Achtung Baby!

And your favorite Leonard Cohen songs

I am just floating
Infinitely placid
Infinitely calm 
And infinitely spacious with you
I love you in the movies 
With sunglasses 
And your favorite Leonard Cohen songs
When we fall into your kitchen drawers 
And play spooning
I’ll be here in the morning
Singing into your fingertips
Candy covered lips
I could have chosen not to be hurt 
But there is no life in that
I wouldn’t change this for eternity
This is lovely

Michael Baumgart

+ Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen
+ Leonard Cohen Documentary, 1989
+ Leonard Cohen in his Hydra's house (1988)

Andrew Ryan is watching you

Concepts of War

Mood: In overwhelming awe of this game. 
+ The Secrets Of God Of War's Concept Art
+ THE ART OF GOD OF WAR 4 : 30 CONCEPT ART AND CHARACTER DESIGNS
+ See how Kratos became ‘grounded’ in The Art of God of War

by SunhiLegend

The impossible remake

+ It’s time Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘impossible’ screenplay for Lolita was finally made

+ Who Would Dare Remake 'Lolita' in the Age of #Metoo?

Lost my voice in New York City

Lost my voice in New York City

never heard it again after sixty-seven

Now I talk like you

Now I sing like you

Cigarette and coffee to make me sick

Couple of families to make me think

Going to see my lawyer

Going to read my mail

Lost my voice in New York City

Guess you always knew

The Pro (1973) from Death of a Lady's Man

+ Leonard Cohen: Beacon Theatre, New York, February 19, 2009

the ten thousand nights I spent alone.

“My reputation as a ladies’ man was a joke 
 that caused me to laugh bitterly 
 through the ten thousand nights 
 I spent alone.” 
—Leonard Cohen

Andrew Bird: Armchairs.live

you've tried everything

As you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened.
― Douglas Coupland

Eurythmics: I've Tried Everything

 

Mad

You remind me of the bible

Beth Orton: I Love How You Love Me

into the water

Ra Ra Riot: Water 
Shane Carruth: After Soaking Two Years and Then Lying High Six Months It Was Perfectly Sound Through Waterlogged Past Drying

I wonder if I will ever meet anyone who has seen Upstream Color

 

Bits of beauty everywhere

Madeleine Peyroux: Blue Alert

We need broader mood literacy/Medication is an incredibly attractive concept

From Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

If I gave a thought to fascination

Melody Gardot:Baby I'm a Fool.live

Fall in light

Jeff Buckley: New Year's Prayer

Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk is coming up on its 20th anniversary (Released May 26, 1998)

Here comes the end of March And I'm failing all the time

Draw us near and bind us Tight

I want your absolute attention,
your underwear rolled down in a hurry
still hanging on one foot,
and nothing on my mind
but to be inside
the only place
that has
no inside,
and no outside.

Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

89 days of losing my mind

+ "89 Days of Alcatraz" - Live at Hotel Cafe, 2008

I’ve come crawling, falling at your feet…

If I let you down

that furnace

“Love, that furnace into which everything is dropped.”
— James Salter

Love is a fire.
It burns everyone.
It disfigures everyone.
It is the world’s excuse
for being ugly.
— Leonard Cohen, “Love Is A Fire” 

turning 20 [albums]

Abums I care about are turning 20 years old this year:
This is hardcore: Released March 30th, 1998
From the Choirgirl Hotel: Released May 5, 1998
Version 2.0: Released May 11, 1998

Public: Released June 23, 1998

Experience

Photo @caitblu

Someday when you grow lonely

when i look in her eyes all i see is goodbye

i have sentenced mine

racconconnoisseur

forgive me this apostasy

(Insomnia, your stare is dull and ashen. My love, forgive me this apostasy.)
— Vladimir Nabokov

There are souls that are incurable

There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely desperate. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.

If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.

- Antonin Artaud, General Security: The Liquidation of Opium

Poetry readings

The year of the bow and arrow

My favorite game of the year is THE LEGEND OF ZELDA BREATH OF THE WILD

+ Developers Weigh In On The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Brilliance

Additionally I can't say enough good things about how great PREY is, one of the few games that actually propelled me to beat it.

