Thor: Ragnakrok blends several MARVEL superheroes: The Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Stan Lee. Thor’s evil sister, Hela, returns from exile to conquer Asgard. Thor doesn’t stand a chance against his big sister, played brilliantly by Cate Blanchett. Thor finds himself on a junkyard planet ruled by the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) who keeps the populous happy by offering gladiatorial games for their entertainment. Thor needs to escape and return to Asgard to stop Hela’s dark ambitions.

My favorite aspect of Thor: Ragnarok is its humor. In previous Thor movies, things were a little too serious for my taste. This new movie features plenty of fun. Thor gets into plenty of ludicrous situations. Tom Hiddleston returns as Loki. And, expect some surprises from the twisty plot. GRADE: A

Kurt Andersen shows why America today struggles with “Fake News” and “Alternative Facts” and “Magical Thinking.” From the beginning, when Columbus and the other explorers searched for El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth, the New World was a fantasyland. Andersen analyzes the groups that colonized our country and formed a unique Government. Social movements, religious movements, mystical movements all built the culture we live in now.

Philip K. Dick, who wrote about alternate Realities and the fluidity of Time and Space, gets referenced by Andersen as America becomes a drug culture. Con artists and hustlers flit in and out of American History. I really enjoyed the chapter on P.T. Barnum. Televangelists opposed evolution and pushed faith healing and conspiracy theories. Alien abductions and summoning demons became “normalized.”

Our wacky Government and the loony 2016 campaign act as warnings of what we face in the Future. Holocaust deniers, Moon landing deniers, and climate change deniers are the direct result of making Truth relative. Our civil discourse, riddled with lies and myths, produce marches supporting Science. Things are going to get worse before they get better. Fantasyland is the best book I’ve read in 2016! GRADE: A
TALBE OF CONTENTS:
1 Now Entering Fantasyland p. 3
Part I The Conjuring of America: 1517-1789
2 I Believe, Therefore I Am Right: The Protestants p. 15
3 All That Glitters: The Gold-Seekers p. 18
4 Building Our Own Private Heaven on Earth: The Puritans p. 24
5 The God-Given Freedom to Believe in God p. 32
6 Imaginary Friends and Enemies: The Early Satanic Panics p. 37
7 The First Me Century: Religion Gets American p. 43
8 Meanwhile, in the Eighteenth-Century Reality-Based Community p. 50
Part II United States of Amazing: The 1800s
9 The First Great Delirium p. 57
10 The All-American Fan Fiction of Joseph Smith, Prophet p. 68
11 Quack Nation: Magical but Modern p. 74
12 Fantastic Business: The Gold Rush Inflection Point p. 82
13 In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Conspiracy Theory Habit p. 88
14 The War Between States of Mind p. 92
15 Ten Million Little Houses on the Prairie p. 98
16 Fantasy Industrialized p. 104
Part III A Long Arc Bending Toward Reason: 1900-1960
17 Progress and Backlash p. 117
18 The Biggest Backlash: Brand-New Old-Time Religion p. 122
19 The Business of America Is Show Business p. 135
20 Big Rock Candy Mountains: Utopia in the Suburbs and the Sun p. 142
21 The 1950s Seemed So Normal p. 150
Part IV Big Bang: The 1960s and ’70s
Introduction p. 173
22 Big Bang: The Hippies p. 176
23 Big Bang: The Intellectuals p. 189
24 Big Bang: The Christians p. 198
25 Big Bang: Politics and Government and Conspiracies p. 209
26 Big Bang: Living in a Land of Entertainment p. 221
Part V Fantasyland Scales: From the 1980s Through the Turn of the Century
Introduction p. 237
27 Making Make-Believe More Realistic and Real Life More Make-Believe p. 239
28 Forever Young: Kids “R” Us Syndrome p. 247
29 The Reagan Era and the Start of the Digital Age p. 252
30 American Religion from the Turn of the Millennium p. 265
31 Our Wilder Christianities: Belief and Practice p. 272
32 America Versus the Godless Civilized World: Why Are We So Exceptional? p. 286
33 Magical but Not Necessarily Christian, Spiritual but Not Religious p. 293
34 Blue-Chip Witch Doctors: The Reenchantment of Medicine p. 300
35 How the Mainstream Enabled Fantasyland: Squishies, Cynics, and Believers p. 306
36 Anything Gobs-Unless It Picks My Pocket or Breaks My Leg p. 317
Part VI The Problem with Fantasyland: From the 1980s to the Present and Beyond
37 The Inmates Running the Asylum Decide Monsters Are Everywhere p. 325
38 Reality Is a Conspiracy: The X-Filing of America p. 342
39 Mad as Hell, the New Voice of the People p. 356
40 When the GOP Went Off the Rails p. 362
41 Liberals Denying Science p. 376
42 Gun Crazy p. 381
43 Final Fantasy-industrial Complex p. 390
44 Our Inner Children? They’re Going to Disney World! p. 401
45 The Economic Dreamtime p. 409
46 As fantasyland Goes, So Goes the Nation p. 413
Acknowledgments p. 441
Index p. 443

