Three years ago when we launched the blog, I wrote about The Southern California Desert and momentarily pouted at how I’d pass up on making that my first Coachella (guess who else bailed Week 2? Frank Ocean, who I primarily bought the tickets for). TLDR; it sounds like I’d rather be desert camping? When Carli introduced me to our friend Mike, he graciously faciliated me into that world. Next week, three years later is...

In the still, early mornings when the air is poised for the wakeful songs of the colorful Robins, Larks, Wrens, Warblers, Tits, Siskins, Finches, Thrushes, and Babblers, there is instead, now, a sober quietude. The canary in the coal mine ceases her customary chirping; the sentinel sleeps forever. The passerine, or perching bird, encompasses more than half of all bird species, making the bird song necessary to avian classification. What used to...

De Rerum Natura, a didactic poem written by the Roman philosopher Lucretius is one of the earliest postulates for atomic theory. It was written over two thousand years ago to no more than ease ancient Greece’s suffering under the basis of Epicurean principles. Until nearly the last century, we archaically answered the question of “what are we made out of?” Today, we verifiably consider atoms as the building blocks of all matter,...

You carry the Earth like it’s the Olympic torch
It burns brightly but cautiously
You move slow for fear of dropping it
You observe people
They’re sullen looking down
At their dopamine dispensers
Down at their feet, eyes averted
Aloof and I’m afraid it’s true, we’ve lost our way

Maya Angelou’s seminal autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was a reading that a freshman in Oakland’s public school could not appreciate whole-heartedly, especially if a graded essay followed. “Other things were more important”, she wrote in 1969 in the second sentence of one of the most essential books of culture and history. I remember I got such terrible marks on English papers, too often I would overwhelm my paper with...

I don’t care what ChatGPT told you, think for yourself. And with the likes of Gemini, Claude, and Copilot furtively elbowing their way into conquering the industry, it won’t be long before the syndicates conquer every aspect of our lives. Since 2021 when the technology became widely available to anyone with internet, an alarming number of people rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to make grocery lists, plagiarize, plan vacations, dictate their love life, curb loneliness,...

Burgeoned lands bravely
Threshed by life-bearing seas
Full bright drops
Makes this pebble
Stone blue

At the end of this month Solaria Chip is heading to the dance floor at Tacoma Dome to watch REZZ make history as its first female electronic DJ to headline at this major venue. The Ukranian-Canadian DJ and producer, née Isabelle Rezazadeh, is one of our all-time favorite artists known for her midtempo bass-driven tracks that reverberate throughout your bones. From intro to finish, her songs demonstrate precision, prowess, and prolific originality. Dark...

Americans witnessed the metamorphosis of mountains, crossed verdant meadows and constellations of ancient trees, reveled in nature’s mathematically tantalizing fractals, only to culminate in confining themselves to the recesses of capitalism and since last year, the intimations of oligarchy. The very roots of politics synthesized to discern freedom from tyrannies, yet contemporary America traverses backwards and into the disenfranchisement and deconstruction of individual liberties. Since this seize, the Trump administration quickly targeted public welfare...

Nearly a century and a decade ago on March 8, women suffragists in Russia began a strike for “Peace and Bread”. I’m writing this while sitting with a cup of coffee and butter slathered on two thick slices of sourdough—a privilege I get to enjoy every day. But sometimes I don’t know peace as a contemporary woman. Despite the massive progress we have seen towards gender equality, frequent setbacks from the reigning administration...

With 2025 now in full swing, it has so far been a time of forward-thinking and goal-setting. The end of a year, however, is usually the opposite. It is a time of introspection, reflection, and most importantly, celebration. As I reflected, I marveled at how so much has changed. Not much remains constant, but one of the few things that does, at least in my life, is music. I am of the impression that music...

Aristotle argued that oligarchies and democracies become the prevailing forms of government over 2 millennium ago. Today, the so-called American democracy, if it may soon still be called that, is at its tipping point under the contemporaneous political climate. Since the threat of government shutdown this month, billionaire Elon Musk openly derailed a critical government spending measure, primarily on healthcare relief and assistance. Musk, who recently funded Trump’s campaign for $277 million dollars,...