Edward's November 2025 Monthly Mix

 

 

 

Radiohead's grammy award winning OK Computer is one of my favorite albums of all time. I frequently have it on autorepeat. I was elated when my guitar teacher, Michael Stevens, selected it for me to learn. It's given me a new respect for the band and the intricacies of their songs. Give "Let Down" a good listen and you'll see what I mean. This month also saw me returning to a game I played heavily over a decade ago. Playing it now makes me wonder why I ever left it in the first place. The only con being, now I'm not playing anything else. My backlog continues to grow. Winter is upon us, it's time to stay indoors. Maybe it's a good time to work on the backlog anyway.  

 

Expo: Magic of the White City on DVD: Narrated by Gene Wilder, this is the story of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, aka The Chicago World’s Fair. It’s hard to believe the effect this spectacular event had on the entire United States after its showcase ended. Cracker Jacks, Juicy Fruit gum and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and the advent of the Ferris Wheel amongst other things. The event took over half a year to build and ran for six months straight. This documentary details the planning, construction and summarizes what a visit to the fair would be like. There’s never been another spectacle like it since, nor will there probably ever be again.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt: Being a kid who grew up in rentals and houses with wheels,  I lacked for wants much more than I did for needs and I complained a lot. After reading this bleak memoir about a boy in early twentieth century Irish slums, I have to wonder now what, if anything, did I really have to complain about? The book is as much of a recounting of the boy's life as it is story of his downtrodden mother and her hard life as seen through his eyes. I'm not often affected by a book like this, but after reading it, I visited Google Earth to see the actual Irish neighborhood where all of this occurred. I thought Dickens' London underbelly was bad!  

Guild Wars 2 on PC: Released in 2012, this remains one of the most popular MMOs out there, and it’s enjoying a huge resurgence right now. I revisited it and now I can’t stop playing it. It’s the friendliest MMO I’ve ever experienced. You’ll get no, “Hey, you need to “git gud,” or
“learn to play” here. It’s the type of game you can leave for three years and come back to and not feel like you’ve missed out on anything. The game has it all: open world player VS environment, player VS player, word VS world, and staged meta events open to all players. Loot showers are steady rewards for anything you do, and the base game is free. I encourage you all to try the game out; you won’t be disappointed.  

 

Bite by Richard Laymon: You’ve seen me say it before, but a year or so ago I didn’t even know who this guy was, and now I’ve read two of his books and am working on this one, a third book. This one concerns a girl who enlists the aid of an old friend, a guy who crushed on her in high school, to get rid of a vampire who’s been pestering her. The two of them accomplish the deed, but that’s where the problems arise when they try to dispose of the body. It turns into a road trip with a maniac threatening to expose their dastardly deed, and the distraught couple begin to wonder if unwanted passenger is more dangerous than the vampire was. Laymon has a gift for plot motion and characterization.

Mary Poppins on Blu Ray: I found this on Blu Ray recently and decided to give it a rewatch over the double disk DVD collector set I’ve owned for years. Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, it ended up winning 5 of them including Best Actress, Best Visual Effects and Best Song. The making of the movie met with some impedance in the guise of P.L. Travers, herself, the author of the books the movie was based on. She insisted on being a creative consultant which was a condition upon which the movie was made and was nitpicky over everything that went into the film. (Oddly, the film was nominated for a Best Writing Award, despite Travers’ niggling.) She did not think Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke (who was picked because of his performances on The Dick Van Dyke Show) were suitable for the parts and did not want them cast. The Blu Ray version is the one to have with its impeccably good color transfer and crispness and the sound mix which is probably the best I’ve ever heard in a Disney film. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beaches Blame My Ex on Amazon Music: Not sure how this group popped up on my Amazon Music (or was it Sirius XM?), but I am pleasantly amazed. An all-girl band, this quad rocks! Starting out as a punk rock-ish type band, with this album, their second release, they traded the edgier riffs for more reverb and it paid off in record sales and sold out shows. Their song lyrics are original and ostensibly come from life experience and their music is catchy. Reminiscent of the 80s mixed with a tinge of the early aughts, give this a listen and you might find yourself a new pet owner, the recipient of an ear worm, the good kind.

