I own a number of Greatest Hits CDs of The Rolling Stones. Rewind, from 1984, includes many of my favorite songs: “Tumbling Dice,” “Miss You,” “Brown Sugar,” “Waiting on a Friend,” “Angie,” and “Start Me Up.”

After 1984, The Rolling Stones continued to perform in concerts, continued to put out occasional albums, but much of their magic was gone. Rewind captures the essence of what made the Stones the Greatest Rock Band in the World for that era. Are you a Rolling Stones fan? Do you have a favorite song? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

1		Miss You	4:45
2		Brown Sugar	3:48
3		Undercover Of The Night	4:29
4		Start Me Up	3:32
5		Tumbling Dice	3:37
6		Hang Fire	2:21
7		It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It)	5:07
8		Emotional Rescue	5:37
9		Beast Of Burden	4:25
10		Fool To Cry	5:04
11		Waiting On A Friend	4:36
12		Angie	4:30
13		Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)	3:26

I have not been pleased with Ellen Datlow’s recently published anthologies. You can read my review of Lovecraft’s Brood here.

Of the 19 stories in All Hallows Eve, I really only liked one of them: “Her Mother’s Business” by Garth Nix. A young girl’s mother is a con artist and uses her wiles to cheat wealthy widows out of vast sums of money by staging a seance with her victim’s dead relative.

Garth Nix cleverly sets the seance in “Her Mother’s Business” on Halloween when other Powers decide to intervene. Sadly, none of the other stories in All Hallows Eve come close to the excellence of this story. GRADE: C

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction Ellen Datlow
Foreword Lisa Morton
That Hannie Agnes Josh Malerman
On the Path, Bleeding Lee Murray
Good Kids Rich Larson
Treats Clay McLeod Chapman
The Levels Livia Llewellyn
Forever Again Michael Marshall Smith
The Devil’s New Year Stephen Graham Jones
Merciless Feast Linda D Addison
Or So the Story Goes Christopher Golden
The Kuker Alma Katsu
Ankou’s Night Brian Evenson
The Hungry Grass Siobhan Carroll
Saturday Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ
Give Me Something Good to Eat Theresa DeLucci
Her Mother’s Business Garth Nix
The Thinning of the Veil Jeffrey Ford
Dare Me Richard Kadrey
On the Night of the Welcome Stranger Nathan Ballingrud
The Auld Woman with the Broom John Langan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Diane and I watched the entertaining Sigrid Nunez interview in the BABEL series on our computer. We used to go to see the BABEL author interviews live at Kleinhans Musical Hall in downtown Buffalo but after a disastrous night last Spring when we couldn’t find any parking amid a driving rain storm, we decided to opt for the online option starting this Fall.

I’ve read Nunez’s The Last of Her Kind (you can read my review here) and Salvation City (you can read my review here) and several of her short stories in various anthologies. Nunez started the evening off by talking about growing up in New York City and her dreams of becoming a writer. Years later, she worked at the New York Review of Books and became a close friend of Susan Sontag (who she wrote about in Sempre Susan).

I was impressed by Nunez’s comments on her National Book Award-winning novel The Friend. She also spoke about What Are You Going Through, which was adapted into the film The Room Next Door directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

All in all, this wonderful BABEL interview made me want to drop everything and read some Sigrid Nunez! GRADE: A

Books

• A Feather on the Breath of God. New York: HarperCollins. 1995. ISBN 9780312422738.
• Naked Sleeper. New York: HarperCollins. 1996. ISBN 9780060172763.
• Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury. New York: HarperFlamingo. 1998. ISBN 9780060174071.
• For Rouenna. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2001. ISBN 9780374254308.
• The Last of Her Kind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2006. ISBN 9780374183813.
• Salvation City. New York: Riverhead Books. 2010. ISBN 9781594487668.
• Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. New York: Atlas Books. 2011. ISBN 9781594633348.
• The Friend. New York: Riverhead Books. 2018. ISBN 9780735219441.^[26]
• What Are You Going Through. New York: Riverhead Books. 2020. ISBN 9780593191415.
• The Vulnerables. New York: Riverhead Books. 2023. ISBN 9780593715512.^[27]
• It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories. New York: Riverhead Books. 2026. ISBN 979-8217179152

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for the New York Times, unravels the story of Artificial Intelligence over the past 20 years and explains why we’re in the mess we’re in with AI.

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeadMind, and other AI firms are all racing to develop Artificial Intelligence that is…Superintelligent. By “Superintelligent” Roose explains that the AI will be able to able to reason and code at superhuman speed. It will, in fact, be smarter than us.

