Edward's March 2020 Mix

 
This singular month of March 2020 will be one for the history books. This is one your kiddos will tell their grandchildren about. The novel virus COVID-19 has intruded upon us like invaders from Mars wanting to conquer Earth. The world has become like so many science fiction movies or Stephen King stories. For lack of a better way to put it, it’s unbelievable. Being holed up for two weeks at home seems like a grand idea, but in reality it’s Christmas break in The Twilight Zone. I’m not complaining. It was a wonderful chance to get in some quality gaming time not to mention the books I read, the music I listened to and the movies I watched. 

1.   Light in August by William Faulkner:  I’m still engrossed in this gritty muddy work of great American literature by Faulkner. The novel centers around Joe Christmas, a drifter at odds within himself because he’s of mixed race. He’s a rough man who’s running from a ghastly crime he’s committed. I couldn’t stand him until the backstory reveals he was plucked from a foster home by a stern religious man who whips him daily for not being able to remember verses from a catechism. My favorite writer, Carson McCullers who left her native Columbus, GA and settled in New York once said she conducted visits to her old south to “renew her sense of horror.” I get that with this novel.

Faulkner’s brilliance in descriptive writing comes through here in which we get a description of the stern religious man’s wife: “It was as though instead of having been subtly slain and corrupted by the ruthless and bigoted man beyond his intending and her knowing, she had been hammered stubbornly thinner and thinner like some passive and dully malleable metal, into an attenuation of dumb hopes and frustrated desires . . .”  

   

2.     Vangelis “Heaven and Hell” on CD: I have an extensive Vangelis collection, but this one was missing from my library. I found it for el cheapo on eBay and couldn’t pass it up. Recorded in 1975 long before his seminal Chariots of Fire and BladeRunner scores, this is still reminiscent of a cheesy late ‘70s science fiction soundtrack. And then there is the section in Part 1 where the warbly glaring synthesizers give way to a beautiful piano and majestic string synths. My eyes began to well up immediately. This was the section used in television Nova’s wonderful Cosmos series hosted by Carl Sagan. It was the perfect choice because this album has sections that are wonderfully appropriate for musical accompaniment to the origins of the universe.  

3.   Jack Reacher: Never Go Back on 4K Blu Ray: Jack Reacher is as close to a superhero as you can get without treading upon the territory of Marvel or DC comics. In a way he’s better than those superheroes because he’s truly believable, just a seemingly average joe trying to find his place in the world after a career in the US Army. Unfortunately, trouble always seems to find him. Suddenly, he’s doing his thing, not withholding to any laws but his own justice. Reacher is depicted much different in the book series, of which I’m a huge fan, than he is by Tom Cruise in the movies. Still, Cruise does a good job of bringing Lee Child’s character to life. This particular movie has Reacher who is used to being alone suddenly eschewing that “aloneness” to protect a teenage girl who could potentially be his daughter. Cruise puts his everything into his movies, (he even did his own driving stunts in this film) and his love for what he does shows. One of the actresses on the set stated in an interview, “It would be Monday morning 6:00a.m. and we’re all still kind of groggy trying to get into the swing, and Tom would show up on the set and start yelling, ‘Hey, guess what we’re getting to do? We’re making a movie!’” She said he was always an inspiration to all.   

4.  Magician by Raymond E. Feist: My friend, David Tidwell, got me fascinated with this book when he described being on forced marches while deployed to the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, and having this novel ensconced in the side pocket of his battle fatigues. He would look forward to break times where he could plop down on his pack and break out the book, instantly being teleported to another world (probably a much better one than the real one he was currently existing in.) And so, I started this tome and found myself complaining to Dave that I just couldn't get into it. Then something took hold. The characters sucked me in and I got hooked. I now see why Raymond Feist's Betrayal at Krondor series went on to become a best selling RPG series on PC in addition to the great novels Feist penned. Perhaps not quite as deep as a George R. R. Martin Song of Fire & Ice novel, but venerable nonetheless and every bit as engaging. This indoctrination into the Riftwar Saga novels makes me want to play an old school RPG and delve into the second book of The Riftwar Saga.


