Light On Light Through

A January 2010 TV Review Sampler

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:35:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 70: A January 2010 TV Review Sampler. I've been speaking and writing for several years - here on Light On Light Through, in my classes, on my blogs, in newspaper op-eds, and in my books - about the "new golden age of television" we are enjoying. Indeed, I've been reviewing many of these great dramas - The Sopranos, Lost, Dexter - over on one of my other podcasts, Levinson News Clips. These reviews are usually just 5-7 minutes, and I often post them within minutes of a show's broadcast. This month of January 2010 has been an especially excellent month for television, so I decided to put together this special Light On Light Through sampler of my Levinson News Clips TV reviews of 24, Big Love, Bones, Damages, Fringe, Heroes, and House - all of which have come back on television with fine new episodes. You'll find continuing reviews of every episode of these and other television shows on Levinson News Clips.

Links:

continuing podcast reviews of television on Levinson News Clips.
continuing blog post reviews of television on InfiniteRegress.tv
two of my book about television: The Soft Edge & New New Media
my July 2006 Newsday article, The New Golden Age of Television

home page: http://paullevinson.info more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

published on 3 September 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates "challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly "Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Leno, Conan, and New New Media

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:32:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 69: Leno, Conan, and New New Media .... in which I replay for you the entire 48-minute interview Fred W. Hofmann conducted with me on KCPS Radio, January 19, 2010, about the shake-up with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien at NBC. My thesis is that this has little to do with the talents of either late-night comedian, but rather is a result of the shift in audiences from network television to cable and the Internet. I began to explore this shift in my 2009 book, New New Media, and I see the Leno-O'Brien events as just the latest rumblings in a television revolution which has just begun...

Links:

more about New New Media
Twitter chapter from New New Media - free!
Fred W. Hofmann on KCPS Radio

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv
more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

published on 3 September 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Weep Not for Newspapers

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 68: Weep Not for Newspapers .... in which I explain why the decline of paper newspapers may be the best thing that ever happened to journalism and its goal of keeping citizens in a democracy well informed. This is the latest installment in my continuing series, What's Newer than New New Media, which until now has consisted only of written blogs.

Links:

more about New New Media
Twitter chapter from New New Media - free!
my brief essay on this issue in The Chronicle of Higher Education

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv
more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

published on 3 September 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

How Does It Feel To Have A Book Published?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:21:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 67: How Does It Feel To Have A Book Published? .... in which I chronicle the publication of my latest nonfiction book, New New Media, on September 3, 2009, with descriptions of events and expectations in August 2009, through the day of publication, and continuing with adventures in September and October 2009. Highlights include mentions of the book in The New York Times and other newspapers prior to publication, interviews on radio shows, the book tour, the use of a blog in promoting the book, the first book review, the Kindle edition, and much more. These reflections of an author - me, about New New Media - were first detailed in a series of eight short (5-minute) episodes in my Ask Lev podcast, where these writerly accounts will continue.

Links:

more about New New Media
Twitter chapter from New New Media - free!
my other books
Ask Lev podcast - practical advice for writers
my Four Rules for Writers

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv
more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

published on 3 September 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Rob Sawyer Talks About FlashForward!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:48:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 66: Robert J. Sawyer Talks About FlashForward .... With less than a week to go until the premiere of FlashForward on ABC Television on September 24, 2009, 8 pm Eastern time - based on Rob Sawyer's novel of the very same name - I was delighted to catch Rob on the phone in Toronto for this sage, penetrating interview in which Rob reveals what it feels like to be on the verge of having his novel seen on screens around the world in this ABC series. Rob takes us through the steps of moving from novel to screen, his admiration for the stellar cast, his clear vision of possible future paths for his FlashForward novel universe, at a time when everyone will be coming to know the slightly different story in the television series, and much more. Whether you're a writer with dreams of seeing of your words on the screen, or a fan of great science fiction is this new golden age of television, this is the interview you'll always remember.

Links:

more about Rob's novel, FlashForward
shortly after 9/24/09 9pm: my blog reviews begin of the TV series
shortly after 9/24/09 9:30 pm: my podcast reviews begin
my June 24, 2007 conversation with Rob Sawyer
Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://open.salon.com/blog/paul_levinson
more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

published on 3 September 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

An Introduction to New New Media

Sat, 8 Aug 2009 22:16:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 65: An Introduction to New New Media ... with the publication of my latest book, New New Media, just weeks away (Penguin Academics will be publishing the book on 4 September 2009), I thought I would share with you the interview Dr. Howard Gluss did with me on his KFNX Radio show on June 12, 2009. It provides a 20-minute introduction to the way that Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and what I call "new new media" are changing all of us from consumers into producers, and in the process revolutionizing all aspects of our lives, from the way we watch television to the way we elect Presidents...

Links:

more about New New Media
more about Dr. Howard Gluss radio show
I'm interviewed about New New Media on Kojo Nnamdi show

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://open.salon.com/blog/paul_levinson

more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

coming in Summer 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate ... heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell ... there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Moon 40

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:53:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 64: Moon 40 ... in which I reflect on watching our species land on the Moon 40 years ago, regret that we have not gone much further, and offer some reasons why we must. They are more than scientific and economic, though outer space will give us much data and access to vast resources of energy. But the deepest reasons are closer to spiritual - we will never understand who we really are, what we are doing here in this cosmos, from down on here on Planet Earth. The universe beyond is, after all, part of our larger home...

Links:

my blog post: Forty Years from the Moon, and Still Counting
my book: Realspace

coming in Summer 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Sotomayor vs. First Amendment: An Interview with Avery and Lauren Doninger

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 63: Sonia Sotomayor vs. the First Amendment: An Interview with Avery and Lauren Doninger. The First Amendment has almost never been under greater fire. Broadcasters are being fined record amounts and the FCC and Congress are calling out for more. Students are being taught the wrong lessons about freedom of expression in some of our schools, and courts are supporting these schools. One of those cases - involving a 16-year old high school student, Avery Doninger - made its way to the Second Circuit Appeals Court, where Sonia Sotomayor and two colleague justices supported the school. Judge Sotomayor now seems likely to be confirmed by the US Senate to serve a lifetime position on the United States Supreme Court.

In this special episode of Light On Light Through, I interview Avery Doninger and her mother, Lauren Doninger. You can hear in their own voices what was at stake in Avery's case - what the case was all about - and their reaction to the adverse decision of the Sotomayor court. The case may well reach the U.S. Supreme Court...

Helpful links and contacts:

my blog posts: Sotomayor's Anti-First Amendment Decision and Why One Strike Against 1st Amendment Should Rule You Out
Andy Thibault blog and Aldon Hynes blog about Doninger case
Avery Doninger's Scales of Justice paper
Lauren Doninger's email: LaurenDoninger@comcast.net
Iolta Fund for Avery Doninger, c/o John Schoenhorn, 108 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106
First Amendment documentary on HBO June 2009; my review
my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University: "The Flouting of the First Amendment," transcript and video

coming in Summer 2009: New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Star Trek: Reborn, Reset, Resplendent

Sat, 9 May 2009 02:06:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 62: Star Trek: Reborn, Reset, Resplendent ... in which I explain how the new May 2009 Star Trek movie succeeded in delighting lifelong fans (including me) as well as reinventing the Star Trek universe from the beginning (which I also immensely enjoyed) ... hint: think time-travel ...

Helpful links:

complete blog post: Star Trek: Reborn, Reset, Resplendent
historical context: How Star Trek Liberated Television
blogs about time travel
check out Night Guy - our latest promo-suite podcast partner

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Author and Critic: Perilous Symbiosis

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:47:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 61: Author and Critic: Perilous Symbiosis ... in which I examine the love/hate mutually catalytic relationship of authors (or creators) and critics. I look especially at the dangers and benefits to aspiring authors of writing critical reviews of works by other authors...

Helpful links:

My Advice to Writers - including my Ask Lev podcast
List of my books - for you to read and criticize

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

Asimov's Foundation and Herbert's Dune Trilogies as Sources of Philosophy

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:46:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 60: Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogies as Sources of Philosophy ... in which I discuss how the fate of Hari Seldon's "psychohistorical" equations in the Foundation trilogy and Paul Muad'dib's ability to see the future in the Dune novels gives us vivid, compelling answers to the perennial philosophic problem of what can we know of the future ... (Plot points mentioned only for the first two books in each trilogy.)

Helpful links:

Invigoration of a Philosophic Issue in Science Fiction -my essay
Asimov's Foundation trilogy and Herbert's Dune trilogy
A postcard from Isaac Asimov to me from 1979 about Foundation

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

The Future of Media

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 00:48:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 59: The Future of Media ... In the Fall of 2007, I sat down for an interview by Mark Molaro, for his popular Internet TV show, The Alcove. His guests have included Arianna Huffington, Carl Bernstein, Campbell Brown, and other notables. Mark and I talked for 20 minutes about the future of media, the impact of new media on everything from politics to television shows such as Mad Men, to my view that "information overload" is really "information underload," or lack of vital navigational information. This interview was the first time I publicly started talking about New New Media, the subject of my forthcoming book (to be published by Pearson, Allyn & Bacon in the Summer 2009). You can see the interview on television via the link or YouTube screen below. Or, if more convenient, or you'd like to listen while running, walking, or driving, you an listen to the major excerpt presented in this podcast...

Helpful links:

Mark Molaro's interview with me on The Alcove - full video
The complete Alcove series of interviews
More details on New New Media
The Soft Edge ... Digital McLuhan ... Cellphone ... books mentioned in the interview

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

The Alcove interview on YouTube

Conversation with Greenburgh NY Town Supervisor Paul Feiner about Blogging, Obama, and Caroline Kennedy

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 58: A Conversation with Paul J. Feiner, Town Supervisor of Greenburgh, NY, about Blogging, Obama, and Caroline Kennedy. Paul Feiner has been Town Supervisor - a two-year elected office - since 1991. He has a weekly radio show, The Greenburgh Report, on WVOX Radio in New Rochelle, NY. He also maintains a blog, and has trail blazed new media in our Westchester County town, including the introduction of competition in cable television providers. I was a guest on his radio show on January 9, 2009, and this episode of Light On Light Through is excerpted from our conversation. We talk about Paul Feiner's blog, Facebook, Twitter, the role of new media in Barack Obama's administration, and why Governor David Paterson should appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate...

Helpful links:

Paul Feiner's blog
Paul Feiner's Wikipedia article
I'm interviewed by Mark Molaro about New Media on The Alcove
My New New Media book, to be published in Summer 2009 by Pearson, Allyn & Bacon
Righting the Cosmos: Why Caroline Should Be Appointed my blog post

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

I'm A Progressive Libertarian

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 22:24:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 57: I'm A Progressive Libertarian ... in which I explain how one can insist that the government respect the Bill of Rights, and stay out of our business whenever possible, but also act to promote our welfare by supporting rights of women, gays, and minorities, and spend money to reduce poverty, provide health care, and explore space. I'm in favor of no income tax for anyone earning under a million dollars a year, and raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires. Regarding governmental intervention to help with the current economic crisis, I see that intervention as an antibiotic. In general, we want our bodies to fight off infection on their own. But if our lungs are filling with fluid from bacterial pneumonia, we better get some antibiotic intervention as soon as possible.

Plus flashes ... Contrary to critics such as Heather Havrilesky in Salon, I see the new golden age of television roaring back in 2009, with Lost, 24, Damages, Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, Life on Mars, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The L Word, Bones, The Unit, and more all coming back with continued or new seasons...

Helpful links:

I'm A Progressive Libertarian - my August 2008 blog on this matter, with 27 spirited comments and discussion
The New Golden Age of Television Roars Back - my detailed blog post response to the Havrilesky Salon article
Levinson news clips - weekly reviews of all the above television series, past, present, and future episodes
Infinite Regress - blog post reviews of all the above television series, past, present, and future episodes

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

24 Season 6 Plus Redemption

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:36:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 56: 24 Season 6 Plus Redemption...a special, super-jumbo compilation episode, in which you'll hear my reviews of every episode of 24 Season 6 ... including my impersonation of Secretary Heller, somewhere in the middle of the reviews ... originally presented on my Levinson news clips podcast a few minutes after each broadcast of 24 back in 2007 ... plus a brand new review of Redemption, the two-hour 24 movie broadcast on Fox in November 2008. A great way to rev up for the return of 24, Season 7, on January 11, 2009. Hey, if you're a student, and you want to surreptitiously listen to this podcast in the back of a boring class, I won't tell anyone...

Helpful links:

5-min podcast review of just Redemption - look in right column
Levinson news clips - the original podcasts (scroll down); also - watch there for weekly podcast reviews of 24 Season 7, starting January 11, 2009
Infinite Regress - blog post reviews of all episodes of 24 Season 6, plus Redemption, and look there for reviews of each new episode of 24, Season 7, within 24 minutes after the end of each episode ...
Reviews of 24, Season 7 - Hrs 1, 2 ...

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

The Plot to Save Socrates

Cyberbullying and a Remedy: The Music of the Truth on Earth Band, and an Interview

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:03:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 55, a very special episode about cyberbullying and a remedy - the music of the Truth on Earth band. It's been in the news, especially recently - the 13-year old girl who took her life after being set up on MySpace by a 49-year woman, who pretended to be a boy in love with the girl and broke her heart. The Truth on Earth band, consisting of three teenagers - Serena, Kiley, and Tess - decided to do something about this problem of people assuming false identities on social media and hurting other people. The band wrote and recorded a song - "Shot With a Bulletless Gun". It's receiving a lot of attention. And with good reason - an example of the best of the Internet -

providing an MP3 remedy of lyrics and music for one of its own, worst ills. You'll hear the song, and more music from the talented band in this podcast. And also a 20-minute interview with Serena, Kiley, and Tess. This is a song, a band, and an interview anyone who spends any time on the Internet should listen to...

Helpful links:

Truth on Earth - Shot with a Bulletless Gun website - with lyrics and lots of helpful information about cyberbullying and links
Cyberbullying Mom Got Just What She Deserved - my November 26, 2008 blog post about Lori Drew (the 49-year old woman) and Megan Meier (the 13-year old girl), and why I think the jury was right to find Lori Drew guilty

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

The Plot to Save Socrates

Lost 4 and 13

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:05:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 54 LOST 4 and 13 ...another special, jumbo compilation episode, in which you'll hear all of my reviews of the second part of Season 4 of Lost ... originally presented on my Levinson news clips podcast a few minutes or hours after each Thursday's broadcast of Lost ... reviews of the final five episodes of Season 4: 9-13.... These five episodes, in my opinion, were among the best ever on Lost ...

Helpful links:

Levinson news clips - the original podcasts
Lost 4 and 8 - Light On Light Through Episode 53, with reviews of Lost Season 4, Episodes 1-8
Infinite Regress - blog post reviews of all episodes of the Lost this season (and many from last season) ... the first review from Season Four is here - Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast - and contains links to all the others
Lost: Keys to What's Really Going On - my 2006 essay, continually updated...

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE

The Plot to Save Socrates

Lost 4 and 8

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 53 LOST 4 and 8 ...a special, jumbo compilation episode, in which you'll hear all of my reviews of the first part of Season 4 of Lost ... originally presented on my Levinson news clips podcast on the Friday after each Thursday's broadcast of Lost ... 9 reviews of the first 8 episodes (because I did two reviews of the first episode, I liked it so much), plus some special new commentary, presented here for the first time, with some additional thoughts I had about Episode 8, and the coming attractions at the end ... These eight episodes have been classic ... containing one of the best time travel stories ever on television, as well as some possible answers to the key mysteries of Lost ...