But, the danger is, the superintelligent Artificial Intelligence could become a threat to humans if it escapes our control. Roose documents several occasions when AI has gone rogue.

The AGI Chronicles is a chilling history of AI…and a warning about what is to come. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Author’s Note on Sources and AI — ix

Prologue — 3

 
Part I :

1. Transformed — 11
2. Tabula rasa — 23
3. Attention — 31
4. Big blob of compute — 37
5. Guys, I’ve had enough — 51
6. The bitter lesson — 58
7. Infohazard — 67
8. Reward is enough — 76
9. Few-shot — 85
10. Meena eats Google — 95
11. BATNA — 102

Part II:

12. Fell the AGI — 113

13. Helpful, honest, harmless — 125

14. Say AGI — 133

15. Low-key research preview — 141

16. Code red — 148

17. War is coming — 160

18. I want to be alive — 169

19. The shoggoth — 178

20. Commitments — 184

21. Titan — 192

22. Accelerate of die — 199

23. Q* — 206

24. Not consistently candid — 213

25. Without its people — 224

Part III :

26. YOLO — 233

27. Glue pizza — 243

28. GPU poor — 253

29. Machines of loving grace — 262

30, Strawberry jam — 270

31. PNG — 279

32. High-flyer — 289

33. Everyone dies — 300

34. Gentle singularity — 311

35 . Relentless — 319

36. Hello from the weights — 329

37. Success disasters — 335

38. Takeoff — 346

Epilogue — 359

Notes — 363

Acknowledgements — 403

Index — 405

After the incredible 37-34 Overtime win over the LA Rams on Monday Night Football, the Bills spent the week practicing at the campus of the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine). They will play the Raiders in Vegas in the 4:30 P.M. time slot. The Bills are favored by 6 points. Next week the Bills will be on their Bye.

How will your favorite NFL team do today?

The Complete Kubrick

“A titan of cinema whose influence extends across visual art, philosophy, politics, technology, fashion, and beyond, Stanley Kubrick created an unprecedented string of masterpieces, from Paths of Glory to Dr. Strangelove to 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. Bending disparate genres to his will, he imbued his creations with a cuttingly ironic worldview and an iconographic, mesmerizingly precise visual style, probing the anxieties, enigmas, and horrors of the twentieth century with a coolly devastating eye. Tracing his evolution from independent maverick to Hollywood rebel to visionary transnational auteur whose every film from the mid-1960s on became a manifesto of a radically new sensibility, The Complete Kubrick brings together the entirety of a body of work that opened popular cinema up to new realms of moral profundity and metaphysical mystery.

Collected here for the first time are Kubrick’s thirteen features and three shorts, all restored in 4K, with their original soundtracks alongside the 5.1 mixes, restored and remastered; over twenty-five hours of interviews, documentaries, and behind-the-scenes materials; and deluxe packaging illustrated with rare photographs, artwork, and documents annotated by Kubrick himself, all housed in a singular box inspired by the director’s legendary archive.”

You could be the proud owner of The Complete Kubrick–4K+BLU-RAY30 Discs–for only $479.96!

FILMS IN THIS SET:

• Killer’s Kiss 1955 
• The Killing 1956 
• Paths of Glory 1957 
• Spartacus 1960 
• Lolita 1962 

Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964

2001: A Space Odyssey 1968

A Clockwork Orange 1971

Barry Lyndon 1975

The Shining 1980

Full Metal Jacket 1987

Eyes Wide Shut 1999

THIRTY-DISC 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES

• 4K restorations of director Stanley Kubrick’s thirteen features and three shorts, presented in Dolby Vision HDR, with the original monaural PCM soundtracks and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio remixes, restored and remastered
• Kubrick’s international version of The Shining
• New 4K restoration of Vivian Kubrick’s behind-the-scenes documentary Making “The Shining”
• New audio commentaries featuring filmmaker Lee Unkrich (editor of the book Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”) and author Michael Benson (Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece)
• New conversation between novelist Jonathan Lethem and film historian Kevin Wynter on Kubrick and authorship
• Unseen Lolita screen tests with actors James Mason and Sue Lyon and rare Full Metal Jacket behind-the-scenes footage
• Archival interviews with Alexander Singer, Christiane Kubrick, Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, Sue Lyon, Scatman Crothers, Kelvin Pike, John Alcott, Wendy Carlos, Douglas Trumbull, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese
• Documentaries including Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001), directed by Jan Harlan and narrated by Tom Cruise; Kubrick by Kubrick (2020), told in Kubrick’s own words; Staircases to Nowhere (2013, expanded 2026), about the making of The Shining; and Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes (2008), about the trove of archival materials left behind by Kubrick
• Deluxe packaging illustrated with rare photographs, artwork, and documents annotated by Kubrick himself, all housed in a singular box inspired by the director’s legendary archive
• An essay by author and critic Nathaniel Rich
• And much more . . .

