Edward's January 2013 Mix

It's the throes of winter here in the Midwest. It's supposedly going to be 2 degrees F next week. I feel like a reincarnated German soldier who died of exposure in the Russian Front in 1941. But then maybe that's what makes the summers here so wonderful. Perhaps it really does boil down to there can be no good without there being bad to accompany. I just know I'll be happy when spring is sprung upon us.

I'm about to have a new PC built. I've built all my own systems the past twenty years, but this time I've decided to do something different. I've researched all the custom build places, and that's been its own special bit of stress. I thought I had one all customized through nifty pull down menus on their site at CyberPower PC, but then I popped into their forums and was overwhelmed with horror stories consisting of two month back order on parts, PCs arriving with the shit kicked out of them from less than attentive UPS drivers and return shipping required to be paid by the poor sap who bought the PC, and my personal favorite: rigs arriving and being dead on arrival. I looked at IBuyPower but they just don't have the combination of components I want. And then I happened to stumble on a tiny place here in the Midwest called Ironside PCs. I live chatted with them and explained my confusion when they didn't pop up in my Google searches, and their rep said, "Well, that's okay. We like it like that. We don't want a high volume of PC builds. We'd rather concentrate on a much lower volume thereby letting us concentrate on quality." And not to mention a full 3 year warranty. I was pretty impressed to say the least. And free shipping to boot, can you beat that?


1. Moonrise Kingdom on Blu-Ray

My favorite comedy director is Wes Anderson. His movies, usually filmed with at least a 28mm wide angle lens have such a late '60's early '70's flair to them. His movies always take me back to my own childhood: trick or treating in a suburb of cookie cutter style houses their only difference being their pastel colored window trims, watching Space Ghost and the Banana Splits on Saturday morning cartoons while wearing my pajamas, my first taste of freedom riding my stick shift 5 speed bicyle to friends' houses who lived blocks away. Wes Anderson rekindles these memories in me and make me realize such moments didn't happen a hundred years ago after all. Oddly, this movie disappointed me. I had followed it on Facebook all last summer when it was released. I was really looking forward to it with its cool cast of Bill Murray, Edward Norton and Bruce Willis. The film takes place in a New England island community in the summer of 1965, and Anderson captured the sense of place/time perfectly. But the dialogue fell flat. Each line seemed to lead up to something profound, but then felt truncated as if there was supposed to be a punchline to follow that didn't arrive. I think Rushmore will still go down as my favorite Anderson vehicle.

2. Lost on Blu-Ray
I'm still in the first season. (I've actually only watched the first disc, 4 episodes.) But still finding this compelling entertainment. It's revealed that Locke was a former cripple who's now found new freedom as a plane crash survivor, and another victim has found freedom from being a fugitive from the law. I like how the episodes are starting to go into each character's background story. I'm hooked.

3. Boards of Canada Music has the Right to Children on CD
It still astounds me how two thirty-something old brothers who originally hail from Scotland, but who lived in Canada for years and fell in love with the place can take old 8 bit synthesizers, drum machines and 8 track recording equipment and produce such beautiful music. This music evokes childhood memories, dusty passages of my kidhood that surface like something passing through spots of sunshine beneath giant shade trees in the summertime. Their warm "organy" tones always make me feel as if I'm standing at a grassy wheat colored field staring out at distant woods on the horizon. And their song titles say it best of all, "Happy Cycling," "Sixtyten" "Turquoise Hexagon Sun." Give them a listen. You'll be caught up.

4. Titan Quest on PC
Yes, I know, I'm STILL playing this game. It's been a long ride, no doubt about that. I'll be glad when it's over, although it has been a blast. Edward Pyro, my esteemed fire mage is now level 25 and soon to be level 26 if I'm not finished the game by then. I have about 35 hours into the game. It I hit the 60 hour mark and I'm still not finished then I'm going to start worrying. I mean, come on! This certainly is no Baldur's Gate or Oblivion. It appears that I have one more city to go into when I've got my current city quested out. It's an important game, some say the only game that ever gave Diablo II any competition. I'm just looking forward now to when I can look back on it and feel accomplished and glad I played it.

5. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
(Stolen from my very own review on www.shelfari.com) In my opinion, William Faulkner was like a GNP of the old South. This man's words flow like honey ingested on cinnamon toast in a breakfast room on a beautiful spring morning. This book, somewhat of a scandalous, dirty read, remeniscient of Peyton Place or To Kill a Mockingbird, or (my personal favorite novel of all time, Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) really enchanted me. Faulkner is a minimalist with words like his literary peers, Hemingway and McCullers and Lee. Much is inferred, he leaves what really happens to be extrapolated by the reader, maybe the whole "truth in fiction" concept. I wouldn't call this a great book, but Faulkner's descriptions took me wholly to his imaginary world of Yoknapatawpha County and made me not want to leave.

6. Tron 2.0 on PC
Probably the most complex first person shooter I've ever played. And like I've said here before, with it's unusual art style, it still utterly gleams by today's standards as it did in 2003 when it came out. I've had to cheat occasionally, nothing major just garnering full health in a few levels. It does have a storyline, one that continues after the movie ended, but honestly not one I particularly care about. It's the neon lit vistas and the uber cool light cycles I care about in this game. I should be finishing it up soon. I'm in the 8th chapter of 11 total.

7. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
I lost a six month chunk of my life back in 2006 to a player made virtual environment called Second Life. Some participants vehemently defended the game against those laypeople who referred to it as a game. Heaven forbid! I got so caught up in it and ever so reluctantly separated myself from, but finally got it accomplished, that despite PC Gamer magazine awarding Minecraft "Innovator of the Year" in their Games of the Year awards last year I have absolutely no desire to explore it, and I probably never will. I made friends in this game that I have never met physically, but I consider them as important friends as people I went to elementary school that I still hang with. My point is, this book. This is the book that started it all. This is the birthplace of the Metaverse behind everything Second Life. Anybody who plays should read this.

