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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Review of 'Who Killed JFK' Episodes 5-6
Wikipedia says "sheep dipping is the immersion of sheep in water containing insecticides and fungicide." On another Wiki page, we learn that sheep dipping in military idiom is "to formally, and usually temporarily, transfer military equipment or personnel to non-military ownership for the purpose of its employment in covert action with less risk of triggering armed conflict."
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial'
Today is the 43rd anniversary of John Lennon's assassination. The older I get, the more clear I am that Lennon's murder, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, are the two most deforming events of the history that has taken place in my life. And of the two, Lennon's was the worst, since he was one of the most wondrous singer-songwriters who ever lived, which I think is more rare that even a great President.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Slow Horses' 3.1-3.3. Top Story - December 2023.
Whew! The first two episodes of the third season of Slow Horses begin (after a prelude) with a shot at Ringo, of all people, with River telling Catherine he doesn't want to waste time on a file because it's "Ringo-level". I wasn't completely sure this was about the Ringo -- Ringo Starr -- but who else could it be, I mean, it surely wasn't about Johnny Ringo, the out-West outlaw. But I didn't know for sure until a bit later in the first episode, when there's talk about "George-level" as below "John-level" and "Paul-level," so yeah, the new season is off with a bang,
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Who Killed JFK? Episode 4'
Episode 4 of Who Killed JFK, the podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien, was just put up today. It's all about Lee Harvey Oswald, prior to his day in the Texas Book Depository, or wherever he was on that terrible day in 1963 when JFK was assassinated. This episode tells us of his conditioning or brainwashing by the CIA, resulting in his false defection to the Soviet Union. A lot of this reminded me of The Manchurian Candidate.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in The Swamp
Who Killed JFK?
Rob Reiner and I have a lot in common regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 -- the awful anniversary of which is today. Reiner first learns about the assassination, as he tells us in the podcast he's doing with Soledad O'Brien, in his high school physics class, when he was 16. I first found out about the assassination in my calculus class, which I was taking as a freshman in the City College of New York, when I too was 16. (In fact, we were both born in March 1947 in The Bronx. I was in the "SP"s, which New Yorkers might recall meant that you skipped 8th grade, which would explain why I was a year ahead of Reiner.) We both read and were very impressed by Mark Lane's Rush to Judgement, the 1966 book that attacked the Warren Commission's conclusion that one man, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been responsible for killing JFK. And most important, Reiner and I both felt and feel to this very day that the Warren Commission and the American government has been lying to us all these years about who killed JFK.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in The Swamp
Review of 'The Lazarus Project' Season One
So, a friend in the UK -- James Harris -- who knows how much I enjoy time travel stories (as a reader, a viewer, a reviewer, and an author) recommended The Lazarus Project, and sent me a link to a trailer, for its second season. I figured before I watched even a trailer for the second season, I might as well watch the first season, which I just did -- and thought it was brilliant -- and then discovered that although the second season debuted in the UK this month, it has not yet made it over to this side of the Atlantic. Why TV series can't be released at the same time all around the world, I have no idea. But rather than keep complaining about that, I thought I'd tell you why I not only think the first season of The Lazarus Project (which I binged on TNT) is brilliant, but the best time-travel series I've ever seen on television, bar none.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Bosch: Legacy 2.7-2.10'
A superb quartet of concluding episodes of the second season of Bosch: Legacy, put up last week and last night on Amazon Prime Video. Every one of these episodes had the masterful dialogue, riveting action, and mix of surprise and satisfaction that comes from seeing characters behave as you ultimately expect -- all of which typify Bosch at its best, which this second season of Legacy certainly is, as I've been saying all along.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Thoughts about The Beatles "Now and Then"
The Beatles "Now and Then" was released today, the last of three John Lennon demos Yoko gave the Beatles after John was murdered. The first two were "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". I've always loved "Real Love", and as many of you know, it inspired my short story "It's Real Life".
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Beat
Review of Bosch: Legacy 2.1-2.6. Top Story - October 2023.
I caught the first four episodes last week of the new (second) season of Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Prime Video, the post-Bosch series in which Harry has moved from LAPD to private investigator (still living and working in Los Angeles) and his daughter Maddie has joined the LAPD. I thought and said the original Bosch series was the best cop show on television, and the first season of Legacy was even better than Bosch. Well, so far the second season is sheer dynamite, emotionally, and in overall storyline and acting -- and even better than the first season. (Queue The Beatles' "It's Getting Better All the Time".)
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Criminal
Review of Jack Dann's The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History
I've always had a keen love of alternate history science fiction. Amazon Prime Video's The Man in the High Castle series (2015-2019), a mostly brilliant adaptation of Philip K. Dick's path-breaking 1962 novel, in which the Axis won the Second World War, was pretty much from the moment I started watching it easily the best drama I've ever seen on television, and still is. (Here's an interview I did with Rufus Sewell in 2021 about the leading character he played in the series, one who wasn't in Dick's novel.)
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Futurism
Review of "Love at First Sight"
Hey, I don't usually review romantic comedies -- or dramas -- but Love at First Sight has both of that, and even a touch of fantasy and philosophy, so the ninety-minute movie on Netflix was not only well worth watching but reviewing.
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Humans
