WA2K Radio is now on the air

and to close out my evening, listeners, I will let Byron speak for Letty:



It is the hour
When from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard
And gentle wings
And voices near
Make music to
The lonely ear
Each flower's the dews have lightly wet
And in the sky the stars met
And on the wave is deeper blue
And on the leaf a browner hue
And in the heavens that clear obscure
So softly dark and darkly pure
That follows the decline of day
As twilight melts beneath the moon away
Beneath the moon away

(Lyrics: Lord Byron)

and, of course,










From Letty with Love

Byron -
Not exactly Allen Ginsburg, but he did have a way with words.

excerpt from Ginsburg's HOWL

who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually hap-
pened and walked away unknown and forgotten
into the ghostly daze of Chinatown soup alley
ways & firetrucks, not even one free beer,
who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of
the subway window, jumped in the filthy Pas-
saic, leaped on negroes, cried all over the street,
danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed
phonograph records of nostalgic European
1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and
threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans
in their ears and the blast of colossal steam
whistles,
who barreled down the highways of the past journeying
to each other's hotrod-Golgotha jail-solitude
watch or Birmingham jazz incarnation,
who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out
if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had
a vision to find out Eternity,
who journeyed to Denver, who died in Denver, who
came back to Denver & waited in vain, who
watched over Denver & brooded & loned in
Denver and finally went away to find out the
Time, & now Denver is lonesome for her heroes,
who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying
for each other's salvation and light and breasts,
until the soul illuminated its hair for a second,
who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for
impossible criminals with golden heads and the
charm of reality in their hearts who sang sweet
blues to Alcatraz

Good morning, WA2K radio fans and contributors.

Well, edgar, Allen Ginsburg was the voice of the times, and it seems, my friend, that the times they are NOT a changing.

Morning news:



SAN FRANCISCO - "Let me tell you about abandoned people," whispered J.R., his voice rising above the sighs and soft snores of sleepers curled on the church pews around him.


"Those people who were abandoned in New Orleans," he said, "they were abandoned long before that hurricane hit. We all were."

J.R. (he gave no other name) spends his days with 100 others, embraced in the holy warmth of a magnificent edifice, 103-year-old St. Boniface Church. Sunlight streams through stained glass and gilded saints smile down upon them from the domed ceilings; the smells of their sour, acrid clothes and bodies mix with the lingering scent of incense.

The rest of the story, listeners:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050924/ap_on_re_us/katrina_poverty_exposed

Good morning USA!

We have a local fête here this weekend, the 'Apfelfest' ("apple fête") with a nice handicraft market and lots of music: Yiddish songs, brass music, Russian music, art songs, an accordeon big band and a dixieland band (playing polkas as well ):



Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No! No! No!
Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marchin' home

Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No! No! No!
Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Till I come marchin' home

I just got word from a guy who heard from the guy next door to me
The girl he met just loves to pet and it fits you to-a-tee
So, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marchin' home

Don't give out with those lips of yours to anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No! No! No!
Watch the girls on the foreign shores, you'll have to report to me
When you come marchin' home

Don't hold anyone on your knee, you better be true to me
You better be true to me, you better be true to me
Don't hold anyone on your knee, you're gettin' the third degree
When you come marchin' home

You're on your own where there is no phone and I can't keep tab on you
Be fair to me, I'll guarantee this is one thing that I'll do
I won't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but you
Till you come marchin' home

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
I know the apple tree is reserved for you and me
And I'll be true till you come marchin' home

Good afternoon, Walter. Ah, that sounds like such fun, polkas and all. Neat song, Germany, and I do wonder if anyone ever sat under an apple tree waiting for the soldiers to come home.<smile>

When the World was Young

Lyrics: Johnny Mercer & Angele Vannier Music: Philippe Bloch

It isn't by chance I happen to be, a boulevardier, the toast of Paris.
For over the noise, the talk and the smoke, I'm good for a laugh, a drink or a joke.
I walk in a room, a party or ball, "Come sit over here" somebody will call.
"A drink for M'sieur, a drink for us all! But how many times I stop and recall.

Ah, the apple trees, Blossoms in the breeze, That we walked among,
Lying in the hay, Games we used to play, While the rounds were sung,
Only yesterday when the world was young.

Wherever I go they mention my name, and that in itself, is some sort of fame,
"Come by for a drink, we're having a game," wherever I go I'm glad that I came.
The talk is quite gay, the company fine, there's laughter and lights, and glamour and wine,
And beautiful girls and some of them mine, but often my eyes see a diff'rent shine.

Ah, the apple trees, Sunlit memories, Where the hammock swung,
On our backs we'd lie, Looking at the sky, Till the stars were strung,
Only last July when the world was young.