I read Mickey Spillane’s I, The Jury in the early 1960s. I was blown away by the violence and the surprise ending! That led me to read My Gun Is Quick,  Vengeance Is Mine.  One Lonely Night,  The Big Kill. and  Kiss Me, Deadly. I binged on Mickey Spillane’s works then and recently I’ve been binging on Mickey Spillane’s work finished by Max Allan Collins for Hard Case Crime.

In his “Introduction” Max Allan Collins says that The Last Stand is Spillane’s last completed novel. This edition includes “A Bullet for Satisfaction”–a novella about a rogue cop fighting corruption.

The Last Stand (2018) was released to honor Spillane’s 100th birthday. The story follows a pilot who makes an emergency landing in the desert and gets caught in a dangerous power struggle involving FBI agents, fortune hunters, and a local Native American tribe over a mysterious discovery. All of Spillane’s signature tropes show up here: a clever hero, a beautiful woman, a loyal pal, a fight with a menacing thug, and a treasure worth billions.

If you’re a Mickey Spillane fan, you’ll enjoy this closing chapter of his writing career. If you’re just curious about the Spillane phenomenon, The Last Stand is a good display of his legendary talent. And, I also love the cover artwork by Laurel Blechman! GRADE: B+

Like most people, I’m partial to Love Songs. This compilation incudes plenty of songs that I enjoy like James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” and Bread’s “Make It With You.” Many of the hits on Love Songs (1988) 2 CDs are what I would term “mellow.” Take Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram’s “Somewhere Out There” and Air Supply’s “Eve the Nights Are Better” for examples.

For those who prefer action over mere emotion, Rod Stewart provides “Tonight’s the Night” and Gregory Abbott’s “Shake You Down.”

Some classic songs are included here, too. “Never My Love” by The Association and Joe Cocker’s version of “You Are So Beautiful.” Do you remember these Love Songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

1-1	Starship (2)–	Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now	4:28
1-2	Carl Anderson And Gloria Loring–	Friends & Lovers	3:45
1-3	REO Speedwagon–	Can’t Fight This Feeling	4:48
1-4	James Taylor (2)–	Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight	2:33
1-5	Bread–	Make It With You	3:11
1-6	Kenny Rogers–	She Believes In Me	4:13
1-7	Phil Collins–	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	3:22
1-8	Linda Ronstadt And James Ingram–	Somewhere Out There	3:56
1-9	Survivor–	The Search Is Over	4:09
1-10	Air Supply–	Even The Nights Are Better	3:27
1-11	Toto–	Rosanna	3:59
1-12	The Cars–	Drive	3:53
1-13	Billy Vera & The Beaters–	At This Moment	3:30
1-14	Fleetwood Mac–	You Make Loving Fun	3:30
1-15	Daryl Hall & John Oates–	Kiss On My List	3:33
1-16	The Jets–	You Got It All	4:07
1-17	Styx–	Babe	4:00
1-18	Doobie Brothers*–	What A Fool Believes	3:07
1-19	The Vogues–	Turn Around, Look At Me	2:43
1-20	Dan Hill–	Sometimes When We Touch	4:00
2-1	Rod Stewart–	Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright)	3:53
2-2	Pointer Sisters–	Slow Hand	3:51
2-3	The Young Rascals–	A Girl Like You	2:47
2-4	Kool & The Gang–	Joanna	4:06
2-5	Firefall–	You Are The Woman	2:35
2-6	Bill Withers–	Lean On Me	4:16
2-7	Foreigner–	I Want To Know What Love Is	4:59
2-8	Patti LaBelle And Michael McDonald–	On My Own	4:30
2-9	Bruce Hornsby And The Range–	Mandolin Rain	4:59
2-10	The Human League–	Human	3:36
2-11	Player (4)–	Baby Come Back	3:23
2-12	America (2)–	Sister Golden Hair	3:15
2-13	Robbie Dupree–	Hot Rod Hearts	3:24
2-14	Billy Ocean–	There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)	4:12
2-15	Gregory Abbott–	Shake You Down	3:42
2-16	Joe Cocker–	You Are So Beautiful	2:38
2-17	Eric Carmen–	All By Myself	4:02
2-18	The Association (2)–	Never My Love	3:06
2-19	Leo Sayer–	More Than I Can Say	3:09
2-20	Linda Ronstadt–	Blue Bayou	3:52

My favorite story in The Ultimate Dracula (1991) is Edward D. Hoch’s “Dracula 1944.” Dracula is scary enough to blend in a German concentration camp really amps up the horror!

