Let the Canary Sing takes the audience back to the beginning of Cyndi Lauper’s life in a lower-class Queens neighborhood through her rebellious youth pushing back against intolerance. As a child, Cyndi Lauper loved singing with her older sister, Ellen. But both girls had to deal with parents who were always fighting and a convent school where the nuns tried to tame the Laupers wild ways.

Both Cyndi Lauper and her sister left home at early ages. Cyndi joined the local music scene and slowly became a known as a talented but quirky singer. My favorite part of Let the Canary Sing were the scenes, using archival footage, of the writing and recording of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Cyndi Lauper did not like the original “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” She thought it was a guy’s song with a guy’s message. But Cyndi Lauper’s David Wolff, then Cyndi’s manager, managed to talk Cyndi into making changes to the song that made it acceptable to her and changed the focus to a girls’s song. Wolff was also responsible for the wrestling tie-in.

Alison Ellwood’s documentary Let the Canary Sing is a nostalgic exploration of the life and career of legendary pop icon Cyndi Lauper, along with a boisterous narrative anchored by the inimitable Lauper herself. If you’re a Cyndi Lauper fan, you won’t want to miss Let the Canary Sing, a marvelous documentary! GRADE: B+

Judi Dench and her friend Brendan O’Hea provide a guided tour of many of Shakespeare’s plays. What makes Shakespeare the Man Who Pays the Rent special is Dench’s experience with the roles she discusses. Dench’s long career acting in Shakespeare plays includes triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

Dan Stumpf will love Dench’s dissection of Hamlet and her insights into the roles she played in Shakespeare’s masterpiece. I was surprised when I read Dench’s chapter on King Lear. Many people consider King Lear to be Shakespeare’s best play, but Dench writes, “I can see that it’s an extraordinary piece of writing, but if you were to ask me my five favourite Shakespeares, King Lear wouldn’t be one of them.” (p. 183)

Over her seven decade career, Judi Dench developed opinions on how Shakespearean roles should be played, how audiences have changed, the influence of critics, how company spirit is necessary to success, and the importance of rehearsal room etiquette. Dench isn’t afraid to tackle technical subjects like developing the craft of speaking in verse and taking chances with Shakespeare’s intensions.

If you’re a Judi Dench fan, Shakespeare the Man Who Pays the Rent is a must-read. If you’re a Shakespeare fan, Shakespeare the Man Who Pays the Rent is a must-read. I came away from reading Shakespeare the Man Who Pays the Rent knowing a whole lot more about Shakespearean plays! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — 1

Macbeth

Lady Macbeth — 5

Stratford-upon-Avon — 21

A midsummer night’s dream

Titania — 25

Hermia — 36

First Fairy — 45

Play — 49

Twelfth night

Viola — 53

Maria — 68

The merchant of Venice

Poria –79

Company — 94

Hamlet

Ophelia — 97

Gertrude — 109

Coriolanus

Volumnia — 125

Fireside ramblings — 138

As you like it

Phebe — 143

Measure for measure

Isabella — 149

Rose Theatre — 165

Much ado about nothing

Beatrice — 167

King Lear

Regan, Cordellia and Goneril — 183

Failure — 197

The comedy of errors

Adriana — 199

Rehearsal — 213

Richard II

Queen Isabel — 217

Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra — 227

Cymbeline

Imogen — 245

Critics — 261

All’s well that ends well

Countess of Roussillon — 265

Shakespeare’s language — 277

Henry V

Katherine — 281

Hostess — 285

The merry wives of Windsor

Mistress Quickly — 291

Anne Page — 300

Audience — 304

Richard III

Duchess of York –307

Changing times –314

The winter’s tale

Hermione. — 317

Perdita — 328

Paulina — 336

Time — 349

Future of Shakespeare — 350

Romeo and Juliet

Juliet — 353

Advice — 371

Epilogue — 375

Acknowledgements — 379

It’s been over five or six years since Diane and I have had a cold or flu. So when Covid-19 gave us sore throats and persistent coughs, we didn’t have anything in our medicine chest to take. Diane’s doctor recommended Mucinex. I’ve seen a hundred Mucinex commercials over the years but hadn’t had a need for it. But now Diane and I needed something that would control our coughing, relieve our chest congestion, and loosen our mucus.

