Homecoming: Memory Spliced, in Ten Short Parts

A powerful, unusual, vexing yet ultimately satisfying short series on Amazon Prime - ten 30-minute episodes - created and directed by Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail (with Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz), starring Julia Roberts, with great supporting acting by Boardwalk Empire's Bobby Cannavale & Shea Whigham, and Stephan James, whom I've seen here for the first time.

The plot concerns a government contractor with a plan for PTSD soldiers - treat them with a drug that will make them forget the memories that are unraveling them, with the result that they will be whole and happy again.  Julia Roberts plays social worker Heidi, with a heart and a brain.  Cannavale is her boss Colin, in charge of the project.  Whigham is government investigator Thomas looking into this.  And James is Heidi's patient Walter, beginning to fall in love with her, as patients in therapy often do.

But that's the best of what's happening.  The worst, we soon discover, is that four years later, in 2022 (the present are the Spring months of 2018), Heidi has lost all of her memories of working in Homecoming, and Walter is nowhere to be found.  We're now not only in Mr. Robot territory - one of differentiating truth from lies, what's real from what's implanted - but in Chris Nolan's pathbreaking world of Memento. 

And Homeland delivers, with one of the most memorable performances ever delivered anywhere by Julia Roberts, a storyline that surprises and yet all fits into place, and even an ending that's good for your heart.  Cannavale is suitably megalomaniacal yet vulnerable,  Whigham is aptly dogged and a little clumsy, and James has a winning quality, making it not surprising that Roberts' Heidi has reciprocal feelings for him.   Hats off to all concerned, including whoever came up with the square and letterbox screens, as a way of showing limited and full memories.   I predict that by 2022,  Homeland will become as much a classic as is Memento.

 

Sneak Peek at the Batavia Sessions

Just a quick note to let you know that Twice Upon A Rhyme - digital as well the original 1972 vinyl released on HappySad Records - is now up on Bandcamp. And ... I know that many of you have been clamoring to hear some of the songs I recorded at the Batavia Sessions October 31 - November 2 for Old Bear Records.  Here are two of them - Samantha and If I Traveled to the Past.  (These are rough mixes, with stuff likely to be added.)  Chris Hoisington produced and did the harmonies,; Jeremy Thompson guitars, mellotron, and stand-up bass; Steven Padin drums and piano.

Music

Samantha If I Traveled To The Past MORE MUSIC

Press

"PAUL LEVINSON WRITES SONGS THAT ARE CATCHY AND COLORFUL. WITH A STORIED CAREER THAT INCLUDES WORKING WITH SONGWRITING LEGEND ELLIE GREENWICH, LEVINSON RELEASED FOLK AND POP GEMS IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES. FANS OF SIMON AND GARFUNKEL, DEL SHANNON, BRIAN HYLAND, SPANKY AND OUR GANG, THE ZOMBIES, THE VOGUES, AND STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK WILL LOVE LISTENING TO PAUL LEVINSON."— Modern Music Maker, Mar 23, 2018

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Liberty Loves Reason: Trees, Freedom, and Rationality

The full title of this 45-minute documentary - Liberty Loves Reason: The Evolved Wisdom of Trees versus Identity Politics and Political Correctness - shows exactly what you're getting into if you watch it, which I very much recommend:  a brief on the importance of reason in this, our hyper-partisan age,  and its connection to the biological, evolutionary basis of our and all living knowledge and intellectual faculties, as well exemplified in trees.

Well, maybe this documentary is a little more than that.  It argues, as did John Milton, that truth and falsity must be free to fight it out in the marketplace of ideas.  This means that excluding any patently untrue idea is a dangerous thing to do, on even the slim chance that it may be not be untrue, for that would result in truth not falsity being excluded.

In the realm of trees and all non-human organisms, nothing is ipso facto excluded.  Instead, strategies are tested (unconsciously, for trees).  If they survive, their lack of falsity has been demonstrated, at least to a point.  In trees and other living, non-human things, these "ideas" will continue to be employed in this way, unless and until something in the environment changes and the strategy no longer works.

