div class="rxbodyfield"p class="ArticleBody" page="1"Working in today's cutthroat economy has become a lot like the old joke about two guys being chased by a grizzly bear. One guy stops to take off his work shoes and lace up some sneakers./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""Are you crazy?" says Guy No. 2. "You can't outrun a bear."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you," Guy No. 1 quips./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"And with high-tech firms laying off a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/24/19683-tech-layoffs-and-counting/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"nearly 20,000 workers in the past month/a alone, outrunning the other guy is fast becoming the survival mode for IT./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"b[ Check/b bout InfoWorld's a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=116848amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"2009 IT career survival guide/a to find out a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/181-where_it_jobs_a-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"where IT jobs are headed/a. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Here are seven tips for outlegging the competition and surviving the downturn with your job intact. What you find here may come off as common sense, but when it comes to keeping ahead of the guy in the cubicle down the hall, common sense just might be all you need to gain an edge. After all, how often do you see your coworkers demonstrating common sense these days?/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"bIT survivor tip No. 1: Roll up your sleeves -- and cheer up, damnitbr/ /bThe good news? You can survive in today's tight economy. The bad news? You may have to log longer hours and take on less-than-exciting projects./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Start by taking notice of the projects that get the most attention from management and ask to be a part of them, advises Betsy Richards, director of career services at Kaplan University./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""Ask to be transferred to a critical area, or volunteer for extra duties to support these activities," Richards says. "You'll be viewed as an employee who goes the extra mile while inoculating yourself against expendability when the pink slips get handed out."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"More than just work harder than the next guy, you have to look like you're working harder, says Simon Stapleton, a technology careers coach who calls himself "the IT industry's answer to Indiana Jones" (but without the bullwhip). Show up before your boss gets in and leave after he or she leaves. Skip the long coffee breaks and work through lunch./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""My best advice is to roll your sleeves up -- literally," says Stapleton, who's also chief innovation officer at Skandia Investment Solutions, a U.K.-based financial services firm. "Pick up the pace when you walk around the office. Carry a clipboard. Your determination to help your company succeed will show in your body language. Now is the time to display the visible signs that you're busting your ass."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"And if you can, do it with a smile./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""IT people tend to be grumps," notes Curt Finch, a formerly grumpy software programmer who's now CEO of Journyx, a maker of Web-based time- and expense-management software. "The No. 1 thing is having a positive attitude. The glass-half-full guys, the optimists, the ones who say, 'Sure, we're in a tough situation, but here's how we're going to get through it' -- those are the people I want around me during a recession."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bIT survivor tip No. 2: Show off your mad skillz -- or get some, fast/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"The most reliable path for self-preservation is to become the in-house expert on topics vital to the business./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""You need to be the one everyone comes to when they have a question about a particular topic or technology," says Nicholas Lore, career coach and founder of Rockport Institute. "When you're the person everyone goes to, you become indispensable."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"b[ For/b ba deeper look at training well worth your while, see "a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/24/48FE-tech-certifications-high-demand_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Hot tech certifications in a cool job market/a" ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Similarly, if you have skills that cross departments or systems, you're less likely to be canned than Johnny One-Note in the cubicle down the hall./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Be versatile, advises Colin Strasser, CEO of U2i, a software consulting firm. "If you've been doing nothing but Java for 10 years, try Python or Ruby. If you've been working under Windows, do some work with Linux."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"According to a survey by Robert Half International, Web developers with social-media savvy or a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/102308-tech-skills-in-demand.html" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"expertise in technologies such as .Net, SharePoint, Java, and PHP/a will continue to be in high demand. Help-desk pros with knowledge of a wide range of systems are also more likely to hold onto jobs./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Ask your HR department if the company offers training programs or reimburses tuition costs, says Kaplan's Richards. You may also be able to obtain low-cost continuing education from professional organizations or user groups./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"If those options aren't available, you can still expand your expertise relatively cheaply, notes Iman Jalali, director of sales and marketing at Train Signal, vendor of IT training materials. For around $400, Train Signal helps you get up to speed on topics such as Windows Server 2008 or VMware ESX./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""Some people feel like if they've been in the same business for 25 years, it's a badge of honor," says Jalali. "In IT, that could mean you'll lose your job tomorrow. Everyone needs to stay up to date, or risk being replaced by someone who's up on all the newest technologies."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bIT survivor tip No. 3: Remember, it's just business/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"You know how in Mafia movies the hit man always says, "It's just business," right before he whacks his best friend?