PicoBlog

This column is “It’s new to me,” in which I’ll play a game I’ve never played before — of which there are still many despite my habits — and then write up my thoughts on the title, hopefully while doing existing fans justice. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link. Data East was all over the spectrum of arcade genres in the 80s. They were behind the Magical Drop series of puzzle games, as well as platformers like Burger Time and various shoot ‘em ups, beat ‘em ups, and run-and-guns.

“I first discovered Jen Louden's work when I was in a stressed-out, freaked out place. I read her "The Women's Comfort Book" when I was in my 20s, and I've been a fan of her thinking/feeling/writing ever since. Jen is also an incredible writing teacher and coach) who gave me some wise advice about starting my own Substack. And I love her new book, "Why Bother?". ” ncG1vNJzZmiilaO7qrLEq6OorZSau2%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xo

The 90s were better. They just were. I’m sorry, but it’s science. It was the past, but there were vaccines and Jim Crow was over and there was a modern sensibility without all of the pathologies of the internet. Bill Clinton sucked and our government was doing all kinds of awful skulduggery in the world, but he didn’t suck in the same way as George W. Bush and there wasn’t this constant sense of the world falling apart.

There aren’t many inventions in Silicon Valley these days but there are many constructs. Perhaps the best invention in Silicon Valley is the concocted story of so many founders themselves. Even the term itself — founder — suggests something impressive, as if they might rival our own American founding. In some sense the founders, with their obsession with oligarchy, are a real threat to our own founders who understood the aristocratic duty that comes with power and position.

Rethink with Rachel is a newsletter for curious minds and lifelong learners. If you value it, why not consider supporting it by becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll gain access to my deep dive Rethink Special Reports and Friday Rethink Recommendations. Thanks! ncG1vNJzZmiqkZi1prjBqKuspZGje7TBwayrmpubY7CwuY6pZqKso2LBqrnEZquoZaWlsaLAxGauoZmkYq5us86om2aqn6Gy

It’s an interesting relationship we have with cultural icons when we’re young. For a while, they’re older than we are—most of them, anyway. A few years later, they appear to be roughly our same age. But enough birthdays go by and we eventually realize, to our horror, that we are now centuries older than everybody we see onscreen. And that’s how I feel about Italy’s new rockstar group Måneskin. Victoria de Angelis, the group’s only female member, is twenty-one.

Jamie Paul Here. This week’s post is by contributor Timothy Wood, responding to a previous article written by fellow contributor Johan Pregmo, which you can read here. I also have a piece out in Queer Majority: “Overturning Roe and the GOP’s Continued Descent Into Extremism.” The beacons have been lit. Trumpets sound the call to arms. Online, in the streets, and at the ballot box, we all raise our banners to win the “culture”, whatever that means.

“There’s a stigma around discussing mental health.”   This is something I hear people say a lot, both online and in the media.  Let me just come right out with what I think: No there isn’t.  At least, not anymore.  Sure, in decades past everyone was tacitly encouraged to keep their private feelings to themselves.  But I don’t think this was borne out of any malicious intent or system of oppression.  Instead, the reality was simple: nobody wanted to hear that shit.

(The magnificent Ivy, deemed “stone-cold noir” by none other than Eddie Muller himself, is on the Criterion Channel as part of the “Noir by Gaslight” series, and it can and should be watched right now. This is a Siren post from around 2008, spruced up and trimmed of dead links and such. Enjoy, and do see Ivy.) "It's a perfect fascination, my attachment to that girl. If she were to poison me, I would forgive her.