Raza Syed

I’ve said this before, but the wrong side of history is a helluva thing to be on.

I’m periodically reminded how horny Shakespeare’s writing is. He was absolutely the Joe Eszterhas of the Elizabethan era.

It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a show as much as I’m enjoying Pluribus. It speaks to me. It’s nice to be spoken to.

In a distant future, they hoard light. Nearly all the photons are decayed, spent. They build perfect mirrors to cage what little light is left.

“To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates…”

I just realized Angela Bower and Tony Micelli were the original Miranda Hobbes and Steve Brady.

The most romantic thing a person can do is make time for you.

Some days I feel like there’s a smaller me sitting in the cockpit of my cranium, piloting the spaceship of my body through the solar system of my relationships.

As much as I enjoy someone matching my freak, I am even more delighted when someone matches my framerate.

YouTube video by Gap Better in Denim.

This new Gap spot is as crisply edited, tightly choreographed and sinuously shot as anything they put out during their 1999-2005 advertising heyday.

The fundamental tension that informs Alien: Earth is the collision of two elemental forces: cynicism and Darwinism.

That explains their paranoia and tendency to hoard their wealth. If you intend to live forever, material considerations and actuarial calculations begin to compound interest like a predatory loan.

…and institutions that would bear their names and serve as their legends. The broligarchs we happen to be saddled with are convinced that actual immortality—what they coyly refer to as longevity—is just a few scientific breakthroughs from feasibility.

My pet theory as to why our current crop of robber barons is categorically less charitable than their counterparts of yore: while the old-timers were just as obsessed with immortality, they harbored no illusions about its practicality—so they poured their largesse into endowments…

a woman sitting at a table with a sign that says " i don 't understand the question " ALT: a woman sitting at a table with a sign that says " i don 't understand the question "

Me anytime anybody mentions Labubus.

What if Joyce only wrote like that because his autocorrect sucked?

We’re gradually outsourcing all our fever dreams to server farms.

Three sailboats glide across a calm ocean under a vivid golden sunset. The largest sailboat is in the foreground, slightly right of center, with its tall mast and American flag clearly visible. Several silhouetted passengers are aboard, standing or sitting as the boat moves gently through the water. Two smaller sailboats are farther back, sailing toward the horizon in a line with the setting sun. The sun is bright and nearly centered in the sky, casting a wide, glowing reflection across the rippling water. The sky fades from deep orange near the horizon to a darker amber above, and the entire scene is bathed in warm, golden light.

Always a good feeling.

Anytime I’m in the Pacific Northwest, I’m struck by how girthy the volcanoes are up here. The calderas are so wide. Y’all must get some really chonky plumes.

A screenshot from a Vanity Fair profile of Pedro Pascal. The layout includes a block of text in white serif font on a black background, with one sentence highlighted in yellow: “You just never know if people are going to be disgusted by your heart or not.” Below the text is a photo of Pedro Pascal reclining on a muted pink pillow, eyes closed, resting his head on one hand with a contemplative expression. He wears an olive-green shirt and has a neatly groomed beard and mustache. The full text reads: “In the movie, the superpower couple is married with a baby en route. Pascal hasn’t seen the finished movie yet but says, ’I’m getting an inkling of excitement because it seems to reflect what our common goal was, and what we want to share, which is all of our fucking hearts on a platter within this genre. You just never know if people are going to be disgusted by your heart or not.’ He admits that entering the Marvel universe has not been without jitters: ‘I’m more aware of disgruntlement around my casting than anything I’ve ever done. ‘He’s too old. He’s not right. He needs to shave.’’ Pascal takes succor from his new Avenger friend Downey: ‘He’s just so immediately generous and inviting that you feel like you can be afraid, you can be hungry, you can be ambivalent.’ And Downey speaks for many of us when he tells me, ‘Pascal’s slow trajectory to becoming a household name who is on a wildly hot streak kind of reaffirms my faith in our industry.’”

Between Carrie’s rodent-infested townhouse and Miranda’s red-headed son working at a restaurant, I feel like And Just Like That is about to bless us with a Ratatouille subplot.

Stochastic humanism. Hopeful entropy.

Find kindness where you can. Be kindness when you can. That’s the only thesis I have for everything that’s going on.

There’s a match cut halfway through Ryan Coogler’s Sinners that merges two wildly disparate impulses of movement into a seamless, visceral motion that made my amygdala glitch with delight. The movie is like that throughout: a giddy amalgam of genres speaking to each other in unexpected ways.

"Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut" Hits 4K 20th Century Studios has announced that a newly restored and remastered version of the director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s 2005 Crusades epic “Kingdom of Heaven” is coming to 4K UHD disc on May 27th. The...

Oh hell yeah.

What if gamma-ray bursts are just galactic cries for help?

The earth hurtles through the universe at approximately a million miles per hour. Human connection makes the vast scale of that itineration the littlest bit bearable. Every intimacy, every consilience, is a signpost, a dropped pin, a trail of crumbs through the thicket of time.

If we’ve ever watched a movie together, it’s because I enjoy splitting beams of light with you. I enjoy inhabiting darkened spaces with you.

Looking at the same stuff together is almost as powerful as seeing each other.

My main takeaway when someone sends me a link or a meme:

“I was just thinking of you.”

“This made me think of you.”

"Dark City" Is Coming To 4K Disc In June Arrow Video has announced a June 24th release date for a 4K Ultra HD physical release of Alex Proyas’ acclaimed 1998 sci-fi noir film “Dark City”. The first film shot at Fox Studios Australia (just be...

Oh hell yeah.