Kris, Billy, Maddie, Samantha(Things I Loved, August 2026)

Samantha / Psamathe – ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ series (Book)

Okay so yeah I’m still obsessed with Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’m on book 7, A Parade of Horribles, and I think I might have a favorite charcter and her name is Samantha. Or Psamathe. And she is the separated talking head from a sex doll. And she is powerful as hell. And I love her.

Are you reading DCC? Who do you love? I know, I know, everyone. It’s hard not to… but do you have a favorite?

Maddie’s Secret (VOD)

I love John Early. I love John Early because of ‘Search Party’ (which I maintain is the best work in escalation on television, ever). But now that I know more about John Early’s talent, I love him because of all the things he can do. And, from what I’ve seen so far… he does it all his way. I have mad respect for that.

So, when I saw that John Early wrote, directed and starred in ‘Maddie’s Secret’ I started stalking showtimes. It didn’t play at my local theater and the closest one was over an hour away.

Look. I love John Early. I don’t love him enough to spend that much one two one-hour Lyft rides, though. I ain’t rich enough (yet). He is worth $20 (more than that, ofc) so I rented this the DAY it became available for digital purchase at home.

Immediately, ’Maddie’s Secret’ became one of my favorite movies of 2026. It was so deep, so sweet, and dealt with a difficult topic (eating disorders) with a very delicate hand. And, y’all, John Early was so good. Like, Maddie was such a real person throughout this whole movie and I loved her to much. I loved her in my gut.

After we watched this movie, Mickey and I spent 30 minutes talking about it on the porch. I said the same thing. I did after I watched ‘Swiss Army Man’, “The next thing they make is going to be an important film.” The Daniels followed up ‘Swiss Army Man’ with ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once” and won a fuck ton of oscars. The last movie I said this about was “Boys Go To Jupiter” and I can’t wait to see what Julian Glander does next.

I will be at the edge of my seat for John Early to announce his next writer/director project.

Garden Tomatoes (Professor Haus)

Every morning I walk out to the garden to see how my tomatoes are doing. I have basically one million different varieties and sometimes I put them all together onto a sandwich.

My favorite variety so far this year is Green Zebra.

Also, I make a lot of pasta sauce and have attempted to make Tomato Pan once. It was successful. I will attempt it again. I love having a “The Last Supper” amount of tomatoes, just chilling in my backyard.

Smartyshorts (Dropout.TV)

Smartypants has been one of my favorite shows on Dropout since the very first episode. 3 unhinged slide decks, followed by some intelligent, racous conversation. A+ concept that I loved os much that I brought it to mu first grown up sleepover retreat.

THis season, on the off weeks, they added a new program called Smartyshorts where the same folks debate very important topics like:

• Morning or night shpowers
• What color folder for which subject?
• Doo audiobooks count as reading?
• How long are we supposed to wait for spoilers?

It’s just good tv and I talk about them for a long time afters.

Stoop Lee & Curtis Roach & the DSO (In Person, Belle Isle)

This shit was so fun I wrote a whole blog about it.

Arrested Development (Netflix)

A rewatch. Seasons 1-3 are iconic. The later ones repeat information too much. I think Lucille 2 would make an incredible Mary in “Oh, Mary!”. Yes, I mean Lucille 2 and not Liza Minelli. But Liza would be extraordinary, too.

Tony (Theaters)

Yeah, yeah, I know Anthony Bourdain is rolling over in his grave at a movie made about him. I feel this in my gut. But also as someone who has read (and reread) this book and adored it, this movie got my heart. It’s small. It covers one summer, but briefly mentions other stories from the book Oh and both Dominc Sessa and Antonio Badneras were fucking great Also, Stavvy is a STAR

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Theaters)

Talk about a movie that sticks with you. I saw this last week and haven’t stopped thinking about it. The handpainted backdrops! The Gillian Anderson! The needle drops! The artistic blood! The Hannah Einbinder! The Little Death!

But most importantly:

THE CANDY REPRESENTATION!!!!!

Baseball

For my birthday, Mickey got me tickets to the Baller Game.

HAMBURGER CAKE!!!!!!! (Petals & Poetry, Dearborn)

Speaking of birthdays… look at this cake I had for mine:

It was tiny and perfect and delicious.

Here is the inside:

God, I love the food where I live.

Everything on Nothing (podcast)

Mickey, Christian and I have been doing a little podcast and answering some really off-the-wall questions. Here’s what we tackled in August:

This month’s episodes:

• Why do women get mad when they see a man relaxing?
• Why WWE?!
• Was Woodrow Wilson a bad president?
• Esports has UNIFORMS?
  • taught by Christian

Mystery Garden Beans

I went out into the garden the other day and spied some beans. See? We are somewhat chaos gardeners throwing things in the garden circle all willy nilly. First thing from that to sprout was peas which I have been eating the hell out of.

Next up was these long bois:

We recently had enough to make a side dish and they were quite good. They tasted greener than store beans.

Game Changer (Dropout TV)

This season is nearing the end and I don’t want it to. Not one bit. This season has been spectacular and meta and weird and wonderful and it is my favorite thing on my screen. I love Sam Reich. I love what he has created and I hope Game Changer lasts a long long time. I only wish I had discovered it earlier.

Nobody Wants This (Netflix)

I watched this because I was mad it got nominated for Best Comedy at the Emmys instead of ‘The Comeback’.

After watching both I am still mad. HOWEVER, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody’s chemistry is off the charts. It’s a real human show, I think.