Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone:

One huge difference separates the two songs: a cover of “Uncontrollable Urge” soundtracks the comedy clip show Rob Dyrdek’s Ridiculousness, which can play on MTV for as much as 14 hours in a 24-hour period, nearly every day of the week. (At its peak in 2020, it played an astonishing 113 hours out of MTV’s entire 168-hour lineup, according to Variety) Over the past decade, through 42 seasons, 1,545 episodes and countless reruns airing every 30 minutes, the performance royalties on that song net Mothersbaugh around $1 million per year, according to an estimate from his wife and manager Anita Greenspan.

“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh, who’s composed the themes for Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Rugrats alongside multiple Wes Anderson films, tells Rolling Stone. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.”

Absolutely fascinating article about the long tail value to musicians of the simple TV theme song.

Makes me wonder how much the guy from Seinfeld’s making from his mouth noises and bass playing.

Also: goddamn does MTV show a lot of Ridiculousness. I get it, it’s one of the perfect Hotel Room TV shows.

Earlier this evening, I was in my car, my music library on shuffle as it usually is, when a favorite I’ve not heard in some time came on — “Welcome Home” by Coheed and Cambria.

The song’s a jam and a half, so I was enjoying it, but it reminded me of an inflection point in my fandom of them — which lead to a bunch of other thoughts, so you’re getting a blog post out of it.

Coheed and Cambria, for those unawares, is a New Jersey based rock band who came of age in the early 00’s. With a unique sound that mixed prog rock and post-hardcore, they were catnip for a twenty something me. Now, add the fact that the lyrics were inspired by a sci-fi story being written by lead singer Claudio Sanchez, you have the makings of something for devoted fandom.

What was the story? Who were the characters? How did each song fit in? It was something to discuss with friends, debate over the internet, and made each album an event.

And then…alongside the release of some one-off comics in 2004 and 2005, and then a very lengthy series called The Amory Wars from 2007 to 2024…we found out what the story really was. And — for me, at least — it never worked or satisfied on the level of the versions of the story which spiraled in my head as I listened to their music.

Knowing — in turn — ruined the possibility.

And I see this pattern a lot in our current franchise based era of entertainment.

One of the coolest elements of the first John Wick movie were the glimpses of a mysterious world of hitmen. Antiquated coins, tattooed phone receptionists, protected hotels…you saw the tip of an iceberg, and it added to the tapestry of the film overall. These were lights shining just beyond the frame, something intriguing but out of focus.

In the three movies since — good films, yes — each installment has brought more clarity to the world of hitmen…and, I’d argue, has become more blasé. We now know how things work. We have logic to apply to random sequences, versus just going with the confidence of the filmmakers to let you connect the dots.

Solo: A Star Wars Story was, from the jump, a somewhat cursed film — telling the story of Han Solo prior to A New Hope. Like X-Men Origins: Wolverine before it, it said to the world, “You want to know about his jacket, right? The LORE of jacket, right?” And it all became less special. And lest you think this was a Disney-era issue — didn’t the Clone Wars sound a lot more interesting when Obi-Wan made a tossed off mention of it in conversation with Luke, versus knowing it was a conflict between Robots and Clones, and those Clones who somehow became Boba Fett, and I guess Yoda was there too, and the clones were ordered by the Jedi for some reason and…

Yeah. Not knowing was better than knowing.

This last weekend, I watched Anora, a great movie with an incredible performance at its core, which — without spoiling — has an ending which could be read many different ways…and it doesn’t tell you how. And the director, he isn’t talking.

Could you imagine what Lost In Translation would have been if Sofia Coppola told us all what Bill Murray’s character whispered into Scarlett Johansson’s ear? Instead, the ambiguity has meant decades of discussion and theory.

I’m not going to come out and say “not knowing things is better”, because I wholeheartedly believe that knowledge is power, and ignorance is foolish.

But I will say, when it comes to creative works — no, I don’t need to know how these things happened. I don’t need to know all the rules of the world. Let me make the connections. Let our imaginations roam.

Ash Parrish, The Verge:

Games Done Quick’s schedule is set up to have the most popular games or gimmicky runs take place during the early evenings and weekends — the time when folks are most likely to tune in. But I’ve found some of my favorite runs are of games I’ve never heard of played well outside those primetime hours. I’ve developed a deep an abiding love of Mr. Bones, a Sega Saturn game I have never played, because I found it during a bout of January 6th-induced insomnia. The Ratatouille run from Summer Games Done Quick 2023, one of that year’s stand-out runs, happened on a Tuesday at 11AM.

Great little article about the joy that is Games Done Quick. GDQ is something I got into during COVID, a week long celebration of video game speedrunning, where talented people take advantage of exploits and bugs to complete video games as quickly as possible.

They push things further, by having really incredible runs – last Summer, you could see a Good Good Dog complete a game of Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, and last night, a player completing New Super Mario Bros. Wii, using a motion controller on their head and feet, while playing the score of the game on piano. These make for massive crowd cheering moments, on par with some of the greatest moments in sports.

But at the same time, there are bizarre and surreal runs which introduce you to games you’ve never seen, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. Yesterday’s Batman Forever run, and last night’s Inspector Gadget: Gadget’s Crazy Maze, are perfect examples of the punch drunk joy of experiencing bad games with good friends.

If you have any interest in gaming at all, you owe it to yourself to watch Games Done Quick at least once. You might get hooked.