8. Civilization V on PC
"Just . . .one . . more . . .turn!" Are these going to be my famous last words? Never have I played a "God game" that's had its hooks in me so deeply. When was the last time you started a game at 9:00 in the evening, and when you look at the clock it's 1:30 in the morning, and you sigh quietly, "hmmm . .one more quick turn, I have to see what happens." And before you know it, it's 3:30. It's only funny until the alarm rings at 6:00 and it's time to get up for work. I'm more of a real time strategy fan, but this game and its turn based strategy is the end all be all model for this genre. Firaxis should include this on airliners and cruise liners and mark it, "To Be Used In the Case of Crash landings or Shipwrecks on Tropical Islands. To Hell with the Rescue." I've learned my lesson the hard way. I only play this game on weekends.

Edward's December 2012 Mix

 

 

I'm sitting here, a midwestern blizzard outside my window, with Christmas less than a five day week away from me. And all I've been doing is working. I work for a strange company that finagles my hours around to where if  I work overtime one day, they send me home early the next day, so in effect, I don't get overtime. How convenient for the bookkeepers! And guess what? I'm working Christmas AND New Years both. The average European gets 6 weeks a year off from work with a 35 hour work week.  The average American worker gets 3 weeks (including sick days) and is expected to work overtime every week. What is wrong with us? Why am I a shmuck because I'd rather be off of work than work to line some corporate suit's pockets? And the salt on the wound is I make slightly more than minimum wage. I don't think I'll ever understand it. It won't matter for much longer anyway. Trust me on this. Wait and see, this issue will swell like an Indonesian tsunami and will make homosexual marriages and marijuana legalization look like a four year old's request to get up to get one more drink of water. Well, despite our Americans' perverted work habits, I still have to feed my hedonistic habits, and I did so this month. Okay, I lied to you. I'm sorry. I TRIED to. I'll put it that way. I actually quit a hell of a lot of stuff this month. For starters I quit my second job. It just wasn't worth it. The money wasn't all that, and I was tired of walking around looking like an extra from The Walking Dead. I quit a few games, too. And you know how much I hate doing that stuff! Well, maybe you won't hate me when I tell you why. Keep reading. :P


1. Terminator and Terminator 2 on DVD

Ah, a return to the classics! I'd not seen these in years, and they're both still enjoyable to watch. Arnold was in his prime in the first movie, and it's interesting how even he didn't take it seriously while they were filming it. According to Wikipedia he called it a "shit" movie. But this, in actuality, was the movie that made the name James Cameron a meme for me. Who can ever forget the haunting photograph of Sarah Connor sitting in the CJ-7 as the storm clouds are gathering on the horizon? The second movie exuded style and techniques that revealed the shortcomings and "low-budgetism" of the first, (though even a jaded critic could see the sincerity that went into the first one.) Robert Patrick was perfect in the role of the T-1000. And even to this day when someon mentions a Harley Fat Boy, how can you not think of Arnold on the one he "borrowed" from the biker in the bar?

2. Lost on Blu-Ray
If you've been following me this far, you know how much I hate television. As a matter of fact I boycott it. I haven't watched network/cable television in many years. I hate commercials that much. When you break them down into what they really are, they are an affront to human intelligence: a vehicle designed to interrupt your viewing experience in a beggar's attempt to get you to buy something. Utter crap.
And that is why I love optical and digital media. I love DVDs and Blu-Ray. And what has me hooked now is Lost. I never watched it the first time around because of my eternal television boycott. But now, getting to see every episode on my terms, commercial free, is something that is almost a utopia of sorts. This stuff is digital crack so far. I've only watched the first two episodes, but the white sands and green water, the green leafy palms depicted on the Blu-Ray disc make me want to go there. It kind of reminds me of Battlefield 2's Wake Island. And those of you know who know what this is can stop laughing about now. Heh. But seriously, is there any other place you'd rather be marooned?

3. Twins of Evil on Blu-Ray
Hammer Films ruled the roost when I was a kid as far as horror movies went. Today, if it's not a homocidal maniac with superhuman strength wreaking havoc it's a teenager spending the first hour of a ninety minute film convincing his peers, "yes, it's true, it was a vampire! I saw a vampire!" Not so with the old Hammer films. These movies opened up with the populace holed up in the local inn at moonrise BECAUSE there are vampires lurking outside. Despite the almost melodramatic tone of these movies, many of them were rated R at the time they came out, and me being a ten year old kid = me not being able to see them. And now obtaining this beautiful transfer onto Blu-Ray of two twin girls, one almost a saint, and the other a conniving little she-devil who falls into the guiles of Count Karnstein who lives in the castle upon the hill and becomes one of the sexiest vampires on film is something I never imagined I'd see. And Peter Cushing, who had just lost his wife, and looks absolutely grievous with his sunken cheeks and cadaverous countenance is grand in his role in this film.

4. Platoon on DVD
In 1986 I had no idea who Charlie Sheen was. All I knew was I went to see this movie that was getting good reviews, and it was about Viet Nam. I was just out of the military myself and somewhat fired up to see something like this. I walked out of the movie disturbed and it wasn't until Spielberg's venerable Saving Private Ryan that I would feel anything similar over a movie. My emotions are easily toyed with via the written word; I'm a bookaholic, but via movies, not so much. Well, not like this movie did anyway. Stone's vision in this movie was dismal, forlorn, almost without hope. But beyond that, it just felt so . . .true. I was a little kid when my parent's friends were all getting drafted to go to Vietnam, but I remember the way they talked. I remember the vernacular, hell, I still use it myself to this day. I still say, "man" when I begin or end certain sentences. This movie makes Coppola's Apocalypse Now look like the parts of Disney's Peter Pan that ended up on the cutting room floor. I'm sorry, Frankie, but this movie made me feel like I was carrying around an anvil in my stomach.

5. Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha on CD
I just happend to hear this band on radiotuna or Pandora, not sure which one now, but it doesn't matter. At times I feel as if I go through life as an automoton, an object under some cruel kid's magnifying glass, walking in a straight line like some Frankenstein monster. And then something comes along, a giant hand or whatever, that picks me up and turns me to the left or right. Suddenly I'm heading into a new direction. This month, this album was that. I'm probably going to have to order another copy. I'm wearing this one out in my CD player. These guys are a cross between Explosions in the Sky and an American version of Sigur Ros. How is it possible to listen to a tune and be moved to tears, then hit repeat and the next time it makes you into the coolest joe on the planet, Ray-Bans on and convertible top pulled down? So odd, how the songs on this album do this, but even moreso odd, how it does it when I'm not paying attention. Heavy on the bass and with a flighty Fender Stratocaster set to full "chorus" and reverb that makes you think of white sand beaches, coconuts about to burst on palm trees and skies so blue they make your chest ache, this is good stuff. The best. I defy you to listen to "Raise the Sails" and not think about running across a spacious green lawn, spreading your arms, raising your face to the sun, eyes closed in glee and preparing to take flight.

6. Titan Quest on PC
Edward Pyro, my esteemed fire mage who lived in this galaxy a long, long time ago, about 5,000 years to be exact, during the Grecian empire, is now level 19 and soon to be level 20. I have about 25 hours into the game. The game is good despite it's age, and, yes, it could be construed as a true Diable II competitor, but I'm ready for it to be over with. I just ran into my first impossible boss in which there was no possible way of defeating him. I mean, how do you beat a guy who when you expend every ounce of energy (mana) and strength (health) you have, his lifeline hasn't moved at all? I began looking for cheats and walk throughs, and unfortunately, couldn't find any. But those old Grecian gods were smiling on me because after a reload the game was bugged, and I simply stood there and wailed melee on the boss culprit and he stood there and took it like a mortal man. I beat him, scored the loot, got the XP (and the level) and discovered I had two more lands to visit.

7. The Black Shrike by Alistair MaClean
"Research scientists needed by top rocket project overseas. Top priority work, highest salaries. Box 41." Would you respond to an ad like this? Unfortunately some scientists did, and now it's up to counterespionage agent Bentall and his cohort, Marie posing as husband and wife to begin at a Fiji hotel to find them. Written in 1961, this book is adventure with a capital A. Part Ian Fleming, part Jules Verne, and a whole lot of Battlefield 2's Wake Island. (There I go again with that weird allusion.) I can't help it, I love the place. I'd move there tomorrow if I could. Google it. You might find yourself wanting to move there as well.

8. Tron 2.0 on PC
This PC game was quite the number back in good ol' 2003. Geeze, was that almost ten years ago? Really? Well, with Monolith's ingenious cartoon/bright graphics/Syd Mead look the game still looks as fantastic as it did when it came out. The Disney movie wasn't all that great, no doubt, but Monolith took the game and made it a continuation of sorts, and it shines. The game is a simple FPS with different nomenclature, and a thinly veiled storyline. Hard to believe I rage quitted this game years ago, but it was one of those games that seemed to hearken to me from its lofty perch on the shelf. So I thought I'd give it another try. I won't say it's a must play game, but I will say it's an important game that won numerous awards upon its release. I try not play games in the dark anymore, it's just murder on the eyes, and with today's LCD screens it really is unnecessary, but this game screams to be played in the dark. Syd Mead's (Blade Runner) influences bleed from this thing like coolant spewing from a liquid cooled i7 processor.

9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on PC
After recently trying GTA III on my PC and finding it wholly incompatible with my operating system I decided to try a more modern version of the game. I found that in GTA:SA. I loved the tone and setting. This was "Sanford and Son" that lost its innocence. Hell, this was "Boyz N the Hood," ripped off. I'm not a fan of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre gangsta rap, but this stuff was tight as I rolled low in my '63 Chevy chop top popping rivals and taking missions from neighborhood gang leaders. This game captured southern LA in 1992 perfectly. And then I discovered something not so perfect. The game was flawed. The game was designed/created/released with  the PC as an afterthought. I aggressively avoid games that eschew my enamored platform like this. Had I known. The game played perfectly, despite the lack of quicksaves I still found it manageable. And then came the the one mission where I had to pose as a limousine driver picking up a famous rap artist at the local awards show (Grammy's anyone? it smells it, looks it, tastes it.) So, I pick the guy up and instead of taking him to his MTV crib, I drive off a local pier with his doors locked while I dive out and swim to shore, mission accomplished. So, I crawl out of the surf, my jam trunks clinging to my skinny legs and butt like flypaper, and what awaits me, but the rap artist's bodyguards. They unload their Uzis into me. So, I had to start the mission over again because they saw me. No big deal, right? Wrong. I had to start the mission all the way over from the VERY beginning. We're talking a three tier mission here with no saves in between. Screw that noise. I played this game because I wanted to ultimately play GTA IV despite its draconian GFWL sign in and mandatory membership/sign in to Rockstar Live or whatever the hell it's called. But I won't now. I'm done with Rockstar. GTA began on the PC. Rockstar, you betrayed us. Now, I never knew you.

