Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 130

Narcos Mexico 2: "I Don't Have Partners"

As I indicated in my review of the first season of Narcos Mexico (itself a prequel to the three-season Narcos), I always admired the tunnel-building savvy of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán.  Not the drug-dealing empire that he inherited and built.  But there's something about those tunnels.  Maybe because it represents a technology that goes back more than 4000 years (the qanats, that carried water) to defeat the high-tech bravado of government.  Hey, when I was a kid, before I even knew that fact about tunnels, I realized that if could build a tunnel from where I lived with my parents in the Bronx, to somewhere in the woods in say, Ellenville, New York, I could pretty much do anything I wanted and then escape with ease to the Catskills.  Of course, I had no idea what I would do once I got there but, as I said, I was just a kid.

So I've always had a special interest in El Chapo's tunnel-building - well, since 2015, when he had a tunnel built to escape from prison a second time (first time was in a laundry cart, not nearly as cool) - and I was very happy to see him building a tunnel in Narcos Mexico 2.  This one was not to escape prison but smuggle more drugs into the United States.  Alas, a rival gang in Mexico destroys the tunnel, and since it says at the beginning of every episode that, although the overall story is based on truth, some facts have been changed for dramatic effect, I can't even say for sure that the young El Chapo actually built such a tunnel.  But it was good to see.

Meanwhile, that overall story was indeed top-notch action and drama, detailing the continuing story of the handsome Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (well played by Diego Luna), as he strives to consolidate his hold on and mastery of the drug trade in Mexico.  This is no easy thing, to say the least.  Gallardo already leveraged his weed empire into in effect becoming a middleman for delivery of Colombian coke to the United States.  Now he has to consolidate all the drug gangs in Mexico, and move ever more massive amounts of cocaine from Colombia.  His strategy is to eschew partners in Mexico - "I don't have partners, I have employees," he tells anyone who will listen.  If you know the drug war history, you know how that works out.

As in Narcos Mexico 1, and all three seasons of Narcos, there's a great group of supportive actors and actresses, playing characters in all facets of the story.  It was good to see Pacho again (well played by Alberto Ammann, the one character who, if I recall correctly, has appeared in all five seasons, playing one of the big shots in the Cali cartel in Colombia, who do believe in partners.  In Narcos Mexico, he's the sole representative of the Kings of Cali to appear on screen.

This season will keep you glued to the screen, and is highly recommended.

 the Neanderthal cartelPosted by Paul Levinson at Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Hightown 1.1: Top Notch Saltwater and Characters

We were supposed to go up to Cape Cod later this week, but that's on hold, because of you know what.  Fortunately, the first episode of Hightown has just been put up on Starz.   Very fortunately.  This is best debut of a series on network or cable I've seen in I don't know when.  My wife feels the same way.

The story - the murder of a witness in an upcoming drug trial - is something we've a lot of before.  The set of characters, headed by Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire) as Jackie Quiñones a fish cop and James Badge Dale (The Black Donnellys and much more) as Detective Ray Abruzzo a "statie" from drugs assigned to homicide, most assuredly is not.   Jackie is more than a bit of a druggie herself, and Ray is willing to let a prostitute unzip his fly and more to put her at ease so he can get the drop on her to truthfully answer his questions.  And the back-up characters including police, druggies, and fishermen of all persuasions are no slouches, either.

They're all tied together by a Cape Cod environment so vivid and real you can easily smell the fishy saltwater.   Not to mention taste the seafood as the characters walk by all kinds of eateries in Provincetown.   There's something truly magical about P-town in real life, and Hightown conveys this to a tee and the tee-shirts.  I recall a couple of years ago, my wife and I drove our son and his wife from our cottage in Brewster to Provincetown where they were a catching a fast boat to Boston.  The boat was delayed.  It soon became freezing, and all I had on were shorts and a thin tee-shirt with holes in it.  I stepped into a shop.   They had all kinds of expensive sweatshirts.  But I picked up one that for some reason was on steep sale, and for just a few bucks bought the warmest, most comfortable sweatshirt I ever had in my life.  That's the kind of place Provincetown is.

I don't know if Hightown will be the best cop show I've ever seen in my life - it has lots of very steep competition, ranging from The Wire to Dragnet - but it's off to a very promising start, and I'll be back here with more after I see the next episode in two weeks.




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Twice Upon A Time: After Sunset

Just binged Twice Upon A Time on Netflix.  It's of course a time-travel story - in this case, a four-part mini-series in French, with English subtitles.  It was surprisingly excellent.  In fact, downright memorable.

