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…
Film… Film Review: Civil War 14 Dec 202514 Dec 2025 Alex Garland’s 2024 film, Civil War, is not a comfortable film. It’s not meant to be. From its opening frames, it drags the audience into a near-future America fractured by…
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 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,…
Faction Files… Faction Files: The Talamasca (The Vampire Chronicles) 19 Nov 2024 Welcome to the first installment of our blog series on fictional factions! In addition to introducing a cool faction, we'll look at how you can bring them to the tabletop,…
Pop Culture… TV Review: Braindead (2016) 26 May 2024 Braindead is a television show that masterfully combines the seemingly disparate genres of political satire and science fiction, resulting in a unique viewing experience that was very well-placed at the…
Pop Culture… Still Game: Review and Play Suggestions 5 Sep 20235 Sep 2023 As I previously have with Wednesday, Yes, Minister, and Charles III, I'm using this post to combine a review with some play suggestions for RPGs. This time, it's the turn…
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