The Second of The Third

The second episode of  Emon Hassan's The Third appeared online January 4, four days ago.    Short, quietly mysterious, inscrutable, like the pilot, but with a glim more of a plot, and two more characters, too, which makes it a tad more scrutable, if that's a word (I don't know that glim is, either), but, even if not, you get the picture.

The hero, well played by Philip Willingham, gets an assignment by smart phone, to make contact with someone in Bryant Park.  (Ah, Bryant Park, scene of much of my third Phil D'Amato novel, The Pixel Eye - a worthy place for mystery if ever there was one.)   Sitting on a bench, waiting to talk to our hero, is someone who may be his older self.  (That's just my opinion.  The man on the bench is American and much older than our British hero.  But the two did look in some sense the same.  The closing credits, however, do list two guest performers - in addition to our hero - so chances are, at very least, that the guy on the bench is not a bloke, that is,  is not played by Willingham.)

Are you with me so far?  (If not, don't worry, you can watch the second episode right here in the comfort of this blog, below.)  Anyway, the third performer is a woman, and indeed the topic of conversation between the hero and maybe his older self on the bench.   The hero follows her to a small graveyard with crumbling tombstones near Ground Zero, in sight of the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site.   The hero is clearly affected by this, he looks at the tombstone of Moses Gale (one of the amenities in watching any movie online is how easy it is to stop the action and see what's going on - just like with a DVD or DVR, but of course not possible in the theater).  No, I don't know who Moses Gale was, but feel as if I should.

And here is where the second episode of The Third concludes.   There's clearly something serious, sinister, wrenching going on - a smidge of Nolan's Memento now, too - you can see it on the hero's face.

You can see for yourself in the complete second episode below, and you'll see me back here (a statement of my intentions, not a command to you, but you owe it to yourself to drop by) soon after the third of The Third finds its way to Internet screens.



The Third Pilot: Episode 2 from Emon Hassan on Vimeo.


See also The Third - Three Minutes - on the Third

There But for Fortune: Gift of Phil Ochs to the Future

Tina, Simon, and I saw There But for Fortune last night at the IFC Center - formerly the Waverly Theater - in the heart of Greenwich Village in NYC.  It was the second time for Tina and Simon - they were at a a preview screening in December (Simon reviewed it for Entertainment Weekly; Tina has been one of the lead editors of Phil Ochs' Wikipedia page since 2006).   This documentary about the life and times of Phil Ochs merits repeated viewing.

If you don't know who Phil Ochs was, here's what you missed: a folk singer who wrote and sang topical songs - one of his albums was entitled "All the News that's Fit to Sing" - with a warmly evocative voice, a trenchant logic and commentary, and a zest and precision in lyrics that rivals Bob Dylan and Cole Porter.   Ochs' songs critiquing the Vietnam War ("White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land"), war in general ("I Ain't a Marchin' Anymore"), the wishy-washy "liberal" political philosophy of the 1960s (that is, Hubert Humphrey rather than Eugene McCarthy, in his song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal") and many more are still among the best "protest" - political commentary - ever written in any medium.   And when you add to this "The Crucification" (the public's thirst for the fall of heroes they create, ranging from Christ to John F. Kennedy), "The Floods of Florence" (artists struggling to communicate through own their media), "Flower Lady" (the eternal witness to cultural decline), and more like that, you get some of the best songs and cultural commentary ever written, period.

Ochs was loved and admired, but he got nothing like the recognition he deserved in his own time.  Robert Christgau, long the dyspeptic music critic of The Village Voice, complained about Ochs' guitar strumming in a concert in which Ochs' words, melodies, and voice were heart-rending and extraordinary (Tina and I were likely in that audience -  we heard Ochs at concerts and rallies at least a dozen times).  Dylan dissed Ochs, didn't include him in his Rolling Thunder tour, though the two had often performed together, including just the two of them for Broadside Magazine with Pete Seeger listening at the beginning of their careers (Pete talks about this in the movie).    In 1976, Ochs took his own life - succumbing to the pits of a manic depression that had also helped propel him to greatness.

So There But for Fortume - written and directed by Kenneth Bowser, produced by Michael Cole, Bowser, and Ochs' brother Michael - had a lot to take care of, a steep road to climb, and it did this just masterfully, with clips and photos of Ochs and friends seldom if ever seen before,  and sage and instructive interviews with people in a position to know, from Joan Baez to Abby Hoffman to Sean Penn and Christopher Hitchens.  Some of these interviews were clearly done years ago (as Kenneth Bowser and Michael Ochs discussed in their q&a after the movie - a perfect cap for a splendid night - There But for Fortune was 19 years in the making).

Among my favorite parts (in no particular order, because it was all great) was Ochs explaining why he went to orchestration rather than folk rock with his Pleasures of the Harbor album,  the revelation that Ochs saw himself as a John Wayne patriot (the Vietnam War that Ochs so implacably and aptly opposed was, after all, unconstitutional, as has been every war since World War II, the last time Congress adhered to the Constitutional requirement of a declaration of war by both houses of Congress), photos of "Bobby" Dylan at Ochs' place in the Village in the early days,  Dylan and Ochs performing at the concert on behalf of Chilean refugees in the 1970s, and much, much more.

I think everyone whose souls were captured, ratified, and lifted by Phil Ochs wanted to do something to keep his words and music alive when we learned of his death back in 1976.  I was teaching at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ, then, and did a radio show for the campus station - broadcast and heard all over the New York area - called "Seminar on the Air".  I asked the program director if I could do a special on Ochs.  He said ok, but keep it to an hour.  I invited my friend and fellow-Ochs lover Josh Meywrowitz to join me, but by the time we were finished talking about Ochs and playing his records, the clock said our taping had gone three hours.   I called the program director - he said, hey, I know it will be hard, but kindly cut the tape down to the one hour.  I had a decision to make ...  I was sending a press release about our show to the New York Times, and my hand must have "slipped" when I put in the length of the show, because it said three hours ...  On the Saturday the show was to air, I got a call from the program director early in the morning, telling me the Times had listed our show - great news - but by mistake or misprint [smile] indicated its length as three hours.  He asked me if there was any chance I still had the three-hour version of the show on hand.  Of course I did.  I went out to Teaneck, put the three hour tape in the queue, and it was indeed played in its entirety that night.  Hey, even three hours of radio doesn't do Ochs justice.  You gotta do what you can ...

