Edward's August 2016 Mix

 

 

There are tinges of upcoming autumn in the air which is welcomed being that it’s been so hot lately. Having to work three Saturdays in the month of August has left little time for gaming, reading and binge watching Netflix, but I’ve managed to squeeze in a little time to do so.

1.      Joy Division The best of Joy Division on CD: Watching Netflix’s remarkable series, Stranger Things I discovered what piqued my interest about the show the most was the music. To my great surprise the music supervisor even included a snippet of Vangelis from his mesmerizing album, Oceanic, his late nineties album of nothing but nautical music. But what made my mouth drop open was the Joy Division song, “Atmospheres” that played in one of the first few episodes. I immediately let Google be my friend and discovered it was performed by The Joy Division. It’s odd that all I ever really knew about them was the great song, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and how they later emerged into New Order. I bought this greatest hits album immediately. I’m pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Granted, the hardcore reviewers on Amazon tirade about how this album is for sissies, and die hard fans should buy every one of their albums. I think buying this album is a great gateway.

2.      Lost: Season 3 on Blu Ray: My friends who have watched this series (the ones who finished it, anyway) tell me this was the last of the finest in regards to the show. I’m told it took a serious downturn after this season. For me, that remains to be seen. I’m thoroughly enjoying this season so far. I can’t deny I have a sort of crush on Juliette. And I’m thinking she’s going to become Jack’s love interest. The Scotsman, Desmond, who calls everybody “brother,” and has the uncanny gift of seeing snippets of the future is a sympathetic character. The main action seems to be settling more on “The Others,” now leaving our old friends we hung out with in season one and two in the background (for now, anyway.) It’s quite entertaining to see how this is all unfolding, especially on a 4K 55” screen.

3.      For a Few Dollars More on DVD: Last month I took in Sergio Leone’s first Clint Eastwood Spaghetti western and this month I was able to revisit his sophomore effort. I can easily see Eastwood’s character has grown into a man of even fewer words, and Lee Van Cleef plays an interesting support character. Interestingly, before he was cast as Colonel Mortimer in this film, his career was taking a downturn, but Sergio Leone saw him and said, “He looked like an eagle. He looked like Van Gogh. He was perfect for the part. I was afraid to actually talk to him because I thought he might not be right for the part after all.” But the most interesting character in this movie is perhaps Ramon Rojo played by the Italian actor, Gian Maria Volonte. This is a man who shoots a man repeatedly, and then keeps shooting him to watch the bullets enter his body, and maniacally laughs while doing it. How can anybody turn on one of his own men so suddenly and with such ferocity? This guy does it with total credibility. And when you think he can’t sink to lower depths of depravity he coerces his own gang into a gunfight where he knows they’ll be outgunned and outsmarted, for the simple reason it will save him from having to split the gang’s most recent bank haul. This is the bad guy all bad guys should take notes from.  

4.      Assetto Corsa on PC: Still, yet again, my go to PC racing sim. I was able to pick up the Red Pack, another small DLC for a modest amount of moolah that introduces more Ferraris and another track. I inadvertently reset my current season progress, thereby having to start it over again, egads! But I’m now able to tweak the car in the pits, changing to stickier (although shorter life span tires for the sake of qualifying and change my wings for better aerodynamics.) So, I’m actually qualifying for better start positions than I ever have before. Maybe this reset was a good thing: the chance to do it better a second time around.

5.      The Ocean Blue Davey Jones’ Locker on CD: This has been on my Amazon Wish List for a long time, and I finally decided to pick it up. I’ve been a fan of this band since their 1989 appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brian. It’s been a pure joy to see how they’ve progressed with each album they’ve done since. Davey Jones’ Locker seems like the perfect fruition of each of the albums that preceded it. The guitar work has that 1960’s The Byrds sound to it. One can’t help but listen and smile. The song “Do You Still Remember Me?” is a personal favorite for the lyrics alone. “Think of me on the road to nowhere that goes outside your door.” And then there is the haunting “Denmark” with its beautifully rendered high e string opening and the band’s equally haunting vocal harmonizing. This was the song that put the album on my wish list. 

