Monday, May 28, 2018

Edward's May 2018 Mix





 

It went straight from winter to summer. Of course I’m not complaining. I’ll take heat over cold anytime. I’ve got to have an excuse to stay inside and play computer games. I’m embracing my new obsession for guitar, both listening and playing. My only regret is wishing I’d began this journey decades ago when I was a young man. I had a cardioversion this month and guess what? It worked!! Doctors said I should start to feel progressively better. I didn’t realize I was feeling badly!


1.      Garbage Beautiful  on CD: The album sounds like . . . well, garbage. Beautiful Garbage failed to match the commercial success achieved by its predecessors. I can’t believe the disappointment of this album, Rolling Stone Magazine cited it as one of their top ten releases of 2001. I don’t see it all. And I guess I’m not alone. The album garnered critical complain yet sales were wholly lackluster. The album sounds like a b-side compilation of Garbage 2.0. Better, it sounds like songs that would have been culled from a new release. I don’t know how to describe it. Each song is very samey . . .with a tinge of hip-hop and something not quite electronica, but maybe close. I’ve listened to it twice now thinking perhaps it would grow on me. Not happening.

2.      For Honor on PC: It was free to play on Steam for a weekend this month. And the standard version of the game went on sale from $60 down to $15. I couldn’t resist. This is the ultimate sword fighting simulation. It makes Medieval: Chivalry look like a mod some 7th grader made for an Intro to Computing class. The game is super polished, but in line with Ubisoft’s money generating schemes, there are a gazillion incrementals which cost money. There is one “emotion” basically an animated gesture your foe does when he defeats you that costs the equivalent of $9.00. This is ludicrous. But of course, this is what Ubisoft does. I’m still in the training academy, and I have to say my Xbox Controller hasn’t had such a workout since Dark Souls. The game is torturous difficult. I can only imagine how I’m going to be dueling someone online. I’m going to be like Curly of  The Three Stooges, self slapping my face and whoop, whoop, whooping . . .right before I throw my PC out of the window. But hey, you know me: the eternal masochist.

3.      The Wolf’s Hour  by Robert R. McCammon: Had a friend approached me with this book and said, “Hey, I have this book I want you to read,” and gave me this I probably would have laughed and said, “Ah, that’s okay . . . just tell me what it’s about. And give me the Reader’s Digest version.” But this IS Robert R. McCammon, of whom I am a big fan and it’s a book I hadn’t read so I decided to dive into it. The book concerns a Russian spy in WWII converted to the English who does clandestine (and sometimes not so clandestine ) missions behind German lines. He kills his share of Nazis and steals his fair share of documents and he works with almost superhuman aplomb. And the reason he’s able to pull these shenanigans off so well is because he’s a werewolf. Yes, I know, it’s laughably farfetched. But McCammon breathes life into this guy . . er . .beast? so vividly that you can’t help but sympathize with him and believe in the character.

4.      Battletech on PC: Easily the most fun I’ve had in a PC game this year. This game was a Kickstarter project, obviously by a band of people who were big fans of the original FASA license of the 1980s, we’re talking the books, the table top miniatures game. And yes, even the Activision and Microsoft games of the 1990s. I’m loving the campaign, oddly, limiting my playtime with it because I don’t want to reach the game’s end, though it has unlimited playability. And Paradox Interactive is famous for oodles of DLC—this is a good thing. I’ve gotten to play around in some online skirmishes. I suck, but I still have fun losing. This is a game I’m going to play for a long time.

5.      Heat on Blu Ray: I watched this with my good friend, John Wallen who had never seen it. This makes probably my sixth viewing of the movie. It’s odd how one can watch a movie over again and pick up details formerly passed over. Directed and produced by Michael Mann, this movie makes me want to check out more of his work (Miami Vice notwithstanding.) Coupled with an amazing soundtrack, this movie features one of the greatest bank heist shootouts in movie making history. It’s no small wonder this movie was the inspiration for the games, Kayne & Lynch: Dead Men, Payday: The Heist, & Grand Theft Auto.

6.      The Cure  Seventeen Seconds on CD: Released in 1980, this is The Cure’s second album and was made on a minimal budget. Some say it paved the way for Gothic music (despite Robert Smith’s extreme aversion to that association.) My personal favorite, “A Forest” reminds me of  the soundtrack to IonStorm’s venerable computer game, Deus Ex. The whole album is seemingly consisted of as much minimalism of instrumentation as was the budget, but I think it set the standard for that distinct Cure sound. And I can see how critics claim it was at the forefront of Gothic music. Chris Westwood of Record Mirror described the album as "sad Cure, sitting in cold rooms, watching clocks". It’s a perfect description. 

7.   Ibanez AW54LCE Guitar: Progressing in my journey on becoming a master guitarist I’ve discovered the following notions to be total falsehoods: “I’m too old to learn,” or “I have no talent.” The truth is, it’s really just a matter of practice. I’m keeping it fun, and each time I pick up the guitar I feel like I come away from it having learned just one more little thing which made me better than the previous session. And speaking of keeping it fun, I just picked up a new Ibanez AW54LCE  lefty acoustic. Solid mahogany, it looks like a guitar dipped in chocolate. And I can’t say enough for the folks at Sweetwater, out of Fort Wayne, IN where I purchased it. Switching from electric to acoustic is different and more difficult, but I’m enjoying the transition and my newly found passion for singing.    






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