Posts

Music Album Review: 'Frank Sinatra: Nothing But the Best'

Image
(C) 2008 Reprise Records On May 13, 2008, Reprise Records released Frank Sinatra: Nothing But the Best, a compilation album of songs recorded by Frank Sinatra for Reprise (the label he founded in 1960) in the 1960s and '70s. Its release was timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Sinatra's death (May 14, 1998), although at least one edition of the album - the British - was issued on May 9, 2008. Nothing But the Best is not an overview of Francis Albert Sinatra's entire career - a period that began in 1935 when he sang with Harry James and His Orchestra and officially ended in 1994. Most of the 22 songs in the album are from the 1960s, although at least one (Frank's cover of 1977's  New York, New York ) was originally recorded for 1980's three-record set Trilogy: Past Present Future.  The album (which was released in three different versions: the one-CD edition, the Christmas 2-CD set with Nothing But the Best and a Sinatra "Christmas song&quo

Old Gamers Never Die: MicroProse's 'M1 Tank Platoon' Game Review

Image
Package of the DOS version of M1 Tank Platoon (C) 1989 MicroProse Software In 1989 - that annus mirabilis marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, MicroProse Software published the original version of M1 Tank Platoon: The Definitive Simulation of Armored Land Warfare.  Part vehicle simulator and part real-time tactics map-based game, M1 Tank Platoon was the first tank warfare game to break away from the "one tank against the entire Red Army" trope in other games set in a conventional World War III scenario. Instead, M1 Tank Platoon put the player in command of a four-tank platoon of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and, depending on the mission type selected, a wide array of supporting forces that included M2/M3 Bradleys, AH-64 Apache attack helos, OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters, A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets, Improved TOW Vehicles, infantry squads, 107mm mortars, 155mm artillery, and Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS)

Book Review: 'Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment'

Image
(C)  1994 Berkley Books Before his unexpected death on October 1, 2013, Tom Clancy wrote 19 novels, 17 of which were set in what reviewers and his legions of fans refer to the "Ryanverse" (so-called because they feature either his central character, John Patrick Ryan, Sr. and a large supporting cast that includes his son Jack Ryan, Jr.). Most of those novels were best-sellers; including The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising (the only best-seller that was not set in the Ryanverse), and the last Jack Ryan/Jack Ryan, Jr.  books he co-wrote with Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney between 2010 and 2013, In addition to his works of fiction, Clancy also wrote many non-fiction books about various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the seven-book "Guided Tour" series that began with 1993's Submarine: A Guided Tour of a Nuclear Warship and ended with Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces  (2001).  These books were co-written with res

Old Gamers Never Die: A Case for Creating 'Crusade in Europe II'

Image
As an occasional computer gamer, I often find it difficult to find a World War II strategy game along the lines of the late and much lamented Microprose Software's 1986 game Crusade in Europe.  Created by the now-legendary game designer Sid Meier with Ed Bever, Crusade in Europe was a map-and-icons simulation of the Allied campaigns to liberate Northwest Europe; as the product's promotional blurb put it, it put players in command of either the Allied or German forces  "from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge!" Cover of the user's manual for Crusade in Europe. (C) 1986 MicroProse Software I've already written several posts, including a reminiscence , about Crusade in Europe so I will try to not repeat myself much here. I will, however, try to make a case for asking Firaxis Games (where Sid Meier holds court now) or any other game developer to follow up that classic with a modern-day sequel. Now, there are plenty of computer strategy games with Wor

Old Gamers Never Die: Remembering MicroProse's 'M1 Tank Platoon'

