–      Josh Russell, author of A True History of the Captivation, Transport to Strange Lands, & Deliverance of Hannah Guttentag

Illustration by Max Currie

Thanks to Josh Russell for the kind words above.

For the next few months, I will be excerpting passages from the book one chapter at a time, including illustrations from Max Currie. While the book is illustrated in black and white, Max did some of the illustrations in color. I will showcase many of those color illustrations here, beginning with this frontispiece image from Section One: There’s Really Nothing to It.

Next week… Chapter One.

The novel is a great read and definitely one you should add to your reading list. Hannah is a student at Cornell, and she has adventures in New Orleans and Nebraska. Russell’s novel is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

2011/12, Leading goalscorers from the rest of the world, all competitions.

40. Michael Eneramo (Houston Dynamo)

34. Andriy Yarmolenko (NY Red Bulls)

32. Fankélé Traoré (Western Connection)s

31. Calvin Kaldi (Mamelodi Sundowns), Tomas Necid (NY Red Bulls)

30. Michael Chidi Alozi (New England), Evans Chikwaikwai (Bidvest Wits), Mandjou Keita (Cincinnati 1790)

29. Luis Robinson Rentería (Mamelodi Sundowns)

28. Dário (SuperSport), Dumisani Ngwenya (SuperSport)

27. Nicola Brighenti (Georgia), Sandile Ndlovu (Bloemfontein Celtic), Kelechi Osunwa (CD Marathón), Schwenck (DC United)

26. Victor Mendy (FC Dallas)

25. Igor de Camargo (New England), Machel Millwood (San Juan Jabloteh)

24. Nick Johnson (Colorado)

23. Quincy Amarikwa (Vancouver), Ahmed Gaafar (Portland Timber)

22. Henri Bienvenu (Al-Ahly), José Rosales (Isidro Metapán)

21. Aristide Bancé (Houston Comets), Fernando García (Alianza Lima), Hugo (Seattle), Pierre Koko’o (AS Montréal), Atakilti Mengesha (Saint George), Alexandr Prudnikov (Colorado) Bradley Ritson (Bidvest Wits), Ben Turnbull (Toledo AC)

20. Brice Aka (Black Leopards), Francis Doe (Club Sportif Sfaxien), Peri Marosevic (Columbus), Emad Motaeb (Al-Ahly), Josh Russell (Nashville), Marvin Soriano (LA Firpo), Joanie Stubbs (Platense), William Thompson (Albuquerque), Mohamed Trabelsi (ES Tunis)

Steve Roden and Jeffrey Roden at Quiet

The next installment of Atlas Sets will be with Jeffrey Roden and Steve Roden. Our discussion is set for Tuesday, May 29, in Pasadena.

I met Jeffrey and Steve at “Day of Attention,” a lowercase-themed concert organized by Josh Russell in 2003. I later had both of them on my radio show, Repeat After Me, on KUCI 88.9 FM Irvine, and then again at my house concert series, Quiet.  Steve would later serve on the graduate committee for my MFA in Drawing & Painting at CSULB in 2004. Other than the improv set for Quiet, this will be our first official collaboration as a trio.

I look forward to a lively discussion.

But not everybody thinks that Twitter is too much. In fact, U.K.-service Bonfire.im wants to turn up the heat — by adding a chat interface on top of Twitter itself.

Bonfire, which has just gone live, is a browser extension that uses some smart code and clever techniques to add an instant messaging layer into the Twitter website. If another user you follow is currently on Twitter and using Bonfire, they’ll have a little green light next to their name — just click on their button and you can start up a chat session right there, without ever leaving the page.

Founder Josh Russell describes it as “Facebook chat for Twitter”, which gives you a good idea of what it feels like to use — and to some degree what it looks like, too. But it’s also more than that: it brings the idea of presence to the site too, which in many ways could end up being as important to the service as the ability to talk. After all, it’s one thing to read people’s messages; it’s quite another to be able to see that they’re looking directly at Twitter right at that moment.

If used properly Bonfire could not only be a godsend for IM and Twitter addicts — but for all the people who follow them, too. After all, think of all those times you’ve been barraged with two people chatting away publicly to each other and wanted to tell them to take it off Twitter… well, now they can do it really easily.