The set-up is as time-travel pat as it comes.  A guy stumbles on a way of traveling some months into the past.  This enables him to try to make things right with his girlfriend, who broke up with him, and then try to save her life.  About as standard as it comes in time-travel romances.  But Twice Upon a Time is lifted by a love story so well told that it would have made a worthwhile mini-series even without the time travel, and by time-crossed lovers who are fresh and sensitive, brought to life by top-notch acting.

Freya Mavor plays Louise, who falls in love with Vincent, played by Gaspard Ulliel.  Louise is a perfect modern French lover.  She loves the way Vincent makes her "come".  But when Vincent wakes with her sex, she tells him the next morning not to "take" her when she's sleeping, because she's not "an object".  Vincent, for his part, just loves Louise, and when things go wrong, he's more than willing to try the time machine to work things out, though this takes him away from his young son Stanley (also very well played by Sacha Canuyt), which makes the time travel even more emotionally complicated.

Although, technically, I wouldn't say the time travel is done with a machine.  It's a cubic wooden box.  But I shouldn't throw shade or stones, seeing as how all I gave my time travelers in The Plot to Save Socrates and its sequels was just a plush chair with some digital dials on the arms (and, come to think of it, H. G. Wells' time traveler used a chair as his vehicle in The Time Machine. 

But to further the time-travel critique of this wonderful movie, there's no delving into paradoxes in Twice Upon A Time, or even a nod as to why when Vincent goes back in time, he doesn't run into his original self.   It may well be that when Vincent went back in time, that act created an alternate universe with a different Vincent, who had knowledge of the future, and Louise, who benefitted from her more knowledgeable lover, and therein became a different person herself.  If that's what the writers (Guillaume Nicloux and Nathalie Leuthreau) and director (Guillaume Nicloux) had in mind, it would have helped if that they made some of that more explicit.

But I liked the way the box arrived in Vincent's hands - by a jovial delivery man.   And the mad scientist who made it has possibilities.   But it's the relationship that's the message - not as much between photons and time as between a man a woman.   And speaking of that, there are elements in this movie that reminded me of A Man and a Woman, as well as Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, and that's what makes Twice Upon a Time so enjoyable and its low-key way, even at times magnificent.


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Outlander Season 5 Finale: The Cost of Stolen Time

Outlander saved the most powerful episode of this powerful fifth season for the last, the season 5 finale just on tonight.

The kidnapping of Claire, and the beating and rape of her by Lionel and his brutal, vicious men, would have been powerful in any context.  But in this final episode of the season, it provided a context and counterpoint for an equally powerful, thankfully non-violent development we saw the beginning of, last week.  Roger and Brianna did not get back to the present they sought, their present, when they disappeared with Jemmy in the stones.  Ian sees nothing for a moment, which made me think last week that the family had at least instantly traveled somewhere (or somewhen, to be precise).  But tonight we find out that Ian saw them a split second later, which means ... they didn't time travel anywhere or anywhen at all.

And so Claire's kidnapping and all that happened to her, including her rescue by Jamie and Roger, serves as context for the lack of what happened with the stones.  Powerful thread upon powerful thread.  Brianna and Roger had their future, their back to their present, rudely stolen.  And Claire suffered the tears, from the beating, and worse, as she sought refuge in her own imagination of what her life and the lives of her family could have been like, with the Association playing on vinyl.  But believing she would never see her daughter and grandson and son-in-law again, she imagines them killed in this future. Just as we learn that, in fact, they never did leave the time that Claire and Jamie inhabit.  So strong a juxtaposition, that we barely missed what the underlying most powerful unanswered question certainly is: why didn't the stones with the gems in hand not work?

Here I'll mention again that I haven't read the novels.  I haven't a clue why the American stones didn't work for Brianna and her family - possibly only one person can go through at a time (I don't think we've previously seen any couples or more go through together) -  but another element introduced tonight will no doubt provide more than a clue as to what's going on: the guy from the future, who neither hurts nor helps Claire, merely tells her that he, too, is from the future, which no doubt will be some major help to Claire and her family in the next or subsequent seasons.

Good thing that he was not among those killed by Jamie and his party.  And good thing, too, that we'll no doubt get more answers when Season 6 is on the air.  I'll see you back here then.

