Bill Crider quipped that Olympus Has Fallen was “Die Hard in the White House.” Exactly! Terrorists take over the White House and only former Secret Service agent Mike Banning (played by Gerard Butler) can stop them. The cat-and-mouse games between the terrorists and Butler are suspenseful. And I was surprised that Gerard Butler was a convincing action-movie hero. I hope Butler does more of these kinds of movies. If you’re looking for an above average action movie, Olympus Has Fallen fits the bill. GRADE: A-

BBC America presents the first of eight new DOCTOR WHO episodes starting tonight. Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman return in this part of Season Seven to explore their relationship as Companion and the 11th Doctor Who. Also, check out the photo of Peter Jackson and his Doctor Who prop collection below.

I admire Will Murray for his encyclopedic knowledge of Doc Savage and the boldness to write more books in the Doc Savage series. This latest adventure from Altus Press blends the iconic Doc Savage with the even more iconic King Kong. Murray captures the same style as Lester Dent (who wrote most of the Doc Savage novels) yet brings his own sensibility to the story. I love the cover! If you’re a Doc Savage fan, this is a must-buy. If you’re new to Doc Savage, Skull Island is the perfect place to start experiencing true adventure fiction. You can read Bill Crider’s wonderful, more detailed review of Skull Island here.

Stephen Stills has had a long and successful career. Stills was part of the groups Buffalo Springfield, Manassas and CSNY with David Crosby, Graham Nash and Neil Young (I always thought Crosby Stills Nash & Young sounded like a law firm). On this just released four-CD set, the entire 50-year scope of Stills’ career is represented with 82 tracks (25 of them previously unreleased). If you only know Stephen Stills from “Love The One You’re With” or “Southern Cross” you’ll find plenty of other great songs by this gifted artist in this box-set. You could also buy this box-set because it also contains the best of Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. The remastered sound is great!
Track List:
Disc 1
1 Travelin’ (2:19)
2 High Flyin’ Bird – The Au Go-Go Singers (2:34)
3 Sit Down I Think I Love You – Buffalo Springfield (2:32)
4 Go and Say Goodbye – Buffalo Springfield (2:32)
5 For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield (2:38)
6 Everydays – Buffalo Springfield (2:42)
7 Pretty Girl Why – Buffalo Springfield (2:27)
8 Bluebird – Buffalo Springfield (4:30)
9 Rock & Roll Woman – Buffalo Springfield (2:47)
10 Special Care – Buffalo Springfield (3:32)
11 Questions – Buffalo Springfield (2:55)
12 Uno Mundo – Buffalo Springfield (2:05)
13 Four Days Gone – Buffalo Springfield (3:47)
14 Who Ran Away? (2:20)
15 49 Reasons (2:44)
16 Helplessly Hoping – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:40)
17 You Don’t Have To Cry – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:44)
18 Suite: Judy Blues Eyes – Crosby, Stills & Nash (7:26)
19 4+20 (2:11)
20 So Beings the Task (3:29)
21 The Lee Shore (2:58)
22 Carry On/Questions – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (4:26)
23 Woodstock – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (3:52)

Disc 2
1 Love the One You’re With (3:06)
2 Old Times Good Times (3:41)
3 Black Queen (5:29)
4 No-Name Jam – Jimi Hendrix (2:40)
5 Go Back Home (5:56)
6 Marianne (2:29)
7 My Love is a Gentle Thing (1:23)
8 Fishes and Scorpions (3:17)
9 The Treasure (4:14)
10 To a Flame (3:10)
11 Cherokee (3:26)
12 Song of Love (3:26)
13 Rock & Roll Crazies/Cuban Bluegrass (3:31)
14 Jet Set (Sigh) (3:44)
15 It Doesn’t Matter (2:30)
16 Colorado (2:53)
17 Johnny’s Garden (2:46)
18 Change Partners (3:17)
19 Do for the Others – Steven Fromholz (2:47)
20 Find the Cost of Freedom – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (2:25)
21 Little Miss Bright Eyes (2:11)
22 Isn’t It About Time (3:01)

