Contributing writer
Alan R. Dai
Latest Content
Notes on Trash Night
This is not the deliberately seeded so-bad-it’s-good of Sharknado or its spiritual Bad Film contemporaries.
Sorry Mom, I Spent $350 on Some Dumb Sneakers
The question, as I reflect back on my choice to spend such a massive sum on footwear, comes down to this: How do you make sense of these ridiculous Nice Things? How do you understand your own urge to buy and wear them?
Armor and Art at Anime Boston
The event is surprisingly diverse. I see everything from babies wearing matching Sailor Moon costumes to 70-year-old couples dressed as Mario and Luigi.
Kiss Me, I’m Very Not Irish and Cold and Confused
It’s stupid cold out today, this March morning with the sky frozen cloudless glacier-blue. The bitter wind and whining bagpipes of the Saint Patrick’s Day parade turns my face numb. I’m desperately clutching two slices of pizza, jostled to and fro among the low-slung buildings of South Boston.
On Chronic Illness and Clothes
"My idea of fashion is never to dictate a certain sense of style… but to make sure that for my own sake, I wasn’t feeling controlled by my illness.”
Sneakergreet
Self-described as the “dopest sneaker event in Boston”, Sneakergreet descends upon a Holiday Inn in east Somerville on February 3rd.
Batman and Totoro Walk Into a Bar
On Saturday, Boston’s first Onesie Bar Crawl was held from 2 to 10 p.m., drawing more than 2,500 attendees in what the organizers, Party America and We Love Onesies, termed “the most comfortable outing of the year!”
The Word: Treat
This was a constant mystery to me back then: What did white people have for dinner? What was American food?
Robo-Roaming at the Harvard Biorobotics Lab
Founded in 1990 by engineering professor Robert D. Howe, the Biorobotics Lab develops robots that can both sense and operate in dynamic, unpredictable environments.
7,000 Under 30
“Do you have a LinkedIn?” one concert-goer yells at a girl. She nods. Both whip out their smartphones and add each other.