Metal Monday

Feb 26

Written By Owen .

It’s cold and wet here in LA which means it is busy times in the addiction treatment sector. Rightfully so, folks want to be off the streets safe and warm. So needless to say my Day Job™ has been busy. Busy enough that I have had zero will to write anything the last couple weeks (Anything substantial anyway: I did join Bluesky). Luckily that means I have plenty of recommendations for this week’s return edition of Metal Monday.

YouTube Obsession

I am realizing that growing up in early aughts was truly a gift. Tony Hawk’s Underground was out on PS2, the monoculture was dying and Mythbusters was on TV.

I love Mythbusters. It is a show that worked for may reasons but mostly it worked because of the polar-opposite personality types of it’s hosts: Energetically extroverted Adam Savage and the aloof stoic Jamie Hyneman. A double act that has worked in entertainment for decades, the Funny Man vs The Straight man and it works spectacularly in Mythbusters.

With the advent of YouTube I often wonder why I can’t get into channels that pretty much do what Mythbusters did. Recently, I realized that it's because these channels have too many people trying to be the funny man. The balance is lost and it just can’t hold my attention.

That being said I have been pouring through Adam Savage’s channel Tested, mostly enjoying the videos where he answers questions about Mythbusters.

Also, people who have engineering brains fascinate me.

Another element of Mythbusters that only recently struck me as important is that it is an undeniably San Francisco show. As a kid in the conservative mid-west I was fascinated by the weirdos and colorful people on Mythbusters. Despite never flatly saying it you could feel the show’s left lean.

Watching

This is Spinal Tap is one of the funniest movies ever made. I don’t think it gets talked about as often as it should.

My partner is a huge The Nanny fan but had never seen Fran Drescher’s first role as Bobbie Flekman so I figured it was a perfect excuse to watch this classic.

The delivery of “I’m just as god made me” always cracks me up.

Also, the music is heinously catchy.

Reading

For a first book, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova is a great start.

The book is a very personal look at grief through a magical realism lens. The book was sold to me as a horror but its only horrifying scene happens near the beginning and never reaches for that mood again.

Magical realism is hard to do right. Most of the time it comes across as goofy and Monstrillo feels more like a comedy than a horror. And maybe that’s what Gerardo was going for; A goofy look at how people can playfully relish and wallow in their grief.

It’s a very quick read, the huge font makes the pages turn fast. It struck me as a wine mom book club read because you can fly through it with very little effort. It’s themes are surface level and inoffensive. When I finished, I was not surprised to find “book club” questions printed in the back.

I hope it does sell a million copies to wine moms and Gerardo can continue writing books because I would like to read a more mature tone from them.

Gaming

Like I said a few weeks ago, I’m pumped for Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2. I have played DS1 but I never played the Directors Cut that released last year. So that’s what I have been playing the past few weeks.

Before we get into other items I really think the Director’s Cut balanced some of the “leveling up” mechanics. It progresses much faster than I remember in the base game and that improved my enjoyment immensely.

Overall Death Stranding is an invitation to enjoy vibes. It’s a commentary on video games and the nature of capital “P” Play but first and foremost; Vibes.

Don’t get in a hurry, listen to some chill music and get from point A to point B. The journey from A to B is beautiful. The Mechanics of moving from A to B are meticulous, feel smooth and correct. I once spoke about how Red Dead Redemption 2 feels too slow and mechanically overwrought, Death Stranding is about WALKING but never feels as slow as RDR2. DS is a masterclass on how to take a simple idea (WALKING) and design every element and mechanic around that to be fun.