Edward's June 2020 Monthly Mix

The world has become tumultuous: COVID-19 is slowly taking over the planet. The Cancel Culture movement is killing coolness, the woke (sic) mob is aggressively rewriting history (for once not being written by the victors), the Black Lives Matter activity, it seems as if most everyone has to have an external enemy to be felled. I think it’s sad people have stopped thinking for themselves and the others are simply standing by allowing this to happen. But it’s a good time to lose one’s self in alternate worlds, even if they are artificial ones. And that’s what I did this month. 

1. Razor’s Edge on DVD: After fighting in the trenches of WWI, an adventuresome young man returns home with “survivor syndrome,” afflicting him because he survived the war when many of his comrades did not. This phenomenon weighs upon him so heavily he goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. Years later, when he returns, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married. This was greatly portrayed by Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney as the flustered fiancée he left behind. I wouldn’t call it a remarkable movie, but I’d confidently say it's a movie done remarkable well.

2. The Jesus and Mary Chain “Psychocandy” on CD: How could a band with a drum kit consisting of two drums, a forever out of tune guitar and a bass with two strings be any good? Maybe they’re not, but they’re different, so different in fact you can’t help but take notice of this two-brother duo from Scotland. William and Jim Reid sing with vocals not unlike that of boys whose voices are undergoing physiological teen aged changes, but there’s something about this band I find truly compelling. Their first hit song, “Just Like Honey,” spawning from this debut album, basically stole the drum rhythm from 1963’s The Ronnette’s “Be My Baby” and went on to 45 in the UK record charts. The stand out song for me, however, is “The Hardest Walk,” which was featured on the seminal John Hughes film, “Some Kind of Wonderful.”  

  

3. The Day it Rained Forever by Ray Bradbury: A collection of short stories by the esteemed Ray Bradbury who admitted his stories weren’t about science fiction per se, but more like stories about people, which they indeed, were. I’m halfway through the book on my Kindle. There’s nothing stand out so far, but Bradbury’s stories are as exquisite as sipping ice tea on a hot night from a squeaky chain porch swing on an old front porch. His stories always leave you with a certain kind of gentle pay off. He makes prose writing sound like poetry and he will always be one of my favorite writers.

4. Crysis 2 on PC: I’m about ¾ of the way through this exciting adrenaline pumping inducing action shooter. It’s sort of a weird cross between War of the Worlds and Independence Day. Only instead of being the victim of circumstances as poor Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) was in Spielberg’s underrated film, you’ve been proactively sent to dispatch this alien invasion, given an incredible array of tools, especially a living cyber-skin of armor capable of multiple modes (extra armor, invisibility, extra strength.) I’ve enjoyed all of the games occurring in the Crytek universe, or inspired by them (The FarCry series.) The original game which came out in 2007 became a running paradigm joke, “Yeah, but will your rig run it?” I’ve just upgraded to a newer gaming PC which doesn’t even bring the question of this second one in the series into play, but I have to admit the graphics are incredibly good looking. The game frequently goes on sale on Steam. If you like shooters with a story, this is worth a play through.

5. Blue Oyster Cult “Some Enchanted Evening” on CD: I picked this up, and eager to get home and listen to it I was chagrinned to find it was a live album. (I thought it was a greatest hits album when I read the track list.) Still, after two playthroughs it’s grown on me. All I ever really knew of BOC was their radio hits, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Godzilla.” Listening to this, I discovered “E.T.I (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” which is now my favorite BOC song by far. Now I really do need to find a greatest hits album. Interestingly, it turns out this album is by far their best selling album of all time. Interesting trivia: BOC was one of the first bands to use lasers onstage.
   

6. Days of Thunder on 4K Blu Ray: I remember going to a theater to watch a move in late 1989, early 1990 and seeing the preview for this movie. I was a Tom Cruise fan, and the movie depicting him as a mysterious race car driver showing up late to test drive a car was the ultimate tease. And then I went to the same theater to watch the movie when it came out. I wasn’t a fan of NASCAR, but the movie was done so well it ultimately made NASCAR an interesting subject for me. Revisiting it again after all these years on its 4K presentation made me see it more for what it was: a heavily stylized Hollywood roller coaster ride, but that’s okay! It’s a fun movie. In an interview with director Tony Scott, he stated he and Cruise both loved showing “the flight of the cars.” The 4K treatment pulls this off with aplomb, the stock cars aglow with colors, screamingly loud making their way around the round venues. Tom Cruise stated he loved Scott’s energy for films, and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) described Cruise as hard charging and a brilliant actor. And they all admitted casting Robert Duvall in his role as the car builder/crew chief truly brought something special to the movie.

 

7. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: (I’m borrowing this from my Goodreads review, but it sums it up exceedingly well.) This book was as fun of a read for me as The Wizard of Oz series. It began slow and the characters took a while to earn my interest, and then suddenly I didn't want to put the book down. And that ending, best ending I've encountered in ages. It made me instantly yearn for a sequel. Gaiman's characters will hold a place in my heart and I won't be surprised to find myself searching for Lamia in the crowd of any public place from now on. Gaiman's diction and his use of description caused me to reread sentences just to hear the melody of the words again. "Seeing the Marquis' bloated body slowly float by face down in the brown sewage like a stately funeral frigate," this is golden. And this is why I can't wait to discover more Neil Gaiman.

  

8. Elite Dangerous on PC: Often called Euro Truck Sim 2 in space, I realized I had been way too long away from this game and decided to revisit it. I had forgotten how difficult landing at spaceports was in the game. After several attempts I finally rage quit and wrote the game off in a Steam status entry. The next day after I had cooled off, I tried again and met with some success. The game really is a chill game. Who would have ever known as a kid in the late 60’s when the space race was in full swing that fifty years later, I would be piloting through the universe in my own space ship, hauling goods to and from distant planets and making money doing it? This game is an absolute gorgeous game with an uncanny ability to make you feel as if you really are flying a space ship complete with the loneliness and the required attention to detail you’d need to do the real thing. Andy Kelly, my favorite PC Gamer writer once wrote about a pilgrimage he made in this game to a far outpost space station. His journey took him 90 minutes of real time flying just to get there. He said it was a rite of passage of sorts. Every trip in this game feels like that to me. The game universe is so huge that if you discover a star in the game the developers name it after you. How cool is that?