In case you’ve been exploring the outer moons of Neptune and missed the news, Britpop icons and perennial bad boys Oasis have reformed and are set to embark on a massive, ridiculously hyped, and highly lucrative world tour in 2025. Here are a bunch of reasons why you won’t find me queuing up for tickets. … Continue reading 30 years of hating Oasis
It was inevitable that I would end up writing about Charli XCX’s Brat — without question not only the album of the year but the pop-culture event of the year. But the crazy thing is how the nature of this essay changed so dramatically several times in the course of just a few days, from … Continue reading The spectacular rise and depressing demise of Charli XCX’s Brat Summer
If you’ve been around both a young child and a TV at any point in the past nine years, you probably know that Hey Duggee is one of the best, most intelligent, and most consistently delightful shows out there for the little ones — and us parents too. Produced by the BBC’s kids’ channel, CBeebies … Continue reading The 15 best Hey Duggee badges
UPDATE: my essay about season 2 is up and you can read it here! For a while at the end of last year, I found myself with no desire to watch movies or series at all. I mentioned this earlier in my essay about Elia Suleiman: with the genocide in Gaza unfolding in real time, … Continue reading Rewatching Andor as a meditation on Palestine
If there were any justice in the world, All Over the Place would be widely considered one of the greatest debut albums of all time. A bright blast of jangly power pop and psychedelic garage rock marked by euphoric tunes, shimmering harmonies, and delightfully cynical lyrics about creeps and bad boyfriends, the Bangles’ first full-length … Continue reading Revisiting All Over the Place, the Bangles’ criminally underrated 1984 debut LP
This is a reader-supported blog. If you like what you read, consider buying me a coffee! This is not how I planned it — I didn’t expect to be publishing something about Bluey so soon. The thing is, I’ve been meaning to write an essay about the series for a couple of years. I’ve outlined it, … Continue reading The many delights — and the disappointment — of the epic Bluey episode “The Sign”
I published the first of my year-end best-albums lists in early March of 2022, and sheepishly titled it “A belated list.” The next one was a little less late, landing in late February, and so that one was “A (somewhat less) belated list.” Well, the third edition is later than ever. It’s mid-March, 2023 has … Continue reading A belated (as usual) list of the best albums of 2023
I write about film all the time, but not all of it gets published here. When I see a film or a series, whether old or new, and decide I have something to say about it, there are, broadly speaking, two things that might happen. The first possibility is that I’m so obsessed with this … Continue reading A compilation of my short-form film reviews of 2023
Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed it’s been a bit quiet around here for the last few months. There’s a specific reason for this: almost all of my extra attention and energy has been consumed by following and protesting the war and genocide in Gaza. I haven’t really been able to … Continue reading Elia Suleiman’s Palestine trilogy: The tragic absurdity of occupation
This essay is divided into two sections: an introduction, with a brief overview of the album’s history and a defense of its greatness; followed by a longer (and quite obsessive) track-by-track breakdown of all 13 songs. Just so what you know what you’re getting into going in. And by the way, if you like the … Continue reading The greatness of Everything, the Bangles’ melancholy, masterful breakup album
