Edward's August 2025 Monthly Mix

 

I watch YouTube movies about living the retired life. A lot of the information being put out now in these videos is instructing us to scrap our friendships, friends are meaningless, you could and SHOULD go it alone. It’s cool to fly solo. Friends always let you down. I’ve even been prompted to comment on some of these videos with retorts like, “seems you’ve been picking the wrong friends.” I even listened to a Billy Graham sermon in which Graham admonishes friendships, stating God chose his prophets to act alone. That may be, but man, we’re social creatures. I wholeheartedly disagree. Get out, hang with friends, or make friends. Yes, the Pandemic did change things, but we can’t let it get the better of us. Barbara Streisand was right, people who need people are the luckiest people. If you don’t have friends, what are you going to do? Stay inside and watch movies, read books, and listen to music?  

 

Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix: A critically acclaimed adult animated series penned “to look like a moving painting,” per its creators, husband and wife team, Amber Noizumi^[ and Michael Green. The show involves a half-Japanese, half white girl named Mizu who is seeking vengeance against four white men, one being her father. Her experiences of discrimination as a mixed-race Japanese child has left her cold, bitter, and vengeful. Forced by her mother to disguise herself as a boy so as not to be found, she chooses to maintain her disguise into adulthood to pursue her path of revenge more freely. Who would have thought I’d be so captivated by an animated series? I’m not even a fan of animation! Apparently, I’m not alone: 88 on Metacritic and 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

 

 

The Fugitive on 4K Blu-Ray: I don’t remember much about the TV series that was on when I was a kid, but I was told when this released at the movies back in 1993, my boss at the time, went to see it and said the movie made the TV show look like a high school play. After 8 different writers and three years of discouragement from Warner Bros., the movie almost didn’t come to fruition. When I watched the movie for the first time, I thought it was phenomenally good. It’s a movie that’s all characters, all story, and no special effects. Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant in his role as the marshal spearheading the manhunt for. . . a fugitive. And that fugitive, Harrison Ford was one of the best misunderstood “bad” guys I’d ever watched up to that point. The action is non-stop, it’s definitely an action movie with intelligence. As one of the movie’s staffers said, “even watching Tommy Lee Jones think in the film, was almost an action shot.” Film critic Chris Hicks of the Deseret News, said, the movie “has holes in its plotting that are easy to pick apart and characters that are pretty thin, bolstered by the performances of seasoned vets who know how to lend heft to their roles." But in summary he stated, "the film is so stylish, so funny and so heart-stopping in its suspense that the audience simply doesn't care about flaws". This is a perfect take on a movie that should have garnered a Best Picture Academy Award, but did not. (However, Tommy Lee Jones did receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the movie carried 7 Academy Award nominations.) Stronger color values such as the bold prison uniforms, police lights, and urban signage show a bit more variety and subtle gradient detail, while the better-managed contrast values reveal deeper shadows, brighter light sources, and bolster a few of the more expressively-shot moments while avoiding the almost inevitable blooming or black crush that might arrive with a less dialed-in 4K redo. 

 

 Panasonic Lumix S5 full frame mirrorless camera: I wanted something better than my mobile phone to record guitar videos, so I went all out, unloaded my faithful Sony DSLR and bought into an altogether new technology: a mirrorless hybrid. Hybrid because it not only takes stunning 24 megapixel photographs, but also 4K video approved by Netflix Studios for submission. This means, yes, you could film a Netflix series with this camera. Lenses are pricey and not as plentiful as the usual fare from Canon or Nikon (or even Sony, for that matter), but the lenses on offer are superb lenses. I’ve had the camera for a while, but I’ve not been able to use it much. Now I have the time. I plan to change that.  

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: Two simple characters, a blind French girl whose father is a locksmith for a prominent Parisian museum and an orphaned German boy indoctrinated into Hitler Youth are the central focus of this powerfully descriptive World War II novel. Anthony Doerr writes in a way that makes me constantly stop and reread entire sentences again simply because of their beauty. I gave this one five stars on my GoodReads, which is rarely bestowed by me to any book. It’s the best book I’ve read this year, and I’m going to have to read a lot more to find a book that’s its equal.

