Star Trek excuses are always accepted.
I spent most of the week playing Apidya‘ Special. I like it quite a bit. Pretty good remake with one bad aspect: they used AI for the new cut scenes and voices. Too bad. I play it in original mode. The Gradius meets R-Type but with a wasp thing works and the difficulty is acceptable.
I also discovered a new podcast (read: people screencasting a video call with some overlays) about games that features the occasional shmup YouTuber: The Game Design Archive.
They've done episodes with Boghog, SpidersSTG, and Blader.
(The episodes are long and rambly, so I listened in 1.5 speed)
On that note, I'm always down for YT and podcast suggestions.