I finally caught up with watching SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS on Disney+. Director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy and The Glass Castle) stresses family connections in this unusual MARVEL movie. A young Asian man, Shaun (Simu Liu), emerges from his self-imposed exile after an explosive incident on a San Francisco bus. Shaun’s best friend, Katy (Awkwafina), discovers Shaun has been hiding from his powerful warlord father. Shaun and Katy travel to Macau to warn Shaun’s sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), that her life is danger.

Shaun’s father, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung Chin-wai), wields The Ten Rings which give him superpowers. Xu is determined to “rescue” his dead wife and plans an armed incursion into a neighboring dimension where he believes his wife is held hostage.

Shaun, Xialing, and Katy embark on a strange journey that brings both enlightenment and death. If you’re looking for an off-beat MARVEL movie that expands the MCU, I recommend SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS. GRADE: A

In his excellent “Introduction,” Michael Moorcock provides a grand overview of the Sexton Blake series that has been popular with British readers from 1893 to 1978, comprising more than 4,000 stories by some 200 different authors. This Big Fat volume, 757 pages, provides a rich sampling of Sexton Blake series over its long history. Several of the best Sexton Blake writers are represented here.

Editor George Mann mixes short stories with longer Sexton Blake adventures to capture a good sense of the best of the series. If you’re interested in a classic British detective, this is the book you should start with. GRADE: A

Acknowledgements

Publisher’s Note

Introduction by Michael Moorcock — 12

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

A Duel to the Death/Anthony Scene — 18

Well Matched/Ernest Sempill — 58

Waldo the Wonder-Man/Edwy Searles Brooks — 65

The Bar Diamond/Ernest Stempill — 103

The Sacred Sphere/GH Teed — 110

Parried!/Ernest Sempill — 204

The Great Bank Fraud/Lewis Cartron — 211

Quits!/Ernest Stempill — 265

The Boundary Raiders/Andrew Murray — 271

The Removal of Mr. Soames/Ernest Sempill — 316

The Inari Treasure/Cecil Hayter — 323

The Case of the Louis Quinze Snuff-Box/Ernest Sempill — 368

Tinker’s Terrible Test/Andrew Murray — 374

Abducted!/Ernest Sempill — 424

The Gnomid/Gilbert Chester — 431

Blake Scores!/Ernest Sempill — 471

Lord of the Ape-Men/Robert Murray — 478

A Mysterious Disappearance/Cecil Hayter — 516

A Mystery in Motley/Anthony Skene — 523

Trapped!/Ernest Sempill — 561

Suspended From Duty/Gwyn Evans — 568

The Great Bridge Tunnel Mystery/Ernest Sempill — 604

They Shall Repay!/GH Teed — 612

Found Guilty!/Ernest Sempell — 618

The Next Move/GH Teed, Gwyn Evans, Robert Murray, Anthony Skene — 655

The Christmas Cavilier/Gwyn Evans — 747

Bibliography — 755

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We’re in New York City to spend Thanksgiving and the weekend with Patrick (and see his new apartment), Katie (who took the train down from Boston), and our niece Elise (a National Labor Relations Board lawyer from Washington, D.C.). We have tickets for the Rockettes and Broadway shows Tina and Six. Next Monday we’ll be enjoying Brunch with Jeff and Jackie Meyerson! Hopefully, the Bills (inexplicably favorited over Deb’s Saints by 4 points) don’t embarrass themselves on National TV tonight.

What’s happening at your Thanksgiving?

This collection of Science Fiction stories, first published in 1993, could have easily been titled The Best of Harry Harrison. The book leads off with “The Streets of Ashkelon” (aka, “An Alien Agony”), a story that caused a sensation when it appeared in 1962 because it featured an atheist. “Survival Planet” has overtones of Harrison’s famous Deathworld series.

Harrison displays his snarky humor in “Brave Newer World” and “The Secret of Stonehenge.” I’m also fond of “The Mothballed Spaceship.”