Mass Effect The Legendary Edition on PC: My first time playthrough of this one was way back in 2009 and it cost me 70 hours of life. Knowing so many people who sing the game’s high praises and that have played it multiple times, I thought, why not be one of those people? So here I am, revisiting the game through the revamped “remastered” legendary edition. Enough changes were made (not to mention the graphical overhaul) that I don’t remember half of these story missions. It’s like playing the game for the first time. Could this be a simple product of old age senility? Actually, I think not. They did such a good job with this remake, I can do nothing but jump on the haywagon and drink the same Kool-Aid as my fellow Mass Effect fans. If you really want to command a starship in the same vein as Captain Picard, this is about as close as I’ve gotten. This contains storylines on par with anything George Lucas penned. 

 

 Oblivion on 4K Blu-Ray:  This is a beautiful film that reminded me of an old Robert Heinlein book translated to film. Heavy science fiction melded with amazing state of the art special effects and 4K cameras mixed in Dolby Atmos. You hear this from me about every 4K Blu Ray I watch, but I mean it this time: this is my 4K movie of the year. Just as remarkable as the end product of the movie itself is all that went into it. The “bubble ship” (heavily based on the Bell 47 helicopter) that Tom Cruise’s character uses to patrol and investigate anomalies that occur on the planet is an engineering marvel. Watching it being designed and built in the disc extras was as entertaining as the movie itself. And as far as admiration, I have new found respect for Tom Cruise. I’d always heard he did most of his own stunts and action scenes. I watched him attempt a couple of motorcycle jumps on the behind the scenes segment. He fell both times, simply rolled, got up and held his hands up, laughing, shouting, “I’m alright! I’m alright!” Then he got right back on the bike until he got it right. Best watched on a big screen TV with the lights out and a good sound system. This is such a fun movie to watch! 

 

 

 

The The Mind Bomb on CD: Matt Johnson has always been a hard working man. On many of his albums, he wore all of the hats. A few albums he’s the only guy on it, but carried the moniker the The, intimating the album was created by a whole band rather than a single guy playing all of the instruments. Johnson, however, did form a band to create Mind Bomb, his third album which hit paydirt and was a top ten in Britain when it was released (mostly due to “The Beat(en) Generation.” Featuring Johnny Marr as the lead guitarist certainly didn’t hurt either. The Los Angeles Times called it "an embarrassing exercise in breast-beating," writing that "this bloated record is doubly distressing considering that it’s the work of the same man who turned out one of the most mysterious and lovely pop tunes of the ‘80s, 'Uncertain Smile'." Personally, I was intrigued by Johnson’s song writing abilities. His lyrics are profound, and I’d place a bet that Matt Johnson is a man who likes to read.

 

Edward's July 2025 Monthly Mix

 

 Blistering summer days or eternal rain, it’s one or the other here. What does one do? The easy answer is, stay inside and lose yourself in music, movies, books and games. Well, that’s what I do, anyway. And as this mix proves, I kept rather busy. This is a big one. I can say undoubtedly, this one is one for the record books. You may even have to create another FB or Google account just to read it in its entirety. Sorry about that, but I don’t do tl;dr here. When I write I simply open a vein. And here you get the full enchilada.  

F1 in IMAX: Not so much a fan of Brad Pitt as I am of Formula One racing. This movie was definitely popcorn fare, but it did show a lot of Formula One racing from some interesting angles. The IMAX experience was over the top, as is F1 racing itself. Despite having two official tracks in the United States, it still baffles me why we have no American teams. Brad Pitt plays a has been racer that never really was. His character is compelling, however, and by the end of the film you are truly rooting for him. I play F1 racing sims, and this movie depicted the sport with authenticity. In truth, it made me want to go home and jump into a race. 

