imagine a more devastating critique of Archie Comics than the one Brubaker and Phillips provide in The Last of the Innocent. While that franchise has always taken place in the present, it's usually been a backward, delayed sort of present (as Flashmob Fridays readers know, Riverdale only recently had its first gay citizen move in). The Last of the Innocent exposes the cost of the nostalgia inherent in the property. It'll survive this broadside, just as it did "Goodman Goes Playboy" and Archie's Weird Science; that in no way decreases the power of Brubaker and Phillips's work. They engage fully with Archie here, and delve deep within it and expose the hollow core to it like no one else.
Buy Criminal Vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent from Amazon.com.


text: URMC / Research / Research@URMC / June 2013 June 2013 Post Doc's [Frog] Research Leaps Forward with New Fellowship Leon Grayfer, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Jacques Robert, Ph. D., received a three-year fellowship from the Life Sciences Research Foundation to study the immune system of the African clawed frog. With the new award, Grayfer hopes to learn more about the evolution of vertebrate immunity and how we can better fight disease.


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text: Health If you manage to find the right routine for yourself to build muscle fast, and manage to stick to it for a week, you will see the difference it can make. If you follow the program religiously you can gain up to 30 pounds in seven days. When .bined with other programs, it can give you the body that you have always dreamed about. However, with the right kind of exercise and proper nutrition you can gain those six pack abs and the biceps and triceps you always envied on the school swimming champion! When people think that they need to have enough muscle mass to be successful sportsmen, they are thinking along the wrong side of a circular logic. Since they are sportsmen they require to build that extra muscle mass in order for their body to manage the rigorous training that they go through. Working out rigorously won't help you build muscle fast because you are not of an average body structure. Your body will gain solid mass only when you give it the right amount of care, in terms of nutrients. Yes, foods that build muscle are as important in this weight gain regimen as exercises are, that is probably why you have been trying out all possible workouts but still staying the same. So if you thought that losing weight was the only problem people faced regarding their body, you are so wrong. Some of us might just be suffering from a totally different and opposite problem all our lives. We are the ones who eat like sharks, and yet resemble stick figures. No amount of fat, or calorie or carbohydrate can make us gain weight. We remain skinny, scrawny, scruffy, and bony all along. So a thorough knowledge of which muscles you need to work on and utilize is extremely important in your weight gain process. What is ideal for you is a balanced .bination of doing weights, cardio and eating the right food, as unlike people who are working out just to build bigger muscles, you need to first get your weight to an ideal mark. About the Author: 相关的主题文章:


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Luís de Camões, in full Luís Vaz de Camões, English Luis Vaz de Camoëns or Camoens, (born c. 1524/25, Lisbon, Port.—died June 10, 1580, Lisbon), Portugal's great national poet, author of the epic poem Os Lusíadas (1572; The Lusiads), which describes Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India. Camões had a permanent and unparalleled impact on Portuguese and Brazilian literature alike, due not only to his epic but also to his posthumously published lyric poetry.
What little information there is about Camões in a strict biographical sense falls into three categories: statements by his first biographers in the 17th century, a few documents unearthed in the 19th century and scant subsequent research, and very abstract allusions (some chronologically uncertain) to his own life in his works. Successive biographers have woven the few concrete facts known about Camões' life into a bewildering complexity of fantasy and theory that is unsupported by concrete documentary evidence.
It is supposed that Camões was born in Lisbon around 1524 or 1525, when Portuguese expansion in the East was at its peak. Research has shown him to be a member of the impoverished old aristocracy but well-related to the grandees of Portugal and Spain. A tradition that Camões studied at the University of Coimbra or that he followed any regular studies, for that matter, remains unproved, though few other European poets of that time achieved such a vast knowledge of both classical and contemporary culture and philosophy. He is supposed to have been, in his youth, in territories held by the Portuguese in Morocco, but it is uncertain whether he had been exiled or was there because it was simply the place for a young Portuguese aristocrat to start a military career and to qualify for royal favours. It is also assumed that his youth in Lisbon was less than subdued. King John III pardoned him in 1553, when he was under arrest for taking part in a street brawl in which a royal officer was assaulted. The pardon hints that Camões would go to India in the king's service, but none of his wanderings for nearly 17 years there has been documented. He was certainly there, judging from references in his works that reveal an intimate knowledge of the area's social conditions. He surely did not make his fortune there, since he complains often in his poetry about his bad luck and the injustices he met with. While in the East, he took part in one or two military naval expeditions and, as he alludes to it in his epic, underwent shipwreck in the Mekong Delta. His years in the East can be assumed to have been like those of thousands of Portuguese scattered at the time from Africa to Japan, whose survival and fortunes were, as he says, always hanging from divine providence's very thin thread. Diogo do Couto, a 16th-century historian of the Portuguese East, who never included Camões among the nobles he carefully listed for every skirmish, did note, however, that he found "that great poet and old friend of mine" stranded penniless in Mozambique and helped to pay his trip back to Lisbon.
