TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Compulsory Games
Le Miroir
Raising the Wind
Residents Only
Hands in Glove
Wood
Laura
Just a Song at Twilight
Letters to the Postman
Marriage
No Time Is Passing
The Strangers
The Fully-Conducted Tour
A Disciple of Plato
The Coffin House
A few weeks ago, I featured Robert Aickman’s Painted Devils: Strange Stories (you can read my review here).
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Robert Aickman’s short story collection, Painted Devils (you can read what I had to say here). It took me a few weeks to find my copy of Aickman’s Compulsory Games, the New York Review of Books volume that collects some brilliant stories from Aickman’s previous books.
For readers unfamiliar with Robert Aickman’s work, Compulsory Games would be a great place to start. In her insightful Introduction, Victoria Nelson notes that Aickman himself characterized his fiction as “strange stories.” And, strange they are!
Take “Hand in Glove” for an example. Millicent has broken up with Nigel and Millicent’s odd friend, Winifred, takes Millicent for a picnic in a surreal country town. Aspects of loss and lies result and Millicent finds herself in a menacing situation. Or take the title story, “Compulsory Games,” where a man in a tired marriage nearly falls into an affair with a friend, only to be rebuffed near the point of consummation. From this point forward that he’s punished, not in any overt way, but through the slow withdrawal of his wife via that same friend,
One of my favorite stories in this collection–which easily could have been titled The Best of Robert Aickman–is “Le Miroir” where a woman has an eerie attraction to a looking glass. If you’re in the mood for the unusual and offbeat, you’ll find it in Compulsory Games. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Under the Skin by Victoria Nelson — vii
The new Criterion Collection version of Miller’s Crossing blends classic noir fiction with Joel and Ethan Coen’s trademark sparkling dialogue, off-beat characters, and violent action. Here’s a summary:
“Gabriel Byrne brings a wry gravitas to the role of Tom Reagan, the quick-thinking right-hand man to a powerful crime boss (Albert Finney). Tom’s unflappable cool is tested when he begins offering his services to a rival outfit—setting off a cascade of betrayals, reprisals, and increasingly berserk violence. The Hopperesque visuals of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, majestically elegiac score by Carter Burwell, and vivid supporting performances from John Turturro and Marcia Gay Harden come together in a slice of pulp perfection that crackles with sardonic wit while plumbing existential questions about free will and our own terrifying capacity for evil.”
Of course the real reason I bought Miller’s Crossing was the conversation between Megan Abbott and the Coen’s film noir and crime fiction. Great movie, great conversation! GRADE: A
“In the days and weeks after Election Day on November 3, the President was deserted by his aides and staff. The legal establishment, at least anyone in it with a promising career, abandoned him. His hapless band of co-conspirators are too lazy or too drunk or cynical to develop a credible strategy or execute one. It was a a shit show–ludicrous, inexplicable, cringeworthy, nuts, event for the people who felt most loyal to him. The election challenge never had a chance of success.” (p. xiv)
“[Sidney Powell] had been telling Giuliani and the team that the conspiracy ran even deeper: Trump’s landslide victory was upended by an international plot. Former Venezuelan present Hugo Chavez (dead since 2013), George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, and the Chinese had masterminded the plot to steal the election from [Trump]. Oh, and the voting software routed the realists through Germany, exposing the tabulation to nefarious elements there!” (p. 114)
“On Saturday, November 21, two days after Giuliani’s hair dye meltdown at the RNC press conference, U. S. Court District judge Matthew Brann, in Pennsylvania, denied the Trump effort to have millions of mail-in ballots thrown out because of small inconsistencies, from county to country, in the filing process. …[Judge Brann wrote] the claim, ‘like Frankenstein’s monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.'” (p. 124)
With Trump traipsing around the country praising Putin–“A genius!”–and positioning himself for a run for President in 2024, I thought it was instructive to read Michael Wolff’s Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency to revisit those dark days that culminated in the Attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The desperate efforts to overturn the Election, the failure to concede to Biden, the launching of the Big Lie (the Election was stolen!) strategy, and total lack of interest in the Pandemic punctuated the Lame Duck period until Biden’s Inauguration.
