Pedal is terribly still to the metal. I won’t see relief until early December. I’ll need to unplug with a vengeance for the new year. The long Thanksgiving holiday has been welcome, but not ideal since I have a deadline hanging over my head. Even so, I’m thankful for good food and good friends. My mac’n’cheese and limoncello have earned me high praise at various friendsgivings.
This month’s playlist:
Alan Wake II
My game of the year. Ever since playing Remedy’s Control, I understood this studio makes video games only for me. Control is the most aesthetically stunning game I have ever played and the narrative is the exact weird I crave. When Remedy announced the were creating a connected universe, and Alan Wake II would be the next entry, I scrambled right up onto the bandwagon.
I played the Alan Wake reissue in preparation. A novel game. Interesting combat, but it quickly became annoying to me because I felt it got in the way of the story which was weird and confusing in the nicest way.
Alan Wake II is a decade long refinement of its predecessor and it shows. The combat keeps the unique flashlight and gunplay mechanic and rebalances it in the spirit of survival-horror games. Enemies are far fewer, far more deadly, and everyone is much more fragile. You’re fighting for your life instead of slogging through yet another endless shooting gallery. The narrative is just as wacky and creepy, but the presentation is in a league of its own--building on the foundation they laid in Control--blurring the lines between cinematic and interactive media.
Characters, characters, characters. Living and distinct. I’d hang out for an eternity with them if I could. Sam Lake and the team at Remedy have perfected their alchemy. Alan Wake a mixture of Twin Peaks and The Twilight Zone, Control a blend of SCP Foundation and The X-Files, and II an unholy chimera of both.
<3 <3 <3
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep & Blade Runner: The Final Cut
I just finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and had to revisit the movie adaptation. They are nothing alike.
I do not say this to diminish Blade Runner. It is a cyberpunk masterpiece regardless. My first experience was the Director’s Cut; this round’s the Final Cut. The visuals are breathtaking. It’s even more apparent how 2049 deftly expanded on the aesthetics and themes established here. But Blade Runner took the barest whiff of inspiration from the novel and ran in a completely different direction.
Do Androids Dream has none of the rain, or neon, or crime ridden streets. Instead it is set on a depopulated, irradiated, dying earth. A lonely earth. Murder is unheard of because--legally and religiously--all life is considered sacred. Down to the smallest ant. Even a strange VR spiritual movement called Mercerism networks human consciousness through collective suffering to engender empathy for their fellow humans. But exclusion and isolation are pervasive. One must put on appearances to fit in with society. Specials, those mutated by radiation or simply neurodivergent, are barred from emigrating to the space colonies. The colonies are revealed to be just as desolate as the earth they are urged to leave. Androids are banned from the home world, from autonomy, and from being considered alive. This is Deckard’s spiritual and emotional torment: retirement has become murder to him. A revelation that isolates him completely from society.
The film is an aesthetic tour de force. The novel is a distressing rumination on broken and denied connection.
The Last Waltz
A friend of mine has been talking up this Scorsese concert documentary for years. I knew nothing about it. When I asked I’d get,”It’s about The Band’s last show.” And I’d always think,”But which band?”
Now I’m acquainted. I am a fan of The Band. I’m a late bloomer when it comes to appreciating music. My palate is broad. But streaming an album isn’t the best first impression. I’ve bounced off many bands because the record didn’t grab me. Seeing a band live often changes that. Hearing the music on a proper speaker system, seeing the effort and emotion of the artists performing their craft. Music in its true form is a multisensory experience, just like my treasured cinema.
This is what Scorsese accomplishes with The Last Waltz. There are wide shots of the stage and clever camera moves. But his foundation is the extreme closeup of the the artist’s face. So we the audience can see the sweat and passion and be immersed in the experience. I left the theatre with great appreciation of the talent displayed, and thankful that I got to enjoy it with a joyous audience.
A Murder at the End of the World
I will watch anything Zal and Brit put their hands to. Their work has been instrumental in my personal growth. I love their boldness to be strange, to collaborate, and be true.
I’ve only watched a couple episodes of A Murder at the End of the World and it’s proving to be a thrilling murder mystery so far.
This month I finally posted that piece of flash fiction and have been “live tweeting” episodes of Twin Peaks and X-Files and staying up far too late.