ESPN:

Back inside the Diamond Lounge, Ho pointed out something Silver would never forget.

“If you notice,” he told Silver, “the restaurants in Chinatown are empty.”

Silver paused.

“The Chinese community in the U.S. are quite aware of what’s going on in China – much more than the general public,” Ho said. “And the Chinatown restaurants are a reflection of that. People are scared.”

The two talked for 15 minutes. Silver had already been concerned about the possibility of filling NBA arenas with nearly 20,000 fans, but the unemotional, matter-of-fact tone from Ho was striking. The next morning, on the same day the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global public health emergency, Silver called Ho and asked whether he would serve as a consultant for the NBA on COVID-19. Ho agreed.

The first, goosebump inducing moment of this amazing oral history of the day the NBA shutdown due to COVID, which was – believe it or not – five years ago today.

Definitely going to be hanging with me today the five years that have passed, what happened in them, and who we are now versus who we were then.

Gematsu:

The timeless RPG Chrono Trigger, which first launched for Super Famicom in 1995, celebrates its 30th anniversary on March 11 in Japan. In a celebration post on its official Twitter account, Square Enix said users can look forward to various developments that go beyond the world of the game throughout the next year.

I admit, I was a latecomer to Chrono Trigger, playing it via emulator some years after its initial release. But, wow. What a game.

It truly is one of the best JRPGs of its era, if not all time.

I’m sure the celebration events hinted to are more likely to be, say, Chrono Trigger concerts, as opposed to a new game or redux version…but, Squeenix, old pal, if you were to HD2D this, like you did with Dragon Quest? Day one. Full price.

Apple Newsroom:

In this quirky action game — an Apple Arcade exclusive — players expand their Katamari by rolling up objects scattered across the earth. Featuring unique and whimsical gameplay, and a captivating soundtrack that blends different genres, the game invites players to energize the king’s “live stream” by rolling their Katamari to create stars. As users advance, comments from in-game fans appear, and the longer they play, the larger their audience grows. By completing the king’s challenges and boosting their subscriber count, players can unlock dynamic new stages.

The proper title of the game is Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE. The Katamari franchise is one of my all time favorites, and I am incredibly excited to see a new installment.

The question, however, is this: the games have always been, uh, quirky in their controls, and that’s with two proper analog sticks. How’s this going to work via touch?

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.

Jake Rossen, Mental Floss:

“Nickelodeon kind of made a mistake,” Russell says. “I don’t want to call it a mistake, or if it was not a wise piece of instruction that they told me, because they told me the items don’t have to necessarily get into the cart. They just have to touch the cart and it’s yours. It didn’t have to stay in the cart, either.”

“So then my dad was like, ‘You heard what they said, right? That means all you got to do is take your hands and put it to the very back of the peg that they would store games or anything on. Pull them all off with the cart near you and just have them be knocking the cart so they don’t have to even get in there.’ ”

It was good advice. On the day of the spree, Russell was given the go-ahead. He darted through aisles, adhering to the strategy. Entire pegs of games were swatted to the ground, collapsing in a cacophony of plastic and cardboard. Russell acted like a human tornado, following the rules and having stuff bounce off his cart.

“I basically cleared out the entire game section of the store in about two minutes,” he says. “The whole thing was gone. And then, I took out the action figure aisles, and this was when the first wave of X-Men figures were out. I was literally just reaching to the back of the peg line and just taking the entire row of action figures.”

Just in time for a season where kids would be excited to see their hauls from Santa, an incredible, in-depth look at the ins and outs of what it was to win Nickelodeon’s Super Toy Run. Including the strife that met the kids at the schoolyard later.

Two stories broke today, which, for whatever reason were the straws that broke me.

Variety: Jeremy Allen White Joins ‘Star Wars’ Film ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ as Jabba the Hutt’s Son

Jeremy Allen White has joined the “Star Wars” film “The Mandalorian & Grogu” as the voice of Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt, Variety has confirmed. The project marks the first major franchise for the actor following his Emmy-winning breakout role on the FX series “The Bear.”

The Wrap: Chris Evans Sets Marvel Return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ | Exclusive

Chris Evans is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of the cast for “Avengers: Doomsday,” the highly anticipated sequel that will also star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, The Wrap has learned exclusively. Evans will be involved in some capacity, but the extent and exact nature of his role is unknown.

