Still in the throes of working long hours, but I did manage to squeeze some niceties out of my free time. As you know, I had to forego last month’s mix; I simply didn’t have the time. But this month, perhaps I made up for it in the variety of indulgences I did partake in. I acquired a very ornery female kitten this month. Ah, the pitter patter of tiny feet in the household to make one feel young again. Speaking of feet, they’ve become an endangered species in this house. This kitten loves to attack toes, and there is no safe refuge. Feeling needle stabs on your toes is quite the rude awakening!
Max Payne 3 on PC: The original game in this series was a real hallmark innovation (for its time.) It introduced “bullet time,” which enabled your character to leap into a dive with both guns blazing, complete slow motion, and cap everybody in the room at quite the unfair advantage. It was perk that required an initial buildup, but its result was a game changer. Max Payne, himself, was a sympathetic character who lost his family to a bad run in with the mafia. And Payne’s problems continuing into the second game, finally crescendo in this third game in which we find him boozing himself to death, doing odd jobs as bodyguarding corporate suits in South America. The game is almost too cinematic, quite the change up from a Rockstar game, but the graphics are gritty and beautiful. Max Payne’s soliloquys are as bad as ever, as if penned from Dashiel Hammett in a drunken stupor. The shooting is challenging, (I continue to struggle as of this writing) somewhat brought down by arduous save checkpoints and unskippable cutscenes. I’m eleven hours into what seems to be a 12-15 hour game. It’s been fun, but I’m ready to move on to something else.
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Six on Blu-Ray: Only recently started this, the penultimate season. The best episode so far seems to be “Rascals,” in which Guinan, Ensign Ro and Picard come back through the transporter as children, miniature versions of themselves, their recognizance on par with their adult selves, simply trapped in children’s bodies. “True Q” casts Q visiting the Enterprise again (always a welcome treat.) The series has really hit its stride in season six and is another testament to the idea of keeping this series on my media shelf for future viewings.
Snow by Ronald Malfi: Winding down in this woeful tale of a guy trying to make amends with his estranged son by going to meet him in Iowa over a Christmas holiday. The story opens up with our man being snowbound in O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Several feet of snow impending, and the man decides to finish the trek in a rented car with a girl he meets at the airport. They share the rented car with an older couple. The journey is fraught with horror as their car runs off the road into a snowbank and they are forced to seek help in a small town held captive by supernatural forces. Easily comparable to a King tale, Malfi has a gift for great metaphors and a twisted sense of humor. His characters are just what you’d see in a commercial airport filled with aggravated travelers. I’m now a fan. I’ll look forward zestfully to some of his other works.
Lost: Season 5 on Blu Ray: In a sense, this is a redux of the first series. The main crew, having been rescued are now back on the island once again (this time by choice.) It involves a heavy science fiction tone with time travel being a heavy slant. Many of my friends lost their way (pun intended) in this seemingly lackluster season, and I can kind of see it. But I’m in it for the long haul. It’s still a pleasure to come home from work, throw a bowl of salsa and chips together and lose myself for a good 47 minutes or so in a romp that involves characters I’ve grown to care about.
World of Warships on PC: My friend, Vic Berwick, got me to try this game. I’m always trying to get him to try different games, so I felt compelled to reciprocate. Boy, did he get me hooked. It’s nearly all I’ve been playing since. It’s a simple concept. You steer warships around a huge map and fire on enemy warships. Victories are rewarded with experience points used to research and purchase higher tier ships and join bigger and more fierce battles. There are numerous modes consisting of brawls (3 vs 3 against other people), co op fights against other AI ships, and full on PvP (people fighting teams of other people) and then there’s the operation of the week consisting of team-based objects that form a sort of campaign. The game is free to play, but I advise you don’t. If you do, you may run the risk of addiction. You’ve been warned.
Conquest of Paradise: The Original Soundtrack by Vangelis on CD: This hangs right up there with Vangelis’ Bladerunner soundtrack as one of my favorites. I’ve only watched the movie once when it was released on VHS back in the last century, but the soundtrack haunted me until I was finally able to procure it. More than the music itself, well, not more than, but more like as much as, the music is spectacular, it’s the mood of the music that fits the film so gloriously. The backdrop is Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the new world. Those who would frown upon our history and rewrite it, be damned. This is a powerful film I recommend if only to hear the wonderful soundtrack.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift: I always thought this was a children’s story. No way is this is a story for kids! It’s ribald, surprisingly obscene and probably one of the most intelligent fantasies I’ve ever read. I’m halfway through it, and I already don’t want it to end. Far be it from me to laugh aloud while reading a book, but this book has brought out the laughs and the astonishment. In the land of Lilliput where the people are only a few inches tall, we see our hero putting out a castle fire by standing over it and pissing on it. And then instead of being hailed the bespoke hero, he is held to task for doing something so unorthodox. And then in the land of Brobdingnab where Gulliver is the size of a field mouse in a land of giant humans, we see him used to entertain the daughters of royalty by being placed down their brassieres to tease and tantalize them. And to Gulliver’s chagrin, he finds the size and smell involved to be grossly stomach turning. I am honestly surprised this book ever found publication. (But I’ve been wonderfully amused by it.)
Alpinestars “Carbon Kid” featuring Brian Molko on CD: I first discovered this great song in a game soundtrack way back in 2007. The game was Test Drive Unlimited which involved purchasing cars, winning road races to acquire money to purchase even more cars, all against the backdrop of a very realistic Oahu, Hawaii. I lost many hours in the game when it released and this song was part of the line up for what played when you turned on the in-car radios. Brian Molko, the frontman for the band Placebo was the perfect vocalist for it. The song’s beautiful synths fitted perfectly for driving convertibles through forested roadways, shadows of tree branches carpeting the road ahead and views through the trees of the ocean beyond. I’ve since committed this EP to my computer’s Music directory and my Digital Audio Player (so it will always be with me) because I tried to play the CD in my car and it got stuck in the player! I had to purchase it internationally, and I’m not sure, maybe UK CDs are made differently or something. Google was definitely my friend on retrieving the CD from my player. I thought the CD hosed it. Whew!
XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo 2021 live broadcasts in 4K: As a former distance runner, I’ve always enjoyed the Olympic games. This time around was no exception. I got to witness skateboarding (of the street freestyle type) introduced and won by a young Japanese man who, upon watching him compete, I told my wife, was the best skateboarder I’d ever seen in my life. I wasn’t surprised he clenched the gold medal. And of course, the track and field events, always my favorite, where I got to see a resident of Taylor, TX where I lived for some years, take the silver medal. As a military veteran I find it odd that I feel more patriotic watching the Olympics, then I ever did donning the uniform of a servicemember. I don’t know why that is, but I do. Maybe it’s because of my own participation in long distance running years ago. Maybe it’s a race I ran in Austin that secured a spot in the US Olympic trials for the winner. (My own little brush with Olympic potentiality.)
