Category: Nonessential Thoughts
The Unfairly Quick and Painless Death of the Author
Inspired by the movie Obsession, thoughts about intent vs interpretation. (Spoilers for Obsession and the 1987 Fatal Attraction)
Buy-Curious, or, Being a Good Video Game Consumer in the Age of Influencers
Mix industry news with entertainment/enthusiast news, let simmer for a few decades, and you’ll end up with the state of media in 2026
Person of Note?
A 20th Century Digital Boy struggles with the prospect of becoming a paper notebook guy
Shut it down
Computer nerd gratitude, an extremely inessential take on finding the rare things that aren’t getting worse
A Universal Picture
Re-thinking my earlier defenses of Pixar, since you can’t actually be universal without first examining what you consider normal
It’s Your Thing
Cultural blind spots, dismissive assumptions, and the paradox of having a unique voice in a world that would really prefer you didn’t
Yelling at Nothing
Toothless satire is worse than useless when we know who the bad guys are (Spoilers for Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die)
Get Down With Your Bad Self
More about “Wuthering Heights,” a more expansive take on art, and the transgressive joy of learning to love all the embarrassing versions of yourself
China on Easy Mode
A short travelogue from a week in Hong Kong, with a digression about Ugly Americanism
Dispatches from a Purple City
Using a trip to Atlanta as a reminder to be mindful of how much we know about people and places is just made up
Are AI Evangelists In Heat?
What Hollywood legends in estrus can teach us about the ludicrous claims about generative AI being democratizing