  

The Terminator on Blu-Ray: Though it seems antiquated now, you can see the nascent roots of the genre. The sets were pulled off with miniatures using orange flashbulbs and walnut dust to create the explosions which depicted the whole future war scenes of the machines fighting mankind. The stop motion animation of the exoskeletal Terminator is laughable by today’s standards, but this movie paved the way for James Cameron’s future successes and began a franchise that would make millions of dollars. Cameron helmed this film while working on the script for Aliens and Rambo: First Blood Part II.  Brad Fiedel (Terminator, Terminator 2, Fright Night, Gladiator) scored the film and used a percussive heartbeat sound to emulate the heartbeat of the Terminator throughout the movie. This percussive heartbeat sound became the signature sound of the soundtrack in future Terminator movies. Both Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone turned down the role of The Terminator. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his 17 lines and less than 100 words makes the role tingle, however, and as James Cameron said, “his accent just . . . worked.” 

 

Arma 3 on PC: My adventure began with Operation Flashpoint back in 2001. This was the ultimate watercooler game, and what I mean is a game that created stories to be recounted at work around the watercooler or soda machine. It’s been said Warren Specter’s System Shock and Deus Ex gave birth to the “im-sim” (immersive simulation.) I can see that, but Operation Flashpoint delivered it in spades, and playing Arma 3 has refined it to the point I feel it’s the most realistic shooter I’ve ever played. I’ve only just begun, but the sense of immersion is of the intensity that I almost feel out of breath running up hills or trying to hold my weapon steady after scrambling for cover. The game’s authenticity is far more reaching than my mere experiences with it. Footage that was posted online by major news sources in 2018, 2021 and 2023 were eventually determined to be footage from this game. That’s how realistic this game is. Not too shabby for a game that came out in 2013. 

Timeline by Michael Crichton on Kindle: I’ve always felt I came away with an education after reading a Michael Crichton novel. Often referred to as “fact-ion” novels, each one is a delve into plausibility. This novel involves a group of history students who travel to 14^th century France to rescue their professor. I’ve only begun it, but I have a feeling, as with all typical Crichton fare, this will be a fun amusement park ride.

SOMA on PC: Made by Frictional Games, the same company behind the Amnesia games, this game follows the same tradition, a horror walking simulator. This one finds you going into a clinic for a therapeutic brain scan, and waking up suddenly in an undersea biosphere, and being the only person alive. It’s creepy and startling. It evokes a great sense of dread without the jump scares (which is a good thing.) The game reminds me a lot of Interplay’s Bioshock which is a game that still harbors one of my all time favorite in-game environments of all time. 

 

 

Gameplayers of Titan by Philip K. Dick: More a speculative writer than what I would call hard science fiction, Philip K. Dick was responsible for the basis of one of my all time favorite movies, BladeRunner. I’ve always thought his writing a bit on the dry side, but he always told a good story. This dark tale concerns a disheveled Earth after being conquered by one of Jupiter’s moons. Most of Earth’s population is wiped out and Jupiter’s moon denizens treat our planet as a puppet government would. They have us play a game called Bluff, a strange Life/poker-like game played to determine economic and marital fate and ultimately that of Earth itself, the "luck" of a mostly barren post-apocalyptic population in conceiving children. The book resonated with 1960’s tropes in a fun way. It was like reading a naughty version of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on Blu-Ray: Thanks to my good buddy, Vic Berwick for netting this rare find for me. I’ve had the DVD Collector Edition for decades now, and I’m eagerly anticipating a 4K release of this classic Disney movie, but you could do much worse than this beautiful Blu-Ray edition. This was one of the first feature-length films to be filmed in CinemaScope, and Blu-Ray truly reveals how beautiful the film can be. The film also won two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. This is another great reason to track the movie down on Blu-Ray. Unfortunately, there are no extras with this edition. Hang onto your double disk DVD set because it has all of the cool extras that collector’s seek. 

