Edward's October 2020 Monthly Mix

 

 

 

 It’s been an odd month (when it comes to my Mixes, they all are!) I went from my office position to being out on a loading dock utilizing a forklift. Ah, I don’t mind, it’s a bit of a change of scenery. I have the skill, so why not put it to use? It is long hours, which detracts from my good things in life, books, movies and music! Still, I made time. Somehow, I always manage that. This was the month of Halloween, and what could be more memorable than the unseasonably warm one, but the first full moon on Halloween since 1944. Those pictures depicted in the childhood storybooks I read were wrong!                                         

1.         Vertigo on DVD: Cited by scores of critics and film historians as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most important films, this fully restored 70 mm version in DTS is probably the most eloquent Hitchcock movie I’ve seen. Martin Scorsese says in 1958 When big studios had such influence on their films, he was surprised to see a movie made that was so personal, even by such a big-name director. The movie is about obsession, both figuratively and literally. Alfred Hitchcock was so obsessed with the film, the script, and the costuming (so wonderfully achieved by Edith Head) he wanted perfection. The only thing he entrusted to someone else was the music score by Bernard Hermann, which, in my opinion was the star of the movie. Hermann’s hypnotic and tantalizing score is probably my favorite in any Hitchcock/Hermann film. (Though Pyscho runs a close second place.) John “Scottie” Ferguson, the main character, a police detective forcibly retired due to his acrophobia who becomes obsessed with a young woman he’s being paid to follow, encounters gross indecision at the film’s climax when he’s again put into a situation where his fear of heights prevents him from following his moral compass. As we see Ferguson, so wonderfully played by James Stewart, run up a flight of stairs, but then looking behind himself and freezing in panic, beads of sweat coating his face, Bernard Hermann captured this scene, so efficiently in his music. This edition is a one-million-dollar total restoration in 70 mm with DTS which makes this the version to see. My sister, Lisa Nogelmeier, is the biggest Hitchcock fan I know (and a walking Wiki on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock movies.) I’m grateful her affinity for Alfred Hitchcock has become contagious.

 

2.       The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on PC: This is simply put, a Diablo clone. But it’s one of the better action RPGs I’ve played. It’s not your usual trappings of giant rats, orks and trolls. It’s more a Transylvanian twist with vampires and werewolves. The night backdrops are illuminated by silvery full moons and an ominous score by Gergely Buttinger. The game is definitely a clickfest done surprisingly well, though there are some glaring omissions. On my first playthrough some years back I wrote a review on Steam lauding its highpoints, but bringing to light the developers suggested watching YouTube videos to learn how to play the game rather than using a manual that should have been included with the game. I beat the game this time around with a melee character on Hardcore Heroic difficulty. I left Fulmagati’s lightning rods on the rooftops, (if you played the game, you’ll get this reference. It makes the game that much more difficult and I don’t know of anybody else who played it this way.) And I got the achievement for sparing the Igors, “But they’re so cute!” It’s a 1.1% achievement, meaning only 1.1% of the people who have played the game earned it. I’ve never been so ready to finish a game before. It really became a chore simulator. The real star of this show was the great OST and the wonderfully wisecracking, Lady Katarina, your supernatural sidekick who heals you and kicks butt alongside you.

 

3.       Prince and the Revolution  Music from Purple Rain on CD: Though I’ve never seen the movie, this OST mirrors my life in the early ‘80s. I’ve experienced many a weekend dance club swaying and moving to these tunes. I didn’t appreciate Prince’s creativity then. I just thought he was an over-glamorized rock star, but now decades later, listening to each track on this CD I’ve discovered an almost ingenuity behind each Prince’s band referred to as The Revolution was aptly appropriate. This was one of the albums that helped bring about the “Parents’ Advisory” black labels you see on album covers. It was all about “Darling Nikki,” which was thought to be a bit explicit for radio play. This album was recently picked at number 8 of Rolling Stones’ “Top 500 Albums of All Time.”

 

4.        Railway Empire on PC: I’ve talked about it before, but this game is a love child of Sid Meier’s Railroads! and Railroad Tycoon 3. I’m still awaiting the true successor to Railroad Tycoon 3 but in the interim this game will have to suffice. And it does for the most part anyway. It’s a Kalypso Studio game which means it doesn’t have the AAA fluff a major studio would produce, but it’s been crafted with a lot of developer love. It gets regular updates and DLCs to boot. It’s quite the complicated game, enough that I’ve had to watch YouTube tutorials just to learn how to implement proper signaling on my track layouts. If you like RTS and you like railroad simulations you’re going to love this.

