Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (742)
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Paul McCartney at Grand Central Station
My wife and I saw Paul McCartney and his band perform at the Nassau Coliseum a year ago. We loved it. Thought it was the best concert we'd ever attended. Tonight's nearly surprise concert at Grand Central Station, which we just saw live streaming on YouTube, was even better. I'm not kidding. I'd intended to live tweet it at least a little, but the music was too good to do anything other than watch and listen. I managed a couple of snapshots at the beginning, then even that was too much of a distraction from this wonderfully astonishing performance.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Manifest 1.1'
I reviewed the 9 and 1/2 minute sneak peek of Manifest in August, and said it had some outstanding possibilities as a time-travel drama. I therefore watched the full first-hour debut last night with great expectation. And it was good. But...
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Paul Simon Farewell Concert at Prudential Center
Tina and I saw Paul Simon's Farewell Concert at the Prudential Center the other week. We both thought it was one of the very best concerts we've ever attended—and that includes at least two concerts with Simon & Garfunkel decades ago.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Beat
Jose Antonio Vargas and Joy Reid at Powerhouse Arena
I first heard about Jose Antonio Vargas in 2007 from my wife Tina. She was editing Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's Wikipedia pages, and Jose had called her for an interview in a article he was writing for The Washington Post about the impact of Wikipedia on that Presidential election. Those were early days in the advent of social media—or what I call New New Media (buying a book online is new media, creating a book online is new new media, or consumers becoming producers). Twitter and YouTube were just a year old, and Wikipedia, though a little older, was not allowed as a reference in student papers in probably every class except mine at Fordham University. But it was a new new medium par excellence —anyone who could read an article on Wikipedia could edit it—and Tina and Jose recognized its importance.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in The Swamp
Joan Baez at the Beacon Theater
There are so many ways I could begin my review of Joan Baez's superb concert at the Beacon Theater the other night - 1. This is the second time in less than a week that Tina and I attended a farewell concert: Paul Simon's at the Prudential Center in Newark last week and Joan Baez's the other night. In both cases, the concerts were so good that it's hard to believe these masters of music, voice, and lyrics are retiring from touring.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Beat
Review of 'The First'
Tina and I binged The First on Hulu the last couple of nights -- the first being the first mission with people onboard to Mars. We enjoyed it immensely. I'd say it's the best of any-mission-to-anyplace-in-space narrative on screen, and that includes some masterful motion pictures like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Manifest' Sneak Peak 9-and-1/2 Minutes
Having flown back a few days ago from The Mars Society Convention in Pasadena, and time-travel being my all-time favorite genre, how could I resist watching the nine-and-a-half minute sneak preview of Manifest, a series about a plane that travels instantly through time from 2013 to 2018, to debut on NBC at the end of September?
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Sharp Objects' 4
"You can't change history," Mr. Lacey tells Amma, as she tries her little best to seduce him—or begin to seduce him—in the fourth episode of Sharp Objects on HBO last night. If this were a time travel story, some character could set forth to prove Lacey wrong. Well, there is a kind of time travel in Sharp Objects, but it's the metaphysical or mental kind, not what we saw in the recently canceled Timeless series on NBC.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Horror
Review of The Blue Dahlia's 'La Tradition Américaine'
I had lunch a few days ago with my niece Dahlia—better known to you, the world, as The Blue Dahlia. In addition to her smiles, her laughter like summer rain, and her sparkle, she left me with a copy of her new album, La Tradition Américaine. I'm going to review it here. (Right, she's my niece. If you think that might bias my review, c'est dommage.)
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Sharp Objects' 1 and 2
Catching up with the first two episodes of Sharp Objects, the limited summer series on HBO. It's distantly reminiscent of True Detective and Broadchurch, with a little Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and even "Eleanor Rigby" thrown in (one of the victims had a spider which she kept "in a jar by the door").
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Horror