The Buffalo Bills played on Thursday Night Football so they’re resting today. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Deborah Cox lights up The Bodyguard: The Musical (aka, Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits) with her dance moves and strong voice. This is a musical version of the 1992 movie starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. A pop star, based on Whitney Houston, is being threatened and stalked by a psychopathic killer. A former Secret Service agent is hired to protect the pop star. That’s pretty much the plot. This musical version goes from song to song without much dialogue or plot. There’s just one scene where Deborah Cox and Judson Mills (who plays the bodyguard) get to interact: in a karaoke bar. Needless to say, it was my favorite scene in the whole production. If you like Whitney Houston’s hits, you’ll enjoy The Bodyguard: The Musical. Do you have a favorite Whitney Houston song? GRADE: B-
Act I
“Queen of the Night” – Rachel and Ensemble
“I’m Your Baby Tonight” – Rachel, Fletcher and Ensemble
“Oh Yes” – The Stalker and Rachel
“Saving All My Love” – Nicki
“Saving All My Love” (Reprise) – Nicki
“So Emotional” – Rachel, DJ and Ensemble
“Run to You” – Rachel and Nicki
“How Will I Know” – Karaoke Girls
“I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton Version)” – Frank
“I Have Nothing” – Rachel and Nicki
Act II
“All the Man That I Need” – Rachel and Ensemble
“I’m Every Woman” – Rachel and Ensemble
“All at Once” – Nicki
“Jesus Loves Me” – Nicki, Fletcher and Rachel
“Jesus Loves Me” (Reprise) – Rachel and Ensemble
“One Moment in Time” – Rachel
“I Will Always Love You” (Whitney Houston Version) – Rachel
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” – Company

Douglas Ellis’s new The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History presents the development of action Pulps to spicy Pulps and everything in between. Ellis presents the complete history of Pulp magazines from the the stories and their writers to the artwork and artists, including the changing market, readership, and publishers.

Each chapter in the book includes dozens of examples of the best eye-popping Pulp graphics. The book is organized by genre with a selection of the best Pulp magazine covers and interior graphics presented chronologically throughout the chapter. F. Paul Wilson’s informative Forward gives historical context to the Pulps. Ask Santa to bring you a copy of this wonderful book! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreward By F. Paul Wilson 6

Introduction: Birth of the Pulps By Douglas Ellis 8

1. In Search of Adventure (action pulp, ERB, Adventure covers) By Douglas Ellis 12

2. Cops, Crooks & Private Dicks By John Wooley 32

3. Riding the Range (Westerns, Max Brand, etc..) By Ed Hulse 52

4. Above the Clouds & In the Trenches (Aviation & War, Zeps & Subs) By Tom Roberts. 72

5. Armchair Athletics (Sports, Sport Story, etc…) By Michelle Nolan. 92

6. Love on the Newstands (Romance, Daisy Bacon, Western love, etc) By Laurie Powers 110

7. The Horror! The Horror! (Horror, sex & sadism, The Big Three, etc..) By Robert Weinberg, Douglas Ellis & Ed Hulse. 128

8. Adventures in Other Worlds (sci-fi, fantasy, Hugo G, British Sci Fi, etc) By Mike Ashley. 148

9. When We Needed A Hero (Heroes, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Villain Pulps (Fu Manchu), etc) By Will Murray 170

