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.   

 

 

  

 

Edward's May 2025 Monthly Mix

 

Endless Summer. That’s what my life is now. Time has no meaning for me. I wear a watch, but I rarely look at it anymore, well, not in a way of dependence. Going to bed when I want and rising when I want has oddly caused a paradigm shift. It’s as if suddenly the world has stopped moving. I’m slipping fingers into the curtain break of my living room now and watching the world outside, but sort of not feeling a part of it. This is what retirement is for me. I embrace it, but it still feels weird, but goodness gracious, so wonderful! I did get to go to a school reunion in Illinois this month and have memories of me recounted by other people which has given new meaning to the word bizarre. People recalling memories of you that you don’t specifically remember, and that impending smile of recognition because you can easily see yourself in those moments through someone else’s eyes. I drove back home feeling lonesome because I was leaving a part of my childhood behind.  

Bram Stoker’s Dracula on Blu-Ray: This should have been titled, Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (boy, that’s a mouthful) because this was Coppola’s dream movie after having watched monster movies as a kid. And Gary Oldman took the titular role because he wanted to work with Coppola. Once that was established, Oldman took the character Dracula and made it his own, since stating it was the most physically exhausting film he’s made. Before filming began, Coppola sat with the cast and they read the original novel together. How cool is that? He insisted the movie set itself would be the costumes used in the movie, even going so far as to mute the coloring on the sets to augment the visual appeal of the costumes. He enlisted the expertise of fashion artist Eiko Ishioka who executed the costuming with grandiose aplomb. (She won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the movie.) Even though I thought there were liberties taken with the original book, Francis Coppola captured the imagery of the novel perfectly. The scene of Lucy Westminstra in her beautiful shroud, lying in a glass coffin is one of the most visually haunting scenes I’ve watched in a movie in a long time. 

World of Warships on PC: This is probably the best free to play game I’ve ever played. Reluctant to give it a try per the suggestion of my friend Andrew Collins, I finally bit the bullet, took the projectile lead poisoning and never looked back. I take leaves of absences, but I always return. This is a thinking and strategic game for old guys. And you get bonus points for being Navy vets. I’ve sparked up many a conversation with enemy team members because of their all too revealing user name which betrays their time spent in the US Navy. Right now, ranked tournaments have stolen the show for me. There are three leagues, bronze, silver and gold. I’ve made it to number one in Bronze. When I was poised to move up into the silver league, the season ended. And now I’m seemingly stuck in Bronze. I can get to rank 6, and then like crabs in a bucket, inadvertently pulling each other back down as they’re about to make their egress, I’m suddenly back to rank 8. Grrrr!!!

Ottmar Leibert Nouveau Flamenco on CD: Ottmar Leibert’s first album which garnered double platinum sales, was his first exposure to the world. He played a new style of music he termed “new flamenco,” to the chagrin of other flamenco artists at the time who were trying to rejuvenate and reinvent traditional Latin America flamenco and jazz styles of guitar. I discovered him on the New Age program, Musical Starstreams I used to listen to in Austin, TX on Sunday nights years ago. An Amazon reviewer once deemed this album, “pheromone for the ears.” Yes, I can definitely hear that in the music. If you like The Gypsy Kings, you’re going to love this. Put this on around friends or family. I guarantee you’re going to get at least one, “Hey, who is this?”

Detroit: Become Human on PC: I was gifted this game by a wonderful Steam friend, and playing it made me think of the old days of slavery and the Civil Rights Act. The game involves a near future in which androids are as common as pets and put to use in households doing domestic chores, shopping, taking care of kids, and being caregivers. A dark side also rears its ugly head: people bear animosity because androids are taking their jobs. (It’s peculiar how we are now hearing whispers and Internet headlines about AI potentially doing the same thing today.) Androids are treated as second class beings and we see signs posted on businesses stating, “No Androids Allowed.” The androids ultimately lash out with a desire to be free from their human captors. Playing as one of these androids you are faced with heavy hearted decisions, each one affecting the outcome of the game via a branching storyline. This is a narrative game with an all star cast and big bucks funded by Sony to make it a thing. They knocked it out of the park. Decisions I made caused me to pace the floor and think about the game when I had shut it down for the day. I’ve never felt so discombobulated playing a game before, the ambiguous feelings of being glad the game is over so the stress comes to an end and being saddened at its end because you know the experience came to an end. Despite its beautiful graphics and smooth gameplay, this is a game that ascends such trimmings. This could have been an 8 bit mobile phone game and it still would have captivated me.

Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds: After having a recent procedure done in which I had to temporarily eschew the use of a bulky headset due to the band that touches across the top of my head, I picked up a set of earbuds. These weren’t typical ordinary el cheapo earbuds, however. These were the PC Gamer magazine heavily lauded Editor’s Choice earbuds. They sure do look snazzy, but in all honesty, color me not impressed. They seem cantankerous, always losing Blue Tooth connection when I leave the room for anything, and they sound a bit on the tinny side. I have to manually press them against my ear to hear any kind of engrossing bass to signify I’m really a part of the game’s world I’m playing in. I’ve tried numerous sized buds, but I just can’t get them to fit deeply enough for convincing sound. I can’t wait to get back to my headset. 

 

Sniper Elite on PC: This is a game released in 2005 . . . and it shows. You play Karl Fairburne, a German-born American operative disguised as a German sniper. He is inserted into Berlin in the final days before the city’s fall with the critical objective of preventing German nuclear technology from falling into the hands of the invading Russians. The game is quirky and muddy looking (because of its age.) I was in one mission in which I had to clear an enemy base camp, hiding the dispatched bodies and then steal a code book from the base’s commander. The base commander arrives by train and immediately goes to his office to his safe where he makes the code book available. There’s a catch, however. As he ambulates from the train car to his office, the base must look as if you were never there, no dead bodies or anything amiss. I failed one mission because a guard I had sniped in a tower had a foot sticking out. Another failure occurred because a fallen guard fell just past the game’s invisible confines. I went to retrieve the guard’s body and couldn’t reach him, even though there he was right in front of me. Having to restart the entire mission from scratch, that one had me reaching an all time high level of frustration. Why do I punish myself like this, you ask? Very simple. I, being the purist I am, have to play all of the games in the series!

The Art of Mass Effect: Mass Effect was released in 2007 and became a gaming phenomenon. Creative studio, Bioware, hit a mega-homerun with the game which netted millions of sales and spawned three more games in the series (with a 5^th game forthcoming.) I picked up this fancy coffee table book detailing the original trilogy. In spite of its 2012 publishing date, it does include most of the content from all three games of the original trilogy. It details each iteration and art style change that occurred in each of the first three games. This book is liking having the whole Mass Effect universe at your fingertips anytime you pull it from the shelf. A space opera that has elements of Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, this is a series that could rival any one of those venerable franchises. It’s the first space-military type game that made me feel like a real-life Captain Kirk or Picard.

 

Edward's April 2025 Monthly Mix

 

Epiphany. I’ve always loved the word (like I do all words). It’s got that same kind of unearthly mystique to it, like ethereal or heavenly . . . or cellar door. But now it has taken a literal meaning for me. My job and I recently parted ways and I had to ask myself, why was I still working, anyway? And now I’m not. Permanent vacation. Probably my most favorite set of words ever. Movies, music, books, gaming, guitar, here I come.

For A Few Dollars More on Blu-Ray: Seems like I just watched this . . .last year? I guess I can’t get enough. Watching it as a kid with my stepfather, it was one of the glues that bonded us. This was the film that set Sergio Leone free. His first film A Fistful of Dollars put Clint Eastwood on the map and ingratiated the studios enough to give him a big enough budget to go crazy with this, his second film. And it allowed Clint to be paid $50,000 and Lee Van Cleef, $17,000. That was a lot more money in 1965 than it is today. Being the film was shot without sound because of the language differences, and most of the cast spoke Spanish or Italian, Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef became friends because they were the only two guys on the set who spoke English, so they had no one to speak to except each other. 