But Ken Bowser, Michael Ochs, and Michael Cole have done with There But for Fortune more than any who loved Ochs could have asked for.   The documentary is a gift to the future, and I'm guessing it will finally put the works of Phil Ochs in the eternal hall of great works, right along with Dylan's, that will be listened to for centuries or longer to come.

Further listening:  Dennis Elsas recently interviewed Ken Bowser on WFUV-FM Radio, with fine Ochs songs as accompaniment ... One of the songs Elsas and Bowser discuss is Ochs' "Small Circle of Friends," which, as Elsas notes, "almost became a hit record".

I've long been vexed by perhaps the main reason this song did not become a hit.  Shortly after it was released in 1967, the FCC issued a warning to radio stations, that their licenses could be in jeopardy when they came up for renewal if they played songs that endorsed drug use.   "Small Circle of Friends," which is about public apathy, has a verse about "smoking marijuana" and getting high detaching people from their responsibilities as citizens and human beings.  It is obviously an attack on drug use, not an endorsement, but that distinction was lost on radio stations afraid of the FCC.   Many of them promptly dropped "Small Circle of Friends" from their play lists.  Just one of many reasons I'd like to see the FCC declared unconstitutional - put out of its miserable, censorious business - as a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Luther: Between The Wire and The Shield

I saw the six episodes of the BBC's Luther on DVD the last few nights - all of its first season - and I'm here to say the series is somewhere between The Wire and The Shield, the best two shows (along with Friday Night Lights) ever on television.   Which is not say Luther is as yet as good as those two shows - with just six episodes, how could it be - but it's playing in the same ball park, and its originality and power certainly puts Luther in that rarefied league.

Idris Elba, who lit up every scene he was in in The Wire, is John Luther in Luther.   Elba's Stringer Bell was a cool intellect, a drug dealing master who took evening classes in economics and had Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations on his bookshelf.   Elba's Luther is also an intellect, but a cop (Detective Chief Inspector) ever on the edge of giving into to his emotion, and in fact breaking the rules and the law when the impulse is too strong for him to resist.  So if Stringer is the criminal who partakes of the light of sweet reason, Luther is the police who skates and partakes of a dark side.   It's that breaking of the law that gives Luther a kinship of sorts with Vic Mackey of The Shield, though Vic is clearly in a harrowing law-breaking class of his own.  [Spoilers for Luther follow - don't read further if you don't want to know.]

Luther starts by letting a serial killer fall to his death rather than taking him in, with the nice complication that the killer doesn't die, and only goes into a coma from he could awaken and implicate Luther in his arrest procedures.   Luther crosses paths with Alice, a beautiful, brilliant sociopath who kills her parents, and does it so cleverly that Luther can't prove that she did.   But she's attracted to Luther and his intelligence, emotionally stalks him, and Luther - or a part of him - actually comes to like it.   Before the first season is over, Alice will save Luther's job and life, and establishes herself as one of more enjoyable sociopaths on television.

The denouement of the first season, spread over two hours, is a tour-de-force of major characters in collision with unexpected results.   DCI Ian, who works next to Luther, is involved in a diamond heist.  Luther is soon on to it, and this sets Ian and Luther into an escalating punch/counter-punch - much of it not planned - that culminates in Ian killing Luther's beloved, estranged wife Zoe (played by Rome's Indira Varma - her characters have no luck) and Ian pinning that on Luther.   Before the season is over, Ian will be goading both Luther and Zoe's boyfriend Mark to kill Ian - he tells them in detail how much Zoe appreciated every orgasm she "took" from him (you gotta love that British usage) - and Alice asking Mark to vote on whether she should put Ian out of his misery.   Alice wants to, Luther - who's grown from the first episode - does not, and Alice needs Mark to break the tie.

It's that kind of show, with every character memorable, including Luther's partner Justin, Luther's boss Rose, and DCI Shenck, who works for what we call IAD here, police investigating police, and is almost on to Luther.   If you're partial to police drama served up with almost equal portions of logic and passion in all directions, a Criminal Minds in which the lead investigator is close to taking up with one of the killers,  you'll be on to Luther.

Notes in the real world:  1. Memo to Cablevision in Westchester, NY:  Put BBC America on the air here already, so we can see Season 2 of Luther in real time.  2.  Congrats to Idris Elba for Golden Globe Nominations for Luther, well deserved. 3. Special treat for Law & Order: Special Victims fans:  Luther mentions Detective Munch in one of the episodes (don't ask me why).

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The Plot to Save Socrates




"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book 

V is Back and Badler

V returned to ABC last night with the debut of its second season reincarnation from back in the 1980s.  Not only that - V came back with one of the prime characters from the original 1980s mini-series and follow-up weekly series - Diana (played by Jane Badler), the beautiful, wicked, coldly vicious leader of the Visitors back then.

Much of the current story centers around Anna, the current V queen bee, and whether she has been compromised by human emotion - in particular, the anguish that she felt over the destruction of her V army, her "children".   V commanders from all over - or above - our world come to her ship, where she has to convince them that she's still tough enough, which is to say, emotionless enough, to continue to lead.  She does this easily, by coolly killing one of the commanders with her tail.

Anna has cause to be concerned.  Her daughter Lisa, more attractive than ever in human skin and black bra and panties, apparently truly loves Tyler, and is also apparently working with the Fifth Column.  Anna orders Lisa to seduce Tyler - that its, sleep with him again - and she has no trouble following that instruction.   Anna praises Lisa for her good work, but truth is that this wasn't work for Lisa at all, and she is now manipulating her mother in this relationship rather than vice versa.   Tyler, meanwhile, will bear watching, because we got the slightest hint last night that his mother Erica may have had alien contact some time in the past ...

Which brings us back to Diana.  She was certainly here on Earth 20 years ago, if the real time that has passed between the original and the current V is adhered to in the current story.   We also learned last night that the Visitors were here 50 years ago.  And best of all - Diana is Anna's mother!

So the new season has lots of good material - including the survival of Joshua, the Fifth Columnist who was was apparently killed at the end of the last season.   He's been brought back to life - but he may have lost his Fifth Column sympathies in the process.

