Recently, I began reading Terry Pratchett's work because I had an excess of Audible credits and a reasonably lengthy commute. I've been exposed to the Discworld stuff before and I have to say I was impressed, so I decided to do an incredibly normal thing: Read every single one of his books in order. This was essentially a mistake, because the number of Discworld books numbers in the dozens. Still, I'm going to keep at it. After all, I am the maniac who in 2018 watched all 400 or so episodes of "My Brother, My Brother, and Me" in order on the way to work. What a pointless slog THAT was.

If you want the God's honest truth, though, I gave up on these two books because they're available for free on YouTube in the form of chintzy film adaptations. I hate to say this about Pratchett who if I remember correctly, dislikes most adaptations of his works, but these movies are essentially just these two books but made more digestible. Rincewind is a decent bloke, but his exploits leave a lot to be desired, especially for those more used to Terry's more sophisticated later works. In short: These books are good as novelties better digested as films.

I don't have much to say except that I respect these books for what they are- The bedrock of an excellent series, but there's a reason bedrock is buried under the rest of the decent soil and never sees the light of day.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Watch the movies instead.

I picked up this book because of an interview the author gave on Chapo Trap House. This kind of shit is right up my alley, it's a breakdown of online subcultures and how they pertain to extant political movements. I listened to the audio book because I rarely pick up books due to my rampant dyslexia. (I'm not being facetious here, either, I couldn't read until the 4th grade.)

I don't know if Nagle considers herself a "normie" or not but this book certainly seems to be written for their perspective, so for me, someone already innately aware of these communities, it was like stepping outside of my body and looking in on a community I'd been a part of for a while. Weird!

The book does get into the weeds and meander a little. I found myself losing focus during the bit where Nagle goes into detail about Tumblr, a section I found somewhat tenuous. A lot of this book slides out of my brain because of a boring narration from a woman with a distracting affect where she overpronounces words at the ends of sentences and Angela's somewhat plain writing. It's decent, but there are better books.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Read "Trust the Plan" by Will Sommer instead.

Himiko Kikuchi is someone I had no idea about before I stumbled across them on YouTube. It was in my recommendations due to me liking other Japanese artists like Yoko Kanno, Midori, 385, and of course Cassiopiea. Flying Beagle is a funk/jazz outfit with an excellent summertime vibe.

This album [Listen here] is a very reasonable 8 tracks and 42 minutes long, full of tracks I can only describe as "if KK Slider was from the real world." It's diverse genre-wise but it sticks to this very tight ensemble sound with astonishing electric bass evocative of Jaco Pastorious and this wonderfully zippy horn section. If you're looking for the groove, you've found it.

The album art is also adorable, featuring a cheerful Beagle. I listen to this album when I'm working since it's peppy enough to fade into the background but groovy enough to enjoy.

FUNK'S RECOMMENTDATION: Good entry point into Japanese Funk. Listen to "Mint Jams" if you like this.]

You know what I just realized? This album isn't on spotify or anything. It's on YouTube music, [Listen here] but I don't think Exmilitary has been released "officially." That's crazy considering that it's Death Grips's first release.

Anyway- I remember I looked up this album in about 2012 on 4chan's /mu/ board because it was one of the several albums that was circulated around there at that time, along with "In the Aeroplane over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel (I saw them live in 2014 in Ohio!). Exmilitary was like a whole new experience. I remember being struck with the fact that the main rapper MC Ride was less "rapping" than "screaming" yet it had an undeniable flow to it. I really liked the intro to "Beware," the first track, an unhinged monologue from Charles Manson. It was far more chaotic than anything I'd heard before yet accessible and compelling.

At the time, I would go on Google and listen along with reading the lyrics because I couldn't understand what the fuck Ride was saying. Exmilitary hits a lot harder and a lot more messily than Death Grips's more recent albums, but that's to its advantage. There's this sketchy, punchy quality to the samples used over and over and something alluring at how Ride's screaming sounds desperate and unstable. He must have really strained those vocal chords.

I don't think there's a bad track on this album. "Beware" and "Guillotine" (IT GOES, IT GOES, IT GOES, IT GOES) are tops, but "Takyon" and I Want it I Need it" are great too. "Culture Shock" is a good break in the middle of the album to take a break from the shouting, giving some much-needed dynamic change. All bangers.

I used to listen to this album when I was playing Deus Ex (2000) so I kind of categorize them together in my head as "truth bombs" but I don't know how much of that is true for Exmilitary. Lol.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Listen to this if you need a shock to your system.