With the Russian-Ukraine War raging, historically high gas prices, Inflation out of control, and Republican states targeting LGBTQ students (“Don’t Say Gay!), things look bleak. Where do you think we’re headed? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction xiii
Prologue: The Trial 1
1 Death Star 9
2 Election Night 43
3 New Votes 64
4 Rudy 92
5 What’s Black Is White 121
6 Where Now? 143
7 The Endgame 163
8 The Day Before 189
9 Morning, January 6 213
10 The Remainder Of The Day, January 6 229
11 Deplatformed 251
12 Redux 272
Epilogue: The Road To Mar-A-Lago 291
Acknowledgments 311
“A fruity, lightly spiced apple pie with a dollop of cream pairs nicely with this pear-inflected, softly sweet and vivaciously semi-sparkling Moscato d’Asti from the Piemontese producer Vietti. Produced from vineyards that are almost 40 years old, its low in alcohol (5%) but long on pleasure and very, very easy to drink.”
That’s the review in the Wall Street Journal that motivated me to buy a bottle of Vietti Moscato d’Asti. And, I totally agree with the reviewer! Vietti Moscato d’Asti is a softly sweet and vivaciously semi-sparkling white wine that’s simply delicious!
If you’re interested in other wine and dessert pairings, you can read the full review here. GRADE: A
I’m not a big fan of coffee table books, but this gorgeous volume celebrating Godine Press will grace my coffee table for years! A couple dozen Godine Press books sit on my shelves. I found Godine books wonderfully produced with unique cover artwork and quality materials.
The first Godine book I bought was in 1982. It was a quirky mystery by K. C. Constantine: The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes. I went on to purchase the next eight Mario Balzic mysteries Godine published. Balzic, chief of police in Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, investigates crimes in a small coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania. Why K. C. Constantine isn’t in the conversation with Michael Connelly and Laura Lippman and other top writers baffles me.
Edmund Wilson, George Orwell, Donald Hall, Iris Origo, Paul Horgan, William Gass, Will Cuppy, Ludwig Bemelmans, William Maxwell, Wright Morris, and Paula Fox are just some of the writers you’ll find between well designed and beautifully printed Godine covers. Are you a fan of Godine Books? Do you have a favorite? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction & Brief History of the Press — vii
1. Early Letterpress & Fine Printing — 1
2. Wood Cut & Wood Engraving — 10
3. Fiction — 17
4. Short Stories — 29
5. Literature in Translation — 36
6. Poetry — 43
7. Essay and Criticism — 58
8. Words, Language and Usage — 69
9. Biography & Autobiography — 73
10. History — 90
11. Photography — 105
12. Art — 124
13. Architecture — 135
14. Children’s Books — 147
15. Nautical & Maritime — 173
16. Music — 185
17. Gardening — 197
18. Cooking and Cuisine — 207
19. Typography — 213
20. Calligraphy — 231
21. Natural History — 239
22. Humor — 249
23. The Sporting Life — 253
24. Outliers & Other Works of Unclassifiable but Undeniable Genius — 257
Posters — 262
Ephemera — 264
Bindings — 265
Typographers, Calligraphers, & Designers — 266
Index — 267
Edward L. Ferman succeeds Avram Davidson as editor with this volume. My favorite story in this anthology is Fritz Leiber’s “Four Ghosts in Hamlet.” Perhaps the most famous story in The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction, 15th Series is Roger Zelazny’s “The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth” about a fishing expedition on Venus.
R. A. Lafferty’s “Hog-Belly Honey” presents his usual comic silliness. Zenna Henderson’s touching story of The People, “No Different Flesh,” begins with a flying baby and ends in hope. The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction, 15th Series shows Edward L. Ferman can assemble a quality anthology in the manner that Anthony Boucher and Avram Davidson did for years. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Henry Mancini is best known for his “Theme for Peter Gunn,” “Moon River,” and “The Theme for The Pink Panther.” So when I saw this orchestral CD of Pop Hits, I bought it immediately. I’m sure you’ll find most of these tunes familiar.
The CD ends with “Good Old Rock’N’Roll (Medley)” with eight songs mostly from the early days of Rock’N’Roll. If you’re in the mood for something very different, you might want to try these versions of well-known Pop songs. I’ve listened to this CD a couple of times since I acquired it and enjoyed what I heard. How many of these songs do you remember? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
“A bold collection of stories about sex that leaves you guessing who wrote what.” And, “27 Authors. 27 Stories. No Names Attached.” That’s the marketing concept behind Hillary Jordan and Clearly Lu-Lien Tan’s Anonymous Sex. Jordan and Tan approached a number of writers asking if they would send them stories that would be published anonymously with readers challenged to figure out which writer wrote which story. The project was stalled until the Pandemic hit and suddenly writers found time to participate.