5. The Smashing Pumpkins “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” on CD:  This was The Smashing Pumpkins’ third studio album. It was described by the band as a teen angst message to 14-24 year olds. Declared a concept album by frontman, Billy Corgan, he said it was Pink Floyd’s “Wall” album for Generation X. That’s kind of a bold statement, but then perhaps proved to be true. The album spawned six singles and became a diamond album by the RIAA (Ten million albums sold) not to mention seven Grammy nominations (of which it scored one single award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” (That had to hurt.) Personally, I think these are good Pumpkins’ songs. Most of the songs have a “samey” sound to them, but I could put the discs on auto-repeat and not be bored.    

6.  The Hurricane Heist on 4K Blu Ray: A typical popcorn summer blockbuster movie to liven up your big screen 4K TV and give your Home Theater surround sound a good workout. The movie certainly didn’t fail at that task. Not quite an epic roller coaster ride, but the movie was full of great action sequences. Friends betraying friends, good guys who are actually bad guys, and bro moments galore. Interestingly, the two main characters hail from the UK and Australia, yet they pull off Alabama accents fairly well. Still, it begs the question, are we running out of young American male actors? The transition from Blu Ray to 4K Blu Ray is subtle at best. I didn’t compare the two, myself, but this, according to the experts at blu-ray.com. Rob Cohen, the film’s director gives an interview on the disc lamenting the state of the movie industry and a short bleak history of movie making in the past four decades. It’s well worth watching. 

7. F.E.A.R. 3 on PC: The original F.E.A.R. was lauded for its AI back in 2005. A challenging AI coupled with a creepy ghost girl stolen right out of the movie Ring, what was there not to like? The horrors continued with F.EA.R. 2. F.E.A.R. 3 tried to carry the torch, but turned into more of an action game. I still encountered moments of dread as I played it, but the fall out of my chair shock moments especially apparent in the first game had become a thing of the past. Still, it had some great set pieces. I won’t soon forget the airport. As a matter of fact after beating this game I may not look at airports the same way again.  

8. The Complete Guitar Encyclopedia by Nick Freeth: This is a pretty inclusive guitar book covering every aspect from the history of famous guitar brands, to guitar gods (and how to play like them) to how to clean your guitar or set up a pedal board. It’s a thick and beautiful volume filled with some fantastic close up pictures of guitars and the players who made them famous. Included with each guitarist profile is a short discography of their venerable works. Whether you’re just starting out playing or you’re a gigging veteran this is a book that will make you want to pick up your guitar. 

9. Night Gallery: Season Two on DVD: Television sure has come a long way since the early 1970s when this series made its appearance. I remember being enthralled as a nine year old kid watching these episodes, sneaking up to lean against the doorway when I should have been in bed, being sleepy the next day at school, but thinking it was worth it. In truth, these episodes were as campy as a Saturday morning Sid & Marty Kroft kid’s vehicle. But the shows took themselves seriously, and to an impressionable boy like me, that’s all that mattered. These shows are fun to watch now because I took them so seriously as a kid, not to mention the sense of nostalgia that accompanies each episode: elongated cars that looked like road boats, leisure suits, paneled walls, and bushy sideburns. I’m not so sure I’d really like to go back in time.  

10. Tammar “Visits” on CD: Take a hint of The Smithereens, add a pinch of The Stone Roses, and mix in a dash of Joy Division and you have Tammar. Hailing from Bloomington, Indiana, this was a Pandora discovery, and boy am I glad I found them! Great writing music, great driving music, and even music to simply slip the earbuds in with and lie down and let your thoughts go. The band’s music conjures up images of 1970s movie scenes depicting families on a Mediterranean shore, windswept blond hair and turtleneck pullovers all shot on yellow grained film stock. Wes Anderson would do well to use Tammar to create the OST for his next film. Go to YouTube and listen to “Yung Jun.” You can thank me later. 

11. Pillars of Eternity on PC: Is there a more perfect time to begin an old school hardcore RPG than when being imposed upon with a self-quarantine? Backed by 77,000 Kickstarters, this game has all of the trimmings of an old D&D style dungeon crawler, only upgraded with a more user friendly UI and better graphics. I’m playing a road roughened Ranger named Edward Wanderlust, accompanied by a pet wolf named Boris. It seems I came out of a mysterious comatose type sleep as a “Watcher,” the ability to see souls wandering the earth and communicate with them. This in addition to stumbling into a village in which a mad king has decorated a town concentric oak tree like a Christmas Tree with hanging bodies in the belief that everybody in town is a heretic. I’m early into the game, level 4 so far, but I have the feeling I’m going to be called on to save the world, typical RPG fare. This is not Diablo III. You can’t buff up before fights, and you must rest after each battle to restore health, stamina and endurance. This is D&D mechanics at its finest.