I grew up as a latchkey kid. Single mom, only child, you get a lot of time to yourself. And I threw myself into the worlds of comics and movies. They showed me the powers of creativity, the magic of filmmaking, the intricacies of line art, taught me lessons about color and light.

I’d devour any of it. Watching movies on cable lead to renting movies from Blockbuster. Renting movies led to buying movies. Buying movies lead to buying more movies (I had roughly 1000 Blu-Rays + DVDs at a point). Reading comics lead to reading Wizard Magazine. Reading Wizard lead to learning about all the amazing and creative things being done at all the comic companies. Just like with directors, I learned to follow writers and artists to their next thing.

I don’t say this to be dramatic or a bummer, but they were my world. A child of divorce, who struggled to socialize, I lost myself in the 4-color worlds of Marvel, DC and Image, and the big screen adventures that hit every weekend.

Then I found my people, fellow nerds who knew more movie quotes than extended family members names, who loved to rank and talk and share and recommend and debate all of this.

Somewhere in here, the comics started hitting theaters again. Tim Burton’s Batman was a near religious experience for me as an 5 year old, but that seemed the exception to the rule. Until X-Men hit. Until Blade hit. Until Spider-Man hit.

My loves were colliding. And what’s that, more Star Wars too? Sure, the prequels were flawed, but they were more of something I loved. Giving me something new from a world that had more or less helped to define my love of movies.

Iron Man hits. Robert freakin’ Downey Jr. as Iron Man? No way. Wait, what’s this about an Avengers project? It ties into that new Hulk movie? No way they got Chris Evans to be a superhero again, I loved that dude in Scott Pilgrim. Paul Rudd(!!!) as Ant-Man with Edgar Wright behind the lens? Holy shit.

And now Disney owns them. And they’re gonna own Lucasfilm too? Wait…more new Star Wars? And they’re gonna try to make up where the Prequels failed. Interesting. Can they? Wow, Force Awakens was a lot of fun. Rogue One, what a flick.

And the saturation came. I didn’t need to special order comic book shirts from Diamond Distributors by way of my local comic store, I didn’t need to go to comic cons, I could just go and buy representations of these things which were the fabric of me at my local goddamned Target? How cool. Phases? TV Shows? Streaming? More? More? MORE? MORE??

…and…I think they’ve gone too far. And I can’t help but feel like I’m a bit at fault.

Not me specifically, but who I am. As has been said before, “The Nerds Won”. Nerdy things don’t make you outcasts, they make you accepted, as I longed to be and eventually was. And there’s always more.

But…it’s not the new. It’s not the different. It’s not the daring.

That Star Wars prequel? Outshined by The Matrix that year, a radically different, unique, original idea that inspired the next generation after me, in ways both in terms of filmmaking, and making people think differently about themselves and the discomfort they feel.

…is it any wonder they did two more? And a fourth, over a decade later?

We’re at a phase where these things I love are just being reheated and re-served to me. Look at the archives of this blog, I was excited about these things along the way. I’m still excited for some things (I really want to see a trailer of James Gunn’s Superman quite badly). But I can’t help but feel like the magic is going away.

The headlines above, while real, they feel like they were slapped together by AI. [ACTOR OF NOTE OR FORMER STAR OF FRANCHISE] Joins [INSERT FRANCHISE WHO NEEDS HELP] as [CHARACTER]. These aren’t the first, they won’t be the last. We’ve got Robert Downey Jr. returning as…Doctor Doom for some reason. Apparently we’re getting a whole slew of actors we know and love…to just do Harry Potter again, but longer. We’re getting more Lord of the Rings and they might just be making them up this time.

I’m 40 years old. Maybe I’m aging out. Or maybe Hollywood needs to realize…they can’t keep marketing to me.

I mentioned above how much comics have meant to me. They went to a fandom to a side hustle to a second career. And if you step in a comic store, you know what they’re doing now? Selling more variant covers of every issue to the same, older growing audience. And raising the price, to see what the ceiling can be. They’re marketing to me and people like me, again and again and again.

There are flashes of hope. Every so often there’s a Saga or a Walking Dead or a Dawnrunner or *Do a Powerboat!*that shake things up for comics and give us something new. Every so often there’s a movie out there which gives us a wholly unique experience and reminds us what we love about movies.