 

5.        Rod Serling’s Night Gallery Season Two on DVD: Having watched the first season of this a year or so back, I recently ventured into the second year of the series. The show (if it ever did) seemed to hit its full stride at this time. It’s unfortunate that Rod Serling and the producer of the show, Jack Laird, didn’t mesh well. Serling assumed he would have much greater control of the series, thinking it would carry the torch pass on from The Twilight Zone, but Laird didn’t want to relinquish the control he had over the show. Serling became at most, the series’ host and the narrator who introduced each show. Some episodes included short quick take comedic sketches that Serling was vehemently opposed to. These episodes certainly bring back memories of my childhood, back when I lived for what was on television.  

 

6.       Living Colour Vivid on CD: Coming out in 1988, I had never heard anything quite like this up to that time. Now I can’t stop listening to it on auto repeat. It was a black band that played hard rock music. Mick Jagger had a hand in producing the album (and can be heard on the backing vocals of “Glamour Boys.”) Corey Glover helms as the frontman as a great vocalist, probably the hook that seals this band as being so great, but the real show stealer is Vernon Reid, the guitarist who plays so flamboyantly well. The band fuses jazz and funk and melds it into some of the gnarliest rock music you’ll ever hear. Nice bit of trivia, Corey Glover played “Francis” in Oliver Stones’ Platoon (1986.) I had no idea!

 

7.       Wake of the Red Witch by Garland Roark: I’ve always been a sucker for stories occurring on the high seas (I even wrote one!) This one is almost (but not quite) as compelling as Jack London’s stellar The Sea Wolf or Joseph Conrad’s often copied Heart of Darkness. The tale concerns a half-crazed captain of a schooner who is cruel to his men, but ever loyal to his lust for gold and women. My first exposure was to the movie starring John Wayne. Unusual for John Wayne, because it wasn’t a western nor a war movie, and it's one of the few movies in which Wayne’s character dies in the end. This was a good yarn, but a bit long winded. It sent me to the dictionary a few times, always a plus. It’s truly a man’s adventure tale straight out of the old Saga or True or Argosy magazines that dotted the newsstand magazine racks from the 1940s to the 1970s.

 

8.        Xvive U2 Guitar Wireless System: I had wanted to go this route for a while now. I finally pulled the trigger, and man, what a difference! These things are like magic. I’m not tethered by a cable anymore, no more twists, broken innards, or chair wheels rolling over them. I have to thank my guitar mentor, Michael Stevens, for turning me onto these. Angus Young popularized these back in the 1970s. And now I can see why. Plug them into a USB charger for 2 hours and you get 5 hours of unimpeded untethered joy. Yay!

 

 

Edward's September 2020 Mix

 

 Everything good is bad and everything bad is good. This is how my mother describes these crazy days making up the year 2020. It continues to be one really strange year. I lost a cousin in the month of September. When I heard he was ill, I imagined this planet without him in it and found it a difficult thought to fathom. And then it happened. I’ll adjust like we all have to, but man, am I going to miss him! I’m still living at work. I’ve gone a few days in a row not turning my PC on. Can you believe that? I still managed to partake in a few diversions, if anything, to keep my sanity.   

1. The Trouble with Harry on DVD: More like a high school stage play than a “teleplay” this movie reveals Alfred Hitchcock’s ability to put comedies in his movies. The movie centers on the discovery of a dead body on a hillside of a small New England town. Each member of the community ponders what to do about it without making other citizens of the town privy. The oddity is everybody in town in his or her own way has been made privy and is in the same predicament of what to do with the body. The movie gets bonus points for the picturesque autumn scenery which actually is the star of the show. The “co-star” of the show is Bernard Hermann’s elegant campy score, which accents the films humor wonderfully. This marked the beginning of the Hitchcock/Hermann director/film score relationship.   

2. Far Cry 4 on PC: I’ve enjoyed all of the Far Cry games up to this one. It’s not that I don’t like it. What’s not to like? The game’s setting, the Himalayan mountain region is spectacular looking, especially on a vivid 1440P monitor, and the story concept is compelling enough. I thoroughly enjoyed Far Cry 3 enough to write a lengthy Steam review of it, and admittedly, I still carry the soundtrack around in my car. Yes, I was a devoted fan. I raced through to the game’s end, relishing the story like a good novel. And perhaps that was enough, hence my lack of focus with Far Cry 4. It just seems really repetitive and the story is fragmented compared to its amazing predecessor. Maybe the story will pick up and I’ll find my way. I’ll stay the course, regardless.   