Camões returned to Portugal in 1570, and his Os Lusíadas was published in Lisbon in early 1572. In July of that year he was granted a royal pension, probably in recompense for both his service in India and his having written Os Lusíadas. His mother, a widow, survived him and had the pension renewed in her name. Documents related to payments due and to the renewal are known, and through them the date of his death in 1580 has been accepted. It is not certain that he died of anything more than premature old age brought on by illnesses and hardships.
Literary works
Camões' poetical works may conveniently be discussed under three headings: lyric, epic, and dramatic.
The first edition of Camões' Rimas was published in 1595, 15 years after his death. The editor, Fernão Rodrigues Lobo Soropita, had exercised scrupulous care in collecting the poems from manuscript songbooks, but even so he could not avoid the inclusion of some apocryphal poems. The increasing fame of Camões' epic during the early 17th century also swept the lyrics into fame, and in the 17th century many efforts, not all of them praise-worthy, were made to unearth more poems. Prominent in this enterprise, but in a manner condemned by modern criticism, was Manuel de Faria e Sousa. Even in the 19th century, the Visconde de Juromenha added to the already excessive collection of lyrics, introducing into his edition of 1860–69 many poems from the songbooks, which were still comparatively unstudied. As a result the sonnets increased from 65 in the first edition to 352 in the Juromenha edition; the total number of poems, including sonnets, sextets, odes, octets, eclogues, elegies, and the Portuguese forms known as canções, redondilhas, motos, esparsas, and glosas had risen from 170 in the first edition to 593 by 1860.
With the work of Wilhelm Storck and Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there began a critical reaction which led to the elimination of many apocryphal poems. Although a complete restoration of Camões' lyrics appears impossible, scholars continue the work of purifying the texts. Fortunately there are sufficient authentic poems to confirm Camões' position as Portugal's finest lyric poet. If he had remained at the Portuguese court, he would not have reached this high pinnacle despite his consummate artistry. But he exchanged the vanity and superficiality of court life for the hardships of a soldier's life in Africa and India, and the exchange immeasurably enriched his poetry. For he no longer needed to conform to the standards of brevity required in court circles, and, more important still, so profound was the anguish he experienced because of his exile from home and the trials he underwent in the East that his anguish became an integral part of his being, enabling him to give to "yearning fraught with loneliness" (saudade-soledade) a new and convincing undertone unique in Portuguese literature. His best poems vibrate with the unmistakable note of genuine suffering and deep sincerity of feeling. It is this note that places him far above the other poets of his era.
Although the canções and elegies show the poet's full powers, the redondilhas must not be underestimated. In the production of these elegant trifles Camões was inimitable. He rejuvenated the ancient art of glossing by the apparent spontaneity and simplicity, the delicate irony, and the piquant phraseology of his verses and so raised courtly grace in poetry to its highest level. These poems also show a Camões who could be happy and carefree.
In their efforts to discover who inspired most of Camões' lyric poems, critics have made, on very slender grounds, many contradictory suggestions of various women who may have figured in the poet's life. But the real muse, if the poet had one, remains an enigma. Nor should it be forgotten in trying to resolve these questions that Camões himself said in one of his sonnets, "em várias flamas variamente ardia" ("I burnt myself at many flames").
The title of Camões' epic poem, Os Lusíadas, is taken from the word Lusiads, which means "Portuguese" and is in turn derived from the ancient Roman name for Portugal, Lusitania. The work extols the glorious deeds of the Portuguese and their victories over the enemies of Christianity: victories not only over their fellowman but also over the forces of nature as motivated by the inimical gods of classical mythology. The courage and enterprise of Portuguese explorers had inspired the idea of a national epic during the 15th century, but it was left to Camões in the 16th century to put it into execution. It is impossible to say for certain when he decided to do so or when he actually began to write his epic. Os Lusíadas describes the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama. The 10 cantos of the poem are in ottava rima and amount to 1,102 stanzas in all. After an introduction, an invocation, and a dedication to King Sebastian, the action, on both the historical and the mythological levels, begins. Da Gama's ships are already under way in the Indian Ocean, sailing up the coast of East Africa, and the Olympian gods gather to discuss the fate of the expedition (which is favoured by Venus and attacked by Bacchus).
