Media Recap: August 2026

Each month, Barricade’s co-founders share the music, video games, films, and media that they’ve enjoyed.

Written by Barricade Co-Founders

Images courtesy of Olof Grind, Ron Davis, Kingsley Ifill, Larian Studios, Penguin Classics, Red Bank Films

Arundhati

Reading: School has started up again, so much of my reading from September onwards will be work-related and less in the realm of pleasure reading. August may be the last month for a while where what I read is reflective, to some degree, of my taste and only my taste. I sped through The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley, which is a Booker longlist book. I enjoyed the writing style and found the almost lulling, repetitive nature of Riley’s descriptions to be soothing regardless of subject matter. It’s a short read that is doable in a day.

As a lifelong short story enthusiast and decade-long Lorrie Moore lover, I was excited to see Birds of America by Lorrie Moore at one of the bookstores I stopped by during August’s North Texas Book Crawl, and have been working through it one short story at a time. I have always found Moore refreshingly glib and inaccessibly relatable. I also read and enjoyed (sort of) Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, which was…fine. Feito’s writing style was actually really fun to read through, but her character-building for the protagonist fell short for me. Nonetheless, I am simmeringly excited for the movie.

Image courtesy of Julianne Films/Folivari/Mélusine Productions

Watching: I “binged” The Closer for the second or third month in a row (“binged” is in quotes because I am not exactly a binger; I’m talking maybe three episodes a day, every few days, at most). I tend to put procedurals on in the background while I work. I watched Brian De Palma’s Carrie for the first time and had the privilege of watching it in theaters; as expected, I feel that she did nothing wrong. I’m unsure of how I feel about King and De Palma’s portrayals of teenage girls, but that’s neither here nor there. 

I also watched The Summit of the Gods (Le Sommet des Dieux, it is a French film) at home and felt incredibly moved by the concept of everyone having a metaphorical Everest (and, sometimes, your metaphorical Everest is the real Everest). The art style is beautiful, and the landscapes are some of the most well-portrayed nature scenes I have seen in an animated film. I’m considering reading the source material, which is a manga of the same name (albeit in Japanese, 神々の山嶺 or Kamigami no Itadaki) by Jiro Taniguchi. I did fall down a mountaineering disaster rabbit hole for at least two weeks, though, so beware of that.

Image courtesy of WILD WITS GAMES and Curve Games

Playing: I’m still working through my second playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Perhaps more interestingly, I have been playing the new medieval-themed resource management game Sovereign Tower. In Sovereign Tower, you play as a leper-turned-sovereign by virtue of a mysterious prophecy. You take in (or reject) knights from far and wide for your round table in order to send them on quests that may affect the future of your kingdom and people. The knights and other characters are romanceable, if that’s your thing. I find the artstyle so dynamic and I love the humor of the game. I’d been looking forward to this release since Curve Games put out the demo, and I am thoroughly pleased with how the full game has turned out.

Listening: I’ve been listening to a lot of Dolly Parton, as one would expect. I’ve also been listening to a lot of NCT 127, which is perhaps the exact opposite of anything Dolly ever put out. To be honest, this has not been a particularly musical month for me. Instead, I have been listening to surface-level cultural criticism videos on YouTube for the past few weeks. Sue me. I know way too much about Danielle Walter and Mikayla Nogueira now, especially for someone who doesn’t have TikTok.

Luna

Reading: For women in translation month, I read Ananda Devi’s All Flesh. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman, the Mauritian novel follows a fat teenager’s inner monologue as she navigates a hostile society. The unnamed girl falls victim to relentless bullying, which drives her to eat herself to death—quite literally, in the book’s grotesque finale. While Devi’s vivid writing was exquisite, the subject matter wasn’t as tasteful (pun intended). The story tried to make a statement about society’s double standards with overconsumption, but it ultimately fell flat when the already horrific treatment of its protagonist turned into torture porn. I’ll detail more thoughts in my forthcoming review, but for now, I’ll leave it at this: this book was all flesh, but not enough meat.

