Diane and I flew on jetBlue to New York City on Thanksgiving (the flight was super discounted!). The cab ride from JFK to Patrick’s new apartment in Brooklyn took an hour and a half! But, Patrick, Katie, and their friends cooked us a delicious Thanksgiving feast: scalloped potatoes, turkey, cranberry jello salad, green beans, lasagna, and squash soup. Desserts: apple pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie.

Patrick now works out of the Chelsea GOOGLE office so he decided north Brooklyn was the best option for him for apartment living. The apartment building Patrick lives in is only five years old and very nice. Grand view of the City!

Katie took the train down from Boston and our niece, Elise, took the train up from Washington, D. C. Elise is a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board. This was her first trip since the Pandemic. Diane, Katie, Elise, and I stayed at the Marriott Renaissance hotel in Times Squire since we had tickets to TINA (the Tina Turner musical), The Rockettes, and SIX (a musical about the six wives of Henry VIII).

By the size of the crowds in Times Square, you’d have no idea a Pandemic was raging here and abroad (watch out for the Omicron Variant!). NYC demands both ID and a vaccination card for admittance to restaurants and plays. And…masks.

The highlight of our visit to NYC was brunch at the wonderful Clinton Street Baking Company with Jeff and Jackie Meyerson. The food and the conversation were delightful!

Do you have any travel plans?

If you put Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Pirates of the Caribbean (only the first one), Romancing the Stone, and The African Queen in a blender, you’d get Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Yes, this movie is based on the legendary Disney ride and stars Emily Blunt as an intrepid scientist named Lily Houghton searching for a mythical cure-all called “Tears of the Moon.” The action is set in 1916 with World War I raging. A German Prince also wants the “Tears of the Moon” for evil purposes. So, the race is on to the Amazon to find the mysterious magical MacGuffin.

Dwayne Johnson (aka, The Rock) plays a riverboat captain called Frank who has a lot of baggage in his Past. Johnson’s character is perfect for his slapstick wit and proclivity for action. Lily can’t stand Frank, but ends up hiring him to take her down the Amazon with the fiendish German Prince chasing them.

There’s plenty of action and silliness in Jungle Cruise. But, I’ll watch anything with Emily Blunt it in. And, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a High Adventure movie. Enjoyable and fun! GRADE: B+

Kelefa Sanneh’s Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres sets out to map the development of Rock, R&B, Country, Punk, Hip-Hop, Dance, and Pop music over the past 50 years. All the major groups and solo performers face Kelefa Sanneh’s analysis. The result, a least for me, is a list of music I need to re-listen to. And, of course, buying more music CDs that I somehow missed!

I liked the chapter on R&B music the best. Sanneh traces the origins of “Black music” as it morphed into Motown music. Barry Gordy’s vision of making groups like The Supremes and The Temptations mainstream worked. I did not know the story of Smokey Robinson’s A Quiet Storm album that not only created a “Quiet Storm” radio format, but also fostered the development of “Smooth Jazz.” In the 1970s, “Smooth Jams” became popular and I’ve been one of the eager listeners to that genre.

Even if you’re not a fan of Country & Western or Punk or Hip-Hop music, you’ll learn a lot about the trends that made those genres popular.

Major Labels offers insights, historical perspectives, and great information about music made over the past 50 years. It’s very readable and consistently clear and concise. What’s your favorite type of music? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction vii

Wearing Headphones

Literally Generic

Excellent/Popular/Interesting

Divide and Conquer

1 Rock 1

The Kingdom of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Abunchanoise

Less Monstrous and More Glamorous

The Edge of Wuss Cliff

Alternative Everywhere

Heavy Metal Rules

The Power of Evil

Cock Rock

Counter-Countercultural

The Opposite of Noise

Confessional

Making Progress

Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll

2 R&B 86

An Exclusive Music

Race Records

Soul Music Is Ours

Selling Soul

Ain’t Nothing to This Disco

The Comforts of Crossover

The Other Black Music

Shame and Shamelessness

Guilty

Deplorable

A Rebirthing Process

Mea Culpa

3 Country 154

At Its Purest

What Is Country Music?

Absolutely No Hollering

A Revolt, a Revival, and a Sales Pitch

Make Country Country Again

The Horseshit Rebellion

Suburbs and Sippy Cups

Good Luck on Your New Venture

Where Are Your Guts?

Only in America

The White Experience

What Makes You Country

What’s Right with the Format

4 Punk 216

Converted

Incoherent and Inescapable

Rock ‘n’ Roll at Its Finest

Punk Explosion

Punk Politics

Tougher Than Punk

An Incantation

Feasting on Crumbs

Stubborn Purists

The Opposite of Punk

Hipsters Everywhere

5 Hip-Hop 277

Rap Music Don’t Have to Teach You Anything

The (New) Sound of Young America

Music in Every Phrase

Making Records Out of Records

Street-Corner Rhymes

I’m Not a Rapper

The Real Face of Rap

Raging Sexism

Self-Conscious

Ambition and Hunger

Escape from New York

Serious Rapping

Your Voice Too Light

Mixed Up

6 Dance Music 362

What Else Is Music For?

One Big Mix

Very Much Alive

Party Monsters

Different Worlds

The Upward Spiral

Get Lost

7 Pop 404

Pop Revolution

The Monster with Seven Letters

The Triumph of Poptimism

The Most Popular Records in the Country?

Pepsodent Smiles

The Perils of (New) Pop Stardom

Pure Pop Music

You’ll Grow Out of It

The End of Taste

How Can Anyone Listen to That Stuff?

Acknowledgments 457

Index 460

After defeating the New Orleans Saints on Thanksgiving night 31-6, the inconsistent Buffalo Bills are off until the Monday Night Football game a week from now against the suddenly potent New England Patriots. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

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:

1		License To Chill
2		Fins
3		It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere
4		Ragtop Day
5		It’s My Job
6		Why Don’t We Get Drunk
7		Three Chords
8		We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About
9		Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
10		My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don’t Love Jesus
11		Coconut Telegraph – Medley: Coconut Telegraph/Last Mango In Paris/Cabana (Havana) Daydreamin’/Change In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
12		Margaritaville
13		Volcano
14		Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit
15		He Went To Paris
16		Cheeseburger In Paradise
17		Tin Cup Chalice
18		Love And Luck – Medley: Love And Luck/Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On
19		Come Monday – Medley: Come Monday, Beautifulness
20		A Pirate Looks At Forty
21		One Particular Harbour
22		I Will Play For Gumbo

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!