November is all about heralding in 5:00PM darkness, rain soaked
leaves stuck to windshields like crepe paper, and a chill that portends winter
snows to come. It draws me to the indoors and a brain buzzed by the blue light
of an e-reader or a phone in bed, or movies and shows causing the darkened
living room to glow. The lack of sunshine is a temptation to succumb to
depression, but with music, movies and games to enjoy, who can be
depressed?
James Seven on CD: When you hear the first song, “Born of Frustration” start as you spin this CD you’ll say to yourself, “Wow, I remember this; it was such a cool song!” And this song segues into a series of such good songs. Seven was the album that came out a year before Laid which was their big American hit CD. Fronted by singer, Tim Booth, a real renaissance man (who portrayed the villainous Victor Zsasz in the movie, Batman Begins.) I first discovered them in an X-Files episode in which Jack Black plays one of their songs on a jukebox before being incinerated. The song he plays is “Ring the Bells” which is on this album. The live version on their Greenpeace compilation album is in my opinion a better version. The band’s heydays were the early 90s. They were a true alternative band back when alternative reigned supreme.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 on PC: I know you are getting tired of seeing a write up about this game every month in my beloved blogpost, and believe me I’m getting tired of writing about the game! My goal was to finish it by the end of this year. It looks like I’m not going to make it. Close, but no cigar. This game has been like climbing Mount Everest. June 20, 2021 is supposedly the first time I booted the game up, this is according to a game tracker app I use that records all games and the length of time it takes to beat them. (Hit me up if interested.) As of this writing I’m 73% to completion. And I think I told you, it’s a “sim-cade” but I’ve had to take the difficulty down to easy. I just want to get it over with!
Company of Heroes 2 on PC: It took me forever to finally get to this game being I’ve loved the original Company of Heroes so much. (I still consider it my favorite RTS.) I finally did take the plunge, however, and found the campaign quite enjoyable. Whereas the original hosted the allied invasion of Europe in 1944 and the ensuing battles, the second game in the series focuses on the Russian VS German side of things. New elements such as morale (and eventually physical constitution) being affected by extreme winter weather, and commanders having many more perks than the original game, this is definitely a good update. I pretty much eased through the campaign with the exception of the penultimate mission which took numerous tries (and a Let’s Play lookup on YouTube.) And now my friend, Vic Berwick and I are campaigning through the co op missions. I’ve been missing out; I should have played this game much sooner.
Terminator 2 on 4K Blu Ray: I’ve always been a fan of the Terminator movies. I always hear comparisons of the original movie compared to this, the second one in the series, and the consensus is the second one is much better. I’m not so sure. Of course, Terminator 2 had a much bigger budget (100 million plus, making it the most expensive movie ever made at the time it was made). We do see Arnold Schwarzenegger portraying a machine, as in the first movie, however, this time shedding his clinical inhumanity to become more humanlike and sensitive to the human condition. But the real star of this movie is Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Living in his car at the time, he was awarded the role during his first tryout. Director, James Cameron, wanted someone lithe looking and Patrick watched films of predatory animals in action, and then mimicked their style, lowering his head when giving chase to manifest forward movement. He ran in his workouts so he could run in the film and never appear out of breath (which he does later movies to come, this movie is regarded as one of the best SF-action movies ever made. The upscale from 4K to Blu-Ray was adequate enough. I didn’t see much of a difference to be honest.
Lost Season
Six on Blu Ray: I once compared this series to
Gilligan’s Island for adults. I’m finally nearing the end of this
compelling series. It’s been played out, for sure. But I’m still enjoying it. One
episode turns into two when I sit down to watch it. It reminds me of the
cliffhangers of old. The characters are memorable, but the real character is
the island itself. Given its proximity I always wonder how close I would have
been to it during my treks across the Indian Ocean. That sense of being there,
it’s probably why I love old pirate movies and sea yarns. I abhorred the Navy,
but I did love the ocean.
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo: My mother gave me this book on a recent visit. Looking like a typical junior high book, I thumbed through it. “Yeah, I’ll read it if you want me to,” I told her. Turns out, it wasn’t half bad! I wrote a review on GoodReads stating, “A gem in the guise of a children’s book.” That does, indeed, sum it up. An errant stray dog stumbles into the life of a girl and her reverend single father, the mom/wife having abandoned them. Each “chapter” reads like a self-contained short story. Interestingly, the first book DiCamillo wrote received 437 rejections before being accepted. My works had not hit 100 rejections and I gave up!
Magic: The Gathering Arena on PC: My good friend, John Wallen, introduced me to this game many moons ago. I have since participated in numerous tournaments (and even won one!) I’ve been dabbling in online play as of late. Epicgames.com is the place to go. The game is free. If you’ve never played, it’s a great site to come up to speed. My true feelings are rather ambivalent about the game, truth be told. I would buy cards to play and carefully hone my decks to be formidable. Then I would go to a shop for a tournament and then discover cards in my deck were suddenly “banned” I would be forced to buy new cards. It was easy to see Wizards of the Coast (the property proprietor of the game) was turning this into a cash cow. But none of that matters if you play in unrestricted tournaments or your old friends with their old cards.
