It's the throes of winter here in the Midwest. It's supposedly going to be 2 degrees F next week. I feel like a reincarnated German soldier who died of exposure in the Russian Front in 1941. But then maybe that's what makes the summers here so wonderful. Perhaps it really does boil down to there can be no good without there being bad to accompany. I just know I'll be happy when spring is sprung upon us.
I'm about to have a new PC built. I've built all my own systems the past twenty years, but this time I've decided to do something different. I've researched all the custom build places, and that's been its own special bit of stress. I thought I had one all customized through nifty pull down menus on their site at CyberPower PC, but then I popped into their forums and was overwhelmed with horror stories consisting of two month back order on parts, PCs arriving with the shit kicked out of them from less than attentive UPS drivers and return shipping required to be paid by the poor sap who bought the PC, and my personal favorite: rigs arriving and being dead on arrival. I looked at IBuyPower but they just don't have the combination of components I want. And then I happened to stumble on a tiny place here in the Midwest called Ironside PCs. I live chatted with them and explained my confusion when they didn't pop up in my Google searches, and their rep said, "Well, that's okay. We like it like that. We don't want a high volume of PC builds. We'd rather concentrate on a much lower volume thereby letting us concentrate on quality." And not to mention a full 3 year warranty. I was pretty impressed to say the least. And free shipping to boot, can you beat that?
1. Moonrise Kingdom on Blu-Ray
My favorite comedy director is Wes Anderson. His movies, usually filmed with at least a 28mm wide angle lens have such a late '60's early '70's flair to them. His movies always take me back to my own childhood: trick or treating in a suburb of cookie cutter style houses their only difference being their pastel colored window trims, watching Space Ghost and the Banana Splits on Saturday morning cartoons while wearing my pajamas, my first taste of freedom riding my stick shift 5 speed bicyle to friends' houses who lived blocks away. Wes Anderson rekindles these memories in me and make me realize such moments didn't happen a hundred years ago after all. Oddly, this movie disappointed me. I had followed it on Facebook all last summer when it was released. I was really looking forward to it with its cool cast of Bill Murray, Edward Norton and Bruce Willis. The film takes place in a New England island community in the summer of 1965, and Anderson captured the sense of place/time perfectly. But the dialogue fell flat. Each line seemed to lead up to something profound, but then felt truncated as if there was supposed to be a punchline to follow that didn't arrive. I think Rushmore will still go down as my favorite Anderson vehicle.
2. Lost on Blu-Ray
I'm still in the first season. (I've actually only watched the first disc, 4 episodes.) But still finding this compelling entertainment. It's revealed that Locke was a former cripple who's now found new freedom as a plane crash survivor, and another victim has found freedom from being a fugitive from the law. I like how the episodes are starting to go into each character's background story. I'm hooked.
3. Boards of Canada Music has the Right to Children on CD
It still astounds me how two thirty-something old brothers who originally hail from Scotland, but who lived in Canada for years and fell in love with the place can take old 8 bit synthesizers, drum machines and 8 track recording equipment and produce such beautiful music. This music evokes childhood memories, dusty passages of my kidhood that surface like something passing through spots of sunshine beneath giant shade trees in the summertime. Their warm "organy" tones always make me feel as if I'm standing at a grassy wheat colored field staring out at distant woods on the horizon. And their song titles say it best of all, "Happy Cycling," "Sixtyten" "Turquoise Hexagon Sun." Give them a listen. You'll be caught up.
4. Titan Quest on PC
Yes, I know, I'm STILL playing this game. It's been a long ride, no doubt about that. I'll be glad when it's over, although it has been a blast. Edward Pyro, my esteemed fire mage is now level 25 and soon to be level 26 if I'm not finished the game by then. I have about 35 hours into the game. It I hit the 60 hour mark and I'm still not finished then I'm going to start worrying. I mean, come on! This certainly is no Baldur's Gate or Oblivion. It appears that I have one more city to go into when I've got my current city quested out. It's an important game, some say the only game that ever gave Diablo II any competition. I'm just looking forward now to when I can look back on it and feel accomplished and glad I played it.
5. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
(Stolen from my very own review on www.shelfari.com) In my opinion, William Faulkner was like a GNP of the old South. This man's words flow like honey ingested on cinnamon toast in a breakfast room on a beautiful spring morning. This book, somewhat of a scandalous, dirty read, remeniscient of Peyton Place or To Kill a Mockingbird, or (my personal favorite novel of all time, Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) really enchanted me. Faulkner is a minimalist with words like his literary peers, Hemingway and McCullers and Lee. Much is inferred, he leaves what really happens to be extrapolated by the reader, maybe the whole "truth in fiction" concept. I wouldn't call this a great book, but Faulkner's descriptions took me wholly to his imaginary world of Yoknapatawpha County and made me not want to leave.
6. Tron 2.0 on PC
Probably the most complex first person shooter I've ever played. And like I've said here before, with it's unusual art style, it still utterly gleams by today's standards as it did in 2003 when it came out. I've had to cheat occasionally, nothing major just garnering full health in a few levels. It does have a storyline, one that continues after the movie ended, but honestly not one I particularly care about. It's the neon lit vistas and the uber cool light cycles I care about in this game. I should be finishing it up soon. I'm in the 8th chapter of 11 total.
7. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
I lost a six month chunk of my life back in 2006 to a player made virtual environment called Second Life. Some participants vehemently defended the game against those laypeople who referred to it as a game. Heaven forbid! I got so caught up in it and ever so reluctantly separated myself from, but finally got it accomplished, that despite PC Gamer magazine awarding Minecraft "Innovator of the Year" in their Games of the Year awards last year I have absolutely no desire to explore it, and I probably never will. I made friends in this game that I have never met physically, but I consider them as important friends as people I went to elementary school that I still hang with. My point is, this book. This is the book that started it all. This is the birthplace of the Metaverse behind everything Second Life. Anybody who plays should read this.
8. Civilization V on PC
"Just . . .one . . more . . .turn!" Are these going to be my famous last words? Never have I played a "God game" that's had its hooks in me so deeply. When was the last time you started a game at 9:00 in the evening, and when you look at the clock it's 1:30 in the morning, and you sigh quietly, "hmmm . .one more quick turn, I have to see what happens." And before you know it, it's 3:30. It's only funny until the alarm rings at 6:00 and it's time to get up for work. I'm more of a real time strategy fan, but this game and its turn based strategy is the end all be all model for this genre. Firaxis should include this on airliners and cruise liners and mark it, "To Be Used In the Case of Crash landings or Shipwrecks on Tropical Islands. To Hell with the Rescue." I've learned my lesson the hard way. I only play this game on weekends.
I'm still in the first season. (I've actually only watched the first disc, 4 episodes.) But still finding this compelling entertainment. It's revealed that Locke was a former cripple who's now found new freedom as a plane crash survivor, and another victim has found freedom from being a fugitive from the law. I like how the episodes are starting to go into each character's background story. I'm hooked.
3. Boards of Canada Music has the Right to Children on CD
It still astounds me how two thirty-something old brothers who originally hail from Scotland, but who lived in Canada for years and fell in love with the place can take old 8 bit synthesizers, drum machines and 8 track recording equipment and produce such beautiful music. This music evokes childhood memories, dusty passages of my kidhood that surface like something passing through spots of sunshine beneath giant shade trees in the summertime. Their warm "organy" tones always make me feel as if I'm standing at a grassy wheat colored field staring out at distant woods on the horizon. And their song titles say it best of all, "Happy Cycling," "Sixtyten" "Turquoise Hexagon Sun." Give them a listen. You'll be caught up.
4. Titan Quest on PC
Yes, I know, I'm STILL playing this game. It's been a long ride, no doubt about that. I'll be glad when it's over, although it has been a blast. Edward Pyro, my esteemed fire mage is now level 25 and soon to be level 26 if I'm not finished the game by then. I have about 35 hours into the game. It I hit the 60 hour mark and I'm still not finished then I'm going to start worrying. I mean, come on! This certainly is no Baldur's Gate or Oblivion. It appears that I have one more city to go into when I've got my current city quested out. It's an important game, some say the only game that ever gave Diablo II any competition. I'm just looking forward now to when I can look back on it and feel accomplished and glad I played it.
5. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
(Stolen from my very own review on www.shelfari.com) In my opinion, William Faulkner was like a GNP of the old South. This man's words flow like honey ingested on cinnamon toast in a breakfast room on a beautiful spring morning. This book, somewhat of a scandalous, dirty read, remeniscient of Peyton Place or To Kill a Mockingbird, or (my personal favorite novel of all time, Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) really enchanted me. Faulkner is a minimalist with words like his literary peers, Hemingway and McCullers and Lee. Much is inferred, he leaves what really happens to be extrapolated by the reader, maybe the whole "truth in fiction" concept. I wouldn't call this a great book, but Faulkner's descriptions took me wholly to his imaginary world of Yoknapatawpha County and made me not want to leave.
6. Tron 2.0 on PC
Probably the most complex first person shooter I've ever played. And like I've said here before, with it's unusual art style, it still utterly gleams by today's standards as it did in 2003 when it came out. I've had to cheat occasionally, nothing major just garnering full health in a few levels. It does have a storyline, one that continues after the movie ended, but honestly not one I particularly care about. It's the neon lit vistas and the uber cool light cycles I care about in this game. I should be finishing it up soon. I'm in the 8th chapter of 11 total.
7. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
I lost a six month chunk of my life back in 2006 to a player made virtual environment called Second Life. Some participants vehemently defended the game against those laypeople who referred to it as a game. Heaven forbid! I got so caught up in it and ever so reluctantly separated myself from, but finally got it accomplished, that despite PC Gamer magazine awarding Minecraft "Innovator of the Year" in their Games of the Year awards last year I have absolutely no desire to explore it, and I probably never will. I made friends in this game that I have never met physically, but I consider them as important friends as people I went to elementary school that I still hang with. My point is, this book. This is the book that started it all. This is the birthplace of the Metaverse behind everything Second Life. Anybody who plays should read this.
8. Civilization V on PC
"Just . . .one . . more . . .turn!" Are these going to be my famous last words? Never have I played a "God game" that's had its hooks in me so deeply. When was the last time you started a game at 9:00 in the evening, and when you look at the clock it's 1:30 in the morning, and you sigh quietly, "hmmm . .one more quick turn, I have to see what happens." And before you know it, it's 3:30. It's only funny until the alarm rings at 6:00 and it's time to get up for work. I'm more of a real time strategy fan, but this game and its turn based strategy is the end all be all model for this genre. Firaxis should include this on airliners and cruise liners and mark it, "To Be Used In the Case of Crash landings or Shipwrecks on Tropical Islands. To Hell with the Rescue." I've learned my lesson the hard way. I only play this game on weekends.
