July 20th - July 26th 2026

Music

• Music, Fashion, Film | Charli XCX - Never really listened to her music, but I have been trying to be more intentional about feeling day one releases just to feeel something. It’s honestly pretty solid, some of the production has Marathon vibes.
• Little Miss Twain | Shania Twain - Ayooooooo Shania back at it again with the white Vans. Christ kill me now. Anyways, for the Twain faithfuls, we are so back. My favorite song is probably Stranger Things. Idk it’s cool to see momma back at it.
• POWER HOUSE | Magi Merlin - Where the F did these people come from??? This whole album slaps, like what the fuq. My favs are Workout, WHIP, and SpiceKick. It’s got chillhop vibes with great vocals. Feels very contemporary takes on all of their influences.
• Virgen de lo alto | Chancha Vio Circuito, Sofia Viola - Catholicism still got hands.

Podcasts

• How Roomba started a robot revolution | Version History - Who would have thought your Roomba went from the battlefield to space to the toy store just to clean up after your ungrateful children? Pretty cool stuff, check it out.

News/Essays

• All-Women ‘Shaolin Soccer’ Tribute Scores Big, Divides Fans | He Qitong | Sixth Tone - The haters are mad at women doing Kung Fu lmaoooo. I grew up on these films, so it’s cool to see Stephen Chow back on his shit. Yeah, it may not be that good, but have his movies ever been for everyone?

Books/Manga

• The Moon on a Rainy Night Volume 3 | Kuzushiro - Oh thank god. Bitch, after Volume 2, I was scared we were going down a jump-scare toxic-yuri-where-toxic-yuri-doesn’t-belong beat, but we’re sooooo back gamers. I’m about halfway through and it’s cute and babe, we are getting sleep over action cheeeee!
• Super Nintendo | Keza MacDonald - I heard a short interview with the author and finally got off the waitlist at the library, so stoked to dig in. I’m pretty early on, but it’s already really well-written and engaging. I have to say, it’s a much easier and cleaner read than Jason Schreier’s work, which isn’t a dig, but like people hype up his writing so much I was surprised actually getting into it. I think his journalistic bona-fides are clear, but it doesn’t always make for compelling or clean writing. So, this is a nice take on the vibe!

YouTube

• Playstation is Getting Greedy. Here’s how we ACTUALLY hurt them. | Dammit Jeff - Man, fuck this shit. Sad times. Sometimes to own your stuff you gotta do something about it.

Games

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds | Nintendo | 2013 - I played this game years ago on my Nintendo 3DS (which is, coincidentally, the theme of my 3DS) when I was plane hopping every few months. I had issues in my late teens and 20s where I would hard rely on guides to the point where I would finish the game and have no memory of playing it all afterwards. I’ve never been a big fan of Zelda games, I couldn’t make it more than a couple hours in BotW, but I did like the vibes of Ocarina and thought if I was gonna be in the airport/airplanes for 10-12 hours I gotta do ’em. Embracing the game as is and trusting designers to make something fun has really opened games similar to Zelda for me. I am about 8 hours into A Link Between Worlds and it’s an excellent vibe. It’s obviously a children’s game, moreso than the N64 games I am more familiar with, but it’s satisfying. It really helps make real the whole “Nintendo makes games for fun” which is so mechanics and puzzle-driven that it’s hard not to feel like you’re playing a video game-ass video game. The only issue I have with the game so far is the whole rental system early on. It feels degrading, and I know this wasn’t the intention of the designers because it has a gameplay purpose, but I’ve seen too much in my life and in 2026 having to rent anything feels like death.
• Pokemon: Blue Version | Game Freak | 1996 - So, I was at the airport getting tired of Zelda and decided to take inventory of my DS carts, which were all various Pokemon games sans Nintendogs and Mario Kart DS, and all of them had too nostalgic or rare Pokemon so I opened up my digital copy of Pokemon Blue. It was my first Pokemon game on my hand-me-down Gameboy Color, so I was curious to see if it held up or we were running on purely nostalgia fumes. To make it more interesting and motivating I started a Nuzlocke and it’s really been breathing life into the old game. I will say these sprites are INSANE. Most of them are just objectively better. They’ve got that weird gen I sauce, but some are absolutely cursed and the wrong proportions, like Pidgeotto. I stg some of the sprites pop up and I just stop playing in awe of the fidelity they got on Game Boy hardware. I’m so impressed. It’s also fucking weird. Lt. Surge introducing himself as “the American” guy who used Pokemon on the frontlines of WAR is nuts, I was cackling. Nuzlocke post on the way, but man the music and the sprites and the vibes still holds up for sure. Also, the game must have gotten the Nuzlocke vibes bc wdym Lt. Surge is using XSPEED RIGHT OFF THE BACK. Bro, I’m 12 chill. ALso, who tf uses XSpeed on a Raichu??? lmao loser idiot. Oh, also, these learnsets are brutal. Each Pokemon learns like 1 1/2 moves over 50 levels. And a lot of the moves are garbodor. The single-use nature of TMs in this plus the absolute dog doodoo learnset and levels between learning new moves is brutal, but in a Nuzlocke it does add some good flavor.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | Square Enix | 2021 - Gonna hold off until I finish cause I’m on the last chapter!!