Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 122

August 16, 2020

Striking Out: A Solid Hit



My wife and I binged the two seasons of Striking Out, originally (in 2017-2018) on Irish TV, now on Acorn via Amazon Prime.  The show only ran two seasons, and there's apparently no prospect for a third season, which is a shame, because the two seasons were quite good, and the second season ended on an unexpected turn of events.

The set-up of the show is something we've seen before: a happily married or about to be happily married woman comes home to find her man happily going at it in bed with another woman.   In the case of Striking Out, Tara and Eric, the about-to-be-married happy couple, both are attorneys, who work in Eric father's firm, and just for good measure, Tara's father is an attorney, too.  Lots of possibilities there, and the narrative is especially enjoyable to see because it all takes place in Dublin, a sight for sore eyes in these our current COVID-beset times.

But the stories are good, too, and come in two kinds.  One is episodic, as Tara struggles to establish her own practice, and takes this unusual case and that.  The other narrative is continuing, and delves into what's going on in Eric's father's firm.  It's under investigation, by some kind of independent prosecutor who is both brilliant and drinks too much, and who Tara's comes to sometimes work with, which adds further provocative permutations to the story.

The acting is excellent.  Amy Huberman plays an appealing Tara, wounded, powerful, loving, and funny.  The supporting cast features Moe Dunford (Vikings), Neil Morrissey (Line of Duty), and Maria Doyle Kennedy and Nick Dunning from The Tudors, so how can you wrong?  The only thing wrong about Striking Out if that there's no third season, so here's a final plea for one in case anyone who can make that happen is reading this.

 
Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 16, 2020 14:43

August 15, 2020

Podcast: Defending the Postal Service


Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 137, in which I explain why I think we Americans must do everything in our power to defend the US Postal Service from the current, all-out Trumpian attack.

Further reading (my blog post):

Defending the Postal Service


Check out this episode!

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 15, 2020 11:57

Defending the Postal Service


Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 137, in which I explain why I think we Americans must do everything in our power to defend the US Postal Service from the current, all-out Trumpian attack.

Further reading (my blog post):

Defending the Postal Service


Check out this episode!

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 15, 2020 11:57

August 14, 2020

Blog Post: Defending the Postal Service

It seems strange to have to write in defense of the U. S. Postal Service, but it's a measure of the depravity of the man in the White House, and how far he's willing to go in his flailing attempt to win another term in office.  Removing sorting machines, removing mailboxes, doing whatever he can to gum up the works of  a service that everyone loves and has never been more essential in this our age of the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming Presidential election.   An election which could well determine the fate and future of democracy in this country.  An election which the person now in office will do anything to win,

It didn't start with COVID-19 and this build-up to the election.  Trump's hatred of Jeff Bezos, who created Amazon, became a billionaire, and bought The Washington Post, one of Trump's most effective critics, led him as early as 2018 to attack the Post Office,  Its crime?  It gave Amazon a good, special rate, a smart move both for Amazon and the Postal Service.

Trump's pretext back then in 2018 was that giving Amazon such a good special rate was bad business for the Postal Service.  But like Amtrak which is also often starving for funds, the Postal Service isn't and was never intended to be a profit-making business.  It is a governmental service provided to the people.  And in the case of the Postal Service, it is a service provided for in our Constitution.

But Trump now has a better reason to starve the Postal Service.  He wants to eliminate mail-in ballots, especially necessary in these COVID times, because he thinks (and polls say) that they will be used by Democratic more than Republican voters. (If we want to entertain a maybe only slightly paranoid explanation, perhaps Trump wants to handcuff the Postal Service because the Russians have told him they haven't come up with a way to hack votes cast through the mail). But whatever his reasoning, crippling the Postal Service is one of the things Trump is doing to win an election which current polls show him badly losing. Attacking the media, lying so often that keeping count is a bad joke, are no longer enough.  The fascistic impulse dictates an escalation of tactics.  Dampen, crush the democratic expression by physical means.  Send Federal troops or whatever exactly are into the streets.  Get in the way of people exercising their right to vote.

There are things we the people can do to oppose this.  Shine a light on it.  Pressure our state governments to provide alternate, safe means of casting ballots, like collection boxes.  But also support our Postal Service in whatever ways we can.   They are not only the carriers of our mail, of birthday cards and holiday greetings that we cherish, but now more than ever are carriers of our democracy.

And some people, who like Jeff Bezos are billionaires, can do even more.  If Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, and Warren Buffet each donated a couple of billion dollars to the Postal Service, that could well enable it to stay whole and functioning through the election.   Fascism triumphs by undermining democratic institutions, eroding the foundations of freedom.   First the press, now the Postal Service, anything that conveys our freedom.   We have a chance to stop this, reverse this, in less than three months.  We have to do all in our power to keep that beleaguered arena for freedom open.






Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 14, 2020 23:05

Defending the Postal Service

It seems strange to have to write in defense of the U. S. Postal Service, but it's a measure of the depravity of the man in the White House, and how far he's willing to go in his flailing attempt to win another term in office.  Removing sorting machines, removing mailboxes, doing whatever he can to gum up the works of  a service that everyone loves and has never been more essential in this our age of the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming Presidential election.   An election which could well determine the fate and future of democracy in this country.  An election which the person now in office will do anything to win,

It didn't start with COVID-19 and this build-up to the election.  Trump's hatred of Jeff Bezos, who created Amazon, became a billionaire, and bought The Washington Post, one of Trump's most effective critics, led him as early as 2018 to attack the Post Office,  It's crime?  It gave Amazon a good, special rate, a smart move both for Amazon and the Postal Service.

Trump's pretext back then in 2018 was that giving Amazon such a good special rate was bad business for the Postal Service.  But like Amtrak which is also often starving for funds, the Postal Service isn't and was never intended to be a profit-making business.  It is a governmental service provided to the people.  And in the case of the Postal Service, it is a service provided for in our Constitution.

But Trump now has a better reason to starve the Postal Service.  He wants to eliminate mail-in ballots, especially necessary in these COVID times, because he thinks (and polls say) that they will be used by Democratic more than Republican voters. (If we want to entertain a maybe only slightly paranoid explanation, perhaps Trump wants to handcuff the Postal Service because the Russians have told him they haven't come up with a way to hack votes cast through the mail). But whatever his reasoning, crippling the Postal Service is one of the things Trump is doing to win an election which current polls show him badly losing. Attacking the media, lying so often that keeping a count is bad joke, are no longer enough.  The fascistic impulse dictates an escalation of tactics.  Dampen, crush the democratic expression by physical means.  Send Federal troops or whatever exactly are into the streets.  Get in the way of people exercising their right to vote.

There are things we the people can do to oppose this.  Shine a light on it.  Pressure our state governments to provide alternate, safe means of casting ballots, like collection boxes.  But also support of our Postal Service in whatever ways we can.   They are not only the carriers of our mail, of birthday cards and holiday greetings that we cherish, but now more than ever are carriers of our democracy.

And some people, who like Jeff Bezos are billionaires, can do even more.  If Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, and Warren Buffet each donated a couple of billion dollars to the Postal Service, that could well enable it to stay whole and functioning through the election.   Fascism triumphs by undermining democratic institutions, eroding the foundations of freedom.   First the press, now the Postal Service, anything that conveys our freedom.   We have a chance to stop this, reverse this, in less than three months.  We have to do all in our power to keep that arena for freedom open.






Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 14, 2020 23:05

August 13, 2020

Anne Reburn and Her Clones



No, this is not a review of a new science movie I just caught on Netflix, though it could have been, a few years ago, before the explosion in video technology and savvy which has created on whole new genre of music video now lighting up YouTube.  Covers have been a staple of YouTube since it came into our lives in 2006, but now they're being done, of Beatles and Beachboy songs and records by slightly lesser known artists, by just one person, singing all the parts and sometimes even playing all the instruments.  They're all always fun to see and listen to, but Anne Reburn's, with what she refers to as her "clones," are in a class by themselves.  The handful that I've seen so far are just fabulous, on all kinds of levels.

Reburn has a nice voice and a keen sense of harmony.  But she and her clones (i.e., different takes of her) invest the videos with an infectious sexual energy, a sense of humor ranging from cute to delightful, and a series of facial expressions which are irresistible.  More than that, the different versions of herself, singing different parts, show off these expressions at different and just the right times in the performance.  In addition, she makes sure that she is always connected to the audience.  In her cover (which already has well over a million views) at the top of this post of Roy Orbison's final hit, "You Got It," Anne or one of her clones -- whatever the others may be doing -- always manages, sweetly and seductively, to look at the camera, i.e, the audience.  No wonder you can't take your eyes off the screen.  

Years ago, my first published article in a scholarly journal, Toy, Mirror, and Art: The Metamorphosis of Technological Culture in 1977, observed that as a given technology develops, it moves from being a toy (people like to play with it, just for the kick of seeing what the new technology does) to being a mirror (reflecting some art or whatever already out there), to creating art in itself.  YouTube has long been in the mirror phase -- a great place to watch and listen to your favorite recording artists.  Anne Reburn's work -- and props are due to Luke Manning, who produced the brilliant video of Anne's ELO cover, "Don't Bring Me Down," which you can watch right after this text -- is a joyous proclamation that YouTube has ascended to the art level, in singers and musicians covering other artists.

Anne already has more than sixty covers up on YouTube, and I'm looking forward to watching all of them.  She's also starting to post some good original material on Spotify.  I expect we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more of her exuberant, angelic, beautiful work in the future.


Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 13, 2020 13:56

August 12, 2020

Podcast: Kamala Harris: The First Step Back from the Precipice


Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 136, in which I explain why I think Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate is America's first step back from the precipice.

