Facebook and the commodity of memory — We should all be concerned about Facebook’s — sorry, “Meta”s — attempt to dominate the world of Virtual Reality. Not because it will succeed (Zuckerberg’s company’s track record with rolling out hardware that actually catches on is laughably poor) but because of what it represents for ourselves. While its origins…

Why you’re hearing this phrase a lot right now — “I’m not a royalist, but…” I’ve seen that phrase a lot from fellow countrymen in the last couple of days. Much like the infamous declaration “I’m not a racist but…” preceding a deeply racist statement, there seems to be an overriding sentiment amongst those asked for — or just offering…

How the Crime Capital of the US turned its fortunes around. — Gotham was once a blight upon the American landscape. With the highest crime rate in the country (dubbed the ‘Gun Death Capital’ by some), near overwhelming poverty resulting in the largest homeless population of any major US city, and frequent scandals involving deep rooted corruption amongst public figures as well…

Writing the unexplainable — A puzzle has a solution and wants to be solved. A mystery has a solution but doesn’t want to be solved. An enigma doesn’t have a solution and doesn’t want to be solved. As children we love a puzzle. Be that a wooden one with slide-together pieces or one of…

What the Edgelords and finger-wagging Boomers get wrong — “Millennial Nihilism” is a phrase used a lot online, often used in bad faith but equally I do see why the philosophy of Nihilism might be attractive at the moment given how hopeless the future looks judging by any of the myriad horrors befalling the globe today. As such a…

What’s with all the Time Loops? — What’s with all the time loops? Whether it’s Deathloop, 12 Minutes, The Forgotten City, Lemnis Gate or Hades the genre of entertainment revolving around loops or time loops is all the rage lately. This ‘recursive genre’ lends itself to the video game format because the point of contemporary video games…

Not just a math rock band. — In an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, actress Julia Fox, was asked if she was a muse and what a muse is. Her response was that she considered herself to be the writer/director Josh Safdie’s muse for the film Uncut Gems. The internet, instead of picking up on…

No. — I see this phrase a lot. Sometimes above or below some wince inducing spectacle of a boy, man or men making a prat of themselves, as we are all wont to do from time to time. But most often it’s a caption for a video of what is often a…

Class Dismissed — The Gentlemen appeared on Netflix recently and after the, frankly dreadful, King Arthur & Aladdin, it seemed like Guy Ritchie was returning to his Lock, Stock and Snatch roots with another fun gangster caper, so I fancied a look. Sure enough it is a classic Ritchie gangster caper complete with…