Who doesn’t love a good time travel story? X-Men: Days of Future Past blends the “old” X-Men series (with Patrick Stewart as Professor X) with the “new” X-Men series (James McAvoy as the young Professor X). Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back to 1973 in a last ditch attempt to change Time from a destructive future for humans and mutants. The real star of X-Men: Days of Future Past is the incandescent Jennifer Lawrence as the shape-chaning Mystique. She even looks beautiful in blue. This blending of the two X-Men franchises works well. I enjoyed the retro Seventies look. If you’re looking for action, adventure, and intelligent storytelling X-Men: Days of Future Past will delight you. GRADE: A

“John Trinian” (aka, Zekial Marko) is best known for the scripts he wrote for The Rockford File, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Mission: Impossible, and Toma. But he also wrote some excellent novels in the early Sixties that have been out-of-print for decades. North Beach Girl (1960) captures the sense and sensibility of Beat culture. Scandal on the Sand (1964) features a character study mixed with drugs and violence. Rick Ollerman’s “In Pursuit of a Pleasant Oblivion” traces all the phases of Trinian’s tangled writing career. I found out that once Toma was canceled it morphed into Baretta starring Robert Blake. Ki Longfellow’s “The Last Great Pulp Fiction Writer” takes the reader on a vivid trip into the past when Longfellow hung out with Zekial Marko. And Belle Marko’s melancholy “Memories of My Father” is a touching tribute to a talented, but troubled man. Stark House should be celebrated for this latest Noir Classic, both for returning two scarce novels back to print, but also providing an intriguing context for this forgotten writer and his work.

Mystery Girl was Roy Orbison’s last album he recorded before his death in 1988. This new Deluxe Edition includes demos and fragments of songs in addition to the finished work. The DVD provides song-by-song commentary. The real bonus is the inclusion of eight Roy Orbison videos. Four of them have never been released before this. If you’re a Roy Orbison fan, this is a must-buy! GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
1 You Got It (3:30)
2 In the Real World (3:43)
3 Dream You (3:40)
4 A Love So Beautiful (3:33)
5 California Blue (3:57)
6 She’s a Mystery To Me (4:16)
7 The Comedians (3:26)
8 The Only One (3:55)
9 Windsurfer (4:02)
10 Careless Heart (4:12)
11 The Way is Love (4:12)
12 She’s a Mystery To Me – Bono (4:51)
13 (All I Can Do is) Dream You (4:33)
14 The Only One (5:12)
15 The Comedians (3:24)
16 In the Real World (3:38)
17 California Blue (4:41)
18 Windsurfer (3:50)
19 You Are My Love (2:35)

DVD
1 Mystery Girl: Unraveled
2 The Way is Love
3 California Blue [Demo Version]
4 You Got It
5 She’s a Mystery To Me
6 You Got It
7 California Blue
8 She’s a Mystery To Me
9 A Love So Beautiful

John Harris is one of my favorite SF artists. I love his use of color and the surrealism of his futuristic paintings. You probably won’t be surprised by this admission, but I’ve bought books solely because they had a John Harris cover. The Art of John Harris: Beyond the Horizon includes an informative “Forward” by John Scalzi. If you’re a fan of vast landscapes, spooky spaceships, and gigantic future cities John Harris provides plenty of eye-popping examples in this collection. For fans of SF artwork like Rick, Carl, and me this book is a must-buy! GRADE: A

With the success of the new Godzilla movie, you just knew the old Godzilla movies would be remastered and re-released in Blu-ray. This Double Feature includes one of my favorite Godzilla movies: Godzilla Vs. Mothra A mysterious meteorite crashes to earth and from a giant egg an insect-like monster emerges. There’s a back story of an advance civilization 12,000 years ago that worshiped Mothra, but the real focus are the battles between Godzilla and Mothra. Sure, it’s guys in weird suits fighting and obliterating cities, but it’s fun. I’m sure all the Godzilla movies will be out on Blu-ray shortly. Great nostalgia!

Heidi Reeder’s useful book on commitment examines the elements that build, or erode, commitment. I found Reeder’s research about Good Things and Bad Things in relationships and jobs intriguing. According to Reeder, there has to be a five to one ratio of Good Things to Bad Things for someone to stay committed. Once the ratio of Good Things to Bad Things falls under five, commitment declines fast. In a marriage, for example, kind words, complements, and taking out the garbage without being asked are all Good Things and will build commitment. Lies and arguments are Bad Things that will act like acid to damage the marriage. The five to one ratio holds for a job, too. You need to find at least five Good Things about the job to out-weight one Bad Thing or you’ll end up looking for a new job. Reeder’s detailed analysis is based on several psychological research studies. She supplies plenty of practical advice to improve relationship and working conditions. Commit to Win can help all of us to achieve our goals and to stay committed when times get tough. Whether you want to lose weight or exercise more, this book can help you make it happen. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
PART I: THE POWER OF COMMITMENT
Chapter 1: A Fresh Look at Commitment
Chapter 2: The Commitment Equation
PART II:THE ELEMENTS OF COMMITMENT
Chapter 3: Treasures: What Do You Value?
Chapter 4: Troubles: What’s Holding You Back?
Chapter 5: Contributions: How Much Have You Given?
Chapter 6: Choices: What Are Your Alternatives>
Part III:ENGAGING THE COMMITMENT EQUATION
Chapter 7: All In
Chapter 8: Moving On
Chapter 9: Assisting Others
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index

