"Spock's Brain" was exactly what it set out to be. It's perfect as it is.

I love that you used the title An American President for the Sorkin/Reiner movie. That was its title during production, as was publicized at the time. It's a thousand times better than the title under which it was released: The American President.

What's good in it is all attributable to Hanks. The rest is practically the definition of "facile" but Hanks' performance is enjoyable and affecting.

My favorite period was around 1988, when in at least one of his songs he took a mocking attitude toward rap - although that's not the only reason I like that period.

Well, obviously - he didn't even have a will!

There's really no comparison, except in terms of how their concert performances and movies are remembered (and no one really cares about any Prince movie except Purple Rain, nor about any Elvis movie except maybe Jailhouse Rock).

Actually it was the fourth-last episode of Cheers; I saw it at the time: http://decider.com/2015/04/…

The Appel book is so much more than French translations. Didn't mean to suggest that was its only utility.

I'm pretty sure Chiang's early (1991) story "Understand" is in that collection. It's terrific.

I highly recommend The Annotated Lolita by Alfred Appel Jr. - it's been around since the 1970s, and is very helpful if you don't know French (which Humbert occasionally uses).

Should be added that there was a second volume, Again, Dangerous Visions, in 1972. The third volume (The Last etc.) is the one that never appeared.

Well, I just finished the latest Easy Rawlins novel by Walter Mosley, Charcoal Joe, and in a day or two I'll receive a paperback of Clarges by Jack Vance. The latter is the same text as the Vance Integral Edition version and has been available as an e-book for a little while, but reading actual books is my thing. (The…

I will try it. That's one of his very earliest, I believe - the ones I'd tried reading were all postwar. But his 1960s shorter works - I can name some memorable ones right now without even trying: "Leonard," "Andrea," "Natica Jackson," "In the Mist," "How Can I Tell You?," "It's Mental Work," "The Bucket of Blood," "A…

When Albee's stage adaptation of Lolita premiered in 1981, the result was scathing reviews (such as the one by Frank Rich in the NY Times) and articles such as "Should Edward Albee Call It Quits?" in the national magazine Saturday Review. Really, for some years it looked like he was finished being taken seriously. The…

I can't get into O'Hara's novels - I've stopped trying after various attempts over the years. But his short stories and novellas are often very memorable. The ones I'm most familiar with are from Waiting for Winter and the other 1960-70 collections; they've been republished in book form under different titles since…

Williams' second Lost in Space theme (for the final season, 1967-68) is even better - and suitable for marching bands, too; I heard a great band arrangement watching a parade a few years ago.

Over the years I've found that Lalo Schifrin's Mannix theme (1967), in fast jazz-waltz time, is more musically nutritious, with those amazingly wide-ranging chord changes in such a short amount of time. Seek out the first-season version; the arrangements in the succeeding seven years get progressively duller.

Moreover, Dante's segment (a remake of the TZ episode "It's a Good Life," based on the even more memorable Jerome Bixby short story) has some Looney Tunes-style animation, introduced at an exactly appropriate moment.

I was living in center city Phila. when Blow Out was being filmed, and saw Lithgow's scene in a sidewalk phone booth while it was being shot - had no idea who he was at the time, naturally. He is sure a nasty fellow in that one.

When Zimmer is melodic, the results are terrible. Case in point, the song that begins and ends Barry Levinson's Toys.