Aug 14Member-onlyThe Saigon Craft Beer Guide (As of May 2023)The craft beer craze, you might be surprised to learn (or not), has spread well beyond the confines of the U.S. or Europe. While most craft breweries will be found right here at home (the U.S. has roughly 10,000 breweries) or in places like Belgium, Germany, the U.K., and so…Craft Beer22 min readCraft Beer22 min read
May 11Member-onlyWhen You Lose Your Social Media Manager (Or, Notes on SMMSs to Drown Your Tears In) — Updated (5/15/2023)(See Update notes before the list!) Fun fact: when a major social media network is bought by a billionaire who has no idea how to manage a social media network, one of the predictable consequences is that said social media network might stop working as expected. And so here we…Social Media22 min readSocial Media22 min read
Mar 6Member-onlyA Definitive Absolutely Accurate Ranking of James Bond Theme SongsThe title says it all. Mostly. It doesn’t tell you why I have decided to put together a ranking of every James Bond theme song. I could tell you that there are great reasons for this, but I would be lying. The real reason: I’ve been watching and re-watching James…Movies27 min readMovies27 min read
Feb 28Member-onlyFan Fiction vs. Tie-In Fiction: A FrameworkEvery once in a while, fandom is beset upon by a series of somewhat aggressive arguments about the function of accuracy in film/tv adaptations. The best of these follow my own path, which involves assessing the work on its own terms before going back to look at how it functions…Fandom8 min readFandom8 min read
Feb 20Member-only4 Things Twitter Could Do to Make Blue Worth Paying For (But Probably Won’t)Over the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about why Twitter Blue has not been the success its new owner had hoped for. While subscription numbers are hard to assess, Endgadget reported that as late as mid-January, Blue had only 290,000 subscribers worldwide, which doesn’t come close to Musk’s…Social Media13 min readSocial Media13 min read
Feb 16, 2022Member-onlyThe Unbearable Weight of Fantasy, Tolkien, and Race (or, Eh, Black Elves Are Fine)The Internet is abuzz about the one fantasy author to rule them all, J.R.R. Tolkien. Over Superbowl weekend, Amazon released the first trailer for their new Tolkien adaptation, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. As with any highly-anticipated media property, the trailer (and the still shots released…Fantasy11 min readFantasy11 min read
Feb 13, 2022Member-onlyNot-So-Cancelled (or, Hey, We’re Still Talking About the Wrong Things)In a semi-recent piece for The Nation, David Klion discussed what is by now no longer the “latest” bit of Internet “free speech” theater in response to the cancellation of a collection of Norman Mailer’s essays. I shouldn’t say “cancelled,” really. The publisher passed on publishing the book, which means…Politics6 min readPolitics6 min read
Jul 4, 2021Member-onlyHow to Make Twitter Suck LessTwitter is one of those places that people hate and use at the same time. Millions upon millions of users log in every day to share photos and quick thoughts, talk to friends and random folks around the globe, and stream the feed looking for interesting articles, news, images, videos…Twitter10 min readTwitter10 min read
Published inTheJoyFactory·Jun 11, 2021Member-only10 Caribbean Books You Should Read At Least OnceAs a fan of Caribbean literature who has spent quite a lot of his life reading and thinking about it, it seemed appropriate to finally do one of those “hey, these are the books you should read” lists. …Books10 min readBooks10 min read
Published inTheJoyFactory·Feb 13, 2021Member-onlyBrokeback Mountain (2005) and the Unbearable Violence of Gay LoveIn 2005, the United States found itself in a renewed culture war over the place of homosexuality in society. Just two years prior, the Supreme Court overruled Bowers v. Hardwick to establish sodomy laws as unconstitutional. None of this was new to civil rights activists, of course. Gay rights had…Movies6 min readMovies6 min read