Bringing a hacker mentality to problematic art
Being that this is a hot cracker of an issue, I'd like to start out by stating what I won't be talking about in this essay. I won't be talking about the...
Thursday poem: slow curve
thinning sunlight spindles through leaves but a spiteful breeze still snicks between my bones my youngest doesn't like it when I copy her actions – like...
Thursday poem: this humdrum day with its unwieldy hours shot through with brilliant fragments
this humdrum day [1]with its unwieldy hours [2]shot through [3]with brilliant fragments [4] [1] this humdrum day… My day (1.1) is no more interesting than...
Blade Runner: Rick Deckard's Ambivalent Humanity
This essay contains plot spoilers for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. If you haven’t watched it then you really should. I had two big insights this week. The...
Thursday Poems: Barely Present and Feedback
barely present wooden beams prop up balcony alcoves – the shifting pre-war brickwork of a private estate a buddha plonked full lotus among stunted laurels...
Poem: Just You Wait Til I Get You Home
I once saw the lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys sat across from me on the District Line. Me and the kids were heading back from lunch with my wife at a...
Why I'm not done with London (though London might be done with me)
When thinking about London I often remember Peter Ackroyd doing the rounds at the turn of the century to promote his book, "London:The Biography". When...
On the Poetry of Shogun
This essay contains spoilers for the 2024 television adaptation of Shogun and also features descriptions of the Japanese ritual of seppuku. A lot has already...
Art and Labour, Part 3: Video Games
Art and Labour, Part 3: Video Games A pink bear plods along a beachfront just after dawn. She is singing a little song to herself. She has no memory of the...
Art and Labour, Part Two: Poetry
Last week I wrote about cinema and labour after watching Wim Wender's Perfect Days and feeling conflicted with respect to how the film portrays the value and...
Art and Labour, Part One: Cinema
This week, I got round to watching the new Wim Wenders film, Perfect Days and it left me feeling thoroughly moved and inspired but conflicted at the same...
What did Transcendence (2014) Get Right About AI and Freedom?
This essay contains plot spoilers for the 2014 science fiction film, Transcendence, as well as discussion of the final shot of Christopher Nolan's Inception....
A False Universe of Pure Imagery
2012 was the year I became a father, the year of the London Olympics and my first year of teaching an undergraduate module on Poetry and Performance. I had...
Frank (2014): Papier-mâché Heads and Grass Shoes
This essay contains major plot spoilers for the 2014 film, Frank. My analysis of the film runs from the second paragraph onwards. I wrote an essay a couple...
Does Dune Part 2 Have a Post Credit Scene? (Or, how you can't capitalism your way out of a situation you weren't willingly capitalismed into)
I'm part of the problem. I know that I am one of billions who find themselves idly scrolling during moments of boredom and restlessness, when I can't just...
What is Spoken Word in 2024?
I have fallen out of touch with the Spoken Word and live literature scenes in the city I live in (and all the cities and towns beyond it). This is sad...
Deconstructing an AI Sonnet
(Rusty Niall is now hosted on Buttondown instead of Substack) About a week before Open AI stunned the world, and by the world I mean tech vloggers, with its...
On Earplugs and Eyescreens
Now everybody can have a moon at their window! Rusty Niall is now hosted on Buttondown instead of Substack. If you had asked me for something that aided my...
Perfect Little Jumps – Super Mario Bros 1-1 and Basho's Frog
Yes, I know that Frog Mario is Super Mario Bros 3 Before the most famous video game character went by the name of Mario, he was known in Japan as Jumpman....
The Morass of Mid Career: Inside Llewyn Davis and Me
Llewyn and Ulysses Rusty Niall is now hosted on Buttondown instead of Substack. This essay also contains plot spoilers for the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn...