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What I’m listening to…
When it was first announced that Daft Punk were creating the score for TRON: Legacy back in 2010 I was hyped.
For me, this was a match made in heaven. I had been a fan of the original TRON film since I was a kid. I was already a big fan of Daft Punk and their synth-driven retro-styled music. The robotic duo was the perfect choice.
The original TRON: Legacy score was followed up with a remix album TRON: Legacy R3CONF1GU3D (Reconfigured). There is also an expanded edition on Spotify entitled TRON: Legacy (The Complete Edition) that includes most of the music to the film.
If you look around the internet you can also find a bootleg edition called TRON: Legacy (Recording Sessions) and the MetroTokyo Edition with an expansive 91 tracks. These versions are for completists only.
Highlights from the regular soundtrack include The Grid, Recognizer, Arena, The Game has Changed and Overture.
Daft Punk evolved beyond their popular electronic roots and created a score that was symphonic in scope and sound yet still embellished with their iconic beats. It was no easy feat, but Daft Punk accomplished the unique blend with unparalleled skill.
The duo even made a cameo appearance in the nightclub scene as DJs.
Hopefully, their separation is a temporary split while they explore new musical avenues. Who knows, maybe it will take another TRON film to bring the mysterious robot duo back together.
What I’m watching…
In case you hadn’t guessed, my Sean Livingstone Adventure Series was heavily inspired by the television series Ancient Aliens.
The reason I’m bringing this up now is because they just did a special two-hour episode featuring non-other than Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner.
The special aired on February 12th, 2021. Shatner has a roundtable discussion with scientists, spiritual leaders, and ancient astronaut theorists, challenging our understanding of history. This is intercut with highlights from the entire 16-season series.
Did aliens visit our human ancestors and pass on their knowledge?
Shatner begins the episode in brash style declaring ‘Convince me!’. It’s a lot of fun.
I can’t believe what started out as a two-part limited series back in 2010 has grown to 16 seasons, 180 episodes, and still going strong eleven years later.
There are so many episodes it’s impossible to recall the best ones, but I have seen every episode. Many, more than once. A lot of the evidence presented should be taken with a grain of salt, but occasionally there is some fact or story that just makes you think what if?
The show borders on pseudoscience, pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology. Putting these caveats aside, it’s packed with enticing information and certainly fuelled my imagination. If you’re willing to explore the theory that historical texts, archaeology, and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial contact then this show is for you.
Most of the episodes are available to stream via Amazon Prime or if you’re like me and prefer to own a physical copy of something you enjoy then you might want to start with the Season 1 Bluray.
What I’m reading…
Overlord Volume 1: The Undead King is the first book in the Overlord series by Kugane Maruyama.
If you have ever played an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) then you are bound to enjoy this book. I used to play World of Warcraft a few years back but had to stop. If not, I would never have the time to write books.
MMORPG’s require a huge amount of time and effort. But they are more than just a game. The social environment is what fuels them. Friendships, guilds, and entire communities develop within these games.
Now I can relive that fictional fantasy experience in the Overlord collection without the guilt of wasting an entire weekend playing a game. Yes, I have been guilty of that once or twice!
The Overlord series was originally released as a serialization in Japan back in 2010, published on a website called Arcadia. What began as a digital-only release has now turned into a publishing success with millions of copies sold worldwide.
The English-translated editions first appeared in 2016 and continue to this day. Volume 13 will be released in English in 2021 with Volume 14 following soon after.
Overlord is categorized as a light novel in Japan, a style of Japanese young adult books aimed at middle-grade and high school students.
Here’s the official synopsis:
For twelve years, the virtual world of Yggdrasil has served as the playground and battlefield for the skeletal lord Momonga and his guild of fellow monsters, Ainz Ooal Gown. But the guild’s glory days are over, and the game is shutting down permanently.
When Momonga logs in one last time just to be there when the servers go dark, something happens–and suddenly, fantasy is reality. A rogues’ gallery of fanatically devoted NPCs is ready to obey his every order, but the world Momonga now inhabits is not the one he remembers. The game may be over, but the epic tale of Ainz Ooal Gown is only beginning…
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