{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Middle of Culture","title":"This One Goes To... Pretty Okay","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3948,"description":"This week, we wandered through a grab-bag of games, music, and reading before settling into a long-overdue cultural reckoning with This Is Spinal Tap. We talked Sonic games and cursed Sonic-sonas, gacha updates that somehow turn into cyberpunk motorbike fantasies, cheerful amnesia manga, extreme metal singles that absolutely rip, and a handful of games that ranged from surprisingly delightful to instantly forgettable. But the heart of the episode was finally sitting down with Spinal Tap itself—an enormously influential mockumentary that, forty years on, felt quieter, subtler, and stranger than its reputation. We landed somewhere between “mid” and “actually pretty good,” unpacking where it still works, where it shows its age, and why its legacy looms so much larger than the movie itself.  Episode NotesWhat We’ve Been IntoGamesEden dives into Sonic Forces, embracing the chaos of creating a cursed Sonic-sona (a dog with a grapple gun).A return to Wuthering Waves with the 3.0 update: underground cyberpunk cities, summonable motorcycles, and Sega crossover bike liveries.Peter spends real time with the Playdate handheld and unexpectedly loves Dig Dig Dino—dogs, dinosaurs, and eldritch horror.Mixed feelings on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: clunky combat, nonstop chatter, and controller prompts that can’t decide what console they’re on.Dispatch lands as enjoyable but oddly forgettable—pure popcorn gaming that evaporates once it’s done.ReadingCheerful Amnesia delivers wholesome, funny yuri romance built on anime-logic memory loss.A shout-out to Adachi and Shimamura short stories, still reigning supreme.Peter continues through The Dark Forest, the second book in Remembrance of Earth’s Past, digging into Wallfacers, Wallbreakers, and long-term cosmic dread.MusicNew doom EP from The Eternal—short, tight, and surprisingly restrained.Reliance by Soen: less adventurous, more consistent, and maybe better for it.Absolute hype for Archspire’s new single “Limb of...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/3-7NX9uIL8RD1xA_7xTb80V-108Lf3xuEMQhLzvEbRA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lZGY0/NzA4M2FmM2Q3Yjg4/NDczMzkzMTA2NTJk/NmQ1ZS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}