Family Style Network

“A found family is every bit as beautiful as a born family. Even more so, perhaps. Stories are about choices, after all, and to choose to be family is as wonderful a story as can be told.” ― Dan Gemeinhart, The Midnight Children Life is funny, sometimes.  Every day starts to bleed into the next; monotony of the highest order.  Every day much the same as that which came before it.  You end up on auto-pilot.  You end up in a routine.  Your day to day consists of similar patterns, across the board.  In the best case scenario, you are at least content.  In the worst case scenario, you have relegated yourself to a position of unending misery that is simply your lot in life.  Some years back, I was in the latter category. I had dreams.  I had ambitions.  I had goals.  But somewhere along the line, my life took a hard turn in the opposite direction.  The car got parked, and someone else took the wheel and started driving, like a bat o...

  Uncle Tim here 👽👋   Just thought I'd pop in and say hello or "How's it going?" (pronounced "Owzigowen" in Upside Down Talk.) It sure has been a while friends. "Where have I been hiding?" I hear none of you ask, well I've been lurking about on Discord, or working my little buns off but I've been about.  The last few months have been a very strange time for me and without going into too much detail here it has left me feeling quite flat, demotivated and relatively uninspired overall. My muse has been absent of late and that's ok, these things happen, and I always said from the get-go that there would be no timetable to this, it was more when I felt like writing something that I would. A couple of months ago we kicked off the ' 30 mins for 30 days Challenge ' again on the Discord which is where you set yourself a goal for the month and try to carve out 30 mins a day to work on it. The goal can be anything you want, there are no...

 It isn't very often that a movie franchise releases 4 really good movies. It's even more rare that the latest entry in the franchise is the best one made. John Wick 4 is that movie though. Not only the best movie of the series but one of the best action movies of all time. The John Wick series has come a long way since the first one in 2014. Each movie has upped the ante and scale in almost 10 years as a franchise. Carried by the duo of star Keanu Reeves and Director Chad Stahelski, Chapter 4 delivers everything fans have come to expect with one of the most indestructible action movie characters in recent movie history.  John Wick Chapter 4 is the longest of the series so far but in my opinion not a single moment was wasted and the 2 hour and 49 minute runtime blew by. The movie contains 2(!!!) 30 minute long action sequences that had me on the edge of my seat. Without getting into spoilers the sequences that take place in Osaka and Paris is some of the best fight scenes I...

 About fucking time!  I used to love In Flames. The run they had from 1995's "Subterranean" to 2006's " Come Clarity" is legendary. All those albums are incredible and if you haven't listened to them you should leave this review and go listen now. After 'Come Clarity" is when my interest started to fade. I don't blame the band for wanting to evolve and try new things, in fact, I'll never blame any band for that. The albums just started to become blander and blander to me. Whenever a new record got announced, I just found myself not caring at all. "Siren Charms" especially being a low point in my opinion for the band.  Then the singles started to roll out for "Foregone". All of a sudden I found myself getting excited again, Especially when "The Great Deceiver"" was released. The band I used to love was back, finally. I'm so fucking happy to say that the whole "Foregone" album is a great lis...

 This week's episode was a breather from all the darkness and heartbreak to establish the beginning of the relationship between Joel and Ellie. This connection will be key for the rest of the darkness and heartbreak to come for the rest of the season.  This episode gave us a lot of scenes that came directly from the game. Ellie looking at the porn magazine in the truck is shot for shot the same. Joel is frozen in fear when she asks "Why are the pages stuck together" this was a great moment of levity. Bella Ramsey continues to crush it as Ellie. Bella has locked into this character and it is a pleasure to see her continue developing her own spin while honoring Ashley Johnson's take in the games. Just cause the episode was a breather, doesn't mean it didn't have any action. Another scene from the game is when the truck crashes into the laundromat. One change is Ellie saves Joel from the last hunter instead of him killing each one. I'm curious what the payoff...

 This might sound like a fanboy opinion because I made it pretty clear in the first review of this show that I was a big fan of the video games but we really are in the midst of something special. This episode really cemented that idea for me. It is the biggest deviation from the games but it also confirmed some things for the fans of the games and gave newcomers 2 characters to fall in love with and that's what the games and show have always been about, Love.  We never got to meet Frank while he was alive in the games. You come across him and a suicide note while searching for supplies and that's it. You meet Bill and he helps you get into a vehicle so that the journey west can begin. There was a scene in the game where Bill mentions his partner, Frank and I always got the impression that he was more to Bill than just a business partner and now I have that feeling confirmed. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett took the lead this week and gave us an instant classic of the series...