So, who submitted stories that made the cut? Check out this list:
Featuring Robert Olen Butler, Catherine Chung, Trent Dalton, Heidi W. Durrow, Tony Eprile, Louise Erdrich, Jamie Ford, Julia Glass, Peter Godwin, Hillary Jordan, Rebecca Makkai, Valerie Martin, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Téa Obreht, Helen Oyeyemi, Mary-Louise Parker, Victoria Redel, Jason Reynolds, S.J. Rozan, Meredith Talusan, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Jeet Thayil, Paul Theroux, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Edmund White
What are these sex stories about? Here’s a brief sample:
* A married woman has a BDSM-tinged encounter at a work conference
* Two young boys on a sleepover feel the first stirrings of desire
* In an artificially generated afterlife, anything can be sexual if you want it to be
* A young widow on a sleeper train shelters a criminal in her carriage
* A bisexual woman cheats on her wife with a baker
* Anyone can hire a holographic gigolo in 2098 – but one client gets a lot closer than she’d intended
* Female friends, sharing a hotel room, give in to long-repressed feelings
* The Rapunzel myth is rewritten…
Clearly, Jordan and Tan tried to provide something for everybody. But, that wide net of stories also creates a problem: some of the stories may not engaged readers interested in a specific erotic scenario.
Each year since 1993, Literary Review has presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the author it deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in a novel. Too bad the stories in Anonymous Sex don’t qualify. GRADE: C-
Diane and I donned our N95 masks and arrived at Shea’s Performing Arts Center to see an elegant classical musical, My Fair Lady. This touring company version didn’t stint on anything: the sumptuous costumes, the impressive rotating set pieces, and an orchestra worthy of the music.
Based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady was first produced on Broadway in 1956 starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, with Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Music by Frederick Loewe. It won six Tony awards, including Best Musical, and ran for 2,717 performances, which was a record for that time.
The 1964 film version of My Fair Lady, which won the Oscar for Best Picture and was the second highest grossing movie of the year (only Mary Poppins made more), was controversial for its replacement of Julie Andrews for a bigger star, Audrey Hepburn as Eliza, whose voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Natalie Wood’s Maria in the 1961 film of West Side Story. Ms. Nixon was quite a busy woman at that time).
Lerner and Loewe collaborated on sixteen musicals including, to name a few: BRIGADOON, PAINT YOUR WAGON, CAMELOT, and GIGI. My Fair Lady was their biggest hit.
Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl transformed into an elegant lady on a bet by altering her speech, delighted us with her wonderful voice. Laird Mackintosh is a convincing obsessive/compulsive Henry Higgins although this production presents Professor Higgins as an obnoxious dilettante.
If My Fair Lady shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you consider seeing this old fashioned, classic musical with its wonderful songs. Are you a fan of My Fair Lady? GRADE: B+
| Act I “Overture” – The Orchestra”Busker Sequence” – The Orchestra”Why Can’t the English?” – Professor Higgins “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” – Eliza and Male Quartet “With a Little Bit of Luck” – Alfred Doolittle, Harry, Jamie and Company “I’m an Ordinary Man” – Professor Higgins “With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “Just You Wait” – Eliza”The Servants’ Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins)” – Mrs. Pearce and Servants “The Rain in Spain” – Professor Higgins, Eliza, and Colonel Pickering “I Could Have Danced All Night” – Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants”Ascot Gavotte” – Ensemble “On the Street Where You Live” – Freddy”Eliza’s Entrance/Embassy Waltz” – The Orchestra | Act II “You Did It” – Colonel Pickering, Professor Higgins, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants “Just You Wait (Reprise)” – Eliza “On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)” – Freddy “Show Me” – Eliza with Freddy “The Flower Market/Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? (Reprise)” – Eliza and Male Quartet “Get Me to the Church on Time” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “A Hymn to Him” – Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering “Without You” – Eliza and Professor Higgins “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” – Professor Higgins “I Could Have Danced All Night (Reprise) / Finale” – The Orchestra |