If you check out the cover of Stainless Steel Visions, you’ll see “Featuring a New Stainless Steel Rat Story!” near the bottom. That would seem to be the motivation for the title even though the Stainless Steel Rat–Harrison’s best known character and the star of a series of SF novels about an interstellar thief–only appears in one story in this collection. No matter. This collection brings together several of Harrison’s best short stories for you to enjoy. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction –7

The streets of Ashkelon — 13
Toy shop — 33
Not me, not Amos Cabot! — 41
The mothballed spaceship — 53
Commando raid — 73
The repairman — 87
Brave newer world — 105
The secret of Stonehenge — 149
Rescue operation — 155
Portrait of the artist — 175
Survival planet — 187
Roommates — 205
The golden years of the stainless steel rat — 235

While the Buffalo Bills were getting bashed by Jonathan Taylor–scoring five touchdowns–in the rain, Diane and I traveled to the Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo to visit Margaritaville. Escape to Margaritaville is a juke-box musical featuring Jimmy Buffett songs and some romantic comedy.

Jimmy Buffett showed up to the opening performance last week while Diane and I enjoyed the final performance of this tour. Plenty of singing and dancing. Buffett’s music propels the plot–two quirky guys fall for two quirky girls who come to visit their island–and provides humor with a large dollop of fun. If you want to leave the Pandemic and political nonsense behind for a couple of hours, check out Escape to Margaritaville when it travels to cruise ships and Las Vegas in 2022. Are you a Jimmy Buffett fan? GRADE: B

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

I’m a fan of Martha Wells’ Murderbot series about a SECURITY UNIT robot who hacks his governor module and goes rogue. The books are all narrated by the snarky SecUnit as it tries to take advantage of being freed from the software shackles of corporations.

In Fugitive Telemetry (2021), SecUnit investigates a murder on a space station. The murder leads SecUnit to discover the space station software was hacked and death could be around the corner. I’m always fond of SF novels with mysteries in them and Fugitive Telemetry had me guessing right up to the end. GRADE: A-

If you’d like to read my reviews of the previous five books in the series, just clink here, here, here, here, and here. Highly recommended!

On January 9, 2021, the Indianapolis Colts came to Buffalo to win a Wildcard Playoff game…and they nearly did. The final score was 27-24 and Philip Rivers almost pulled the game out with a last second Hail Mary throw. Fortunately, the Bills secondary learned from the Hail Murray throw a few week prior to this game and defended the pass.

Today, the Colts come to town with their season hanging in the balance. One analytics website calculates that if the Colts beat the Bills today, the Colts have a 50% chance of making the Playoffs. However, if the Colts lose to the Bills today, their Playoff chances plummet to 14%. The Bills are 7-point favorites. But rain is in the forecast and that will help the running game of the Colts. How will your favorite NFL fare today?

Ghostbusters Afterlife is Director and co-writer Jason Reitman’s homage to his father, Irvin Reitman–and his most famous movie, 1984’s Ghostbusters.

A struggling single mother named Callie (Carrie Coon) learns her estranged father had died and willed her a farmhouse outside Summerville, Oklahoma. Callie loads her few possessions and her two teenage kids–Trevor (Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things) and brilliant Phoebe (McKenna Grace). As soon as the family arrives at the isolated house, strange things start to happen: chess pieces move by themselves, weird noises and flashing lights appear out of nowhere.

The 2021 Sexiest Man Alive, Paul Rudd, provides some humor and a love interest for Callie. Tracey Letts (Coon’s real-life playwright/actor husband) gets a cameo as does Annie Potts.

