In honor of the untimely end of Stephen Colbert’s run at The Late Show, I thought it would be fun to answer his famous Colbert Questionert.
What’s the best sandwich?
I don’t think of it so much as a sandwich, but I think the answer is the perfect burger. I get more excited about that than I can think of any other sandwich, although there’s some candidates in there for sure.
But a truly great burger. That’s a thing.
I love a blue cheese and bacon burger, but I think the right answer here is more classic. A cheeseburger, of course. I think it’s cheddar, but actually it’s probably melty American (don’t tell me). Lettuce, a tomato slice (a good one, please), perhaps some pickle. It’s got a generous amount of mayo. It is juicy, it is not overcooked, the bun is the right proportion. And it’s small enough that I can actually eat it without assistance.
What was the first concert you ever attended?
Phish, at The Evergreen State College. I went with my dad and my brother, neither of whom were particularly interested in Phish. When the show started and the lights went low a bunch of people lit up and my dad said it smelled like the 60s. Never having been to a concert before, I thought there was a small chance I would be called onto stage and have to play “Fluffhead” or something. That didn’t happen. But I do vividly remember the performance of “Silent in the Morning.”
What is the scariest animal?
Cats are terrifying.
We invite these predators into our homes like they’re cute, but then they have these whole secret lives and bring back their trophy kills to put on display. They’re abject killing machines. Complete sociopaths. I totally believe the urban legends about cats eating their owner’s faces after they die. It’s strange that we think it’s okay to cohabitate with them.
Apples or oranges?
I never get sick of apples. Crisp. Juicy. Sliced up, or in a pinch just chomp right in.
Have you ever asked someone for their autograph?
Famous? No.
I’ve had some board game designer friends sign their work. Because that’s a nice touch.
When I was young I did trick my mom once into “signing her autograph” onto a piece of paper that was actually a disciplinary form in need of a parental signature. I had been falsely accused of the original infraction, but the deception to my mom was real. I lasted all of 10 minutes before I confessed.
What do you think happens when we die?
I don’t actually really know how we’re alive. I’m this sack of meat and electricity, together in a way that has a sense of consciousness. It’s crazy biological magic.
When we die, I believe that magic ends, for sure. Whatever it is, this combination that has led to my sense of “me” is done. But also, back into the earth it all goes, and who knows what happens then? That matter can combine with other matter into some new thing. But my journey will be done.
What’s your favorite action movie?
I’m very particular stuck on the definition. A movie with action may not be an “action movie.” Yes they must have impressive set-pieces and physical stunts of some kind (martial arts, driving sequences, etc.). But also… not too much else, otherwise it’s something else entirely. It needs to commit to the bit.
One pick is Mad Max: Fury Road. It is basically one long gorgeous sequence, with maybe one or two chances for you to breathe. It’s impressive, gripping, and beautiful.
Another is The Rock (with Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, and Ed Harris). It is total Michael Bay ’90s action schlock in the best possible way.
Window or aisle?
Both are cursed. In the aisle my legs will drift into the aisle and get whacked by a passing cart. In the window I’m smooshed in with nowhere to go.
I’ll pick the window if I get the choice. The view is nice, and it leaves some chance that I can rest my head upon the wall and yet still fail to get any sleep.
What’s your favorite smell?
If it’s fall or winter, I want a warm cider, cinnamon, earthy tea, or mulled something. The smell of warmth and comfort.
Outside of that, it’s petrichor, that smell of fresh rain after a bit of dryness. Everything smells earthy and wet and mossy.
What’s your least favorite smell?
The smell of walking through the perfume gauntlet of a department store. Overt artificial floral, completely overwhelming.
What is your earliest memory?
I have no memories in my first house, where I was until 3. After that we moved to the property where I remained until 18, but the actual house got demolished (a controlled burn) at some point when I was young. I have very few memories of that house before it burned down.
Oddly, I remember a dream from then. I’m being chased by my teacher (Kindergarten?), but she’s in a lion costume (like the Wizard of Oz cowardly lion).
Cats or dogs?
I have neither now, yet grew up with both. For most of my life I would have said cats. But my fondness for dogs has grown with time.
You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s performance of “Little Wing.” It’s beautiful, dynamic, and purely instrumental. I think I could listen to it a lot.
