The Album’s News Roundup – Weekend Havoc

A long overdue weekend havoc, in which I haven’t done since the end of October in 2017, so I am piling in everything that would normally get a resounding cheer from crazed fans enraged by a bloodthirsty passion to discover the greatest forms of entertainment the Milky Way Galaxy has to offer.

If you’re new here, I cover 8 distinct categories that range from mouthwatering ice cold brewskis and intriguing cuisine; video game updates that are critical for combatting the #SundayScaries; movies that need to be seen; the deep dark abyss inside the online streaming platform known as Netflix; books that blow minds; podcasts that make one laugh-like, and simultaneously look-like, a crazy person while said one is traveling on public transportation; music to head bob to; and of course a well-intentioned Badass Nature Fact that’ll scare the living daylights out of you, your children, and your children’s children. After typing the longest run-on sentence in the history of run-on sentences, let’s begin some rambles about things that matter, and some things that do not.

1). Food/Drink – Lizard Snake – Pale Ale – American 6%, Glaucus – IPA Belgian 6.2%, Passion Fruit Guppy – Session / India Session Ale 4.6%

In order from favorite to least favorite

• Pipeworks Brewing Company from Chicago, Illinois, has some of the best can-art I’ve ever seen. So far Lizard Snake is my favorite, on par with Boston’s Night Shift Brewing’s Whirlpool with citrus flavors. Can never turn down a beer that has Poseidon on it, tastes like a badass version of Blue Moon. Passion Fruit Guppy was a risk. A risk that has a bitter sour after-taste. Not one I necessarily love, but I enjoy trying new beers nonetheless.
• More food/drink posts in the works.

2). Gaming Updates

Eye-patch level = ELITE (Playstation)

• This entire post: 5 Anticipated Games Of 2018 That We Can Expect To Deliver
• 2019 should see a new Crash Bandicoot game
• God of War looks like it will kick some serious ass
• Far Cry 5 appears to have tightened the nuts & bolts of Far Cry mechanics making it the most fluid to date. I hope to see The Family be as gnarly of a cult as one would expect. Like Waco or the cult that believed an alien spaceship would pick them up and take them to their planet (Yes, they believed this would happen)
• The Water That Tastes Like Wine is yet another game that makes me want to become a member of the #MasterRace – PC nerds
• *Meme a bullet point* Me: Publishes a gaming blog Tuesday calling out Detroit: Become Human for not releasing any new info…Quantum Dream Developers on Thursday: HAHAHA FUCK YOU, May 25, 2018 release date
• Rumors of Insomniac Games dropping a Spyro The Dragon remaster sometime in the fall of 2018 for it’s 20th anniversary
• My Friend Pedro: Blood Bullets Bananas’ – My Friend Pedro has the best gameplay videos on Twitter involving 360s into frying pan alley-oops to a tail-whip grind of glory.

3). Movies

The Adventures of Tin-tin – (Paramount Pictures)

• A Monster Calls – 10/10 – Sob City. Such a powerful movie that is on my Top Must-Watch Movies list of all-time. A rare book to film adaptation that is dynamite from both ends.
• Idiocracy – 7/10 – Brilliant.
• Dunkirk – 7/10 – Hype is not over-hype.
• Baby Driver – 8/10 – If you like Edgar Wright who’s responsible for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, great music, and action-packed fluidity, it’s a great selection.
• The Adventures of TinTin – 9/10 – Beautiful adventure and family fun. I didn’t realize it was a live-action animation, which makes it that much more awesome.
• The Zookeeper’s Wife – 8/10 – A great depiction of a book about a true story of Polish citizens living amongst Nazi rule
• Wonder Woman – 7/10– #BadassBitch
• Spider-Man Homecoming – 7/10 – Quality rejuvenation of the franchise set as teenage Peter Parker
• War For The Planet of the Apes – 7/10 – Solid end to the trilogy, worst film of the three, still enjoyable to watch
• Only The Brave – 8/10 – When real-deal Hotshots universally praise a movie about their profession – it’s as authentic as it gets
• The Dark Tower – 5/10 – The type of bad movie that you recognize it’s badness early in the movie and hate-watch it to the end. Even Idris Elba couldn’t save this movie
• Whip It – 8/10 – Drew Barrymore’s directoral debut. Ellen Page in a Roller Derby film, expels GLOW on Netflix vibes
• Birth of a Nation – 7/10 – Rebellion led by Nat Turner. Lest we must forget