6.      Hell on Wheels: Season 4 on Netflix: So far, this has been the best season yet. Durant is reluctantly relinquishing his hold on the railroad. Cullen Bohannon returns to Cheyenne after being held captive by a group of Mormons (where he takes a wife and has a new baby son.) Upon his return we find the town being usurped by carpetbagging government men: a marshal, a judge, a sheriff, and a tax collector. I sit to watch one episode and am immediately forced into watching another. This is how compelling this series has become.

  

7.      Xcom on PC: I’m enjoying this game, despite its difficulty. There are achievements to be had for playing it on impossible difficulty. I don’t see how anybody could beat this game at that kind of difficulty level. I’m in the alien base presently, and I wipe each time I attempt it. But I’ve not ragequit yet. Each time I feel like, “I’ve got this!” The game is getting a little long in the tooth, I’ll be glad when it’s over, but I have a feeling it will have been worth it.

8.      Nightcrawler on Blu Ray: I really liked Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko, I mean who doesn’t? But I thought he was kind of “meh,” in Jarhead. And then I saw this movie. He plays Lou Bloom, a man who discovers there’s big money to be made in “nightcrawling,” using police scanners to speed to crime scenes and filming the aftermath, selling the videos to local news agencies. As Bloom’s greed escalates he blurs the line between observer and participant to churn out maximum interest in his video feeds. Gyllenhaal’s performance is spot on as a man who, despite his infallible work ethics, is a dark and sinister character that you’ll either root for or who will make your skin crawl.

Edward's July 2016 Mix

Had a two week vacation this month which kept me busy in real life (away from the computer) for a spell anyway. I took the time to see the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri with a friend I’ve known a very long time. You gave me memories that will last me all the days of my life. And the City Museum gave me a chance to visit a world Jules Verne would have created had he been alive today, again, thank you. Despite my real world adventures, I had to report back home to the mother ship as always, and was able to accomplish the following:

1.      The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft  on Kindle: I’m about 75% through this tome. Despite the similar vein that seems to run through each of Lovecraft’s stories, the man definitely carried the baton between Edgar Allan Poe and our modern day, Stephen King. Lovecraft definitely honed his craft in each ensuing story. It’s like watching a glorious woodwork appear out of a tree stump from a simple penknife. I’m currently reading “At the Mountains of Madness” and I can kind of get a taste of what possibly inspired, John W. Campbell’s famous short story, “Who Goes There?” which was later made into two stellar movies, The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter’s The Thing.

2.      Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 on Blu Ray: Just finished this remarkable season. At this point the characters are starting to feel like family to me. The tumultuous arena of the writers on the show in the first two seasons appeared to have settled down by this third season since Michael Pillar took over as head writer, and he actually allowed anybody to submit a script for the series. At the time (1990) it was the only television series to accept unsolicited screenplays. Kudos to Paramount for that. The series ended on a cliffhanger, actually a part 1, of Picard being turned into a Borg. But my favorite episodes were probably “The Offspring” in which Data creates a daughter and learns a lesson in human grief, and “Sins of the Father,” in which we see Lt. Worf forever shunned by his homeplanet. The episode had me reaching for a handkerchief. And then, of course, “Deja Q” where we see Q stripped of his godlike powers and reduced to a simple human male. I also enjoyed “Transfigurations,” in which Dr. Beverly Crusher almost falls in love with an alien being rescued from an escape pod. This was Gates McFadden at her all time best.

