A meditation on the media I have consumed in July and August 2026.
Over the past two months things have been very busy but in the words of Homer Simpson "It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.". I do not have a pregnant wife and I only have two troubled cats so I was able to get a lot in.
Firstly, Star Trek. Me and my partner started our second complete watch through of the entire franchise in the order in which they happened story wise, so we started with Star Trek Enterprise. Honestly when we first watched Enterprise there might have been some Trek fatigue setting in so this second watch through was a much different experience. Jonathan Archer, T'pol, Trip and the crew of NX-01's adventures were so much more enjoyable the second time around. Despite the fandom consensus that Enterprise is a bad show I don't believe that. It really has every hallmark of Berman-Braga Star Trek in its heart, its just very much of the time it was created, in the early 2000s with post 9/11 paranoia and general attitudes of that time. The show is ambitious for what it's trying to do and I believe it did get better season after season. If it was given seven seasons like previous shows their wings would have spread more and it probably would have been held in higher regard than it is today.
Naturally our next show to start was The Original Series, which we just finished our second watch of Space Seed last night(S1E22). There is an undeniable magic of TOS that no series has been able to replicate. Other shows do a lot of things much, much better than TOS but despite being 60 years old it says so much that is still applicable today in its lessons about duty to your fellow being, self determination and perseverance through adversity among so many other things. Not to mention the great practical effects and the focus on character driven plots, there's a reason why this series stood the test of time and birthed the OG fandom culture. There truly isn't anything that matches the hopes and aspirations of Star Trek. My only regret is I will not live to see the day humanity traverses the stars.
Secondly, a deep dive and obsession with the 80s indie band The Smiths.
I know some of you have already stopped reading, but hear me out. My exposure to The Smiths for the past 10 years or so has been knowing and liking "This Charming Man" and "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now". A very "normie" position to occupy but a few weeks ago I was thinking about the comedy of Thomas Lennon, someone whose comedy I have enjoyed for decades in multiple different projects. He is a notorious Smiths super fan and I am always intrigued by the art that inspires my favorite artists. So I say to myself "let's dive in.". I've listened to the four mainline albums and have picked apart the compilation albums over the past three weeks and frankly I am obsessed. Johnny Marr's beautiful guitar work, Andy Rourke's basslines that could get Michelangelo's David to dance. Mike Joyce's steady drumming keeping it all together and being capped off by Morrissey's baritone, melancholic poetry. I view it as a great disservice to myself that I have not made this deep dive sooner. Just overwhelming emotion and heart in each song, I am someone who puts themselves into the shoes of the narrator of a song and doesn't often try to relate it back to my own life so some live performances I watch give me chills and bring me to the verge of tears feeling the raw emotion of each track. Some of my favorites have been Barbarism Begins at Home, Girl Afraid, Hand in Glove, Still Ill and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. If you aren't familiar with this short lived band's discography and are a fan of groups of similar genre do yourself a favor and do the deep dive yourself!
Lastly, some art. On top of all the art I got in Philly when I got back I ordered two flash prints from Leina Sioux (@tattoo_cyborg). A Boston based artist whoes work I've loved since I got her cards in the latest Flash Friends set. They came in and are just the coolest.
That's been the last two months for me media wise pretty much. The only other things to note are I did cross 1000 hours played in Project Zomboid and I watched the 2023 movie "Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls" which I would also highly recommend watching!
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