the new Able Muse is out!
 

The Workshops Issue of Able Muse (Summer 2009) is now online at:

http://www.ablemuse.com

with:

- FEATURED ARTISTS : Terri Graham, Andy Dolphin
- FEATURED POET : Jennifer Reeser
(INTERVIEWED BY: Tim Murphy)
-POET SPOTLIGHT : Catherine Chandler
(INTRODUCTION BY: Tim Murphy)

POETRY:
Dennis Loney, Rachel Hadas, Catherine Chandler, Timothy Murphy.
Robert West, Aaron Poochigian, Hafiz, Bob Watts, Gilbert Allen,
William Ford, Keith O’Shaughnessy, Angelo Giambra, A. McHugh,
John Milbury-Steen, Alan Dunnett, F.J. Bergmann, Jeff Holt,
Kevin Durkin, Jeffrey Einboden, John Slater

FICTION:
Nina Schuyler, Anne-E Wood, Dennis Must, Karen Kevorkian,
Steve Gilmartin, John Venecek, Ron Nyren, Tobey Hiller,
Jane Hammons

BOOK REVIEW:
R.S. Gwynn

ESSAY:
David Mason, Stephen Collington, Rory Waterman, Timothy Murphy,
John Whitworth

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY:
Üzeyir Lokman Çayci, Christopher Woods, Pat Jones, Betsyann Duval

---
Notes: For the first time we brought in guest editors for this issue:
Tim Murphy - Guest Poetry Editor (now, Associate Poetry Editor)
Thaisa Frank - Guest Fiction Editor (now, Associate Fiction Editor)
Gregory Dowling - Guest Non-Fiction Editor
Sharon Passmore - Guest Art Editor

Alex, it all looks very enticing, but I'm having great difficulty getting a good read on the poetry or view of the art. I'm on a PC with IE as my browser, and when I click on the individual poems and poets, for example, about 1/2" - maybe five characters of type - at the left of each column do not appear, and I have no way to adjust for that. Additionally, on the art pages there are some cases where a photo or drawing will be imposed over the block of type. The various layers of graphics appear to be somewhat out of synch.

I've run into this before, when I was on the other side of the screen, working on business web sites (as the corporate guy, not the webmeister), and it often seemed to be a Mac/PC disjunct.

Any suggestions? Is it just me, or do others have the same problem?

Yep, same problem. Very frustrating. I hope there's a fix.

Austin

I thought it was just me - the same thing happened with the last issue on both of our home computers and my work computer as well.

I have no idea how to make it work.

Damn it.

I've only looked at a couple of poems (AND A REVIEW!!!) but so far it's working fine for me in Firefox 3 and IE8 on Windows XP.

Michael and others having problems - what version of IE are you using? IE is one of the most quirky/buggy browsers out there because Microsoft think they're too big to stick to the general standard and introduce a lot of abnormalities. Listen ... that's the sound of all the web designers out there cursing IE!

Now for the fixes -- I've just tweaked the left margin cut-off problem you described, but I did it blind because I don't have the problem, so I'm not sure if it will resolve the problem. Those of you having problem, try again and let me know if at least all the text is there now. Also, knowing what versions are messing up will help me take a guess at what IE bug to look into.

Finally, I should add that if you're not using a more recent version of IE, it's likely an upgrade will fix the problem. Or you can try one of the better behaved browsers, e.g. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.

Cheers,
...Alex

There is an upgrade of IE to version 8, which I installed a few days ago and I can see everything fine. I had problems with the last Able Muse, but so far not this one. Try going to the Microsoft page and get the free update to V.8.


Lovely work Alex. Hats off to you and everyone involved.

Looks super to everybody here, with either the Mac or the Linux box and Firefox. Thanks for all this hard work, Alex.

Works OK for me, too. Fabulous looking issue, Alex!

You're right Janice - an IE upgrade to the latest version will most likely resolve the display problems.

For those of you testing to see if the latest quick fix resolves the left-margin cut-off described by Michael, be sure to refresh your browser to load the latest update I've just uploaded.

Finally, if all else fails, or if you have an old clunky browser on a very old PC that's not easy to upgrade due to memory/disk/CPU limitations, then you might want to try the "printer-friendly" version of the pages (you'll find the corresponding link further down, below the previous/next sequencing links.) Or, for display that's not quite as plain as the "printer-friendly" one, you may also click on the "add new comment" button if you're logged in (without actually commenting) and this brings up a different presentation of the page that might be problem-free.

Cheers,
...Alex

Thanks for the good report, Andrew, Janice, Maryann & Rose. And I'm glad to know that it works on newer IE's for you, and of course on most versions of everything else that's not from Microsoft.

Cheers,
...Alex

You're right, Alex - I just upgraded to IE8, and it all works well now, and the entire site looks far better - there were many elements that simply weren't showing up previously. Thanks!

That's great, Michael! I'm glad the upgrade did the trick.

Cheers,
...Alex

Another terrific read, Alex, and source of inspiration. I've not read it all yet - so many goodies to absorb - but I had to jump in here and let you know how much I'm enjoying it already. And it looks and sounds great, too. Quality stuff, Alex. My thanks for the art and effort involved in the production of Able Muse.

Cally

Thank you Cally for the favorable review! Glad you like it!

Cheers,
...Alex

Wonderful issue! I've been enjoying it immensely. The videos are great. Are they HD?

No problem viewing any of it. I'm using Google Chrome, which is a browser I suggest people try out. It's sort of bare-boned, but it's very fast compared to IE and Firefox. Pages load very quickly.

Thanks, Roger! I like Google Chrome also for it's small footprint and quick loading. Plus, it adheres to standards unlike IE. The videos are of a higher resolution than traditional web videos, but they're not quite up to HD resolution levels.

Cheers,
...Alex

I'm in Florida using modern computer, so I've just read and liistened to it all. We can all be justly proud of it. I am most particularly pleased with the Reeser interview. Jennifer was truly forthcoming on a lot of tough questions. Alex, it is a pleasure to edit for you.

Thanks, Tim. This first collaborative issue hit all the high marks thanks to you and the other guest editors. You really did a bang up job featuring Jennifer's work, and highlighting Cathy's work!

Cheers,
...Alex