For those who have not been scared off by now, I think we could all use a stiff drink before tuning in next summer for Season 5. Which I know I will. Season 4 had a few too many stops, starts, and jerky turns, but True Blood seized its bloodthirsty mojo back at the finish line.
Mythology
True Blood Recap: Season 4 Bites Deep (But Doesn’t Suck)
by Dan Fields
September 12th, 2011
Movie Review: The Troll Hunter
by Dan Fields
June 11th, 2011
The idea of hunting mythical trolls with the technological advantages of modern storm chasing and large game management is a clever one. The development and execution of the story, however, fall flat in one sequence after another. Thomas, Kalle, and Johanna are students roving the breathtaking Norwegian countryside in search of a bold, incisive scoop for their documentary on bear poaching. Instead, they meet up with a gruff, mysterious character named Hans, who is after something else entirely.
What Is Best In Life? Not Conan 3D, Barring A Miracle
by Dan Fields
May 3rd, 2011
Borne on the crest of the wind, I hear already the lamentation of women. Women whose dates have dragged them, possibly by the hair, to the late summer picture show. By now many of you know that Lionsgate will soon release a new film entitled Conan The Barbarian. Most of you will recall a cult classic by the same name from 1982, which was the breakout role of a certain Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Weekly Listicle: Worlds Of Fancy And Other Wondrous Places
by Dan Fields
November 19th, 2010
A cleverly rendered fantasy world has the power to make us believe astounding things, and to transport us to places we may never have imagined ourselves. In the history of film there have been countless attempts to take real-world places and performers outside the realm of what has been seen before, and into far-off lands where the amazing, the terrifying, and the marvelous lurk around every corner.
Book Review: Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley
by Jascha Kessler
June 16th, 2010
I asked them why they, unannounced, wished to meet with the director and they told me that they had just discovered Noah’s ark in Turkey. As I had met a few others along the way conning people with this ark stuff I asked to see the proof. He immediately pulled out a black and white photo showing what looked like a rock cliff and asked, ‘What do you see?’ I looked at it closely and replied, ‘All I can see is that someone took a ballpoint pen and drew a photo of a ship on the rock face’. They replied, in that charming Tennessee accent, ‘Well, it’s a bit hard to see so we’all took a ball point pen and highlighted it for ‘y’all.’
Movie Review: Clash of the Titans
by Julia Rhodes
April 3rd, 2010
Some films were meant to be viewed in three dimensions, but this one wasn’t. Clash of the Titans was not made for 3D, but converted after filming. Director Leterrier says, “The conversion to 3D adds incredible depth to each scene, enhancing the story and providing an all-encompassing ‘Clash’ experience.” That’s debatable: seeing this movie, audiences may wonder for the first time if Avatar (which also starred Worthington) changed cinema for the better or for the worse.
Gaia
by Robert Poole
December 8th, 2008
‘Can there have been any more inspiring vision this century than that of the Earth from space?’ exclaimed Lovelock, looking back. ‘We saw for the first time what a gem of a planet we live on. The astronauts who saw the whole Earth from Apollo 8 gave us an icon that has become as powerful as the scimitar or the cross.’
Notes from Italy: A Homer of the Dolomites
by Peter Bridges
April 28th, 2008
Some say that the story of the Kingdom of Fanes is an epic that goes back to the Bronze Age in the Dolomites. How could such a story come down to us? No one in those parts knew writing, three thousand years ago or more. We don’t even know what languages people spoke then in the Dolomites. And what kind of kingdom could that have been?
Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness
by Paul Comstock
January 17th, 2008
“In waking we tend to think The Dream vanishes, evaporates in daylight like morning dew on grass. But it doesn’t. The unsettling Matrix-esque truth here is that we all live in world-simulations, pretty much all of the time. The brain isn’t out in the world; it’s locked in a dark box in your head. Patterns of information ting against our senses and get routed into the brain for model assembly. One of the core insights of the science of perception is our models of the world are heavily interpreted—our own expectations and cultural mores and personal history shape “The Real,” so that in some ways our personal little submarines move through an ocean of our own making.”
My Thousand & One Nights by Raja Alem and Tom McDonough
by Elinor Teele
December 10th, 2007
In Alem’s world-view, one might expect to see objects morph into people, animals writhe in henna tattoos, and stones grant bearers restoration or doom. There are no rules of physics in this vision of Mecca and the city springs up like a character itself, imbued with its own sacred significance.

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