Andrew Haglund

I’m a big fan of Severance and I’m so glad Ben and Adam are back for a few episodes of their podcast this summer to follow up the impeccable season 2. The first episode, Points of Vibration is a major overlapping Venn diagram for me since it guest stars Conan O’Brien (go Team Coco).

Around 26 minutes Conan talks about why he loves the show, which captures what I resonates with me:

[My son] loves it. And we talk about it. And then my wife will get into the conversation and we’ll really drill down in it and discuss things. And that is my favorite thing; shows that invite discussion, debate afterwards. When someone else makes a world that I believe is real, I’m taken for this great ride and I am invited to be part of it. And it’s just, you know, joyous. It’s great. You guys built a world.

Later on:

I also like the format in Severance: something very serious is happening. And Mark has, we know that he’s widowed, believes he’s widowed. He’s gone through a terrible tragedy. He wants to escape. It’s very dark. There’s some truly dark moments, but then Tramell [Tillman], as Milchick, will go into that dance. And I laughed. I mean, I stood on my feet when that happened.

Because when you set up a world like Severance, when the comedy does come in, or not even comedy, something comes in at an odd angle and there’s so many very funny moments, but it can come 30 seconds after someone really believes that the love of their life has gone forever. And so I’m at the mercy of the show, which I really like. I’m just there to witness this world.

I also have to say, I love the way the computers look, the way there’s this kind of mid-80s, late-80s design aesthetic. And so the cars are very generic and square and all of the stuff. I find myself looking at the stuff and the way it’s lit and the way the shots are composed.

And, you know, we live in this world now where people say, “was it a TV show or is it a movie?” I think we’re beyond that now because yes, this is technically a television show, but as someone who has hosted the Oscars, I don’t really see the difference anymore. You string all of Severance together with different edits and you make some cuts here and there and you make something that’s three and a half hours long. And I don’t see why that’s not an Oscar-worthy film.

They also interviewed Allen Stare, host of the Severed podcast (which I had not heard of). He conducts tons of research into the production of the show and goes far beyond a typical rewatch podcast.

Not related to the show but I loved Conan’s anecdote around the 13 minute mark about his personality:

My father was a scientist and he once looked at me — and he wasn’t kidding — and he went, “I think I understand. You’re making your living off something that should be treated.”

I certainly relate to this. I find that the things I get obsessive about are some of the same reasons I’m can be gainfully employed as a halfway-decent designer. (It bleeds into all areas of my life.)

PS. Transcriptions from the podcast were provided by Macwhisper.

A few weeks ago while heading to Wisconsin I strolled into a Target on Nintendo Switch 2 launch day, an hour after opening, and snagged a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World. It seemed liked there was a steady stream of buyers. As soon as someone checked out another would arrive but there wasn’t really a line, per se.

I gave up on getting a Switch 2 (at least immediately) after failing to secure one during preorders. But I was keen on replaying Zelda Breath of the Wild in 4K after seeing so many YouTube videos showing how good it looked.

This began a quest involving Mac gaming, OLED monitors, and finding the zen of console gaming.

I got Breath of the Wild working using CEMU on my Mac mini running at 5K resolution 60 frames per second and it looked fantastic. My Mac was humming along without even kicking on the fan and the quality was unreal. Apple’s display is not ideal for gaming so I started looking into some fancy OLED 4K monitors. After tinkering a bit I got the game running at 4K 240 frames per second and it was glorious. It was like I was seeing Hyrule for the first time, just absolutely stunning. I settled in and decided I’m gonna replay Breath of the Wild over the next 6 months on my Mac.

But this came with downsides like:

• Stutters from shader caching
• Annoyances with button mapping and connecting my controller
• Small thing: but the clicks to open CEMU, pick Zelda, get to fullscreen.
• Figuring out how to transfer my save file if I wanted to put it on our MacBook Air to play away from my desk (I tried the built in macOS Screen Sharing but no dice. It doesn’t support controller input and neither does Moonlight for macOS.)

These are definitely the first-est of first-world problems, no doubt. But they’re friction and time-consuming and when you have limited gaming time (because you have a 1-year-old kid) it adds up.

So now I have my surprise Switch 2 and I happily paid $10 to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition. After some difficulty downloading (hotel Wi-Fi is crap. Bring an ethernet cable, kids. Shoutout to the concierge who dug through the back office to find me one) I was ripping through Hyrule and it was stunning. It’s not as high-fidelity as it was on my Mac mini set up but there’s zero of those friction points. I can even switch (ha!) to handheld mode and take it on the go. That’s the joy of console gaming, especially with Nintendo where it’s plug-and-play and system updates take 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.

My last anecdote with the Switch 2 is our first night with it: we were trapped in a hotel room with a kid who goes to bed at 7 PM. We sat on the opposite end from where the kid was asleep and we put the Switch 2 in table top mode. My wife and I each had a Joy-Con and we had a blast playing a few rounds of Grand Prix in Mario Kart World before heading to bed. (It wouldn’t be until the next week that I discovered the sheer delight of Knockout mode.)

This post is really just here to say, and it’s gonna sound dumb: I like when gaming is fun. You hit a button and the Switch wakes up and you’re right back to getting blown to bits by a Guardian or sprinting away from a Lynel. Nintendo just makes it so nice to play games and I’m excited for the Switch 2 era to kick off.

As mentioned in my Q1 2024 update I was not a fan of Asteroid City. I was lukewarm on The French Dispatch as well so I was starting to think Wes Anderson’s work just wasn’t for me anymore (which is totally fine!). I’m a huge fan The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Darjeeling Limited.

Every project has the potential of greatness. His latest movie The Phoenician Scheme I think achieves this. It combines his fascination with miniatures and over-the-top sets (and 90º angles) with genuine and funny dialog from his earlier work. Where his recent work felt soulless, there was heart here. This is as close to an “action movie” that Wes will likely go and I was enthralled. Michael Cera also shines with the most bizarrely charming accent.

Two thumbs up!

I bought the base M4 Pro Mac mini and have a twinge of buyer’s remorse after seeing the base M4 Max Mac Studio. For $600 more you get 2x the GPU, 2 more CPU cores, 12 GB more RAM, SD card slot, and more ports.

The only downside? Less cute.

As the world crumbles into disarray Apple unveils the iPad (A16) for $350 and iPad Air (M3) for $600. The compare page shows minor differences: processor, laminated screen (P3 color), keyboard/pencil support. The base iPad is a steal and is more than enough iPad for 90% of people.