“The truth is never pure and rarely simple.” That truism permeates Oscar Wilde’s classic, The Importance of Being Earnest. Diane and I drove into the heart of Buffalo to view this play at the Irish Classical Theater Company’s wonderful venue. It was a “masked” performance so all the audience wore face coverings.

The play concerns two Victorian gents who are friends who share a tendency to fabricate. Algernon Moncrieff (Ben Michael Moran), who says that truth is never pure and rarely simple, has invented a sick friend named “Bunbury” who he has to visit occasionally in the country (which gets him out of social occasions in London that he disdains). Algernon’s friend John Worthing (Josh Wilde) has invented a rascal of a brother named “Ernst” which allows him an excuse to leave the country and go the London.

Both men fall in love with women who share a similar passion: they want to fall in love with a man named “Ernst.” Melinda Capeles as Gwendolen and Renee Landrigan as Cecily are both dazzling as the love interests. Chris Kelly (no relation) is convincing as the formidable Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen and the key to everyone’s possible happiness. This is a great play that in this case was very well acted. Are you an Oscar Wilde fan? GRADE: A

Megan Abbott foreshadows the extreme events in Beware the Woman when her main character Jacy thinks about a reoccurring dream she’s had since childhood featuring Captain Murderer. A very pregnant Jacy and her husband Jed travel to the isolated Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As soon as you read the word no Wi-Fi and no cell bars you just know Something is Going to Go Very Wrong.

And you would be right. Jacy has a health scare. Of course, being in the middle of Nowhere means very few medical options. Fortunately, Jed’s father, Doctor Ash, is there to provide medical assistance. But, Jacy senses Something Isn’t Right.

Family secrets, amped up tension, Jacy’s suspicions, and the extreme isolation all come together in a shattering conclusion. Megan’s new novel will have you losing sleep because you can’t put down Beware the Woman and then you’ll be losing sleep after you finish its haunting ending! GRADE: A

The production geniuses at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 2 took a Big Risk with the first episode by sending Captain Pike (Anson Mount) to different quadrant of the Galaxy. Pike leaves Spock (Ethan Peck) in charge of the Enterprise which is getting much need upgrades and repairs at a space station.

When a distress call from a former Enterprise crew member is ignored by the Star Fleet bureaucracy, Spock decides to “steal” the Enterprise and check out the situation. Spock and the crew discover a “false flag” operation underway to restart the Klingon-Federation war.

I enjoyed last year’s First Season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (you can read my review here). This 10-episode season (new episodes will be released on Thursday from now to August 17) promises to be even better. A third season has already been ordered. GRADE: INCOMPLETE (but trending towards A)

The most moving moment of the first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 2 was this heart-felt tribute to Nichelle Nichols at the end:

For Nichelle

Who was First through the door

and showed us the stars.

Hailing Frequencies Forever open…

In Blonde Bait (Black Gat Book #47) by Stephen Marlowe, 29-year-old ski instructor, Chuck Odlum, feels like sex toy. Odlum’s rich and beautiful wife, Inez, owns a ski resort, where Odlum teaches classes in skiing and helps to maintain the ski trails. But Odlum’s relationship with his new wife remains on the physical level only. He wants Something More.

The Something More turns up as ski resort newbie, Bunny Kemp. Bunny is a young blonde and likes men. Bunny first seduces the dog-sled instructor, Jack McCall. Then, she turns her attention to Odlum.

Odlum and Bunny begin a passionate affair, but Bunny offers more than sex. She confides to Odlum that her husband Orin has $117,000 in non-sequential bills in his possession: one of the missing bags of money from a recent New York kidnapping.

Bunny and Odium come up with a plan to take the money, avoid a crooked cop, and escape from the broken marriages they both are trapped in. But a massive snowstorm hits the area, and that changes the plan by introducing new deadly factors and dangers.

Blonde Bait delivers a crime drama full of erotic obsession, greed, desperation, and murder in one of Stephen Marlowe’s most intense novels. Blonde Bait will lure you into a story full of danger! GRADE: B+

80s Sight + Sound, a Time-Life CD/DVD set from 2006, captures some of the pop sensibilities of that decade. Several of the most popular groups–Duran Duran, Roxy Music, and Blondie–are included. Also, one of the most popular artists–Billy Idol.

In the 1980s, I watched a lot of MTV because I liked many of the creative music videos of that era. Of course, that mode of music marketing crashed and burned a decade later. But the DVD in this set offers some of the most popular music videos of that time. I’ve always liked Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” (although my favorite J. Geils Band song is “I Do.”)

