A Book by Julie Kavanagh Julie Kavanagh’s The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders That Stunned Victorian England revisits one of the most shocking episodes in nineteenth-century Anglo-Irish history, the 1882 assassinations of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Rather than treating the murders as an isolated act of political violence, Kavanagh frames them as the culmination of long-standing structural tensions between Great Britain and Ireland, deepened by decades of economic exploitation, political repression, and repeated failures of reform.

Nick Chinn is one of, if not the most noticeable referees in the Kansas City area, popping up everywhere around this territory as well as on a few national TV brands. When I first started attending local indy shows again after the Covid-19 global pandemic trapped everyone at home for more than a year and a half, I ended up going to Central States Wrestling quite a bit, and of course I got to see Nick ref numerous matches.

An Upcoming live professional Wrestling Show When most companies are running whimsically-minded holiday shows like “Turkey Takedown” or “Season’s Beatings” right now, Trailblazer Championship Wrestling is closing out the year with “Hostile Territory,” a hard-hitting end-of-year blow-off built around two major championship matches, fresh faces, and all the chaotic fun the promotion delivers. Monster’s Brawl 4 set a high bar…

An Upcoming Live Professional Wrestling Event Every year, Trailblazer Championship Wrestling’s biggest show is undoubtedly Monster’s Brawl, the annual Halloween spectacular held every October. This year will be particularly notable, as it marks the first time that both the Trailblazer Heavyweight Championship and the Trailblazer Women’s Championship will be defended at the event. Leading up to the show, there have already been some shocking announcements, first and foremost that…

A Film Directed by Kenji Iwaisawa (a.k.a. Hyakuemu) Most long-form sports anime center on familiar but powerful tropes that highlight perseverance, rivalry, and perhaps most importantly, teamwork. They often feature an underdog protagonist, who starts weak but grows through determination, often spurred by a genius rival whose natural talent challenges them to improve. The storyline progresses through training arcs, emotional flashbacks, and wise mentor figures that help drive their progress toward the inevitable…

A Book by Kang Chol-hwan and Pierre Rigoulot The Aquariums of Pyongyang was written via a collaboration between Kang Chol-hwan and French Historian Pierre Rigoulot acting somewhat like a ghostwriter. The two men met when Pierre was working for The International Organization for Human Rights interviewing defectors about political repression in North Korea. Rigoulot was particularly taken aback by Kang’s story and talked him into writing a book together to shed light on his very specific circumstances.

An Anime Film Event, directed by Haruo Sotozaki One of the more humorous aspects of the 2025 theatrical season is watching industry insiders utterly baffled by the runaway success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle. For two straight weeks, the film held the top spot at the domestic box office. It now sits just ten million dollars shy of surpassing…

A Film directed by Hideaki Anno Some of the best Godzilla movies are the ones where Godzilla is used as a powerful representation of anxieties about a post-WWII nuclear age, but through the years the character has largely become more of a superhero than an ominous warning to viewers. I love the sillier Godzilla films, however ones that go “back to basics,” such as the recent…

A film directed by Akiva Schaffer When it was declared that a remake or sequel to the legendary comedic film series The Naked Gun was in the works, most people were skeptical at best, if not outright infuriated. Many pointed out that it would be nearly impossible to find anyone remotely as good as the late Leslie Nielsen to take the reins, but when they announced…

An animated film directed by Chris Miller As somebody born in the early ’80s, I, of course, watched The Smurfs cartoon based on the French comics, but I’ve never been a hardcore fan. I barely remember seeing the CGI/live-action hybrid film from about 15 years ago where the Smurfs ended up in New York, and I didn’t care for it.

A film Directed by Jonathan Entwistle I’ve seen the classic Karate Kid films, but unlike most kids who grew up in the '80s, they never really grabbed me the way they did others. As a result, I only have a general sense of nostalgia for the franchise. I missed out on some of the more recent revivals, including the Jackie Chan-led film from about a decade ago, and…

An Upcoming Professional Wrestling Show This Saturday, October 11, 2025, my hometown wrestling company, Kansas City Xtreme Wrestling, will host its biggest show of the year at City House in Independen...

