Kevin Goetz specializes in the field of focus groups that evaluate movies before they are released. Goetz tells dozens of stories of movies whose endings were changed based on audience feedback. For example, in the original ending of Fatal Attraction Glenn Close committed suicide. But the focus group audience who watched the movie wanted Glenn Close “punished” for her actions. So, a new ending was shot. If you get the Director’s Cut version of Fatal Attraction you’ll see both endings.

I was also fascinated to find out the original movie focus groups came about because of George Gallup, the pollster. He approached the movie studios and offered his services.

“In The Big Broadcast of 1938, a new comedic actor named Bob Hope was featured in several early scenes that didn’t play well to the test audiences. Moviegoers were unfamiliar with his style of humor and didn’t find it particular funny. But, in one of the film’s later scenes, the audience roared with laughter at his antics. So Paramount, recognizing that audience might need a different introduction to his brand of humor, reordered the scenes to put his big laugh scene before the others. At the next test screening, moviegoers found Hope to be funny all the way through.” (p. 30)

Kevin Goetz ran dozens of focus groups that provided key information to improving films. At a time when Batman, Indiana Jones, and Die Hard dominated the movie screens, a movie like Driving Miss Daisy looked like a loser. But test audiences loved it. When Driving Miss Daisy was released, Roger Ebert wrote, “After so many movies in which shallow and violent people deny their humanity and ours, what a lesson to see a film that looks into the heart.” Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1989 and Jessica Tandy won Best Actress at 80 years of age! Her career began in the 1930s. And the movie took in $145 million!

If you love movies, Audience-ology provides plenty of insights and stories and surprises about films, directors, and actors. Terrific book! GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Foreword Chris Meledandri ix

Introduction 1

1 Finding My “And” 9

2 Locked Doors, Severed Heads, and the Early History of Test Screenings 25

3 The Lights in Minneapolis 39

4 The Girl in the Black Cocktail Dress 63

5 Know Thy Audience 93

6 From Straight-to-DVD to Five F*cking Sequels 119

7 Scores Settle Scores 137

8 When Bad Things Happen to Good Movies 155

9 It’s Like Seeing Your Lover Naked for the First Time 167

10 Spock, Laddie, and Lessons in Managing Highly Emotional Individuals 179

Conclusion 207

Acknowledgments 211

Notes 214

Film Index 215

Name Index 220

No one will be surprised to learn we live in a corrupt world. Just how corrupt the world is takes 446 pages of Tom Burgis’s Kleptopia to document. Corrupt banks, Russian Oligarchs, international currency manipulation, ransomware, and assassinations feature in Burgis’s story of how the economic system is going to Hell. Written like a thriller, Kleptopia shows how criminal organizations and corrupt governments rake in billions of dollars.

And, it will come as no surprise that the Trump family is deeply involved in many of these nefarious enterprises. Dirty money flows all over the world and ends up in Swiss Bank accounts and Grand Cayman Island safe deposit boxes. Tax free.

If you’re interested in the growing corruption of the world’s trade, governments, and currencies, reading Kleptopia will keep you up at night. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