I bought a bottle of Mucinex DM Max and Diane and I took it immediately. Mucinex DM Max has a flavorful cherry taste. But, better than that, it goes to work right away. Both Diane and I stopped coughing after just one dose. Diane had two really bad nights because of her constant coughing, but Mucinex DM Max dispelled that problem.

I’ve been disappointed in medications over the past few years that promise relief and deliver…not much other than empty promises. It was great to take Muscinex DM Max and see it work right away giving us some relief from our Covid-19 symptoms. Have you used Muscinex?

Diane and I drove back to Western New York on Monday after spending a weekend in Ohio with Diane’s sister Carol. Patrick and Katie flew in to join us for Father’s Day. On Saturday, we all attended a High School Graduation Party along with 50 other people we didn’t know.

Diane and I both woke up on Tuesday after a night full of coughing and sneezing. Then things really went downhill: aches, pains, headaches, extreme fatigue. We spent most of Tuesday napping. But, we didn’t get any better.

After another crappy night of non-stop coughing, Diane brought out two Flowflex Covid-19 Antigen Home Tests. The results are above: two positive tests for Covid-19. Diane called her doctor and was told to take Mucinex. Diane was told to drink warm water with orange/lemon slices and two dollops of honey. And for fever and chills, take Afrin and tylenol.

My doctor told me to sleep a lot and drink a lot of fluids. Both doctors offered us Paxlovid but we both declined. We have friends that used Paxlovid who complained that Paxlovid was worse than Covid-19.

My throat was on fire Thursday despite my frequent gargling and drinking fluids. The fire subsided Friday, but both Diane and I suffered terrible fatigue. No energy.

Today, we’ll test again and see if we’re Covid-19 free. I never want to have this vile disease again! Have you had Covid-19?

K. J. Parker (aka, Tom Holt) has written a trilogy of adventure novels about a rogue who stumbles from one dangerous situation to another. Parker made the wise decision of allowing “Saevus Corax” (aka, Florian met’Oc), a royal on the run, to narrate his own story: “Usually in human life you have at least some idea of which side you’re on, but not always.” (p. 188) In Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead, our intrepid narrator changes sides several times. As the novel opens, Corax and his 500 followers are “dealing with the Dead.” The real dead. Corax negotiated for the rights to strip the bodies of dead soldiers after a grand battle: battlefield salvage. Armor and weapons bring in Big Bucks in these Medieval times. But, Corax soon finds himself on the run. His family has put price on Corax’s head–dead or alive.

In addition, Corax and his salvage crew are framed in a heist so more forces are after their heads on a spike. Fleeing from city to city, fighting assassins and blackguards, you’d think this was a pretty grim story. And, you would be wrong!

Corax constantly jumps from one frying pan into another fire as his enemies converge on him. But Corax, despite his many flaws, is a genius at strategy and he’s almost always a step ahead of those who either want to kidnap him, or kill him. If you’re in the mood for a roller-coaster thrill ride with some laughs thrown in, give Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead a try. GRADE: B+

“It’s sweet, beautiful, and, most of all, kind. I hugely recommend this book.” Those words by Seanan McGuire motivated me to buy Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes. I read it in one day and discovered a new genre: Fantasy Cozy.

Viv, a battle-weary orc, decides to give up her mercenary life and aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. Most Fantasy novels I read feature plenty of adventures and quests and battles. Legends & Lattes tells the story of Viv’s efforts to start a small business and leave her combative life behind.

This novel, being a Fantasy, includes magic in the form of an ancient stone that’s supposed to bring Luck. Viv does have uncanny luck in hiring a master carpenter, a beautiful succubus as a barista, a young bard to play music, an incredible baker, and more helpful characters. Viv’s dreams are threatened by a local protection racket gang and a vicious enemy from her Past.

