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


Date: January 2020

Just did a quick search and yup, plenty of people beat me to my ‘John Cena finally turned heel’ tweet #aside

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Episode 2 of Picard was… ehhhhh… #aside

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To the Galway child with my name in this story I’m working up: sorry I’ve taken all the online usernames #aside

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OK, 2 top execs left, and there are clearly creative issues, but as a business WWE is doing just fine. AEW’s profitable too? That’s great for everyone #aside

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Film review — Doctor Sleep

Think of Doctor Sleep less as a sequel to an indelible Kubrick classic and more of an overzealous fan’s tribute to same. It’s got a different, lesser kind of obsessive attention to detail, with none of the aesthetic flair, and ultimately gets lost in the maze of its own references (not only to The Shining; the villains are straight out of Near Dark). But it also kind of works, if you treat it as a standalone piece with only a casual, if enthusiastic, connection to the original. Honestly, I’d mostly given up on Mike Flanagan — the good (Oculus, Before I Wake) is outweighed by the bad (Hush, Ouija, The Haunting of Hill House) — but this restores my faith a little. More…

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Bought a bag of apples this afternoon on a whim and it turns out you can eat these things? Like, as a snack? Who knew? #aside

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Got these matcha flavour mini Kit Kats from @AsiaMarketIE the other day and they’re really nice > asiamarket.ie #aside

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Compare with Dundalk, which has a much larger population yet the Bus Éireann town service stops running after 6pm > @TFIupdates #aside

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Did Alastair Stewart actually apologise for what he did on Twitter? Because all I can see is a man quitting (in a huff?) and media chums circling the wagons #aside

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That’s a pretty decent cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ ‘Institutionalized’ > @hunktears #aside

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Fine Gael resorting to fake ‘hand-written’ notes round these parts, I see #aside

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Raheny is my home area; the poor sequence change on that traffic island is a relatively recent phenomenon > @pmonahanjr7 #aside

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Seriously, though, what’s the necessity for an Oxford comma if there’s no ambiguity for it to clear up? > @guardian #aside

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OK, with Unyielding Love on the bill I’m really gonna try and make the Dublin show now > @dmepromotions #aside

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I’m a big fan of WWE doing the #RoyalRumble in baseball parks, with the smaller dugout entrance set. Hope it’s more than just a two-year thing > @MacDara #aside

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Just saw two robins having a style battle on a neighbour’s wall #aside

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Justice Pain main evented the first indie show I ever attended, IWW’s debut matinee in Tallaght > @combatzone #aside

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Had to root around for change for the customs charge (which is the final insult) but I finally have this, five weeks after it was posted from the States > @MacDara #aside

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Funny story here: on Monday I filed a missing item report with An Post and queried the retailer again. Later that day, after weeks in limbo, the parcel magically reappeared on tracking > @MacDara #aside

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Much delayed new episode of Enlarged Heart Radio is now sequenced; just needs a few links and it’ll be ready to go. Keep and eye/ear out for it tomorrow #aside

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Spinning my wheels against some IT issues this morning so I think I’ll go for a walk #aside

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So… it turns out ‘refund protection’ is kind of a scam? Anyway, if Jawbox’s Electric Ballroom gig sells out I’ll have a ticket to flog online > @MacDara #aside

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Film review — Terminator: Dark Fate

I imagine a bunch of saddo men have moaned about the new Terminator requel (a new word I just made up*, a portmanteau of reboot and sequel) that it’s too political or feminist or whatever. Which is of course ignorant of the fact that the franchise is inherently political — Government contractors messing about with rogue AI? That’s politics, bozos! — and that since the second film, a woman kicking ass as much as if not more than the men has been kind of central to its thing. More…

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Film review — Violent Cop

It’s remarkable enough that Takeshi Kitano made a film this good on his first go. But knowing he fell into the job by accident when Kinji Fukasaku had to pull out? That’s just taking the piss, like. More…

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Listening to the new Raspberry Bulbs (it’s out next month) and wondering why so few bands (maybe only them?) have made black metal swing #aside

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My weather apps don’t agree but I feel like the temperature’s dropped a few degrees in the last hour or so #aside

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Enjoyed the Freud/Yeats show at IMMA today before it closed, fourth time lucky! It reinforced how much I love Jack B Yeats’ work, and why I don’t particularly care for Lucian Freud > @MacDara #aside

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I’ve done that thing where I put something in a ‘safe place’ and now I cannot remember where that place is #aside

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That’s some frost out there this morning #aside

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Film review — Stoker

There’s a bit in this film where Mia Wasikowska’s character comes to a stunning realisation, and the camera tilts to bring a lampshade fixture on the wall behind into frame: a literal lightbulb moment. I didn’t know whether to laugh or run away to join the circus. More…

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Saturday Night’s Main Event, January ‘86: Hogan wearing blue trunks and busting out the Axe Bomber like he’s working for Inoki #aside

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Watching this four-way main event from last week’s NXT and Keith Lee is the only guy I connect with, he’s the only one of this group who’s got IT #aside

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The big secret they don’t want to tell you about delivery drivers blocking footpaths, cycle lanes, etc is that no provision was ever made for them to park anywhere else. On foot? On a bike? The man doesn’t care #aside

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STILL waiting for mine to show up, it’s been weeks now. Parcels from the US to Ireland just don’t take that long > @RingsideC #aside

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Film review — Demonlover

Watched this based on its thematic comparisons with Videodrome (it’s kind of that crossed with In the Company of Men, if you want my facile elevator pitch) and… nah, not my bag. Too long and meandering for an espionage thriller, not engaging enough to work as a mood piece — and then in its final few minutes it devolves into some kind of live-action video game, which was probably interpreted at the time as saying something about yadda yadda but it’s nothing more than a provocative stylistic wheeze. Blah. More…

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There’s so much that deadens the soul about the chain of events on Wilton Terrace yesterday, but the one that really gets me is, why wouldn’t you check the tent first? What brings someone to that place? > @MacDara #aside

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I was only listening to this album earlier today. Let’s see how much the shipping costs… > @Bandcamp #aside

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They could’ve waited till after the register deadline; it’s a calculatedly crooked move IMO #GE2020 #aside

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My name is MacDara, it’s Irish – yet Irish people seem to have the hardest time accepting it’s my first name, not my surname > @MarcusCVance #aside

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Watching this week’s NXT and Bee finally cracked it: Damien Priest is the wrestling Lenny Kravitz #aside

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