You would think that with a cast of Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, and Alec Baldwin you’d be able to make a pretty good movie. But, if you’re Cameron Crowe directing Aloha things are not going to turn out well. The romantic comedy isn’t comedic or romantic. The story about a billionaire launching a suspicious satellite is lame. Only the delightful Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone lighting up the movie screen saves this movie. GRADE: C
Matthew B. Crawford thinks our culture has become distracted (and in some cases, brain-dead). Smartphones aren’t making us smarter, Crawford argues. They’re reducing out attention span and preventing us from thinking clearly. I found Crawford’s analysis persuasive. My students are constantly texting. When Diane and I go out to a restaurant, almost all the diners have their smartphones on their tables (and check them frequently). A recent survey found students check their smartphones 700 times per day. All of this has consequences in the Real World and Crawford shows where this is leading. World Beyond Your Head is a disturbing book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface p. ix
Introduction: Attention as a Cultural Problem p. 3
Part I Encountering Things
1 The Jig, the Nudge, and Local Ecology p. 31
2 Embodied Perception p. 45
3 Virtual Reality as Moral Ideal p. 69
4 Attention and Design p. 79
5 Autism as a Design Principle: Gambling p. 89
Interlude: A Brief History of Freedom p. 113
Part II Other People
6 On Being Led Out p. 127
7 Encountering Things with Other People p. 141
8 Achieving Individuality p. 151
9 The Culture of Performance p. 161
10 The Erotics of Attention p. 169
11 The Flattening p. 181
12 The Statistical Self p. 195
Part III Inheritance
13 The Organ Makers’ Shop p. 209
Epilogue: Reclaiming the Real p. 247
Notes p. 259
Acknowledgments p. 285
Index p. 289
Back in the glory days of ACE Doubles, I always preferred the ACE Doubles that featured a single author. Many of these single-author ACE Doubles would have a novel on one side and a collection of short stories on the other. That was my favorite format. The Man With Nine Lives/A Touch of Infinity by Harlan Ellison (#D-413, 1960, $0.35) may have been the best (and most famous) of this type of ACE Double. In 1971, Ron Goulart’s ACE Double Clockwork’s Pirates and Ghost Breaker caught my attention. I’d read several of Goulart’s quirky SF novels and was delighted by this package, especially the nine short stories in Ghost Breaker. They have mystery elements that I enjoyed. I was reminded of Ron Goulart’s ACE Double by a fine review on Black Gate and was inspired to find my copy and reread it. Just click here to check it out.
GHOST BREAKER
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Who has the most Number One hits? No, not the Beatles. Not the Rolling Stones. Not Michel Jackson. It’s Mariah Carey. And all of her Number One songs are on this new CD. I feel sorry of Mariah Carey. She tried to transition from pop music diva to a movie star. But her movie, Glitter, opened the weekend after 9/11 and bombed. Mariah Carey’s career never recovered. Today, Mariah Carey is a marginalized artist who shows up on other rappers’ songs. But in the late 1980s and 1990s Carey was a hit machine. What’s your favorite Mariah Carey song?
TRACK LIST:
1 Vision Of Love (3:30)
2 Love Takes Time (3:49)
3 Someday (4:03)
4 I Don’t Wanna Cry (4:50)
5 Emotions (4:09)
6 I’ll Be There (4:25)
7 Dreamlover (3:54)
8 Hero (4:20)
9 Fantasy (Bad Boy Fantasy) – Ol’ Dirty Bastard (4:51)
10 One Sweet Day (4:42)
11 Always Be My Baby (4:19)
12 Honey (5:01)
13 My All (3:52)
14 Heartbreaker – Jay-Z (4:46)
15 Thank God I Found You – 98 Degrees (4:18)
16 We Belong Together (3:21)
17 Don’t Forget About Us (3:54)
18 Touch My Body (3:26)
19 Infinity (3:59)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Preface
Part I: Lessons from Investors
Chapter 1: The Day I Became and Adult: How Low Risk became High Risk
Chapter 2: Diagnoses for My Doctor: Diversifying can be tricky
Chapter 3: Dieting and Investing: A Broad Range of Ingredients will Keep Your Portfolio Healthy Chapter
4: Single Points of Failure (SPOF): How to Guard Against Financial Catastrophes
Chapter 5: My Randy Old Grandfather: What if you Live?