Gozer, the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster return to prepare for the conquest of the Earth. The kids learn their grandfather was famed Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis) and he predicted an apocalyptic event for 2021. Only Trevor, Phoebe, and their friends can stop the cosmic destruction! Break out the ECTO-1 and proton packs! I loved the original Ghostbusters and this silly update captures a scintilla of the iconic film. Are you a fan of the Ghostbusters? GRADE: B-

I’ve been a big fan of Mike Ashley’s British Library series of Science Fiction Classics. Ashley’s newest volume, Future Crimes: Mysteries and Detection Through Time and Space, collects some intriguing SF mystery stories, some of them a bit obscure since Ashley likes to focus on UK SF writers for these anthologies.

I found this story analysis online by Anissa Annalise whose opinions of these stories coincides closely with mine. Are you familiar with any of these stories? GRADE: A-

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by Mike Ashley — 7

“Elsewhen” by Anthony Boucher – Great story in which experimenter Mr. Partridge concocts a time machine and uses it for nefarious purposes. The clever bit here is in the investigator, one Fergus O’Breen who in trying to solve it & prove Partidge’s guilt happens into a unique pocket which Partridge created for his alibi and ultimately himself fell victim to. — 13

“Puzzle for a Spacemen” by John Brunner- Another clever story in which a psychologist needs to get to the bottom of a murder and enlists a reluctant station chief. For the chief’s part, he just wants the psychologist to reclaim the dead body and get off his station so that tensions ease and work can continue. — 53

“Legwork” by Eric Frank Russell- Not a fave and a bit overlong but did excellently show the investigative process and “legwork” of different agencies is tracking a bank robber who happens to be an alien who has arrived as reconnaissance and to destroy humans. — 85

“Mirror Image” by Isaac Asimov- Esteemed mathematicians both claim work and that the other has stolen it. To make matters more difficult, their robot attendant backs up each of their claims. The Three Laws of Robotics come into play. Lije Baley is backed to suss this out by his robot friend, Daneel Olivaw. Very tidy. — 147

“The Flying Eye” by Jacques Futrelle- No actual crime takes place in this story nor any real detective work but it was a reasonably good short story. Points for early stealth tech. — 169

“Nonentity” by E.C. Tubb- Great story. A sabotage on a ship leads to a lifeboat situation. with an ultimately grisly end. I can’t give this one away and it may be my favourite in the bunch. It was easy to suss out what was going on but I think at the time this was written, it may have been quite a surprise. — 187

“Death of Telepath” by George Chailey- Telepathy not being my thing, this wasn’t a fave but was a well done story. — 213

“Murder, 1986” by P.D. James- A quiet story of a murder investigation during a pandemic. The glimpse into the society and also interesting ideas on what one may or may not do for the love of another. Also what constitutes a worthwhile life, what is done with the time had or how long a time one has. I really liked this one. — 221

“Apple” by Anne McCaffrey- A telepathy and pre-cog abilities story which was fine. — 249

“The Absolutely Perfect Murder” by Miriam Allen deFord- In which Mervin Alspaugh of the year 2146 has his perfect plan go awry because of his mistake in believing in a lie. A great story and a great one to end on. — 287

Story Sources — 301

Bob Dylan may have set the record for issuing “archive” albums of his songs. Dylan’s Bootleg Series is up to 14 volumes so far. Joni Mitchell’s Archives, Volume One: The Early Years (1963-1967) shows an artist trying to find her way in the singing profession. Mitchell starts with many traditional songs as well as some standards.

Things start to change with CD 2 when Joni Mitchell starts writing songs and singing them. “The Circle Game” became a hit for Tom Rush and opened doors for Joni Mitchell. CD 3 opens with one of Joni Mitchell’s biggest hits, a song that’s been covered by other singers for decades: “Both Sides Now.” My favorite song from CD 4 is “Chelsea Morning.” CD 5 offers variant arrangements and remixes.

I’m listening to Joni Mitchell Archives, Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971), another 5-CD collection. It was just released. I’ll post my reactions to it in a couple of weeks. Are you a Joni Mitchell fan? Do you like and buy Archive CDs? GRADE: A

Track listing:

All tracks are written by Joni Mitchell, except where noted.^[3][4]

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Disc 4

Disc 5