Review on Joachim Kennedy

Edinburgh Fringe 2026

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:15:01 +0100

I recently spent a few days at the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest performing arts festival in the world. A founding principle is inclusivity, meaning there’s no selection process for shows, which contributes to its size and range in quality and variety. At the music and film festivals I’ve been to, it was feasible to either browse the whole catalog or pick a random act/film and trust it would be good if not your cup of tea. Not so in Edinburgh.

Sundance 2024

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 07:56:26 -0800

I found myself at Sundance again this year. The same group from last year rented an even bigger house and invited more people. Last year, I was mostly excited by the exclusivity of it: the chance to see films before big releases, to go into each screening with no expectations.

I was on the fence about going again because that exclusivity holds less allure for me. I’ve already had “the Sundance experience”. It’s not like any of the movies I saw were widely seen. The Eternal Memory got an Oscar nomination, but it’s a documentary, so still no one has seen it. I will be years (sometimes decades) late to most of the movies I see, and I’m good enough at avoiding spoilers and reviews that being quick to see new movies doesn’t matter that much to me.

Infinite Jest Review

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 09:54:19 -0800

You will find out… [t]hat most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking… [t]hat 99% of compulsive thinkers’ thinking is about themselves.

I promise not to make this site a book review blog, but frankly I sank too much time into Infinite Jest to have nothing to show for it other than a sense of accomplishment. It’s fresh now, but in a couple years, I’ll have forgotten most things about one of the major events of my 2023 except that I must have liked it because why else would I finish it. I do know why I started it: to be able to discuss it with my brother. I wrote this to organize my thoughts, and I might as well publish it. Besides, now that I’ve rated it 5 stars on Goodreads, everyone who follows me (i.e. my family) has said, “Oh you must have really liked Infinite Jest.” and I feel the need to justify myself.

Book Review: An Actor Prepares

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 07:44:14 -0700

This is a revision of a piece I wrote for the Astral Codex Ten book review contest which I can reveal now that the contest is over, and all of my loyal fans can no longer sway the results.

Constantin Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares is told from the perspective of an acting student, Kostya, in a class taught by the Director, Tortsov, a stand-in for the author. Each chapter, the Director gives the students an exercise which they royally screw up, he explains what they did wrong, a few students argue with him, he wins, and they see their errors and become enlightened.

Theory of Mind

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 07:01:14 -0700

It’s Spring(!) which means it’s officially time to begin deciding whether to apply to grad school some time in the next few years. My plan was to start with the Saxelab reading list, but it is short and unsurprisingly heavy on theory of mind. At this stage, I would rather survey a wide range of topics I’m interested in before getting too deep into any one. That said, it’s always hard to know where to jump into any field, and I already had a curated list, so for now I picked the oldest theory of mind paper, Domain specificity in conceptual development: Neuropsychological evidence from autism by Leslie and Thaiss (I was going to link to it, but I don’t want to anger the academic publishing Gods. You definitely can and should find it yourself). I’m realizing how rusty I am at reading academic papers, so bear with me.

EveryDollar Review

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 06:11:16 -0800

I’d like to preface this by saying I’m not a financial advisor. That’s something I say not only to cover myself legally but also because I’m genuinely not very good at this stuff and you shouldn’t listen to me.

Of all the stupid takes I’ve heard, one of the worst is my brother’s take on budgeting. According to him, budgeting doesn’t make sense because either his budget would say he had enough money to spend how he wanted in which case he wouldn’t change his behavior or his budget would tell him he didn’t have enough money in which case it would make him unhappy. It reminded me of someone a couple years ago who expressed to me that they didn’t want to take a Covid test because if it came back positive, they wouldn’t be able to go to a party.

Minis

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 11:56:54 -0800

In stark contrast to last week, I hardly did anything this week other than binge TV (I blame I surprise case of runner’s knee). Last night, I scrabbled through my list of post ideas looking for something I could throw together last minute. Nothing presented itself to me, but I did a growth (many more than 3) of ideas that were incoherent, outdated, or otherwise not blog post material, and the only solution was to excise them. Here’s a selection of my premature spring cleaning. I hope you enjoy.

Sundance 2023

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 08:41:18 -0800

Last week, I went to Salt Lake City for the Sundance Film Festival.

I’m normally reticent about reviewing movies. I’m afraid that if I didn’t like a highly-acclaimed movie, it’s just because I didn’t get it. (Sometimes I also think that about movies I do like. Like I missed the point but by coincidence also liked it for another reason.) But these festival movies feel like they exist outside the realm of normal movies. Hardly anyone has seen them yet and can tell me I’m wrong. Even if, later on, I turn out to disagree with the consensus, I bet they’ll cut me some slack because I saw it before people had agreed what to think about it. That said, reviews of any kind are a new format to me, so bear with me. I probably overrated everything since I was so jazzed to be there. Spoilers abound.

An Essay Of The Perfect Length

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 08:44:08 -0800

I’d like to begin with a minor spoiler for My Brilliant Friend which I recently enjoyed. The book tells the story of two poor Neapolitan girls, Lenu and Lila. The whole time, Lila is so clearer the titular “brilliant friend”. The book is narrated by Lenu who, along with the rest of the neighborhood, is perpetually awed by her friend’s intelligence, craftiness, and beauty. Every chapter reveals a new meaning of the word and how Lila embodies it. And yet, towards the end, it is Lila who calls Lenu her brilliant friend.

Reality Dating Show Tier List

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 07:02:21 -0800

I don’t know how much I feel like disclaiming this. I grew up in a very anti-Reality TV household, and it took “ironic entertainment” and “guilty pleasure” phases before I decided that this is just something I enjoy, and I try hard not to feel superior to other people who enjoy it or other things I think are stupid.

Shades of Reality and Other General Notes

I am aware that “Reality TV” is the most notorious misnomer. None of it is “real” by standard usage, but there are many shades of reality. I’m not foolish enough to try to define the most real representation of people, relationships, or events, but I wouldn’t expect it to involve cameras at all (so there goes that idea for a show). Slightly less real would be some hidden cam show edited for drama. You’d have to ask Susan Sontag about how real this is, but I don’t know any shows like this. If they do exist, they’re too voyeuristic for me. Next come shows where people in normal circumstances consent and are aware that they’re on camera, but otherwise try to act as they normally would. I’ll lump everything else (i.e. producer influence, being stranded on islands) together as the least “real”. Although my own preferences bleed through below, I don’t actually believe that any of these are inherently better or worse than the others. It’s all about recognizing what level you’re on, suspending disbelief, and not expecting CGI when you go to Lion King on Broadway.