Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter computer game, developed by 3D Realms and released in 1997 by GT Interactive Software. Very similar to Duke Nukem — 3D Realms star game —, as a matter of fact, sometimes appears to be almost a copy of it, Shadow Warrior manages to be an incredible adventure, where the player must refine his skills in order to subdue his enemies, and be eligible to conclude all challenges and win the game. 

In Shadow Warrior, the main character is Lo Wang, a former employee of Zilla Enterprises, a Zaibatsu, which is an enormous conglomerate that controls entire sectors of Japan's economy. The president of the company, however, is planning to take over the world by using supernatural creatures. Upon learning of this plan, Lo Wang decides to take action against his former employer. Master Zilla, when learning about Lo Wang's plans to subdue him, sends his evil creatures to fight against him.   

Shadow Warrior is a very interesting and dynamic game. Not considering the similarities with Duke Nukem — particularly in the gameplay, the graphic designs and the dark humour —, the game has managed to develop its own identity, and displays a series of personal features, that consecrates to its atmosphere some very distinct and unusual peculiarities. The game also presents from time to time naked girls in anime style, in very eccentric circumstances, and a set of gracefully designed scenarios, that realistically embrace its Japanese setting. 

Exactly like Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic were games developed by Raven Software using the "Doom" engine — an informal name for the game platform known as id Tech 1 —, Shadow Warrior was developed by 3D Realms using the "Build" engine, which is the same used for Duke Nukem. For these reason, games built in the same platform will inadvertently share similar features and technical resemblances. The main difference will be on the exterior graphic designs. 

Despite its high levels of violence and aggressiveness — Shadow Warrior certainly is one of the most violent computer games ever designed —, its easy to become deeply involved in the plot's dense, intricate and pervasive atmosphere. The gameplay is marvelously dynamic, the scenarios are diversified and spectacularly conceived, the premise of the challenges are coherent and portrayed with diligence, and the cohesiveness of the main character and all the enemies he has to fight are competently established and organically developed. The weapons available to be used are also quite varied. Like a ninja, you can use a ninjatō to slice your enemies in half, or shoot them with a pair of submachine guns. You can also use the head of a fire-breathing wizard to kill your enemies. Another interesting feature of the game was the fact that has some vehicles that the player can drive, some of them with usable weapons. 

If we ignore the fact that some elements of Shadow Warrior are definitely generic and quite ordinary, its gameplay still stands out as superior from other first-person shooter adventures. The graphic design successfully conceive a very peculiar identity to the game, and the level of entertainment displayed certainly can be considered above the average. The gameplay is straightforwardly easy and dynamic, and the coherence between the levels and the organic difficulties gradually imposed to the player as he advances showcase a professional degree of objective lucidity and creative diligence from the designers, that engraves on the identity of the adventure the exceptional urgencies of its somber proposal.    

Definitely, Shadow Warrior manages to be a formidable, great game, that allows first-person shooter enthusiasts to have a relevant degree of fun. While the game is far from perfect — and lacks a certain level of creative independence —, Shadow Warrior will always be a peculiar milestone in the history of computer games. More recently, Polish interactive design company Flying Wild Hog developed a reboot of Shadow Warrior, that was released in 2013 by Devolver Digital for several different video games. In 2016, they've released a sequel, Shadow Warrior 2.


​Wagner

Hexen: Beyond Heretic was — exactly like its predecessor, Heretic — a dark fantasy first-person shooter game, developed by Raven Software and released by id Software in 1995. Functioning as an indirect sequel to Heretic, Hexen became unique in the history of computer games, because, unlike any other game before or after, it was possible for the player to choose between three different characters, something that offered to enthusiasts a very singular experience. Hexen: Beyond Heretic was received with great acclaim and enthusiasm by the computer games community upon its release, and remains one of the most relevant, iconic and spectacular first-person shooter games ever to have been created. 

As a sequel to Heretic, Hexen remained loyal and faithful to the underground and somber dark fantasy nature of its predecessor. The scenarios were exceedingly nefarious, medieval-style cold castles, sinister atriums and despondent ruins, where sorcery and black magic exercise undisputed domain over the entirety of the reign of times. Like it is written above, the big difference of the game came from the fact that it was possible to choose between three different characters: a rude barbarian in the style of Conan, Baratus, a virtuous and polyvalent sorcerer, Daedolon, and an introspective religious deacon, Parias. This was an extremely fascinating feature on Hexen, because each one of these characters offer to the players an entirely different game experience, since each one of them has its own qualities, weapons and distinct virtues. 

Immediately upon its release, Hexen was met with enthusiasm by the worldwide computer games community. Its organic, multifaceted, dynamic and sophisticated nature certainly sparked a revolution on first-person shooter games, with a series of improvements, that drastically changed the way games were then played. With a non-linear narrative, that allows the player to choose which path he wants to explore, with the possibility to return to certain areas that function as a point of convergence between different levels, Hexen offers a generally flexible, intricate and realistic game platform, that allow multiple choices to be made along the journey. 

Undergoing through dark castles and sinister labyrinths, that are filled with a great variety of enemies full of supernatural powers, the player must advance in a doomed dimension of hostility and despair. As Hexen functions more or less as a sequence to Heretic, its premise shares some features with its predecessor. As in Heretic, the main character, Corvus, had to defeat D'Sparil, one of the three Serpent Riders, Hexen takes place in the realm of Cronos, that had been captured by Korax, another member of the Serpent Riders. Upon choosing one of the three characters available, the player must go through all the different levels, until finally arriving to the final battle against Korax. 

Like most people of my generation that used to play Hexen in the late nineties, this was one of those games that made adolescence to be an exceptionally fun and entertaining period of life. With somber scenarios that inspired in the player a sentiment of very tense and dark contingencies, Hexen — regardless of which was your favorite character to play with — had made us all undergo extremely somber journeys in a magical, fantastic, inhospitable world of intricate affliction, where an arcane set of enemies where waiting, to invalidate our efforts to accomplish the mission. Playing this game alone in your bedroom, late at night, entirely surrounded by darkness, was a courageous task that only the most brave could endure.

The dark fantasy world of Hexen was majestically conceived, and captured perfectly the atmosphere of RPG games that were so popular at the time. Its realistic graphic designs properly engraved in the mind of the players the density of its overwhelming dark narrative, that not only suggested they were there for real, but also displayed a persuasive cosmogony of dangerous affliction, that compelled them to move on to carry out the mission. In a general evaluation, Hexen can be considered a fantastic adventure, whose density, flexibility, improvements, innovations and realism  proved to be a colossal evolution to the first-person shooter video game platform. 

Undoubtedly, Hexen was one of those fantastic computer games, that — given its originality and creatively audacious nature — ostensibly deserves its place in history. There is not a single computer geek in this world that haven't had a sensational degree of fun playing Hexen. Certainly, a drastically ubiquitous, but doomed nefarious world of dark fantasy got a lot more close to us, thanks to this marvelous and spectacular game. 


Wagner

Heretic is a dark fantasy first-person shooter game, that was developed by Raven Software — and subsequently released by id Software —, that became an instant success, achieving enormous popularity in the nineties, during a time where this type of game became a fever among computer nerds, geeks and teenagers around the world. 