Helpful links:

Levinson news clips - the original podcasts, plus you'll find new, continuing podcast reviews of Lost there starting up again at the end of April
Lost 4 and 13 - Light On Light Through Episode 54, with reviews of Lost Season 4, Episodes 9-13
Infinite Regress - blog post reviews of all episodes of the Lost this season (and many from last season) ... the first review from Season Four is here - Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast - and contains links to all the others
Lost: Keys to What's Really Going On - my 2006 essay, continually updated...

Enjoy...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The Plot to Save Socrates

Science Fiction in the New Golden Age of Television

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:09:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 52 of Light On Light Through ... "Science Fiction in the New Golden Age of Television" ... It started in the mid-late 1990s with HBO's original series, especially "The Sopranos" in 1999. This revolution in television - frank, gritty, real, intellectually sophisticated - soon spread to other cable and old-fashioned network television. In the past few years, science fiction has taken a leading role. In this podcast - based on a lecture I gave to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society on 25 January 2008 (at the invitation of Lee Stein and Suzanne Rosin) - I look at the contributions of five science fiction series to this new golden age of television ... Lost, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Journeyman, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes...

Plus flashes ... mostly about the continuing Obama revolution, and a little about John "Palpatine" McCain...

Helpful links:

my blog reviews of Lost, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Journeyman, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes... just about every episode ... all at http://InfiniteRegress.tv
my infamous Only Idiots Don't Watch Television ... first published under the more innocuous title of "TV's New Golden Age" in Newsday in July 2006
my political commentary on Barack Obama and the Presidential campaigns ... also at http://InfiniteRegress.tv
listen for a special audio clip of David S. Michaels - author of Red Moon
my interview by Aaron Busch on the Primetime and Online webcast

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The Plot to Save Socrates

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:28:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through Episode 51, "Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton," in which I examine the strengths and differences of these two extraordinary candidates ... Obama may be the greatest orator of our time ... his election as the first African-American President would make history, as would Hillary Clinton's as the first woman in the White House President ... how do Obama and Clinton compare to the Republican candidates ... plus ... a critique of MSNBC's shoddy treatment of Hillary Clinton...

Helpful blog links ... Obama Sweeps Three Primaries, Gives Magnificent Speech ... MSNBC Needs to Stop Sniping at Hillary ... I'm Voting for Barack Obama in New York Today

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The Plot to Save Socrates

Interview with Analog Editor Stan Schmidt!

Sun, 2 Dec 2007 00:35:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through Episode 50 - my interview with Dr. Stanley Schmidt, long-time editor of Analog Magazine of Science Fiction and Fact, the leading science fiction magazine in the universe, as far as we know ... Stan talks candidly about what he looks for in a story submitted for publication ... how quickly he knows that a story works ... what he sees in the futures of science fiction, Analog, and his own work in the field ... Analog published 10 of my stories in the 1990s, and helped establish me as a science fiction writer. This interview was not only a real pleasure for me to conduct, but I suspect will be a source for years to come of invaluable information and insight for anyone who aspires to being a published short-fiction science fiction writer ...

Plus flashes ... The Plot to Save Journeyman - that is, three chances to win free copies of The Plot to Save Socrates, just by watching the next episodes of NBC's Journeyman! (Note added in 2008: The contest ended in 2007.)

Helpful links:

http://analogsf.com - everything you need to know about Analog
The Coming Convergence - Stan's new nonfiction book
more advice about how to get your stories published

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

thoughts, questions, or comments about this interview? try here

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The Plot to Save Socrates

Conversation with Ken Hudson/Kenny Hubble: Second Life!

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 05:33:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 49 of Light On Light Through in which I converse with digital artist Ken Hudson aka Kenny Hubble of and about Second Life. At ten million accounts and growing, the vibrant virtual community of Second Life is becoming a way of life for many. Ken interviewed me in his Media Ecology Second Life series a few weeks ago, and I'm still enjoying it. Ken and I talk about life in Second Life - how to do it, how to live it, and its relationship to real or "first" life in everything ranging from art and music to (of course) sex. Whether you're an old hand at Second Life, a newbie, or just want to learn more about this fascinating place, you won't want to miss this special 40-minute interview (and, actually, there is no way that you can, because it will always be available here - and likely somewhere in Second Life, too).

Plus - my avatar reads from The Plot to Save Socrates in Second Life in December 2007 - enjoy the videoclip....

"Athens, 2042... Sierra Waters had always done everything for the thrill..."

Helpful links:

Ken Hubble interviews me in Second Life, 5 November 2007 - enjoy a video of the animated 60-minute interview
Ken Hudson site
Kenny Hubble site
Second Life

For more of my work on the relationship real life to cyberlife, see my Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Another Network Undercuts the Results of its Own Post-Debate Presidential Poll - This Time, MSNBC about Barack Obama

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 05:54:00 GMT

The networks continue to denigrate the results of their own post-debate polls-

Last night, Chris Matthews mentioned on MSNBC's Hardball that Barack Obama won the poll that MSNBC conducted after the Democratic Presidential debate on Tuesday-

To which Chuck Todd, MSNBC's "official" pollster replied - that poll was done with cell phones, via which Obama's supporters could keep pounding the call keys...

To which Matthews responded - like in the 1936 Literary Digest poll...

To which I would respond:

No, Chris, not like that 1936 poll at all, which was supposed to be a poll of a randomly selected part of the voting population, but was skewed or biased because it was conducted from lists of automobile owners and people who had telephones in their homes, and only very rich people had those luxuries in those days, so the Literary Digest poll wrongly showed the Democrat FDR losing...

Which has nothing in common with MSNBC's post-election poll - except that it, too, was conducted by phone. But it was never designed as a randomly conducted poll.

What Chris should have said to Chuck Todd was: wrong, callers can't cast votes more than once on the same phone... Or, if by some bizarre chance they could, then simply install a program on your vote-reception software which would make it impossible for anyone to cast a vote more than once on the same cell phone.

Very easy, really - and certainly preferable to encouraging viewers to vote in your poll, and the undercutting the results.

Well, at least Ron Paul now has company - now Obama's supporters, like Ron Paul's, are discounted because they participate in a poll that a network conducts, and then expresses no confidence in because they don't like the results.

=============
My 50-minute lecture about network after-debate polls and the media's misreporting of Ron Paul, delivered to my class at Fordham University

Interview with Rich Sommer - Mad Men's Harry Crane!

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 06:02:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through Episode 48, an Interview with Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane on AMC's Mad Men. Among the highlights - the "joys" of wearing real 1960s clothing ... what are they really smoking on the show? ... what does Rich think happened with Harry between episodes 12 and 13 of the show? ... how does Rich explain Harry's uncanny resemblance to Isaac Asimov (see photos below) ... how does Rich account for the rare anachronism on the show ... and much more in this exclusive interview, conducted just two days ago ... We had a grand time in this interview! If you love the show, you'll want to listen to every minute of this ... If you don't know the show, you'll want to watch every minute of it after listening to this interview...

Isaac Asimov (1965) and Harry Crane aka Rich Sommer (1960)

Plus flashes ... David Wiltse's Sedition at Fordham University Monday night, 7:30pm, Pope Auditorium, 60th Street & Columbus, free admission ... I'll be on the radio Tues, 7:30 pm, on Bob Mann's Let's Consider the Sources, channel xm133 on XM Radio...

Helpful links:

Bio brief on AMC website for Rich Sommer (also Christina Hendricks, discussed in our interview, and other cast members)
Tony Reid's 9/24/07 interview w/Rich Sommer on TV Blend
My weekly blog reviews of Mad Men at InfiniteRegress.tv
My TV podcast reviews at Levinson news clips

For more on the origins of "the medium is the message," see the chapter in Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Colmes Mends Ways About Misreporting Ron Paul; Hannity Recalcitrant

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:44:00 GMT

The universe is finally behaving as it should be. You may recall that after the last Republican Presidential debate on Fox, Hannity & Colmes - who disagree about just about everything - were united in their certainty that Ron Paul's first place finish in Fox's after-debate phone-in text poll was some kind of fix - multiple dialing by the same people, to be exact, even though Fox had wisely made that option not possible.

Hannity was up to his same tricks tonight - braying that Ron Paul's first place finish was "stacked". Whereas Colmes, to his credit, calmly said he was reporting the results. As was the case last time, Hannity didn't bother to offer any evidence.

You can see this all in this YouTube clip. Also sweet is the way Hannity has the gall to complain to Ron Paul that Hannity gets booed by Ron Paul supporters when Hannity gives speeches.

Booed? Hannity should count his lucky stars that he continues to have a microphone. I certainly would never hire anyone with such a poor standard of truth and evidence to teach courses in a department in which I was Chair.

First Year Anniversary Party!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:43:00 GMT

Welcome to a very special Episode - #47 - of Light On Light Through ... our first year anniversary party! Lots of surprises, special guests (see guest list, below), a contest in which you can win a copy of my novel, The Plot to Save Socrates ... never-before-revealed facts such as how I came up with the name Light On Light Through - what it means - and much more...

Plus flashes ... Mad Men concludes a brilliant first year on AMC ... and maybe a tachyon telephone on NBC's Journeyman ...

Making rare guest appearances on this special anniversary podcast:

James Harris ... singing Looking for Sunsets
Shaun Farrell ... from Adventures in SciFi Publishing
Jason Rennie ... from the Sci Phi Show
Jake Cordova ... from Just Not Right
Dave Worley ... blog, soundcast, more
Norman the Movie Guy ... from That Movie Critic Show
Scott Sandridge ... from Everyday Fiction
Michael Burstein ... award-winning short fiction
Diana Liwen ... from Fire of Spring
Mike James ... from MikeThinks
Gabriel Llanas ... from the Punk Horror Podcast
Nathan Rivera ... from Podcast Pendulum
and Tina ... from our home! :)

->And listen for debut play of promo for Diane Kreinbring's RonPaulFanCast podcast at end....

For more on the origins of Light On Light Through, see the chapter in Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Question on My Midterm Exam About Ron Paul and Mass Media Mistreatment

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:37:00 GMT

As you know, I devoted 50-minutes of my Intro to Communication and Media Studies class last month at Fordham University to a lecture about the mass media's mistreatment of Ron Paul. Although Ron Paul is now getting much more media attention, the mistreatment continues - as evidenced, to give just one example, of CNBC's taking down of a post-debate poll which Ron Paul won - and this means that people who value our democratic system need to continue to keep a wary eye on our media, and call them out when necessary.

You can see the video of my lecture here.

I thought you also might be interested in a question I gave my Intro to Comm and Media Studies class today, as part of their midterm exam:

1. Consider Ron Paulâs Presidential campaign the Source of communication. Using the Shannon-Weaver model, explain all the steps that the campaign must go through, in order to reach its Destination, the American people. Make sure you address each step in the process, as well as what can (and did) go wrong in the process, and possible remedies for addressing this. (Option: If you like to do this analysis for another Presidential candidate, that would be acceptable, but make sure you have specific examples to present.)

The exam was open book, and the students had a choice of questions. I don't know yet how many chose to answer this one.

The crux of the correct answer was that the media misreporting of Ron Paul constitutes noise in the Channel, and the best way of remedying that is providing feedback - meaning, let the media and the world know that such misreporting is unacceptable.

I'll keep you posted on how my students do on this question (without, of course, revealing any names.)

Help Me Celebrate First Anniversary of Light On Light Through

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:22:00 GMT

To my friends out there across the universe ... Light On Light Through, this more or less weekly podcast on pop culture, politics, outer space, good food, shoes, the works, will be one year old on October 21.

I'll be putting out a special edition on that day. Help me celebrate - and promote whatever you're doing - by sending me a 10-second mp3 of congratulations. Feel free to mention & promote whatever is important to you. Mention how you know me (we're Twitter friends, whatever).

Send the mp3 to Paul@LightonLightThrough.com

You can put in music, just talk, whatever you like.

More details in my two recent episodes of Light On Light Through - A Modest Proposal and Celebrating Sputnik...

Modest Political Proposal via Podcast: How About Working for the Best Candidates in =Both= Parties

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:24:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 46 of Light On Light Through, in which I offer a modest proposal for greatly improving our political process: why not work for the best candidates in each of the two parties, so as to give Americans the best possible choice in the general election. I go over my choices - just Ron Paul for the Republican nomination - Gore, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel for the Democratic nomination (a lot more to choose from there) - and give my reasons why.

Plus flashes ... Judy Woodruff reclaims the fine art of the civilized, informative interview in her PBS NewsHour interview with Ron Paul ... Michael Clayton is a fine, originally directed movie ... still time to send me your mp3 greetings for the next episode of Light On Light Through - our first anniversary show...

Helpful links:

Modest Political Proposal my blog post
Judy Woodruff interview with Ron Paul my blog post analysis
The Silk Code podiobook - my award-winning novel, read by Shaun Farrell, available free - at http://thesilkcode.blogspot.com or http://podiobooks.com
http://artofgraciousliving.com Patsy Terrell's podcast - Patsy does the Light On Light Through - Blubrry id
The Plot to Save Socrates (click on the above title to get to Amazon) ... and if you'd like an autographed copy at no extra charge to you, just send me an e-mail at PaulLevinson@LightonLightthrough.com for details

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Howard Stern on Sirius Radio

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:34:00 GMT

One of the most serious issues of our time - pardon the pun - is the FCC's unconstitutional crackdown on broadcasting for allegedly "indecent" programming. The heavy fines levied by the FCC made it impossible for Howard Stern to continue on traditional radio. He had to watch everything he said.

Fortunately, Sirius Satellite Radio provided a great alternative, which has proven to be even better than the original. Howard Stern has finally found his element on Sirius Radio - a free environment, in which his mind can work and express itself at full, incisive, hilarious speed.

Sirius also gives you exclusive coverage of the NFL, NBA, and NASCAR, more than 130 channels of programming, 69 music channels with no commercials, and Martha Stewart.

You do need a special radio to hear Sirius, and the Sirius Stiletto 10 Satellite Radio is one of many cool models available. The Stiletto doesn't need to be docked in your car or at home - you can take it anywhere - and it gives you live portable reception of Sirius Radio shows, stores up to 10 hours of Sirius Satellite programming, and has lots of other useful features.

It's not just satellite radio - it's out of this world.

.

this is a sponsored post

McLuhan as Micro Blogger

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:29:00 GMT

Marshall McLuhan died on the last day of 1980 - not only years before there was micro-blogging and blogging, but a few years before e-mail and commenting on Web pages.

In 1986, I wrote a piece for the IEEE Transactions of Professional Communications entitled Marshall McLuhan and Computer Conferencing, in which I said that the pithy, aphoristic bursts which characterized his writing - his great works from the 1960s consisted of chapters often not more than a page or two in length - were actually a form of web writing ("computer conferencing") decades before the Web and online communication emerged.

Just the other day, I realized something more about McLuhan's writing. The memorable titles he gave to his short chapters - for example, "The Medium is the Message" in Understanding Media (1964) or "Nobody ever made a grammatical error in a non-literate society" in the Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) (which has 107 of these gems) - were actually micro-blogs.

Blogging in his page-or-two chapters, micro-blogging in the titles or "glosses" (his term) he gave them. All of this back in 1962 and 1964.

McLuhan was in touch with a mode of expression, a vehicle of the human intellect, which was clear and percolating in his mind, even though the technology of its delivery was still decades away from invention.

Modest Proposal: Why Not Support the Best Candidates in Each of the Two Parties?

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:08:00 GMT

I wrote the following on another blog back in March. In view of the growing number of Ron Paul supporters - people who believe we should take the Constitution and its restrictions on government seriously - and Al Gore's winning the Nobe Prize yesterday, my modest proposal that we should work to support the best candidates in each of the two major parties seems more viable and relevant than ever...

The approach most people take to Presidential elections is, pick a candidate - if you can - one candidate, and support him or her to the hilt. If your candidate fails before getting the nomination, you may or may not switch to another, and go through the same process.

