Book Review: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

For some extremely strange reason, I did not read Riley Sager’s latest novel, Home Before Dark, the day it came out in June! What’s wrong with me?! I guess it’s better late than never. Just like all of his other efforts, this thriller was very satisfying. There were so many twists! Right when I thought I had something pegged, Sager went ahead and flipped the story on its head, but in a way that seemed completely plausible.

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Fan Art Friday: twenty one pilots

It has been a long while since I’ve drawn the Columbus-based duo, twenty one pilots, and quite frankly, that’s a shame! I finally knocked one out though, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out! This one came from one of their SNL bumpers, and I’m surprised they’ve not been asked back yet to perform. Who knows though, the new season of SNL starts up in October and the band did release a quarantine-inspired song, so it seems promising! Anyways, hope you enjoy.

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Concert Throwback: Foo Fighters

You know who me, my sister, and dad should have seen this summer? The Foo Fighters celebrating the 25 year anniversary of their Big Red Van tour. With this tour, they were going to be revisiting the very same cities they played originally, and lucky for us, Cleveland made the cut! Sadly, COVID is going nowhere and neither are we. So to reminisce on what could have been, I tell you about the three times I’ve got to see the band.

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Arcade Fire Album(s) Review

As you’ve all noticed the last few weeks, I’ve been constantly listening to Arcade Fire. However, I was only listening to my favorite songs off the records, essentially from when I listened to them all for the first time. This means that not a whole lot was coming off of Everything Now or Reflektor, or even Funeral! The Suburbs was my first foray into the band’s work, and Neon Bible was a logical next step in my listening history/journey. While I do like some songs from those other efforts, I decided it was about time to give them another shake and see if my tastes have expanded.

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Emmys 2020: Winners, Losers, and Everything in Between

Last night saw the first major awards show since the pandemic began, and I was excited to get it in whatever format they could manage. Thus, I watched an (almost) totally virtual Emmy Awards, or as I’ve seen it so cleverly referenced, the “Pandemmys.” The show opened with host Jimmy Kimmel seemingly talking to a full house of actors and guest alike. I’m not going to lie, this fooled me for the first minute. I thought to myself, “well, maybe they worked something out and had everyone quarantine for two weeks,” even though I’d heard nothing of the sort mentioned in the last several months since the virtual show was announced. Then I noticed people in the crowd who weren’t nominated, or actors from shows who were no longer on the air. Then we saw Jimmy Kimmel himself in the crowd.

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Concert Review: Anberlin – Cities Livestream

In an effort to get back to something resembling a concert, and supporting artists as best I can, Friday evening I sidled up to my laptop to watch Anberlin perform their album Cities in its entirety. Was it my favorite thing? No. Was the music good? Absolutely. This was my first livestream concert, so keep reading to catch my thoughts on the experience!

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Fan Art Friday: Emma Stone

I feel like I’ve been a fan of Emma Stone since the beginning of her film career with a trio of comedies including Superbad, The Rocker, and The House Bunny. So it should come as no surprise that I’ve watched almost everything she’s been in since that time (both good and bad). And for some reason it’s taken me until this strange year to finally draw her, but I’m glad I did!

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