3. F1 2016 on PC: I’m about to finish my very first season in this Codemasters racing sim. It certainly hasn’t been easy. I play full on: full length practice sessions, qualifying and 100% races too. I don’t use “cheats” such as HUD track layouts either. And still I’m lucky to finish 19^th or 20^th place out of 22 drivers. I never quite worked my way up from the lowly team I started with despite unlocking R&D upgrades that were never quite enough. I’ll go through another season to see if any last season upgrades enhance the car a bit (before moving on to F1 2017.) With this all being said, the game is anything but boring. Each race offers a glimmer of hope because the game feels so authentic. Tire wear, weather changes and the AI feel like the real thing.

4. Wake of the Red Witch by Garland Roark: I’ve always been a sucker for stories occurring on the high seas (I even wrote one!) This one is every bit as compelling as Jack London’s stellar The Sea Wolf or Joseph Conrad’s often copied Heart of Darkness. The tale concerns a half-crazed captain of a schooner who is cruel to his men, but ever loyal to his lust for gold and women. My first exposure was to the movie starring John Wayne. Unusual for John Wayne, because it wasn’t a western nor a war movie, yet Wayne’s character dies in the end. The book is sending me to the dictionary quite a bit (always a plus.) It’s truly a man’s adventure tale straight out of the old Saga or True or Argosy magazines that dotted the newsstand magazine racks from the 1940s to the 1970s.

5. Explosions in the Sky “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” on CD: I’ve always been a fan of Explosions in the Sky, a band that self admittedly creates “cathartic mini-symphonies.” If you’ve ever watched the movie or the TV series, Friday Night Lights, you know their music. Yeah, that good stuff. The band is comprised of three guitars and a drum machine, and I don’t know why, but it just works. This, their sixth studio album (2011) is a bit slower than their other stuff, the build ups are longer which is a good thing because it makes their beautiful choruses blossom more achingly beautiful. EitS was the first time I’d ever heard of a genre called post rock. And because of them it may be my favorite genre of music.  

6. The Who: Live at Leeds on CD: Rolling Stone Magazine included this in their list of the top ten best live albums. (The same magazine included a 2012 reader’s poll result in which this album was voted the best live rock album of all time.) I understand the legacy made by The Who, but this album didn’t do it for me. I should post a disclaimer, however. I’ve never had an affinity for live albums. The instruments on this album, like most live albums for me, simply sounded hollow and “tinny.” I listened to it a third time and then something happened. I realized how “raw” this album was. And suddenly I couldn’t get enough. I love this album! Townshend’s Gibson SG and Moon’s tribal drumming make the album what it is.

7. Lost in Space on Netflix: Per a few suggestions by friends, including my long-time friend, Vic Berwick, I decided to indulge in this Lost in Space redux. I’m new to it, but so far, it’s interesting though totally unrelated to anything Irwin Allen ever created. So, Doctor Smith is a nefarious female? The B-9 Robot hails from alien technology and from another planet? It’s definitely incongruent with the old series, but I’m finding it very interesting to watch. Indulge for the story, but stay for the incredible visuals.

8. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on PC: This is simply put, a Diablo clone. But it’s one of the better action RPGs I’ve played. It’s not your usual trappings of giant rats, orcs and trolls. It’s more a Transylvanian twist with vampires and werewolves. The night backdrops are illuminated by silvery full moons and an ominous score by Gergely Buttinger. The game is definitely a clickfest done surprisingly well, though there are some glaring omissions. On my first play-through some years back I wrote a review on Steam lauding its high points, but bringing to light the developers suggested watching YouTube videos to learn how to play the game rather than using a manual that should have been included with the game. I’m playing a melee character (which makes the game difficult enough) on Hero level (which ups the difficulty even more so.) It’s a fun stress reliever, but I feel the real stars are the great OST and the wonderfully wisecracking, Lady Katarina, your supernatural sidekick who heals you and kicks butt alongside you.

 

Edward's August 2020 Monthly Mix

  

 Funny how I went from three months of quarantining at home to now working so many hours I didn’t even have time to post a Mix for July. Bet you didn’t notice! I slowly got my footing back in August, however. It was still 50-60 plus hour weeks, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I had to get my game back one way or the other, despite the chaos that has become life in these United States. There remains comedy in everything, still. I drive my Mustang about town with my windows down, my COVID mask on, and I feel like I’m Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road.  