The voyagers spend several days in Melinde on the east coast of Africa, and at the king's request Vasco da Gama relates the entire history of Portugal from its origins to the inception of their great voyage (Cantos III, IV, and V). These cantos contain some of the most beautiful passages in the poem: the murder of Inês de Castro, who becomes a symbol of death for the sake of love; the battle of Aljubarrota; the vision of King Manuel I; the description of St. Elmo's fire and the waterspout; and the story of Adamastor, the giant of classical parentage who, as the Cape of Good Hope, tells da Gama he will lie in wait to destroy the fleets coming back from India.
When they re-embark the poet takes advantage of leisure hours on board to narrate the story of the Doze de Inglaterra (Canto VI, 43–69). In the meantime, Bacchus, ever ready to impede the progress of the Portuguese in the East, convokes a council of the sea gods and incites them to arrange the shipwreck of the Portuguese fleet. This is prevented by Venus (Canto VI, 85–91), and Vasco da Gama is able to reach Calicut (Kozhikode, now in Kerala state, southwestern India), the end of his voyage. There his brother, Paulo da Gama, receives the king's representative on board and explains the significance of the characters depicted on the banners that adorn the captain's ship (Cantos VII and VIII). On their homeward voyage the mariners chance upon the island that Venus has created for them, and the nymphs reward them for their labours. One of the nymphs sings of the future deeds of the Portuguese (Cantos IX and X), and the entertainment ends with a description of the universe given by Thetis and Vasco da Gama, after which the sailors embark once more and the nymphs accompany them on their homeward journey.
In Os Lusíadas Camões achieved an exquisite harmony between classical learning and practical experience, delicate perception and superb artistic skill, expressing through them the gravity of thought and the finest human emotions. The epic was his eulogy of the "dangerous life" (vida perigosa) and was a stern warning to the Christian monarchs, who, idling their time away in petty struggles, were failing to unite against the encroaching conquests of Islām in southeastern Europe. Realistic descriptions in the poem of sensual encounters, battles, and storms and other natural phenomena transcend the thrust of classical allusions that permeate the work and make for the high-flown yet fluent style of the poem. Os Lusíadas reveals an astonishing command of language and variety of styles and provides a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary man and poet.
In his dramatic works Camões tried to combine national and classical tendencies. In his comedy Anfitriões (Enfatriões; "The Two Amphitryons"), an adaptation of Plautus' Amphitryon, he accentuated the comic aspect of the myth of Amphitryon; in the comedy El-rei Seleuco ("King Seleucas"), he reduced the situation found in Plutarch (in which Seleucas' son wins his stepmother from his father) to pure farce; and in Filodemo he developed the auto, a kind of morality play, which Gil Vicente had earlier made popular. But Camões seems to have regarded comedy as unimportant, as a mere curiosity and a recreation to which he could give only transitory attention. Nevertheless, by imposing classical restraint on the Vicentian auto, by increasing the importance of the plot, by transferring the comic element from the characters to the action, and by refining the farce, Camões indicated a possible means of rejuvenating 16th-century comedy in Portugal. Later dramatists, unfortunately, were incapable of following the lead he had given. Drama, however, is the least important aspect of Camões' poetry. It was his epic and his lyrics, among which are some of the loveliest ever written, that made him one of the greatest poets of 16th-century Europe and have given him a lasting claim to fame.


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November 07, 2011
Tiered Ruffle Dress
12 comments:
- Kerrie P. said...
Very pretty & lady like! Love this!
- November 07, 2011
Gorgeous! I'll have to try this for my girls. Thank you!
- November 08, 2011
- April said...
So pretty! Great job!
- November 08, 2011
- Ruth said...
The skirts are so sweet. Your girls are so cute!!!!
- November 08, 2011
- Rebecca @ My Girlish Whims said...
this is SO pretty! can i have one in my size?? haha. the girls look adorable :)
I'd love for you to link this up to my link party, Your Whims Wednesday! http://mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/2011/11/your-whims-wednesday-32-and-features.html
- November 08, 2011
- by night said...
gorgeous! no wonder you made 2!
- November 10, 2011
- Cindy said...
The little dresses are darling! I have a question for you, though.
I love to sew and I see great tutorials on the internet all the time that includes sewing along the edges of knits to ruffle them. I have tried this time after time without success. I have come to the conclusion that my sewing machine does not do this. I am now in the market to buy a new or another machine. Please tell me what you sew with and how you like it and if you would recommend this machine or if you think another one would be better and if so which one.
I hope I have made myself clear. I am desperate, the frustration of trying and trying to make follow all of the wonderful tutorials to no avail is getting to me.
Thanks so much, I appreciate it.