I was recently recommended the work of the illustrious Joe Cappa. [Haircut] [Scooby Snack] I don't know how to describe his stuff except "specific," but even that seems tenuous. He makes these YouTube animations of strange-looking poorly-proportioned people in strangely specific yet universal situations. He reminds me of Sick Animations (of Smiling Friends fame) if Sick Animations was more low-key.

I remember the days of early YouTube animation and this seems to recapture something like that, these grotesque dudebros going about their lives in hollowed-out modern Americana. They remind me of a bit from Chapo Trap House called "hot couch guy," where Felix (one of the hosts) describes how everyone has had a certain very specific experience staying at a friend's house but the friend has a dogshit leather couch and smokes ditch weed.

That kind of general specificity is what Joe Cappa gets at. Looking at his ouvre is highly worth it if you're looking to be unsettled. Everything is just like real life but a little off, like Joe has peeked into some funhouse mirror dimension and is showing us some sick reflection of modernity. Or maybe he's just a funny guy.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Watch it while you're high.

Undertale Yellow, which can be downloaded [here] is a fan-game first announced in 2016 (before Deltarune Chapter 1!) I have been following this fangame for a while, and I'll be honest, this one has been included in a mental list in my brain for games that will never, ever, EVER, be fully released. Needless to say, seeing this fully released in spite of expectations is refreshing.

Fangames in general are usually permanently incomplete, so whenever I see a new one, I always simply assume that whatever demo or pre-release screenshots materialize are the sum of the project. Take similarly-named Undertale Green, a fan project whose alpha was released five years ago. I like to imagine a beautiful world where Undertale ROY G. BIV exists, but sadly, we live in shit-world.

Anyway, about the game itself. If you haven't guessed by my inclusion of a link to the game earlier, Undertale Yellow is good, play it right now. That or watch a let's play of it or something. Personally, when I finished the game I watched the genocide route on this guy "Shayy's" youtube page. He also has a video with a bunch of the game's secrets, too.

Undertale Yellow centers around named protagonist Clover, the human who fell down last before Frisk (in vanilla Undertale- Should we call that Undertale White or Undertale Red?) who is seeking revenge for the deaths of the five human souls harvested before them. I question the logic of a child picking up a gun and swearing revenge, but hey. It's Undertale, I'll roll with it. What I find interesting about this premise is that it uses the same Genocide vs Pacifist routes of Undertale in the same way but to different effect. Essentially, in Undertale the geno vs paci thing was a commentary on RPGs- Asking the player "is it really okay to kill your way to the end of a video game?" In Undertale Yellow, there's a different question posed to the player- "Is revenge acceptable?" This, to be fair, is a question tackled in innumerable stories throughout history, but UY tackles it with grace.

Unlike in Undertale, the genocide run in UY is somewhat justified. Is it okay to kill Asgore when he promises that he's going to kill more humans? Justice is a fitting central theme.

Another way UY distinguishes itself is by way of character designs. There aren't a lot of returning characters from regular Undertale, only Toriel and Asgore and even then, they only appear briefly, as well as Flowey, who is your help-character this time around. Some areas get brief revisits as well, like Hotland and the Ruins, but all in all, this game stands on its own. The character designs are more... Uh... How should I put this? They're furries.

Look everyone, Berdly after HRT!

Pictured above is Martlet (which by the way is just the name of a bird, real creative guys) who is the main recurring NPC during the quest. Undertale/Earthbound style RPGs live or die on how charming their characters are and the characters featured in UY don't disappoint. I wish there was more time spent with them and the dialogue is occasionally forced and repetitive, but the game ultimately conveys what it wants to convey. There are really only four "main" characters which pales in comparison to Undertale, but hey. This is a fan game.

With cute characters and its own unique style, this fan game is great.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Play this while we wait for Deltarune Chapter 3.

Have you heard of these cats? Seriously. Vulfpeck is a band from Ann Arbor's University of Michigan (hey, I live there!) that makes funk music. A friend years ago told me "there's no good 21st century funk" but Vulfpeck is here to prove him wrong as hell.

I'm reviewing these albums only because they're what I've been listening to at work together, but the albums do actually have some overlap. The track "My First Car" appears on both albums, with lyrics on "The Beautiful Game." Of the two I prefer Beautiful Game simply because I find it more overall pleasant.

I get the strong sense that Vulfpeck is primarily a group who cares deeply about music first and foremost. You can see this deep passion in videos like THIS ONE where they show off their gear and discuss bands they like. Jack Stratton (glasses guy) in particular has this magnetic charisma that I love. Their albums are full of it to, from happy-go-lucky hits like "Animal Spirits" to tours-de-force like "Dean Town."