Of course, Twitter already has a way for people to have private conversations, through direct messaging — but it’s got an entirely different interface, it’s a long, long way from real-time and it suffers from a few interface problems. Bonfire could prove to be a smart way for — whether it’s individuals, groups of friends, or companies who use Twitter for customer service.

It’s not going to be for everyone, but with 100 million active users globally Twitter is a broad church. Russell suggests there may be a significant audience for what he’s offering — particularly for those who are already heavy IM or BlackBerry Messaging users, for example.

“Twitter is a big place,” he says. “It’s hard to nail down a typical Twitter user. But we think it’s likely that we’ll see both the BBM generation and people who get their news from Twitter being big groups of initial users.”

It’s still very early days — the team has been working on the service for just a few months, with some small seed investment — and the feature set is fairly limited right now. But ultimately, says Russell, Bonfire may consider developing further features or adding other platforms, too — but he says it’s important to avoid mission creep for what is already a potentially overwhelming product.

“We’re building Bonfire to service as many people as possible, and we have that in mind when considering every feature,” he says.

Still, for anyone who thinks that adding instant messaging is just too much to cope with for Twitter users, there’s a one-word answer: Tweetdeck. The power users’ client of choice, also based in London, is utterly overwhelming to anyone new to Twitter… and yet it was so well-used that it ended up being bought by the service itself in a deal estimated at $40 million last year.

I’m not one to drag things out. I prefer my information direct and to the point. Therefore, my review of Josh Russell’s THE TURTLE will be just that. The Turtle Guard (aka Monk Guard) is not a favored position for most people. Many consider it a bad position while others only use it as a transitional position. There are basically two people who have a game built around this position. The most famous being Eduardo Telles and the other is Josh Russell. Without getting too in-depth about what techniques are presented in this instructional, this single-disc DVD instructional is broken down into four parts:

Defending The Turtle
Reversing The Turtle
Attacks in The Turtle
Turtle Drills

This DVD is good for people who are interested in learning about the Turtle. It may not be the most in-depth instructional about this position, but it is a good start. Many people complain about the production value of this instructional. Sure, it might not be perfect due to some uncontrollable circumstances that they had to deal with during shooting, but the information is still good. You can tell that Josh wasn’t perfectly comfortable doing this in front of the camera, but I’ve heard that he has gotten better at it. Maybe he’ll come out with another instructional. If you have an interest in the Turtle Guard, I recommend this DVD.

Layla Russell was born shortly after 7 a.m. on Interstate 225 and 6th Avenue.

Copter4 flew over the scene and captured video of emergency crews carrying a newborn to a waiting ambulance. Moments later, mother Corri Russell was put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

Corri and Josh Russell shared the news that Layla is a healthy 6 pounds and 13 ounces. She’s also 20 inches long.

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A firefighter who helped deliver the baby told CBS4 the moment they got there the mother was in labor and that the first thing they needed to do was make sure both the mother and the baby were healthy.

Emergency crews clamped the umbilical cord, dried the baby off and made sure it was warm.

Steve Reynoldson with the Aurora Fire Department said Josh, the father, had a lot of emotions.

“He was calm, scared and in shock somewhat, which I would be, too,” he said.

“He thought that I was barbequing out in my garage,” Russell said.

Russell got the fire out before the fire department even got there. But it wasn’t his cooking. He knew.

“So my dog jumped like (on) all fours at once and at the time all the hairs on my arms just shot up. It was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Lightning. The bolt hit the gas meter on the outside of Russell’s house, ran through the wall into the garage, a few feet over and connected with some wood. That started the fire.

Russell’s neighbor should have known better. Last year another house on the same street took a lightning bolt and was severely damaged by fire. And Russell’s house actually belongs to his parents who tell the story of the last time the house was hit 15 years ago. It hit near the peak of the roof.

“Took out my daughter’s stereo, her TV, pretty much everything in her room that was electrical. As well as the TV downstairs,” Konnie Russell said.

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Their street sits on top of a hill. That’s about as much as you can say for lightning, it likes an easy target. Lightning is generally attracted to high points and conductors. But only generally.

“Lightning follows all paths to ground, according to their individual resistances,” said lightning expert Rich Kithil of the Louisville-based National Lightning Safety Institute.

In spite of significant study, experts still can’t predict where lightning will strike. It starts with the charge building up in the clouds. Ice rubbing together as hail in a storm cloud builds up a charge, making a storm cloud like a big battery.