Something was in the air in 2025, such that three of my top movie picks from the year are horror movies (or at least “thrillers”). Not everyone likes watching dark movies, as they can be, well, a downer. But for me, I respond positively to the drab and depressing, thinking to myself “Well, I see now it could be so much worse!”
Don’t worry, there are some touching and heartwarming movies in the selection below too. Plus a bunch of random movies because I did an above average amount of flying this year. Standards are different on airplanes.
There’s something about vampires in the deep south that unmistakably evokes True Blood. Except instead of a sprawling story that ranges from horror to camp, Sinners tackles this in feature film length. Unsurprisingly, my favorite aspect of this is putting a musician, and in particular a musical experience, at the center of the story. If you’ve seen the movie, you know the scene—and it’s transcendent. I also like how the movie goes pretty far before turning into a vampire story. And in fact, before I saw it, I didn’t know that’s where it was going at all. Sorry if I’ve spoiled it for you, whoops. But it succeeds at being a story first and then adding in the supernatural and horror elements with precision and agility.
This movie goes hard. Damn. Demi Moore is so incredibly courageous to take on this film, where the central plot point is about her resisting her own aging and directly confronting our society’s obsession with youthful beauty. It’s intentionally unflattering. There are many times along this crazy train where it could have exited with everyone being much happier. But things gotta escalate. This movie is visually arresting, disturbing, and magnificent.
Above everything else in this tale, I’m sold by the story structure. You may not know it when the movie starts, but first you’re only given one character’s perspective. And then you return with another character’s perspective over sometimes overlapping, and sometimes not overlapping parts of the same timeline. And this progresses with more characters, each time revealing a little bit more of the mystery behind everything. It’s an incredibly effective way to enhance the interest of the core events of the story. And everything escalates into one incredibly violent climax that feels very well earned.
It’s no secret that Marvel has lost its way a bit. And many have pontificated why or how. Certainly the aftermath of Endgame feels deflated, with some wins, but overall a lot more disappointments. And re-watching the entire set, it’s incredibly noticeable, but also hard to pinpoint. Somewhere along the way, the character drama lost its heart a bit. And the thing I can say about Thunderbolts: it nails the grounded, endearing character interactions. Yes, this set of misfits comes from a set of other movies—more Marvel homework. But those origins aren’t terribly relevant, because what matters is the way they connect on screen. This was the most I had enjoyed a Marvel movie in a long time.
I’m a sucker for interesting storytelling devices. And this one is incredibly non-linear. It tells the story of a relationship at various points, in sickness and in health, but mostly sickness. Instead of a relationship escalator, the non-linear storytelling keeps your brain moving between what you know to be coming and the experience of being in the moment of what you’re seeing right now. Touching.
I spent the entirety of this movie’s runtime waiting for them to explain why the main character was a chimpanzee, but no one seemed to ever refer to this fact. It turns out it was just an intentional visual storytelling trick to keep you from fixating on whether the actor’s performance matched that of the real-life character the movie was based on. Problem number two is that I did not realize until the very end of the movie that this was in fact based on a real British musician, Robbie Williams. You think I would’ve picked up on this from the musical numbers, which seemed of too high a quality for songs created just for this movie. And some of them scratched at the edges of familiarity. But it turns out Robbie Williams didn’t cross over as an artist in the United States as much, so I was able to make it through the whole movie and wait until the credits rolled before I realized, oh wait, that’s a real dude. I don’t know if this was me having the ideal intended experience or not. But I enjoyed myself despite my confusion, so that probably means the movie is pretty good?
So it’s clear that this movie had become a huge sensation, and I put off watching it for a very long time. When we finally got around to watching it, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In particular, Ariana Grande was far funnier than I expected. I was less impressed with the sequel, which seemed to have fewer good songs, less sensible character motivations, and not enough content for the running time. So I left the second part feeling a little unsatisfied. But if I rewind to where I was after the first film, I had a delightful time.
K-Pop Demon Hunters: Obviously this movie turned into a huge sensation with songs like “Golden” audible everywhere. But hey, it was a fun flick. The goofy title describes exactly what you’re going to get. Don’t think hard, have a good time.
Elio: Elio isn’t exactly going to set new standards for Pixar’s best work. Actually, the beginning was fully uncanny valley for me, with the motion style really preventing me from caring about some of the human characters. But then the plot moves on and we’re dealing with aliens and weird space stuff and the cartoonish motion fits fine. I’m nitpicking. It was enjoyable.
