What's Ahead for 2024 Inside the Wooden Block Labyrinth...
Music! Comics! Video Games! And One Incredible Year!
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your first hours of 2024 have been lovely and relaxing. Thank you for joining me as we enter Year Two inside the Wooden Block Labyrinth! This has been a learning experience for me but a real joy to write for this audience. There’s a lot more to explore in here and I look forward to walking with you every step of the way.
So what’s in store for this year? Here’s what to expect in your inboxes starting January Third…
Winamp Wednesday: There are tons more songs to explore, and I already have fifty-two lined up for this year. This Wednesday brings a hidden track on a critical favorite album, a tune about a famous actor and the other famous actor who isn’t him.
Inside the Wooden Block Labyrinth: Do you like comic strips? You’re getting a comic strip! Get ready for the adventures of archeologist sisters Harmony and Melody Wingate as they unearth the treasures inside the for-real Wooden Block Labyrinth. But look out for their nemesis, Millionaire Bill from the Billionaire Mill!
Wooden Block Origins: Essays and investigations inside the places that made a cautious young nerd into this weird writer. Get ready to go to the Guild 50th, Tannen’s, Rye Playland, and that Broadway show where everyone was a choo-choo train!
And my big crazy project for the year…well, let’s let soccer legend Brandi Chastain show off my excitement…
Yes, it’s time for 1999 at 25! We’re celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of one astonishing year through the music, movies, TV, video games, and milestone events that made it unforgettable. From Y2K paranoia to Phantom Menace anticipation, from The Matrix to 10 Things I Hate About You (released on the same day!), from Star Wars Rogue Squadron to the 9/9/99 release of the Dreamcast, we’re going back to the past to relive the highs, lows, and what-the-fuck-was-that of a year that still feels like the future. And we’re going to be doing some of that on…
The Wooden Block Podcast! Yes, all the commentary you love, now in audio form! There will be special guests, incredible insights, and at least one episode about weird Christmas music.
And it’s all already started! Yesterday I listened to the first album released in 1999, Ayumi Hamasaki’s A Song for xx. Hamasaki has to be the biggest star in the world that I’ve never listened to before, and I was absolutely enchanted by the album. It was 90s R&B smoothness with Van Halen guitar solos and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra-style horns. The late-album full-on assault of “SIGNAL” made me get up and move, a sure sign that the track will remain on my rotation all year. If you’ve never heard it, A Song for xx comes recommended! A great way to kick off the retrospective. Next up? Check back on Winamp Wednesday…