If you’re in the mood for something different in the Fantasy genre, something which is sweet and kind and earnest, Legends & Lattes hits the spot! GRADE: B

I love Bob Eggleton’s cover artwork for Logical Fantasy because it reminds me of the artwork in the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Winston Science Fiction series.

“Winston Science Fiction was a series of 37 American juvenile science fiction books published by the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1960 and by its successor Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1960 and 1961. It included 35 novels by various writers, including many who became famous in the SF field, such as Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, and Lester del Rey. There was also one anthology, The Year After Tomorrow, edited by del Rey and others. There was one non-fiction book Rockets Through Space: The Story of Man’s Preparations to Explore the Universe by del Rey which details the factual science and technology of rocket flight. Many of the dust jackets became science fiction classics; the artists included Hugo Award winners Ed Emshwiller and Virgil Finlay along with Hugo nominees such as Mel Hunter and Alex Schomburg.”

It would be hard for me to decide whether John Wyndham’s Village of the Damned or Day of the Triffids gave me more nightmares. I read The Day of the Triffids after I was freaked out by the 1962 film version. The British SF writers of that era specialized in catastrophic novels where the Earth was imperiled and The Day of the Triffids–with the horrific situation of most people in the world blinded by an apparent meteor shower and then an aggressive species of plant begins killing people–was enough to give me nightmares for months. Village of the Damned features telepathic children with a scary agenda. Based on The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), Village of the Damned shows the power of contagion.

But John Wyndham was also a gifted short story writer. Logical Fantasy: The Many Worlds of John Wyndham displays Wyndham’s talents in stories like  “Spheres of Hell” (also known as “The Puffball Menace”) which was the original source for The Day of the Triffids. Then there’s the story of a homesick robot (‘The Lost Machine’) and a surprising tale of a lovelorn dragon (‘Chinese Puzzle’).

Five previously uncollected stories are included in Logical Fantasy. If you’re a John Wyndham fan, Logical Fantasy is a must-buy. If you’re a fan of classic SF stories from the 1950s and 1960s, you’ll enjoy this wonderful collection! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Introduction by Michael Marshall Smith — 7
• The Lost Machine — 13
• Spheres of Hell — 35
• The Man from Beyond — 63
• Beyond the Screen — 91
• Child of Power — 139
• The Living Lies — 171
• The Eternal Eve — 217
• Pawley’s Peepholes — 243
• The Wheel — 267
• Survival — 275
• Chinese Puzzle — 303
• Perforce to Dream — 323
• Never on Mars — 339
• Compassion Circuit — 361
• Brief to Counsel — 373
• Odd — 377
• The Asteroids, 2194 — 387
• A Stitch in Time– 403

It’s 90 degrees in Western NY–Real Feel temp is 98. We rarely get this warm in June. Gee, I wonder what’s causing this unusual hot weather…

Cool Rock, a 2-CD set from 1995, presents a variety of musical styles from Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There to Remind Me” and Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back.”

I could do without Wilson Phillips’s “Hold On” which shows up on a number of compilation CDs from this era. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B-

TRACK LIST:

