I suppose something good does come
out of everything bad. Since my heart malfunction last month I’ve been home. I
often hear people who’ve had similar circumstances and they always proclaim, “I
was getting so bored; I couldn’t wait to get back to work.” Not this kid, I
could think of something to do at home from now through eternity. Who needs a
forever in the sweet hereafter when you’ve got a place like my house? I’ve
always said if you get a chance to get off the merry go around for a while, do
it. I’ve spent each day reading, watching movies, gaming (cleaning out my Steam
backlog) and just doing things spur of the moment. I’ll be released for work
soon, so yes, all good things must come to an end. But it's been a fantastic
month.
1.
Phantasm on Blu Ray: My uncle
reluctantly took me and my buddies to see this at the drive in back in the
summer of 1980. I was 17 years old. Who would have guessed I would watch it
again 37 years later on a remastered Blu Ray, that I actually own? Upon
watching this now I can say it’s aged quite well for what it was/is. It’s still
fun to watch, and though some of it
looks cheesy by today’s standards, it doesn’t delve into camp territory. As the
director, Don Coscarelli, (who also wrote and produced it at age 23) said, “It
paved the way for a lot of horror movies back then.” He went on to state that
the late 70’s and early 80’s were a sort of golden age for horror films. I have
to agree with him. It was a great time to be in my late teens. The movie was
originally 3 hours long. Coscarelli had to leave much of it on the cutting room
floor, and some fans have claimed the movie is disjointed because of it. I
didn’t seem to think it was. I compared scenes to the DVD version, and the Blu
Ray edition was much crisper and brighter. Revisit it on Blu Ray if you get the
chance.
2.
Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones on
Blu Ray: As an action film set against beautiful backdrops this is a great
movie in the Star Wars canon. If you’re seeking award winning acting you’d
better go elsewhere. My personal highlight was the origin of Bobba Fett. My
personal low: seeing Jar Jar Binks (and him being an international diplomat.)
Once again, I believe the line has crossed over into the Saturday morning
children’s programming sector with this episode. I realize I’m harsh with this
series, but perhaps it is because I was never a die hard fan in the first
place.
3.
Mystery by Peter Straub: You’ve
heard me say it before, but I’ve always likened Peter Straub as the thinking
man’s Stephen King. Whereas King’s stories often involve blue collar people
Straub’s characters more often come from the white collar or jet setter crowd.
This tale is no different. It concerns a boy Tom Passmore, who as a boy is hit
by a car and is clinically dead, but is revived. His new life takes a drastic
turn as he becomes obsessed with death and solving long close cased murders on
the tiny Caribbean island where he lives. I’ve read more engaging Straub books
(Koko, Ghost Story, Shadowland were personal favorites. Floating Dragon was a
tour de force in fascination. I read it back in my Navy days. And the book
marked me with an impression I still hold to this day.) Straub is brilliant
with his imagery, and he still sends me to the dictionary from time to time. I
love when a writer makes me interested enough to look the words up.
4.
Annabelle: The Creation on the big screen: My buddy, Gene Clifford called me up to accompany him and our
mutual friend, John Wallen, to see this at our local small town theater. I
wasn’t really interested. I mean, this is a sequel to two prior films and I’d
not seen any of them. Gene corrected me pointing out this was a prequel. I was
like, “Okay, what the heck, why not?” Admittedly, this movie was scary.
Especially the first half when everything was suggested or hinted at rather
than shown. I thought the movie down turned at the point that the scares were
shown rather than intimated, but then of course this is the bane of so many
horror movies these days. Psycho shall remain in my eyes the
king of horror movies since Hitchcock treated the idea of intimation in the
film as a holy grail. Still, don’t miss out. Annabelle: The Creation is
worth watching, and now it’s compelled me to want to watch the first two
movies. I hope I’m not disappointed.
5.