Another stellar game from the same studio that came out this year: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider 
 
This year seemed to be quite the year for archery in games....

Nioh

Horizon

Shadow of War

Breath of the Wild

Assassin's Creed: Origins

art sources, prey, botw

just you, and you are not mine

+ The 10 Best U2 Songs of the 21st Century

“Stateless” (2000) Before they "returned to form" that fall with All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 offered one last glimmer of hope for a headier, more nonlinear direction with the music they contributed to longtime friend Wim Wenders' 2000 film The Million Dollar Hotel. And while the song they co-wrote with Salman Rushdie was a collaboration that surely piqued our curiosity, "Stateless" unveiled an all too promising glimpse into what U2 in the 21st century could have sounded like if they continued down the path of their oft overlooked 1995 side project Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1.

my old friend

U2 + Howard Stern

Bono + Edge on Howard Stern: Get Out Of Your Own Way.discussion + performance
In the scheme of things this song seems like a sequel to Original of the Species which was also dedicated to one of Bono's daughters.
+ The Howard Stern Show December 4, 2017 Bono & The Edge (mp3 download)
+ U2’S BONO AND THE EDGE ON CREATING THEIR HITS, HANGING WITH SPRINGSTEEN AND MCCARTNEY, AND THE ONLY FIGHT THEY’VE EVER HAD

The moment your subway stops at the station and Bono enters the door singing....#U2 #U2SongsofExperience #TheU2Experience #U2Berlin #bvg pic.twitter.com/qXaldf9Tkm

— U2tour (@U2tour) December 6, 2017

+ U2's 'Songs of Experience' Heading for No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
+ Amazon Music: U2 Side by Side - commentary on the album and other songs

Dreaming in Nabokov

+ The New York Times: “Lolita is disgusting” - A 1958 REVIEW OF NABOKOV'S REFINED DEPRAVITY

A new Nabokov book is out that I'm interested in: Insomniac Dreams Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov

+ “But Maybe?”: Immortality, Time, and Nabokov’s Dream Diary

In Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov, the scholar Gennady Barabtarlo considers Nabokov’s ideas on dreams in detail. The basis of the book is a previously unpublished dream journal that Nabokov kept in 1964, after reading aeronautical engineer John Dunne’s early 20th-century treatise An Experiment with Time. In that book, Dunne sketched a theory that human consciousness was capable of tracking events both forward and backward in time, so that dreams might reflect future events in a perfectly logical sequence. He claimed that dreams contain “images of past experience and images of future experience blended together in approximately equal proportions.” This idea, Dunne argued somewhat ambitiously, “contains the first scientific argument for human immortality.

+ Vladimir Nabokov's dream diary reveals experiments with 'backwards timeflow'

For a period of 80 days, the author of Lolita wrote down everything he could remember of his dreams as soon as he woke up, amassing 118 index cards recording 64 dreams. The text is reproduced in the book Insomniac Dreams, alongside material placing the experiment in the context of his life and writing.

+ Best books of 2017 – part one: Utterly fascinating.

a violent stab of loneliness

“But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o’clock in the morning.” – Haruki Murakami

a fool for that shake in your thighs

art: tinamariaelena

U2 & SOE

+ Bono finds what we're looking for The music, credited as ever to all four members of U2, soon gets under your skin. + Experience counts on U2’s return to form Thematically, the new album breaks from the claustrophobic nostalgia that made Songs of Innocence heavy going. + Songs of Experience by U2 ranks alongside the band's greatest work This is truly a cracker of an album on first, second and third listens. Living with it for an extended spell will determine whether it hits the heights of a Joshua Tree, an Achtung Baby or the cruelly underrated Pop. 
+ Back from the brink | Hot Press
+ Rolling Stone: U2 Faces Down Mortality, Reconnects With the Power of Music
+ DailyMail: Bono finds what we're looking for
+ BONO TO APPEAR ON JIMMY KIMMEL'S (RED) SHOW NOV. 28 
+ BONO AND EDGE ANSWER QUESTIONS AT U2: AN EXPERIENCE OF SONGS IN L.A.
+ U2's Songs of Experience is full of desperation and meaty hooks in equal measure
+ Bono’s brush with death: ‘I was clinging to my own life’
+ The band’s latest is their best since “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."

