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Confessions of a Book Junkie |
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Movies About Moviemaking: ‘Burden of Dreams’ |
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Movies/DVD
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Posted by Samuel Gaines
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10:00 AM Friday, 11 January 2008 |
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 "But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It is not that I hate it, I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment."
-- Werner Herzog, from an interview in Burden of Dreams
So many things have to go right to make a film shoot go smoothly that it is a wonder that any do. There are just so many "moving parts" in making a film -- so many arrangements to be made, so many things to be coordinated -- that problems are inherent to the process.
Every shoot has its challenges, but there are a few that rise to the level of legend. At the top of that list must be Werner Herzog's amazing film, Fitzcarraldo, whose shoot was documented by filmmaker Les Blank in Burden of Dreams. Filmed in the Amazon basin in Peru (near the Ecuadorian border), the Fitzcarraldo shoot spanned an agonizing four years and went through two casts as everything that could go wrong, did.
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Altar Ego: Secret Identities |
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Comic Books
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Posted by Kris Bather
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08:57 AM Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
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Welcome to the first in a new regular feature - Altar Ego, so called as each article will focus on a different lesson that Christianity and comic books share. Yes, that's right. The Bible and the world of funny books often overlap. I don't mean Biblical stories in comic book form here. My aim is to go deeper in to the world of superheroes and look at what they are showing us about God. How they reflect Him, deny Him or ignore Him. With gods in capes, evolved mutants, time travel, alternate universes, constant resurrections, shocking betrayals and noble acts of heroism flying at us every week in our favourite titles there are many intriguing lessons that get left behind.
In this first discussion, I'll be looking at secret identities. It's not just the dark avengers and caped saviours that have them. We all do - we act differently around different people. We don't drink in front of this group, we keep our love for ABBA to ourselves from this group, we build up our athletic achievements when with this group. We can't please all of the people all of the time but sometimes we adopt different personaes in order to do just that. Honesty really is the best policy. It is the foundation of any thriving, joyful relationship. We must cultivate relationships based on trust and respect to maintain a healthy sense of our own identity, to develop in to the person God has created us to be, not the person we think we should be or the person we think others want us to be. Our identity is in who He says we are. We are not the lies of the world, or the taunts of abusive parents or our body shape or our mistakes. We are more than that. Much more.
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America's Most Literate Cities 2007 |
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Books
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Posted by Anita K. Palmer
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01:04 PM Saturday, 05 January 2008 |
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 The good news is, you’re reading this. Yay! You’re among the most literate of our nation, and we love you for it. Now the bad news.
The fifth annual rankings for the 2007 America’s Most Literate Cities is out, and it isn’t a pretty picture. That is, unless you live in Minneapolis.
The study, issued by Central Connecticut State University, compiles data for cities larger than 250,000 in six indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, highest level of education, and Internet resources.
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Memorable Moments: Superman's Return |
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Comic Books
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Posted by Kris Bather
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10:00 AM Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
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 My love of comics runs deep. More creative and unpredictable than the majority of what Hollywood churns out, they are able to give us epics that only millions of dollars of SFX can create on celluloid. They are able to take us on a journey with our favourite characters and leave us wanting more. Of course, like any artform, comics don't always get it right, and us readers can sometimes be an unforgiving bunch. But we are also a sentimental and nostalgic bunch. With that in mind, I want to bring you some of my favourite comic moments over my reading life. Some are, "That was so awesome!" moments, some are "I can't believe that just happened!" moments and some are moments of joy, contemplation or grief. These are the scenes and lines of dialogue that I fondly recall years later, and mention when I'm talking with my fellow fans. I hope these recollections draw you to a forgotten classic, or a desire to ask yourself what your favourite comic book moments may be.
First up is a fitting one as it concerns a watershed moment in his life and the comic book industry as a whole.
1. The Return Of Superman
No, I'm not alluding to the disappointing Bryan Singer film. Rather, the moment of triumph that had us all punching the air and shouting, "Yes, he's back!" (or was it just me?)
Before we get into the details, let's explore the history of what led up to it.
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Music
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Posted by Andrew Greenhalgh
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10:30 AM Tuesday, 01 January 2008 |
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 It's been a busy year in music, one that's seen our pop stars shave their heads and lose their cool, our rock stars offer up their albums at a price of your choosing, and more. But through that craziness, there have been some great albums that have burst forth and made our ears happy. Now it's time to highlight the best of those albums here with selections from our writing staff. One of the beautiful aspects of being involved with Infuze is encountering a diversity of people with unique opinions and tastes. These lists will hopefully help you to get to know our writers a bit more as well as highlight some music that maybe slipped through the cracks this year. Enjoy!