Image
"Main Title" screen from MicroProse's M1 Tank Platoon. (C) 1989 MicroProse Software In the late 1980s and early 1990s, MicroProse Software was one of the most innovative and successful computer and video game publishing companies in the world. Co-founded by retired Air Force pilot  "Wild Bill" Stealey and Sid Meier, the Maryland-based company created some of the gaming industry's most popular titles, including Silent Service, its sequel Silent Service II, the three-game F-15 Strike Eagle series, Red Storm Rising, and the classic world history simulation Sid Meier's Civilization.  Although MicroProse's catalog included games from various genres, many of its titles were military simulators. This isn't surprising; the company's co-founder was a veteran, and many of its best-selling games were simulators of combat aircraft ( F-15 Strike Eagle, F-19 Stealth Fighter ), submarines ( Red Storm Rising, Silent Service II ) and even helicopters (

Music Album Review: 'Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique: Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch'

Image
(C) 1962, 1990 RCA Records/RCA Victrola One of my fondest memories from my college days (now almost two decades ago) centers upon the first time I heard Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique:  Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties .  It was a cool (by South Florida standards) afternoon and I was in my Humanities class. Our professor -- Jay Brown, who aside from being an instructor at Miami-Dade Community College was, and still is, a talented musician who can play various instruments, including the glass harmonica -- touched upon many different topics ranging from epistemology to ethics. But on that day we were discussing music: the transition from the Classical period of Mozart to the Romantic era of Beethoven, Schubert, and Berlioz. More to the point, the topic of the afternoon was the advent of the big orchestra, and the prof played a selection or two from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique:  Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties  (

Music Album Review: 'The King's Singers: Great American Songbook'

Image
(C) 2013 Signum Classics Records One of the (many) benefits of being an Amazon Prime member is that, in addition to getting free shipping on most of my Amazon orders, I also have access to Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime Music, two streaming services that allow me to watch or listen to many movies, Amazon Original Television shows (such as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan ), and a wide selection of music albums, free of charge. Obviously, not everything on Amazon's video or music catalog is offered gratis, but I've been lucky enough to add some really cool albums to my Amazon Music queue thanks to my $119-a-year Prime membership. One of my more recent musical discoveries is Signum Classics' 2013 2-disc set The King's Singers: Great American Songbook, a 2-disc, 25-track collection of songs written between the 1920s and early 1960s by songwriters such as Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, Mack Gordon & Harry Warren, Richard Rod

Music Album Review: 'The Best of the King's Singers'

Image
(C) 2012 Signum Classics Records On September 24, 2012, Britain's Signum Records released The Best of The King's Singers, a two-disc, 40-track compilation of a capella  performances by the current iteration of The King's Singers (Patrick Dunachie, Timothy Wayne-Wright, Julian Gregory, Christopher Bruerton, Christopher Gabbitas, and Jonathan Howard). As I wrote yesterday on my review of Gold, The King's Singers is a sextet of singers (two countertenors, one tenor, two baritones, and one bass) that performs choral compositions from various historical eras and genres without accompaniment. First formed by six choral students (five from King's College in Cambridge and one from Christ Church, Oxford) in 1968, several iterations of The King's Singers have performed in Great Britain, Europe, the U.S., and other countries throughout the world over the past half-century. Additionally, their recordings and concerts on DVD and other home media formats sell well, es

Music Album Review: 'The King's Singers: Gold'

Image
Many years ago, my hometown of Miami (Florida) had a classical music station, WTMI-FM. Its location on the FM dial was 93.1, and although it did not have as many listeners as stations that played other formats (rock, adult contemporary pop, urban hip hop, oldies, country, or Spanish-language music), it had a loyal base of listeners. I ought to know; from the first time that I tuned in in the early 1980s to December 31, 2001, the sad day when it signed off the air to become Party 93.1, I was a member of that loyal base of listeners. In that two-decade span when I listened to South Florida's "classy and jazzy" radio station, I heard a wide array of compositions, composers, orchestras, and even some awesome solo acts that encompassed many musical genres. Most of the music I listened to was symphonic/instrumental, but every so often I'd come across singers such as Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Audra McDonald, and, of course, Luciano Pavarotti (either as a solois