August 2024 Newsletter

Surely it has been an uneventful month since we last spoke, with no major news stories or developments. So slow and steady was it that the anthropomorphic gecko who typically writes this newsletter fell asleep for a whole week (this is what anthropomorphic geckos consider 'summer vacation') and woke up bleary-eyed and panicked. Nearby, a frog representing our stalwart producer Jordan Mallory, who helps us get these episodes out on time, smiles serenely.

You know who else DIDN'T drop the ball last month? All the other non-geckos here at Ranged Touch! July saw the release of the monthly pod in which CMRN and Danni go deep on the Elden Ring DLC and their thoughts about it. Last month was also the debut of a new Patreon-exclusive limited run series, MICHAEL ON MICHAEL, in which Michael from Ranged Touch watches the films of Michael Bay in release order and talks about them. The first episode was on BAD BOYS, and guess what: that movie is pretty good!

Next CMRN and Danni soldiered forward in their playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, careening through the game's back third, learning about vampires and the ironically named House of Hope. Next month: more plot! Holy cow this game is long.

And if you like videogames, you'll LOVE the latest episode of GAME STUDIES STUDY BUDDIES, which varied the format a little this month by going deep an actual videogame, MYST, discussing its history and content from an academic perspective much like the one you might encounter in a classroom seminar. You can't trust my treacherous sons, unless they're telling you how much this episode rules, in which case trust away!! Next month we'll be covering HOW PAC-MAN EATS by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, which you can find on our GSSB Bookshop list.

JUST KING THINGS returned to the world of short stories with the collection EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL, which collects a variable assortment of King's 90s shortform output. As Michael and CMRN say, it's not his best collection but there are some real winners in there, including the evil hotel room yarn 1408, whose Cusack-driven film adaptation they discussed for the bonus episode. August will see them reading FROM A BUICK 8 and watching the obscure half-King TV movie QUICKSILVER HIGHWAY, but if "next week" is not soon enough for you, you can also hear more from CMRN and Michael on New Zealand Public Radio, where they were interviewed about the show for a larger programming block on Stephen King and his legacy.

Meanwhile, with Austin along for the ride SHELVED BY GENRE ventured into the whirling vortex of the spiral as the guys read Junji Ito's UZUMAKI, an iconic horror manga that, over the course of two episodes, let them discuss everything from how stupid jack-in-the-boxes are to what giant snails who used to be humans might taste like. For the month's bonus episode, they watched the seminal 2001 J-horror film PULSE and next month will follow it up with the film adaptation of Uzumaki while they read Ito's REMINA and SENSOR. And after that… why, that's a new SBG unit entirely! Thank you so much for supporting us if you already do and if you don't (because these newsletters are free) go ahead and consider scrolling back up on this page to back our Patreon to stay tuned and see what's in store for the future, next month on Ranged Touch.