“The earth at rest has a nominal voltage,” said Kithil.

As we stand on the earth we’re carrying a charge of about 400 volts. As the charge builds in a cloud, it’s looking for a place to plug in.

“We have one voltage here and another voltage here and maybe lightning wants to go equalize … It can eject itself from the top, from the sides, from the back, from the front of a cloud and travel miles.”

There are even so-called “bolts from the blue.”

A 11-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was hit recently – and survived. The sky above was blue and experts believe the bolt travelled miles before hitting her. That’s what still bugs Kithil.

“If we were standing next to a radio tower here that’s all metal and 200 feet tall — within the unpredictability of lightning’s behavior, it’s possible for lightning to strike the grass 20 feet away, or the top of the tower, or that car, or you or me.”

Is there a way of figuring out where it will hit? No. But it doesn’t hit when there’s no storm.

“It’s not in a box, nice and tidy, fully understood by science,” said Kithil. Lightning is just, “Random. There is no explanation for that that I know of.”

At the other end, perhaps predictably, Haiti and Cuba continued to be the most difficult locations for home sides to find winning ways in North American soccer: Cienfuegos failed to gain a single victory in the league, while fellow Cuban side Villa Clara and Haitian minnows Violette managed only two each during their long seasons.

The promotion playoffs were dominated by teams from the Maradona Conference, which saw all four of their playoff participants promoted into NADI for next year. As such, AC St. Louis and Real Miami are both underdogs to survive at the higher level, while X. Tijuana and FC Chicago—both with over 50 points in the regular season—will be quite disappointed to spend 2011 again in the fourth level of play.

The misery ran especially deep at X. Tijuana, who boasted the league MVP in Alejandro Leyva and the only offense in NADII to score more than fifty goals on the year. But Albuquerque—who had faded dramatically at the end of the season—managed a goal in extra time from their veteran leader William Thompson to unseat the Mexican side. Still, the assumption has to be that, if the finances hold up, X. Tijuana will be among the favorites for promotion in 2011.

Individual play was dominated by Nashville’s veteran striker Josh Russell, who found the back of the net 19 times on the year, besting Houston’s Felix Garcia and Santa Fe’s Ricardo Flores by five. Nashville was unable to overcome their defensive woes however, and didn’t even make the playoffs, while both the Comets and the Red Devils both succeeded in gaining promotion.

Awards in NADII were handed out as follows:

• Keeper of the Year. Scott Vallow (Rochester), Adrián Zermeño (X. Tijuana), Diego (Vancouver).
• Defender of the Year. Scott Jones (Vancouver), Marco Reda (Vancouver), Armando Gallegos (X. Tijuana).
• Midfielder of the Year. Ricardo Sánchez (Mérida FC), Juan Carlos Nuñez (X. Tijuana), Simon Nakajima-Farran (Real Miami)
• Striker of the Year. Rogelio López (X. Tijuana), Charel Hernández (Mérida FC), Ricky Schramm (Real Miami).
• MVP. Leyva, Mandjou Keita (Cincinnati), Nicola Brighenti (Georgia).
• Young Player of the Year. Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (Louisville), Oscar Reyes (Real Estelí), Antonio Cameira (Québec).
• NADII Select XI. Alejandro Barba (Fargo), Brighenti, Cameira, Diego, Gunnarsson, Jones, Leyva, Federico Mancinelli (Mérida FC), Reda, Reyes, Sánchez.

2011 NADII: Yashin At A Glance

Champion: Rochester
Goals: Alejandro Leyva (X. Tijuana) 17
Assists: Danny Earls (Rochester) 8
Rating: Alejandro Leyva (X. Tijuana) 7.82

2011 NADII: di Stefano At A Glance

Champion: Vancouver
Goals: Yarrow Flitling (Kulture Yabra) 15
Assists: Orlando Rodríguez (Kulture Yabra) 10
Rating: Oscar Reyes (Real Estelí) 8.03

2011 NADII: Beckenbauer At A Glance

Champion: Mérida FC
Promoted: NY Giants
Goals: Lewis Corrales (Cavaliers FC) & Miguel Ángel Hernández (Curtidores) 11
Assists: Jaymi Bailey (Tampa Bay) 10
Rating: Jorge Barragán (Mérida FC) 7.75

