Never written a 'ghazal' before? Try it. It's hard.

The featured poetic form in the “Poetic Asides” section of the October issue of Writers Digest was the “ghazal.”

Pronounced “guzzle,” this form of poetry is of Persian origin and consists of “five to 15 couplets (two-line stanzas) with a word or phrase refrain at the end of each couplet,” the magazine said.

Also, traditionally, each couplet must be a complete sentence (or several sentences) in itself. In addition, all the couplets, and each line of each couplet, must share the same meter.

Famous ghazals written by English-speaking writers include “The Night Abraham Called to the Stars” by Robert Bly, “The Mother Mourns” by Thomas Hardy and “The Hall” by Robert Pinsky.

Writers Digest provided a portion of an example by Tiel Aisha Ansari, called “Can these crumpled leaves…” Here are the first four couplets.

Can these crumpled leaves really hold a flower?
A fist clinched this tight would crush any flower.

A glimpse of sky through the roof of a bower
naked to the wind and unclothed with flowers.

Emerald enamel sheathes the walls of this tower,
this bud that imprisons the thought of a flower.

And the hopeful search, and the desperate scour
their hearts for a glimpse of a beckoning flower.

Now comes the part where I try my hand at writing a ghazal. First and foremost, I need to pick a word that will end each couplet. I’m just going to choose one at random. Let’s go with “mind.” I’ll also write my ghazal, so that each couplet contains 22 syllables, as does “Can these crumpled leaves…”

Was anyone sure that the scholar would mind?
When it began no one asked if he’d mind.

When the library fell, his hands they did bind.
Between those walls was where he fed his old mind.

He thought of the book clerk, all merry and kind.
Never again would he help shape a young mind.

And what of the Braille books for the crippled blind?
Did anyone ask if those feelers would mind?

The deal was sealed when the papers were signed.
Still no one was sure if the scholar would mind.

OK. Now that I’m on the tail end of my first ever ghazal, and I can assure you that it was much more difficult to write than I thought at first. It’s somewhat difficult to keep true to the same end word and rhyme scheme.

Don’t think so? Then I challenge you to write you own ghazal and post it below for us to read. I’m sure that you’ll be like me and will have a new appreciation for how difficult this poetic form is to write.

Outside Magazine's 'Essentials' gear list

Tonight I give you an interesting list from the September issue of Outside magazine, an issue that was dedicated to “The Life List.

Between the covers of this issue, the editors and writers gave readers a best-of list they called “The Essentials.” Here’s how they described the items on the list.

“There’s the great you want, and there’s the gear you need. After much internatl debate, we present the 25 products every guy should own.”

Below I give you the overall category followed by their recommendation.

1. One Big Bag: The North Face’s Base Camp Duffel ($110).
2. A Warm Jacket: First Ascent’s Igniter ($199)
3. A Headlamp: Black Diamond’s Spot ($40)
4. Fat All-Mountain Skis: K2 SideStash ($950)
5. A Three-Season Tent: REI’s Half Dome 2 Plus ($199)
6. Winter Boots: Merrell’s Whiteout 8 Waterproof ($130)
7. A Smart GPS: DeLorme’s PN-60 ($400)
8. Trail Shoes: LaSportiva’s Wildcat GTX ($125)
9. The Right Sunglasses: Smith Optic’s Hideouts ($179)
10. Snowshoes: Louis Garneau’s Vector UX Trek 824 ($165)
11. Soft-Shell Pants: Westcomb’s Recon Cargo Pants ($200)
12. One Bomber Multitool: Leatherman’s Wave ($99, pictured above)
13. All-Purpose Sandals: Keen’s Newport H2 ($95)
14. A 15-Degree Sleeping Bag: Sierra Design’s Trade Wind ($270)
15. A Top-Notch Storm Shell: Arc’teryx’s Beta AR ($425)
16. An Attic For Your Car: Yakima’s RocketBox ($279) and Thule’s Frontier ($330)
17. A Pocket Camera: Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-ZS7 ($400)
18. An Ultimate Midlayer: Marmot’s Vars Half Zip ($140)
19. Utility Gloves: Gordini’s Approach ($50)
20. Running Shoes: New Balance’s 1226 ($140)
21. A Training Watch: Timex’s Ironman Race Trainer ($150)
22. A Weekend Backpack: Osprey’s Aether ($229)
23. A Backcountry Bed: Big Agne’s Diversion Insulated Air Core Recycled ($90)
24. One Good Boat: Old Town’s Penobscot ($1,389)
25. The Perfect Bike: Specialized’s Epic Comp 29 ($2,800)

If you went out and bought each of these items at the prices listed above, it would cost you $9,583. The least expensive item on the list was headlamp (No. 3) and the most expensive was bike (No. 25).

