Being the Esteemed Man Of Culture that I am, I subscribe to the New York Times Crossword and make a point of doing it every day. I’ve gotten quite good at it in the last year! Anyway, there’s often a bit of humor in them, maybe be it the wry puzzles of Thursdays or an… Continue reading Where It Works
Author: Joshua Tong
The Power of Mordor
My love of The Lord of The Rings is well documented, heck, I just reread the books over the summer (with my glorious hardcovers). There’s a lot I like about them, like how they marry a beautiful world to an epic quest, and how that epic quest is a story of vanquishing evil not through… Continue reading The Power of Mordor
A More Diverse Past
On the recommendation of a few friends (and in want of something to have on on the background while playing Civilization VI) I checked out Bridgerton some time ago. I went into it someone with very little familiarity with Regency-era England outside of general pop culture osmosis and the card game Marrying Mr. Darcy, so… Continue reading A More Diverse Past
A Sore Arm
Hey there. I’m exhausted today, but that’s probably less because of World Events and more because I got my second Covid shot yesterday. Not to say things have gotten much better from last week, with another two mass shootings in the US happening since then that really call into question the 'normal' we’re returning to… Continue reading A Sore Arm
Exhausted
This past Tuesday, a white man bought a gun and went on a shooting spree in the Atlanta area, killing eight people — six of whom were women of Asian descent. There’s so much more to the story than just this, so much more to unpack. The shooter claimed that his motivation was to remove… Continue reading Exhausted
365 Days Later
Hey. It’s been a year since quarantine started, which, in a moment of magnificent serendipity, was when I was really getting into Death Stranding. But that was quite literally 365 days ago, and I gotta say, this is not how I saw this past year going. Back in July, I started making a tally of… Continue reading 365 Days Later
Would You Rather
Last week, I talked about Wandavision needing to stick the landing. And let me tell you, it did. But that’s not what this blog post is about. Let’s go back to setting things up. Obviously, spoilers for Wandavision abound below. And also spoilers for The Mandalorian. Just go with me on this one. Anyway. The… Continue reading Would You Rather
Sticking The Landing
WandaVision is an odd show. Teased as a 50s-style sitcom featuring Wanda and Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was certainly not the sort of thing you’d expect from Marvel Studios’ foray into Disney+ shows, especially when compared to the more conventional shows announced around the same time like The Falcon and the Winter… Continue reading Sticking The Landing
Adventuring Colonialism
I really liked the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. It was a fun adventure story with plenty of neat mysteries to uncover, plus, this incarnation of Lara was a headstrong survivalist who would find a solution to whatever stood in her way. I was totally on board, plus, I love adventure stories. Exploring ancient ruins,… Continue reading Adventuring Colonialism
What’s Up?
We’re halfway through February. By my count, this puts me eleven months into this odd pseudo-lockdown that New York’s been in as a result of the global pandemic. I saw pseudo-lockdown because indoor dining opened yesterday (again) even though the infection rate has held steady in the city at around 7-8% for the past few… Continue reading What’s Up?
Essays, Not Rants! 