antlan

[antlan]

Best Wishes to DJ Qualls and his Fiancé

I’ve met several celebrities in my 5 decades of life, and DJ Qualls is easily the only one who didn’t disappoint me. The nicest, coolest guy to talk with and a fantastic sense of humour (he reached out to me for an interview after I wrote an article about how I disliked him because he reminded me too much of how I skinny I was back then, how’s that for a tremendous guy). Ty Olson was robbed…

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AFTER MIDNIGHT: Working 9 to 5

AFTER MIDNIGHT: Working 9 to 5

NOW WITH 200% MORE BOLP!!! Disappointingly enough, no one ever asks why I chose “After Midnight” as a title for a music podcast, and since y’all insist on not asking, it is because I wanted to make the kinda of podcast that I like to listen to during my working hours which are at night. Therefore it is quite baffling, if only to me, that I never before thought of “work” as an episode topic. I…

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TV REVIEW: The Irregulars (2020 Netflix)

TV REVIEW: The Irregulars (2020 Netflix)

There is something to be said about fan fiction, in that it often allows to discover talent and ideas that would, in olden days, have gone to complete waste or at least have been ignored entirely. Like podcasting today allows the kids of yesteryear to finally host their own personal radio show at little to no expense, online fan fiction offers every hardcore passionate mind the opportunity to…

[antlan]

IT CAME FROM THE DISCOUNT BIN: John Carter

IT CAME FROM THE DISCOUNT BIN: John Carter

I’ve been meaning to review Disney’s John Carter since I caught it on opening day back in 2009, but I doubt my review would’ve reversed the tide, and quite frankly I didn’t expect such a commercial failure. I remember tremendously enjoying the film, much-much more than any Transformers atrocity or most of the major blockbusters unleashed every year. It moved along, showed some impressive visual…

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POD REVIEW: Abby & Amy Know Nothing

POD REVIEW: Abby & Amy Know Nothing

Once upon a time I was studying to obtain a BA in History who working in a jewelry store when I wasn’t rehearsing on stage with for a community theater play that I only had time for when I wasn’t DJing at in a local dance club which I was doing after getting kudos for my gig at the campus radio. 25 years later I’m a podcasting autism parent who works in IT. My partner calls me Britannica, because…

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TV REVIEW: Bridge & Tunnel (2021 Epix)

TV REVIEW: Bridge & Tunnel (2021 Epix)

In 1995 Edward Burns walked out of the Sundance film festival with the Grand Jury prize for his first film and offers up the wazoo for acting & directing. 5 years later he couldn’t get a film made to save his life. He’s still at it though, writing, acting, and directing his own stories sometimes for less money than a Kardashian nail job. In 2018 he rolled cameras on his latest no-budget pet…

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AFTER MIDNIGHT: Drive My Car

AFTER MIDNIGHT: Drive My Car

The point of such a music podcast is to experience music the way our parents and grand-parents used to on the car radio while driving. Only makes sense, after 2 years, to finally do an episode all about it! Start ’em if you got ’em, and put on this fine set of 5 tunes about what we all feel behind the…

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AFTER MIDNIGHT: At the Zoo

AFTER MIDNIGHT: At the Zoo

“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to,” said Mark Twain. The writer often showed his characters in embarrassing situations they are entirely responsible for, in a declaration that people can be more foolish than animals in their actions and that they should be aware of their own foolishness. Doubtful that science took the time to test whether animals do blush when under significant…

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REVIEW: Happiest Season (2020 Hulu)

REVIEW: Happiest Season (2020 Hulu)

“Actors have to feel a scene is really funny for the audience to feel it’s funny.” —John Swanbeck That is the main problem with Holiday-themed rom-com Happiest Season. It’s a film that isn’t quite sure what it wants to be, but it does want to be funny. If only someone had told one of its two leads who clearly acts out an entirely different movie then the rest of the cast. Or it may just be that…

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GEEKY RECIPES: Egg in a Basket

GEEKY RECIPES: Egg in a Basket

You have to admit, that scene in the movie gave us all the munchies: it looked damn good and it looked damn simple to do. You cut a whole in a slice of bread and and you cook it. Turns out… wasn’t THAT easy. I had to look up why I ended up with a little mess in my pan. Not hard, but you need to know how. If you browse long enough you’ll find hundreds of ways to do it, even a vegan way that uses…

[antlan]

REVIEW: Tenet (2020)

Saying that Tenet, latest grand spectacle from Imax-termind Christopher Nolan, had a LOT riding on its shoulders is quite the understatement; It was marketed as Inception 2.0, served as the “big bucks debut” for the son of an actor few do not hold in the very highest of regards, coasted on the heftiest price tag Nolan ever scored (205M, compared to 160M for Inception and about 150M for each of…

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TV REVIEW: Blood of Zeus (2020 Netflix)

TV REVIEW: Blood of Zeus (2020 Netflix)

There are a number of trademarks you expect when you sit down to watch an anime: a 4-minute opening theme, a 5-minute recap of the previous episode, a 6-minute closing theme, and about 3 minutes of story-telling in between. When Netflix set-out to do anime in the U.S., they… didn’t do that. But in every other aspect, as far as I can tell, they quite succeeded with Blood of Zeus. The story…

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AFTER MIDNIGHT: Nowhere man

AFTER MIDNIGHT: Nowhere man

Two months ago I posted an episode of After Midnight, my long-running music podcast that I honestly, hand-on-heart thought would be my last. I was planning on fading away, leaving behind something that brought me great joy and solace, but also heartache. My health took a tumble around that time, and in this year of biblical calamities the toll on me got taken. My reaction was to nuke everything…

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TV REVIEW: Trickster (2020 CBC)

TV REVIEW: Trickster (2020 CBC)

A young boy who doesn’t know much about his mystical heritage, but is forced to come of age really fast when friends & foes from his family’s past are all coming after him, for he… is the chosen one. Be warned, this heartbreaker didn’t grow up under the stairs in a privileged British neighborhood and given the key to a goblin vault holding a fortune. This one cooks “E” to put food on the table if…

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IT'S FREE ON YOUTUBE: Ronal the Barbarian (2011)

IT’S FREE ON YOUTUBE: Ronal the Barbarian (2011)

You know that guilty pleasure we all have, like tough guys wearing pink bunny slippers at home, or girly-girls listening to Norwegian Black Metal in secret at nite, or gangstas watching Murder She Wrotewith their grandmas, or celebrity chefs putting Cheeze Whiz on their toast? That makes for a strange dichotomy in my house where I have a special display for movies I’m proud to own a special…

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TV REVIEW: McDonalds & Dodds (2020 ITV)

TV REVIEW: McDonalds & Dodds (2020 ITV)

We all have fond memories of watching that one TV show the whole family liked, sometimes being the only time the whole family got along (or shot the heck up for a minute). Growing up in the middle of nowhere during the rabbit-ears era that only gave us 2 local stations and PBS, my family’s weekly ritual was watching David Suchet twirl his mustache as the very self-appreciating Agatha Christie…

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GEEKY RECIPES: Soylent Green

GEEKY RECIPES: Soylent Green

Just to be perfectly clear, and I cannot believe I actually need to spell this out but these ARE strange times we live in and my mother-in-law might read this therefore please heed this statement: if you came to this article looking for the REAL Soylent Green recipe, Seek Help. And I mean NOW. And if all of that flew straight over your head because you know not what it is, welcome to one of the…