4). TV/Netflix

• Final Space – A witty, goofy, sarcastic, and ridiculously fun space adventure destined to be the Rick & Morty for teens. Don’t let that dissuade you, soon enough you too will love Mooncake, Avocado, Quinn and especially Gary. I found myself rewind several parts to laugh at them again. Check it out on TBS.
• Vikings Season 5 – Lagertha kicks ass as usual. Rollo makes a slight appearance but hopefully he will come back for Season 6 and impale losers like One-Eye again. Currently there are 10-episodes released but there are an additional 10-episodes being dropped starting, dare I say it, TBA 2018.
• Jessica Jones Season 2 – March 8th on Netflix, You don’t get credit for doing the right thing, for the wrong reasons. Prepare yourself! This is one of the best superhero series of the Marvel universe.
• Hunting Hitler – Not an active hunt of Hitler because he’d be like over 120 years old or something. But retracing the steps of where he could have escaped to after the war. History buffs shall follow this because it is TERRIFYING realizing how intricate his escape plans were involving a reestablishment of the Fourth Reich in South America, underground bunkers, plans to nuke the United States, and other gnarly discoveries. The team also is comprised of badass Army Special Forces veterans, C.I.A. Analysts and Targeting Officers, US Marshal Fugitive Task Force Members, and historians. They should’ve added a blogger/writer if they were really serious.
• Homeland Season 7 – Three episodes in and Carrie is still losing her mind. I definitely like the direction they went last season in terms of predicting many real world events aside of which President was elected (they thought Hillary Clinton was going to win, thus having a female president character). They have a crazy guy named Brett O’Keefe who plays the role of Alex Jones-types spreading propaganda and hysteria. Saul is still in the mix even though he should probably retire already because being kidnapped and imprisoned isn’t enough adventure.
• The Good Place – Season 1 rocked. Season 2 is forking great.
• BBC’s Blue Planet II – Each one of these takes like four years to film. They NEVER disappoint. Nature doing what nature does.
• iZombie – Episode 1 just released of Season 4. If you like zombies, detective cop shows, and amusing comic book-style humor, then please give this a try. My dad even likes this show, and he never watches this stuff.
• A.P. Bio – Think Dennis from Always Sunny in Philadelphia gets his own spin-off but  becomes a high school teacher. It’s pretty great.
• Survivor – The only reality show worth watching. It’s in its billionth season and premiered on Wednesday February 28, 2018. New twists, idols, advantages, and the mysterious Ghost Island.

5). Books

This is the longest goddamn title I’ve ever seen! I respect it.

• The Brain Always Wins by John P Sullivan – The aged old adage that we only use 10% of our brains is horsecrap. Muscle memory? Doesn’t exist! Don’t exercise? Guess what, your brain won’t operate optimally. I can actually attest to this last point. I stopped my training cycle for a considerately longer period than normal and when I was driving I noticed I wasn’t as acutely aware to things as I normally am. You know why? Because my brain wasn’t being challenged in forms of physical taxation. Stop reading lame articles trying to make the Dad Bod cool. It’s not cool, it’s the exact opposite of cool. When your grandkids look back at old pictures of their badass grandfather/grandma, don’t you want them to view you as someone who was carved out of granite taken straight from a museum, instead of a bag of cheese doodles? Goddamit.
• 4-hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss – Has sat on my bookshelf floor for eternity. I am getting around to reading it.
• A book that literally nobody on the Internet has written about, therefore I refuse to name, sorry author who I will credit the hell out of if and when my article gets accepted – #PitchCity
• The Decline And Fall Of Practically Everybody: Great Figures Of History Hilariously Humbled by Will Cuppy – It’s currently in the mail, but I wish it was being transversed via jetpack. It’s 2018 for crying out loud! That or I’ll settle for a drone. Local Human Hall OF Fame legend Ben Thompson recommended it in an interview and if it’s anything like Badass of the Week, then we can expect it to be equally witty and majestic.

