Iris (Cover) by Diamente Ft. Ben Burnley Reaction

Hello everyone, it’s been a long time. I wanted to break off the cobwebs on my blog to share a reaction to Iris by Diamente and Ben Burnley. Let me preface by saying I liked the original by The Goo Goo Dolls better. Please note this is simply my opinion on the cover of this song, and not something to be passed off as legitimate factual information. So if you like this version, don’t let me stop you from listening to it!

Anyways, I’ve been listening to this song for most of the evening, and while I kind of like it, it pales in comparison to the original track. There are a few reasons I say this.

For starters, Diamante and Ben’s voices sound very artificial and auto tuned on this track. For full disclosure, I am not familiar with Diamante’s other works of music, but I know Ben doesn’t need autotune to sound better. The original version was before Autotune, and the production had a much more organic approach and sound to it.

The emotion and feel isn’t the same as the original. I get that Ben and Diamente were doing their best, but they didn’t make me feel the same way as John Rezeznik’s voice does. What I mean is that Ben and Diamente don’t sing with enough conviction, John Rez on the other hand made me believe in the sense of isolation and loneliness he was conveying towards his lover.

The cutting back on acoustic instruments was a mistake in my opinion, I feel the acoustic guitar, the string section, and mandolin being used on the original all the way through added more to the feel of the song’s narrative vs the electric guitar which made it sound hollow.

Finally, maybe this is a cheap reason, but I don’t feel any sense of nostalgia when I hear the new version. I wanted to get something out of this cover, but it’s just a song that happens to feature one of my all time Favorite singers on it. The original however reminds of how awesome of an era the late 90s were for great music. I suppose it’s unfair to keep comparing this new version to the original, but that’s the thing about covers, people will inevitably put the newer version in the shadow of the old one. I will close out by saying some positive things about the song though.

I like the vocal harmonies that Ben and Diamente have on this version, it does add an interesting twist to have a male and female vocalist singing together on this version. I do like the part right after the guitar solo as it shows some cool vocal harmony ideas. Lastly, I do think both singers have good voices for this type of song, I guess I was just expecting more out of it.

I hope I didn’t anger too many people with this post, I’m just expressing my thoughts as a Music Blogger. Below is the link to the original version for reference, too.

KCard.

A Decade in Review: A Personal Essay

As the decade comes to a close, and as my 20’s fade into the background, I want to say that it’s been a mixed journey for me.

Years such as 2010, 2013, 2016, and parts of 2018 were straight up agonizing for me due to suffering many losses (deaths, breakups, loss of my first shot at being a Jouralist) in my personal life and my career. 2010 was a hard year, 2013 was a lonely year, 2016 was a year I suffered a complete mental breakdown, and 2018 saw me going back to my old habbit of jumping from job to job.

For all of that pain though, I realize that it has helped me become a better person now as I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I know how to be more mindful of my actions towards other people. I feel pride in myself for knowing what I had to change about myself. I have learned from those bad years what I will need to feel happy in the coming decade.

Of course, there were good years this decade as well, such as: 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019. They were good to me as I felt more at peace during them than I did during the bad years. When looking back, I enjoyed the music I heard and made in those times, as well as the friends I’ve met. I think with the new decade will come new opportunities for both my music and my writing, but also to start saving money to eventually build a family with my wife (whom I married this past year).

I remember being optimistic back in 2010, and while things didn’t turn out as I had planned, I still ended up where I needed to be. To quote the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who, “I know now where I’m going, where I’ve always been going: Home, the long way round.”

Happy New Year, everyone. Make it a great one!

-KCard

Ten Years Gone By

To think it’s been ten years now since I graduated high school. I don’t glorify those days, my favorite memory of highschool was graduation day. College is where my heart lies, forever frozen in time.

With that said, 2008 was a big year for me. One that I had spent morbidly depressed, a nervous wreck, but still managed to graduate with honors and moved onto college to begin the best times of my life.