2011 NADII: Maradona At A Glance

Champion: NFSA Sunshine
Promoted: Charlotte SAS, AC St. Louis, Real Miami
Goals: Ricky Schramm (Real Miami), Dana Scully (Baltimore SC) & Fabian Dawkins (AC St. Louis) 15
Assists: Simon Nakajima-Farran (Real Miami) 13
Rating: Evan Harding (AC St. Louis) 7.87

2011 NADII: Pelé At A Glance

Champion: Georgia Peaches
Goals: Nicola Brighenti (Georgia Peaches) 18
Assists: Tyler Hemming (Georgia Peaches) & George Abbey (Ottawa) 9
Rating: Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (Louisville) 7.85

2011 NADII: Cruyff At A Glance

Champion: Santa Fe
Promoted: Houston Comets, Albuquerque
Goals: Josh Russell (Nashville) 19
Assists: Doug DeMartin (Nashville) 8
Rating: Marc Schwartz (FC Chicago) 7.53

X. Tijuana's Alejandro Leyva, 2010 NADII MVP denied promotion despite a fantastic year.

Nashville's Josh Russell, NADII's leading goalscorer in 2010 with 19.

Author: Warren Piece

Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) 19 ; “Long Time Coming”

I believe I shall be extra mean in the following summary of this event, as I am in a shitty mood:

Aron “The Posterboy” Lofton (LHW), Josh Russell (LW) and Ryan Machan (WW) took the first three televised fights of the night, respectively, via first round submission. Something to note here; Josh Russell’s bout against Colby “The Cobra” Snyder doubled as a battle to determine who has some of the the cheapest-looking tattoos in MMA. In that capacity, they both lost.

Joey Gorczynski vs Kyle Sandford (MW): I like to call this fight, “Back of the Head Madness!” As if all of the ignored shots to the back of the head were not enough…Oops,  Sandford upkicked Gorsomething in the face while he was on the ground. The ref said nothing, not even a warning. Are there no rules in Canada or is the ref  (John Braak) just fucking blind!? Boo this fight. Sandford wins via split decision. 

Ariel “Tarzan” Sexton vs Derrick “The Eraser” Noble (LW): Wait, striking is allowed in the MFC !? I had no idea up until this point. Noble looks like the first fella of the night with solid standup technique, plus he has a cool nickname, so I’m a fan. You know what Sexton’s stand-up was like in this fight? Know when you’re trying to play a video game with someone and you know what you’re doing, but the other guy has no idea and just bangs on the buttons as fast as he can and almost beats you. Yeah, it was like that. In the end, Sexton makes the mistake of going for a super-sloppy takedown and the more experienced Noble took the opportunity to throw Sexton into a guillotine and take the W.

SUPERFIGHT ALERT, SUPERFIGHT ALERT!!!

Paul “Semtex” Daley vs John “The Natural” Alessio: “The Natural” (WW):  Before I comment on the fight itself, I hearby re-nickname John Alessio, “The Copycat.” Because: 1) His original nickname (before I re-nicknamed him) was “The Natural.” Need I explain why I have an issue with this? And 2) He came out to “Mother” by Danzig (which Gabe Gonzaga just did at UFC 91). Anyway…this fight treated us to some additional horrible reffing by John Braak. Multiple rope grabs performed by both fighters were completely ignored. Regardless, Daley looked awesome! Great kicks and takedown defense in the first round. The second round saw him take out the big guns. 2 angry, grazing left hooks were the beginning of the end for Alessio. A kick/knee to the upperbody (did he catch the head?) put Alessio down. Semtex followed it up with three missiles to the face of Alessio. Fucking Braak let John take at least 1 too many to the grill. He’s the worst. The Superfight concept is a good idea for the MFC. They have to keep that up and I know they intend to. You just wish they had guys like this in their regular stable. 

Light HeavyWeight Championship; Roger “The Hulk” Hollett (Champ) vs Emanuel “The Hardcore Kid” Newton: Newton comes out to some Hardcore (didn’t catch exactly who performed the entrance song…sound was too muffled). I think this answered  the question in my head as to whether he is called “The Hardcore Kid” because he’s into HC. 3rd great nickname of the night (the 2nd was Semtex). Anyway, as I hear it (my DVR stopped tapping before the end of this fight), Newton took the belt via boring unanimous decision. Blah. Glad I didn’t have to sit through it.