I’ve discovered a new love this fall. Formula One racing! This, all because I picked up Codemasters’ great racer, F1 2016. Not only has it instilled a fresh faith in this long running series, but it’s turned me into a RL fan. Now if Codemasters would just acquire the license to the IndyCar Racing League! It’s a shame I didn’t do more this month, but I was just too hooked on F1 2016.
1. Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb on Blu Ray: Made in 1964, this Hammer film left something to be desired. It was slow moving. Most of the exciting mummy-destroying-those-who-desecrated-his-tomb antics occurs in the last 15 minutes. The movie featured a host of Hammer actors I’d never seen before. The sets were posh in the usual Hammer style and the costumes magnificent, but I’d pass on this one. Even the Blu Ray transfer was poorly done – the film being too grainy.
2. Planet of the Apes on Blu Ray: I first watched this at Twin Cities Drive-in in Urbana, Illinois with my parents. I was seven years old and I found it amazing at the time. Here it is five decades later and watching it on Blu Ray instills that same feeling of astonishment. The transfer is brilliant, the colors vibrant, you can almost taste the dust in your mouth. Made long before CGI, the film stands the test of time. I’ve seen the movie a few times over the years, but this time was the first time I really took notice of something wholly appropriate in the movie: its soundtrack. Jerry Goldsmith created the unorthodox and minimalist film score using an array of odd instruments and devices. He used ram horns which only have two notes. He used bass slide whistles. And he produced some very strange music by removing the mouthpiece from certain brass horns and reinserting it reverse and blowing through them in the usual manner. This movie is testament that Jerry Goldsmith may have been one of Tinseltown’s greatest underrated film composers.
3. Lurk by Adam Vine on Kindle: Imagine a stoner college kid living in an old house where everybody takes up drunken or stoned residence either on the couch or the floor. One day he stumbles on a box of photographs in the basement left behind by tenants thirty years ago, and everytime he looks at the pictures they change. And not in a good way. I’m a quarter of the way into this read, and I like Vine’s writing style. He does a good job of capturing Generation Y dialogue imbued with gamer references and good sci fi references. This kid has brought something up from the basement with the pictures and released it out into the world, and Vine ingratiates the character so well you can’t help but to feel sorry for him. And the thing is, nothing’s really happened yet!
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat on PC: Back in 2008 I rage quit the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl twice before falling in love and racing to its finish. Much like CD Projekt’s venerable The Witcher series, this game was inspired by a novel, Roadside Picnic written in 1971. And playing the original game inspired me to read the novel. The game was better, you can trust me on this. Seeing the Pripyat Ferris Wheel in the distance and finally working my way to the point where I was standing beneath its rusted inglorious hulk, well, that scene wasn’t even in the book (it would have been an anachronism if so) and anyway, it’s a classic case where a picture transcends the thousand words maxim. I have to say this was one of the hallmark moments of my almost 30 year computer gaming stint. I’m told Call of Pripyat is a better game. All I can discern at this point is that it’s difficult and will remain so until I can “earn” (e.g. kill, loot, or pillage) enough credits to buy stronger armor and better weapons. So far the game is tough, but fun.
5. The Shadow of a Doubt: on DVD: Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film. This is the movie in which Hitchcock brings evil into small town Americana. The movie concerns a serial killer always one step ahead of the law who hides himself by coming to stay with his sister and her clan, a slice of life typical family, the oldest daughter of the house being “Young Charlie,” the serial killer Uncle Charlie’s namesake. Hitchcock used camera angles and zoom-ins to convey a great sense of vicarious discovery by the young niece, Charlie. We bear witness to Hitchcock’s film making ingenuity when the steam train pulls into town, thick black smoke billowing from its stack, and a great shadow coloring the platform dark as it pulls into the station portending the arrival of something sinister. We are with young Charlie through her loss of innocence as she discovers her charming uncle isn’t what her family perceives him to be. Though the movie was filmed in northern California, Hitchcock chose a town that resembles any mid American small town, making it as central of a character as any of the actors in the film. He collaborated with Thornton Wilder, the great playwright in making this film. If you’re a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense then this one is a must not miss.
6. The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy: I’m a third of my way into this seemingly important novel penned in the late 1950’s. The protagonist, Sebastian Dangerfield, on the surface seems a rather likeable bloke, a transplanted American cashing in his G.I. Bill after a stint in the WWII Navy, at a uni in Dublin, Ireland. He’s newly wedded to an Englishwoman and recently become a father. He’s studying to be a lawyer. In reality, he’s a complete failure in all facets of life from flunking his academia to disparaging and abusing his wife, to ignoring and hating his newborn daughter. He squanders his monthly G.I. Bill money to get drunk and try to screw anything with two legs. He swindles credit in all of the local pubs on his faux charm. J.P. Donleavy has created a character we love to hate, yet I can’t put the book down. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of Donleavy before, to be honest. Like I mentioned last month, his sparse, brunt no-word-wasted style of writing makes me think of Ernest Hemingway. And he paints word pictures as well as Charles Dickens. He’s as lugubrious as the king of gloom, himself, Thomas Wolfe. I’ll be anxious to find out what happens to our lecherous fiend of a protagonist, Sebastian Dangerfield.
7. F1 2016 on PC: I played F1 2012 and hated the AI in the game. Get bumped by a car trying to pass you in a curb, and YOU get the penalty. Though I did applaud the game’s graphics and sound design. Another year passed, and Codemasters released F1 2013. I guess P.T. Barnum was right about suckers being born every minute, because through the advertising hooplah, I bought into the idea that the next edition would be better, and I bought the game. After 70 hours I wrote a Steam review decrying its non-improved AI and its hard as heck game play. I held out for a long time, a few years actually until the announcement of F1 2017. F1 2016 went on a crazy sale and I picked it up for peanuts. Boy, I’m glad I did. I actually, for the first time feel like I’m in a career that’s going to make a difference. My car is easy to handle and that tactile feeling of being able to improve lap times as tires get warmed up has made and the real feel that the AI is much improved has made all the difference in the world. It’s made such a big difference I actually have been watching F1 races on television. I’ve become a fan. This is truly a racing sim with just enough arcadism to make the game a real blast.
8. BladeRunner 2049 on Imax: This film flopped, but you know what? I’m kind of glad. The original was a cult film anyway. There’s no reason why the new one doesn’t become one either. I was lucky enough to see this one on its intended medium, a larger than to be believed Imax screen. The sound was incredible, and like my old shipmate, Clint Richardson said, “It must be seen on a big screen, the cinematography is outstanding, as is the sound design. It accomplishes what good science fiction films should do, which is to show us things we've never seen before and provoke thought.” This movie was the perfect homage to Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, and of course it’s one of the few movies I’ve seen that blows away the original novel it was made from.
9. Chicane Giants on FLAC: Thank you to my friend and workmate, Cary Gillaspy for introducing me to a DJ I’ve become quite a fan of. Nicholas Bracegirdle, whose stage name is Chicane, was inspired by Vangelis and Maurice Jarre, two of my most favorite film composers. At 12 years old, Bracegirdle was creating demo discs. This is one of those musicians that I’m surprised I’ve not heard of. “Flotsam & Jetsam,” and “Middle Distance Runner” are standouts. Cruising down the road with “Middle Distance Runner” thumping my sub-woofer is a joy in itself. I will definitely be checking out more from this talented trance/house musician.
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