3.      The Long Dark on PC: Despite its lack of story mode (yet) Andy Kelly, my favorite writer from PC Gamer Magazine said this game was worth playing simply for survival mode. The man was right. I picked it up on this past Steam Sale, and was immediately engrossed in its ambience. It’s a conglomeration of so many things, my winters as a child in a cabin in Indiana, John Carpenter’s stellar movie, The Thing. The winter scenarios in the first Call of Duty game. It took me three attempts to garner the achievement for staying alive for 5 days. This is a game that will keep me coming back again and again, if simply trying to stay alive for as long as I can.

4.      Assetto Corsa on PC: Still my go to PC racing sim. Another patch has been released which introduces better racing AI and better usage of pit stops. I’m at 45% now. And the game is still giving my wheel and shifter set a good workout. There is still so much untapped potential in this game; I’ve not even touched online racing yet.  

5.      Road Redemption on PC: Remember the old arcade game, Road Rash? The one where you rode a crotch rocket down western desert highways and used chains, axes, shovels and firearms to defeat fellow cyclists trekking down the same road? Well, Darkseas games has released a spiritual successor (rip off?) of that very game. I’ve never laughed so hard playing a video game. Best played with an Xbox controller, if you like arcade games this is a must buy. And the beauty of it is it’s EA, so it’s not finished yet. Still more joy to come. :P

6.      The 69 Eyes Devils on CD: Described by fans as “Goth and Roll” this is about the best way I can think of to describe them. From Finland, their lead singer sounds like an opera singer suddenly out of a job who decides to become a rock singer. If you like Type O Negative give this band a listen. I think you’ll be impressed.

  

7.      The Book of Eli on Blu Ray: I’ve mentioned this movie before on my mix. Just re-watched it. Gary Whitta, I love you. You are my childhood dreams come to fruition: a gamer who becomes Editor in Chief for PC Gamer Magazine, and ends up playing the hell out of Fallout 3, and then pens the screenplay for the best movie I’ve seen up until Mad Max: Fury Road. (Obviously another gamer’s brainchild.) I’m a big fan of spiritual movies, and Whitta’s movie made me want to go back to church. Influential.

8.      Stranger Things on Netflix: I heard too many of my friends telling me I had to check this out. I knew three of them who set out to watch the first episode and binged watched the whole season (of which only the first season exists presently.) It reminds me of something Stephen King has already covered, but it’s still compelling. Set in 1983 in the state of Indiana, it really hits home (pun intended.) There are some glaring anachronisms: Middle School wasn’t called as such back then, it was called Junior High School. The term “mouth breather,” was non existent then. And kids calling each other “douche bags” was unheard of at that time. The IMDB forums will tell you differently, but bear in mind this is Indiana, the Flinstones’ Bedrock of America. We would have been the last state to become “in the know.” This is X-Files mingled with a late 70’s early 80’s Stephen King miniseries. Wynona Rider's role as a hysterically grieving mother who believes her son is still alive is played impeccably. But the real star of this show is the music. I even watch the opening credits each time because I love the music accompanying it. It's as if John Carpenter, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream all came together to compose the soundtrack. And not to mention, Joy Division. It’s well worth a Netflix subscription.

Edward's June 2016 Mix

Been busy with the new job, a lot of overtime, and still learning things everyday. Sometimes it’s relatively easy, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. But I like it; I’m just not crazy about the long night hours. I had a nice little weekend visit from my oldest daughter this month. I got to hang out at a local brew pub with both my daughters. Their company under a star filled sky, the taste of a tall oatmeal stout. It will be a memory not soon forgotten.

 

1.      Robin Hood on Blu Ray: I sound like a broken record when I say Ridley Scott is my favorite director. I knew with him at the helm this was going to be a good movie. And I wasn’t disappointed in the least. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett were superb in their roles, and this is without a doubt the best story of the Robin Hood Legend I’ve ever seen. The picture was pristine in Blu Ray. Unfortunately, I had some troubles with the sound. Old English was used for the dialogue and I just couldn’t understand it. Many of the lines were soft spoken. I had to resort to putting on the closed captions. I wasn’t alone in this. My parents watched the movie with me and they had similar difficulties making out the dialogue. The costuming, verisimilitude and Crowe’s portrayal of “Robin of the Hood,” were spot on. If you like medieval history then this belongs on your video shelf.