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five on Blu Ray: This will go down as one of the best written television series I’ve ever watched. And having my TV go on the blink and acquiring a newer bigger set makes ST:TNG all the more spectacular. I suppose the real ebullience that comes from watching this remarkable series is the fact I’ve never seen them before. Yes, really. I’m watching them for the first time.  I used to wrestle with the question, which series is better, TNG or Classic? It's safe to say I'll always love the classic series, but TNG has it beat.

2. The Killers “Imploding the Mirage” on Hi-Res 96kHz-24 bit: I’ve always liked The Killers. They remind me of a 1960’s band that accidentally stepped into a time machine unbeknownst, and then stepped out at 2020 recording albums obliviously. This album hosts Adam Granduciel, the front man for one of my favorite indie bands, The War on Drugs and Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) and K.D. Lang. I’ve heard reviewers call out a Bruce Springsteen type sound, but I’m not really hearing that. The album is poppy and bright, despite Brandon Flowers’ typical gritty and dull subject matter: small dead-end towns, the desert, and big dreams with no way to fulfill them. Favorite tunes: “Blowback,” and “Caution.”

3. Grid Autosport on PC: Still working my way through this “sim-cade” racer. Each track is lovingly recreated and the cars are beautiful, especially for a 2014 game. The races themselves are fun and exhilarating, but the AI has a propensity to cheat. It seems they always get advantageous starts and they take corners inhumanly fast. I average a 7^th place finish (out of 16) in about every race I participate in. I’ve just started the open wheel league, and I seem to be doing a bit better, often placing 3^rd and 4^th. Back to the AI, the cheating notwithstanding, I have to admit the AI cars act realistically (for the most part.) It’s a sight to behold to watch a pack of cars swipe each other in a first corner and see clouds of smoke as one car careers into the turf beyond the track. Simply typing this makes me want to boot up the game.

4. Steelseries Arctis Pro + Gamedac for PC: My Steelseries Syberia V.3s served me well, and they still have life left in them, but it was time for something new. As much as I’m gaming on my PC I’m also writing and listening to music. I’m always searching for something to really do the music justice, and it was a weighty decision, but I decided to go with these premium Hi-Res Audio certified cans. No regrets. For gaming, they’re nothing to write home about (though they do the job quite adequately) but for music, they sound simply incredible. I suppose they should considering I paid more for this headset than any of my high end ear buds or Sennheiser cans.  

5. Blue Oyster Cult “Cult Classic” on Hi-Res 96kHz-24 bit: My friend, Brian Bartley, pointed out there was far more to Blue Oyster Cult than simply, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” and “Godzilla.” I picked up this all-inclusive collection when it went on sale at ProStudioMaster.com and boy howdy, was Brian right! I picked up one of their albums a few months ago but discovered it was a live album. This album is much more akin to a greatest hits album I'd wanted in the first place. The band’s songs are so “busy” but not a note is wasted. BOC were rockers in the truest sense, but they had enough technicality to them they seemed to be wading in prog territory. I always liked what I’d heard of them, but never considered myself a fan. This album has changed that, and I guess I’m not alone. The band has sold 25 million albums worldwide since they started in 1967.

6. Euro Truck Simulator 2 on PC: This is my ultimate chill game. Disassembling the parts that make up its sum, it’s a pretty straightforward game. You haul freight through different cities and countries of Europe while earning enough money to buy more trucks and drivers so you can earn even more money. But there are nuances, oh, the nuances. Driving your own rig and listening to real Internet radio being streamed into your cab, watching sunrises on beautiful Italian landscapes, getting drowsy at two in the morning to the drone of pouring rain and monotonic windshield wipers. It’s a thoroughly engrossing game. Game is almost the wrong word for it. It’s more . . . an experience.

7. Smoke and Mirrors by Neal Gaiman: I only read my first Neal Gaiman book a month ago. And then immediately dove into this one. It’s a collection of short stories. Of Gaiman’s writing, Stephen King admitted, “His fecundity, coupled with the overall quality of his work, is both wonderful and a little intimidating.” Each of these stories are tiny jewels and it’s hard to stop at just reading one. We have a boy who bargains for his life while meeting a troll under a bridge, an old woman who buys The Holy Grail from a local thrift shop and is accosted by one of King Arthur’s knights to acquire it. There’s a mousy bachelor looking to off his two-timing girlfriend by locating a killer under “Assassins” in the Yellow Pages. These stories are fun and compelling reading. I’m surprised I’ve not read anything by Gaiman earlier.