Photo courtesy of Neo Sora/MUBI

Watching: Similar to last month’s recap, my viewing history was related to music. Near the tail end of the month, I watched Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. Directed by Stephen Nomura Schible, the documentary follows its namesake as he recovers from a cancer diagnosis and develops the score for Alejandro Iñarritu’s The Revenant. Shot over five years, the film feels pretty non-traditional: it doesn’t follow a distinct chronological order or reveal much about Sakamoto’s early life. Instead, it immortalizes the Japanese composer in his intimate moments: playing Bach on the piano, gathering field recordings, and even brushing his teeth. The documentary injects pure humanity into its portrayal of the music legend, allowing viewers to step into his world. Although I wish I could have learned more about Sakamoto’s artistic evolution, the film offered me enough of a taste to make me want more. As someone whose only familiarity with his work consists of his contributions to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack and collaborations with Arca, I was left intrigued and excited to further explore his catalog.

Image courtesy of Luna Harper/Larian Studios

Playing: After literally five days’ worth of playtime, I’m proud to say I’ve finished my first campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s officially my favorite game of all time, dethroning the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Civilization VI. As someone who usually rotates among the same three or four games, I had been itching to try something new for quite a while. With its adventurous storyline, strong character development, and endless possibilities for customization, Baldur’s Gate 3 turned out to be the ultimate video game for a storyteller like myself. My character was a bard gnome named Benvolio, who—despite the peaceful connotations of his Shakespearean name—delighted in sex and chaos. Alongside completing the main storyline of defeating the Elder Brain, it became my personal mission to rack up Benvolio’s sexual escapades. Among his lovers, my favorites included an incubus, a pair of drow twins, and his klutzy yet loveable partner, Gale of Waterdeep (with whom he had trippy astral sex). My first Baldur’s Gate 3 run was one for the ages, and I can’t wait to explore a darker storyline and gameplay mods with my next campaign.

Listening: For me, August was the month of Latin electronic and deconstructed club. I ended my summer with Arca’s monumental ninth album, XXXXX. The record has soundtracked my late-night walks this month: I’d strut to the clubby “Taconeando,” pick up the pace to the frantic “Syncope,” and slow down with the mellower “Enraptured.” My favorite songs are definitely “Willow” and “Syncope,” which are some of the most refreshingly original tracks in her discography. Since my initial review of the record, I’ve come to appreciate some songs that initially didn’t click for me, like “Throb” and “Eidolon.”

Another project I had in rotation was rommulas’ SONOFRHEASILVIA. As a member of 2hollis’ Boyliife collective, rommulas feels like Latin electronic’s answer to the growing wave of distorted electropop. His EP is abrasive, with overblown bass and screeched vocals, as the singer-rapper switches effortlessly between English and Spanish. My favorite cut off the record is the inventive “PALETA,” which turns Wisin & Yandel’s eponymous reggaetón classic into a relentless rage anthem. “PROBLEMA” continues the aural cacophony, as rommulas repeats the absurd refrain, “Te-te-teta, yo quiero ver la teta” (“Ti-ti-tits, I want to see the tits”) over thunderous kicks. While I gravitate toward more understated sonics like Fiona Apple and Puma Blue during the cold months, I’ll be blasting Arca and rommulas for as long as Texas’ sweltering heat blazes on.

Felix

Reading: Permanent Record by Edward Snowden is a memoir from the man who, notoriously, leaked a treasure trove of NSA secrets and fled to Hong Kong, then to Russia, where he still lives in exile today. I’m only halfway through, but it’s pretty gripping thus far. He describes his initiations into various government agencies with a keen retrospective, recognizing its various indoctrinations and recounting them with honesty, but little self-deprecation. He talks about his previous military service and contracting for the NSA with an appropriate reluctance, but it doesn’t stray into constant apologizing. We all know the spyware he had a huge hand in constructing is, well, an omniscient Satan that haunts our every step, word, and keystroke. He’s over your shoulder right now while you read this, and I felt his breath on my neck while I wrote it. But his own feelings on the matter aren’t quite as interesting as his thoughts, insights, and revelations—they’re what really makes this tell-all sing. I appreciate that someone can have so radically changed allegiances, not in country, but in personal code, and all the while maintain such clarity and grave severity. He’s a pretty capable writer, too, and a funny one at that. Never has a politically blackpilling account of mass government surveillance been so readable.

Image courtesy of Radius-TWC/Laura Poitras

Watching: I’ve been entrenched in the work of the documentarian Laura Poitras, a filmmaker who’s been on the front lines of post-9/11 American politics and governing since the early aughts. In fact, one such film includes Citizenfour, an inside look into Edward Snowden’s escape from Hong Kong. Maybe you’re noticing a theme in my media habits.

Citizenfour is part documentary, part thriller. It’s pretty insane to watch this chase for an American whistleblower and fugitive unravel in real time. At one point, Snowden begins receiving phone calls in his room, cleanly interrupting his interviews with Poitras. He wonders if “they” can hear this conversation, if he missed something in cybersecuring their accommodations. One call would be a coincidence, but several is…concerning. A fire alarm going off mid-sentence? Well, that’s all but confirmation that nothing in this conversation is private any longer, at least in some capacity.

We have a cameo from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who assists Snowden’s escape, and a clip of then-President Obama referring to Snowden as a “traitor.” It’s a work that dulls the bright halo effect that shines over the early 2010s and Obama-era politics in general, and therefore an important reminder that the world wasn’t perfect before Trump came along. It’s just that our leaders used to be a bit better at cleaning up their messes, or not making them in the first place.

Image courtesy of Bandai Namco

Playing: I have spent the month, as I’ve spent the last fifteen or so, playing Elden Ring: Nightreign. FromSoftware’s 2025 side-project is Dark Souls meets Fortnite: a boss rush of Elden Ring’s greatest (and, frankly, worst) combatants with a smattering of challengers from the Dark Souls trilogy for good measure. These 35-minute dopamine floods have… kind of ruled my life since I met them. Currently, I’m playing a lot of Ironeye, an archer who has the best bow-and-arrow moveset the company has ever produced. I also like to dip into some Executor gameplay when I feel like using katanas, complete with a Sekiro-style parry system. I’m working my way through the game’s challenge mode, Deep of Night. It has you rank up based on how many rounds you can play without a loss. Depths 1-3 are pretty easy—in fact, sometimes they’re easier than the standard game thanks to the bonus power-ups you can equip. Depth 4, where I remain stuck, is pretty fucking brutal. Depth 5 truly scares me, even as someone with thousands of hours in Soulsborne games. It’s essentially a no-hit run where getting tapped by even the lightest attacks, even the lightest enemies, will have your teammates rushing to revive you. It’s hell. I can’t wait to rank back up.

Listening: As an avid Phoebe Bridgers fan, I’ve been waiting on Lost Weekend since 2020. I’ll admit I haven’t listened to her solo work much lately, if only because I ran Stranger in the Alps and Punisher six feet into the ground over the course of years. Her third record brings plenty to get, well, lost in: sonorous soundscapes, lonely lyricism, melancholic melody. It’s everything she’s known for and a pleasant layer of more. If anything, I hope it kills the myth of Jack Antonoff as a monotonous producer. He brings a lot of life to this record, and I feel comfortable crediting him because aside from Alex G and Bridgers’ partner Bo Burnham, he’s really the only new significant collaborator. Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Christian Lee Hutson (plus Maya Hawke), her boygenius bandmates (!), the Bright Eyes crew—the list of her prior colleagues that reprise their roles goes on. I think this is the core of what makes her sound so unique and consistent: she knows who she works well with, and she only adds to that list, hardly ever subtracting. It’s a very satisfying listen, and it’s bringing me a lot of comfort in a time where I, to be honest, feel quite lost myself.

