Johan Rath Blood Money

The bald-headed contract killer known only as 47 is in good form, primed and ready for more work in the latest installment in the dark, stylish Hitman series. Though very similar to the last two games in the series, the open-ended stealth action gameplay offered by Hitman: Blood Money is still just about as tensely exciting as ever. A few new twists to the formula, an intriguing story, and a memorably diverse, cinematic sequence of missions further make Blood Money worth it.
This is the fourth game in the Hitman series, but previous experience with the past games isn't assumed or required. In fact, you'll probably be more impressed with the game if you've never played one of these before. Returning players will be in for a comfortably familiar experience. The previous games' stories are alluded to during the course of this one, in which 47 discovers that he and his employer are being threatened by some other mysterious agency. He'll learn more of the rival agency's motives as he completes his own jobs, all leading up to a surprising and climactic conclusion. The starting mission leads you by the nose through one of 47's typical assignments–to eliminate a shady theme park operator, whose negligence once cost the lives of many innocent people. This man, called the Swing King, even entered the drug business in the wake of his theme park's collapse. 47's employer has asked that a photo of a deceased loved one be the last image that the crook ever sees…but when you finally reach him, he's just this sad worm of a man who grovels at 47's feet. Despite the number of armed thugs you'll need to get through before putting the Swing King out of his misery, this mission is easy, provided you follow the step-by-step instructions you're given. Subsequent missions are substantially tougher and less linear, but this first one still is representative of the types of moody, affecting scenarios you'll encounter in the game…

This Friday Tom Waits will release the 20th anniversary limited edition vinyl reissues of his 2002 albums ‘Alice’ and ‘Blood Money’. New live performances of five tracks per record will also be made available digitally in a digital deluxe version.

A "haunting" (Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can't Even) and deeply personal investigation of an underground for-profit medical industry and the American underclass it drains for blood and profit.

"Blood Money" is based on the socio/political play "Woyzeck", originally written by a young German poet Georg Buchner as a spare, cinematic piece in 1837 and inspired by the true story of a German soldier who was driven mad by bizarre army medical experiments and infidelity, which led him to murder his lover. Waits, along with wife and collaborator Kathleen Brennan, wrote songs for an avant-garde production of "Woyzeck" directed by Robert Wilson, which premiered in November 2000 at the Betty Nansen Theater in Copenhagen and went on to win Denmark's version of the Tony for Best Musical. The album careens from the brutal to the tender with assaulting rhythms and romantic melodies.

Blood Money is up there with Waits's best albums from the mid-'80s, veering as it does from sexy insomniac circus music to gorgeously heart-tugging lullabies to woozy zigzag bluesy romps to what can only be described as Oscar the Grouch singing out of tune on top of the soundtrack to an old French film…….