Edward's February 2020 Mix

Our strange winter (or lack thereof) continues on. I’ve been looking at new PCs. My I7-3770K still runs full steam; at six years old, she’s getting ancient, but she’s still quite the goodie. And I’ve done something I never thought I’d do this month. I’m playing my first console game since my bout with a NES 8 bit system back in 1989. That ended abruptly when I was exposed to a Commodore 64. I procured a bank loan for my first PC (with a whalloping 12 mHz 286 processor) and never looked back.   

1.      House of  Wax on Blu-Ray: I first saw this in its original 3-D grandeur in a stately old movie theater in downtown San Diego, California. I remember seeing it alone and wanting to cling to every cinematic moment. It made me never want to leave the theater. Now, to own this movie for my very own and being able to lose myself in its magic is a testament to why I love movies so much. When I was a kid at the mercy of a rabbit ear antennaed TV festooned with tin foil that pulled in six channels I never dreamed I would someday own movies. Boy, what a movie to own! Vincent Price is nothing less than spectacular in his role as Henry Jarrod, a wax sculptor who loses his museum in a tragic fire in which he is horribly burned. He rebuilds his museum completing his figures by murdering people and covering their corpses with wax. Despite his mad intentions, he’s very much a sympathetic character. The movie uses a 1950s style “Technicolor” type film that looks warm and rich on a big screen, and looks marvelous on a big screen TV as well. The Blu-Ray treatment is well defined. This is a movie well worth adding to your horror collection.  
    
2.     Back to the Future III on Blu-Ray: I finally watched the last of this great series. I’d heard it wasn’t as good as the others. (Are sequels and sequels of sequels ever?) But I didn’t think it was bad. If you want bad sequels, watch The Toxic Avenger. There was a lot of love put into this movie, right down to the town of Hill Valley itself. None of it was built up falsefronts. Every building was a standalone building. There’s a line in the film in which Doc Brown doesn’t believe that Ronald Reagan (who was a movie actor in his time) is the current President. Rumor has it during Reagan’s own personal screening of this movie in the White House during his tenure, he laughed so hard at that line he had the reel played back so he could watch it again. Cute. And Bob Gale, the movie’s writer knew they had a hit when the movie was satired on the cover of Mad magazine.
   
3.  3 Doors Down “The Greatest Hits”  on CD: This is a band with members from a town right out of William Faulkner’s fictitious Yoknapatawpha County. Escatawpa is where this band hails from. They were childhood friends who played together. When they released the song “Kryptonite,” they became world renown. I always had a fondness for them, but there were too many songs I didn’t particularly care for to warrant buying a single album. This album is the perfect cure for that. It really does have all of their best songs on it. I admire their belief in God and family, in guns and black and white values. They performed at President Trump’s inauguration and caught a lot of flack for it. They rebounded by saying they were just honoring their values. These are guys who frequently perform for the soldiers in the Middle East. 

4.  David Copperfield  by Charles Dickens:  Oh, where to start? I got engrossed in this book from the beginning, but somewhat lost my way. David Copperfield is a likeable character, someone I grew to have a real attachment to. But the book is little more than a long series of discourses. The action is simply Copperfield leaving a houseful of people engaged in conversation to ambulate to another houseful of people to talk some more. Where the book grabbed hold of me again and refused to let go was the character development. The zany cast of characters (who can forget Uriah Heep?) is what won me over through to the end. Much like Dickens's venerable Great Expectations, this novel has introduced me to characters I will remember for the rest of my life. Dickens's powers of description are brilliant at times. His descriptions of cold and rainy London and the summertime fields and glens as seen by Copperfield and the description of Copperfield's lonely but cozy sleeping rooms are so real as to invoke a new affiliation with the phrase "virtual reality."  I was moved to happy tears in the final page. But then it may have been a moment of catharsis at having finally finished this 950 page novel. (Disclaimer: This was plagiarized from my own review of this novel on my GoodReads.com account.)