 

 

Edward's Monthly Mix October 2025

 

Halloween is always fitting for a viewing of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. And despite the price of candy exorbitating (yeah, I know, it’s not a word, but I just made it one) due to tariffs, people spent a record number on candy this year. It just goes to show, tradition dies hard. Good luck trying to kill the spirit of a holiday in America. Halloween is the one time of year when death takes center stage in the West. Skeletons hang from doors, jack o’ lanterns grin from porch banisters, and giant grim reapers show up in the seasonal aisle at Home Depot. For a few weeks, the thing we spend the rest of the year avoiding becomes incredibly visible. Speaking of incredible, it was an incredible busy month this month in my monthly mix world. Oh boy, that’s a tongue twister.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon on Blu Ray: I had a wonderful opportunity this month to revisit this classic, albeit in 3D. My sister has the setup, the glasses and the player. It was exciting to see the creature reach out with those oversized claws right into your face, or watch scuba equipped scientists swim toward you with their spear guns looking like they were going to poke your eyes out! I had no idea, the original movie was actually shot in 3D, and was released that way in limited venues. The 3D fad quickly died out about the same time this movie was made, hence, its rarity as a fully 3D feature. I took my grandson with me to my sister’s to watch it and now he’s obsessed. He wants all things Creature from the Black Lagoon. Oddly, I was the same way when I watched the movie for the first time when I was about twelve years old. Shoot, I wanted to grow up to be a professional scuba diver! Incidentally, in 2009 I got to meet Ricou Browning, who played the creature in the underwater scenes. He was white headed and aged, but short and quite powerfully built.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins: Reading a Tom Robbins novel is not only like taking a walking tour through a Richard Scarry Busytown book, but also a wonderful trip into the imagination (not to mention a little sidetrip into a dictionary or two.) His love for words, much like Robert Frost , utilizes delightfully clever metaphors and glimmery erudite usage that makes reading one of his books a true literary adventure. This book was no different. Robbins' main character is a woman and he does a fine job of writing the book through "her" eyes. And her cohort, Larry Diamond, flamboyantly confident despite bearing a debilitating affliction, were both memorable though hardly believable characters. Not the best Tom Robbins book I've read, but a jolly fun read.

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines on PC: Released in 2007, here is a super little known fact for you. It was made in the Half Life Source engine and was released one day before Half Life, so it actually beat one of the most popular storied shooters out the door. Unfortunately, it was also buggy and rushed to fruition. It has since been patched up (mostly by fans) and is now a quite playable game. It’s dated, granted, but still a fun game. I’m in the front part of the game, but I wish I had played it earlier.

Borderlands on Steam: Randy Pitchford catches a lot of flak. He’s a wiseacre accused of possessing child pornography (for which he was not only exonerated, but countersued for the slander—and good for him!) and he’s personally impelled me to write him a letter (via Computer Gaming World Magazine accusing him of ageism. And he’s the scapegoat for the new Borderlands 4, despite, its system requirements, being a good game. Still, I find myself going back to the OG, and oddly, getting back into it for the sake of my old buddy, Vic Berwick (who quickly decided it was not his kind of game). Cartoony graphics based on a Mad Max motif make this a scratch itch game that’s funnier than it has any right to be. Thanks to my buddy, Garrett Thrasher, I’ll be able to get through it for a third time.

Lost in Space Season 3 on Blu Ray: I’m finally on the final season of my favorite television season of all time. This was the series that cleared the streets when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the show was on its way out this season, unbeknownst to the cast and crew. It had become campy and competitive with other network television shows (e.g. Batman) and obviously lost the race. I see now, the show’s campiness is what led to its demise. At this point, it was turning into a Saturday morning children’s show produced by Irwin Allen instead of Sid and Marty Kroft. There was a cool upgrade to the third season in that John Williams changed the theme music to make it more upbeat and adventurous, introducing the countdown pictogram of each cast member. Lost in Space being more of a storytelling platform where Star Trek was more of a philosophizing one prompted Gene Rodenberry to say it best: "That show accomplishes what it sets out to do. Star Trek is not the same thing". 

 

 

Little Nightmares on Steam:  Trying to get as many games knocked out as I can this year, I thought I would try to complete a simple little game. Little Nightmares came up in my list and I was like, why not? It’s a platformer, which I typically suck at. But I weathered on, despite the fact that it’s a 6 hour game that took me 11 hours to beat. Not sure I’ll ever play Little Nightmares 2, but it was an interesting game. The graphics and the music were interesting to say the least. I suppose the only thing keeping me going on was the fact that it was a 6 hour game. Go me! 

