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


Date: August 2019

Watching the outstanding Prime Target special to get psyched up for TakeOver: Cardiff #aside

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Weaknotes for w/e 31 August 2019

Today is Blog Day (3108 = BLOG) and I have little to say. It was a week that did not go as planned. But not all surprises are bad, as I did get the Unwound box set I ordered earlier this month in yesterday’s post. Here’s looking forward to a few days a week from now to unwind with it.

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I’m still at work when it starts, but it was NJPW putting Royal Quest on PPV that really swayed me. So I’ll be watching TakeOver UK live this evening #aside

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Is there anything like a sit-down ice cream parlour in Dublin? One that does proper sundaes and banana splits and the like, not just cups of gelato? #aside

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My Unwound box set arrived this morning so we’ll be spending some quality time together after work #aside

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Film review — Blackhat

Blackhat takes itself far too seriously for such a preposterous story. I mean, one minute our man’s a hacker, the next he’s shooting guns, then he’s in a radiation suit? What?! It hardly even matters that he’s barely, y’know, doing stuff with an actual computer. I understand it’s difficult to make a concept like cybercrime cinematic, but surely not that hard to make it not this. More…

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Finally got an SSL certificate installed on my website. That only took two hours of messing things up and troubleshooting #aside

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Trial by Fire

Bee shared this one with me, from 10 years ago: a quietly furious tale of prejudice where pride — in one’s self-appointed expertise (in this case, junk science about arson investigations), in one’s convictions (the failings of eyewitness testimony), whatever it may be — comes before truth and justice. #link

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Beatbox by rhythmo

A semi-DIY, part-cardboard drum machine that promises to be “super affordable”? I’m interested. Let’s see when the crowdfunding campaign launches. #link

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Here’s a tweet that will only make sense this week: I’d have stopped after the breading/frying part, the pizza topping is overkill #aside

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Film review — Shinjuku Triad Society

An early criminal underworld joint from Takashi Miike betraying an obsession with sodomy that goes beyond the usual homosexuality-as-deviance trope so common in the hard-boiled cop thriller. More…

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It’s very telling that I never have nightmares about college. But school dreams? Yep #aside

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Everyone’s going on about the Death Row Records thing when the real story is that High On Fire are now signed to Hasbro #aside

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Weaknotes for f/e 24 August 2019

Nothing to report from the two weeks previous to this one just gone. I was ill for a few days over the big wrestling weekend in early August (TakeOver, SummerSlam and the G1 Climax final, as if you didn’t know) and the non-drowsy decongestant I got for my sinusitis messed up my sleep pattern completely. So it’s mostly a blur. It simultaneously feels like a lot less and a lot longer than the actual time that’s passed. More…

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Posting this more for its latter-half review of Midsommar — and its very fair criticism — than its brief intro to folk horror, which is conspicuously absent the films of Ben Wheatley as a recent contemporary take of the folk horror genre. #video

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In the battle of the Devo tributes, the new Ceremony beats the new Sleater-Kinney hands down #aside

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Yesterday at the shops, I saw a 5,000-yen note dropped at the trolley bay. Not beyond the realms of possibility; there are Japanese students here. But that's a lot of money (around €42). Except... > etc @MacDara #aside

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My MA dissertation was on blogging and journalism, put laughably out of date by the rise of social media within a couple of years, but at least it pointed analysis in the right direction > @icod #aside

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Hasbro (has-bro?) laughing to the bank as MAGA hatters grab their copies to own the libs and never even make it through a single play because it's not even a game, it's just a troll > @nick_kapur #aside

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In hindsight, a better headline for last night’s Brexit news might’ve been ‘Johnson takes 30-day deadline from Merkel’ since it’s what he (and pol-eds) took from it, not what she offered (which was nothing, just a generalised comment) > etc @MacDara #aside

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And there’s the solid evidence (if it were needed) that Bolsonaro and his industry mates are solely to blame for this disaster > @rtenews #aside

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Guardians and Defenders are basically the same thing, right? Like the CFL had the Roughriders and the Rough Riders #aside

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Thought I’d just invented the scromlette (microwave scrambled eggs, but flop it out of the bowl at the end in a single mass) but I was beaten to it by an inferior concept, drat! #aside

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Having one of those weeks where I keep forgetting what day it is. What would we do without calendars? #aside

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This should have been included in the original press release. I'm fine with a 24-hour delay. I mean, how many Raws or SDs get watched on that ridiculous four-week hold? > @WWENetwork #aside

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Does anyone have an answer for how people outside North America can keep watching NXT? Will it still be on the Network? #aside

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Working headline: Rock puts rock on his rock > @WWE #aside

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Can I say how jazzed I am by the potential of living at a weaponised frontier? Cheers, Boris. Really looking forward to it #aside

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Film review — Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

It’s an odd duck, this: a study of a revered local hero in hipster capital Portland that’s also character piece with no characters, as faces and bodies seem to flit in and out of the subject’s life. Gus Van Sant writes and directs here with affection but also an aimlessness that doesn’t do the work any favours because unlike, say, Gerry, it’s not exactly the point. More…

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Just yelled across the road at some teenage bros who hit me in the arm with a slingshot. I guess this means I’m an adult #aside

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Film review — Orphan

A trimmer edit and a tighter script — say, down to 90 minutes — might have solved some of the frustrating ‘people would never behave that way!’ issues that mar what’s otherwise an effectively chilly Hitchcockian/De Palma-esque thriller, especially in its all-out final act. More…

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Village magazine have gone full-on Spiked, haven’t they? #aside

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The #SummerSlam kickoff will be starting soon which means I’ll be tweeting about wrestling intermittently for the next seven hours > etc @MacDara #aside

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Film review — Molly’s Game

Before I saw either, I kept getting Molly’s Game confused with Miss Sloane. Now that I’ve finally watched the former, I still don’t see the difference. More…

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Second go with the cold brew bag last night and I somehow got grounds on the outside, in the water. Not good > etc @MacDara #aside

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Stupid sinus infection is killing my enthusiasm for this big wrestling weekend #aside

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