The summer of 2008 was the highlight for me, when I worked two great jobs, sang in front of 600 people, and transitioned to adulthood after tasting personal freedom for the first time.

When I reflect on these memories I feel a great sense of warmth in my own heart, more warmth than I presently feel. For that reason, I hate when people tell me things like “Kevin, you’re too young to be nostalgic!”

I’ve always been an old soul, I’ve always been a serious person, and though I was trapped in my past for many years, I won’t trade these memories and experiences for anything.

I miss the days of 2008, but instead of weeping for them being gone forever, I will be happy that I lived through them. I am happy I have lived as much as I have in my 28 years of life.

-KCard

Negan Cosplay

My halfway decent impersonation of The Walking Dead’s Negan. Below are a few concept photos and videos from earlier in the costuming process.

Final costume video and commentary.

Initial costume unvelining video:

Let me know if you love it or hate it, I’m welcoming constructive criticism on this cosplay. Here’s to hoping Halloween 2017 is a legendary one.

-KCard

It’s Been a While (Again)

Hello again folks, it looks as though I’ve failed to meet my mandate of reviewing this past season of Game of Thrones (a tremendous season, tremendous! Believe me!) But, I’m finally clearing my blog of digital cobwebs. I find that I have lost interest in writing show reviews, if not interest in writing in general. This entry will serve as both an update and (another) self reflection piece.

When this blog first began I was still half using it a digital diary, and half using it to review media I enjoyed. This trend had continued from 2012 to about late 2016. I was still fresh out of college in 2013, torn between my engagement ending and seeing my Journalism career make an early burn out after I was laid off from the local paper. I was hell bent on finding another relationship to fill a void in my heart. I also tried to fill that void by following my dreams of being a musician, but things fell through with both of my bands in 2016.

Fast forward to this year, after being a crappy boyfriend to a few other women by being too emotionally selfish, and tired of making people worry about me with long and emotional Facebook rants, I finally decided to accept that being single isn’t a bad thing. I may learn to truly enjoy the bachelor life someday, but not hating it is a good enough step in the right direction for now.

My overall point with this blog entry is that though I feel like a failure due to all of these setbacks I’ve suffered, I also never truly gave up on following my dreams or on living. My dream now is to be a broadcast personality for politics and music (which often go hand in hand).

I am going to write about what interests me moving forward, but I’m not going to keep making huge promises I won’t be able to keep either. I know I’m not guaranteed success in life anymore, and while that thought is sobering, it’s also comforting to acknowledge knowing that I’m only human.

-KCard

Personal Contentment 

It shouldn’t surprise people who know me that I’ve been making myself miserable a good amount of my life. Lately, I think I’m ready to change that by enjoying the little things in life, and by being realistic about what happiness actually means to me; I was chasing after an unrealistic unending sense of bliss to stave my depression. In reality all I’ve needed to do was just accept that bad things happen, mind my mood for a while, and then go play basketball or find some other fun activity to lift my spirits. I’m going to have good days, bad days, and awesome days. I don’t mean that saying “just be happy” will cure my depression, that’s not how mental illness works. What I am saying is that I’m done pushing myself into the dirt and makinge things worse. I’m not a “seize the day” kind of person, but I’m ready to live in the moment and fight the ghosts of my past that keep chasing me. 

Walking Dead 7.15 Review

*Hello friends, be sure to watch out for SPIDERS and SPOILERS along the way to the Sanctuary.*

Hello readers new and old, I’m back to write my only review of this second half of the season released in a timely manner. I apologize for being such a ghost to my readers lately, but I’m happy to be back to writing again. It’s been a long angst filled winter chocked full of writers block for me, but it’s over now. As it stands for the show, this was an amazing episode and a great way to close out this dynamite season as I loved how they made everything tie together so nicely.