10. Adding More Than A Pinch of Spice (sexy stuff, Henry Marcus, NSFW stuff) By Douglas Ellis 190

11. Wizards with a Brush (incl. Norman Saunders & Walter Baumhofer) By David Saunders 210

12. Wizards With A Pen (Lovecraft, Howard, etc) By Ed Hulse 222

Afterword: The Death of the Pulps and Rise of Paperbacks By Ed Hulse 234

Index 236

Art Credits 239

Contributor Bios/Acknowledgements 240

The surprising 5-2 Buffalo Bills take on the struggling NY Jets (3-5) tonight on the NFL Network. The Bills are 3 and 1/2 point favorites. The Bills were able to defeat the Oakland Raiders in the wind and the rain of Western NY. The weather forecast for tonight’s game appears more benign. These AFC East games can be rough, tough, and close. No Bills fan expects an easy game tonight.

I loved Emma Stone’s performance as Billy Jean King in Battle of the Sexes, the story of the TV event in the Astrodome that captured the largest audience for a tennis match at that time. Steve Carell plays frustrated 55-year-old former tennis great Bobby Riggs. Riggs decides he can regain the public spotlight (and make some money) by becoming a sexist clown and challenging women tennis players to competitive matches.

Many of you may remember the famous Battle of the Sexes event on ABC TV narrated by Howard Cosell and Rosie Casals (Natalie Morales). Austin Stowell plays Billy Jean’s devoted husband. I liked Sarah Silverman as Billy Jean’s feisty agent. Bill Pullman and Alan Cumming are part of the talented cast.

A good part of this movie shows the pressures Billy Jean King endured on the professional tennis tour, the physical and mental demands. Billy Jean’s relationship with a hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough) isn’t sugar-coated although the resolution is. Good performances and great story. What more could you want? GRADE: B+

Although most of Marshall is set in 1941 Bridgeport, Connecticut what you’ll be seeing on the screen is Buffalo, New York: Central Terminal, Delaware Park, Beard Avenue in North Buffalo, Statler City’s former Rendezvous Room (doubling for Harlem’s Minton’s Playhouse), and City Hall. Yes, this film was mostly shot a few miles away from where I live.

Director Reginald Hudlin’s movie about Thurgood Marshall–the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and the civil rights lawyer that won “Brown vs. Board of Education” that officially ended “legal” segregation and the “separate but equal” defense–features Chadwick Boseman as the prickly Marshall (soon to be a major star in Black Panther). Hudlin and Boseman take a risk by making Marshall initially arrogant and aloof and unsympathetic. Marshall is the NAACP’s only full-time lawyer at this time. He defends cases of discrimination all over the country, but not all the black defendants get freed. That adds to Marshall’s bitterness.

Marshall centers around a case where a black chauffeur (Sterling K. Brown) is accused by his female employer (Kate Hudson) of rape and attempted murder. Marshall hasn’t passed the Bar in Connecticut so he needs a local lawyer to front for him. Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a Jewish lawyer who specializes in insurance cases, finds himself Marshall’s reluctant co-counsel. Marshall’s contempt for Friedman’s lack of criminal law experience soon turns to grudging respect as the two men work together to prepare a defense.

Marshall is one of the best movies I’ve seen in 2017. Don’t miss it! GRADE: A

The Big News here is the trade that sent million dollar per game Defensive Tackle Marcell Dareus to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a Sixth Round pick. Clearly, the Bills executed a classic “Salary Dump” by moving Dareus. The Buffalo Bills drafted Dareus in 2011 with the Third overall pick in the First Round. Dareus made the Pro Bowl in 2013 and 2014. In the 2014 season, Dareus had 10 sacks and 49 tackles. The Bills signed Dareus to a $100 million contract extension.

But then Dareus flunked a drug test, was suspended for a game in 2015, flunked another drug test, was suspended for four games in 2016, and Dareus’s performance fell off the cliff.

Dareus is just one more flunked drug test from a mandatory 10 game suspension. The Bills had to be delighted that the Jags were willing to take Dareus off their hands (and free up millions under the Salary Cap!).

The Bills are 3-point favorites today against the Raiders. How will your NFL team do today?