Pop Culture Private Eye – The Year In Review 2025 17 Dec 2025 December always brings a blizzard of “year in review” content. Spotify tells you what you’ve been looping, Reddit reminds you of your strangest obsessions, and YouTube floods you with “best…
Pop Culture… TV Review: The Capture, Season 1 13 Dec 20258 Dec 2025 Ben Chanan’s The Capture begins with British soldier Shaun Emery (played by Callum Turner), recently acquitted of a war crime in Afghanistan. Just as he tries to rebuild his life,…
Pop Culture… Hades and Hadestown: Two Journeys Through the Underworld 18 Nov 202518 Nov 2025 I admit this is becoming something of an obsession, but you're clicking the link and reading the post. Who is the real problem here? The Underworld has always been a…
Film… Sorcery and Consensus, Part 2: Drawing Inspiration from Doctor Strange for Your Games of Mage: The Ascension 5 Oct 202528 Sep 2025 There’s something undeniably compelling about Doctor Strange’s brand of magic. It’s not just the swirling mandalas and gravity-defying set pieces; it’s the way his sorcery feels earned. It’s ritualistic, intellectual,…
Film… Sorcery and Consensus, Part 1: Doctor Strange Through the Lens of Mage: The Ascension 27 Sep 202521 Sep 2025 Marvel’s Doctor Strange films are, on the surface, kaleidoscopic spectacles of spellcraft and multiversal peril. But beneath the swirling portals and time loops lies a surprisingly nuanced meditation on belief,…
Books… The Starfleet Corps of Rhetoric Engineers: A Love Letter to the Galaxy’s Most Persuasive Nerds 20 Sep 202515 Sep 2025 There’s a throwaway gag in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Vol 1: Second Contact that stopped me in my tracks: the mention of the “Starfleet Corps of Rhetoric Engineers.” It’s absurd,…
Pop Culture… Review: Hadestown (West End) 19 Aug 202518 Aug 2025 Late July. London was warm, the streets buzzing, and I walked into the Lyric Theatre with high hopes. They were met. And then some. Hadestown isn’t just a musical; it’s…
Pop Culture… Comedy Review: Fern Brady, Autistic Bikini Queen 16 Feb 2025 Released on Netflix in 2024, and based on her 2022 tour, Autistic Bikini Queen is a comedy special by Fern Brady. Brady is a Scottish comedian from Bathgate who was…
Film… A Series of Lectures by Sarah C. Paine 11 Feb 202510 Feb 2025 There's a big overlap between people who are interested in wargames, whether miniatures-based or presented as board games, and those with an interest in military history and strategy. That leads…
Pop Culture… Review: 1997 WWF Royal Rumble (Netflix) 11 Jan 2025 As I sat down to watch the 1997 Royal Rumble on Netflix, I couldn't help but feel a rush of nostalgia wash over me. Now in my late 30s, revisiting…
Pop Culture… Dropout.tv Releases Trailer for Dimension 20: Dungeons & Drag Queens, Season 2 28 Dec 202427 Dec 2024 I really love Dropout.tv and Dimension 20. Dropout is a fantastic streaming platform for improvised comedy, featuring an amazing cast and some really cool guests. Dimension 20 is their flagship…
Pop Culture Private Eye – The Year In Review 2024 (Plus JOE) 15 Dec 202414 Dec 2024 Something I love about this year is the annual roundups in various places. You get your Spotify summary, your Reddit one (apparently my three top subjects are board games, Europe,…
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