I'll be back here next week with more.


See also V Returns to TV ... V 1.2: The Effects and The Characters ... V 1.3: Multiple Twists and Lizard Visions ... V 1.4: Good Medicine for Television ... V's Back in 1.5 ... V 1.6: Floating Witches ... V 1.7: Ryan's Story ... V 1.8: Is Lisa Becoming 5th Column? ... V 1.9: Moral Complexity and NonStop Action ... V 1.11:  Lisa's Loyalties ... V 1.12: Complex Chess and Red Cloud

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Spun Dreams

Before Twice Upon a Rhyme, there were Spun Dreams by Paul Levinson - demos (studio, home, rough, and refined) that Paul for the most part wrote with Stu Nitekman, and recorded as part of the folk-rock-pop group The New Outlook, consisting of Paul, Stu, and Ira Margolis.   For many years - from the time these songs first were recorded on a home tape recorder or in a studio (A&R Studios in Manhattan) during 1966-1968, and then moved from tape to acetate for easier playing - these demos languished in dusty closets.   Paul brought them into the Walsh Digital Lab at Fordham University in early 2006, and converted them and other demos and master releases into MP3s.   Spun Dreams, available now for the first time on iTunes, is one of the results.

1. Sunshine's Mine (Levinson-Nitekman),  studio demo,  Paul lead, 1966
2. Evening's Evergreen Morning (Levinson-Nitekman)  unreleased master, Stu lead, 1968
3. Two Minus One (Levinson-Nitekman), home demo,  Stu lead, 1966
4. Murray the K's Back in Town  (Levinson) Paul Levinson, studio demo, 1972
5. Please Don't Cry Little Dove (Levinson-Nitekman)  studio demo,  Paul and Stu lead, 1966
6. Just That Kind (Levinson-Nitekman), studio demo,  Stu  lead, 1967
7. Yesterday's Rain (Levinson-Nitekman),  studio demo, Stu lead, 1967
8. Happy Goodbye Baby (Levinson-Nitekman), home demo, Stu lead, 1966
9. Water Proof (Levinson), home demo,  Paul lead, 1966
10. Precious and Golden (Levinson-Nitekman), home demo, Stu lead, 1966 
11. Keep Off the Grass (Levinson-Nitekman), home demo, Stu lead, 1966
12. The Flavor of Spring (Levinson), home demo,  Stu lead, 1966 
13. Don't Blame It On Love (Levinson-Nitekman), home demo,  Stu lead, 1966 
14. If Leaves Fall Tomorrow (Levinson-Nitekman), studio demo, Stu lead, 1967
15. Alpha Centauri (Levinson - Rosenthal) Paul Levinson, home demo, 2000/2010

Songwriting credits:

Levinson-Nitekman = words by Paul Levinson, music by Stu Nitekman
Levinson = words and music by Paul Levinson
Levinson-Rosenthal = words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal

Artist (singer) credits:

Unless otherwise indicated, the songs were performed by The New Outlook, with either Paul or Stu singing lead, and some combination of Paul, Stu, and Ira singing harmony.    Paul Levinson sings lead and harmony in "Murray the K's Back in Town".   Paul Levinson sang "Alpha Centauri" in 2010 to music recorded by Peter Rosenthal in 2000 (the words and music were written in 2000).

Album cover designed by Joel Iskowitz.

Liner Notes:

The New Outlook began to come into being in the summer of 1963, when Paul Levinson got his first job, making sundaes and ice cream sodas, at Krum’s on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.  Ira Margolis also worked there, and the two soon started talking music, and singing.  Stu Nitekman was Ira’s friend.  The three soon formed The Transits, maybe the last doo-wap group in the Bronx, with several of Paul’s friends from junior high school and earlier.   When the Transits disbanded in 1965, Paul, Stu, and Ira became The New Outlook.  And whereas The Transits covered early Four Seasons and Beachboy songs, Paul and Stu wrote their own songs for The New Outlook.

They sang in the “alcoves” of City College - the entry halls behind the cafeterias of CCNY, where they were students - both between and during many of their classes.  They recorded demos in Stu’s home. Stu sang most of the leads, Paul a few.  Paul sang falsetto and tenor harmony with Ira, who sang baritone.  Stu played acoustic guitar, Paul played a little keyboard he had purchased at Woolworth’s, Ira had a tambourine in hand.   “Two Minus One,” “Happy Goodbye Baby,” “Keep Off the Grass,” “Don’t Blame It On Love,” “The Flavor of Spring,” and “Precious and Golden” were written by Paul (lyrics) and Stu (music).  “Water Proof” was written just by Paul.  All were recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in Stu’s living room in 1966.


Paul and Stu brought their demos around to every publisher and producer in the Brill Building and nearby they could find. The late great Tash Howard brought the New Outlook into a studio to record a demo of “Please Don’t Cry Little Dove,” which was the group’s first professionally recorded song.   A little later, the group went into a studio under their own steam, and recorded “Sunshine's Mine,” written by Paul and Stu, with Paul doing lead vocal.

On a sunny spring Sunday in 1967, The New Outlook were singing in Central Park in New York City. Ellie Greenwich (another legend who died too soon) and Mike Rashkow happened by, liked what they heard, and brought the group into a studio to perform a few of their songs.  These are represented on this album by “Just that Kind,” “If Leaves Fall Tomorrow,” and “Yesterday’s Rain” (which is about half the size of its true length, due to a little glitch during the recording).

Elli and Mike changed the name of the group to The Other Voices and signed them to Atlantic Records, where the group had two single releases.  Paul co-wrote the b-side to both singles, “Hung Up on Love,” with Mikie Harris.  The recording was included in Rhino-Handmade’s compilation album, “Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets,” in 2004 (compiled by Andrew Sandoval).

The group left Ellie and Mike and Atlantic Records in late 1968. They went into the studio on their own, and recorded a master of what would be their last song together, “Evening’s Evergreen Morning”.  Stu sang lead, Paul his customary falsetto, and Ira the baritone harmony.   Peter Rosenthal - who would go on to play guitars on every cut of Twice Upon a Rhyme (the album Paul later recorded with Ed Fox, Peter, and other artists) - played guitars on “Evening’s Evergreen Morning”.

