What better way to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the King of Rock and Roll’s passing (August 16, 1977) than losing oneself in RCA/Legacy’s new Elvis at Stax deluxe box set? This remarkable release chronicles the dozen recording sessions Presley undertook at the legendary Memphis recording studio Stax, in 1973. While the material has all been released before (sprawled over...
A Chat with The Lady Vanishes’ and Silk’s Tom Hughes
A 1930s Balkans railway journey filled with mystery and suspense, and a look at the inner sanctum of the UK legal system. British actor Tom Hughes does double duty this month and next in the States when he dips a proverbial toe in both these worlds. First off in The Lady Vanishes (airing Sunday night, August 18 on PBS’s MASTERPIECE...
The Massive List of Celebrities That Departed Scientology
Leah Remini recently exited Scientology stage left, and the resultant media attention will be ongoing, given her announced intention to publish a book. Meanwhile an interview with her sister Nicole revealed what happens when a person leaves L. Ron Hubbard’s moneymaking scheme. Do I or others exaggerate about Hubbard’s love of money? I can only report from my experience. His...
Karen Black and Death in Scientology
When I read on Facebook about Karen Black’s death and saw the comments, I thought back to the times I’d spent with Karen and people I’d known when we were both in Scientology. I got back in touch with one commenter, writer/director Michael Rymer, after reading his condolences. Michael sold his first screenplay — Dead Sleep, a story of a...
Appearance Matters: The Importance of Looking Presentable
Yes, appearance does matter. Just not in the way you think. I am very well aware of the feminist movement now of how women are exploited and overly objectified by the media, thus creating insecure women. I am aware that it is not right for women to feel the need to be overly concerned with vanity due to the pressures...
Blu-ray Review: Tom and Jerry’s Giant Adventure
The Tom and Jerry brand continues to be a lucrative franchise for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Whether made up of new or repackaged material, the titles keep on coming. Falling into the former category is the all-new Tom and Jerry’s Giant Adventure, available on Blu-ray and DVD (or both formats together, along with a code for an UltraViolet digital copy,...
Blu-ray Review: Oblivion (2013)
Some movies are best approached with as little prior knowledge as possible. For anyone partial to either ponderous sci-fi or anything starring Tom Cruise, all you need to know in advance is that Oblivion falls into both those categories. It’s not action-oriented sci-fi, understand that before going in. Oblivion aspires to be more along the lines of 2001: A Space...
Taking a Beating: Interview with Continuum’s Victor Webster
Continuum, the mind-bending sci-fi series that is part time travel adventure and part procedural, is nearing the end of a successful second season on its native Canadian channel Showcase. Meanwhile, south of the border it is halfway through the same season on Syfy. The show stars Rachel Nichols as tough cop Kiera Cameron who has come back from the future...
Inteview with Paul Levinson, Author of Unburning Alexandria
Did you know that the Greek philosopher Socrates is buried in the Bronx? Yep. His tombstone reads “Socrates 470BC-2042AD.” You get used to reading verbal bombshells like that when you read Paul Levinson’s science fiction works. In them traveling through time is as possible as traveling through space. Like traveling through space, it requires some planning, but it’s fully possible....
Anger Management: Interview with King’s Alan Van Sprang
Most of us have said or done something at some point in our lives that we wish we could take back or at the very least do a bit differently. For Toronto city police detective Derek Spears, a brief professional misstep cost him his position as head of the Major Crimes Task Force. Although still a member of the team,...