I state each year I’m going to
move away from Indiana because I hate the winters so much, but this winter sets
a personal record for the mildest winter I’ve ever experienced here. And I
could easily change my paradigm now and say I’m here to stay because maybe,
just maybe, the winters aren’t so bad
after all. But that’s the thing, see? You never know until you’re on the other
side of it. You have to experience the
winter and come through the other side to determine whether or not it was in
fact a bad winter. Even when it is bad, it’s just that much more time I can
stay inside and do my hot chocolate and coffee and immerse myself in my media
cultural quicksand. Despite this winter’s warmth this time around I still
stayed inside and indulged in a great many things. Oh yes, busy month indeed!
1.
Dirt 3: The Complete Edition on PC: As
stated before, my least favorite of the Dirt series. (I’m really looking
forward to Dirt Rally which I’m told Codemasters really redeemed
themselves.) I’m on my last season and I’ll be glad to get this one behind me.
2.
Once Upon a Time in the West on DVD:
I’m the world’s biggest fan when it comes to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns.
His “man with no name” trilogy is by far my favorite, although this one is
quite spectacular on its own. I had seen it way back in 2005 or 2006, but for
whatever reason wasn’t that impressed. This time around, however, I fell in
love with it after watching it that I watched it again with the commentary by
numerous directors (including John Carpenter) and saw the movie in a whole new
light. Leone was famous for inferring inspiration from the great sprawling
westerns from the 1950’s and adding his own unique spin on them. His gunfights
were up close and violent, often including full frame close ups of the
participant’s eyes moments before the guns were drawn. There is one such scene
of Charles Bronson’s eyes that, as John Carpenter stated, was probably the most
up close of a gunfighter’s eyes in any movie. This classic tale of man VS man
in which there is no solid line of good and evil, still holds up today as one
of the better westerns ever made. And casting Henry Fonda as Frank, with his
cold blue eyes and black clothes works as one of the best movie villains in the
history of film. And of course, the icing on the whole cake is Ennio Morricone’s
haunting score. I couldn’t help but get emotional each time I heard it in the
movie.
3.
Running Blind (Jack Reacher #4) by
Lee Child. Just completed this one. This one was not Child’s best. We find
Reacher reluctantly assisting the FBI who is tracking down a serial killer. We
find each victim in a bathtub filled with olive drab paint. I’m not going to
say the ending was a deus ex machina, but
it did seem to be a stretch nonetheless. I don’t think we’ll be seeing this one
as a movie.
4.
Interpol “El
Pintor” on CD: Interpol caught my attention way back in the early oughts
with their song, “Not Even Jail.” It had one of the best haunting guitar solo
endings in a song I’d listened to. I picked up the album and really liked it. I
found “El Pintor” at my local Half Price Books, and despite every song is
similar, the album is a good one. Emerging from the post punk era of the early
2000s their sound is reminiscent of notables such as Echo and the Bunnymen and
Joy Division. Give “My Blue Supreme” a listen if I’ve piqued your interest.
5.
Dark Souls on PC: This, truly, is the most
grueling and difficult action RPG I have played. Getting its source from
traditional Japanese fighting RPGs, this game is considered to be the paragon
of difficult PC games. PC Gamer called
it “our favorite PC game.” And in 2016 the game was reverently included in
their list of “the top five RPGs ever created.” There is no storyline. The
world’s history is mostly inferred by what is left behind in the dialogue of
NPCs. The player creates a character and grows up with this character from
level 1 to infinity? The setting is bleak, dismal, gray, lonesome, sad,
depressing, forlorn, and just about any other gloomy adjective you can come up
with. The game’s bosses are notoriously famous for how hard they are to kill. I’ve
talked to numerous people who gave up after ragequitting. I have 90 hours into
the game and I’m about ½ through the game. This past week I dispatched the
Great Grey Wolf, Sif. Sif is a giant wolf who fights with a giant sword in his
mouth. His strikes are delivered by swaying his head back and forth. One strike
easily takes ¾ of one’s life away. It took me 13 times to dispatch him. And
that is where the joy of Dark Souls comes through. After so
many defeats come victory: taking out a boss . . .finally. There is nothing so
satisfying in nearly any game I’ve ever played before, where my buddy, Tommy
Stevens says, “Even the camera in the game is your enemy,” an allusion to how
viewpoints can change, tricking you into falling from ledges or into deep water
from the shallows ensuring instant death. Interestingly, the spidery boss, Quelagg
only took me three attempts to kill. I had two people watching my Steam
broadcast when I did this. I felt pretty elated to say the least. Bragging
rights ensued. I’m currently playing a knight decked out in the Stone Armor
set, which is perhaps the strongest (and heaviest) armor in the game. True, I’m
on cloud 9 right now, riding stately upon my high horse. But I know that’s
going to change. Like the silly Facebook meme says, “You never beat Dark Souls,
you just get better at it.”