8. Indianapolis 500: 104^th on TV live broadcast: This was a gorgeous sporting event to watch on an OLED TV. And due to the COVID this year, it was the only possible way to watch the event. I must admit it was odd seeing the empty grandstands and from what I’ve heard it was even off putting for the drivers involved in the race. It wasn’t a series of incredible passes, expert pit stop timings, or amazing reel-ins that made this race. It was the cool experience of Japanese driver, Takuma Sato, allowing him to work his way to the front and maintain his lead (sometimes aggressively) the last half of the race. The one exciting highlight was probably Alexander Rossi inadvertently brushing tires with Sato coming out of the pits and acquiring a behind the pack penalty. He used his anger to overtake numerous drivers in an attempt to get to the lead pack. And it became his undoing when he slammed into the wall, ending his day on the track. Too bad he didn’t use that energy to focus. The low part of the race was the stupid commercials. You already know I abhor TV commercials. They’re really getting to be a deal breaker for me. They kept showing the same exact commercials every break, and with twenty laps left to race they announced there would be no more commercials. There was a yellow flag and suddenly there were more commercials than ever.

9. Tropico 5 on PC: I used to watch my brother in law play Tropico 3 and get a kick out of the game’s humor and delightful gameplay. Fast forward a few years, and I saw Tropico 5 pop up on a Steam sale. I picked it up and got into it pretty heavily, and then I got stuck on a difficult level. I revisited the game this month and finally got past that hard part. So now I’m looking forward to the next level and ultimately beating the game. It’s definitely an RTS lite, well suited for beer and pretzels. The soundtrack score is excellent, quite fitting for an island sim in which you play a heavy-handed Caribbean dictator ruling over your denizens and lining your pockets with the fruits of your corruption. Your advisors are always saying funny things, I mean, laugh out loud funny things. And the beautiful seemingly hand-crafted graphics will have you salivating for a Pina Colada. It’s nowhere near the depth of City Skylines, but the game offers a charm all of its own.

10. World War II Day by Day by Antony Shaw: In light of the great old movies and the bevy of PC games I play on the subject, I consider myself a World War II buff. This remarkable book reads like an objective diary of each day in the five year span of the world's greatest conflict. Filled with photographs, many I've not seen before, this book would make a fine addition as a reference book for anybody interested in world history. 

Edward's June 2020 Monthly Mix

The world has become tumultuous: COVID-19 is slowly taking over the planet. The Cancel Culture movement is killing coolness, the woke (sic) mob is aggressively rewriting history (for once not being written by the victors), the Black Lives Matter activity, it seems as if most everyone has to have an external enemy to be felled. I think it’s sad people have stopped thinking for themselves and the others are simply standing by allowing this to happen. But it’s a good time to lose one’s self in alternate worlds, even if they are artificial ones. And that’s what I did this month. 

1. Razor’s Edge on DVD: After fighting in the trenches of WWI, an adventuresome young man returns home with “survivor syndrome,” afflicting him because he survived the war when many of his comrades did not. This phenomenon weighs upon him so heavily he goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. Years later, when he returns, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married. This was greatly portrayed by Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney as the flustered fiancée he left behind. I wouldn’t call it a remarkable movie, but I’d confidently say it's a movie done remarkable well.

2. The Jesus and Mary Chain “Psychocandy” on CD: How could a band with a drum kit consisting of two drums, a forever out of tune guitar and a bass with two strings be any good? Maybe they’re not, but they’re different, so different in fact you can’t help but take notice of this two-brother duo from Scotland. William and Jim Reid sing with vocals not unlike that of boys whose voices are undergoing physiological teen aged changes, but there’s something about this band I find truly compelling. Their first hit song, “Just Like Honey,” spawning from this debut album, basically stole the drum rhythm from 1963’s The Ronnette’s “Be My Baby” and went on to 45 in the UK record charts. The stand out song for me, however, is “The Hardest Walk,” which was featured on the seminal John Hughes film, “Some Kind of Wonderful.”  