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth ... Outlander 5.10: Finally! ... Outlander 5.11: The Ballpoint Pen
And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History



 
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Babylon Berlin 3: Complex Pleasures and Inescapable Conclusions

I binged the third season of Babylon Berlin on Netflix the past few nights, having seen and immensely enjoyed the first two seasons two years ago, in May 2018.  Enjoyed doesn't do the series justice, because it taps all manner of emotions, including dread and disgust at the growing Nazi shadow on late-1920s Berlin, where the new reeds of democracy still held tenuous sway.  I felt the same way about the third season.  Enjoyed doesn't do it justice.  What I've been able to take away from this remarkable narrative is far more complex and valuable than mere enjoyment.

Babylon Berlin is really a variety of genres, rivetingly rolled into one.  It's historical drama, with pinpoint accuracy and all kinds of revelations, ranging from the brass dials of an instrument used to administer shock therapy to a device that records an in-person conversation, without one of the parties being aware.   It's a top-notch whodunnit homicide detective story, with all kinds surprises and unexpected turns.  It's in German, which offers a special pleasure for my Yiddish ears to hear (Yiddish is middle-German).  And it's pretty good romance, as well, with Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries doing a fine job as detectives Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter.

But my two favorite threads in Babylon Berlin Season 3 are the focus on the making of a film, an early talkie, in 1929, and the political context, which I'll tell you about after the film.  The film intersects with the murder story, as the lead actress and her replacement get killed by a masked intruder ("If only she'd stuck with silent films," someone comments about one of the actresses, and her inability to hit the high notes).  Not only that, but the film mutates into a blend of science fiction and horror - science fiction about androids, and the human-machine interaction, making Babylon Berlin just ideal to watch before the Sunday-night conclusion of the third season of Westworld.  (The Weimar Republic made a great contribution to early science fiction movies in our reality, as Fritz Lang's silent movie Metropolis amply attests.) You can't ask for more than that.

But Babylon Berlin does deliver more, in the subtle way, with occasional bursts of raw violence, that the Nazi menace is intruding ever more prominently into life in Berlin, from lead detective Rath's son reading Mein Kampf and joining the Hitler Youth to Nazis blowing up buildings. I said in my review of the first two seasons that comparisons between what happened to the democracy of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and Trump and his followers in America right now, is inescapable.  The third season of BB introduces yet another element in the decline and fall of the Republic: the stock market crash in New York City, which will ripple across the Atlantic and shake Germany, and therein provide another reason for German citizens to lose confidence in their democracy.

This is a crucial and sobering lesson.  Stay tuned.

See also Babylon Berlin (1 and 2): Eye-Opening History

 


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Westworld Season 3 Finale: Redemption, Less or More

Well, an at-once instructive and provocative Season 3 finale of Westworld just on, which pretty much redeemed a lot of the frustrations and incoherence of the rest of this season, which had its moments nonetheless.

Some highlights (with spoilers, of course):

Dolores is likely dead.  Charlotte (who started as a Dolores) is still alive, proudly carrying some of her wounds rather than going in for repair.  But, as she explains to the living Man in Black, no longer in black, she started out the same as Dolores, but living or whatever the exact right word it is for hosts who move through this world, that very process makes you go your own way - analogous, if you think about it, to human twins, who are totally identical only at birth.  The process of life inevitably makes identical twins increasingly slightly different.  That's just a fact of life. (I suppose there could even be some slight differences that emerge during gestation.) Further, back to Dolores, there's the possibility that one or more of those nugget brains of Dolores are still out there, who knows where, which could be inserted in a host and lead to another Dolores someday, in some future season.  All of which is to say, Dolores is not dead, she's just likely dead.Speaking of the Man in Black, he's finally back, just as a host.  But I'm glad the slightly or more insane William, who was an annoying character this season, and one of the frustrations I referred to in my opening paragraph, is gone.   And since he was human, there's a good chance in his case that gone is really gone.Maeve finally found herself.  She was too smart to think that going with Serac would get her back with her daughter.  It took way too long for her to find herself, but better late than never.  I look forward to her having a much more satisfying and satisfactory role in the next season.Caleb's story was also predictable, but kudos for the nice touch of having Dolores choose him not for his violence, but for his sense of beauty aka humanity.  Again, we saw that throughout this season, as of course did Dolores from the first time when we saw them meet not that long ago at the beginning of this season.I thought Bernard's story was excellent, both throughout this season and tonight, where we first see him finally come to terms with the loss of his son (actually, Arnold's son), in one of the most tender, beautiful scenes of the entire series, so far, and then see him sitting on the bed like a Buddha, or a big Yoda, as he glimpses some ultimate or closer-to-ultimate meaning...That we'll have to wait until next season to get some further glimpse of, but, hey, that works for me,






