Sort of more of the same from last month, it’s been a busy March. It’s ranged from books to PC games to board games. And music. Lots of music. I upgraded my digital audio player and it’s truly like hearing every song in my collection for the first time. I wrestled with the idea of high resolution music being better than the old CD standard (44.1 kHz/16 bits) and came to the conclusion the money I’ve been spending on higher resolution files on sites such as ProStudioMasters and HDTracks was probably in vain. There is nothing wrong with CD resolution. Vinyl diehards will tell you differently, but in truth you’re comparing fish to bicycles. CDs are digital, vinyl analog. The one sticking point, however, is the modern mastering of CDs that involves “crushing” the sound. This is why it is always better to buy pre-1990 CDs. If this sounds interesting to you then simply google the phrase “loudness wars.” The way you look at music forever after will be changed. I promise.
1. Wing Commander II on PC: The game beat me. I hate that I got 18 hours into it and the difficulty was so much that I just couldn’t beat the game. Now, after all these years I remember why I never beat it back in 1992 when I purchased the big box game out of my local Babbages. I even looked for cheats and workarounds. There is one workaround involving altering command lines in the start up file, but alas, they no longer work! I really dislike this because it quells my desire to play the rest of the games in the series, but knowing me, I’ll end up picking them up anyway. Doh!
2. Gretta Van Fleet “Anthem of the Peaceful Army” on FLAC 88.2 kHz/24 bits. I picked this up on ProStudioMaster.com to test out my new high res DAP. Still retaining their Led Zeppelin type sound, I think they are starting to find their own sound. Josh Kiszka has a great rock and roll voice. My favorite will always be Joe Elliot, but Kiska has my utmost admiration. I’ve read he’s been having troubles with his voice. I hope it holds up. It’s refreshing to discover a new band, especially a rock band and acquiring their second of two full length albums. It reminds me of first discovering Van Halen when I was a kid and saving my money to buy their cassettes.
3. Total Recall on Blu Ray: I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie I haven’t liked. He’s not an Academy Award winning actor, but he puts his all into his movies while still having fun. He’s come a long way since his first appearance as a dubbed over Hercules. Total Recall is equally as good because it co-stars Michael Ironside, one of my favorite bad guys. Oh, and there’s also the Philip K. Dick thing. I keep forgetting this was based on one of his stories. This movie is clearly a product of the 1980 action movies complete with the one liners, despite it came out in the 1990s. And Arnold delivers them with aplomb. The transfer to Blu-Ray is clean and crisp. Well worth picking up if you’re a fan of Philip K. Dick, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Michale Ironside.
4. All of the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy on Amazon Kindle: The first of a trilogy by this Pulitzer Prize winning author. This is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. It’s 1946, the aftermath of WWII. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to seek his fortune. I once deemed McCarthy’s “The Road” to be the most depressing book I’ve ever read. But there’s no denying this guy can sure write. This book is very reminiscent of Larry McMurtry’s western writing. It’s a serious book despite such passages as roasting a jackrabbit over a campfire and pulling it out of the flames, looking like a desiccated effigy. I’m not far into it, but it’s been fun so far.
5. Formula D by Asmodee Games: My daughter and I set out to play one game just to get a feel for it, and ended up playing three games straight. It’s a race car game played on a board. Yeah, yeah, I know, it doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s a blast. And we’re just playing on the simple rules. As we become acquainted we’ll up the difficulty (and the fun) with the advanced rules. Thank you, James Champion, for turning me onto this game. Unfortunately, the game is difficult to find for under $50. I got lucky and made a good eBay find.
6. Independence Day on Blu Ray: I hadn’t seen this since its release in 1996. It’s a summer type over the top popcorn action movie, but still fun to watch. Bill Pullman does a great job as the President. The story goes he did so well that people on the set humbled themselves around him as if he really were the President. This is a great film to watch on big screen with a sound bar. It’s amazing that special effects have come so far in twenty years to the point the effects in this movie look almost cheesy, but I think they serve the perfect purpose for what they are. The Blu Ray version looks much cleaner than the DVD version. I just found out it’s been released on 4K Blu Ray. I’ll probably pick it up on that format and rewatch it, the movie is that fun to watch.
7. The Trail of the Fox by David Irving: I’ve muddled into the halfway point of this tome. Erwin Rommel definitely burnt the candle at both ends, but pulled it off surprisingly well. I’m currently reading about his adventures in Africa. I think what truly defeated him was Enigma which enabled the Brits to sink the ships carrying petrol to his forces. The book started out with Rommel admiring Adolf Hitler, to one of his aides witnessing him pacing back and forth near his command vehicle and stating that Hitler was crazy. As early as 1942 Rommel wrote to his wife and said “we’ve lost the war.” He even sent her an English dictionary and instructed her to learn it because she was probably going to need it. He was definitely Brit general Montgomery’s thorn. He tried several times to flank Rommel and shut him down, but each time he tried he came up empty. Rommel outwitted him. Oddly, he had an uncanny sense of an enemy’s approach. He would look out over a bare stretch of land and say, “In ten minutes the enemy will be upon us.” Sure enough, ten minutes later dust clouds would appear signaling the approach of British forces. Unfortunately, the paperback I’m reading truncated about forty pages right at the prelude of what happened at El Amien. The book picks up again at Rommel’s retreat. I take it things went south there.
8. BGVP DMG High Resolution Ear Phones. I wanted portable buds for going outside and taking to work from time to time. And I think I found the ultimate. I watched numerous reviews of these on YouTube and they seemed to steal the show, some reviewers stating they sounded as good as or better than $500 and $600 sets out there. Honestly, I’ve never listened to a $600 set of ear buds, but these bad boys with their six drivers sound pretty amazing. I hit a speed bump selecting the right size buds (I thought I was going to have to return them because they wouldn’t fit.) But once I affixed the right size buds I was in aural heaven.
9. Hitman Codename 47 on PC: I’ll never know why I’m drawn to hard PC games, but the masochist side of me craves them. This game came out in 2000 and was credited for being one of the more difficult games out there. I’ve only gotten through the tutorial and the first mission so far, but oh man, the rewarding feeling I got when I beat that mission. The truth is, I want to play the newer renditions of the game, I’ve heard nothing but good stuff. But being the purist I am, I can’t bring myself to do that, not until I’ve played through every game leading up to it. The controls are wonky and the graphics look like a purple baboon butt, but I’m in for the long haul. We’ll see how far I get.
10. R3 High Resolution Music Player by Hiby: I had a nice HD music player, but I felt the need for an upgrade. I spent the month doing research. They run the gamut from $12 cheapies from SanDisk all the way to $2600 Sony Walkmans. I found a sweet-spot in the Hiby R3 at $200. What sold me was the album artwork that depicts when a song plays. And I have to admit the music sounds pretty damn good. Pick one of these up and you’ll give your iPod away.
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