This month’s update is all over the place with a heavy dose of 80’s nostalgia. More importantly it’s a giant reminder to take a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life to appreciate the things that once were so we can see clearer where we’re going.
I’ve said this ad nauseum at this point, but I’m an older gentlemen. I was born kicking and screaming into this world back in the 80’s. I remember growing up with VHS and cassette tapes strewn about my shared room with my older brother. I remember the single Playboy magazine me and my friends were able to buy off a teenager cashier at the local run down convenience store in an obscure strip mall. I remember heading off to the food court looking at film posters for movies I possibly couldn’t afford a ticket to watch. All of these collective experiences makeup my childhood and formative years. The best I can do is try and illustrate these experiences to a much younger audience that you all probably are. I say these things now because one day you will be ultimately in the same position I am. You will reminisce about these prehistoric rudimentary devices called “cell phones” and the absurdity of it all that you had to physically bring it up to your ear to communicate with other folks!
Although music is a very personal thing, I do believe there are some touchstones along the way. For starters, I think we can all agree certain songs put us in a different mood. For me, I’ve always enjoyed the more laid back atmosphere of electronic melodic tunes. More importantly, it’s a certain type of genre that harps back to my formative years in the way of familiar beats and instruments that I recognized growing up. As my generation grows older, we naturally try to recreate what we grew up with, and hence the genre of “Synthwave” was born in the modern era. I won’t go into some detailed music history lesson about it, I rather you just sit back and take a listen! For those really young folks still in university, the song “Blinding Lights” from The Weekend falls exactly into this genre.
Everyone seems to have their favorite pocket film critic, and I am no different. It’s the way they present their observations, arguments, facts and various other things that somehow strikes a cord with us. For me Oliver Harper is the best of the bunch, because he likes looking at older films with a pop culture filter. More importantly he doesn’t fall into the hipster trappings of focusing too much on grindhouse films or the overly obscure. It’s the films the public mostly knew about for better or worse, and I’ve watched practically as many movies as he has talked about. In any case I see it only fitting to show you his retro review above of The Matrix since it’s getting a pseudo sequel and reboot soon which you can watch the trailer for right after!
We’re going to transition from one form of movie into another, but this time it’s in the video game medium. I’ve always had a soft spot for games that have a really dramatic story arc to them. Moreover, games do allow us to build a more personal connection to the characters we see on the screen over time simply due to the length of exposure we have with them. I can’t stress enough that some of the better stories in video game history often times include a lot of gameplay that may be a turn off for some folks. It is this reason why a lot of modern games have a “story mode” difficulty since people transitioning into the medium need the handicap in their favor. I know it’s easy for us jaded gamers playing over 2 (if not 3) decades of the hobby to scoff at this gesture, but we were all new once sometime in our lives. I remember this every time I write a guide for example for a new game I am excited to talk about in detail. It is amazing to see even the most experienced of gamers (at least they claim to be anyway) flounder about like helpless newborn puppies in a new foreign environment. In any case, cut the “newbies” some slack is what I’m getting at! On that note, JRPGFanatic puts in a ton of effort to splice together certain video game footage so that you can watch the story in its entirety without pressing a single button on a controller or keyboard. Please check out his channel for other video game movie compilations as well.
Artist SteveChopz
My plans to get a Nintendo Switch OLED model before November 12th is not going well. For those not aware, Shin Megami Tensei V is scheduled to be released on that day, and I plan to dive right into it hell or high water. I’ll make an entire separate post about it when the day arrives since it is my most highly anticipated game for 2021. In either case enjoy more Nintendo Lewdness above and I try not to silently panic. See you in a few days for the mini blog!