Let me talk about "Dean Town" for a second actually. If you do one thing in this review, check out the MUSIC VIDEO for Dean Town. What is at first glance a simple bass line reveals itself to be a massive show of skill and consistency as Joe Dart continues the bass pluck for fifty-one seconds at high speed. For anyone who doubts how much skill this takes, try to tap your fingers along with the bass line and see how quickly you get tired. I love this.

Bass and Drums feature heavily in their instrumentation with guitar and e-piano forming the flair to it and most Vulfpeck tracks manifest as intricate grooves for which the artistry must be commended. They're clean, they're tight, they're Vulfpeck. If you listen to them, start with these two albums or start with "Thrill of the Arts." You can't go wrong, really. Also check out their MADISON SQUARE GARDENS videos. (In this one, Joe plays Dean Town even FASTER.) I'll probably do a follow up writedown of this particular Madison concert since it's kind of legendary.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: If you're looking to move, looking to groove, look no further. I love these boys.

So recently, I've been really into Pokemon Romhacks. I picked up a hack of Pokemon FireRed called "Pokemon Unbound" which focuses on Hoopa as a character and has updated and upgraded story and original material plus an expanded Pokedex. (I'll probably cover Unbound once I'm done with it) But playing a handheld Pokemon on computer didn't feel right. No$GBA is fine and dandy, but I'm looking to cozy up with an actual Gameboy in my hands, to recapture the old days.

Enter the Anbernic rg35xx.

The price point on AMAZON.COM is about $70 at time of writing which is well worth it. It comes pre-loaded with about 1500 games which you're going to want to immediately discard to make room for the games you ACTUALLY want on there. Inexplicably, it doesn't have a single Mario game in spite of being able to emulate SNES, NES, and all Gameboys. Also inexplicably, it can emulate PS1 but not N64. Weird.

There are better systems out there, even more powerful models by Anbernic, but if you're just looking to play some romhacks on an actual handheld like I was, you'll be all set out-of-the-box. The only problem I found were both native OS systems present on the device were complete and utter dogshit. The default OS is laggy and strangely unresponsive, having to press buttons more than once to navigate menus and the other OS called "Garlic OS" is cluttered, confusing, and lacks a search function for the many hundreds of video games that come bundled with the device. In spite of the OS being laughably awful, the emulation quality (for the Nintendo games I played) is flawless, perfect even, and with a 5-hour battery life that's something to be lauded. You're basically getting an entire console for the price of a single Switch game.

If you don't have a micro USB adapter, get one of those, too. The console comes with one which eliminates the need for another, you'll have plenty of space to fit your favorite games. I recommend Final Fantasy Tactics, Golden Sun, and the Kirby GBA games.

I think owning one of these handhelds is essentially a vanity thing, but I think I'm going to buy another more powerful one to possibly play some of my favorite N64 and PSP classics. If you're interested, there's never been a better time for novelty emulator devices like this. They make a great gift, too!

THIS REVIEW IS NOT SPONSORED.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: Buy this on sale, be aware you'll have to spend about an hour fucking with settings and loading games. Decent product for niche interest.

I'm so ludicrously pissed off, guys. Holy fucking shit. I've been playing Pokemon Unbound [DOWNLOAD HERE] to unwind for about 12 hours and I had a pretty good team. I was ready to really hunker down with this game, I mean HUNKER DOWN, folks, this could be THE best Pokemon romhack on the market right now, if not the best pokemon GAME, PERIOD. The only issue is that the game crashed and I lost my save, utterly fucking me over permanently. I don't know what technological bullshit happened such that my save was gone forever, but that is that. I will have to come back to this game in a few months when I can bring myself to slog through what I already finished.

But for now, what is good about Pokemon Unbound? It's a ROMHack of Pokemon FireRed using an existing expansion hack. Functionally speaking, this means the game is about on-par with the Gen 6 3DS games in terms of mechanics with pixel/sprite art. It's a delightful little RPG about Hoopa inside a brand-new region teeming with Pokemon up to Gen 6. It also features Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and some Gigantimax Pokemon as well as evolutions from the Legends Arceus game. In short, it's a fan-made original Pokemon Game.

Sometimes when playing Unbound, I would forget I was playing a ROMHack at all. It's that good. These folks just dropped a fucking Pokemon game for free.

I'm too beside myself to go into more detail about this amazing game because all of my progress was FUCKING LOST.

FUNK'S RECOMMENDATION: PLAY IT it's FREEEEE!