{"id":1036,"date":"2025-08-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:20:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:20:52","slug":"media-diet-july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/posts\/media-diet-july-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Diet: July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Media Diet<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Books<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Naming Song<\/strong> by Jedediah Berry – I enjoyed this, as did my book club. It was both creative and coherent which can be tough to pull off together. The ending was a bit soft but the story and world building were great. My favorite fantasy stories are the ones that really explore a truly new idea (“What if all words had real power?”), and this did that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Planet Crafter<\/strong> – In Progress – I love factory\/automation games, and also enjoy base-building\/colony games. Planet Crafter has elements of those as well as some things I don’t usually prefer like exploration and even avoid like survival (environmental, not enemies). There are things in the game that would normally be a dealbreaker such as excessively constrained inventory, mission time, and resources, and minimal creative freedom, but I’m still enjoying it. I think the peaceful vibe of bringing a planet back to life is strong enough to make this immersive and rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blacksmith Master <\/strong>– In Progress – Another ~automation game, though moreso about optimizing supply and throughput. I’ve only put a couple of hours into it but it’s been fun so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Glass Beams<\/strong> – Another discovery in the gap since my last post, this trio is more live-played chill beats than traditional songs but still manages to be more than background music. Pairs well with Khruangbin<\/strong> and a night-time drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Blue Man Group<\/strong> – The whole family went on the last day they were playing in Boston, and it was enjoyed by all. I saw them 20+ years ago and some of the show is unchanged but it still all felt fresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Television<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Murderbot<\/strong>, Season 1 – A good and faithful adaptation of All Systems Red<\/strong>. Skarsg\u00e5rd plays the title role very well, and the rest of the cast was also great and supported by beefed-up roles for the humans. The production had a sparseness that was reminiscent of a theater play and it fit very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department Q<\/strong> – A decent but not very innovative detective show. Riddled with well-executed cliches like the grumpy detective, plucky assistant and secretly masterful sidekick, it fit my mood when I started and I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t a short series, but it wrapped things up cleanly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Savannah Bananas<\/strong> – Frequently compared to the Globetrotters (who are also great), but for baseball, I think one thing the Bananas do better is stay truer to the sport. A very kid-friendly environment with music, dancing, pranks, trick plays and a fast-paced game, but it’s still a nominally competitive game at it’s heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanford Mainers<\/strong> – Our local summer college-level team, heading into the playoffs. Good baseball in its purest form: wood bats, talented players and a local crowd that’s watching every pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Sox<\/strong> – They’ve stepped up a bit since last month, highlighted by a 10 game win streak. Postseason chances are looking better. I’m glad they apparently aren’t going to trade Duran, he’s a great player on a number of fronts and having 4 outfielders isn’t a bad thing in today’s injury-plagued game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Progress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lego Masters<\/strong>, Season 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet<\/strong> (Wayfarers Book 1)<\/em> by Becky Chambers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Media Diet<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Books The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry – I enjoyed this, as did my book club. It was both creative and coherent which can be tough to pull off together. The ending was a bit soft but the story and world building were great. My favorite fantasy stories are the ones that really explore a… <\/p>\n

Continue reading Media Diet: July 2025<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[419],"series":[406],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-diet","tag-ai-review","series-media-diet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1AkJt-gI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efsavage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}