Disc 3
1 Turn Back the Pages (4:04)
2 First Things First (2:22)
3 My Angel (2:36)
4 Love Story (4:15)
5 As I Come of Age (2:37)
6 Know You Got To Run (2:58)
7 Black Coral – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (4:25)
8 I Give You Give Blind – Crosby, Stills & Nash (3:20)
9 Crossroads/You Can’t Catch Me (6:39)
10 See the Changes – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:58)
11 Thoroughfare Gap (3:33)
12 Lowdown (3:48)
13 Cuba Al Fin (4:53)
14 Dear Mr. Fantasy (6:21)
15 Spanish Suite (11:20)
16 Feel Your Love – Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:27)
17 Raise a Voice – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:32)
18 Daylight Again/Find the Cost of Freedom – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:29)

Disc 4
1 Southern Cross – Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:42)
2 Dark Star – Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:52)
3 Turn Your Back On Love – Crosby, Stills & Nash (5:19)
4 War Games – Crosby, Stills & Nash (2:19)
5 50/50 (4:21)
6 Welfare Blues (2:02)
7 Church (Part of Someone) (3:42)
8 I Don’t Get It (3:38)
9 Isn’t It So (3:08)
10 Haven’t We Lost Enough? – Crosby, Stills & Nash (3:06)
11 The Ballad of Hollis Brown (4:08)
12 Treetop Flyer (4:55)
13 Heart’s Gate (2:59)
14 Girl From the North Country – Crosby, Stills & Nash (3:46)
15 Feed the People (4:32)
16 Panama – Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:14)
17 No Tears Left – Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:54)
18 Ole Man Trouble – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (5:03)
19 Ain’t It Always (3:31)

I read Richard Teleky’s moving essay, “On Solitude: Rereading May Sarton’s Journals” in the March 2013 issue of THE NEW CRITERION. May Sarton wrote 20 novels and almost as many volumes of poetry. But in the early 1970s, Sarton started writing a journal. Sarton shares her thoughts about her craft, her friendships, her loneliness, her need for solitude to do her writing, her lesbian life-style, her lovers, and–without meaning to–growing old. May Sarton wrote eight journals. I’m not sure I’ll read them all. May Sarton suffers a stroke and records her post-stoke life in the later journals. But this first journal is full of life and artistic indecision and honesty. Here’s a sample:

I am an ornery character, often hard to get along with. The things I cannot stand, that make me flare up like a cat making a fat tail, are pretentiousness, smugness, and the coarse grain that often shows itself in a turn of phrase. I hate vulgarity, coarseness of soul. I hate small talk with a passionate hatred. Why? I suppose because any meeting with another human being is collision for me now. It is always expensive, and I will not waste my time. (p. 22)

I finally found time to watch Tina Fey being interviewed by James Lipton on BRAVO’s Actors Studio. You can find the interview here. Tina Fey may be the smartest actor ever to appear on Actors Studio. If you find yourself wanting more (like I did) after the Tina Fey interview, there’s a bargain 3-DVD collection INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO: LEADING MEN: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Sean Penn and Russell Crow. Fascinating viewing!

I’ve been using TURBOTAX to do my taxes for over a decade. I’ve liked some versions better than others, but TURBOTAX beats doing taxes the Old Fashion Way. Actually, I think it took me longer to install TURBOTAX on my computer than it did to actually do our taxes. We have a very simple return. No foreign bank accounts, no second home, no RV, no mortgage, no pets, no exotic deductions. We have to pay the Feds $787 and NY State $870. I like to break even so this is as close as I could make it this year. I love the eFile feature in TURBOTAX. No more standing in line at the Post Office to mail our taxes! Hope you all get a nice tax refund!

Tina Fey plays an admissions official at Princeton University. Paul Rudd plays a nomadic teacher at an alternative high school. Rudd hopes Tina Fey will help an unusual student get into Princeton. Fey has admissions of her own: her troubled relationship with her mother (played by Lily Tomlin), her unfaithful lover, and her college secret. One of the friends I saw Admission with commented after the movie: “I thought it would be funnier.” The chemistry between Tina Fey and Paul Rudd is real. But the script doesn’t do much with that chemistry. Admission is based on a novel, but I suspect plenty of changes were made. GRADE: B-