See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside ... Westworld 3.2: Dolores' Enemies ... Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World ... Westworld 3.4: The Man in White and Multiple Doloreses ... Westworld 3.5: Ground Control ... Westworld 3.6: Family Group Therapy ... Westworld 3.7: M vs D
And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 

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Outlander 5.11: The Ballpoint Pen

Outlander 5.11 was about as good an episode of Outlander as ever there was, which is to say, superb indeed (not really surprising, since Diana Gabaldon, wrote the books, also penned this brilliant episode).  For me, that includes all the trimmings of a heart-rending time-travel tale.

Brianna and Roger taking Jemmy back to the future - back to the future for Brianna and Roger, to the future for the first time for little Jemmy - would have been a great story in any case.  Roger always wanted to go back.  Brianna was torn, but she's convinced, as is Roger, that Jemmy stands a much better chance of survival 200 years in the future, or the 1970s, if you're keeping track.  Before COVID-19, I would've said a better handle on combating illness by the 1970s and after.  As it is, it's certainly true that the American Revolutionary War and all the killing it brought to the Carolinas made living then more dangerous than in the 1970s and after.  We get stark evidence of that at the very end of this episode.

But how do Brianna and Roger know that the North Carolina stones (or wherever exactly they are) will work like the ones in Scotland?  The writing that Ian has, which Claire recognizes was done by a ballpoint pen, is a very good way of showing the time-travel capabilities of the American stones.  No way Ian would've gotten that writing by way of Scotland.  It was from someone in future America, who for whatever reasons took the stones back to the 1770s or earlier.  How far in the future?  Well, although the ballpoint pen was invented in the 1880s, it didn't really become popular until after World War II, so there you have it.  If the words were written by a ballpoint pen, that makes it highly likely that they were written in the America where Claire arrived, or sometime after.

But ... in the final scene of Brianna, Roger, and Jemmy, Roger says "what the hell" - meaning, he's seeing something he doesn't expect to see.  Meaning, not early 1970s America.   Well, what, then?  A future later than that?  Our own, in 2020?   Later than that?  Or maybe the stones brought them not far enough into the future?

I haven't read the books, and I'm hoping we get more of a clue next week, in the season finale.  See you back here then!

See also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth ... Outlander 5.10: Finally!

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History



 
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Killing Eve 3.3: The Third Time's the Charm

Well, there were so many emblematic scenes in this Sunday's Killing Eve - episode 3.3 - that it's hard to know where to begin.

But let's start with that fight on bus.  It was perfect.  Villanelle surprises Eve, shortly after she finds out that probably her estranged husband, whom she still loves, in a way, moved to Poland.  They have a pretty bruising fight - which ends with Eve kissing Villanelle, when their faces are close together, and Villanelle asks Eve how she smells.  Later, on the street as the bus pulls away with Eve, Villanelle smiles.  But Eve enjoyed this, too.  The two really do love each other.

As we see more evidence of in a two-part bear scene, which begins with Villanelle sending Eve a stuffed little bear, with a recording of Villanelle telling Eve, "Admit it, Eve. You wish I was here".  At first, Eve is furious and tears the bear apart.  But she finds the player inside, and listens to it, over and over, mesmerized.   The two really do love each other.

Aristotle wrote that if you want to teach someone something, you have to instruct them three times.  Villanelle and Eve, in between their trying to kill one another, instruct each by their actions all time.  And therein instruct the viewing audience.

Caroline had some great scenes in this episode, too.  With her son killed in the opening episode, you have to take seriously any time she's in danger.  So when Villanelle sticks a gun in her face in the car, and pulls the trigger ... well, I was glad to see it was just the guy in back who wound up with a bullet in his head.

Villanelle remains a masterful assassin, whether by blade or gun.  Just not of Eve, because, well, the two really do love each other.

