Edward's October 2026 Monthly Mix

 

Midterm elections are over. I hear a lot of griping and complaints, but as for me. I don’t have a dog in the hunt this time. I didn’t vote; so, I can’t complain. At least that’s what I’m told. I liked to think the Repubs were going to fix the economy. They didn’t. And now I’m seeing articles where Dem economists are saying, “Now that WE have control, wellll! It’s not going to happen overnight.” Likely story, right? Too much energy will be focused on bogus impeachments when there are far more important things to address. That’s what politicians do: wine and dine you like a cheap date for the vote and then pull the rug out from under your feet. In this new world where friendships are ended for your political beliefs, it’s why I’ve unplugged. Who needs politics when you have good music, books, gaming and movies to enjoy?

The Fog on 4K Blu-Ray: John Carpenter made Halloween in 1978 on a budget of $325,000. Due to its success, he was offered a job to make another movie with a budget of 1 million. That movie was The Fog.  Carpenter wanted to make an old fashioned ghost story based on a band of pirates making a deal with the local coastal people to create their own settlement, lured by a signaling fire, they were instead led to their doom via a rocky shore which sunk their ship and sent them all to Davy Jones’ Locker. The main attraction to this movie, however, is the illustrious, Ms. Adrienne Barbeau. She was quite the looker. I got to meet her in Indianapolis at a horror movie convention and had the wondrous pleasure of making her laugh numerous times. This movie on 4K maintains some of its tell-tale period grain, but there has been some clean up. I’ve read this release presents a native 4K presentation (and is not simply a upscale from 2K resolution material).

 

 

 

No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page by Martin Power: Didn't realize 700 pages could be devoted to one rock guitarist, but in honesty, this book is as much a history of rock and roll than it is a biography of Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin brought so much into the world of rock music. Every drummer up to their emergence was jazz trained. It wouldn't be outlandish to say John Bonham created rock drumming. And their album, Physical Graffiti was the first album in the United States to go Platinum (1 million copies.) This book illuminates a time in the late 60s, and through the 70s and the evolution of hair bands and heavy metal rock and roll during the 80s which gave way to the grunge of the 90s. This tome offers a lot to digest, but it's a good (if not important) read.

A Widow for One Year by John Irving: This odd but compelling tale was the story of a writer and his wife who lose two sons in a car accident. They then produce a third child, a little girl, who becomes the main character in this story. A sixteen year old boy is hired by the writer to become his assistant one summer but what ensues is a sordid love affair between the boy and the writer’s wife. This book was a ticket to Disney's Space Mountain. The plunges and crescendos were non-stop. Irving's characters brought me into another world I never wanted to leave. It's not often that I get to the end of a book that I want to begin it all over again because I never want to leave its world.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood on PC: I love this series that dates all of the way back to Wolfenstein 3D (as far as my familiarity with it.) This one popped up in the middle of the two newer New Order games and tells the origin story of William “BJ” Blazcowicz. It has the same feel and look of Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) that great Halloween spooky vibe. There was a boss in the game I struggled with many more times than was necessary because I was not using the correct mechanic to kill him. But that was the only speed bump. 

  

Kiss: The Kiss Anthology on DVD: Got this on loan from Michael, my guitar teacher. It was an interested trip down memory lane. As a kid, the band Kiss was a quad of superheroes in my book. Looking at some of their early videos, they almost look contrived in cheap costumes and stageworks that looked like they came from a high school play. The Budokan live footage, however, with Gene Simmons' intro to God of Thunder in which he is scratching the low E string on his bass with those weird reverb effects and he's splitting blood. Creepy! Sheesh! Ace Frehley really was relevant, a better guitar player than I realized. With each passing year, the band’s production values got better and it shows in this DVD anthology. Bonus points for the Paul Lynde Halloween special.

