2018-01-21

Meh. Feelin' uninspired this evening. Maybe it's because a cursory inspection of the PS3's innards suggests that the problem isn't dust, but something more serious (and expensive). I'll have to do some more troubleshooting, of course, but not tonight. It's not like I do a whole lot of gaming anyway, mostly just Grand Theft Auto for violent stress release. No, what I mostly use the PS3 for lately is watching Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Which makes it handy that I've also got an Amazon Fire TV Stick. (Well, the Apple TV has Netflix on it, too, but not Prime.) Think I'm just going to go watch another episode or two of "Electric Dreams." See ya tomorrow.

2018-01-16

I'm four episodes into Amazon Prime's "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams," and I'm liking it a lot. I've heard a lot of people compare it with "Black Mirror," but as I haven't watched that show (yet), "Electric Dreams" stands on its own, quite steadily. As do the episodes, since each is self-contained.

Dick's work, even when drenched in high tech and the wonders of tomorrow, often really poked and prodded at what being human really means. Kinda hard to miss that in the film "Blade Runner" and the novel on which it was based, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

A lot of it also dealt with the nature of reality, and the first episode I watched, "Real Life" (based on "Exhibit Piece"), did a great job of bouncing us back and forth between two apparent lives, one real and one virtual... only which was which? "Autofac" showed us an Amazon gone wild (the company, not the rain forest) after a nuclear war... and reminded me of just how lovely Juno Temple is. Executive producer Bryan Cranston takes a turn acting in "Human Is," portraying a hardened military man coming back changed from a bloodbath, but changed how, or how changed? And Steve Buscemi is fun as always, as he gets in over his head, as always, playing a human (or "normal") who ends up helping a not-quite-human in "Crazy Diamond" (with a Syd Barrett composition, no less).

Definitely enjoying this so far. In fact, I think I'm going to go watch "The Hood Maker" now. Plenty of time for electric dreams later.