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Staff Picks: Our Favorite Movies and DVDs of 2007 |
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Movies/DVD
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Posted by Samuel Gaines
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01:59 PM Friday, 28 December 2007 |
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 We're on the verge of concluding another year of blockbusters and indie favorites, of searing dramas and delightful comedies ... and plenty of less-stellar efforts, too. Infuzemag.com's staff took part of December to reflect back on a year of movie watching and pick their favorites for 2007, both as theatrical releases and as DVDs.
Of course, part of the challenge of putting together a list like this is the necessary limitation of time. None of us are paid critics; we see movies in our spare time. We see all we can, but we certainly don't see anything, nor could we if we wanted to. So consider this a "best of what we saw," rather than a definitive list. (And please do add your own picks on our message board -- you'll find a link to discuss this at the bottom of this article. I know I'd love to read what you found worthy, and why!)
So, without further adieu ... Here are a few of our favorites for 2007!
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A Christmastime Favorite: Holiday Inn |
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Movies/DVD
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Posted by Jennifer Sellers
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07:14 AM Friday, 28 December 2007 |
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 Holiday Inn is that "other" holiday film starring Bing Crosby. Filmed more than a decade before the more popular White Christmas, 1942's Holiday Inn was the first of the two movies to showcase Crosby's classic Christmas song, "White Christmas." It's also my favorite of the two. (I should note here that I'm not using the word "holiday" as a sanitized surrogate for the word Christmas. Holiday Inn is a movie that attempts to cover as many of the calendar holidays as possible.)
Holiday Inn is based on composer Irving Berlin's idea to buy an inn that would only open on holidays. Eventually, the idea was fleshed out into a screenplay. Berlin would write all of the movie's songs; and famous Hollywood crooner Bing Crosby would be the lead.
In the film, Jim Hardy (Crosby) and Ted Hanover (the affable and energetic Fred Astaire) are song-and-dance men in New York City. Hardy tires of the endless shows -- and love triangles -- that make up his partnership with Hanover, and he dreams of a simpler, more pastoral life. So he buys a farmhouse in rural Connecticut -- and quickly finds out that country life isn't all that easy. Eventually, he formulates a plan to have the best of both worlds: He keeps the house but turns it into an inn that only opens on holidays. He also decides that he will provide his guests with variety shows on those holidays.
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Comic Books
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Posted by Mladen Luketin
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05:54 AM Wednesday, 26 December 2007 |
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 The last year has very much been the year of the fan-girl. If you've somehow missed the monthly controversies over the last two years (some examples for mature readers are here here here and here ), or if you simply can't understand why it's such a big deal, then you gotta a lotta reading to do. Websites like Karen Healey's entertaining Girls Read Comics blog , Counter-punch , and the daily-updated blog-linker site When Fangirls Attack have been offering a perspective from the female readers, and the experience has been eye-opening for me and a lot of other male readers.
Its no secret that the mainstream American comics industry, especially superheroes, is specifically geared towards guys. The general public perception reinforces the idea. Boys read comics. Girls don't (and are icky). Its nice to believe otherwise, but the female in the comic-book store is still sometimes treated like a novelty. Did she wander in by accident? Is she buying a gift for a boyfriend? Is she looking for the Manga shelf? I'm sorry about it, but a lot of us boys are still surprised when we remember that, hey, girls do (otherwise should) read comics. But remember, we're battling against an industry belief which has been telling us otherwise for seventy years.
So why is that?
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Top 12 Christmas Albums of Nearly All-Time |
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Music
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Posted by Andrew Greenhalgh
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10:03 AM Tuesday, 25 December 2007 |
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 It's that time of year when "top" whatever lists are all the rage. And yes, we at Infuze are not above falling prey to the list-mania. We'll begin, given the seasonal holiday here, by offering up a wonderfully biased, completely subjective list of the "Top 12 Christmas Albums of Nearly All-Time." Okay, so we're pushing it a little to suggest that this is an all-inclusive list because, well, that dictates that we've heard every Christmas release there is out there and so forth but take this for what it is: A fanciful offering of twelve, maybe even a generous baker's dozen if you're nice, albums that have left their imprint upon this author throughout the years and that leave one with an overall wholesome Christmas feeling. So, just in time for after-Christmas half-off sales, we invite you to pull up your chair, pour that last glass of eggnog, and enjoy!
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For the record, let it be known that Saint Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics does not sit on my bookshelf in vain. Someday I’m going to read it. Someday, my time spent at the secondhand shop will be rewarded. Saint Thomas is going to set me straight about the purpose of man and the order of the universe, all for a bargain-basement price.