John Turturro plays a florist who is recruited by Woody Allen to be a gigolo. Woody Allen’s rare bookstore closes because of lack of interest in books and both Woody and Turturro are hard up for money. Woody’s wealthy dermatologist, played by Sharon Stone, is Turturro’s first client. Turturro shows up with flowers and charm. Women find in Turturro a gifted lover, a good listener, and a clever man. Woody Allen plays Turturro’s “agent” with humor and control. One of the women Turturro spends time with is a widow who he fails in love with. Fading Gigolo leisurely explores the themes of love and sex in a good-hearted mode. If you’re in the mood for something different, I’d recommend Fading Gigolo. GRADE: B

I read the first half of Barry Malzberg’s brilliant book back in the 1980s. It was called Engines of the Night and it stirred up the science fiction world with its criticism of the genre and its publishers. Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium consists of Engines of the Night and essays and reviews published since that book. This Baen edition of Breakfast in the Ruins was published in 2007 but reads like it was written yesterday. This book is a feast of insights about science fiction written by a practitioner and an insider. Malzberg delivers a blistering history of science fiction, warts and all. He predicts many of the trends that we’re dealing with now: a declining readership, publishers going bankrupt or merging with other troubled publishers, and the decline of bookstores. With so many great essays, it’s hard to pick out favorites. I loved Malzberg’s essays about Cornell Woolrich, a truly underrated writer. I admired Malzberg’s profile of Mark Clifton, a science fiction writer I need to read more of. And I really enjoyed Malzberg’s tale of writing a men’s action-adventure series under the pseudonym of “Mike Barry.” I just happen to have read all the Mike Barry books (they now reside at SUNY at Buffalo). If you have any interest in science fiction, writing, publishing, and profiles of writers then get your hands on a copy of Breakfast in the Ruins. It’s a forgotten classic!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Part One Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millenium
Introduction to the Baen edition 1
Part One Engines in the Night
Introduction to the 2001 electronic edition 7
Introduction to the Original Edition 12
The Number of the Beast 14
L’Etat c’est moi 18
I could Have Been a Contender, Part One 23
Anonymity & Empire 26
I Don’t Know How to Put It Love But I’ll Surely Surely Try 31
Memoir from Grub Street 37
The Fifties 40
The Fifties: Recapitulation and Coda 52
Ah Tempora! Ah Portions! Ah Mores! Ah Outlines! 56
Science Fiction and the Academy: Some Notes 59
At the Divining Edge 63
Some Notes Toward the true and the Terrible 67
Wrong Rabbit 71
John W. Campbell: June 8, 1910 to July 11, 1971 75
The Science Fiction of Science Fiction 80
I Don’t Want Her You Can Have Her 87
Onward and Upward with the Arts, Part II 91
Tell Me Doctor If You Can That It’s Not All Happening Again 94
The Richard Nixon John B. Mitchell Spiro Agnew Blues 103
Cornell George Holey Woolrich: December 1903 to September 1968 106
A Few Hard Truths for the Troops 111
Onward and Upward with the Arts, Part III / 114
Science Fiction as Picasso 119
Mark Clifton: 1906-1963 121
September 1973: What I Did Last Summer 126
The Cutting Edge 130
Son of the True and Terrible 136
The All-Time, Prime-Time, Take-Me-to-Your-Leader Science Fiction Plot 140
Grandson of the True and the Terrible 151
Give Me That Old-Time Religion 154
SF Forever 156
What I Won’t Do Next Summer, I Guess 158
Come Fool, Follify 161
The Engines of the Night 164
Con Sordino 167
Corridors 171
L’Envoi 186
Son of L’envoi 186
Grandson of l’envoi 187
Footnotes 188
Interregunum: Preface to an Essay 193
Interregnum: Rage, Pain, Alienation and
Other Aspects of the Writing of Science Fiction 195
Afterword 200
Part Two Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millenium Part I: Meditations
Introduction 207
On Engines Again 210
Atomic Power 216
Tripping with the Alchemist 219
Some Reflections on Freud, Fantasy & the Jewish Condition 244
I: Not I 251
On Decadence 255
Cliftonized 261
Over The Waves 267
Thus Our Words Unspoken 274
A Formal Feeling Comes 281
Thinking About Compulsion 288
The Shores of Suitability 293
Some Notes on the Lone Wolf 296
Part II: Writers and Other Culprits
Introduction 303
Flowers for Daniel (Daniel Keyes) 305
Falling From the Air (Alice Sheldon) 308
Dark of The Knight (Damon Knight) 313
On Fredric Brown 318
The Stochastic Writer (Robert. Silverberg) 321
The Dean of Gloucester, Virginia (William F. Jenkins) 326
Inextricable Disengagement (David Drake) 329
On Isaac Asimov 331
The Bend at the End of the Road (Gustav Hasford) 337
The Cloud Sculptor of Terminal X (J.G. Ballard) 342
Presto: Con Malizia (Cornell Woolrich) 351
Repentance, Desire and Natalie Wood (Maurice Girodias) 355
The Man Who Lost the Sea (John W. Campbell) 363
Part III: Ruthven Agonistes
Ruthven Agonistes 377
The Passage of the Light 379
Afterword: The Last Millennium 389

The ever generous Beth Fedyn sent me Run River North and I eagerly listened to it. This six-member ensemble from the San Fernando Valley delivers wonderful, heartfelt, orchestral indie pop. Their folky sound blends with warm harmonies to produce a pleasing self-titled album. If you like The Lumineers you’ll like Run River North. Check out the video below. GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST
1 Monsters Calling Home (4:10)
2 Beetle (4:24)
3 Lying Beast (4:44)
4 Run River Run (3:21)
5 Growing Up (4:03)
6 Fight To Keep (3:40)
7 In The Water (3:30)
8 Somewhere (3:13)
9 Foxbeard (4:23)
10 Excuses (3:22)
11 Banner (4:50)