5.  Red Dead Redemption on PS3: I have preached the sin and abomination of playing console games for years. Of course I started with an original NES 8 bit back in 1989, but after getting the chance to play on a Commodore 64, I ridded myself of my Nintendo and never looked back. Oddly, Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption II. What’s a gamer to do? I had never played the first one (which was only released on console.) We had a PlayStation 3 here, so I figured, why not? I bought the Game of the Year Edition for super cheap, and I can’t lie: I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it! I’m only four hours in, but I’m just a recovered outlaw, trying to be a good guy, redeeming myself in the eyes of the law. But in truth, I’m a wild west klutz, I make Don Knotts in The Shakiest Gun in the West look like a superhero.

6.  Light in August by William Faulkner:  I’ve always regarded William Faulkner as the southern country cousin of Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. He writes about the clay and dirt and the hot Mississippi sun quite like no other, creating garish and stark word pictures complete with characters so well described you’d swear they walked out of a painting onto the pages of his books. He makes up words such as “mileconsuming chatter,” “manlooking shoes,” and “squatting in a ditchbank,” and contextually, the words fit right into where Faulkner places them. I’ve only started this book, but it just feels like a slow easy ride atop a mule wagon on a sultry summer day, much like the scenes depicted in the book.  

7. Dead Space 2 on PC: I finished this game, and to my chagrin had to dumb the final boss down from “normal” to casual. I really hate having to do that with a game, but when the developers make it so difficult the fun is sapped out it what else can you do? It certainly wasn’t a bad game, but I was glad when it was over. With ageism comes no-reflexism. It was a 20 hour game that took me 30 hours to beat. Being made to the tune of 120 million dollars, it’s one of the most expensive games ever made. The main star of it all was the Sprawl, the space station on which the game takes place. Well, that and the score by gaming composer extraordinaire, Jason Graves (he scored Far Cry Primal.) I’m told Dead Space 3 isn’t as fun to play, but me being the completionist I am, I’ll have to find out the hard way. 

8. Conflict: Denied Ops on PC: After only beating six games last year, I thought I’d try to make a jump-start of it this year and go a little faster.  Despite being a co-op online game with now dead servers, this game seemed to check off all of the bulletpoints: short (about six hours long), told a semi decent store involving two military “bros,” one a black man from the “’hood” and the other a redneck white guy seemingly raised by alligators in the Louisiana swamps, lots of red barrels to shoot at and crates to open. The Steam reviews are horrible, but at two hours in, I can’t complain too badly. It’s an action game for guys who like action games.

9. The Wrestler  on Blu-Ray: This low budget film was a sort of comeback for Hollywood brat packer, Mickey Rourke. The movie depicts a professional wrestler forced into retirement due to health reasons, and finding life outside the ring quite dispiriting. The term “washed up” comes to mind. And Rourke was the perfect guy for this role. You can’t help but feel sorry for him as he struggles in daily life, clinging to his glory days as a famous wrestler. He has an estranged daughter, whose relationship he keeps torpedoing despite his best intentions. His love interest works in a strip club with a “no dating customers policy.” Nothing seems to work out for him, but at the end of the day he remains true to himself. I always thought pro wrestling was fake. As it turns out, not completely. The matches are pre-determined. But the path to that win or loss is worked out by the wrestler’s themselves. And as one wrestler stated in the behind the scenes short, “You can’t fake smashing into a table from the second rope.”

Edward's January 2020 Mix

A rather odd winter has befallen. No snow and no Antarctica temperatures. I’m certainly not complaining. I finally beat Dungeon Siege II after 95 hours. But that’s the way I roll, beating 40 hour RPGs in 90 hours. Dungeon Siege II certainly isn’t a first. After saving my pennies I was finally able to score a Gibson Les Paul. I’ll keep practicing and hopefully develop enough mad skillz to do it justice. I became an official empty nester parent this month. I’m trying to get used to how quiet the house is. Coming home is like walking into a newly discovered ten thousand year old tomb. But you know what? I can crank the distortion on my amp and attempt to bellow out some tunes. I could get used to this. Okay, this is a first. As I was typing this, my monitor died. My beautiful 144hz 1440P 27” monitor gave up the ghost. I picked up an el cheapo at Best Buy. Now I’m the proud owner of a 1920x1080 25” It will have to do until an upgrade. I had to pick up something to be able to provide you with this most awesome reading material. Oh, how we suffer for our art!  