While sitting around, we often recall, The laugh of the year, the night of them all.
The blonde who was so attractive that year, Some opening night that made us all cheer.
Remember that time we all got so tight, And Jacques and Antoine got into a fight.
The gendarmes who came, passed out like a light, I laugh with the rest, it's all very bright.

Ah, the apple trees, And the hive of bees Where we once got stung,
Summers at Bordeaux, Rowing the bateau, Where the willow hung,
Just a dream ago, when the world was young.

Michael Douglas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA) is an American actor and producer. He is the son of actor Kirk Douglas.

Douglas starred in the long-running TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976. Though a capable actor, his career was somewhat stagnant after the series and he only appeared in occasional movies which were usually less than popular (for example, 1979's Running). All this changed with 1984's romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. His role in this hit movie re-introduced him as a capable and likable leading man.

Michael Douglas received an Academy Award as producer for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and for the leading role in Wall Street in 1988. He is one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood and commands a hefty sum for his roles.

Douglas starred in Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close and the film became a world-wide hit. Both Douglas and Close attended the same prep school, Choate Rosemary Hall.

Douglas married Diandra Luker on 20 March 1977. They had one son, Cameron. The marriage failed in 2000 after 23 years after Diandra complained of his womanising, absenteeism and not being a proper father to Cameron. That same year, Douglas married actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is exactly 25 years younger than he is. He's been married to Jones since November 18, 2000. They have two children, Dylan (b. 2000) and Carys (b. 2003)

In 1980 he was involved in a serious skiing accident which sidelined his acting career for three years.

In September of 1992 he underwent treatment for alcohol abuse at Sierra Tucson Center.

His father is Jewish and his upper-class mother is of Scottish and English descent.

In 1998 he received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival


Trivia

* He and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones have the same birthday. However, Douglas is 25 years her senior.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Douglas

Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, producer and writer renowned for his film portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent.

On May 27, 1995 Reeve was paralyzed in a riding accident and for the rest of his life he was a wheelchair user, becoming a spokesperson for disabled people and for stem cell research. Reeve lobbied for stem cell research, and provided hope and inspiration to many paralysis victims.

Acting career


Reeve was born in New York City to writer Franklin Reeve and journalist Barbara Johnson. He attended Cornell University as a member of the class of 1974, but left before earning his degree and began studying at the Juilliard Drama School under John Houseman. While at Juilliard, he became friends with Robin Williams, as well as with Kevin Conroy who would later be the voice actor for the animated Batman television series.

Reeve's first big break as an actor came in 1975 when he was selected to co-star opposite Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway play A Matter Of Gravity. Reeve stayed with the play throughout its year-long run and was given very favorable reviews. He and Hepburn became very close. Reeve credited the legendary actress with giving him many valuable lessons on acting. Hepburn in turn praised her young co-star. She predicted great things for him and joked that he would "support me in my old age." Reeve is reported to have joked back, "I don't think I'll live that long Miss Hepburn."

Reeve continued to work on the stage, as well as on the soap opera "Love of Life". His first role in a Hollywood film was a small part as a submarine officer in the disaster movie Gray Lady Down in 1977.

With his stunning good looks and tall stature, Reeve is said to have drawn eyes when walking into auditions. This paid off when he beat out thousands of others for the role of Superman in the 1978 film directed by Richard Donner. This film was an enormous success and inspired three sequels. Coincidentally, Christopher Reeve's good friend Robin Williams also became a star that same year with the television show Mork & Mindy. Because of the similar surnames, people sometimes surmise that Christopher Reeve is related to George Reeves, an actor who portrayed a previous incarnation of Superman on television. The two are not related.

Superman was the kind of part Reeve usually disdained. He once said, "I want to challenge myself in my roles, not run around on screen with a machine gun." However, Reeve did find that he could play the character with depth and challenge himself with the role. He said that there had to be something more to the Clark Kent character, otherwise you just had a "pair of glasses standing in for a character." Christopher Reeve essentially redefined Superman, no small feat considering what a global icon the character was and still is. To this day, people see Superman in Christopher Reeve.

In 1980, Reeve co-starred with Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time, a time travel romance. Although this film was not popular at the time it was released, it has since inspired a wide "cult" following. Seymour thought so highly of Reeve that she named one of her children after him.

In 1984, Reeve won critical acclaim for his role as a 19th century southern lawyer in The Bostonians. He often said this was the best movie role of his career. It was immediately afterwards that he scored another triumph on the stage. This time it was on a London stage. Reeve had always been fond of England and jumped at the chance to co-star with his friend Vanessa Redgrave in The Aspen Papers which was an adaptation of a Henry James novel. Critics were astounded by his performance and headlines blurted "Superman can act!"

In 1987 he travelled to Chile, at that time under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, to stand in solidarity with several dozen actors and writers who had been threatened with death for their left wing views. Aboard his aircraft, he piloted them to safety and was widely praised as a humanitarian hero. In the same year, the fourth Superman sequel was released. Reeve helped write the screenplay because he wanted to send a powerful message about world peace. The plot focused on Superman ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Also in 1987, Reeve starred in the gritty Street Smart as a reporter who falsified a story about a pimp. Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor for his role as the pimp "Fast Black". Reeve's performance was dismissed by the critics; one even mocked, "Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... it's Newsman!". In 1988, Reeve co-starred with friends, Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, in the comedy Switching Channels. This was a modern day remake of the 1930s stageplay "The Front Page" and also provided the first comical role for Reeve. The movie flopped and Reeve was unable to land a major film role for the next four years.

Reeve had a great love for the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He served as an apprentice and on its Board of Directors. Despite becoming famous as Superman, he returned each summer until his accident. Reeve often faulted fellow actors for shunning stagework claiming they were dishonoring their craft. Reeve appeared in over 150 plays during his career.


Later life

On May 27, 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from his horse, "Eastern Express," in a cross country riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Reeve later admitted that he briefly thought of suicide after realizing the extent of his disability. He credits his wife Dana Reeve with pulling him out of his depression. She told him, "I still love you no matter what. You are still you." Reeve has often said that these were the words that literally saved his life. He largely retired from the production of films after his paralysis, instead devoting his time to rehabilitation therapy. With his wife Dana, he opened the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, a facility in Short Hills, New Jersey, devoted to teaching paralyzed people to live more independently. He and Dana also chaired the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research on paralysis and works to improve the lives of the disabled. To date, the Foundation has awarded $55 million in research grants and $7.5 million in quality-of-life grants. After Chris' death, Dana continued to chair the Foundation. Reeve also lobbied against the U.S. government's restrictions on stem cell research (and, based on this, his widow endorsed John Kerry for president in 2004 shortly after his death). [1]

Reeve also appeared in television movies after his accident. For example, in 1998 he appeared in a remake for TV of the famous film Rear Window, originally directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This remake is set in the time in which it was made and is characterized by its depiction of adaptive devices for wheelchair users. This clearly distinguishes the film from the original. For example, in the new film he sends emails by using speech recognition software (instead of the telephone used in the original).

On April 25, 1998 Random House published Reeve's autobiography, Still Me.

On February 25, 2003, he appeared in the television series Smallville as Dr. Swann, who provides young Clark Kent with insightful clues as to his origins. The episode, "Rosetta", was warmly received by critics and the viewing public as a fitting connection from one generation's Superman to the next. Reeve appeared in the role again in the April 14, 2004 episode "Legacy". The character of Dr. Swann died in the episode "Sacred," which aired on February 23, 2005. Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the Superman films continued the plot as Swann's assistant. Her character, Dr. Bridgette Crosby, was eventually killed in the episode entitled "Spirit", which aired on April 20, 2005.

On October 25, 2004, A&E aired Reeve's second directorial project, "The Brooke Ellison Story." The film, starring Lacey Chabert and based on a true story, is about the life of an 11-year old girl who becomes a quadriplegic in a car accident (and becomes the first quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard University.)

Reeve died of heart failure on October 10, 2004 after suffering cardiac arrest and falling into a coma the previous day. He was 52 years old. In the week prior to his death, Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure ulcer, a common ailment for paralytics, that had subsequently become seriously infected.



Selected quotes

"I was worried that only acting with my voice and my face, I might not be able to communicate effectively enough to tell the story, but I was surprised to find that if I really concentrated, and just let the thoughts happen, that they would read on my face. With so many close-ups, I knew that my every thought would count."

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

"If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve

Great bios today, Bob. I need to refresh my memory and those of our listeners. Wasn't Kirk Douglas, Michael's father?

It seems, folks, that all of these creative giants had one thing in common.

Can anyone cite it?

I haven't read back yet. Just wanted to note that another of the Little Rascals (Our Gang) has died. Don't recall his name, but, he played the tough kid - Butch. He was 78.

edgar, I did some research and found that Butch was played by Sam Saletta. I also found that the man arranged some songs, but I am not certain that this is one of them; however, folks, we'll listen anyway:

"Bring Me To Life"
(feat. Paul McCoy)

how can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

now that I know what I'm without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life

frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

(Bring me to life)
I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

Quite ironic if this is indeed an arrangement by Sam.

I always figured "Butch" had more to him than just a tough kid in an old time movie.

You know, edgar, and listeners. I think it's quite unusual when film stars make it into their late seventies, right?