But they’re not coming everywhere. We’re afraid to take swings, we’re afraid to try and fail, we’re afraid of New. We’re afraid of Different. We’re afraid of the old tricks not working. And maybe, the real issue is: we’re afraid of becoming old.

Let the next generation take over and make new things. It’s how we got here in the first place. Whether it was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby using the social changes of the 60’s to create flawed comic book heroes, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird self publishing a Daredevil parody with turtles in the 1980s, George Lucas using the cache of the success of his 50’s greaser movie to cash in and make a new version of the sci-fi serials he loved, but for the modern day…these were risks. These were creatives. These were people who wanted to make something new, first for themselves, and then found how it reverberated with likeminded folks.

I don’t need to be blanketed in the safety of what was. I’m longing for the challenge.

This is rambling and turning into almost a “Comics and Genre Movies are Dead” version of the speech Jeff Daniels gives at the beginning of The Newsroom, so I’m going to tie this together. It doesn’t help that I’ve written all stream of consciousness, but, eh, we’ll deal.

Could these movies be good? Sure. Will I see them? Likely.

But will they inspire? Will they make people want to make their own films at home? Will they make someone say “I have a story and I need to tell it”?

I don’t know. Because right now, it all looks like just another gig for a paycheck. Another instance of confirming shareholder value and maximizing the use of legacy IP or whatever rambling shit the heads of these studios are going to tell people on investment calls. But it’s not adventurous. And we could all use an adventure right now.

Larry Fitzmaurice, Hearing Things:

The start of the 2010s saw a steady rise in visibility for indie musicians that encompassed high-profile TV performances and the occasional collision with real-deal pop superstars. (The “rock” part of “indie rock” was partly left behind along the way, for marketing purposes.) Regardless of whether the artists involved were turning a meaningful profit, the smell of success was in the air. Indie’s boom period was, as Kevin Krauter of current Indianapolis indie rockers Wishy describes it, “an era where a popular indie band looked like they had it fucking made.”

It didn’t last. Indie’s commercial decline began to sink in around the mid-2010s—a point when music publications’ collective influence was waning, and streaming services took over as passive tastemakers looking to cut corners on artist royalties, resulting in the decimation of the music industry’s middle class. Then came the pandemic and its ripple effects, including increased touring costs and the persistent threat of canceled shows due to COVID cases. It’s all led to an indie business landscape that’s particularly inhospitable to emerging artists looking to establish careers off their work.

A really in-depth and eye-opening article at the struggles the “middle class” of music are facing these days. Honestly, it’s hell for any sort of creator now. So many platforms, so many responsibilities, none of them related to Doing The Work.

I really can’t say I know the fix here. I sure hope we can find one.

Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline:

Lucasfilm has closed a deal with Simon Kinberg to develop a trilogy of Star Wars films. Kinberg will write the trio, and produce them with Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy.

I heard this will comprise episodes 10-12 of The Skywalker Saga that began with George Lucas’s 1977 first film that along with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws reshaped the global blockbuster game. Insiders disputed my intel that Kinberg will continue that storyline, saying this will instead begin a new saga, and sit alongside Star Wars percolating projects with James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi and Donald Glover. As usual, Lucasfilm and Disney are not commenting.

It really says something that in the year 2024, not only am I not excited in any way, shape or form about a new Star Wars project, but also: I highly doubt that it will be made.

Meet your new friends in the pile, New Kinberg Trilogy: Boba Fett Movie, Game of Thrones Duo Trilogy, Rian Johnson Trilogy, Kevin Feige Movie, Guillermo Del Toro Jabba The Hutt Movie, and surely, more to come…

make me eat these words, disney.

Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline:

The Lego Group under its deal with Universal Pictures is making three untitled live-action movies with directors Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins and Attack the Block filmmaker Joe Cornish.

Huh.

Universal’s been working on these movies with a five year deal signed in 2020, so I guess this is the “show your work” phase of things. A few elements stand out.

1. Patty Jenkins, once again tied to a franchise movie, after seemingly being put in director’s jail since Wonder Woman 1984 and her Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron being in development hell.
2. Jake Kasdan being announced, though he’s got to now rush out a new Dwayne Johnson-lead Jumanji movie for the end of 2026
3. Joe Cornish being attached, who — since debuting so strongly with Attack the Block — has been attached to a lot of projects, only really producing the under-seen The Kid Who Would Be King and the mostly forgettable Lockwood & Co. show for Netflix. Sure, he scripted the great Tintin movie, and was half responsible for the Edgar Wright-era Ant Man script, but, besides that, it’s just been rumored project after rumored project.
4. Live-Action? Really?