EDIT: Let’s go ahead and add last night’s run of Golf With Your Grandmother as a surreal must watch.

Well kids, this is it, the final day of 2024. I’ve had the pleasure of being able to take some time off last week and this, so I figured I’d be vaguely productive online and share with you, dear reader, my favorites from different types of media in 2024.

Please note: this is just based on what I’ve been able to play / watch / listen to this year. There’s some movies and such which I haven’t had a chance to watch that I’m pretty sure I’ll dig (Anora, Conclave) and I’m sure there are games and albums I’ll be discovering from 2024 for years to come.

That said, let’s get into it.

Favorite Movie of 2024

Saturday Night (Dir: Jason Reitman)
For quite a while there, this was pretty much Dune Part Two, and going to be locked as such. But then it seemed that Hollywood decided to go directly for the Marty Day vote and released a movie which…

• Was about putting on a show
• Featured young Hollywood
• Was in gloriously stressful “real time”
• Was about Saturday Night Live.

I get it, the movie’s historically inaccurate and there’s no way all of this happened in the hour-and-a-half before showtime, but no movie had me locked in and enthralled from the jump this year quite like this one. I’ve revisited it a few times on VOD since, and still dug it each time. I’m going to be watching this for years to come.

Favorite Movies of 2024 List (Alphabetical)

• Alien: Romulus
• Dune: Part Two
• The Fall Guy
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Heretic
• Inside Out 2
• Jim Henson - Idea Man
• Nosferatu
• Saturday Night
• Twisters
• The Wild Robot
• Wicked: Part One

Favorite Album of 2024

Los Campesinos! - All Hell

Gareth from Los Campesinos! is 39 years old. This year, I turned 40. And no album this year spoke to me directly than this. Battling with your age and relevancy in a world you used to define by your taste and creativity is a rough go, and over the course of 15 tracks and 50 minutes, this album puts you there. But it’s far from a bummer of a listen. Enthusiastic, sarcastic, enthralling, heartbreaking, intense, the album covers a bit of everything, and that’s why it racked up play after play in my Apple Music library.

Best Track: “Clown Blood/Orpheus' Bobbing Head”

Favorite Albums of 2024 List (Alphabetical)

• And So I Watch You From Afar - Megafauna
• Black x Sea - Every Tree Shall Fall: One (EP)
• Childish Gambino - Atavista
• Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World
• Future Islands - People Who Aren’t There Anymore
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor - “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD”
• Gulfer - Third Wind
• Jack White - No Name
• Justice - Hyperdrama
• The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy
• Los Campesinos! - All Hell
• Nada Surf - Moon Mirror
• Riley! - Keep Your Cool
• RJD2 - Visions Out of Limelight
• The Smile - Wall of Eyes
• The Smile - Cutouts
• St. Vincent - All Born Screaming
• Tycho - Infinite Health
• Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
• Wallows - Model
• Wishy - Triple Seven

Favorite Video Game of 2024

Balatro

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would dump literal hundreds of hours into a poker video game, I would’ve said you were crazy. But not since Tetris have I seen a game which grabs so many, from so many walks of life, and causes them to sink hours upon hours into a game that surprises and delights on every round. And in an industry where game budgets are bloated, layoffs are happening everywhere, and creativity seems to be dwindling — here’s a project by ONE person which has sold millions and will likely sell millions more. More Balatros in 2025, please.

Favorite Video Games of 2024 List (Alphabetical)

• Astro Bot (PS5)
• Balatro (macOS, iOS)
• *Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth *(PS5)
• Helldivers II (PS5)
• Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (PS4)
• Marvel Rivals (PS5)
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (PS5)
  Note to self: play more video games next year.

Welp! That’s that, folks. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I’d love to hear what YOU dug in 2024. Shoot me a line or ping me on Mastodon/Blue Sky. And let’s look forward to a happy, healthy, exciting 2025.

The New York Times:

When millions are happy to play old games with outdated graphics — including Roblox (2006), Minecraft (2009) and Fortnite (2017) — it creates challenges for studios that make blockbuster single-player titles. The industry’s audience has slightly shrunk for the first time in decades. Studios are rapidly closing and sweeping layoffs have affected more than 20,000 employees in the past two years, including more than 2,500 Microsoft workers.

Many video game developers built their careers during an era that glorified graphical fidelity. They marveled at a scene from The Last of Us: Part II in which Ellie, the protagonist, removes a shirt over her head to reveal bruises and scrapes on her back without any technical glitches.

But a few years later, costly graphical upgrades are often barely noticeable.

As is so often said that it’s become a meme: “I Want Shorter Games With Worse Graphics and I’m Not Kidding”.

Nintendo owned the last few years of hardware sales with the same chipset of a lower end smartphone. My favorite game of the last year was Balatro, which is closer in graphics and execution to Tetris, versus anything triple-A.

I mean, how ridiculous has this become? Here’s another excerpt from this great article:

In 2007, the first Assassin’s Creed provided more than 2.5 hours of footage for a fan edit of the game’s narrative. As the series progressed, so did Ubisoft’s taste for cinema. Like many studios, it increasingly leaned on motion-capture animators who could create scenes using human actors on soundstages. A fan edit of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, which was released in 2020, lasted about 23 hours — longer than two seasons of “Game of Thrones.”

It’s too much, folks. Make games as games. We will all be better for it.