To be a black person in America is to accept the underlying companion of survival mode. It’s there when we wake up, when we leave our homes, and when we try to make a living. As we enter boardrooms, department stores, and engage in recreational activities - it meets us with a sly grin. Even when you work to engage with things like success and happiness, you are one instance away from being attached to it again. Our reward - our penance is survival. Instead of listening, black people are met wit

During the 2016 NFL season, then San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality. Even though retired Green Beret Nick Boyer convinced Kaepernick to take a knee and not sit - backlash ensued. Kaepernick has yet to find employment in the NFL after that season. Despite the right to protest guaranteed by the constitution, the President of the United States said of players who chose to exercise that right to '“get that son of a bit

Before we begin, I wanted to have everybody watch the following video: Right there are generations of pain and sadness being expressed. It’s the heaviness that black people carry around them in their everyday lives. As we go to our jobs, try to feed our families, and try to find some happiness within a country that tries to put impediments in the way. Over the past six days, many have marched in the effort to speak out about police brutality and racial injustices. Let’s keep it honest - we’ve m

DC’s forever growing roulette of T.V. shows has a lot of developing pieces to it at the current moment. This ranges from shows like The Flash and Supergirl on The CW to Titans and Doom Patrol on DC Universe’s streaming service. There are different flavors for everyone. From those who prefer more family-oriented programming to something a little more gritty. These stories and crossovers have grown to become more grandiose as the years have gone by. It’s an ideal time to introduce a lesser-known c

1954’s suspense-thriller Rear Window and the 2007 remake, Disturbia both taught us to be extra cautious of the neighbor next door. Now add a supernatural witch who seemingly has an endless amount of powers into the mix. The Wretched, directed by The Pierce Brothers combines previously touched upon elements of a coming-of-age teen drama with a suspenseful, violent touch of horror. The movie works best when both parts of the plot complement each other. In this specific case, where the character de

Connections are an essential backbone when it comes to human lifespans. We crave it. We can’t live without it. With connection, there are things like love and friendship. These are both instances that help our lives gain meaning and purpose. In the age of social distancing, digital connections are more apparent and vital than ever. Zoom, Facetime, Instagram Live - you name it. It’s all we have at the moment. A temporary substitution to being physically together again. I would bet any amount of m

I remember the first time I sat in my seat with my friends and watched 2017’s Justice League in theaters. You mean I get to see the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash on screen together? Was it a little rushed? I’ll give you that. Two movies rolling into a team-up is pretty quick. Now, if you’re looking across the row at Marvel, they were already two Avengers movie in and another team-up movie with Guardians of the Galaxy in the bag. Ok, DC – let’s see what you got. Unless you were li

On May 23rd, 1999, I did what I always did when a Sunday night wrestling pay-per-view came on. I begged my parents to use their special cable box to watch. That night was then named WWF’s Over The Edge. If you’re a wrestling fan, these men and women personify something larger than life. Our suspension of disbelief becomes enabled when we start veraciously cheering for the hero to conquer the villain. On this particular night, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin somehow beating the odds against the Un

Within the beginning of 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, Yoda (Frank Oz) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) meet to talk about his reoccurring premonitions. Some of the words are a callback to Yoda’s warning of how fear can fester into darker emotions. A young Anakin stood before him in 1999’s The Phantom Menace speaking about missing his mother. In this scene, it’s not only Yoda’s words that have power, but also the framing of the lighting. Yoda’s face is not obscured by the darkness, but Ana

At Summerslam 2018 at the Barclays Center in New York, Becky Lynch took out her long-building frustration on Charlotte Flair at the end of their triple threat match. If you’ve been a long time wrestling fan, you’d come to expect the quintessential “why I did it” promo the night after. Easy money, right? Lynch, the then presumptive ‘heel’ But as Lynch tried to turn on the fans, the fans in the crowd wouldn’t allow it. They cheered her from the beginning of her walk to the ring to the end of the p

