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

This is probably my finest ever tweet and I got nothing. Shame on all of you > @MacDara #tweet

Ticket secured for black midi next February #tweet

I just don’t have the energy to complain to eir about how unreliable our broadband connection has been since June #tweet

How did Rocky’s trainer suggest he apply condiments to his grilled beef patty sandwiches? ‘Burgers merit dip’ #tweet

I know it’s such A Thing to say ‘you know Ric Ocasek produced a Bad Brains album?’ but he did and Rock for Light is very good #tweet

Ad Astra so desperately wants to be spoken of in the same breath as Kubrick’s 2001, which it homages to a ridiculous degree #tweet

Film review — First Blood

A man looks forward to a reunion but immediately faces crushing disappointment. He’s needlessly criticised for his choice of clothes and hairstyle, and made to feel decidedly unwelcome when all he wants on a trying day is something to eat. Then the whole thing devolves into an argument, and by the end of the night he’s eating his roast alone in the dark … To hell with Die Hard, First Blood is a real Xmas movie. More…

Film review — Long Shot

A rom-com fairy tale for nerds, pretty much. It’s got heart, for sure. It’s also got some suspect politics, of all kinds. More…

The new Cloud Rat is out today and of course it rips. Best grindcore band going right now, hands down #tweet

One thing I neglected to note in my review of Extra Ordinary: nice use of Don Caballero’s ‘The Peter Criss Jazz’ > @thumped #tweet

Memory is foggy but I think my first was a double bill of The Hot Chick and The 25th Hour at the Buena Vista cinema (the former Grand in Fairview) > @andyffgibbons #tweet

I fear I may have written the only not-overwhelmingly-enthusiastic review of Extra Ordinary, going by the gushing on my timeline #tweet

Finally got my hands on a Greggs vegan sausage roll. Would eat again #tweet

Really fucking tired of not being able to find the clothes I want in my size #tweet

Fancy new RSA drive test centre on one of the worst kept roads in Dundalk, I see you #tweet

Daniel Johnston … 58 is far too young to go #tweet

Research lacking in this @verge piece on the new WWE Network, as users have indeed been left to start from scratch without their watchlists > @MacDara #tweet

Anywhere in Dundalk or Dublin I can get a drop bolt for a driveway gate? Someone’s nicked ours, you see #tweet

Film review — Ma

By failing to make hay with its premise, and being just that bit too obvious about the stuff it does explore (the flashbacks especially, coming far too early and building a backstory the viewer doesn’t really need to know), Ma slips from a potentially top-tier thriller to merely an OK one. More…

Film review — The Secret Garden

So this one completely passed me by in 1993. I guess I wasn’t the target audience, and that year was all about Jurassic Park for me, but you’d think there’d be some lingering memory of its existence, at least, not least because I do remember the mid-70s BBC adaptation being repeated on children’s TV around that same vague time period. Anyway. More…

Webmentions just stopped working on my blog. I have no clue. Why did I even bother? #tweet

First Netflix pulls Avengement within a day, then the Network pulls the MTV specials that dropped yesterday? I’m not having good luck with streaming #tweet

I get why they’re doing this but it doesn’t make much sense for anyone outside of the Americas > @WWENXT #tweet

Harris Bomberguy and Shannon Strucci essay the concerns with rewriting cultural history that the concept of the ‘director’s cut’ provokes. And there’s more than could be explored; for instance, how much is Coppola’s ‘final cut’ of Apocalypse Now derived from a creative motive (a need to right ‘wrongs’) or a profit motive (successful wine business aside, he hasn’t made a relevant film for decades, but people still love Apocalypse Now, so…). #video

The new Futureheads album is alright. I mean, they’re never gonna make another ‘First Day’, I’m resigned to that, but it’s no News and Tributes either > etc @MacDara #tweet

This is bad form from New Japan. The ref (and Ishii for that matter) should’ve known better > @Deadspin #tweet

Mike Watt said he dug my shirt. Mind you, it was a plaid shirt, so one could argue I was fishing for compliments > @jamesjammcmahon #tweet

Is anyone else as cold as I am this morning? #tweet

Random thoughts on #AEWAllOut: Kenny Omega looks tired; JR needs to go; poor Pharaoh and pyro don’t mix; the ladder match was bad TV; so many production kinks! > etc @MacDara #tweet

It wasn’t supposed to rain today #tweet

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

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.

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 #tweet

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? #tweet

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

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…

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