Mood:  a-ok

10.26.05, BOWLING GREEN, Ohio—Prairie Margins, the undergraduate literary journal of Bowling Green State University, was released on October 26 as part of an important unveiling. This particular edition is the first ever to feature work from all over the U.S..

The content of the new edition is rather diverse, reports coeditor-in-chief, Steven Barrie. “There is some stuff that seems really real, and there is some stuff that is like magical realism." See for yourself: Get your copy of Prairie Margins by e-mailing coeditor-in-chief Oleander Barber: debrab @ bgnet.bgsu.edu.

10.29.05, CALCUTTA, India—The Telegraph reports that Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen is now ready, after a few copyright entanglements, to start production on Goynar Baksho, a magical realist film adapted from the Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay story of the same title.

“I have always loved this story," said the filmmaker. "It has a Marquezian feel, that kind of magic realism. It shows the changing position of women in our society through three generations, vis-a-vis the changing attitude of the women. I like the story because there is no pontification and it’s very light." The film, which will star both Aparna and her daughter, Konkona, will take on comedic overtones, she said.

10.30.05, SAN LUIS OBISPO, California—The Latino Outreach Council presented the 1959 film, "Macario," last Sunday as part of the "Cine sin Fronteras" ("Cinema without Borders") film festival, produced to honor the Day of the Dead along California's central coast.

"Macario," produced by cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, is the classic tale of a Mexican man who fantasizes about having a roast turkey and who must confront God, death and the devil when he finally acquires his edible "grail."

Festival organizer Pedro Arroyo remarked of the film's theme, "You see it happen again and again: People gain a little wealth and power, and they squander it all." He contends that the film, with its magical realism, "has crossover appeal. I think anybody can relate."

10.31.05, DENVER, Colorado—Musical cult hero Reverend Adam Glasseye, a special contributor to the Denver Post, had this to say about Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children in a recent musing about the art that inspires him:

"Rushdie's telling of the modern history of India is so alive and frighteningly chaotic that even his most absurd magical realism resonates as truth."

10.31.05, MEDFORD, Oregon—Bhutan's first-ever homegrown feature film, Travelers and Magicians, opens at the Varsity Theatre on Friday, November 11.

Directed by Khyentse Norbu, a Rinpoche (reincarnated high llama) of Bhutanese Tibetan Buddhism, the film is described by film critics at The Medford News as a "magical mixture of rustic road movie and mystical fable...a potpourri of desire and its consequences, set in a breathtaking landscape." The film has received raves globally, including these words from Lee Marshall for Screen International, who describes Travelers and Magicians as a "Magic realist fable...Sweet and intriguing...A paean to the mountain kingdom's unhurried pace of life and stress on spiritual values."

Showings run 6:15 pm and 8:30 pm, and the film will run for at least one week. The opening will benefit the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Tickets are $7.25 general public and $5 for AIFF members, available now at the Varsity Theatre Box Office.