This week Eden and I get a little into the woods. We've talked many times about music, but we wanted to discuss some of the how and why music means so much to us, and also why we continually seek out new music, rather than continue to relish the music we listened to in our early years. Yeah, it's a little navel gazey, but there you have it.

Spider-Man returns, this time traveling across the Spider-Verse, as Eden and I discuss the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse. How does this film hold up to the absolute banger that was the first? Listen and find out. General impressions kick things off after we catch up on some new media, and then we go full spoiler mode and discuss the film. I'll just say this, this movie deserves your time, attention, and money.

It's Spider-Verse season! While we originally planned to discuss the recent release of Across the Spider-Verse this week, we made a last minute decision (mostly for scheduling reasons) to start with the first film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And you know what? That was the correct decision. It is a movie that is so incredibly well and lovingly made that it is worth watching again and then gushing over for the next 30+ minutes, and that is exactly what we do.

It was finally Peter's turn to pick something, because he finally felt like he was in a position to do so. This week we took a look at the most recent issue of Uncanny Magazine, issue 52. Uncanny is an online magazine published every two months of speculative prose, poetry, and nonfiction works. Peter has been a subscriber for a bit now, but hasn't dived in and this seemed like a good time to finally get in and check it out.

Gamera returns! And with him comes the reckoning of some serious psychological trauma. In this conclusion to the trilogy, the movie takes a much darker and more psychological turn, and in the end, is it better for it? Listen along as we discuss our thoughts and opinions of this concluding movie.

Gamera returns! This week we dive into the second installment of this relatively recent Gamera trilogy, and see the might turtle take on Legion, a wild upside down crab looking monster. If you enjoyed the first, this one is sure to please, as it really takes everything about the first and levels it up in significant ways.

It should have been Peter's turn to come up with something. Should have. But like the solid that they are, Eden saved the day from Peter's incredibly overwhelming life to offer up a trio of kaiju films for us to watch, enjoy, and discuss. We kick this trio of episodes off with the 1995 film Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. If you aren't familiar with Gamera, listen and decide if you want to make yourself familiar. And as a first timer, Peter gives this film a hearty endorsement. Plus, it was free on Amazon Prime Video, so very little by way of excuse.

What is a close encounter? And how many kinds are there? Well, there must be at least three, because this week we discuss our experiences watching the 1977 Steven Spielberg classic movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We also discuss some recent media we have been enjoying. Join us as we take this trip with a cast of eclectic characters.

We're no strangers to talking about music here on The Middle of Culture. And while, years ago, Eden and Peter shared many similar musical tastes, those tastes have diverged and matured. This week, we discuss essential albums that have shaped the way we listen to music, and the types of music we enjoy. Come along, as we discuss our most influential albums.

This week Eden decided to challenge Peter with some anime. Anyone who has listened has heard Peter lament about his inability to really get into anime, but there has to be a first time for everything, right? Well, turns out, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury just might be that. Listen in as we discuss the prologue and first three episodes from this most recent Gundam series.

Our winter of X-content is over. This journey has lasted many months, and culminates in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Look folks, this movie has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any X-Men movie, by a significant margin. It is worse than Black Adam, and boy howdy, that movie is an abomination. This is a right stinker, and we end on the lowest of lows. Or do we? Listen as Eden and I discuss our surprising reactions to this movie, and then rank all 10 of the X movies we have watched together. I promise, we are sane and our decisions make complete sense.

This week we take a journey. After a brief discussion of the announced DCEU projects (can you say completely underwhelming?) we travel to 1940 by way of the 1973 Spanish film (that's Film with a capital F) The Spirit of the Beehive. It is one of Eden's very favorite films, and boy howdy, did Peter have a challenging time getting into it. But it makes for a very interesting discussion on the Spain at the time, and cinema in general. Plus, it can't be any more difficult to watch than our upcoming movie. It just can't.

Our winter of X-content is coming quickly to a close with the penultimate movie, 2017s Logan. Both Eden and I were a bit nervous to watch this one again. We have fond memories of it being very good, but that was 5+ years ago. Does it hold up to further scrutiny? Or should we have lived with our fond memories and left it at that? Take a listen with us and you'll find out.

This week both Eden and I felt a bit low energy, so we went with a topic that didn't require too much energy or effort to prepare for. And, perhaps a little surprisingly, at least to me, it turned into a really fun and interesting discussion about tabletop role playing games. Join us as we discuss our journey with TTRPGs as well as our thoughts about some recent announcements about the, by far, biggest TTRPG out there.

Folks, this has been a real roller coaster. There have been highs, and there have been lows, but this week, I am pretty sure we have hit the very lowest low so far. Join Eden and I as we discuss X-Men: Apocalypse. Heads up, this movie is really, really bad. But the conversation was pretty dang good.

It should have been another entry in our Winter of Excontent. But alas, life just kicked me hard. In the balls. So, we are just sort of free wheeling it this week, with an extemporaneous discussion of some of our favorite media of the year, including music, books, movies and games.

This episode was a little different. Generally, we talk about the media and entertainment we have been consuming. However, today we wanted to talk about our efforts at creating media of our own. November is known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and has been for about the last 25 years. Independently, turns out Eden and I both decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. We thought it would be worthwhile to spend some time talking about our experiences in trying to write a 50,000 word short novel in one month's time.

The Summer of X has become the Fall of X, or even the Winter, depending on where you live. This week we talk a bit about games, music and then dive into the latest X movie, Days of Future Past. We discuss its merits and Peter discusses that, despite those merits, he really, really doesn't like this movie. Or the holiday season. He has stress and needs to manage it better.

As children of the 80s, the entertainment of that time has always been highly influential for both myself and Eden. One of those influences is that of giant robots. Yes, that's right folks, this week we are ranking, reviewing, and discussing a handful of giant robots over the years. But not just any robots, these are all Mecha, robots controlled by humans. Join us as we walk down memory lane and rank these robots.

The Summer of X is now the Fall of X officially as temperatures cool off and we follow The Wolverine to Japan. Eden and I discuss what we are in to these days, and then dive into James Mangold's first movie centered on good old Logan.