+ The 15 Best Songs From This Century That Wouldn't Exist Without U2: Critic's Picks

+ The Little Things That Give You Away Live from the Joshua Tree Tour
+ U2 & Lady Gaga - Ordinary Love.live

One of the best years in gaming

I can't remember what magazine I clipped this from but damn it if the fall of 2007 games season isn't something to behold. Click pic for bigger.

+ Why 2007 Was the Best Year in Gaming

no escape from loneliness

Sent to me by my Leonard Cohen fundamentalist Muse.
+ Leonard Cohen told us back in 2008 why he loved seeing other artists cover his songs.


+ Leonard Cohen : Une brèche en toute chose

Wednesday panels.Remembrance of things Rorschach

The Rorschach cover got my attention and I ended up liking this fist issue. We shall know in a year how they stick the landing on this.

+ 7 THINGS WE LEARNED IN DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1
+ The Watchmen Sequel Is Off to a Good Start, Whether or Not You Think It Should Exist
+ DOOMSDAY CLOCK’S GEOFF JOHNS TALKS REIMAGINING WATCHMEN
+ DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 REVIEW: The clock is still ticking.

Ah, this is autumn Muse!

by Vladimir Nabokov. Larger when you click on the image.

This poem reminded me of Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For by Nick Cave..."I knew you'd find me, 'cause I longed you here" 

[Documentaries + R.E.M.]

I'm on a R.E.M. kick because of the 25th anniversary of Automatic For The People so here's a bunch of R.E.M documentaries and live performances: 

R.E.M. Rough Cut
R.E.M. Live from Austin, TX
R.E.M. Tourfilm
R.E.M. Road Movie

+ R.E.M. Reflects On 25 Years Of 'Automatic For The People'

HighDef Nabokov

The last Lolita film recently had it's 20th anniversary and I've been waiting for an American blu-ray release of "Lolita" forever and a day.  I had given up but then I ran into a great release from Germany that was was the upgrade I was looking for. Here's the image difference between the DVD and this blu-ray.

+ Lolita: Behind the Scenes
+ SEEING 'LOLITA':"The remake of "Lolita" may never open in America" 
+ Interview: Dominique Swain, ‘Lolita’ Star in 1997 Remake 
+ NYT: Revisiting a Dangerous Obsession
+ ADRIAN LYNE’S LOLITA
+ Ennio Morricone - Love In The Morning / Lolita
+ Nabokov and the Movies
+ Essay: Lolita - Girly: Sarah K. Cleaver on Tumblr nymphet

game awards picks '17

My picks for this year's game awards 

Game of the Year

Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Persona 5 (Atlus)
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)

Best Game Direction

Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames / Bethesda)

Best Narrative

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Tameem Antoniades, Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe / Ninja Theory)
Horizon Zero Dawn (John Gonzalez / Ninja Theory)
NieR: Automata (Yoko Taro, Hana Kikuchi, Yoshiho Akabane / Platinum Games)
What Remains of Edith Finch (Ian Dallas / Giant Sparrow)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Jen Matthies, Tommy Tordsson Bjork / MachineGames)

Best Art Direction

Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Persona 5 (Atlus)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)

Best Score / Music

Cuphead (Kristofer Maddigan)
Destiny 2 (Mike Salvatori, Skye Lewin, C Paul Johnson)
NieR: Automata (Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi)
Persona 5 (Shoji Meguro)
Super Mario Odyssey (Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii, Koji Kondo)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata)

Even tho I'm going with Zelda, special mention to this track that I love from Destiny 2:

Best Audio Design

Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)

