YouTube Obsession

Pardon while I put on my Boomer Hat™: Children of the streaming age will never understand what it was like being stuck inside on a rainy day and only having 5 channels to flip through. Most of the time it was horrid; re-runs of Murphy Brown, Dear John , In the Heat of the Night (The Series), and Cleopatra 2525. There were also some bangers; og Matlock, Beast Wars, Farscape and today’s topic: Sliders.

Whispers in your ear: S L I D E R S

I loved this show as a kid. It just has a great episodic premise and I distinctly remember having lunch table conversations with my friends about the more bombastic episodes.

Which is why I’m loving this series re-cap with Phelous.

Despite all his digs you can tell he has a deep love for the series and legit criticisms. You may recognize Phelous as the other half of Allison Pregler’s re-caps and the same style of comedy permeates his videos as well.

Check out the playlist here.

Reading

So Flesh by David Szalay won the Booker Prize. lol.

It doesn’t surprise me that a book I found an absolute slog to get through the first few chapters is lauded as a great book. There are plenty of boring movies that get heaps of praise from the critical elite. But I wanted to know why:

I love books that use the medium as an extension of the storytelling. I talk about Trainspotting being written in Scottish dialect all the time. Most recently I fell in love with Melville’s use of format in Moby Dick. I just don’t see how anything Flesh does could be considered ‘Singular’. I wonder if House of Leaves would blow their minds?

There’s also books that do sparse characterization well: Blood Meridian comes to mind instantly. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (a 2024 Booker shortlist nominee) had an equally bland and valueless main character but the first 100 pages wasn’t describing explicit child molestation.

Anyway, they can give the award to whoever they want. I will still check out Booker lists in the future. It’s just a reminder that good books and books that receive awards are not always the same.

Playing

So I got stuck in a comment thread on YouTube (I know, I know, I should just kill myself) about BioShock: Infinite. My basic comment was that the first 30 minutes were some of the best vibe-building you’ll ever experience. And then the game literally gives you a press a button to be racist prompt. It’s dumb, reductive and the “slave revolt” story only gets weaker from there ruining what is actually a pretty cool sci-fi plot.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the impact of the original BioShock. Now, BioShock is essentially a beat-for-beat remake of System Shock 2 but gets away with it for essentially 2 reasons:

1. System Shock 2 was almost 10 years old at the time of BioShock’ release.

2. BS was available on consoles where SS2 was a PC exclusive in the days before PC gaming was more mainstream.

I got to wondering: Why is Infinite often considered lesser when it basically did what BioShock did to System Shock 2? I started replaying the original BioShock to find out.

What instantly struck me is that BioShock leans much more heavily toward the immersive sim elements of the older games. Though it starts on rails, it very quickly allows the player plenty of freedom to go explore places that have no bearing on the main mission. Whole-ass side quests that the player is allowed to completely miss. As I remember Infinite never felt this way. There may have been upgrades off the main path but nothing like the kind of exploration in BS.

Also an element of Immersive Sims, player choice is highlighted as pivotal in BS. The player has access to all the weapons in the game at all times. There are no restrictions placed on the player character. In Infinite, the player can only carry 2 guns at a time, drastically reducing the player’s ability to choose how to play. I remember that once I found a gun that I liked in Infinite I just focused on using and upgrading that gun. Because collecting more ammo for other guns that I couldn’t even carry felt useless. In BS, ammo rarity forced me to use guns that I wouldn’t normally use. I think games sometimes forget that forcing players to get outside of their comfort zone is fun.

And then there’s the story. Though it carries a lot of themes, when all is said and done, BS is actually a very focused story: Objectivist utopia at the bottom of the ocean. It really is that simple. However, it’s deeper themes of free will, meta commentary on the nature of video games themselves and the illusion of choice, are all there for people who want to read more into it.

And this is where I think Infinite was overly ambitious in an effort to capture the magic of BioShock. It tried to be too much: . Commentary on Jim Crow, The Boxer Rebellion, Constitutionalism, The Bolsheviks, Christianity, women’s rights, racism, free will, justified violence, copyright infringement and the very nature of time itself. That’s a lot to put into your video game and expect to carry a concise message for the player to enjoy.

I’m enjoying BioShock and I can’t wait to replay BioShock 2.

Listening

Woop Woop! Sound the alarm! New David Gray album! Give it a listen here.

It may surprise you that David Gray’s White Ladder from 1998(!) is still a #1 sleepy time record for me. It’s so effective that by the end of the second song “Babylon” I’m already zonked.

Just listen to those digital drums omg I’m in heaven. I actually had tickets to see David Gray at The Greek in 2020…April, 2020. I’ll give you one guess as to why that tour got cancelled.

Another highlight of the album that I rarely make stay awake for is “Sail Away.”

I’ve never seen that video before actually lol. It’s very very 90s.

But ultimately, I can’t explain why I love this album. It’s not really a genre I listen to now or even at the time¹ . It just had to be a perfect mixture of time and place. I think I had just gotten my first CD player for my room feeling like an adult listening to indi radio out of Bloomington Indiana, heard “Babylon” and loved it? Idk. Anyway, great album.

I’ll report back if Dear Life is on par (It won’t be).

Other Notables

** $1,200 to bust your ass on a wet floor. Also; I hate rich people.

** I am too old.

**

1  I was already a die hard Smashing Pumpkins fan.