August 2021 media
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Nier Reincarnation: Lots of Nier on these lists this year, huh? Reincarnation is the new-to-the-West mobile gacha game. If you can stomach those sorts of mechanics, and you don’t mind turning your phone into a screensaver to let it auto-complete missions, there’s plenty of the series’ characteristic narrative flavor to enjoy. (There is for now, at least: they’ve been on a real tear trying to catch up with the Japanese server, so the rate at which they’ve been releasing new content will slow down soon.)
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Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns: I watched this documentary about They Might Be Giants on Kirk Hamilton’s recommendation in the Strong Songs episode about “Fingertips.” I don’t have any especial history with TMBG—I like them well enough and even saw them live once with a friend, but never dug deep—so this was a good window into what makes them and their fans tick. It inspired me to put Flood on my phone and see if it takes this time.
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The Secret Lives of Color: I pulled this one off of NPR’s “Book Concierge,” which has filterable lists of their favorite books each year. It’s essentially a history book where each chapter is a short anecdote about a particular color—perhaps a pigment used in painting, or a dye used in fashion, or some culturally important color like blonde (as in hair). I’d recommend it even if you don’t normally go for history or nonfiction—it’s a very breezy read, jumping from one bit of trivia to the next so quickly that you won’t have time to get bored.