the legend of zelda: tears of the kingdom (2023)

I don’t play many video games because when I do I get utterly sucked in and addicted - so it’s good that I only play the best ones, of which this is for sure one, surely game of the year all around, an incredible technical achievement, a beautiful and fun adventure, etc, altho I did find it to be a little on the long and grindy side. 

encanto (2021)

I haven’t watched a new disney or pixar movie in a while so most of my reaction to this is just catching up to what’s changed in the state of the art for kids movies - the music is more “hip”, the animation is very cookie cutter, the story is taut and more interesting, and the spanish language dubs are disappointingly “generic spanish” even tho this clearly takes place in Colombia. 

vineland by thomas pynchon

Pynchon exorcises even more ghosts of america’s pasts in this polished gem of a novel, as gripping and brilliant as it is classically, Pynchonianly weird  - just don’t expect to get much out of it unless you are either very very sharp or have a lot of time and energy to work thru it. 

Beyond Command and Control by John Seddon

This fairly recent manifesto is the most leftist business book I’ve ever read - and it has really changed my perspective on how humans organize themselves, so I have to give it a hearty recommendation for anyone who likes this kind of nonfiction, altho it is wordier and more repetitive than it needs to be. 

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

The second fantasy epic in the classic series reminds me a lot of the second installment of the original star wars (altho of course I’m aware the arrow of influence goes the other way) - darker, more mature, slower than the original - but a necessary part of a powerful trilogy. 

death’s end by cixin liu

The third book of the three body problem trilogy is such a ride, I could barely put it down - it is impossibly, infinitely ambitious, but through its scope, vision, poetry, and cunning, it lives up to way more of that ambition than one would think possible. 

the dark forest by liu cixin

The deeper I got into this second entry in the three body problem trilogy, the more engrossed I was and the more I enjoyed it - so even tho the translation was sometimes clunky, and even tho there are a few scientific missteps that did bother me a bit, I can’t wait to read the last book. 

the 39 steps (1935)

I had a lot of fun watching this taut hitchcock spy thriller, in that it was short and easy and beautiful to look at, altho compared to modern storytelling / plotting / twisting it really lacks a certain punch. 

dr strangelove (1964)

honestly just as fun on my 4th or 5th watching as my first - a classic that has as much relevance today as it did in the 60s. 

american prometheus by Bird and Martin

I never particularly wanted to know everything there was to know about Robert J Oppenheimer, but this famous biography was approachable, deep, touching, if a bit over-detailed - and now I do!

subnautica (2014)

I don’t often play video games, but when I do I like to pick a really deep, immersive, beautiful experience to become completely obsessed with to the point that I can’t think about anything else, sink 53 hours into it enjoying every minute of it, and then never play it again - and subnautica was perfect. 

fiddler on the roof (1971)

Years since my last watch, still a stone cold classic, still funny and sad in equal measure, sure to prompt many great conversations. 

roger and me (1989)

 there’s a lot to like about this anti capitalist documentary about flint michigan, especially considering the more recent water catastrophe there decades after this movie was made, but like all michael moore’s docs, I’m always left with a slightly bad taste in my mouth- I just think he bends the truth a little and his causes would be better served with more direct honesty.

Dr. Feelgood (2016)

This documentary about the oxycontin epidemic was frustrating - really well made and really thought provoking, but skipping past some of the most interesting conversations between Dr. Hurwitz and his family, which the filmmakers clearly had on film.

The Fellowship of the Ring (extended) (2001)

Hard to believe this movie adaptation came out in 2001, because (with a few rare exceptions) it looks and feels amazing, and altho I don't love all the choices they made (where is Bombadil!?), the four hours honestly flew by.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

This classic holds up - it just sucks you in and takes you for a ride through a very real, very wonderful world.