Joseph Baneth Allen's Blog, page 72
November 14, 2022
"Let George Do It - Cry Uncle,"=
Just finished listening to "Let George Do It - Cry Uncle," released by Radio Spirits and is no longer in print.
Bob Bailey is best known for his seminal role as "Johnny Dollar," but he developed his acting chops as a radio private investigator as George Valentine - a former G.I. who decided that if he couldn't find a job, then he'd create one as a jack-of-all-trades to solve any issues people may have. At first, "Let George Do It" was a comedy mystery show that evolved into a very popular private detective show that aired on the West Coast over the Mutual Radio Network.
People would write to George, and along with his girlfriend Brooksie, he would take on their problems and solve them. His fee varied from client to client and was usually what ever they could afford.
There was an attempt to turn "Let George Do It" into a television show, but Bob Bailey was not cast to reprise his radio role.
My favorite episodes in this collection are: "A Matter of Doubt," "The Elusive Hundred Grand," "The Motif is Murder," "Your Money or Your Life," " Death In Blue Jeans," and "The Corpse on a Caper."
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TENS STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Let-George-Do-...
Bob Bailey is best known for his seminal role as "Johnny Dollar," but he developed his acting chops as a radio private investigator as George Valentine - a former G.I. who decided that if he couldn't find a job, then he'd create one as a jack-of-all-trades to solve any issues people may have. At first, "Let George Do It" was a comedy mystery show that evolved into a very popular private detective show that aired on the West Coast over the Mutual Radio Network.
People would write to George, and along with his girlfriend Brooksie, he would take on their problems and solve them. His fee varied from client to client and was usually what ever they could afford.
There was an attempt to turn "Let George Do It" into a television show, but Bob Bailey was not cast to reprise his radio role.
My favorite episodes in this collection are: "A Matter of Doubt," "The Elusive Hundred Grand," "The Motif is Murder," "Your Money or Your Life," " Death In Blue Jeans," and "The Corpse on a Caper."
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TENS STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Let-George-Do-...
November 12, 2022
NOPE
Just finished watching "NOPE" by writer/director Jordan Peele, released by Universal Studios.
"NOPE" reminded me of a movie done in the style of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick with it's combination of daily life slowly in the modern day American West slowly unraveling due to an unrelenting mystery that leads down a rabbit hole of death, with perhaps a chance of salvation if one is willing to take the risks to unravel the mystery.
Combining elements from both science fiction and the intensity of the psychological horror of H.P. Lovecraft, "NOPE" succeeds by reminding us that nature is violent and brutal, and sometimes what we think we're seeing is just camouflage for a ruthless predator.
"Nope" does, thankfully, take the time to build it's story and it's a chilling one of facing an unknown horror, while reaching inside yourself for the means of salvation and survival.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Nope-Daniel-Ka...
"NOPE" reminded me of a movie done in the style of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick with it's combination of daily life slowly in the modern day American West slowly unraveling due to an unrelenting mystery that leads down a rabbit hole of death, with perhaps a chance of salvation if one is willing to take the risks to unravel the mystery.
Combining elements from both science fiction and the intensity of the psychological horror of H.P. Lovecraft, "NOPE" succeeds by reminding us that nature is violent and brutal, and sometimes what we think we're seeing is just camouflage for a ruthless predator.
"Nope" does, thankfully, take the time to build it's story and it's a chilling one of facing an unknown horror, while reaching inside yourself for the means of salvation and survival.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Nope-Daniel-Ka...
November 5, 2022
The Book of Cold Cases
Just finished reading "The Book of Cold Cases" by Simone St. James, released by Berkley Books.
I always enjoy discovering new authors and their books and when I happened upon "The Book of Cold Cases" during a casual search on Amazon.
"The Book of Cold Cases" is an old fashioned Gothic mystery where the heroine Shea Collins, a receptionist at a doctor's office who has a modest side hustle, "The Book of Cold Cases," which is a website devoted cold crime cases. By blind chance, Shea runs into Beth Greer, the prime suspect of the Lady Killer murders, who for her own reasons decides to agree to be interviewed about the past. What follows is a cat and mouse game as Shea begins to interview the past key players in the original Lady Killer murder case. And if Shea is to unravel the mystery, she will first have to overcome the trauma she experienced as a kidnap victim of a child.
A chilling mystery with twists that almost rival the mysteries once spun by Victoria Holt.
Strongly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Cold-Case...
