YouTube Obsession

The 2026 MLB season is underway! So of course, like any real fan of baseball I’m gonna watch Tmartin play his yearly MLB The Show update.

Always more fun to watch other people play sports games than to actually play them myself.

Reading

Sometimes when I read a book I get the distinct feeling that it knows it is being read. This can be cool; take Moby Dick, where the book is dependent on the audience being familiar with the very medium of books. Or Infinite Jest, where the audience is forced to engage with the book like a puzzle box. Pale Fire goes a step further and requires the audience to not only solve a puzzle but to be philosophically aware of the debates concerning the nature of authorial intent.

Then there are books that know they are being read because they just want to be movies. Ready Player One is the most egregious to jump to mind but not all Movie-Books are inherently bad. Cold Storage was a really fun book to read but I couldn’t help thinking the the author was just describing a movie to me (Unsurprisingly, it is now a movie on Amazon Prime).

“This book wants to be a movie so bad” was a thought I had while reading Bad Nature by Ariel Courage. Again, this does not make the book bad, in fact, I tore through it in four days because I vibe with the overall themes and it is, for the most part, well written. A woman receives a deadly cancer diagnosis and decides its time to kill her estranged father. It’s great, simple and sends the imagination reeling as to what will happen. Though it does lapse into general/weak social commentary at parts, I still found its core plot to be engaging.

Overall, its a fun read that will have a Netflix adaptation starring Florence Pugh and Barry Keoghan in a year or two.

Playing

For years, my go to answer for best video game of all time is Half-Life 2. Trite and unoriginal for sure but there’s a reason it’s lauded. Despite never (rarely) taking away control from the player, the player’s eye is always drawn to the amazing set pieces. And though it is essentially an on-rails fun house full of monster closets and single route levels, the world and atmosphere make the player feel rushed, scared and inventive.

Hitman: World of Assassination might be my new “best game of all time”, for completely different reasons.

I’ve talked about Hitman 1 and 2 before and even the rouge-like “Freelancer” mode before but I have to admit, the formula never quite gelled with me before this last playthrough. What I tried to do differently this time was play each level like an adventure game. Trying to see everything and weigh all my options. Changing disguises when needed and not worrying about the perfect score but try to maintain a Silent Assassin rating. This shifted my entire perspective on these games. I liked them before; I love them now.

Each level is it’s own little world with such a high level of interactivity that every time I tried something it worked. Or, if I explored a place that I thought might have some secret, it almost always did and I was rewarded with a new way to kill my targets. I often talk about games being too big. I give Rockstar, specifically Red Dead 2, a hard time about this. The maps are huge sure, but that just means I have to traverse large distances to get to what I want to do. WoA maps are, by comparison, an inch wide but a mile deep. Especially when you get to the “Season 2” maps (Hitman 2 maps.), the design is just so intricate and beautiful, I just get blown back by all the NPCs and ambient dialog. Just absolutely lovingly hand-crafted experiences.

It is essential to clarify that I am specifically talking about World of Assassination release of the games. Playing these games with the progression continuing through all the levels is a huge factor in my enjoying in the playthrough as well.

Just another quick bash on Rockstar again but remember when GTA’s satire of American culture was goofy and didn’t take itself too seriously? That’s the humor in WoA. They are somehow able to walk the line between making every villain over-the-top but also really sinister and cool? Masterful.

This has nothing to do with its GOAT status but it’s important to remember that in 2017 Square dropped support and newly independent IO Interactive was trying to cut costs as much as they could without dropping gameplay quality for Season 2. Other than that the cutscenes are no longer animated you would not be able to tell anything was different. As I already mentioned, Season 2 has some of the best and inventive levels of the series. And now IO Interactive is set to release the new James Bond game (Which totally makes sense, the gameplay will translate so well to James Bond.). Goes to show what can be done when you believe in the vision.

Regular price for WoA is $70 and it’s worth it at twice the price but if you see it on sale there’s no reason not to pick it up.

Listening

Last summer I came across a video that piqued my interests.

The daisy dukes, the well endowed bosom, the cheesy ESL lyrics and Die Spielbude in neon just hit all my camp buttons. It just screams “Euro-jank".

I recently shared with my partner they became obsessed and fell down the hole of forgotten 80s pop “hits”. The break out star of my partner’s obsession is easily Mandy Smith.

The bike shorts were… a choice.

I know it may seem like a crap song at first but let me assure you, that’s part of the charm.

A little better and definite catchier. Though, the song takes on another meaning when you realize that Mandy started dating then 45yo Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman when she was 16. It’s gross!

But the songs are kinda bops, just focus on the songs.

Oh no, that’s uh, worse.

Well at least Sweden loved her for her…

This video hits so hard: the vague homoeroticism of European hosts, the set made to look like a pre-Giuliani NYC, the breathless “Yaaaaassss girl, give us nothing!” interview at the end. I love it.

Through Mandy we managed to come across Sinitta…

The 80’s was so fem, no wonder there was a huge reactionary backlash.

Other Notables

** Insightful review of Scream VI.

** “That bad people can put out something glorious feels supremely unfair.”

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