Hugs, Cindy
- November 10, 2011
- Erin Shakespear said...
Oh my! I love ruffles and these look so great. Love the pink and the stripes and the cute headband! So. Great.
I'm a new follower! :)
- November 10, 2011
- Michelle said...
I adore these dresses. So precious o your cute girls! I will be featuring them tomorrow.
- November 11, 2011
- Kate said...
WOW! I love this! you did an amazing job!
Kate of www.avery-anderson.blogspot.com
- November 15, 2011
- Jen@thecraftingfiend said...
- November 17, 2011
- Kimbo West @ a girl and a glue gun said...
featured these today! http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/11/shoutouts.html
- November 20, 2011


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The Engine Of Innovation Realizing It Can't Ignore DC Any More
from the kicking-the-slumbering-beast deptToday marks the launch of an exciting new effort among the startup ecosystem: Engine Advocacy. If you're an entrepreneur, investor, innovator, creator or involved in the overall startup ecosystem, please check out the website and consider joining.
As you may recall, a few months ago a few of us involved in the startup world started talking about how ridiculous it was that folks in Washington DC keep pushing ridiculously bad legislation that impacts innovation and competition in a really negative way -- without recognizing the damage this causes. The end result was that, in almost every instance, legislation that was going to impact the true engine of innovation and economic growth in this country was being crafted and implemented without hearing from those actually doing the innovation and creating the economic growth. This was most immediately seen in the mess created by PROTECT IP and SOPA, but involves a variety of other topics as well: immigration, broadband, privacy, patents and many other issues all impact how the startup ecosystem (including not just entrepreneurs, but inventors, innovators, investors, technologists, advisors and additional supporting players and infrastructure as well) can and does grow and contribute to the economy.
Traditionally, this crew has mostly ignored what's happening in Washington DC -- and for a good reason: they're busy innovating. Too often, it's the businesses that are trying to hold back competition and change that spend time in DC, while those who are actually changing things are much more focused on executing on their vision. That leads to bad legislation.
With the PIPA and SOPA fight blowing up so quickly, some of us worked together to put together an initial entrepreneur's letter signed by 135 entrepreneurs asking Congress not to approve PROTECT IP. Today, we're sending an updated version, which also covers SOPA, and is now signed by over 200 entrepreneurs, all concerned about the impact these bills would have on their ability to innovate. A similar effort was put together by some of the top venture capitalists around. Soon after that, some of the signers of both letters teamed up to go to Washington, DC and speak to Congress about the bill. Since then, we've helped others in the startup world go to DC as well.
Out of all of this came the idea to build this loose coalition of those involved in the startup world, which became Engine Advocacy. It's an exciting group of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and others who are very involved in driving new innovation via startups. We want to make sure that the voice of the entrepreneur is being heard in Washington DC -- and that those in the startup ecosystem are aware of what's going on in DC. We have big things planned over the next few months, and if you're interested in being a part of this, we urge you to sign up on the website. Let's make sure that the engine of innovation, jobs and the economy is not stifled by politicians who simply aren't aware of what the consequences of their actions will be.
Filed Under: engine of innovation, entrepreneurs, innovation, protect ip, sopa


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Spotlight Area 25 Fresnel For 2000-2500w Lamps With Colour Frame
Please note the barn doors are not included, but are available separately as an accessory.
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March 9, 2010 1:20 PM
Rush Limbaugh: I'll Leave Country Over Health Bill
Posted by Brian Montopoli
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show that he will eventually leave the country if the health care bill passes and its provisions are implemented.
Liberal media watchdog Media Matters recorded Limbaugh's comments, which you can hear at left. At the 1:20 mark, Limbaugh says the following: "I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica."
It is not clear if Limbaugh was making a joke, if he was saying he would leaving the country permanently, or if he was saying he would leave just for health care.
The radio host was responding to a caller who asked, "If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself?"
Rush Limbaugh: I'll Leave Country Over Health Bill - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
No Asterisks in this life, it's all about scoreboard - Ari Gold
What maroon.
Costa Rica has Universal Healthcare for all people in the country, and guess what? It's FANTASTIC, and paid for with a lower percentage of CR's GDP than we are pissing away with insurance companies.
Rush ought to try heading to someplace without "gubmint healthcare"...like, the Sudan.
Click HERE to see the rest of my "oversized" signature.
"Leadership is diving after loose balls." -Larry Bird
or Hell.
