Thursday, August 2, 2018

Edward's July 2018 Mix







We are hitting the downswing of summer now. I feel the sublte inferrences of fall in the air. I love it, but I hate the winter it portends. I had my summer shutdown/vacation from work and figured I’d get more gaming time in. And guess what I played more than anything during that time? Bookworm. Almost unbelievable eh? And then there was the Steam Summer Sale. Sadly, it’s glory days are long gone. You’ll do better visiting Humble Bundle or Fanatical. They host better sales and much more often as well, and they’re all Steam keys anyway. Bucking Steam altogether you can hit up Gog.com as well. Cheaper games, and usually nifty extras included like avatars, game guides, and soundtracks. And Gog tracks your game time just like Steam. I went on the table again for a paddle shock. It helped the a-fib go away, and to further embellish the happy story, they tweaked my ICD and brought my heart ejection fraction from a lowly 15-25% to a blazing 30-35%. Fortunately, it seems I’ll be around a while longer.  


1.     Big Wreck Ghosts on HD FLAC:  Created in 2014, this album was nominated for the Juno Awards “Rock Album of the Year.” It’s a bit more bluesy than standard Big Wreck fare, and admittedly it took a few listens to grow on me, but like so many good albums it did grow on me. I think the best song on the album is the titular “Ghosts,” but the whole album is worth a pick up and listen to. And for the price, the album is 70 minutes long, so you get your money’s worth. Oddly, the album which shows a multi toned blue city back-grounded by searchlights reminds me of the underground city, Rapture in the PC game Bioshock. It’s a weird correlation, I know, but it’s what the cover made me think of, and that’s a good thing. I’ll take anything as an excuse to revisit that terrible and wonderful city.

2.     Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 on Blu Ray: This series continues to blow me away. It’s some of the best writing I’ve ever seen on television and the Blu Ray treatment still makes my jaw drop. I often buy whole series and then unload them on eBay. This is one series I shall forever keep and re-watch. Data has become my favorite character, though I’ve grown quite fond of all the characters. It’s interesting how the classic series always revolved around “strange new worlds, new civilizations,” and this newer series seems to involve life aboard the Starship Enterprise and its characters much more. And it just works. Perfectly.

3.     The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hogue by Robert A. Heinlein: (blatantly plagiarized (stolen) from my GoodReads review.) Heinlein’s early works will always be my favorite. This was during his what I consider transition time, moving from his early work to his modern writing. This is a novella and short stories. None of them particularly stood out except the story, “The Man who Traveled in Elephants,” which is a story of a man at the end of his life entering a sweet hereafter. Oddly, I’m not alone. Heinlein considered this his best short story.

4.     Mission: Impossible 2 on Blu Ray: One of the highest grossing action films of 2000, and directed by John Woo, a tour de force of action sequences. As farfetched as you can get in a movie (somersaulting hi-jinks in slow motion, catapulting over a motorcycle while aiming and shooting a pistol. Seriously?) Yet it is fun to watch. This is the stuff that sells popcorn. The plot was not quite as convoluted as the first movie, but still one to pay attention to if you want to be in the know. This, my second delve into the box set I recently picked up. No regrets so far, and the Metallica song “Disappear” was a nice touch at the end credits.    

5.     Siphon Filter on Sony PlayStation Vita: My first purchase from the PSN Store, this was originally released on the PlayStation back in 1999. It’s reminiscent of Sam Fisher meets Solid Snake. I forgot how difficult these old games were, not being able to save until you end the level. The controls aren’t so intuitive, but I’m getting better. Still it’s a fun challenge, and the graphics look pretty slick for a 2000 game ported to a handheld. Actually, it makes the graphics look even better on a small screen gaming device.

6.     Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational  on Sony PlayStation Vita: This is quite the fun little golf game. The chirpy happy music coupled with a slight Japanese art style and the intuitive controls make this game worth buying a Vita for. The background detail is amazing and the detail in the courses make it easy to believe you are stepping out of the phenomenal world into a wonderful place Sony has created for the player. With upgrades and unlocks, this game ventures into slight RPG territory.  

7.     Neverwinter Nights on PC: I’m still trudging through haunted forests and zombified towns trying to fight the good fight and discovering what has cursed Neverwinter. It’s a noble cause and definitely a compelling journey, though I still lose my way sometimes and drop the game to do other things. I’m nearing the end of chapter two. I’ve recently acquired a +3 Greatsword which is sort of a gamechanger, but in the best of ways.  

8.     Big Audio Dynamite This is Big Audio Dynamite  on CD: In my five decades of life on this earth, 1985 will forever be a standout. It was the year I got out of the US Navy, my four year hell-hole. It was like walking out of prison. One of the first albums I remember hearing when I got out was, “The Bottom Line.” I recently picked this album up, and yep, sure enough it was a time machine. I instantly found myself back in 1985. The band, vocalized by The Clash fame, Mick Jones, was a mix of punk, reggae, hip-hop (before that was even a thing) and funk. It was a strange conglomeration that spelled success for the band. The album on original Compact Disc Audio sounds great without any “sound wars” remastering,  unfortunately, try as I have, “The Bottom Line,” is the best song on the album and I would have been just as happy finding it on an ‘80s compilation album.

9.     Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition: I’ve been reading this for awhile. And to be honest, I’m about Pink Floyded out. That may sound harsh, but for all of their broad musical endeavors over the course of several decades they have intrinsically defined their music as a tribute to Syd Barrett. And then their definition became a tribute to Roger Waters (who became bitterly estranged from the band.) This carried even into The Division Bell which in my opinion is David Gilmour’s magnum opus. It just seems such a waste to define a band’s impetus being any kind of legacy left behind from former members who would probably not care less anyway.

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