If your chosen candidate is a Democrat, you likely will have little real interest in the Republicans, except to hope that they choose the weakest person to run for office. And vice versa - if your favorite candidate is a Republican, all you likely will care about regarding the Democrats is what they can do, presumably unintentionally, to help your Republican candidate win.

But does this approach get the best out of our democracy?

I'm trying something a little different this time around. I am going to try to pick my favorites in both the Democratic and the Republican fields, and do whatever little I can to help them get nominated. If I'm lucky enough to see both nominated, I'll then decide whom to vote for in the general election.

So far, here are my favorites, and why:

Democratic Party:

Al Gore: pluses: his election would correct the deep injustice of the 2000 election, he was anti-Iraq-war from the beginning, he is genuinely interested in science to improve our human condition; minuses: I'm concerned that he may be in favor of Congress's crackdown on "indecency," given his wife Tipper's history on this issue

Barack Obama: pluses: he was anti-Iraq-war from the beginning, he would bring a Kennedy-esque youthful vitality to the White House, it would be healthy for America to have an African-American President; minuses: not enough experience, and untested on many issues

*John Edwards: see below for note added on April 21, in which I've including Edwards in my Democratic favorites

Republican Party:

Ron Paul: pluses: he was anti-Iraq-war from the beginning (and, better than Gore and Obama, was in office at the time, and voted against the war resolutions), he is a vigorous defender of the Constitution and the First Amendment, he is an opponent of government censorship, he's in favor of private enterprise in space (so is Gore); minuses: he's in favor of states (but not the Federal government) banning abortion (I'm in favor of a women's right to choose), an opponent of gun control (I agree that the Second Amendment is consistent with Paul's position - I'm in favor of amending it), urged US neutrality in Israeli-Hezbollah war.

***

So, there you have it. I currently consider myself a supporter of all three candidates. Regarding Gore and Obama, I would certainly be happy with a Democratic ticket that had them both (Gore for Pres, Obama for VP), and I would be happy with a ticket that had either for President. Regarding Ron Paul: at this point, there is no other Republican even remotely as good, in my view.

Regarding the minuses for all three candidates: I'll keep researching their positions and records, and of course be on the look-out for new developments. And I'll also be open to any new candidates, or to any dramatic shifts in all of the candidates currently in the field, but I'm not holding my breath for either.

***

*Added 21 April 2007 - John Edwards' Favorite Book is I. F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates. If find this so impressive - indicative of a love a freedom of expression, and a philosophic depth - that I now include Edwards along with Gore and Obama as Democratic candidates for President that I could enthusiastically support.
=================

25-minute podcast of this Modest Political Proposal

Open Letter to CNBC Managing Editor: Apologize to American People about Your Taking Down of Ron Paul Poll, or Resign

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:55:00 GMT

To: Allen Wastler
Managing Editor, CNBC.com

From: Paul Levinson, PhD
Professor & Chair, Department of Communication and Media Studies
Fordham University, NYC

re: your An Open Letter to the Ron Paul Faithful of October 11, in which you explain why you took down your poll, conducted after the Michigan Republican Presidential debate, and featured on your web site

1. You invite comments and response to your Open Letter, and provide an e-mail address. Since your action is, in my view, a matter of great public concern, I am not only e-mailing this response to you, but publishing it in my InfiniteRegress.tv blog and here on LightonLightThrough.

2. I am not one of the "Ron Paul Faithful". Although I greatly admire many of his positions, especially his support of our Constitution, I have not yet endorsed any candidate, and am indeed on record as urging Americans to support the best candidate in each of our two main parties, so as to give us the best choice in the general election. You are welcome to see my How About We Look for the Best Candidate in =Both= Parties for details.

2a. I am writing to you, therefore, as a professor, scholar, and observer of media and politics, with a keen interest in seeing the press serve our democracy as Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers intended - that is, by providing us with the truth wherever possible.

3. Let me now address the issues you raise in your Open Letter:

You write that "these Internet polls are admittedly unscientific and subject to hacking".

True, but the "scientific" polls - the ones that rely on random sampling - are subject to error, as well. See, for example, the famous poll that predicted that FDR would lose the 1936 Presidential election.

Also, while the Internet may indeed be subject to hacking, do you have any proof that hacking took place in this case? You further say that your "poll was either hacked or the target of a campaign". Again, your proof?

You further say that "[t]he next day, our email basked was flooded with Ron Paul support messages. And the computer logs showed the poll had been hit with traffic from Ron Paul chat sites. I learned other Internet polls that night had been hit in similar fashion."

None of the above actions are "hacking". You owe Ron Paul's supporters and the American people an apology.

Indeed, the fact that the polls reflected votes "from Ron Paul chat sites" does not even support your conclusion that your poll was "the target of a campaign" - conceivably some of the votes that came from the sites could have come from people who had come to the sites, impressed by what they saw of Ron Paul in the debate, and then went on to cast their votes in your poll. Does that sound to you like "a campaign"?

You further say that Ron Paul's supporters, presumably including anyone who voted for Ron Paul in your poll, "also ruined the purpose of the poll. It was no longer an honest 'show of hands' -- it suddenly was a platform for beating the Ron Paul drum."

What do you suppose influences public opinion in any election campaign? What is your definition of an "honest show of hands"? Is a potential voter who expresses support for a candidate, because that potential voter already liked that candidate prior to a given debate, somehow not "honest"? If what you wanted to measure in your poll was how previously undecided people felt about the performance of candidates in the debate, why did you not say so in your poll, and devise some way of measuring this? (For example, trying to identify a sample of undecided voters beforehand, and then asking them for their preferences after the debate?)

Instead, you conclude your Open Letter with the following: "When a well-organized and committed 'few' can throw the results of a system meant to reflect the sentiments of 'the many,' I get a little worried. I'd take it down again."

Again, you offer no evidence whatsoever that anything in the poll was "thrown," and you similarly offer no evidence about how "few" of the "many" were composed of Ron Paul supporters.

Indeed, you offer no evidence of anything, really - just supposition and innuendo - and that gets me more than a little worried, about your competence and capacity to be Managing Editor of CNBC.com's website.

If something needs to be "taken down," it may well be your position as Managing Editor. I call upon you to either apologize to the American people, or step down.

Ron Paul Makes the Only Worthy Point in the CNBC Republican Debate

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:31:00 GMT

Here are some of the highlights and lowlights in the Republican Presidential debate which concluded a fw hours ago in Michigan. It was on CNBC, and will repeated tonight at 9pm on MSNBC:

Fred Thompson: started out nearly comatose, and then settled in. But he's fuzzy on most of the issues, and looks like Dwight David Eisenhower on a bad day. His best moment was responding to a pretty good crack by Romney, about the Republican debates being like Law and Order - a big cast, and Fred Thompson comes in at the end. Thompson smiled and said, pretty good, and I thought I was going to be the best actor up here.

Mitt Romney: his response to whether the President needs to consult Congress before going to war - Romney said he'd leave that to the attorneys - was one of the lowest points, not only in this debate, but in American history, period. (See Ron Paul's response to this, below.)

Rudy Giuliani: his response about whether the Internet required FCC-like cultural policing was troubling, to say the last. He's not in favor of creating new government agencies, but he might look into it, if the problem doesn't subside. But, what's the problem? No one disputes the need of police to go after predators, on and off line. The question was about the "cultural" problems of the Internet (porn?) and what should be done about that. A better answer would have been: "The FCC is unconstitutional even as a regulator of broadcasters. The last thing I would do is extend its violation of the First Amendment to the Internet." Too bad Ron Paul didn't get a chance to answer that question. Fortunately, Ron Paul did get a chance to respond about the President going to war...

Ron Paul: his finest moment was his outrage over Romney's gibberish about consulting attorneys. Read the Constitution, Ron Paul said - it clearly says that Congress, not the President, has the power to declare war.

You don't need to be a lawyer to understand that. You need to be just minimally literate.

Also admirable was Ron Paul's unwillingness to blindly support whoever gets the Republican nomination - that nominee would need to stop following Bush's disastrous and unconstitutional foreign policy.

It's rare indeed to hear a political candidate in either party speak such plain truth to the American people, and to the world.

Celebrating Sputnik

Sat, 6 Oct 2007 22:03:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 45 of Light On Light Through in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sputnik - the first artificial satellite to circle the Earth. We look and the triumphs and the tragedies, and in particular, why we have moved so little and so slowly into space since then...

RealSpace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet

Also in this podcast: an invitation to podcasters and anyone who can make an MP3 recording: October 21, 2007 will be the first-year anniversary of Light On Light Through - send me your 10-second greetings, and I'll play them all in a special anniversary episode. Feel free to mention and plug your own podcast, and whatever else you're doing.

Plus flashes ... Heroes is back ... so is Dexter and Brotherhood ... and Journeyman - a great new time travel series - debuts ... all of this, and more... hear and read more of what I think about them in Levinson news clips and InfiniteRegress.tv ...

Helpful links:

Levinsonnewsclips.com
InfiniteRegress.tv
The Silk Code podiobook - my award-winning novel, read by Shaun Farrell, available free - at http://thesilkcode.blogspot.com or http://podiobooks.com
http://artofgraciousliving.com Patsy Terrell's podcast - Patsy does the Light On Light Through - Blubrry id
The Plot to Save Socrates (click on the above title to get to Amazon) ... and if you'd like an autographed copy at no extra charge to you, just send me an e-mail at PaulLevinson@LightonLightthrough.com for details
Sputnik's 50th Anniversary - my blog post

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme
videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Complete Video of my Sept 28 Fordham University Lecture about Media Misreporting of Ron Paul

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 16:13:00 GMT

This is the lecture I delivered to my "Introduction to Communication and Media Studies" class at Fordham University last Friday, September 28, 2007, about the media misreporting of Ron Paul.

The lecture, with student questions at the end, was about 50 minutes. It's divided into five parts on the YouTube video: 1. history of polling ... ABC May 2007 misreporting of Ron Paul ... 2. ABC continues misreporting Ron Paul (early August 2007).... 3. Mark Levin urges disinformation against Ron Paul on ABC radio ... Kucinich gets cropped ... the First Amendment ... 4. Hannity & Colmes misreport Ron Paul on Fox News ... reasons behind all of this ... 5. I answer student questions ...

Note that the above is, of course, current only as of September 28, 2007, and contains no mention of ABC affiliate WMUR TV in New Hampshire failing to cover the Ron Paul "Family Day" rally on September 30...

Sputnik's 50 Years Old: And We're Still Toddlers in Space

Wed, 3 Oct 2007 03:34:00 GMT

Sputnik celebrates its 50th anniversary this Thursday, October 4 - the first artificial satellite to circle the planet. It was soon followed by Sputnik 2 (dogs in space, 1958), first human in space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961), Telstar (first telecom satellite, 1962), and then we walked on the Moon (Armstrong and Aldrin, 1969).

Notice that I didn't say Soviet or US above, because it doesn't really matter. Humans in space is what counts. But everyone of course knows that Sputnik - Russian for "fellow traveler" - set off the space race which we in the US eventually "won" in 1969. Prior to then, Telstar was our only first accomplishment.

And what did that victory get us? A space shuttle, with brave astronauts, some of whom lost their lives. But no one has gotten too far beyond this planet. We've sent robots to Mars, and that's exciting, but robots neither laugh nor cry - they're not human.

And so, as the 50th anniversary of Sputnik arrives, I can only hope that we start doing a little better. Civilization is filled with examples of major inventions that stayed dormant for centuries - even millennia. The Chinese invention of the printing press in 700 or 800 AD, and its failure to be used for a mass print and popular culture, is one of the most vivid examples. (I wrote about this way back in 1977, in my essay, "Toy, Mirror, and Art: The Metamorphosis of Technological Culture" - it was reprinted in my 1995 Learning Cyberspace - and I'll try to post the essay here in the next few weeks.)

Let's not wait 700 more years to really get out into space. The Universe awaits us...

========================
See also Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet

Latest ABC Mistreatment of Ron Paul: I Intend to Include This in the Next Edition of My Textbook

Mon, 1 Oct 2007 15:50:00 GMT

The Free Market News Network reports that WMUR neglected to cover Ron Paul at his "Family Day" rally in Manchester, New Hampshire this past weekend. WMUR is a state-wide television operation, with headquarters in Manchester.

What struck me most about this was not the lack of coverage itself - infuriating and undemocratic, as it is - but the fact that WMUR is an ABC affiliate!

Just this past Friday, at the lecture I delivered to my "Intro to Communication and Media Studies" class at Fordham University (we'll have the video up on YouTube soon), I detailed a series of outrageous ABC misreportings of Ron Paul since May - ranging from leaving him out of poll results to publishing misleading photographs that made his supporters seem far fewer at a rally in Iowa than they actually were. But I concluded, in an effort to be fair, that ABC seems to have been improving in the accuracy of its reporting lately, with Fox guilty of the worst recent transgressions.

But here we are, once again, with a national ABC television affiliate apparently up to the same old business. If the Free Market News story is correct - and it's been up online more than a day with no opposing comments offered - then ABC is continuing to dig itself into a hole it may never get out of.

Because, whatever happens in this election, the shameful performance of ABC News at so many junctures - regarding mostly Ron Paul, but also, at least once, Dennis Kucinich - will not be forgotten. Indeed, I expect it will be a section in many textbooks about media and politics. I know I certainly will be putting something about this in my next edition of The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution.

See reviews of the most recent edition of The Soft Edge.

Ron Paul at PBS Debate: I Am Against Federal Death Penalty

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:52:00 GMT

I was delighted to hear Ron Paul say at the Republican Presidential debate on PBS that he is opposed to the Federal death penalty. He indicated that this was one of the few positions he changed his views about over the years - at one time, he supported the Federal death penalty - and his reason was that DNA evidence has shown too many innocent people found guilty.

My position has always been against death penalties on all levels. Even before DNA evidence, it seemed to me that juries are fallible, they are capable of error, and putting a person to death on the basis of a wrong jury decision was one of the very worst things a civilized society could ever do. Life in prison without parole was a strong enough punishment, and one which allowed reversal in the event that new evidence came to light or old evidence proved faulty.

As on so many other issues, the libertarian distrust that Ron Paul has of government, and his sheer logic, have led him to an enlightened, humanitarian position. My only disagreement with Ron Paul on this issue is that I would like to see capital punishment outlawed on a state level, too.

Kucinich at Dem Debate: "I Would Give 16-Year Olds the Vote"

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:05:00 GMT

You see the Democratic Presidential Debate at Dartmouth last night? You gotta love Mike Gravel. Asked by Tim Russert how he could run for President and be trusted with the nation's fiscal responsibility, when he ran up a big unpaid debt, Gravel proudly shot back - hey, look who I stuck with that debt, I stuck the credit card companies with a $90,000 debt, and they deserved it!

But probably the most important point from an underdog - maybe the most important point made by any candidate - came from Dennis Kucinich, who said he not only favored lowered the drinking age to 18, but the voting age to 16. I seriously support such a lowering of the voting age - I've been saying for years that it should be lowered to 14 - an age at which, according cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget, people have completely adult reasoning processes, and have had them for at least two years.

Among the top tier Democrats, I thought John Edwards did splendidly last night. He comes across as the most human - the least political - and made some points against Hillary and Obama on stopping the business as usual in Washington. I especially liked Edwards' solution to the social security crisis: rather than raising the cap (it's currently $97,000+), create a window, in which income earners won't pay social security tax above the current cap, until they reach a much higher level of income.(I actually most favor Ron Paul's solution of letting people below a certain age opt of social security - but Edwards' is at least an innovative solution, which doesn't punish people in the upper middle class).

But, yeah, let's lower the voting age to 16. Certainly we adults have not voted all that brilliantly in the past few elections...

An Example of How Pro-War Republicans Are Trying to Mislead Us about MoveOn.org and General Petraeus

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:56:00 GMT

I enjoy hearing from people who disagree with my blog posts, podcasts, radio and TV appearances. I've always agreed with Socrates that dialog is the best path to knowledge.