/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Well, it is just business. And you need to know how the business makes money and what projects or systems are essential to that mission -- and get yourself assigned to them./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""Look at how your company is making its profit," says Finch. "You have to become indispensable to the success of that effort through adding real business value. Demonstrate through your timekeeping and meetings and activities that this is primarily what you are working on. Short-term revenue is more important than long-term in a down economy."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Getting the feeling your department needs to reduce head count? Come up with a plan for how to do it while keeping the lights on, and produce metrics to show how much money these cuts will save. If there's a line being drawn, you want to be standing on the same side as the CFO and the CEO, says Dave Taylor, co-founder of Sparxent, an IT management solutions vendor./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"In other words: You're no longer a techie helping the business; you're a businessperson who uses tech to boost the bottom line./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""Transition your focus from technology to business value and business needs," advises Shane Aubel, co-founder of IT consulting firm Accent Global System Architects. "The more tangible, quantifiable results you offer, the more indispensable you will be. The business is the customer, and what the customer wants, the customer gets."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"bIT survivor tip No. 4: Work the numbers/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Metrics are your friend. If you want to prove you're vital to the survival of your company, you better have the digits to back it up./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""IT people need to become experts at marketing themselves internally," says Sparxent's Taylor. "They need to provide more targeted and more detailed reports on where the IT dollars are spent; they need to put metrics in place to report on whether IT projects have generated ROI or not; and they need to be much more transparent in reporting on whether they've achieved the metrics or not."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"b[ Getting/b bahead is still possible. Check out "a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/16/42FEpromotions_1.html" class="regularArticleU"20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry/a" to find out how. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"In other words, be proactive. Don't wait for the CFO to call you on the carpet to explain where all the money went, says Taylor. Know down to the dollar how much it costs to provision applications or provide level-one support -- and then suggest ways you can reduce it./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""You need to be able to say, 'We just deployed Office 2007, and it took an average of 43 minutes to install on every users' desktop at a cost of $180 an hour, so it costs more to provision Office than it did to pay for the license,'" Taylor says. "When you have that kind of detail at your fingertips, the CFO realizes you're focused on getting the company what it needs at the lowest possible cost."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Tying your projects to company profits is essential, adds Finch. You want to work on the projects that bring in the most revenue or save the most money./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""Companies always want to cut failing projects and unprofitable customers first," he adds. "If you do have to cut people, you want to be able to do it with a scalpel and not a chainsaw."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"bIT survivor tip No. 5: Be a peacock, not a turtle/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Now is not the time to crawl under your desk and hide until the scary man with the pink slips goes away./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""The biggest trap people fall into during a downturn is to try and fly under the radar until it all blows over," says Nina Buik, president of HP's Connect user group. "Now is the time to show how you can make a difference. Be the person in your organization who sends an e-mail to the CIO saying, 'I've got a great idea I need to share.' You'll stand head and shoulders above the rest."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"If you don't sell yourself, nobody will. But when you blow your own horn, sound less like a marching band and more like Miles Davis./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"One of the best ways to promote yourself is to get other people to do it for you, says John Baschab, senior vice president at Technisource./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""People are always looking for anecdotal evidence of your performance," Baschab says. "If you're on the help desk and someone sends you an e-mail thanking you for your help, ask them if they can send a copy to your boss. When you get verbal kudos, get them written down and sent to the right place."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"The praise of others is always worth more than self-puffery, agrees Buik. "But your boss may not know about all the little things you do. Take a win you've helped generate for the company, find someone else involved in it, and ask them to write it up for you and post it on your LinkedIn profile. Then offer to do the same for them."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Reminding your bosses all the wonderful things you've done is a start, but it isn't enough. You need to keep putting your hand up for new projects that keep revenue flowing./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""What you did last month is a lot less relevant than what you're going to do next month," notes Finch. "It's all about the bottom line. You could be Albert friggin' Einstein and still get fired if they have nothing for you to do for the next three months."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"bIT survivor tip No. 6: Schmooze it -- or lose it/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Everyone hates a suck-up. And yet the world is full of them, so they must be doing something right. The people who are retained in a downturn aren't always the most competent, notes Lore. They're often the ones who are the best liked and know the right people./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""You've got to network inside your own company," says Lore. "Make sure the senior people know who you are, the contributions you've made, and that they like you. Create a wider circle, so other people start talking about you. Very often, techs are shy about being forward with senior people in the company. This is not the time to be shy."