A Film Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa I was looking for something to watch before bed one night this week and stumbled upon a relatively short film on Tubi that caught my eye with its striking poster image. It was just over an hour long, billed as a landmark Japanese horror film, and the real kicker - it was from…

A Film Directed by Takashi Miike (aka Chakushin ari) Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call (2003) is a popular and defining entry in the J-horror boom of e early 2000s, arriving on the heels of landmark films like Hideo Nakata’s Ringu and Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-on series. At its core, the film builds on the era’s fascination, and fear, of technology as a conduit for the supernatural, functioning as a pointed commentary on the youth culture of the time and its obsession with trendy flip phones and instant voice messaging.

A Film directed by Chisui Takigawa I’m sure most everyone over the age of twenty with even a small interest in horror cinema has seen some version of The Ring, probably the blockbuster 2002 American version at least. What some people may not know is that The Ring was based on an older film from 1998 of the same name (or…

A Film directed by Macon Blair As a kid, I would often watch the USA Network, which at the time was a very edgy channel geared toward Generation X viewers. They regularly showed schlocky B-movies under the banner of USA Up All Night, a show hosted by Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried. That show probably helped me develop my love for “bad movies,” alongside…

A Film Directed by Pierre Perifel It has been three years since DreamWorks released The Bad Guys, which became a surprise animated hit that blended heist movie style with family-friendly humor. It continued the trend DreamWorks had been building in recent years, moving past their history of (in my opinion) producing very inconsistent films that often felt corporate in nature, toward more impressive efforts like…

A Live Professional Wrestling Event Once again, I really lucked out, because going to an outdoor wrestling show in the summer is always a gamble. The weather for TSW Mayhem in Mooresville IV was surprisingly solid - not too hot, not too humid, so I didn’t end up needing the neck fans, hats, and other gear I usually pack, but it’s always better to be prepared.

A Live Pro Wrestling Event I’ve said before that I enjoy when wrestling companies break the mold of running shows strictly on Friday or Saturday nights at 7 PM. Having cheaper, or even free, options with a smaller roster can make for a refreshing change, and Kansas City Xtreme Wrestling has done a solid job of this with their…

A Film directed by Zach Cregger I’ve mentioned before in my reviews that I’m a fan of the horror genre, but I don’t often go out to see many horror movies because I’ve grown to dislike what I call “jump scare movies.” These are unfortunately the exact type of horror films that everyone else seems to love, usually revolving around a house possessed by a demon or vengeful ghost and the plight of the hapless (usually new) owners, with maybe a couple of paranormal experts brought in to help.

A Film Directed by Rob Reiner While I’m a big fan of the classic This Is Spinal Tap, I have to admit I’m a little confused that, 40 years after the original, they’re only now putting together a large-scale sequel (there were some other "sequel" shows as such before). The premise fits - the first film documented what was supposed to be the band’s final concert as they slid into obscurity thanks to bad decisions and infighting - so revisiting the concept decades later with the band retired and reluctantly forced into one last contractual concert is a funny turn of events, and fits the brand.

A Film Directed by J.J. Perry I took a few extra days off work this week, and with the forecast looking pretty swampy and not wanting to spend a ton of money, I decided to put my AMC A-List membership to the test by packing in as many movies as I could over the long weekend. First up was a film I hadn’t even heard of until two days ago: …

A Live Professional Wrestling show Everybody (generally) loves going to the fair. Carnival rides, animal contests, wild food like deep-fried PB&J sandwiches (which I saw there), rodeos, demolition derbies, and live music are all rolled into one huge event. For some smaller towns, the fair is one of the main highlights of the entire year, drawing in out-of-towners and creating lasting memories.

A Live Professional Wrestling Show Central States Wrestling went on a year-and-a-half hiatus following their final 2024 show, We’re Not in Kansas Anymore, leaving many fans fearing the worst. Longtime supporters held out hope that the company would eventually return and that the product they loved would not be drastically different from what came before. Those fears began to ease bit by bit as plans for a comeback slowly came into focus.

A Film by James Gunn I am definitely not the biggest Superman fan, largely because he has been around so long as a character (almost 88 years now), and as a result, we have already gone through variou...