The year is rolling along. It’s already one third over. Ah, the beauty of aging, the only realm where time passes quicker the older one gets. Making each moment important, that’s the goal right? I had many such moments this past month, filled with the usual bevy of great books, music, games and real life experiences. All this, with a beautiful (albeit rainy) spring that was truncated directly into summer.
Ultimate General: The Civil War on PC: There are still a few mechanics of this game I don’t quite understand, and perhaps I really should watch a good YouTube Let’s Play, but I’m having lots of fun with this tactic based rendition of the US Civil War. It includes just about every battle there was with historical accuracy. Looking like a lavish board game brought to life, this game has you planning resources and manpower commitments. And after the battle, there are the spoils which you can sell or take into your own armory. Victories are awarded remuneration from the powers in office which you can use to replace men and weapons. I’m nearing the end of 1862, and playing on medium difficulty I have far more victories than I do losses. We’ll see if I can stay the course and ultimate win the whole war.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon: When I first read Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winning, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay I thought this guy was destined for greatness. And then I read Wonder Boys (and saw the movie) and I KNEW this guy was great. Not only does he entertain me, but he sends me to the dictionary which is something I love when a writer accomplishes this. This is stolen from my own review on GoodReads: I've always considered Michael Chabon a genius in the use of language, pulling his ingredients from stainless steel cookery like a New York City five star chef. This book, actually his first, started out a bit precocious, I continued onward spellbound by his diction and sometimes over the top metaphors, and then I fell in love with the characters. I think I will be in love with Phlox until the end of my days. It's amazing Chabon wrote this book at such a young age, and only got better with each successive novel, but having said that, I can see this was the nascent spark that ignited it all. Arthur Bechstein is 25 years old, living the summer after college graduation. His life is intertwined by three relationships and a quest into his own uncertain sexuality, coupled with a zest for nostalgia in all things. Chabon used the pages of this novel to make us privy to a wonderful summer that would mark a man for the rest of his life, and I can't help but feel I didn't escape without a tiny mark of my own.
Hammer Films Evil of Frankenstein on Blu-Ray: Made in 1964, this English film was a co production of Universal Studios, so Hammer Studios, who up to this point had avoided using the typical Glenn Strange flat head Frankenstein monster look, embraced it in this movie. I, personally, thought the monster looked rather stony, as if someone had modeled his head out of Play-Doh. As much an action movie as a horror movie, this one moved fast. The Blu-Ray transfer was crisp and highlighted the opulent settings Hammer used in all of their films. It’s unfortunate they eventually folded.
Love Fame Tragedy Life is a Killer on Sirius XM: Driving around, listening to stuff at random, I stumbled upon a catchy song, by this unusual band. The singer reminds me of a 21st century Al Stewart, but what makes the “band” so unusual is the band consists entirely of one man, Matthew Murphy. Born in 1985, he started playing guitar at age 5 at the behest of his dad. He seems to like the F word in his songs, but everything else is so clever, especially his hooks. I find it hard to gloss over his songs. He is an Englander who moved to the States and married an American, and who now lives in LA. His music is upbeat and speaks about the current human condition. Check out “Don’t You Want to Sleep with Someone Normal?”
One. More. Thing. by B.J. Novak: Watching B.J. Novak’s comedic seriousness on The Office made me instantly like him. When I heard he’d written a collection of short stories I knew I had to check it out. I was not disappointed. Novak looks at everyday things in such a different light so much that it made me look at the world in a different way when I closed the book. He seems to include profanity for the sake of it, as if it’s some cool toy to be played with and put into play, the last piece of a puzzle finalizing the finished product. I think his writing would benefit from eschewing this practice, but I enjoyed the read.
The Hunt for the Meteor by Jules Verne: One of the first Jules Verne novels published posthumously in 2008, this is Jules Verne at his finest. It’s a novel that speaks of taxi drivers and road rage. The story involves two amateur astronomers who discover the same meteor and go to crazy extremes to garner recognition for it. And then it’s discovered the meteor is mostly comprised of gold, and will crash into Earth! Despite this novel (like every Jules Verne novel ever written) being a translation into English from the French, I couldn’t help but recognize the brilliance behind it. This book could have easily been made into a great Walt Disney movie in the same vein as Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Mars Horizon on Steam: I don’t know how this popped up on my Steam store page suggestion, but suddenly there it was. I’d always admired from afar, Kerbel Space Program which depicted launching mankind into space and involved space science to such a degree that you would learn physics while being amused and entertained whilst sending your denizens into heroic glory as successful astronauts or heroes that reached for the stars but didn’t make it. And then enter, Mars Horizon, which is basically the same game dumbed down to the degree the astronauts you work with look like they were kidnapped from a Fisher-Price Fuzzy Pumper Barbershop Playset. Including a space race between five rival nations, and played largely through pull down menus and mini-games depicting astronauts performing space feats, this game has been so addicting I played it twelve hours straight the first time I sat down with it.
Lost in Space Season Two on Blu-Ray: My favorite show as a kid, I remember when it was taken off the air, and it gave me my first sense of longing. It made me learn early on that life is a series of losses. I caught reruns in later years, but the pining had subsided. I had grown up. And then the series was released on Blu-Ray and I’m getting to experience the series with my grandson, Eric, and now diving into the second season, in living color I’m realizing maybe that old sense of longing for my favorite show had been lurking there all along I’m suddenly in 1966 again at the age of four years old. The first season was black and white, but the color palette used in the second season is so vibrant, it’s as if 20th Century Fox, went on a vendetta to make up for the loss of color in the first season. Will Robinson has matured a year, as has sister, Penny. But Dr. Smith is still a miscreant. I used to feel sympathy for him, but he’s so nefarious, he probably would have been better off marooned.
Solar Eclipse, April 8th, 2024: Speaking of space, this year marks one of the most significant space spectacles I will ever have the pleasure of living through, the likes I shall never see again. The last total eclipse of the sun was something I’d not experienced since 1970, and I don’t remember it. This time I was prepared, however. I invested in a telephoto lens (100-400mm) to do it justice to accompany my Panasonic Lumix S5 (Netflix series approved.) When totality was reached and the ground around me succumbed to a weird twilight darkness, my long lens pointed upwards on the heavy tripod I was using, a great epiphany hit upon me. I remembered the little Kodak Brownie Fiesta camera my grandmother gave me as she introduced me to the wonderful idea of photography. I went on to join the Navy as an aspiring photographer’s mate, but failed, probably miserably. Now, looking back, I don’t care. I was still true to my school. I’ve always been close to photography, and these, my rendition of the 2024 Solar Eclipse may be my best yet.
