Babette’s Feast won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s also the first Danish film to win an Academy Award. Basically, the story is straight-forward: an inspirational minister and his two beautiful daughters live in a rural Danish town in the 19th Century. The movie then shows what happens when the minister dies and his sect dwindles. The beautiful daughters, who had opportunities to live and marry, are now old and white-haired–and alone. Through a twist of fate, a French woman joins their small community. The French woman, Babette, shows the community what Real Life and real French cooking are like. I enjoyed this story of decisions made and opportunities lost. Many viewers will consider Babette’s Feast too slow, but its leisurely pace is part of its charm. GRADE: B

Greil Marcus’ new book, The History of Rock’N’Roll in Ten Songs, is basically a device to allow Marcus to riff about other artists and other songs. I found the book entertaining, but I came up with my own list of 10 songs to tell the story of Rock’N’Roll:
MY 10 SONGS:
1. “Return to Sender”–Elvis (1962)
2. “She Loves You”–The Beatles (1963)
3. “Come See About Me”–The Supremes (1964)
4.”Like a Rolling Stone”–Bob Dylan (1965)
5. “Tumblin’ Dice”–The Rolling Stones (1972)
6. “Bad Girls”–Donna Summer (1979)
7. “Hey Nineteen”–Steely Dan (1980)
8. “Live to Tell”–Madonna (1986)
9. “Genie In A Bottle”–Christina Aguilera (1999)
10. “Just Dance”–Lady Gaga (2008)

GREIL MARCUS’ 10 SONGS:
1.”Shake Some Action”–Flamin’ Groovies (1976)
2. “Transmission”–Joy Division (1979)
3. “In the Still of the Nite”–The Five Satins (1956)
4. “All I Could Do Was Cry”–Etta James (1960,) Beyonce (2011)
5. “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”–Buddy Holly (1959)
6. “Money (That’s What I Want)”–Barrett Strong (1960), Beatles (1963)
7. “Money Changes Everything”–Cyndi Lauper (1984)
8. “This Magic Moment”–The Drifters (1960)
9. “Guitar Drag”–Christian Marclay (2006)
10. “To Know Him Is To Love Him”–Amy Winehouse (2006)

What 10 songs would you choose to tell the history of rock & roll?

The Buffalo Bills enter this First Game of the season with plenty of question marks. Can QB E. J. Manuel stay healthy and develop? Can the Bills defense overcome the losses of Kiki Alonso (best defensive player, he blew out his ACL working out in the pre-season) and All-Pro free safety Jairus Byrd (who signed with New Orleans)? The Bills have never won a game at Chicago. Their prospects look dim this time, too. How is your favorite NFL team going to fare today?

Jon Favreau plays a volatile, but talented chef. After a public fight with a food critic (it’s captured on cell phone video and goes viral on the Internet), he quits his job at a popular Los Angeles restaurant. At a loss about what to do with his career in shambles, the chef returns to his home town of Miami. His ex-wife, played by Sofía Vergara, convinces him to fix up a food truck and start a new business. The chef repairs some of his relationship with his ex-wife. Their son wants to join him in the journey of driving the food truck back to L.A. Father and son renew their relationship as well. While on the road trip, the food truck stops and sells Cubanos in cities like Miami, New Orleans, and Austin along the way to L.A. The essence of the movie is to “get back to basics.”

Favreau, who directed Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Cowboys and Aliens, wrote the script to Chef wanting to “get back to basics” and to create a movie celebrating cooking and family. I enjoyed the film with its talented cast and uncomplicated plot. No surprises here. I really liked Emjay Anthony’s performance as the chef’s 11-year-old son. So much of this film is about the father/son relationship. It could all have gone wrong with a bad casting choice. But, it didn’t. GRADE: A-

I started reading The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction back in the 1950s. It was classy and attracted some of the best writers of that era. Periodically, volumes of The Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction appeared collecting some of the better stories that appeared in that publication. I bought them, too. Now, Gordon Van Gelder, the current editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, has published two volumes of great stories from the 60+ year run of his periodical. This second volume just came out this summer and if you scan the Table of Contents, you’ll see some classics. Van Gelder made his choices in a chronological fashion. I think this collection is a bargain at $12.58 on AMAZON. The first volume, just as good, is still available, too. These two volumes give you great value for the money!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
“The Third Level” by Jack Finney (1952)
“The Cosmic Charge Account” by C. M. Kornbluth (1956)
“The Country of the Kind” by Damon Knight (1956)
“The Anything Box” by Zenna Henderson (1956)
“The Prize of Peril” by Robert Sheckley (1958)
“ ‘—All You Zombies—’ ” by Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
“A Kind of Artistry” by Brian W. Aldiss (1962)
“Green Magic” by Jack Vance (1963)
“NarrowValley” by R. A. Lafferty (1966)
“Sundance” by Robert Silverberg (1969)
“Attack of the Giant Baby” by Kit Reed (1976)
“The Hundredth Dove” by Jane Yolen (1977)
“Jeffty Is Five” by Harlan Ellison (1977)
“Salvador” by Lucius Shepard (1984)
“The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything” by George Alec Effinger (1984)
“Rat” by James Patrick Kelly (1986)
“The Friendship Light” by Gene Wolfe (1989)
“The Bone Woman” by Charles de Lint (1993)
“The Lincoln Train” by Maureen F. McHugh (1995)
“Maneki Neko” by Bruce Sterling (1998)
“Winemaster” Robert Reed (1999)
“SuicideCoast” by M. John Harrison (1999)
“Have Not Have” by Geoff Ryman (2001)
“The People of Sand and Slag” by Paolo Bacigalupi (2004)
“Echo” by Elizabeth Hand (2005)
“The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” by Stephen King (2008)
“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (2011)

A friend of mine, who enjoys Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series as much as I do, recommended Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles. Hearne’s series features Atticus O’Sullivan, the last Druid alive. He has an Irish wolfhound that talks to him. Atticus’ lawyers are a werewolf (during the day) and a vampire (for night court). There are witches and ghouls and demons. Yes, this is contemporary urban fantasy. I’m not a huge fan of this genre, but it’s a fun change of pace from spy novels and space operas. If you’re looking for some silly fluff with plenty of magical battles, Hounded and Hexed deliver. I’ll be reading the rest of The Iron Druid Chronicles soon. GRADE: B

Gerald de Villers wrote over 200 spy novels featuring Malko, a contract agent for the CIA. In Madmen of Benghazi, Malko’s mission is to keep a Libyan aspirant to the throne safe from the marauding militias and terrorists. Malko finds time to entertain a London supermodel and confuse Egyptian security forces. The descriptions of the chaos in Libya are harrowing. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, quirky spy novel, give Madmen of Benghazi a try. GRADE: B

Here I go again for the 35th year. I started teaching at this College back in 1980. Most of my classes back then consisted of male students with a few female students sprinkled in. Today, our student enrollment is 70% women, 30% men. We now offer over 100 online courses (I’m teaching three of them this semester). In fact, my College allows students to take their entire Business degree online if they choose. They never have to set foot on campus.

My Office Mate of 20 years has announced his retirement. He’ll finish out this academic year and will retire May 2015. Retirement is looming for me, too. But I’m going to enjoy the last few semesters of teaching before I hang up my laser pointer. I’m still excited by the First Day of Classes!

Charles Stross just won the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novella of 2014 with “Equoid.” To celebrate Stross’ win, I want to recommend three novels in his Laundry series since “Equoid” is a “prequel” to these three novels. For those of you who haven’t read any of the Laundry series, think H. P. Lovecraft meets James Bond. The Laundry is a super-secret British spy agency that deals with X-File-type threats.

The Fuller Memorandum features Bob Howard, a rising spy, who discovers the Laundry has a mole. Plenty of black magic and intrigue in this book! A tele-evangelist attempts to awaken a powerful alien entity in The Apocalypse Codex. Much of the action takes place in Colorado. The Rhesus Chart, just published, involves a magic conspiracy that goes back to the being of the Laundry. Bob Howard has to do some clever detective work to figure this plot out. If you’re looking for some off-beat spy novels, don’t miss Charles Stross’ Laundry series. GRADE: B+ (for all three books)