Here's an example of a little exchange that occurred this morning, shortly after my weekly radio interview by Bob Brill on KNX 1070 all-news radio, in which I was talking about the MoveOn.org - General Petraeus "Betray Us" controversy.

My position: Most people - just about everyone, I'd say - can understand the difference between a General giving advice to Congress, supporting a President in his harmful foreign policy, that betrays the best interests of our country. This is what the MoveOn.org ad was clearly saying. Not that the General was betraying us on the battlefield, or by working with the enemy - a clearly absurd point to make, and which no one, even the war's most bitter opponents, has ever suggested.

But the Republicans are clearly trying to pretend that the literal traitor point is what the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times was saying.

Here is the e-mail I received, followed by my reply. (Out of courtesy to the writer of the e-mail, I'm not printing his name - even though as a recipient of an unsolicited e-mail, I'm under no legal or ethical obligation to not publish the name of the writer.)

I heard your comments this AM on the radio concerning the Moveon.org ad in the NY Times. I was stunned by your take on it, but I suppose I shouldnât be. You were simply reflecting your liberal bias and confirmed exactly what most know about academics in the liberal arts. Your views are so tainted by your liberal leanings, itâs impossible for you to present an evenhanded report on anything.

I guess I live in an ivory tower (slightly to the right of yours,) as I have not heard one utterance which described the ad the way you did. Perhaps in the liberal bastions of Manhattan, that nexus of all learning and civilization, one could believe in oneâs heart that the average American took the ad to mean something entirely different than the words as written, but my guess is that if you spent a bit of time out in good old âflyoverâ? country you would find that most Americans knew exactly what the folks at Moveon.org meant. They were simply calling the general a traitor. The doublespeak you used to dance around the meaning was certainly the stuff of legend and on that I must commend.

Itâs almost as classic as âwe support the troops but donât support the warâ? and the like.

Is the job of a journalist to report the facts without bias or comment or is it to advance a personal agenda? The answer you give to that question, the answer you give when you look yourself in the eye brushing your teeth in the morning, will tell us where you stand.

And my reply ...

You're the one who should have trouble looking at yourself in the mirror: you're obviously intelligent, and therefore must know that there's a big difference between saying someone's advice or assessment betrays the best interests of this country (which is what the MoveOn ad is saying about the General), and saying someone is betraying us on the battlefield or in dealings with foreign powers (which is what the Republicans are claiming).

But I'd guess you're probably very familiar with what the Republicans are up to - you write as if you're on their payroll. Are you? Did you actually hear me on the radio, or are you responding to a mass e-mail that some Republican factotum sent out to you?

As for me, I have no agenda, other than what I've been doing in my 30 years of publishing books and articles, and teaching about the media: which is, provide independent scholarly assessments. (And, by the way, I was interviewed as a commentator and a scholar - not a journalist. In other words, I was interviewed by KNX because they were interested in my opinions and assessments.)

If you'd like to learn more about my opinions, I hope you keep listening to KNX - I'm on every Sunday morning at 7:20am. You might also enjoy my book, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution - where you'll see that I criticize Democrats as well as Republicans when they're dishonest with the American people, or pursuing an unconstitutional and therefore illegal war.

All best wishes,
PL

Five Major News Networks Ranked in Their Fair/Unfair Treatment of Ron Paul

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:40:00 GMT

With the Fall at our doorstep, and the lecture I'm giving to my class at Fordham University about the media mistreatment of Ron Paul just a week away, I thought I'd share with you a little list I put together, which ranks the five major TV news networks on their coverage of Ron Paul as well as other presidential candidates these past six months.

Since I'm not omniscient, I may have missed some network errors and abuses. All corrections and additions are welcome in the comment section.

1. CNN: in first place. They've done nothing wrong that I know of, and get kudos for the YouTube CNN debate a few months ago, in which questions came from people who submitted videos to YouTube, rather than so-called experts in the media. CNN decided which questions to air, but this is still a real breakthrough in the democratization of media.

2. MSNBC has in general done a fine job in its reporting of Ron Paul and the other campaigns. MSNBC commentators Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan have been public and explicit in their support of Ron Paul. But MSNBC got off to a bit off a rough start. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, discussing the candidates' positions on the war after the debate of May 4, neglected to mention that Ron Paul has been systematically against the war. They both improved their reporting considerably, shortly thereafter.

3. CBS has done nothing wrong in its coverage of the current campaigns, either, as far as I know. But I put CBS in third place because of its continuing graceless treatment of Dan Rather, who was forced out of CBS after courageously reporting about George Bush's military past, in the election campaign of 2004.

4. Now we take a sharp turn downward with Fox News. Hannity and Colmes denigrated Ron Paul's first place finish in the Fox phone-in poll conducted after the last Republican Presidential debate on Fox - the two claimed that Ron Paul's supporters were multiple-dialing. Not only was there no evidence for this, it turns out a second call from the same phone resulted in a text reply that the vote wouldn't count. O'Reilly, to his credit, did have Ron Paul on his show. But to O'Reilly's discredit, he barely gave Ron Paul a chance to get a word in edgewise.

5. ABC is in the cellar. Worse than Fox, ABC failed to mention on at least one occasion that Ron Paul came in first in its post-debate poll. It removed comments from Ron Paul supporters on its online board, and then proceeded to shut it down. ABC also showed a lone Ron Paul supporter before the Iowa caucus, in contrast to big crowds for Romney, when in fact Ron Paul had big crowds of supporters, too. Then there was Mark Levin, in ABC's radio line-up, who called upon his listeners to call up Ron Paul headquarters with advice that Ron Paul couldn't win. And, just for good measure, ABC spread some its abuse around, and cropped Dennis Kucinich out of a photo Democratic contenders.

The good news for Fox and ABC is that the election campaigns are continuing, and they can change their ways. Actually, Fox has been worse than ABC in the past month, and that may be a sign that ABC is finally seeing the error of its ways.

I'd like to see all five major news networks report the election campaigns truthfully. The American people require no less.

I'll keep you posted.

What Passes for Humor on Fox News These Days

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:11:00 GMT

"Anyone listening to John Kerry should be tasered" - that "joke" came from a former homicide detective, Rod Wheeler, who Fox News chose to have as a guest on Hannity and Colmes last night.

Wheeler said a lot more - that Andrew Meyer clearly deserved to be tasered, that he was clearly threatening the police who were escorting him away from the microphone - even though the videos of the event clearly show otherwise.

But Wheeler is entitled to his erroneous opinion of what happened.

And he's of course also entitled to his deeply misguided sense of humor. I guess we should at least be happy that someone with his values is a former rather than a current homicide detective.

But where was Sean Hannity's outrage or even disagreement with his guest for taking such a tasteless shot at John Kerry's supporters, at a time in which tasering and politics and freedom of speech have become sadly intertwined?

Now, more than ever, we need candidates like Ron Paul who respect both the First Amendment and the necessary limits of police authority.

Welcome Back, Keith

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:07:00 GMT

I'm just watching Keith Olbermann, back on MSNBC's Countdown, after several days of being down and out with appendicitis ... It's good to see him back on his show.

I by no means agree with all of Keith's positions and remarks. I especially didn't like his caustic attack on 24 last year, his shots at Bill O'Reilly sometimes are over the top. (But see my blog post about O'Reilly's site giving away "Please Don't Taze Me, Bro" bumper stickers - a new low, even for O'Reilly.)

But whatever Keith's flaws, he offers a unique and much-needed commentary. Not only because it generally comes from the left (which I don't always agree with, either), but because it is sharp, outrageous, fresh and funny.

Alison Stewart does a good job as Keith's regular substitute, but you can see Keith's special contribution right there. Alison's content is the same as Keith's, her delivery is fine, but I laugh, gasp, or get angry maybe one out every ten times I do when watching Keith Olbermann.

Welcome back, Keith, and keep up the good, infuriating work.

The Media Exile of Useless Places

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:06:00 GMT

I was in an elevator yesterday afternoon. It almost got stuck. You know what I mean? It stopped for a split second in between floors, shuddered, and then resumed its upward journey.

But it got me to thinking (always a dangerous development). How little portable media have made every place more useful than it used to be. A stalled elevator, a car stuck in a traffic jam, a seat in a doctorâs office when youâre waiting endlessly for an appointment - a wireless device, whether cell phone, Blackberry, or iPhone, makes all of those formerly useless places useful.

The result is that we are enjoying increasing discretion and control over our lives and our activities. Increasingly, we do nothing when we want to do nothing, not when circumstances dictate that we do nothing.

That's a good step forward.

Hats Off to Dan Rather

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:24:00 GMT

Dan Rather is suing CBS for $70 million and he is 100% justified. Instead of standing by its reporter, after its own two-member panel could not say that the report Rather went on the air with was false, CBS hung Rather out to dry. In so doing, CBS damaged Rather's reputation and his potential for future employment. And it damaged its own reputation and its legacy even more.

CBS just celebrated its 80th anniversary the other day. William Paley must be turning over in his grave about CBS did to Dan Rather. His law suit is a small way of rectifying that.

Meanwhile, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric draws fewer viewers than it did with Rather.

Shoutout for YouTube for Keeping Us Posted on Police Misconduct

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:55:00 GMT

Bravo to YouTube for making videos of police brutality, such as occurred with Andrew Meyer in Florida, more accessible than ever to the general public.

In 1991, video allowed the public to see the Rodney King beating - nothing the police said in its aftermath could contradict what the public was able to see with its own eyes. YouTube has taken this once step further - allowing us to see such videos without having to wait for television to show them to us. The iPhone is helping as well, by allowing people to see such videos when they are away from their desktops and laptops. All of this is by no means stopping police from trampling on First Amendment rights - but it is making it harder than ever for them to get away with it.

On the one side, we have retrograde forces like the commissioners of the FCC, and incompetent out-of-control police, who each in their ways imperil our freedom. On the other hand, we have miracles of technology, which speed us news of the FCC's misdoings, which provide immediate, irrefutable images of policy brutality and misconduct.

These technologies have made freedom-loving people more equal to the task of combating these threats to our democracy. They are, in effect, media-philosophic partners of Ron Paul's run for the White House, and the respect he urges for the First Amendment.

Fox Broadcasting Should Be Boycotted

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:49:00 GMT

I'm not talking about Fox News. It is the Fox Broadcasting Company - the entertainment part of the company, which has far more viewers and rakes in far more advertising revenue than its little brother, Fox News - that might need some massive boycotting.

It was the Fox Broadcasting Company which censored Sally Field's anti-war statement in its broadcast of the Emmys last night.

Sally Field was on stage to accept her Emmy Award for best actress in a drama series - Brothers and Sisters. She was talking about the pain of war, and said that, "if mothers ruled the world, maybe there would be no more godda-"

And Fox cut her off in mid-sentence. We're not allowed to hear the phrase "goddamned war," even though war is just that.

We, in our democracy, supposedly protected by a First Amendment that says Congress shall make law no abridging freedom of speech or press, are not allowed to hear a critique of war.

Fox was no doubt afraid of the Federal Communications Commission, and what it might do to a broadcast network that allowed the word "goddamned" to go out to the world.

This is what we've come to. Fear of an unconstitutional agency leading a network to bleep a profound, heartfelt observation about war.

Here are some responses we might consider:

1. The Fox Broadcasting Company could lose more money if it loses viewers than it might have been fined by the FCC for broadcasting goddamned. Maybe Americans who want to see this wrong war over should stop watching Fox for a couple of weeks. A good time to start would be right now, when Fox is unveiling its Fall lineup.

2. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences should think about moving the Emmys telecast to cable, currently not under the FCC's thumb.

3. We need to elect a President who understands the unconstitutionality of the FCC, and the damage it does. Ron Paul of the Republicans already gets this, and perhaps a few of the Democrats, such as Obama or Edwards, could make this part of their platform.

On the May 8th page of the 2007 First Amendment Calendar, I'm quoted as saying "What begins as a seemingly innocent campaign against indecency â always segues in short order into political censorship."

That's just what happened last night.

Interview with Me in the Smoking Poet

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:13:00 GMT

Hey, I don't smoke ... but my interview in the current issue of The Smoking Poet sure does ... here's a snapshot of the e-zine's front page ...

THE SMOKING POET: FALL 2007 â ONLINE NOW!

Life is growth. To stop growing is to stop living. The same principle applies to a literary ezine. It, too, is a living being, breathing new life with each and every submission that is chosen to appear in these pages. And surely this issue â our fourth â is breathing deeply! The voices here are many and diverse. Each one has given a breath of life to these pages, and we invite you to witness that life, allow it to move you, make you think and feel and perhaps do a bit of growing, too.

Author Interview with Paul Levinson

============================

Enjoy ... here's one of my favorite lines ... "Iâd like to see the FCC abolished, and everyone in Congress who supports it voted out or thrown out of office"

Found in Translation...

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:06:00 GMT

Translations ... in some ways, they are the most exciting, profound thing that can happen to an author. Your words translated into another language, read by people halfway or even completely around the world.

I've been pretty fortunate with translations of my books. I was just looking them over. Here are some (to me, at least) interesting stats:

. My work, at present, has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Macedonian, Croatian, Russian, and Turkish.
. Chinese holds the record, at this point, with translations of five of my books (all nonfiction): Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium, Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age , On and Off Planet, and Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium, and How It Has Transformed Everything.
.Polish is a close second, with four translations. Two are of my nonfiction books, The Soft Edge and Cellphone, and two are of my science fiction novels, The Silk Code and The Consciousness Plague.
.Digital McLuhan has received the most translations - seven - Japanese, Chinese (twice - Taiwan and PRC), Korean, Croatian, Romanian, Macedonian (I love that - Alexander the Great!)
.The Soft Edge has received the second most translations - five - Chinese (twice), Portuguese, Polish, and Turkish.
.The most money I was ever paid as an advance for a translation was for the Japanese edition of Digital McLuhan.
.The most royalties I have received for any translation has been for the Chinese translation of Digital McLuhan.
.The French and Croation translations have been of my short science fiction. All the others have been of my books.

You might wonder why there is much more translation from Eastern Europe than Western Europe. There are at least two reasons. One is that more people read English in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe, so translations are less necessary. Another is that the end of the Cold War has led to a remarkable intellectual renaissance in the former Soviet block...

Of course, speaking of reading English, I'm not fluent in the most of these languages - I can't really read even a single word in a few - so I have no way of knowing if I'd be happy with the fidelity of the translations...

But I have confidence in the cosmos.

A few covers follow ... I'll add more as I get a chance to scan them, or find them on the Web...

Dylan's God on Our Side: Should Be Ron Paul's Campaign Song

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:57:00 GMT

Joan Baez's 1966 performance of Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side"...

The voice of angel. Dylan's words are the most powerful refutation of war as a moral instrument ever written.

Dylan first performed the song at Town Hall in New York City, April 12, 1963. Joan Baez took him by the hand and out on the stage of the Newport Folk Festival for an extraordinary performance of the song on July 25, 1963. You can see a clip from it in Martin Scorsese's 2005 No Direction Home bio-documentary of Dylan.

Here in 2007, the hope expressed at the end of the song that, "If God is on our side, He'll stop the next war," remains unfulfilled.

Ron Paul could make that happen. So could Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, John Edwards, Bill Richardson - even Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and to a degree any of the other Democrats. They're all talking now about stopping this unconstitutional war, started in lies.

Ron Paul should use this song as a campaign song. So could Dennis Kucinich. I hope one of them does.

The lyrics are here.

Interview with Obama Girl Producer Ben Relles!

