Another month of all-encompassing work to the point that home is only a place I seem to visit anymore. I felt a toll taken with the physicality enough I scheduled a doctor appointment. Not surprisingly, my doctor tilted his face and narrowed his gaze, straight at me. He told me my medication is attributing to my anemic condition, but then he summed it up like this: “Well, think about it, your heart is a pump and yours is faulty.” I admire my doc. He always tells it like it is. I put a new Gretsch Streamliner Lefty in my shopping cart (online) but removed it last minute. Nosiree! I didn’t let a bout of caprice hoodwink me. I can’t, not when there’s a Roland JC-120 to be picked up first! Steam had a decent Halloween sale this month, but don’t forget to check out HumbleBundle and Fanatical for the best deals, folks. Game on!
Steel Division: Normandy ‘44 on PC: This has to be the most difficult real time strategy game I’ve ever played. Short, but oh so dastardly hard! Consisting of three campaigns: American, German and British, each one raises the bar in difficulty. Each campaign is a mere four missions. I initially thought, oh, this will be a breeze. Red eyed, caffeined out, and ready to throw my PC out of the window sometime later, I’ve decided I’ve met my match. Still, I’ll stay the course. My buddies who’ve played and beaten the mission tell me I’ll get it eventually. I just don’t want to be in a nursing home when I do. The game is gorgeous though, satellite topography was used in the making of the landscape, and you can zoom in to Company of Heroes level views. The game would be much more enjoyable, however, if it was just slightly more . . . doable.
Warrior on Blu Ray: Not unlike a Rocky movie or any other favored sports underdog movie, this one ranks right up there as one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. But this one has a catch. What do you do if there are two underdogs competing against each other, and you find both of them compelling? I almost picked this up on 4K Blu Ray. I’m glad I didn’t. The whole film is shot authentically with no Hollywood glitter which makes it seem like it’s happening in your own suburban neighborhood. It certainly wasn’t an epic feature designed to take advantage of the extra expense of 4K production. The Blu Ray was an excellent transfer, however. And the authenticity carries over to the shooting itself, in which Tom Hardy broke a toe and a finger and numerous ribs.
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson: Yes, this makes month number three I’m still covered up in this book. See what working all of the time does? It’s the great robber of time! But with that said, the miniscule peeks I get into this book are still a fascinating read. I’ve come to the part where the Lusitania has actually been torpedoed. The story is such a stark contrast to what happened to Titanic. The sea is calm, we’re talking pancake flat. The green hills of Ireland can clearly be seen less than twenty miles away, and the captain comes out on deck and proclaims, “Don’t worry folks, the ship is not going to sink.” Erik Larson conveys all of this with an admirable clarity. He is a great teller of tales, especially historical ones.
Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on 180-gram vinyl: I have my beautiful daughters to thank for this one. “Funeral for a Friend” reigns as one of my favorite intros of all time. Hearing it so full bodied on my Fluance turntable with its Ortofon Red diamond stylus, this was the Elton John/Bernie Taupin synergy at its best. This album was arguably the crown point of John’s 1970s recording career. I’ve written it before, but this album was the soundtrack to the summer of my 12thyear. Hearing any of the hits, the titular, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” or “Candle in the Wind” is an instant time travel device for me. And then there’s the artwork. Man oh man! This is reason enough to get caught up in vinyl all over again.
Silent Hunter 4 on PC: Perhaps it’s my current infatuation with World of Warships or maybe it’s because I’m reading Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. I’m not sure why, but I installed Ubisoft’s venerable WWII submarine simulation, Silent Hunter 4 because I wanted to rack up some tonnage of my own. Steeped in authenticity, the game even has a toggle to turn wave undulation off for those susceptible to seasickness. As for me, having spent time in the same waters depicted in this game, I think they nailed it. This was the sea I came to love and hate during my own stint in the US Navy. The game captures all of the mad dashery associated with an aggroe’d enemy destroyer coming down on you in full force, and it captures the guilt plagued joy of watching a behemoth battleship sink due to your expertly launched torpedoes, complete with seeing terrified sailors in the water, lifeboats picking them up, and not to mention the lives lost going down with the ship. War is hell.
Rush Hemispheres on 192kHz/24-bit FLAC: I didn’t jump aboard the Rush train until 1980 when Permanent Waves came out. I actually didn’t know of this album or its songs until I listened to Exit . . . Stage Left the live album that came out a year or so after Permanent Waves. I thought the live album was a good rendition of the songs. These studio versions are better. “La Villa Strangiato” is my favorite Rush instrumental and always will be. When I can play the acoustic opening without fault, I’ll know I’m an accomplished guitarist. And this is why I’m so in love with Alex Lifeson’s chops. The boy can play like nobody’s business. And then there’s “The Trees.” Fans have tried for years to interpret a far deeper meaning of this song for the masses, and it’s always funny to hear Neil Peart (who penned the song) in interviews chuckle and admit it’s just a silly song that has no hidden message. In high resolution FLAC the album has more dynamic range than a CD and I can hear a difference. It’s a worthy pick up for any Rush fan, but of course all of the Rush fans already have it.
The Man Who Knew too Much on DVD: This was the Alfred Hitchcock movie that almost wasn’t. It seems that Hitchcock, under contract, owed one more movie to Paramount, so he decided to take the easier route of remaking one of his earlier films. Casting Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day proved to be a success. Interestingly, during shooting, Day became overly concerned because Hitchcock spent so much time on setting up shots, and getting the lighting correct that Day felt he was disappointed in her performance on camera. It irked her so much she finally confronted him about it. “Miss Day, my dear, if I’d been concerned about your performance then I’d have to direct YOU!” Ha! Typical Hitchcock. Released in 1956 in glorious technicolor, the film checks all of the boxes Alfred Hitchcock is known for: interesting and exotic locales, likeable characters, villains with characteristic flaws (who always get their just due) and a great soundtrack (this one by Bernard Hermann, who also gets centerstage for a part of the film.)
The Terminator on Blu Ray: It had been years and the last time I watched this was on DVD. I decided to revisit it on Blu Ray. I remember when this movie released, I saw it at a downtown San Diego theater when I was in the Navy. Looking back, it earmarked that part of my youth. Despite the vibrant transfer to Blu Ray, the movie is showing its wrinkles, but I can’t deny it launched one of my favorite movie franchises. Watching it again, I didn’t realize how sad the movie is. Witnessing Kyle Reese’s haunted loneliness requited by his relationship with Sarah Connor, and his depiction of the horrible world he left is heart wrenching at best. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an interview, stated from the moment he read the script and began working on the film he knew it was going to be much more than standard sci-fi fare, more than a simple B movie. He knew it was destined for greatness. James Cameron admitted the same, the movie was going to be special and he knew it before it released. He said every year after The Terminator in which there were no plans for a Terminator 2 the demand for such a movie grew exponentially. And of course, we all know how big Terminator 2 became.
