I had the pleasure of attending the Comic Expo held April 27-29 at the BMO Centre as a representative at the library booth. The Event was a huge success with an estimated attendance at the three day event in the 45,000 + range. At one point on Saturday afternoon Calgary’s Fire Marshall actually closed the event to further entry as maximum saturation had been reached. And boy was it saturated.

The crowds were amazing, the costumes dazzling, and the atmosphere electric.

We engaged with hundreds of people and once again I am struck with how responsive people are to public libraries and their presence at such events. I talked to people from Fredericton, Houston, Los Angeles, Wyoming, a lot from Vancouver and Edmonton and one lady who had travelled all the way from Pool, England to see James Marsters- and who can blame her. She is a librarian and was thrilled to hear that libraries are alive and well in Calgary as she herself had recently been made redundant as a “soft target” of England’s budget cuts.

I asked dozens of attendees to pose for pictures in front of our “EVERYTHING YOU'RE INTO“ banner, and without exception, everyone agreed. They loved the banner and thought it really spoke to their own wide variety of interests.

If there was ever an event that more readily embraces the diversity of people’s interests, I have yet to find it. Steam Punk, Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Anime, Graphix, Gothic, cartoonists, animators, illustrators, self-publishers, all very enthusiastic and ready to share what Public Libraries mean to them. There was one very charming young lady, Melissa, who along with her entire family had a wildly successful, heavily-attended ‘Steam Punk’ booth. She had an amazing hand-made costume and I asked if she would be willing to come over and let me take her picture in front of our banner. She did, stayed for around 10 minutes, drew a huge crowd, and proclaimed "Reading is Sexy, Libraries are wonderful, Support your local library.” She makes costumes, jewelry, accessories and specializes in the most amazing steam punk goggles, monocles, field glasses etc-- she does her research at her local library -- and yes, I bought a pair- I LOVE the steam punk look.

Freddy Kruger, Q , Skeletor, Wolverine (old and new versions), an entire family of Superman[s], Lady Galadriel, Orcs from the White Tower, The Fly, Rorschach, Darth Maul, Spider-Man, Red Skull, The Mad Hatter, Star Trek, and Steam Punk galore --- all happy to stop and pose with our banner. One of the people who I asked to pose, Red Skull, was on his way to the judging for best costume, but agreed to take the time for a picture with us. He went on to become one of the finalists. What an amazing costume! Thanks Skull. Freddy K, who I have always found to have one of the most disturbing faces ever, took a little bit of the edge off for me when he said "Who doesn't like libraries!" My Darth Maul guy actually physically implanted his horns; that's an amazing degree of committment...

And if you are wondering if I sprung for my own big photoshoot with the entire Star Trek- Next Generation cast- the answer is--- sadly not. At $495.00 it was a little too rich for my blood.

Once a decade since 1952, the BFI (British Film Institute) polls top critics and filmmakers from around the globe, asking them to choose the 10 greatest films of all time. The results are compiled and published in BFI's monthly publication, Sight and Sound magazine. The 2012 selections will be published later this year.

As we await the final list, Roger Ebert, arguably the world's most read and trusted critic, has just published his selections for the 10 Greatest films of all time. Here are his ten choices, listed in alphabetical order. These can all be found at the CPL. Please click on the links to place your holds:

Aguirre, Wrath of God (Directed by Werner Herzog) [DVD]
Apocalypse Now (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola) [DVD] [Blu-Ray]
Citizen Kane (Directed by Orson Welles) [DVD] [Blu-ray]
La Dolce Vita (Directed by Federico Fellini) [DVD]
The General (Directed by Buster Keaton) [DVD] [Blu-ray]
Raging Bull (Directed by Martin Scorsese) [DVD] [Blu-ray]
2001: A Space Odyssey (Directed by Stanley Kubrick) [DVD] [Blu-ray]
Tokyo Story (Directed by Yasujiro Ozu) [DVD]
The Tree of Life (Directed by Terrence Malick) [DVD] [Blu-ray]
Vertigo (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock) [DVD]

Ebert's original blog post can be found here.

I still can't believe he didn't include The Princess Bride... sigh.

Happy Watching!

On Friday May 4th Marvel Comics latest offering -The Avengers - hits the big screen. With an estimated cost of $220,000,000, directed by Joss Whedon and with every hot A-Lister you can think of, this should be a huge draw for all ages. Check out the above trailer- you gotta admit this looks like great fun!They are going to make a fortune!

Marvel Comics has had great success in bringing their action heroes to the screen and we have a wonderful collection of them at CPL.

Iron Man 1 and 2

X-Men- 1, 2 United 3 Last Stand, Origins Wolverine and X Men First Class---I luv the X-men franchise! I even know what I would want for my own mutation.

Captain America- not as 'flag-waving' as I feared it might be, this is worth your two hours.

The Hulk- to me the weakest entry but still fun.

