The research regarding the power of green tea and red wine in disrupting the formation of cancer cells is persuasive. So now I’m drinking a glass of red wine and a bottle of green tea each day so I can live to be 300 and keep on blogging. I’ve tried various green teas and prefer Honest Tea’s Green Tea with Honey. It only contains 8 grams of carbs so it’s not going to spike anybody’s blood sugar. And it tastes refreshing. Honest Tea has several options for green tea: Community Green Tea with Maltese Orange, Just Green Tea Unsweetened, and Green Dragon Tea, for example. And there’s poetry under the bottle cap! Can’t beat that. If you want to check out the Honest Tea web site, click here.

Renee Fleming is a world-class vocalist, but this CD of pop songs fails on several levels. Many of the songs are dull and boring, for example, “Endlessly” and “No One’s Gonna Love You.” Fleming doesn’t project any enthusiasm for these songs. The most listenable songs on this CD are “In Your Eyes,” “Stepping Stone,” and “Hallelujah.” But none of these songs come close to Renee Fleming’s performances on Verismo, for example. Listening to Renee Fleming on Dark Hope is like driving a Ferrari at 20 miles per hour. GRADE: C+
PLAY LIST:
1 Endlessly 3:59
2 No One’s Gonna Love You 3:41
3 Oxygen 4:15
4 Today 3:22
5 Intervention 4:19
6 With Twilight As My Guide 5:33
7 Mad World 3:53
8 In Your Eyes 5:01
9 Stepping Stone 3:26
10 Soul Meets Body 3:11
11 Hallelujah 7:39

“Country noir” exudes from Daniel Woodrell’s grim Winter’s Bone. Set in the Ozarks, Ree Dolly, a teenager whose father has disappeared, is forced to try to find him. Jessup Dolly, known for his skill at brewing methamphetamine, has signed his property over to the bail bondsmen. If Ree doesn’t find Jessup, the shack that she, her two brothers, and their mentally disturbed mother share will be lost if Jessup doesn’t show up for his hearing. Doggedly, Ree searches for her missing father, but the suspicious and closed clannish culture gives her little assistance. Some have compared Ree Dolly to Mattie Ross in True Grit. I don’t agree. Ree resembles a character from a bleak Raymond Carver story. I’m eager to see the movie version of this stark novel. GRADE: B

This engaging remake of the classic 1984 original features Will Smith’s talented son, Jaden Smith, as Dru Parker. Dru and his mother move to China (she’s transferred because of her job). Dru immediately runs afoul of some thuggish teens. After taking a lot of physical punishment at their hands, Dru decides to learn karate. He finds an unlikely teacher: the maintenance man in his apartment building, Mr. Han (played by the genial Jackie Chan) who just happens to be a kung-fu master. Some of the training takes place in the scenic area around The Great Wall. Very nice. The story is predictable, but Jaden Smith’s charisma will carry you through to the exciting conclusion. GRADE: B+

For those of us in withdrawal from the cancellation of 24, help might be on its way tonight. Rubicon is an new TV series created by Jason Horwitch that’s scheduled to air on the AMC cable network. The series concerns an analyst at a national think tank who discovers that his employers may be part of a secret society that manipulates world events on a grand scale (sounds a bit like the movie The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon that’s supposed to be released on September 17). The series stars James Badge Dale, Lili Taylor, Miranda Richardson, Dallas Roberts, Christopher Evan Welch, Paul Butler and Peter Gerety. The series will debut on AMC on August 1, 2010 at 8:00 P.M. E.D.T. however AMC is giving us a sneak peek tonight at 11:00 P.M. E.D.T. I’m going to check it out. Check your listings for times in your area.

Loud explosions, gun-fire, lots of CGI, and outlandish stunts. That’s pretty much what you’ll see in this movie version of The A-Team based loosely on the popular TV series (more on that later) from the 1980s. In this version, the four soldiers are framed and sent to prison. They break out in an eye-blink and are busy stealing equipment as part of an elaborate, incoherent plan to clear their reputations. Liam Neeson plays Hannibal (the planner), Bradley Cooper plays “Face” (the cute guy), Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson from Mixed Martial Arts plays B. A. Baracus (made famous by Mr. T), Sharlto Copley plays Murdock (the crazy pilot). The filming is as jumpy as an MTV video. You might want to wait for this to come to cable. GRADE: C
If you’re a big fan of The A-Team TV series, then you’ll want to take a look at THE COMPLETE A-TEAM on 16 DVDs that are packaged in a replica of The A-Team’s signature black van. Very cool and only $100!

All right, I confess. I bought this book because of the great Brom cover. And I had a 40% BORDERS coupon. I’m doing all this tap-dancing because I really can’t recommend this book. “Queen of the Black Coast,” “Jewels of Gwalhur,” and “The Devil in Iron” are not the strongest Conan stories. The best Conan the Barbarian book now available is published by DEL REY: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. Of course, this edition lacks the great Frazetta paintings, but you can find them elsewhere. What are included are the best of the Conan stories, 463 pages worth, for less than $12 (on AMAZON). A bargain! Of course, I read Conan as Lancer Books (remember them?) brought out those classic paperbacks with the unforgettable covers. So skip “…and their memory was a bitter tree…” and invest in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. If you haven’t read these wonderful stories of swords & sorcery, you’re in for a treat. If you haven’t read these classic stories in a while, you’ll find they hold up well. Robert E. Howard knew how to write a gripping adventure story.

I’ve been a fan of Diane Ravitch for decades. It seemed like Ravitch was one of the few national figures who “got it” on education issues. But then she joined the Bush Administration and drank the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Kool-Aid. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education tells Ravitch’s story of how she came to her senses. My favorite chapter in Ravitch’s book is “What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?” Mrs. Ratliff was Diane Ravitch’s favorite teacher when she was in High School. Mrs. Ratliff was demanding and piled on the work. She did not teach “self-esteem.” She taught Literature and Composition to teenagers. No multiple choice tests, no fill in the blanks. The students were required to write essays on a regular basis. Mrs. Ratliff taught Shakespeare, Dickens, Kipling, Keats, Johnson, Hardy, and other literary heavy-weights. No dumbed down readings. Ravitch confesses that she bought in to the educational testing that has so warped teaching today. Teach to the test! What a waste of time! Ravitch also was an early proponent of charter schools, but now sees that they aren’t being regulated so the education most of those kids are getting is zilch. I’m glad Ravitch came to her senses. GRADE: B+

I confess: I was late to appreciating GLEE. Diane loved the FOX show from the start. She kept telling me how much fun it was to watch this rag-tag group of misfits who would suddenly burst into song until she wore down my resistance. The first couple episodes I watched didn’t grab me, but I slowly got involved with the high school student characters and their hapless (but earnest) teacher, Will Schuester, played by Matthew Morrison. My favorite character is the sadistic Sue Sylvester, played by the talented Jane Lynch. Lynch, as head coach of the “Cheerios” cheerleading squad, is the Glee Club’s arch-nemesis. Guest stars include Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Groban, Olivia Newton-John, and Idina Menzel. There is so little innovation or creativity on television right now, GLEE manages qualify as “cutting edge” in these frivolous times.