Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew and Tosin deconstruct the second episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “Well Enough Alone”, as they ask: What plans does Hale have “for our kind”, for humans, before she brings hosts into our world?, How do the “bot flies” control humans, and what is the black goo that replaces their brains?, What does Hale really want with the living MIB, that his host can’t provide?, and What is this mysterious Tower, and why does its “song” only affect certain people and birds?

Summertime brings lots of fun activities, one of which is reading! The warm weather and later daylight hours give us the opportunity to sit and read on the beach, by a lake, in your local park, at a resort, your own backyard, and many more places.

Below are some new releases that I personally am looking forward to reading this Summer. After the main list of new releases, I’ve included a “Read Before You Watch” of some older titles getting a TV/Film adaptation (such as Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman coming to Netflix!), as well as some classic literature, like Dracula, which celebrates its 125 anniversary this year. Each listing has accompanying links to the print, ebook, and audiobook editions; the publisher’s synopsis; and my quick thoughts.

Continue on to check out my Summer 2022 Book Recommendations….

Violent Delights is a recap podcast where hosts Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Tosin Onafowokan discuss HBO’s Westworld, and the larger questions this ambitious show hopes to tackle.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew, Tosin, and Dwayne deconstruct the first episode of Westworld‘s fourth season, “The Auguries”, as they ask: Is the exported host data from Westworld being hosted at Hoover Dam data storage?, Are there Hosts co-existing in our real world, whose narratives are secretly being controlled by “Christina” and Olympiad Entertainment?, What’s Haleores’ master plan with the host data?, and what’s up with those flies?!!

We did it folks! We survived another crazy year, that had a few high moments as well as a few not so great moments. We were back in theaters (sort of), and then Omnicron variant hit, and we are still in theaters, although perhaps with a little hesitation. With my handy A-List status at my local AMC theater, I was able to increase the number of new movies I saw in 2021 to 53 (I hit 42 in 2020). What did I learn this year? Well, I missed the theater experience, thankfully I had a great experience with one of the movies in my top ten list. Streaming continues to be a dominant force; some movies don’t necessarily need to be seen on a big screen, but still plenty new releases were enhanced by going to the theaters again. For 2020, I got a little crazy and added a +1 to my Top Ten list, because I had a hard time with picking the movie to grab that #10 spot. It did happen again this year, so I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my honorable mention, Mortal Kombat. It finally gave us the R-rated version with all of the violence and gore, with a story that was lacking at many angles, but not all movies need to be Oscar winners. So with no further delay, let’s get to my Top Ten Movies of 2021.

Today would have been the 81st birthday of Phil Ochs, the 1960s protest/folk singer who in many ways still stands as one of the most urgent, intelligent, and political spokesman of his generation, and who probably would have gotten a lot more adoration and respect if he hadn’t lived under the shadow of his musical cohort Bob Dylan. 2021 also marks the 45th anniversary of the tragic death of Ochs, who died by hanging himself at his sister’s house in Far Rockaway, New York in April 1976. But it is Ochs’s life that is going to get the spotlight treatment here, and with overdue good measure.