 

 

StarCraft on PC: I was first exposed to Starcraft  in 1999, a year after the game’s release. My friend, Vic Berwick and I would play endless games over dial up modem at the time. To my chagrin, I was never able to beat him in our 1 vs 1 matches. I’m working on the single player campaign in hopes of honing my skills well enough to win a rematch against my devious foe. I’ve beat the human campaign and since moved onto the Zerg campaign. The Zergs are an insect like group that attack in numbers, hence the term “zerg rush,” which has become an accepted term for online RTS rushes in any capacity. Blizzard’s rendition of a new “remastered” version did the game justice, as this game is much shinier and crisper than its original. This game was definitely not the first RTS, but it was an important game that caused an almost religious type following in South Korea. 

 

The Thing on 4K Blu-Ray: It’s easily on my list of top tens. My PC was built from its inspiration (you can see it in every Mix photo I post.) Seems I just watched this not so long ago, but each time I do I take something more enriching from it. I’ve previously commented on how beautiful the film looks on 4K, but this time watching it, I got a sense of how much hard work went on behind the scenes and by some of Hollywood’s best cast to ever work in movies. Dean Cundey, who has worked with John Carpenter since Halloween (1978), was one of the very first cinematographers to use a “steadycam” rig, which revolutionized filmmaking at the time. He went on to film other movies including, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Back to the Future trilogy, Jurassic Park, and Apollo 13. Being Halloween was an independent project, this was the first time Carpenter and Cundey worked on a film for a big budget studio (Universal Pictures.) The OST, created by the legendary Ennio Morricone, was simply Morricone creating a film score that sounded like John Carpenter’s Halloween. Carpenter, dissatisfied with some of Morricone’s tones during some of the more intense stressful parts of the film, interposed his own simple tone synth music which he now states was nothing more than “sound effects.” Albert Whitlock did the set matte paintings for the movie. Whitlock got his start in Alfred Hitchcock films, which you can quite easily see in The Birds (1961). He did remarkable work in The Hindenburg (1976) and even more extensive work for Earthquake (1974) for which he also received an Academy Award. Perhaps the most interesting take of all, however, is the story of Rob Bottin, who was hired to do the special creature effects for the movie. This poor guy lived at the Universal Studios studio for a year as the movie was being created. He slept on sets and in locker rooms. He worked late nights and didn’t take a single day off for that year. He was ultimately hospitalized for exhaustion, ulcers and pneumonia. Bottin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on Legend (1986), but lost out. He finally received one for Special Achievement for his work on Total Recall (1990). Rob Bottin has since retired from moviemaking, given that CGI took away his job, but man! The dedication he put forth for The Thing, and how that dedication turned into his job being replaced by CGI. Sad. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiger Leader by DVG Games: So, you know how much I love solo boardgames. I was searching online for a particular one, seeing if it was being sold at discount somewhere and I stumbled upon this game, made by the same company. I didn’t hesitate. A few days later I had a 5 lb. shrinkwrapped box on the kitchen counter. I spent 2 full days setting up the game, poring over the manual repeatedly and on Board Game Geek.com trying to wrestle the game into a playable state (read: wrapping my head around the rules enough to where I could play it.) After watching 3 hours of YouTube vids by a guy named oddly simply enough, “Jeff” I was able to get a handle on it, AND THE TIME OF MY LIFE! Of course I got bug squashed on my first playthrough, my marauding German forces couldn’t take the 1939 Poles, no Blitzkrieg for me. But for a solo boardgame experience, this ranks right up there with Nemo’s War. You command a German panzer division from the beginning of WWII to the fall of Germany. Recruiting and developing commanders, each one gains experience and skill points to better his abilities as you play through the war. As you mete out orders and your commanders execute them, the good ol’ imagination kicks in and you develop camaraderie with these cardboard chit commanders. Good times.  

  

Memoir ’44: Had a visit from my cousins, two brothers, and introduced them to Memoir ’44. After our games I asked them what they thought. They both said they were picking the game up when they got back home. Who needs YouTube to be an influencer? This game which won the 2004 International Gamers Award for General Strategy – 2 Player category and the 2004 Award for Excellence by The Wargamer. It received the 2004 International Gamers Award for General Strategy. You’ve seen me extoll its virtues here before, but it’s a game I never get tired of. I get so much enjoyment out of it I often play it solo. A mixture of dice, cards, military figures (artillery, tanks, soldiers, sandbags, concertina wire, etc.) This is truly a gateway game if you want to get into war strategy boardgames.  