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:05:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through Episode 44, An Interview with Obama Girl Producer Ben Relles ... We cover everything in this powerful, revealing 20-minute interview ... how Ben and the team at BarelyPolitical.com came up with the idea for Obama Girl ... how Amber Lee Ettinger was chosen to be Obama Girl ... the role of songwriter singer Leah Kauffman ... Barack Obama and his campaign's reaction to the Obama Girl videos, and Ben's response to this reaction ... placement of BarelyPolitical.com in the history and future of political satirical television and video ... You won't want to miss a second of this candid, informative interview...

Plus flashes ... Ben Relles, Amber Lee Ettinger, and Leah Kauffman will be at my class at Fordham University, September 21 ... my thoughts about Dylan's "With God On Our Side" after seeing Scorsese's No Direction Home - does it remind you of Mike Huckabee's statement in the last Presidential debate about the role of "God" in our continuation of the war in Iraq (this in response to Ron Paul's critique of our war policy)...

The Barely Political Revolution my blog post
http://BarelyPolitical.com Obama Girl vids & new vid on 9/17

also -

Rosh Hashanah Girl video
Bob Dylan and Ron Paul
The Silk Code podiobook - my award-winning novel, read by Shaun Farrell, available free - at http://thesilkcode.blogspot.com or http://podiobooks.com
http://artofgraciousliving.com Patsy Terrell's podcast - Patsy does the Light On Light Through - Blubrry id
The Plot to Save Socrates (click on the above title to get to Amazon) ... and if you'd like an autographed copy at no extra charge to you, just send me an e-mail at PaulLevinson@LightonLightthrough.com for details

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme

videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

Ben Relles ... Amber Lee Ettinger ... Leah Kauffman

More Dylan: Evolution of the Interview

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:59:00 GMT

I'm still thinking about Scorsese's No Direction Home - likely because I watched another piece of it, again, last night ... the "Meet the Press" section...

Dylan was the quintessential anti-interview in the 1960s...

Q - How many protest singers are there?

A - Dylan - About 136 ...

Q - About or exactly 136?

A - Dylan - 142...

He bristled and laughed at questions, and pretty much refused to answer them.   Most of this was well-deserved - the questions were vacuous, even ridiculous...

If ever there was an example of the merit of I. A. Richards' advice that the creator of a work is the last person you should ask about the meaning of a work, Dylan in the 1960s would be it.   This was the case with Dylan even when he wasn't being sarcastic. In an early radio interview, he tells Studs Terkel that "A Hard Rain" is not about atomic rain - it's just about something important about to come down.   I. A. Richards would say that shouldn't prevent anyone from hearing apocalypse in that song.

So how seriously should we take Dylan's commentary that is the backbone of Scorsese's movie?   Now in the 21st-century, Dylan seems to have little problem reflecting honestly on his work. Actually, I first noticed this in the excellent interview Dylan gave to Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes a few years ago.

The reasons for the change in Dylan's interview performances are complex and multiple, like everything else about Dylan. The questions today are not as stupid as those in the 1960s. Dylan in the 1990s began to redefine his interviews as part of his serious creative work - rather than part of his spoofs - likely because he finally saw them as useful on the path to understanding himself and his impact, which has always been his goal.

All of which is good for us.

Dylan

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:42:00 GMT

I continue to be fascinated - haunted, even - by Martin Scorsese's 2005 film about Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. I'd seen large pieces of it before, but saw the whole movie for the first time just a few nights ago.

Dylan's performance of "With God On Our Side" at the Newport Folk Festival with Joan Baez in the summer of 1963 is the high point of the movie. His voice never sounded better - Joan Baez's voice has always sounded great. She takes him by the hand out on stage, and the two waifs open up with what is probably the most powerful anti-war song ever written - we all go to war irrationally thinking and claiming God's on our side. This is exactly what Mike Huckabee said in defense of staying the course in Iraq, when Ron Paul spoke out in last week's debate about the war being wrong, strategically, as well as unconstitutional. Dylan's lyrics are, sadly, as searingly relevant today as in 1963.

But by 1964, Dylan was singing another kind of song at the Newport Festival - "Mr. Tambourine Man". This was the pivotal transitional song. The lyrics are sublime, but they never had much relevance to any current event. The Newport crowd applauded, willing to give Dylan the benefit of the doubt. He was, after all, still acoustic, and still sincere.

But Dylan was singing "Like A Rolling Stone" in 1965 in Newport, with electric backing. In just two years, he had morphed from the most powerful, splendid, social critic ever known in folk song to a caustic, psychedelic commentator on the human condition. Someone who even, for the first time, it seemed, may even have been sarcastic and condescending to his audience. For all of that, he got booed...

I've always loved both of Dylan's phases. But given the state of the world today, I miss the Dylan who sang up there with Joan Baez, and still wonder at the transformation. The assassination of JFK, Dylan's wanting some of the fame enjoyed by the Beatles, just needing to move on to other things - these were no doubt important factors. But, somehow, insufficient, either singly or in concert, to explain just what happened to Dylan....

Wild Things in the Neighborhood

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:59:00 GMT

A six-foot boa-constrictor was just discovered in New York City's Central Park.   Officials say a pet owner likely left it there.

But I gotta say I've been seeing a lot more wildlife in the New York area the past few years.   No, not wild night life - wild life - as in skunks, raccoons, deer, and even a wild turkey from time to time.

I'm used to squirrels, and maybe an occasional rabbit or chipmunk. Deer are nice - but I'd rather they not be eating up my vegetables in my back yard.   And skunks ... well, who's ever happy about seeing them?

I've also heard that coyotes have been spotted not too far away, and I've seen a fair share of fox, and heard a moose once, on Cape Cod...

Zipadeedoodah...

The Cell Phone Will Always Be the iPhone's Brightest Part

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:02:00 GMT

Is Steve Jobs Sick Of The Cell Phone Industry Already? Crunchgear's Seth Porges asked and and answered that yesterday: Yes. The new iPod Touch steals some of the iPhoneâs thunder. That's proof enough. And then thereâs Beckâs âCellphoneâs Dead,â? the Touchâs demo song. Observes Sascha Segan of PC Magazine, âThe phone is the weakest part of the iPhone anyway.â?

I think not. First, Porges and Segan make the mistake that industry analysts - in contrast to media historians - often do. Theyâre equating the industry, or social and economic structures surrounding a medium, with what the medium does or doesnât do, itself. Television national networks, for example, were spent by the late 1980s. But television - the enjoyment of audio-visual stories, news, etc on a screen under one's control - was as powerfully appealing as ever. The result was the not decline of television, but its migration to cable and BitTorrent.

The phone is not the weakest part of the iPhone - itâs actually the strongest part. A device that gave us great connections to all of the Internet would be wonderful - but its magic is that it also lets us call someone we love, or a business partner, and receive calls from same. A conversation with a real person - if she or he is the right person - usually trumps anything else we might be up to online.

AT&T and its antiquated system is the weakest part. But AT&T was never in the vanguard of cell phone service in the first place. Indeed, as the near-monopolistic giant in the first hundred years of the telephone, it impeded its dissemination to the point that it was not until the 1950s, some 75 years after the telephone's invention, that more than 50-percent of Americans had telephones in their homes.

The iPhone will continue and thrive with its cell phone service prominent and important - but with other carriers and other plans.

One Sharp Cookie

Sun, 9 Sep 2007 05:08:00 GMT

I guess this comes under the category of you should be careful what you absurdly joke about, lest it become true...

Ever since I was a kid, if I saw a fly land in someone's soup, or on a friend or family member's sandwich, I'd say "hey, a little extra protein, no charge"...

I seldom got much appreciation for the comment.

But it seems I - and who knows how many others - may have been on to something. Take a look that video clip below - wasp cookies are getting buzz in Japan!

Apparently, wasp has been an ingredient in some kinds of rice preparations in Japan for a long time, so making cookies with the winged creatures didn't seem like that big a leap.

And - yes! - the wasp cookies are being touted for their protein content...

But my tongue is probably barbed enough ... I expect I'll be sticking to sushi for my exotic protein...

YouTube Video of My Aug 28 Talk in New York: Ron Paul and the Mass Media

Sun, 9 Sep 2007 03:22:00 GMT

In the back room of a spirited pub, over clinking glasses and happy, boisterous voices by the bar, I spoke to the NYC Ron Paul Meet-Up group last week, about the mass media's mistreatment of Ron Paul, its historical precedents and philosophic contexts, and what could be done about it.

We spoke of John Milton, Thomas Jefferson, our Founding Fathers, and the ideals they set for this country...

The complete 30+ minutes, with questions and answers, follows, in four YouTube video clips...

Books mentioned in the talk ...

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution

The Plot to Save Socrates

also ... my other YouTube videos ... complete run of clips of me v. Bill O'Reilly, Jack Thompson, Pat Buchanan, etc...

The Closest Thing to Time Travel...

Sat, 8 Sep 2007 08:07:00 GMT

Seriously ... not science fiction ... science fiction can be very serious, actually, but this is one-hundred percent real...

It's about that letter that I wrote and mailed back in 1972, which turned up a few days ago on eBay... You can see it right here.

September 22, 1972 ... that was the day I wrote and presumably mailed that letter. They had xeroxes back then, I suppose I might have xeroxed it, but I don't recall. If I did, I know I haven't seen it since then, until it was on my screen two days ago...

I put the letter in a mailbox back then. It was an age a lot like ours. Television, radio, rock music, even ships in space. But crucially different in one extraordinary respect: no Web.

I couldn't have imagined, even in the science fiction I was just beginning to write back then, that that letter would come back to me in this way.

Maybe if I had been rummaging around in my attic this week, looking at old files, and I had come up with a copy of that letter, it would have felt different. More like a peek at the past.

But on my screen, the letter feels as if it's traveled right from the past, right from my hands when I dropped it into whatever mailbox back then, to my eyes, right now.

September 22, 1972 ... glimmering before me, now ... a message in a screen-bottle across time ... a communication from my earlier self, intended for someone else, not me, but now I realize that maybe this was meant to be ...

Maybe, in some cosmic recondite logic, I was intended to be the recipient of this letter, right now, right here, in this way, all along ...

It feels strange, but good, to be in touch with my 1972 self this way ... I think I've done ok ... he would have been happy to know that this was the result, or at least one result, of the letter he put in the mail to me...

Copy of Letter I Wrote in 1972 about my Album, Twice Upon A Rhyme

Fri, 7 Sep 2007 01:12:00 GMT

The following is a letter my wife Tina just saw on eBay - being sold along with a copy of my album, Twice Upon A Rhyme - I wrote the letter shortly after the release of the album, in September 1972 ... (Tina was my girlfriend, back then)...

See also The Lama Will Be Late This Year

Redshift Rendezvous

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 18:35:00 GMT

File this under a novel I'm almost positive you never heard of. But I thought I'd mention it here because, who knows, maybe years from now, someone will read this and look further into one of the best unknown science fiction mystery novels I've ever read.

Redshift Rendezvous by John Stith was published in 1990. It wasn't his first or his last novel. But it's his best. It tells the story of a murder and subsequent investigation on an interstellar space ship.

Nothing so extraordinary about that. But the ship is traveling faster than the speed of light, and Stith posits that the speed of light inside the ship is therefore reduced to about ten meters per second, which would be about 30 million times slower than its usual speed - or the speed we're used to.

The murder investigation must take this incredibly slow-moving situation into account... Can eyewitness testimony be trusted? What is evidence when light bouncing off objects moves so slowly...

Most science fiction/mystery hybrids take place in worlds with alien names, or space ships, in environments which are otherwise pretty much like ours. Redshift Rendezvous makes the speed of light and its bending an indispensable part of the puzzle, and thus is one of the truest - and most satisfying - hybrids ever written.

If you like your science fiction rigorous, and your rigor mortis mysteries exotic, grab this novel if you can.

Pounce Pots to Pownce

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 17:56:00 GMT

I was just looking at the small collection of sanders my wife and I have acquired over the years...

No, it's not a collection of power tools - I don't really do too much woodwork.

The sander - also known as a pounce pot - was a crucial part of the quintessentially Victorian writing process.   You started, of course, with paper, pen, and ink.   But the ink back then was not quick-drying.

So you sprinkled some sand or pumice on to your paper, and gently blew it off.

And the pounce pot or sander held the sand.   The pots came in various styles and constructions.   My favorites are wood, porcelain, and enamel.

What always occurs to me, whenever I look at our pounce pots, is how utterly without practical use they are today.   The evolution of media passed them by, a long time ago...

The world of letters has gone from hand-written documents that needed drying via sand from a pounce pot to ... micro-blogging on Pownce...

iPhones In My Classroom

Wed, 5 Sep 2007 05:25:00 GMT

Fall 2007 classes begin today at Fordham University, where I teach. I have a big Intro to Mass Media course, which I teach every term, and Iâm looking forward to igniting at 1:30pm...

I have a policy - which Iâm pretty relaxed about, as I am about most rules - about cell phones and laptops in my classroom. In general, I discourage students from talking or texting on their cell phones during class. Talking, of course, can distract the rare student who wants to hear my lecture. But even texting has its problems - let's say I ask a question, and someone texts a student from last term for the answer?

But laptops are ok. Yeah, I know students IM on them, but the laptops at least provide the possibility of looking something up - an encyclopedia or library on the go - and thatâs fine with me, even during one of my lectures.

But ... what should I do about iPhones? I have no idea how many students will have them today, but itâs a sure bet that more and more students will have iPhones in the future. The iPhone, obviously, is a cell phone and web browser (and an iPod).

Iâm going to err on the side of open systems. I already encourage my students to read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch videos on YouTube - it's written into the Intro to Media curriculum. If my students want to use their iPhones as cell phones, and have conversations with friends during the class, so be it. But on the chance that theyâll be using the iPhone to locate some bit of fascinating, pertinent knowledge on the Web - hey, thatâs all to the good.

Of course, I will draw the line during our open book examsâ

A Umami Tomato...

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 22:34:00 GMT

Well, my wife and I just had our first tomatoes from that straggly plant that I told you about last week. It's a "Better Boy" variety, and I have been hovering near it and taking care of it like a baby boy since we brought it home, or the verge of extinction at the end of August. It's lost almost all of its original leaves, but has put out lots of new ones, along with a bunch of little yellow flowers, and (so far) one new tomato.

But we bought it - for just seven dollars, by the way - with a whole lot of tomatoes on the plant. And today we ate the first three, beautifully ripened and ...

Delicious! With that great umami taste!

Haven't heard about umami? It was identified in Japan a decade or two ago as the fifth taste our tongues react to - along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The umami taste is rich, deep, musky - well, if you've ever had a good tomato, that's what you're tasting. Some meat and fish have this taste, too... (And it's also the taste that monosodium glutamate (MSG) brings to food.)

I'll keep you posted on how many more great tomatoes we get from this plant that I rescued from oblivion....

Violence and Videogames: The Truth

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 09:04:00 GMT

Welcome to Light On Light Through podcast Episode 43, Violence and Videogames: The Truth, where I examine the two main types of "scientific evidence" that purport to show that violence in videogames leads to violence in the real world - and explain why they show nothing of the sort. The experiments measure violence "profiles" based on results of tests, not violence in the real world. The surveys show correlation not causation between violent videogames and violence in the real world - and I explain exactly what that means.

I've been studying and teaching about the statistical flaws and inadequacies in these studies for years as a Professor of Communication and Media Studies. If you'd like to really understand what these studies are trying to demonstrate, but why they do not, invest 15 minutes of your time and listen to this podcast.

Plus flashes ... iTunes and NBC split - no big deal - bitTorent is the future, anyway ... now ABC is not only misreporting Ron Paul, but cropping Kucinich out of photos ... great summer television...