In 1972, Paul wrote an article in The Village Voice about Murray the K’s return to New York as a disk jockey.   Murray hired Paul to help produce Murray’s show on WNBC Radio, and a few months later Paul wrote and recorded a studio demo of “Murray the K’s Back in Town,” with Pete on guitar.

Rounding out Spun Dreams is “Alpha Centauri,” a song Paul (lyrics) and Pete (music) wrote in 2000, after being out of touch more than 25 years.   Paul’s singing the vocal and Pete played all of the instruments.  Its science fiction theme is a sign of things to come.

Review of The Town: Nearly as Good as Heat

Continuing my reviews of some of the good movies of 2010, in this brief time of little on television,  I saw The Town last night, and thought it was good indeed.  Almost as good as Heat, which is among my top 20 favorite movies of all time, sometimes higher.

Ben Affleck delivers one of his best performances in years as Doug MacRay of Charlestown, Boston.  Doug is fearless and smart, and like De Niro's Neil McCauley in Heat, is into one last-jobism.  Indeed, I felt so strong a kinship between Affleck in this movie and De Niro in Heat that I said to my wife that Affleck in The Town is like an Irish De Niro (and in fact, MacRay and McCauley would both have ancestors in the Emerald Isle).

Like McCauley in Heat, who matches wits with Al Pacino's Lt. Hanna, MacRay attracts the obsessive interest of  FBI agent Frawley played by Jon Hamm of Mad Men.  Hamm is no Pacino - no one is - but puts in a fine, intense performance in The Town.

My favorite scene in Heat - and this is easily among my top 10 favorites scenes in any movie - is when Val Kilmer's Chris drives up to see Ashley Judd's Charlene, who has been soft-talked by Mykelti Williamson's Sgt. Drucker to give Chris up to the cops - or so we think.  Because in an incandescent moment, Charlene gives Chris a subtle warning sign from the window, and he drives away to safety.  I still wanna be like Val Kilmer in Heat when I grow up.

Now The Town has a scene that's so parallel to the above in Heat that it can be considered an homage.  MacRay calls Claire (well played by Rebecca Hall) with Frawley standing right beside her, urging Claire to turn MacRay in.   (Claire was bank manager and kidnapped in an earlier job by MacRay and the gang.  MacRay released her, went to see her - she didn't know then who he was - and the two just about fell in love.  Then Frawley told her who MacRay was.)   With every incentive to give up MacRay, Claire gives him a subtle heads-up.   It's a sweet moment.  MacRay was looking at Claire and Frawley through binoculars, so he knew what was up, but his smile when Claire came through for him was priceless.

Like Chris in Heat, but unlike McCauley in Heat, MacRay makes it to safety and out of The Town.   And this greatly improves on the one thing I never liked about Heat:  McCauley fell too easily to Hanna.   I was glad to see MacRay do much better against Frawley.

Note added January 4, 2011:  I didn't get a chance to mention the searing supporting role played by Pete Postlethwaite.  Like all his acting, what Postlethwaite did in The Town was unforgettable.  He passed away yesterday, but his memorable work will live on.

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Twice Upon a Rhyme reviewed in Shindig Magazine

Here's a scan of the complete short review by Austin Matthews, along with his brief interview with me, in the January-February 2011 Shindig Magazine, hitting magazine stores and stands and subscribers' mailboxes even as I write and you read this ...

Add caption

Austin Matthews' review of Twice Upon a Rhyme
in January-February 2011 Shindig Magazine

You can get to the eBay page selling brand new re-mastered vinyls of Twice Upon a Rhyme just by clicking on Twice Upon a Rhyme in the above caption  (the remastering is fabulous).   MP3s of the original 1972 album are on iTunes and Amazon and all the digital outlets.

Here's the first song on the album, Today is Just Like You - enjoy!

Would you like to listen to other complete tracks from Twice Upon a Rhyme on Internet radio stations?  Try these stations, which are playing a track or two or three from the album at various times of the day ... JackMix.FM ... RockOn365 ... Garage Lombus ... Way Off the Grid Radio ... BeautyRadio.com ... mjc Radio ... Progulus Radio ... fatBuzz ... The Rock Doctor ... Radio BGC ...  Swan Fungus ... Gratitude Radio ... Travelling Underground ... Real Hit Radio ... More than Music and Memories ... Boston Internet Radio ...  Memory Lane Radio with BIG BOB ... Outside the Dial ... Family Dog Radio ... Golden String Radio ... Plastic Tales from the Marshmallow Dimension, WNYU, 89.1 FM, New York City ... Pete Fornatale's Mixed Bag, WFUV, 90.7 FM, New York City ... Click and get lucky!

Explaining What Happened in The American

I saw The American last night, a fine assassin movie starring George Clooney (as Jack), who was excellent.  Clara, the prostitute who falls in love with Jack (and he with her), is gorgeous (Violante Placido, the Italian actress who played Clara, is also a singer/songwriter - I'm going to look for her music).

The plot - more particularly, the climax - is complicated.   I'll sketch it out here, and then give my analysis (based on just one viewing of the movie).   Spoilers obviously follow.

Jack, hunted by his would-be assassins, goes to Italy to hide out and take on an assignment from Pavel, his boss.   The assignment entails making a rifle to specifications for Mathilde (played by another beauty, Thekla Reuten).  Shortly before his assignment is completed, Jack makes it clear to Pavel that this will be his last (his affair with Clara has awakened all kinds of feelings).  Pavel calls Mathilde on her way to her concluding meeting with Jack - to pick up the rifle and give him the payment - and Pavel tells Mathilde to "listen very carefully".   At this point, we need to watch very carefully, because this is where the best, complex fun starts.

Mathilde is set to kill Jack after he gives her the gun, but a busload of kids and Jack's alertness prevent that.   Later, Jack and Clara are in a town celebration, and vow to go away together.   Mathilde, who was told by Pavel to find away to kill Jack, after her initial failure, has Jack (and Clara) in the sites of the very rifle Jack designed.   In the climatic scene, she pulls the trigger - but the rifle appears to blow off part of her face, and we also see a gun or some sort of viewing mechanism pointed at her.   Jack gives Clara the money he received from Mathilde, tells Clara to go to their secret place by the water, and runs up the stairs to find Mathilde, dying on the ground.  Which she does.  But then Pavel gets the drop on Jack, who wheels around and kills Pavel.  Jack drives to Clara, but discovers he's been shot, apparently/likely mortally.  He makes it to Clara, and the movie ends.   A powerful 15 minutes of cinema indeed.

