Category: Fresh News

What's been going on lately

Netflix’s The Magician’s Nephew to Be Set in 1955

I’ve been aware of director Greta Gerwig’s helming of this project for a while now, but my interest was only cursory since the news had been swirling around for a few years with nothing to show for it. However, in the past month, the actual filming has begun and from the set photos we’ve been …

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Two More French Flammarion Editions, 1980

Another two Narnia books from Flammarion, but under a different imprint: Du Chat Perche, or The Perching Cat, referring to, I suppose, cats’ habits of napping on the backrest or arm of the chair the reader is sitting in. These look like hardbacks, so maybe the series was split between the two imprints with the …

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Summer of Narnia 2025

The time comes once again for the Cobalt Jade Summer of Narnia. Essays, pictures, Narnia ephemera, and much more! ( The picture above seems to be depict Lucy succumbing to her moment of temptation in The Voyage of The Dawn Treader to follow the Sea Girl shepherdess down into the briny deep. Except it’s hard …

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Passing Obsessions 5-25

Fluffy Summer supplement insert for The Chicago Times contains a list of books generated by ChatGPT, and only two of them are real! Among them, Taylor Jenkins Reid’s (writer of Daisy Jones and the Six) fake novel The Collector’s Piece, about “a reclusive art collector and the journalist determined to uncover the truth behind his …

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail Turns 50: Some Reflections

Wow, I feel old! Fifty years has passed since this cheeky film was released in 1975. It’s hard to explain, now, the effect this movie had on late Baby Boomer and Gen X geeks. It wasn’t apparent at the time of its release, which I remember was quick and quiet and certainly didn’t stick around …

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Farewell to Tolkien March (and April)

All good things must come to an end, so does my two-month journey into all things Middle-earth. Like these guys are doing, I’m moving on to other shores. (It’s a still from a little-aired 1993 Finnish TV version of LOTR. I’m guessing, counterclockwise from the fat left, the characters are Boromir, who looks appropriately dopey …

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Tolkien March Extended into April

… because I’ve been having that much fun, that’s why. Below, Saruman of the Many Colors, by Harold Jog. Known in some circles as “Saruman shows his Gay Pride.”

It’s Tolkien March!

This month I’ll be concentrating on writer J.R.R. Tolkien, with an emphasis on Middle-Earth. Essays, articles, artwork, and more!