 

 

 

Edward's June 2025 Monthly Mix

 

 I prefaced this entry last month with the statement, Endless Summer. It’s peculiar that one of the Beach Boys’ best selling albums was entitled Endless Summer and now Brian Wilson has left us. Ah, it’s like a part of my childhood dying. I’ll never forget living in a suburb that looked like a diorama piece from a Tim Burton film, my mom cleaning the house on a Saturday morning and awakening to the sound of “Sloop John B” playing on the radio. If only I could return to childhood for another day, but alas, putting squeezed toothpaste back into the tube would be an easier task. Adulthood was inevitable, but no matter. My motto is: have as much fun as you can as often as you can. I never have to do another freaking inventory again. How can life not be fun? I am learning Kiss’s “Detroit Rock City.” And that’s so much fun, I can barely contain myself.

BladeRunner 2049 on 4K Blu-Ray: I may have said it before; this time this statement supersedes all others. This is the most beautiful 4K Blu Ray I have. Kudos to Denis Villenueve, the director for his artistic vision (yes, he did consult with Syd Mead) who, with his use of neon and mist, shadow and silence, created a dreamscape film that simply lingers. Roger Deakins, the director of photography, cleverly made light itself a character in the movie. And of course, Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack which is a beautiful homage to the Vangelis’ gorgeous soundtrack from the original. The storyline is ingenious, and the expertly sought cast brought that story to life so well, this film now has a home in my top five films of all time. I’m struggling to say it, but this film has the rare honor of being a sequel that surpasses the original movie. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call of Duty Warzone on PC: Last month this spot was occupied by World of Warships. My friend, Garrett Thrasher, convinced me to take a break and give this one a go. It comes in at a walloping 260 gigabytes, and begs the question how can graphic shaders and accruements take up so much space (especially for a free to play game), but the end result might be worth it. Despite the game’s convoluted menu interface system and the other paid games nestled imbroglio-like into the warzone game, the game itself is beautiful, easy to play (and relatively easy to be good at.) It has an addictive leveling system, and much fun is to be had playing with a team of friends. If you have the buddies and the real estate on your hard disk drive, it’s worth a try. I’d like to give special mention to playing solo. The game takes on a whole new spin when you are alone against the world, it becomes so quiet you can hear your own breathing while wearing a gas mask, and every sound becomes suspect.    

Boston Third Stage on CD: Releasing in 1986 (after taking six years to make) this album was the first CD-formatted album to have been certified gold (500,000 copies) by the RIAA. It was also certified gold in the LP format, believed to be the first album certified in both of these formats. Considered to be darker and more somber than the two prior Boston releases, this album is my favorite. Everybody gushes over “Amanada,” but for me what does it is the song, “Hollyann.” Listening to that beginning guitar playing the beautiful arpeggio. I think you’ll agree.

Patrick O’Hearn Metaphor on CD: Patrick O’Hearn has always been my great little secret. You can find him in the New Age section, but he’s much more than that, having rubbed shoulders with (and cut albums and done tours) Frank Zappa, guitarist Andy Taylor (Duran, Duran) and one of my other personal favorites, Mark Isham, O’Hearn also co-founded and played with the new wave band, Missing Persons in the early 80s. He eventually went out on his own as an electronic artist. Metaphor was O’Hearn’s 7^th studio album and featured a soundscape that evoked great sadness (the album cover depicts a sad and dejected statue that looks like it resides in a cemetery.) The song “The Women of Lachaise” is the one song that makes my eyes well up at its mere beginning. The album is a bit more acoustic than O’Hearn’s previous titles, but it still carries that great soundscape characteristic that is totally Patrick O’Hearn.