But what, exactly, happened?  Here's my take:

Jack built the rifle to explode in Mathilde's face in the first place - but was that his assignment or his own innovation?  Likely his assignment - that is, that's what Pavel wanted (the only reason Jack would want to kill a client was if he wanted to cover his tracks).   Meanwhile, Pavel - when he learned that Jack was definitely leaving the business - instructed Mathilde to kill Jack, expecting that Mathilde would later die on her own mission when the rifle exploded.  When Jack confounded Mathilde's first attempt to kill him, Pavel waited with a gun on Mathilde, as she took aim at Jack with the rifle.   Why was Pavel doing this?  My guess is he couldn't be sure that Mathilde would take the shot, and/or wanted to finish her off in case the exploding rifle didn't get her.  As it was, he got to his revolver on Jack...

A riveting, original plot, reminiscent of some of John le Carré's work.  I'd enjoy seeing a sequel, but Jack probably didn't make it out of the car by the water ...

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Episodes: Sneak Preview Review

Hey, I caught the delightful complete debut season - seven 30-minute episodes - of Episodes, to start on Showtime, Sunday, January 9, courtesy of a Showtime advance screener.   If you're in the mood for a deft, daft mix of classic droll British humor and California fine ass funny - which, come to think of it, I always am - you'll love Episodes.

The basic story: the creators/writers of a successful comedy show in the UK are brought over and out to California to recreate their series right here in the USA.   The creators are a young, happily married, breezily and often profoundly witty couple.   You know that they won't be in for smooth sailing over here, just by looking at the opening credits (one of the best I've seen in a while), which feature a manuscript picked up in the wind in England, winging its way to California, only to be shot down right over the big white Hollywood sign.

Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greg, two relative little knowns here in the States, play the "lucky" British couple Sean and Beverly Lincoln, and they're excellent.   Trouble starts pretty much as soon as they're told that the British actor who played the lead in their comedy will be replaced by an American - none other than Matt LeBlanc, who plays himself, and delivers a performance every bit as a good or better than Joey from Friends.  Indeed, the script makes satisfying, explicit reference to all manner of Joeyisms, including at least one on which the somewhat surprise ending hinges.  (I saw it coming, but still loved it.)

Even the secondary characters are striking - Daisy Haggard as Myra Licht doesn't say much but makes some of the best blond faces you'll ever see, and Mircea Monroe as Morning is luscious (well, maybe more a primary than secondary character).

But really nothing about this comedy is secondary.   If you like laughs a minute, sarcasm to the max about both American and British popular culture, Episodes will be just your cup of tea - or coffee.

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Inception: Brilliant

Given that this blog is Infinite Regress, I thought it was long since time that I reviewed Inception.  It had one scene literally of mirrors on mirrors, which is infinite regress par excellence.  And the rest of movie was just great as well - Christopher Nolan's best movie since Memento, which is high praise indeed.

The people part of the story is good.  Cobb (played Leonardo DiCaprio) is mostly in the business of stealing information from marks of clients by tapping into their dreams.   Introducing an idea into someone's mind - which if it takes root can change a person's life (and sometimes therein the world) - is called "inception," and is a much more difficult undertaking.   (Here the story picks up on Richard Dawkins' notion of the "meme" as an ideational virus.)    Cobb, we learn near the end of the movie, has done this only once before - to his wife, to get her to leave the deep dream state both were in.  It had disastrous ultimate consequences for her.

Cobb and team are hired to plant an idea into the new head of a company.  The team is a fine assemblage of memorable actors and performances, including especially Tom Hardy (good to see him back from Meadowlands),  Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ellen Page (meshing well with her Cisco commercials).  The action is superb, with car chases and scalings of snowy mountains almost James Bondian in their sweep and power.

But the deepest thrill of Inception resides in the sheer intellectual audacity of its puzzles and their pursuit.   The mission requires the team to take their target not just through a dream state, but a dream within a dream within a dream.  Time moves more slowly - drastically so - the deeper the dream state, or the further away it is from our normal time in our waking reality.   And though death in the first level of dreams just awakens you in our reality, death in the deepest, or third state, can sentence you to limbo forever.    When you add these high stakes to the speed and impact of the action, with stunning visuals including the folding of streets and the crumbling of cities, you get one breathless rollercoaster ride of a movie.

As is always the case in which dreams mix with reality, a central underlying question haunts the proceedings: is what we are seeing reality, or some dream of which we're not aware.

Cobb explains that there are ways in which we can tell.   One of them, a token that we can rely on as an indication of reality, provides a somewhat ambiguous ending.    But there's another way - whether we know how we got to where we are in our current experience.    And, on that score, I think the ending is clear.

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Unseen Caprica: A Review of the Rest and the Best

Well, the rest of Caprica - also by far the best - has been unseen on the SyFy Channel in America, in any case.  It was shown on the Space channel in Canada, will be broadcast on SyFy shortly after New Year's,  and I just saw it on DVD via Netflix.   And, as I just said, the last few episodes are the best in the series.

The multiple plots, which made the series a bit scattered in the beginning, all weave and come together beautifully in the end, in a powerful mesh of multiple chess games reminiscent of Dune, high praise in my book.  I'm talking about the Greystones and Zoe, Clarice and the Monads, the Gemenon denizens, the Cylons, the Taurons, not to mention the police on Caprica.

There are surprises - I especially was taken with what happens with Will Adama - heart-in-your-mouth close calls, and all kinds of fast action.   The future that we saw in our past in Battlestar Galactica is amply set up, with angels, skin jobs, and even a mention of Dr. Cottle (who must be a young version of Cottle from Galactica - a newly minted doctor).

The one shame of all this is that we likely won't ever have the pleasure of seeing how this all played out and came to be.  Instead, we're treated to a quick epilogue which is a lot better than nothing, but nowhere nearly as good as another season or two.

But Ron Moore and company can hold their heads up high.  The produced a compelling, highly intelligent science fiction story, which our future will say both works beautifully on its own and rolls towards the Battlestar Galactica future most memorably.


