Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Date: March 2017

Only reading now about the #GamerConDublin fiasco. We'd seen everything we had to see by half 11 so missed the trouble after lunch #aside

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Yes, I'm up at 5.30am on the Saturday of a long weekend #aside

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Southpaw Regional Wrestling

So this is a nice surprise: an insider-ish parody of 1980s territorial wrestling by the current WWE roster, and one that gets the tone mostly right, being more affectionate than mean-spirited. The gags don’t always land but it’s funnier than it has any right to be. #link

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You know what day it is: it’s the 15th anniversary of my one and only WrestleMania #aside

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Crisis averted: I got my annual minty green milkshake fix today. Paddy's Day is good for something #aside

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George Clinton’s coming back and all; I’ll never forget that five-hour marathon at the old Red Box #aside

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Tickets dot ie just died at the news that Sunn O))) are returning to Dublin. I hope SOM still doesn’t hold that Nazoranai review against me #aside

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My Letterboxd review of Kong: Skull Island

Reblogged from my Letterboxd list:

I really wanted to like this. I really did. I was even willing to forgive the handful of creaky moments in its first half hour — paper-thin characters, hackneyed set-ups and more — because the pace is so exciting. When the titular giant ape makes his first appearance, it’s at a genuinely unexpected moment, and the chaos is handled beautifully by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer). I was ready for a thrill ride.

But it’s all downhill from there. You see, it’s one thing to reference other movies, to pay visual or thematic homage; that’s something the otherwise narratively impoverished A Cure for Wellness does to its credit. It’s another, however, to simply mash-up the plots of a few different movies and hope that nostalgia will fill the cracks.

More…

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Still no official means to watch Lucha Underground in Ireland or the UK #aside

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So many Rachel Maddow retweets in my feed #aside

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The latest episode of Fractured “gets down and dirty" with Limerick-based death metallers Zealot Cult. #video

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Clear Knee Mom Jeans is my new band name #aside

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Fintan O’Toole: Ireland is still defined by the church’s mindset

O’Toole writes in The Irish Times about the persistence of Ireland’s “moral-industrial complex”. He doesn’t specify it (he brings up housing the homeless in hotels) but what is direct provision if not a direct descendent of the 20th-century institutionalisation of Catholic Ireland’s ‘undesirables’? We still have such a long way to go in this country. See also: Emer O’Toole in the Guardian on the church (and their apologists) feigning shock over the Tuam Babies scandal. #link

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Awful news about the Dublin coastguard helicopter crew off Mayo #aside

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So it turns out Lidl coconut milk isn’t anywhere close to the Blue Dragon one I usually get #aside

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People ragging on certain politicians for their woke credentials should consider how much stroke they really have with their civil servants #aside

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Kong: Skull Island is… not very good #aside

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First day in months I've left the house without a jacket #aside

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Hey, when did the Free Fire release date get bumped? #aside

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Is there anything on the 45th anniversary shows I can’t miss? ‘Cause I was just gonna skip to the New Japan Cup (next week sometime) #aside

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The Quietus remembers Mark Fisher

Of course I remember Fisher’s K-punk blog from back in the day and it was impenetrable for me at the time but reading it now, I think I finally get it. #link

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First listen to this Ultramega OK remix/remaster and it sounds fantastic. Great job, Kim and Jack #aside

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My Letterboxd reviews of Logan, A Hologram for the King, This Is Spinal Tap, and Mascots

Logan:

So James Mangold finally got to make his R-rated Wolverine. And? Strip away the air of ‘serious film’-ness surrounding this super-anti-hero flick and it’s a fairly ordinary road movie, gussied up by a gritty pomo western style, relatively extreme violence, and uncharacteristic potty-mouth dialogue. All very cute, like when Jackman says ‘fuck off’ in that Avengers cameo. Fanboys can shove it.

More…

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Exploding Helicopter

A review blog with a singular obsession: movies in which a helicopter explodes. I can get behind that. Then walk away while ignoring the explosion behind me. #link

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WebGradients

Free CSS and PNG gradients for use as website backdrops. Which might come in handy sometime. #link

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Students of UCD: what the hell are you doing? #aside

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#repealthe8th #IWD2017 #aside

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Pretty sure there’s a blind cat in our garden. I didn’t have the heart to chase it any further #aside

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Had no idea Edge is in Dublin. I wonder if he'll bump into The Edge and cause an Edge singularity #aside

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Osaka, Japan

Osaka cityscape, taken by Pedro Szekely. Apropos of nothing. #image

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Anker SoundBuds update: changed to the medium buds and the plastic ear grips; that’s much better. Decent battery life so far, too #aside

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The AV Club on metal’s Nazi problem

The headline is unfortunate (the problem is hardly unaddressed; it’s a perennial topic of discussion among metalheads) though the article is a good one. Ah, the moral quandary of separating the art from the artist! But seriously, aside from metal's propensity for permitting transgressive ideas without the attendant responsibility, the article points out the blatant hypocrisy that arises when artists use their art as a platform for their political agenda, even if the art doesn’t relate to it directly. How do you feel about your Burzum records now? #link

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Why do we care what that professional troll Melanie Phillips has to say, exactly? #aside

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