Ramy's Music Blog

Featured

Kill Tony

Kill Tony – A Review

Yesterday I had the privilege to attend Calgary’s premier Kill Tony episode. For those unaware of the podcast, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe and his cohost Brian Redban host an open mic night in which any brave audience member can go up and perform a one-minute comedy set. Once their set has finished, Tony and Brian give the audience their thoughts on the performance, along with an often harsh but hilarious roast. Joining Tony and Brian is their two-person band who dress up as new characters each show, for instance they dressed up as Prince Harry and Meghan Markel in this episode. Kill Tony has always been one of my favorite podcasts to listen to, so when I heard they were coming to town I jumped on the opportunity and bought tickets right away. It was hosted at the Laugh Shop, a relatively small venue found inside the Blackfoot Hotel here in Calgary. For the most part I have no complaints about the stage or seating arrangements, however the speakers could definitely have benefited from an upgrade. There were points during the show in which the speakers provided a distorted sound or didn’t work at all. Sometimes it felt as if a bomb went off when the sound effects played. On the other hand, the food and drink offered at the venue smelled great and was reasonably priced. I would highly recommend coming with an empty stomach as the nachos they served were great! The show itself was fantastic, the second it started we were totally engrossed. Tony’s show is usually hosted at The Comedy Store in Beverly Hills, California but often travels to find new aspiring comedians. At no point during the show did I feel as if I was missing out by watching the show in Calgary instead of LA. The show definitely adapts well to the road. For some of the participants it was their first time ever trying stand up comedy and for others this was just another Thursday night. Like any good stand up night, there were winners and losers, some people bombed and some people did fantastic. Some of the participants were so good in fact that Tony went on stage and invited them to open up for his three stand up shows this weekend. For those who get easily offended THIS IS NOT THE SHOW FOR YOU. The comedians can do their set about anything, and I mean absolutely anything. Topics ranged from divorce and sex to darker stuff like racism and drugs. For many of the participants, comedy seemed like a way to cope with issues they face in their everyday life. Tony is great at identifying the participants weak points, allowing him to delve deep into their lives. Overall, I really enjoyed my time at the Laugh Shop and I would highly recommend the show to anyone who are fans of stand up comedy. I hope they come back to Calgary very soon and that they make Calgary a regular destination for their podcast.

4.5/5

Fun Stuff You Can Do In Quarantine!

Since we are all stuck inside due to COVID-19, I thought that I’d make a blog post full of activities that you can do from home!

Baking & Cooking

Since you’re at home, it’s the perfect time to learn a new recipe! For instance, over this past month I’ve learnt how to bake bread and I’ve also made some amazing chocolate chip cookies! I’ve also been spicing up dinner by using a meal delivery service called Chefs Plate which has taught me how to cook some new dishes. For dinner this week I’ve already made maple glazed chicken and Korean bulgogi beef burgers. Sure, you might not subscribe to a service like Chefs Plate but that shouldn’t stop you from trying something new! Websites such as Allrecipes have thousands of recipes available for free, you just need to buy the ingredients.

Play Board Games!

Wipe the dust off your old board game collection and play them with your family! During this quarantine I’ve played Battleship, Labyrinth and Jenga, games which I haven’t played in years.If you don’t have any board games on hand, you can actually print tons of card games online for free! For instance, Cards Against Humanity is currently offering a free printable card game from their website that’s safe to play with children. Playing board games is a great way to kill time and bond with the whole family, as long as you’re not playing Monopoly ;).

Learn to play an instrument

Since the quarantine started, I’ve had way more time to teach myself to play guitar! My skills have advanced tremendously over this period as I have way more time to jam out. If you have a guitar lying around, pick it up and hop online! There are a ton of resources online to help teach you how to play, I’ve used everything from Youtube to Fender Play. This might not be a surprise, but Youtube has a ton of guitar lessons available for free. It’s a great way to start learning the basics, but once you’ve got that down you might want to look into a service such as Fender Play. They offer more advanced lessons for those looking to progress further and right now they are offering everyone 3 free months absolutely free!

Watch Movies

I know this might be an obvious one, but services like Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video have thousands of hours of content available to stream right now! Recently on Netflix I’ve been watching Tiger King, a documentary series covering the lives of big cat breeders in the United States. I have also been watching Better Call Saul, the prequel to one of my favourite series Breaking Bad. Whilst it may feel like you’re just wasting time binge watching a series all day, you’re actually being a productive member of society by staying inside during the pandemic!

There you have it! Those were a few things that I’ve been keeping busy with during this quarantine. It’s so important to keep busy during this unusual time in our lives, otherwise the days seem to blend together. Let me know what you’ve been doing down in the comments!