Ultimate General: Civil War on PC: This game has been on my HDD since it released. Looking like a lavish board game come to life, it’s recommended for anybody who has an interest in the American Civil War. Each major and several minors are represented in the game. Some of the mechanics are confusing. Each battle I win, I get to capture rifles, and I’m never sure of how or what I need to replace in my own armies. 

 

The Art of System Shock by on PC: Like I mentioned recently, as it turns out, the game this book alludes to is one of the worst games I’ve ever played on PC. Back in the 90s PC games were seriously difficult. At best, there were “hint books” you could buy, but there were no cheats or Internet walk throughs. This game was that all over again. I had to use cheats and walkthroughs for the whole thing. True, I hated the game this book was based on. Its stilted antiquated mechanics did not translate into a good game. Nonetheless, the story, the music, the lore and the artstyle of the game was fantastic. This book just almost made me want to try to play through the game again.

 

Edward's September 2026 Monthly Mix

 

Bad drivers. I talk about them a lot. Of course I read about crime and unsavory individuals who have no concept of love for their fellow man, but bad drivers. and I'm not talking about someone who causes a near miss when they pull out in front of you simply because they made a mistake; it happens, I get it. I'm talking about people who become aggressive behind the wheel, demand your respect, but then gleefully cut you off or blow diesel smoke when they pass you because in their not so humble opinion you were driving too slow. It's like they drive up your butt, abjectly insisting you exceed the speed limit. It's funny how the same people who command your respect are so quick to disrespect you. Our local police sit in parking lots and sidestreets of our town eyeing motorists in the midnight hour. (I work nights. I see them all of the time.) But in the early morning hours when I see most of these shenanigans occur, they are nowhere to be seen. If it's all about generating revenue and writing tickets, well, they are leaving money on the table. Okay rant over. It's far more important I temper my patience and display God's love to God's children rather than pass angry judgement on them. Or perhaps even stay off the roads and stay inside with my books, my movies, my music and my games!

Family Plot on 4K Blu-Ray: Released during America’s bicentennial, this black comedy thriller turned out to be Alfred Hitchcock’s last film. Hitchcock exuded his usual flair and microscopic attention to detail, but his health was deteriorating and in spite of its dual plotline and initial convolution in the film’s first half (which does all come together neatly as would any other Alfred Hitchcock vehicle) the movie has a sense of haste to it. I was taken aback by all of the religious profanity in the film which is unfortunate. I can’t say there is a sense of innocence to Hitchcock’s movies (Psycho or The Birds, anyone?) But it seems a line was crossed here, and I hate to have seen that. I’m not saying Hitchcock’s movies are Sunday matinees that the whole family should grace the living room with a big bowl of popcorn to enjoy them in their entirety. It just seems Hitch had this wonderful ability to distance himself from all of the typical Hollywood gratuitous ilk, and in this movie he sort of jumped on the wagon. Despite that, it’s a fun movie to watch, perhaps a bit dated but if you’re a fan I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. According to blu-ray.com this 4k treatment far surpasses the blu-ray release from some years back. The colors are pristine and the grain only adds to the aesthetic. Kudos to John Williams for his particular sinister and delightful score.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: There are rules for language usage and grammar. It's been said good writers know when to break those rules. Cormac McCarthy seemingly didn't get the memo because he breaks the rules, for no apparent reason. He doesn't use quotations when characters converse, nor does he use punctuation, save for periods. And he creates compound words out of words that aren't compound words (coffeetable, shavingkit, coatrack.) He colors outside the lines as if to make a simple statement that he doesn't care about convention. And yet it works, brilliantly. You can almost see the rise and fall of characters' chests on each page. And the vernacular spewing from their mouths makes you as a fly on the wall. McCarthy's word pictures of south Texas can make one taste the dust and feel the shimmering heat. And with an antagonist like Anton Chigurh inhabiting this book, who needs the likes of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers?