What I Liked:

First off, it was great to see Abraham again in the form of a continuing flashback with how he interacted with Sasha, from the scene where Sasha begged Abraham not to leave, to where Abraham said that if you’re going to die it had best be with some form of meaning to it. I loved how they built up the fight and what happened with Sasha sacrificing herself for Rick’s group. It was an emotional goodbye to a great character, and her death had a lot of meaning to it since it helped Rick’s group break free from the struggle briefly. I enjoyed seeing how Negan turned the tables on Rick briefly, and how Negan planned to kill Carl, but Rick wasn’t going to bend the knee to Negan again. It was great to see Ezekiel and Maggie come to rescue Alexandria at the last minute to help turn the tables on Negan and Jadis. Lastly, that joke where Jadis talked to Michonne saying “I lay with him later, you mind?” had me in tears and was well played. With that said, there were still somethings that I didn’t enjoy.

What I didn’t Like:

It was a shocking moment to see Jadis’s group betray Rick’s group, and while it was a great plot twist, it’s made me dislike Jadis as a character. I didn’t enjoy how Eugene has basically gone over to the “dark side” of serving Negan, and I dislike that Rick and his group were dumb enough to fall for Dwight’s deception. Not that the scene where Daryl confronted Dwight wasn’t worth seeing, I just think that Daryl should have known better. Lastly, I feel as if the scene where that woman beat Michonne was a bit gratuitous and unnecessary, but I understand what dramatic tension the writers were aiming for with it. There are some things shaping up for next season that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.

What I Expect To Happen Next Season:

For starters, it’s obvious there are going to be some strong forms of tension between Negan, Dwight, and Eugene because Negan is on to Eugene about Sasha, and Negan could easily find out about Dwight’s deception about Sherry escaping. I’m curious if Jadis will keep working with Negan, or if she will work to betray Negan like she did to Rick. I’m thinking Morgan might start down a dark path again, and I think that Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie will need to figure out the best ways to defend their respective communities from Negan’s army.

I felt overall season seven was pretty killer, and despite being slow at certain points, it’s like if season two happened without being horrible. I look forward to this coming October to see where things go, and I lament that October is far away at the same time.

-KCard

 

Update on my Walking Dead Reviews

*Spoilers: you have been warned about them*.

Hello again WordPress and friends, I wanted to say that I’m likely to release my reviews on The Walking Dead on the following Monday or Tuesday after the episode airs. I’m watching the episodes on my Xbox rather than using cable (welcome to the modern era). I’m not writing a full review for this week as it’s just too far past the deadline. 

With that said, I’m still sharing my thoughts on the episode. I thought this episode was an awesome way to bring us back into the fold as Rick and Alexandria are prepping to fight The Saviors. Highlights included how Rick met with King Ezekiel, the badass scene with Rick and Michonne mowing down a walker heard with the two cars, and how conflicted Ezekiel is to do the right thing to help Rick.

Lastly, I’m looking forward to seeing who the new group of survivors are next week. 

-KCard

Back From Hiatus

Today is a great day to be a New England football fan. Granted I’m not a football fan, but I’m glad I caught this year’s superbowl for the history made tonight by Tom Brady and The Patriots. And as I feel joy that The Pats have won, I realize that I’m ready to start writing again, and give my writers block the boot. There are a lot of good shows coming out this year that I want to cover including Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things Season 2. Lastly, this year is Peter Capaldi’s last series of Docto Who. I have a lot of work to do, but it will be worth pursuing despite the slump I was in before.

-KCard

On Hiatus

Hello Readers new and old, I’m afraid that for the time being I will be going on a hiatus from blogging until later in 2017. I’m unsure of when I may come back next year, but know that I love writing for you all. I can say a thousand times how busy I am with work and helping my friend edit his Self Improvement book, but the truth is I just have writer’s block of the soul right now. I will make my return when that writer’s block dissipates. Until that time comes, I thank you all for your continued interest in my nerdy rants and preaching on television and music.

-KCard