One of the joys of owning a digital audio player is the tendency one gets to devoutly listen to albums. There is none of the skipping past songs or decision paralysis that comes with Spotify. And of course, my CD collection (of hundreds) gets to come along with me in my shirt pocket. Not to mention the audio quality VS streaming. I know, it sounds like a tangent. It’s not. Just my personal feeling. One thing, however, has incensed me this month, and that’s GoodReads newest policy: no more personal messages from member to member. Why? It’s like those stupid smartphone updates that etch up the complication of using your phone. And then I got a subscription renewal notice from PC Gamer Magazine. It’s always been $40 a year, and now suddenly, it’s $99! Been a subscriber for 30 years, and now I have to say goodbye. The only constant is change, yes, I get it. But why does every change have to go the wrong direction? Why can’t change be a good thing?
The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King on 4k Blu-Ray: I finally watched the last of the trilogy, and whoah! What a movie to behold! Supposing the first movie was such the stately introduction to the series, and the second being one of the most battle heavy action-packed movies I’ve ever seen, the third one is the most graceful of the three. And oddly, having read the trilogy years ago, I don’t remember the ending being as sad in the book! The film garnered 1.1 billion dollars worldwide making it the highest grossing film of 2003, despite being released in December of that year. It also won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture. I have to admit, it's probably the most stylish trilogy of films I’ve ever watched.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman: One of the best and most eerie children's stories I've read in a long time. Neil Gaiman has the ability to invoke distant memories of my own childhood and grace them over bittersweetness with his knack for extracting magic out of words. There is a picnic scene in this book that took me back to the school library in the first grade when I discovered reading, a love affair that has lasted throughout my lifetime. If you liked Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always, you’ll love this.
Lords of the Fallen on PC: I can’t help but feel this game took a piece of me and claimed it for its own. Hacked or sawed flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone and kept it there in its deep dark fortress. I have no choice but to log my experience with the game, a cathartic expunge of the dark things swimming in my brain. Lords of the Fallen, which is impossible to not compare to Dark Souls, really does have its own signature flair in its carnival of dark fantasy horrors. Portraying a criminal released from a life sentence in the big house to rescue a kingdom from invading demon forces from another dimension. Deck 13, a German developer, produced this game as a double A title in the same vein as Dark Souls, basically a rip off, it was one of the first and one of the best to do so, with a better storyline and an easily followed plotline. People clamor about how easy the game is compared to Dark Souls, but that certainly was not my experience. It’s a 20 hour game, but it took me 100 hours to beat. There truly is nothing worse than totally sucking at a hobby you’re so passionate about. It’s about as bad as it gets. In typical fashion for ARPGs such as this, defeating bosses is all about patience, learning their attack moves, and timing your parries to stay alive long enough to beat them. Some bosses took me over a hundred attempts before I felled them like California Redwood trees. But the boss fights are not what accounted for the excessive time spent in this game, it was the horrible mapping involved. I spent over ten hours looking for a simple lever which unlocked the other half of the map I needed to obtain to fight the next boss in succession. Speaking of bosses, the final boss did me in. I discovered I had the wrong build to take him on and oddly, there was no feasible way to respec my character. I ended up having to cheat him to beat him.
Tidings by William Wharton: I read William Wharton's A Midnight Clear years ago and was deeply moved by it. It had passages so wonderfully written, I wrote them down and keep them in a journal. (I wholeheartedly recommend the movie starring Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinese as well.) After that, Wharton became an author I filed away as "to read more of his stuff." And this, Tidings is the second book I've discovered from the author. It involves an American couple living in France, nearing middle age, they host a Christmas for their three adult children. Each child comes bearing an issue with life or love or an aspiration of some sort. Lor and Will, the hosting couple have a few misgivings and dilemmas this year, themselves. But old resentments and recent griefs are put asunder by unexpected miracles that brings the old magic of childhood. This book, as The Pittsburgh Press said, "is a modern Christmas fable."
Vampire The Masquerade – Bloodlines on PC: I’m still making my way through this very famous action RPG. I did make it through the Ocean House Hotel which many claim to be one of the scariest in-game places. It was quite the eerie location, for sure. There aren’t jump scares per se, but there is that ever present sense of dread, like bad things are about to go down. I’m seeing this is a game that should have gotten more credit than it got. I’m glad I finally got around to playing it. I think it will go down in gaming history as an important game.
Bozz Scaggs Lowdown on CD: Ever since high school, I liked the song “Lido Shuffle.” It was a song that if ever present on the radio, it remained until the song’s end. It has a great synthesizer solo that still puts a smile on my face to this day. The only other song I remembered from this album was “Lowdown,” but other than that, this album is sort of meh, despite being nominated (but not earning) a Grammy. The album not only produced two top hits (the aforementioned), it also is partially responsible for spawning the group Toto. Seems three of the founding members were handpicked to play on this album, and afterwards, Columbia Records, liked the result and offered these three members a contract without auditions, hence the birth of Toto. Also, I was not aware Boz Scaggs was once a part of the Steve Miller Band.