Beautiful Assassin by Michael White: This is a fascinating novel and perhaps one of the best I've read this year. It struck me with the same accord as a Michael Chricton novel, the kind where what you're reading is fictional but it reads like fact. This novel concerns the overwhelming adventures that overtake a female Russian soldier staving off the Germans invading Ukraine who becomes celebrated because of her high level of kills. She tours the United States along with Eleanor Roosevelt in an attempt to solicit funds and manpower to assist in the Russian effort against the Germans. She is accompanied by Russian agents who coerce her into spy activities and she falls for an American officer who serves as her interpreter. When I enjoy a book this much, I typically slow my reading down because I don't want the book to end. This book impelled me to race to the end.

We Were Soldiers Once. . . And Young: Narration was a bit heavy, it was like a running commentary of each and every flying bullet, but I understand. It's a minute by minute account of what happened in three days at Ia Drang, our first major battle in Vietnam. Still, the book changed the way I look back at the Vietnam War (yes, it WAS a war) and it made me realize what a hero the Bell Huey helicopter was. I've probably never been so emotional over a book this year. I spent the last quarter of the book in which the book talks about the aftermath and what became of the soldiers who participated in the battle, reaching for Kleenexes and wiping my eyes.  

For The Flag by Jules Verne:  Jules Verne, ever the visionary, expounded on submarine technology and "created" perhaps the world's first rendition of a nuclear implanted cruise missile in this adventurous tale containing elements of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. I could easily have seen this book made into a 1950s technicolor movie. Well written, highly entertaining and fun to read.

Ray Lynch: The Best of Ray Lynch Volume 1 on CD: I first started listening to Ray Lynch way back in the last century on New Mexico’s famous “Musical Starsteams” broadcast late Sunday nights when I lived in Austin. It was great writing music and it introduced me to a genre of music I was truly born to listen to. I have numerous of Lynch’s recordings now, but this is a nice compilation of several of his “hits.” (I can’t see any of this type of music being considered a “hit,” seems like something you’d unbutton the top button for and take to the dance floor.) Lynch’s music is all electronic, winsome, dream inspiring and just inspiring, period. If you need to study, crunch numbers for the monthly budget, or lie in the dark with a good set of cans on and just lose yourself in relaxing music, this is a good go to. Much of this is his early stuff. “The Temple” is almost reminiscent of something you’d hear on an 8 bit Nintendo NES game, but that doesn’t retract from how good the song sounds. And “Tiny Geometries” is almost fitting for Wing Commander, the venerable old PC game from 1991. If you want to scope him out, I’d suggest giving “Tiny Geometries” a listen.

Wardogs on PC: Still in early access, this game took me by surprise when it launched in early September. I’m not keen on EA games, well, not typically, anyway, but so many guys at work were talking about it I had to check it out. And boy howdy, am I glad I did! Imagine if they made Battlefield 2 today but only instead of having two teams fighting each other, you have three. And instead of giving your bestest to earn ranks, you’re earning cash instead for every little thing you do. Fly a bunch of guys into a hot zone in a chopper, earn some serious taxi fares (and tips!) Resurrect a guy who dies in battle, earn a cool $800 (plus tips, depending on how grateful the guy is.) I said it earlier, Star Wars: Zero Company is probably my GOTY this year, but Wardogs is the most fun I’ve had this year playing a game. 

 

 

System Shock on PC: Turns out, this is one of the worst games I’ve ever played on PC. Yes, indeed, I sang its high praises last month, but this game is garbage. Back in the 90s PC games were seriously difficult. At best, there were “hint books” you could buy, but there were no cheats or Internet walk throughs. This game is that all over again. I’ve had to use cheats through the whole thing. And at this point, I don’t care. It’s a 30 hour game and I’ve got 105 hours in it already. I’m always 19 bullets short of 20, one health point of twenty going into a boss fight. I finally “beat” the game, that is, accomplished all of the objectives, but now I have to complete the final boss fight, and it’s a complete joke. The mechanics of it don’t even fit into anything I’ve done these past 100 hours. I am absolutely sick of the game, but I have so many hours into it I feel compelled to finish it. I love playing computer games, there’s nothing else I’d rather do, but this game is making me reconsider that. Maybe I really do need to go outside and touch grass.   

 

 

Edward's August 2026 Monthly Mix

 

 

Human nature is perhaps the most mysterious of things. Mrs. Burton just bought a car. We went in on a Saturday and couldn’t find a place to park. We ended up parking behind the dealership which is a double benefit. We are both allergic to dings and dents on our vehicles, and we don’t mind walking; it torches calories. We spent the rest of the entire day with Andy Mohr Associates, a dealer who started local and has made a literal fortune selling cars. I’m no alienist, but watching people in that dealership taught me something. People work hard for their money, and despite complaining about the economy and politics, they deserve a nice ride. At least they think they do. House prices are through the roof, no pun intended, groceries and apartment rent are unaffordable. But still, people think they deserve a new car. Maybe it boils down to something as simple as people having control of something in these crazy last days.

House of Wax on Blu Ray: Imagine MTV’s Road Trip crew decided to rework the classic Cinemascope feature film House of Wax with Vincent Price and Charles Bronson by stealing its title and filming it in 720p, adding music from rejected submissions to their 120 Minutes and adding plot elements from Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This would be the end result producing the 2005 movie House of Wax. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as that sounds. The acting in it was honest and proves that if Paris Hilton can act, then we all have a chance at an Academy Award. I give the special effects a solid B and the script (despite the theft of the title and the Texas Chainsaw motif) a blurry C. If anything, you can watch the birth of humble beginnings in the careers of Chad Michael Murray and Elisha Outhbert.  

 

  

Star Wars: Zero Company on PC: When the LucasFilm Games motif splashed across the screen, I was expecting John Williams ever famous bombastic Star Wars theme to follow. . . and it didn’t.  Do you know how refreshing that actually was? Based on a system from XCom, this game has captivated me more than any game has this year. Taking place just before the infamous Clone wars, this game has pulled me into the Star Wars universe more than anything else has, including my venerable Blu Ray six disc digibook series. In spite of the game receiving favorable reviews, the company’s founders laid off 80% of its crew in a rather sketchy move because they thought the game would be an epic failure. The game has since sold a million copies. Will the sketchy maneuver by the developers devolve into fruition for its estranged employees? We shall see, but the game is fantastic. 

 

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro:  I average reading about twenty books a year. Most of those books garner a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. This year, I’ve stumbled on cavalcade of four star books, this one included. This is my first Kazuo Ishiguro book, who is considered a grand master of an author. He penned The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and A Pale View of the Hills. No spoilers here, but the summation here is: A fresh take on fantasy and an age old theme of restraining something bad, and by doing so, keeping even worse things in check. And paying the consequences when the gates are let down. This unusual King Arthurian tale interestingly meandered and always kept me wondering where it was going. This, being my first Kazuo Ishiguro novel was delightful in its prose and writing style. Coming away from the story, it felt like a children's tale written for adults. I could see Guillermo del Toro making this into a movie.

The Sight Below “Stagger” on 16 bit/1.44kHz FLAC: The Sight Below is an American ambient musical artist from Seattle, Washington He uses ambient/shoegaze to produce haunting, tearjearking sounds unlike the sounds of the sirens on the rocky island shores in Book 12 of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus is warned by the witch Circe about the Sirens, creatures whose enchanting song lures sailors to their deaths. To safely experience their song, Odysseus orders his crew to plug their ears with beeswax and has himself tied to the ship’s mast, instructing his men to tighten the bonds if he begs to be released. As the ship nears the Sirens’ island, their voices promise knowledge of past and future events, tempting Odysseus with irresistible allure. Despite his struggle, the ship passes safely, leaving behind the remains of sailors who succumbed to the sirens’ call. Think back to the times of you, as a child opening presents at Christmas, and the loved ones from that time who are now gone. This song is the sound of that. With its background record scratching and its haunting yearning for times past calling in the background, you’ve been warned.

