The only real criticism I can make of this album is that it’s too short.
Give Up
is an almost uniformly perfect record, atmospheric, cleverly written and flat-out gorgeous. “Such Great Heights” is certainly the album’s peak, but “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” “Sleeping In,” “Nothing Better,” “Recycled Air,” “Clark Gable,” “This Place is a Prison” and “Brand New Colony” make sure it’s not alone.
In an era when it’s a treat to find an album with even three good songs on a CD that justify its purpose, it’s a thrill to have back to back to back great songs.
The strongest possible recommendation for this album. Get it, now.
Serenity satisfactorily answers some lingering questions from the too-soon-aborted Firefly television series, leaves a few more hanging and perhaps even opens up a few for future projects.
It’s also, for those who didn’t see the series, either on television or on DVD, a grungy, lived-in universe like the Aliens universe, but one where the greatest threat is humanity.
Some of the quirks of the TV series have been toned down: It’s not quite so blatantly a post-Civil War Western in space, and some of the cutesier character bits have been relegated to the deleted scenes portion of the DVD. The film will be most enjoyable for those who have seen the series, but it’s still fun for those who haven’t.
It also has a stronger narrative through-line than the often leisurely television episodes, better special effects and make-up and even better writing. (The dialogue has more of a future-archaic feel which adds a great deal of realism to the proceedings.)
Bring on the next sequel!
Strongly recommended for fans of Firefly and anyone who loved Han Solo back when he shot first.
Back to using the ankle and wrist braces for the first time since my operation.
I hope I washed them since. I suppose there’d be an unholy funk if I hadn’t.
A mix of gaming news:
- Blizzard has apparently pulled the plug on StarCraft: Ghost, at least for this console generation. This is something of a surprise to me, if true, and a shame: A demo of it was playable at BlizzCon and a long-ago demo I saw of the game when I worked at Blizzard, featuring Nova sneaking her way through a rogue Terran base, stealing a flying motorcycle (sorry, SC fans, I don’t remember what they’re called) and then zipping out into a battlefield with the Zerg and Terran armies clashing all around her looked amazing. (And for those keeping score, this makes two franchise-related games Blizzard has killed for not being all they can be, with the first being Warcraft Adventures, a painful-to-watch old style adventure game developed by a Russian firm.)
- PlanetSide, Sony Online Entertainment’s Starship Troopers-flavored MMORPG — well, they call it a Massively Multiplayer Real Time Shooter, which seems to me to be slicing this particular hair needlessly thin — is now free for a year, sort of. In PlanetSide Reserves, players can check out the game but are restricted as to what rank they can achieve in one of the three warring futuristic armies. I’ll definitely be checking this one out.
- Raph Koster, the man behind Ultima Online and who brought a distinct UO feel to the Star Wars franchise in the troubled Star Wars Galaxy MMORPG — because, when you think Star Wars, don’t you just fantasize about paying $15/month to be a droid repairman? — has left the building. Rumors that Sony would be losing the Star Wars license and that Bioware would be creating a massively multiplayer version of their wildly popular Knights of the Old Republic computer roleplaying games appear to be so much bantha poodoo, however.
Here’s a portion of a letter we just received at the Star:
It was with great excitement that I read your article on the school district move, forwarded to me by Goggle. My name is Nicki Phelps, and I am the Director of Visitor Programs for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in San Francisco. We run all fee based programs on Alcatraz Island.
Â
Currently, we are in the midst of refurnishing the Alcatraz Cellhouse. When I read that some of the school district furniture is came from Alcatraz, I felt compelled to write. Would it be possible for you to forward this email to the school district, especially Ms. Baker? At the very least, I would sincerely appreciate seeing the furniture by photo or in person.
I hadn’t even thought about this aspect of the story, really. Very cool for all those Alcatraz history buffs out there.
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