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Although the clich? is that geeks are notoriously bad at social interaction, these are skills that can be easily learned, says Lore. In fact, he adds, they're the same skills found in books that teach nerds how to pick up girls -- mimic your boss's body language, speak in the same tones, talk about the things they're interested in, and so on./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Joining user groups and professional associations will expand your network, exposing you to new skills and potential employers, notes Buik. Donating your tech skills to worthy organizations can also raise your profile./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""IT experts who volunteer their time to upgrade the network for a nonprofit tend to gain positive press and build name recognition in their locality," says Ari Kaplan, author of "The Opportunity Maker," a book on creative networking and business development./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Online networks such as LinkedIn can help, too. "Don't just put a little bit of information in there," says Buik. "Sell yourself. Tell everyone within three feet of you what you're trying to do. If you're looking for new opportunities, let everyone know."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Just be sure to use social nets wisely. Building up your r?sum? on LinkedIn is a good idea; sending your zombie to attack your boss' zombie on Facebook is probably sending the wrong message about how you spend your time at work./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"bIT survivor tip No. 7: If all else fails, move to Australia/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Now is not a good time to be job shopping. Even if there's a photo of your boss next to the Wikipedia entry for "jerk," it's generally better to grit your teeth and stick it out until the economy recovers. But if the worst happens and you get downsized, you still have options -- like relocating to Australia, for instance./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"b[ To see what IT skills are in demand around the globe, see a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/08/41FE-tech-jobs-overseas_1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"InfoWorld's guide to outsourcing yourself/a. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""A raft of big projects is keeping the local IT market relatively buoyant, and demand for skills remains solid," notes Peter Acheson, COO of Australia's largest IT recruiter, Peoplebank. "There will still be strong demand for IT skills in the market here in 2009 -- in fact, in some sectors it will still be tight."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Another option is to join the temp-to-perm workforce, says Tom Hart, executive vice president at staffing firm Veritude. Staff augmentation services offer both businesses and employees more flexibility, he says./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""There are so many good reasons to be flexible, even if all you've ever done is hold down permanent jobs," Hart says. "It gives you the opportunity to feel good about a potential employer, and for them to feel good about you. And you continue to collect a paycheck as you wait for things to get better."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"It could even be time to consider going back to school or changing careers, says Lore, especially if technology isn't exactly your life's calling./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""Many people went into IT because they had strong analytical skills, not because they enjoyed the work," Lore says. "For them, a career change might be the best solution. Just because you have long legs doesn't mean you'll be happy as a Rockette."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"iContributing editor Dan Tynan has legs and knows how to use them. When not kicking, he tends the a href="http://www.dantynan.com/" class="regularArticleU"Tynan on Tech/a and a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/tynan" class="regularArticleU"Culture Crash/a blogs./i/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"bRelated articlesbr/ Special report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=116848" class="regularArticleU"2009 IT career survival guide/abr/ Slideshow: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/181-where_it_jobs_a-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"Where IT jobs are headed/abr/ IT survivor: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/01/49FE-it-job-survival-new-employment_1.html" class="regularArticleU" sys_contentid="118351" sys_variantid="388"8 signs it's time for new employment/abr/ /biTiming is everything when it comes to jumping ship. Here's how to tell if your company's prospects are sinking/ibr/ ba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/08/41FE-tech-jobs-overseas_1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"For a promising IT career, go east, young techie/abr/ /biThe U.S. and Europe are slowing down, but hot tech jobs beckon in China, India, and Eastern Europebr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/16/42FEpromotions_1.html" class="regularArticleU"20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry/abr/ /biIf you agree that there's no such thing as an IT project, you may already be on your way up the ladderbr/ /ibSpecial report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=115118amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"Tech workers under fire/abr/ Special report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=115118amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"IT and the financial crisis/abr/ a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/24/48FE-tech-certifications-high-demand_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Hot tech certifications in a cool job market/abr/ /biNot all credentials will boost your career, so in tough times you have to choose wiselybr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/02/23FE-how-to-fire-IT-staff-skills-list_1.html" class="regularArticleU"The 30 skills every IT person should have/abr/ /biAn IT manager's guide on how to be better at what you do, no matter how experienced you arebr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/02/36FE-hot-it-jobs-skills_1.html" class="regularArticleU"How to keep your tech career afloat/abr/ /biAs outsourcing and downsizing continue, find out what skills and certifications will make you an IT survivorbr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/16/42NF-recession-proof-it-jobs_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Recession-proof IT jobs/abr/ /biBelieve it or not, some tech jobs are still in demand. Find out which ones employers need to fill/i/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439dbp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439dbp=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439db style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