I don’t know if I’m a pessimist, but something about this reeks of “Oh crap, we need to show LEGO we’re working on something so they renew our deal next year.”

But maybe I’m wrong and these movies will be good.

Samantha Cole, 404 Media:

But many stayed at Automattic even though they didn’t agree with Mullenweg’s actions, telling 404 Media they remained due to financial strain or the challenging job market. Several employees who remained at the company describe a culture of paranoia and fear for those still there.

“Overall, the environment is now full of people who unequivocally support Matt’s actions, and people who couldn’t leave because of financial reasons (and those are mostly silent),” one Automattic employee told me.

The current and former Automattic employees I spoke to for this article did so under the condition of anonymity, out of concerns about retaliation from Mullenweg.

What an absolute mess. Feeling all the happier I moved everything to Micro.blog earlier this year.

I find it somewhat ironic that Matt Mullenweg so regularly attacks David Heinemeier Hansson from 37signals, when they both now have absolutely shown their ass online, offered buyouts, and are stunned to see just how bad they screwed up with their employees.

Fix your shit, Matt.

Huw, Brickset:

Today, the LEGO Group reveals the launch of the LEGO Marvel X-Men: The X-Mansion Buildable Set. Get ready to answer Professor X’s call as this set will telepathically transmit you straight into the LEGO brick heart of the X-Men universe.

With 3,093 pieces, this immersive, creative construction project gives adults a chance to unwind and lose themselves as they build a lasting model of an essential and recurring part of Marvel’s much loved X-Men stories: The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

After many, many leaks the last few weeks, LEGO confirms the most poorly held secret in some time and has officially revealed their latest massive scale set – the X-Mansion from X-Men.

Some of the rooms look a little small, and the $330 price is quite eye-watering, but if you’re a fan of X-Men, it’s hard to not want to get one of these.

I’m sure someone out there will have this, the Daily Bugle set, the Avengers Tower and the SHIELD Helicarrier to have a massive Marvel LEGO Universe in their home.

Netflix on YouTube:

Set in the aftermath of a robot uprising in an alternate version of the ’90s, The Electric State follows an orphaned teenager who ventures across the American West with a cartoon-inspired robot, a smuggler, and his sidekick in search of her younger brother. The film stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Norman, with Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci. Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria, Colman Domingo and Alan Tudyk join the cast in voice roles. THE ELECTRIC STATE premieres globally on Netflix MARCH 14.

If nothing else, they’ve nailed the aesthetic of the original book by Simon Stalenhag. We’ll see how the script works out.

I do have to admit, I laughed pretty hard at The Gray Man being listed alongside all those Marvel movies as if it was an equivalent success by the Russo Brothers. Keep trying, Netflix, keep trying.

Michael McWhertor, Polygon:

Sunderfolk is inspired by tabletop games like Gloomhaven and Dungeons & Dragons, said head of Secret Door (and hardcore tabletop game enthusiast) Chris Sigaty at a recent hands-on event in New York. The developers behind Sunderfolk were inspired by the depth and inclusiveness of those games, while also recognizing their shortcomings.

“We’ve worked on games like StarCraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone,” Sigaty said, “and one of the things we realized upfront was that we didn’t want to start with a competitive game. Even though we love and have a lot of knowledge in that space, we wanted to focus on something that was connective or collaborative. We found that we were having the most connective moments actually around a board game table, playing things like Dungeons & Dragons and board games of all sorts, and that our passion was in this space of tabletop gaming.”

But, Sigaty acknowledged, many tabletop games require reading through thick manuals paired with lengthy setup and breakdown times. In a strategic card-based tabletop game like Gloomhaven or Frosthaven, new players may spend hours unpacking the box, learning the rules, and cleaning up, instead of spending that time actually playing.

With Sunderfolk, Secret Door hopes to address those obstacles to fun.

What a promising sounding game and experience. The pedigree alone sells it, but the idea of a full RPG experience with limited setup time and an ease of gameplay for newbies sounds like a massive win, speaking as someone who got into tabletop during COVID.

