Welcome back, everybody. I'm glad so many of you followed up. In the interest of making this experience better, I will be incorporating links and -- if I can manage it -- embedded video. I suggest right-clicking any links and choosing "Open in another tab/window" so you don't lose track of this page. These additions will be added retroactively as time permits. Now, on to the show!
Overview:
Movie: CONfidence (2003)
TV: Babylon 5 (1993-1998)
Music: Fresh Aire III - Mannheim Steamroller (1979)
Game: Colony Wars by Psygnosis (1997)
Book: One For the Money by Janet Evanovich (1994)
Web: Zero Punctuation on escapistmagazine.com (~2007-present)
Special - Radio: Musical Starstreams (1981-present)
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Movie: CONfidence (2003)
Trailer 2:08
Intro 1:55
Music 2:25
Another Musical example 0:30
CONfidence is a slick film noir style heist movie that is anything but noir. This colorful movie features a solid cast of then-nearly-unknowns and the scene-stealing Dustin Hoffman in a role intended for a burly, intimidating black man. (Hoffman manages to be intimidating in his own way.) Jake Vig is a grifter who provides the voiceover and is the leader of the crew. Told in flashback, he describes how confidence is not only what a grifter instills in the mark but is also a quality the grifter must possess to be successful. This confidence is shaken twice: once when a retaliatory attack puts the plot in motion and later when the main job gets derailed. It doesn't pay to lose one's confidence! (I took some liberties there, but if I said too much, it might ruin the movie. You'll understand later.) If you like heist movies, femme fatales, Rachel Weisz, Ed Burns, Andy Garcia, Paul Giamotti, and/or great music, check this out!
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TV: Babylon 5 (1993-1998)
Season 1 Intro
Babylon 5 is a science fiction series that takes place on and around the fifth of the Babylon space stations. Initially intended to be a sort of five-mile long "U.N. to the stars" for the five major civilizations, galactic events conspire to turn it into much more than anyone could have known. The series was conceived to be presented in five seasons from the beginning: a bold and ambitious concept at the time, and never in my opinion has this long-form concept been better executed by any other television series. The show has also been lauded for what was then cutting edge special effects never before seen on the small screen. Creator J. Michael Straczynski wrote most of the individual episode scripts and overall crafted the show in such a way as to allow for unexpected casting changes and premature cancellation when a fifth season had not been assured.
Hero worship aside, the show stands on its own merits, providing coherent single episode story arcs, season-long arcs and of course the series-long arc that bring the whole thing together. It's gritty, it's messy and it makes you think. If you love space operas and you've already seen everything Star Wars, Star Trek, and Stargate have to offer, Babylon 5 should be right alongside these sci-fi luminaries.
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Music: Fresh Aire III - Mannheim Steamroller (1979)
The Sky
Chip Davis created the American Gramaphone recording label primarily to publish the eclectic music of his own musical group Mannheim Steamroller. I think that's just awesome -- a case of putting one's money where one's mouth is. The first Fresh Aire album debuted in 1975, some ten to fifteen years before this style of music became popular, placing Mr. Davis in the category "Ahead of His Time." Since then, Mannheim Steamroller has won a Grammy for the seventh (of eight) Fresh Aire album and become quite popular due to their stellar Christmas albums each of which has gone gold, platinum or multi-platinum. And that's why I'm highlighting one of their earlier works.
Fresh Aire III in particular is the "Summer" album (I-IV were seasonally themed) and has some of my favorite Mannheim Steamroller songs on it: "The Sky", "Morning", "The Cricket" and "Toccata". This is not to say that the other seven Fresh Aire albums or the other songs on this one aren't great, it's just that this album has so many memorable tunes together.
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Game: Colony Wars by Psygnosis (1997)
Introduction (and no, it's not James Earl Jones)
In the Colony Wars series, you play as a fighter pilot during a civil war between the Empire of Earth and the League of Free Worlds. In the first and possibly best installment, you fight for the League of Free Worlds against the tyranny of the Imperial Navy. The second game puts you in the seat of a Navy pilot struggling against the traitorous League in a different era. In the third and final game, you are a mercenary trying to survive amidst the warfare. Usually, the good guys and bad guys are clear-cut, but by putting the player on different sides of the centuries-long conflict, Psygnosis grants less-biased perspective to those who play all three games.
These games (the first two at least) are worth mention because of their relatively unique branching mission structure. Colony Wars was the first game I ever played that allowed the player to fail a mission and yet continue the story. For instance, if you fail to knock out an Imperial Communications Relay in one early mission, your next mission (Protect the Transports) will be more difficult due to the extra reinforcements the Navy will be able to call in. Colony Wars also provides a then-unprecedented level of background information on every planet, moon, spaceship, and colony in the vast universe of the game right down to major exports and dates of colonization. Many log entries are accompanied by audio files, also nearly-unheard of in that generation and still rarely seen today. Couple that excellent presentation with the best and most engaging space dogfighting I've ever had the pleasure to play and you have a game that deserves to be remade!
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Book: One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (1994)
Potential casting choices (selected by a YouTuber before the movie was made)
A Film by Borders
This one's a two-fer! The rights to turn this book into a movie were sold years ago, but the movie only just got made and will be released this summer. With any luck, One for the Money won't be the last movie to be made. Janet Evanovich's nearly-cartoonish tales of Stephanie Plum are sometimes considered mysteries, but Ms. Plum is not a sleuth. She is a bond enforcement agent; a bad one. Now, before you start conjuring up images of Dog: the Bounty Hunter, you should know that Stephanie hates guns, dresses casually and often fails to bring a set of cuffs with her. She never planned to be a bail enforcer; she just didn't want to settle for a dull job working at the local button factory. What she does have is a knack for getting neck deep in the most dangerous situations her normally sleepy suburb has to offer, and then getting out of it. There are any number of colorful characters, and situations she's gotten into (including all the cars she's managed to accidentally destroy) that I might gush about at length, but suffice it to say the books are GOOD, and either narrator for the books on tape are excellent at keeping the larger than life characterizations down to earth.
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Web: Zero Punctuation on escapistmagazine.com (2007-present)
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw manages to scathingly review video games without taking a breath on his weekly video at escapistmagazine.com. He uses cartoon imagery to illustrate (or provide hilarious counterpoints to) his opinions. Fair warning, though: Zero Punctuation often has NSFW material, though the british slang and/or vulgarities might not be recognized as such right away. Regardless, ZP videos are far too funny (and accurate) to miss.
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Special - Radio: Musical Starstreams
I'd like to think that this program is still on the air somewhere, but ever since Clear Channel Communications allegedly threw a corporate tantrum and fired everyone at WNUA-95.5 (changing the station's format from Smooth Jazz/R & B to Spanish Pop), there hasn't been anyplace to hear this show in the Chicagoland area outside of the internet (www.starstreams.com). New Age, Ambient, Trip Hop, Electronica, Chill, whatever you want to call the myriad styles available on the program, Forest (the host) had a decidedly laid-back style that perfectly fit the 10pm-midnight slot he enjoyed in WNUA's heyday. Smooth Jazz, or rather Smooth Adult Contemporary still lives in Chicago at WLFM-LP 87.7, but WNUA's early New Age format is no more.
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Well that's that, but I wonder if I shouldn't post these daily, then have a weekly roundup... That would alleviate the WALL OF TEXT problem I see developing.
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