Heretic was different precisely because it was not neither futuristic, nor contemporary. It's setting was a dark underground realm of fantasy, and the main character, Corvus, was a sorcerer that had to fight various monsters and evil creatures throughout multiple levels. The plot is a typical tale of the genre. Corvus — one of the Sidhe elves — has to fight against D'Sparil, one of the three Serpent Riders, and his armies of beast underworld creatures. The Serpent Riders had dominated and possessed all seven kings of Parthoris; Corvus, being an elf, is somewhat immune to the sorcery of their enemies. Nevertheless, he has to take severe countermeasures against the possessed kings, to diminish the malignity of its power and to fight heavily to reduce to ashes the evil dominance of D'Sparil and his horrible army of depraved creatures. 

Regardless of the plot — that generally doesn't matter that much to the player —, the game is very good; as a matter of fact, excellent to a certain extent. Despite being very similar to other games of the genre, like Doom, that was designed and released by id Software, and was conceived over the id Tech 1 engine, popularized as the "Doom" engine, Heretic has its own identity, and a marvelous organic atmosphere, consolidated in a sophisticated and dynamic layout. The scenarios were convincing, realistic and frightful, and definitely added a substantial amount of veracity to the game. Exactly like most first-person shooter adventures, the player has at his disposal several guns, that, in this case, mirrored the fantastic nature of the game, like a lightning crossbow, who fired green flashlight arrows towards the enemies. These were composed of a very versatile, but dreadful gallery of villains, that normally required the right amount of ammunition to be killed. All in all, Heretic managed to be a very interesting and amazing game; despite some limitations, there are no major faults whatsoever to be pointed out. 

Despite the fact that heretic was a success, on the other hand, the game never really achieved the status it certainly deserves, for being the only one of its kind. Exceedingly wonderful to play, Heretic would be obscured, at least partially, by its most sucessfull sequel, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, which had a somewhat different storyline, although it shared explicitly the universe of dark fantasy of its predecessor. A more direct sequel — with a continuing premise — was released in 1998, as Heretic II. 

Heretic was one of those games that people of my generation used to play in their youth, during the mid to late nineties. It certainly was a great game, that not only deserves to be properly remembered, but also introduced to the younger generations, that probably never heard anything about Heretic before. Undoubtedly a crucial first-person shooter game — envisioned in a sinister and nefarious world of dark fantasy and wizardry —, Heretic continues to this day to be one of the most marvelous representatives of interactive adventure, and an entertaining tale of spectacular density, in the history of computer games. 


​Wagner

Bedtime Stories is one of those YouTube channels, that make you feel very happy when you discover it; but of course, not happy in the ordinary sense. The content featured on this channel is primarily dark and sinister. They told true real-life events, in fatalist depictions, but with marvelously realistic features. With nefarious narratives accompanied by dense, but distinct black and white illustrations of the stories being told — something that became their trademark signature —, the team that cover these cases analyze all types of unresolved mysteries. From supposed alien encounters to bizarre disappearances and obscure murders, this creepy, though spectacular YouTube channel will surely scare you more than you could ever imagine. 

The somewhat sophisticated style of the team — which is praised by viewers in every video — is contrasted with a simple narration style, and a very systematic description of the events. Then, the narrator usually presents to the audience some plausible theories, when this is appropriate, about what may have actually occurred.   

Although I have discovered this channel somewhat recently — and I have been following since —, I have seen most of the videos; at least, the ones that have instigated my curiosity the most. The level of seriousness and professionalism of the team working behind Bedtime Stories sure delivers a spectacular level of quality, above the average, something the subscribers of the channel are constantly highlighting in the comments section. So, below, I have selected my five favorite videos so far on the channel, because I want to share them with you. I invite everyone who is attracted to this type of content to subscribe to the channel, and to risk scaring yourself on the world of dark tonalities and frightening disturbances that revolves around Bedtime Stories. But be warned, the content featured can be quite disturbing.  

One of my favorite videos on the channel, this one features a case that has happened in my country. In August 20, 1966, a boy has found two male bodies in Morro do Vintém, in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Soon after, the police was summoned; due to difficult terrain, the law officers were able to gain access to the location only in the following day. Upon arriving on the scene, the police had started an investigation to uncover what has actually happened to the two victims. 

The victims were lying next to each other, and were wearing somewhat identical outfits, dark suits underneath very long coats. Both, however, were covering their faces with lead eye masks, a detail that proved to be quite peculiar. The police had also found a bottle of water and two soaked towels near the bodies, as well as a note, upon which was written: "16:30 estar no local determinado. 18:30 ingerir cápsulas, após efeito proteger metais aguardar sinal mascara" ('16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask').

Upon further investigation, police rapidly discovered that the victims in question were electronic technicians Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, both from Campos dos Goytacazes, a city considerably distant from Niterói. They were last seen in August 17, and were then reported missing by their respective families. 

The police managed to trace the steps of the two men. They left Campos dos Goytacazes towards Niterói in August 17, presumably to buy work-related material. After arriving in their destination, they had bought in a store the jackets they were found wearing. Then they had bought the bottle of water in a local bar; the woman that sold the bottle of water to the men explained to the police that one of them looked nervous, and kept looking at his watch all the time. After they left the bar, the police lost their traces. It is strongly suspected, however, that they headed directly to Morro do Vintém, where they would later be found dead. 

Police later discovered that the two technicians belonged to a group of amateur scientists, known as the "scientific spiritualists". Arranging in a cohesive order all the information available, police elaborated some theories as to what could have happened to both men. 

Evidence suggests that Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were trying to contact aliens. The note that was found next to the bodies reinforces this theory, as well as the lead masks, that they were presumably wearing to protect their eyes from the glare of the UFO they would expect to encounter at Morro do Vintém. Some people speculate that they were indeed abducted by aliens, at least their minds; their bodies were abandoned, as it would have no use in the place they were heading to. 

More resonable explanation suggests that the two men were corresponding with people they believed to be genuine UFO researchers, but could be in fact a gang of thieves; despite its conciseness and vagueness, the note found next to the bodies were certainly given to them by a mysterious third person, that presumably would help the two men to achieve their task to contact otherworldly beings — or so they thought. Believing that they would have actual help from a serious group of paranormal investigators, the two men may have been lured into a trap by a group of criminals, that wanted to rob and murder them.

Despite the fact that this is the most probable explanation for the deaths of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, there's still a lot of information to consider. The two men may have ingested a psychoactive drug, and may have died of accidental overdose. As the note suggests — '18:30 ingest capsules' — they had probably taken some kind of substance; due to forensic negligence, though, a toxicology report was not conducted on the bodies. 

Unfortunately, its impossible to know precisely what had befell to this two men. More than fifty years had passed since the bodies of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were found in Morro do Vintém, in Niterói; after so many decades, it is improbable that this case would ever be solved. The truth probably will never be known. 

