NECRO SHOCK RADIO – Series 3, Session 3

…it’s time once again for some Brutal Music Therapy, boys and girls…

Featuring Cuts From:

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Some Meta Posting For Now…

1875: A round tower and Great Cross in the graveyard at Monasterboice monastery, County Louth, founded by Saint Buite. Figured panels on the South Cross illustrate the Crucifixion, the Last Judgement and the Murder of Abel. (Photo by Mercer/Sean Sexton/Getty Images)

Here we are, nearly to the middle of the year that is 2015. The smack-dab middle of the middle year of the decade of the…”Tens”, is it? I know about the first part being the “Aughts” or something like that. Really, the teenage years are the most awkward and ill-defining, be it humans or decades.

It’s also Saturday morning, in what is normally known here in my neck of the world as Memorial Day Weekend. The weekend in preparation for Memorial Day, the last Monday of May set aside to remember those who have sacrificed their time, efforts and sometimes even lives for the freedoms we all too often take for granted here in the U. S. of A. The manner of remembrance of which is marked by not going to work, congregating outdoors in sensuous pagan rituals known as “grilling burgers and brats” and drinking copious amounts of adult beverages, while wearing rather unflattering and sometimes tacky clothing and listening to what is called Country Music singing about patriotism, drinking said adult beverages, and some unidentified female referred to as “Baby Girl” whose choice of transportation is either a pickup truck or a tractor, depending on the artist in question.

I feel I should tell you, tender reader, that I’m writing this post freestyle, and make not promises as to doing any editing. All of this is straight from my sleep-deprived brain to your eyeballs, while I wait for my clothes to finish drying at this early hour.

Anyhoo, this weekend, after my laundry is finished in a bit, I’m taking off for the mythical land of Dunlap, Iowa, to spend a couple of days with my Uncle Pat and Aunt Joyce at their place. I’m going to help them out again this year with the Pancake Feed their volunteer rescue team puts on. I did so last year, and figured I would do it again this year. It would be a nice short vacation out of the madness that is my dwelling and daily routines and rituals.

I’m not planning on bringing along my laptop. I really want to focus on some things that have been bumping around in my surprisingly spacious skull. Meditate on certain things, all that. The only techy device I plan on bringing along is my Android. Otherwise, I’m bringing along my Bible and binder notebook for the old school writing when the urge to purge my brain droppings comes about. Old school, baby.

Then, on Memorial Day proper, I return to the land of Omaha, to partake of one of the previously-mentioned grilling rituals with several members of the Coven of Exalted Geeks, followed by the watching of a b-grade movie. I shall enjoy it immensely.

The clothes are done. I must now prepare for my journey into the netherworld of Iowa. Cheers, all, and a have a memorable Memorial Day Weekend. For all of you reading this from other points in the world, enjoy your weekend.

::END TRANSMISSION::

Adventures in Christianity

Thinking back, I can probably pinpoint the general time when I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I didn’t really fit in with the Body of Christ. At least, not the part of the body that resided here in my neck of the woods (that being Evangelical America,Midwest devision):

Late December, 1992. Something’s Happening, U. S. A.

Something’s Happening, U. S. A. (henceforth referred to as SHUSA) was (or is, I haven’t really checked to see if it was still a thing) a gathering of High School and college age kids involved with the organization formerly known as Campus Crusade For Christ (now known as Cru, because if there’s something we excel at here, it’s PR marketing and re-branding) at a regional location for a few days of lectures, programs, and fellowship with other Christian youth from different parts of the country and society. The main thing was emphasis on prayer to impact our culture for the better. It’s a pretty cool experience, especially for a heady and idealistic 19-year-old who was just beginning his journey as a Christian.

That particular year, SHUSA was held in Houston, Texas at the Astro Dome Hotel. For the most part, the experience was a largely positive one. The speakers were stimulating, the music was probably the best Contemporary Worship Music the early 90s had (one guy with an early 90s-pantented permed mullet, a Ray Bolz style mustache, an acoustic prop guitar, and a backing track tape of his own worship recordings; while chatting briefly with him at his merch table, he found out I was into metal, and told me he was going to pray for me…actually, now that I think about it, that should have been my first clue, but I digress), and while there were maybe two other metal-heads that I knew of there besides myself, I was just soaking in the fellowship with the other students from different areas around the country – some even from different countries – and rejoicing in the fact that we were all shiny happy Christians who loved Jesus and each other despite our differences, and every day would be full of sunshine, singing and unicorn farts. Because those smell like Marshmallow Peeps, you see.