See also:  Battlestar Galactica Caprica: Exquisite, Flawed Copies ... 1.2:  Dawn of a Different Machine ... 1.3:  Daughters, Missing and Present ... 1.5: Adama's Daughter ... 1.6: The Chip and its Roots
... 1.7: The Cylon and the Dog ... 1.8: The Metaphysics of Flesh ... 1.9: Zoe at Large ... Caprica Back 1.10-1.12: Cleaner, More Powerful Lines

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The Plot to Save Socrates





"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

The Social Network: A Few Thoughts about the Movie

I've been meaning to post a few thoughts about The Social Network - an excellent movie that deserves all the praise and award nominations it's been receiving.

First, I think it's important to assess the movie as not a literal documentary, but rather the fictionalized account - in terms of conversations, etc - that it is, and in fact indicates in the closing credits.  Indeed, since the actual micro details regarding the birth and early growth of Facebook are not generally known, there is no way the average viewer can even judge the authenticity of given fine points in the movie.   As I indicated in my 2009 book New New Media, I've been on Facebook since 2004 - my son was a student at Harvard then (in the same year as Mark Zuckerberg), and he let me know that my faculty account at Fordham university (a .edu account) would be enough to get me on Facebook.   But that gives me no more knowledge than anyone else about the early days of Facebook.

To the movie then ... its best parts were actually the details and the conversations, ranging from the way Sean Parker first came upon The Facebook (as it was then named - it was Parker, the creator of the original Napster, who suggested losing the "The") to Zuckerberg's zestful contempt for all levels of authority, especially his opponents' lawyers, which I found very appealing.   The truth is I didn't find the Zuckerberg in this movie to be much of an asshole at all, but rather a genius who doesn't suffer gladly the fools that beset him.

The one weakness of the movie, I thought, was the ham-handed romantic angle which was presented as the underlying motivation of Zuckerberg's Facebook endeavors.  Girl breaks up with him.  This sets Zuckerberg to create Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook.   Zuckerberg tries to speak to her a few months later, when Facebook is starting to take off.  She rebuffs him.  And the movie ends with Zuckberg trying to Friend her on Facebook, now a huge success.   More important than this not being factually accurate - Zuckerberg had a girlfriend all along (but as I indicated above, the movie is better evaluated not as to its truthfulness as a documentary) - but more important than that, the storyline of a genius moved by a hurt heart is trite, simplistic, and distracting from the more complex factors that motivate genius.

Still, the acting was superb - especially Justin Timberlake's spot-on performance as Sean Parker (Timberlake was reminiscent in this role of a young Sean Penn) - and the movie provides a satisfying snapshot of a painting still not dry, indeed, still being painted, which in itself is a rare and awesome accomplishment in movie-making where such subjects are usually decades or further in the past.

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book 

How Californication Ends

Well, I'm not going to tell you exactly or specifically how this season (4) of Californication ends - I don't want to spoil it for you - but continuing my sneak preview review yesterday of the first half of the new season, I thought I should tell you that I've now seen the entire season (courtesy of a Showtime screener) and ... I loved it!  In fact, I think Season 4 is flat out the best season of Californication, including the excellent first.

The ending was so satisfying, that it could work as the conclusion not just of this upcoming season, but the entire series.   But I hope that's not the case.

Along the way, we have real surprises and turns in the plot, and some of the best writing in the series, coming not only from Hank's mouth but the Runkles.  As I said in my preview review yesterday, this season has a kinship with Entourage, and Curb Your Enthusiasm as well.   Although Hank was always a writer and Runkle his agent, the business part of that relationship is well presented in Season 4.   There are also some superb courtroom scenes - funny and serious - like a Law and Order on crack.

I know - you'd like to know if Hank and Karen stay together.   All that I'll tell you is that the ending seemed right, deeply so.  Hank, despite his self-admitted flaw, always had a good heart.

You're in for a treat starting January 9.

See also Californication Season 4: Sneak Preview Review (No Big Spoilers)

See also (Season 2): Sneak Preview of Californication Anew ... Comes ... To an End, Laughing

and reviews of Season One: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ... 11: Pivitol Mia ... Californication Comes ... To a Season's End

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Californication Season 4: Sneak Preview Review (No Big Spoilers)

So I've watched about half of the new season (4) of Californication - courtesy of  a Showtime screener. I'll be watching the rest tonight, but thought I check in here first were a few tantalizing tidbits about what I've seen (no real spoilers, but if you don't want to know anything at all about this fine new season, don't read on).

First, I'm enjoying Season 4 more than Season 3.   Hank is tougher, leaner, meaner than he was in the last season - comes, I guess, of being in jail rather than a classroom (but not to worry, he's not in prison that long, and still gets plenty).   And the issues that Hank must navigate and struggle with are much more life and death.

Here are some nuggets -

• Mia plays a major role.   So does an actress that looks a lot like her.  I'll leave it to you to pick whom Hank sleeps with.
• There's hope for Charlie and Marcy - a least, a little - and the key is it's more than psychological.
• There's a hot lawyer.
• Hank's writing again.
• Hank throws more punches than in any other season, some of them to cops.
• There's a movie in the making - making this season of Californication reminiscent in good ways of Entourage.
• I was laughing out loud over a scene with Runkle and a monkey - one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen on television.

The premiere of the new season is January 9 - you'll love it!

See also How Californication Ends


See also (Season 2): Sneak Preview of Californication Anew ... Comes ... To an End, Laughing

and reviews of Season One: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ... 11: Pivitol Mia ... Californication Comes ... To a Season's End

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The Plot to Save Socrates




"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book 

Twice Upon a Rhyme playing in its entirety on Way Off the Grid Radio

Starting at 2pm Eastern today (December 18, 2010),  repeated tonight at 10pm Eastern, and every afternoon and evening between now and January 1, 2011, Twice Upon a Rhyme will be playing in its entirety - all 13 tracks - on Way Off the Grid Radio.

You'll be able to hear the whole album totally FREE.   You'll also have the option of VIP membership on the radio station - improved audio quality, no commercials, and other perks.  This is more airplay than Twice Upon a Rhyme ever received since its original release in 1972 on HappySad Records, and since its release in remastered vinyl by Whiplash/Sound of Salvation Records last week.

Enjoy!