Further reading (my blog post):

Kamala Harris: First Step Back from the Precipice


Check out this episode!

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 12, 2020 15:59

Kamala Harris: The First Step Back from the Precipice


Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 136, in which I explain why I think Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate is America's first step back from the precipice.

Further reading (my blog post):

Kamala Harris: First Step Back from the Precipice


Check out this episode!

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 12, 2020 15:59

Blog Post: Kamala Harris: The First Step Back from the Precipice



I wrote a few days ago (and also posted a podcast) about why I strongly disagreed with Wade Davis's conclusion, in "The Unraveling of America" in Rolling Stone, that America was so far gone, in ways that the abysmal treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic epitomizes but didn't initiate, that nothing could reverse that decline.  Nothing, including and especially, the upcoming Presidential election.  I explained why I thought such a conclusion was not only dangerous but wrong, and cited FDR's election in 1932 as a ringing example of how a Presidential election can indeed make a difference, in that case, lifting us out of Great Depression, and enabling us to the lead the free world to defeat the Nazis.

I offered that argument two days before Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris to be his VP running mate.  I see that selection as America, via Joe Biden's wise decision, taking the first step back from the precipice.  In an ideal world, a person's ethnicity and gender wouldn't matter.  All that would count in anyone's being a candidate for any job, would be the candidate's talent and capacity to do the job as effectively and as excellently as the job could be done.  But we don't yet live in such an ideal world, and, in order to get there, we need people in public positions who come from ethnicities and genders (i.e., women) who have been shut out from such public positions, because of the racism and sexism from which our free society emerged, and which is still very much with us.  In such a world - which is this, our world, our country - Kamala Harris breaks an wide array of barriers, an array amazing for one person.  She is an African-American woman, with an Indian (Asian Indian) heritage.

But Kamala Harris would be an impressive candidate even if she were a white man.  She is articulate, sharp as whip, reflective, passionate, and strategic in her thinking.  She is an ideal balance for the more deliberative Biden, and will make an ideal governing partner when they both get into office.   (Note added: If you want an idea of how Harris stands up to the current Vice President, compare her heartwarming speech of a fighter, just delivered in Wilmington, Delaware after Joe Biden introduced her, to the unctuous pap that daily comes out of Pence's mouth.)

So, to return to Davis, elections do make a difference.  A Democrat in the White House, with a black woman as his Vice President, and a Senate and House of Representatives in Democratic control, can and will turn this country around.   But to make that happen, we have to get out and vote.



Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 12, 2020 11:29

Kamala Harris: The First Step Back from the Precipice



I wrote a few days ago (and also posted a podcast) about why I strongly disagreed with Wade Davis's conclusion, in "The Unraveling of America" in Rolling Stone, that America was so far gone, in ways that the abysmal treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic epitomizes but didn't initiate, that nothing could reverse that decline.  Nothing, including and especially, the upcoming Presidential election.  I explained why I thought such a conclusion was not only dangerous but wrong, and cited FDR's election in 1932 as a ringing example of how a Presidential election can indeed make a difference, in that case, lifting us out of Great Depression, and enabling us to the lead the free world to defeat the Nazis.

I offered that argument two days before Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris to be his VP running mate.  I see that selection as America, via Joe Biden's wise decision, taking the first step back from the precipice.  In an ideal world, a person's ethnicity and gender wouldn't matter.  All that would count in anyone's being a candidate for any job, would be the candidate's talent and capacity to do the job as effectively and as excellently as the job could be done.  But we don't yet live in such an ideal world, and, in order to get there, we need people in public positions who come from ethnicities and genders (i.e., women) who have been shut out from such public positions, because of the racism and sexism from which our free society emerged, and which is still very much with us.  In such a world - which is this, our world, our country - Kamala Harris breaks an wide array of barriers, an array amazing for one person.  She is an African-American woman, with an Indian (Asian Indian) heritage.

But Kamala Harris would be an impressive candidate even if she were a white man.  She is articulate, sharp as whip, reflective, passionate, and strategic in her thinking.  She is an ideal balance for the more deliberative Biden, and will make an ideal governing partner when they both get into office.   (Note added: If you want an idea of how Harris stands up to the current Vice President, compare her heartwarming speech of a fighter, just delivered in Wilmington, Delaware after Joe Biden introduced her, to the unctuous pap that daily comes out of Pence's mouth.)

So, to return to Davis, elections do make a difference.  A Democrat in the White House, with a black woman as his Vice President, and a Senate and House of Representatives in Democratic control, can and will turn this country around.   But to make that happen, we have to get out and vote.



Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 12, 2020 11:29

Levinson at Large

Paul Levinson
At present, I'll be automatically porting over blog posts from my main blog, Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress. These consist of literate (I hope) reviews of mostly television, with some reviews of mov ...more
Follow Paul Levinson's blog with rss.