A Note on Truth xi

Cast of Characters xiii

Part I Crisis

1 The Thief – Kensington, January 2008 3

2 A Feast – Whitehall February 2008 8

3 Tunnels – Cheapside, February 2008 25

4 The Dual State – Moscow, February 2008 30

5 Silhouette – Cheapside, July 2008 44

6 Mr Billy – Harare, September 2008 48

7 Shutdown – Cheapside, September 2008 58

8 The Fallen Oligarch – Astana, January 2009 60

9 Top Secret – London, April 2009 70

10 Paying Your Dues – Pretoria, September 2009 72

11 The Informant – Brooklyn, October 2009 74

12 The Real – London, May 2010 88

Part II Chrysalis

13 Beginnings – London, December 2010 93

14 Big Yellow – Finchley, February 2011 103

15 Watchdogs – London, March 2011 118

16 The Savarona – London, May 2011 121

17 Off the Boob – Rudny, May 2011 128

18 God’s Kingdom – St Paul’s, October 2011 136

19 Fear – Zhanaozen, December 2011 140

20 Stability – Cambridge, July 2012 154

21 Too Big to Jail – London, September 2012 170

22 Sasha and Seva – St James’s, March 2013 172

23 The Loving Cup – Canary Wharf, February 2013 185

24 The Presumption of Regularity – Rome, May 2013 189

25 A Legit Shithole – Cincinnati, August 2013 198

26 Risk Appetite – Canary Wharf August 2013 207

27 Doubles – Old Billingsgate, February 2014 209

28 The System – Canary Wharf, June 2014 214

Part III Metamorphosis

29 Conquest – Eastern Ukraine, August 2014 221

30 Privacy – Kensington, September 2014 228

31 The Bridge – Moscow, February 2015 233

32 His Footprints Are Not Found – Colchester, September 2015 239

33 Winners – Manhattan, November 2016 244

34 Saint or Sinner – Paris, December 2016 251

35 The Future – Colchester, December 2016 271

36 The Man With No Past – Washington, January 2017 274

37 It’s Over – Kensington, June 2017 288

38 The Story You Choose to Tell – Montreal, August 2017 291

39 Alternative Facts – London, March 2019 299

40 Quid Pro Quo – Washington, July 2019 310

41 Normal Business – Worldwide, 2020 327

Notes 341

Acknowledgements 425

Index 427

In his witty and informative Introduction, Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses the scientific basis of stupidity and confirms much of what Carlo M. Cipolla asserts about human stupidity.

The First Basic Law says: “Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.” We found that out in the last Presidential Election. And during the Pandemic! Later in his slim little book, Cipolla defines a stupid person as a person who causes losses to another person or a group of persons while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses to themselves.

While I agree with Cipolla, I have to admit I have done some stupid things in my Life. Not to go into too much detail, but I was naive as a kid and there were times I was misled into stupid actions because I didn’t know any better. Later in Life, I fell prey to believing people who lied to me and that resulted in me making stupid mistakes because I trusted them.

There are consistently stupid people and there are people like me who occasionally do stupid things. I’m sure you know people who fall into both categories. In the May 2022 issue of The Atlantic, Jonathan Haidt in “After Babel,” shows how social media dissolved the mortar of our society and made America stupid. The future looks grim. GRADE: B

Margaret Atwood morphed into a world famous author when her The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985 and she became in intergalactic figure when HULU broadcast the TV version of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2019. The tale of a dystopian future where women are marginalized and a few become breeding machines for the political elite resonated in the time of Trump.

But over Margaret Atwood’s long career, she’s written several compelling novels and dozens of brilliant essays. In Burning Questions the focus tends to be on women and the ways society and culture deal with them. In a review of Marilyn French’s massive three-volume work on the history of Women, From Eve to Dawn, Atwood cites the “horse sacrifice” of ancient India. The priests at that time forced the raja’s wife to copulate with a dead horse (p. 23). Religion has not been kind to women over the centuries.

I also enjoyed Atwood’s essay on her early career. “I continued with my secret life, which was the life of a writer. Like vampires, I had to pursue this life at night.” And, “There’s not much about Kraft Dinner with hot dogs cut up into it that I don’t know.” (p. 42)

Atwood’s book reviews are fun, too. Alice Munro, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Powers, and many more writers receive Atwood’s careful analysis. For Science Fiction fans, Atwood’s “Scientific Romancing” is one of the best essays on the SF genre I’ve ever read.

Burning Questions is a terrific book! Don’t miss it! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xiii

