Highly Recommended March

Hello again. Time for some more highly recommended books, movies, TV, music, games, podcasts, etc. from yours truly. Going to mix things up a little here and do these out of the typical order. Because I'm spontaneous and crazy like that. Yeah.


Music

So my musical habits have been pretty much locked into the spectrum of chrome lipstick, choker necklaces, little backpacks, and JNCO jeans of mid-90s alternative rock due in large because of The Siren House, my next project with Medallion Press and their TREEbook line. Revisiting the music of this era has been enormously nostalgic for me, mostly because I am a firm believer that as we age our tastes reach a point, then abruptly stop. We find something we like and stick with it. Like a haircut, or a certain flavor of ice cream. "Why should I try anything else when I know this is what I like?" So if you're in the mood to revisit the neon Era of the Pog, I'd recommend going back and digging up your old CD collection (remember those?!?!), closing your eyes, give a few a spin, and just see where it takes you. I honestly believe music--not sound exactly, but music--is second only to smell in its ability to transport you to yesterday.

On a personal note, my wife and I are planning on moving soon. So what better time to dump out some old junk? Besides clothes I haven't worn in years or shrank out of (lost about a hundred pounds about three years ago but still the XXL clothes linger like the wheezing ghost of my former self), I dumped our old guest room futon, and random boxes of things we didn't unpack when moving here. Then, kind of on a whim, I decided to get rid of another thing: my old boom box. My first boom box. From 1995. Yes, this hearty piece of electronics survived damn near 20 years. And it still worked when I tossed it out, mostly. The old Sony CD/tape boom box was covered in dents, spattered in droplets of paint from it having provided many a soundtrack to many a room-painting, and the door to its tape player was held on by a band of masking tape. I've thrown out many, many old pieces of defunct electronic junk over the years but this one actually stung a bit. But at the same time: new house, new town, fresh start. Actually, I feel kind of good about getting rid of it. So, something else I highly recommend: dumping old crap.

But, it being me, I can't let go that easy.

(Cue flashback transition waviness.)

(Queen's "You're My Best Friend" begins.)

Boomfred the Boombox. You survived more than a few falls off ladders and dressers, one particularly violent tumble down some stairs once, and even after the protective lens covering your laser eye thingamabob fell off, you still worked. Your sound quality was good--deafening volume if not always of great quality. Your antenna had snapped off during one of those falls or had been removed when you apparently decided to pick a fight with a bigger boom box, or something. Brave Boomfred. Your only option for adjusting your sound besides the volume knob was your one trusty button marked "Bass Booster." Which, let's be honest, didn't do much really. Also, ah yes, a memory . . . You had a compartment on your back for batteries so you could go cordless. I never used this compartment for that; instead, that was where I kept my stash. You remember, Boomfred? There was nothing quite like getting home before my folks, putting The Matrix on VHS in and popping open that battery compartment on your back and together, the two of us would watch Keanu shoot up some Agents, and really free our minds. Heh. Memories.

[Note: I really should limit how much I talk about activities like that last part, I write YA. I might accidentally be someone's role model some day. So. Drugs are bad, for the record. And naming inanimate objects is a great way to end up becoming a hoarder. Not recommended.]

Bye, Boomfred.

(Cue jump-cut to Dumpster lid slamming shut, cutting Freddy Mercury off mid-verse.)

Still, I can't help but think that Boomfred was my prominent method for listening to CDs. I got my first CD with the boom box (and no, I won't tell you what it was), and I think it was the place I listened to the last CD I bought--and how that album, Matisyahu's Light, is probably the last CD I will ever buy. If I buy music now, like most people, it's through iTunes. So that Sony boom box was a self-contained time capsule of the CD era for me. Farewell, clunky old friend.

(after peeking under the Dumpster lid, tearful, our humble Recommender eases it shut.)


Movies



Of all the recommendations I bring to all of you, this is always the hardest category. I have pretty much altogether stopped caring about movies. For the longest time, I was obsessed with film, watching and learning techniques and the "deeper message" behind the work of Lynch and Kubrick, but now . . . there's just so much crap out there. Sequels, remakes, reboots. (I know I just bitched about this yesterday, but bear with me.) I mean I understand in a tough economy the studios are going with the "sure thing" and there just isn't the finances to gamble on artsy projects or out-there concepts right now. And really, if I think back, it was right around 2008 my interest in film dropped off, right at the time of the economic collapse. But since I really enjoy doing Highly Recommended, I try to scrounge up at least a few picks that might be worth your time and cabbage.