Fallacies of Connections Between Violence and Videogames
Videogamers Beware: Hillary's Not On Your Side
Ron Paul Has Company: Now ABC Crops Out Kucinich
Infinite Regress my weekly reviews of Mad Men, Weeds, Californication
The Silk Code podiobook - my award-winning novel, read by Shaun Farrell, available free - at http://thesilkcode.blogspot.com or http://podiobooks.com
http://artofgraciousliving.com Patsy Terrell's podcast - Patsy does the Light On Light Through - Blubrry id
The Plot to Save Socrates published in trade paperback February 20 - this means you can get a new copy, if you like, for $10+ at Amazon and most places ... (click on the above title to get to Amazon) ... and if you'd like an autographed copy at no extra charge to you, just send me an e-mail at PaulLevinson@LightonLightthrough.com for details

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme

videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

Sushi Manhattan

Sun, 2 Sep 2007 20:07:00 GMT

Mmm.... Having sushi in Manhattan with the family tonight... my favorite.

Or tied for first place in my favorite cuisine with Italian food - vongole (clams) or calamari (squid) to be exact...

But sushi is a cold, sweet, salty protein rush. Not everyone likes it - I once heard someone say if she wanted raw fish and seaweed in her mouth she could stretch out on a sea shore, face to the ocean, and open her mouth...

But, not really. Because a significant joy of the sushi is the vinegared rice, and the mix of fish you're not likely to get on any single shore.

My wife introduced me to sushi back in the 1970s. Her boss loved it. Now I actually eat more more sushi than she does.

Ok ... here are some of favorites, with explanations:

White tuna: I get it whenever I can. It's much more vibrant than any regular tuna, including Yellow Tail, which is quite good.

Ebi: This is sweet, raw shrimp (there's lots of sushi in which the shrimp is cooked - the white tuna above is raw) ... but sweet, raw shrimp is sweeter than sugar ...

Soft-shell crab: Served in any way is delicious. I like mine in a "roll" - crab on the inside, seaweed wrapping, rice in the middle ... the soft-shell crab is cooked ...

Well, that's more than enough dinner for me. A good thing about sushi is the servings are small, and you can get as much as you like. (Like Chinese dim sum and Spanish tapas.) Green tea is great to drink with it.

If I have room for desert, I'll go with red-bean ice cream.

NBC and iTunes Stop Their Old-Fashioned Dance

Sun, 2 Sep 2007 07:20:00 GMT

A lot of hand wringing, phosphor, and ink spilled over the news that NBC shows won't be for sale any more on iTunes. According to Apple, that's because it didn't want to go along with an NBC price hike that would have upped the per-episode download price from $1.99 to $4.99 for consumers...

But, you know what? They're both wrong. NBC, sure, for wanting to get more money for its downloaded shows, but iTunes and NBC were both wrong, in the first place, to charge even $1.95 per download.

Most people already know that that you can see episodes of most major shows for free, on the NBC or whatever network's web site - not to mention bittorent and all the rest.

The world of television consumption is changing, almost by the minute, and it's moving towards people watching whatever they want, when they want, and not paying for it. Actually, there's probably a shorter distance between this and traditional free television in your living room than download-and-pay.

NBC and Apple are usually ahead of the pack in understanding this new world. Maybe NBC does understand this, and wants to drive more viewers to its own site.

But whatever the reasoning, it's a safe bet that corporate, profit-per-item mentality is a stubborn old bird, and won't die easily, even in the digital age.

Videogamers Beware: Hillary's Not On Your Side

Sat, 1 Sep 2007 02:58:00 GMT

The U.K's Guardian just reminded me of something I already knew, which has crucial relevance both to video gamers and the current Presidential campaign:

Hillary Clinton is no friend of video gaming. In fact, along with Senators Lieberman, Johnson, and Bayh, she proudly introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act in November, 2005. The Wikipedia entry explains that this law if enacted would have exacted "fines of $1000 dollars or 100 hours of community service for a first time offense of selling a 'Mature' or 'Adult-Only' rated video game to a minor, and $5000 or 500 hours for each subsequent offense."

Fortunately, it was not enacted - Congress had more sense than Hillary and her unconstitutionally minded colleagues. Indeed, similar acts in various states had already been struck down as unconstitutional.

Hillary, unfortunately, comes by her disregard for the First Amendment through her husband. Bill Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act into law in 1996. That affront to the freedom of communication carried as much as $2000 and a two-year-in-prison penalty. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court struck that one down.

Bill claimed he figured that act was unconstitutional, too, and the Supreme Court would declare it to be. So ... why did he sign it into law?

Surely he was not unaware of the straightforward Presidential action of not signing a destructive act into law, in the first place?

Bill Clinton and his circumlocutions fortunately can no longer threaten the First Amendment.

But Hillary's now running for President, leading many of the Democratic polls, and unless she explicitly says otherwise, a wise assumption would be that her election as President would bring to our nation steep fines, forced community service, and even jail time for forms of communication clearly protected under the First Amendment.

We all want to protect our children. Trampling on the Constitution is not the way to do it. We can do better than run scared with the likes of Jack Thompson, and the flawed studies he cites. (See my "debate" with Thompson on CNBC last year.)

We have candidates who understand this. Republican candidate Ron Paul has the best record of respecting the Constitution. Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich is a close second.

I hope the rest of the candidates will follow their leads, and not Hillary's.

for more on Bill Clinton and the Communications Decency Act of 1996: see The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, pp. 154-160.

See also 15-minute podcast: Violence and Videogames - The Truth

A. E. Housman on Diana Dying Young

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:30:00 GMT

I was interviewed by Greg Morago in yestersday's Hartford Courant about the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death...

... A.E. Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young" couldn't have said it better: Dying in your prime is exceptionally stunning.

"There's something incredibly poignant about someone dying at the top of their game, at the peak of their success, whether it's an athlete or a movie star or a princess," said Paul Levinson, chairman of the department of communications and media studies at Fordham University. "As horrible as it sounds, there's something magical about it."

That magic could have something to do with the fact that a celebrity dying young means an adoring public will never have to see them crippled by time. "You will never see them getting older," Levinson said. "It's a way of keeping them young forever."

And free of scandal in an increasingly complicated world. "Once a person is dead, they're safe. They can't disappoint us by doing anything wrong," Levinson said....

And the key lines from A. E. Houseman ...

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut...

See also Anna Nicole, Phil Ochs, and A. E. Housman

Last Night at the Village Pourhouse in NYC

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:44:00 GMT

I spoke to a group of Ron Paul supporters at the Village Pourhouse in New York City last night.   The NYC Ron Paul Meet-Up group had invited me to talk about the mainstream media's misreporting of Ron Paul's burgeoning campaign for the Presidency.

I was impressed.   It's always good meeting people with whom you have conversed online - in this case, Ryan and Avery and Kevin. But there was something else in this group.

Here was a group of people, assembled in the back room of a noisy bar on a hot summer evening. Men and women, different ages, different accents. Brought together by a desire to truly improve this country by working to elect a candidate with an old-fashioned idea: follow the Constitution of the United States. Don't go to war without a Declaration. Don't muzzle the media in contradiction of the First Amendment.   Clear, straightforward points, really, that almost every other politician and public official seem to have forgotten.

I was impressed.   The questions I received were perceptive. There was something in the air, and it was more than the fine spirits wafting in from the other room.

It was a different spirit. Democracy. I've seen it a few times in my life, first hand like this. Eugene McCarthy challenging Lyndon Johnson to stop the Vietnam War in 1968.   Working in his campaign on the streets of New York.   Working for John Lindsay, running for a second term as Mayor in New York, a year later.

It's rare to see democracy so directly. It was there in the Village Pourhouse last night.   Not like on the television screen.   Right there in the room.

It was good to see.

Stay tuned.

More Darkside of Digg: Is There A Digg Blacklist?

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:24:00 GMT

My colleague iPhonematters columnist Tanner Godarzi has posted a disturbing piece over on Tech Blot, inquiring if Digg has a "Secret, Highly Aggressive and Fatal Content Filter Machine".

Maybe not coincidentally: I noticed the post on Digg this morning. I read it, found it plausible, even likely. And now, back after an afternoon as Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies, I see that ... the post has been buried on Digg already. Buried, even though it has over 70 Diggs!

Which makes me think Godarzi's hypothesis is even more likely true.

I've already written about the Digg bury brigades, who seem to get their kicks by making sure as many stories as they can get to don't make it to Popularity on Digg. I've certainly seen many stories about Ron Paul - including a few (but not all) of my own - suffer this fate. They get 20, 30, 40, 50 Diggs in a short period of time, only to be Buried.

Until now, I thought this was result of hyperactive buriers - anti-Ron Paul and other people who don't like open, democratic flows of information.

But Godarzi is suggesting something much more sinister and destructive. He believes Digg may have a blacklist of urls which are given very short leashes - just a few hours (unlike the 24 hours or more for other stories), after which they are automatically Buried, unless they have achieved Popularity.

Godarzi correctly points out that, until a few months ago, certain urls - such as those from MySpace - were banned outright, but now they can be entered on Digg. He wonders: did Digg replace this clumsy form of banning with a more insidious kind? His post (now buried) provides the technical details of how Digg might do this ...

I'm wondering, now, too...

I hope Digg will shed some light on this blacklist.

A Lesson from AT&T History

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:52:00 GMT

It's always useful to look at history.

Since AT&T lawyers seem to be doing the most grumbling about opening the iPhone to other carriers, I thought it might be helpful to look at AT&Tâs reign as a near monopoly in American telephone service, or at very least the predominating force, until the âdivestitureâ? on January 1, 1984 gave regional service to the Baby Bells.

You needn't look very far to notice a very telling fact.

Indeed, it is something which always struck me as the most telling about AT&Tâs 100-year rule - something which says it all, I think, about the impact of near-monopolies on phone service:

The telephone was invented in 1876. It wasn't until the 1950s that more than 50% of Americans enjoyed telephone service in their homes.

Yes, the pace of progress was a little different, then, but not that different. Television was in more than 90% of American homes by end of the 1950s, a little more than ten years after it was introduced commercially.

AT&T held its service very close to its vest. Customers in effect leased phones from AT&T. You had no choice but to use its service. Sound familiar?

Under this regime, it took more three quarters of a century for phone service to reach the homes of more than 50% of Americans.

Unfortunately, AT&T seems to have not learned very much from this experience. It is trying its same old tricks with iPhone service. Fortunately, it looks like we won't have to wait a hundred years to divest ourselves of these tricks.

A Nice, Quiet Post About Tomatoes

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:24:00 GMT

I picked up a tall, straggly tomato plant at the local nursery last week. In its better days, the plant would have sold for $45 - the pot still had the sticker with that price. That would have been at least a month or more ago. As it was, the clerk let me have the plant for $7, plus a 20-percent discount.

The plant had about 8 tomatoes and half a dozen yellow flowers when we put it in the back seat of our car. By the time I put it and gingerly staked it in our backyard, it had lost two of its tomatoes and half of its flowers.

The first few days are never kind to a transplant. However good the new conditions, they represent a shock in comparison to where the plant has been situated. About half the leaves turned yellow (not good) and brown.

But I went to water the plant today, I noticed three things:

there was some good new stem and leaf growth
there were at least four new flowers
one of the older flowers had turned in a little green tomato

I'm happy.

Next step will be eating the tomatoes. I'll be back to you with a full report, then - figure, in a couple of weeks.*

*Hey, I'm back sooner than that - check out A Umami Tomato...

early European depiction of the tomato, about 1600
courtesy foodmuseum.com/tomato.html

iPhone and Intellectual Property in the Digital Age

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:53:00 GMT

It was the summer of 1984 - the very dawn of the digital age. Stewart Brand and I were having lunch with several other people near the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California, where we had just given lectures in the morning. That was when I first heard Stewart say "information wants to be free." He said it again over lunch. And I replied - well, maybe so, but creators of information still need to eat. I was a staunch supporter of copyright and patent.

Iâm still a strong believer in copyright. But, in the two and a half decades since then, the wretched excesses of the RIAA and like organizations have caused me to clarify to myself and others exactly what I mean. And that would be: If some person or organization wants to make money from my writing or other creative work, they need my permission and of course need to pay me. I'm not allergic to money. But if someone wants to take my book out of a library, read my blog, listen to my podcast, buy a second-hand copy of my book, thatâs fine, even great. I'm delighted, and I donât expect to get paid. Which means that, to be consistent, I should have no problem with someone acquiring a new copy of any of my books and not paying me - and, in fact, thatâs fine, too. I have no problem at all with that.

And that's why, as I wrote yesterday, I was so happy about George Hotz and his re-soldering the iPhone to work with a T-Mobile sim card. Apple and AT&T were wrong to lock the iPhone in the first place. What George did was not only legally permissible but ethical laudable.

In the digital age, you can best make money - as well as friends -
by including not excluding.

Dexter In September

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:55:00 GMT

Big Love is ending tonight on HBO. Mad Men is superb on AMC, as is Californication on Showtime. I'm also enjoyingt the new season of Weeds over there - but I'm really looking forward to the return of Dexter on Showtime in September.

It was the best show on television last Fall, when it premiered. Michael C. Hall - of Six Feet Under fame - played the serial killer who takes out serial killers, and he played the part to chilling, sometimes even humorous, perfection. I've never quite seen anything like this on television (something which is also true of Big Love, Mad Men, Californication, and Weeds - part of the reason I keep saying we're in a new golden age of television).

But a serial killer with a social conscience... who has trouble relating to people - because he is so detached - but is nice to his girlfriend. That's fascinating. And the shows raises the important ethical issue of whether a serial killer of serial killers is ultimately a good or a bad human being....

See you in September with more...

My Four Rules: The Best You Can Do To Make It As A Writer

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:06:00 GMT

What follows are my four cardinal rules for making it as a writer. Never any guarantees - but if you follow these rules, you'll be giving yourself the best possible chance:

Don't think about an idea for a story or an article too long - just write it. As far as the world is concerned, an unwritten idea doesn't exist, and might not have even been thought, in the first place.
Finish what you start writing. As far as the world is concerned, an unfinished piece of writing doesn't exist, and might not have even been written, in the first place.
Email, mail, or otherwise send out to a potential publisher whatever you finish writing. As far as the world is concerned, a piece of writing that only you and your friends and family but no publishers know about, might not have even been written, in the first place.
If the publisher or editor turns your story down, send it right out to another publisher or editor - there will always be another one. As far as the world is concerned, an unpublished piece of writing might not have even been written-

Well, you get the picture. I hope this helps...

More of my advice to writers: Fiction Writers Group ... Pure Southern Genteel ... Pillow Talk interview .... Book Pleasures ... Smoking Poet ... emonome ...

Listen also to special podcast - Authors and Critics: Perilous Symbiosis

my Ask Lev podcast: 2-5 mins of advice about writing

Thumbshots

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:14:00 GMT

this is a sponsored post

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Yahoo, the BBC, many other important sites use thumbshots. You might give them a thumbs-up, too.

Bravo George Hotz!

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:19:00 GMT

I just saw him on CNN, and I can't very well applaud through the screen, so I wanted to do it here:

Bravo for unlocking iPhone!

What does this mean?

The iPhone from Apple comes "locked" when purchased - meaning, it can only work with an AT&T sim card - you know, the card on which you have phone numbers from the phone you're currently using.

So, what's someone to do who buys an iPhone, but is currently using a phone with a sim from a different carrier? In George Hotz's case, that carrier was T-Mobile.

So, the 17-year old took apart his iPhone, and after two months of tinkering and analyzing and soldering, he got his iPhone to work with his T-Mobile sim.

Which is the way it should have been, all along.

Apple and AT&T may not like it, but what George Hotz did is perfectly legal - owners of cell phones have the right to put in whatever sim card they choose. Apple may have locked the iPhone, but George Hotz, having purchased the iPhone, had every right to unlock it, if he could.

Locks are not way to go in the digital age...

complete run of my YouTube video clips

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:13:00 GMT

Here is the complete, current run of my YouTube video clips ... 22 videos in all ... including 3 of Bill O'Reilly v. me ... Jack Thompson v. me ... Jesse Ventura interviews me ... clips from my appearances on the Discovery Channel (talking about cell phones) and the History Channel (talking about science fiction) ... more ... over 74,000 views as of today...

