Dean Gilbert's Mysterious Entertainment Blog

Here is a quick entry to get a resource out to you for some fun listening. I do some shopping around to find deals for my own physical media and the most efficient ways of getting audio media. Today's offering is a perfect example. Let me introduce you to Antioch OTR (Old-Time Radio). This Internet streamer runs a schedule of classic radio programs continuously. The programs cover many genres and there is no cost to listen. You can start streaming here: https://radio.macinmind.com/ Happy listening and I will bring you more soon.  Dean -- Dean Paczewitz

      I know that you would like to use your time well, even your leisure time. I want to tell you why you should spend some time reading this blog.     First of all, it could save you time. It is written to help you find entertainment that you will enjoy, based on my own tastes and research. So you can expect to learn about mystery, puzzles, and magic in my posts. The media I explore will include movies, TV shows, books, audiobooks, podcasts, games, video games, and puzzles. Most will be mystery or crime themed. Many will be older but still available.     Second, you may save money, I will often hunt down entertainment that comes from free streaming services, or from podcasts or online libraries.     Third. I will be keeping standards high. There is a lot of junk out there. My small knowledge of older entertainment is growing, and some vintage shows or books are still worth viewing, hearing, or reading. I will let you know when I like someth...

 I apologize -  this should have been posted last night.  More reports on recommended reading, watching, and playing out soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I have not been blogging recently but that is easy to explain: I have a full-time job, a part-time job, a commute of one-and-a-half hours each way most days, and a side business. But tonight I found the energy for the simple reason that I really enjoyed a show enough to get the word out. I have been following the Knives Out movies since the first. I found that first movie interesting, but very focussed on a specific political message. The second was more neutral than the first and was just more fun. I do find that the main character, private detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, to be a little hard to accept as a brilliant sleuth. The clues are good, his observations of them lead to a satisfying conclusion of the mysteries, but the general character doesn't seem to be a man who notices things or has subtle reasoning going on. That does clear up a bit in the newest Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man. I won't spend  a lot of time critiquing the other two movies because ...

Of course I went to see the newest Horsemen movie. It's got the scam-vs-scam elements I love with a magic flavor added into the mix. I was not disappointed. The story was rich, with at least one big surprise that I should have seen coming, but, you know, misdirection. We meet new characters who add to the plot but should probably be developed more deeply in another film. The influence of The Magic Castle adds some depth to the show's magic themes. Magical knowledge is woven throughout the plot. These are not fiction. For instance there is a reference to the wartime work of Jasper Maskelyne. There is also a clue based on a magic prop known as the Die Box. In one scene we see in the background some volumes of The Tarbell Course in Magic. Since many elements in *Now You See Me* already stretch the limits of credibility in the magic department, these touches helped me suspend disbelief, rather than assume the illusions were accomplished by CGI. In a climactic scene one character pe...

Just a short note here for all you fans of the Sherlock remakes. You will find that the writers often try various techniques like quotes to connect their Sherlock to the original, with varied success. One of the most frequently used quotes is "The game is afoot".  This harks back to much older material, specifically in Shakespeare's Henry IV, and it is a reference to hunting. Even today we refer to the prey in a hunt as game. The game is afoot originally meant that the rabbits, foxes, or whatever, were up and running. So when we hear this used as a reference of the game of cat-and-mouse which is the search for a killer, this is quite a drift from the original meaning. Of course, this little thing does not spoil an entire Sherlock-themed show. No, it takes a Jonny Lee Miller to do that. And even then he was helped along by some pretty poor writing. While I am on the subject of misused phrases, when someone wants to follow up on something with a query they sometimes say ...