Normally I choose to review films and profile people from the cinematic fringe, and the latest big budget blockbuster from the super movie machine of Marvel doesn’t need my two cents to bump their profit margin or boost their rep. But as someone who grew up with Marvel (and DC) comic books, I have to add my teeny tiny voice to the booming chorus of kudos deservedly heaped upon the recent string of successful superhero adaptations, and the Mighty Thor—whose former screen incarnations include a 1960s cartoon series and a guest stint on an Incredible Hulk TV movie in 1988—is certainly no exception.

Noir renaissance man Jimmy Vargas has answered the question, “how do you do market retro-fetishism in the 21^st Century?” with this moody multi-media disc replete with “votos,” vignettes (filmed and spoken), and vixens, erotically and elegantly embodied by glamour goddess Natassia Minx.

If you go see the new big screen version of The Green Hornet expecting a “Seth Rogen comedy,” you may have a reasonably entertaining if not particularly special experience. Expect anything else—like, say, a “Green Hornet” movie, and you will probably be seriously disappointed.

The Athletic Benchley is a complete collection of the articles written for the DAC, as it was known, by humorist Robert Benchley during the 1920s and 1930s. For Benchley fans, this is Bob at his best.

Over the last decade Brian Setzer has been a very busy man. From 2000 to 2010 he has released sixteen CDs—an average of two a year. This past July, Setzer released Don't Mess with a Big Band which was recorded live during his 2009 tour of Japan. In October, Brian gave to thee Christmas Comes Alive! again recorded live, this time in Knoxville, Tennessee during last year's holiday tour.

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas with Royal Crown Revue. In their latest release Don't Be A Grinch This Year!, Eddie Nichols, Mondo Dorame and Mark Cally have arranged another swingin', danceable, and joyful CD which this time captures the spirit of the season in their neo-swing style.

The spirit of Christmas can be celebrated in many ways. There is the original religious holiday, of course, and then there is the more secular version, “Kitschmas.” The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. This beautiful new book explores and expounds upon the more commercial aspects of the season with an eye-popping pictorial potpourri of popular Christmas artifacts, icons, toys and imagery from mid-20^th-century, roughly 1940-1970, that continue to inhabit and influence our contemporary culture.

Ray Gelato's latest CD offering Salutes the Great Entertainers epitomizes an ideal that Ray Gelato well represents, a musical letter to the editor rebuking the criticism that some modern jazz enthusiasts seem to have for the performers who were showmen and excitably engaging individuals, rather than the currently more critically popularized laid back big band traditionalists, or bebop hipsters.