With the exception of Christopher Reeves, practically all of Bob's celebs were addicted to alcohol and had other demons inside as well. Perhaps it is the nature of truly creative people.

This reading may be a bit long, folks, but it is really a revelation:

Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950





I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.




* The speech was apparently revised by the author for publication in The Faulkner Reader. These minor changes, all of which improve the address stylistically have been incorporated here.

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969

Letty, i'd like to introduce a new feature--weekly, perhaps--to WA2K: a trip through Memory Lane by way of the Billboard hot 100. to kick it off, here's number one back in Sept. '53.

You Belong to Me - Jo Stafford

See the pyramids along the Nile
And watch the sunrise on a tropic isle
But just remember darling all the while
You belong to me

See the marketplace in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me

I'll be so alone without you
Maybe you'll be lonesome too
And blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it's wet with rain
Just remember till you're home again
You belong to me

I'll be so alone without you
Maybe you'll be lonesome too
And blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it's wet with rain
But remember darling till you're home again
That you belong to me

Wishing all a pleasant day.

Edgar: Thomas Bond (Tommy) was "Butch's" name. He also played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman movies in the 40s. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1156972

(Oops I hadn't seen your post Letty. Take a look at the above link. )

Today's birthdays:

1358 - Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shogun (b. 1408)
1525 - Steven Borough, English explorer (d. 1584)
1599 - Francesco Borromini, Swiss sculptor (d. 1667)
1644 - Ole Rømer, Danish astronomer (d. 1710)
1683 - Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (d. 1764)
1694 - Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1754)
1711 - Qianlong Emperor of China (d. 1799)
1725 - Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, French automobile pioneer (d. 1804)
1764 - Fletcher Christian, English Bounty mutineer (d. 1793)
1782 - Charles Robert Maturin, Irish playwright and novelist (d. 1824)
1796 - Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (d. 1875)
1862 - Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1952)
1866 - Thomas Morgan, American geneticist (d. 1945)
1881 - Lu Xun, Chinese writer (d. 1936)
1897 - William Faulkner, American novelist (d. 1962)
1903 - Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)
1906 - Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
1917 - Johnny Sain, baseball player
1918 - Phil Rizzuto, baseball player and announcer
1920 - Sergei Bondarchuk, Ukrainian-born actor (d. 1994)
1921 - Sir Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1992)
1922 - Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (d. 1992)
1926 - Aldo Ray, American actor (d. 1991)
1927 - Sir Colin Davis, English conductor
1929 - Ronnie Barker, British comedian and actor
1930 - Shel Silverstein, American humorist and author (d. 1999)
1931 - Barbara Walters, American broadcaster
1932 - Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1982)
1933 - Hubie Brown, American basketball coach and broadcaster
1936 - Juliet Prowse, British actress and dancer (d. 1996)
1938 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, first Prime Minister of Greenland
1943 - Robert Gates, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency
1944 - Michael Douglas, American actor and producer
1944 - Doris Matsui, U.S. Congresswoman from California
1947 - Cheryl Tiegs, American model
1951 - Mark Hamill, American actor
1952 - Christopher Reeve, American actor and activist (d. 2004)
1952 - Anson Williams, American actor and director
1958 - Michael Madsen, American actor
1961 - Heather Locklear, American actress and model
1962 - Aida Turturro, American actress
1965 - Scottie Pippen, American basketball player
1968 - Will Smith, American actor and rapper
1969 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer
1969 - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
1970 - Dean Ween, American musician (Ween)
1971 - John Lynch, American football player
1971 - Hal Sparks, American actor
1973 - Adam Edwards, American film composer-writer-producer
1975 - Declan Donnelly, English television presenter
1975 - Matt Hasselbeck, American football player
1976 - Chauncey Billups, American basketball player
1978 - Jodie Kidd, English model

Yit, that's a marvelous idea! Will you be our memory person? Mine is askew. <smile> I guess the "Butch" that I was referring to was a later version of the gang.

Thanks, Raggedy, both for the updates and the correction.

Who is that lovely lady with the tequila worm in her throat.

and while we await answers, listeners. Here's a timely news item:

Move over Superman, the Arab super heros are here! Fri Sep 23, 1:22 PM ET



CAIRO (AFP) - Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in the Middle East.



"I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skin-tight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops.

Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her own to fight the forces of evil.

There are also Aya the Princess of Darkness, Zein the Last Pharaoh and Rakan the Lone Warrior. Each month, an entire issue is dedicated to just one of the four.

Kandeel founded AK Comics in Cairo in 2003 to create a comic to compete with Superman, Batman and other Western super heros, in hopes of dominating the local market.

And, the rest of the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050923/lf_afp/afpentertainmentmideast_050923163132