2023 Recap

 What did I watch/read/play? No particular order. And just what comes to mind by being exceptionally memorable, which can be a good or a bad thing. Let's go!

TV shows

Sanctuary was awesome. It's on Netflix, find it, watch it. I never knew much about Sumo but the show is amazing and has a dry sense of humor I really enjoyed. Also it's one of the very few times where forming a team takes the time it should and actually feels earned and hard-won in the end. Cool show, nice acting, interesting setting.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance filled the last quarter of the year for my older son and me. It's been out for a couple of years but I wasn't that much into it, having no nostalgic memories of the movie (watched it first time in my early 20s, I think) and lacking someone who could watch it with me. Now my first-born is old enough and we both got really into it, not just on the in-world-level but also as content creators ourselves, appreciating the puppetry and the set-building that went into that show. It's amazing what they did - but at the same time I understand that something that cost 10 million dollars per episode won't get a second season. Which is sad but also I don't really want to see all the gelflings die so I guess it's fine in the end.

Books

I did do a lot of reading this year, some in my native German (Das Paradies am Rand der Stadt by Volker Strübing should be mentioned - nice sci-fi-story where the AI apocalypse is actually not that horrible, all things considered) and in English. For the sake of my readers I will talk (briefly) about three English-language books that stuck to my memory (all of them can be found for free on the net!):

Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas is a very cool, almost too hip, entry into both beat-literature and Lovecraft lore. Written in the first person as one of the beat-literature heroes (a genre I had no knowledge of beforehands and that feels very much up its own ass but who am I to judge 1950s counter culture?), the book vaguely tells the story of a Cthulhu-apocalypse. It's vivid, it's confusing, it's at time actually horrifying - I liked it.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allen Poe. Don't judge me for reading it in my late 30s - how many of the 'great classics' of another culture have you read? Nah, let's talk about the book and its seventh-continent-narrative. Parts of it were very readable, the mutiny-adventure on the high seas, the exploration of unexplored lands - but it felt like the author wanted to also write a textbook on sailing and the nature and wildlife of the subarctic and needlessly sprinkled that into his adventure-novel. The first half of the 19th century was weird, man.

The Brick Moon by Edward Everett Hale. Speaking of the weirdness of the 19th century. In this early scifi-book, they build a satellite (a sphere made of bricks, intended to be a visible navigational aid for those on the ground). It's made out of bricks in order to survive the heat-friction of launch. The launch accidentally comes too early (they have a huge machine for that, somewhat like a ball-shooter on a tennis court) and there are people inside it. The book mixes visionary ideas well ahead of their time (navigation by means of multiple artificial moons) with the quaintness of American life in the 19th century (the narrator is appalled whten the people on the brick moon don't care about a split in their specific branch of christian sect back home) and some very hard misunderstandings on scientific matters of the time (because of Darwin's theory of evolution, the inhabitants of the brick moon are able to quickly breed all matter of earth-plants from the lichen that was aboard. Orbital mechanics are very wonky). It's interesting to read as a piece of history.

Video Games

There was the usual comfort-food (Streets of Rogue, FTL, Into the Breach) and then there were games I played with my kids (Lego City Undercover, which is Lego GTA; Mario Maker 2; Unravel Two, which is beautiful and makes me yearn for another holiday in Sweden).

I also got back into Trancendence and finally bought the full version of the game. Still a great game, I admire what George Moromisato did by building this entire paracosm and giving us as players a way to experience it. Still have to go further into the 'new' aspects of the game but I like what I see.

Board Games

I played a lot of stuff I made myself this year. Also chess. Not much to report, thus.

Crafting

I made Chrome Dungeon which is a board game for up to four players that I really enjoy. Will make a post about it some time in the future.

Podcasts

My long-time heard favourite German podcast Brennerpass finally made its last episode. I had a sort of love-hate-relationship with the main host so it's alright, I guess. It does leave a gap in my life though. Corey Doctorow's podcast is sometimes very good, sometimes trivial, sometimes annoying, but the man has a manic energy and seems to always work in ways that require days to have at least 40 hours. 99 percent invisible is recommended to any human being interested in the world at all, I love it still. Role Playing Public Radio is a bit too newfangled for me but the Delta Green series is very well made and entertaining. Bad Books for Bad People is probably my favourite podcast this year. Go listen to it.

Music

2023 will be the year I discovered Ümmet Özcan. The man makes music that touches my soul and brings vibes from the central Asian steppes that I really enjoy. Check out his collab with Otyken and you get the soundtrack to my very first role playing campaign. Or do shrooms and then watch the video to Kalimba (which is a piece of art that would probably have been some animator's life work in the pre-AI era that ended a year ago).

The Rest

Didn't really watch an movie that stuck to memory last year. A late-contender could be Rebel Moon, which I watched in the first days of 2024. I find it surprisingly good. I mean it's supposed to be Zack Snyder's Star Wars. And comparing it to that franchise I must say that it's a passable entry. Better than Episodes 1, 2, 3 and 8. Didn't watch Episode 9 or the Han Solo movie though. Because I heard they sucked and I had given up on Star Wars at that point. So, new franchise, new luck.

I also finished writing my first book. Here's to finding a publisher (in German) who is willing to publish retro-pulp adventure that is basically Indiana Jones with more historical accuracy (besides supernatural elements) and explicit sex scenes. We shall see how it fares.

So that was 2023. We'll see what 2024 brings. See ya'll!