The player will be automatically updated when new video clips are added...

The Call to Mental Telepathy

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:15:00 GMT

Mental telepathy is still a long way off. After all, communicating via voice and fingers, to people near and far, in response to every impulse, is not the same as communicating mind-to-mind.

But consider this:

The first electronic medium - the telegraph - required the user to travel to an office outside the home to send a message. The telephone greatly improved this, by allowing sending and receiving of messages from within the home, and via voice.

That still left you incommunicado when you were walking down the street, with no pay phones in sight.

But cell phones came to the rescue on that score - the cell phone in effect obsolesces the phone booth - and enables us to communicate to anyone, anywhere, wherever we or they may be happen to be.

And now iPhones and Blackberries and similar media are widening the cell phone's flow, bringing written words, pictures, moving images, and even images with sounds into our immediate grasp.

All of this is physical, and therefore not yet mental telepathy. And the process is far from complete - there are many kinds of communication, like the long-predicted videophone, which are not yet integrated into the ease of the iPhone.

But the distance between what our mind imagines and wants in the realm of communication has never been shorter.

And when Bluetooth is thoroughly integrated with all iPhone features, and the features increased, the distance will be further shortened.

And then ... well, we'll be knocking on mental telepathyâs door. We may never have it, actually. But weâll be close.

The Sloan Ranger Interviews Paul Levinson about Media Misreporting of Ron Paul

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:39:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 42 of Light On Light Through in which I replay the Sloan Ranger's 20-minute interview with me on WGNU Radio this past Tuesday, about the media's misreporting of Ron Paul's 2008 election campaign. I discussed four examples of ABC's misreporting (and worse) with Lloyd Sloan - aka the Sloan Ranger - and he had an example or two from other media. We discussed the problem of media bias in general - easy to find, it's pervasive - and I even offered my view that the FCC, in daily violating the First Amendment to our Constitution, is treasonous.

A frank, colorful discussion which I very much enjoyed, and I hope you find useful.

Plus flashes ... I'll be talking to the NYC Ron Paul Meet-Up group in Manhattan this Tues, August 28, 7:30pm, at the Village Pourhouse, 11th Street and 3rd Ave, admission is free ... space shuttle Endeavor comes home safely with teacher Barbara Morgan ... Californication is still hilarious ...

Helpful links:

details on my talk this Tues at the Village Pourhouse
the meaning of Endeavor's safe return
summer television reviews at InfiniteRegress.tv

home page: http://paullevinson.info
blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

and Brian Charles Clarke says The Plot to Save Socrates "resonates with the current political climate . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" -- in Curled Up With A Good Book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

If you're in Manhattan, come on by ... if not, look for the video to be posted in this blog, as soon as it's up on YouTube.

Cellphone as Porlock: Coleridge in the Digital Age

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:00:00 GMT

Who's Porlock? Just about every literate person will recognize "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure-dome decree..." and most have heard the story behind it. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was in an opium trance. He started writing that beautiful poem. Fifty-two equally splendid lines followed- but Coleridge was interrupted by a knock on the door, from a "person on business from Porlock," according to Coleridge's notes...

And by the time he got back to his poem, he had lost it - leaving us just the fragment.

Some cynics claim that Coleridge made up the whole incident to explain his unfinished fragment - that there was no person from Porlock who interrupted him. Others, seeking to claim some high moral ground from the story, accept it, and point to the pitfalls of drugs as its primary lesson.

I donât know whether the story is true or false. But it has always struck me with a completely different lesson: the vulnerability of the creative impulse, indeed our thoughts at any time, to interruption from the outside world.

With that mind, Iâve long held that this capacity to interrupt - to shatter our inner world when a call comes in at an inopportune time - is the one real drawback of the cellphone. The very strength that the cellphone gives to make a call, to express ourselves at the instant we wish, is turned against us when we receive a call we would rather not have - or, even if we receive a call that would otherwise be welcome, at a different time.

Of course, we can turn off our phone - but that incurs social penalties, such as having to explain to callers why our phone was off.

But, optimist that I am, I can see a route to hope: had the iPhone or any cellphones with Internet connections existed back in the late 1790s, the person on business from Porlock might not have needed to pay a call on Coleridge in the first place. He might have received what he needed on the Internet, the access to which is entering a whole new realm of ease via cellphones. And maybe Coleridge, had he been writing âIn Xanaduâ? on his iPhone or Blackberry, might have been able to retrieve more of his memory with the visceral stimulus of the device in hand. And here's the really crucial point- hold it, thereâs someone knocking at my door-

Talking About Media Misreporting of Ron Paul this Tues Night in Manhattan

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:03:00 GMT

Hey - a heads-up for everyone in the New York area, with an interest in the mainstream and Internet media coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, and its current percolating campaigns:

I've been invited to talk to the New York City Ron Paul Meet-Up group at 7:30pm this Tuesday - in particular, about the media's misreporting and in one case outright attack on Ron Paul, and what can be done about it.

I'll be talking at the Village Pourhouse on 11th Street and 3rd Avenue (southwest corner) for 30-45 minutes, followed by 15-30 mins for questions and answers.

The meeting room will be spacious. The general public is welcome. Admission will be free.

I think the media coverage of our election campaigns thus far should be of concern to anyone who values our democracy.

Ron Paul and his supporters, in particular, have received less than truthful treatment from a variety of media. ABC News and its affiliates has had the greatest confluence of misreporting, and I'll be talking in particular about ABC's posting of misleading photos, reporting of Internet poll results which left out Ron Paul's standing, and, in the case of ABC radio talkshow host Mark Levin, about his urging listeners to call Ron Paul headquarters with hostile comments.

Full disclosure: I'd be outraged about such media malfeasance whomever I supported, but I do support Ron Paul for the Republican nomination for President. That's easy for me to do, for two reasons. 1. I think our country's disregard of the Constitution - whether it's trampling on the First Amendment or going to war without the Declaration of War required - has gotten us into enormous difficulties. Ron Paul is the only candidate in either party with a lifelong commitment to supporting the Constitution. 2. My second reason for supporting Ron Paul for the Republican nomination is that the other Republican candidates are simply impossible for me to support - three of them don't believe in evolution, and most support the Bush administration's continuation of the war in Iraq.

But there are Democrats I admire, too. Indeed, any of them is easily better than any of the Republicans, with the exception of Ron Paul. But the three leading Democratic contenders - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards (in that order for me) also have qualities that would make me consider their candidacies very seriously (not to mention Al Gore, who at this point is not in the running).

Accordingly, I'm urging everyone to work for the best candidate receiving the nomination in each party. And in the happy event that this happens, we can then decide in the general election who is better - the Democrat or the Republican - to lead this country. End of Disclosure.

But, whichever candidate you support, I hope you agree that our democracy is best served by truthful media coverage. How can we make a rational decision when we're fed misleading and false information? It would be good to see you on Tuesday. And I'll be posting a postscript here to my talk later Tuesday night or early Wednesday.

Further details on two of the above points:

ABC's Abuse of American Electorate to Be Included in my Curriculum This Fall

Something New: How About We Look for Best Candidates in =Both= Parties?

iPhone Will Make Its First Appearance in Which TV Series?

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:50:00 GMT

Last night's episode of Californication - the new, hilarious Showtime series -had a scene which really rang a bell with me. Hank is writing a blog post, and his laptop freezes. He throws it on the floor, then he goes out to a local Apple store - where he writes and posts his story.

This got me thinking: when will an iPhone make its first appearance on a television show - in which series?

Well, it won't likely be Battlestar Galactica, where digital media are banned, lest the humans be compromised by Cylons, and the phones are attached to walls with wires. It won't be Lost, either, which is not quite yet in the present (though you never really know with that extraordinary show).

Otherwise ... certainly any of the Law and Orders, "ripped from the headlines," could sport an iPhone, and probably will, sooner or later. When that happens, I predict it will mostly likely be in the hands, or at least the view, of John Munch (Richard Belzer's digitally savvy character).

But, ok, I'll stop making conditional predictions. I have no inside information, but I predict the first iPhone we'll see will be in .... Heroes ... on NBC ... on a late-November episode.

Let's check back here in the November, and see if I'm right ...

The Lama Will Be Late This Year

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:53:00 GMT

listen ...
The Lama Will Be Late This Year
Paul Levinson & Ed Fox, 1969

I've getting a few requests for the above, so I thought I'd post it here.

First, the lyrics (which you can read while you're listening), then the story ...

written by Paul Levinson & Ed Fox, 1969

(a brief question-and-answer period)

(cameo appearance by the Hawaiian Herb Singers)

Children don't you know it's past your bedtime
You've been waiting all day for the sun
Didn't come so now it's eyes-are-red time
He's been holding out on everyone

People all been cold for such a long time
Never seen the likes of this before
He would always come and bring the warm time
Maybe he don't love us anymore

(chorus)
The Lama will be late this year
The Lama will be late this year
I fear he's been delayed
Heaven knows where he's strayed
We're gonna have wait this year
The Lama will be late this year
The Lama will be late this year
I fear we've been repaid
The mistakes we have made
We're gonna have to wait this year

It's time alright and yet it's not the right time
Maybe there's some things we gotta learn
We'll just keep on spinnin' through the nighttime
Till we light the way for his return

(chorus)

the story ...

Ed Fox and I wrote close to a hundred songs in the Fall 1968 - Winter 1969. He usually wrote most of the music and I wrote most of the lyrics, but not always.

One night, in November, I dropped by Ed's brownstone apartment on East 85th Street after dinner. Ed had a copy of some newspaper in his hand, and pointed to a headline - "The Lama Will Be Late This Year" - something about the Dalai Lama's trip to somewhere being delayed.

"Good title for a song...," Ed said, and I agreed.

I wrote the lyric in about 10 minutes, and Ed wrote the music ...

We recorded and mixed it in a variety of studios in New York City from 1969-1971. Ed's singing lead, and I'm doing the harmony (falsetto) with Ed. Pete Rosenthal's playing at least 2-3 guitars, and electric harmonica. I'm playing piano and tablas, and Jay Sackett's on bass.

We put "The Lama" on our 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme ... over the years, it's been lauded in Japan and Scandanavia (by Patrick the Lama - understandably) ...

In a separate post, maybe, I'll someday tell you the secret of Hawaiian Herb...

More details about Twice Upon A Rhyme are my music page, and my MySpace music page.

Paul J. Feiner for Greenburgh Town Supervisor

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:03:00 GMT

The vast majority of you - my American and world-wide readers - will have never heard of Paul Feiner. Understandable - you don't live in the town of Greenburgh, a few miles north of New York City, where my wife and I and family have lived since the summer of 1992.

But if you want know a local champion, a tireless fighter for everything that's good in suburban/urban life, then you'd benefit from knowing Paul J. Feiner. He's been Town Superviser of Greenburgh, New York - a two-year, elected position - since 1991. He ran twice for Congress - as a Democrat in what was then a highly Republican district - and lost ... Greenburgh and America's loss.

I've always voted for Paul Feiner, but got to know him really well last year. Verizon was offering fiber optic service in Greenburgh (I'm using it right now in this connection), and needed Town Council approval to offer television service through the fiber optics. Unsurprisingly, Cablevision, which had a monopoly on cable service in this area, opposed Verizon's request.

Feiner, with a mostly balky Town Council baying at his every point, stood up and courageously argued for freedom of choice in television providers in Greenburgh. This might not seem like such a controversial point, but if you've ever been to a local Town Council meeting you'll know that everyone on the council has an opinion, and it's usually not in favor of getting things done.

I was in favor of giving Greenburgh residents a real option in television, I wrote a few editorials arguing for that, but it was Paul Feiner's determination that got this to happen.

And he has been that way on every important local issue. Do you like being woken up all too early on weekend mornings by someone blowing leaves or mowing the lawn at decibel levels that could split your eardrums? Feiner doesn't like that either, and he's doing what he can to keep the noise down. He stays on top of utilities like Con Ed to make repairs today, not tomorrow, after storms. He's advocating wi-fi for a major street in Hartsdale - he wants it for the whole town, every inch of it, and the Hartsdale street would be the start. Paul J. Feiner is on the right side of every issue - meaning, he's positions are ones which I already have - be it nature or high-tech, communication to the world-at-large from your laptop or just dozing on your porch on a quiet Saturday morning.

So, yes, I'm voting for Paul J. Feiner for another term of Town Supervisor. I saw him in front of the A&P last week. And I told him, hey, I not only hope you win, but give that run for Congress another shot some day.

Read more about Paul J. Feiner on his Wikipedia entry.

The Best Novel You Never Heard Of

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:16:00 GMT

It's by Dave Michaels.

And you never heard of him, right?

He published a novel, in the year 2000, entitled Red Moon (not to be confused with Michael Cassutt's novel of same name published around the same time). Cassutt's novel is good. Dave Michael's is among the best 3 or 4 novels I've ever read, period.

The background of the novel: I've always been fascinated by the collapse of the Soviet space program in the 1960s. The Soviets jump-started the space age with Sputnik in 1957. They got the first animals and then the first people up into space. They sent spacecraft - with no people - to the moon. They were on the verge of getting people there.

They inspired John F. Kennedy - in the names of both wonder and security - to put the U.S. on a course to send a man to the moon and safely return him by the end of the decade. Which we did.

But the Soviets never made it. Their move into space hit a mysterious stone wall. And the lack of continuing competition between them and us was likely the most significant factor in the fizzling of our own efforts in space. Forty years later, and we've yet to set foot on the moon again, or anywhere beyond our space station.

What happened to the Soviet space program? The death of its mastermind, Sergei Korolev in 1966, no doubt was a grievous blow. But ... I don't know ... there were a lot of other talented people working in the Soviet space program. The death of one man, however important, should not have led to its demise...

Red Moon provides some breath-taking science fiction answers.

How I found out about the novel: It was at a reading I was giving at a science fiction convention - Balticon (in Baltimore) in the Spring of 2001. David S. Michaels came up to me after the reading, with a copy of my novel, The Silk Code, for me to autograph. Then he pulled a 600-page book out of his backpack, and asked me to please accept it, as a present.

I wasn't sure what to say. First, travelling back from Baltimore to New York by train (I love driving, but trains even more) is no fun with a heavy bag of books, which I already had. Second, as a writer, I find I don't read as much fiction as I would like - if I'm writing a novel, which I usually am, reading someone else's can throw me off course. But ...

There was something about Dave, and I was already keenly interested in the subject, so I thanked him for the present and added it to my bag (it was filled with non-fiction books, by the way, which I do read when I can).

It was well into June before I had a chance to open Red Moon. And when I did - well, I couldn't put it down. It might as well have been a new Foundation or Harry Potter novel. The subject, the plot, the characters, the writing was brilliant. I contacted Dave right away, told him how much I enjoyed the novel. It had been published by a very small press. I told him I would try to get it to the attention of a bigger publisher.

Which I did... But all of this was right before September 11, 2001, when lots of things changed in the publishing world (most of which is headquartered in New York City). And in the aftermath, at least the publishers that I had been in contact with were doing other things, cutting back their acquisition lists.

And so, nothing more happened with Dave Michaels' Red Moon. I listed it as my #1 favorite first science fiction novel on a list I started on Amazon. (It's a pretty exclusive list. I'd highly recommend Bob Katz's Edward Maret, which is #2 on the list. Wen Spencer's Alien Taste and Larry Ketchersid's Dusk Before Dawn are there, too.)

Amazon now has an "out of print" sign on Dave Michaels' Red Moon's page. (I also have a reader review of the novel there.)

Now that I'm thinking about the book again, I'm gonna do what I can to help get it published - hopefully better - again.

