Edward's August 2020 Monthly Mix

  

 Funny how I went from three months of quarantining at home to now working so many hours I didn’t even have time to post a Mix for July. Bet you didn’t notice! I slowly got my footing back in August, however. It was still 50-60 plus hour weeks, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I had to get my game back one way or the other, despite the chaos that has become life in these United States. There remains comedy in everything, still. I drive my Mustang about town with my windows down, my COVID mask on, and I feel like I’m Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road.  

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five on Blu Ray: This will go down as one of the best written television series I’ve ever watched. And having my TV go on the blink and acquiring a newer bigger set makes ST:TNG all the more spectacular. I suppose the real ebullience that comes from watching this remarkable series is the fact I’ve never seen them before. Yes, really. I’m watching them for the first time.  I used to wrestle with the question, which series is better, TNG or Classic? It's safe to say I'll always love the classic series, but TNG has it beat.

2. The Killers “Imploding the Mirage” on Hi-Res 96kHz-24 bit: I’ve always liked The Killers. They remind me of a 1960’s band that accidentally stepped into a time machine unbeknownst, and then stepped out at 2020 recording albums obliviously. This album hosts Adam Granduciel, the front man for one of my favorite indie bands, The War on Drugs and Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) and K.D. Lang. I’ve heard reviewers call out a Bruce Springsteen type sound, but I’m not really hearing that. The album is poppy and bright, despite Brandon Flowers’ typical gritty and dull subject matter: small dead-end towns, the desert, and big dreams with no way to fulfill them. Favorite tunes: “Blowback,” and “Caution.”

3. Grid Autosport on PC: Still working my way through this “sim-cade” racer. Each track is lovingly recreated and the cars are beautiful, especially for a 2014 game. The races themselves are fun and exhilarating, but the AI has a propensity to cheat. It seems they always get advantageous starts and they take corners inhumanly fast. I average a 7^th place finish (out of 16) in about every race I participate in. I’ve just started the open wheel league, and I seem to be doing a bit better, often placing 3^rd and 4^th. Back to the AI, the cheating notwithstanding, I have to admit the AI cars act realistically (for the most part.) It’s a sight to behold to watch a pack of cars swipe each other in a first corner and see clouds of smoke as one car careers into the turf beyond the track. Simply typing this makes me want to boot up the game.

4. Steelseries Arctis Pro + Gamedac for PC: My Steelseries Syberia V.3s served me well, and they still have life left in them, but it was time for something new. As much as I’m gaming on my PC I’m also writing and listening to music. I’m always searching for something to really do the music justice, and it was a weighty decision, but I decided to go with these premium Hi-Res Audio certified cans. No regrets. For gaming, they’re nothing to write home about (though they do the job quite adequately) but for music, they sound simply incredible. I suppose they should considering I paid more for this headset than any of my high end ear buds or Sennheiser cans.  

5. Blue Oyster Cult “Cult Classic” on Hi-Res 96kHz-24 bit: My friend, Brian Bartley, pointed out there was far more to Blue Oyster Cult than simply, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” and “Godzilla.” I picked up this all-inclusive collection when it went on sale at ProStudioMaster.com and boy howdy, was Brian right! I picked up one of their albums a few months ago but discovered it was a live album. This album is much more akin to a greatest hits album I'd wanted in the first place. The band’s songs are so “busy” but not a note is wasted. BOC were rockers in the truest sense, but they had enough technicality to them they seemed to be wading in prog territory. I always liked what I’d heard of them, but never considered myself a fan. This album has changed that, and I guess I’m not alone. The band has sold 25 million albums worldwide since they started in 1967.

6. Euro Truck Simulator 2 on PC: This is my ultimate chill game. Disassembling the parts that make up its sum, it’s a pretty straightforward game. You haul freight through different cities and countries of Europe while earning enough money to buy more trucks and drivers so you can earn even more money. But there are nuances, oh, the nuances. Driving your own rig and listening to real Internet radio being streamed into your cab, watching sunrises on beautiful Italian landscapes, getting drowsy at two in the morning to the drone of pouring rain and monotonic windshield wipers. It’s a thoroughly engrossing game. Game is almost the wrong word for it. It’s more . . . an experience.

7. Smoke and Mirrors by Neal Gaiman: I only read my first Neal Gaiman book a month ago. And then immediately dove into this one. It’s a collection of short stories. Of Gaiman’s writing, Stephen King admitted, “His fecundity, coupled with the overall quality of his work, is both wonderful and a little intimidating.” Each of these stories are tiny jewels and it’s hard to stop at just reading one. We have a boy who bargains for his life while meeting a troll under a bridge, an old woman who buys The Holy Grail from a local thrift shop and is accosted by one of King Arthur’s knights to acquire it. There’s a mousy bachelor looking to off his two-timing girlfriend by locating a killer under “Assassins” in the Yellow Pages. These stories are fun and compelling reading. I’m surprised I’ve not read anything by Gaiman earlier.

8. Indianapolis 500: 104^th on TV live broadcast: This was a gorgeous sporting event to watch on an OLED TV. And due to the COVID this year, it was the only possible way to watch the event. I must admit it was odd seeing the empty grandstands and from what I’ve heard it was even off putting for the drivers involved in the race. It wasn’t a series of incredible passes, expert pit stop timings, or amazing reel-ins that made this race. It was the cool experience of Japanese driver, Takuma Sato, allowing him to work his way to the front and maintain his lead (sometimes aggressively) the last half of the race. The one exciting highlight was probably Alexander Rossi inadvertently brushing tires with Sato coming out of the pits and acquiring a behind the pack penalty. He used his anger to overtake numerous drivers in an attempt to get to the lead pack. And it became his undoing when he slammed into the wall, ending his day on the track. Too bad he didn’t use that energy to focus. The low part of the race was the stupid commercials. You already know I abhor TV commercials. They’re really getting to be a deal breaker for me. They kept showing the same exact commercials every break, and with twenty laps left to race they announced there would be no more commercials. There was a yellow flag and suddenly there were more commercials than ever.

9. Tropico 5 on PC: I used to watch my brother in law play Tropico 3 and get a kick out of the game’s humor and delightful gameplay. Fast forward a few years, and I saw Tropico 5 pop up on a Steam sale. I picked it up and got into it pretty heavily, and then I got stuck on a difficult level. I revisited the game this month and finally got past that hard part. So now I’m looking forward to the next level and ultimately beating the game. It’s definitely an RTS lite, well suited for beer and pretzels. The soundtrack score is excellent, quite fitting for an island sim in which you play a heavy-handed Caribbean dictator ruling over your denizens and lining your pockets with the fruits of your corruption. Your advisors are always saying funny things, I mean, laugh out loud funny things. And the beautiful seemingly hand-crafted graphics will have you salivating for a Pina Colada. It’s nowhere near the depth of City Skylines, but the game offers a charm all of its own.

10. World War II Day by Day by Antony Shaw: In light of the great old movies and the bevy of PC games I play on the subject, I consider myself a World War II buff. This remarkable book reads like an objective diary of each day in the five year span of the world's greatest conflict. Filled with photographs, many I've not seen before, this book would make a fine addition as a reference book for anybody interested in world history.