It’s starting to be a bit of a pain in the ass how much the years have felt longer than years. But as trying as 2025 could be, I found so many little pockets of joy. I got to be with my favorite people more often and even got married to Jennifer. It’s one of those things where no matter how intensely stressful or difficult life becomes, I must grasp onto those joys and let them propel me forward.
You get to hear a lot of my opinions on things that get decent coverage on other podcasts on this network, so I wanted to approach this year a bit differently. I present some of my favorite things from 2025 which resonated with me but wouldn’t get play on their own pod series, which I still felt entranced and enriched by.
Puzzmo
Mobile games burned me out at some point, gang. Hell, for the first half of 2025 I really wasn’t playing any games regularly. I would do sets of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising and poke at things here and there, but the idea of Gaming as a hobby was starting to just slip away for me. Blame it on depression, blame it on all the myriad of ways my job stressed me out, something. But in the storm of stressors there were bits of joy found their way through, and the Puzzmo daily puzzle app really kept me going.
I could care less about mobile games these days, with their incessant daily log-in hooks and push notifications and little ways they look to siphon your credit card limits. But to my surprise, people still do know how to make daily puzzle games that exist to just… provide a little puzzle from time to time. I’m not saying the whole venture is magnanimous as most of all things are compromised under capitalism. After a year I finally am being asked to subscribe. But golly I sometimes wanna just channel my uncle Thomas and be able to do a crossword from time to time without funding incendiary and sensationalist rags like the New York Times.
Puzzmo’s whole deal is daily crosswords and wordgames, with several logic puzzles thrown in for good measure. The ads tend to be unintrusive and the subscription is mostly there to play archival puzzles before you hit your cap. While years and years of puzzles are enticing, I do like the idea that much like the daily or weekly newspapers I grew up with, sometimes you just miss a puzzle. And that’s ok. I am thankful for Puzzmo for providing these little pocket spaces of peace in turbulent times.
DropOut Presents: Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do 1 (One) Backflip
Having seen enough funny clips everywhere on social media, I had decided to take a closer look at Dropout.tv network and what they had to offer. But outside of really riotlessly funny moments on shows like Game Changer or Make Some Noise, there is the beating heart of stand-up comedians honing their craft. While much of the attention of stand-up comedy is paid to bigoted blowhards, Dropout is cultivating an environment of talented entertainers that push themselves into new heights. Questionable network decisions as of late aside, that overall goal is exemplified by the special Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do 1 (One) Backflip.
As an Internet comedian from the height of Vine, Demi’s comedy leanings click with me. His bits would often take the form of absurdism and non-sequitor, where the punchline would come from flatly listing 80’s movies or singing “September” incorrectly. But how does a comedian go from jokes that take six seconds to resolve to a 90 minute special? Backflip accomplishes this by way of an absurdist allusion to Waiting for Godot and a whole lot of cardboard props. The special goes many places, such as inventing Racism 2, a musical for the Ikea Monkey, and waiting for his crush Marge Simpson- with a whole lot of performative flop-sweat throughout.
But in between the outlandish bits and cartoonish needle drops, comes a moment that crystalizes the experience as an emotional gutpunch. The title of the show, conceived as just another joke, nearly led Demi to severely injuring himself in pursuit of art. He had performed the show a scant number of times, then the COVID-19 pandemic created this isolation that nearly broke him. He places his heart on stage about the neverending need to feel human by the creation of art, and the terror of ever stopping for even a moment. That monologue is a moment of rawness that few dare reach for that brought me to tears. It elevates the special from very good to something very emotionally resonant as an artist and entertainer.
Anyway by Anamanaguchi
Legends of chiptunes and video game soundtracks, you could be forgiven if you find the stylings of Anamanaguchi to be the equivalent of a mouthful of Pop Rocks. They are sparkly and exciting and all sorts of things that college me got a rush out of. But even the most lovingly made simple things are created by real people with real lives, and life is not all sunshine and 1-ups. Returning to their rock roots, Anyway is an album that I can only describe as a midwest emo chip-punk cry from the depths of their hearts. A marriage of their high energy chiptune melodies meet deeply earnest lyrics and overdriven guitars creates a sound unlike their previous work.
The transcendent thing about the album is the joy pulled from within the melancholic miasma that our lives have become. The world is crueler and more myopic than ever, but even in the chaotic noise that fills our heads, we can find this spark of life that makes such pains bearable. We yell, we cry, we slam our heads into the walls- and in that mess we find what our lives can be. It feels less like the nostalgic yearnings of yesteryear that their other work plays in and more of the apotheosis of taking control of the present.
The album is messy work, recorded in the American Football house and has this unfocused sound as a result. It’s not as clean as the chiptunes of old, with their computer precision for perfect notes and beats. But by mixing in the echo of a beat-up bass in a rickety house and distorted squarewaves, there’s this vulnerability on display that never reads as anything other than deeply earnest and heartbroken. In a world as cruel and tragic as ours, there is comfort knowing that we are not the only ones feeling that sting.
This release is a triumph. Anyway, front to back, is an album with so much heart and soul that is bruised but not beaten. As Peter Berkman, songwriter and lead guitarist so elegantly put it, “We are small but we are not useless. We have voices and as best we can we will scream the truth about love until we die.” And as the final lyrics of the album sing,
This night is unfolding, this all will end soon.
If you know where to find it, you can stare at the moon.
Even in the deepest of night, light still shines. I hope in 2026, you find the light that keeps you trucking into the morning, too.