mmmmm…unicorn farts…

It wasn’t until a couple of days into the conference, when they herded all of us into a series of chartered school buses for the scheduled afternoon of Street Witnessing. This was fairly common with these Campus Crusade for Christ/Student Venture conferences–one afternoon out of the whatever-many days the conference lasts was designated the day we all go out to share our faith with whatever community was hosting the conference. As far as I know, it still is, though I haven’t been to an official Student Ven…er, “Cru” conference in nearly twenty years now. We would have a brief on-stage presentation on the finer points of street witnessing, then we’d load our pockets with several copies of the “Four Spiritual Laws” tracts and hit the public square, or whatever passed as a high-traffic public place in the city. I rather enjoyed doing this, in all actuality. I had a genuine desire to share Jesus with others, and it also afforded me some time to check out at least a microchasm of the city of Huston, Texas. Didn’t really do a lot of sight-seeing while at the conference, so I jumped at the chance to stretch my legs a bit, in a manner of speaking. In this case, it was a mall. So maybe it wasn’t a highly-lauded cultural hot-spot; still, a field trip and a chance to shine your proverbial light into the eyes of the local populous? Two birds with one stone, baby.

You’ll have to excuse the sarcasm. I’m not bitter, nor mean any disrespect; this is just how I tend to cope with recalling my youthful indiscretions in matters of faith. I can only imagine how many times the Holy Spirit had to face-palm due to my foolishness. Anyway…

As we were boarding the school bus that was earmarked to take the group I was in to the mall, I was seated next to a girl from…somewhere else in the country, I can’t exactly recall where she said she was from or if she actually did say. We exchanged your basic common pleasantries and small-talk. I had my Walkman along, and had my well-worn copy of Stryper’s To Hell With The Devil loaded in there; at one point before we set off for the mall, I took the tape out and held it up for my bus companion, just in case she somehow was interested in knowing what I was filling my earholes with. She glanced at it, and gave me one of those polite-ish nods that come with a “isn’t that nice?” kind of looks. Then, she remained oddly quiet for the rest of the ride to the mall site. Which, I didn’t really think much of, considering I just came off of several years of Junior High and High School experiencing the exact same kind of reactions from the female populous of my school. I was a bit too odd to be considered dateable by the fairer sex. I was used to it.

We all logged in our hour at the mall, chatting with the people who had time to do so and politely listened as we hacked our way through the formula for saving souls (and secretly ducking into the surrounding stores to check out the shiny baubles), when we all climbed back onto the bus for the trek back to the hotel. As chance would have it, the same girl that sat next to me on the ride to the mall sat next to me on the ride back. We exchanged polite nods, and she maintained the same cool demeanor…for the first five minutes or so. Apparently, as I was flipping over my tape in the Walkman to begin playing the next side, she got a better look at it, and startled me by saying, “Oh…To Hell With The Devil? So that’s a Christian band?” I confirmed that it was, a bit incredulous that someone existed that didn’t know who Stryper was (irony, I guess). She then proceeded to inform me that, on the ride to the mall, when I showed her the tape the first time, she only caught the “Hell” and “Devil” part. Which explained her previous demeanor. Completely understandable. Had a nice chuckle about it, and that was that.

Well, until she immediately then leaned over to the two girls sitting in the seat in front of us, and said out loud, “It’s okay, he’s not really a Satanist after all.” Apparently, she told her friends that she was sitting next to a Satanist. I can only imagine what was going through all of their heads at this bit of misinformation. A Satanist somehow infiltrated a massive gathering of Evangelical Christian youths to…do whatever it is that Satanists would do when they find themselves in that situation, I guess. I wouldn’t know.

“Hey, don’t mind me, I’m just here for the pizza.”

Looking back now, of course I can laugh at this bit of innocent Sit-Com grade misunderstanding wackiness. I could laugh at it back then, too; if the rumor spread from there, I was unaware of it. I wasn’t hit by a drive-by exorcism or was confronted with concerns about my worship of the Dark Lord at the time (though, I’m sure someone may have at least cocked an eyebrow at the Black Sabbath album I brought along), so I can only assume nothing ever really came of this. And it makes for an amusing story in my ever-growing Adventures with Christianity file.

Of course, this was just the beginning with my adventures within the great Body of Christ, U. S. of A. edition. Some good, some bad, all of them having a hand in what has shaped–and is still shaping–my world view as I follow my Lord and Saviour.

And it’s all become blog fodder. Cheers for now, my wonderful freaks…

::END TRANSMISSION::

NECRO SHOCK RADIO – Series 3, Session 2

…after finding a decent WiFi connection, I was able to finally foist this second Session of Brutal Music Therapy of the new Series for your ear-holes. You’re welcome.

Featuring cuts from:

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Movie Review: The AVENGERS: Age Of Ultron

Marvel/Disney
2015
PG-13

“I know you’re good people. I know you mean well. But you just didn’t think it through. There is only one path to peace…your extinction.”

