The Intentions of Thunder – Patricia Smith

I’m a bad English major, and I’m also a bad judge of poetry. Try as I might, the language regularly flies over my head. As such, unless I am particularly moved, I have a difficult time describing what is “good” versus what is not. On a technical level, I recognize this is beautiful collection of writing. It is a long, full collection, though the individual pieces are not dense and plodding. I found her sonnets to be the standout type of the form. Though I do not know background detail on the author, I appreciate it being a career retrospective. This is highlighted by all the different national and global events that influence the art throughout the course of the collection. I will also say, I got into the rhythm more than I typically do with poetry. While reading, I found myself imagining the lyricism of what some of these pieces would sound like when performed aloud. That alone tells me this was worth the time to read.

Kenny Omega vs. MJF (AEW, 7/8/2026)

I haven’t been consistently following many storylines in wrestling these days, so I’m bringing a mostly outdated view of who’s good and who’s bad. It seems like I haven’t missed much: Omega is still adored as founder and living legend, while MJF is as heinous as ever. While the stipulation wasn’t necessarily original, the match was impeccable. The match led around the lower bowl of the arena, and the athletes hit all of the highlights. What has stuck with me since viewing, though, was Will Ospreay coming out to aid Omega. After providing enough of an interruption to the match to prevent an MJF pin, the camera cuts back to Ospreay’s face, and he looks so happy. He walks up the ramp to leave, but pauses and turns back to watch, for awhile lingering before returning backstage. In a world where everything is premeditated and intentional, here is arguably the best working wrestler active today, reduced to a mere fan. Whether or not that expression of pride was genuine, it was believable enough that I fell for it. That’s what happens when a match as good as this one takes place. It’s not about Ospreay; he didn’t do anything other than react honestly. It’s about the athletes in the ring, and the story they can tell.

Mixed Up - The Cure

I’m not a huge fan of remixes, I’ve never been to a dance club, and I never plan to. I don’t quite know if this is a collection people would put on at a party. I also don’t know how fans of the band’s dour work appreciate a poppy customization to the material. All of that said? This album still works. This almost gave a dreamlike quality for the music I already knew pretty well. Fragments of the original songs weave in and out to make them simultaneously recognizable and new. This gives a different way to listen to familiar songs, which is, I suppose, one of the core purposes of remixing songs. I didn’t think any individual song was better than its original counterpart, but I quite enjoyed it for what it was.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (Switch 2)

This was not the first game I was expecting to play on the Switch 2, but it turned out to be a wonderful first exposure. This is probably the core Nintendo franchise with the youngest appeal, which meant it was not challenging whatsoever. There are no fail states, so there is no barrier to progress. Instead of being boring, however, it was a great way to feel my way around a new console—not that it is all that different from the last one. It was not at all a bad game in its own right, either. Each level is designed in a way to poke around and learn new things about a creature. This culminates in one big goal to advance to the next level, which was always satisfying to figure out. None of this is laid out in the level though; instead, it all surfaces through base exploration of the environment. After finishing a level, you are presented with a hint to one of the features you missed, encouraging you to go back later. My one complaint, some challenges also netted flowers as bonus value, but those never seemed to be all that different from the core findings, so I didn’t see the point in highlighting them. For a children’s game, it had the perfect balance of being easy without being trite. The levels interconnected nicely and were well-conceived. And as a showpiece for new hardware, the visuals were gorgeous. Lovely game.

Damnation - Opeth

This isn’t exactly what I expected when, two days ago, I learned Opeth had an acoustic metal album. I was thinking of Scandinavian ballads and this was even cleaner, surprisingly radio-friendly rock. Like, it wouldn’t have surprised me at all to hear on FM radio in the 2000s. I will have to spend more time with the lyrics, as it is dripping with emotion. As a companion piece to Deliverance, I’m so pleased to have such a juxtaposition. Now off to listen to the live album combining the two albums in one performance!