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

Date: December 2018

Ultimately, Bandersnatch made me think of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games – specifically how much and why I fucking hate that movie #aside

###

Can’t remember who it was on here that recommended Palm’s Rock Island but it’s definitely one of my records of the year #aside

###

Guerilla Toss’ ‘Come Up with Me’ is a straight-up Devo song #aside

###

I was gonna stay up for the UFC tonight, but @eirSport no longer works on the Mac (unless you have an older OS) and device ‘management’ strictures mean I can’t use my tablet instead https://t.co/QeZ72ikbHq #aside

###

I’m a decent chunk into Guy Evans’ Nitro book and enjoying it so far. If I have any criticisms they’re mostly aesthetic (it needed professional typesetting and copy editing) #aside

###

Something gleaned from Letterboxd reviews of Bird Box: an awful lot of people seem surprised that a horror film induces anxiety #aside

###

TFW a 15-minute stroll to the shop for essentials takes over an hour #aside

###

Childish Gambino and how the internet killed the cultural critic

This is less about that Childish Gambino video in and of itself and more an apologia for that facile kind of ‘fit this thing I don’t quite understand into the immutable category framework already established for myself’ as a placeholder for more rigorous media and cultural literacy/analysis (cf Dan Olson’s video on ‘Annihilation and Decoding Metaphor’). It’s ironic that the article is almost entirely uncritical of Fandom with a capital F’s blindness to context beyond its own bubbles. And especially grating when it slaps down such straw-man dingers like “the impartiality of reviewers was of dubious provenance anyway”. #link

###

Bird Box really overdoes the ‘stranger knocking on the door’ trope #aside

###

Psst, don’t tell WWE but I found at least one Network clip where they haven’t overdubbed the Midnight Express theme with that awful rubbish http://bit.ly/2Vb6Ap6 #aside

###

Hands up who else got the Nitro book for Xmas #aside

###

Merry Xmas to those who celebrate. My gift from Santa this year was a networking issue that made me bang my desk with rage #aside

###

There’s no such thing as Xmas Eve fireworks, put ‘em away till New Year’s FFS #aside

###

Aaaaand that’s me off work for the next two evenings #aside

###

Why no-one speaks Indonesia’s language

If there’s a moral to this story, it’s that these things can’t be forced. Imposing orthography from above? That’s been done before: Cyrillic, Korean, even modern Irish. But the nuts and bolts of communication are something else. How may people speak Esperanto, after all? #link

###

Nice to see a blue sky as the days get brighter from here on in #aside

###

Fantastics vs Midnight Express at the 1988 Great American Bash is the kind of match they could redo move for move at an NXT TakeOver today and get rave reviews #aside

###

It’s not even Xmas yet and Lidl have already pulled their lebkuchen from the shelves #aside

###

Book review — Art Sex Music, by Cosey Fanni Tutti

I felt like I wasn’t the only one tempted to google ‘Cosey Fanni Tutti transphobia’ after reading this memoir, but aside from this Jezebel interview which raises the question, it doesn’t seem to have provoked much discussion. Perhaps that’s because in this particular instance, the Genesis P-Orridge depicted here is an enormous arsehole who doesn’t deserve the respect of being appropriately gendered, though it still feels like some level of disrespect to the trans community. One would really have to ask trans people how they feel about that. More…

###

Pretty sure it was @dairelynch who introduced me to the Caspar Brötzmann Massaker years ago. The new Southern Lord reissues are sure going down a treat these chilly midwinter nights #aside

###

Layoutit!

Easily adjustable website frameworks via Bootstrap or CSS. Nicely done. #link

###

So it turns out, there are a lot of baseball-themed movies. I'm going to have to set a few ground rules if I'm doing this https://t.co/W70AhzDD1a #aside

###

Had a weird fever overnight but I think it was the last vestiges of this extended cold that’s finally lifted #aside

###

Rewatching Rollins/Ambrose from Sunday night. It’s really not a bad match, just the Wrong Match for them #aside

###

Penny Marshall’s death reminds me that I’ve never seen A League of Their Own. Nor most baseball-themed movies for that matter. Which gives me a notion for a new movie-watching project… https://t.co/gAhJYzkWc6 #aside

###

Apologies in advance to everyone to whom we’re sending an Xmas card for the state of my cursive handwriting #aside

###

Unpopular opinion: I don’t get the fuss over IDLES. They’re fine and all, they just do nothing for me #aside

###