The end of the first episode of The Last Ride showed a limping, weathered Mark Calloway walk down the locker room ramp after his Wrestlemania 33 match with Roman Reigns. Anybody who watched that match and saw the ceremonious “gear in-ring” and fist raised thought it was the end. Even though it may not have been his best, he did what he could to leave all that he had in Orlando, Florida. When it comes to sports, we wish for our heroes to have the elusive ‘fairy-tale’ ending. Where the old wester

AEW Dynamite is live again and we get two NXT-Takeover-like championship matches. Here are some notes on both the shows": • None First off, it’s good to finally have an actual show that has some Double Or Nothing II consequences to it. These were hitting a constant ‘WWF Superstars’-Esque formula for a bit. Major match - couple squashes - then a major match. The ongoing pandemic has seemingly thrown everything into creative and logistical disarray — but AEW has a PPV in three weeks. Let’s get to

On February 23rd, 2010, Deftones released their single, ‘Rocket Skates’ for free on their website. Fans flocked to it and the site promptly crashed thereafter. The start of the song leads with an aggressive and crunchy guitar riff from guitarist Stephen Carpenter and bridges into the fury of drummer Abe Carpenter’s cymbals. I must have played the beginning part of the song over a hundred times. ‘Rocket Skates’ had the youthful exuberance and hunger of the band’s 1995 album, Adrenaline. They had

Listening to your previously recorded songs can be a trip through a melody-like time machine. Maybe you had a fit of inspiration and wrote lyrics in a journal or the first piece of paper you could find. In some cases, there could be a life-defining moment, good or bad, that can spur our creativity into action. Bands throughout time have gone to make acoustic versions of their music and some even apply updates to them. While you can’t change the particular moment or event that birthed that partic

Who could ever forget the opening of the late Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic, A Nightmare On Elm Street? Charles Bernstein’s score is paired with the visuals of Freddy Krueger’s sharpening steak knives into his trademark glove. He chases Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) through a dimly lit and desolate boiler room to what we would soon find out is a dream. When doing a remake, the pressure to live up to the substance of the original film is hard enough. Imagine doing this to one of the most famous slas

I like to take random drives. Sometimes, it’s to wrangle a little bit of stress out of the washcloth of the day. Other times, it’s to flesh out some ideas or listen to new music. Traveling miles on an open road can be a different antidote from person to person. There’s almost a therapeutic hypnotism to it. On that drive, ‘Leave It Alone,’ the second single that Hayley Williams released from her Petals For Armor project came on shuffle. Have you ever listened to a song where the lyrics snap you

If there is one way that you can describe British rock band, Enter Shikari throughout their 17-year history is that change is constant and almost welcomed. We are currently living in a time where the meaning of the word change seems to take on a new meaning daily. Sometimes minute by minute. Their seventh album, Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible is a snapshot of all the plentiful possibilities that their music has explored. Sometimes pieces of music arrive at the right time to remind us o

Since the last time I spoke to singer/songwriter Allan Rayman in the summer of 2019, he’s been hard at work on his fourth album, Christian. Like his show on the iteration of that tour, his new music takes on a life of its own. These songs often play out like rolls of film in a projector as a score to his own feature film. With artists, it’s been known that creativity in different mediums help one another. Rayman’s musical and cinematic mind meet together to make a unique mix all to himself. “I’m

At the beginning of the song ‘Paramount,’ singer Jake Lurhs sings, “Are you walking through fire/You have a friend.” In current times where many of us are sheltered away from friends and loved ones due to the COV-19 pandemic, those lyrics hit closer to home. Throughout their 17 year history, metalcore band, August Burns Red has always been the aggressive version of musical therapy. At times, their music is celebratory. Sometimes, it’s contemplative. It all comes together for the greater good and

As an artist, you want to make the right first impression. As the consumption of music grows with veracity by the day, you want to make something memorable. Something that catches people’s attention and stays there to peak their curiosity with each release. What if one day, you wake up and you decide that you need a change? It doesn’t have to be set off by a particular event or occurrence; you just get an urge to flip the switch. This is within trying to figure out who you are as an artist. Some