Alien v Predator is a multi-million dollar franchise. During a movie-fueled fever dream I had the thought or maybe sign of psychosis that maybe the infamous Facehugger was an allegory for ticks just as their immortal enemy the Predator was a metaphor for the world’s trusted dogs; ticks and dogs immortal nemesis of just as much world recognition.

Come with me on my fever dream and lets give the comparison some legs.

A True Tangent

A boy walks past an elderly homeless man shaking his cup full of coins. The boy stops.

“Ah shit, I gotchu man. You doing alright?”

He pulls out a few dollars.

“Thank you, thank you.”

I keep walking.

“Yeah man, I gotchu. Hey, man. You believe in God?”

I’m a few steps ahead of them now, but I hear the question. I keep walking, but something stops me before I get too far from the conversation.

I wasn’t born in the US. I wasn’t raised in the US. But coming on 5 years in New York, I’ve made a few key observations. I realized one of them within my first year here. It will become important. Of all the key observations I made, there’s always been one clear through-line. I now have the language to name it: Investment.

A large portion of global culture revolves around the consumption, discussion, and reaction to art. If you plucked the Greek philosopher Plato from his time and allowed him to see this happening now, and at this scale, his knee-jerk reaction, coming from the earliest form of democracy we can trace back to, would probably be to tell you society was bound to collapse.

For some, the months locked up in our homes were an opportunity to take some much-needed respite in our work-driven world, at the least, in the form of being able to work from one’s own residency, on a more relaxed schedule. For others, the pandemic provided the time to indulge in their interests. For many, that meant honing their skills in whatever kind of passions they have. Today, I had the pleasure of interviewing one such person. Tyler Joseph Prenata, an aspiring novelist, who spent most of his time during the pandemic head down, pen in hand, crafting a story he knew the world would one day see. And in many ways, his story is one fit for the times.