The Terminator on 4K Blu Ray: Released in new 4K but downscaled to 1080p/SDR; therefore, it begs the question should you even consider this if you have the 2013 remastered Blu Ray? Short answer: no. This is my first experience with a Blu Ray “downgraded” to 1080p “4K release.” It's darkly ironic that The Terminator, a cautionary tale about the impending threat of artificial intelligence would be mired in controversy regarding the use of AI for its "new" 2160p/HDR transfer... but this is James Cameron's timeline, and we're just living in it. This recycled master was reportedly completed in 4K but finished in 2K, and by that logic this release should be considered an upscale with the obvious benefits of better compression and HDR.

 

The Odyssey in IMAX: I mentioned The Odyssey earlier, and no small wonder. I’ve got it on my mind thanks to this entry right here. My daughter was up for a visit and we decided to go see The Odyssey. Typically, during a three hour movie, I have to embarrassingly brush against people’s knees and block their views to answer nature’s call. This movie was so intriguing, there were no such mishaps. Encompassing all of Homer’s Odyssey in a three hour venture, both my daughter and I were intrigued. Filmed with IMAX cameras, this is truly the way to see the film. When CGI was introduced, it became all of the rage, so much so, that any filmgoer could spot (and laugh at) the fakery. It has seemingly evolved so well that I could not determine any of its use in this movie. My daughter, upon egress, when asked about what she thought, simply stated, “It’s the best movie I’ve seen this year.” She watches a lot of movies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

System Shock on PC: Granddaddy, here you are. Rapture, The Big Daddies, Ken Levine’s uncertain stone throw in the darkness of racism in Bioshock Infinite. It all started here. Nascent, here is a fun word. This game came out in 1994. I tried to play it then, but I thought the graphics looked like trash. And then recently Nightdive tackled it and made it their own. The legacy of this game is absolutely holy. The game has been cited as a key popularizer of emergent gameplay, and alongside Thief and Deus Ex, is considered one of the defining games of the immersive sim genre. Certain game developers have acknowledged System Shock's influence on their own products. Deus Ex, developer Warren Spector revealed a desire to "build on the foundation laid by the Looking Glass guys” in games like System Shock. Developer Ken Levine has commented that the "spirit of System Shock is player-powered gameplay: the spirit of letting the player drive the game, not the game designer", and at Irrational Games... that's always the game we ideally wanted to make.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward's July 2026 Monthly Mix

 

  

Quite the busy month. I became a grandfather again, this time to a granddaughter, my first. Given that I've had two daughters, I'm not a stranger to fatherhood, but the birth of this one, I don't know, man. It really hit me with intensity. Could it be because she has the same piano fingers as me (nobody else in the family has them?) Maybe it's simply because she's my first granddaughter. Anyway, I shall look at the world entirely different now, probably for the rest of my days since she is here. The world has become crazy and my sensitivities are perhaps a bit more brazen because of this birth, kind of like maybe a chipped tooth down to the nerve would feel like while walking outside on the coldest day in winter. I want to protect her but I am only one man. Stephen King was right, this world doesn't love you, but it doesn't hate you either. I wish I could live long enough to see my granddaughter become old and gray. I want to be her steadfast companion, always there to protect. And that's the great tragedy, that I can't.  

 

Saboteur: A movie that perhaps would seem contrived by today’s standards, but I’m sure enthralled audiences when it released in 1942. The “saboteurs,” noble looking people enmeshed in big money high society who are truly evil. Looking back, it’s almost prophetic in that despite the almost melodramatic tone of this movie, there are people in high power who hate this country and want to see it fail. In typical Hitchcock ingenuity, the famed director did numerous unusual techniques for the time in making the film. He shot extensive on-location shots which Hollywood rarely did at the time, and he incorporated the shootout scene between the saboteur and the police within a movie theater depicting a movie involving a shoot out which inevitably makes the audience more involved than something like 3D effects would do later on. Oddly, the fight for democracy against those who would oppose it occurs on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. This movie contains similarities to Hitchcock’s North by Northwest which was filmed twenty years later. When questioned if Northwest was perhaps a remake of Saboteur, the master of suspense said yes. This 4K presentation results in some clean up that supposedly even plagued the blu-ray version. The whites are bold and the blacks are deep and pristine. This is the version to own.  