See also Killing Eve 3.1: Whew! ... Killing Eve 3.2: Bringing It Into Focus

And see also Killing Eve 2.1: Libido and Thanatos ... Killing Eve 2.2: Villanelle as Victim ... Killing Eve 2.3 Lipstick ... Killing Eve 2.6: Billie ... Killing Eve 2.7: Death and Sex ... Killing Eve Season 2 Finale: Possibilities After the End

And see also Killing Eve: Highly Recommended (Season 1)



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"If I Traveled to the Past" and "You Are Everywhere"

Paul Levinson[image error]I just wanted to tell you about two great places my music popped up in the past week:
1.  Howard Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction show on WUSB Radio.  I read an excerpt from my novelette, Marilyn and Monet, then Howard and I talk about the paradoxes of time travel, which segues into "If Traveled to the Past" from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time on Old Bear Records/Light In the Attic Records.  You can listen to the entire hour here (scroll down to April 24, I start reading from Marilyn and Monet at 12min 27sec).
2. Dig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction put up a great playlist, "American Dream with Yvonne (Page)" a few days ago.  It features such artists as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; The Grateful Dead; Janis Joplin; The Velvet Underground; and ... yours truly, singing "You Are Everywhere" from Twice Upon A Rhyme.  Chuffed doesn't do justice to what a thrill this is!  You can enjoy the whole playlist of 14 songs here ("You Are Everywhere" is #11).
Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time also played onCarl Thien's WZBC show scroll down to Part2Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC Radio in BostonKevin Anthony's Psychedelic JukeboxCaptain Phil's WUSB-FM show. Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia
You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & SpotifyOrder multi-color vinyl from Light in the AtticCDs in stock - get them hereAnd here's Twice Upon a Rhyme:Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & SpotifyOriginal, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinylNew remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old RecordsHere's a one-hour virtual concert I did a few weeks ago with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Video clips from Welcome Up here and here.
Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews:Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..." Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity." in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine new audio Bear Tones podcast in which talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme.
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[image error][image error]And ... early warning:  I'll be singing songs, doing readings, talking on panels at Amazingcon, June 12-14, a completely online (virtual) and safe convention.  Details here.

MusicSamantha (rough mix, from Welcome Up)If I Traveled To The Past (rough mix, from Welcome Up)MORE MUSICPress

"Sounding at times like a collect call from another dimension mimicking Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons ... Welcome Up is ... quite triumphant, actually — and any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it. It’s a testament to Levinson’s innate talents as both a songwriter and storyteller. As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity. Check it out, I think you’ll dig it."— Evan LeVine, Swan Fungus, Feb 3, 2020

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Westworld 3.7: M vs. D

We finally get a full-fledged woman-to-woman or host-to-host one-on-one battle between Maeve and Dolores in Westworld 3.7 tonight, although it's not really one-on-one since drones and whatever machines the two can control are brought into the fray - and, who knows, some might even have minds of their own - and the resolution hinges on a red button a one-armed Dolores presses (a drone shot off half of her other arm), which renders her and Maeve unconscious just as Maeve was about finish her.

It's hard to keep count, but I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have been the last Dolores around.  Charlotte is still alive, though she is apparently no longer an ally with the primary Dolores, after following her commands got Charlotte's beloved family and nearly Charlotte herself killed last week.  But killing our Dolores would certainly have put a crimp in her master plan, with Caleb, for example, even now not fully cognizant of what Dolores has planned for him, at least not as insofar as we the audience have seen.

She apparently wants and expects Caleb to lead the human race, as she tells him, but he hasn't a clue as to what she means, and, again, neither do we.  A not unreasonable guess is she wants Caleb to lead the human race to its own destruction, but why would Caleb due that?  All the revelations tonight about his past, including that he killed his friend, provide no motive for him to lead the human race to some kind of suicide - after all, Caleb only killed his friend after he realized that his friend was going to kill him.

Further, there's a wildcard in all of this.  In addition to Dolores and Caleb vs. Maeve and Serac, we also have the Man in Black, now in white, who realizes that his role is now to save the human race.  He's no ally of Serac, seeing as how he's not happy about Serac stealing his company, but he is human - I think - and therefore certainly not an ally of Dolores.  I say "I think" he's human because, on this show, you never really know sure.  He certainly was human.  But he's spent enough time in hospitals that who knows what could have been done to him.  But if I had to bet, I'd say he's human.

Next week is the finale of this short season, and what I will bet on is we won't get answers to all of these questions. Likely not even most of them.  But that's ok,  The series has been renewed.






See also: Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside ... Westworld 3.2: Dolores' Enemies ... Westworld 3.3: Cyberpunk World ... Westworld 3.4: The Man in White and Multiple Doloreses ... Westworld 3.5: Ground Control ... Westworld 3.6: Family Group Therapy
And see also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores ... Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World ... Westworld 2.9: Fathers ... Westworld 2.10: The Realist World

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions 

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