Everything in this month’s update is pretty obscure, esoteric and old. We’ll get things rolling with a book suggestion in the form of Tim Lapetino’s Art of Atari. If you’re a 20 something year old visitor and have no clue what “an Atari” is, don’t worry about it! Artbooks are cool regardless, and a good conversation starter for guests. It also gives you hipster credit with the increasingly “retro” crowd nowadays. Hats off to R T Ralph for the content. By the way, if the above book has you intrigued you can purchase hot sauce bottles with some of the art here as well.
I think the Atari stuff might be a bit too old for even my audience, so what about something a bit newer? Windows 98? Maybe? In any case, there is game based on all the iconography (whew!) of older Windows operating systems. It’s called Desktop Survivors 98 and is based on the popular Vampire Survivors genre nowadays. It’s a good fusing of old and new concepts, and quite frankly just a charming “all ages” game. Thanks to Gohjoe for the video!
I’m a fan of iceberg compilations, but I didn’t expect to come across one that was vastly different than most of the ones I’ve seen already. AmusingLuis puts together a vast array of discontinued brand food that I both clearly remember hearing about or actually eating / drinking myself. A nostalgia trip for me for sure, but I’m hoping someone does a compilation of popular (but discontinued) brand foods from around the world. Would definitely be an interesting history lesson.
About a year ago I did recommend a video from Jason Graves visiting a bunch of Goodwill stores here in the US. Apparently he has a new video with more stores, this time however they’re all different. It’s a cozy watch if you’re just interested in a nerdy travel vlog, but a sad one as well if you’re a retro games collector. The glory days of the 2005 ~ 2015 bargains are long gone here in the US as well as Japan.
My wife and I chose not to have children, but that doesn’t mean a vast majority of you visiting don’t have some of your own (or plan to). Theme parks are nerdy adjacent, and act as good bridges between age groups when the lingo can get tough between the generations. Have you seen the Gen Z lingo video yet? In any case, ReviewTyme (thanks guys!) has the most digestible review list of Disney theme parks without the obvious taint of corporate marketing teams or hometown bias. I feel the butthurt in the comments makes me like it even more!
This is kind of a leftover from the virtual travel update a few months ago. Harmen Hoek is arguably one of my favorite hiking content creators of all time. A year ago (and now recently above) he reedited some of his work into long form videos that contain only ambient audio from his journeys. If you need motivation to go outdoors for real or virtually, it’s hard to beat these videos. Please do me and Harmen a favor and watch these with the best earphones or earbuds you can while you’re relaxing. The enjoyment of them will increase tenfold.
Artist is Klopsiak
Artist is Klopsiak
Artist of the month is Klopsiak, someone I came across in an ironic fashion. There aren’t a lot of folks who draw obscure waifus, let alone very well. But I immediately thought the above pictures were AI generated at first due to their detail at first glance. After a while and a little bit of digging, I came to the conclusion it’s all above board (at least I think it is) and that Klopsiak not only is very talented, he also likes one of my favorite characters from One Piece Carrot. For that alone, he gets the artist of the month recommendation. Please visit his linktr.ee for socials, and send him a nice word!