Chapter 6: It’s About Time: Understanding Financial Cycles So You Invest for the Long Haul
Chapter 7: How Am I Doing: How to Evaluate Fund and Portfolio Data?
Chapter 8: Balancing Greed versus Fear: Understanding the Emotions of Investing
Chapter 9: The Reversal of Nations: How Global Diversification is the New Safe
Part II: Investing Solutions
Chapter 10: Your Three Pockets: A Tool for Managing Money and Emotions
Chapter 11: The Risk Prism
Chapter 12: What’s Inside Your Pockets?
Chapter 13: Beyond Borders: Understanding How to Invest in International Markets
Chapter 14: What about your personal portfolio? – How to build and monitor your portfolio
Part III: FINDING THE ADVISOR YOU CAN TRUST
Chapter15: Who is Most Dangerous? It’s Who You Least Suspect
Chapter16: Where Do I Go For Advice? Brokers, Banks, Independent Investment Advisors, Financial Planners -Which one is right for me?
Chapter 17: The Naked Advisor: How Do I Select the Person?
Part IV: Final Words of Advice
Chapter 18: Final words of Advice – The Seven Critical Lessons
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Index
Diane and I finally caught up with Kenneth Branagh’s version of the classic Cinderella at our $3 movie theater. This Disney movie came out months ago and did very well by earning $521 million worldwide. Lilly James plays a fetching Cinderella while Cate Blanchett revels in the role of the Evil Stepmother. Helena Bonham Carter narrates the story and shows up as The Fairy Godmother. If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out on a well-crafted film with a first-rate cast. GRADE: B+
If you’re a fan of Soul Music, you’re going to enjoy Saun and Starr’s Look Closer. Saun and Starr have spent the last five years as backup singers for Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Now they get to step up to the mike and belt out some great soul songs (check out the sample below). My favorite song on this CD is “Sunshine (You’re Blowing My Cool), but all the songs are fun to listen to. Unless you go back and listen to your Motown CDs, you’re not going to hear music like this today. GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
1 Look Closer (Can’t You See the Signs?) (3:45)
2 Hot Shot (3:31)
3 Gonna Make Time (2:52)
4 Sunshine (You’re Blowin My Cool) (4:02)
5 If Only (3:36)
6 Another Love Like Mine (3:43)
7 Big Wheel (3:18)
8 Your Face Before My Eyes (2:07)
9 Dear Mr. Teddy (3:14)
10 In The Night (2:43)
11 Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah (4:29)
Brad Bird directs Tomorrowland like an action movie about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, Tomorrowland gets a little preachy. Britt Robertson (who played “Angie” in Under the Dome) portrays a precocious teenager named Casey Newton. Casey is given a Tomorrowland pin by a mysterious girl (Raffey Cassidy) with the unlikely name of Athena. When Casey touches the pin, she’s teleported to Tomorrowland. Of course, Tomorrowland is very very cool. Rockets blast off, folks fly around with jetpacks. But, something is afflicting both our world and Tomorrowland. Casey holds the key, but first she has to find George Clooney. Together, they have to take on the Bad Guy played by Hugh Laurie. Clooney and Laurie are not given enough to do. And, there needed to be more action and less talking in a movie like this. But, I was mildly entertained and you will be too. GRADE: B
I’ve read plenty of William Campbell Gault’s mysteries, but not many of his short stories. This Crippen & Landru collection from 2002 features an informative Introduction by Bill Pronzini and an Afterward by Shelley Gault. I really liked the Joe Puma tales in this book. And the non-series stories are very good, too. If you’re a William Campbell Gault fan, you probably already own this book. But if you’re a fan of classic private eye fiction, you’ll find a lot to like in Marksman & Other Stories.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Bill Pronzini
Non-Series Tales
“Marksman”
“They’d Die for Linda”
“Tin-Pan Alibi”
“Creature of Habit”
“Dead End for Delta”
“Conspiracy”
Joe Puma Stories
“The Unholy Three”
“Deadly Beloved”
“Down’t Crowd Your Luck”
“No Client of Mine”
“Stolen Star”
Afterword by Shelley Gault
Sources