Action-ish
Fantastic Four: First Steps: There have been so many bad Fantastic Four movies, and we finally got a good one. The retro-futuristic aesthetic is soothing. The characters felt grounded. And I’m only slightly upset about the central plot point of failing the trolley problem. Ultimately, the movie didn’t stick to my bones, but this was an enjoyable superhero flick.
Superman: I don’t like Superman as a character. His distinct lack of vulnerability keeps him from being interesting. But occasionally, a movie is entertaining enough that I can set that aside. This one was just entertaining enough.
Deep Cover: Amateur wannabe improv actors get thrown into a criminal situation. Their incompetence and hubris escalates everything to worse and worse. It’s funny.
Novocaine: The normal everyday man becomes a hero because he has no pain sensation. As an airplane movie this was just the right blend of dumb and entertaining.
Tomb Raider: They reboot the Tomb Raider movies in the same way they reboot the video game: with a lot more gritty realism. More Artemis, less John Woo. It was fine, but not very fun.
Last Breath: Another airplane watch, this didn’t feel like 90 minutes of story. Albeit a true one. Honestly, if you want underwater tension, there are many better options.
Gladiator II: I don’t know why this exists. I mean I do. Money. But it’s creatively bankrupt. Slavishly devoted to its predecessor and thus both derivative and nonsensical.
Horror/Thriller
28 Years Later: Before watching this movie, I watched 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, all to realize this movie has very little continuity with those. That’s fine. It still builds a deep post-apocalypse zombie setting. Which then in the third act takes an incredibly wild turn that I’m still not sure how I feel about.
The Babysitter: This was just the right blend of campy, classic-feeling slasher while also being funny.
Frankenstein: I’m not sure why I love the melodramatic 90s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but when this modern Frankenstein telling also tilts towards the melodramatic I don’t find it endearing. Maybe it’s the way that the creature is supposed to be hideous but in Hollywood style still must be magnetic and attractive. I didn’t dislike it, but it didn’t quite connect with me.
Blink Twice: Channing Tatum is charming. This is a chance to watch him be a creepy tech bro who has discovered yoga but also has a murder island for his rich friends.
It Comes at Night: You know the traditional wisdom to not show too much of the monster in the first act? To slowly hint and reveal to build tension and suspense? This is the other extreme, where you never explain what’s going on at all and leave everyone confused and dissatisfied.
Feelings
The Big Sick: I didn’t know going in that this was a true story. Apparently, yes. But also, a good story, and a heartwarming story. A romantic comedy with hardship and heart. Not at all what I was expecting for a comedian’s jaunt into cinema.
The Materialists: This movie is about the contrast between a relationship based on feelings and emotion, and a relationship based on practicality and pragmatism. It being a movie, you know which one is gonna win out. But at least it entertains the conversation. It also has the undesirable challenge of making Pedro Pascal the incorrect choice. A choice, because this is not a why-not-both poly situation—but that’s the reality of watching Hollywood romance movies. I thought the story this movie was telling was interesting.
My Dead Friend Zoe: On the airplane, the trailer played this as more of a comedy than it is. I mean yes, sometimes there’s levity. And the serious backdrop is right there in the title. But wow this was a heavy story of military PTSD and suicide and dealing with loss.
The Zone of Interest: This one showed up in the awards listings, so I decided to check it out. I wasn’t exactly expecting an easy watch. But holy crap. This was an extremely anxiety-inducing watch. Powerful in that, but brace yourself.
You Hurt My Feelings: This small story felt more like a single TV episode than a movie. Extremely grounded and relatable. And done before you know it.
Music
Becoming Led Zeppelin: It was great to watch the early formation of this god-tier band. In particular a scene where they play to a small group of students mere weeks after starting to play together. And the intentional sabotage that went into the album construction to prevent radio singles.
STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.: I’m cheating, because this is a miniseries, not a movie. But I might as well talk about the music documentaries together, right? Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and a side of Green Onions. This Memphis studio has a compelling story the whole way through.
Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary: The story of a genre retroactively named as a joke. Expect to spend a lot of time with Michael McDonald and some high quality session musicians.
Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage: The energy that closed out the late 90s was just so toxic, and this was that manifested in one place. But also with terrible event management. This concert’s failure is legend.
Tom Petty Somewhere You Feel Free: This is the story of the “solo” album Wildflowers. Which is a great album. My summary: Tom Petty is just so cool, y’all.
