Media Diet (Summer 2026)
I’m doing my best to replace the ever present tug of the digital doom scroll with enjoyable things. Here’s some things I’ve listened to, watched, played or read recently.
Music
Social Distortion, Born to Kill
It’s been 15 years since their last album and this one is stacked with (as the kids say) absolute bangers. Pick scrapes, palm mutes and pinched harmonics intact.
The Menzingers, Everything I Ever Saw
Every year or so these dudes kick out an amazing album with hooks and melodies you can’t get out of your head.
Movies and Shows
Spider-Man Brand New Day
This was awesome. Best Tom Holland Spidey flick? Definitely worth seeing in the theater.
Pluribus - Apple TV kicks out great sci-fi. Interested to see where they take this. You know it’s well done when everyone thinks it’s “really about” something different.
Alien Earth
Amazing production design and direction. I've only watched the first handful of episodes and the aliens aren’t even the most interesting part so far.
Fantastic Four
This was okay? Felt like a retread of other Marvel movies (plus Incredibles).
Kindergarten Cop
Jessica and Harrison hadn't seen this! Some stuff is cringe but it mostly holds up. Thoroughly enjoyed on fam movie night.
Princess Bride
First time Harrison saw this! Timeless movie? As you wish.
Video Games
Hearthstone
I hadn’t played in bit but I recently came back to it. Fun and addictive. My wife calls this “Nerd Cards”
Halo Infinite Multiplayer
They have added so much to this since launch. Still a decent online population as far as I can tell? And if that goes away, you can run private servers and play with bots (the good kind - not the steal your content kind).
Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Absolum
Two fun retro co-op beat ‘em ups. Harrison and I have had fun with these.
Minishoot’ Adventures
Combination of OG Legend of Zelda and a top down twin stick shooter! Good enough for me to forgive the weird apostrophe. The sequel *really* needs co-op.
Board Games
Ticket to Ride Europe
We like the junior version of this game so we decided to bump up to the big boy version which is even better!
Pandemic
Still love this co-op game though it hits different after living through an actual pandemic. As others have said, this game now feels wildly optimistic.
Books
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Took me a bit to get into this but it has some fun twists. Taking the fam to see the play when it comes to SLC this year.
The Land and Its People, David Sedaris
Whenever Sedaris puts out a new book of essays I gobble it up in a couple of days. His interactions with AI are particularly amusing.