A roundup of noteworthy things I’ve played, read, listened to, or watched over the last few weeks. Busy times, so I kind of forgot about this list, so I’m trying to reconstruct it from memory. Which, incidentally, is a good yard stick! If I can remember it, it obviously was “noteworthy”, right? That’s just science, people.
🎥 The Fall Guy (2024) – Loved it. The whole movie just worked for me. Jolly good fun!
📺 Star Wars: The Acolyte – Slow start. Didn’t look like the usual Disney SW (“shovel ware”) in the beginning, which was nice. Over the course of the season, it became …muddled, to the point of feeling, well, pointless. My current pet theory (one that I hate having, mind) is that in season 2 the new power couple is gonna make a force baby which will one day become Emperor Palpatine. Disney’s Star Wars, where anything not related to Episode I-VI goes to die. I think I’m finally over filmic entertainment involving lightsabers.
Who Is Neuralink’s First Patient? Noland Arbaugh on His Brain Implant - Bloomberg (Archived) – Noland Arbaugh became the first human to receive Neuralink’s brain-computer interface implant. The device allows him to control a computer with his thoughts, overcoming his physical limitations after a tragic accident left him paralyzed. Ignore everything “Elon Musk” in this article, and focus on the technological marvel on display. Super cool stuff.
🎮 STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™, Xbox GamePass Ultimate – Cal Kestis is back, baby! Bit of a slow start for me, but then it clicked just like Fallen Order did. Turns out I’m a Single+Blaster stance type of guy, I didn’t expect that. The serious⟺silly spread is pretty wide, though. On one hand, you have epic Jedi/ fate/ betrayal stuff, on the other, Space Cowboy Kermit 🐸
📺 Tales from the Loop: Season 1 (2020) – Slow, ponderous, weird-ass stories from a time and place that never were. They captured the 80s/90s look exceedingly well, and paired it with some believable machine design, there’s much to love about it. Watched the first few episodes. As I’ve said, they’re slow but good; not very dense, but they were given a sensible amount of space to develop and breathe. Like it.
📚 Arthur C. Clarke: “Rendezvous with Rama” – After hearing again and again how much of an influential masterpiece it is, I finally decided to pick it up for the first time. Got three chapters in on the last days of July. We’ll see!
🎮 Despicable Me 4 (2024) – Did laugh a lot. I like that series, unadulterated silly fun, and there’s just something about Steve Carell doing Gru that cracks me up every time.
🎶 Chase & Status: “More Than Alot” – Catching up on my 2008+ drum’n’bass. Good music to work to, with “Against All Odds (feat. Kano)” being a solid standout.
🎤 Nate Bargatze: Hello World (2023) – Super-enjoyable comedy special by one of the current greats. I’m a fan of NB since I first came across The Tennessee Kid (2019) years ago, and subsequently worked my way through his back catalog. Hilarious on so many levels.
