180 Lunches

  • Twin Peaks – 36 Years Later

    I got a wild hair to watch the first season of Twin Peaks this Spring. I know it as cultural point of reference or as a heavy influence that has snowballed into countless shows, movies, and videogames. But I don’t actually know anything about the show. I was 9 when it originally aired.

    My short book report is that its a tough watch in 2026. But also I that couldn’t stop watching it. Visually it is a product of its time, but an interesting lens into televisions visual language in the late 80s. Fast paced editing for the shrinking attention span in the 2020’s has ruined my ability to watch some older shows. E.g., Why are we holding camera on that person’s shoe as they get out of a car for so freaking long.

    It takes large story and directorial swings between soap opera, creepy mystery, straight faced weird humor, or even just straight weirdness. I had to ask a few friends if all of that was intentional or just how it was. Basically are they in on it or am I just laughing at occasional bad acting or directing choices. The answer was both, but more that they are in on the joke with intention.

    What all of that does is showcase how many new things Twin Peaks was doing. Mashing up genres. Showing casing legit scary and strange stuff on network television. Inspiring a generation of writers and directors to take what it offered and spin it forward. One easy example is my now deeper appreciation for what Alan Wake 2 (Best of #33) was paying homage to three years ago.

  • Disney Research

    I don’t recall when I became aware of the Disney Research Hub channel, but it was certainly before everyone laughed for a day at Olaf on the Nvidia stage. Prior to that I’d already watched a far more technical video on him on their Hub.

    To what is actually on offer, it is an unassuming set of tech forward videos. Delivered with flat narration and focused on sharing what has been accomplished, but also how. Think short summary of a white paper as a video. There is a lot of focus on machine learning, robotics, and visual computing. All great and generally not over my head in a short format.

  • Best Games: Saros

    Best Games of the 2020’s is back after a bit of a gaming drought this year. While a good, but unfortunately flawed sequel leaves the list.

    Saros(2026) goes on at 41

    Every fourth game I play these days is a rogue like. What sets the good ones apart is a compelling game loop or a narrative doled out in small plates that leave you wanting more. If you are Hades you nail both and make one of the best games in the last 20 years. If you are Saros, you offer up novel combat and I skip your cut scenes.

    The addictive loop Saros offers is a bullet hell in 3D^. You are dodging, parrying, and blocking while a billion beams, orbs, and explosions come at you. All while throwing damage back out. When you full drift with Saros there isn’t a feeling like it. Its like Neo seeing the matrix. Until you block instead of parry the red orbs, break your combo, and mutter a little “dammit” into your living room.

    ^New to me, but not to those that played Returnal the last game from the same developer.

    Toss challenging boss fights into that mix and you get an interesting test to bookend every stage. Death has a low barrier and is a chance to progress your stats and abilities, before going back at it again.

    Finally the story. It is very hard sci-fi, plus time travel, plus psycho thriller. It is all a little too complicated and I didn’t with any of the character or their motivations. The main character wants to save a person he loves and needs to fight aliens to do it? Great, “X to skip” and put me in coach!

    God of War Ragnarök (2022) was a very good sequel, but the game it followed from 2018 was maybe a perfect modernization of the series. 4 years later it tried to eclipse the story and gameplay. It got close, but all it seemed to have in the bag was a lot of “more”, not enough “new”.

  • The Velveteers

    The easy path to discovering new music has become social media. Which sucks, for so many reasons. It is worth finding your own good sources, for many more reasons. But it’s hard to deny when a jam rolls across my algorithm.

    That was the case The Velveteers. A three member rock group from Colorado. A pro skater I follow liked a reel of the song above. I pulled the thread and ended listening to their 2025 album “A Million Knives” on repeat for the past few weeks.

  • North of the Border

    I’ve been in a diorama, mini, and painting rut in 2026. I have a mid-progress project just collecting dust on my hobby bench. Watching YouTube channels dedicated to the craft can often be the spark that breaks the cycle. Credit goes to North of the Border if it is the straw that breaks that camels back this weekend. I’ve been watching his channel on and off for a few years now. But this shark pirate caught me up with just how far along his skills have come.

