writing

Can We Talk About the Taylor Swift Backlash?

On Friday, 25 September 2026, Taylor Swift delivered unto the world The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore in the form of four additional tracks that weren’t part of last year’s album (which spent an impressive twelve weeks at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 and absolutely destroyed the records for biggest opening sales week[1]). The songs are “Patient Zero,” “Pink Clouding,” and “Babylon,” with “Cleveland!” rounding out the set. As happened when The Life of a Showgirl itself came out…suddenly everyone lost their minds! Taylor Swift is certainly a cultural figure who generates BIG REACTIONS but the reactions to The Life of a Showgirl and these new encore tracks particularly fascinates me. I’ve been pondering it for a year now and I thought it would be fun to chat about it. Please feel free to let me know what you think below, too!

Continue reading →

Before Sunrise and One Scene That Changed My Life

I’ve had the idea for awhile to start a li’l series where I explore not a film in its entirety but a single scene within a film which had a profound effect on me. While I wasn’t sure when I was going to start this series (I’m ever the “mood writer”), I always knew with which film it would begin. The only place I could start is Before Sunrise. Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan and directed by Linklater, Before Sunrise was released in 1995 and starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Céline, two twenty-three-year-olds who meet on a train in Europe. Céline is heading home to Paris but, when their train stops in Vienna, Jesse convinces her to get off with him and wander the city until his flight back to America leaves in the morning. It is one of the most profoundly beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Few films mean as much to me as Before Sunrise. So let’s look at one scene (of many!) in this film which changed my life.

Note, no major/ending spoilers will be discussed ;D.

Continue reading →

Best of My Comic Relief: A Ten Year Blogging Anniversary Reflection

Back on May 17th I celebrated ten years (!) of blogging here at My Comic Relief! Yay! I wrote a li’l piece reflecting on that anniversary and why I’m still here in my corner of the internet, doing my thing a decade later. Before the anniversary month is out, I decided it would be fun to do a retrospective of my writing. Having grown up when physical media was still king and having met many bands and solo artists this way, I knew I had two options – a “Greatest Hits” piece or a “Best Of.” While “Greatest Hits” is rightly more iconic, just walking through the most read pieces in my site’s history didn’t very feel fun or interesting. So I went with a “Best Of” approach instead. Some of the pieces I explore below became big hits, others remain deep cuts. But all are examples of times I felt my writing leveled up, where I was doing something new I hadn’t done before and/or it came together in a way I was remarkably proud of. Now, without further ado, let’s push “play” and rock out to “Best of My Comic Relief.” Woo!

Continue reading →

Why Am I Blogging?: A Ten Year Blogging Anniversary Reflection

Today – May 17th – marks ten years since I wrote my first piece here on My Comic Relief. I titled it “Why Am I Blogging?” so this title nods to that one. I was following two of my best friends, Jeff (with The Imperial Talker) and Kalie (with Just Dread-full), into this world. Jeff had been doing it for a little over a year, the first post on his Star Wars blog arriving (appropriately enough) on May 4th 2015. Kalie had started just seven months ahead of me, the first post on her horror-cum-literature-cum-film-cum-fashion blog hitting during the spooooooky season on October 17th 2015. While I had seen firsthand how much fun Jeff and Kalie were having (and I’d written a few pieces for each of their sites) the world of blogging on my own felt vast and intimidating. I felt I needed to begin with a why am I doing this post to introduce myself to readers and explain why I was here. Now a decade later (!) it feels apropos to do the same in this callback, reflecting on why I am still blogging after all these years.

Continue reading →

Scrubs (is Back!) and My Emotional Education

In September of 2006 Scrubs began airing in syndication on Comedy Central. The NBC (at that time) show was always a bit of a quiet cult hit so it wasn’t on my radar when it came to weekly TV viewing. But I lived on Comedy Central (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park, etc.) so once Scrubs was set to start airing there, I was inundated with the commercials advertising its debut. The ads did their job! It looked quirky and funny and like the sort of show I’d dig so I started watching it on Comedy Central and was soon running to Borders to buy the DVD sets of each season. Season Four came out that October so it wasn’t long after seeing my first episode that I was watching it all in order paired with all the DVD special features. I had never encountered a show like Scrubs before and my life was forever changed. I know that can read like hyperbole but it’s true. After nearly seven years in therapy, I can see Scrubs did more for me than I ever could’ve put into words back then, too. So this li’l piece is a looking back and looking forward, a celebration of what Scrubs meant to me and what it feels like to have it back.

Continue reading →

BIG EXCITING NEWS: I’m Writing a Book!!! Yah!!!