I always enjoy discovering new authors and their books and when I happened upon "The Book of Cold Cases" during a casual search on Amazon.
"The Book of Cold Cases" is an old fashioned Gothic mystery where the heroine Shea Collins, a receptionist at a doctor's office who has a modest side hustle, "The Book of Cold Cases," which is a website devoted cold crime cases. By blind chance, Shea runs into Beth Greer, the prime suspect of the Lady Killer murders, who for her own reasons decides to agree to be interviewed about the past. What follows is a cat and mouse game as Shea begins to interview the past key players in the original Lady Killer murder case. And if Shea is to unravel the mystery, she will first have to overcome the trauma she experienced as a kidnap victim of a child.
A chilling mystery with twists that almost rival the mysteries once spun by Victoria Holt.
Strongly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Cold-Case...
Son Of Merlin
Just finished listening to "Son of Merlin" by Midori & Tim Rock, released by Medwyn Goodall Music.
For those who may not know, Midori is the non-de-plume Medwyn Goodall.
"Son of Merlin" is the first in a projected series that explores the legend of Camelot and the legendary men and women who made up the long lost fabled court with heavy use of Celtic and medieval instruments.
My favorite tracks on this CD are: "The Legend Continues," "Inherited Gifts," "Mystical Offering," and "Prologue.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://medwyngoodall.com/album/21451...
For those who may not know, Midori is the non-de-plume Medwyn Goodall.
"Son of Merlin" is the first in a projected series that explores the legend of Camelot and the legendary men and women who made up the long lost fabled court with heavy use of Celtic and medieval instruments.
My favorite tracks on this CD are: "The Legend Continues," "Inherited Gifts," "Mystical Offering," and "Prologue.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://medwyngoodall.com/album/21451...
Heart of The Wolf
Just finished listening to "Heart of The Wolf" by Orion, released by Medwyn Goodall Music.
A multi-instrumentalist by nature, Orion's music is gentle with folk, Celtic and orchestral like influences. His debut album in 2021 with Medwyn Goodall Music was "Under Ancient Skies."
With "Heart of The Wolf," Orion tells the tale of two wolf cubs growing up together as they learn the ways of the wild while exploring the wilderness around them.
My favorite tracks on this cd are: "Sweet Mysteries," "Wild Hearts," "Luna Wolf," "Her Mother Eyes," and "Colours Of The Pack.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://medwyngoodall.com/album/21298...
A multi-instrumentalist by nature, Orion's music is gentle with folk, Celtic and orchestral like influences. His debut album in 2021 with Medwyn Goodall Music was "Under Ancient Skies."
With "Heart of The Wolf," Orion tells the tale of two wolf cubs growing up together as they learn the ways of the wild while exploring the wilderness around them.
My favorite tracks on this cd are: "Sweet Mysteries," "Wild Hearts," "Luna Wolf," "Her Mother Eyes," and "Colours Of The Pack.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://medwyngoodall.com/album/21298...
IN
Just finished listening to "IN" by David Helpling, released by Spotted Peccary Music.
Helpling was inspired upon the vastness of small places for this release which is a cinematic album across two cds that uses analogue synthesizers, digital synthesizers and ambient guitar that entwine, untangle and tangle up again. It took him 10 years to complete this album.
My favorite tracks on this dual cd release is: "Still As Stone," "The Cold Distance Between," "Bending Towards The Night," "I Too Am Coming Home," and "Here All Along."
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://spottedpeccary.com/shop/in/
Helpling was inspired upon the vastness of small places for this release which is a cinematic album across two cds that uses analogue synthesizers, digital synthesizers and ambient guitar that entwine, untangle and tangle up again. It took him 10 years to complete this album.
My favorite tracks on this dual cd release is: "Still As Stone," "The Cold Distance Between," "Bending Towards The Night," "I Too Am Coming Home," and "Here All Along."
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://spottedpeccary.com/shop/in/
Elusive - How Peter Higgs Solved The Mystery of Mass
Just finished reading "Elusive - How Peter Higgs Solved The Mystery of Mass" by Frank Close, released by Basic Books.
When I was in elementary school I greatly enjoyed checking out biographies of scientists and purchasing some science biographies through the Weekly Reader Book Club. Ironically before the explosion of STEM in the classroom more than a few of my teachers and the school librarian frowned on my love of reading science books just as much as they frowned upon me reading science fiction and Japanese fairy tales. I also became interested in reading science biographies because Mom enjoyed reading biographies.