Magic: The Gathering: As much as I abhor Wizards of the Coast and
how they’ve scuttled MTG into nothing more than a giant ugly cash cow, I’ve
enjoyed Magic: The Gathering since I was introduced to it by my friend,
John Wallen back in 1995. I play when I can despite I have nothing but legacy
decks. Although we have a game store in town, and their opening weekend they
hosted a Magic tournament and I
actually won the darned thing. I have been working on a green forest deck for
about two years now to unleash on my friends. And I think I’ve finally got it
completed. I can’t wait to walk in and blare, “Okay, I’m here to kick butt and
take names, and I’m all out of bubble gum!” And then proceed to do just that.
This basically consists of an elf deck that enables life add commiserate with how many
forest land cards you have out in play, and the ability to add +1/+1 to elf
creatures you have out in play depending upon certain other cards you have out
in play. It’s a tough deck to defeat. Hopefully it makes me proud when I take
it into the trenches.
6.
The
Appleseed Cast: Sagarmatha on CD:
This is not the first time this CD has graced my monthly mix, a testament to
how often I revisit this beautiful album. The
Appleseed Cast has been around for quite some time now, and I’ve had the
chance to listen to their catalog on Spotify. And I have blindly purchased one
of their other CDs. Unfortunately, it was horribly lacking. It was barely a
notch above all out screaming emo stuff from the early noughts. And then came Sagarmatha.
If I had to be banished onto some desert island and could only take one
CD this would probably be it. If you like spacious guitar solos that remind you
of things like starry skies or the aurora borealis radiating behind ice floes,
then just buy this album. And do it blindly. You’ll have more fun. As an added
consolation: there are no bad songs on the CD. As a matter of fact, you’d
better buy two copies, because you’ll quickly wear out your first one.
7.
Molly
Hatchet: Greatest Hits on CD: I was able to find an older CD containing all
the songs we know and love from this venerable southern good old boy band. This
is a good thing since I was able to eschew the modern mixing sound war garbage
“remastering” of modern CDs. This particular platter shines with all of the
pure sound as the original first few albums. Danny Joe Brown has a distinct
(and unique) voice perfect for his role as the front man in this southern rock
and roll band of yesteryear. Of course you know “Flirtin’ with Disaster,” who
doesn’t? But my personal favorite is “Dreams I’ll Never See.” Every time I play
it I have to listen to it two or three times more. The song is just that good. I'm not a fan of blues music, (I know, I'm strange) but it's as if this band took blues and made them happy.
8.
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil: on PC:
I have the newest Doom (2016) sealed in plastic. I need to play it. But in order
to do so I felt I had to play through the expansion pack that quickly followed Doom
3 (2004). It’s the same hi-jinks. You are sent to Mars to find out what
happened to the crew who landed there before you. Of course, it’s a replay that
hearkens back to the original game that spawned in the 80’s. Only this time you
stumble upon an ancient artifact and you are charged with delivering it to a
scientist who will use it to forever close the portal leading from Mars to the
gates of Hell itself. The first person shooter has always been my favorite
genre because of the environments mostly. You are usually looking down the
barrel of a gun from a first person perspective. Suspend your disbelief and
it’s not difficult to actually get into a game like this. The age old question,
“What would you do?” is the impetus for finding out what you really would
do . . in a situation . . where you are
fighting monsters and bad people with firearms. This game, however, became a
killjoy unfortunately. I played on the penultimate level of difficulty and I
basically had to cheat my way through the entire game. And then it became
nothing more than a tour for me. I hate cheating in games, but I will if I have
to just to get through the game. At best I can claim, ‘Yeah, I beat it, but I
had to cheat.” It doesn’t sound as good as, “Yes, I beat it,” but still I got
through it.
9. Wolfenstein: The New Order: on PC. This was another game that
proved to be really difficult. But I should have known. Wolfenstein (2009) had a
final boss that almost made me rage quit the game and throw my PC out of the
window. But I persevered and finally beat it. This ultimately turned into the
same blasted thing. The final boss took me 34 attempts to finally best him.
That’s just not right. What fun is it to play such a polished tour de force
game, and then have to meet a boss villain that turns the game into an uber
chore simulator? I see it in so many games these days. And the funny part is
the gaming forums where the foolish youth of today cry out, “Games today are
too easy!” I personally think they are full of the brown stuff. Anyway, I’ve
always loved the Wolfenstein series, Return
to Castle Wolfenstein (2002) being my all time favorite.
