Levi Rubeck

A strange island in a black galaxy, figures surrounding a blue lake there.

Eat the Rich and Dance

By Levi Rubeck • January 9th, 2018

What better way to roll out 2018 than immediately accounting for what one may have missed in 2017.

A grim face mask from the game fallout - -this is the cover for the board game Fallout.

Cardboard Fallout is Worth its Weight in Caps

By Levi Rubeck • December 19th, 2017

These days I think about the collapse of civilization quite a lot, but this version of Fallout carries the series’s radioactive torch of wasteland fun.

Three Billboards and the Farce of American Society

By Levi Rubeck • December 12th, 2017

Her sushi-knife-sharp rebuttal to moral authority was exactly what I wanted and, upon receipt, I was sure her victory could not last.

Gunsword, Casual Repartee, Chess and Dragonlance

By Levi Rubeck • November 28th, 2017

Gunsword whipped my head right over with delicious high fantasy visuals that brought to mind the Larry Elmore Dragonlance covers of my youth, and the only thing better than guns and swords is the fusion of the two.

80's affected text on a pixelated screen reading Lazer Ryderz

Lazer Ryderz Bring Light Cycle Racing to Tabletop

By Levi Rubeck • November 21st, 2017

Lazer Ryderz is loud: it blasts your eyes with glimmering color, and each surfer praises their luck for snatching glory and curses their competitors for sniping it away

An anchor in a starburst with the word "Flinthook"

Saturday Morning Star Rides in Flinthook

By Levi Rubeck • November 14th, 2017

Where Flinthook oozes Saturday morning charm is in the sum of its parts, aesthetic and ludological.

California Gothic

By Levi Rubeck • November 7th, 2017

Nearly twenty years later, I’m afforded the chance to correct the failings of my youth and catch The Black Heart Procession on tour again

a thin, angry looking woman in a still from the Last of Us: Part 2

The Heart that Swings the Hammer: The Last of Us: Part II

By Levi Rubeck • November 1st, 2017

It doesn’t take much peeling to find implications that the Last of Us: Part II will contain something more than non-stop slaughter.

A white figure standing near a light, a still from the game Hollow Knight.

The Ecstatic Solitude of Hollow Knight

By Levi Rubeck • October 25th, 2017

While I delight in these various directions and surprises, my most sublime joy in this game is found as I walk the path of the humble insect warrior.

A black and white image of an open book.

Tables for Days

By Levi Rubeck • October 17th, 2017

The internet is the cow’s stomach, all us users the swirling sea of bacteria and acids breaking down and reconstituting the itinerant parts of language

A black clad stormtrooper, flanked by Darth Maul and Rey.

Just Another TIE in the Death Star

By Levi Rubeck • October 10th, 2017

The massive laser-based Battlefront II experience is not unlike kindergarten soccer.

A sweaty man in a black shirt singing into a mic and being carried by a crowd. This is a still from Touche Amore.

Symbiosis of the Troubadour and the Crowd

By Levi Rubeck • October 5th, 2017

But Nick Cave and Touché Amoré have earned their fans through honest expressions, powerful storytelling, a willingness to embrace the stains of humanity in order to shine light on our virtues.

A rich painting of a sort of bacchanal near orgy, a man in a tie and little else having his nipples painted by a thinner man who holds him aloft, a woman shielding his nudity from view. Around him rest similar older white men in states of undress, their colors rich and resplendent. This is the album cover for Veterans of Pleasure.

Aren’t You Glad to Be An American?

By Levi Rubeck • September 26th, 2017

A light shone on the gout-riddled veterans of pleasure above and a tribute to the mad oracles living in a Lovecraftian nightmare of our own making below.

A womans torso, in blue, on a pink background. She is holding a bat with bright orange gloves and midway along the bottom of the image it has "Parental Advisory Explicit Content"

Choir of the Mind, ASMR of the Soul

By Levi Rubeck • September 19th, 2017

Playlists, mixes, links IM’d by friends, auto-plays based on cookies, and radio, each a tributary spiraling out in serpentines towards and through the larger rivers of our shared musical canon.

Red faced, Winston from Overwatch screams at the camera.

Deathmatch: The Definition of Frustration

By Levi Rubeck • September 12th, 2017

These are just games, and I’m being a little dramatic. But it’s worth considering what we allow the media we enjoy to wring out of us—the catharsis of great pathos or joy from a safe distance.

A carnival like atmosphere with a sketch of a man upside down in a water tub, framed by two people. This is the cover for Ted Leo's the Hanged Man.

Helping Ted Leo Help Himself

By Levi Rubeck • September 5th, 2017

Perhaps I took Ted for granted, assuming he’d always tear through town again either on the festival footpath or in an Allston living room.

One man stands playing a guitar and singing, behind him a woman.

Come Sail Away, Mr. Roboto: future of the left and the Passion of the Medley

By Levi Rubeck • August 29th, 2017

future of the left have constructed this one around a song by their former band not simply out of obligation to their frothing followers, but because it’s fun to play.

A woman with brunette hair and deep set eyes stands in front of a black background, the women behind her blurred out in motion blur. This is a promotional image for Orphan Black.

Gang of Clones: The Heart of Orphan Black

By Levi Rubeck • August 22nd, 2017

Orphan Black mostly carried itself as a character-based mystery cop procedural, with main clone Sarah leading the charge against the many forces that sought to exploit her sisters and her daughter

Very intense macro shot of the magenta eyes of a fly, paired in the center of the screen.

The Leisure of Light Obsession & No Man’s Sky

By Levi Rubeck • August 15th, 2017

We all do this to some degree, despite current tiny home fads and trends in extreme minimalist lifestyles. I’m buried with guilt by books read and unread, records haphazardly purchased at shows and while travelling, Steam games, etc., so I’m a bit of a hypocritical son.

Author: Levi Rubeck