Angel Heart on 4K Blu-Ray: Decades ago, on a typical Friday night I would have ordered a pizza and popped a rented movie into the VCR. This was one such movie. And I’ve not seen it since. It’s been too many years. Set in 1955 in Brooklyn, NY and New Orleans, LA, this is a dark psychological thriller bearing grim, morbid overtones from the beginning to the end of the film. From its ominous back alley bowels of Brooklyn to the sinister religious innuendos infused throughout, this movie has no chance of a happy ending. But the hopeless journey is so frighteningly engrossing that you can't take your eyes off the screen. Alan Parker’s direction was meticulous. The movie’s set designs look authentic enough that this movie could be used as a period piece for the 1950s. The 4K transfer with its lugubrious dark blues and gashing sanguine reds, is a far cry from the original VHS version which released in 1987. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: This was truly a summer read, taking me three months to ingest. I last wrote about it here when I was well into the novel, but not near the end. Tolstoy referred to this book as his first true novel. It centers on the titular Anna Karenina, living the stately life, being married to a prince, who has a sordid affair with the charismatic calvary officer, Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky and the ensuing scandal that follows. The novel deals with several themes intertwined with the book’s plot, Karenina leaving her husband, pursuing happiness in Italy with her lover, Vronsky, where their relationship begins to disintegrate. They have a child, and later return to Russia where their relationship deteriorates further. Karenina gets to the point in which when she looks at her daughter she sees Vronsky’s face and it depresses her further. The book deals with themes of betrayal, family, marriage, imperial Russian society and the differences between rural and urban life. The book, like all novels penned by sad Russian authors, ends in tragedy. It’s a book that will make you feel smarter for having read it.

The Burbs on Blu-Ray: One of my gaming buddies has seen this movie three hundred times at least (or so he claims.) He along with some other mutual friends are always quoting lines from it. I felt oddly out of place, until now. I finally have been made privy to the zaniness. Despite the film’s masterful transfer from DVD, it just didn’t do much for me. I’m rarely impressed by comedy in the first place. This one just struck me as . . . well, silly. Screenwriter Dana Olsen, who was inspired by her own upbringing in the suburbs, decided to pen a screenplay in which Ozzie and Harriett meet Charles Manson. Tom Hanks stated Joe Dante did a great job with the direction, truly telling the story through the lens of the camera, and Tom Hanks was his usual Splash era self, much more a funnyman than the serious drama guy he became later. Carrie Fisher played her role with a slightly humorous poignancy in the best of ways, but not sure I’d want to watch this one again.

Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher #11) by Lee Child: After having finished Leo Tolstoy’s epic Anna Karenina, I have to say this book is a guilty pleasure. If Anna Karenina was a marathon, this book (like all Jack Reacher books) is a 5K run. Child’s books move quickly, despite their thickness. If you’ve watched the series Reacher, then you already know the gist of this one which was the basis for the entire second season on Amazon. Jack Reacher teams up with the remnants of his old MP unit from the Army to discover who murdered one of their own.

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning in IMAX: With a shooting budget of $400 million dollars, this is historically, one of the most expensive films to make under Earth’s sun. Shooting took almost a year long hiatus due to a SAG strike affecting all movies being shot at the time. Oddly, the film was released first in foreign markets before being shown in the United States, (I’ll never understand why movie studios do that!) I consider myself a bit late to the party, because to my chagrin, this was a sequel to the last Mission Impossible movie, which I have not seen. Being the big budget popcorn movie it is, it didn’t take long to come up to speed. I got to see it on an IMAX screen, and lo and behold, goodness gracious! Watching Tom Cruise get the bends after diving to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve a high-tech McGuffin from a sunken Russian sub (the underwater photography is gorgeously haunting) and then seeing him walk on the wing of an old biplane in a death-defying stunt will make you hold your breath. Watching this at the IMAX theater did just that, made me hold my breath. This movie, being the end of the series, made me realize it wasn’t just the end of a three-decade-old franchise, it felt like the end of a certain kind of popcorn blockbuster Hollywood is giving up on. (I don’t like Marvel superhero movies.) It is a tragedy of sorts, but at least Tom Cruise goes out in epic style.