A friend of Peter Higgs, Close has written a fascinating biography about the influences and choices in Higgs' life that put him on the path towards figuring out how mass comes into existence.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Peter-...
When I was in elementary school I greatly enjoyed checking out biographies of scientists and purchasing some science biographies through the Weekly Reader Book Club. Ironically before the explosion of STEM in the classroom more than a few of my teachers and the school librarian frowned on my love of reading science books just as much as they frowned upon me reading science fiction and Japanese fairy tales. I also became interested in reading science biographies because Mom enjoyed reading biographies.
A friend of Peter Higgs, Close has written a fascinating biography about the influences and choices in Higgs' life that put him on the path towards figuring out how mass comes into existence.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Peter-...
Summer Ghost
Just finished watching "Summer Ghost" released by SHOUT! Factory.
Hailed as the debut feature from loundraw - an anime filmmaker -"Summer Ghost" is a 40-minute anime that centers around three seemingly unconnected teenagers who meet via an online chat board on summer day and they go out to an abandoned airfield to summon a ghost with a sparkler. Ayane, the ghost appears, and she lets Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo know that the only reason why she came to them and why they can see her - each one of the teenagers are about to touch their death. Tomoya becomes fascinated with Ayane and returns several times to learn more about her and the secret she is hiding.
A very quiet and compelling anime.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Ghost-B...
Hailed as the debut feature from loundraw - an anime filmmaker -"Summer Ghost" is a 40-minute anime that centers around three seemingly unconnected teenagers who meet via an online chat board on summer day and they go out to an abandoned airfield to summon a ghost with a sparkler. Ayane, the ghost appears, and she lets Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo know that the only reason why she came to them and why they can see her - each one of the teenagers are about to touch their death. Tomoya becomes fascinated with Ayane and returns several times to learn more about her and the secret she is hiding.
A very quiet and compelling anime.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Ghost-B...
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Just finished watching "Sunday Bloody Sunday" released by MGM.
For all the hoopla about so-called ground-breaking "gay" movies released by Hollywood in the first quarter of the 21st century that are failing to catch on with mainstream audiences, Billy Eichner's "BROS" is a prime example of tinsel town's convenient forgetting mainstream movies of the Silver Screen's past.
When "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was first released in the United States back in 1971, it also bombed stateside, though the movie was a really big hit over in England at it's unflinching look at a poly-amorous love triangle between a free-spirited artist and his two lovers - a man and a woman - including sex scenes between both romantic interests in bed.
Director John Schlesinger came to prominence in the British cinema with such witty and penetrating portraits of the 1960's as "Billy Liar"(1963) and "Darling"(1965) and "went Hollywood" with his 1969 initially X-rated Oscar winner "Midnight Cowboy". Here in the London of the new decade, Schlesinger is working well within his comfort zone. A gay artist who was the son of a doctor and a musician, one who knew from experience the world of aspirational upper middle class Jewish life, Schlesinger employs the music of Mozart very effectively to comment on his central triangular relationship and renders perhaps the perhaps the most realistic Bar Mitzvah ceremony and reception ever presented in an apolitical context. Every movement, gesture, line of dialogue and character helps to establish both Dr. Hirsh's family and cultural life and the fact that, while loving, he is a perennial outsider in his own world. Bob Elkin, the object of Daniel's misplaced affection, plays both his older lovers. While ostensibly loving freedom, he's off to America to pursue his career at the end of the film. Alex is left with his toucan, Daniel with Italian language records for a trip never taken.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" swept the BAFTA awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Editing, yet in spite of 4 major nominations, was kept at arm's length by the deeply conservative American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Intriguingly enough, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was an original screenplay written by British film critic and writer Penelope Gilliatt.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is an intriguing look at how far two dissatisfied people and the emotional sacrifices people are willing to make for the illusion of love. before they wake up and realize they could do better than willing to make allowances for their young lover.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is also groundbreaking for the character of Dr. Hirsh's breaking of the fourth wall in the movie's final scene when he speaks directly to the audience with the realization that he still has a chance for love if he's willing to take it.
Each character is flawed and there is no traditional, satisfying happy ending - just like in life.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a fascinating look at one week in the life of two ill-starred lovers who are ultimately discarded by the lover they share.
It's definitely a movie worth studying and reflecting upon.
Strongly Recommended for it's place in movie history.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Bloody-...