And if you'd like to hear a track or two from the album any other time, try these other radio stations - JackMix.FM ... RockOn365 ... Garage Lombus ...  BeautyRadio.com ... mjc Radio ... Progulus Radio ... fatBuzz - or check out my MySpace music page.

The Good Wife 2.9 Takes on Capital Punlishment

I've been a steadfast opponent of capital punishment all of my life.  Not that I think the monsters of the world do not deserve to be executed - indeed, I have no problem with that treatment for any one who maliciously takes a human life - but the problem is our legal system has not been up to the task of discovering the truly guilty.  Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, to use one of the prominent examples in our history, were put to death in 1927, and historians are still arguing over whether they were guilty of the charges.

I was thus glad to see The Good Wife take on capital punishment full throttle in episode 2.9.   Carter Wright (played by Chad L. Coleman - superb as Cutty on The Wire, and superb on The Good Wife) has just hours left before his death sentence is carried out.  Alicia gets a call from the clerk of a judge who can stop the execution, and may be inclined to.  But what, exactly, does the judge need?

What follows was one of the best hours on television in 2010.   Every character in the case was firing on all cylinders as the clock ticks down.    Even Cary is called in to help (by Barry Scheck, playing himself!) - Cary went to school with the law clerk who called Alicia.   Every lead and avenue is pursued, as Will quarterbacks and Diane does what she can at the prison.  Blake does what he can, but Kalinder saves the day with a heart-in-your-mouth scene at an airport, where she confronts a recalcitrant expert witness for the prosecution on the verge of boarding.  And Alicia brings it home with a conversation with the judge - Kalinder coaching and conveying advise from Josh.

The story was so good that it eclipsed almost completely Peter's story - a TV appearance in which he curses out a questioner who wants to know if Alicia has forgiven him.   But that's the sign of great television - characters so strong and stories so good that you never know, until you start watching the episode, just where it will take and leave you.

See also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl ... The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpsonal Distance

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

WikiLeaks: Separating the Truth from the Irrelevant and the Fiction

I saw VP Biden say on MSNBC earlier today that the WikiLeaks release of US diplomatic communications which were supposed to stay out of public view was "embarrassing" but posed no threat to national security.    That's what our Secretary of Defense had stated clearly a few weeks ago, and it has been my impression from the outset.  So here is where I think we now stand on this controversial - to say the least - issue.

First, I think we need to separate three facets of the WikiLeaks controversy which are not really relevant to whether the release of US documents was/will be helpful, damaging, or of not much effect at all to America and our democracy.

1.  The most serious of the rape charges reported against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Director, are worthy of his arrest if true (these charges are that he had non-consensual, unprotected sex with a sleeping woman).  But it's not at all clear that those charges are justified.   Michael Moore and others who have come to Assange's defense say the authorities think that all he did is have sex with a condom that broke, and he refused to later submit to being checked for HIV, etc.  Moore also said that he wouldn't be surprised if the governments involved overseas trumped up the charges against Assange as a way of smearing him after the release of the documents.    Recalling Nixon's "dirty tricks" brigade, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the charges were an attempt of one of more governments to bring Assange down.  But most important:  even if the worst of the charges were true, that would have no relevance to whether the release of the documents will ultimately help or hurt our democracy.

2.  Businesses and corporations - I'm talking about Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and whoever else ended their relationships with WikiLeaks and Assange - have every right to do business with whomever they please  (as they're not discriminating against a class of people).   But if any of those businesses were in the least bit pressured by our government to cut their services to WikiLeaks, then that would be an underhanded kind of censorship, and a violation of the First Amendment.  I'd like to see a little investigation into that.   But, again, this is not relevant to the question of whether the release of the documents was helpful or damaging.

3.  Denial of services to the general public, brought on cyber attacks, is morally wrong, because innocent people are hurt.   I therefore cannot support the cyber attacks on Mastercard and Visa, even if they were made in the name of free speech.  And, again, this has no relevance as to whether the release of the documents were in the interests of our democracy, or against.

So where does that leave us?

a - If the Vice President and Secretary of Defense of the United States say no national security interests were jeopardized, and the only impact was "embarrassment," that's good enough for me.  Clearly, that also means that no lives of people in the military - or people anywhere - were jeopardized, for no sane person would use the word "embarrassment" if any lives were jeopardized.

b - The lies and errors that led to our unleashing of the Vietnam and the Iraqi Wars - lies about what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin, errors (at the very least) in reporting the presence of WMDs in Iraq - show that, in the past, our democracy would have been better served by more not less information about what our government is doing and claiming.

c - The Internet, as I pointed out at length in my book New New Media in 2009, has changed forever the way everything in the world, including governmental diplomatic operations, are conducted.  An individual or organization with information can instantly get that out to the world, with no one else's permission.   Since I've always agreed with Thomas Jefferson that the first defense people have against dangerous governments is maximum information,  I've got to think that this Internet revolution in general, and this WikiLeaks release of documents in particular, is helpful to our democracy.

NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo, Out and In

Imagine an NCIS with a serious, straight-laced, by the book DiNozzo - no practical jokes, no delighted eye for the ladies, and (most egregiously, in my view) no quick connection of a case at hand to a great scene in a movie.   Well, NCIS 8.10 gave us just such a draconian scenario, as DiNozzo turns over a new, mature leaf, and it wasn't much fun, right?

Well, not quite.  It was great fun seeing McGee try to finish DiNozzo's analyses of the case with a movie reference, Ziva being concerned about the new DiNozzo, and even Gibbs wondering what's going on.  It takes Ziva to snap DiNozzo out of it, telling him his quintessential essence is class clown, and the team loves him for it.   The episode ends with a reassuring DiNozzo prank.

The other good humor in this holiday season episode is Abby doing a great turkey dance - I'd like to see her on Dancing with the Stars - and the case was pretty good too, featuring Annie Wersching, last seen on 24.

Meanwhile, while all this good stuff was going on on entertainment television, the news in New York brought the report that the bodies of four women were found washed up or buried on the shore.   I couldn't help thinking - what would be the best investigative team on television to take over this case?   Criminal Minds would be the obvious, excellent choice.   But the bodies were on the shore, and that could mean some Navy involvement, so ... hey, I'll take Criminal Minds and NCIS both!

