Hey! That's up for review!

LightonX is a web series featuring a group of teenagers who have to protect their planet against threats from another world. The newest trailer for LightonX titled "Being a Hero" dropped a week ago. It features 3 unknown teens being held captive by an unknown​ group of men. In an instant you see these 3 teens are not normal kids. They seem to be gifted in one thing... Kicking @$$! Before they are able to complete clearing the room, what appears to be the leader comes forward and using telekinetic powers rendering these teens helpless on the floor. It is a wonderful teaser trailer. You may find it here: https://youtu.be/5NvxV4m-_gs I did some reading up on the web series which is available on Amazon. The show has an X-Men meets Alien type feel to it. One group of aliens has decided to protect all human race against another group​ of aliens who are looking to use them as host subjects to further their intergalactic outreach. I look forward to learning more about the s...

    Sword and Scale is an American podcast that outlines true crime stories with witnesses, victims, journalists, and testimonies of criminals and 911 calls. Sword and Scale started January 1, 2014 and in one year had over 1 million downloads and is a staple in the Top 10 on iTunes in the "Science" category. Mike Boudet, the podcast founder, does a great job at producing the show. The music & sound effect choices, the well pieced together interviews, and arrangement of the audio case files are what make the program great.     I have only been listening to podcasts for 6 months. Sword and Scale was the first to get me to click the "Subscribe" button. From the first episode, I was hooked. I randomly picked Episode 50 which covered The People's Temple of Jonestown. I knew about Jonestown but had never heard the recordings from Jim Jones as he convinced people to take their own lives by ingesting a mixture of grape koolaid and cyanide. To hear Mike Boudet tell ...

    The Amazon Echo is a ~10 inch tall smart speaker that quickly becomes and integral part of your home. It comes loaded with a personal assistant named "Alexa" that operates in cloud space. Don't worry. If you have an ex-girlfriend named "Alexa", you may change the Echo's wake word in the settings to either "Amazon", "Computer", or "Echo". This smart speaker can help you with a wide variety of things such as: making to-do lists, streaming music from Amazon, Spotify, or Pandora accounts, letting you know about traffic on your route to work, updating you on weather conditions, and even give you a flash briefing of the news based on your news info profile.     The way my house is set up Alexa sits on my bar top that divides my kitchen and living room. I use it every day. Whether I want ambient music while I am reading or playing my guitar, or if I am on my way out the door and need to know what today's weather is going to b...

    Today, something is not up for review. Instead, we appreciate the life of Chris Cornell and his contributions to the music industry and our lives. For those of us who knew and loved his music, we have fallen "on black days" as his race here in life is now finished. I will not entertain any of the rumors or the well covered stories of his struggles. This is not for that. This is simply to appreciate him and be a reminder of what was lost today.     Chris Cornell... a name that resonates across the music industry. He was the leading warrior for Soundgarden which lead the grunge rock movement in the US in the late 80s and into the 90s. He is also known for Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, and his solo works.     His vocal range was unrivaled and if you've ever been around a radio you've heard him belting out his hits in a super high octave. No one quite like him. He achieved so many accolades in his more >30 year career. In 2005, ranked 12th in MTV's "2...

    As we continue down this road of blogging, there will be times when I need to preview events so that you as the reader can go take advantage of it! I don't want you always on the outside looking back on something wishing you could've been there. Here's one of those times where I'm firing off the flare to signal to you to schedule in some time to make it to Memphis in May's World Championship BBQ Festival this week (if you're in the area).     If you know anything about Memphis, there are 3 things it is known for: Music (blues, in particular), it's wonderful heritage, and BBQ. This week in Memphis, it is all about the slow smokers down at Tom Lee Park. Last year over 16 Tons of pork was smoked during the 3 day event. For the first time ever, the festival has been expanded into four days instead of three.      MIM BBQ Fest served host to 26 teams in 1978 for it's inaugural festival and has now grown to over 250 teams from all over the country and...

    I was lucky enough to have been contacted by the developer for Astrokarts for a review on their space racer on the Oculus platform. This is my opinion and I have not scaled it back in anyway.     Astrokarts is a game that is one part F-Zero (Super NES) and one part Tie Fighter Scene from A New Hope (Star Wars). Astrokarts reminds me of F-Zero because it is ultra fast, has a great soundtrack, and has tons of ships to choose from the only difference is it is set up in a space racer where you must avoid all kinds of galactic objects in order to beat the other ships you're racing against. It's part Tie Fighter for obvious reasons you'll see when you play.     Astrokarts features a wide variety of ships. There are several seating arrangements that may work better for each player. This gives the game a lot of depth for the player to enjoy many different ways of racing. Whether you stand, sit, or lay down there's a flying style for you. There...