Gimme Shelter: Throw a giant free concert for one of the biggest bands in their prime, what could go wrong? It’s telling that there’s overlap in the event staff here with Woodstock 99, like some sort of crappy management cinematic universe. This documentary may make you want to steer clear of concerts or large crowds for a while.
Muscle Shoals: I didn’t emerge with clarity on how much of the magic was the studio and how much was the specific studio musicians. So storytelling fail on that I guess? It was curious to see the overlap of the Rolling Stones’ visit in this and the Gimme Shelter documentary.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of January.
Loop 1 ⭐
I like how laid-back and slow this one is. And the simplicity of that extra single repeated note in the empty space. The whole thing’s pretty understated, mellow, and groovy.
Loop 2
Start with a simple percussive organ part and then give it a little more motion with the bassline. But the thing I really wanted to do here was make use of this cool drum that I was gifted. That requires that one be in a compatible key, so I had to plan ahead for that a bit. I like using the guitar as a rhythmic element to give a little bit more pulse, a little bit of sizzle.
Loop 3
Sometimes the bass takes center stage, and this is one of those. The starting guitar part and the treble chords played on top fade to the background by comparison. I was pretty happy with the lead part on this one, being a little more aggressive. You know, for me.
Loop 4
It’s not a complicated riff that the second-layer bass puts on top of this, but it is the thing that gave this loop its personality. The way these loops are put together, I might try a couple of elements together before I restart and hit record, but mostly I’m figuring it out as I go. So it’s interesting that something that can be the identity of it doesn’t arrive until much later.
Loop 5 ⭐
Another example where I felt like I needed a second line for the bass to add some harmony. For some of these parts, they could’ve been played at once as “double stops”, but that would require me knowing what I wanted from the start. The end result created a tune that I felt very happy to put a lead over. This was one of my favorite lead phrases of the month. The full version is in the long video above, not in the short, as I try to keep those under one minute.
Loop 6
That high reverb guitar part doesn’t move. The bass does move and creates the motion and harmony. I never tire of that trick.
Loop 7 ⭐
I decided to pull out the Strat for this one and put it in a different tuning: FACGCE. And since I was actually recording in the middle of the day and didn’t have to worry about waking up a sleeping family, why not a little bit of trumpet too? The horn is pushed to the background quite a bit in the mix, but I like that it’s there. The resulting groove had a great pocket to play in. I remember grooving on this one for quite a while, just getting lost in it.
Loop 8
The way the lighting changes in this recording, you’d think that I spent the whole day filming this. But no, the light just changes very quickly in January in the PNW. Clearly, my goal here was to play some acoustic instruments, as I frantically moved between them.
Loop 9
Since I was in the mood to go acoustic, I wanted to try something different by not actually using the drum track on my Boss RC-10R looping pedal and building my own instead. Of course, the problem was I was set up to run silent because it was late at night and I didn’t want to wake anyone. So that limited how much I was willing to go bang on random things to make some drum sounds. So what we get here is some bouzouki and then some shaker, and then I wasn’t really willing to do anything muchg louder after that. But I want to return to that idea later.
Loop 10
Somewhere in the back of my head for this one was Santa Fe by Beirut. I wanted to do something with the square wave tremolo below, and a simple happy chord progression.
Loop 11
So I definitely wanted to go with some messy vibrato, seasick slightly detuned vibes. I didn’t actually mean to leave it on when I started doing the bass. And I remember being confused as to why the bass sounded just slightly wrong. Yep, it was getting very slightly detuned. Oh well, I still enjoyed the overall warbly groove.
Loop 12 ⭐
This one comes into its own with that high guitar part contrasting with the swimming main chords and bassline. I’m not using harmonics in there, but it sounds like it? And maybe I should’ve? Eh, it sounds good. The jam over top of it is nice and melodic, which is what I’m always happiest with. Where it sounds a little bit like singing.
Loop 13
Sometimes it doesn’t come together. It felt like I had created a workable groove here. Guitar part with a bunch of phaser, a bassline that felt like it was moving, and a little keyboard because why not. I spent a while trying to jam over this one and it just never turned into anything I found interesting. I included one bar of solo over this in the recording you see here because it felt weird not to when every other loop I post does that. But I wasn’t happy with it. And in the end, I just turned it off instead of my usual “that’s the one.” That’s okay, it happens, and the practice continues on.
