Man, what a month. I thought January was bleak, yet February presented its own unique challenges. I was recently fed a comic by the artist Kate Leth on Instagram that succinctly captured how I’ve been feeling recently. There is so much soul crushing news happening constantly, paired with the typical degree of seasonal depression that comes about this time of year. I’ll admit, it’s made it exceedingly easy for me to just curl up and not do much of anything for the past month. I’ve seen multiple of my yearly resolutions start to flag as they so often do, and for all the bluster I put forth in the January roundup, it hasn’t led to much personal change or action on my part. Partly, these writings are as much a way to encourage myself to be better as they are an attempt to share content or pass along ideas. By striving for improvement, I hope to bring about changes in myself, and if I can change myself, then maybe I can bring about change elsewhere as well. If only it were so easy.

In this cold, dark month, I frequently found myself falling back on comfort and passivity. I watched 6 movies , 23 episodes of television, and 47 videos; I read 110 chapters of manga, 80 articles, 43 comics, and 1 book; and I listened to 146 podcasts. Putting on a podcast while I played an incremental game or team fight tactics became my preferred way to unwind. Instead of seeking out new content, the month became a game of maintenance, keeping up with all of my ongoing media rather than seeking out any sort of new content or engaging with anything challenging. It was easy to set aside books and to allow my email inbox to pile up with newsletters. The plan became to wait out the funk I was in rather than to take proactive steps to combat it.

Obviously, this didn’t work particularly well. Falling into passivity meant that while I enjoyed most of what I consumed, nothing was particularly memorable or impactful. Only 11 things crested the 4.5⭐ mark for me, and nothing landed above that (eventually I’ll explain my rating system in depth but a quick primer can be found here). Cutting back on activity didn’t preserve my energy, it just made me more lethargic and saw less get done. By the time I realized the trap I was falling into, the month had almost entirely passed me by. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. February is an easy month for this to pop up, and is known as the great killer of New Year’s resolutions. It’s cold, it’s dark, it’s short. It’s ironic that culture’s greatest celebration of love comes in a month so hated. Yet it’s important that I recognize the ways that I’ve strayed from the path that I’ve set for myself and to course correct rather than have February be a graveyard for my year’s hopes and dreams.

A few days ago, I was able to attend a poetry open mic hosted by a dear friend of mine where they performed pieces from their zine Unnamed Grief. I’d read multiple of the poems before, but seeing them performed live was an entirely different experience, and one that my friend was consciously trying to create. They did magic, pulled tarot, and ended the night with audience members each reading a couplet of a larger poem. It was a night centered on emotion, artistry, and community. While there, I saw friends from college who I hadn’t seen in years, some of whom performed at the open mic. When I’d last seen them, the idea that they might one day be writing and performing poetry, a good poetry at that, would have never crossed my mind. Elsewhere, a different peer has started their own newsletter, Transing Boundaries, dealing with the intersection of religion, queerness, and politics. I’ve been consistently amazed by the quality of the writing and the depth of the commentary present in the pieces.

Seeing these two people I know bare their souls to the public and do so so excellently has been extremely helpful in helping me recenter. The past month was difficult for me, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And that was without any particular hardship impacting my own life. I’ve spent the past month just trying to wait things out, for things to change without any effort on my part. But as I’ve had to learn time and time again throughout life, change needs to come from within. Growing up, I know we all heard the term “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” The actual Gandhi quote is this: “"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.” It’s not enough to simply wait for things to get better. If you want things to be better, make yourself better. This is a lesson I consistently return to and relearn as it isn’t something that comes naturally to me. I lean towards passivity and isolation, often tricking myself into believing that this is what I want. As I move forward in the year, I want to push back against this instinct, and if these feelings are something that you can relate to, I encourage you to do the same. Find community, find meaning, fight back. That’s the most any of us can do. Now onto the recap of last month

The Best of Movies

In the Shadow of the Cypress was by far the best movie I saw this past month. This touching story of trauma and family really managed to impress me in how it used animation to tell its story without using any dialogue. Everything about this story felt so incredibly intentional and well-crafted, with its use of shape, color, and sound. To tell such a deep story well in a mere 20 minutes is no small feat, and this is one of if not the best short films I’ve ever seen. It seems stuck in distribution limbo currently, but I hope that after getting its Oscar nod, the film becomes more accessible. If you have a chance, please do go see it.

