I'm going to put all the media in one blog this time. I'll mention a favorite I experienced at the time and then one I'd like to experience now.
Music:
Fish - Raingods With Zippos. I saw Fish's stage show touring on this album before I heard the CD at home. I feel like this is one of his best solo albums full of drama and sensitivity and anger: the 24 minute Plague of Ghosts for drama, Rites of Passage for a broken heart, and Faith Healer for anger. He put out a lilve album of the tour I saw called Candlelight in Fog a year later. I've really seen very few rock shows, so the ones I have, I remember very clearly. I went to the Q and A with Fish before the show but had to leave early because my friend had forgotten the tickets and I had to run home for them. Fish was a little sick that night and apologized for his occasional raspy voice on some songs. It didn't bother me though because he put on a great show. Someone in the crowd yelled out for him to play the Marillion song Incubus. He said, "Oh we have an idiot in the audience tonight." and then sung the first "ooooo wah" of the song. I don't think he could've sung a Marillion song if he wanted to as the band was still active at the time.
Most want to hear next? Well, a lot of things, but maybe Ozric Tentacles' Waterfall Cities. I like that title and I'm sure the album cover is wildly fantastic like a good prog rock album should be.
Games:
Sega Bass Fishing. It's a hard choice but I may have gotten more enjoyment out of this Dreamcast game than Toy Commander, Quake III Arena or NBA Showtime that year. The game had a fishing rod periferal with a hand crank and motion sensor. Dreamcast was ahead of its time in so many ways. I still quote the announcer in this game commenting on the size of your fish, "This one's huge!" or "Keeper size."
Most want to play next? It's a tie between Puchi Carat on Game Boy Color, a puzzle game like Tetris Attack or Puzzle Fighter, and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing on Dreamcast or Playstation. I like the arcady boxing games with a lot of humor in them like Punch Out or Facebreaker and I've never played the Ready 2 Rumble games.
Books:
Didn't read much that year but I should've read the third Harry Potter book Prisoner of Azkaban. I'll probably read that one next because I'm reading book two right now.
Most want to read after Harry Potter? I'm curious about Freeman Dyson's nonfiction book The Sun, The Genome and the Internet. It might be interesting to hear his preditions now knowing how it turned out sixteen years later. I wonder, is Half-Life's Gordon Freeman somewhat named after Freeman Dyson? They're both physicists.
Film/TV:
Galaxy Quest. It was tough choice with the second Austin Powers movie and the South Park movie on the list, but Galaxy Quest is the best because it spoofs Star Trek so well and still has a surprisingly good scifi adventure thrown in. it's all about aliens coming to earth thinking the actors of a scifi tv show are real space explorers. The aliens ask them to help in their war and silliness ensues. This movie was such a pleasant surprise.
For TV it was Tenacious D on HBO. This was Jack Black's TV show where his character performs accoustic open mics but it's clear he wants to do the rock star thing. It's funny.
Most want to see? Probably The Thirteenth Floor. A scifi flick that kind of went under the radar but has become a cult classic.
And that be 1999, yar.
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