    If you had told me years ago that I would be reviewing a Harry Styles album, I likely would've told you, you didn't know me or you had the wrong guy. I'll admit to you now, I am not a One Direction (#1D) fan. I am naturally skeptical of the musical prowess of these guys when they breakout on their own. There has only been one really successful ex-boy band member... All hail King Timberlake for making the transition.     About a month ago, I caught wind of Harry Styles solo album being released sometime in early May. I rolled my eyes as I've seen this before with Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, 98*Degrees, etc. They've all broken up, they've all tried the solo route, and with the exception of the aforementioned Timberlake, they've all failed at clearing the gap.    Harry Styles self-titled album released on May 12th, 2017. It was easy to find in the "New Releases" section of Spotify. I queued it up knowing it was going to be a solo version of a 1D a...

    Today, we dive into the world of virtual reality! I've had my Oculus Rift for a couple of months now and have been completely blown away. I'll do a complete review on the Oculus soon, but for now we focus on Robo Recall by Epic Games. It was released on March 1, 2017.     Robo Recall is a first person shooter in which the gamer controls a character named Agent 34. You have just been moved up in the RoboReady Corporation to a Recall Specialist. Starting out you have access to pistols but later you can unlock shotguns, revolvers and plasma rifles. Pistol/Revolver holsters are on your hips whereas Shotgun/Plasma Rifle holsters are on your back. To draw a weapon the user simply pulls one out of the holster by grabbing it using the Oculus Rift controllers. To reload, Agent 34 must drop his gun and pull a new one from the holster. Guns regenerate to the holster after a short period of time. To move around the map in Robo Recall, users must use the teleportation featu...

Disclaimer: I have not read the novel. I am basing this review on the TV show only.     Thirteen Reasons Why is a show based on the young adult novel by Jay Asher. The book achieved #1 on New York Times best sellers list (2011). The Netflix exclusive debuted this past March.     This is a story about a boy named Clay Jensen who receives an unexpected package. There are seven cassettes and each side features details aimed at a particular classmate outlining reasons why the author, Hannah Baker, committed suicide and their role in it. Reasons for which she outlines has to do with bullying and sexual assault. Each person who receives the tapes is to listen to all of them in order and then pass them along to the next subject.     This high school has every dilemma you can find. I don't know what world this school exists in but I feel the writer was reaching way too much to make the readers feel something. Is there a school in America where a g...

    Chris Stapleton might have one of the more appropriate names in the industry. For over a decade, he has been a major Staple  in the Nashville-music scene, collaborating with artists such as Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Dierks Bently and Brad Paisley on their albums and serving as a songwriter for Vince Gill, George Strait, and Kenny Chesney.     I was raised on country music. I remember being a kid and singing Garth Brooks, George Strait, Travis Tritt, Hank Williams, Jr., and Clint Black just to name a few. As I grew older, I watched the landscape of country music start to change. It became pop with a twang. It became watered down. As I write this I am reminded like Alabama once sang "If you wanna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band." As I watched this genre breakdown and become a shell of itself, I grew tired of the major players. I walked away. I still kept the good ol' stuff on my Spotify playlist but I wasn't actively searching out for the nex...

    It happens every year. First weekend of May. Like a peacock boasting it's beautiful feathers, Memphis reveals one of her many beautiful sides: Beale Street Music Fest. Ask anyone and they'll tell you how the grounds will be nothing but a pigsty because "it always rains." They don't care though. That's why the Bass Pro Pyramid sells rain boots. This year Mother Nature had other plans for us . This year was going to be different entirely.     If you're not aware already, Beale Street Music Fest is always talked about for being one of the best value festivals. This year it made Everfest's Top 300 festivals in the WORLD. It's one of the many reasons you'll see folks from all over coming to Memphis for the party.     From the venue to the lineup, you'd be hard pressed to find a better one out there. Sure, you can find higher profile lineups all over the country for example at Bonnaroo, Cochella, Lollapalooza, etc but that's not wha...