This month's recommendation is Skyfall. Now available for rent through Redbox or your preferred method of catching flicks, it's James Bond as directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig. Good, good stuff. Takes the Bond character places he's never been taken before, scrapes off the smarm and builds him back up, with great character development (or is it re-development?) and by the credits has relaunched the franchise without requiring an actual hard reboot. And Judy Dench is fantastic. As always. I mean, that lady . . . man alive. Just go and watch anything with her in it and tell me it was anything short of amazing.

Side note: When will Javier Bardem not play a bad guy? I mean, I know he has in smaller indie features, but I'd like to see him be the protag in a big budget flick sometime. And why, whenever he is a bad guy, does he have to have weird hair?


TV

I was just telling my wife last night about my drop-off in my movie interest, and how books, videogames, and TV series have rushed right in to fill the void. With ease, I might add. Like pool water around a sunken burrito. (Yep. That's right.) So this section is almost hard for me to write about in a different way from movies because I have too many choices.



Game of Thrones Season 2 came out on Blu-ray and DVD not too long ago and while it was missing some of the magic (figurative) of the last season, it certainly had a lot more magic (literal) featured in the storylines. This one, like the book, has the too many characters problem and largely has the middle child issue of being the period in an epic story where there's no huge revelation or outcome, but just pieces being set up for that to happen later. I still liked it a lot because I'm enthralled by the characters and the world George Martin has created and the production value is outstanding. Besides, outside of Peter Jackson, this is the most well done fantasy has been translated. There are other fantasy adaptations out there, yes, but none are nowhere near as good as this.

Also, with Game of the Thrones, the writers seem to have finally started to trust their audience. What I mean is, there is a lot less "sexposition" this time around and if some world details or monologue need to be delivered it's just delivered, not while two people are in a bath together or two prostitutes are being distracting with each other in the background. I like that they're trusting their audience's attention span and giving this great story the seriousness it deserves.

As much as I love the series, I can't really recommend it for anyone who has not read the books. A lot is lost in the adaptation and I really feel as if it was made for the readers. That or the writers of the series know the material so well they forget it might be hard for newcomers to keep up. So unless you don't mind spending time on the Game of Thrones Wiki, I'd read the books first then jump into the series.




Next is Battlestar Galactica. I'd heard so much praise for this series over the years and so many of my friends recommended it to me, but I just couldn't get into it. The first two episodes really hit the ground running plot-wise and it was hard for me to wrap my head around all that was going on. But once I got it, I became entirely obsessed. The writing here is so much better than a SyFy Channel show deserves. I'm watching this through Netflix and getting about three episodes a week down. I think I'm about a third of the way through Season 2 and absolutely loving every minute of it. If you're a fan of space opera novels or were a fan of Lost, I'd recommend this one. But stay away from the fan sites. Spoiler City.




You know I love me some Downton. Season 3 is finally available here in the States. That ending. Damn, man. Just damn.


Videogame



Dead Space 3 is, no duh, the third installment in the horror/sci-fi series that kicked off in 2008. Now, this is on Highly Recommended with a handful of caveats, mind. I'm putting it on here because I think if you're like me and have really enjoyed the Dead Space series up until now and are invested in Isaac Clarke's story, then you will enjoy this as well. But if you're looking for an entirely survival horror experience, you might want to go with Amnesia or one of the original Silent Hill games instead. Gone is the tension of Dead Space 2. Gone is the scrounging for ammo and health packs. Gone is the feeling of complete isolation. Gone is really anything scary at all except for a few jump scares. And jump scares that'll only make you flinch and get mad because you'll realize you were standing next to a vent at the time of said jump scare, the place the necromorphs rarely if ever appear from anywhere else.

So. Now, one could argue that the game isn't scary because by now Isaac is a bonafide badass, a slayer of 'morphs, and if he's not scared you shouldn't be either. And there comes a few times in which the writers make it apparent that Isaac is truly the head badass on campus here when he's the one giving the tutorial instructions to other in-game characters instead of someone telling him how to do certain things. I liked that touch, but at the same time, maybe a new enemy type or a threat that was over Isaac's head would've been nice. Something to make him have to re-establish himself as a badass again maybe. Dead Space 2 had Nicole, his dead girlfriend harassing him throughout the story as a tension-builder, but now Isaac has moved past that, there is no man-against-himself theme that made Dead Space 2 such an incredible meditation on guilt, nearly rivaling that of what Silent Hill 2 did with a similar theme. But it wouldn't be Dead Space without necromorphs and they changed up the enemies enough (redesigned entirely or tweaked them) that it still works and doesn't feel stale.