  • 26 in 26: Pizza Bones & The Brooklyn

    New entries in the 26 restaurants in 2026 challenge this week.

    Pizza Bones

    Tasty wood fired pizza and cold beers in an old service station in Church Hill. That is as simple as it gets. The menu and topping options keep that simplicity and that is maybe our only knock against it. Worthy of a stop in for a meal if you are in that part of town, but for us we wouldn’t pass Zorch to get to it.

    The Brooklyn

    There are so many established restaurants in Richmond that it is rare for our challenge to bring us to a new one. This one opened late last year in Scott’s Addition and we were wrapping up the ABCs, but marked it for this year. We were glad we did. We had great cocktails, the pork chop, and the lamb skewers.

  • Bullseye w/ Griffin McElroy

    I pick and choose my Bullseye listens based on the guest and this was an easy one. Jesse Thorn is a great interviewer. Over my ten years of podcasting I modeled some of my skill set on his. A pale comparison for sure, but I’ll note he is especially skilled at riffing with fellow funny people like Griffin. The Stowaway (Griffin’s book) is sitting next to a pile of comics I need to read, but when I get to it I’ll report back.

  • Taskmaster 21

    This is your reminder that series 21 just kicked off. I don’t know how to keep talking about this perfect show, so I won’t. What I’ll do instead is direct you to this hilarious Jolly episode where Greg and Alex try all the Cheetos.

  • Finding Football Joy

    Tottenham are currently in the worst shape I’ve seen them in since I started following along in 2014/15. They are fighting for their lives in a relegation battle. They broke a club record loss streak that goes back to their founding in the 1882. All of it is depressing. There is zero joy.

    Sport is not a pure happiness distraction from real life. There are plenty of past times you can pursue if you want that. Being a fan is suffering. Lows make the highs that much higher…etc. etc. But when the lows are this low, I’ve taken to skipping games and checking box scores. Or in reality, getting real time notifications and quietly mouthing “fuck” for every goal scored against my team. I skip the game recaps too. It has gone from fun distraction to depressing multiplier.

    Enter the 2026 MLS season^. I’ve turned to following club legends Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min at LAFC. Son ended his summer transfer to the club with 30 goal contributions combined with Denis Bouanga in 2025. They are fun combo and I am slowly learning the rest of the roster. This is not a team switch, Spurs are still my club, but I need a little side action while the relationship at home is on the rocks. Let’s just say I am closer to picking up a Son LAFC jersey right now than I am any Tottenham player.

    ^Apple pivoted in 2026 to including the whole MLS league pass as a part of the base Apple TV price. F1 too! It is a great time to have a subscription.

  • Rob Haze has podcasts

    I’ve been intermittently been following along with Rob Haze‘s stand up since the mid-2010’s, but lost track at some point. Last year and this has been a resurfacing in my weekly media diet of Haze and two fantastic podcast he host.

    The Inconsistent Podcast

    Standard podcast format of a comedian host interviewing/kicking w/ comedian guest. Haze is hilarious and evokes a chaotic comedic energy out of his guest. He is plugged into some sort of DJ control board (I think?) and occasionally breaks out into mixing music that might have been referenced in the conversation. Some podcast in this genre are highly dependent on the guest, but in this case he tends to get good ones and can carry the whole show when he doesn’t.

    In Season

    Rob and Jamel Johnson co-host a sports podcast where they mostly comment and joke about the recent headlines/results. They tend to stay in the NBA, WNBA, NFL, College basketball and football lane, but dip their toes in other sports too. Sadly Rob seems to have zero time for soccer, and I think Jamel is an Arsenal fan(yuck!). The fact that I tune in for their college football talk is a good sign that the podcast is fun and entertaining despite my lack of time for that sport.