In the meantime, if you're at all interested in the space race, what could have been, why what happened - and didn't happen - happened, the extraordinary human struggle to reach the cosmos, give yourself a treat, and see if you can score a second-hand copy of this novel somewhere. Trust me - you'll be caught up in an adventure, in an intrigue of alternate and real history, that you'll never forget.

True Confession: Why I Would Never Write Under a Pseudonym

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:59:00 GMT

As some of you know, I write both fiction and non-fiction. I try to do as much damage as possible.

To some extent, I lead two separate lives as an author. There are many people who know me only or primarily as a science fiction writer, and many who know me mostly as an author of books on the history, evolution, and social impact of communications media.

I'm sometimes asked why I don't write under two separate names. The logic is that I might be taken more seriously in my non-fiction if I wasn't also known as a science fiction writer.

Actually, this may have once been a problem - long before I started writing. Back in the 1950s, Isaac Asimov claimed he ran into difficulties with colleagues at Boston University - where he taught in the chemistry department - because of his science fiction. But Asimov went on to have fabulous careers as both a science and a science fiction writer, both under the name of Isaac Asimov. (He did publish a few novels under the pen name Paul French.)

Nowadays, I don't know who would really think that being a science fiction author could detract from how seriously readers take your non-fiction. If anything, I think most of the world recognizes that science fiction, though fun, often deals with the most profound issues in the universe - our place in the cosmos, our capacity to create machines that think (which leads us to contemplate what we mean by intelligence, thought, consciousness), etc. You know, those sorts of things...

So I would never write under a pseudonym for that reason - that it might hurt my nonfiction career to be known as a science fiction writer - even if I were so inclined, which I'm not.

Some writers, unhappily, have no choice but to write under a pseudonym - for economic reasons. They have sold so poorly under their real name, that the only way bookstores will stock their books is if they are packaged under a new name. Fortunately, and thank my lucky stars, that hasn't happened to me (yet).

But there is one transcendent reason which will keep me, I'm sure, from ever writing under a pseudonym. It does not have to do with the profundity of science fiction, nor with my level of success as writer.

It has to do with the girl who sat next to me in social studies class in
7th grade. (And there may have been one in 6th grade, and in 9th grade, too.) She is the reason I would never ever write under a pseudonym, regardless of any good reasons.

She pretty much ignored me back then, and I want to maximize the chances that when she walks into a bookstore somewhere today or tomorrow, she will notice, out of the corner of her eye, my name on a book on a shelf. And at that moment, she will realize all that she could have had back in our junior high school class....

yeah, that's the reason...

Best Advice to Writers: Take a Hike!

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:41:00 GMT

The single most frequent question I get as a writer is not where I get my ideas or how does an author find a publisher - though those two questions are certainly high on the list.

But the most popular question is: what do I do, what kind of physical or mental activity do I recommend, to encourage or facilitate writing?

The preamble and proviso for my answer to this question is: Not all writers are the same. Different writers like and rely upon a different things.

But here's my secret: walking.

A mile or two or three, around the long block near my house (3-4 times around the block is a mile). I find there's nothing like it when I need to think through a story or a scene, decide where a character should go or be when I'm feeling stumped.

I like driving, too. I guess there's something about motion that gets my creative energies flowing.

But I like walking even better - mainly because it not only gets my mind and imagination going, but makes me feel physically good, too.

So there you go. Next time you're stuck in a story - take a hike!

The Durability of Paper

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:36:00 GMT

People have been complaining about the big stack of paper printouts they have received from AT&T for their iPhone service. Some have been objecting almost as much to the paper delivery as to the bill, saying that if the iPhone were as a true harbinger of the future as its champions (including me) claim, its telephone carrier would have figured out a way to send the bill electronically.

But I doubt that paperâs really the issue. I've never seen anyone object to getting some paper cash in hand.

Paper, of course, has long been put forth as an early item to be replaced by the digital realm. I remember lots of talk and writing back in the 1980s about the âpaperless officeâ?. It didnât happen.

Iâll let Sierra Waters, heroine of my novel The Plot to Save Socrates, explain why. Hereâs what sheâs thinking on the very first page of the novel:

...written on the only substance which could survive decades, maybe longer, without batteries, which required only the light of the sun to be read, or the moon on a good night, or a flickering flame when there was no moon. Paper. A marvelous invention. Thin and durable...

And paper also has what I call âreliable locatabilityâ? - whatâs written on one part of a piece of paper today will be in the same place tomorrow.

So, as much as I dislike bills, I actually prefer getting them on paper.

Meanwhile, if the history of phone and online service is any indication, iPhone AT&T service will sooner or later progress to very low, flat rates for huge amounts of data - which I doubt that anyone will be complaining about, whether on paper or screen.

Bob Shannon Back on WCBS-FM Radio in New York

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:08:00 GMT

I was just listening to Bob Shannon on WCBS-FM "oldies" radio in New York. It's good to have him back.

As some of you may know, Bob and the WCBS-FM dj staff were abruptly banished a few years ago, when WCBS-FM Radio became "Jack" radio. I'll resist the four letter word that fits with "Jack" and rhymes with fit, but let's just say that "Jack" didn't fit New York City or oldies music, and this sarcastic, automated, sour format brought down what good music the format managed to play.

"Jack" was brought in to increase the ratings and revenue of an oldies station that was already doing fine in both areas - "Jack" was inoculation against the graying oldies audience.

Well, every once in a while, commerciality comes through heroically, and, in Jack's case, it turned out that the ratings actually dwindled under his format.

And so Bob Shannon and some old and new, fully human, disc jockeys were brought back along with the good name and sounds of WCBS-FM oldies radio in New York City last month.

You know, there's no substitute for a human, not-pre-recorded disc jockey. Especially when he has the easy, encyclopedic knowledge of rock music, as Bob Shannon has, along with a great, sparkling sense of humor.

Welcome home, Bob!

Practical Rhyme

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:34:00 GMT

I was thinking about rhymes - not poetry, necessarily, but just rhyming, and how it originated in our history, in our language.

Marshall McLuhan provides a clue, as he does for so much in communication: lots of things that we regard as art forms or sports, McLuhan says, started out as very practical technologies. For example, horseback riding was once just a practical way to travel. The automobile made horseback riding into a sport, even an art-form.

I first heard McLuhan say this back in the mid-1970s. Since then, I've come with examples of my own. For example - delicatessen. Ham and corned beef started out as ways of preserving meats. Once refrigeration came along, we no longer needed that spicing for preservation - but we liked the taste so much, we kept on eating and enjoying the delicatessen - it had become an art form. Or take convertible cars: in the days before air conditioning, we rolled the roof down to keep cool. Now we don't need to do that to be cool, physically - but we like our convertibles because we look cool, driving around in them.

And rhyme? Well, think about it. Before writing was invented, our ancestors had to rely completely upon their memories. In these oral cultures, anything that enhanced the power of memory, helped it work better, was welcome.

Rhymes ... the Velcro of the mind...

Prester John's Speculum Becomes Real

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:13:00 GMT

People in the Middle Ages spoke of a Prester John - a prince of a far off kingdom in the East. He was said to have magic powers and magical instruments. Most magical of all was his "speculum," through which Prester John could see all the provinces in his kingdom. A sort of television...

Scholars, inspired by this legend, began referring to their surveys and encyclopedias as "specula" - or speculum literature. There was a speculum of history, of astronomy, of alchemy, of morals. Someone even wrote a speculum on fools.

The speculum, in other words, had gone on in the popular and then scholarly imagination to encompass not only the physical world but the realm of ideas. Maybe a little more like the Internet than television...

But it doesn't really matter what we call our wondrous devices today. Whether television, or Internet, or iPhone, what counts is they are real.

For we have gone with our technology from the realm of myth to what we can keep on tables, or desks, in our very hands.

And that's progress - real, and maybe even more than what could have been imagined in the Middle Ages...

Sedition! A Conversation with Mark Shanahan

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:54:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 41 of Light On Light Through - a conversation with Mark Shanahan about Sedition - the new play by David Wiltse, in which Shanahan is currently performing ... We talk about the uniquely powerful medium of theater ... the importance of a play about freedom of speech in this day and age ... the response of the audiences to Sedition in its first week in Westport, CT ... the effect this play about a professor has had on me as a professor ... and much more ... a 25-minute interview ...

Plus flashes ... more summer television - John from Cincinnati ends, a jewel within an enigma ... Californication debuts, hot ... Mad Men on AMC, a safe-way to experience non-stop smoking ... and a special preview flash: Obama Girl producer Ben Relles is coming to Light On Light Through....

Helpful links:

my review of Sedition
Westport Country Playhouse
The Flouting of the First Amendment - my June 2005 Keynote
summer television reviews at InfiniteRegress.tv
The Barely Political Revolution - why Obama Girl is so important

Mark Shanahan is dead center background in this scene from Sedition...

home page: http://paullevinson.info
blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

John from Cincinnati Closes without Closure

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:13:00 GMT

John from Cincinnati concluded on HBO tonight - you'll find my review, and links to my reviews of all the episodes, here - but in this post I wanted to reflect a little on the salient characteristic of the series: ambiguity, also known as lack of clarity.

I don't think I've ever seen a television show - including Twin Peaks - so brazenly unresolved. The question, then: is that good?

People complained about the open, ambiguous ending of The Sopranos. Well, John from Cincinnati was ambiguous at the beginning, the middle, or the end?

Good or bad?

The murkiness of the show will certainly make it memorable. Is it always necessary to have clear-cut resolutions in our narratives?

I've been criticized for not tying up more loose ends at the of my time-travel novel, The Plot to Save Socrates - in particular, for one major character (no, not Socrates). I don't know ... I ended my novel that way because it felt good, right.

After all, life is usually ambiguous in its endings, not resolved, so why do some of us insist upon resolution in our fiction?

I think John for Cincinnati was probably too unresolved throughout for my tastes in narrative. I don't mind a murky jewel at all, but I like seeing a little more light through it, when I hold it up in my mind for scrutiny, at least some of the time.

But I suspect John from Cincinnati will be scrutinized for light and meaning for a long time to come.

The Media Disenfranchising of Ron Paul

Levinson.paul@gmail.com — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:22:00 GMT

Welcome to Episode 40 of Light On Light Through in which we focus on a very unwelcome development: the media disenfranchising of Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. I admire his unflinching support of the Constitution (including the First Amendment), do not agree with every one of his positions, but whether we agree with any candidate's positions or not, we should be alarmed when a major news network such as ABC forgets to mention that a candidate, in this case Ron Paul, came in first in its poll, gives the impression that Ron Paul had fewer supporters at a rally than he in fact had, etc. I've written blog posts about this abuse of our democratic system, intend to teach my Intro to Communication and Media Studies class at Fordham University about this in Fall, and am hoping this podcast will help get more word of this out to the American people...

And this just in from Iowa - Ron Paul placed 5th in the Iowa Straw Poll. Certainly not a win, but ahead of Tommy Thompson, and better than many expected. Politics, as ever, is unpredictable, and this is why it is so important for media to report the news, and the results of their own polls, as accurately as possible.

Plus flashes ... David Wiltse's Sedition opens in Westport - the beginning of the 20th-century assault on the First Amendment ... The Bourne Ultimatum is outstanding - why? ... summer television - Meadowlands, Big Love, John from Cincinnati, Weeds ...

Helpful links:

more on ABC's Misreporting of Ron Paul
my review of Sedition
my review of The Bourne Ultimatum
summer television reviews at InfiniteRegress.tv

home page: http://paullevinson.info
blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://www.myspace.com/twiceuponarhyme videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

The Plot to Save Socrates - my latest novel
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

Michael Pellegrin Interviews Me for the White Plains Times

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:50:00 GMT

I've been interviewed by many major media - you can see the details on my Wikipedia entry - but I've found, over the years, that local interviews are often the best.

I had lunch last Saturday with Michael Pellegrin of the White Plains Times. We talked about everything from the New York Yankees to The Plot to Save Socrates to the First Amendment. I found the interview one of the most engaging and enjoyable I've ever had.

Here are the results ...

From Socrates to Science Fiction

Prolific Local Writer, Professor Champions Everything From Quality Television to Croc Shoes

By: Michael Pellegrin

Published: August 10, 2007

Paul Levinson is used to getting strong responses to his work. His first novel, âThe Silk Code,â? won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 1999. The first time he posted a blog about television, he got dozens of responses almost immediately, and his podcasts attract thousands of listeners. And as a professor at Fordham University in the Bronx and chair of the universityâs department of communication and media studies, heâs used to challenging and getting strong responses from his students....

Actually, that's just the first paragraph. You can find the whole interview on the White Plains Times web page, City People section - From Socrates to Science Fiction.

Personalized Address Labels for Sierra Waters

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:38:00 GMT

this is a sponsored post

How would I customize an address label?

In this case, not for myself, but a friend, Sierra Waters ... who is a time-traveller...

First, whether for me, or as a gift for family or friends, I would use Vista Print online for my personalized address labels. Vista Print lets you upload your own design, or choose from hundreds of templates. You add your content, place your order, and your personalized return address label is good to go.

What would I get for Sierra?

Well, browsing through the many attractive styles, I think that two general categories would be most likely to appeal to Sierra - New Age, and Wild and Edgy. And the more I look at the New Age designs, I'm thinking those would be most appreciated by Sierra. There's a nebula swirl, a reddish sunset, a bright light coming out of a hand, and what almost looks like a cave-art human figure...

Hmmm ... I think I'll go with the bright light in the hand - there's something about that light that speaks time travel.

Next step: Add the name and address - customize the label. Ok. Sierra Waters is the name. And then I have three lines for the address. Knowing Sierra, I think she'd prefer just two. Make that: The Millennium Club on one line, New York City on the next. Those in Sierra's world who need to send mail to Sierra will know exactly where that is.

I can further edit the address - adjust the size and the font - and then I place the order, and I'm all set.

Next time a suitable occasion arises, I may surprise Sierra with a present...

The Bourne Ultimatum: The Hidden Dimension

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:21:00 GMT

Just got back from The Bourne Ultimatum, and I agree with all the superlatives. The movie had everything - fine, razor-keen acting, captivating plot, non-stop breathtaking action. This third movie in the Bourne series is clearly the best of three - though the first, The Bourne Identity, was almost as good. (I thought the second, The Bourne Supremacy, was not as good as the first and third.)

But I'm wondering why, given that the essential elements of the Bourne series plot are so familiar, these movies - and the first and last ones in particular - are so good. We've seen many movies about spies and secret agents abused by their employers. Many movies about secret agent amnesia. Many movies about spies on the run for their lives, helped by beautiful women, civilian or agent - some of whom survive, some not.

What makes the Bourne series different?

If I told you, my life would be forfeit...

No, only kidding - the truth is I don't know. It's something I'll have to think about.

But I will, and when I come up with an answer, I'll get back you. One of the nice things about blogs in contrast to, say, newspaper reviews, is that blog reviews can be easily updated...

My Hibiscus Claims Its Place

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:25:00 GMT

My hibiscus tree is in full bloom. I told you last week about my myrtle ... I guess every plant has a story ... or, at least, I have a story for just about everything I've ever planted...

We bought this hibiscus as a sickly sapling about 15 years ago. It was on sale, and something about it looked promising, even though it looked as it had just been cured of some kind of insect attack.

I planted it on a low-maintenance side of our property (actually, our property could be described as all low-maintenance). The hibiscus tree - with soft, crumply pink-lavender flowers - struggled for the first five-ten years. But it always came back the next year, and managed to come through with some splendid blooms.

Last year, we had a decrepit white birch cut down - that's always the key. A little bit more sun, maybe the hibiscus was ready, who knows.

But this year, for the first time, the hibiscus really looks like a tree. It looks as if it more than doubled its size from last year. All feels good in this tiny corner of the cosmic. The hibiscus has claimed its proper place.