An aside though, what timing of this being revealed the same week as the release of Jason Schreier’s Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, which I’ve been reading this week and is fantastic.

Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline:

Here’s a really cool project that just got greenlit at DC Studios and Warner Bros Pictures Animation: Dynamic Duo.

It will mark the first joint project between DC Studios and the Bill Damaschke-led WBPA.

The 6th & Idaho movie scripted by Matthew Aldrich is being made by a new animation studio out of New Orleans named Swaybox and that studio’s husband-and-wife creators Arthur Mintz and Theresa Andersson. Mintz will direct this movie, which follows the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins.

Note the storyline here isn’t connected to Matt Reeves’ Batman and The Penguin canon.

Swaybox uses a technology known as “Momo animation,” which is a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance. The result is long-form storytelling billed as visually breathtaking, dynamically expressive and more human.

This might just be the most interesting idea to come out of the Warner Bros/DC filmography so far. Incredibly intrigued by the idea of how the animation works, and I really want to see it in motion.

Also, having the focus on the Robins (plural) is a very much untapped part of the DC Comics legacy which they’d do well to mine on film.

James Gunn had the following to say about it on socials:

Over the moon excited to announce the newest DC Studios/Warner Bros Pictures Animation greenlit film for theaters, DYNAMIC DUO, the story of Robin… or should I say, Robins, as in Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. The first feature film from the visionary Swaybox, a mix of animation, puppetry, and CGI, a script from the wonderfully talented Matt Aldrich, produced with our partners at Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho. This is something special.

I recognize that Gunn has to do this at this point, being the Feige of sorts over at DC Studios, but with his track record, if he’s praising it, I’m ever more intrigued.

No release date or other information available at this time, but I’m going to be thinking about the possibilities and hoping its as awesome as it seems promising right now.

Pete Wells, The New York Times:

Today, the chicken tender is not just familiar. It is triumphant. It is a fixture of school lunches and kids’ menus, of all-night diners and gas stations. It can be found at airports, food courts and stadiums. It is a major reason for the double-digit sales growth that Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, Raising Cane’s and other chicken-centric chains have reported for five straight years.

Along the way, the chicken tender has become a symbol, although its meaning is hard to pin down. It can be an icon of simple, straightforward, unpretentious American taste. It can also be an expression of dull, unadventurous food engineered for the lowest common denominator. Restaurants, in their drive to stand out, have expended great effort devising crunchier breading, zestier dipping sauces, more tender tenders. And yet all the sauces in the world will never quite dispel the suspicion that the tender itself is, at heart, not very exciting.

What a better lunchtime read than that about the humble Chicken Tender?

Btw, the best Tenders? In my humble opinion: Spanky’s in Savannah, GA. Get their honey horseradish sauce and their spuds on the side? That’s a great time in a great city.

Here goes, it’s Take Time™, with your host, me, Marty Day.

Last night into this morning, the internet was ablaze over the latest iPhone review from MKBHD. Not for the review itself, but rather that he used his platform to have the video sponsored by his new app, Panels.

First and foremost, I think it’s fine that he featured the app in the video. He frequently has segments in his videos for a sponsor. It just so happens that this sponsor was, well, himself.

The backlash began, however, as the app is a Wallpaper app which features the following elements:

• A free version with ads, which allows you to download lower resolution wallpapers after watching x number of ads.
• The ability to buy certain packs of wallpapers (averaging at $8 a pop)
• “Panels+”, a monthly subscription ($11.99) or yearly subscription ($49.99), to get higher resolution wallpapers, and the ability to download, well, all of the wallpapers you want.

The arguments I’ve seen against this have been…

• The inclusion of ads (and the data requirements related to them) are scummy.
• $50/yr or $12/mo is insane.
• Marques has enough money as it is
• I should just download wallpapers for free
• Isn’t some of this just AI generated?

In short, dude has been thrown against the wall, and now everyone’s popping up to say how scummy he is, how he’s never been good, etc.

I think – like many arguments online – the answer is, unfortunately for the screaming hordes, actually somewhere in the middle.

I think Marques Brownlee is very very good at what he does, and success has befallen him accordingly. His tech videos are slick, extremely well produced, and while many are to say he’s a shill for x company or y software, I feel like he’s been even handed. I’m not an avid watcher of his content, but I’ve always enjoyed what I’ve watched.

