July Recommendations (Patreon)

Another month & another group of recommendations! We've got theater, snacks to eat at the theater, and of course, some games that we've been enjoying in the summer heat.

The Platform (Film)

Holy heck is this film dark, disturbing, and a wonderful alegory for class. Not for the faint of heart, this masterwork from Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia will blow your mind if you have the stomach for it. DEF  18+, NSFW and triggering. Please do a little reasearch to see if its portrayals are ok for you before diving in.

Da Five Bloods (Film)

My new favorite Spike Lee film, period. Rated R

Miss Juneteenth (Film)

Turning the "pagent movie" on its head, this phenominally beautiful work from Director Channing Godfrey Peoples shows a mother-daughter relationship rife with societal and generational troubles. A film with no villains and a very important film for our current time.

 Calypso by David Sedaris (Book)

There's absolutely no American essayist, to my knowledge, who has been as consistently prolific and funny—for as long—as David Sedaris. I discovered him in college when his book Me Talk Pretty One Day got me through a weeklong virus, his failed attempts to learn French making me laugh so hard I cried despite the fact that I could barely get up from the couch. Calypso is in that same brilliant vein, though as an older man Sedaris' subject matter has become a little darker, with this collection focusing on the strange tilting point between middle and old age, particularly on the suicide of his sister. But just because the subject is grim doesn't mean he's skimping on jokes, in fact, it's his funniest book in years. Whether he's getting addicted to his FitBit, cataloging the trash he picks up off the side of the road in England (where he now lives), remembering his late mother or playing cutthroat games of Sorry! with his niece. Don't take everything in the stories as gospel since Sedaris often exaggerates for comic effect, but given what a hilarious effect it is, I'm not complaining.

 NBA Jam on Mobile (Game, Android)

 About a month ago I mentioned offhand to a friend that I wished someone would remake sports classic NBA Jam, and was excited to learn that a mobile version came out a few years ago. And to my shock and delight it was essentially the same game as the old Genesis/SNES version I spent so much time within the late 1990s. The controls are a little slippery as touchscreens are wont to be, but the action is enjoyable and games are a good bite-sized length. If you've ever wanted to play a game on your phone where you're a gravity-defying superhero version of an NBA player... NBA Jam is right for you.  

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (Book)

 After a long period of reading almost exclusively dystopian and apocalypse novels, I thought I wanted a break, but then I found Gnomon. This book is so unusual and creative, and is such a unique take on Orwellian dystopia, that I don't even mind. At first, the book appears to be about a hypothetical future where an AI reads everyone's' minds. There's no crime, no secrets... and also no privacy. But then the book..... goes places (I don't want to spoil it for you!) and it gets so meta and Inception-y that you don't even know what's real anymore. The stories are so well-written and engaging that I don't actually care that I don't know what's real anymore. I'm just enjoying the ride. 

SinoAlice (Game, Android & iOS)

Surprise! Another mobile game from me. There's a lot about SinoAlice that I don't like. Some of the (mostly female) characters are animated hella disrespectfully, and it's a gatcha game, so it's grindy. BUT I love any media that develops a strong, unique aesthetic, and this game very much has that, even if that aesthetic is at times too fan service-y. From a design perspective, it does some things differently from a standard gatcha game: you roll for weapons, not characters, so you can choose your appearance and class. PVP fights are guild-based and happen every 24 hours at the same time every day, so there's this cool moment where every day at noon, I gather with my guild and we band together to try and take down the enemy. Just a quick warning, this game has some adult themes, so I'd say it's 16+.

Atlanta (TV, Hulu)

This show is the most successful example I've ever seen of magical realism in a TV show. Donald Glover has an amazing sense of humor, and the show is an awesome commentary on race, rap, and the weirdness of life. Atlanta is utterly strange without feeling at all forced or unnatural. At the very least, you *have* to watch the episode with the piano. It's on Hulu. Watch it!

Goetze’s Caramel Creams (Snacks)

Are they granny candies? Yes. Are they amazing? Double yes. Could I eat 100 of them in one setting? triple-yes. Will I? Quadra-yes! I love chewy candies but am not so into fruit flavors. These are so comforting they will melt your teeth, and melt your heart. Ace!

Slay the Spire (Game, iOS)

I love me some Slay the Spire and hit top ascension levels on my PC/Steam version of the game (765 hours played). I’ve been wanting to play this on my iPad since it was released, and it is finally available to play on iOS… just in time for our first kid! Great port of the game and works well with touch controls. Baby’s first game – iOS Slay the Spire!

Hamilton (Theater, Film - Disney+)

If you like musical theatre, or just want to stay pop culture savvy, this is as good as it gets. The is one of the best staging’s of a musical that I’ve ever seen in film format, for one of the best Broadway musicals of the past decade. One month of Disney+ is less than the cost of most movie rentals and, as an added perk, you can binge The Mandalorian as well.