Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (698/0)
Thoughts about The Beatles "Now and Then"
The Beatles "Now and Then" was released today, the last of three John Lennon demos Yoko gave the Beatles after John was murdered. The first two were "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". I've always loved "Real Love", and as many of you know, it inspired my short story "It's Real Life".
By Paul Levinson7 months ago in Beat
- Top Story - October 2023
Review of Bosch: Legacy 2.1-2.6Top Story - October 2023
I caught the first four episodes last week of the new (second) season of Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Prime Video, the post-Bosch series in which Harry has moved from LAPD to private investigator (still living and working in Los Angeles) and his daughter Maddie has joined the LAPD. I thought and said the original Bosch series was the best cop show on television, and the first season of Legacy was even better than Bosch. Well, so far the second season is sheer dynamite, emotionally, and in overall storyline and acting -- and even better than the first season. (Queue The Beatles' "It's Getting Better All the Time".)
By Paul Levinson7 months ago in Criminal
Review of Jack Dann's The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History
I've always had a keen love of alternate history science fiction. Amazon Prime Video's The Man in the High Castle series (2015-2019), a mostly brilliant adaptation of Philip K. Dick's path-breaking 1962 novel, in which the Axis won the Second World War, was pretty much from the moment I started watching it easily the best drama I've ever seen on television, and still is. (Here's an interview I did with Rufus Sewell in 2021 about the leading character he played in the series, one who wasn't in Dick's novel.)
By Paul Levinson7 months ago in Futurism
Review of "Love at First Sight"
Hey, I don't usually review romantic comedies -- or dramas -- but Love at First Sight has both of that, and even a touch of fantasy and philosophy, so the ninety-minute movie on Netflix was not only well worth watching but reviewing.
By Paul Levinson8 months ago in Humans
Review of Foundation Season 2 Finale
Well, you probably won't be surprised that I have mixed feelings about the Foundation Season 2 finale, up on Apple TV+ since September 15, but I've been so busy expanding my alternate history short story It's Real Life into a novel, I haven't had a chance to post my review of the Foundation Season 2 finale here until now. And, if you've been reading my reviews of this second season, you probably won't be surprised to find out that, although there were things I really didn't like in this episode, the things I did like were in the majority, if not in number of their appearances then in the intensity of the stories they conveyed.
By Paul Levinson8 months ago in Futurism
Review of Chris Cosmain's Novikov Windows
I'm going to here review a a very recently published, nearly 500-page time travel novel -- Chris Cosmain's Novikov Windows: A Time Travel Novel (that's the sub-title) -- I've just read, in two days. That should give you an idea of how compelling I think this novel is.
By Paul Levinson8 months ago in Futurism
Review of 'Foundation' 2.8-2.9
Well, finally an episode of Foundation -- 2.8 -- that's really firing on all cylinders. By which I mean, the Trantor parts and the other parts were nearly equal in power, and that power was impressive, answered all kinds of questions, and stood on the verge of answering more. So, good thing that two more episodes await us this season.
By Paul Levinson8 months ago in Futurism
Review of 'Reinventing Elvis: The ‘68 Comeback'
I just saw Reinventing Elvis: The ‘68 Comeback. The new documentary, narrated by Steve Binder -- about Elvis Presley's Comeback Special that aired on NBC back on December 3, 1968, directed by Steve Binder -- has been streaming on Paramount Plus since August 15, 2023 after opening two weeks earlier in theaters. The documentary did for me and my appreciation of Elvis what Peter Jackson's masterpiece The Beatles: Get Back did for me about The Beatles. Except The Beatles since the first time I heard (and saw) them on The Jack Paar Program in January 1964 have always been much higher in my estimation, more prominent in my life and love of music, at the pinnacle of that, in fact, than was and now is Elvis. But Peter Jackson's documentary both reaffirmed and lifted my connection to The Beatles, and Steve Binder's documentary did the same for me for Elvis, albeit at very different levels.
By Paul Levinson8 months ago in Beat
Review of 'Invasion' 2.1-2.2
Invasion -- the latest narrative that explores an H. G. Well's War of the Worlds scenario -- is back on Apple TV+ in the past two weeks with the first two episodes of its second season. Episode 2.1 is entitled "Something's Changed," but I don't think all that much has changed, unless change is defined as zooming into elements that were already there in the first season, which is fine with me.
By Paul Levinson9 months ago in Futurism