PC Gaming and Train Sim World 7

 Each year in late summer Train Sim World comes out with a newer and better version of itself.  I entered the game at its 5th iteration, and I now have installed the 7th.  It took 27 hours to download, amid thunderstorms and power interruptions.  Nevertheless it seems to run fine, with smoothness and more intense graphics.  I just did a run from Doncaster to Peterborough driving a high speed train for 80 miles.  A good test, methinks.  All systems go.

 

A screen capture of my run from Doncaster to Peterborough this evening.  That's me driving! 

 

We also recently installed the original 2002 version of Syberia.  We have never replayed it up till now.  It is still a great looking game and I can't wait to get deeper into the story.  There is a new jazzed up version of the first game, but so far I feel no need to purchase it.  The old one is still quite presentable, especially on our super monitor. 

 

Kate Walker begins to solve the mystery of Hans Vorlberg and his automatons in Syberia.  There are now 4 games with that title, the 1st and 4th being the two best. 

 

I have also written up three parts to my London blog (see link in upper left margin), hoping to begin a fourth very soon.  Feel free to begin scrolling, or wait for all of it to be finished.  That should take about another week.  It was one week ago today that we staggered in the door at 10 pm, just back from London.  It's been a busy week of catching up.  My piano pieces are now, after a week of practice, about where they were when we left for London on the 26th of August.  Now to advance them towards concert level.

 

In movie news there are two to report, both from the "leaving this month" list on Criterion.  First up was Straight Time from 1978, with Dustin Hoffman playing a guy fresh out of jail, having done 6 years for armed robbery.  He wants to go straight, but his overly strict parole officer drives him over the edge.  He becomes much worse than he ever was, though he is grounded somewhat by Theresa Russell, looking vulnerable and about 19 years old.  He meets her when he is job searching, and she falls for him in a bad way.  Also starring Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey.  Hoffman studied his role with Edward Bunker, an ex-con who wrote No Beast So Fierce about his struggles with the system after getting paroled.  This is an excellent film, and surprisingly still relevant.  Highly recommended.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Next came a big budget Hollywood film rendered in CinemaScope and with De Luxe colour.  The Long Hot Summer is from 1958 and directed by Martin Ritt, from a novel by Faulkner.  It stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, Tony Franciosa, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury.  Newman plays Ben Quick, son of an infamous arsonist.  Welles is the overbearing patriarch of a Mississippi plantation, with a gutless son (Franciosa) and a daughter who he wants to see married (Woodward).  While Welles might get more lines (though some are difficult to understand), and Newman gets star billing, it is Woodward's performance that really scores points here.  No wonder Newman married her soon after filming!  She is totally amazing as the school teacher daughter raised by a seemingly uncaring father.  Franciosa is also good in his role as the son who is being eclipsed by the outsider (Newman) in his father's eyes, and Lee Remick sparkles as his young and immature bride.  A recommended film.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Winter Shows Its Face

It's coming. It seems to arrive each and every year.  We have had a rather pleasant autumn, if you discount the fact that we have had no rain.  This year our first glimpse of what is to come will begin arriving Sunday, and by Monday and Tuesday it will be cold.  The weather change coincides with the next astronomy session, so it will be too cold to stand in an open field with my telescope.  I had a rather splendid observing month in October, however, and made it out on five separate nights.  Even so I'd like to get out three more times before winter, so I hope the temps get seasonal again later next week.

 

I've been rereading my journals from all my previous visits to London.  The first thing that strikes me is how much energy we had back in the day.  During our March Break from teaching we would have a full day of museums, walking, pubs and navigating transport, followed by an evening concert, then at least one other pub before beginning the long trek back to our abode.  And right back at it next day, six or seven days in a row.  This is while many of our colleagues were lying around on warm and sunny beaches, blinking in the sunlight.  The weather in London was frequently cold and damp.  But what fun we had, getting to know another great city in such detail (Detroit being the other one).  We hope to return soon.  Here are some pics from our 2007 visit.

 

Outside Kensington Tube Station.

 

A London tourist shop.

 

Deb climbs stairs at Bayswater Tube station.

 

British Museum.

 

One of many pub stops during our week in London.  Rather cozy, no?

 

Downtown Shere, on a day trip away from London

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Portobello Road, London.  Market day. 

 

In local travel news, my mother is coming to visit next week!  She will arrive Tuesday and stay until Thursday morning.  She will arrive with her sister, my Aunt Pauline, courtesy of Cathy, Pauline's daughter and my cousin.  They will stay at a small hotel in downtown Amherstburg, about 7 minutes from our house.  There won't be too much on the agenda, except lots of sitting and talking, with perhaps a visit to a local winery or three.  Needless to say that our house will get a good cleaning beforehand.

 

In movie news there are a few to report.  Hitchcock's 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much is well worth seeing again, and of course Criterion has a pristine and restored print.  After watching the film again about a kidnapped young girl and the parents trying to do the right thing, we were treated to a 17' discourse by Guillermo del Toro, who has done this sort of thing for a number of his favourite films showing on Criterion.  Peter Lorre is terrific as the evil mastermind, who fights to the bitter end to carry out his assassination plot.  The final scene, a shoot out between police and bad guys, goes on and on and on, but is a great ending to the film.  Often these events last very briefly, or revert to negotiations.  Not this one!  Band bang bang till the end.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Another film we hadn't seen in decades was All The President's Men, a 1976 film starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as two newspaper men who end up bringing down Nixon as a result of the Watergate break-in, an assault by Republicans to infiltrate and wire tap Democrat headquarters in Washington.  Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film is mostly talking.  However, the pacing is fast and the tension builds as the two men get closer and closer to the truth.  The real star here is how the workings of the press are revealed, a pretty much all-boys club of reporters and editors.  This is a don't miss film, though the ending is abrupt, possibly due to cost overruns.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Lastly comes Hitchcock's 1926 The Lodger.  While the story is weak (everyone seems so amazingly stupid in this silent movie) the photography is quite good, evoking German Expressionism with its shadows, odd angles and claustrophobic atmosphere.  The legendary London fog is in abundance, as are the killings.  One would think that after the 8th Tuesday night killing in a row of a blonde woman that blonde women would not go out alone at night.  Alas, but they do.  Truly blonde in all things, perhaps?  Joe the detective is as thick as a brick, and super jealous besides.  The lodger of the title is nearly as dumb as everyone else, keeping his secret until it is too late.  Why was it a secret, anyway?  At least the cliche of having the blonde heroine menaced by the serial killer is avoided, and a happy ending does ensue (except for all those blonde women).  Not one of the great silent films, but watched a lot because of who made it.  Beautifully restored and showing on Criterion.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike