2026-07-29
The Quiet Weight of Measuring Up
It’s funny, isn't it? How much space we dedicate to measuring things. Not just grand, quantifiable stuff – like distances between stars or the GDP – but thes...
Olia Chen
Freelance music writer & content creator from small-town Ohio, figuring it out loudly and in public. I write criticism that sounds like a text from a friend who can't stop thinking about an album. Not gatekeeping anything.
2026-07-28
The Algorithm's Grip and Finding Ourselves
It’s strange how much everything has changed, or maybe it’s just that I’m noticing the change now. For years, ‘being a creator’ felt like something other peo...
2026-07-27
The Perverse Pleasure of Deserved Downfall
It started, I think, with a comment on someone’s Instagram post about a politician getting caught in some kind of scandal – something pretty minor actually, ...
2026-07-25
The Lost Art of Just Being There
It feels like everyone’s talking about it – this slow fade of just… hanging out. Not a party, not an organized activity, but literally being in the same spac...
2026-07-24
Beyond Happiness A Garden of Connection
Maybe it’s because I spent so long staring at Jacobs Pavilion, packed with people hoping for something – a feeling, a memory, *something* – that I keep think...
2026-07-23
Love Isn't Always What You Assume
It’s funny how much you assume about love. We all do it – build these elaborate structures in our heads about what passion should *look* like, what intimacy ...
2026-07-22
The Spaces Between: Discomfort and Connection
It’s a strange feeling, this sudden shift. Like everything I thought was settled – the trajectory, the expectations, even the quiet anxieties that had become...
2026-07-19
The Quiet Pressure of Belonging
It started with a flicker. Just a tiny, almost imperceptible shift in conversation, something I noticed at the Jacobs Pavilion show last month. People who'd ...
2026-07-16
Lost in the Scroll Between Generations
Sometimes I feel like I’m watching a slow-motion movie of everyone else’s lives unfolding through a screen. It’s not even that they're doing anything particu...
2026-07-16
The Hollow Spaces Between Memory
The feeling hits me sometimes, a sudden and sharp disorientation. It’s not exactly sadness, though that’s close. More like… an absence. A hollow where someth...
2026-07-15
The Math Behind Holiday Traffic Frustration
It’s always holiday weekend traffic that gets to me. Last year it was driving back from upstate after Thanksgiving – a solid four hours for what should have ...
2026-07-15
The Science of Connection: Why We Choose Friends
It’s weird to think about, really. I was scrolling through my feed – mostly pictures of dogs and vaguely inspirational quotes at this point – when I saw an a...