Costa Rica Offers Good-Quality Health Care
Costa Rica has universal health care, one of the best health systems in Latin America. As always with nationalized health care, expect red tape and long waits, but the quality of Costa Rica's health care is excellent. Private health care is also available, very affordable, and high quality. Many doctors speak English and have received training in Europe, Canada, or the U.S. There are three large, private hospitals that most expatriates use: CIMA hospital in Escazú, Clinica Biblica in San José, and Clinica Católica in San José-Guadalupe.
Statistics from the World Health Organization frequently place Costa Rica in the top country rankings in the world for long life expectancy, often even ahead of Great Britain and the United States, even though the per-capita income of Costa Ricans is about one-tenth that of the U.S. and the U.K. Arguably, one reason for this is the slower pace of living in Costa Rica. And, of course, the healthy, fresh, non-preservative-laden foods found there, and the welcoming tropical climate. Costa Rica just seems to be a healthy place to live.
Costa Rica's Government-Run Health Care System
With a government-sponsored network of more than 30 hospitals and more than 250 clinics throughout the country, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) has primary responsibility for providing low-cost health care services to the Costa Rican populace. Although sometimes overburdened, this system has worked well for Costa Ricans for the past 60 or so years. Open not just to Costa Rican residents, the CCSS provides affordable medical service to any foreign resident or visitor. Foreigners living in Costa Rica can join the CCSS by paying a small monthly fee--based on income--or they can buy health insurance from the state monopoly Instituto de Seguro Nacional (INS), valid with over 200 affiliated doctors, hospitals, labs, and pharmacies in the private sector.
Costa Rica's Private Health Care System
Many of the country's highly trained physicians and some dentists work in the mornings for the CCSS and operate their own offices and clinics in the afternoons and evenings. While private health care in Costa Rica is more expensive than that offered by the same doctors and surgeons through the CCSS, the price is still far below that of the average office visit in the U.S. For example, a private office visit to almost any medical specialist costs around $40. Continued treatments for diagnosed problems will vary, but will almost always be considerably less than comparable treatment in the United States. Dental work, too, is provided at a much lower cost than in the U.S.--prompting a phenomenon known as "health tourism."
Two well-known private hospitals, Clinica Biblica and Clinica Catolica, where many CCSS doctors practice in the afternoons and evenings, offer first-class, ultra-modern services. Affiliated with U.S. hospitals, these two private providers have costs somewhat higher than the public providers but still considerably below anything found in the U.S.
Cosmetic Surgery
A full range of cosmetic and reconstructive procedures are available in several modern clinics. With the addition of contemporary laser technology, the ability of Costa Rica's plastic and cosmetic surgeons to provide world-class services has been enhanced. Prices are sometimes 50% lower than in the United States, but it is important to note that each case is different, and prices are quoted on an individual basis after a consultation.
Dental Procedures
From simple fillings to complicated multiple implants and periodontal work, Costa Rican dentists are as qualified and skilled as dentists anywhere--and prices are far less than most anywhere else. This is another growing area of health tourism--foreign patients seeking dental work arrive in Costa Rica in greater numbers every year. Laboratory work, too, is much cheaper in Costa Rica, and materials used are all FDA-approved and imported from the U.S.
Where to Find out More
Corporación Turismo Salud, S.A. (Health Tourism Corporation) provides complete package services for foreign patients. Supported by the Ministry of Health, CCSS, the Association of Doctors and Surgeons, the Association of Dentists and Dental Surgeons, and the Costa Rica Tourist Board, Health Tourism Corp. will arrange all travel and lodging, provide medical coordination and cost comparisons, transportation while in Costa Rica, complete nursing care, and suggest a wide variety of tours and vacation choices.
For more information about the services of Health Tourism Corp.: tel. (506) 231-2310, fax (506) 231-6916. Information can also be solicited by regular mail: Corporación Turismo Salud, S.A., P.O. Box 1439-1000, San José, Costa Rica.
And, some anecdotal reinforcement: CR has an AMAZING health care system. I've used it; I lived there. It's head, shoulders, knees and toes above the middle-man garbage we cling to in the States.
Click HERE to see the rest of my "oversized" signature.
"Leadership is diving after loose balls." -Larry Bird
Cya Rush, I'd love nothing more than to not have to hear about you anymore.
I would like to believe that Government run health care systems in the US would work.
But then I look at Medicare and Medicade, and they have no comparable features to a good system like Costa Rica. I am being shown no evidence nor am I being convinced in any other ways that we could accomplish what Costa Rica did.
Clearly, something needs to be done, but I have more faith in the private sector than the federal at this point, when considering *resounding success* of Medicare and Medicade.
If the health care reform bill actually provided for the elimination of those two programs and a total restructuring under another methodology, I might at least be hopeful. But without that, its still a pathetic bandaid, that I can't believe will have any significant positive impact.
When the Spurs lose...it makes Baby Jesus cry
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Company News › People
MBO Partners names CIO and CTO
- October 6, 2011
- |
MBO Partners has added two executives.
David North will become chief information officer, a new position for the company. He will be responsible for developing new features, functions and integration plans for the company's independent contractor management systems.
Jonathan Lochhaas has been named chief technology officer. He will lead research and development of emerging technologies to accelerate new innovations for the marketplace. Lochhaas was senior director of business solutions management at Sirius XM. He also has been chief technology officer at Silk Road Technologies and Bleum Software Outsourcing.
MBO Partners, based in Herndon, helps independent consultants handle business insurances, contract administration, health and retirement benefits, and other business functions.


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PARIS — Maria Sharapova shrugged off losing the first six games and swept the last four to reach the French Open semifinals.
The defending champion overcame a miserable start in the quarterfinals Wednesday to beat Jelena Jankovic, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
It was the first victory of Sharapova's career after losing an opening set 6-0. Her opponent Thursday will be two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who reached her first Roland Garros semifinal by beating Maria Kirilenko 7-6 (3), 6-2.
The No. 2-seeded Sharapova earned her first French Open title a year ago to complete a career Grand Slam. She has won 12 matches in a row at Roland Garros, where her 42-9 record is the best among active women.
"Obviously it only gets tougher from here," Sharapova said, "but I'm really happy I'm at this stage again."
She's 5-7 against No. 3 Azarenka.
"It's our first meeting here," Azarenka said, "so it's definitely going to be exciting and interesting."
No. 1 Serena Williams, seeking her first French Open title in 11 years, plays 2012 runner-up Sara Errani in the other semifinal.
The warmest weather of the tournament greeted the quarterfinalists, and Jankovic quickly had Sharapova sweating. In the first set the Russian repeatedly missed the lines by narrow margins or clipped the net cord, and the match was 35 minutes old before she won a game – and only then because Jankovic double-faulted on break point.
Jankovic won 27 points in the first set, 20 on unforced errors by her opponent.
"I still felt like I was in the match," Sharapova said. "And I was."
She then began to find her range while hitting even harder than before, while Jankovic did her best to withstand the barrage. In contrast to Sharapova's metronomic shrieking, Jankovic went about her business in silence – until she started muttering to herself as her lead disappeared.
"It was a big fight," Jankovic said. "It was great tennis out there. We battled."
Sharapova earned the first break of the final set to take her first lead at 4-3. Toward the end the rallies became longer, and she won the majority, often by hitting shots at improbable angles.
Twice Sharapova yanked lunging backhand returns cross-court for winners. She finished off another point with a forehand struck so violently her necklace flew into her face.
"It was certainly nice to change things around," Sharapova said, "because I wasn't doing much in the first six games."
When Jankovic's final shot sailed wide, Sharapova responded with a slack-jawed smile, as though she couldn't quite believe her comeback. She had dropped a first set 6-0 five other times in her career – and went on to lose each match.
Most of her results this year have been less stressful. She's 35-4, with all but four of those matches decided in straight sets.
Azarenka is 27-2 and enjoying her best run in eight appearances at Roland Garros. She needed 76 minutes to take the grueling first set against Kirilenko, and the Belarusian improved her record this year in tiebreakers to 4-0. The second set went more quickly, with Azarenka losing only six points in four service games.
Azarenka advanced to the semifinals at her fourth consecutive major event.


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Big response to Park Department survey
PLYMOUTH — If response is a measure, the level of interest in the Plymouth Park Department is very high.
Superintendent Mike Hite is in the process of the department's new five year plan and part of that plan involves a community survey about the park, its programs and suggestions for the department. Hite distributed the survey in city water bills, the department's data base and online to all city of Plymouth taxpayers to get their input on the direction the park is heading.
"The last time we had an outside company do the plan for us and of course the Park Board had to pay for that," said Hite. "This time we're going to do it in house. Gene Skirvin's business classes at the high school are going to compile all the data and put it in a spreadsheet form that will be easy to read."
So far Hite has had over 500 responses to the survey.
"I couldn't be happier about the response to the survey," he said. "And overall city residents seem to be happy with the park."
The survey and five year plan are a regular part of the department's business but they are also part of the criteria for Department of Natural Resources approval, essential in gaining any grant money that could be available for park programs. The input helps Hite and his staff put together their plans for the coming five years. There will also be a series of public meetings to gather input as future planning moves forward.
"We got a lot of input on how we should prioritize things for the future," said Hite. "There were suggestions about the downtown park area and all sorts of things.
