September has become my favorite month and it’s not because it’s the month of my birth. I think it’s because it heralds the coming of autumn. When I was young, May was my month of choice because it announced the arrival of spring and my inevitable follies that only befall the youth. Now that I’m old, and I have more days behind me than ahead, there’s a certain chill vibe to autumn that I embrace more deeply and it’s deepening with each passing year. Unfortunately, like Robert Frost’s poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” autumn is always fleeting which gives rise to winter, which is an altogether different story.
Company of Heroes 2 on PC: You’ve heard me say it before, Company of Heroes is one of my all time truly favorite games. Were I to be banished to some beautiful tropical island with funky umbrella laden drinks and vacation worthy sunsets, and broadband Internet of course, I’d have a copy of Company of Heroes on a killer gaming laptop at all times. In the interim, I’ve been spending time with Company of Heroes 2. I beat the campaign sometime last year, but I’ve been busying myself with the game’s pre-packaged scenarios. Offering three levels of difficulty, Conscript, Captain, and General. Most of these missions are just impossible, let alone trying to play them on General difficulty. But I want those Steam achievements! Anyway, I shall stay the course, at least until I get to the end of the missions. And let’s not forget that stellar soundtrack helmed by Cris Velasco, an American musician who has done everything from God of War to Borderlands 2 to The Long Dark. Filled with operatic haunting male chorus and philharmonic grand orchestras, it’s a soundtrack fitting for a Hollywood feature film.
Mission Impossible: Season 5 on DVD: There were some changes made in season five of this venerable television series, and I’m embracing them all. Lesley Ann Warren has joined the cast as Dana Lambert, a vivacious young agent, with a charm and beauty not unlike the typical girl next door. Sam Elliot (who looks almost strange without his trademark Tombstone moustache) has also joined the Impossible Mission Force. The theme song has a subtle variant, which admittedly, makes me long for the previous theme song style. Shows are introducing more elements of missions involving mafia kingpins and organized crime.
Dell Alienware 34” Ultra Widescreen monitor: As all of my gaming buddies know, acquisition of this bright, beautiful monitor is proof I’m in no hurry to upgrade to 5K resolution. This monitor had been on my wishlist for a long time. I’ve always moved up in computerdom over the years from 640 x 480 to 1024 to 1650 to 1080p, and then I discovered 1440p. It truly is the sweet spot for PC gaming. This monitor being ultrawide and curved, I thought would take some getting used to. It was more like a sense of homecoming when I plugged it in. If you’ve been thinking about takin the plunge into curved, I recommend doing so.
Psycho on 4K Blu-Ray: Alfred Hitchcock never cared subject matter or acting. He cared about photography, and the pieces of film that could do something to an audience. And this movie did something to me when I first watched it at 8 or 9 years old. I realized it made an impression on me like a fingerprint tattoo. John Carpenter said this movie was a piece of American history and you can see how movies are made today because of this movie. I’ve seen it numerous times over the years, and picked up the Blu Ray edition when it first released. This new 4K edition was the gamechanger, however, and not for the reason you’re thinking it is. The movie was filmed in black & white, so there isn’t much resolution-wise you can do to improve it. The improvement in this edition comes with a different (and very noticeable) upgrade. The sound! Sound is often overlooked, but in a movie, dialogue is where the story lives, Effects are where the action of the film lives, and music is where all of the emotion lives. In the original film when the policeman who’s been following Marion Crane tails her to a used car dealership where she trades her car in to avoid suspicion for her criminal act, the cop can be seen standing across the four lane street, leaning against his car with his arms crossed. You see cars passing in front of the camera and the sound of their passing is a single monotonic whoosh. The painstaking sound remastering in this 4K edition really comes through when you now hear the cars pass from your left speaker through the center channel and then out of your right speakers. This effect about made my mouth drop open. This newly released version is testament to the old adage, “just when you thought it couldn’t be improved upon.”
Eternity Eau de Toilette by Calvin Klein: You know me, spicy fruitiness colognes in the warm months and musky leathery man scents in the autumn and winter. Seeing as how fall is approaching, I decided to try Eternity. It’s proved its worth, having been around since 1990. It offers up the masculine smell of barbershops and lemon. I like its tenacity. A few sprays seem to last all day long. The scent though, maybe not so much. It’s an old cologne, and it smells like it. It kind of made me miss my Drakkar Noir, but that said, Eternity ranks number 18 according to Yahoo!’s poll of the 25 top colognes that women love on men. Maybe I’ll keep it around.
Railroad Corporation on PC: Railroad economic strategy games are some of my favorite games on the planet. (I’ve played through Sid Meier’s Railroads! five times.) I’m always searching for the next iteration of Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon 3, but by the looks of it, there will never be one. I have found something almost as fun though. Enter Iceberg Interactive’s Railroad Corporation. It takes itself a bit more seriously, graphics-wise than 2006’s Sid Meier’s Railroads! And in this game, rather than owning a railroad, you control a railroad for robber barons. If your job isn’t up to par, you’re fired and it’s game over. I had attempted this game a few years ago, but lost interest due to its complexity. I made the decision to give it another go, however, and so far, it’s been pretty fun. I’m on mission 8 of 12, so it seems I’m doing okay since there are no difficulty levels - - it’s one size fits all.
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