 

 

Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special ’76 on Youtube: Halloween 1976 I turned 14 years old. It was an important year. It was our Bicentennial, our 200^th year of declaration of freedom from the old motherland. Variety shows were still hip, The Carol Burnett Show anyone? My friend, Jeri Bragg, turned me onto this show and brought it to my attention that you could watch it in its entirety on YouTube. Talk about bringing back memories! We have Paul Lynde accompanied by Margaret Hamilton (reprising the role that made her by far the most famous) hosting a small array of television guests including Florence Henderson and Tim Conway. And no worries, Jeri, I won't forget Donny and Marie Osmond. LOL!) Of course, the main draw for me was KISS! They sang “Detroit Rock City,” (though it was obviously dubbed and sans Ace’s great solo) it was still fun to watch despite Peter’s lack of visibility tucked behind a drum set (although he got his comeuppance when he performed “Beth” on a piano.) Seeing them perform was cool, especially when Gene Simmons snuck in a very prominent fire blow. 

 

 

Secret Level Season One on Amazon Prime: My buddy, Vic Berwick, turned me onto this one. I was reluctant at first because . . . anime? But it really wasn’t, not at all. It’s rather CGI. And it’s all done in environments created from our favorite video games. I was flabbergasted by what I saw, and the good part? Each episode is 7-10 minutes long. What’s not to like about that? Not to mention the guest stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves. If you want to see what your new 8K TV can do, watch this show. 

 

 

Edward's September 2025 Monthly Mix

 

Tipping. According to ChatGPT it’s substantial and expected in the United States, but not necessarily in other countries. I think it’s a shame that an employee is expected to gain his or her renumeration from the general public or clientele rather than the guy signing his or her paycheck. It’s getting to the point where I really have to watch my pennies, and a restaurant meal can easily run up to fifty bucks. My daughter (who has experience in the restaurant service industry) always frowns at me when she and I go somewhere and I leave a tip. I guess maybe I have adopted a stingy attitude toward it, but eating out for me has become somewhat of a rarity because I simply can’t afford to do it anymore. I guess being on permanent vacation I now have a lot of time to think piecemeal about weird stuff like this. Believe me, this is the stuff I think about when I’m sitting here amongst my music, my books, my movies and my guitar.  

 

TRON on Blu Ray: I’ve had the two disk DVD collector’s edition of this for decades now, but I figured it was time to give the Blu Ray a spin. I’m glad I did. The transfer is crisp and very clean. Scratches, blemishes and marks have been carefully removed, and the whole of the film has been rejuvenated and renewed. I’ve read that a comparison between the Blu-ray edition and its DVD counterpart reveals just how much of an upgrade fans should prepare for. Edges and textures are catalog-crisp and classically refined. Saturation, warm colors and rich blacks create a suitably pleasing series of scenes. On the Grid, bold blues, oranges and reds mingle with inky shadows and ghostly grays, all in support of Tron's once-groundbreaking visuals. Tron received nominations for Costume Design and Best Sound. Oddly it was disqualified from the Best Visual Effects category because at the time the Academy felt that using computer animation was "cheating." Oh my, how times have changed. The film, in case you’ve been living under a rock all of these years, stars “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges) as Kevin Flynn who searches for proof that he invented a hit video game and becomes digitized by a laser and finds himself inside "The Grid", where programs suffer under the tyrannical rule of the Master Control Program. With the help of a security program called "TRON", Flynn seeks to free The Grid from the MCP. It is rather a hokey movie, but Jeff Bridges great acting does step in to save the day. Best watched on a big screen with all of the lights out. 

 

 

 

 

 

Carpathian Castle by Jules Verne: Typical fun "science-y" story by visionary, Jules Verne. This one concerns a supposed haunted castle looming over a small Transylvanian city in the latter 1800s. Great characters compelled to seek out mysterious goings on at this strange decrepit castle, despite their better judgement to stay away because of supernatural occurrences emanating from the place. The book evolves into an adventurous tale trumping Disney shenanigans, but jolly good fun, anyway. (Stolen from my very own GoodReads review.)

No Man’s Sky on PC: My friend, Gene Clifford, convinced me to pick this one up and download it, so I could play with him and another mutual friend of ours. We were enduring scheduling time conflicts when I got around to playing it, and I ended up playing it with some other friends. I almost refunded the game. I like the concept, a complete open world, free to do pretty much what you want. You can even discover planets and name them! But the convoluted tutorial was enough to discourage me. I had a few friends pull me through and the game grew on me. I’m still a bit on the fence, however. I’m just not sure sandbox type games are really for me. 

 

  

Radiohead The Bends on Amazon Music:  Probably the most poppy of their CDs I’ve ever listened to, especially them being a band, they themselves, wanted to be referred to as a jazz band. Myself, I would liken them more to experimental being that every album they make is completely different than the one before it. Hearing “High and Dry” on here made me realize this was a Radiohead song that I had no idea they did. I remember hearing it in the usual grunge mix that populated the radio stations back in the mid 90s. Of course, OK Computer, will always be my favorite album by them, and that one, which released a year later after this one initiated their eternal plunge into a more experimental style, but The Bends is a really good album.

