I looked at my calendar this morning and was amazed that we are already a week into August. What makes this worse is that my reviews/posts have been completely non-existent since I finished up the run of Police Story reviews. It was a major project for myself and I was so glad I finished it. I even had a side project that I was going to include as part of that franchise but while the discs materialized, I couldn’t find what I wanted to on the subject and my plans got derailed for the moment, at least until I get some hardware that should help things. It’s a long story. Then I had the idea to review Millennium Mambo, a recent Kino blu-ray release, and that also went by the waste side. But there is some hope in the next week or so that I should have a few reviews to bring to you.
Recent film watching, I re-watched Iron Giant yesterday afternoon with my son and wife. Honestly, I think it’s the first time that my son had watched the movie all of the way through. (I think we started it once and then something came up after 20 or so minutes). Still a fantastic film all of these years later and I can only hope that it gets a 4k at some point from the WB. Last night, I decided to open up my copy of Bad Day for the Cut, an Irish film I got a few months ago. It’s pretty decent so far (about 50 minutes in), but I hope it picks up a little. It will need more than a hot pot of beans to save it. (Bad pun if you seen the movie)
Again, none of that is review worthy. My old website, Upcomingdiscs.com was supposed to send me Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round and Gloria both recent Kino releases. However, they haven’t materialized and it honestly feels like the bottom of the barrel even though I always put in 110% with all of my reviews.
So again, what have I been doing if I haven’t been watching any noteworthy films? Well, life I guess. My dad had surgery recently for his ankle and so when I’m not working, I’m having to visit him (and he’s pretty far away) and help him out with various things around the house, grocery trips, etc. He is getting better, but I practically see him every week, so that’s probably not changing anytime I soon. It’s the distance and the fact that it’s never a social call is what hurts any time for myself (or even with my family) most weeks. And maybe I still haven’t forgiven him either.
Anyway, what I have been doing with precious few moments here and there is listening to a lot of music. My favorite song at the moment is Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue. It’s such a catchy wonderful tune and her new album drops in September. What’s interesting is how much I’m digging all of the mixes that have been cropping up as a result of this smash. These mixes are being played on SiriusXM on channels like BPM. The best one in my opinion is actually the Liam Pfeifer mix which is just phenomenal. Also the HAAi remix is also very good. But back to Liam Pfeifer who I come to find out has a bunch of really good remixes that he’s done of various artists besides Kylie including Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Shakira. All performers that I listen to on the regular. Most of his remixes are readily downloadable on his website @ https://www.liampfeifermusic.com/ or on platforms like Sound Cloud.
One of his other remixes that I really like is that of River by Miley Cyrus. Much like his remix of Padam Padam, it actually enhances the song and makes it better (which is the true sign that a remix is good in the first place). If you will remember my review of that album , I didn’t even like the original all that much. It’s probably the middle of the album for me as far as songs that I really like on it. But this seems to be a trend for singles lately that I’ve noticed with some of these pop artists. They aren’t releasing songs that are really finished, these songs are maybe 3:00 minutes at most but what they are doing is opening up an avenue for these remix DJ’s and sound engineers to remake their song into something even more powerful. Therefore, it increases the popularity of these songs ten fold. Back what single cds did in the 90’s and 2000’s (and then died down for about 10-15 years). I for one have zero issue with cd singles making a comeback. More remixes please.
Going back to the Miley album for a moment, as I predicted, this album has been a huge smash for her. I still see Grammys in her future for this album, and will be very surprised if it does not happen. However, what I have been wrong about is the songs on this album. We have already talked about River, but I would be amiss if I did not speak about Jaded. That song has done wonders as a single, I think it almost crossed the top 10 barrier on mainstream Billboard US charts. Here I am waiting for Thousand Miles or Handstand to be released as singles. Nope, have some River and Jaded instead. Jaded is a good song, it’s just there are better ones on the album. But that further proves that this album has been something special for her and I expect this is not the end of the singles so to speak.
As you can tell by the sidebar on this site, at least I still have been reading. In fact, I’m about to finish a book called Garbage Island by Fred Koehler. It might sound weird to say, but this middle school book is actually my favorite of the year so far. It’s incredibly whimsical and in this day and age, it could be a VERY preachy book, but there is nothing pretentious or preachy about it at all. In fact, I will certainly hand this off to my son in hopes that he will read it one day and enjoy it as much as I did.
Gaming wise I can’t really say too much, it’s been mostly Lego type games including Lego Worlds and The Lego Movie Game. The latter of which I have been 100% both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions which has honestly not been too bad despite playing both versions (there is almost zero difference between the two outside of loading times). I have bought a few games lately as I see them go on sale (typically $15 or less) but I only have time for so much it seems.
Well, speaking of time, I guess that’s it for today. I do hope to be back later in the week with something, though at this point I can’t actually tell you what it is. So stay tuned, if you have been a faithful reader, please drop me a line. I’m always up for suggestions when it comes to reviews. Take care and enjoy.
