Some years stand out as Special. Looking back, 1967–the year I graduated from High School in June and started my college education at Marquette University in September–qualifies as a Special Year. I was also writing passionate letters to my girl friend each week. She would send me perfumed letters in return that became the envy of the guys on my dorm floor. Life just seemed sharp, intense, and vivid that year. Everything felt amped up…I never felt more Alive!

The carry-over of all that emotion extended to and influenced my music listening experience. I listened to a lot of music in 1967 and continued to buy vinyl albums. You’ll notice the absence of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other British Invasion groups on this CD. They may not be represented on this TIME-LIFE CD but I was listening intently to all that music at the time, too.

Was 1967 a Special Year for you? Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

The subtitle of Gordon Van Gelder’s In Lands That Never Were is Tales of Swords and Sorcery From the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Van Gelder provides a mix of stories from the Very Famous, like Fritz Leiber’s iconic “Ill Met in Lankhmar” and Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp’s Conan tale, “The Hall of the Dead,” to more obscure stories like Yoon Ha Lee’s “Counting the Shapes.”

I enjoyed the Alaric story, “The Island in the Lake” by Phyllis Eisenstein, as the minstrel with the power to teleport becomes entangled in a Royal plot. Also fun is Jeffrey Ford’s “The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant” where a prolific Fantasy writer needs the help of his young assistant to regain touch with his invented World and its in habitants.

If you’re in the mood for some well-written fantasy stories full of adventure and thrills, give In the Lands That Never Were a try. GRADE: B+

Table of Contents:

Introduction — ix

Three weeks ago I started watching The Sandman on Netflix. I got through the first couple episodes (of 10 episodes) where The Sandman (aka, Dream) finally frees himself from over a century of confinement in the Waking World. Dream (Thomas Sturridge) returns to The Dreaming World and finds it in shambles because of his 106 year absence. With the help of Lucienne the Librarian (Vivienne Acheampong) and a raven (voiced by Patton Oswalt), Dream first seeks to recover his instruments of Power: his bag of Sand, his helm, and his ruby.

This seems like the beginning of a Quest, but the plot changes as new characters show up. The most menacing is The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a Nightmare who has escaped the Dream World to spread death in the Waking World.

Then there’s Dream’s descent into Lucifer’s (Gwendoline Christie) realm of Hell. We learn about the other powerful entities: Desire, Death, Despair, and Delirium.

Several other plot lines pop up. The most compelling is the vortex that can destroy the Waking World and the Dream World. A young woman named Rose Walker seeks to find her brother, Jed, who is being abused by a foster family. But, The Corinthian seeks Rose Walker, too, to use her vortex power to free himself.

Like a dream, sometimes The Sandman doesn’t make sense, is confusing, and lacks coherence. Although the production values are very good, the rambling plots and shifty characters make this series a chore to watch. I wish Neil Gaiman wrote the script . GRADE: C

I enjoyed the first volume in this series, Booze & Vinyl (you can read my review here), so I was excited to see another volume celebrating 70 great albums and 140 new mixed drink recipes.

Booze & Vinyl 2 presents an album and then suggests a couple of mixed drink recipes to make the enjoyment of the music an even more exciting experience. For example, on pages 24-25, The Pretenders first album–cunningly titled The Pretenders–has a Chrissie Hynde song called “Brass in Pocket.” Here’s the recipe for the mixed-drink “Brass in Pocket”:

1 1/2 ounces light rum

1 ounce dry vermouth

3/4 ounce creme de cacao

Cherry, for garnish

Stir rum, vermouth, and creme de cacao with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

I also liked the choice for Janis Joplin’s album (p 8-9), Pearl: a
“SoCo Sangria”:

1 (750 ml) bottle dry white wine, chilled

4 ounces Southern Comfort

8 ounces ginger ale, chilled

Combine all ingredients in a pitcher. Serve in glasses over ice.

If you want to explore 70 wonderful albums and 140 delicious mixed drinks, check out Booze & Vinyl 2. Do you have a favorite drink? GRADE: A

I got my flu shot at Rite Aid. While I was picking up some prescriptions for Diane and me, the pharmacist asked me if I wanted a flu shot. “They just came in,” he explained.

There was no one in line so I said, “Sure.” I filled out the paperwork and minutes later I got jabbed in my left arm. “This new flu formulation is supposed to last longer,” the pharmacist told me. Good to know.

Are you going to get a flu shot? When?

Fans of Orphan Black will be happy to see Tatiana Maslany back in an action series like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. I watched the first episode on Disney+ and basically it was an origin story of how Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), a practicing attorney, becomes the She-Hulk.

Mark Ruffalo (from Buffalo) returns as the Hulk to “mentor” Jennifer on how to deal with her new Hulk-iness. Jessica Gao serves as head writer with Kat Coiro leading the directing team.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law consists of nine episodes. It will be interesting to see how the storylines handle Jennifer Walters and her complicated life as a thirtysomething single attorney who also becomes the 6-foot-7-inch powerful green superhero, She-Hulk.

GRADE: Incomplete

John D. MacDonald’s many novels sold over 70 million copies. One of MacDonald’s strengths was his knowledge of business. Many times in the Travis McGee series, Travis will talk about the Stock Market and the Economy with his renown economist friend, Meyer. Business elements appear in many of MacDonald’s thrillers.

A Key to the Suite (1962) shows how business convention is run and how management uses conventions to evaluate their staffs. Floyd Hubbard is sent to a beach resort convention center to fire the head of Sales for the corporation, Jess Mulaney. But, Mulaney and his partner, Fred Frick, hire a high-class call girl to seduce Hubbard and then embarrass him in front of his colleagues. They figure that incident could save their jobs.

But nobody predicted the mayhem that would result when the plot goes off the rails. Dean R. Koontz, in his excellent Introduction to A Key to the Suite, praises John D. MacDonald’s ability to create believable settings for his novels. I found the details of the operation of a business convention fascinating. And, then there’s the dangerous plot to trick Floyd Hubbard on top of that. A Key to the Suite shows JDM at the top of his game. Do you have a favorite JDM novel? GRADE: A

I’m not a big fan of tribute albums. Most of the ones I’ve heard are mediocre. Forever Dusty, while enthusiastic, falls short. Frankly, I’d never heard of many of these groups and performers. Clearly, they love Dusty Springfield. But energy does always produce excellence. GRADE: C

If you’re a Dusty fan, I’d recommend you listen to Just Dusty which includes 25 of Dusty Springfield’s best songs, including a few obscure–but compelling–tunes. GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

• 1Laura Love Band – Son of a Preacher Man 3:23
• 2The Butchies – What’s It Gonna Be 2:18
• 3Indigo Girls – Broken Blossoms 3:19
• 4Jill Sobule – Just a Little Lovin ‘2:45
• 5Zrazy – How Can I Be Sure 3:04
• 6Gail Ann Dorsey – Losing You 3:42
• 7Marti Jones – You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me 3:10
• 8Michelle Malone & Karyn Folmar Malone – The Look of Love 3:37
• 9Vicki Randle – Wishin’ and Hopin’ 3:55
• 10Sonia – I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself 3:49
• 11Jennifer Kimball – Chained to a Memory 4:55
• 12Cath Carroll – No Easy Way Down 4:13
• 13Ana Egge – Breakfast in Bed 3:19
• 14Lord Douglas Phillips featuring Gretchen Phillips – Yesterday When I Was Young 3:21
• 15Sara Lee – I Only Want to Be With You 5:06
• 16Mrs. Fun featuring Janet Planet – Windmills of Your Mind 4:19
• 17Carole Pope – Soft Core 3:08

TRACK LIST:

1. Only Want to Be With You

2. Stay Awhile

3. I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself

4. Losing You

5. In the Middle of Nowhere

6. If You Go Away

7. Some of Your Lovin’

8. Little by Little

9. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me

10. Goin’ Back

11. Brand New Me

12. All I See Is You

13. I’ll Try Anything

14. Give Me Time

15. I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten

16. Son of a Preacher Man

17. How Can I Be Sure

18. Breakfast in Bed

19. Just One Smile

20. What Have I Done to Deserve This?

21. Nothing Has Been Proved

22. In Private

23. Spooky

24. Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

25. The Look of Love

26. Anyone Who Had a Heart

I had so much fun reading Groff Conklin’s Minds Unleashed SF anthology last week (you can read my review here), I thought I would follow it up another Conklin anthology, 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction from 1963.

Probably the most famous story in this anthology is Cordwainer Smith’s “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell,” one of the classic stories of the Instrumentality. Almost as famous is A. Bertram Chandler’s tricky story of alien detection, “The Cage.” And, I’ve always been fond of Robert Sheckley’s story of a future Mail-Order Bride, “Human Man’s Burden.”

Other very good stories include Fredric Brown’s dark short-short story, “Earthmen Bearing Gifts,” and Robert F. Young’s “Thirty Days Had September.” You just can’t go wrong reading a Groff Conklin anthology! GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• “Introduction” (Groff Conklin) — 5
• “Due Process” (Algis Budrys) — 9
• “Earthmen Bearing Gifts” (Fredric Brown) — 27
• “Things” (Zenna Henderson) — 30
• “The Top” (George Sumner Albee) — 38
• “My Object All Sublime” (Poul Anderson) — 48
• “Human Man’s Burden” (Robert Sheckley) — 57
• “On the Fourth Planet” (J. F. Bone) — 72
• “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell” (Cordwainer Smith) — 89
• “Thirty Days Had September” (Robert F. Young) — 110
• “The Cage” (A. Bertram Chandler) — 126
• “Star-Crossed Lover” (William W. Stuart) — 138
• “Immortality … for Some” (J. T. McIntosh) — 157

ROTTEN TOMATOES gives Marcel the Shell With Shoes On a 98% on the Tomatometer, and a 91% on the Audience Score. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a 2021 American mockumentary film directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (in his feature directional debut), who co-wrote the screenplay with Jenny Slate and Nick Paley. Jenny Slate voices Marcel in a delightful, unique way.

After Camp breaks up with his girlfriend (in Real Life it was Jenny Slate), Camp rents an apartment and finds Marcel the Shell. Marcel’s world is basically the apartment and the yard outside. Camp decides to document Marcel’s actions on film and the result is this mockumentary.

Marcel’s family has disappeared and Marcel asks Camp to help him locate them. Camp puts Marcel’s appeal on the Internet. Most of the viewers are of no help, but the producer of 60 Minutes contacts Marcel to see if he will appear on the CBS program and tell his story of his missing family.

Things get even more wacky when Leslie Stahl shows up! If you’re in the mood for an “outside-the-box” film, check out the trailer of Marcel the Shell With Shoes On below. GRADE: B+