Another case that has happened in my country, on this video, the Bedtime Stories team investigates the notorious "Caso Guarapiranga" — or 'Guarapiranga Case' —, that refers to a horribly mutilated corpse found in a dam in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1988. The body displayed abnormal patterns of symmetrical lacerations, internal organs have been completely removed without major external incisions, the face had been badly disfigured, lips and eyes were absent from the face, and the genitals were also missing. Upon further examination, several analysts and pathologists have extensively studied the case, in an effort to discover what had befell to the unfortunate individual that was found terribly mutilated in the Guarapiranga reservoir. It is actually possible, after so many time, to properly decipher what precisely has inflicted such an horrendous pattern of mutilations in the body found? 

Literally, all speculations had been put forward, in an attempt to solve what has really happened; from alien abudction to organ harvesting and animal mutilation, all possible options remains under scrutiny to this day. One of the most reasonable explanations, however, states that the man was eaten by vultures. At least some of the wounds inflicted are consistent with vulture activity, especially taking into consideration the fact that lips, eyes and genital organs were missing; this are all body parts made with soft tissue, which would make them easily edible. And when the body was found, there was indeed a group of vultures preying on the corpse.    

Nevertheless, some wounds inflicted had far more complex structural patterns, which make them difficult to assign simply to vulture activity. And after more detailed examination, forensic experts concluded that the individual experienced great pain and suffering while being subjected to the excruciating ordeal, making it obvious that he was somehow alive while being deliberately tortured, and had to endure a terribly sadistic degree of pain and affliction in the course of his molestation. Something that make this case all the more traumatic, abhorrent and difficult to comprehend.

Other people see this case as a classic example of alien abduction. The victim — according to the ones who subscribe to this theory — was abducted by aliens, subjected to all types of degrading and excruciating experiments, and then discarded when the otherworldly creatures finally concluded their research on the body. Literally, there is no shortage of theories regarding this case. Unfortunately, this is another exceedingly complex mystery with no easy answer. The truth probably will never be known. 

Gaurav Tiwari was an Indian celebrity, who was widely interested in the paranormal. He became notorious in his country, as the host of several television shows, where he was featured uncovering several mysterious supernatural events, which included everything, from haunted residences to ghost appearances, UFO's and unexplained phenomena. As a person that cultivated a wide variety of interests, Gaurav Tiwari was an extremely versatile and skilled individual, being also a professional actor and a pilot.

Several months before he died, Tiwari's behavior changed drastically; he became more isolated, recluse and apathetic. People close to him has speculated that he was probably being haunted by a malevolent spirit. In 7 July, 2016, he died abruptly in the bathroom of his home from asphyxiation, while he was in the shower. He also had a strange dark line around his neck. 

After the police had done an official inquiry about his death, foul play was discarded upon investigation. His relatives have testified that — at a certain given time — they have heard a loud noise coming from inside the bathroom. Then they forced their way into the bathroom, just to see Gaurav Tiwari collapsed on the floor. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital; unfortunately, he wasn't able to survive the trauma. 

Several details concerning his death are exceedingly mysterious and filled with discrepancies. His untimely death — and the odd behavior Gaurav Tiwari had displayed in the months prior to his demise — made paranormal enthusiasts believe the possibility that he was killed by a mysterious ghostly entity. Given the fact that he was a paranormal investigator, this theory is widely accepted as reasonable by the community. Gaurav Tiwari, in one of his supernatural investigations, may have encountered an aggressively nefarious demon, that took joy in tormenting him. New Delhi police, however, has considered suicide or possibly a family altercation as the most probable causes for the fatality.  

When he died, Gaurav Tiwari was at the height of his popularity. He was only 31 years old. 

This video is a deep, sinister insight into the mysterious circumstances regarding the disappearance of Carl Robert Disch — an explorer stationed in Antarctica —, who was last seen alive by the early hours of 8th May, 1965. 

The most mysterious element on this case is a single set of footprints left in the snow, that head towards nowhere. Carl Disch apparently left his cabin, and walked in a straight line for many miles; then he was never seen again. After reuniting searching parties to look after Disch, everyone involved in the rescue mission became frustrated and worried, when their efforts proved to be fruitless. The lack of plausible results made everybody in the joint task force desperate and apprehensive, wondering what could have happened to him. 

Regardless of what may have occurred to him, Carl Robert Disch was never seen again. While the most probable hypothesis is that he may have died from exposure and hypothermia, his body was never found. This can be somewhat explained by the fact that his body went possibly unseen while under a layer of snow, being covered soon after he collapsed; or maybe something far more sinister may have occurred to him. The truth, however, will probably never be known, and we will never discover precisely what actually befell to Carl Robert Disch.

This video is about the mysterious occurrences of witches flying over the sky of some Mexican cities. In recent years, there has been a number of unexplained sights, whose testimonies allegedly states categorically that bizarre sinister creatures have been flying around and terrorizing certain Latin American communities. Some of these mysterious encounters have been recorded on camera, though not with enough technical resolution to precisely determine with certainty what has been frightening people living in the areas disturbed by this events. 

Nonetheless, this have been a very interesting phenomenon, whose complexities make it improbable — at least in the vast majority of the cases — that all of these occurrences could be an elaborate hoax.

I hope you find all the cases I have selected interesting. If you really like what you see, don't forget to subscribe to the channel. There is a lot more where this came from. I'm sure you will be delighted with the formidable work the Bedtime Stories team does. 

The cases exposed — some of them featuring the most bizarre and implausible mysteries of our time — will certainly leave you immensely astounded; and in certain occasions, with a dreadful feeling of restlessness for being alone in your bedroom at night, in the darkness. Or even having trouble to sleep. Nevertheless, I assure you its worthwhile watching it, you will have a great time appreciating this mixture of high art and sinister content. 


​Wagner

Its almost impossible — at least for me — not to love deeply relaxing and abstract space ambient compilations. They are generally so smooth, so expansive, so serene, so cohesive, so creative, that its very easy to enjoy and to appreciate them. The graceful intonations, the discreetly, but imponderable colorful vitality, the proverbial acquiescence of the harmonies, all these elegant features are easily captivating. Of course, you really have to love deeply this genre of music; otherwise, you will be astoundingly bored. 

I really can expend a lot of time on the web searching for marvelous compilations to listen. And fortunately, there are an extraordinary abundance of them. If you are not familiar with this kind of music, I ask you to listen at least one of the compilations selected below; after all, it's not that bad to experience something new. 

Evidently, there is not too much rhythmic variations on this type of music — as you may notice —, but the general purpose of the genre is to create an environment of relaxing and serene sonorous cosmogony, where you can just forget entirely everything concerning existential matters; just be yourself, and rest with profound vigor. Something that we do not practice frequently, on this turbulent times we're living in, since we are always, always very busy with great amounts of work, appointments and general daily obligations. So, this is where this formidable, amazing and fantastic genre of music fits into our lives. Its the perfect gateway for moments of salutary grace, to ensure sanity stays exactly where it should be.

But, setting aside this brief introduction, we should go directly to the first compilation. After all, this is really not the type of music that needs rationalization, an analysis, or a serious "explanation". On the contrary. You just need to relax, to be yourself, and to let the music penetrate deeply into your whole immaculate sensitivity. If you do this at night, listening to the sound in a quiet, serene environment, preferably in a dark room — not in a loud volume —, you will definitely understand what space ambient music is all about. This is the magic that I'm trying to truthfully convey here. 