1-1	Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes–	Up Where We Belong	3:55
1-2	Naked Eyes–	Always Something There To Remind Me	3:41
1-3	Club Nouveau–	Lean On Me	3:58
1-4	Thompson Twins–	Hold Me Now	4:42
1-5	Glass Tiger–	Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)	4:05
1-6	Teddy Pendergrass–	Love T.K.O.	5:00
1-7	Kool And The Gang*–	Joanna	4:22
1-8	Christopher Cross–	Think Of Laura	3:22
1-9	Tiffany–	I Think We’re Alone Now	3:47
1-10	Joey Scarbury–	Believe It Or Not (Theme From Greatest American Hero)	3:11
1-11	Roxette–	It Must Have Been Love	3:51
1-12	Culture Club–	Time (Clock Of The Heart)	3:42
1-13	The Motels–	Suddenly Last Summer	3:38
1-14	The Tubes–	She’s A Beauty	3:58
1-15	Ashford & Simpson–	Solid	5:07
1-16	Sergio Mendes*–	Never Gonna Let You Go	4:15
1-17	Wilson Phillips–	Hold On	4:24
1-18	Ambrosia (2)–	Biggest Part Of Me	4:09
2-1	Toto–	Africa	5:01
2-2	REO Speedwagon–	Can’t Fight This Feeling	4:10
2-3	Chris DeBurgh*–	Lady In Red	4:16
2-4	Tina Turner–	Private Dancer	4:00
2-5	Cutting Crew–	(I Just) Died In Your Arms	4:34
2-6	John Waite–	Missing You	4:27
2-7	Little River Band–	Cool Change	5:14
2-8	Corey Hart–	Never Surrender	4:55
2-9	Blondie–	Call Me	3:32
2-10	Spandau Ballet–	True	5:35
2-11	Marty Balin–	Atlanta Lady (Something About You)	3:27
2-12	Mr. Mister–	Broken Wings	4:45
2-13	Vangelis–	Chariots Of Fire	3:29
2-14	Dan Hartman–	I Can Dream About You	4:09
2-15	Taylor Dayne–	Love Will Lead You Back	4:37
2-16	James Ingram & Patti Austin–	Baby, Come To Me	3:35
2-17	Al Green–	Let’s Stay Together	3:18

Valancourt Books has reprinted several of Gerald Kersh’s works. His noir classic, Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957)–Anthony Burgess called it “one of the great comic novels of the century”–deserve more readers. But Kersh was also a brilliant short story writer. His best collections are Nightshade and Damnations, On an Odd Note, and Clock Without Hands (all available from Valancourt Books).

Neither Man Nor Dog (1946) has been out of print for years before Valancourt reprinted it. There are 37 short stories in Neither Man Nor Dog–some of these stories are extremely brief. But, if you’re in the mood for a short story that’s really short–just a couple of pages–then Neither Man Nor Dog is the book for you!

Harlan Ellison declared that Gerald Kersh was his favorite writer. Ellison said: “you will find yourself in the presence of a talent so immense and compelling, that you will understand how grateful and humble I felt merely to have been permitted to associate myself with his name as editor.”

If you haven’t read any of Gerald Kersh’s work, Neither Man Nor Dog would be a good place to start! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Neither man nor dog — 7

Uncle Kuzma — 11

In a room without walls — 16

The last battle –19

An undistinguished boy –28

Hero-worship — 33

Wolf! Wolf! — 38

Reflections in a tablespoon — 43

A bang on the head for Dutoit — 56

Macagony’s fist — 60

Grey old she-wolf — 63

The Frenchman who understood women — 67

Fantasy of a hunted man — 71

The gentleman all in black — 74

Strong Greek wine — 78

The old burying place — 82

A small and dirty dog — 85

Doctor Ox will die at midnight — 89

The earwig — 95

Who wants a liver-coloured cat? — 102

The House of Relish — 106

Dustin, the broken man — 132

Let lying dogs sleep — 135

Red gentleman of Staffardshire — 146

Reflection in a brown eye — 153

Maria’s Christ — 157

Destiny and the bullet — 162

The conqueror worm — 165

The woman and the fire — 171

The fortunes of the Pryskys — 174

The sailor’s farewell to his horse — 178

Envy — 182

Tread lightly. — 188

The naked man — 191

Gomez — 195

The ruined wall — 199

The dungeon — 203

Jim Henson was a genius. Patrick and Katie loved Sesame Street as little kids. We all loved The Muppet Show. Ron Howard directed this documentary. Howard mixes interviews, show clips, bloopers, artist sketches, and behind-the-scenes videos to produce a chronological story of Henson’s early life in Mississippi to educational TV to his failure with Labyrinth.

Jim Henson died at 53 from toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes.  Henson was in negotiations to sell his company to Disney when he died.

If you want a deep understanding of a complex, innovative, ground-breaking talent, Jim Henson Idea Man reveals the essence of creativity behind this American icon. Are you a fan of Jim Henson and The Muppets? GRADE: A