Question:
One day one of my best friend asked me that how he could put all his music in iPod to his computer.

Answer:
I solved his problem after did some research So today I write this guide to show how to transfer Music from iPod to Computer.

For more information please go to:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...84255&SiteID=1

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/77486?ns=guardianpageName=Stage%3A+Troupe+therapych=Stagec3=The+Guardianc4=Theatre%2CStage%2CCulture+sectionc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CTheatrec6=Maddy+Costac7=2008_12_01c8=1126617c9=articlec10=GUc11=Stagec12=Theatrec13=c14=h2=GU%2FStage%2FTheatre" width="1" height="1" //divpAt the top of a cliff on the south coast of Cornwall, a group of men and women whose ages range from early 20s to late 50s are taking advantage of their isolation to play some peculiar, wordless games. Standing in a circle, they vigorously rub the limbs of the person in front of them. Then a round of what looks like tag commences, only no one touches anyone until a signal is given, at which point people randomly leap into the nearest pair of arms, or drop their weight against an unsuspecting torso. Finally, they pair up to massage each other, their grunts and sighs witnessed only by a herd of organic cows grazing in the adjacent field./ppIt sounds like the ritual of some hippy cult; in fact, this is theatre rehearsing, Kneehigh-style. Over the past few years, Kneehigh has come to be ranked among Britain's most enterprising, idiosyncratic companies. It has presented work at the National Theatre and created a bold rewrite of Cymbeline for the RSC. This year, it became a dominant force in the West End with its mischievous adaptation of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, which recently closed after a nine-month run. Next week, it returns to the RSC with Don John, which transposes Mozart's Don Giovanni to the era of punk and disco. Artistic director Emma Rice has long been fascinated by the lothario Don Juan. In her romantic version, however, it is the women he seduces who will be the stars of the show./ppThe company has been through several incarnations since it was founded, as a children's theatre troupe, by Mike Shepherd and a gaggle of friends in 1980. It has performed work everywhere from village halls to castles, disused quarries to conventional stages. Yet this present phase, under Rice, is proving to be its most successful. Critics don't always enjoy the roguishness and rough edges of the shows - scathing reviews of A Matter of Life and Death led the National's director, Nicholas Hytner, to dub several critics "dead white men" - but audiences do. And while Kneehigh's rise in status isn't something Shepherd planned, it doesn't surprise him. "People like to think of us as a parochial company, just working within our community in Cornwall," he says. "But we're too ambitious for that. We want to travel the world."/ppAt the same time, everyone involved in the company believes its Cornish identity is crucial. "Cornwall is a place where you can make things happen," says Shepherd. "It's to do with freedom." It's the freedom, thinks Rice, felt by people "on the outskirts", to create an alternative universe, off and on the stage./ppAlthough its administrative office is in Truro, the heart of Kneehigh is in the tiny village of Gorran Haven, where Shepherd grew up and returned after a fruitless attempt to act in London; Nottingham-raised Rice has lived there since 2000. Here, at the end of a winding lane, the company rents a huddle of barns from the National Trust. Shepherd calls the Lamledra barns "a secret, special place where we can seed ideas". The company doesn't work here full time, but almost all its shows start life here, with the cast and creative team assembling for an intense fortnight of devising. Recently renovated, they house a rehearsal room, a music studio packed with ancient brass instruments, and workshops for prop-making and set-building. But the central space is a big, homely kitchen, decorated with fairy lights and bunting, and, at one end, a blood-red wall with key words stencilled on it: generosity, wonder, irreverence, anarchy, naughtiness. These words are the Kneehigh manifesto in a nutshell./ppEvery day during rehearsals, the company gathers in the kitchen to eat lunch and dinner together. It's like a cheerful family party, with 41-year-old Rice playing not the matriarch but the elder sister aware that someone needs to exercise a modicum of responsibility. Rice first came to Kneehigh as an actor in 1994, and experienced "love at first sight, love at first sense". The barns and the rural surroundings reminded her of the inspirational period she had spent in Poland in her early 20s, training with the influential Gardzienice theatre association. But whereas there she had experienced "a very harsh environment that was a lot about struggle and discovering beauty through pain", at Kneehigh the emphasis was on "joy". "They were like Gypsies: this wild group of people who had rich lives and lit fires and played instruments and made each other laugh. Everything was really sexy."