I’ve been a fan of Mike Doughty since his Soul Coughing days and his new Ghost of Vroom project brings back the his earlier found art/jazz collage vibe to effectively comment on the craziness of navigating a pandemic from an small room in NYC.
In Counterpart J.K Simmons struggles to navigate a post-pandemic world exuding German-ness; doppelgängers, bureaucracy, science, and the parallel but different lives between East & West Berlin. Counterpart is at its best when you’ve lost track of which world you’re in.
If Counterpart makes you long for something more immersive, perhaps try It’s Winter a video game fully embracing Kafka-esque bureaucracy, isolation, and the persistence of banality in a small Soviet apartment building.
For about a week in our suburban home, all six of us were playing Little alchemy 2. It’s a refreshingly simple and engaging game. It works great in any browser, on any device, and there’s no need to set up an account or download an app. It’s very easy to spend hours calmly and fruitlessly attempting combinations. Among my competitors, it sparked conversations on naming animals in German, philosophy, and numerous questions about how to make cheese.
There have been many series highlighting the ridiculously niche competitions humans have created. We are the Champions. bests them all. Primarily due to highlighting the diversity of competitors across these amusing endeavors and while it’s shot with the seriousness of Chef’s Table, the narration is full of smirks. My fingers are crossed for a kubb episode in season 2.
