[1.27.06] BBC News ran a lovely tribute to Gabriel Garcia Marquez today as part of it's Faces of the Week feature. Meanwhile, The Independent reports that Gabo "has confessed to suffering from that most humble of literary problems: writer's block" for over the course of a year. Garcia Marquez, 78, has suffered lymphatic cancer over the last 7 years, and certainly blames part of his lack of productivity on that, but also attributes some of his challenges to "computer difficulties." Someone get that man a better computer! His fans are chomping at the bit, waiting for him to pen the second and third books in his trilogy of memoirs, Living to Tell the Tale. Chin up, Gabo. You've got your work cut out for you.

[1.27.06] Okay, Steven Soderburgh's latest release, a humble little film entitled Bubble, is getting rave reviews from AP Movie Writer David Germain for "minutiae, the painstaking detail—creepy tableaux of dolls’ heads, lingering shots of inanimate objects that take on import later, tiny moments of magical realism." The movie will be released in dramatic fashion, with a near-simultaneous release on screen, TV (tonight on HDNet) and DVD (Tues Jan 31) that marks a first test case for potential film distribution in the future.

[1.27.06] British author Clive Sheldon released his magical realist novel, Love, Loss and Oranges today. From the press release: "At times hilarious, at times heart wrenching, the story, in the style of magic realism, follows the attempts of the central character to come to terms with the death of his estranged wife. Strangely unmoved by this event he is more concerned with the apparent disappearance of oranges from the world."

[1.26.06] Canadian filmmaker Julia Kwan made her Sundance film festival debut January 26, internationally premiering her production of Eve and the Fire Horse, which is competing in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, a new distinction offered by the film festival. According to the report in The Vancouver Sun, "Eve and the Fire Horse is steeped in a sense of magic realism as it tells the story of two sisters struggling to reconcile their traditional Chinese heritage with North American culture." Hmmm, a Canadian Maxine Hong Kingston? A review in BC's arts mag, The Westender, isn't so sure. "Eve and the Fire Horse is beautifully shot and cast with actors who offer understated performances. But loveliness comes at a price, as the movie… becomes a oozefest 20 minutes in." Stay tuned.

[1.25.06] New in paperback: The Autobiography of God by Julius Lester. Vikas Turakhia, book critic for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer writes that "Booklist acknowledged that many readers will 'be shocked and angry' by [Lester's] portrayal of God but found the blend of 'magic realism and fierce spiritual debate with a gripping contemporary story' full of 'irony and intensity and sometimes dark comedy.' " Sounds like stimulating reading for fans of Jewish magical realism.