I also know that over the years, his comments have been filled with asks for the different wallpapers he’s used. People LOVE his taste in wallpapers. So he probably saw an opportunity to make something for those people. (In fact, he may have previously had a connection to the app Backdrops, given that they’ve featured the wallpapers he’s used in his videos/he featured wallpapers from the app in his videos). It’s the decisions made from there which are a mixed bag. And MIXED is the appropriate word.

For each argument, I think there’s a valid response. This isn’t – I think – a scenario of the guy going totally awful on his fandom, a cash grab, etc.

Ads (and their tracking) are scummy. No disagreement. And I say that having had worked in the affiliate world for nearly a decade. However, apps cost money to be developed, and the concept is that the artists receive a cut of the monies generated. People are also really against paying for apps. They want to try before they buy, sometimes never ever buy, so the best route you can go is…ads. Just like the rest of the web. It absolutely sucks, but its been the only consistently viable way for online properties to make money. And it’s been getting worse and worse for creators just the same.

$50/yr or $12/mo is insane. Is it really? By comparison, artists regularly sell wallpaper packs on services like Gumroad for $5 (at least)/each. I know this, I buy them. Add the 30% cut which Apple and Google take, and it’s not all that different, especially if you consider app development costs.

Marques has enough money as it is. Yes. Dude is successful, has a studio, fancy cars, the latest tech, etc. But this is a Capitalistic society. People do things to make money. No one is really out here doing things altruistically. Would it be cool if this was a scenario where the app was free, and he just paid artists to have wallpapers up on there? I guess. But that’s a wacky business plan, for sure.

I should just download wallpapers for free. Cool. Please feel free to continue to do so.

You’re not entitled to something because it’s on the internet. No different than the point I’ve been driving with streaming services, none of this is a public right or domain. People make things. It costs money to make things. To continue to make things, they need to be paid. Do you go to your job for free? Once again, I say I’m Sorry, But Things Cost Money.

Sure, everything has waste, I think the entire world of million dollar execs while their employees make pennies is a fucking mess, but to make things, money needs to be exchanged. You don’t get food based on exposure.

Isn’t some of this just AI generated? And this is the other, 100% valid, concern. If this is the handpicked, premium wallpaper app filled with artwork by proper artists…the art should be from proper artists. At the very least, AI generated art needs to be flagged.All and all, I think the concerns are part of the standard give-and-take we have with things online lately. People hate ads, but it’s the only consistent way to make money. People hate costs, or costs going up, but many times: if money’s not made, things won’t be created anymore.I did want to take the time to spotlight an alternative here. Full disclosure, I’m a regular Patreon supporter of the org, but the team at The Iconfactory have a fantastic app called Wallaroo. It’s $20/year, all the art is made BY ARTISTS, and it funds their continued development of really great software. If you want to spend your money, this might be a better place…but at the end of the day? I don’t think Marques really did anything wrong.

Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube

A new vision of fear from director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. #SinnersMovie - Only in theaters March 7. #shotwithimaxfilmcameras

From Ryan Coogler—director of “Black Panther” and “Creed”—and starring Michael B. Jordan comes a new vision of fear: “Sinners.”

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

“You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”

Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Coogler, “Sinners” stars Jordan (the “Black Panther” and “Creed” franchises) in a dual role, joined by Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld (“Bumblebee,” “True Grit”), Jack O’Connell (“Ferrari”), Wunmi Mosaku (“Passenger”), Jayme Lawson (“The Woman King”), Omar Benson Miller (“True Lies”) and Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”).

Oh boy. Not only does this look great, but the track record of Coogler and Jordan, especially together, is pretty well untarnished.

WB must be feeling pretty confident too, given that they’re hyping it 6 months out.

Day One!

Ask the Developer Vol. 13, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom — Part 1

Terada: We were exploring a few different ways to play the game in parallel. In one approach, Link could copy and paste various objects, such as doors and candlesticks, to create original dungeons. During this exploration phase, this idea was called an “edit dungeon” because players could create their own Legend of Zelda gameplay.

Aonuma: They showed it to me and told me to give it a try. As I played, I started thinking that while it’s fun to create your own dungeon and let other people play it, it’s also not so bad to place items that can be copied and pasted in the game field, and create gameplay where they can be used to fight enemies. That was the beginning of gameplay using “echoes.” The gameplay was shifted from creating dungeons up until then to using copied-and-pasted items as tools to further your own adventure.