PART I: 2004-2009. What will happen next?
Scientific romancing — 3
Frozen in time — 14
From eve to dawn — 21
Polonia — 28
Somebody’s daughter — 32
Five visits to the word-hoard — 37
The echo maker — 49
Wetlands — 60
Trees of life, trees of death — 67
Ryszard Kapuściński — 78
Anne of Green Gables — 83
Alice Munro: an appreciation — 92
Ancient balances — 105
Scrooge — 119
A writing life — 123
PART II: 2010-2013. Art is our nature
The writer as political agent? Really? — 131
Literature and the environment — 137
Alice Munro — 148
The gift — 150
Bring up the bodies — 156
Rachel Carson anniversary — 160
The futures market — 169
Why I wrote Maddaddam — 184
Seven gothic tales — 189
Doctor sleep — 195
Doris Lessing — 199
How to change the world? — 202
PART III: 2014-2016. Which is to be master
In translationland — 217
On beauty — 230
The summer of the stromatolites — 234
Kafka — 238
Future library — 243
Reflections on The handmaid’s tale — 245
We are double-plus unfree — 259
Buttons or bows? — 266
Gabrielle Roy — 271
Shakespeare and me — 293
Marie-Claire blais — 306
Kiss of the fur queen — 311
We hang by a thread — 313
PART IV: 2017-2019. How slippery is the slope?
What art under Trump? — 323
The illustrated man — 328
Am I a bad feminist? — 335
We lost Ursula Le Guin when we needed her most — 340
Three tarot cards — 344
A slave state? — 361
Oryx and crake — 363
Greetings, earthlings! What are these human rights of which you speak? — 368
Payback — 380
Memory of fire — 384
Tell, the, truth — 387
PART V: 2020-2021. Thought and memory
Growing up in quarantineland — 393
The equivalents — 398
Inseparable — 402
We — 408
The writing of The testaments — 414
The bedside book of birds — 424
Perpetual motion and gentleman death — 427
Caught in time’s current — 433
Big science — 440
Barry Lopez — 444
The sea trilogy –446

Acknowledgements —541

Credits — 552

Index — 458

Back in the early days of Rock’n’Roll, songs would played on radio pop stations and some of the songs would be instrumentals. Not so today.

And, in the early 1960s, a new genre–Surfer Music–made its appearance. Sure, The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean sang plenty of songs about surfing and beaches, but I enjoyed instrumentals like The Chantay’s “Pipeline” and The Surfaris’s “Wipe Out.” Of all the songs here–and there are some great ones!–my favorite is Jack Nitzsche’s “The Lonely Surfer.” Nitzsche would go on to do great work with Phil Spector and Neil Young.

I consider 1960 to be a milestone year for me. That’s when I got my first transistor radio! I listened to it constantly. And the songs on Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits–1960 are all very familiar to me. I listened to them tons of times over that time period. Do you remember these songs? Do you like instrumentals? GRADE: A (for both CDs)

	Elvis Presley–	It’s Now Or Never	3:16
	The Everly Brothers*–	Cathy’s Clown	2:25
	Chubby Checker–	The Twist	2:36
	The Drifters–	Save The Last Dance For Me	2:30
	Johnny Preston–	Running Bear	2:39
	Elvis Presley–	Stuck On You	2:16
	Jimmy Jones–	Handy Man	2:02
	The Ventures–	Walk – Don’t Run	2:05
	Hollywood Argyles–	Alley-Oop	2:45
	Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs–	Stay	1:39

1	Chantays*–	Pipeline	2:23
2	The Belairs–	Mr. Moto	2:12
3	The Surfaris–	Wipe Out	2:41
4	The Frogmen (2)–	Underwater	2:08
5	Dick Dale & The Del-Tones*–	Miserlou	2:16
6	The Ventures–	Diamond Head	2:04
7	The Astronauts (3)–	Baja	2:28
8	The Mar-Kets*–	Surfer’s Stomp	1:59
9	The Tornadoes–	Bustin’ Surfboards	2:30
10	The Pyramids–	Penetration	2:05
11	Eddie & The Showmen–	Mr. Rebel	1:59
12	The Crossfires–	Fiberglass Jungle	2:14
13	The Challengers–	K39	2:14
14	The Surfaris–	Point Panic	2:19
15	Dick Dale & The Del-Tones*–	Let’s Go Trippin’	2:09
16	The Lively Ones–	Surf Rider	3:22
17	Johnny Fortune–	Soul Surfer	2:34
18	Jack Nitzsche–	The Lonely Surfer	2:35

In my quest to read books I’ve had on my shelves for decades, I finally picked up D. H. Lawrence’s Four Short Novels. I’m not sure the term “short novel” is appropriate for some of these stories. For example, “Love Among the Haystacks” is only 41 pages. That’s hardly a short novel in my book!