 The Last Of Us delivered another thrilling episode. Introducing us to the clickers for the first time. Seeing clickers on the screen was even more horrifying than in the game. The practical effects on the actors were incredible; they even brought back the actors who created the noises for the clickers. The Last Of Us also added some more lore about how the pandemic started with a cold opening set in Indonesia. I loved how they added this and the talk show opening in the first episode to really explain and deep dive into how this all started. It was never really explained well in the games so I hope they continue this as we go deeper into the season. Another major change the show has made is that the infected have tendrils inside their mouths instead of spores you can breathe in. They also added how the tendrils act as tree roots for the infected to figure out where people may be hiding which would have been really cool to have in the game so hopefully, if they make another ga...

Everyone struggles with the fact that they sometimes feel like they are not enough. They can't be everywhere, they can't do everything, they don't know everything etc. It's bad enough when we get this way about ourselves but if you throw a dependent or loved one into the mix then those feelings of failure can become magnified a thousandfold as not only are you letting yourself down, but now you're letting someone else who depends on you down as well. Or so we tell ourselves. The mind games we put ourselves through are amazing in themselves, not so much from a sense of wonder and awe but more from a sense of morbid fascination. I spoke recently about ourselves being our own harshest critics and I'd like to continue that theme today as really there is just so much that can be discussed about that topic alone. The pressure that a lot of us put ourselves under on a daily basis is phenomenal and it can range from getting the most menial of tasks perfect, like doing ...

 Just as a fair warning to everyone each review will contain spoilers so if you haven't watched the episode maybe come back to this once you have. I'll try not to bias with these reviews but that was a great start to the season. As a huge fan of the games I was worried about scenes like Sarah's death not hitting the same as they did when I played the game but it turns out that it won't be a problem going forward.  I think my favorite part so far is how Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin were able to add more context and expand on scenes from the games. For example, the scene where Sarah goes to get Joel's watch fixed for his birthday is maybe nothing but it wasn't shown in the game so it was just a nice little expansion that I enjoyed. Fans of the game shouldn't worry though, I had plenty of moments throughout the episode where I was like that Leonardo Dicaprio meme where he is pointing at the tv. The episode was very faithful to the opening of the game. They ob...

 Return of the kings! Obituary is back with their first album since 2017's self-titled album. Obituary I felt never quite get their full due for everything they have done for death metal. Their consistency with the albums they have made in their career should be celebrated. Dying Of Everything had my head banging throughout the whole runtime. To me, it shows that death metal can have riffs full of grooves and still be hard as fuck. "Barely Alive" kicks the album off and Obituary doesn't let go of you until the album is over, what more could you ask from an album really? One of my favorite parts of this album is I can hear and visualize each one in the live setting going over really well. Each song has a "don't be around me in the pit" vibe as Jamey Jasta would say and I cannot wait to catch the band out on the road sometime and hear these songs live. Stand Out Tracks - Barely Alive, Without A Conscience, War, By The Dawn 9/10 https://open.spotify.com/alb...

Ville Valo is better known for being the singer and main songwriter for the band HIM but with that band being disbanded for several years now, he is going out on his own with his first solo release Neon Noir. Neon Noir doesn't stray far from the HIM formula. I was a big fan of that band but they were the AC/DC of gothic hard rock or "love metal" as they would self-proclaim. The songs all kind of blend together with a similar sound with the hook of the chorus somewhat changing. Those albums would always start strong for me but then lose steam a bit by the time the album was over. That doesn't change here with Neon Noir. 3 of the songs on the album were released back in 2020 on Gothica Fennica Vol 1 and I would say those are the stand-out tracks for this release which is a little disappointing but overall the album is an enjoyable listen and any HIM fan should be able to relive some memories while listening. Stand Out Tracks -  Run Away From The Sun, Salute The Sanguine...

I don't even know where to start..... I watch a lot of movies and I've always gravitated toward the sadder ones, it's the same with music. This movie is one of the most harrowing 2 hours in the theatre I've ever experienced in my life. Ultimately this is a movie about people running away from either themselves or the pain they have endured over their lifetimes. an essay about the novel Moby Dick repeatedly comes up during the runtime and it's always the part of the essay where the novelist tries to spare the reader parts of his sad life by writing chapter after chapter about whales.  Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, a man at the end of his life. After a traumatic experience, he shuts himself away from the world and is slowly destroying himself with food. He can,t get around his apartment without a walker and needs to have everything delivered to his place to survive. He lives with so much shame that he doesn't even turn on his webcam while trying to teach an online...

Family Style.  Family. Style.  What the hell is Family Style?  Who the hell is Family Style?  Why the hell is Family Style a thing?  These are questions that we are going to answer today.  There is already an introduction video that gives a summary of this topic, but I felt like it might be a good idea to partner that with this blog post so that we could get into a little more detail.  Before we get too far into the weeds, though, let me say that we are really, truly, and genuinely glad that you're here. Moving onward, we have three major topics to cover here:  the What, the Who, and the Why.  No doubt, as you arrive here, likely at the invitation or recommendation of a friend, you have quite a few questions as to what this is, or whether or not you even belong here.  If you've made it this far, read a bit further and all will be explained to you.  And let me assure you that you ABSOLUTELY belong here.   WHAT is Family Sty...