And We're Live

As you may have noticed, I am now cross-posting from Popone to Dreamwidth again. Comments will remain active over here.

Tales of Snakes and Humans

Our old friends Gretchen and Brad came up to Seattle to visit for the weekend, and we found time to try the new Bully Pulpit/Jason Morningstar game, Zhenya’s Wonder Tales. It’s been forever since we gamed together; they were pillars of my gaming experience back during my first run through the Bay Area. Champions, Feng Shui, Shadowrun — the good old trad gaming days. It was awfully nice to sit down and tell stories with them again.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/04/19/tales-of-snakes-and-humans/

May 2026 Criterion Channel Lineup

About time for another Criterion Channel lineup. I’ll admit it, it’s been kind of a middling few months on the Channel, usually with at least one really exciting collection. I’m not sure May even has that one standout. Obviously the long-awaited Boston Crime collection is the answer here; until that day comes, it’s hard to complain too much. Still a cinephile’s delight.

OK, let’s run it down. The first collection is ‘80s Remakes (and Their Originals) which is at the least a clever idea. Everything from The Thing and The Thing from Another World to Breathless and Breathless. I can’t say I’d go out of my way for most of these remakes, though — Carpenter being the clear exception. This feels more interesting as an exploration of how remakes can go wrong than anything else.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/04/19/may-2026-criterion-channel-lineup/

Mexico Noirth

S. and I spent a long weekend up in Vancouver the other weekend to attend VIFF’s Mexico Noir series. Click through and read Sylvia Moreno Garcia’s essay on Mexico’s film noir during their golden age of cinema; if you’re lazy, though, the quick summary is that Mexico had its own film noir tradition in an era when Mexico was the largest producer of Spanish language movies in the world. Argentina and Spain were busy being fascist regimes, which always puts a pall on creativity. These movies are mostly unseen and unavailable today, so the chance to inject eight of them directly into my veins was too good to miss.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/04/11/mexico-noirth/

April 2026 Criterion Channel Lineup

Another month, another batch of movies!
One very exciting program and a bunch of stuff that I generally approve of even if I’m not quite as excited about it.
I found someone on Letterboxd who seems to be maintaining lists for each program, which made writing this easier, I tell you what. Thanks, Robby!

You know, I’m gonna skip to the exciting bit: Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers. Caden Mark Gardner
and Willow Catelyn Maclay curated this and it looks amazing. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is going to be the one most
people have heard of, and it’s great. I’m really interested in Maggots and Men because it’s a historical story, and I’m looking
forward to seeing what a trans lens brings to this bit of Soviet history. Drunktown’s Finest caught my eye as well –
intersectional! – as did No Ordinary Man since it’s a biopic about a jazz musician, and I have this persistent feeling
that I should know more about jazz history.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/03/25/criterion-channel-lineup-april-2026/

Belfast Surprises

Way belated, but I wanted to talk a bit about my day trip to Belfast from February, the last time I was in Ireland. It made an impact on me.

So some of my work trips to Dublin are two weeks long, which is honestly more time than I like but gives me a good solid chunk of time with my Dublin teams. Also it means I get the weekend to do touristy stuff. I gave some serious consideration to flying to Berlin for the weekend this time until deciding that I wasn’t going to have the energy for a winter Berlin trip. Instead, I spent one day taking a bus tour up to Belfast.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/03/22/belfast-surprises/

Feng Shui Imports

I tried some experiments in my Demon Haunted Feng Shui game the other day, and it worked out well enough for me to want to write about them.

Love Letters

The first one was Love Letters, stolen from Apocalypse World. The concept in a nutshell is one-off character-specific mechanics intended to get people back into the swing of the campaign after a hiatus. For a great podcast on the topic, see Dice Exploder.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/03/04/feng-shui-imports/