Let’s start with “Love Among the Haystacks.” It’s the story of a couple of young farmers and a couple of young women finding romance among the haystacks. I found it very ho-hum. GRADE: C

“The Fox” concerns two women who are living together and trying to turn a patch of wilderness into a farm. A young man visits them, stays for a time, and all hell breaks loose! This is a strange story that takes some bizarre turns. GRADE: C+

“The Ladybird” features a young woman in love with an older man. The older man, of course, is married and a prisoner of war. The young woman visits the wounded solider and when the man asks her to sew him a shirt, she does so. Why? The story really seems to go nowhere. GRADE: C

The final story in this collection is “The Captain’s Doll.” A gifted artist has a crush on a military man. She makes a doll that resembles the Captain, the man she would love to marry. The Captain tells her that he only cares to take care of a woman and have her obey his commands–he cares nothing of love. Of course, they end up together. GRADE: C

I’ve never been a big fan of D. H. Lawrence’s fiction. Lawrence wrote a brilliant non-fiction book, Studies in Classic American Literature, in 1923. Read that instead!

Last week I blogged about The Band’s Stage Fright and The Best of the Band. Just by coincidence, the new Criterion Collection version of The Last Waltz arrived the next day and I spent time watching it. I have a couple different versions of The Last Waltz, at least one DVD version and a Blu-ray. This new Criterion Collection disc is a Blu-ray and the quality is very good. The colors are crisp and the sound is sharp.

Not only do you get to see and hear The Band play its final performance, you get to see them share the stage with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, the Staple Singers, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, and Mavis Staples. Martin Scorsese’s classic rock documentary from 1978 looks remastered for the 21st Century! Terrific! GRADE: A

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

A1		Theme From The Last Waltz Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:52
		The Concert
A2		Up On Cripple Creek Written-By – Robbie Robertson	5:31
A3		The Shape I’m In Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:10
A4		It Makes No Difference Written-By – Robbie Robertson	6:51
B1		Who Do You Love? Vocals – Ronnie Hawkins Written-By – Ellas McDaniels	4:51
B2		Life Is A Carnival Written-By – Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson	4:26
B3		Such A Night Vocals – Dr. John Written-By – Mac Rebennack	4:42
B4		The Weight Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:51
B5		Down South In New Orleans Lyrics By [Additional Lyrics] – Bobby Charles Vocals – Bobby Charles Written-By – Jack Anglin, Jim Anglin, Johnny Wright	3:11
C1		This Wheel’s On Fire Written-By – Bob Dylan, Rick Danko	3:54
C2		Mystery Train Lyrics By [Additional Lyrics] – Robbie Robertson Vocals – Paul Butterfield Written-By – Herman Parker, Jr.*, Sam Phillips	5:04
C3		Caldonia Vocals – Muddy Waters Written-By – Fleecy Moore	6:09
C4		Mannish Boy Vocals – Muddy Waters Written-By – Ellas McDaniels*, McKinley Morganfield, Melvin London	6:41
D1		Stage Fright Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:31
D2		Rag Mama Rag Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:34
D3		All Our Past Times Vocals, Guitar – Eric Clapton Written-By – Eric Clapton, Rick Danko	5:02
D4		Further On Up The Road Vocals, Guitar – Eric Clapton Written-By – Don Robey, Joe Veasey	5:30
E1		OpheliaWritten-By – Robbie RobertsonWritten-By – Robbie Robertson	3:46
E2		Helpless Written-By, Vocals, Guitar – Neil Young	5:53
E3		Four Strong Winds Vocals, Guitar – Neil Young Written-By – Ian Tyson	4:37
E4		Coyote Vocals, Guitar, Written-By – Joni Mitchell	5:28
F1		Shadows And Light Vocals, Guitar, Written-By – Joni Mitchell	5:45
F2		Furry Sings The Blues Vocals, Guitar, Written-By – Joni Mitchell	5:09
F3		Acadian Driftwood Written-By – Robbie Robertson	7:07
F4		Dry Your Eyes Vocals – Neil Diamond Written-By – Neil Diamond, Robbie Robertson	4:16
G1		The W.S. Walcott Medicine ShowWritten-By – Robbie Robertson	3:39
G2		Tura Lura Lura (That’s An Irish Lullaby) Vocals – Van Morrison Written-By – James Royce Shannon	4:11
G3		Caravan Written-By, Vocals – Van Morrison	6:12
G4		The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:35
G5		The Genetic Method / Chest Fever (Excerpt From Movie Soundtrack) Written-By – Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson	2:41
H1		Baby Let Me Follow You Down Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan Written-By – Reverend Gary Davis	2:56
H2		Hazel Written-By, Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan	3:42
H3		I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) Written-By, Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan	3:29
H4		Forever Young Written-By, Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan	5:51
H5		Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Reprise) Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan Written-By – Reverend Gary Davis	2:59
H6		I Shall Be Released [Finale] Written-By, Vocals, Guitar – Bob Dylan	4:50
I1		Jam # 1	5:32
I2		Jam # 2	9:11
I3		Don’t Do It Written-By – Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland, Jr.	6:20
I4		Greensleeves (From Movie Soundtrack) Arranged By – Garth Hudson Written-By – Trad.	1:38
		The Last Waltz Suite
J1		The Well Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:33
J2		Evangeline Vocals – Emmylou Harris Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:10
J3		Out Of The Blue Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:20
J4		The Weight Vocals – The Staples Written-By – Robbie Robertson	4:36
J5		The Last Waltz Refrain Written-By – Robbie Robertson	1:32
J6		Theme From The Last Waltz Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:27
		Concert Rehearsal
K1		King Harvest (Has Surely Come) Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:52
K2		Tura Lura Lura (That’s An Irish Lullaby) Vocals – Van Morrison Written-By – James Royce Shannon	3:53
K3		Caravan Written-By, Vocals – Van Morrison	6:30
K4		Such A Night Vocals – Dr. JohnWritten-By – Mac Rebennack	5:25
K5		Rag Mama Rag Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:53
		Studio Ideas
L1		Mad Waltz (Sketch Track For “The Well”) Written-By – Robbie Robertson	5:31
L2		The Last Waltz Refrain (Instrumental Version) Written-By – Robbie Robertson	0:50
L3		The Last Waltz Refrain (Sketch) Written-By – Robbie Robertson	3:35