Aside from that movie, there’s not much else to talk on. My thoughts on the other Oscar animated shorts came out last week and I feel that I don’t have much more to add. I will say that with a little more distance, I think Beautiful Men will be the runner up on what sticks with me the most, even if I think the initial star rating of the piece is appropriate. The only other movie I watched all the way through this month was Jack Reacher starring Tom Cruise, but I’ll save most of my thoughts on that movie for my upcoming Reacher Retrospective. I don’t encourage anyone to go watch that movie though, so take from that what you will on how I felt about the movie.

The Best of TV

Despite my growing reservations on this media property, season 2 of Reacher was my favorite TV experience of the month. More details to come, but the show manages to balance the problematic aspects of the character better than the books or movies seem to be able to do, and it’s a pretty classic example of competence porn. Reacher is presented as such an overwhelming, oppressive force, it makes the audience thankful that he’s one of the good guys (as debatable a label as that may be). He is less a man than he is a force of nature, an incarnation of vengeance. There’s a seen where he kicks a car so hard it’s airbags deploy for god’s sake. There’s a lot to criticize about the themes of this story, but I can’t deny the sense of schadenfreude that comes once the villains realize that Reacher is coming for them. It’s well constructed, well shot, and absolutely brutal. If nothing else, I think there are good lessons to take on how well the action of this show is shot and constructed.

Elsewhere, I’ve been grateful to see the two sitcoms I follow, Ghosts and Abbott Elementary, pick back up after having pretty lackluster starts to their fourth seasons. Since the midseason break, both shows have been putting out pretty great episodes, with some standouts being Ghost s4e11 where the ghosts return to therapy, and Abbott Elementary s4e12 where the school is invited to a local golf course for not so altruistic reasons.

Lastly, I watched a couple episodes of Pop Culture Jeopardy. It’s an incredibly messy show, and it misses a lot of the tightness and focus that makes the original shine. I want to be clear that I don’t think the reason for this is the content of the questions. Jeopardy! has always heavily leaned on pop culture in its questions, and if anything the spinoff struggles to differentiate its questions and categories enough from the original. The changes that it does make, mainly the team format, just do not seem to be landing for me. Despite saying this, I’m still having a good time, namely because of host Colin Jost. Colin has a level of charisma and charm that is sadly lacking from Ken Jennings. Colin does this not by aping the grace and poise that Alex Trebek had, but rather by taking a more jovial, informal, and frequently deprecating tone, both towards himself and the players. While I think the team format detracts from the show as a quiz show, it does help give the players an added level of confidence and seeing the teams celebrate their victories or agonize over their mistakes does help to improve the viewing experience. These touches help to string the show along in a way that continues to be entertaining, even if I think as a quiz show its fairly weak.

The Best of Video

As touched on, for the most part I leaned on comfort when it came to videos this past month. This led me to rewatching one of my favorite videos, Brian David Gilbert’s Perfect Pokerap. Seeing BDG break down exactly why his song is going to be so good, and then performing it in front of a live audience is truly a marvel to behold. I miss seeing BDG put out on Unraveled, but I’m glad that he’s moved on to pursuits that better aid his creative passions. Part of why I returned to this video though was seeing Sung Won Cho (better known as ProZD) put out a video where he and two friends manage to list all 1025 Pokemon from memory. It’s a video that manages to scratch at the most obsessive parts of my mind. Speaking of obsessiveness, at this point I’ve watched 80 of the 130 videos that NorthernLion has put out covering the the Bazaar. At this point, the routine of watching everyone’s favorite egg go through this semi-competitive autobattler.

The Best of Podcasts

There were two podcasts that really stole my attention this past month. First, the Video Game History Foundation released an episode of their show the Video Game History Hour detailing the creation of their online library archiving video game magazines. These magazines were incredibly important to making the medium what it is today, yet there’s not been a great effort to preserve these magazines. The state of games preservation in general is pretty dire, and the preservation of the coverage around the medium is even more sparse. I care deeply, probably too deeply, about media preservation. To see the next great entertainment medium fall prey to the same traps as the movie industry did a century go is incredibly frustrating! So it always warms my heart to see the incredible work the Foundation is doing. This episode is an incredibly technical piece where the Foundation Director, Librarian, and technical volunteers talking about the creation of this digital toolset. It’s in the weeds in a way that I really love, and it does a good job of conveying the genuine pride the crew takes in their work, as well as the frustration they feel at the lack of care companies and the government take in joining their efforts. Hopefully they are comforted by how well received the venture has been.