The Benefits of Having Amazon Prime

One of the downsides of living in a subscription-based economy is that we are subscribed to so many services that we often don’t utilize them to their full extent. Video streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus, are just a few that come to mind. Sure, maybe Hulu has that one hit show you want to watch, but for me, it’s hard to justify subscribing to more than one video streaming service. When Amazon offered me a free three-month Prime membership, I was quite skeptical, however, I caved and tried it. After using Prime for the past few months, I can confidently say that Amazon Prime might be the best subscription service out there!

Prime Video

Amazon’s video streaming service, Prime Video, is often looked over in favour of its competitors such as Netflix. Whilst It doesn’t offer the latest and greatest shows and movies, it does offer some fantastic original content! The Grand Tour, Jack Ryan and The Hunters are just a few that come to mind. Whilst I wouldn’t subscribe to Prime just to use Prime video, it allows me to explore new content without having to subscribe and pay for a new video streaming service.

Twitch

Not many people know this, but Amazon Prime gives you quite a few benefits on the online streaming site Twitch. If you’re a prime member, you get 5 free games each month. In addition to the free games, they also allow you to subscribe to one Twitch partner a month! This means that you can support your favourite online creators, without having to pull out your wallet.

Amazon Photos

Amazon Prime offers free unlimited cloud storage for any photos that you have on your phone or computer. Other companies such as Apple and Google, charge a reoccurring monthly fee for the exact same service. Best of all, you can easily share all your photos with friends and family without any hassle!

Free One Day Delivery

If you’re a frequent online shopper, Amazon Prime is a godsend. It allows you to shop for whatever you like from the comfort of your own home. Best of all, goods shipped by Amazon are eligible for free one- and two-day shipping! This means that you no longer have to wait 5-7 days for your goods to arrive.

Prime Music

One of Amazon Prime’s best kept secret is that it offers all its members an ad free music subscription service comparable to that of Spotify and Apple Music. This means that you can stream, download and play any song on your computer or mobile device. The Amazon Music App even has Alexa built into it, making it easier than ever to find the song that you were looking for!

Prime Reading

As you might have guessed, Amazon Prime allows its members to access hundreds of eBooks for free to its members. It has everything from romance novels, thrillers to children’s books. Best part overall, no late fees!

Conclusion

As you can see, Amazon Prime offer a wide variety of benefits to its members for $7.99 a month. I know parts of this blog post may sound like a paid endorsement, but I promise it’s not! All I am saying is that any avid online shopper should seriously consider getting Amazon Prime, as it gives you fast delivery times as well as access to hundreds of hours of content, and may even save you money in the long run!

Sonic Movie Review

This valentine’s day an unlikely movie swept the top spot at theaters and no, it wasn’t a Hollywood romance film, it was Sonic the Hedgehog. Best known for his appearance in SEGA’s famous video game series he now makes his way to the big screen! Video game movies haven’t been too well received in the past and SEGA took a big risk investing in this movie, especially after all of its production struggles.

When the first trailer released fans where furious with Sonics new look. Unlike some video game movies, SEGA opted to do a live action film instead of an animated one. This meant that Sonic had to be entirely created in CGI (computer generated graphics). I understand that creating an anthropomorphic hedgehog is not an easy feat, however his appearance was completely unacceptable. Instead of looking like the cartoon character that we all know in love, they strived to make Sonic as realistic as possible. This move obviously didn’t pay off and angered both movie and video game enthusiasts. The backlash eventually pushed SEGA to pull the trailer they went back to the drawing board. In May of 2019, Jeff Fowler, the director of the film, announced that they were redesigning Sonic much to the relief of fans.

The movie featured a star-studded cast featuring Ben Schwartz as Sonic, James Marsden as Tom (a police officer) and the legendary Jim Carrey as the villain, Dr. Ivo Robotnik. I’ve got to say that Jim Carrey’s performance absolutely stole the show. He totally embraced Dr. Robotnik’s personality to a T! Whilst I am not a huge fan of his other films this performance was legendary. It was classic Jim Carrey in every which way, it often reminded me of another one of his great films, The Mask. James Marsden’s performance was also fabulous given that he was talking to a nonexistent character throughout the film. I couldn’t even imagine how hard that would be, it even challenges some of the best actors!

I don’t want to dive too deep into the storyline but it’s pretty straight forward. Sonic is being chased by his number one nemesis, Dr.Robotnik. He wants to capture Sonic in order to conduct evil experiment on him. As a result Sonic teams up with a unlikely ally, a local police officer in hopes that together they can defeat Dr.Robotnik. Obviously, this movie is orientated towards children, so nothing too complex ever happens in the film. That totally fine, I actually preferred that the storyline was so simple and basic. It was a great way to introduce newcomers to the franchises.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film and I would recommend it to anyone seeking a good family friendly film. I have a feeling that this isn’t the last we will see of Sonic and I expect a sequel will be in the works. If so I hope that we will see more characters from the Sonic universe, such as Tails and Knuckles. Till then this movie will have to make do.

8/10