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

Not sure how long Dundalk has had checkpoints but I cycled through one at Market Square yesterday. Thought the guard would wave me over but he just said ‘How’s it going’ and I pedalled on to the shops #tweet

Late night bump for the latest edition of Enlarged Heart Radio. It’s only an hour, why not stick it on? > @MacDara #tweet

WrestleMania Night 2: in the cold light of day, not as bad as I felt last night when I konked out during the Edge/Orton snoozefest. Same opinion as Night 1, though > @MacDara #tweet

Seriously, though, I’ve had the Flesh Eaters’ ‘See You in the Boneyard’ in my head all weekend, but I’m not complaining > @MacDara #tweet

Prompted by my shame in never having watched any AJPW, today I started with an engaging video essay series on classic King’s Road matches > YouTube #tweet

WrestleMania Night 1: they’re really missing the crowd, but even that aside, the booking felt like a random Raw; nothing epic like WM should be > @MacDara #tweet

They should’ve used augmented reality to put green shirt guy in the front row #WM36 > @MacDara #tweet

Imagine Michael Rapaport playing the worst bro in the universe. That’s Gronk #tweet

Think we’ll ever see what the set for this year’s WrestleMania would’ve been? Or has it been stuffed into Vince’s vault until he croaks? #tweet

I’ve done this before, but the first match I saw in person was @RealKevinNash (as Oz) vs @RealKingRegal on WCW’s first Euro tour > @maskedwrestlers #tweet

Film review — What We Do Is Secret

Written and shot like a TV movie-of-the-week, What We Do Is Secret renders the chaotic story of LA hardcore band the Germs largely limp and lifeless. Indeed, its most remarkable feature, and an ironic one given the laissez-faire attention to detail throughout (like the burly Bronx standing in for the actually quite wiry and frenetic Black Flag pre-Rollins), is its uncomfortable relish in depicting the venomous homophobia amid the scene at the time. More…

Film review — The Hunt

Satire really only works with a defined target. The Hunt’s satire, unfortunately, is about as scattershot as an AR-15, while at times it approaches a level of smugness only rivalled by the worst of South Park. It’s better just to ignore all that and home in on Betty Gilpin’s badass lead, as she Rambos her way through this latest twist on The Most Dangerous Game. More…

Downloaded the Instagram app just to watch that Low live set this evening; what sweethearts they are #tweet

Film review — DeepStar Six

Get this, kids: it’s well over an hour before this film gives us our first glimpse of its big scary monster. And it’s a decent creature, actually, even if they minimised its screen time to hide rough edges. The bigger issue is that DeepStar Six spends an uncomfortable amount of time in the preceding 67 minutes letching after Nia Peeples, who seems like she’s being set up as the Ripley of the piece (this being Sean Cunningham’s ‘Alien Under Water’, more or less) before she all but disappears from the plot. And then gets eaten. Spoiler alert? More…

This school year is a write-off (even delaying exams to August seems a stretch) but the government keeps on with this rubbish > @sandra_hurley #tweet

OK, I’m unwinding now, catching up with listening to friends’ shows on Mixcloud #tweet

I have to say it: people at supermarkets here are still being really fucking dim. What part of 2m distance do you not get? Do you need me to scream GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME??!! #tweet

Embarrassing result; McDowell is an institutional bigot and Mullen is… I don’t even have the words > @NUIMerrionSq #tweet

And after turning out the light, I scared myself with the cover of Sam McPheeters’ Mutations, which I did not realise was glow-in-the-dark #tweet

Only the expensive Odlums flour at my nearest Tesco this afternoon. Budget-conscious shoppers still getting screwed over in all of this #tweet

Just like clockwork, the return of sunny days brings an end to our stable broadband connection #tweet

The woozy guitar tone on the latest Mamaleek album is my new jam #tweet

One more LP arrival in today’s post: the new reissue of Cocteau Twins’ Garlands #tweet

You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna watch Ken Burns’ Baseball #tweet

Film review — Chuck

I have nowt to say about this movie, except two things: one, I’d forgotten Chuck Wepner had a boxer-versus-wrestler match with Andre the Giant; and two, you’re telling me the casting director couldn’t find anyone who looked even a little bit like Muhammad Ali? More…

Film review — First Love

There’s a sweet romance at the core of this genre-mashup Yakuza flick, but Takashi Miike’s First Love is really all about the comedy of errors as its rogue’s gallery of characters — bent cops, inept gangsters and even bungling brain doctors — flail around Tokyo after hours. More…

Watched Vivarium earlier today, and I did not get on with it. But it did make me stick on XTC’s Drums and Wires for a listen #tweet

It was weird enough I was watching Minoru Suzuki wrestling live in a Tokyo shopfront, but then YouTube just removed it for violating terms of service. What? #tweet

Anyone even thinking about clogging up the shops today to hoard stuff: you can still go to the supermarket whenever, they explicitly said no restrictions on that, don’t you pay attention??!! #tweet

Where’s the ambition? I was expecting they’d announce it’s SEVEN nights by now > @KayfabeNews #tweet

New restrictions seem just a reiteration of the previous, but emphasised for the plonkers not heeding them already #tweet

The big shopping centre was eerily empty. If it weren’t for the chemist, supermarket and phone shops, it’d be like Dawn of the Dead. Or Point Square #tweet

TakeOver Dublin’s pushed back to October, but even October is looking ambitious IMHO > @aikenpromotions #tweet

My gold vinyl copy of the new Horse Lords album just arrived and it’s beautiful (also, expect parcels to be about three days late like this was, for obvious reasons) #tweet

Stuck on Animal Crossing Wild World for the first time in, like, a decade and I found this in my mailbox #image

Confirmed: part of Stuart Gordon’s Space Truckers was filmed down the road from the house I grew up in (and a bit at the Wood Quay Civic Offices, too) > irelandsmovies.wordpress.com #tweet

Film review — Space Truckers

This was made at Ardmore in Wicklow (with a scattering of other locations: I spotted the Civic Offices, and maybe Dollymount Strand?) and I remember the buzz as if we’d scored some big Hollywood production (Dennis Hopper! Stephen Dorff! Names we’ve heard of!) when in reality it was a cheap and cheerful slice of post-Charles Band space-ploitation. Critics absolutely piled on it at the time, but there’s really a lot to love. More…

Now watching Space Truckers, and I’d forgotten that reputed Minutemen fan George Wendt was in it #tweet

There was a dog in the garden by the postbox and I had to pet it #tweet

Posting my Seanad ballot later on. If you’re eligible and haven’t done it yet, I’d suggest you get on that as the deadline is next Monday #tweet

I envy people who can just, like, watch movies or stream a whole series right now, because I can’t #tweet

Just heard from the brother of this man, and he’s in hospital; doctors say his condition is improving. I’m so relieved. You have no idea > @MacDara #tweet

Watching the Stardom show live on YouTube now and I’ve never been so happy to see Korakuen Hall so empty #tweet

I did not expect the Minutemen to be fans of DAF given the closest they got to using electronics was a LinnDrum. But when you listen it makes sense #tweet