  

3. The Day it Rained Forever by Ray Bradbury: A collection of short stories by the esteemed Ray Bradbury who admitted his stories weren’t about science fiction per se, but more like stories about people, which they indeed, were. I’m halfway through the book on my Kindle. There’s nothing stand out so far, but Bradbury’s stories are as exquisite as sipping ice tea on a hot night from a squeaky chain porch swing on an old front porch. His stories always leave you with a certain kind of gentle pay off. He makes prose writing sound like poetry and he will always be one of my favorite writers.

4. Crysis 2 on PC: I’m about ¾ of the way through this exciting adrenaline pumping inducing action shooter. It’s sort of a weird cross between War of the Worlds and Independence Day. Only instead of being the victim of circumstances as poor Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) was in Spielberg’s underrated film, you’ve been proactively sent to dispatch this alien invasion, given an incredible array of tools, especially a living cyber-skin of armor capable of multiple modes (extra armor, invisibility, extra strength.) I’ve enjoyed all of the games occurring in the Crytek universe, or inspired by them (The FarCry series.) The original game which came out in 2007 became a running paradigm joke, “Yeah, but will your rig run it?” I’ve just upgraded to a newer gaming PC which doesn’t even bring the question of this second one in the series into play, but I have to admit the graphics are incredibly good looking. The game frequently goes on sale on Steam. If you like shooters with a story, this is worth a play through.

5. Blue Oyster Cult “Some Enchanted Evening” on CD: I picked this up, and eager to get home and listen to it I was chagrinned to find it was a live album. (I thought it was a greatest hits album when I read the track list.) Still, after two playthroughs it’s grown on me. All I ever really knew of BOC was their radio hits, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Godzilla.” Listening to this, I discovered “E.T.I (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” which is now my favorite BOC song by far. Now I really do need to find a greatest hits album. Interestingly, it turns out this album is by far their best selling album of all time. Interesting trivia: BOC was one of the first bands to use lasers onstage.
   

6. Days of Thunder on 4K Blu Ray: I remember going to a theater to watch a move in late 1989, early 1990 and seeing the preview for this movie. I was a Tom Cruise fan, and the movie depicting him as a mysterious race car driver showing up late to test drive a car was the ultimate tease. And then I went to the same theater to watch the movie when it came out. I wasn’t a fan of NASCAR, but the movie was done so well it ultimately made NASCAR an interesting subject for me. Revisiting it again after all these years on its 4K presentation made me see it more for what it was: a heavily stylized Hollywood roller coaster ride, but that’s okay! It’s a fun movie. In an interview with director Tony Scott, he stated he and Cruise both loved showing “the flight of the cars.” The 4K treatment pulls this off with aplomb, the stock cars aglow with colors, screamingly loud making their way around the round venues. Tom Cruise stated he loved Scott’s energy for films, and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) described Cruise as hard charging and a brilliant actor. And they all admitted casting Robert Duvall in his role as the car builder/crew chief truly brought something special to the movie.

 

7. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: (I’m borrowing this from my Goodreads review, but it sums it up exceedingly well.) This book was as fun of a read for me as The Wizard of Oz series. It began slow and the characters took a while to earn my interest, and then suddenly I didn't want to put the book down. And that ending, best ending I've encountered in ages. It made me instantly yearn for a sequel. Gaiman's characters will hold a place in my heart and I won't be surprised to find myself searching for Lamia in the crowd of any public place from now on. Gaiman's diction and his use of description caused me to reread sentences just to hear the melody of the words again. "Seeing the Marquis' bloated body slowly float by face down in the brown sewage like a stately funeral frigate," this is golden. And this is why I can't wait to discover more Neil Gaiman.

  

8. Elite Dangerous on PC: Often called Euro Truck Sim 2 in space, I realized I had been way too long away from this game and decided to revisit it. I had forgotten how difficult landing at spaceports was in the game. After several attempts I finally rage quit and wrote the game off in a Steam status entry. The next day after I had cooled off, I tried again and met with some success. The game really is a chill game. Who would have ever known as a kid in the late 60’s when the space race was in full swing that fifty years later, I would be piloting through the universe in my own space ship, hauling goods to and from distant planets and making money doing it? This game is an absolute gorgeous game with an uncanny ability to make you feel as if you really are flying a space ship complete with the loneliness and the required attention to detail you’d need to do the real thing. Andy Kelly, my favorite PC Gamer writer once wrote about a pilgrimage he made in this game to a far outpost space station. His journey took him 90 minutes of real time flying just to get there. He said it was a rite of passage of sorts. Every trip in this game feels like that to me. The game universe is so huge that if you discover a star in the game the developers name it after you. How cool is that?