10. Gun on PC
I have seen the movie Tombstone ten times. That's not an exaggeration. I have seen The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly also ten times. Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove was one of the best novels I've ever read (and well worth its 1974 Pulitzer). And yet, I don't consider myself a fan of westerns. Gawd, I hate country and western music! But there's something in the writing of these aforementioned vehicles that compel them to me like nothing else can. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly bond me and my stepfather like nothing else ever can. And someday when my beloved stepfather is gone I wonder if I'll be even be able to watch that movie again. When Gun was released in 2006 I had high hopes. Lance Henrickson and Tom Skerritt were voicing major characters in the game, and the game was itself penned by a Hollywood screenplay writer. I picked up the game and installed it, and not soon afterward rage quitted it and uninstalled it due to it's obvious issue with "consolitis." This month I decided to give it another go. I got to the part where I had to race an old prospector named "Honest Tom" to acquire a horse. Impossible. I tried it with the keyboard, and reluctanctly attempted with an Xbox controller. I finally went to the forums at www.gamepressure.com where some idiot going by the name of "Thermos" had to say this about it, "dis mission is so easy dat if u cant do it just dont bother with anymore of the game at all." Kids today. Are our schools that bad? And then someone else, Dark Tom7, (must be Thermos's brother had this to say when asked for advice, "oh yeh if u still cant do it after sell the game and buy crash bandicoot." What? Is this guy texting in on a Walmart buy the minutes phone? The bottom line is, this game like GTA:SA suffers from another case of "consilitis." I'm done with such games. PC games outsell every console game on the planet (yes, all consoles put together. Google it.) Let the consoles' high production values and kiss ass licensing fees sink right along with them. I'm done playing console games that are lazily ported over.

11. PC Gamer Magazine 2010
Still perusing my PC Lamers--this is a magazine I truly love. I get really nostalgic poring over my old issues. Gary Whitta, EIC who penned the truly epic movie, The Book of Eli, Greg "the Vede" Vederman who remains to this day one of the best PC hardware writers I've ever encountered, William R. Trotter who penned the wargaming column for so many years and has penned some bestselling war fiction on his own, Andy Mahood, who writes the sim colum to this day (and who has personally emailed me to answer questions) these are all men after my own heart. I love PC games not only because of their very substance, but also because these are the men who made me fall in love with PC games.

Edward's November 2012 Mix

Another busy month, what with the elections and the end of the world next month. And then the end of the American economy as we know it in January 2013. But I still managed to drink my fill of cultural media. Speaking of the election,  I kind of got into it with my family over my own personal political affiliations. I became a party man in 1992--a straight party man. Despite I'm always being told, "no, you can't vote that way! You'd better vote for the lesser of two evils." Like my personal friend, Michael Badnarik who ran for the US Presidency in 2004 said, "How can I vote for the lesser of two evils and face myself in the mirror the next morning?" So, what if the Libertarian party doesn't have a snowball's chance in Phoenix of filling the White House, I do vote with a clear conscious.


1. Guild Wars 2 for PC

Like I said last month there really is no comparison to other MMOs as far as Guild Wars 2 goes. My golden hearted necromancer, Edward Odious, hit level 80 and I've traveled through several of the game's instances. All really good stuff, and I'm still amazed at how 100% of my grouping has been with PUGs (random pick up groups) and nobody bickers, nobody calls anybody else retarded or n00b, people are kind and helpful. I've never seen such amiability in any other game. Oh, and I looted my first Legendary item, but wouldn't you know it, I wear light armor, these were big steel Herman Munster boots that my class couldn't use. Go figure.

 

2. Street Fighter IV for PC

 

Capcom released this game way back in 1987. I never played it in the arcades, but I peeked over a lot of shoulders of those who did. And in 2009 the game was released for PC. I'm always a little behind the times when it comes to PC games (though I always get to them eventually) so I didn't get the game until 2010 and I almost immediately rage quitted. I've since picked up an Xbox controller, and yeah, it makes a night and day difference. I'm playing it on "Easiest" level. Shhh! and I do okay until I get to the liquid metal guy who kind of resembles a kid's Saturday morning version of the T-1000 Terminator. This guy just mows over me, but I don't care. I'm too busy laughing at his spectacular moves.

3. Codename: Panzers for PC

I played this little gem of game back in 2004, but lost interest all too quickly. I'm giving it another go. Finished the German campaign, and I'm on the last Russian battle, and then it's onto the Americans. I'm portraying a disillusioned Russian officer named Aleksander Vladimiriov who writes such things in his journal, "Strange, the silence that surrounds us has something threatening. From my tent I see the birches next to the dusty pathway. In the sunlight, their leaves are shining like millions of gems." This coupled with the unintentional comedic cutscenes where the guys move around like Gerry Anderson's "Supermarionation" characters in Thunderbirds Are Go! make this game a must play. Shiny crisp graphics and enough authentic details on the war weaponry to satisfy the diehards, this game is a baby version of Company of Heroes. I recommend you pick it up on eBay for seriously dirt cheap.

 

 

4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

 

Michael Valentine is a Martian on the planet Earth. He's the FIRST Martian on Earth, and he decides to show people the Martian way. Simple words do not convey; he takes these people under his wing and through osmosis "indoctrinates" them into being Martians much like himself. How to do? He becomes the world's biggest cult leader, advertising free love and unconditional physical affection, communion is held by the simple passing back and forth of a glass of water where "brotherhood" is earned. And in the end we realize Valentine is far greater than the sum of his parts.  I know this is the most "classic" of Heinlein you can get, but I still find his vintage SF more appealing. This book, when written in 1961, was filled with controversy. Today it offers a mere PG outlook. Entertaining, and an obvious vehicle for Heinlein's Libertarian views, but slow in parts and not one I would read again. (This stolen from my review on Shelfari.com.)