/ppRice had no plans to direct, but that didn't stop her telling Shepherd and his co-artistic director, Bill Mitchell, what they should be doing. "She was so bossy," chuckles Shepherd. "It became really apparent that she should be directing. She was full of ideas, wanting to create the world on stage." Her first production, 2001's The Red Shoes, was so successful that she was given further opportunities; in 2004, she took over the company./ppSince then, Rice has maintained Kneehigh's impish ethos while raising its game. Dave Mynne, another founder member and who is appearing in Don John, recalls: "We used to joke about the 'Kneehigh school of pointing, shouting and running': if in doubt, fill the space and make a noise. Emma has added a lot of the elements that we always wanted to have there: the darkness, the stillness." Shepherd thinks that he, Mitchell and their associate playwright, Nick Darke, were content to think that something was "a good idea". "Whereas there's something about the way Emma has to tell a story that is personal to her, and invests a show with more meaning." /ppRice admits that there is "a huge amount" of herself in each show. The Red Shoes, for instance, "was about my broken marriage, and my own independence". And she recently realised that she is setting Don John in 1978 because "it's about loss of innocence, and that's when I had my first major bereavement in life: my best friend, who died of leukaemia"./ppOne thing that hasn't changed under Rice is Kneehigh's ensemble spirit. It's partly instilled by the morning ritual of jogging and playing games in the fields overlooking a shimmering sea that surround the barns. It's further fostered by the responsibility everyone shares for the upkeep of the barns: tidying up after meals, keeping the fire burning in the rehearsal room stove. But it also relies on the right actors being brought into the company in the first place. "We don't do very well with proper actors," says Rice. "The people that suit us are a little bit what I call left-handed." Whenever they've tried to work with "conventional actors", says Shepherd, "it's much more neurotic"./ppThe Don John cast is typical: aside from Mynne, who trained and works as a graphic designer, it features another Cornish actor, Mary Woodvine, who is returning to the company after a break bringing up her 11-year-old son, and Carl Grose, a playwright who performs only with Kneehigh. Along with these old hands are two Icelandic actors and a Polish violinist-dancer. None of them finds working with Kneehigh easy: the script is devised during rehearsals, there are complicated dance routines, and you're on stage almost constantly, contributing to the songs. "I cannot dance and I cannot sing," says Grose. "I asked Emma recently, 'Why do you keep bringing me back?' She said because she's interested in seeing untrained people do extraordinary things."/ppWoodvine believes that this attitude, combined with the homeliness of the barns, gives actors "a really strong sense of ownership" in the company. It's because Rice wants to maintain this that she is constantly thinking of ways to keep Kneehigh's past alive in its future. She is currently raising money to create "the Asylum", so-called because it will be "a place of madness, but also of sanctuary: an environment like our barns, ancient and modern and really creative". This purpose-built tent venue will tour Britain, returning Kneehigh's productions to "urban car parks, wastelands, cliff-tops and fields". /ppIn the meantime, the company have Don John to rehearse. You would think, what with the rigours of devising and the morning exercises to get through, they would all want a decent night's sleep. But at midnight, Shepherd leads them to the nearby mansion they rent as a dormitory for a long session of silliness, improvising blues songs at the piano and playing frantic games of table tennis with increasingly absurd rules. If Don John turns out to be irreverent, naughty and anarchic, it will be because of the fortnight that the company has spent at Gorran Haven, lost in a world of their own./ppstrongDon John /strongis in rep at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from December 12 to January 10. Box office: 0844 800 1110./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatre"Theatre/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/kwBUMM2R7WiJI-IywPzT-V2Xb3U/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/kwBUMM2R7WiJI-IywPzT-V2Xb3U/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

