I decided earlier this year that I was going to go back and actually finish Red Dead Redemption 2, a game I have always appreciated more than I really liked. Wonderful writing, gorgeous graphics, incredible depth and breadth, and really unsatisfying gameplay. I got about halfway through the story when
While the long (and thankfully nearly over) moving process has been helpful logistically, it's stretched out what would normally be a pretty concentrated period of stress to the point where I feel at the end of my tether at least once a week. I hate feeling angry and
We're deep in the middle of moving, with most of our media at the new place while we pack and stage stuff here, so we were somewhat ill-prepared for the internet to have trouble connecting to our streaming box in the bedroom, necessitating retrieving a disc player out
I love horror in all of its (fictional) forms: movies, books, internet creepypastas—you name it, I'm interested. That said, while my threshold for what is enjoyable is pretty low, the bar for stuff that actually scares, disturbs, or causes me to ponder its mysteries is extremely high.
I was trying to come up with what to type up this week; a week in which I am feeling particularly uninspired, and wondered if I'd ever written about my feelings about the Resident Evil games, the latest of which I just finished. It turns out I had,
We have to move in two months and myself, my partner, and both dogs are trying not to fill our apartment with the collective anxiety that has been accumulating since we got the notice earlier this week. We've known for a little over a year that this was
At some point in every phone conversation with my 85 year-old father, the following exchange takes place: Him: Let me ask you something...what do you think about this...1-A? A-1? Me: AI? I fucking hate it. Him: Yeah, that's it...I can't remember what it
On this morning's early dog walk, I was looking at the dawn-lit clouds slowly drifting across the brightening sky. "There's a flood warning," my partner said as I pulled myself back from admiring the majesty of the firmament and tried to recalibrate my attention
My favorite media analysis podcast (favorite one I don't work on, at any rate) is Just King Things, a podcast where the books of Stephen King are discussed in publication order. It's part of a network of podcasts that consist of shows dedicated to various different
I've been trying to get my thoughts on my favorite games this year in order, and in so doing I have been thinking about how tricky it is to have favorites at all in these days of decrepitude. While I think everyone gets to draw the line on
For years now my go-to New Year's Eve ritual has been to throw on some loud movies and try to soothe the nerves of whichever dog is most bothered by the insane barrage of fireworks Southern Californians love to set off throughout the night and next morning. Last
I don't really do resolutions for the New Year. That said, as I caught myself ordering a baker's dozen of discs from the latest Kino Lorber sale, I pledged to myself that I'd endeavor to watch at least one new* movie I owned every
I've been trying to keep a flexible schedule where possible this year, including giving myself permission to take a day or two off if there's not a pressing deadline, or change my mind about when to do something without feeling guilty for it, as long as
I don't necessarily have a favorite genre of videogame. Like all forms of quantification, I have a difficult time picking a ranking order for things I enjoy, so if asked for a favorite, I'll usually reply with one of two or three titles that I'
A little housekeeping up top: Since relaunching Mystery Date I've been itching to do a little personal podcasting, and this week I'm debuting the fruits of my (and pod-partner Jimmy Bramlett's) labors. The first set of episodes will be a slightly belated recap/critique
Now begins the season of not wanting to do anything new or worthwhile except pile blankets upon blankets until you're pressed into the couch like an autumn leaf set between sheets of wax paper under a rock, waiting for motivation or necessity to seep back in in significant
Will these all go out on Sundays? No, probably not. That said, I had kicked around a few ideas earlier in the week that didn't bear fruit, but I did get an email from my film processing lab that my rolls of film had been developed, so I
One thing about a five year hiatus in the newsletter is that most of the things I was watching, reading, listening to, et cetera have ended or I've fallen off of them to the point where there isn't much to talk about. A major exception to
Hello and welcome—or welcome back—to Mystery Date! From 2014 to 2017ish I wrote and sent an email newsletter every weekday. I've tried a couple of times in the intervening years to resurrect this thing in one form or another, but nothing really stuck, and so we