- Cleveland, Ohio – Yes, my hometown, the Mistake on the Lake, the Armpit of the Midwest and the Paris of Northeast Ohio is number one again. Well at least to me. A brief family-driven week back in The Land opened my eyes to the grit, heart and good ol’ corn-fed doing stuff that is now going on there. Lots of development all of the sudden, and hopefully a bit less problems these days.
- Bad Wizard “#1 Tonite!” – Why didn’t anyone tell me about the gutter born bastard stepchild of MC5, Bad Company and a van-shaped-sized bong existed? Thanks for nothing cruel, cruel world. Get out your fucking tambourines right now and fill up the tank.
- Any van made before 1983
- The Line Between – Positively beautiful and intimate diary of someone going through the animator’s (mad respect) creative and practical struggles. In-depth talk about trying to figure scenes out and how to animate ideas bit by little bit.
- Kvelertak – I can’t say enough good things about this band. They love owls probably even more than my kid and although they look a tad metal and drift into the black metal in tiny interludes, make no mistake, these Stavanger Gods are nothing but pure hard rock bathed in norse mythology and partying like Odin would want.
- Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Dirty, saucy garage psych-rock that goes straight to your hips. Chug it after you’re done with Bad Wizard.
- Meat as a flavour add rather than the focus
- Alda – Proper forest black metal without any of the cartoony pretend evil stuff with nice folksy and acoustic bits to round it all out nicely
- Getting in a plane again – I won’t lie, it’s damn weird, and I’m not a fan in general especially from the sustainability angle of things, but it was a thing that for the first time felt sort of normal, and not new normal.
- “All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries” (Martha Wells) – I wouldn’t say I’m a sci-fi fan, but I am sci-fi curious and this short novella, part of a series actually, is engaging enough as a human story and light enough on the tech and future stuff, seems to be just right.
