July 2024 media
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak: I’m a huge fan of the Trails series, so the excitement over the big changes in Daybreak spooked me; I wasn’t sure if I really wanted a new battle system, or moral choices, or a change in tone. But they executed pretty well! The core appeal is thankfully still there. If I rank my favorite games in the series, I even bet this one makes the top half.
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Montreal International Jazz Festival: I’d never been before, and I had a great time even though I was only around for a few days. The variety of music was impressive—I ended up seeing much less straight-ahead jazz than I expected, interestingly—it all seemed very well-run, to the point where I could practically set my watch to the stage times. And the vibes within two blocks or so of Place des Arts are immaculate.
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Saving Time: This book, from How to Do Nothing author Jenny Odell, is really remarkable but also difficult to reduce to a summary. I guess I’d say it’s about how to value time and resist its commoditization—the “saving” in the title is closer to rescuing than preserving—though that sounds too much like self-help boilerplate. If this is self-help, it’s the kind that can rewire your brain.