 

5. My War Gone By, How I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd

 

"There is no God behind me, and I have strong doubts concerning the existence of a soul these days, but when I look at a corpse it always seems as if there is more than simply life missing. There have been a few disturbing exceptions when death gives more than it takes. I once saw a dead Russian girl. In her early twenties, long haired and lithe, she had caught a bit of shrapnel in her chest, one of those tiny wounds that you would not believe could take a life but does. Alive she was strikingly pretty. Dead she was so beautiful you could have raised an army to sack Troy just for possession of her casket." And so begins the journal of a bored British soldier who joins up in the life and death struggle among the Serbs, Croatians, and the Bosnian Muslims. I've only begun this book, but I haven't read any war story so bleak yet poignant since Guy Sajer's classic, The Forgotten Soldier years ago.

 

6. Preacher Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis, illustrated by Steve Dillon

 

I'm not a fan of graphic novels, not really. But my daughter picked this up somewhere, not sure where. I found it while perusing one of our bookshelves the other day, and when I saw the introduction was written by Joe Lansdale it stuck to my fingers like glue. This thing is wild and crazy at best. An angel and a demon fall in love and produce a well, an anti-superhero whose strength knows no bounds? And the zany trio who come together to destroy this thing, are the most unlikely people in the universe to even be capable of such a thing. Like Kevin Smith says, "More fun than going to the movies." I'm only halfway through this, volume 1 (of nine). I'm concerned at this point where I'm going to find the other volumes.

 

7. Titan Quest on PC

 

Still enjoying this brother with a different Diablo mother. My fire mage, Edward Pyro has recently hit level 13 and figures he is halfway completed through his tour of ancient Greece fighting undead soldiers and fatal creatures of Grecian lore. Medussa anyone? His fire flinging skills and lighting staff are becoming incredibly powerful. Now if he could just find some legendary loot.

 

8. Alien Quadrilogy: Alien 4: Resurrection on DVD

 

I have not seen the newest Ridley Scott Alien remake, Prometheus. Yep, it's true. I really am looking forward to seeing it, but in the meantime I did manage to watch this last old school Alien movie for the first time. It's always a pleasure to see Michael Wincott in anything. This guy is the ultimate bad guy. (Superb casting him as the evil gangleader in The Crow.) Sigourney Weaver played her part amazingly well as her newly resurrected former self. And the discovery of the android was a pleasant surprise. I think the real star of this one though was the half human/half alien. That look on its face when it was being sucked through the bulkhead leak was pitiful. Looking at Sigourney Weaver its "mommy," with such sadness. Unforgettable.

 

9. Ten by Pearl Jam on CD

 

When Pearl Jam formed in 1990 many thought they were simply a "cash-in" of the quite popular grunge movement hatching in Seattle, Washington. Funny, they've outlasted so many bands of their ilk. This, their first album, still holds up great. The bass on "Alive," sounds incredible on a good audio system, and Eddie Vedder's haunting "Black," is a perfect PJ song. Strange that they hail from the same stomping grounds as the venerable Jimi Hendrix, and they have such Hendrix overtones in their songs. Almost spooky.

 

10. Audioslave by Audioslave on CD

 

Their videos depicting hot lemon sunshine and dusty country roads and classic muscle cars is the perfect backdrop to this LA based rock band. Their unusal sound of 1970's hard rock melded with 90's rock is an interesting but quite effective marriage. I've been spinning this first album of theirs a lot lately. There isn't a bad song on the disc. Chris Cornell sounds like a man with a very old soul, or at least one who's walked a lot of highways and seen a lot of truck stops and roadside motel rooms. Good stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward's October 2012 Mix

Strange month for me, really. Well, as far as interactive entertainment goes anyway. I finished number 7 in the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles (it was okay, not her best) and as far as gaming, well, about the ONLY thing I've been playing is Guild Wars 2, and this past week I've been slacking off on that. I've been watching numerous Blu-Rays and I still very much love the technology. Now if I could get a wall mounted 60" screen with 7.1 digital surround sound to fully enjoy it in all of its glory. I did manage to get published in the December 2012 issue of PC Gamer. Hooah! I've taken on a second job, and yeah, it's only one week a month, but that week is a hell week because I get basically no sleep. I even turned my computer off for 3 days straight, imagine that. I've not done that in . . .hmm... years?


1. Guild Wars 2 for PC

There really is no comparison to other MMOs as far as Guild Wars 2 goes. It's like an MMO in the perfect state. PC Gamer magazine awarded it a 94% and my cousin's husband recently told me all of his World of Warcraft friends abandoned that game to migrate over to Guild Wars 2. Really, I'm not surprised. Edward Odious has hit level 79, and isn't far from the level 80 cap. Just like I said last month, this is the finest PC game I've played in two years. I can't imagine playing another MMO. Ever.

2. Six Feet Under: Season Two on DVD

In actuality this show isn't fit to watch as far as decency and decorum. Michael Ball really pushes the homosexual thing, and the amount of f bombs in the show make me think their staff of dialogue writers are a freshmen class at a UCLA Screenplay writer's class, but once in a while someone says something so profound it just makes me think about it the whole rest of the day. I haven't watched anything on television that has changed the way I look at the world like this show. I've grown fond of the characters, well, except for Brenda, Nate's girlfriend. She's totally screwed up and classically blames it on her parents. Okay, so now do something about it instead of demand the world feel sorry for you. Well, in the final episode she packed her bags and went. Maybe it's permanent. Fingers crossed.

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey on Blu-Ray

Like a friend of mine on Facebook recently said about this movie. It's one of the most boring great films of all time, and it is. I remember it came out when I was a kid, and I later got to see it in full 70mm at an eclectic movie theater in San Diego, California, but I have to admit, I wasn't braced for the beauty of the film on Blu-Ray. I may not watch it again, but it makes me warm and fuzzy to know I have it on my shelf. It really is an important film, one every SF fan should have.