6). Podcasts – All are on iTunes – alright I’ll link them all

• BK News Roundup – Former Air Force PJ rants about current affairs and for the past several weeks has adopted the niche of oddities within the U.S. Not for the faint of heart.
• Cleared Hot by Andy Stumpf – Highly recommend episode 31 with Chad Ward a Grill Master who specializes in outdoor cooking. Andy Stumpf is the only human being who I’ve ever heard of piloting a plane and then jumping out of said plane in the same instance like he’s a modern day Indiana Jones.
• Stuff They Didn’t Want You To Know by HowStuffWorks – If you like what I write about, they cover similar awesomeness.
• Sword & Scale True Crime Podcast – With a criminal justice background, this stuff fascinates me. This covers all viewpoints from law enforcement detectives, to family members involved, to the suspects/murderers, and so much more. It’s a Top 5 True Crime Pod in my personal opinion.
• The Disappearance of Maura Murray – A cold case in the South Shore of Massachusetts that’s remained unsolved for nearly two decades
• Half Hour Intern – Blake Fletcher is the host who brings on unique people who talk about their careers: Flight attendant, wildland firefighter, Peace Corps volunteer, Microbrewery owner, Food writer, NASA engineer, and so much more. Can’t figure out a career, listen to this to gain some insight
• Power Athlete Radio – Eat The Weak. Be The Hammer. Empower Your Performance. John Welbourn, Luke Summers, Chris “Tex” McQuilkin, Cali Hinzman, and numerous guests explore the highly saturated strength & conditioning industry and drop #KnowledgeBombs on people’s eyelids to educate them on how to properly live on planet Earth. So yeah, they also discuss movies, try to get Tex unsolicited date requests, and tell hilarious stories.
• Patriot to the Core – Hosted by Thad Forester, the brother of Mark Forester an U.S. Air Force Combat Controller who was killed in action in Afghanistan. His podcast brings on interesting guests who knew his brother Mark, those who have stories worth telling (how I learned about The Berlin Candy Bomber) and a behind the scenes look into the lives of Gold Star Families
• Punch Up The Jam – Miel Monster and Demi host a comedy & music podcast. They give great music recommendations like this gem, “Love My Way” by Psychedelic Furs.
• Lights Camera Podcast – A recent binge of mine where Internet personalities @LightsCameraPod discuss movies the way they are meant to be discussed – shooting the shit among friends.

7). Music

Song of the Month – Adore x Amy Shark

Music is an interesting medium in terms of applying it to writing. As I type this this very second, “Love is Overrated” by Swayze is bumping through my Dre Beat headphones (John Koss is furious that I’m not wearing Koss Beats or whatever). Now it’s “Somebody To You” by The Vamps. By the time I finish writing this section there will be a number of songs straight from my shuffled Spotify playlist. Hopefully it will introduce new songs or provide a look of what type of music peels back my creative layers.

When I write articles that are heavily researched about a real-person I try to get in the zone. “Dreams” by Van Halen. Typically there are a numbered of tabs open about said person, some of their accomplishments and accolades, and articles that have covered them in the past. If I’m writing about hardcore history like The Time A War Stood Still To Massacre A Population Of Murderous Wolves then I need something with heavy guitar riffs. Guess all those years spent training while listening to similar music has transcended over to writing, who knew? “Improvise” by Dayshell.

“Breathing” by Yellowcard. “White Tiger” by Our Last Night. I actually discovered the band Our Last Night as I was in Spencer’s at a mall in Massachusetts. I was looking for the highly-coveted Fuck you you fucking fuck-pistol coffee mug. I had the chance of purchasing it in D.C., but for some dumb-brained reason I thought it would be a problem to bring it through the airport. I haven’t been able to find it since. Shame. “Rum Is for Drinking” by Senses Fail.

8). Badass Nature Fact – *Turns on BBC’s Planet Earth* – The White Tiger

Oh look, the white Richard Parker (Source)

• All white tigers have blue eyes
• Their night vision is 6x better than humans
• They love to swim and are often seen in the water on hot sunny days
• They haven’t been in the wild in more than 50 years, 1958 to be exact when a nimrod hunter shot it dead
• In order for a white tiger to be born, both parents need an unusual gene, which occurs in 1 of 10,000 births
• According to this random source, tigers can remain standing after death – spooky
• They are the largest Big Cats weighing at 700lbs (300kg)
• Tigers tongues act like a gnarly piece of sand paper – in which they can peel off skin, feathers, and meat of its prey
• They strive in solitary confinement. When coming across another tiger, instead of being a total dick like lions, they will share meals together
• Their haymaker hits harder than Mike Tyson. One swipe from a tiger’s paw and consider yourself dead
• They can imitate the vocals of their prey and an unconfirmed report once heard them saying, “Heeeeey youuuuu guuuuuys” *Sloth Goonies voice*
• The tiger population is at risk of extinction

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For more total badass nature facts and/or history-focused content, follow @LateNightHistory on Instagram