All Things Ball

Academic overflow and intentional curation spanning my interests in English literature, American cinema & TV, Arabic poetry, world religions and history, metal music, process philosophy, and much else.

10+ avante-garde black metal albums

Resonant ripples of the second wave. Here's a list of 10+ aesthetically experimental (post-)black metal albums, and one demo, I love. Yes, love.

8 min read · January 31, 2025

2025 · music · lists
An ode to soup

Soup-making is alchemy. These are my 10 favorite soups I've made so far this winter.

7 min read · January 24, 2025

2025 · cooking poetry · lists
The business of firming, or forming?

Some intellectuals are about affirming and confirming, others informing and conforming. I favor the latter, which is a project of using language to create a shared (conformal) experience.

6 min read · January 22, 2025

2025 · language philosophy · reviews
Space vs. Place

The space/place dichotomy is inverted by looking at it from East or West.

3 min read · January 20, 2025

2025 · language · reflections
What comes after irony?

Rorty's iconoclastic "ironist" runs into trouble when they want to create something people can act on.

5 min read · January 18, 2025

2025 · philosophy · reflections