 

2.      A Fistful of Dollars on DVD: Sergio Leone completely revitalized the American western with this film (with some help from music composer Ennio Morricone.) Little did we know it would spawn two sequels (including my favorite western of all time, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Casting Clint Eastwood as “the man with no name,” gave birth to arguably, the world’s first anti-hero. Not to mention, when I first saw this as a kid I thought Eastwood’s character was the epitome of coolness. I thought he was the coolest character in any and all fiction, and to this day I wish The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly had a sequel. I would love to have known what ultimately happened to “Blondie,” and Tuco Ramirez. Clint was fresh from his role as Rowdy on the television series, Rawhide so there was a bit of a transition from his likeable cowboy character to the squinty eyed man of few words he became in later westerns. This wasn’t Leone’s best, but it’s not one to be missed.

 

3.      Ryan Adams: Rock N’ Roll on CD: I first picked this up back in 2003 when it first came out upon hearing “Burning Photographs” on the radio. When I discovered I had lost the CD a few weeks ago I instantly reordered this one from Amazon. This underrated album is on par with other one man type balladeers such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Bryan Adams. Every song is edgy, buzzy, and shows off Adams’ wonderful talent in his riff creation. If you’re curious, give his “Burning Photographs” a listen on YouTube, or check out the whole album on Spotify. “Rock N’ Roll” is also a gem, sad and personal. You can tell Adams wrote it about something that must have affected him deeply at some point in his life. I think you’ll be wonderfully surprised. Over the years, Adams has assisted in producing several major acts, and the man himself has made fourteen studio albums. He is a force.

 

4.      Sanford & Son: The Complete Series Season Two on DVD: This show was only surpassed in popularity in its heyday by Norman Lear’s other creation, All in the Family. The show knocked The Brady Bunch off the air and as a kid was the first sitcom that drew my attention to grown up television. I actually looked forward to watching it on Friday nights. The show is racier by today’s standards, which is a good thing if you hate our new sanitized political correctness zeitgeist. This box set is remastered in HD, and noticeably so in the first season. Unfortunately, I don’t think the second season handled the transfer as well. It just looks grainier and rougher than I remember the first season looking. At any rate, this is 1970’s comedic television at its finest.

 

5.      Tripwire: Jack Reacher #3 by Lee Child: I’m currently engrossed in Lee Child’s third novel about the man’s man, Jack Reacher, ex Army Military Policeman and savior of the day. This time we find Reacher down in Key West, Florida digging swimming pools by hand since the alleyways and roads are too narrow to get heavy construction in. He unexpectedly finds a private investigator on his trail. And then suddenly the PI is murdered. Reacher retraces the investigator’s trail back to New York where Reacher finds himself involved in a different type of pool this time, a pool of loan sharks out for blood. The book presents one of the most interesting villains I’ve encountered in a long time, the kingpin loan shark, an avaricious man whose hand he lost in Vietnam and has been replaced by a steel hook  he uses as a weapon. Jack Reacher is a man of great stature (he stands 6’5”) and in this engaging novel he exudes as much intelligence as he does cold hard brawn.

 

6.      Silent Storm by JoWood Games on PC: Ragdoll physics, real world weapon authenticity (circa 1943), full 3 dimensional mapping with complete environmental damage. When this game came out in 2003 it had it all, long before games even thought to implement some of  these now standard features. After beating Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts I decided to tackle this one. It’s quite difficult; it reminds me of 1997’s Jagged Alliance which is my favorite turn based strategy game of all time. This game got great reviews back when it came out. I was overjoyed to see it pop up on Steam.

