September 2025 Top Ten

I watched The Electric State on Netflix and really enjoyed it. The best part by far is the robot design. There are so many unique robots, and they all look great. It’s got a great cast. There were some parts of the story/dialogue that didn’t quite land, but I don’t understand why it has 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.

We read The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson for book club. I didn’t love it. This is my second Sanderson book, both “YA,” and in both cases it felt like he was “writing down” to the YA audience. Just write it regular my guy.

I read Superman: Birthright and All Star Superman, two comics that helped inspire the new Superman movie. Really enjoyed them both. Especially issue #7 from All Star Superman.

I re-read Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I like to re-read it before starting the first draft of a new novel to try and harness some of Bradbury’s creative magic. It definitely worked.

I’ve been listening to the tracks Tyson Motsenbocker released in anticipation of his new album, Modern Worries. This song, “Future Seer”, is light, casual, and thoughtful. I love how much fun Tyson is having in the music video, too.

I read the poetry book Goldenrod by Maggie Smith. I enjoyed pretty much every poem.

We watched Barbie. I’d never seen it before. I like Greta Gerwig (I like what she did with Little Women, and I heard her on a podcast years ago and appreciated her passion and process). I thought Barbie was creative and the set design was fun. I’m always interested in how movies with a humanistic (or sometimes nihilistic) worldview expresses the existential climax of the film. It fell flat for me in this one (and in the new Superman movie, too).

In August we read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for book club. I didn’t particularly enjoy it while reading it, but I have thought about it since, and have come to appreciate it.

I read the short story collection The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury. He’s just a master at packing a whole world into a short story, and making every character feel genuinely human. He’s just the best.

10.

I loved the band Anberlin in my late teens/early twenties (I have a tattoo of one of their lyrics). Their former frontman, Stephen Christian, released a new album under his solo project Anchor & Braille called New Mexico, which I’ve been listening to on repeat. He calls it a “Spaghetti Western Indie Rock” album. There are some songs that sound like Cities-era Anberlin. The song below doesn’t really make sense on it’s own, but it’s one of my favorites on the album.

11.

It was so fun watching Cal Raleigh hit 60 home runs in a single season. Just insane. Looking forward to the postseason.