I dunno. I like being scared and feeling overwhelmed. I like when my character dies that I almost feel relieved that at least the scariness, for now, is over.

Tangent Alert. There was a game I played a few years back. Now, a lot of you might balk at it because it wasn't the best in the series of whatever, but Silent Hill 4: The Room scared the living crap out of me.



I remember I'd play it in half hour chunks, and I'd always had to have the radio on while I played it set to some upbeat pop top 40 station. All the lights on, too. Something about the claustrophobia of that game and the incredibly disturbing lengths it went to (you witness a man being electrocuted to the point his eyes start to bleed at one point) in order to scare or disturb you. On top of that, the levels were divided with sections where in first person view, you were in the main character's apartment. Looking for items, checking the peephole to the hallway (since you couldn't actually leave since chains had been put up, on the inside), and increasingly the apartment, each time you returned, would be creepier and creepier. Not such a big deal, you say? Well, my apartment was laid out exactly like that one, even down (coincidentally) to the placement of the furniture! So, yeah, I never finished that one. It just bothered me too much. And I like that, oddly enough. I like things to get in my head. I consider myself a pretty logical fella and if something can make me glance over my shoulder or unable to pee without checking behind the shower curtain first, bravo. Seriously.

Tangent Alert Has Expired.

I wanted Dead Space 3 to follow suit to Dead Space 2, a game I've played through at least half a dozen times and would consider one of my favorite games of all time, right alongside the original Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life 2, and Dark Souls. Or even go super-terrifying like Silent Hill 4: The Room. That would've been fun. Possibly. And don't get me wrong, Dead Space 3 has a lot going for it. Full drop-in, drop-out co-op, which is really a blast with a friend. Flitting around in the space-flotsam together is a geek-bro duo's dream. Seriously, we had a great time with that. And the weapon crafting system is incredibly deep and worthy of time to create the perfect machine of 'morph doom. All in all, if you really like Dead Space and don't mind it's strayed a bit into the action territory, I'd still recommend it. There's horror, yeah, and you pretty much know what you're getting into with a Dead Space game and a lot of people are bellyaching about the DLC and paid content stuff, but you can enjoy it just fine without any of that. I think the only way for gamers to combat overpriced DLC is to just not buy it. If we don't buy it, they won't try pushing it on us. Simple as that.



With Highly Recommended, I tend to typically talk about things that if you so chose, could go out and find right then and there. I leave the hyping to the hypsters (my word, I invented it just now). But then something like Destiny comes strolling along onto the Internet with a rather huge announcement trailer (or ViDoc as they're calling them), sweeping up unsuspecting geeks like myself (and all of my friends) like so much plankton. Yes, Destiny is the new IP from the gaming juggernaut Bungie, creators of the Halo franchise. My suggestion, if you at all enjoy FPS games or like multiplayer experiences akin to Borderlands, I'd climb aboard the hype wagon. This is going to be rather huge, I think.


Podcasts

I haven't really stumbled across too many new ones lately that I haven't already told you about. But I would recommend if you're looking for a new podcast, to go deeper than just what iTunes supplies on its podcast page. There's so many smaller 'casts out there that're really, really great if you're willing to dig. I've noticed iTunes rarely will put something on its main page unless its of the highest quality sound and production, and a lot of the times with the bigger-name podcasts, sure, they're well made but they've also got a ton of money behind them. And podcasts run by celebrities, I'm sorry to say, really stink. What's worse are the stand up comedians who run podcasts as just a way to kill time between trying to land a sitcom or guest spot somewhere. I'm not crapping on having a diverse approach to getting your name out there, but the best podcasts are done by people who just want to podcast and that's all.

So, dig a little. Imagine iTunes is like a video store (remember those?!?!?!) and instead of going to the new release wall like all the dullards, go to the General Release section, dig in, uncover and discover.


Books



Even though it was released in February through Amazon and a few retailers had it on the shelves here and there, the official release date of my novel Knuckleduster is March 1st, 2013. TODAY! And, if you love Highly Recommended, my stories, my riffs on this and that, please pick up a copy. It's available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble (on the shelves of a surprising number of locations), and many other independent sites and retailers as well.

Also, if you happen to be in Chicago April 26-28, swing by the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo! Medallion Press will be there, and if you go up to the table they'll have posters for my novel Fabrick available. Say hello, grab a poster, they're truly an awesome team.

Well that's it for March. I'll be posting more regularly here soon as more projects are getting wound up and the move into the new place is complete. As always, please feel free to comment, share, whatever you like. I read all comments and if you have a question, feel free to ask.

Till then,

Encouraging writerly statement,

-Andrew