6.
A Song of Fire and Ice: A Clash of Kings by
George R.R. Martin. This is the second book of the series. Each book is a tome
that in size rivals the complete works of Shakespeare. Martin’s writing is
super compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed Tolkien’s venerable Lord of the Rings, but I
have to be honest. This is more enjoyable to read. And what’s with everybody
calling it A Game of Thrones? I’m thinking that’s HBO’s faux pas that started
this. (A Game of Thrones is simply the title of the first book in the series.) Characters
you love to hate, and love to hate against a backdrop of an impending winter
that lasts 400 years in the age of dragons. This is good stuff. It’s like The
Edge of Night soap opera for fans of RPG games, or fantasy readers, or
anybody who appreciates well written stories. I’ve heard the HBO television series
is good. I won’t watch it though, not while I’m reading the series, and by the
time I finish it I’ll probably find the books leave the show far behind in
quality.
7.
Wolfenstein: The New Order on PC: I’m
still engrossed in this remarkable homage to old school shooters from the early
nineties. Nazism meets Sci-Fi in an alternate 1960’s universe in which Germany
stormed the world and won WWII. Playing as special forces (back before they had
“special forces,”) B.J. Blascowitcz, I’m heading a one man full force
resistance against the whole Nazi regime. Hey, just like Jakob Dylan from The Wallflowers said, “We can be heroes.”
The gunplay in the game is a blast, and the stage sets are good enough that
they seem to be real places I often day dream about while I’m at work. The only
bad thing is when I beat it, I will have had the experience and there is no
first time experiencing it ever again.
8.
The Iron Giant on Blu Ray: I found
this sleeper of a movie on Amazon on Blu Ray for a great price and couldn’t
resist. It’s sad this movie was so invisibly critically acclaimed. I
watched an interview in which after its release in 1999, Warner Bros. decided
to put all of their marking into The Wild, Wild West and left this
poor movie out in the cold. This had a harrowing effect on the film’s release.
When the movie was released on DVD and Blu Ray it became a cult classic and is
now regarded as one of the best animated films ever made. The animation itself,
the voiced characters, the setting of
the cold war 1950’s, but above all, the story. If you’ve not seen it,
watch it.
9.
Larry Crowne on Blu Ray: I’m not a
fan of romantic comedies, well, let me rephrase that, not a huge fan. This
particular one though, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts took me by
surprise. Hanks is a company man summarily fired from his job and tuns to a
local community college to become educated, “so this will never happen to me
again,” he tells the school’s dean. He signs up for a speech class and things
develop with his teacher, Julia Roberts. I’ve watched this movie three times
since I acquired it and it warms my heart every time I watch it. My parents
liked it, and in this viewing I shared it with my sister and her husband. I
glanced over to see my brother in law smiling the whole time.
10.
Black Rain on Blu Ray: Released way
back in 1989, and directed by my almost holier than thou, Ridley Scott, this is
an action crime drama set in Japan. When it was filmed I had moved away from
Japan a mere five years earlier, so the movie brought back many memories of my
time there. Filmed mostly at night against neon backdrops the film has all of
the trappings of Syd Mead’s fantastic art design from Scott’s magnum opus, BladeRunner.
Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia shine as police partners involved with a member
of the Yakuza, with Douglas trying to redeem himself after some crooked
shenanigans involving confiscated money from a drug bust and an ongoing
internal investigation. The transfer to Blu Ray isn’t quite as color bold
beautiful as John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, but if
you like action movies with character, you could do much worse than this Ridley
Scott vehicle.