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father 
... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book 

Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

Tina and I just got back from a special screening of the Dexter Season 5 finale at the Sheraton in New York City - courtesy of Showtime.   Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, and Lauren Vélez were there, but I'll tell you about that later. First, here's what I thought about the finale.

Superb, with one of the most momentous scenes in the entire series, and an amazingly mostly very happy ending, with Dexter's loss not arising from the death of anyone he loves (not a physical death, at any rate).

The scene gives us Deb, gun drawn on Dexter and Lumen, except she doesn't know it's them, since they're both behind a curtain.   They've just killed Chase, who almost killed them, but for Dexter keeping a knife to himself in hiding.  Deb figures, correctly, that the two are the vigilantes, consisting of Victim #13 and her partner in revenge.  She's a cop who mostly plays by the book.   She sees Chase's body.  But she gives Dexter and Lumen - not knowing it's them -  and the series as we know it a chance to escape.  A brilliant, well-motivated scene - since we've already seen how deeply Deb was affected by the videos of the brutal rapes of the barrel girls.   It wasn't 100% clear, at least to me, how Dex knew that Deb wouldn't call in the body, when she told the two behind the curtain that she would give them an hour to get away before she called in the police to the scene, but it was still a moment of Deb at her very best.

In the aftermath, Dex covers for Quinn (saying Liddy's blood on Quinn's shoe wasn't), Laguerta and Batista are back together, and the kids want to stay with Dexter for the summer.   This is about as good an ending as ever we gotten for Dexter.  But it's tempered by Lumen leaving:  her killing of Chase has satisfied her "dark passenger," who will need to take residence now along with Dexter's in Dexter's psyche for at least the near future.  As for the distant future, who knows ... But it would have been too much now for us to accept that Dexter was giving up his dark passenger - his life of righteous serial killing - just for Lumen.

It all adds up to a highly satisfying season finale, and a good balance to the gaping wound that was left open at the end of Season 4.

Now as to the screening:  I shook David Zayas' hand and told him how much I enjoyed his performance.  I only got a chance to smile at Jennifer Carpenter and Lauren Vélez.   The hors d'oevres were delicious.   And in some ways my favorite part:  The screening started a little late.   A few of the people in the audience were grumbling.  So I started singing the beginning of the Dexter theme.  And a woman sitting two seats over from us came in with those high violin lines ... Solidarity in Dexter theme music, you gotta love it...

And here's a great interview with Michael C. Hall in New York City, on the day of the finale!

See also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ... Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Lombardi on HBO and at Fordham

My sports passions reside with baseball rather than football, but Vince Lombardi's accomplishments transcend any particular sport, and indeed transcend sports in general, which is one reason I enjoyed HBO's documentary on Lombardi, which premiered this evening.

The other reason is the crucial role of Fordham University in Lombardi's life and work, well shown in the documentary.  I see Lombardi's photo as one of the Seven Blocks of Granite - the Fordham Ram offensive line in 1936, of which Lombardi was a part - every time I walk through the Lombardi Center on my way to take a swim in Fordham's beautiful pool.   I often think, as I glance at the young Lombardi and his six team mates, if they could have had any idea that students and professors would be looking at their picture in 2010.

In Lombardi's case, I just bet he did.   Anyone with such an unquenchable thirst for winning had to have a sense of what winning did for your name in the future.   The HBO documentary reported that Lombardi came to regret his famous remark that "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," but I rather like that remark and believe it conveys one of Lombardi's most admirable qualities.

Modesty would have us believe that winning isn't so important.  But the drive to win - or to be best in whatever your field - is what drives human beings to greatness, and propels our species forward.   I bet Socrates, Leonardo, Marie Curie, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jonas Salk, to name just a few,  all would have agreed with Vince Lombardi, in their heart of hearts.

Back here in the present, at Fordham, Lombardi continues to inspire students.  Jason Caldwell, team captain and wide receiver, did this series of videos about the current football team and season for our just concluded "Television and New Media" graduate course.

Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr.

Adelbert Ames, Jr. was the first psychologist I studied in my PhD program in Media Ecology at New York University back in the mid-late 1970s.  I sort of think of episode 6.9 of Bones tonight as inspired by Ames, the reasons for which will become clear in a few paragraphs.

But first, what an exquisite episode 6.9 was.   It had to be - it is the episode in which Bones finally comes to terms with her loss of Booth.  Emily Deschannel gave one of her finest performances in the series.  And the plot had touches of the Odyssey - yeah, I thought it was that good, seeing what it accomplished in a hour, and how it showed us Bones' journey.

The victim is a woman a lot like Bones - a top-notch MD, her work is her life, with few personal connections.  She turns down someone who loves her.   Sound familiar?  Bones soon starts not only seeing herself in the victim, but thinking the victim literally looks and sounds like Bones in the photos and recordings the victim's left behind.

These semi-delusions are of course all vehicles via which Bones can finally allow herself to realize what she lost when she turned Booth away.   As part of the process, she and we meet "Micah" - a figment of Booth's psyche, played by Enrico Colantoni from Flashpoint (good to see him!) - a night watchman at the Jeffersonian who speaks truth to her.  Micah, and the victim not only sounding just like Booth but talking to Booth through the recordings, are the sure proof that a large part of what we're seeing in this episode are Bones' semi-illusions and warped but highly instructive perceptions.

Micah tells Bones about an experiment he heard about in a lecture, in which a scientist gives a subject glasses that make the subject see upside down, but after three days, with the glasses still on, the world rights itself (and when the glasses are taken off, the world looks upside down again - for three days).    Bones realizes that is what had been happening to her, which in turn allows her to finally get in touch with what she realizes happened with her and Booth, because of her.   These un-rose colored glasses are painful for her, and for us to see, but they're just what she needs.

The scene between Bones and Booth in the car where she says she had her chance was one of the best scenes in the series.  Heart breaking and real.

And where does Adelbert Ames, Jr. come in?  Well, it was George Stratton, near the end of the 19th century, who did the world upside down glasses experiment.  But it was Ames in the 1930s who really broke it all out about the way the brain compensates for bizarre, unreal perceptions, which I actually think is a better tag for this superb episode.  That, and I wanted to give the first theorist I studied in  my doctoral program a little well-deserved shout-out.

See also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ... Bones 6.9: Melted Bones

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book