  

7.      Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool on CD: When I first heard Radiohead’s song that propelled them into popularity, “Creep,” I dismissed the band altogether. I hated the song, and the radio seemed to play it constantly. And then, like so many of my favorite CDs in my collection, I was driving to work one night and I heard “Let it Down” on the radio. It was love at first listen. I went out later that week and bought the whole album, OK Computer. And a short time later the album swept the grammies in 1996. Many audiophiles called it one of the best albums of all time to come out of the 1990’s. I couldn’t agree more. And then in the early oughts, I picked up Kid A. I liked it. I liked how each song seemed to be an experiment in sound. It was if Thom Yorke said, “Let’s just see how different we can sound with each song.” I liked it, as I said, but I think OK Computer was their magnum opus. And there is this new release I just acquired, thanks be to my wonderful daughter remembering me on Father’s Day. The band has definitely matured, and they haven’t strayed from being experimental. “Daydreaming” has one of the most plaintive and beautifully haunting openings in a song I’ve heard since Harold Budd/Brian Eno’s heartbreakingly sad “Late October.” (Look it up, and try to listen to it without your eyes welling over. I defy you.) A Moon Shaped Pool didn’t quite captivate me like OK Computer, but it’s been on auto repeat in my CD player, and the album is growing on me.  

 

8.      Gone Girl  on Blu Ray: This movie really caught me off-guard. Ben Affleck returns home one morning after running errands in the local small town to find his wife has vanished ostensibly through foul play. We want to like Affleck’s character, he’s charismatic, and he seems wholly credible. You can even see the police detective assigned to the case wanting so much to believe him. His alibi seems airtight, but things occur throughout the movie to make you think he’s not as credible as you want him to be. And this is presented in a great way in which we begin to shed our disbelief much the same time as the detective. It’s a great screenplay, though one character/subplot I found rather contrived. I have many people who talk about how bad of an actor Affleck is, but honestly, I’m not seeing it. I think he hit a homerun with this one.

 

9.      Steam Summer Sale 2016: I’ve picked up two games so far, but like the past few Steam sales, this one is underwhelming. I think I even described the last sale with that same lame word. Yet, there is no better way to describe it. I’m glad the silly games are gone, the games that compelled you to play to earn Steam trade cards, but there are no more flash sales, and I have most of what I want anyway, but perhaps the biggest slam is the fact the games aren’t going down in price all that much. I’m still compelled to look at the sales each day, but I think the glory days of Steam’s Summer Sales are behind us.

Edward's May 2016 Mix

 

Since taking the new job I generally have little time off (as I stated last month.) But fortuitously, I got lucky enough to get a four day Memorial Day weekend. Glory be! But here’s the thing: the four days flew by, I got nothing done that I wanted to, and now it’s over. Back to work tomorrow. The depression of having to go back makes me wonder if the extra time off is worth it. Why can’t I just win the lottery and just be done with it? Ah, I guess I shouldn’t complain. I did get some genuine gaming time in, and I got my Vespa licensed and put a few sun filled blue sky miles on it. Summer is here at last! Oh and I rediscovered Pink Floyd.

1.      Pink Floyd: The Wall on CD: Pink Floyd is one of those bands I’ve always admired. I never considered myself a real fan, but then I stopped and thought about it. Their The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon were such influential albums in my youth. I remember a few girls in high school who were pot smokers and  were really into the band. And I was a goody two shoes listening to stupid stuff like The Bee Gees and Leo Sayer on the radio. Doh! But the thing is I liked those girls who liked Pink Floyd, but I was afraid they’d have nothing to do with me. (Ah the predicament of every American boy who wasn’t a jock in high school.) I’d never actually owned The Wall until I found it the other day in a store. I’d only ever heard certain songs which when I hear them now on the radio or online evoke certain memories, a tapestry of memories of my aforementioned high school days. But now I’ve listened to it in its entirety in full CD glory, and it’s a great album. I can now see why Pink Floyd was once the highest paid rock band in the world. The range of this album, and what I mean is the range of music/song types is simply incredible. I remember when it came out in 1979, and now I wish I hadn’t slept through it.