1.      Magic: The Gathering - Arena on PC: I read about this one a couple of issues ago in PC Gamer. The editors stated it was the best rendition of the game on PC yet. They were right. The game has an excellent tutorial and the art style and interface will make you feel right at home if you’re a veteran player. The AI is challenging enough, but playing online is where it’s at, of course. There are even ranked games, and best of all, the game is free. There’s no need to go to McDonald’s anymore to play or call your buddies who always have something else going on. Be forewarned: the game is chocolate crack. 
    
2.     Frampton Comes Alive!  on CD:  This album which sold 8 million records its first year and was the first album that sold one million cassette tapes spawned a few big radio hits that always takes me back to high school days. I can still listen to the elongated (13:46) “Do You Feel Like We Do” all the way through and hit the repeat button to hear it all over again. It was my first exposure to a guitar Talkbox. Peter Frampton seemed to harbor as much of a talent for it as he did playing his magnificent black Gibson Les Paul. This album is somewhat of a fabricated live album, but not in a bad way. It’s not a continuous recording of a single concert. The songs are all live, but they were recorded at concerts in San Francisco and New York City and meshed together in production. 

3.  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation on Blu Ray: The Mission Impossible movies are always nothing short of a roller coaster ride. This one involves a group of former secret agents who have formed their own cabal and of course Tom Cruise and crew are being blamed for their shenanigans. Set pieces include Tom Cruise riding the wing of a transport plane from takeoff (in which he really did the stunt, truly death defying) and an underwater scene in which Cruise had to hold his breath for several minutes. Admittedly, the high point of the movie was what went on behind the scenes. Cruise co-produced it, stepping from behind the camera to take over and augment every scene how he saw fit to do so. Directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie, McQuarrie said the only thing Cruise cared about was making each scene breathless for the movie-going audience. I abhor Cruise’s politics and personal beliefs, but as an actor who puts so much effort in his movies as to perform his own stunts (and he’s older than I am!) I have to admit: I admire the guy.  

4.  The Witcher on Netflix:  As an avid fan of the game series (I picked up the original game in 2007 on day of release) I dismissed this series because of the casting. Placing Henry Cavill was a no-no in my book. The man was simply too young and too handsome. Geralt of Rivia, in the games was much older and more meaner looking than handsome. But hearing guys at work talk about how good it was, I had to check it out. Boy, was I wrong. Henry Cavill played the role with aplomb. And of course, now I want to replay the games. I’ll probably see Henry Cavill in my mind’s eye as Geralt from here on out which is not such a bad thing. The series touches upon many things in the books and the games. It’s a bit mature, but well worth watching if you enjoy fantasy set in medieval times.

5.  Home Alone on Blu Ray: A John Hughes classic film (are any of his films not classics?),  this is one I had never seen before. It was one of those movies I was quite familiar with, having been exposed to numerous scenes over the years and hearing how good it was from my parents. I could see this movie become a favorite Christmas movie for the multitudes. My own personal title is Elf. Like other Hughes films, this was made in Chicago, Illinois which made it special for me since I spent some of the best years of my boyhood in the prairie state. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are excellently cast in this slapstick comedy, basically a “family movie without the family” as the movie’s tagline described. The Blu Ray transfer is on point. If you’ve never seen this, you’re missing a gem, but that’s impossible because I’m the only person I know who had never seen this film.

6.  2018 Gibson Les Paul “Classic”: Saving and yearning for quite a while I was finally able to pick one up from Reverb.com. It wasn’t brand new, but the former owner who bought it new only had 3 hours play time on it. As I’ve said before, when you are a lefty the search is always treacherous and unfruitful. I got lucky with this one. Equipped with P90 pickups, it emanates total Angus Young AC/DC tone. I did find a minor quality control issue with it. Kudos to my friend Josh Query for remedying it for me. Weighing in at over ten lbs. it’s not light, but I’m loving the 1960s style smaller neck and the way it makes me feel I have to step up my game to do it justice when I play it. 