4. The Book of Eli on Blu-Ray

Penned by a personal familiar, Gary Whitta (former editor of PC Gamer Magazine) I had heard this was a great movie. It may not be a religious movie, per se, but it's definitely one of the more spiritual movies I've seen. Whitta was playing a lot, shoot, a whole truckload of Fallout 3 when he wrote this, and you can clearly see similarities. I've read on blogs that numerous people now play FO3 while listening to the soundtrack of this movie (and yes, the soundtrack is amazingly a world unto itself--it's only shortlist of CD's to buy.) Read numerous reviews of this film and it's funny how some of the athiests who watched it and reviewed said it's not a spiritual movie at all, ha!

5. Drag me to Hell on Blu-Ray

A nice take and homage to the old style horror flicks, be a bad person or do a bad deed and terrible things happen to you. This involves a rather charming young loan officer who denies an old Russian immigrant an extension on her home mortgage. And this, after two previous extensions. So the old woman puts a curse on her and she gets harrassed and terrorized by a demon until supposedly the third day when the demon drags her down to Hell. Well, first, didn't the old woman realize that's the way it works, you pay your mortgage or you lose your house? And she said she had nobody to help her out, but yet when she dies, and our illustrious loan officer goes to her house it's filled with happy Russkies celebrating a wake. This seemed like a slippage in the shooting script to me, heh, but hey, it was fun to watch, and looked great on Blu-Ray. It's a keeper. Perhaps one of the better Sam Raimi movies I've seen: chills, thrills, and the same gross humor that you'd find in one of his Bruce Campbell vehicles.

6. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

This has been on my reading list for years, and if you go to my bookshelf on  http://www.shelfari.com/o1516830181 you can easily see I'm a Heinlein fan, albeit more for his older stuff. You can't beat Red Planet, Space Cadet and Starship Troopers for good ol' rock'em sock'em science fiction that's fun to read. This novel, however, has been declared one of the best SF novels ever written. It's much too soon to tell, only about 1/5th of the way into it, but it's moving well, and involves the titular Martian brought to Earth for the first time.
 

Edward's September 2012 Mix

Edward's September 2012 Mix

 

 

 

 

A landmark month actually--I turned half a century old today. Quite sobering to realize I have many more years behind me than I do ahead of me. If I'm lucky I'll have 20 to 30 more Christmases. I guess it doesn't sound too bad when you think of it like that. Actually, that's a ton more Christmases. Speaking of Christmas I've felt just about overwhelmed this month with something quite comparable to Yuletide joy, and that is total ebullience with a RL event I attended and a great new game that released. Details below:

1. Guild Wars 2 for PC

There really is no comparison to other MMOs as far as Guild Wars 2 goes. It's like an MMO in the perfect state. Imagine, a massive multiplayer game that lovingly persuades total cooperation and participation. You get XP for every single thing the game has to offer whether it be crafting, exploring, crafting or even reviving fellow players who've fallen. The loot drops are spectacular, and simply grouping up with one other person, hell, you don't even need to officially group up, just fight alongside them, and it causes the loot quality to ramp up even more. There is no typical dungeon run with the holy trinity (tank, dps, and healer.) This game goes beyond that. Everybody is a hero, and nobody is a failure. My necromancer, Edward Odious, is making his own history with his band of mishapen mongrels and animated flesh fiends. Feel free to join me on the Dragonbrand server. This is, clearly, the finest PC game I've played in two years. I can't imagine playing another MMO. Ever.

 

2. Titan Quest for PC

 

I failed at Neverwinter Nights. Actually, let  me rephrase that, I believe it's more like Neverwinter Nights failed me. I was midway in Chapter 3 (of the game's 4 chapters) and I just got bored out of my skull. I encountered a dragon that continually chewed up me and my henchman over and over and over and over and over, and I just decided, okay, 66.5 hours of this is enough. I admire what NWN did at the time for storyline and graphics, but I will never finish it. Bioware, you stomped my butt with this one. I loaded up Titan Quest to play on my laptop, and I'm already engrossed. It moves fast, it's flashy, it's easy (so far) and I find the early Greek/Roman setting fascinating. It's like a Diablo game played in the sunshine.

 

3. Blood & Gold by Anne Rice

 

I love Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. Her characters have always appealed to me with their quiet dark sadness, and how immortality traps them and most of them eventually fall into madness because of it. In this novel, book 7 in the series, we accompany Marius, a Roman senator, from his days of watching the Roman Empire fall to modern times. I'm a fourth of the way into it, and I'm already sucked in (pun intended) by Marius's quiet dedication to his state of being as a vampire charged with overseeing The Ones Who Must Be Kept (the original male and female vampires that birthed the first vampires in the Anne Rice kingdom.)

 

4. Achtung Baby by U2 on CD

 

I've always felt this album and Zooropa shared the same engineered fuzzy guitar intros that sounded as if they were amped through tin cans on a string and were probably siamese twins miraculously separated at birth, but this one truly wins out being produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Some of the best lyrics I've ever heard vocalized by Bono, and definitely some of the finest bass I've ever listened to compliments of Adam Clayton. Clayton's technique is honey to my ears. He makes me want to go buy a bass guitar. I liked U2 in the early years, but it seemed to me they got way too commercial way too fast. This album is a testament to that, undoubtedly, but it stole my heart anyway. And knowing that Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois produced it makes the icing almost surpass the cake. This is not just some good stuff, but some of U2's best stuff in my opinion.

 

5. Metaphor by Patrick O'Hearn on CD

 

The former bassist for the early 80's band, The Missing Persons, and pretty much a household name in the world of New Age music, bassist and musical maven, Patrick O' Hearn was nominated for 2 Grammy's over the years. It seems his newer works have gotten sunnier in tone, yet more complex. This one was released in 1998 and just seems to capture that perfect pinnacle when O' Hearn transformed his music from the somber dark stuff to more upbeat pieces of music. It's currently on auto-repeat on my car's sound system and it's really giving my subwoofer a workout. Listening to this album you can actually hear the transformation taking place. "The Women of Lachaise" might very well be the most beautifully haunting song on the planet.