Audrey

Reading: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, mainly so I can know exactly how inaccurate Emerald Fennell’s recent adaptation is before I inevitably check it out anyway. While I’m enjoying the book so far, I can’t help but mourn how this story gets buried every time an adaptation focuses on the romance between Cathy and Heathcliff instead of embracing the gothic horror that lies beneath. This is a story that spans two generations, yet it seems pop culture is only focused on the one that’s getting the Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie treatment as opposed to the second generation where the story actually comes (and goes) full circle. Reading Wuthering Heights also has me questioning the casting decisions that went into the new film, especially since Heathcliff is explicitly confirmed as not being white barely seven pages into the book despite being most recently played by Jacob Elordi. I fear Kate Bush might be the only person in history to faithfully adapt this story.

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Watching: I just rewatched Caleb Hearon’s special Model Comedian on HBO Max, which was just as hilarious as it was the first time I saw it. The bit where the special’s title comes from is possibly one of the funniest I’ve seen this year, and about 75% of my other favorite moments from comedy specials this year probably come from this special too. Hearon is great at balancing his own self-described jolly Midwestern countenance with at-times pitch-black punchlines. Midway through the special, he shares a vulnerable story that brought tears to my eyes, only to drop a joke that had me cackling through said tears. He expertly balances serious subject matter with humor as his set continues, culminating in a hilarious closer that must be seen to be believed.

I also enjoyed Buddy, an indie horror-comedy set almost entirely in a demented children’s TV show. In an age of AI slop, it was refreshing to see the titular murderous mascot brought to life through practical effects, puppetry, and Keegan-Michael Key’s delightfully unhinged vocal performance. While I’ve seen some mascot horror designs that focus more on looking scary than seeming like they could have been something children found interesting (the Five Nights at Freddy’s animatronics and Huggy Wuggy from Poppy Playtime come to mind), the cute and cuddly exterior of Buddy himself makes his evil acts all the more shocking. Even early on in the film, before the horror becomes apparent, his plastic beady eyes have a soullessness to them that all the hugs in the world can’t shake. I say this as someone who liked Barney as a toddler but for some reason was unsettled by his “I Love You, You Love Me” song at the end of each episode. Buddy wears these Barney influences on his fuzzy orange sleeves. The result is yet another delightful surprise in what has been a fantastic year for horror.

Image courtesy of Mojang Studios

Playing: Minecraft, specifically the latest snapshot with the new Dappled Forest biome. I’m obsessed with the cozy autumn atmosphere and the new poplar trees. I’ve always been more into the building and farming aspects of Minecraft survival mode, as opposed to mining and fighting monsters. My only criticisms of the new update are that villages don’t generate in the Dappled Forest and the new poplar wood blocks don't match the other wood types as well as your typical spruce or oak planks. Thankfully, I’ve resolved both these problems by building my own village inside the Dappled Forest using a mix of poplar logs and stripped dark oak. I highly recommend any builders preparing for the update do the same. Minecraft already has winter in the form of snowy biomes, so adding a little slice of eternal autumn with the Dappled Forest is a welcome addition to the game.

New updates aside, I just love making my Minecraft world feel lived in. When I build the same hole in the side of a mountain that I always build and rush straight into killing the Ender Dragon, the game quickly loses its luster for me. But spending time improving villages, setting up farms, and even naming the tamed cats who guard my base from creepers all make my world feel lived in. My little Dappled Forest village is a welcome escape from reality at the end of a long day, and I’ve barely even scratched the surface when it comes to building in my survival world. Now if only I can mine some more diamonds…

Listening: I used to feel oddly territorial anytime I met somebody else named Audrey, mainly because it’s not a particularly common name so it felt strange not being the only Audrey in the room. That changed when I finally started listening to Audrey Hobert. Her single “Sue Me” is unapologetically self-aware yet catchy as hell. While Hobert’s blunt lyrics make it clear that even a brief tryst with the song’s subject is a bad idea, her tongue-in-cheek delivery makes it sound so fun that I almost get the urge to redownload Hinge. I’m also a big fan of “Thirst Trap,” in which Hobert laments about pacing around rooms and flailing in the trenches over some guy who isn’t even a quarter as cool as she is. I owe a lot of my step count each morning to pacing around my own living room listening to this amazing song. Now instead of feeling like a victim of identity theft when someone else is named Audrey, I want to unionize everyone who shares our name for the sole purpose of defending Audrey Hobert’s honor. We ride at dawn.