7. Dead Space 2 on PC: I finished the original game way back in 2011. I figured it was about time to knock out the next game in the series. The last game I played this scary was 2014’s venerable Alien Isolation which filled me with such a sense of dread I was just happy to finally get through it. This game runs a close second with each door sliding open and not knowing what’s in the room. There is nothing more terrorizing than being swarmed by necromorphs and having to stop to reload my weapons. This game offers such situations in spades. Taking place on a space station orbiting the planet Jupiter’s biggest moon, Titan, the game environment is so immersive it feels like a real place to me. When a game accomplishes this so well, there’s just no other place I’d rather be than at my computer. 

8. Guitar Gods by Rusty Cutchin: Basically a mini encyclopedia of some of the greatest guitarists in history. Loaned to me by my guitar mentor, Michael Stevens, this is a compelling book for a few reasons. It hosts a biography and photo of every guitarist I've ever known of, and it also lists the albums that made them famous. I've been jotting the albums down and listening to them on Spotify. I will never need a rock and roll appreciation class after this! Talk about an education. I may adopt this venue and call it my own, "Edward Burton Rock Appreciation 101." 

Edward's December 2019 Mix

It’s been a strange month. Christmas hit 60 degrees. It was like being in Texas. I got some decent time off from work. This month ended a year long of PC gaming with a final tally of 7 games completed which is an all time low. It’s okay though, other diversions, other interests. I’ve been indulging my guitar habit much more. This is probably a good thing. I’ve been trying to sell stuff on eBay, but it’s not going well. I think eBay’s best days are behind us. Now they collect sales tax (which isn’t their fault, I get that, it’s compulsory) but I just don’t get paying sales tax on other people’s junk that’s already had sales tax collected on it by people who have official retail merchant numbers. It doesn’t make sense to me. I took advantage of the Steam Sale this year and picked up a few games. And I took a long overdue trip to visit my brother out of state. Compared to last month with a missing phone and strange debit card issues, I have to say this month was a success.
   
1.      Dungeon Siege II on PC: Goodness gracious, I’m so ready for this game to be over with! Supposedly a 20-30 hour hack n’slash Action RPG, and here at 80 plus hours I’m feeling like it’s on par with a Witcher game. I do declare! My trusty sorcerer is now at level 41 and able to cook his enemies with a single snap of the fingers. It’s been a fun ride, it’s just been an incredibly long one. I’m in the last act of the final chapter. I’ll be glad to put this one on the shelf.   

2.     Cock Robin  on CD:  I discovered this band back in 1985, having just got out of the Navy. The band was helmed by Peter Kingsbery who studied classical guitar in Austin, TX. His counterpart was a gorgeous girl named Anna LaCazio who was of Chinese and Italian descent. The song that caught my attention was “When Your Heart is Weak” though they had other hits, none of them charted big in the USA. Kingsbery, however, moved to France and became a big success there. I’m surprised the band didn’t fare better. Kingsbery’s vocals were a powerhouse right up there with Bryan Ferry or Morrissey. 

3.  The Meg on 4K Blu Ray: I was disappointed in this. It was typical summer popcorn movie fare concerning the discovery of a megalodon , a prehistoric shark of gargantuan proportions. Jason Statham arrives to save the day like a superhero. And we have Rainn Wilson, who looks like he’s on a field trip from The Office. The movie paced well, and had a surprising twist or two, and for CGI the effects were good, but I think the writing suffered. This is what happens when you have a slew of people writing the screenplay. One of the writers feels he or she has to make a change simply to justify the paycheck. The best screenplays always have a single writer. For comparison, watch this, and then watch Jaws based on Peter Benchley’s novel. I think you’ll agree. They just don’t make them like they used to. 