 

6. PC Gamer Magazine 2008

 

I'm going back over issues for the year 2008. Ah, who could forget Left 4 Dead and Age of Conan? I totally fell into the hype surrounding Age of Conan and got immolated for it. I swore never again. (I didn't buy into the GW2 hype, but found I didn't need to.) I did, however, victimize myself to the Battlefield 3 hype and then met with an unrequited experience when I was unable to purchase a computer to play it on.

Seriously though, The Witcher came out in 2008, and that was a grand game to play through.  

 

7. Wes Craven's Horror Collection: 3 movies on DVD

 

The Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker, and The People Under the Stairs. Only the first movie, starring a very early Bill Pullman (and his hair) has any sense of credibility to it. And it is downright eerie, involving Haiti and voodoo.

 

Shocker seems to be Craven's attempt to shoot a movie and have a ball at the same time. A boy discovers his family brutally murdered by a serial killer, and then in the very next scene we hear him grunting and straining as he's exercising so he can stay in top form for the local college football team. The guy who plays Walter Skinner in the X-Files (Mitch Pillegi) is the serial killer, a rockabilly badass who's too goofy to seem truly evil. Watch this movie, but first buy a hernia belt.

 

The People Under the Stairs was a strange movie inspired by a news story Craven read about a mother and father who kept their children trapped in the house and never let them outside. This one was the disappointment of the three. I wouldn't say it was outright bad, but not sure I'd sit through it again.

 

8. Ohio Renaissance Festival 2012

 

I got to attend this gala event with some very good friends, and it's the most fun I've had in the real world in a long time. Imagine a 30 acre field mowed down with a medieval village built in the center of it. The atmosphere was spot on, the ladies, (er . .uh, wenches) looked ravishing in their costumes, and I even got to see armored knights joust. But the tall dark mage I saw with the batwing cloak and the tall staff with the crystal ball atop it supported by the talons of a crow's foot truly made the day. I want to go back next year. As a matter of fact, I think I want to go back every year. I've become a real fan.  

Edward's August 2012 Mix

Edward's August 2012 Mix

The summer for the history books is behind us. Of course, since I work inside it really seemed to be little more than a blur for me, something happening to everybody else. Were I ditchdigger or a landscaper I'd probably feel differently. Oh well, it's been another busy month nonetheless. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 and I had a bad parting of the ways. 140 hours and 2 years lost. Down the tubes. The game glitched and corrupted. I tried everything. I tried a reinstallation. I even tried a system restore. For some reason my rig thinks the game has cooties now. It simply will not boot up whatsoever. And to think I was 3 guys away from the monster himself. Fate, honestly, has a gross sense of humor.

1. Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 on DVD

So much has happened in a mere 3 seasons of this incredible show. The humans have landed and settled on a serendepitiously discovered planet they christen, New Caprica. And all is golden until the cylons discover and invade it. Allegiances come into question as Gaius Baltar turns traitor and the Galactica makes a bold rescue. The cylons turn Baltar over to the Colonials, and he is put on trial. The court room episode is truly some of the best writing on television I've ever seen. And then who can forget Admiral Adama's heart rending speeches.

2. The Mary Onettes on CD

Take a little known band from Norway, throw in a bit of The Church, and a pinch of The Jesus & Mary Chain, and top it off with an icing made of The Cure and you have this wonderful band who sound as if they stepped out of an 80's time machine. You can't help but feel totally cool when people ask you, "Hey man, who is that band you're playing?" Spinning this CD I've gotten that a lot lately. Look up "Lost" or "Explosions" on Youtube. You'll see what I mean.

3. Manny's Search by Edward C. Burton

My novel. It's done! Yay! Well, not 100%, but the manuscript format is completed and has been accepted. Next comes the cover. My friend Michael Tran crafted it for me with his uber artistic skills. Unfortunately, saved as a .pdf file created from Photoshop Elements it's entirely too big. I'll have to work on getting the file size down without sacrificing resolution. I don't care; I can do this. The hard part was getting the manuscript down to 0 formatting errors so CreateSpace (who finalizes it for Amazon.com) would accept it.

4. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Maybe she's a chick author, but I love Anne Tyler's writing. I fell in love with The Accidental Tourist years ago. Her characters are the people next door, and she writes them with such aplomb--all the little daydreams, the regrets, the woulda-coulda-shouldas. She writes passages that make me grin silly and reread them over and again. I've said it before, but she reminds me of a female counterpart to Norman Rockwell with the blank page being her slate. This novel concerns a 53 year old widow who lives with her deceased husband's family because she feels so much a part of the family. It's an endearing tale already, and I'm only 100 pages into it.

5. PC Gamer Magazine 2007

I'm reading my back issues of the year 2007 now. Ah, a rather memorable year, actually. Who could forget the release of Windows Vista, nothing short of a complete train wreck. (Although I did like DirectX 10 and the new Games Startup Menu.) And lest we not forget Bioshock and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. Will Wright released Spore, which was speculated to be an almost Sims killer, but that didn't happen. Instead the game had DRM that launched a cavalcade of Amazon 1 star reviews.

6. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on PC

Speaking of Stalker, yes, I'm attempting to tackle it again. Easily one of the most haunting games I've ever played I first started playing it on release (2007) and found it simply too difficult. I got angry and uninstalled it. Then I tried a year later and like an idiot got far into the game and forgot to save. I saved right before an untimely demise. And then I got pissed and uninstalled it again. Well, now that I'm 4 years older and more mature I've decided to reattempt it. I've made great progress; I'll get it this time. It has all the eeriness of a X-Files episode mixed with the design path choices of Deus Ex coupled with the loneliness of Fallout 3. It's a game well worth playing.

