RPS

Splatoon 3 is great. I highly recommend it for low impact, online multi player where you don't stress.

Yazoo are so excellent. Moyet is a world class vocalist and Clarke is exceptional.

Tom Waits. I thought as a youth he was a try hard and not that interesting. In my older age I have grown to love his songwriting. I wouldn't say I love him, but I do appreciate him.

Does anyone like the band Deerhunter? They are pretty extraordinary. Later outputs have been more pop focused, but I love how their earlier work marries experimental and pop music so well.

Well. Win Butler is a piece of shit.

I used to be in that camp but in my older age I now associate it far more with tragedy than greatness. It's extraordinary but in a way I want to keep my distance these days.

Nirvana are really great. Their trilogy of albums are perfect. A raw and unhinged album in Bleach. Nevermind is a perfect rock album that also became a perfect pop album. And In Utero sees them marrying the two - near pristine production but outright hideous and compelling song writing.

I know @TheGrandAvatar made his choice but if anyone asked me where to start, I would tell them to pick up Pokemon X. I played it when it came out, got back into Pokemon and went back and replayed everything and played everything I had not played.

Yeah, it is an exceptional album. Really fun and engaging stuff. The Black Midi album is really great as well. Chaotic, claustrophobic in nature. Loud and intricate. I listened to the Big Thief album. Not a huge fan. I love their Tiny Desk concert. The new Hot Chip is great - the band have definitely hit a consistent level that will never reach the bands early highs. But still a great album to put on when needing a pick me up. Salamanda album is great ashbalkum. Surreal, layered, playful electronic music. I think you would classify it as ambient techno - got that techno groove, but relaxed.

My son immediately after seeing the Kamehameha - "what TV show was that from". Smart idea by the Dragon Ball Z creators.

I have tried them but I found it made it extremely unlike Catan and thought I would rather try something new. I do find the Seafarer expansion and adding in water tiles and boats actually makes the game better. In base Catan, you can ignore brick and to a lesser extent sheep and start steam rolling people early on. Each time we play, I normally have a city within the first 3 rounds and my family gets upset. I mean, at have literally played the game 50 or so times and no one realizes taking the best hay and rock spaces is your best initial move. But adding in boats and other islands forces players to better balance resources because moving in the water and around the base island becomes super important. It also may make you build your first settlement on a coast, which I rarely do. Maybe it is great to build a city, my normal first move. But if there is an island with better resources, you may want to do that. And if I see others going there, I may start racing a player. Also adding in another consumable - a boat - means you have more to consider when trading.

I'm not a huge Catan fan but my extended family loves it. It's great because it's incredibly simple and intuitive, but once you know the game, it becomes an exercise in dice rolls and patience.

I thought it was good but the point of it not looking great is interesting. I thought certain things looked really interesting (Strange and America falling through the multiverses and certain set pieces) but the action scenes were fine but not up to par. My kids loved the movie but it was insanely dumb and unnecessary but interesting to look at. The whole movie could have been 20 minutes given the ending.

Jealous, @apsham My daughter has taken a liking to Catan and we have played a handful of games recently. Will transition to Ticket to Ride shortly.

I'm so jealous of that man's hair.

I had someone close in my life who went through a very depressed phase and they listened to Daniel Johnston and it has tainted his catalogue for me, but he was an astounding songwriter.

I have not. I will absolutely now though. I went in absolutely blind to the show only knowing it's a show about vampires.

I watched the first two episodes of What We Do in the Shadows devoid of any context. This is my type of show.

I played and beat Arceus! I actually stopped Pearl 5 hours into it because I saw Arceus and wanted to play it right away. I do feel like Pokemon games live and die by how interesting the Pokemon you can catch, interact and fight against and Pearl only had 150. With Arceus, I juggled 12 or so Pokemon that I swapped in and out depending where I was. Lots of fun.

I'm playing Pokemon Shining Pearl and I'm super pumped for another mainline Pokemon game. I'm find with Shining Pearl but it definitely feels like a game released decades ago.

Beyonce released Renaissance on Friday. This was the same day that you received my monkey pox vaccine, a disease that is primarily impacting men who sleep with men. Beyonce is taking inspiration from the era in which gay men like me were perishing due to AIDs. One could believe this was intentional. But the relationship specifically to the gay community vis a vis the monkey pox is coincidental. Beyonce was influenced by a pandemic that was afflicting the world - COVID-19. Although it was not intention, that wrinkle encapsulates Beyonce the artist. She is aspirational, an artist, an icon. But she is also driven to reach across divides, to make concepts/ideas/people mainstream, to remove the edges that make us comfortable. Renaissance is intense, unrelenting and unified in a vision to celebrate queer and BIPOC identities who paved the way for modern pop music. One could be cynical and think that Beyonce only did this after so many of her peers have made drag, ballroom, house music mainstream. Which is a fair criticism, but Beyonce embraces queerness through the lens of her own sexuality. I would not play this album for my kids - not because of the queer content but because Beyonce seems hell bent on feeling like she is the queen of the bathhouse. Beyonce has holes to be filled and every song she will remind you. This is an exceptionally produced and polished record about getting off. The 4 on the 4 beat is perfect for whatever extra curricular activities. House music that excelled in the bathhouses needed a steady beat, nasty basslines/synth and the grunts and groans of the sexually liberated. All are present here and done so immaculately. Only on Church Girl did I cringe. Not since Donna Summers has the world heard such an exceptional disco song in Virgo's Groove. Beyonce's vocal performance is exceptional, this is the greatest song she has ever recorded. Beyonce is known for perfection. On Virgo, she is decidedly not perfect. Her voice is not pitch perfect. There are instances where the back up vocals are messy and scattered. Around the second or third verse, her voice cuts out intermittently. But she sounds like she is still having so much fun. Virgo's Groove is the best Beyonce song ever recorded, but the most interesting track is the last. But in so many ways it personifies Beyonce - how much is planned and how much is projection. On Summer Renaissance, Beyonce sings over I Feel Love by Donna Summers. I Feel Love is the greatest song ever recorded, but is also interesting for it's ubiquity in bathhouses. Bathhouses, for those unaware, are places where gay men meet to have sex with each other. Hence house music - the music played for when gay men wanted to fuck. Donna Summers early category, Patrick Cowley and Frankie Knuckles were the sounds of bathhouses. I Feel Love was remixed, torn to pieces and repurposed in every way imaginable. Does Beyonce know this? Does Beyonce intentionally sing "I wanna house you" as the first lyric of the song as a nod to this history? I'm inclined to believe she does given she also sings "I'm too loose to be tied up". If she was told by astute song writer to make these references, does it actually matter? That's part of the Beyonce brand. They can be innocuous lyrics or Beyonce promotion of gay sex. Pop music can be fun.

To me:

That person's twitter felt like an elaborate hoax but is probably real wow 2022 is awful.

Can you play split screen or you set up with two systems?

Paper Mario and the Origami King is lovely.