Of all the compilations I've selected here, probably this one is my favorite. Already on the first song, you are contemplated by fantastic and marvelous harmonies, that will definitely transport you to another world; one a lot more serene, calm. peaceful and generous than the one we're living in. It's easy to wish this magnificent song never ends. With a solitary, but comfortable vividness, its fascinating musical graciousness will certainly leave you astounded. The sensible and gentle atmosphere of the sound is almost a firm invitation to enjoy happily a satisfactory moment of contentment, like very few musical genres are able to properly propitiate to its listeners. I'm sure you will love this formidable compilation, as much as I do!

This marvelous compilation depart from the general serenity that revolves around the most elementary axis of this type of music, whose core element consists of exceedingly smooth and overtly diluted melodies, since "space ambient" is not effectivelly a musical genre, but rather an umbrella term, that includes generally calm and easygoing synthesizer driven music.  

While this is probably the most concise of the compilations selected, its beauty and uneasiness are also overtly peculiar, since its melodies are a little more vibrant and vivacious than the previous selections, while cohesively preserving all the sonorous features relevant to the genre; nevertheless, the songs present on this setlist are amazingly graceful, and all the increasingly tender and delightful harmonies —while delivering a delicate degree of sensibility that can be vastly appreciated with remarkable joy —, conceives a sagacious parallel universe full of dense and splendorous intensity, that departs from the most impenetrable understanding of the human nature. 

This graceful — and somewhat hyperbolic — compilation displays a calmer, but consistent sonorous expansion, that seems to discreetly come from within the serenity of its own dispersive calmness. Its salutary, though expressively dark tenderness dilates the overwhelmingly diffusive tranquility that gradually departs from its dense and horizontal musical eagerness. Like a galaxy whose overall contingencies overflow beyond the mordacious restlessness of an infinite and deleterious agony, this marvelous and imponderable symphony of existential vitality overexposes the placid grace of the human despair, with a terribly realistic and grievous detrimental insolence. Only if you're not human you can definitely survive to fully appreciate this level of existential magnificence. 

Despite the fact, that space ambient is an exceedingly abstract musical genre, its dense, horizontal and profound anatomy propitiates to audiences a formidable level of introspection, that almost works as a therapy session. Though you may find the sound to be simple — and to a certain extent, it is — the graceful tenderness that comes from the melodies definitely redirects a peaceful and relaxing part of the universe to our sensibilities, with the aim to heal the anxieties of the heart. 

While the consistent musicality that comes from all this formidable compilations has the potential to reverberate within ourselves, its easy to assimilate the graceful and imponderable virtues of serenity. While you can rest for a moment — a moment that can last centuries within the proverbially transient dimension of time and space, as your senses become more volatile and susceptible to a lethargic degree of dispersive rapture — its ephemeral vitality remains within you, in your consciousness, in the restless abscesses of divinity, delivering discreetly into the renitent peripheries of your thoughts the exponential eagerness that longs for an everlasting existential placidity, that may not exist in the daily turbulent and disdainful palace of human exasperation. 

I hope you have appreciated this marvelous sonorous journey, and my suggestions. If you didn't knew this genre of music, I hope you have liked as much as I do. Feel free to write your personal opinion about it. Until our next appointment, keep on listening this wonderful compilations, and feel free to discover new ones for yourself on the web! 


Wagner

Introduction, selection and commentaries by Wagner Hertzog

For most human beings, its simply impossible not to love music. It is in our nature to become completely delighted listening the sound of extremely pleasant music and to surrender ourselves entirely to it, in serene, though somewhat rapturous abandonment. And the musical variety that exists certainly helps, since we can explore a lot of different genres, as it is amazingly fabulous to discover something we didn't knew. I think there's nothing more rewarding than listening to a beautiful song, and be really sensitive and receptive to what the melodies are communicating. 

If you feel the same way, let me invite you to listen to some marvelous songs with me. I sincerely hope we can have a very pleasant time together, while we appreciate the incredible and magnificent grandiosity of the spectacular tunes selected below. To listen to wonderful music – and really be grateful about it –, produces an incredibly distinct sense of astonishment, that compliments the rapture infused by the music. So everything that the sound propitiates is eventually assimilated by a turmoil of dilated emotions, that makes the imaginary world of reason fall apart as the grandiosity of the sound prevails. 

Well, let me go now straight to the point! There are a lot of old songs, especially from the eighties and nineties – although here I've decided to include also others released more recently –, that are simply too marvelously captivating, fascinating and beautiful, to be neglected and forgotten. So let's remember some of them, to appreciate these songs at the fullest, and enjoy a nostalgia moment, that definitely deserves to be conceived, to give this excellent songs the level of exposure they certainly deserve. 

All of these artists and bands – with a few exceptions – remains mostly unknown to the general public, though some of them acquired variable degres of fame, at least for a brief period of time. Some have been totally forgotten, if at any given time they were known, while others have started their careers only a few years ago. Nevertheless, the most important fact I wish to emphasize is that all of the songs selected below are exceedingly special to me, in a very personal level, though they mostly belong to different periods of my life; some I have discovered in my childhood, some in my adolescence, others in my early adulthood.  Most of the songs present on this list, though, I have discovered while working the night shift in the warehouse department of a large corporation, several years ago, that used to play in a local radio station, and I used to hear it in my working schedule, the night shift. Regardless of the sentiments involved, these are all wonderfully magnificent songs, and I sincerely hope that, if you do not know any of them, you somehow enjoy and appreciate them as much as I do. 

The first song, In The Heat Of The Night, by German singer Sandra Lauer – known mononymously as Sandra – was originally released in 1985 as a single from her debut album, The Long Play. While she never had too much success outside her native country, she has enjoyed a prosperous career. She had released ten albums so far, and remains active to this day. For almost twenty years, she was married to notorious musician Michael Cretu, the famous songwriter and record producer who is the mastermind behind the original and innovative new age/ electronica / experimental musical project Enigma, who has released eight albums since 1990, and has sold millions of records worldwide. 

This song by Gary B. – Love Rain Down –, is one of the most marvelous songs I probably have ever heard. I simply love this song, it has such strength, personality and vigor. With a formidably impactful, melancholic and nostalgic atmosphere, this gracefully conceived song is perfect for rainy, exasperating, grayish days of futile labour, apathy and sadness; let's be real, can a song be more perfect and exceedingly beautiful than this one? If I properly remember, the first time I've heard this amazingly delightful tune I was at work, probably more than a decade ago, in a period of my life where I used to do the night shifts in the department of a large company, and a local radio station used to play mostly this type of music, which helped me to create a taste for the genre, though I already had a fascination and a general inclination to love smooth, poetic, depressive, adult contemporary easy listening music, given the fact that, when I was a teenager, in the late nineties, I regularly visited my father in the distant neighborhood where he lived with his mother, my grandmother, in the outskirts of the city. His work office was located in that same area, and he used to listen to a radio that used to play similar genres of music, mostly seventies and eighties nostalgia hits. This radio station in particular I don't known if its still exists, but several compilations of their sets are available on YouTube, and I may write an article about that in the future. 

Still Here, by Aural Float, is another song that I love very much! This absolutely wonderful work of art – like the song featured above – also displays a fatalist atmosphere of melancholy, sorrow and absolute consternation, though expressively more downplayed, while delivering wonderfully poetic melodies, that increasingly improves the peripheral sensitivities of the listener. While the song's style is somewhat reminiscent of Madonna, Aural Float demonstrates a sonorous cohesiveness, overflowing with simplicity, that somehow underestimates their captivating creativity. This song I also have discovered while listening the radio at work, exactly like the following three songs. 

Good Life, by Inner City, was released as a single in 1988, and it was their only major hit, although in the late eighties and early nineties they scored other successful singles in the music charts. During their most notorious period, the group was a duo consisting of record producer Kevin Saunderson and singer Paris Grey. They are no longer together, though Saunderson occasionally performs under the moniker Inner City. This song is very beautiful; its melodic vibe, catchy groove and flavored soul texture was a mixture that functioned as the creative apex of this ephemeral, but brilliant musical act.  

I have never been a great fan of Daft Punk, though I really like some of their songs, and their animated music videos – featuring the Japanese style of anime – are undoubtedly astounding and characteristic of their then proverbial (but long gone) anonymity. Despite the fact that this song is simple, and resigns itself to the basic elements of electronic dance music, the style of the duo is ostensibly prominent, and the rude eccentricity of its somewhat profoundly circular harmonies is an integral component of its beauty.

This marvelous song, Saw Something, by Dave Gahan – better known as the lead singer of Depeche Mode –, I also listened for the first time in the radio, although back then I was already acquainted with Depeche Mode, being a severely huge fan of the band, having several of their albums, compilations, live releases and singles (Depeche Mode is probably the band I have the most CD's, as well as some DVD's). I already had Paper Monsters, the first Dave Gahan solo album, released in 2003. Saw Something is a single taken from Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, released in 2007. It is a formidable, spectacular, exceedingly fantastic and overtly poetical song, despite its melancholic atmosphere, that adds beauty to it.  

City Lights is the only known release by American singer William Pitt, of which practically nothing is known. This song was a modest hit in Europe – when released in 1986 –, and the little notoriety the singer achieved was totally dependent on this track. Nevertheless, its a beatifully fascinating song, that it's literally impossible to listen just one time. 

Johnny Hates Jazz is a British pop band, and Shattered Dreams, released in 1986, was their only major hit, though their scored a lot of other singles in the music charts. They have released two albums, Turn Back the Clock, in 1988, and Tall Stories, in 1991, before disbanding the following year. In 2009, the original members reunited again, though one of them left the band before they released one more album, Magnetized, in 2013; since then, Johnny Hates Jazz has since been performing as a duo. This song, Shattered Dreams – despite its simplicity –, is marvelously catchy, sentimental and elegant. Certainly, displays, incorporates and reverberates all the flavor of eighties' pop music. 

Unfortunately, Laura Branigan has died in 2004, but her music is still widely appreciated, and remains captivating new audiences worldwide. Released in 1984, Self Control is a cover song, originally performed by Italian singer Raffaele Riefoli, better known as Raf; it was written by Raf himself, in partnership with Steve Piccolo and Giancarlo Bigazzi. This single was extracted from Branigan's third album, which was also titled Self Control. With simple, but beautifully arranged harmonies, the song is marvelously enticing, and its vibrating club atmosphere certainly catches up with its sensible melodic features.  

Sincerely, I could listent to this marvelous song all day long, without a problem. Originally written and performed by Everlast, this version sung by Swedish singer Jay Smith is simply too marvelous to be true. With a flavored country vibe, though displaying a savage, dry and unadorned rhythmic simplicity – with all the desert grains of sand that arid melodies can endure  –, this fabulous version pleased audiences so much that easily people proclaim its superiority over the original version.  

This ambient mix version of I Count On You, by Endanger, is an exceedingly graceful – almost religious – anthem of spiritual resistance and deliverance, that displays a very redeemer and comforting appeal. With a salutary atmosphere of love and resilience, this serene song of faith and hope is a formidable work of creative sensibility, that definitely deserves to be widely appreciated, especially for its capacity to radiate lights of splendor and divinity, wherever it plays.  

Another marvelous song that I discovered while listening radio at work, Flood is one of the major hits of American Christian rock band Jars of Clay, from Nashville, Tennessee. Released in 1995, it was their first single, taken from their self-titled debut album. A fantastic, vigorous and amazingly energetic song, Flood displays direct, but rapturous melodies, that punctuates the anatomy and the framework of the sound's strength.  

Embrace is a wonderful song released by Australian electropop act PNAU, in 2008, as a single taken from their eponymous album. With a simple, but effusive charm, the song displays a sensible vigor and a latent density, that easily overwhelms its gracious and flexible musical appeal. 

With graceful, serene and wonderfully soft harmonies, To The Moon And Beyond, by Galimatias, is a formidable alternative electronic music track, whose simple, but amazingly defined harmonies definitely revolve around its own fluid, melancholic and sober atmosphere. Displaying a flexible, though moderately restrained rhythmic expansion axis, the diluted sonority of its intuitive density flirts with an imperative tenderness, that discreetly surpasses its own volatile subtleties, while mordaciously anticipates the overall sentiments of its lethargic, but beautiful musical layout.  

This is one of the most beautiful songs ever created. Drowning, by The Eden Project – alias of Irish singer Jonathon Ng, that now operates under the moniker EDEN – is a marvelous masterpiece, that I could be listening twenty-four hours a day, without stopping; the lyrics are also amazingly beautiful and sensible. With a dense, poetic and melancholic atmosphere, Drowning is a desperate quest for a life of happiness, meaning and consistence, an anthem that claims for a more plausible and fruitful existence, full of spiritual serenity. Definitely, this is one of the most fantastic songs ever written, and Jonathon Ng certainly deserves more exposure, given his enormous talent as a singer and songwriter. 

Laura Branigan was an American singer, that achieved worldwide fame in the eighties. Perhaps she is most remebered today for the single Self Control — a cover version of Italian singer Raffaele Riefoli, better known as Raf —, that was a nº 1 hit in countries like Sweden, Austria and Canada, became a Top 10 UK Singles Chart, and achieved high scores in the first places of several American music charts as well, entering the hit charts of many other countries around the globe. Nevertheless, Laura Branigan was way more than just a marvelous performer; she was a gracefully talented singer with a powerful and singular vocal range, really passionate about music and severely devoted to her fans. And despite all of this, she was very detached from fame, money and notoriety, and all the things that usually come together with success. 

Branigan was born Laura Ann Branigan, in July 3, 1952 in Brewster, in the state of New York, and very early she never hesitated to display her musical inclinations. From the onset of her life, she was determined to pursue a musical career. In the early seventies, Branigan joined with some musicians she had met, to form a band called Meadow, which would be a frustrating experience. They worked on a record, and eventually released an album called The Friend Ship, from which two singles emerged. Despite being in her early twenties, Branigan already could be properly qualified as a discreet, but effervescent talent. Nevertheless, the band doesn't achieved any degree of success, and almost immediately the group disbanded. Soon afterwards, one of the main songwriters — guitarist Walker Daniels — killed himself. After she became famous, Branigan refused to discuss her involvement with Meadow, or to debate any topic related to this period of her career.  

When the band was over, Branigan worked in all types of jobs to support herself. Eventually, though, she managed to find occupations within the music business, and was hired to work for a period of months as a backup singer for Leonard Cohen, in his 1976 European tour. 

Unfortunately, the seventies came, but for the most part of the decade, a career as a singer never materialized, doesn't matter how hard she tried. Soon, Branigan would be entering her thirties, and was still fighting for a place on the spotlight, trying severely to break into the music business, but she was apparently going nowhere. Her fortunes changed, though, when she met by chance in 1979 renowned talent manager and music promoter Sidney Bernstein. Therefore, she managed to get a contract deal to Atlantic Records. 

Unfortunately, things would remain complicated for some years. Branigan first recorded an album — titled Silver Dreams — that would never be released, though the record produced three singles and a B-side, that resulted in moderate commercial success. These four songs would be commercially released only more than three decades later, as bonus tracks on an American reissue of the singer's first album. Unable to market her properly, the record company didn't knew how to make Branigan a commercial standout, so she remained frozen for a few more years, until she was finally given another opportunity. In 1982, her first full length album, simply titled Branigan, was finally released. In a few months, she would be turning thirty years old. At this point, she felt she was finally going somewhere in her life. 

Branigan proved to be a moderate success, and produced two singles, All Night with Me and Gloria — a cover version of Italian singer Umberto Tozzi — that, besides being remembered today with nostalgia, became one of the most recognizable of Laura Branigan's career. 

In the wake of her newfound fame, the record company decided to keep investing in the singer's career. Branigan 2 was released in March 1983, precisely one year after her debut album. The strenght of the album was an English-language version of a French song, called Solitaire, originally written by Martine Clémenceau. The lyrics for the English version were provided by Diane Warren, who at the time was working as an employee of the Branigan team. Below, you can see the video for Solitaire, and feel the sentimental and sensible beauty of the music, although it may be necessary to ignore its atmosphere, saturated with excessively melodramatic and romantic tenderness, qualities that were a typical commonplace in the music business for that time period. 

Another single from the album was the ballad How Am I Supposed to Live Without You, a song written by Michael Bolton and Doug James. A music video was not provided to back the hit. Despite the lack of a music video, several performances by Branigan were recorded while performing this song, though its not always possible to know if she was indeed singing, or just lip-synching, since she frequently appeared in staged television productions, though the one selected below clearly features a live performance. 

How Am I Supposed to Live Without You proved to be so popular with audiences, that eventually — after some years —, Michael Bolton himself decided to record his own version of the song. The single became a worldwide hit, achieving the number one spot in the Billboard list of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1990. 

In the following year, 1984, the singer released her most successful album, Self Control, that definitely consolidated her worldwide reputation in the mainstream pop scene. The song Self Control — that gives the album its title —, a cover version of a song by Italian singer Raffaele Riefoli, was an international hit, topping the charts in several countries. The album sold more than a million copies in the United States alone. Besides Self Control, three more singles were taken from the album: The Lucky One, Satisfaction and Ti Amo. This last one was a song composed and written by another Italian pop singer, Umberto Tozzi, of whom Branigan had already recorded Gloria. 

Below, you can see the original music video for Self Control, made to promote the single. 

In the following year, 1985, Branigan released Hold Me, another album that was destined to be a success — though not matched by its predecessor —, and provided four singles: Spanish Eddie, Maybe Tonight, Hold Me and I Found Someone. This album also displays a version of Forever Young, the famous hit by then emerging German synthpop group Alphaville. Below, you can see a live version of this marvelous song, in the unforgettable and gracious voice of Laura Branigan.

After Hold me, Branigan stopped recording and releasing one album a year. Despite her unimaginable degree of success, the singer would release only three more records: Touch, in 1987, Laura Branigan, in 1990 and Over My Heart, in 1993, after which she would retire. 

Touch was only moderately received, and doesn't achieved the same level of success of its predecessors. Featuring a great amount of technical personnel and studio musicians, on this album, Branigan — being way more proactive —, also took the role of producer, having acquired a respectable degree of creative independence, being free to modulate tracks according to her personal musical sensibilities. The album produced three singles: Shattered Glass, Cry Wolf and Power of Love.

In 1990, the singer released her sixth studio album, whose title simply carried her name, Laura Branigan. The reception to this work was warm at best; it was barely perceived in general by the mainstream. The album generated only two singles. Nevertheless, despite the moderate repercussion, the singles — Moonlight on Water and Never in a Million Years — definitely placed her on a high spot in the dance scene, and she managed to score the club and disco charts. Only one music video was provided to promote the album. The team of professional musicians that worked on the record was even larger than the predecessor. Renowned individuals were listed in the credits. Jeff Porcaro, of Toto fame, worked as a session musician, having recorded drums for the track nº 5, Let Me In. 

In 1993, Laura Branigan released her final studio album, Over My Heart. She also worked behind the scenes as a producer. The album generated three singles — Didn't We Almost Win It All, It's Been Hard Enough Getting Over You and How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye — and, to a certain extent, was a moderately simple swan song, that did not fulfilled major expectations. AllMusic gave only two stars out of five, to the release. 

After the release of Over My Heart, Branigan's husband Larry Kruteck —with whom she was married for fifteen years, since 1978 — was diagnosed with cancer. So the singer decided to retire, to fully dedicate herself to care for her husband, and to help him undergo the medical treatment. Unfortunately, in June 1996, Kruteck passed away. 

From this point onwards, several greatest hits compilations of Branigan's work were released, in many countries around the globe. After her husband had died, the singer gradually came out of retirement. She never recorded an album again, but occasionally, Branigan performed for audiences in one-off concerts and sang on television shows. In early 2001, she had an accident, in which she broke both her legs, after she fell while trying to hang a plant in the ceiling outside her house. She had to undergo physiotherapy for months to recover, something that made impossible for her to properly become again fully active in the music scene.  

Branigan was also an amateur actress. She has participated in two movies in the eighties, and has done some television work, though she was mostly featured as herself. In 2002, she accepted the role of Janis Joplin in a Off-Broadway musical, titled Love, Janis. Branigan left the show after two performances, though, saying that the decision behind her dropping the project was mainly due to the producers refusing to comply with the requirements demanded by Equity, the theater actors labor union. 

Branigan, despite the fact that she was not reclusive, wasn't a very public person either. She lived quietly and discreetly for the rest of her life, before dying of a brain aneurysm, in August, 2004, at the relatively young age of fifty-two years old.  

Immediately after her death, fans attended a memorial in Long Island near one of her former residences, to celebrate her life and achievements. Eventually, the commemoration converted into an annual gathering, becoming a ritual held in her death anniversary, always in the same place. The event has grown over the years, as it was gradually promoted by the company that manages her legacy. The enterprise actively promotes through several online spaces — primarily through an official website and social media pages — the singer's artistic legacy, with the complement of several partnerships made with record companies and other private institutions, designed to keep the singer's artistic contributions alive and updated, and attractive to new audiences. 


