Ayyy that's my so-often unreliable state getting called for the good guys within the hour.

Running down the same hallway in Silksong over and over to get my butt kicked by some ants. Remarkably, still enjoying the game.

I would like to thank the overly enthusiastic users of Sketchfab's many, many interiors for most of my scene planning and layout this year.

I would like to thank the videogame streamers who do probably too long of streams packaged for VODs for my second screen listening as I work too late every night on pages for Comictober.

So far, Silksong mainly makes my hands hurt.

Nothing quite like walking around a city midweek after dark. Just the most random assemblage of people making their way out of downtown and to anywhere else.

Saw the "Animation Mixtape" curated by Don Hertzfeldt at the local art house theater downtown and enjoyed the breadth of styles and periods. Hard to pick a favorite, but I did love the simple figures contrasted with complex rendered objects in "Wednesday with Goddard."

Now available online in english: Naoki Urasawa interviewing Katsuhiro Otomo about his work and his manga "Domu" during one hour. "Manben" is such a great TV program. >> www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

Saw the new 4k restoration of "Sanjuro" at the art theater downtown, and that is a very breezy little political drama absolutely elevated by Mifune's charisma as the ronin-with-no-name. What I especially noticed was the very deliberate and almost play-like blocking in scenes. Clarity above all.

Trying to determine whether to get the Switch or Steam version of Silksong based entirely on the imagined scenario of whether I'll ever play this game while traveling.

Went and saw the new Fantastic Four movie and I enjoyed myself. The retrofuturist aesthetic is quite excellent, and it was a good, fun romp in that world. Interesting choices where to connect the stories (who this silver surfer is, the weird mess that is Franklin) that I'm curious to see develop.

Delicious in Dungeon / Ryoko Kui Exhibition is coming to New York (October 10-26, Chelsea Walls gallery).

If this actually turns out to be nothing much more than what's already been revealed it would be disappointing, but also very funny so I'm torn.

Just got to see "Throne of Blood" at the downtown art theater, having only known it before by reputation, and I have two thoughts: 1) Pretty interesting adaptation and localization of the Macbeth story. 2) Wow there are some *long* and repeated shots in this movie. Always gets me with older films.

There is a food truck nearby where I work and it is dangerous to my minor attempts at health to be this close to fresh, on-demand churros.

At an Indian restaurant later at night and the random YouTube videos now contain clearly AI generated backgrounds. I feel like this is some kinda threshold.

Given that it's now on its own hosting, now's a great time to pick up a new webcomic with The Tigress Queen:

Is (political) content on social media just theater criticism? Signs, and overconfidence, continue to point to yes, from my niche vantage.

The slightly embarrassing feeling of finishing off a salad and suddenly really wanting a hotdog.

Finally saw "Wolfwalkers" at the little art theater downtown, and wow that's a gorgeous film. Especially true if you like supremely shapey designs (and effects!) and bold usage of color temperatures. Also, I think, the most narratively propulsive of Cartoon Saloon's Irish mythology-based films.

004: No way out but through.

Senate Republicans passed Trump's budget bill and it’s now heading back to the House. If it makes it past the House, 17 million people will lose their health care. Text CALL to 43367 to get the info you need to call your Congressperson’s office.

Media (including social media) incentives abhor nuance and tradeoffs, and I don’t know what the answer is or could be so I’m going to buy groceries and do laundry instead.

The script in this episode felt way more naturalistic and even improvisational at times. It does a lot to deliver the sense of a cast coming to understand each other more. Plus, the animators have clearly come to understand the pipeline better since the movement and editing seem way more confident.

1. Call your reps about Trump's violation of the War Powers Act 2. Demand Congress haul Hegseth etc. in for hearings/briefings on justification 3. Demand to know why the Gang of Eight was not kept in the loop. Do it NOW.

I like a lot of things in the Donkey Kong Bananza direct, but I am actually a little bummed that you don't just have a cool rock friend.

Was walking downtown in Pittsburgh passing by the back of a theater building when I heard a "heh huh heh heh" and turned to see Seth Rogen jumping into a van, departing what I learned was a filming location.

Stan Sakai is one of the most consistently good artists to ever do it and he’s still doing it, so get caught up on his magnum opus.

003:

Board Game Arena has informed me that I've played over 1000 games of 7 Wonders and you'd think I'd be better at it by this point.

Finally finished "Wind Breaker" season one so that I can move on to the second, and man… there's just such a care to the choreography of even unimportant fights that it really highlights how little so many creators and directors put thought into the how and why of stupid kids punching each other.

There are many serious and important things happening, but also a game about a detective who is a duck also just got released, which may help you weather the other stuff.

DanDaDan remains, extremely good.

Mixed some pistachio milk I picked up on a lark with some mango juice and shook it over ice. A nice, creamy, fruity drink for a surprisingly hot day. Froths nicely with seltzer.

Blind Alley No. 372

I know it has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo in either the American or Puebla, Mexico context, but I'd like to take the tangential opportunity to share "Revoltoso" which is an excellent example of Mexican stop-motion film: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUG-...

bunny

Psychonauts was released exactly 20 years ago today! So proud of that little game! Thank you to all of you out there who enjoyed it and continue to spread the love! We have a fun little week planned with the big print and merch release this Monday. Love you all! @doublefine

Science Saru does certainly seem to be picking up a lot of adaptations these days, but given that Tomato Soup's design sensibilities already seemed suited to big, shapey animation I can't be too sad: www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2025-04...

A perhaps niche complaint: It's annoying to come back to a web project and find out that like half the parts of a supposed "static site" now require hunting down dependencies and rewriting build processes because of package nonsense. Why'd front-end work get so finicky?

Saw the 4k version of "Princess Mononoke" that's in theaters this weekend and a chunk of the next week in a surprisingly filled theater for 9:15pm on a Sunday. The people love meditations on violence. Still really pretty, especially those backgrounds. Heartily recommended if you get the chance.

Blind Alley No. 355

Assembling tracks for an upcoming TTRPG session and plugging instruments into Bandcamp hoping it can read my mind. Did find this though which was cool: viertaktmotor.bandcamp.com/track/furggu...

Listening to GBH's "Scratch & Win" really struck me with how the media playbook of the tax revolt (focusing only on costs) has been seemingly *the* unanswerable play because the obvious counter (articulating benefits paid for by those costs) are taken for granted until gone.

I know Arcs is hardly the first, but I am hoping to see more games play around with trick-taking as an engine to build on top of after seeing its success. boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35...

Bless Paranatural for having the feral id-child Johnny continue to live in only his way regardless of all the reality warping going around.

I have reached a place in "Balatro" very similar to what I reached in "Baba Is You" where I stare at the screen and feel like the dumbest human alive, because *surely* I can figure out what to do.

It may not seem like much, but calling, emailing, and even writing your representatives is a thing you can do now that isn't just staring at the anxiety rectangle. When they make statements on the floor or in front of cameras it's usually with a constituent anecdote, so you can be that anecdote.

I've never been particularly skilled at high dexterity challenges in video games, but in adulthood I feel like I've got a lot less time to muck around and just brute force things through sufficient repetition.

Merry Christmas, everyone.