Spider Man 1, 2 and 3

And an entire series of Marvel Animated SpiderMan 1 High Voltage 2 Mutant Menace 3 Ultimate Faceoff 4 Extreme Threat

And tomorrow I am off to the Comic Expo, where in attendance is the creator of all this Marvellous mayhem-the legendary Stan Lee

And an update- I saw Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods last night. Well, I didn't actually see HIS cabin, but you know what I mean. Let me just say this- he did find a way to put a new twist on the classic "group of hot teens spending a weekend away and all hell breaks loose/demented meat hook waving inbreds/does anybody survive" storyline. Gory, bloody and over the top doesn't even begin to describe it. Did I like it? A little more than I like these typical slasher films- only because he found that twist.

An award winning film and talk by the son of Pablo Escobar, the infamous Columbian Medellin cartel drug lord.

This film by Nicolas Entel deals with son Sebastien's journey to reconcillation by himself and the sons of two men murdered by his father.

John Dutton Theatre, Central Library

Thursday April 26 7:00-10:00 (registration required- 6:30-7:00)

$30.00

Well, myself and fellow Movie Maniac Mat are off to see Cabin in the Woods next week. This one is getting a lot of buzz- the ultimate 'fanboy' horror movie. The film has been produced and co-written by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and other iconic TV shows and directed by his longtime collaborator Drew Goddard, writer of Cloverfield. Now I have never been much of a Buffy fan although it still remains hugely popular, but Angel is certainly a lot of fun. Cloverfield, once you get past the 'queasy-cam' is quite effective, and I loved the look of the aliens/monsters. So I am quite interested to see what is going on in, and under The Cabin the Woods---I'll let you know.

I recently watched the remake of Fright Night with Colin Farrell as the Vampire next door. Round out the cast with Toni Collette from United States of Tara, Anton Yelchin from Star Trek Year One, and David Tennant, the 10th incarnation of Doctor Who, and you have a pretty good flick. I thought Colin struck just the right note between campy and evil. I found myself in equal measures, jumping, laughing, thinking 'great special effects and ' oh, that's just plain nasty'. What fun !!

There is so much good television- seriously good television- now on Sunday nights it is getting hard to know where to place your eyeballs. Which is why of course there are PVR's and other ways to watch new epsiodes at a time of your choosing. I myself have deliberatly avoided getting a PVR- not because I am a Luddite, but because I fear it I had one I would never again get anything else done. I have numerous friends who record everything and who are feeling so back-logged in their viewing that they are starting to suffer from completion anxiety.

Some of the shows currently vying for your attention are the following:

Mad Men Season 5- after a 17 month hiatus the multi emmy winning series is back with all of the cast continuing to behave very badly. But they do it with such intensity it is hard to resist. Catch up on the first 1 2 3 4 seasons and see what the fuss is all about.

Game of Thrones--- the highly anticipated second season of the hugely popular George RR Martin series started on HBO on April 1st. Catch up on the first season, but be prepared for a long wait on this one. We also have it as a Graphix Novel, The sound track from the first season, from our special collection in the talking book format, and of course all of the books. If you are going the book route, you have a lot of reading ahead of you. Start with Song of Ice and Fire, then Clash of Kings ,next a Storm of swords---and more and more and more.

Season 3 of the Good Wife: Deemed "THE BEST SHOW ON TV" by Entertainment Weekly, this smart legal drama stars Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Julianna Margulies. Watch 1 and 2---easy to get a hold of.

That time again- join us at Crowfoot Library at 6:30 on Thursday April 19th for movie night. As always, due to copyright restrictions I can not put here what the title is, but a quick phone call to us at 221-4122 and all will be revealed. As with our previous choices of Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Puss 'n Boots, this too will be a current, popular selection, and one with a lot of holds. This is a great way to beat that line up and see it ahead of the rest of the pack. Be advised that we will be holding the showing in our program room and seating is limited to 45. We had close to 70 people for Puss 'n boots and were able to show it in the kid's zone, but that option is not currently available. So seating is first come, first serve, and once we have reached our maximun seating allowance, we close the doors. Avoid disappointment and come early!

We know Guest Blogger Trevor like his movies gritty, so on offer is his review of an upcoming theatrical release. If you like martial arts movies they are very well represented at CPL- in fact, too well represented to name them all. So to find all the titles just go to either our new catalogue or the classic catalogue and use Martial Arts DVD as your search term and you pull up a list of over 75 titles! In the new catalogue you have the further advantage of being able to use 'limitors' to select for language, audience, pub date, etc. Have some fun and play around with the new catalogue to find exactly what you are looking for. With over 70 titles, there is something for everyone.

The Raid: Redemption

I had the chance to see the advanced screening of the upcoming action flick The Raid: Redemption. It was without a doubt the best choreographed, most exciting martial arts movie I've ever seen (and this is coming from a lifelong fan of the Matrix). Though the screening I saw was unfinished and lacked subtitles, and though I had next to no idea what was going on plot-wise, the action was so intense and gratifying that it easily leapt to the top of my favorite action movie list (yes, I have a list for every genre). It's about a swat team that invades a slumlord's 30 story apartment complex. Things inevitably go bad and the cops (mainly just one incredibly skilled cop) have to fight through hordes of gun and machete wielding thugs to escape the building. Like many foreign language films, this movie may only see a limited release. If you even slightly consider yourself an action fan, you owe it to yourself to see this one. Just be warned, the violence is brutal, visceral and pulls no punches.