 

 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC: Deus Ex came out in 2000 and I picked it up when they released a Game of the Year Edition. I started it in 2001, got dismayed with the game’s difficulty and stopped playing. I made another attempt, but by this time, the game’s graphics looked like mud and the difficulty both frustrated me enough that I threw in the towel again. One last ditch effort later in 2011, I beat it in 26 hours. And I’m glad I did. It was a remarkable game with a compelling cyberpunk-like environment that haunted me like a ghost and that was probably the real reason I kept circling back to it. Being directly ported over from consoles, Deus Ex: Invisible War didn’t quite affect me the same way, but I completed it in 2014 in 26 hours. Eidos Montreal took over the helm for the third one, Deus Ex Human Revolution. It was such an homage to the original that Warren Spector (who created the first Deus Ex), upon seeing a sneak preview of it said, it had the look and sound of Deus Ex.) High praise coming from the father, himself. This one was fun, but it became a chore as I was going for the Pacifist achievemen which means finishing the game without killing anybody (boss fights don’t count.) And guess what? 57 hours to beat it and I missed the achievement. I must have created a stray explosion somewhere that took a guard out. Oh well. At least I beat it. 

 

 

Toto IV on CD: Who didn’t own this album when it came out in 1982? Winner of three Grammy Awards, it was the album that turned Toto into a global phenomenon. With two big hits, “Rosanna,” and “Africa” became ubiquitous songs. Contrary to rumors, Steve Porcaro, the keyboardist, was dating actress Rosanna Arquette, but the song is not about her, this, according to Porcaro, himself, who wrote the song. My personal favorite song is “Afraid of Love.” I’m surprised it wasn’t as big of a hit. Listen to it and you’ll see what I mean. This album was recently listed in Headphonesty.com as one of the top 50 albums audiophiles use to show off their systems. If you can find an original 1982 CD or even better, the Japanese 35DP-12 version, you’ll be amazed at how spacious and roomy this sounds on your system. The album was recorded on three analog tape machines to capture every nuance. The proof of its quality sound is in the hearing.

Matadors by Steve Bauman: This guy, Steve Bauman, will always be a gem in my life. As the editor-in-chief of the now defunct (but much loved) Computer Games magazine, he published two of my articles. I will be eternally grateful. This novel by him concerns a guy approaching his 40^th birthday, Michael Norton. He creates a Facebook account and hooks up with his college roommate who decides to come and visit him. The thing is, this guy outdid Michael at everything, swooped in on the girls Michael liked, out talked him, and out performed him. And when Michael meets him at the airport, the guy immediately starts the same old antics all over again. I’m halfway through it, great read so far.

Stray on PC:Gifted to me by my beloved sister, this is a game that had a bittersweet effect on me that caught me completely by surprise, and you get to see it all from a cat’s perspective.  Here, from my very own review on Steam, I present to you, this charming game. Despite its niggling bugs (I logged in once to find all of my inventory items had vanished – and that cost me an achievement) compelled me like no other game has in a while. I took every fetch quest the game had to offer, all the while racing to an end I knew was going to be paramount. And it was. It was an ending that blindsided me into thinking of people and pets I’ve lost over the years. There’s a part in the game in which I found myself looking at the walled city in which the game occurred from on high in a remotely located control room. The city buildings and tiny cyberpunk apartments where all my misadventures transpired looked small and sad, moreso because of the lives of the strange quirky mechanical beings I impacted there. I suddenly felt evolved into a different person, looking at a past through old pictures and feeling as if that life happened to someone else who lived a hundred years ago. But what got me the most, however, was glancing down at my sleeping cat in my lap, and realizing I would never look at her the same way again.