When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to the Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for a global adventure.

Okay, so three years and four additional Marvel Universe movies have passed since the first Avengers movie blew this fanboy back into his seat in the theater and made him believe that a big-scale ensemble sci-fi action movie based on a comic book that I was familiar with but never really read could not only be made into an entertaining and engaging action flick, but could do so competently and succeed in not making it suck harder than a rouge black hole. To say the anticipation leading up to the opening of the long-planned sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of movies was as epic as the movie itself would be no hyperbole. The stakes seemed bigger–they were bringing in one of their biggest enemies in Ultron, who was being voiced by James Spader, and the trailers promised a showdown between Iron Man and the Hulk that was making fanboys and fangirls everywhere squee with delight. So when I finally plopped down in my theater seat for a Saturday afternoon matinée with the rest of the Exalted Geeks, my expectations were pretty high. That was unavoidable, really. Did The Avengers: Age Of Ultron manage to give me that same fanboy joygasm like last time? Well…yes and no. More yes than no. I’ll explain in a bit.

Also, I’m going to try my darnedest to not feature spoilers in this review, but no promises. Here we go…

The story of Age Of Ultron starts off with the Avengers infiltrating what is said to be the final Hydra stronghold, where they recover Loki’s staff. Tony decides to take a look at it because SCIENCE!, and while doing so inadvertently creates Ultron, who skips over Childlike Wonderment and goes directly to Existential Quandry mode, and decides to wipe out all of humanity and repopulate the Earth with a bunch of Ultron robots. Or something like that. Meanwhile, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch show up sporting a massive hate-on for Tony Stark (who doesn’t, really?), and join up with Ultron to strike back at Tony and the gang. The Avengers get their collective butts handed to them, Ultron takes the remaining supply of Vibranium and heads out to the same fortress where they were holding Loki’s staff, then heads out to Korea to have a new suit tailor made for him by SCIENCE! The Avengers show up and interrupt before Ultron could finish, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch decide to side up with the Avengers when they realize finally that they were working with an INSANE ROBOT, JARVIS gets a new look, an entire city is taken on a joyride, things go boom, and the whole thing ends with some of the members going off to brood while Captain America and Black Widow are left to train a bunch of newbies for the sequel. The end.

Overall, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron was just as massively epic and entertaining as the first Avengers movie. Once again, the script was crafted nicely, with some great action sequences, fantastically witty dialogue (it’s Joss Whedon, what would you expect?), and some surprising character developments to a couple of supporting team members. Mind you, one such development between a couple of characters seemed to just come out of nowhere, and I still don’t think I can buy it completely. I’ll leave everyone to guess which one I’m talking about. The other one…well, it’s about bloody time that guy got some meaty development. And while the action scenes were great, the best parts of this movie, in my not-so-humble-opinion, were the ones where the team was just interacting with each other outside of the action. All of these larger-than-life characters, just sitting and chilling, chatting with each other. I could have watched an entire movie of just that, and I would have enjoyed it.

As a villain, Ultron could have been much more menacing than what he was. Mind you, when he first made his physical appearance, he was in the shadows and was genuinely creepy as all get-out. Then…*sigh* I think it was the decision to CGI animate his face that took a lot of the scary out of him. Like with Optimus Prime in the live action Transformers movies, seeing Ultron with a mouth that moved in a rather Uncanny Valley sort of way made me have to look past that to enjoy the movie. Ultron’s killbot army were designed much more effectively, and why they didn’t go with that for the face is a mystery to me. And speaking of CGI issues, the first ten or fifteen minutes or so of the movie, the big opening action sequence is kind of…I wouldn’t say sub-par, but it’s rather obvious with the animated heroes and such. But, it won’t kill the entire experience, trust me.

In the end, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron was a very good way to kick off the 2015 Summer Movie Season. It had its problems, yes, but so did the first Avengers movie, one could argue some of the same ones. But, I went in expecting a big, over-the-top action movie with a smart script, and emerged from the theater satisfied with the results. I highly recommend catching this on the big screen when you can.

NECRO SHOCK RADIO – Series 3, Session 1

The rumors are true…the chill that just coursed down your spine is not just that thing breathing down your back…thought to be dead and gone, put to rest, but the voices decided otherwise!

SERIES 3, SESSION 1

[WARNING: Due to a bit of vulgarity in the introductions, I must give my first EXPLICIT CONTENT warning – Uncle NecRo]

Featuring cuts from the likes of:
A Hill To Die Upon, Crimson Moonlight, David Benson, Deliverance, Demon Hunter, Deuteronomium, Evergrace, Grave Robber, Immortal Souls, P. K. Mitchell, One Bad Apple, Soul Embraced, The Synics Awakening, and Ultimatum…

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