"There was everything from replacing the restrooms, to more police patrols for safety, to an ice rink to a dog walking park, to pulling more weeds and planting more flowers."
A priority item for Hite and the Park Department will continue to be the downtown area park near the river. The area presents a challenge in that federal money used to buy the houses along the river severely limit what kind of "structure" can be placed in the area.
"People suggested a splash pad, maybe a shelter or two and a lot of green space," said Hite. "The Mayor (Mark Senter) has done a great job in putting together the Downtown Revitalization Committee and they've made that (park) a priority item.
"Obviously the next phase of the Greenway Trail will go through there and link the area to the South Gateway Project."
Hite has a familiar problem with any plans.
"Of course we have to find the money to do any of that," he said. "They've put a hold on some of the grant money we've gotten in the past (for the Greenways Trail). Some of the projects they gave money to were never completed so they're trying to clean those up. Once those grants become available again we will certainly be submitting our paperwork."
Obtain a copy of the survey at the city office, 120 N. Michigan St., and return on or before Dec. 31.


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LaylaWoobie wrote:If she'll run, we could maybe do a PBT team?
mnp13 wrote:LaylaWoobie wrote:If she'll run, we could maybe do a PBT team?
Riggs and I would be up for it, assuming we can run in the right hand lane where he'll be used to running. I think watching him run next to Layla was an eye opener for some people who view him as nothing but a wild killer.... but then again...
LaylaWoobie wrote:I personally don't mind, and I dont think anyone here would either.
Just dont talk to some of the people we train with. Idiots.
LaylaWoobie wrote:haha okay then sure. As long as you know that you'll probably get attacked by all of the pit bulls there, because they're inherently vicious killers. You'll probably have to sign a waiver.
maberi wrote:Do most teams usually drink juice or is your team just special?
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Badgers Dig Themselves Out
All of a sudden though, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Badgers sprung to life. They opened up conference play with a couple of so-so wins against Penn State and Nebraska. It was on January 12th that they stunned America when they jack-hammered then 12th ranked Illinois by 23 at home. They followed that up with five point win against Indiana that basically righted all of their wrongs the first two months of the season. Since then the Badgers have put together a nice resume, one that is deserving of an NCAA tournament bid. While others might point to defense, or even specifically in this case, rebounding, as the Badgers rebounding has improved the last couple of months, it was at this point though that something else began to happen that might better explain the success of these Badgers this season. They began to get lucky. Very, very lucky.
Yes they beat Indiana by five. However, The Hoosiers shot just 37% that night. The shots were there, they just didn't fall. Two weeks later they escaped the Gophers by one point, and needed Minnesota to miss shots, much like Indiana had done 11 days before. Wisconsin then beat Iowa by four in double overtime, and then beat Michigan by three in overtime just three days later. Yes they did beat Ohio State by 22 after that, but that doesn't discount the close wins. Honestly, I don't know what the answer is right now. Is this team actually good, such as the games against Illinois and Ohio State would suggest, or are they just plain lucky?


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Some get excited for grilling season for smoky ribs, crispy chicken wings and veggies.
Not me.
I get excited for pizza.
Pizza on the grill? Duh. Ceramic smokers like the Big Green Egg work very much like a wood-fired or brick oven you see used in Neopolitan-style pizzerias (but cheaper and in your backyard).
Because the Green Egg Smoker can reach temperatures upwards of 750 degrees, it can quickly fire dough and produce the slightly charred, chewy crust you probably overpay for at your local ristorante.
Once you get started, you'll get hooked on the endless possibilities. Most grocery stores now keep fresh pizza dough behind their deli counters, and pizzas work for every meal and every craving. Crack eggs on top with crumbled sausage for breakfast pizza. Spread on chocolate ganache and peanut butter for one of my favorite desserts. Make a bunch of flatbreads and set out toppings for a fun and unique summer dinner party. And of course, you can't go wrong with the classic Margherita.
How to turn your Big Green Egg into a pizza oven
1. Buy Big Green Egg (sorry, couldn't help myself)
2. Choose the proper Big Green Egg accessories (called "Eggcessories"). You'll want the plate setter, to enable indirect heat cooking, and the pizza stone, for even heat and brick oven crustiness. Note: you can buy Big Green Egg accessories online from Warners' Stellian and get free shipping, too.
3. Fire it up. With the baking stone on the plate setter, heat the grill to 600 degrees. You'll get the best crust if you start from a super hot Big Green Egg grill and pizza stone. Dough-only grilling should take about 5 minutes, so add time accordingly for toppings. You'll learn as you go how long it takes to get the doneness you desire. I've learned that pricking the dough prior to grilling it keeps disks of dough from ballooning into footballs 🙂


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This year's topsy-turvy Triple Crown trail comes to an end in a Belmont Stakes without the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners or the expected favorite who dropped out. It does come with questions about a Japanese horse with a sore foot.