​
As a consequence of all this work, Laura Branigan's legacy will be far from being forgotten. More recently, St. Louis ice hockey team St. Louis Blues began using Branigan's version of Gloria as an unofficial anthem. A team that until not long ago held some of the worst records in the hockey league, they have been gradually improving, and eventually, they successfully became a favorite in the tournament's most recent season. The company team that manages Laura Branigan's legacy has deeply appreciated the initiative, and has since been publishing on their various online media outlets — like the singer's official website and Twitter page — enthusiastic support for the St. Louis Blues. 

Laura Branigan was undoubtedly a fabulous singer, that made the world a more colorful, vibrant and vivacious place, with her profoundly graceful, astonishing and remarkable voice. A delicate spirit — whose strength relied on her innocent and splendid sensibility —, her majestic  talent and her sincere devotion to the essence of life certainly lives in her music, that will be played, sung and remembered for generations to come. 


​Wagner

James Spader is an American actor — active since 1978 —, that initially found fame in Hollywood portraying charismatic, maladjusted and mysterious young characters, in movies mostly directed to teen audiences, like 1985 Tuff Turf and 1986 Pretty in Pink. Both movies gave him notoriety, and helped Spader in his road to consolidate a cohesive career as a professional actor.

A succession of moderately successful, accessible and friendly movies in the eighties established him as a talent on the rise, until 1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape — a movie where he plays the main antagonist, a sexually deviant and obsessed psychopath — definitely increased his profile, casting Spader to stardom, and earning him a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. From then on, James Spader's career flourished, and he eventually became a household name. Since his first movie, 1978 Team-Mates, he has made more than forty films, so far. 

One of the most remarkable movies of his career was certainly 2000 The Watcher, where Spader plays the main role, opposite Keanu Reeves. The plot revolves around FBI agent Joel Campbell, played by Spader, who is constantly tormented and disturbed by mysterious and somber serial killer David Allen Griffin, portrayed by Reeves. Marisa Tomei was also part of the cast, playing a character named Polly Beilman. One of the most sinister movies in James Spader's filmography, The Watcher follows a tense, reluctant and anxious law enforcement agent, that probably has to endure the most terrible ordeal of his life, having to decipher the clues left by the sadistic and cruel serial murderer, deliberately handed over to Campbell to see if he can — within a matter of hours —, find out where the killer's next victim is; so Campbell is always in a rush againt the clock, in an effort to rescue the person being held captive, and prevent the hostage from being murdered by Griffin.

A dense, dynamic and intelligent thriller, The Watcher definitely leaves the audience exceedingly interested in the events as the plot unfolds, and in great expectation as to what will happen to both the protagonist, the afflicted and desperate Campbell, and the antagonist, the brutal and insensible Griffin. It's a movie that will severely hold your attention for the entirety of its dark and lugubrious ninety-eight minutes, keeping your eyes directly fixed onto the screen.

Despite the success in the film industry, in the beginning of the 21st century, Spader became an iconic television presence, in the wake of his portrayal of the remarkable Alan Shore, in the shows The Practice and Boston Legal. More recently, Spader has been playing criminal underground informant Raymond Reddington, in The Blacklist, a character that consolidated his reputation and his presence as a reference and a familiar face to television audiences. With an amoral, somewhat rude, and a very pragmatic attitude, Alan Shore captivated audiences with his frivolous, sometimes despondent and indifferent, but always combative personality, that fought challenges and difficulties with a restless, but rational temper, eventually becoming a beloved and deeply estimated character in primetime television. 

While Spader appeared in The Practice only in the show's final season — being the series basically led by a character named Bobby Donnell, played by Dylan McDermott —, in Boston Legal, almost everything revolved around his character Alan Shore, which was from the beginning a cornerstone and a fundamental element of this successful legal drama. For his portrayal of Alan Shore in The Practice and Boston Legal, Spader won several Emmy Awards, in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. In 2006, he won a Satellite Award. Boston Legal also infused William Shatner's career with more prominence and vitality. 

For six years now — since 2013 —, Spader has been playing Raymond Reddington, in The Blacklist. In the series, his character is a deranged and immoral criminal, that turns himself over to the FBI, willing to make an exchange. He will reveal to the agents information about several prominent and conspicuous criminals, if they grant him legal immunity. So they make a deal, and Reddington partners with young FBI rookie Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone), to start the monitoring of the illicit activities of all the offenders about whom Reddington keeps a secret. The show is currently on its sixth season, with the seventh set to premiere in October, and it has been a popular hit, with audiences and critics alike praising its intricate plot and cohesiveness, as well as James Spader's performance. 

James Spader is a veteran actor, that now — at fifty-nine years old — is on the crest of the wave. Having earned recognition in the film and television industries, and most importantly, a place in the hearts of audiences, the actor, in every work, always reveals new professional capabilities, and a new side of his personality, that the fans didn't knew. Always willing to accept a challenge, to showcase how far his acting abilities can go, James Spader will continue to be an actor on the rise. And luckily, we will keep seeing him, for many more years to come. 


Wagner

John Shea is an American actor of movies, television and theater, that for almost forty-five years, has been exceedingly dedicated to the dramatic arts. Active since 1975, Shea began his career on Broadway, in an adaptation made by stage director Robert Kalfin of a play titled Yentl, written by iconic Polish-American man of letters Isaac Bashevis Singer. Shea was then nominated for a Theatre World Award, and eventually won the prize. This was a glorious sign that a promising career in the dramatic arts was just beginning. 

The play then converted to an Off-Broadway spectacle, but the success continued. After seeing him performing in the play, famous Polish-American theatre practitioner and acting courses pioneer Lee Strasberg invited the actor to study method acting, in the now renowned Actors Studio. Shea gladly accepted the offer, and welcomed the opportunity to hone and refine his acting skills. 

Soon afterwards, in the end of the seventies, Shea made his television debut. He was offered the role of Joseph, in a made-for-television adaptation of the birth of Jesus — based in the Gospels as well as in the apocrypha —, titled The Nativity, opposite Madeleine Stowe, who played Mary. The movie was released in 1978. In 1980, he made his debut in the movie industry, with a starring role in the British production Hussy, directed by Matthew Chapman, opposite Helen Mirren. 

In 1981, he had a role in another made-for-television production, Family Reunion, which was starred by iconic and legendary American actress Bette Davis. In the following year, Shea played a character named Charles Horman, in the controversial and disruptive Missing — a movie about the military dictatorship in Chile —, directed by legendary Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras. 

From then on, the actor was on the rise. John Shea managed to consolidate a solid reputation as a serious, versatile and highly skilled actor, and remained in constant demand in movies, television and theater productions to this day, never being short of offers and invitations. In 1987, the actor was cast in an ABC miniseries, where he portrayed a character named William Stern. His performance was so critically celebrated that he eventually won his first Emmy Award in the Supporting Drama Actor category. 

In 1993, Shea was cast as malevolent and eccentric millionaire Lex Luthor — on what came out to be one of his most memorable television roles — in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Though he was moderately credible and sinister as a villain, Shea left the show after only one season, returning occasionally for the remainder of the series as a guest star, despite the fact that he managed to left a personal signature and a lasting impression in his interpretation of the famous DC Comics character. 