Karl Popper and his evolutionary epistemology is most and correctly associated with this (though Ray Scott Percival should have mentioned that Donald T. Campbell most developed that term, in a brilliant essay with that very title in The Philosophy of Karl Popper two-volume anthology published in 1974).   Percival might have also mentioned Popper's "paradox of tolerance" (from Popper's 1945 The Open Society and its Enemies), lately used as a justification for censoring hate speech.  I always thought that Popper's argument that allowing speech that preaches the destruction of a free society should be not be allowed, since such speech is designed to destroy the free society, misses the point that the free society is compromised the instant it censors anything, including noxious hate speech.  (See my Government Regulation of Social Media Would Be a Cure Far Worse than the Disease for more.)

But despite these inevitable imperfections, Liberty Loves Reason is a lushly imagined and photographed masterpiece, beautifully scored, of an intellectual argument absolutely crucial to these our dangerous times.  Eminently worth your time.

Twice Upon A Rhyme on Bandcamp

Dirty John 1.1: Hunter and Hunted

Well, how can you resist watching a series starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana?  Tina and I couldn't, and we were glad.  At least so far as the debut episode, on Bravo last night.

Debra Newall (Britton) has been married four times.  She has two daughters (Ronnie, played by Juno Temple, excellent in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams) and Terra (played by Julia Garner, who was so good in Ozark) to show for it.  That, and, against all odds, an apparently open, questing heart.

John Meehan (Banner) is some kind of anesthesiologist (maybe a doctor, maybe a nurse, maybe both? not clear).   He's incredibly attentive and apparently caring of Debra.  But there's something not quite right about him.   After a first date in which he jumps in Debra's bed - he leaves when she asks him to get up and go into another, less intimate room with her - he and Debra strike up a relationship.  But he shows up late to an important event, with she dressed to the nines, and he in scrubs.  And neither daughter can stand him.

Nonetheless, she marries him.  And that's where the first episode ends, leaving us certain that some kind of serious no good is going to come from this.  And part of that is what Debra is up to.  Is she in some sense leading John on, for some purpose as yet unrevealed to us?  She seems too smart to be taken in by whatever his game is.  And her siding with John against her daughters doesn't quite add up, either.

There's clearly something evil lurking behind this, and it will be fun to see from whom, and on whom it's inflicted.

 

Ray Donovan 6.5: Politics in the Ray Style

Haven't had a chance to review the past few episodes of Ray Donovan - I thought they were excellent - but I'm back with a review of 6.5, on earlier tonight.  I thought that was excellent, too.

The thread I liked the best was Ray applying his customary strategy to put Sam's Mayoral candidate Anita back in the race.  By "customary," I mean any combination of putting opponents in embarrassing situations, threats of violence, actual violence, and the like.  Tonight, it was all violence, some of it real, some feigned. 

Lena's roughs up one of her women.  Later, a hooded Daryll pretends to be beat her up in the park.  All so Anita who appears on the scene at just the right time can play the hero.  Classic Ray - this time applied to politics not show business.  But, hey, there's not much difference between the two anymore, if ever there was, is there?

Everybody's happy (except, no doubt, Anita's opponent).  Especially Anita, whose happiness spills over into wanting to sleep with Ray.  He doesn't want to, but - again, classic Ray - he obliges with some semi-rough sex.  That, unlike the incident in the park, at least was real.

As I said in earlier reviews, I think Ray and Ray Donovan have gained a real energy in their move to New York City.  The place tingles with energy.  Every time I'm away, even on Cape Cod which can be paradise on Earth, I feel like I've been plugged back in when I get back to New York.  Much like the character and the series.

And I'll try not to miss too many more reviews of this fine season.

See Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy

Another great episode of Outlander tonight - 4.4 - in which Jamie and Claire come to terms with bears and the Cherokee, and then at the end, we learn something much worse, which apparently they won't be able to come to terms with at all.

And, actually, the bear that Jamie et al were worried about turns out to be a Cherokee made outcast by his people - because he slept with a woman against her will.  He's taken to wearing a bear mask, donning bear claws, and wreaking havoc.  But he's no match for Jamie, who kills him, and wins the uneasy alliance of the Cherokee as a result.  This all makes for a satisfying set piece of frontier life.

But the worst is yet to come, and it's much worse.  Roger (the historian) learns that, according to an historical report, Jamie and Claire die in a blaze in their cabin, some time in the 1770s, or at least two years to more than a decade from when they now are in 1768.  And this, awful as it is, opens up a whole new desperate and exciting gambit in the time travel which is the underpinning of this whole series.

Because there's no way that Roger and Brianna (who doesn't yet know about this, but surely will) are going to just stand by and let this happen.   They'll figure out a way of traveling to 1768  or 1769 Fraser's Ridge and alerting Jamie and Claire to the deadly fire that awaits them.  Either that, or the report than Roger received is in error.  But I'd vastly prefer the narrative to deal with the dire problem by time travel.

Brianna's already in Scotland, intent on seeing her mother, which means travel to the past and a transAtlantic voyage is already on the agenda.  All's that's needed is for Roger to tell Brianna what he knows.  I'm looking forward to seeing this part of the story play out next week, or whenever it happens.

See also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ... Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Romanoffs 1.8: The One That Holds Everything: Writer on a Train

Well, The Romanoffs certainly saved the most wicked, and very likely the best, episode for its finale, episode 1.8.   Matthew Wiener as director and co-writer presents the most narratively complex story in the series - at least three stories within stories - and pulls it off with style and aplomb, including at least one scene with music that feels like David Lynch was behind it.  There's even a touch of Hitchcock in this episode, in the sense that beware what happens when you talk to a stranger on a train.

The stories are what the woman on the train tells the writer (who happens to be the writer of the Romanov series we've seen or seen mentioned at least two or three times in earlier episodes, all excellent, too - the series within Wiener's series).  This in turn leads to Simon's story (as a young man), which in turn leads to Christopher's story about Simon as a boy.

Except, that's not the end, by any means, because the woman on the train turns out to be Simon, who is transgender and fully transitioned into Candace (she took that name because Simon's mother always called him her "sugar candy"), so she's in fact telling the whole story, all along.  About that story, I won't say anything more, on the slim chance that you're reading this and haven't yet seen this episode, except to say that the ending comes with just deserts par excellence.

In many ways, this is one of the most remarkable series I've ever seen on television.  Not all of the episodes were equally brilliant, but all were good enough, and it's hard to expect more of eight episodes which are standalone except insofar as they each have more or much less of a Romanov connection.

I'd watch another season in a heartbeat.  And, in the meantime, while I'm waiting or if it never comes, I know I'll be replaying a lot of what I've seen in these episodes in my head.

See also: The Romanoffs 1.1: The Violet Hour: Compelling, Anti-Binge Watchable Comedy of Manners ... The Romanoffs 1.2: The Royal We: A Walk on the Dark Side ... The Romanoffs 1.3: House of Special Purpose: Ghost Story ... The Romanoffs 1.4: Expectation: Unfulfilled ... The Romanoffs 1.5: Bright and High Circle: Music and Abuse ... The Romanoffs 1.6: Panorama: The Royal Disease ... The Romanoffs 1.7: End of the Line: The Adoption Racket

  
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Little Drummer Girl: Big, Riveting Story

My wife and I binged The Little Drummer Girl on AMC the past few nights, and much enjoyed it.  It's based on master spy novelist (e.g., The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1963) John le Carré's 1983 The Little Drummer Girl novel, but since I haven't read it, I won't offer any comparisons.  (I haven't seen the 1984 movie, either.)

The mini-series covers the same political, emotional, ethically quandaried terrain as Spielberg's superb 2005 Munich - mining, in particular, the differences in Mossad about what kinds of retaliation are warranted in the aftermaths of the Munich massacre, and in the case of Drummer Girl, in the wake of a Palestinian bomb that kills an outspoken Talmudic scholar and a young girl.  At what point does the Mossad team, in its lying and manipulation of those around them, and killing when necessary of terrorists, for the purpose not only of retaliation but prevention of future attacks, become as inhuman as those the Mossad is hunting?

Michael Shannon does a great job as Kurtz, head of the Mossad team, who will do whatever is necessary to stop Khalil, the "genius" (in Kurtz's words) responsible for the bomb that killed the scholar and the girl.   Alexander Skarsgård is similarly outstanding as Gadi, a lethally effective and charming agent who has a persistent conscience (he doesn't want to be part of the any retaliation killing).   But  Florence Pugh steals the show as Charlie, the young actress recruited by Kurtz and Gadi to infiltrate the PLO unit and bring down Khalil.   She not only lights up the screen in every scene she's in, but plays her transformations from star-struck ingenue to being almost politically seduced by the terrorists just perfectly.

