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Entertainment Reviews

Time (2023 Dark Side of the Moon Redux) – Roger Waters Track Review

 

Another week, another track review of the upcoming Dark Side of the Moon Redux album by Roger Waters – the song this go-round is Time.

Right off the bat, some may be relieved to hear that the song, which starts off with a cacophonic sound collage of clocks ticking and alarm bells ringing in the original, is no longer present. Instead, in its place, is more of the spoken word poetry that was heavily present in his other single (Money), so your mileage may very well vary depending on how you feel about the original and the new style that’s being taken.

However, it feels like there has been more effort put into this song as a whole – while there are still the talking aspects, there is more of an attempt at breathy singing, which I think works well in the context of this song. As the title suggests, it’s a piece largely around the all-too-fleeting journey that is life, on an album that was made by Waters while he was 29. Fast forward 50 years, and the message hits a lot harder from the perspective of a man, who, at the time of writing, … Read More

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Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons: Cincinnati Comic Expo 2022

Last month I had the pleasure of attending my very first comic convention out in Cincinnati, Ohio and one that happens to be the largest comic convention in the city. I’ve always wanted to go to conventions in Ohio and after checking out Horrorhound Weekend earlier in September I was glad to be attending yet another convention in Ohio a few weeks later.

Cincinnation Comic Expo is an insanely large convention that takes place inside the Duke Energy Convention Center in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. The first thing I really liked was the entryway into the convention with various comic books covers lining the sides of the entrance to get inside the convention itself by way of the vendor hall. This particular comic convention is the biggest one that I’ve had the pleasure of attending with various comic vendors, collectors, cosplay shops and so much more that you shouldn’t have a hard time finding something to tickle your fancy. My biggest complaint about this convention is that nothing was really grouped up but rather everything was mixed up. Most conventions I’ve attended in the past have things pretty well categorized together such as an artist alley and etc. but … Read More

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Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons: Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati 2022

Horror is one of my absolute favorite genres of movies and it wasn’t until a few years ago when I attended my very first ever Horror convention that I realized just how much I would enjoy attending them. Horrohound was one of my very first experiences at these type of cons and its one of, if not the best, Horror convention in the United States.

Horrhound Weekend took place in Cincinnati, Ohio and this actually ended up being my very first convention that I ever attended in the state. It’s been since 2018 since I’ve attended when Horrorhound was in Indianapolis and it felt great being back as this event was at the Sharonville Convention Center which makes for a very intimate place to have a convention. The vendor areas had a rather interesting layout featuring several vendors local to Cincinnati and Ohio as well as other parts of the Midwest. The smaller vendor room had a few guests on one side with a few vendor booths but one of the interesting things I noticed here was the fact that this was an area in which you could get a tattoo at featuring several tattoo artists from the surrounding area.… Read More

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Conventions Entertainment Pop Culture Reviews

Pros & Cons: PopCon Indy 2022 Review

Throughout the past weekend, I spent my time in Downtown Indianapolis at PopCon Indy. I cannot believe that PopCon is now in its 9th year as an event as it only seems like yesterday that the Kickstarter for the show was up and running but here we are. Over the last 9 years, PopCon has had its share of ups & downs with, in my opinion, the 2016 edition of PopCon being its best yet. For those that may not remember, PopCon 2016 had everything from a full-on wrestling show, the GFuel E-Sports arena, and also Kevin Smith with his daughter Harley there to attend the premiere of their movie, Yoga Hosers.

I feel that there has yet to be a PopCon that has come close to providing all that amount of entertainment in one weekend and sure, an argument can be made about the prior year with Markiplier coming to PopCon in only their second year as a convention which saw a crazy turnout that not even PopCon themselves expected. Yet here we are in 2022 and PopCon has been trying in some ways while failing in a few others to be as good as they once were.

A Read More

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Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons Tag Team Edition: Squared Circle Expo 2 Review

While I’ve had the pleasure of attending several conventions and expo’s over the years, some of my favorite have been those shows that cater to a specific audience such as the horror scene for instance and last year I was able to attend my very first wrestling expo, Squared Circle Expo and it left me wondering how exactly were owners Adolfo Dorta & Ed Gonzales going to top what they produced last year and I’m very pleased to say they did exactly that.

Squared Circle Expo 2 took place at the same venue as the first SCX which was the Wyndham Indianapolis West Hotel, a rather familiar venue to locals in the convention scene as it tends to host several other conventions from horror cons to local shows and a space that really feels right at home for such an event as SCX2 as the setup was pretty much the same this time around as it was last year with the same large vendor area with what seemed to me even more vendors this year than there was the previous year. I was very pleased with the amount of wrestling merch to purchase from action figures, to toy wrestling rings … Read More

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Entertainment Reviews

Fantastic Beasts 3: The Secrets of Dumbledore – A Brief No-Spoilers Review

Can you keep a secret?

Well, it’s obviously not a secret that Dumbledore’s been keeping secrets from people – the name of this chapter Fantastic Beasts storyline and an old Harry Potter clip worked into the trailers make it a little hard to ignore.

Mystery, misdirection, secrets… where were we anyways? Oh! Right!

PREVIOUSLY ON DRAGON BA-

er… no. That’s not quite right. Let’s try that again, shall we?

 

PREVIOUSLY ON FANTASTIC BEASTS:

We started out in 1920’s America with Newt Scamander, the world’s first and only ‘magizoologist’, doing some international smuggling and then playing some tag with his magical-animal-rescue-ranch-in-a-trunk …right in the middle of the bustling city of otherwise non-magical people who are mostly unaware of the existence of magic or the wizarding world.

Our socially awkward protagonist faces international bureaucratic turmoil, has some brushes with death, narrowly escapes romance, and sometimes even does both at once. All the while, he and his party of rag-tag witches and wizards try to foil the charismatic magic terrorist and his minions and save as many critters as they can in the process. The social and political landscape are cracking inside and out in the overwhelming state of fear, sparking not … Read More

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Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons: Louisville Arcade Expo 2022

Yes, it’s that time of year once again, that time to walk around the halls of another expo and enjoy some amazing arcade games, video game consoles and what I look the most forward to, pinball. It’s time to kick off the 2022 convention and expo season with Louisville Arcade Expo. It’s been since 2020 that the Louisville Arcade Expo has happened which means attendees such as myself have long awaited for the opportunity to get our hands on the things we enjoy, the things that remind us of our childhood such as the sounds of a pinball hitting bumpers or watching as four random strangers together play a song on Rock Band.

I was curious to see if this year would be different and after being able to plan for two years this time, what LAX would have to offer and boy was I not at all disappointed. Upon arrival, I was welcomed by convention owner Corey as he helped me receive my passes for the weekend and I was able to get my hands on some great LAX apparel then it was time to walk into the show floor and the layout is exactly what I expected. A … Read More