Open Levinson

Paul Levinson's Open Salon Blog

Paul Levinson

Paul Levinson
Location
New York City, New York, USA
Birthday
March 25
Title
Professor
Company
Fordham University
Bio
Paul Levinson's The Silk Code won the 2000 Locus Award for Best First Novel. He has since published Borrowed Tides (2001), The Consciousness Plague (2002), The Pixel Eye (2003), and The Plot To Save Socrates (2006). His science fiction and mystery short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards. His eight nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), and Cellphone (2004), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into ten languages. New New Media, exploring how Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogging have changed our lives, was published in September 2009. Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," the “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS), “Nightline” (ABC), and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog. Paul Levinson is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City

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MAY 21, 2012 12:18AM

Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex"

Having delved into the meta-realms of unreal science fiction with Ben Hargove some five episodes ago, Mad Men 5.10 continues the enjoyable indulgence with "The Negron Complex," a fictitious spec script written for the real science fiction Star Trek - now known as Star Trek: TOS (the original series),/
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MAY 16, 2012 7:15PM

The Beach Boys in White Plains

I was driving by the Westchester County Center a couple of months ago, and saw the sign: "The Beach Boys, May 15".  The sign was simple and timeless and almost seemed unreal.  But its words were true, and so it was that my wife Tina and I were at County Center… Read full post »
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MAY 15, 2012 12:43AM

Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

One of the important things to always bear in mind about Bones is that although Bones is a genius, she's not the only genius in the world.  And when an evil genius takes umbrage at Bones, that genius can do a lot of damage.   In the past, the contest between Bones,/… Read full post »
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MAY 14, 2012 4:25PM

Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity

The biggest deal in Mad Men 5.9 last night was the pair of ads that our band of merry mad men and woman were working up for another new client, Snoball - the coconut pink marshmallow chocolate cake whipped cream (from outside to inside) concoction that you could bliss you out/… Read full post »
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MAY 12, 2012 9:32AM

Fringe Season 4 Finale: Death and Life

The Fringe Season 4 finale promised to answer some big questions and it did.   We see how September got shot, and, even more important, that his dire words to Olivia that she dies in all possible futures is true.

But, of course, she doesn't die, and therein resides a couple of problems/… Read full post »
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MAY 8, 2012 12:47AM

Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson

Yes, the corpse was Hanson on tonight's hilarious Bones 7.12 - not Hart Hanson, the brains behind the real Bones, but Hanson Street, fictitious head producer of the fictitious Bone of Contention movie based on Temperance Brennan's characters.  Given that the real Bones is based on Kathy Reichs'/… Read full post »
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MAY 7, 2012 12:12PM

Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl

Two fine stories on Mad Men 5.8 last night -

Megan, after a great run in the "beans, beans, the musical fruit" and new Cool Whip campaigns, decides to quit her job in advertising!   Her heart and soul are in acting.   One round of applause from an audience is worth all the/… Read full post »
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MAY 5, 2012 11:42PM

Fringe 4.21: Shocks

Having closed the bridge between the two realities last week, how could Fringe have topped itself this week, in 4.21 the first of a two-part season finale?  Fringe did this in at least four ways:

1.  First,  let's bear in mind that the two realities we've been watching this season are n/… Read full post »
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MAY 1, 2012 1:31AM

Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max

How can a bullet in one body have bone traces with two different ages, one old and the other one really really older?  This might have been the makings of a good science fiction story - look for that next week - but in Bones 7.11 this was entre to a/… Read full post »
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APRIL 30, 2012 1:32AM

Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree

Well, Megan's father certainly has one, formally - as we find out in Mad Men 5.7, he has a PhD - but as for his humanity, and most of the rest of the characters, we get another stellar performance to the contrary, in this fine, feisty episode.

Back on the "beans, beans,/… Read full post »
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APRIL 28, 2012 11:15PM

The Third Returns with Exits

Emon Hassan's The Third returns with its second episode - "Exits" - this Tuesday, May 1.  If ever there was a medium is the message movie, ala Marshall McLuhan, "The Third" would be it (even though McLuhan liked tetrads better than triads).   This is because the story, quiveringly, qui/… Read full post »
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APRIL 27, 2012 11:34PM

Fringe 4.20: The Bridge

Fringe 4.20 tonight matched the great news that Fringe will get another (albeit final) season - matched this news with a superb episode that shows why Fringe should continue forever.

