Broad Street Review

Philly's home for arts, culture, and conversation

Bob Levin

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since April 25, 2009

Bob Levin is a retired attorney and non-retired writer who lives in Berkeley, California. His website is at www.theboblevin.com.

Bob Levin is an attorney, now retired, and writer. His most recent book, <i>Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester, </i>was called "the most criminally neglected book of 2008" by <i>Robot 6.</i> He lives in Berkeley, California. His website is at www.theboblevin.com.

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Fight night at Philly's Legendary Blue Horizon. (Photo via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

'Ray Donovan' packs an unexpected punch

The writing on the wall

Some props on Showtime's boxing drama 'Ray Donovan' led Bob Levin to dig up Philly's boxing history and his own memories.

Aug 08, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

Bob Dylan in his 2016 tour hat. (Photo via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

Bob Dylan at the Borgata and Mann Center

Bob's your uncle

Bob Levin caught Bob Dylan's tour in California before it arrives here. He was impressed by Dylan's new energy. The set list, however, left him with a few questions.

Jul 02, 2016 Articles 4 minute read

Abadia di San Antimo, from 'Odyssey'. (Art by Peter Kurt Woerner)

Peter Kurt Woerner's 'Odyssey,' a visual diary

The road goes on

American Institute of Architects fellow Peter Kurt Woerner uses memories and line drawings to chronicle his Odyssey. Bob Levin remembers him from Friends Central's class of 1960.

May 10, 2016 Articles 5 minute read

Winners aren't necessarily interesting.

Daniel James Brown’s ‘Boys in the Boat’

The kids who (sort of) beat Hitler

Did an American crew really thrill the world by whipping Hitler’s elite rowers in 1936? Daniel James Brown’s account is long on metaphors and hype but short on persuasive research.

Apr 11, 2016 Articles 5 minute read

Skid row in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jorobeq via Creative Commons/English Wikipedia)

Jill Leovy's 'Ghettoside'

The killing fields

From Bryant Tennellle’s murder through the trial of his accused killers, Ghettoside unwinds as a superior police procedural. The author's recommendations for solving the epidemic of black-on-black murder, however, are questionable.

Mar 15, 2016 Articles 5 minute read

Hoover in the Oval Office, 1967. (Photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

'The Burglary' by Betty Medsger

Breaking and entering

The extent and nature of J. Edgar Hoover's surveillance of peaceful protesters were unknown until seven antiwar activists broke into the Media FBI office in 1971. The documents the burglars took provided the signposts to investigate Hoover's horrifying subversion of the Constitution.

Feb 22, 2016 Articles 5 minute read

Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen as Johnson and Masters in “Masters of Sex.” (Photo © 2015 Showtime)

Showtime's 'Masters of Sex'

Sex, lies, and Showtime

The extent of how fast and loose Showtime's Masters of Sex adaptation plays with the truth makes Oliver Stone appear a better bet to satisfy Diogenes than any of those responsible for this fib-a-thon.

Oct 06, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

The effect of Dylan’s ’65 Newport set was, well, electric. (Photo of Dylan in Toronto in 1980 by Jean-Luc via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Elijah Wald's 'Dylan Goes Electric!'

Electric Bob

Dylan made it okay to like rock ’n’ roll. He carried the intellectual endorsements to make those who’d disparaged or abandoned rock regard it anew. And he had the genius to make those still-popping fingers rethink rock’s capabilities.

Sep 04, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

“Boys Floating” by Vicki Watkins. (via Creative Commons/flickr)

Renee Blitz's 'Poet of Transparency'

Kafka in the hot tub

Renee Blitz's creations — stories? feuilletons? a unit? — lack what we usually expect of prose, or poetry, or even the customary avant-garde.

Jun 20, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

Misleidys Pedroso in her bedroom, 2014. (Photo: Art Brut Project, Havana, courtesy Christian Berst and Art Brut Project Havana.)

Misleidys Pedroso: Musculatura Viva at Galerie Christian Berst

The marvel and the albatross

Born deaf, Misleidys Pedroso does not speak, read, or write. She expresses her needs or feelings through the simplest signs. She spends most of each day at home, creating art.

May 09, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

Fdr poster

From the New Deal to Citizens United

Several million dollars for your thoughts

I had been calling Citizens United the worst Supreme Court decision of the past 50 years in its likely social devastation. But perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe Citizens just confirmed what America had already become.

Mar 15, 2015 Essays 4 minute read

This writing life

The author takes a creative approach to getting his book into the hands of readers.

Feb 06, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Stone’s characters were drawn forth and succored by darkness and nightmare. (Photo © Larry D. Moore via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

A flag for Robert Stone

Remembering novelist Robert Stone, who died on January 10.

Jan 20, 2015 Articles 2 minute read

'Charlie Hebdo' and other bad news

News at 11

We are all people. We all share this planet and this trip. I do not know how to stop us from killing one another, but I have an idea about how to stop in those being terrorized the desire to bust down other people’s doors in retaliation.

Jan 13, 2015 Essays 3 minute read

Christmas cards

On the sending of Christmas cards

Reflecting on the exchange of season's greetings — for more than 40 years in some cases.

Jan 04, 2015 Essays 3 minute read