4.  Railway Empire on PC:  Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon was the third PC game I ever purchased way back in the last century, 1990 to be exact. I’ve played every iteration of this noble series since. 2003 was a big highlight with Railroad Tycoon 3. And then 2006 gave us Sid Meier’s Railroads! which turned the series (albeit fun) into more of a beer and pretzels type casual game. Unfortunately, Sid Meier will no longer be making railroad tycoon games. But that’s okay. I discovered Kalypso’s Railway Empire. If you’ve ever played any of the Tropico games, you’ll see how the German based developer puts a lot of love into their games despite not having Activision, EA or Bethesda type budgets. This is truly one of my dawn games, meaning regardless of when I begin a game, the sun is always popping up and birds are singing when I quit. Railway Empire deals with early railroading, 1830 to the 1870s. It’s basically a marriage of Railroad Tycoon 3 with its serious tendencies and Sid Meier’s Railroads! with its cartoon antics. The art style is colorful and gorgeous, and there is a mode in which you can hop aboard one of your locomotives and check out the view from your cab at the wondrous rail line you’ve created. With this, who needs a sprawling electric train set in their basement?

5.  The Right Stuff  on Blu Ray: This movie has become a quiet classic, taking a year just to develop the script, and Dennis Quaid simply proclaiming,  “This is a great American film”.  I had known about Tom Wolfe’s venerable novel, but I had never seen the movie. The movie is about the Mercury Space program headed by NASA in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This movie has what would now be considered an all star cast, but who were nobodys when the film came out in 1983. (Oddly these nobodys were selected because of budgetary constraints.) This was one of Dennis Quaid’s first appearances. He and Scott Glenn took their roles so seriously, they both bought new Corvettes like the real astronauts they depicted did.  I looked for inaccuracies and anachronisms and I couldn’t find any. It was a movie superbly done, even to the point of being filmed only at sunrise and sunset to get the best lighting, but the real star here is the transfer to Blu Ray. The colors popped and the whole movie exuded a Technicolor kind of feel as if it really had been made in the time period it depicted. Bill Conti was rushed to make the soundtrack, and still managed to earn an Academy Award, along with the movie’s three other Academy Awards. 

6.  Saboteur on DVD: This was Alfred Hitchcock’s first time to use an all American cast in a film, and in typical suspenseful Hitchcock fashion we have a movie about an innocent man who finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly in a world of hurt. When our protagonist seeks refuge with a blind man and his dog in a cabin, heavy rain outside and a warm fire crackling in the fireplace, the movie takes a breather and we get a wonderfully touching scene that almost moves into the territory of real literature. Hitchcock had a genuine fear of heights, even to the point where if he saw a construction worker high atop a city building it would make him queasy. Strangely, that fear has managed to work its way into several of his films, Vertigo, North by Northwest (featuring one of the villains falling from Mt. Rushmore) and in this one, we get to see The Statue of Liberty take center stage causing the demise of one of the villains.  

7. Terraria on Nintendo Switch Lite:  I recently picked up a Nintendo Switch Lite because it hosts a bevy of indie PC games I’ll never play on PC. I booted up Terraria which is a Minecraft  type game where your goal is to simply stay alive. You start with hardly anything and have to build tools and collect resources to build a house to avoid the different entities out to get you. And night brings zombies! The thing is, instructions are minimal. It’s all about the trial and error. I died. A lot. I finally built a house, but now I’m afraid to venture out of it. I guess the game-play really is the thing because this game has 2D graphics and I still get totally immersed in its world. 

8. Night Gallery Season One on DVD:  I just wrapped up the first season of this supernatural horror series that came out in 1970. I can see why the show eventually failed. Some of the stories are just downright absurd. Perhaps the best one so far is, “They’re Tearing Down Tim Leary’s Bar.” It’s about a man putting his job in peril because of his drinking. He stumbles about living in a confused state, his way being clouded by his drunk excursions and his memories of the better days he had in the past. The episode won an Emmy Award. If you can track it down, watch it for this episode alone. 

9. Northern Exposure: Season Five on DVD: Each episode is still an enjoyable 47 minute trip into the 1990s with some of my favorite television characters. The series seems to have lost some of its profundity it exuded in the earlier seasons, but I’m still never bored by the antics of the citizens of Cicely, Alaska. Maurice Minnifield has grown into my favorite character. He’s always looking for a way to turn something into coin or bask in his former fame as an astronaut who once walked on the moon. There is an episode in which he’s awarded a lifelike replica of himself in the form of a wax statue. He shows it off like a beloved twin brother, but is eventually repulsed by its silence and everlasting gape. It’s hauled to the local dump with little fanfare, two stiff legs sticking out of the back of a camper shell. It’s one of the funniest episodes I’ve seen in the series yet.