Do you remember these songs from the 1980s? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

I started watching DOCTOR WHO on our local Public Broadcasting Station back in the 1970s and have stuck with The Doctor–in the many regenerations–over the decades. But, in all those episodes, some silly and some serious, the most frightening episodes to me involved the Weeping Angels.

The Weeping Angels are an incredibly powerful species of quantum-locked humanoids who resemble stone statues. The Weeping Angels can only move when no one is looking at them.

This explains why the Weeping Angels often covered their faces with their hands to prevent trapping each other in petrified form for eternity by looking at one another and gave the Weeping Angels their distinct “weeping” appearance.

In the DOCTOR WHO episodes where Matt Smith played The Doctor, The Weeping Angels were presented as “kind” murderous psychopaths, eradicating their victims “mercifully” by dropping them into the past and letting them live out their full lives, just in a different time period. This, in turn, allowed the Weeping Angels to live off the remaining time energy of the victim’s life. However, when this potential energy paled in comparison to an alternative power source to feed on, the Weeping Angels were known to kill by other means, such as snapping their victims’ necks.

In this “Quick Read” story, Magic of the Angels, Jacqueline Rayner complicates a vacation in contemporary London by The Doctor and his companions, Amy, and Rory, when they witness a magic show where a young girl vanishes. The Doctor discovers the magician is using a Weeping Angel to make young girls disappear. But, stopping a Weeping Angel is complicated. Are you a Doctor Who fan? GRADE: B

Diane and I drove to Shea’s Performing Arts Center to see Jagged Little Pill. I liked the original Alanis Morissette album from 1995. This musical, with additional Morissette music, centers around Mary Jane Healy, an apparently successful Connecticut mother of a son who has just been accepted to Harvard, and a socially-committed adopted daughter, and a workaholic husband. But Mary Jane, after being injured in an automobile accident, has become addicted to opioid painkillers. Things start to spiral out of control.

This touring company included the star of the Broadway production, Heidi Blickenstaff as Mary Jane. Blickenstaff delivers an incredible performance in a role that demands an astonishing vocal range and a wide dramatic range from comedy to despair. Chris Hoch, as Mary Jane’s absentee husband, finally realizes his wife has a problem. Lauren Chanel, as the troubled adopted daughter, shows the vulnerability and confusion of a 16-year-old. Dillon Klena, the Harvard accepted son, finds himself in a disastrous situation. I also liked Jade McLeod as Jo, a lesbian dealing with a religious, unaccepting mother. Great cast!

My only quibble is that Diablo Cody’s book for this musical doesn’t generate many surprises. If you like Alanis Morissette’s emotional songs and moody lyrics, you’ll enjoy Jagged Little Pill: The Musical. GRADE: B+

Cast recording:

At the 2021 Grammy Awards, the cast recording album won Best Musical Theater Album.

In the fall of 2022, Atlantic records released one new, stand-alone track featuring Heidi Blickenstaff and the original Broadway cast singing “Uninvited.”

There have been plenty of Science Fiction Private Eyes (here’s a list of 55 of them). Add to that number Cal Sounder who specializes in cases involving Titans. Titans are humans who have taken the wonder drug T7 that not only cures most diseases and injuries, it extends the Life of the beneficiary to near-immortal levels.

The police have called Cal Sounder in when a Titan is found dead in his apartment from a gunshot wound. Suicide…or murder? Sounder decides it’s murder and undertakes his wild investigation: “…a scientist murdered under an alias, a cage match, a gunshot wound, a dead lounge singer, a dead police officer, an exploded police station, stolen internal organs containing encrypted nuclear grade kompromat, and my ex-girlfriends cousin….mutliated, bleeding, and pissed off on my office carpet.” (p. 191) As you see, a lot happens in Titanium Noir.

The future with genetically enhanced Titans is not a pleasant place. If you can basically live forever, you have plenty of ways to become immensely rich. And corrupt. Cal Sounder takes a lot of punishment from various suspects in Titanium Noir, but also delivers his share of violence. If you’re a fan of noir and SF, this blend may agree with you. Are you fan of noir? GRADE: B

John Madden’s NFL video game has been around for over 30 years. Madden NFL (known as John Madden Football from 1988 until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. 

Originally, John Madden was on the cover of the game until 1994. Then, Madden NFL started featuring NFL players on the cover of the game. No Buffalo Bills player ever made the cover of Madden NFL…until now.

Buffalo Bills Quarterback Josh Allen was chosen to be on the cover of Madden NFL 24 along with another First: Buffalo Bills fans (aka, Bills Mafia). No fans ever appeared on the cover of Madden NFL until now.

Some Bills fans are worried about the Madden Curse (some players who have been on the cover of Madden NFL found themselves injured or playing sub-par). I think Josh Allen and Bills Mafia will have a great season! What do you think?