No horse has dominated the 3-year-old ranks so far, leaving the 1-mile Belmont up for grabs among 12 horses that on Saturday will run the longest race of their lives.
The 7-2 early favorite Irish War Cry is only in the Belmont after trainer Graham Motion licked his wounds from the colt's 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby five weeks ago.
"When you get beaten as one of the favorites in the Derby, it's pretty discouraging and...


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Winless in their last six meetings with Kansas City, the Revs look to reverse their fortunes on Saturday night in the 2010 home finale at Gillette Stadium | MatchCenter >> | GameDay Video >>
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Following last weekend's 2-1 win over the Houston Dynamo at Robertson Stadium, the New England Revolution returned from a road trip with three points for the first time in more than six months.
Now back in Foxborough, the Revs (8-15-5, 29 pts.) aim to make it back-to-back wins when they host the Kansas City Wizards (10-12-6, 36 pts.) in the 2010 home finale on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
Because the Revolution is officially eliminated from playoff contention, this weekend's match will be the club's last chance to play in front of the hometown fans until next season.
"We're all disappointed that we're out of the playoffs," said Chris Tierney. "But you've still got to have some pride and play for the badge. We're proud to be associated with this club, so we want to go out and give the fans a good show."
For the Revs to send the home fans into the offseason on a positive note, they'll once again have to cope without multiple starters. In addition to the continued absence of right back Kevin Alston (L hamstring strain), both Cory Gibbs and Pat Phelan are suspended for this weekend's match because of yellow card accumulation, while goalkeeper Matt Reis will miss the final two games of the season after undergoing successful surgery on his right ankle earlier this week.
With Alston and Gibbs unavailable, the Revs are left with Darrius Barnes, Emmanuel Osei and Seth Sinovic as the only three natural defenders available for selection, while the versatile Tierney provides another option along the backline. Meanwhile, rookie Jason Griffiths is the logical choice to replace Phelan alongside Shalrie Joseph in central midfield.
"It's going to be a huge loss with [Phelan] not being there," said Joseph. "He does so much for this team that goes unrewarded and nobody notices. His tackling, his clearing, his winning head balls, his picking up second balls – stuff you don't really get noticed for and that's what Pat does.
"With Jason coming in this weekend – I think it'll be Griff – he's going to step in and hopefully play a huge role," Joseph continued. "He's been working hard getting back to where he was earlier in the season. He's been hurt, so he's trying to come back to 100 percent. I think this weekend will be a breakout for him."
There's little question about the vacant goalkeeper position, which should be filled by second-year netminder Bobby Shuttleworth. The 23-year-old earned his third start last weekend in Houston and made a career-high six saves – including a point-blank stop on Dominic Oduro in first-half stoppage time – to secure his second career victory.
"The more games I get, the more experience I get, and that's something I need right now being a young goalkeeper in the league," said Shuttleworth. "Obviously I need to play in games, so any opportunity I get, I'm ecstatic to play."
"It's great that he can actually get games," said head coach Steve Nicol about Shuttleworth's chance to close out the schedule. "We had planned to give him a game anyway, but the fact that he did well in Houston, it's real easy that he plays again and we know he'll do a great job, as he did in Houston."
Also of concern for the Revolution this week was the status of leading scorer Marko Perovic, who was limited in training on Wednesday and Thursday after suffering a mild left hamstring strain against the Dynamo. The 26-year-old Serb was upgraded to "Probable" on Friday's injury report, however, after participating in full training at the end of the week, and he is expected to be available for selection against the Wizards.
Perovic's recovery – plus the return of wingers Kenny Mansally and Sainey Nyassi from national team duty – is good news for the Revs, who'll be facing a Kansas City side still fighting for its' playoff life. For the Wizards to qualify for the postseason, they need to win their final two games against the Revs and San Jose Earthquakes, while the Colorado Rapids must lose their remaining games against the LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.
"They'll be coming here trying to win the game," said Nicol of the Wizards' approach this weekend. "They have to win. They also need other results, I believe, but they have to win the game to give themselves a chance. So if nothing else, they'll be coming forward."
Ideally, the Revs would like to use the Wizards' desperation to their own advantage by pinning the visitors back and dictating the tempo before Kansas City has a chance to get its footing.
"We just have to take the game to them and not let them set the tone," said Tierney. "We've got to realize that we're at home and we've got to get after them, create chances and hopefully put some on the scoreboard."