For many years when looking for a sure fire hit, film makers turned to the Bible. As a result a lot of truly classic films were born, with great casting, wonderous sets and stunning live action sequences. There were also some epic mistakes- serious miscasting and barely recognizable interpretations. Now I know you can find these perennial favourites on t.v. espcially as Easter approaches but why not watch them commercial free, and at a time of your choosing. And if you have a large screen with surround sound you're in for a treat.

Grand daddy of them all - Ben Hur. This is one of my favourite movies of all time and I would not be exaggerating if I said I have seen it 30 times (at 3 hours and 32 minutes that's a lot of Ben!). And I've had the joy of seeing it on the big screen. The sets are real- no CGI's here and the chariot race really is Chuck and Stephen Boyd tearing around the track. Still considered one of the greatest action sequences ever captured, the race took 3 months to film and used 15000 extras on the largest set ever built (see the picture- that's a set - with real people- and I can't get the whole thing to fit!). It won 11 Oscars, equaled only by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy- and think of all the CGI in those films. It is a brilliant movie.

Spartacus- Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons (not the lead singer of Kiss- the other Jean Simmons!). This was made the year after Ben Hur as compensation to Douglas for being turned down in favour of Heston for Ben Hur (Kirk was offered Messala in Ben Hur but did not want to play second banana). Again a cast of 1000's (10,000 plus for the battle scene). Co-produced by Douglas, he got so many great actors to appear in smaller roles by showing them each a different script that emphasized their character over the others.

 The 10 Commandments- again with Charlton Heston- this time playing Moses, and Yul Bryner as Ramses. This is a movie that has so many truly epic scenes-parting of the Red Sea/erecting the giant obelisk- it is hard to count. This is also one of the most financially successful movies ever made- adjusting for inflation its North American box office revenue is around $977 million. It is grandiose. We have over 20 new copies coming shortly.

We also have a good animated offering of the Moses story. From 1998- Prince of Egypt. And while we are on animated stories there is also 2000's Joseph, King of Dreams. Also the charming Veggie Tales, which convey moral themes based on Christianity.

The Robe- Richard Burton and Jean Simmons again, in the imagined tale of the Roman centurion who comes into posession of Christ's robe after His crucifixion.

Quo Vadis- Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov doing a wonderfully mad Nero.

The Passion of The Christ- this is Mel Gibson's bloody, violent and to my mind over the top re-telling of the crucifixion. Of course crucifixion was bloody and violent and most movies do sanitize it, but Gibson seems to relish it. I recommend it with reservations and mostly because it was so popular and controversial at the time of its release. Heads up- for authenticity Gibson has everyone speaking Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew with English sub-titles. Completly financed by Gibson (at around $30 million) it made him a fortune-best estimations are around $580,000,000.00.

Greatest Story ever Told- anyone who was anyone in 1965 seems to have been in this movie. Not the best retelling, but worth a look.

Jesus Christ Superstar---is one of the very first rock operas by the wonderful team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. First staged on Broadway in 1971 it too was highly controversial. A musical about the crucifixion-what were they thinking? I think it works.

Jesus of Montreal- by Canadian director Denys Arcand and on Mel's must have list when stranded on a desert island.

by Moe

I am always on the lookout for a retelling of a a classic tale- especially one as powerful as Frankenstein. It has remained popular since 1931 when Boris Karloff first donned the giant shoes and neck bolts. And while I enjoy almost all of the offerings and their various interpretations, until now my fave has been the Kenneth Branagh version from 1994, with de Niro suiting up as the monster. However, this past weekend I stumbled across a version that I think is the most true to the original intent of Mary Shelly- the horror, not of the monster, but of science run amok. Of a creaure who is knowledgeable, wise and possessed of a conscience. And after being abadoned by his creator decides "if I cannot inspire love, I will inspire fear".

This is a mini series so it runs a little longer at 204 minutes, but I think you'll find it to be worth your time. Some great locations shots, some fine acting and a really nice Gothic feel to it. It also has what might be the best looking monster ever. Even though he still looks pretty awful---especially immediately pre and post creation! Now I don't think this is a case of miscasting nor an attempt to be campy---it just gave him a humanity that really works.

In addition to these three, CPL also has the Bride of Frankenstein from 1931, History Channels In Search of the Real Frankenstein, one with Robert Foxworth that may be fine but in all honesty I can't be bothered to watch as he strikes me as a little lightweight for the role, and of course the hilarious Young Frankenstein. There is also a boxed set which features 5 in 1- the original with Boris Karloff - The bride of- The House of- The Ghost of- the Son of........ you get the picture.