7. Battlefield 2 on PC

This is one of my favorite games of all time. I started playing it again to get used to my new Razer Naga mouse which I purchased for Guild Wars 2 when it ships. (You need it to survive PvP.) Battlefield 2 is truly one of the only online games I'm good at but only because I've played it for so long. I've played it since its release in 2005, and it will always be on my hard disk drive as long as the breath of Life resounds in its servers. Crazy as it may seem, the maps in the game always exude a sense of home for me, and I find myself thinking about them even when I'm outside and away from the game. Is this even possible, can you be homesick for someplace that exists only virtually? This game is my Matrix. And it probably always will be.

8. Prison penpals

I write to two people who are incarcerated. One is a distant relative and the other is a family friend. I can't imagine living life like a caged canary, but these two people do it everyday. I think I'd be headed for a padded room. I wrote the relative the other day and explained how DVDs have been surpassed by Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray is being surpassed by online streaming. That totally blew his mind. My letters seem to be a ray of sunshine to these people, or at least that's what they tell me. Do I really make a difference to these people? In the grand scheme of things, maybe not. But I feel like I do. And in the immortal words of Emily Dickinson, "If I can save one heart from breaking, my life will have been worth it." I think my letters save lives.

Edward's July 2012 Mix

Edward's July 2012 Mix

It's been an unusually hot summer. And how best to avoid the simmering sun by staying inside? I did manage to finish Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3. Wow, what a cliffhanging ending!! Captain Picard, a Borg? I finished reading Michael Chricton's first novel, The Andromeda Strain. Great book, and despite being published in the early 1970's not nearly as dated as you might think. Okay, without further ado, this is what I've been into this month.

1. Northern Exposure: The Second Season on DVD

I wasn't an avid fan of this back when it originally aired back in the mid nineties. Goodness, did I miss out. I adore this show. The writing exudes profundity, and the slightly quirky characters remind me of when I was a kid and thinking The Robinson family of Lost in Space literally lived in the television set. This show affects me in that same strange way. Each episode I get to peer in on the character's lives and their idiosyncrasies. I'm so intrigued I can't help but to quietly root for them. Chris's observations he so wisely puts into words as he dj's at the radio station is the icing on the cake.

2. PC Gamer Magazine 2006

Reading through my back issues of this grand magazine I'm now in the midst of 2006. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Company of Heroes. These two games alone defined great gaming in the year 2006. I still play these games today. I have yet to finish Oblivion. And Company of Heroes will always reside on my hard drive. I've said it before, I think it's the best RTS ever made. Bar none.

3. Never Winter Nights on PC

I'm still weaving my way through this game. I'm at the tail end of Chapter 2 and my stately paladin, Edward Dogooder, is doing just that. Saving damsels in distress, defeating evil and lining his pockets with gold along the way. He's delivered the cure to the plague that was the scourge of the land, and has become a local hero of sorts. 45 hours and at level 11, I still have far to go.

4. Need for Speed: Carbon on PC

Occasionally I get an itch for simulated car racing. The last NFS speed game I played (NFS: Most Wanted) took me 130 hours to beat and, well, actually, I didn't beat it. I mean, I beat all the street racers, working my way up the ladder to the final boss. But then there was an APB put out on me in the final cut scene and when the AI turned the car back over to me I had twenty plus po-pos on my tail and despite numerous attempts to thwart them I couldn't do it. So, I didn't beat the game. It beat me. Oh well, I got to watch the final scene on Youtube, and now I've started the sequel. So far it feels considerably easier than Most Wanted was, but I know the AI in these games can ramp up rather quickly. Still, it feels good to be back in the saddle again, amongst the tricked out cars and some hilarious cheesy blue screen actors, and of course, the beautiful babe who's my flippant sidekick and always leaves me wondering if she's really on my side.

5. The Bottoms by Joe Landsdale

Joe Landsdale is a good ol' boy southern writer from the great state of Texas. I've followed his writing since the late 1980's. He's one of the more underrated writers who's entertained me like no other. This novel concerns a boy and his sister during the Great Depression that discover a dead body in the creek near their house and the ramifications this find has on their small community. One reviewer said this novel was like "an X rated Andy Griffith episode." I'm not that far into it, but so far I can see it's going to be a humdinger of a novel, no doubt.

6. F.E.A.R. 2:Project Origin on PC

Regarded to be not nearly as frightening as the first one, I wholly beg to differ. The original F.E.A.R. had awkward music queues and a tell tale grind of the hard disk drive as it loaded components of the game into RAM, so you  always knew when the crap was about to hit the fan. The sequel offers no such advantage. This is the best horror game I've played in a long time, with some of the best jump out of my seat moments since Dead Space. The script is as convoluted as the first game, but it's not a big deal. You'll spend far more time trying to shake the lead feeling of dread encompassing you than worrying about the plot line.

7. The Annual Summer Sale on Steam

If, as a pc gamer you're not familiar with Steam I must ask you from which cave did you emerge or from which rock have you been living under for the past seven years? Steam is having a hellacious sale and I've already purchased 3 games with no let up in sight. It's a miracle if this sale doesn't bankrupt me, seriously. Prices are low, and they allow user members to vote on select titles to offer at even lower prices. This is Black Friday in July. If you don't check this out then the bottom line is simply this: you are NOT a gamer.

8. Magic: The Gathering on pc and the collectible card game

I've been playing quite a bit of Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012 on my PC. And this has led to a blessed reuinion with my old Magic buddies (these are the guys who taught me to play way back in 1995.) It's great to be playing again after a many year long haitus. It's frustrating that my old cards get steamrolled by the modern decks, but then it's great to hear such comments as, "Dude, do you know how much that card is going for that you have?" Heh. Good times.