In conjunction with Prism Comics, the preeminent website for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) comics and creators, every day this month I will be detailing one good comic book/graphic novel with LGBT themes.

Here’s an archive of the featured works so far!

Today, for our last entry, we look at one of the most acclaimed works of all time that featured LGBT themes!

Love and Rockets is an amazing comic book series written and drawn by the Hernandez brothers, primarily Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.

Both Gilbert and Jaime had their long-running stories through the original series, and it is Jaime’s series, Locas, that we’re really discussing here today (although Gilbert’s work is amazing on its own).

This hardcover collects pretty much the entire relationship between Maggie and Hopey between 1981 and 1996.

Maggie and Hopey are two of the most fascinating characters in comics, particularly when they are together, although it is notable how much time they spent APART during this story. Hopey is on the road a lot with her (bad) band, and yet we still get to see how much a bond the two share, even when not with each other.

The relationship between Maggie and Hopey began as best friends, but it soon evolved into something more than that, and more than a romantic relationship, too - their relationship is almost undefinable.

All we know is whether they are “with” each other or not, they are great together (Jaime’s brilliant, Archie Comics inspired artwork certainly does not hurt matters).

I think acclaimed comic artist José Villarrubia put it best when he said “The Defining book for Alternative comics in the Eighties, Maggie and Hopey are the most beloved on and off queer couple in comics.”

Well said, José.

I hope you folks enjoyed this month-long look at good LGBT comics! I hope you found some new books that you are interested in! There’s obviously a ton of books I have not mentioned, so keep your eyes peeled, and be sure to check out Prism’s website - they usually give folks a heads up when something cool LGBT-wise comes around!

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Get it on iTunes: Dog Toons

In conjunction with Prism Comics, the preeminent website for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) comics and creators, every day this month I will be detailing one good comic book/graphic novel with LGBT themes.

Here’s an archive of the featured works so far!

Today we look at a love story that took more than a decade to tell!

Strangers in Paradise is the offbeat love story of Francine and Katchoo, two best friends where one of the friends (Katchoo) had slightly less platonic feelings for the other (Francine).

The story, as it was printed in the first three-issue mini-series by Terry Moore at Antarctic Press, was a pretty straightforward story of a woman, her best friend (who is secretly in love with her) and her jerk of a (soon to be ex-)boyfriend.

In the second volume, done through his own Abstract Studio, Moore added some intrigue in the form of David, the third angle of the love triangle of Strangers in Paradise.

Katchoo loved Francine. David loved Katchoo. Francine…well, okay, I guess it is not exactly a love triangle, because Francine loved neither of them.

In addition, an action and adventure storyline was added in the second volume involving a secret group of lady spies who were out to get Katchoo.

The book eventually moved to Image for the third volume.

But Moore decided to take it back to his own publishing company…

And he eventually ended it just last year with the 90th issue of the third volume.

As you might imagine, with over 90 issues to tell a love story, things are likely to slow to a crawl at times, and Strangers in Paradise definitely had some “treading water” moments in the third volume, but eventually, Moore found a groove which he rode all the way to the book’s climax.

The artwork by Moore is nice and smooth - he tells a story well, and each issue is packed with story. This is a hefty read, and an entertaining and endearing one with lots of great characters that you will soon grow to love.

Well worth reading!

Here’s the website for Strangers in Paradise.