When I was a kid, my grandmother had a vacation home in Bear Valley, in Northern California. I would have thought Bear Valley was a town, but I'm now reading it is a "census-designated place." If Bear Valley is known at all, it's
A review and some thoughts on dinosaurs and the Saw series as sports movies
Chipwrecked At The End Of All Things
A few months ago, at the great Partners and Son here in Philly, I saw a solicitation flyer for a comic called Laser Quest, by an artist named Harry Nordlinger. I don’t have a copy of that flyer, but it was, if I remember correctly, a small black and
I remember the first time I tried soda, which feels like a memory you'd only have access to if you were alive when soda was invented or you were raised in a cult that disavowed syrup, like that memory would also have to find you at 18-years-
Last week, my partner and I watched the first half of Black Hawk Down. Not a good movie. I think you could save Black Hawk Down as a film, though, if at the end, when all the post-script text is telling you how these soldiers ended up, they told
In 2009, you had to work to hear Andrew W.K. He'd started underground, in the world of Michigan noise, blown up in 2001 as a New York-based rock intensity machine and then, following the 2003 release of his second full-length LP, he scattered. Andrew'
My parents got my son a kids' tablet last Christmas. Jasper was 3-years-old when he opened it up, meaning he can currently remember a time before he had the tablet, but one day soon it'll feel like something that was always in his life. We
I'm going to go in a lot of directions here. I'm not saying that like "Buckle up, buttercup, here comes a thought tidal wave," I'm saying it to apologize for intending to write one cohesive essay and winding up with four rougher
I watched The Drifters play a show in my high school gym. Wait, that sounds too impressive. I watched a splinter of a splinter of The Drifters perform one-and-a-half songs in my high school gym and then all the students left to go eat lunch. I went
I've been reading two Batman books side-by-side, thinking about their respective dystopias. The series are vaguely connected even beyond their lead character because one of them is Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley's The Dark Knight, a comic most other Batmans and many
When I was in (what I'm pretty sure was) the fifth grade, looking at the big wall of middle reader titles at Kepler's in Menlo Park, CA, I overheard a bookseller describing different recommendations to a father. I don't remember what was said, but
Earlier this month, the multimedia sensation Pokémon celebrated its 30th anniversary, an event that has led many fans to reflect on their favorite moments from the series' games, TV shows, books and Burger King toys. Today, I read the website Polygon's list of the 30 Most Iconic
I was going to respond to this here email from my friend ”Not Mad” Max by dropping the text from that weird monologue David Letterman did after somebody tried to extort him for sleeping with his employees, but with “eating dog food” subbed in for the things Letterman was admitting
Look, I know this is going to sound like a bad joke or at least like something a person would make up for a quirky factoid, but I bought The Road Warrior on DVD with money I got from my Bar Mitzvah. I don't care about whatever pennies
Pee-Wee As Himself (directed by Matt Wolf) I said there were no rankings, but this is the best movie I watched in 2025. I was, as we all were, shocked when Paul Reubens died. I cried like a baby when director Matt Wolf ended Pee-Wee As Himself with
Some notes before we dig in: * Two movies I loved but wouldn't feel comfortable ranking, as I know people involved in their creation: Discount Funeral and Snake Oil Song. Discount Funeral is a narrative piece from Brett Whitcomb, who has directed or co-directed some of my favorite
Is there more new TV coming in 2025? Who can say? Right now, all but one of the shows on my Best of 2025 list have wrapped up. Barring a new series getting a surprise drop in the next few weeks or Pluribus suddenly turning to garbage, this is the
It feels wonderful to trust an artist or artists. I watched Breaking Bad and that was great and then I watched Better Call Saul and that was even better. Now I get to watch Pluribus with the earned expectation that Vince Gilligan, Rhea Seehorn and all of the writers, directors,
Wicked is coming back. You know what Wicked is. It's hard for me to assess the first Wicked movie's effectiveness. I saw the play twice when I was in high school and loved it then, but didn't find much to hold onto in the
When I listen to Liar by The Jesus Lizard, I end up recalling the time I stood in a UPS parking lot in Seattle with my dad in May or June 2009. The Jesus Lizard had reunited and had announced a US tour. I'd finished my second year
I woke up at 6 this morning, my son was still asleep, the Nintendo Switch was an arm's length away and Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection was loaded up. I am terrible at Mortal Kombat. The Legacy Collection is one of those "everything" video game omnibuses including
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I saw Gallagher's website as his auxiliary brain. This seems obvious, to the point that all websites are the auxiliary brains of their creators, but I didn't just mean "This is where Gallagher writes what he's
I keep saying I'm done and then I keep remembering things I need to write about. When Gallagher died in 2022, the world lost a vital lode of joy: Gallagher's website. Luckily, Gallagher's daughter Aimee started paying the hosting fees after a few months