For all the hoopla about so-called ground-breaking "gay" movies released by Hollywood in the first quarter of the 21st century that are failing to catch on with mainstream audiences, Billy Eichner's "BROS" is a prime example of tinsel town's convenient forgetting mainstream movies of the Silver Screen's past.
When "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was first released in the United States back in 1971, it also bombed stateside, though the movie was a really big hit over in England at it's unflinching look at a poly-amorous love triangle between a free-spirited artist and his two lovers - a man and a woman - including sex scenes between both romantic interests in bed.
Director John Schlesinger came to prominence in the British cinema with such witty and penetrating portraits of the 1960's as "Billy Liar"(1963) and "Darling"(1965) and "went Hollywood" with his 1969 initially X-rated Oscar winner "Midnight Cowboy". Here in the London of the new decade, Schlesinger is working well within his comfort zone. A gay artist who was the son of a doctor and a musician, one who knew from experience the world of aspirational upper middle class Jewish life, Schlesinger employs the music of Mozart very effectively to comment on his central triangular relationship and renders perhaps the perhaps the most realistic Bar Mitzvah ceremony and reception ever presented in an apolitical context. Every movement, gesture, line of dialogue and character helps to establish both Dr. Hirsh's family and cultural life and the fact that, while loving, he is a perennial outsider in his own world. Bob Elkin, the object of Daniel's misplaced affection, plays both his older lovers. While ostensibly loving freedom, he's off to America to pursue his career at the end of the film. Alex is left with his toucan, Daniel with Italian language records for a trip never taken.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" swept the BAFTA awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Editing, yet in spite of 4 major nominations, was kept at arm's length by the deeply conservative American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Intriguingly enough, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was an original screenplay written by British film critic and writer Penelope Gilliatt.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is an intriguing look at how far two dissatisfied people and the emotional sacrifices people are willing to make for the illusion of love. before they wake up and realize they could do better than willing to make allowances for their young lover.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is also groundbreaking for the character of Dr. Hirsh's breaking of the fourth wall in the movie's final scene when he speaks directly to the audience with the realization that he still has a chance for love if he's willing to take it.
Each character is flawed and there is no traditional, satisfying happy ending - just like in life.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a fascinating look at one week in the life of two ill-starred lovers who are ultimately discarded by the lover they share.
It's definitely a movie worth studying and reflecting upon.
Strongly Recommended for it's place in movie history.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Bloody-...
November 4, 2022
The Lost Colony
Just finished listening to "The Lost Colony," music by David Wright, based on the novel by Matt Howarth, released by AD Music.
Basically, the plot of Howarth's novel is as follows: “A colony ship landed on their target world but find it is not what they were led to expect. So life is a harsh struggle, a seemingly losing battle against the local environment. Because a glimmer of salvation arises, the colonists must overcome fatalism and so fight to support hope of survival." Now I have not yet read the novel, which is included in this enhanced cd, so I will not be reviewing it at this time.
David Wright is co-founder of the Tangerine Dream influenced ‘Callisto’ and the avant-garde electronic rock band ‘Code Indigo’. He has recorded music as the new age project ‘Trinity’ as well as with Ian Boddy, Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock and Robert Fox. He also founded the AD Music label in 1989 and his music has been used for film and TV alongside involvement in the production of numerous other albums in many different genres, including folk, opera, rap and rock.
My favorite tracks on this CD are: "Homeworld," "Crystal Windsong," "Alpha," "The Lost Colony, Parts I - IV," and "0.5 AU."
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.admusicshop.com/product/t...
Basically, the plot of Howarth's novel is as follows: “A colony ship landed on their target world but find it is not what they were led to expect. So life is a harsh struggle, a seemingly losing battle against the local environment. Because a glimmer of salvation arises, the colonists must overcome fatalism and so fight to support hope of survival." Now I have not yet read the novel, which is included in this enhanced cd, so I will not be reviewing it at this time.
David Wright is co-founder of the Tangerine Dream influenced ‘Callisto’ and the avant-garde electronic rock band ‘Code Indigo’. He has recorded music as the new age project ‘Trinity’ as well as with Ian Boddy, Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock and Robert Fox. He also founded the AD Music label in 1989 and his music has been used for film and TV alongside involvement in the production of numerous other albums in many different genres, including folk, opera, rap and rock.
My favorite tracks on this CD are: "Homeworld," "Crystal Windsong," "Alpha," "The Lost Colony, Parts I - IV," and "0.5 AU."
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.admusicshop.com/product/t...