The Little Drummer Girl is replete with shockers, and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.  Highly recommended.

Dylan in Concert at Beacon: Still Recognizable as the Greatest Lyricist of All-Time

Bob Dylan sketch in Old Bear Studios

Well, Dylan tonight at the Beacon in New York City did not look all that much like the sketch above, which hangs in Old Bear Studios in Batavia, New York, where I recorded my first new album in nearly 50 years a few weeks ago (details here).   Nor did he sound all that much like he did in the early-mid sixties, either.  Not even like the Dylan who sang at George Harrison's Bangladesh concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971.  Not even like the Dylan who sang a verse of "My Back Pages" at the 30th anniversary concert in 1993, also at the Garden, with every conceivable Dylan-related singer and guitarist right there on stage with him and loving it.

The difference was that the melodies that Dylan sang of his iconic songs tonight were almost unrecognizable.  And the melodies of the songs I didn't recognize, I couldn't tell you.  But you know what?  I loved it!  (Tina, who was with me, had a somewhat different opinion.)

Of his best-known songs, I enjoyed his renditions of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Don't Think Twice" the most, with "Blowing in the Wind" a close runner-up.  Of those I didn't know, I thought "Scarlet Town" (2012) and "Gotta Serve Somebody" (1979) were great.  And I really enjoyed lots of the other songs, unknown to me before tonight, too.

Look, Dylan doesn't talk to the audience and didn't introduce his band, which was sharp and excellent.  But he played a strong piano - no guitar - standing and sitting, and his trusty harmonica, too.  And that was enough for me, more than enough.  I've long considered him the greatest lyricist of our or any age - in rock, only John Lennon comes close to Dylan in sheer brilliance and output, but Dylan was so far ahead by the end of the 1960s, that even Lennon with his great work in the 1970s couldn't catch up (maybe if his life hadn't been taken by a lunatic and a gun it would have been different, but we'll never know).  Cole Porter in his own very different way could give Dylan a run for his money, but Porter lacked the anti-war social relevance of early Dylan and late Lennon.

I understand that in concerts some years ago, Dylan carried no tune, and just mumbled  his lyrics, not even in his trademarked cant.  Tonight, he did give us some melody.  If it wasn't the melody we heard back in the 1960s, that's fine with me.  The lyrics, those extraordinary words, were always what made Dylan an unsurpassed genius anyway.

It was all an unforgettable thrill tonight, and when I go to his next concert, and I'll know more of the songs.


Bob Dylan tonight at Beacon; photo by Tina Vozick

Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling

Another altogether excellent Outlander on Sunday - 4.3 - and I've got to say this continues to shape up as my favorite season so far.

As always, there's a time-travel nugget, in this case literally.  Claire discovers that the skull of the man who got Jamie and her back together after the wild storm separated them had a silver filling in his tooth.  Which means, as Claire says, that he's a time traveler, too.  The question, as Claire also says, is, who is he?  Or, who was he/will he be?

Meanwhile, Jamie and Claire find a place to build a home.  Jamie names it Fraser's Ridge.  It's beautiful.  The cinematography this season is especially vivid and striking.

The Brianna and Roger thread was a bit predictable.  The course of true love never did run smooth.  And why couldn't Brianna at least tell Roger that she loves him, too?   Clearly she does.   My guess (I haven't the read novels) is that this problem - Roger wanting to marry Brianna, she thinking maybe marriage isn't for her - is bound to lead to more complications, maybe involving time travel.  If that happens, this thread will have been more than warranted.

It is worth noting that Brianna and Roger headed to the same part of the South where Claire and Jamie are way in the past.  This can't be coincidence.  Which means we can expect to see Claire and Brianna reunited, or maybe Jamie and Brianna, or maybe all three, without anyone needing to go back to Scotland.  After all, the skull with the silver filling shows that time travel also happens in America.

See ya here next week.

See also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

 

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...