Jones' plans become clear to Walter:  bring the two realities together, so they will destroy each other, and there/… Read full post »
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APRIL 27, 2012 3:49PM

Awake 1.9: A Reason to Stay

An excellent, really satisfying Awake 1.9 last night, which moves the plot nicely, powerfully along.

In yellow world, Britten is going along with wife Hannah's desire to move to Oregon, and get away from their painful past.   This move would have dramatically changed the basis of the series,/… Read full post »
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APRIL 23, 2012 11:36PM

Bones 7.10: Mobile

Bones 7.10 ends with a mobile above Christine.  Bits and pieces of Bones and Booth and Parker's lives sparkling, dangling, slowing spinning in air.   Christine's smiling her great baby smile.  It's another happy ending.  The mobile was made by Parker.

It looked like a bad case/… Read full post »
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APRIL 23, 2012 1:12AM

Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange

Mad Men 5.6 ... LSD, break-up shake-ups, diced-up sequences out of time, and anachronisms galore ...

Focus groups in 1966?  I don't think so.   Intimate encounters with total strangers in movie theaters?  Always possible, not very frequent. LSD parties?  I guess so, possibly,/… Read full post »
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APRIL 21, 2012 12:00AM

Future Fringe 4.19

Just when all four Fringe realities finally are beginning to make some sense - original and original alternate Fringe realities (the first three seasons, with Peter surviving his passage from over there to over here), and the new there and over there, in which Peter did not survive, but to which/… Read full post »
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APRIL 17, 2012 1:05AM

Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon

Tabatha Coffey is well known to viewers of Bravo's Tabatha's Salon Takeover - she'd make a good murderess.   So would've Tabitha, also in a hair salon, on tonight's Bones 7.9.  But she turned out to be no murderess, either.

But the show turned out to be pretty excellent nonetheless, wit/… Read full post »
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APRIL 16, 2012 1:37AM

Mad Men 5.5: "Ben Hargrove"

Who is Ben Hargrove?  He's the nom de plume - fictitious name - which Ken Cosgrove uses when his science fiction and fantasy stories are published.  We learn this in Mad Men 5.5, one of the best episodes ever in this series.

Hargrove is probably most based on Alfred Bester - who/… Read full post »
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APRIL 13, 2012 10:56PM

Fringe 4.18: Broyled on Both Sides

Broyles - alt-Broyles - is the key figure in Fringe 4.18 tonight, in a story we've seen before - on Fringe and in other series - but is nonetheless good.

We found out last week that alt-Broyles is working for Jones, and was thus responsible for alt-Lee's death (even though that's not/… Read full post »
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APRIL 10, 2012 5:37PM

MSNBC Cuts Away from Zimmermam Attorney Resignation

Unbelievably, MSNBC cut away from George Zimmerman's attorneys, as they were explaining to a press conference why they were resigning from the case.  Back to Dylan Ratigan and his planned concluding segment.  Fortunately, CNN provided continuing coverage (I didn't check about Fox).

MSNBC is/… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2012 11:10PM

Bones 7.8: Parents

Bones continues to break new ground with every episode.   Think about it.   In the past 60+ years of television, we've had crime fighters, male and female, single and married, some even with kids playing a significant role (for example, 24 and The Shield).  But Bones is now o/… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2012 8:10PM

Awake 1.6: Popper's Penguin

Another excellent Awake last Thursday - 1.6  - which, like all the episodes, teaches us something profound and useful about Britten's condition.  Indeed, the show in effect makes use of philosopher Karl Popper's observation that we increase our knowledge not by finding or proving what's tru/… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2012 5:07PM

Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

The best part of Game of Thrones 2.2 last night was the brother-sister conversation/confrontation between Tyrion and Cersei.   Tyrion knows and gets everything Cersei has been up to - he even thinks she gave the order to kill all of Robert's bastards, and is mildly surprised to find that it/… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2012 2:02AM

The Killing 2.2: Holder

As intrepid as Linden is, she's never going to catch Rosie's killer entirely on her own - there are just too many people and obstacles in the way of that.  She needs Holder.  In The Killing 2.2, the two get back together.

Holder is in some crucial ways as powerful a character/… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2012 1:25AM

Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust

Three fine stories in Mad Men 5.4 tonight -

Greg's back home on leave from Vietnam.  I wrote a few weeks ago that I didn't see much of a future for Joan and him - an obvious point, because she and Roger belong together - but I was thinking Greg just wouldn't/… Read full post »
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