Pulled from the latest installment of the Ask the Developer series which Nintendo does around the release of their big first-party games. I may be reading this wrong, but it certainly sounds to me like the original intent for the game, at least in its early form, was to be able to create (and maybe share?) their own Zelda dungeons. So, basically Mario Maker but for The Legend of Zelda.

I just want to put it out there, Nintendo – if you still have an inkling to do this, I’m all for it. Especially if the cool, almost claymation-like visual style from the Link’s Awakening Remake and Echoes of Wisdom were in use.

Marvel Entertainment on YouTube:

Careful who you assemble. Marvel Studios’ #Thunderbolts* is only in theaters May 2025.

Did not expect this to drop today! But it does a great job setting up Thunderbolts* as a unique, harder-tinged installment of the ever ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One of my favorite elements of Black Widow was the chemistry and humor between Florence Pugh’s Yelena and David Harbour’s Alexei, so it’s great to see the same returned here. Wyatt Russel’s beard is a good look, and overall, I like the “people looking for something bigger and greater than themselves” concept. Plus, a Pixies needledrop is an easy win for me.

That said, here comes the “It looks like Suicide Squad” takes.

Optimistic about this one! We’ll see next Summer.

Thunderbolts hits theaters on May 2, 2025.*

Luke Winkie, Slate:

In just four games in January 2023, Yogesh Raut became an overnight Jeopardy! sensation. In a sign of the times for the show, his ascendance had as much to do with his bluster as it did with his knowing the clues. It was clear he was exceptionally good at quizzing from the moment he took the podium, and between his three initial victories, he totaled nearly $100,000 in winnings. But Jeopardy! fans were especially captivated by Raut’s offbeat demeanor on stage: the violence with which he smacked his buzzer, the confidence with which he taunted flashy luminaries like James Holzhauer. Most memorably, when Raut’s winning streak came to an end, he took to Facebook and wrote a lengthy, difficult-to-parse essay asserting that Jeopardy! and its fandom were a necrotic presence in the world of trivia—specifically that the show is “bad for women and POC who want to be treated with the same level of dignity as their White male counterparts.”

Jeopardy! is a “glorified reality show,” and the aura around it is “fundamentally incompatible with incentivizing the next generation of quizzers to excel,” Raut wrote. “It is fundamentally incompatible with true social justice.”

It does not take much to rankle the librarian-like dictums of Jeopardy! nation, and a former champion taking aim at the show on social media was more than enough for the community to settle on a brand-new villain. “What is ‘Sour Grapes,’ Ken?” went one response to Raut’s post. “He only holds it in such low esteem because he didn’t do as well as he was expected to do,” another fan wrote. So when Raut was invited to the annual Tournament of Champions that was held last spring, fans took note of his impending return. In February, in a story about the deluge of special tournaments that had taken over the show’s programming, I briefly mentioned in a parenthetical that Raut was set to come back to the show he had roasted: “Remember three-time champion Yogesh Raut, who trashed the show after his appearances? He’s back next week!”

That’s when things got weird.

Fascinating read this morning. Whether you agree or disagree with Raut’s perspective on trivia and the games which he plays, this is one of those articles where the iceberg seems to get deeper and deeper the more below the surface you go.

As a Jeopardy! fan, and a Jeopardy! hopeful, this was a must read, but I think everyone’s gonna end up fascinated here. It’s a story of trivia teams, anger, distrust, vengeance, revenge and more. And I never thought those terms would go together.

Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube:

What’s it feel like to die? From director Bong Joon Ho, comes Mickey 17 - only in theaters January 31, 2025. #Mickey17

From the Academy Award-winning writer/director of “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho, comes his next groundbreaking cinematic experience, “Mickey 17.” The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.

I’ve been VERY MUCH looking forward to this once it was announced – I adored the original book its based on, Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, and when you have one of my favorite directors (Bong Joon-Ho) matched with someone who is becoming one of my favorite actors (Robert Pattinson), it’s a recipe for greatness.

Just two bits though…

• Why is it Mickey 17 and not Mickey7?
• Why is this movie coming out in January, which has traditionally been the dumping ground of bad movies?

Mickey 17 hits theaters on January 31th, 2025.