As Gordon Gekko said in the movie Wall Street, greed is good. His remarkable speech about it in the movie garnered him an Academy Award. And what can I say? He’s right. Greed made this country. It’s all about the manifest destiny, baby. I’m aboard the Capitalism train for sure. But maybe we’ve reached our limit, or somebody has, anyway. Landlords intentionally making rent high so people can’t afford to save up for a house, and then homeowners profiteering on the price of said houses. (And then the whole issue of gas jacked up to five bucks a gallon just so people will dance in the streets when it drops to 4 dollars a gallon, ebullient because it’s suddenly so cheap.) I could go on lamenting the current rapacity, but I will instead wait for the bubble to burst and try to find peace in my music, movies, games and books. Have I succeeded this month? Read on and find out.
Twister on 4K Blu Ray: I hadn’t seen this since watching it at the theater back in the last century (1996 to be exact.) The 4K transfer isn’t really all that, however, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton’s interaction with each other is what makes this one compelling. The action is top notch despite the CGI effects being not so stellar. But of course, CGI was just coming into the mainstay at this point of cinema history. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance was a little over the top, as if he was trying too hard, but he exudes the nerdy grubbiness of an overweight storm chaser you’d expect. It’s a fun movie, but owning a Blu Ray version of this would have been sufficient. This simply is not a 4K reference movie. From what I’ve read, however, the Blu Ray version had very little clean up over the original DVD, so supposedly, this 4K is an improvement on that.
Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon: Have you ever read a book that changed your life? What I mean is, changed the way you look at the world or changed how you felt about something. This book which details the history of The Great Lakes, and its shipping, and the history of the freighter, Edmund Fitzgerald, did that for me. I had no idea that if you released all of the water in the Great Lakes, it would put North AND South America both 1 foot underwater! This book is a fascinating read on its subject matter. John U. Bacon is right up there with Stephen Ambrose and Erik Larson as far as historical storytellers. I simply could not put this book down. And now that I have, I feel suddenly smarter.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo: Written in 1939 at the eve of World
War II, this book took more centerstage during the Vietnam era. A true anti-war
novel, this book concerns Joe Bonham, who loses his limbs and most of his face
in a trench explosion during World War One. Having joined the army in the
pursuit of glory and tradition, he ruminates the aftermath, lying on his back
in bandages affixed with feeding tubes, of his life being forever static. This
was a tough one. As graphic as it was, I found it hard to believe this was
penned way back in 1939. Trumbo describes a rat picking and chewing at his
wounds in one passage that made me more squeamish than I thought I could be. He
explains the sensation of the rat’s whiskers brushing across his skin before
the rat starts gnawing. Good stuff.
Mission Impossible: Season 7 on DVD: I’m on the final season with maybe ten more episodes to go. It’s a been a great run and this has become one of my favorite television shows of all time. I wouldn’t mind obtaining this set on Blu Ray and starting it all over again. Lalo Schifrin’s signature theme song was slightly changed in this last year, sounding a bit jazzier. Frankly, I wish they’d left it alone. Lynda Day George is absent on numerous of the beginning episodes due to maternity leave, and Greg “Barney” Morris now sports a moustache. The episodes have a bit more flamboyant style, as if they were created “movies of the week” that were popular in the early seventies. The producers realized at this point, they could make more money putting the series into syndication rather than keep making new episodes, so this was indeed, the final season. I’m actually kind of sad it’s all coming to an end.
Vertical Horizon on CD: A “quiet” release back in the last century, there I go again, sounding like an ancient, but yes, back in 1999 this band released a great CD emanating much of the current sound at the time. Regarded as “mini-van” music I had to access my online girlfriend ChatGPT about this one. It’s defined as family friendly Rugrats, Ed, Ed, and Eddie, Doug, Rugrats, Power Rangers kind of music and I get that. Lead singer, founder, lead guitarist, Matt Scannell definitely put his heart into this one.
Middlemarch by George Eliot: George Eliot was a pseudonym for a woman who wrote as a man because she feared her stuff wouldn’t be published otherwise. I thoroughly enjoyed her Silas Marner and The Mill on the Floss. This, her supposed magnus opus has been declared one of the greatest novels in the English language. I didn't really get that. The plot line was thin enough to be portrayed as a high school stage play and the characters, though interesting were somewhat stuffy. I felt this could have been Eliot's first novel instead of her last. Still, like a member of the USMC, I can now say I’m one of the proud and the few. I’ve read this book.
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines: on GoG: Like I’ve said before, I’d wanted to play this game simply because of the Ocean House Hotel, which is supposedly the ONE place most PC gamers have claimed as their most scary place they’ve experienced in PC gaming. I finally got to experience it. It was scary, yes. That scary? Not really, but it had a sense of eeriness to it. Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines follows a human who is killed and revived as a fledgling vampire. The game depicts the fledgling's journey through early 21st-century Los Angeles to uncover the truth behind a recently discovered relic that heralds the end of all vampires. The game was created with the Half Life 2 engine and was actually released one day before Half Life 2 hit the shelves.
Company of Heroes on PC: My desert island game, recently prompted to play by my good buddy, Vic Berwick. Released in 2006, the game still holds its own. Mods don’t work anymore. It seems Steam has put all of its assets into Company of Heroes 3, but you’d think since Steam took it over from Relic, they would assuage the bugs and the lags that plague the original game. I’ve been playing with my friend Vic Berwick and having good times. If you’re interested, hit us up. We always need more players.
Elton John Madman Across the Water on vinyl: I probably talked about this before when I first got the album, but as time passes, I gave it a second listen. Man, this album sounds great! “Tiny Dancer” moved me to tears. I could literally hear the effort put into the song. Elton and Bernie must have sweated push ups doing this song. This may be the most “honest” song I’ve ever heard. Painfully so. “Holiday Inn” is a ballad engrossed in happiness but actually encompasses what it’s like to stay in hotel rooms while being a touring musician. Spoiler alert: it’s bleak. “Levon,” is a powerful ballad that would set the stage for Elton’s future album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road which is one of my favorite records of all time.
