Hall of Fame - Week 8

Easter weekend. Some may start thinking about bunnies, eggs, chocolates, maybe a little time with the fam and some Easter dinner. You might be going to your local church service, but don't forget that PtP is here for you once again to serve you up some of the best media you can find. This week Matt has adolescent fantasies of a 2D woman wearing a metal parka, Anthony listens to another album that will eventually grind you into submission, and I let Morgan Freeman serenade me with his sensual voice. Enjoy.

The Game: Super Metroid

Super Metroid, in my opinion, was the pinnacle of SNES platforming, it was also "arguably" the pinnacle of SNES gaming (Anthony and I once put each other in the hospital arguing this vs. Final Fantasy III, but for the sake of PtP I won't rip open that painful wound). Sure Mega Man X, Castlevania VI, and Super Mario World were all welcomed successors in their renowned franchises, but none provided the exponential improvements as seen in this title. I’ll be the first to admit it, the original Metroid kinda' blew. Revolutionary as it was, it sucked balls spending countless hours running through worlds that all looked the same. Seriously, If I'm gonna' battle confusion and tedium at least give me something different to look at! But Super fixed this, and then some... The game was gorgeously spooky; only in the survival horror genre has isolation been such key element of a game. It also features some of the best controls I've ever seen in a game: I wall kick like it’s my job! The original Metroid featured powerups, and you know what, Super took those upgrades and spent the whole night with them doing crack off a stripper’s ass: they got pretty redic real fast! If perfection was attainable, there would be two things in the world to achieve it: this blog and Super Metroid.

One final note: aside from kicking ass in all measurable ways, Super Metroid was one of those games that indulged your teenage hormone filled desires: allegedly if you beat the game in under so much time, you got to see the Samus naked. For the first time ever, guys were rewarded for being quick. (Not me however...Samus was such a cock tease, always got her down to her underwear but never in the buff...fucking puritan) For those not disgusted and still reading, it was epic lie; along the lines of the moon landing and the Kennedy assassination (PtP will now cater to conspiracy theorists to grow our base readers). Out of this spastic and Ritalin craving post, there are two things you should walk away with: I was a really weird kid, and playing Super Metroid was like seeing God...It’s just that good.

-Matt

The Movie: The Shawshank Redemption

Being a local and within spittin’ distance of his mansion, or should we say haunted house; you gotta love Stephen King living within a 50 mile radius. It’s seriously a requirement, I mean fail at that and you might as well get ready to see Jack Nicolson tearing down your front door with an axe, and I don’t need to tell you how that story is going to end.
While some of King’s adaptations of his books to film have been great, let’s be honest, there have been a number of duds in there too. (Ref. “Langoliers” – Sure it was made for TV but you get the point) This weeks choice was a tough one for me as I just saw another one of his flicks that I really adore but when it comes to Stephen King flicks, this truly is my first love. Shawshank Redemption.

If you haven’t seen it, stop reading and go grab it… now. I will wait.

Shawshank Redemption is possibly my favorite if not the best prison movie ever made. Chronicling the story of a man falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, only this man isn’t just some run of the mill flunky. He’s an intelligent, well educated, and very cunning individual, which begs the question; how are good honest folk like us here at PtP to understand him and his actions? Just our luck that Morgan Freeman is there to narrate us through the darkness and show us the true meaning of the character that is Andy Dufresne.
In all seriousness this is an amazing story of one man facing the loss of his entire life to rot in prison and creating so much out of the little lot that, not only for himself, but for his compatriots at the prison as well. Ultimately Andy talents are discovered and he is used to benefit the corrupt prison administration and their dirty dealings, however with Andy you find that things aren’t always what they seem.
Overall it’s a great flick and you get to hear Morgan Freeman serenade you for a good two hours so what have you got to lose?

-Pat

The Album: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

It’s a challenging indie-rock masterpiece, the caliber of your OK Computer’ and Loveless’. It could be accurately referred to as a controlled racket, but repeated listens reveal hidden melodies beneath the fuzz, strange instrumentation, and nasally-strained vocals. The opening track, King of Carrot Flowers Part 1, is also the album’s most accessible, letting you in gently to the chaos that is soon to follow. If you can survive the first listen, following trips through the album will reveal layers, and it can work its way under your skin, like a good poem. Or a knife. Thematically it is a strange combination of religion, love, and sex. Tracks fade into eachother, and the album is always moving. Holland, 1965 has a urgent drive to it, and when Jeff Magnum sings “The Earth looks better from a star, that’s right above from where you are” it doesn’t even sound corny. The lyrics have a poetic flow to them, but at times are so abstract that they feel stream of conscious. It’s an album that you hesitate to recommend. You will not like this album the first time through. But I would be surprised if you didn’t love it by the tenth listen.

-Anthony