2.      Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason on CD: I bought this almost thirty years ago on cassette, but hadn’t heard it in years. I remember how powerful it was. “Learning to Fly” was one of the most haunting songs I’d heard (and had a stellar MTV video to boot.) But the reason I bought the album was for the song, “One Slip.” I remember playing that song over and over. David Gilmoure’s vocals were so authoritative, and the music of the song was so almost . . overpowering, for lack of a better word. The album isn’t theatrical like The Wall, but you can sense its DNA roots from that album. The CD version blows the old cassette version I had out of the water. Pink Floyd has evolved, and with the exception of Dark Side of the Moon, I think they have gotten slightly better with each album they’ve created. This album is a testament to that.

3.      Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition by Uncut Magazine: How ironic that I’m on this Pink Floyd kick, and I saw this magazine at a local newsstand. I couldn’t pass it up. In-depth reviews of every album the band has made. Interviews that have spanned the years from the band members, this thing reads like a bible for Pink Floyd. It was a good find, and has really given me some insight (and inside information) on the band and their albums and some of the mysteries behind those records and why they were formed the way they were.  

4.      The Dinner by Herman Koch. Just finished this remarkable novel on my four day mini-vacation. Two brothers and their wives meet at a fancy restaurant in Holland to discuss a heinous act of violence committed by their fifteen year old sons that has launched a police investigation. One brother is about to become Prime Minister of Holland, and the other brother was put on leave from teaching high school because of his violent tendencies. As the couples dine, the meal takes a dark turn as they discuss what to do about their sons and how this could affect their safe insulated worlds. I raced to get to the climax, and it begs the old question, how far would you go to cover something terrible your child did? Koch’s excellent plot and how it intermingles flashbacks and present time with the different courses of the meal is brilliant.

5.      Elizabeth Smith’s Fast Track Japanese: As you all know, I work at a Japanese company. I’m surrounded by the language every workday, and after a certain time of the night I am the only “gaijin” in the office. I lived in Japan for two and a half years back in the 80s Who would have thought that I would ever have need for the language again? But alas! It sure is funny how life works out sometimes. I thought I had forgotten most of what I knew when I lived there, but this self study course is bringing it all back in a wonderful way. I still think my favorite word of all is McDonald’s. I mean, listen to it, just a simple American-Scottish name, right? But say it in Japanese and try not to smile. Makoo-doo-nalah-doh!”

6.      The Longest Day on Blu Ray: Appropriately, I watched this on Memorial Day. I’d never seen it, but happened across the 3 disc collector’s edition and for the price couldn’t pass it up. Despite its all star cast, and the fact it was directed by Darryl F. Zanuck (who did the venerable 1977 film, A Bridge Too Far) I thought this would look like a high school media arts production who borrowed the school’s Thespian club to do the film. I was wrong. I have to admit, it was on par with Spielberg’s grandiose Saving Private Ryan (1998). This three hour movie depicts the whole invasion and all parties involved from both sides. It includes the British gliders and the US Army paratroopers who invaded from the other side in the middle of the night, and of course the famous D-Day assault. The boots on the ground German generals were shown as being wholly competent but hamstrung by their high command. Hitler was napping after having taken a sedative during the invasion.

  

7.      Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts on PC:  I just beat this series of campaigns that was an original expansion pack for arguably, Relic’s best RPG ever produced, Company of Heroes. The game concerns the liberation of Caen, or as the Axis thwarting Operation Market Garden. It was my second playthrough, having first played it back in 2009. I’m not good at RTSs, but I love them. And Company of Heroes is my favorite RTS of all time. I do play online, but not often, and when I do I get steamrolled by my opponents. Yet, I still find it a hell of a good time.

