After correcting 100 term papers, my brain was fried so I decided to escape into a Marvel animated feature. The Ultimate Avengers tells the tale of how the Avengers were formed and features a dramatic battle with alien forces. Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Giant Man, Wasp, the Hulk, and, of course, Captain America don’t quite work together right off the bat. There’s the usual Marvel conflict between the superheroes. But when the chips are down…

In 1969, Simon and Garfunkel were at the height of their popularity and their powers. Most of their classic hits–“Homeward Bound,” “At the Zoo,” “Feelin’ Groovy,” Scarborough Fair,” “The Boxer,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “I am a Rock,” “The Sounds of Silence,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”–were behind them. Only their breakup and solo careers loomed on the horizon. If you’re a Simon and Garfunkel fan, you’ve probably been waiting decades for this legendary performance to be released. Both singers are in fine voice, but you can barely hear the band, which may explain why it took Columbia 40 years to release this. GRADE: B

At the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, across the street from the world-famous Anchor Bar (Home of the Original Buffalo Chicken Wings), flutist Emmanuel Pahud, harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock, and cellist Johnathan Manson played a terrific concert. If you listen to Pahud’s CD of the complete Bach flute sonatas, you’ll get a good facsimile of much of what we heard. But there were a few delightful surprises. Trevor Pinnock also played Purcell’s “Suite No. 4 in A minor, Z66” and Jonathan Mansion played Bach’s “Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035” which you’ll hear in the recently released movie, The Soloist, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. If these guys are performing in your area, don’t miss them!

What do you want in a Summer Action Movie? Explosions? Check. Fights? Check. Special effects? Check, check. Wolverine has all you want in a Summer Action Movie, plus Hugh Jackman. He was born to play Wolverine. I know Roger Ebert and other critics have dismissed Wolverine, but they’re wrong. I enjoyed Wolverine and you will too. GRADE: B+

During the 1980s, Jonathan Valin’s Harry Stoner private eye series scintillated readers. The novels were well-written, intelligent, and original with most of the action happening in and around Cincinnati. In Fire Lake Stoner deals with his druggie former college roommate. The murder of a motel night clerk convinces Stoner that his friend is in serious trouble which leads to Stoner taking a perilous journey into the local drug underworld. Sadly, the Harry Stoner series–The Lime Pit, Final Notice, Dead Letter, Day of Wrath, Natural Causes, Fire Lake, Extenuating Circumstances, Second Chance, The Music Lovers, Missing–are all out-of-print but they’re not forgotten by the readers who were moved by the gritty world Jonathan Valin created.

“On the reheating of pasta: Purists say you’re not supposed to do it. And to that I say, in the words of Nero Wolfe, pfui.” Any cookbook writer who quotes Nero Wolfe is aces in my book. Tasty has plenty of good recipes. I’m going to try “Ricotta Pancakes” and the frittatas. And Finamore’s technique of reheating pasta, of course. Yummy!

I’m a huge Alan Rickman fan so I was curious to see him in the role of the supercilious and odious Obadiah Slope, Chaplin to the Bishop of Barchester. Rickman, I’m happy to report, is wonderfully smarmy. Geraldine McEwan is wonderful as the Bishop’s harridan wife, Mrs. Proudie, and Susan Hampshire brilliantly plays the beautiful invalid, Signora Madeline Neroni. This 1982 BBC mini-series is based on Anthony Trollope’s The Warden and Barchester Towers. Of course this 374 minute mini-series can’t capture the subtlety of Trollope’s work, but this is a nice try. GRADE: B.

Daniel Pinkwater writes loopy, goofy, and devilishly clever books. They’re marketed to the “Young Adult” market, but there’s plenty here to appeal to adult sensibilities. This sequel to The Neddiad is narrated by Yggdrasil Birnbaum (Iggy for short), a teenage girl who lives in a Hollywood hotel in the 1950s. Of course, the hotel is haunted. The subtitle of The Yggyssey is “How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out, and Went There” which pretty much gives the plot away. But there’s magic and witches and plenty of adventure. If you want a book with a “sense of wonder,” The Yggyssey has it in spades.

It’s bargain time again. How would you like The Apartment , Avanti!, The Fortune Cookie, Irma la Douce , Kiss Me Stupid , One Two Three, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Some Like It Hot, and Witness for the Prosecution for $39.95 on salebooks.com? AMAZON wants $107.99 for the same thing. You can’t go wrong buying these classic films.