If anyone out there’s wondering what to buy me for Christmas, I’d really like the training watch (No. 21) or the camera (No. 17)

The original article was written by Justin Nyberg and Sam Moulton with photographs by Inga Hendrickson. If you’re interested in reading the entire article online, visit http://outsideonline.com/gear/201009/gear/travel-ta-north-face-base-camp-duffel-sidwcmdev_151454.html.

In the end, let me know if you own any of these items. What do you think about them? Do you like them or not? Would you recommend them to a friend? What other items would you include among a list of “essentials” for outdoor fun? Let us know in the comments section below.

My pick this week is Wes Craven's 'My Soul to Take'

It’s Wednesday, so today I give you my weekly list of movies that will open in theatres this week as well as my list of movies that will be released this week on DVD.

I hope this will serve as a useful guide as to what’s going on this week if you happen to be near a movie theatre or if you’re looking for something to drop into your NetFlix queue.

Movies that are scheduled to hit theatres this Friday include:

- Down for Life (Drama, R): Starring Jessica Romero, Danny Glover, Kate del Castillo and Emily Rios.

- I Spit on Your Grave (Horror, Thriller, R)

- It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Drama, Comedy, PG-13): Starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts and Viola Davis.

- Life As We Know It (Comedy, PG-13): Starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel.

- My Soul to Take (Drama, Thriller, R): Directed by Wes Craven and starring Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Emily Meade and Nick Lashaway.

- Nowhere Boy (Drama, Epic and Historical, R): Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Thomas Sangster and David Morrissey.

- Secretariat (Drama, PG): Starring Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Dylan Walsh and Scott Glenn.

- Stone (Drama, Thriller, R): Starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy.

- Tamara Drewe (Drama, R): Starring Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp and Dominic Cooper.

New DVD releases for the week of Oct. 5 include:

- Holy Rollers (Drama, R): Directed by Kevin Asch and starring Jesse Eisenberg.

- The Human Centipede (Horror, Thriller, Not Rated): Directed by Tom Six and starring Dieter Laser.

- The Karate Kid (Action, Drama, PG): Directed by Harald Zwart and starring Jadan Smith and Jackie Chan.

- A Nightmare on Elm Street (Horror, R): Directed by Samuel Bayer and starring Jackie Earle Haley.

- The Oxford Murders (Crime, Mystery, R): Directed by Alex de la Iglesia and starring Elijah Wood and John Hurt.

- The Secret of Kells (Family, Fantasy, G): Directed by Tomm Moore and starring Evan McGuire.

- Splice (Science Fiction, R): Directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody.

If I could only watch one movie at the theatre this week, it would be “My Soul to Take,” and if I had to pick just one DVD to rent this week, it would be “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

In the end, let me know if you get a chance to watch any of the new movies in theatres this week or if you’ve already seen any of the movies that have just been released on DVD. What did you think about them? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

UA grad Keith Dunnavant has written five books

I read in the Fall 2010 issue of Alabama Alumni Magazine that best-selling author Keith Dunnavant, who graduated from UA in 1988, recently launched an online magazine covering Alabama football history, CrimsonReplay.com.

The magazine also mentioned that Dunnavant’s fifth book, a biography of former Alabama and Green Bay Packers quarterback, Bart Starr, will be published this fall by St. Martin’s Press.

Of course, this got me to wondering about what other books Dunnavant has published over the years. Tonight, courtesy of his Web site, keithdunnavant.com, I give you a complete list of his books.

