Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (692/0)
Review of 'True Detective' 4.1-4.3
True Detective is back with its fourth season. So far, as of the first three episodes, it's quite good. Not as brilliant as the first season, which was a masterpiece, but at least as good as the second and third seasons, each in their own way memorable. And this fourth season has something which is always especially appealing to me, a touch of science fiction.
By Paul Levinson2 months ago in Criminal
Review of 'For All Mankind' 4.9-4.10
"Without competition, there is no progress," Sergei says to Margot and Aleina, near the beginning of Episode 4.9 of For All Mankind, on Apple TV+. Later, he suggests that he and Margot leave the US and go to Brazil, which already has started an impressive space program (a nice alternate history touch). And ...
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Futurism
Review of 'Who Killed JFK' Episodes 9-10
Episode 9 of the Who Killed JFK? podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien is devoted to Jack Ruby (born Jacob Rubenstein), the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television two days after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Criminal
Tetrads for History and Alternate History
Marshall McLuhan's tetrad is a useful tool for discovering and understanding how human activities, especially media, are connected to one another. It maps a four-part relationship that happens in any human endeavor. That activity AMPLIFIES or ENHANCES an aspect or certain aspects of human life; as it does this, it OBSOLESCES an activity that had previously been amplified; and the human endeavor also RETRIEVES an activity that had previously been obsolesced or pushed off center stage; and the amplified activity REVERSES or FLIPS INTO a new activity, at once very different from but closely related to what was amplified.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in History
Review of 'For All Mankind' 4.3-4.5
So, at this point in the story, episodes 4.3-4.4 of For All Mankind, Gorbachev didn't make it too far into the 21st century. He's been forcibly replaced in the Soviet Union by Korzhenko, a hardliner. So my hope that Putin would not come to power was fulfilled only by one fascist leader replaced by another, or a Putin coming to power with just a different name.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Futurism
Review of 'Who Killed JFK?' Episodes 7-8
Given the depth of the pain I and everyone I know felt about the assassination of JFK in November 1963, it's hard to fathom how many different people fervently wanted it. The seventh episode of the Who Killed JFK podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien makes the case for three groups, in particular: the CIA, Cuban exiles, and the Mafia.
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Criminal
Review of 'The Way Home' Season 1
So, I got the email from TVLine yesterday, alerting me to Rebecca Iannucci's 10 Hidden Gems You May Have Missed From This Year’s TV, and was delighted to find The Way Home on the Hallmark Channel on the list of ten, starting with this comment, "Scoff at a Hallmark Channel series’ inclusion on this list if you must, but we were quickly captivated by this time travel drama".
By Paul Levinson3 months ago in Geeks
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 Levinson4 months 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 Levinson4 months ago in Beat