Call for entries!

I am collecting art and writing from all over the internet for inclusion in a new PDF magazine called Offshoot. The purpose of the magazine is simply to showcase art for art's sake, made for joy or personal expression. Offshoot seeks to recognize that art is an extension of life, and vice versa.

Here's what I'm looking for:
Theme: pretty much themeless. Send me stuff that best represents you or your creative work. I just want to see what you do as a creative person, whether that's poems or comics or doodles or photos.
-images (preferably 300dpi, 72dpi is okay) of photographs, drawings, design, paintings, etc. The bigger the image, the better.
-non-fiction or short stories, up to 2000 words; opinion pieces must still be timely a month or two from now.
-poetry, up to 10 poems per entrant
-Your submission e-mailed to offshootmag@gmail.com, along with your Name, State/Country, URL, and a sentence about yourself.

deadline: July 31, 2009

Updates on Iran

May God bless your country with peace, safety, justice, and the right to self-governance.

For real-time updates, view updates from the grassroots on Twitter.

BBC's latest coverage of the rallies.

Iran's Guardian Council admits # of votes exceeded # of voters.

If you have not heard about it yet, there has been plenty of controversy in Iran about their recent presidential election, in which the incumbent candidate Ahmadinejad was re-elected with a 63% vote (many of which were logged in the last 3 hours of the election in areas that were not majorly sympathetic with President Ahmadinejad). Mr Mousavi--who won 34% of the vote and had seemed to remain the victor for much of the duration of the polls--along with Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai, filed complaints and cited election fraud. His supporters took to the streets in protest, and for the past week, Tehran has been stricken with violence at the hands of the Basij (the voluntary police force), who have been breaking into homes and beating protesters. Multiple deaths have been reported. It seems that the protesters have struck the Basiji HQ in retaliation, but Mousavi has urged for peaceful protest, which many of his followers have complied to. The struggle over the election has also proved a struggle over information, in which the Iranian government expelled and arrested foreign media, closed down TV stations, and blocked internet and cellphone service to its citizens. However, rebellious citizens have been setting up proxies and using Twitter to communicate with supporters across the globe. Basically, Tehran is a mess, and we intend to let the world know what is happening in Iran.

Interview

Ryan Manning did an "interview" of sorts with me at his blog, "Thunk: Where Interviews Go to Die." Check it out!