The Curse of the Dead Gods on Steam Deck: This had been sitting in my Steam Library for quite a while, so I thought I’d give it a ride between my sessions of Slay the Spire and Balatro. It’s brutal, and eternally fatal, but hey, each time you make it to the end of a level you get to keep your stuff. (It’s just making it to the end of a level!) Yes, I constantly keep dying, but I get right back up and give it another go. I’ve never had so much fun playing a rogue-like of this caliber. I’m not sure I’ll ever beat the game, but I’m sure going to have fun trying. The cell shaded art style on my Deck is absolutely gorgeous. Inspired by Darkest Dungeon and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game’s French developers wanted something much darker than what is depicted in those games. 

 

  

Remember The Titans on DVD: My wife is the football fan in the family. I am not so much. I supposed I’ve cultivated a passing interest being married to her for decades, and my parents, bless their hearts, who had been consistently trying to get me to watch this movie with them finally won out. I watched it with them. Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors, and he shines in this movie about a Virginia high school in 1971 newly desegregated and the effect it has on its undefeated state champion football team. Loosely based on real life events, the film is now considered to be one of the best American football films ever made. The movie showcases several great songs from the era, the real star of the show for me considering I’m not really a sports fan. 

  

Friday Night Lights on Blu Ray: So, is it the influences of my wife, or is it something in the water this time of the year? Here this is, another football film. This one, being a little more dearer to me being that I like Billy Bob Thornton and this being a movie that was filmed in a place I once lived, a suburb of Austin, TX. This one involves a small oil town, seemingly dried up, (Odessa, TX, which in reality is far from dried up) putting whole city stock in their 1988 State Champion high school football team, and their new coach assigned to keep them on that level. The movie was received well enough it inspired a long standing television series. But for me, the real star, like the aforementioned Remember The Titans was the music. Explosions in the Sky and Daniel Lanois are both major crushes for me. Oh, and the film, it wasn’t bad. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three and a half out of four stars, writing, "The movie demonstrates the power of sports to involve us; we don't live in Odessa, Texas, but we’re watching a game played 16 years ago, and we get all wound up." 

 

  

A&W Ice Cream Sundae Soda: I am not influenced by ads. I don’t watch ads, nor do I watch network TV BECAUSE of the ads. I’ll even go so far as to say: I hate ads. But this one . . . this one got to me. Adverts for A&W Ice Cream Sundae Soda kept popping up on my browser pages. I fell for it. I went to a local Kroger store, and no surprise, “We don’t stock it, and this store is kind of late getting such things. Check back in a month,” I was told. So, on a weekend jaunt to Indianapolis I found it. And boy is it good! It’s a little bit chocolate forward, but it’s truly a liquid summer evening. One reviewer called it “dessert in a can.” I’d say that about sums it up perfectly. I drank them all, but writing this right now makes me wish I had one. 

 

 

IKKO OPAL OH2 White Dynamic In-Ear Monitor: My $150 BVGD earbuds finally took a dump, well, one of them did, anyway. I jumped online looking for a used set from which I could cannibalize a replacement, but no joy. Instead, I found these Ikkos on eBay. I read reviews and they seemed decent enough, especially for less than $50 factory sealed. When they arrived, I was astonished to see all of the accouterments they shipped with, including a fancy faux leather carrying case. Shoot, they even came with a snazzy refrigerator magnet! The ear buds are housed in a combination of metal and transparent polycarbonate, allowing you to see the PCB inside, which gives it a "futuristic" touch, along with the 8mm driver featuring a nano carbon diaphragm. Its shape is quite peculiar, almost triangular, and it features oval-shaped nozzles, which are not common. But who cares about that stuff. What do they sound like? The mid bass is punchy and stands out in EDM songs. It's quite suitable for electronic genres and makes kick drums and bass guitar prominent enough. But the mids are the highlight of the show, both male and female vocals sound silky and without any hint of aggression or artificial metallic tone. The sense of smoothness also extends to certain instruments. Winds like trumpets and clarinets are very pleasant to listen to because the OH2 manages to reproduce them harmoniously, smoothing out their rough edges at the cost of losing some details. However, pianos and electric guitars retain their details intact, with a better-defined texture. Their sound accompanied by their coolness factory in their packaging alone make these a steal of a deal for how inexpensive they are now.