Although most of the stories in The Ultimate Dracula present various incarnations of the vampire, I would hardly call this anthology “ultimate.” It just okay. GRADE: C+

If you’re a vampire fan, I recommend a book I reviewed recently: The Vampire Archives. You can read my review here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

•  The Ultimate Dracula • interior artwork by David Johnson
• 1 • Happy Birthday, Dracula! • essay by Leonard Wolf
• 15 • The Master of Rampling Gate • (1984) • novelette by Anne Rice
• 45 • All Dracula’s Children • novelette by Dan Simmons
• 75 • A Matter of Style • novelette by Ron Dee
• 101 • Selection Process • short story by Ed Gorman
• 117 • The Vampire in His Closet • short story by Heather Graham
• 139 • The Tenth Scholar • short story by Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem
• 155 • Nobody’s Perfect • short story by Philip José Farmer^?
• 171 • Dracula 1944 • short story by Edward D. Hoch
• 189 • The Contagion • short story by Janet Asimov
• 203 • Sugar and Spice and… • short story by Karen Robards
• 221 • Vampire Dreams • short story by Dick Lochte
• 237 • Much at Stake • short story by Kevin J. Anderson
• 255 • The Name of Fear • short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• 267 • The Dark Rising • short story by Rodman Philbrick [as by W. R. Philbrick]
• 281 • Los Niños de la Noche • short story by Tim Sullivan
• 295 • A Little Night Music • short story by Mike Resnick
• 305 • Mr. Lucrada • short story by John Lutz
• 321 • In the Cusp of the Hour • short story by John Gregory Betancourt
• 327 • Children of the Night • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• 349 • Selected Filmography (The Ultimate Dracula) • essay by Leonard Wolf

“The Greatest Hollywood Musical Ever Made.” –Roger Ebert

“Singin’ in the Rain is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, with Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Douglas Fowley, Rita Moreno and Cyd Charisse in supporting roles. It offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with the three stars portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to ‘talkies’.” (Wikipedia)

I was in the mood for a musical and when I opened my DVD drawer, the first disc that caught my eye was Singin’ in the Rain.

How many times have you seen Singin’ in the Rain? I’m guessing I’ve seen this wonderful movie at least 20 times. Now, 21. I like the cast, the vibe, and the songs. And, of course, the dancing.

“All songs have lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown unless otherwise indicated. Some of the songs, such as “Broadway Rhythm”, “You Are My Lucky Star”, “Should I?“, and especially “Singin’ in the Rain” itself, had been featured in prior films. The films listed below mark the first time each song was presented on screen.

• “Fit as a Fiddle (And Ready for Love)“, originally published in 1932 with music by Al Hoffman and Al Goodhart, lyrics by Freed.
• “Temptation” (instrumental only) from Going Hollywood (1933).
• “All I Do Is Dream of You” from Sadie McKee (1934).The arrangement in “Singin’ in the Rain” is an uptempo, upbeat, “flapper” version of the song with full instrumentation. In contrast, the “Sadie McKee” version is slower tempo, and appears routinely throughout the film as a love ballad accompanied by a solo ukulele. An instrumental only version with full orchestration is also part of the film’s opening and closing theme. An instrumental version was also played on the piano by Chico Marx in the 1935 Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera.
• “Singin’ in the Rain” from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929). Kelly’s performance in the song is now considered iconic.
• “Make ‘Em Laugh“
• “Beautiful Girl Montage” comprising “I’ve Got a Feelin’ You’re Foolin'” from Broadway Melody of 1936(1935),  “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” from The Broadway Melody (1929), “Should I?” from Lord Byron of Broadway (1930) and “Beautiful Girl” from Stage Mother (1933)
• “You Were Meant for Me” from The Broadway Melody (1929)
• “You Are My Lucky Star” from Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)
• “Moses Supposes” (music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Comden and Green), from a 1944 version based on the tongue-twister with the same title.
• “Good Morning” from Babes in Arms (1939)
• “Would You?” from San Francisco (1936)
• “Broadway Melody” composed of “The Broadway Melody” from The Broadway Melody (1929) and “Broadway Rhythm” from Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935).  The music for the “Broadway Ballet” section is by Nacio Herb Brown.” (Wikipedia)

Are you a fan of Singin’ In the Rain? Do you agree with Ebert that it is the best Hollywood musical ever made? GRADE: A