“One day in Venice, sometime near the end of the 14th century, a busy merchant found himself with a few spare moments. Maybe it was a slow day at the docks, or he arrived home too early for dinner. Whatever the reason, he did what people of his era […]
One of my favorite things about mortal existence is when TV programming goes pumpkin-spiced in the fall. Not just the buffet of special Halloween episodes and, perhaps perversely, chopped-up broadcast versions of horror movies*, but the glut of compulsively-watchable spooky reality shows…if you can call heavily-edited tall tales […]
Friend of the Gutter Jessica Ritchey writes about 2016’s summer blockbusters: “And it matters more than it might seem that Hollywood has lost its nerve and touch in making blockbusters. Pop culture is how a society of diverse people talk to each to other—finding common idioms no matter […]
“It has been said that video games are best understood by the verbs they invite. No Man’s Sky is built on four primary actions: explore, fight, trade, survive. They are familiar verbs, for players, but, couched in the near-endless variety of this playpen, they remain brightly alluring. Repetitiveness […]
At Vox, Genevieve Valentine writes about how “Stranger Things‘ treatment of Barb reveals the show’s greatest flaw: Its limited view of women” in the story so far: “Nostalgia is a powerful story engine, and Stranger Things is in a sweet spot, since those who grew up with the […]
“2008 was an exciting time to be a Harry Potter fan. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, had been released. Movies were on the way. And author Melissa Anelli was at the center of it all, running a popular fan site called The Leaky Caldron […]
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