Without further ado, here they are in chronological order:

1996 – Coach (An autobiography of Paul Bear Bryant)

1999 – Time Out! (The story of a businessman’s year-long adventure of attending sporting events all across America, from the Super Bowl to the Iditarod)

2004 – The Fifty-Year Seduction (The inside story of how television shaped the evolution of college football, from the birth of the modern NCAA to the creation of the BCS)

2006 – The Missing Ring (The story of how Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide were denied the national title.)

The only book of Dunnavant’s that I’ve had a chance to read is “Coach,” which was pretty awesome. I can’t imagine a more thorough biography of Bryant being written.

In the end, how many of Dunnavant’s books have you had a chance to read? What did you think about them? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

Another British zombie film captures Saturn Award

I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Movie off my list last night when I rewatched the 2004 winner, “Shaun of the Dead.”

This movie is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen and the only reason it even qualifies as a “horror” movie is because it’s a spoof of a number of different zombie movies. It offers a stark contrast to the 2003 winner, “28 Days Later,” which is also a movie from the zombie genre.

For those of you who’ve never watched “Shaun of the Dead,” it’s about a group of friends who try to survive in a world that’s slowly being overrun by slow-moving, flesh-eating zombies. The zombies appear on the scene gradually and most of the main characters seem so caught up in their every day lives that they don’t realize something’s amiss until the zombie’s are literally knocking at their doors.

This movie was directed by Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg in the lead as a 29-year-old salesman named Shaun Riley. The movie was shot on a budget of four million pounds (about $6.3 million) and went on to post gross revenues of over $30 million.

In addition to receiving a Saturn Award for Best Horror Movie, “Shaun of the Dead” received a number of other awards. Total Film magazine named it the 49th greatest British film of all time in 2004. Stylus Magazine named it the ninth greatest zombie movie ever made in 2007. That same year, Time named it one of the 25 best horror movies ever made.

In the end, it was a lot of fun rewatching this horror comedy. How many of you have had a chance to watch “Shaun of the Dead”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Let us know in the comments section below.

New Guillermo Del Toro book makes best-seller list

It’s Sunday, so that mean’s that it’s time for my weekly review of this week’s Publishers Weekly Best-Seller List. According to the list, we’ve got one new book at the top of the four major best-seller lists.

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth: A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race" by Jon Stewart replaced "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow as the No. 1 book on the hardcover nonfiction list.

“Safe Haven” by Nicholas Sparks retained the top spot on the hardcover fiction list. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson remained in the No. 1 spots on the mass market paperback and trade paperback lists.

There are four books on this week’s hardcover fiction best seller list that weren’t on that list last week. Those books (and their positions on this week’s list) include "Bad Blood: A Virgil Flowers Novel" by John Sandford (4), "Mini Shopaholic: A Novel" by Sophie Kinsella (6), "The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (8) and "Santa Fe Edge" by Stuart Woods (12).

There are five books on this week’s hardcover nonfiction best seller list that weren’t on that list last week. Those books are "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth: A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race" by Jon Stewart (1), "The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization" by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (5), "White House Diary" by Jimmy Carter (6), "Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Columbian Jungle" by Ingrid Betancourt (7) and "The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption" by Jim Gorant (15).

There are four books on this week’s mass market paperbacks list that weren’t on the list last week. They include "A Hellion in Her Bed" by Sabrina Jeffries (7), "I, Sniper" by Stephen Homer (10), "Eight Days to Live: An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller" by Iris Johansen (12) and "Sins of the Flesh" by Fern Michaels (14).

There are three books on this week’s trade paperbacks list that weren’t on the list last week. They are "Worst Case" by James Patterson (8), "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho (13) and "Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother and Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey and France" by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor (15).

Below you’ll find all four of this week’s best-seller lists. As a reminder, I’m posting these lists each Sunday because they, as a whole, represent a great, contemporary recommended reading list. They are initially released each week on Thursday, and if you’re interested in reading them then, visit Publishers Weekly’s Web site at www.publishersweekly.com.

