Personal Media Favs, 1999

On 07/19/2020 at 10:15 PM by KnightDriver

Context for all these were: me with long hair, delivering pizza, playing music and reading Dumas, specifically, The Three Musketeers.

TV: Strangers with Candy

that's the movie trailer from 2005 above, but it is basically the same as the TV show

Amy Sedaris plays an ex-junkie who returns to compete high school at an older age. She's been desensitized by all the hardship she's had to endure and makes a lot of hilariously cruel and crude remarks, as do her younger classmates, I might add. Amy Sedaris is amazing in the lead. Her raw comments are hilarious. Steven Colbert plays a teacher and is also great. The whole cast is fun to watch in this. Each has a serious personality flaw that's revealed comically in different situations. It didn't hit for me right away, but on a second attempt, I was rolling around laughing.

Film: Galaxy Quest

Actual aliens pick up the TV broadcast of a scifi show on Earth and think it's real. They need protection from more aggressive aliens and try and enlist the actors as real space warriors. The film soon becomes an actual scfi adventure with hilarious results as TV actors try and actually fight off a deadly alien threat. It's a sleeper hit and not just for fans of Star Trek and its ilk.

Game: Silent Hill

The atmosphere in this game is a secial feature. Well, it's a fog really that does it, but the general art style too, which uses a lot of browns. It's earthy and creepy. I didn't even get annoyed at the third-person shooting controls; or the puzzles. It all seemed to work and not get in the way. The story, I don't remember much of, but it engaged me. Nothing bothered me about this game. It seemed perfect.

Music: Insane Clown Posse - The Amazing Jeckel Brothers

I got into ICP from one song off this album, "Mad Professor". Labeled "Novelty" on the Billboards Hot 100 list, which I was obsessing over at the time, it is truely that. It's very creative, if disturbing in a Creepshow way that is also funny because it's so over-the-top. I love the use of sound samples like what would be used in a radio play. This song tells a story as well as delivers the comedy. I can't ask for more, really.

Books: J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I really enjoyed this third book in the Harry Potter series as well as the previous two. They are each a little shorter and written for a younger audience than the next four. In other words, they're less dark and epically long. I found I enjoyed that a bit more at this stage in my life. I can't even reread Lord of the Rings anymore.

goaztecs

07/20/2020 at 02:08 PM

I liked Galaxy Quest. It was a fun movie that made fun of Sci Fi while being a good Sci Fi flick. Funny about ICP, it just never clicked with me.

KnightDriver

07/20/2020 at 08:00 PM

I love novelty songs and collected a whole bunch that were listed in the Billboards Hot 100 book I used to have. Mad Professor was one of them. They had a Christmas novelty hit too, but I like that one less.

SanAndreas

07/20/2020 at 03:22 PM

Moviewise, my favorite 1999 movie is Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Those movies are so quotable. I also took my girlfriend at the time to see Big Daddy, which was funny. Me and a couple of buddies went to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in theaters. Not having a particular attachment to Star Wars to begin with, I didn't think it was as bad as people make it out to be, and it sucks what happened to Jake Lloyd.

Gamingwise, it was a good year. FF8 came out the fall before I started college, so its themes really resonated with me. But my favorite game of the year was Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I wanted to play Lunar ever since I saw the ads for the Sega CD versions, so I was incredibly excited.

07/20/2020 at 08:09 PM

I chose the first Austin Powers when I did the previous year, but I really meant the whole trilogy because I love all of them.

I didn't know about Jake Lloyd. Too bad.

I also saw the Lunar games at flea markets and cons but never got it because it was always expensive. I always put it on my lists to play one day.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/21/2020 at 11:56 AM

Galaxy Quest is pretty damn good. I like when he loses his shirt fighting the rock creature and when he comes back to the ship, Sigourney Weaver says sarcastically, "I see you've managed to take off your shirt."

07/21/2020 at 05:02 PM

I can't wait to see it again. I think that's the quality I'm looking for in my favorites. If I really want to see it again, it's a favorite.

Cary Woodham

07/21/2020 at 08:06 PM

I graduated college in late 1999, so my last two semesters there were taking the hard classes for my major. But I also really hit my stride at The Dallas Morning News, writing big name game reviews for titles like Donkey Kong 64 and Pac-Man World, and getting a front page tagline for those two reviews as well! The newspaper even flew me home from college one weekend so I could host a booth of theirs at a small convention in Dallas. It seemed almost certain I knew where I'd be working when I graduated. Also, that Christmas I got a Dreamcast.

07/22/2020 at 03:25 PM

Sounds like good times for you.

07/23/2020 at 08:40 AM

It was, but it went downhill quickly a couple of years later!

07/23/2020 at 09:13 PM

Sorry to hear that. Games journalism has really struggled since the loss of magazines.

PixlBit