 

 

 The Police Ghost in the Machine on CD: Another inclusion in Headphonesty.com’s “Top 50 Albums Audiophiles Use To Show Off Their Systems.” I was a young lad living in Japan when this album was flying high in the early 80s. When I heard the first song on the radio, I bought the cassette. The distant echoey sound of the album’s first two songs, “Everything She Does is Magic,” and “Spirits in the Material World” was the perfect soundtrack for my late night jaunts through the rainy streets of the Japanese ginza.  It’s funny how people change because I’ve given the CD version of this album a few spins lately, and the appeal isn’t there like it was in my early 20s. Still, this is an important album. Saby Reyes-Kulkarni writing for Paste magazine observed that "There are albums that envelope you in an ambience so unlike anything else you’ve ever heard that listening to them is like taking a trip to another world.” He was onto something with this one, and if you haven’t listened to it in a while, give it a listen on a nice audio system. It will make you smile.

Assetto Corsa Competizione on PC: You’ve seen me playing this before, and I always come back to it. I think it’s the best racing game on PC right now, but there is a catch. You have to be a fan of GT style racing. I’ve raced all of these tracks in different iterations in different games for over 30 years now, Silverstone, Imola, Monza, Spa, they’re all here in beautiful resolution. There are other great racing sims, but this one is the reason you see my racing wheel in about every picture I take for my Mix project. I love the Lamborghini Hurrican. It’s not noted for being the fastest car in the sim, but it sure is a steady one. 

 

 

 Steelseries Arena 7 2.1 Speakers: I had a set of Logitech Z5300 5.1 surround speakers I used since the early aughts. They were still working when I gave them to a friend of mine, but with this new PC, I had no way to plug them in (different interface.) So, I was in the market for a new set. I did the research and found these. Given they are a downstep to a 2.1 configuration, they sound amazing. They have RGB that becomes interactive with whatever game you are playing . . . say you’re playing a simcade with police chases, your back wall gets flooded with red and blue blinking lights. It’s more immersive than you think. Unfortunately, most of my games run in HD now (thanks to Windows 11) which nullifies the effect. I don’t mind. They sound so good, it makes it worth having them for the sound quality alone.

Buffalo 66 on Blu Ray: Welcome to a very bleak romantic (dark) comedy. This film starred Vincent Gallo (who also wrote and directed it), and a bevy of big stars including Christina Ricci, Mickey Rourke, Anjelica Huston, and Rosanna Arquette. The movie takes place in wintry Buffalo, NY, and involves Billy Brown, who has just been released from prison after a five year stretch. He kidnaps a young dancer and coerces her into posing as his wife to impress his parents who have no idea he was in prison. Despite its almost too-gradual buildup, I really liked the film. The cold Buffalo, NY setting reminded me of my own late 70s Indiana winter evenings when I was in school. Vincent Gallo, who I was not familiar with, and his loud red snazzy boots, made me think of Joaquin Phoenix. And Christina Ricci plays a great role as the abducted girl who falls in love with Gallo’s character. Mickey Rourke is his usual suave self as the syndicate connected bad guy who threatens Gallo’s character into doing the right thing . . . or else. Vincent Gallo was difficult to work with and disparaged the people who worked with and for him. He claimed Christina Ricci was a puppet who did everything she was told to. And she vowed never to work with him again. Years later he criticized her for her weight while doing the film. Ricci referred to him as a “crazy lunatic man.” Ah, the things we do for love. 

 

 

Resident Evil 2 on PC: This is a remake of the 1998 Resident Evil 2, a survival horror third person shooter game. It IS a remake, but not an entire redux of the original. It’s more like a reimagining of the original gameplay and story for modern audiences. Taking place in Raccoon City, the player can either play as local policeman, Leon Kennedy or college student, Claire Redfield as they hold back a zombie invasion. Typical of these kinds of games, ammunition is scarce, and zombies require headshots to really keep them down. I really like the dreadful creepy visual style and the game’s backdrops. I did not like the boss character, Tyrant, who is introduced midway into the game and is impossible to kill. During the game’s final scene, I had to cheat to beat the game because of him. Not cool.