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "Safe Haven" by Nicholas Sparks
2. "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen
3. "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson
4. "Bad Blood: A Virgil Flowers Novel" by John Sandford
5. "Wicked Appetite" by Janet Evanovich
6. "Mini Shopaholic: A Novel" by Sophie Kinsella
7. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
8. "The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
9. "Getting to Happy" by Terry McMillan
10. "Room: A Novel" by Emma Donoghue
11. "The Postcard Killers" by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
12. "Santa Fe Edge" by Stuart Woods
13. "Warlord: An Alex Hawke Novel" by Ted Bell
14. "Lost Empire" by Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood
15. "No Mercy" by Sherrilyn Kenyon

HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth: A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race" by Jon Stewart
2. "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
3. "Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama" by Bill O'Reilly
4. "Sh t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern
5. "The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization" by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
6. "White House Diary" by Jimmy Carter
7. "Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Columbian Jungle" by Ingrid Betancourt
8. "The Power" by Rhonda Byrne
9. "Crimes Against Liberty" by David Limbaugh
10. "The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean" by Susan Casey
11. "A Journey: My Political Life" by Tony Blair
12. "Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer
13. "Guinness World Records 2011" by Guinness World Records
14. "Women Food and God" by Geneen Roth
15. "The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption" by Jim Gorant

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS
1. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
2. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson
3. "True Blue" by David Baldacci
4. "The Scarpetta Factor" by Patricia Cornwell
5. "Ford County: Stories" by John Grisham
6. "1022 Evergreen Place" by Debbie Macomber
7. "A Hellion in Her Bed" by Sabrina Jeffries
8. "Spartan Gold" by Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood
9. "Pursuit of Honor" by Vince Flynn
10. "I, Sniper" by Stephen Homer
11. "The Professional" by Robert B. Parker
12. "Eight Days to Live: An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller" by Iris Johansen
13. "Kisser" by Stuart Woods
14. "Sins of the Flesh" by Fern Michaels
15. "Dead and Gone: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel" by Charlaine Harris

TRADE PAPERBACKS
1. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
2. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson
3. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert
4. "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave
5. "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese
6. "Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel" by Jeannette Walls
7. "The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel" by Garth Stein
8. "Worst Case" by James Patterson
9. "The Corrections: A Novel:" by Jonathan Franzen
10. "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay
11. "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
12. "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
13. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
14. "A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick
15. "Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother and Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey and France" by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

In the end, let me know if you’ve had a chance to read any of these books. What did you think about them? Which would you recommend?

'28 Days Later' give new twist to zombie tale

(This post was actually meant for yesterday, but went unposted due to an oversight on my part. Enjoy.)

Yesterday, I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Movie off my list when I rewatched the 2003 winner, “28 Days Later.”

Released on Nov. 1, 2002, this movie was directed by Danny Boyle and starred Cillian Murphy in the lead role of “Jim.” In addition to winning a Saturn Award, it also received an Empire Award for Best British Film and a Narcisse Award for Best International Film.

For those of you who’ve never seen this awesome movie, it presents a new twist on the classic zombie tale. The movie centers on Jim, a bicycle courier who’s knocked out during a traffic accident. He wakes up in a deserted hospital a month later and almost immediately realizes that something’s not right.

Turns out, a blood-borne virus called “Rage” has swept through the population and has resulted in the deaths of millions. The only folks who are left are a few scattered survivors and those infected with the virus. The Infected, as they’re referred to in the movie, have been rendered zombie-like due to uncontrollable rage and they seem bent on nothing more than chasing down the uninfected and killing them.

Those of you who have seen this movie will likely remember the striking footage it included of deserted London streets and landmarks. These portions of the film were remarkably well done and are hard to forget.

There are numerous bits of interesting trivia about this movie. For one, it was funded by the British Film Council, which is funded by the British National Lottery. (Many of you probably noticed the many prominent advertisements for the National Lottery throughout the film.)

The film was shot on a budget of five million pounds, which at today’s exchange rate equals 7.9 million U.S. dollars. That’s chump change when you take into account that the film went on to amass revenues of $82.7 million dollars worldwide.

In the end, I enjoyed rewatching this movie. How many of you have had a chance to watch this classic horror tale? What did you think about it? Did you like it? No? Let us know in the comments section below.