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack supervised and approved by musician Robbie Robertson
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Two alternate soundtracks: the original 1978 2.0 surround mix, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, and an uncompressed stereo mix from 2001
• Two audio commentaries, featuring Scorsese; members of the Band; members of the production crew; and performers Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, and Mavis Staples
• New interview with Scorsese, conducted by critic David Fear
• Documentary from 2002 about the making of the film
• Outtake
• Interview from 1978 with Scorsese and Robertson
• Trailer and TV spot
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Amanda Petrusich

Daniel Holzman & Matt Rodbard’s Food IQ is subtitled: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts. With years of cooking experience Holzman and Rodbard share many of their cooking secrets.

I, of course, went directly to their advice on baking wonderful pizzas! Despite the many different kinds of pizzas you might want to bake, the authors focus on the importance of the dough. Most people do not have pizza ovens in their kitchen (able to reach over 600 degrees) so some temperature compromises must be made.

The chapter on pasta dishes also drew my attention. I learned by pasta always tastes better in a restaurant–unless you know the secret.

Finding out the strengths and weaknesses of various kitchen tools was useful, too. If you want to become a better cook and prepare more tasty food, check out FOOD IQ. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xi

Misunderstood, undiscovered, overlooked, and underappreciated … ingredients — xxi
Tools and technology — 44
Hacks, technique, and really good advice — 84
Busting some myths — 138
This sounds fancy. This sounds intimidating. What is it? — 194
12 favorite (essential, life-changing) things to cook forever — 238
Weekend cooking projects: is the juice worth the squeeze? — 282

Epilogue — 324

Acknowledgements — 325

Index — 326

Forty years after a devastating war between Old Earth’s Central Governance and its space colonies, the sisters of The Order of Saint Rita embark on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard a living starship called Our Lady of Impossible Constellations.

Lina Rather covers a lot of ground in 159 pages with Sisters of the Vast Black (2019). The nuns are unaware of the surprises that lurk aboard their starship. Their mission of mercy turns into something much more sinister. My favorite nun is Sister Faustina–maybe the most intelligent sister who solves the puzzles threatening her Order. I also liked Sister Gemma who has to make a life-changing decision.

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars (2022) picks up where Sisters of the Vast Black left off. The nuns are on the run from Old Earth’s Central Governance. Two women show up to “join” their Order, but both women come with secrets. This blend of politics, violence, betrayal, and religion produces a couple of engaging space operas. If you’re in the mood for some off-beat SF, Lina Rather’s nuns will surprise you! GRADE: B (for both)