 

 

Forza Horizon 3 on PC: I’m making good progress in this open world racing/driving sim that depicts the whole of Australia. I wasn’t sure of what to do to see the end credits roll. As it turns out, you grow certain festival points on the map by procuring fans. Gain enough fans and it notches up the size of your festival. Get them all to level five and you beat the game. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! It’s taking forever to accomplish enough tasks to gain enough fans. However, the variety of cars in the game and the unlimited upgrades one can acquire make this game a blast. The graphics look amazing for a game that came out in 2016 and features HDR. It’s no wonder PC Gamer gave the game a 92. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between Planets by Robert Heinlein: This was a part of Heinlein’s juvenile series written in the 1940s and 1950s. Oddly, it seems a bit more mature for such an audience as there are some violent interludes here including a man being shot in the face, described graphically. The story concerns a youth named Don who was born on a spaceship in trajectory between Venus (where his mother was born) and Earth (where his father was born) and as the boy is at university on Earth. Venus and Earth go to war against each other. In light of this war, Don simply wants to reunite with his parents who are scientists living on Mars. Don becomes proactive in the war, all the while shedding his boyhood and becoming a young man. Like other books in Heinlein’s juvenile series, this story moves fast and makes for fun reading.  

Rush Permanent Waves on FLAC: Lying in bed one night, listening to the radio and trying to fall asleep because I had school the next morning, “The Spirit of Radio” came on. I’d never heard anything so cool before. Not only did the song make me an instant fan of the band, it also made Alex Lifeson my favorite guitarist from that point on. The album was a perfect segue of the works before it: Hemispheres, A Farewell to Kings and 2112 into what would be their next album after this one, Moving Pictures. Loudwire.com just listed their top 11 prog albums of the 1980s. Rush’s Moving Pictures was listed as number 1 (is that a surprise?) but Permanent Waves placed 5^th, and they said the same thing I stated here: Permanent Waves continued at the exact point Hemispheres left off.  

The Pathfinder by James Fennimore Cooper: Book 3 of Cooper’s famous Leatherstocking Tales. Perhaps the strangest thing about this series is the manner in which they were written. The books were written way out of synch of their chronological order. Of course, The Last of the Mohicans is regarded as Cooper’s magnus opus, (and I’m sure you remember the excellent movie starring Daniel Day Lewis). The Pathfinder continues the adventures of Natty Bumppo as he boards a small warship on Lake Ontario and falls in love. Passages are bittersweet in which Natty confesses to the object of his ardor, that he would rather give up scouting and deer slaying and his life among the forests, which he considers a majestic existence, to come home to a fire in the hearth and this woman who he would love beyond measure. It is true, Cooper is guilty of verbiage, but the man is a good writer. I can see why these books were popular entertainment in their day.

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines:  on GoG: After ten months of using walkthroughs and cheats, I can finally notch my belt. I saw it through to the end. Released as an action RPG, the game fits the bill, however, the last ¼ of the game is very combat heavy. And some of those bosses, whew! There’s no way I could have gotten through without cheats. Still, the storyline is exceptional, and the same old adage of “you are the chosen one,” works. This game released in 2004 in the wake of The X Files and Deus Ex which you can easily see traces of in the game’s environment. I’m glad the game is finally over, but you know what? I’m going to miss the world it took me to. I doubt I’ll ever replay it, though I have Steam friends who have played for hundreds of hours. But hey, there’s always Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, right?