Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest - I've been a crossword guy for as long as I can remember. I've dabbled in creation (see below), cryptics, and other alt-puzzles, but I've really fallen hard for meta-puzzles. These are puzzles in which filling out the grid is only the first part, and often the easiest. There is an additional layer of solving which requires you to search for unusual patterns and obscured hints to discover a meta-solution -- some word or phrase encoded somehow in the overall construction. The sheer epiphanic joy of solving a devious one of these is unmatched -- it's a blast. I could also recommend the Wall Street Journal's weekly crossword contest, which Matt frequently contributes to, but his indie effort here is a real gift to puzzle people everywhere.

Patriot - Darkly philosophical but often achingly funny show on Amazon Prime. Can bite Wes Anderson a bit much at times, especially in the first season, but ultimately emerges as having a voice and style all its own. Kind of flew under the radar, partly because of some rather poor marketing and positioning (sorry guys.) But is it cool? Yeah, it is cool. 

Imbroglio - Don't let the crude visuals, reminiscent of the middle-school doodles of a D&D-playing metal head, fool you --  this remarkably original and elegant game from creator Michael Brough is deceptively deep and hella fun. Dude's a straight-up genius.

Ear Hustle - A candid (yet mostly light-hearted) eavesdrop inside the bars of San Quentin prison, Ear Hustle is an illuminating and often quite sweet rejoinder to those who would seek to dehumanize our imprisoned population. This is a cause that is near to my heart, and I really appreciate what Earlonne and Nigel have done here.

Trailblazer for Rails - Interesting project to reimagine the MVC structure of Rails to introduce an additional layer where the business logic lives, ensuring the model is just for persistence and the controller is just for HTTP requests. Addresses an issue I've encountered in the past, and I'm curious to see how it develops.

​hstore in postgres - Wow. I thought the array datatype was cool, but hstore brings NoSQL-style flexibly-structured data to applications where SQL makes sense 90% of the time. Plays nicely with Rails  via the store_accessor method. 

Ralf's ukulele covers - For the last few years, Ralf Youtz (formerly of Built To Spill, Halo Benders, The Feelings) has been blasting these out wonderful, eclectic uke covers on his YouTube channel.  So fun.