Best Performance

Ashly Burch, Horizon: Zero Dawn (As Aloy)
Brian Bloom, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (as BJ Blazkowicz)
Claudia Black, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Chloe Frazer)
Laura Bailey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Nadine Ross)
Melina Juergens, Hellblade (as Senua)

Best Ongoing Game

Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar Games)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG. Corp)
Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft)
Warframe (Digital Extremes)

Best Independent Game

Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
Pyre (Supergiant Games)
What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow / Annapurna Interactive) 

Best Handheld Game

Ever Oasis (Grezzo / Nintendo)
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam / Nintendo)
Monster Hunter Stories (Marvelous / Capcom / Nintendo)
Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World (Good-Feel / Nintendo)

Best Action Game

Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
Nioh (Team Ninja / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Prey (Arkane Studios / Bethesda)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames / Bethesda)

Best Action/Adventure Game

Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft)
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Best Role-Playing Game

Divinity: Original Sin II (Larian Studios)
Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix Business Division 2 / Square Enix)
NieR: Automata (Platinum Games / Square Enix)
Persona 5 (Atlus)
South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Ubisoft San Francisco / Ubisoft)

Best Fighting Game

ARMS (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Injustice 2 (NetherRealm Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Ent)
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (Capcom)
Nidhogg 2 (Messhof Games)
Tekken 7 (Bandai Namco Studios / Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Best Family Game

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris + Milan / Ubisoft)
Sonic Mania (PagodaWest Games, Headcannon / Sega)
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

Best Strategy Game

Halo Wars 2 (Creative Assembly, 343 Industries / Microsoft Studios)
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris + Milan / Ubisoft)
Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly / Sega)
Tooth and Tail (Pocketwatch Games)
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen (Firaxis Games / 2K)

 

Best Multiplayer

Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games / Activision)
Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.)
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)

Most Anticipated Game

God of War (Santa Monica Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Monster Hunter World (Capcom)
Red Dead Redemption II (Rockstar Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

 

 

 

 

Best Debut Indie Game 

Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
Golf Story (Sidebar Games)
Hollow Knight (Team Cherry)
Mr. Shifty (Team Shifty)
Slime Rancher (Monomi Park)

+ The Golden Joystick Awards 2017

-Mexican Mario
-Cappy
-Breath of the Wild
-Fire Emblem

Pick you out a soda Look at you forever

10 years under the creed

The first Assassin's Creed was released 10 years ago today. 

+ Assassin's Creed PAX 2007 Demonstration 
+ Assassin's Creed 'E3 2007 Live Demo' "Everything that you see in the distance is interactive..."

 

+ Assassin's Creed: Full Mission - Commented by Jade Raymond

Leonard Cohen Memorial

+ Damien Rice Famous Blue Raincoat
+ Lana Del Rey & Adam Cohen - Chelsea Hotel No. 2 
+ Seth Rogen Recites Field Commander Cohen
+ K.D. Lang: Hallelujah
+ U2 Pays Tribute to Leonard Cohen in Toronto , U2: Bad/Suzanne
+ So Long Marianne, Adam Cohen & The Webb Sisters
+ Adam Cohen with the closing speech and the song Coming Back To You
+ Everybody Knows, Courtney Love
+ Dance me to the end of love, Sting
+ The Future, Elvis Costello

Let's begin again

[R.E.M: Begin the Begin.Live]

While I'm on this R.E.M. kick, one for my Muse: [R.E.M. You Are The Everything.live],
and also thanks for all the encouragement to my dear be your pet.

as you get older

I read somewhere that as you get older, the brain cells associated with anxiety begin to die. [Pauses] A lot of other brain cells die, too, so you’ve got to watch out
Leonard Cohen

Hayden: Starting Over And I feel like starting over / More now, as I'm older 

i don't know how to hope anymore

the love...
And i don't know how to pray anymore
and in love i don't know how to hope anymore
and for that love i don't know how to wait anymore

Decade Old Dolls

Ten years ago the last great Tori Amos concept album came out, American Doll Posse