Why bury the lead? THIS IS TOO BIG NOT TO DIVE RIGHT IN and I’m really excited to share this with all of you! Also, this explains why my blog’s been so quiet lately. When I realized I hadn’t posted more than two pieces since New Year’s I wanted to take a break from manuscript writing to explain. This way you can know I haven’t been wildly depressed, abducted by aliens, or joined some super secret covert black ops group that leaves me with little time to write as I’m jumping from continent to continent under different alias and doing that cool thing where I go to the grocery store and pretend I’m shopping but really I’m talking to my handler who’s one aisle over (or maybe in the same aisle as I am but we’re facing different ways) so it looks like we’re shopping separately but they are updating me on my secret spy mission. I feel like I’ve digressed. Anyway! I’m writing a book! Continue reading →

Is The Terminator (1984) a Horror Movie?: A Discussion Post

Dear reader, the time has come for me to lay myself before the court of your public opinion. This question – whether or not The Terminator (1984) is a horror movie – is one Kalie and I have debated for nearly as long as we’ve known each other. I have laid out my airtight (in my opinion) case for her. I have been passionate, articulate, and informed. But I have made NO PROGRESS in convincing her. The very woman who led me (protesting and often literally crying XD) into the horror genre, the woman who is ABD in her PhD in literary studies with a concentration on monster studies, the woman who has forgotten more about horror films, horror novels, horror history, and horror theory than I could ever know, has remained steadfast in her opinion that The Terminator isn’t horror. It’s sci-fi. It’s action. But it’s not horror. So this is my final attempt. Now I’ll take my chances, dear reader, I’ll risk it all. I’ll win your agreement – and, perhaps, then Kalie’s! – or I’ll take the fall. So IS THE TERMINATOR A HORROR MOVIE?!! I say yea! Now let’s see if I can convince anyone else…

Continue reading →

I Listened to Nothing But Bruce Springsteen for 17 Weeks: Here’s What I Learned

Sometimes listening to your parents can get you in trouble. A casual conversation with Mom one evening back in June led me to embark on the most unique music experiment of my life thus far. I am no stranger to listening to an artist’s entire discography in order. It’s something I started with Billy Joel when I was in high school. Years ago Kalie and I did it with the Beatles and Bob Dylan, wanting to hear their groundbreaking creative evolution play out before our very eyes…or, um, ears. I’ve done it with many artists since then, too. I’m also one for deep dives. It is not uncommon for me to spend a week or more listening to one artist or band almost exclusively. But I’ve never tried to listen to ONLY ONE ARTIST at the exclusion of all others for two weeks let alone SEVENTEEN. Yet here we are. I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone other than Bruce. I learned a lot about myself in the process. I also learned a lot about the role music plays in my life, too. With Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere premiering this weekend, it felt apropos to talk all about it!

Continue reading →

Reflections on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl and Target’s Midnight Release

Remember when Taylor Swift made the cassette cool again? Yeah, that was the moment I realized there’s nothing she can’t do. There’s no trend, no idea she can’t resurrect if she decides she wants it back. Heck, she had people flocking to physical media again for her albums on vinyl and CDs and cassettes (!!) long before ever-rising prices and sudden disappearance of shows and movies had people rethinking Blu-rays and DVDs over streaming. As I stood in line at Target last night to get my copy of The Life of a Showgirl, I was reflecting on how happy I am that she’s made the midnight release cool again. It’s just one more “thank you” I owe Taylor Swift (if we’re listing things I should thank her for, lets add this album, too).

Continue reading →

Memories of Crushes Past: Kissing in the Snow

We stood in her driveway in the cold February air, illuminated only by my car’s headlights. I leaned in and kissed her as the snow fell gently around us. Mia was momentarily stunned and then returned the kiss in kind. “I’m sorry,” I said with our heads still close together. “I’ve been thinking about doing that for awhile and the Scrubs quote put you over the top.” “Wow,” she said, smiling at me. Then, “Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow.” We were both twenty-five, finally living out a once-upon-a-time high school crush with such a cinematic and romantic kiss! Hallmark eat your heart out. I stumbled upon this magic movie moment I personally lived while recently reading through my journals from 2008…and I had completely forgotten it. Suddenly I was reading my own journals late into the night like a brand new novel, eager to see what happened next! I remembered Mia. I remember our being friends. I remember a strip of photos of us from when the photo booth at the mall was new. But I didn’t remember any budding romance let alone magical moonlight kissing! The whole thing left me reflecting on the role memory plays in our lives…and dying to know what became of this would-be romance with Mia!

Continue reading →