8.      Assetto Corsa on PC: This game, oh, this game. Coupled with my Logitech G27 wheel/paddle set this game is the best car racing simulation I’ve ever played. It makes me want to go out and buy a new car, a real life depiction of the virtual wonderments I’ve been driving in this game. In all honesty, I’ve been struggling with it. The game has a default setting concerning the stability control assist. I lurked the forums, and discovered by turning the setting off the game sea changed for me. I’m now progressing rather nicely, and I’m 36% through the career now. I just picked up the Japanese pack which adds multiple Japanese street cars, including the Nissan Skyline. Why watch a Fast and Furious movie when you can play one?

Edward's April 2016 Mix

I’m getting used to the new job. And liking it. I’m a man who wears many hats now: accounting, purchasing, and production control among others. I’m working more hours and so my gaming and entertainment time has been truncated. And as you’ll see, this mix is probably one of the shortest I’ve written. But it’s not because of my abreviated playtime; it’s because of one thing: Dark Souls! It’s all I’ve been playing.

  

1.      U2: Achtung Baby on CD: I’m not a real fan of U2. It seems for every great record they make, Zooropa or Achtung Baby,  they make something like All That You Can’t Leave Behind. But I must admit, Achtung Baby is an album which U2 knocked out of the park. There isn’t a bad song on it simply because Adam Clayton’s bassing and The Edge’s high E-string guitaring is simply a match made in Heaven. This CD has been in my car CD player for the past two weeks, and I can’t stop listening to it. Listen to this album with a good subwoofer. Adam Clayton will want to make you go out and buy a bass of your own.  

2.      Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC: I just hit level 51 with a concentrated aim toward a strength trait. Yes, the game is still hard as hell, but I’ve not ragequit yet. I’ve just defeated the Capra demon boss which wasn’t too hard, and I’ve acquired the claymore sword, a wicked weapon best used with a forward thrust. I have the Hydra in my sights, but so far she’s laid me to waste. Like any other boss I’ve encountered thus far I will take her down. It might take me 30 times, but she won’t best me. I just bought into the Dark Souls Boardgame on kickstarter. I can’t give up now.  

3.      Train Simulator 2016 on PC: I picked up the Donnor’s Pass DLC pack. I’ve only played one scenario in it in which I have to verify the integrity of the pack during a winter snowstorm. Honestly, traveling along at a 30 mph speed limit gets old very quickly, but hey, I accomplished the task with perfection and got the achievement. I look forward to playing summer scenarios so I can really see the beauty this DLC pack has to offer.  

4.      The Dinner by Herman Koch. Recommended by my daughter, I found this novel slow to start, but wow, does it take off! Two couples in Amsterdam meet at a fancy restaurant to fellowship and dine. Each couple has a fifteen year old son who are friends with each other united by a single horrific act that has shattered the comfortably insulated world of each family. I’ve read so many books that have been translated into English from other languages, but none so aptly translated like this one. Gillian Flynn who wrote the novel, Gone Girl, said it best: “Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking and unputdownable.” Read this book.  

5.      Nautica: Voyage cologne. I’ve written about it before on here. I am a discerning man when it comes to colognes. I prefer musks for night ventures and wintertime, and fruity citrusy colognes for the office or for summer and spring excursions. A one cologne fits all is just out of the question, for me at least. I recently picked up a bottle (albeit expensive) of Nautica: Voyage. It’s as if someone captured a beautiful day at sea on a yacht and put it into a bottle. It cost me $65.00, and it was well worth it

6.      Sixteen Candles on Blu Ray: Okay, I recently had the flu. Bored. I had picked up this John Hughe’s film for el cheapo and chose this time to watch it. John Hughes had his fingers on the pulse of youth. His films embody the 80’s and 90’s so well. And he filmed most of his movies in the midwest around the Chicago area because he wanted to appeal to mainstream America. This movie was no Ferris Beuller’s Day Off or The Breakfast Club, but Michael Anthony Hall’s performance makes this one a keeper.