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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 (701/0)
Review of 'Kindred'
Just binged Kindred on Hulu the past two nights. It's a time travel story unlike anything I've ever seen or read (I haven't read the Octavia Butler* novel from which it's adapted). And it's powerful, beautiful, tender, and tough, and altogether superb.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Criminal Minds: Evolution 16.1-16.4
So, I saw the first episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution aka Criminal Minds Season 16 on CBS and thought it was ok. Last night I watched the next three episodes (16.2-16.4) and thought they were superb. So much so that I think this could be the best season of Criminal Minds in its long run.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Buddy Holly and Sir Cricket's
Ok, this is about food not music, though good food and music go hand-in-hand. But, just to be clear, this is a not a post about Buddy Holly, much as I love his music, ever since I first heard it, back as a kid in the late 1950s. (I mean, "Maybe Baby" is one of my all-time favorite recordings.) But I just couldn't resist using his name in a post about Sir Cricket's on the Cape (Cape Cod, Route 6, Orleans, MA). On the other hand, you will feel like rock 'n' rolling after having the fried clams, fresh tuna sandwich, fish tacos, just about anything that Sir Cricket's dishes out.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Feast
White Tea
You may know me as an author of a dozen books and a writer here of science fiction and reviews about television shows and movies. People often ask me what I'm drinking when I'm writing, when I'm watching television, when I'm writing about watching television. Come to think of it, I'm drinking it right now...
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Feast
Why the "Flowers Never Bend" Performance in The Orville 3.9 Will Last Forever
This sweet soulful rendition by Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) and Ensign Charly Burke (Anne Winters) of Simon & Garfunkel's "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" this past July on the 9th episode of the 3rd Season of The Orville certainly wasn't the first vocal performance in a TV drama or comedy that wasn't a musical. It's not even the first sustained singing in a Star Trek or Star Trek inspired TV show. Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) sang "Beyond Antares" in a memorable scene with Spock (in "The Conscience of the King,” episode 1.13 of the original Star Trek series in December 1966) and a couple of other times on the USS Enterprise on network television back then.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Greg Bear, RIP
Greg Bear, author of more than 50 science fiction books, left us yesterday at the too-young age of 71. I'll leave it to others to detail the superb, riveting stories he told us in those books, and tell you instead about three significant ways he had a personal impact on my life. I was always happy to run into him at a science fiction convention, but these three encounters were more than that.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Peripheral' 1.4-1.5
Who took Lev's tea? The disappearance of his tea in episode 1.4 of The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video was an another signalic moment, just like the coffee container materializing in thin air in what now seems like a much earlier episode. The tea gone and the coffee appearing just like that symbolize the immense forces at play in this so far delicately powerfully rendered series, which as far as I can tell so far hasn't missed a step. (Reminder: I haven't read the book.)
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Spector
I watched all four episodes of Spector on Showtime last night, and there were things I didn't like in this documentary portrayal of both Phil Spector's career as a rock music producer and more so his trials for the murder of Lana Clarkson. But before I tell you about that, let me offer this disclosure of my relationship to Phil Spector, and what I thought of his music.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Beat
Inside Man
So, I just binged Inside Man on Netflix. It's easy to binge, it's only four episodes. But, more important, it's a verging on insane, fast ride of a murder story -- actually more than one murder story -- and it touches on all kinds of life and death issues. It also probes the meaning of parental love, and even has some lethal comedy throw in. Truth is, I've never seen anything like. And you should, too. It's that good, that unique, and memorable in all kinds of ways.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
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