Hemispheric Views had another great episode of their podcast. This one was about the perfect album. Defining perfect as an album that you can listen to without skipping tracks and just enjoying. Since the initial release of the podcast, people have been blogging about what they feel is good.

I’ve thought about a couple albums but one that comes to mind right now is Louden Up Now by !!!. I bought this album while I was in college on a whim and I find myself putting it on when I’m feeling particular angsty or frustrated.

It is ** extremely explicit ** and puts my frustration into words with a beat. But, after the album is over, the anger is disrupted and I feel like I can move on.

Of course, sometimes I just feel like listening to Pardon My Freedom on repeat and letting the world just float on by.

But I feel that it’s the other tracks that jostle me out of that feeling as it becomes a little absurd with the lyrics and the beats are just erratic enough to shake me out of a funk.

It took me a while to find other information about this group online because I thought they only had one album and the fact that looking up !!! didn’t work in the search engines that I was using because of the wildcard nature of their names.

I highly encourage you to check out the listing of Perfect Albums that Robb Knight put together.

There is A LOT of hype around this show. I had ignored it when it first came out because I didn’t want to deal with the world ending because of nuclear war instead of catastrophic climate change. But, I had changed my mind when a couple of my friends recommended it multiple times. That’s how word of mouth works.

The show is good. I don’t recall points in the show where I felt a need to skip forward to where my favorite character is back on the screen. It’s 8 episodes of story and character building. You don’t need to know anything about the game franchise in order to understand it. I want to know more about the characters but I don’t find the need to look up if something is an Easter egg in order for scenes to work. Give it time and the story unfolds for you at the same time as most of the characters.

Speaking of characters, I want to shout out to Moisés Arias who plays Norm on the show. Not every character needs to be a hero or villain. It’s nice to see a character who is just trying to figure out what is going on. It takes a certain kind of bravery to go against the flow and what is comfortable. When you compare his physic against Dave Register, Norm is not what we would call a hero, but I’d like to see more characters like him in my media.

The story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there's almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind -- and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

The show started off on a high and my mind was filled with different possibilities that they could do with the different characters. What does it look like for a hero to be upstaged by a questionably better version of themselves? How do you adjust to a timeline that isn't your own? Could they fit in another dance number into the season?

I didn’t get a lot of those things.

I’m not docking them points because they didn’t do the fan fiction that I had put together in my mind.

I am docking them for … well … being kind of boring and mean.

I get it. They had a horrible childhood and are still hurting from that.

Unfortunately, this season does not give them time to grow as characters. In fact, you could say that some of them are worse and could be quantified as villains this time around.

As they say, “Hurt people hurt people” and you only hurt the ones you love.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, they have a lot of fun bits sprinkled in there, but felt myself feeling a little bit relieved when the season was over.

Back at the Academy, the Umbrellas clash with a new squad of Hargreeves siblings as a mysterious force begins to wreak havoc on the city.

The forth and final season of this show will be airing in August this year. It’s going to be six (6) episodes compared to this one being ten (10).

Before writing this review, I asked myself am I going to give this movie five stars because everyone else is giving it five stars? Am I giving it five stars because the last movie had four stars in this one it was more engaging?

Well, the answer came to me.

This movie is five stars because it is a good movie. It checks off all the boxes as far as an action movie and good cinema is supposed to have. We have a heroes journey and I feel that you did not need to know all the details of the previous movie in order to get something out of this.

I enjoyed this movie. I really, really enjoyed it. I did not see it in an IMAX theater. But for the for the first time in a very long while, I found myself wanting to go see it again in theaters. I think that if you want to see an action movie or just a Science Fiction movie or a movie about political intrigued, you cannot go wrong with this film.

One thing that the film goes into is how someone becomes “radicalized”. How does someone justify their actions and whether they’re good or bad in order to, do what they see is right.

Overall, I think I’m pretty excited by the movie and really fighting the urge to see it in theaters again.

Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

I really enjoyed this movie. It definitely deserved to have a sequel. That being said, I wouldn't take the time to watch it again by myself.

It’s phenomenal views and a cast of characters and actors that kept me entertained and following along with the plot. I really think they did a good job in showing what Paul and his family is going through and not relying on narration.

If I have all this praise, you maybe wondering why I didn’t rate it higher. Well, it comes down to the fact that the movie doesn’t completely standalone. I watched it knowing there was going to be a sequel. Unfortunately, I thought “Will modern audiences be ok with the movie ending where it did? Will I be ok with it?”.

I find myself bumping this up a star while writing this review because this movie did something. It brought me and my family closer together. We all saw it and then made plans to see the sequel.

So, I suggest you go see it too, but be aware that it will be the setup to something bigger.

I feel that this is one of the better seasons of the show. In this one, they move away from the constantly having our detective doing practically everything while the supporting cast chimes in occasionally. You get a feeling that they are more of a team and the other actors get a chance to show that they can… well.. act.

Except for Marlon, who I’ve never liked as a character.

But that could just be because he’s the Dwayne replacement that was never MY Dwayne.

Still, this is a murder of the week show and it doesn’t go to far from that. My wife and I like to watch it before bed; I think it might be comforting to know that the evildoers get caught and justice is served. Here is a link to Death in Paradise (2011) on the Movie Database.

Also, if you are interested here is a link to this season’s trailer on YouTube.

One last bit, there is an article on how and why they remastered the theme song.

Ricky Stanicky (2024) on The Movie Database - ★★★☆☆

I really enjoy the comedies with John Cena. They’re generally fun and light. I get to spend some time just sitting back and relaxing.

I’m not looking for depth; those movies are also available if I want them.

If you’ve seen this movie, then you’ve seen it a dozen times. There are a couple twist and turns but we all know what’s going to happen from the trailers and the first 10 minutes of the film.

I have no problems with that!

Here’s the trailer that pretty much sums it up.