This Machine Keeps the GhostThis Machine Keeps the Ghost explores both the boundaries of outer space and the inner reaches of human experience.Alien Buddha, 2022
Unwinnable, 2024A Dismal Tide: The Rover’s Neo-Western Nature "The Rover" as evisceration of traditional Westerns.Essayfilm review
The Daily Drunk, 2022Flyover Lives: Somebody Somewhere Season 1Speaking as someone well aware of the erosion of his social life the past couple pandemic years, watching Sam open up to herself and others feels a bit like rooting for myself. review
Drunk Monkeys, 2023A SeveringHow shattering it is to be told by someone you consider a friend that they no longer have room for you in their life.film
Film Cred, 2023The Nuclear Nest Stirs: The Timelessness of ‘Them!’Over the years, Them! has come to stand out being one of the few American genre films of that time to genuinely grapple with the weight of the nuclear option. film review
Film Cred, 2023‘Shin Godzilla’: A City in the Hands of a Hurting GodPutting the fear of Godzilla back on-screen required director Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, to do what he does best: make the monstrous holy. The result was Shin Godzilla (2016).film review
The Daily Drunk, 2022Late Cretaceous MundanityApatosauruses could be seen grazing from work because what’s a more beautiful and comforting daydream escape route
The Daily Drunk, 2021Chernobyl: Blurring Real and Cinematic HorrorA firefighter, responding to a fire at the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Russia, picks up a smooth piece of rubble. Moments later the skin on his hand melts away. Miles away, ash slowly rains down upon onlookers.pop culture
The Daily DrunkThe Bear and A Better Way ForwardCooking is an art. That’s a non-argument. To do it well means time, money, effort, and especially a love of the craft. pop culture
Haywire Magazine, 2022TO FEEL SMALL AND KNOW YOUR WORTH: THE LONG DARK’S VISION OF SURVIVALDeath is the great equalizer and it’s at the core of The Long Dark’s gameplay. It will follow you across the land and there may be miles and wolves between you and someplace warm. This is the beauty and the point of The Long Dark’s survival fantasy.
Sledgehammer Litthe anxiety of facial recognition software(v1.0.1) there’s a succession of nauseous seconds when my sharp <hitching> breath forms a punctuation a respiratory response of an exclamation point when strangers wear the expressions of dead friends
Sledgehammer Littag:nsfwand their absence will rest as heavy as bruises that linger like the thrum of laundromats when you’re already tired from the language of machines
Lost Futures2 Poemsnow I’m struggling to forgive this timeline for how hard it is on small things like homeless cats mewing on front porches and headless robots with spilled microchips turning the gutter into the milky wayPaywalled
Bridge Eight PressAlchemy and Afternoon Beers: The Beauty of Lodge 49Instead Lodge 49’s plans are done by people left desperate from the perpetual weight of late stage capitalism. But often these plans, with all their chances for a better life, are put on hold in order to help one another.
Haywire MagazineNEITHER SNOW, RAIN, NOR GLOOM OF GHOSTS: DEATH STRANDING AND THE WEIGHT OF WORKThis is a game where not only are blue-collar workers treated as heroes, but the basic mechanics and environments are designed to encourage players to care about such laborers and what they go through in order to keep society going.
Haywire MagazineINTRICATE RITUALS AND THE TIES THAT BIND: EMOTIVE MASCULINITY IN DEATH STRANDINGThis is a game that lets its men grieve, rage, and bond in ways that aren’t commonly depicted within big-budget video games. Even more surprising are Death Stranding’s overarching themes about the rejection of hopeless fatalism and isolation.
Drunk MonkeysOutside the City Limits: An Appreciation for Civilization's EndIf movies are a reflection of the times, then it’s easy to feel overcrowded. Even onscreen, it increasingly feels like there’s no space left to turn for solitude.
Horror HomeroomSLEEPING OFF THE FEVER: THE DREAM AESTHETICS OF 28 DAYS LATERBut where horror films often use this tool [film grit] to heighten tension or disgust, Boyle uses it to further peel away layers of realism, lining the visuals with the same feeling of a half-grasped dream.horror
The Daily DrunkHello, my name is Joe PeraIt may come as a surprise to find the spirit of Mr. Rogers living on in a show nestled between Rick & Morty and Eric André on Adult Swim.
The Daily DrunkLosing My Friends to Religion (or, Prose Poem for Saint Maud)I expect to lose friends to the Holy Trinity of cancer // car wrecks // time but I never expect it when I lose them to God
The Daily DrunkThe Quiet Beauty of “Tales from the Loop”Tales from the Loop’s pacing isn’t for everyone, especially for people who prefer complex science fiction or a stronger connective tissue in their story anthologies. This is a family picture album, not a flipbook.
56: Mad Max56 is a collection of stories told by 56 screenshots, showcasing captured curations in games.
56: The Division 256 is a collection of stories told by 56 screenshots, showcasing captured curations in games. This time, Wyeth Leslie examines The Division 2 via the lens of the “Have you passed through this night?” monologue of ‘The Thin Red Line.’