The other piece that blew me away was this podcast by Panic World about the rise of online dating, and how overtime these sites became just as bad as every other social site on the internet. This piece was a bummer, because my own relationship started because of dating sites, in spite of the odds. Hearing how increasingly slim chances are that others find that sort of success is disheartening but also fascinating. The episode touches not just on the apps and how they shape how dating works, but they also touch on general societal trends regarding relationships and promiscuity. It’s an incredible dive into the psyche of generations, because sex is foundational to society and technological change. While there’s a general joking tone throughout the piece, the host and his guest recognize how increasingly difficult it is to meet and connect with people, and that’s something they take very seriously. There is no separating the impact the online world has on everyday life, and this episode and this show generally do a great job of breaking down that process.

The Best of Comics

I’ve always been a fan of how cute, simple, and sweet the comics of Irish artist Niall Breen are. But this recent comic of his spoke to me on a deeply personal level. Elsewhere, I’ve recently started the webtoon Of Swamp and Sea, a supernatural series about a monster hunter and the woman who hired him. The series seems promising but while enjoyable has yet to wow me. Other than that, it’s been a somewhat slow month for comics, but some series are approaching a climactic moment in the coming month.

The Best of Manga

Shiba Inu Rooms is quickly becoming one of the strongest, most heartfelt series I’ve seen in a long time. The series follows an outwardly cold but incredibly sensitive teenager who moves into an apartment haunted by the spirits of dogs killed in a puppy mill incident. These dogs are bound to each apartment unit, and have gained the ability to speak in death. Despite how bleak this premise sounds, what plays out in practice is an incredibly sweet sitcom about the joys and challenges of pet ownership. The only catch is what would happen if your pet could actually talk to you? Pet ownership frequently plays out as a type of pseudo parenthood, and this series certainly plays on those dynamics, often having the dogs emotionally manipulate their owners in childlike ways. Yet there is a heart and sincerity to what happens, tied with a bouncy, vibrant art style that consistently tugs at my heart strings. This series isn’t doing anything narratively special or complex, but it is a great example of performing the fundamentals flawlessly.

Show-ha Shoten has continued its recent hot streak by having its heroes reach the pinnacle of their comedy dreams. All they have to do now is maintain their spot. I really appreciate the way the series breaks down the technique and process of comedy to show that it requires more than simply saying what you think others will find funny. One Piece is cashing in 30 years worth narrative building to great effect, tying together mysteries, introducing long rumored characters, and closing the door on past traumas as the crew ventures through the land of the giants. It’s never been more clear that Oda is genuinely trying to bring the series to a close, and if he keeps at the current quality, the series is going to end spectacularly. Akane-banashi has managed to assuage my fears that a recent time skip would lead to narrative inconsistencies or a drop in quality. Blue Lock appears to be bringing its soccer drama to a finale with an explosive finish to the most recent game.

The Best of Articles

As mentioned at the top of the article, the best pieces of writing I’ve come across this month have all come from my former schoolmate Kat Grant at their newsletter Transing Boundaries. Frankly, Kat and I never interacted that much while we went to school together, although we had similar interests and values and existed in similar social spaces. When I’d heard they went on to join the Freedom From Religion Foundation, I’ll admit that I made some judgments about the choice. I had assumed that they were likely anti-religious establishment, possibly atheist, and that they felt that we had too much religion in society. Having now read their newsletter, I’m realizing that this was mistaken. While yes, it is true that someone working for the Freedom From Religion Foundation does feel that religion too strongly influences our political systems, what comes across in all their writing is in fact the deep respect that they have for religion and the simmering rage and frustration they feel in seeing individuals distort religion for personal gain. Their piece “On the Altar of Hard Science” particularly spoke to me as someone who was once falling down the very rabbit hole they describe.

404 Media continues to be some of the most impactful journalism in the game. They released a trio of pieces about the impacts of AI writing on the publishing industry. The first dealt with Hoopla’s failure to cull AI slop from its digital repository, the second with how AI summaries are quickly and efficiently stealing the work of most authors including the author of the piece, and finally how Hoopla made a promise to better curate book summaries after being called out. 404 consistently manages to punch above their weight in both the quality and frequency of their pieces, and they’re one of my favorite sites to get the news from. After a month where it was hard to read any news, 404 was one of the few places I never ignored.

That’s the wrap-up for February. Can’t say I’m sorry to see it pass. I wish I had some book recommendations, but unfortunately the only book I managed to finish was a piece of self-help BS I had to read for work. I hope none of you have to endure the same. March will probably be a month dedicated to Reacher, which I apologize for in advance. Hopefully you will all see why I think it’s a media franchise worth devoting so much attention to. If you have anything you’d like me to check out, free feel to reach out. I’m always open to suggestions on what to explore next.

Take care of yourselves,

Soma