​
In television, Shea would continually land exceedingly remarkable and exceptional roles. He became a face recognizable to audiences of police procedural dramas when he was cast in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and from five seasons, from 2007 to 2012, the actor was introduced to younger audiences, in the wake of his portrayal of Harold Waldorf, the father of Blair Waldorf — one of the show's main characters, marvelously played by famous actress Leighton Meester —, in The CW hit teen-oriented drama series Gossip Girl. In 2009, he also appeared in The Good Wife, a television show that ran for seven seasons on CBS, starred by Julianna Margulies. 

In this same year, Shea had a prominent role in the Indian movie Achchamundu! Achchamundu!, portraying a character named Theodore Robertson. Besides breaking boundaries being the first American actor to work in a Tamil-language film, he also took the role of associate producer. Directed by emergent  Indian-American filmmaker Arun Vaidyanathan, the movie won several awards upon its release, and was shown on several film festivals around the world. It was also the first Indian movie to be shot with the Red One camera technology.  

Since then, John Shea has never stopped, though sometimes he takes some personal time to be with his family. Engaged in artistic events within the community, the actor also spends time working to develop independent efforts locally, a task that he has been doing with great responsability and diligence as artistic director of the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket. Nevertheless, John Shea — despite being seventy years old — works hard to reconcile his passions, and to continually expand his legacy in the performing arts. 

A familiar face to audiences for decades in movies, television and theatre, John Shea has managed to conquer his place of honor in the business. Certainly someone that we will keep seeing frequently until he decides to retire — if he will ever do that —, John Shea is the perfect example of a discreet, but highly talented individual, that undoubtedly deserves everything he has achieved. 


Wagner

Carl Dreyer — whose birth name was Carl Theodor Dreyer, but later became better known as Carl Th. Dreyer — was one of the most important Danish filmmakers, and the first in his country to acquire in the history of cinema a place of honor. Born in Copenhagen in February 3, 1889, to an adulterous relationship, his father Jens Christian Torp, a married farmer who had an affair with one of his female employees, a Swedish woman named Josefine Bernhardine Nilsson, didn't want to assume the responsibility to raise him, so very soon he was given for adoption. The young boy, after two years going from one orphanage to another, was adopted by a couple; a man named Carl Theodor Dreyer and his wife, Inger. Eventually, they gave him precisely the same name of his surrogate father. In the distinctive Danish culture, though, no "Junior" or "Senior" is applied as a name complement.  

There is scarcely very little information about Dreyer's childhood and adolescence. When he became an adult person, Dreyer started his professional activities working as a journalist. After opportunities appeared in the film industry, he accepted a position as a writer of title cards, and soon he begun working as a scriptwriter. When his energetic passion for movie making became uncontrollable, he decided to write his own screenplays, and began to look for someone who would finance his projects. 

Since it was difficult to find financial support in his own home country, Dreyer frequently had to go to other European nations. In France, he became acquainted with famous directors, like Jean Cocteau, and established artistic connections who would somehow facilitate his journey as a filmmaker. In 1919, he directed his first movie, Præsidenten.

Highly influenced by the expressionism of the twenties, Dreyer managed to work on this period in a succession of movies that were, more or less, well received. Despite some difficulties, the twenties were his most prolific decade. He made eight movies — almost one per year — of which La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, made in France, proved to be the most successful. 

His next movie, Vampyr, was released in 1932. This movie — a loose adaptation of literary works by famous nineteenth century Irish gothic writer Sheridan Le Fanu — was partly financed by the dilettante actor Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, that starred in the film as the main character, Allan Gray, though he was listed in the credits as Julian West. The screenplay was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul. 

The plot of the movie revolves around Allan Gray — a student of the occult —, that moves to a modest pension in the French countryside. Suddenly, mysterious and unexplained things begin to happen, and he has to discover why so many dreadful things has been occurring at the inn. He eventually finds out that a vampire has been haunting the region, and discreetly tormenting the village inhabitants. So he has to find courage to fight back the source of evil, and to defeat the curse that has been bestowed upon the people. 

With an intriguing premise, a somber, but incisive storyline and a very lugubrious stylistic sensibility, Vampyr certainly was one the best movies directed by Dreyer, and certainly was a landmark of European cinema at the time. Despite its conciseness — the movie is only seventy-three minutes long — its lucid, but dark tonalities, as well as its pungent quality, gave the film a realistic and sober tenacity, that becomes insidious as the story reaches a climax. The movie proved to be technically difficult to make, though. Since it was Dreyer's first sound film, he had to shoot in three different languages. To surpass this difficulty, the director used little dialogue, and basically kept the silent movie method of title cards to communicate to audiences the narrative, as the plot unfolds.

Gunzburg was not a professional actor, and Vampyr was the only movie in which he worked in his life. It is speculated that Dreyer accepted him for the role mainly because he was financing the film, though most of the cast was also made of amateur actors. Later, Gunzburg emigrated to the United States, and found fame as editor of several prominent magazines.  

Vampyr was Dreyer's only movie made in the thirties. In the forties, he experimented for the first time with short films, eventually becoming fond of the format, and directing six of them. He also directed two features, 1943 Vredens Dag, and 1945 Två människor. Vredens Dag was a sixteenth century period drama, that became a very celebrated movie in some countries, after it was released. With a script written by Dreyer, Mogens Skot-Hansen and Poul Knudsen, the movie was based on a play called Anne Pedersdotter — authored by Norwegian playwright Hans Wiers-Jenssen —, which, by its turn, was based on a real life event, about an eponymous woman that was burned at the stake in 1590, in Bergen, because she was accused of witchcraft. After the movie was made, Dreyer left Denmark, and went to Sweden, as his country was being occupied by the nazis.

In the fifties, Dreyer directed two short movies, and one feature film, titled Ordet. Released in 1955, the movie was written and produced by Dreyer, who based his script on a play written by Danish Lutheran minister and playwright Kaj Harald Munk. The movie shows the hardships and difficult ordeals of the Borgen family in the Danish countryside. Ordet is considered by many to be Dreyer's masterpiece. The movie won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. 
His next movie, Gertrud — which would be his last — was the only one he made in the sixties. Released in 1964, this drama, based on an eponymous play authored by Swedish writer Hjalmar Fredrik Söderberg, is about an unhappy opera star, the titular character, played by Nina Pens Rode, who discovers love in a complicated and unusual moment of her life. A movie that met with some controversy upon its release, eventually Gertrud was lauded as a precious and refined cinematic work, and today is considered a fundamental part of the director's artistic legacy. 

After Gertrud, Dreyer stopped directing and retired. In a forty-five years career, having directed twenty-two movies — fourteen feature films, and eight short movies —, with at least five of them being considered masterpieces, Carl Theodor Dreyer has certainly left his mark in twentieth century cinema, having contributed to develop a singular, profound, polyvalent and expressively sensible form of art, that undoubtedly would not have been conceived in the same way, without his technique and gloriously audacious virtues. Disseminating the enormously rich, dense, majestic and diversified Scandinavian culture by reevaluating its proverbial literary traditions, and adapting some of its most controversial and relevant works to the screen, Carl Dreyer managed to create amazingly beautiful and consistent masterpieces, that somehow discreetly revolved around his poignantly personal and extraordinary perspective on life. 

Dreyer died in Copenhagen, in March, 1968, at seventy-nine years old. He was survived by his wife, Ebba Larsen, who died nine years later, in 1977.


Wagner