What Else Is On? May 1st, 2022
Published on May 1, 2022
Happy May Day, and welcome to What Else is On?, a collection of things from elsewhere on the web that I’ve been enjoying in the past month. Solidarity forever! Enjoy!
PUT THIS ON
First off, here's a track to throw on and vibe out to while you catch up on the below. This month, it's...
the entirety of Takako Mamiya's album, Love Trip.
READ THIS
📚 Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Shares Some Facts [Gawker]
First off, in case you missed it, Scott Adams had some Fun Facts to share about himself and his seemingly very eventful life on Twitter, absolutely apropos of nothing. Paul F. Tompkins also tweeted a pretty fun sendup of the whole thing.
📚 Platforms Are Temporary, Community Is Forever [Motherboard]
Janus Rose writes about the inevitable decline and decay of online platforms, and the importance of forging connections offline.
📚 Mark Zuckerberg’s augmented reality [The Verge]
The Verge caught a glimpse of Meta(nee Facebook)'s roadmap for an eventual pair of AR glasses, and its vision for the future of the "metaverse." Spoiler: it sucks!
📚 The Itch Scratches Back [aromatasemebro]
A long, deep dive into the recent works of Tim Rogers generally, and his Tokimeki Memorial Review specifically, and a meditation on the ways criticism can and maybe should evolve as art continues to evolve.
WATCH THIS
📺 Clippy Gets Clipped [YouTube]
After the passing of Gilbert Gottfried this month, and folks were sharing their favorite memories, as they are wont to do, it came up that he had once voiced the former Microsoft Office "helper," Clippy. Thanks to the Internet Archive, and YouTube user Andrew Keeton, we have the proof.
📺 Cheese Garlic Bread with Honey Dip [YouTube]
In this month's cooking corner, it's another chill YouTube channel that I like to watch to relax. Delicious Day is always on some absolute shit, both with their recipes and in their English captions. This video WILL make you hungry.
📺 bonk [YouTube]
One last video in the watch corner this month, and it's a short one, just four seconds. Louie Zong is really getting good at Blender.
LISTEN TO THIS
🔊 Shift-F1 Podcast [Shift-F1]
It's Formula 1 season once more, and so I must recommend Shift-F1, a podcast about speedy racecars. Drew, Danny, and Rob post pre- and post-race episodes filled with news, analysis, and insight, all from an outsider/casual fan perspective. You don't need to know a ton, or anything at all about Formula 1, to start listening today, and having fun learning about these big, weird, fast cars.
🔊 Threedom [Earwolf]
Every Thursday, Paul F. Tompkins, Scott Aukerman, and Lauren Lapkus get together to talk about...whatever! I'm not usually a big fan of aimless, conversational podcasts without a stated theme or purpose, but I could listen to these three go on all day. The Pretzel Gang (you'll see) has an infectious best-friendly energy that keeps things moving, even when those things don't sound like much at all. It's one of my favorite podcasts, and always a day-one listen.
PLAY THIS
🕹️ Knotwords [Free/$11.99, iOS/Android/Steam]
It's not every month that we're graced with a new game from prolific mobile/word game creator Zach Gage. He has a reputation for making very simple and very well-designed games (mostly for mobile) that are both very fun and very hard to put down. Knotwords, a cross between a crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzle, sudoku, and Wordle, is no exception.
Previous releases include Flipflop Solitaire, SpellTower, Really Bad Chess, Card of Darkness, and last year's impeccable take on sudoku, Good Sudoku. Knotwords is a worthy addition to this pantheon of outstanding mobile games.
🕹️ The Man Man [Free, Itch]
This is a free browser game in which you play as a serial killer known as The Man Man, who has no bones. Desperately wiggle towards your prey as you try to make something...anything...happen. It's QWOP for killing!
🕹️ Framed [Free, Web]
It's Wordle, but for movies. Guess movie titles from a series of increasingly easy-to-glean stills.
SOME GOOD WEBSITES
Recent Events at the Hellsite have been causing folks to seek out possible alternatives. One such alternative is Neocities, which has me imagining a world where we all go back to visiting a number of websites over the course of a day. In honor of this beautiful dream, I've decided to start sharing a different website that I like each month instead of a tweet.
To start, three recommendations (which is more than just one):
🖥️ Pokémon Booster Pack Simulator
Simulates the age-old joy of opening a new pack of Pokémon cards. Includes a surprising number of packs!
🖥️ Substack.net (not that one)
Contains a number of digital art exhibits. I recommend the Analog TV Simulation.
🖥️ districts & Hotline Cafe
Okay, this is two websites, and that's cheating, but these are both great ways to get started finding other fun sites across the neocities multiverse (neoverse?).
Thanks for reading! Til next time 👋