Month: December 2018

Amusement Park Podcast 019: Best and Worst of 2018

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

titans_batman

It’s our final show of 2018, so we’re picking our Best and Worst of the year! Movies, TV, music, books, etc. We also react to the Titans season finale and review some movies, including Chris’s thoughts on Aquaman. Happy New Year!

https://soundcloud.com/casselberry/best-and-worst-of-2018

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Thank you for listening! Please give us a review on iTunes and/or a like on our Facebook page to help grow our audience. You can also give us feedback at amusementparkpod@gmail.com and find us on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear from you!

Amusement Park Podcast 018: Aquaman Love

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

momoa_smirkOn the latest Amusement Park Podcast, we review Aquaman! Did Jason Momoa sink or swim? We also discuss Mortal Engines‘ disastrous box office, the new MoviePass plans that may pull Chris back in and what we’re enjoying this week.

https://soundcloud.com/casselberry/aquaman-love

Thank you for listening! We’d love to hear from you. You can reach us at amusementparkpod@gmail.com. Also, please give us a review on iTunes and/or a like on our Facebook page to boost our signal. We’d enjoy some feedback!

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Aquaman makes a splash with exotic visuals and Jason Momoa’s charm

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

aquaman_shoulder

If you grew up snickering at Aquaman while watching Super Friends, it might be difficult to imagine that the man talking to fish and riding sea horses would be the one to save the DC cinematic universe. (Personally, I was grateful to Aquaman for his safety tips warning against the hazards of seaweed wrapping around your legs or getting clothing snagged against pan handles. To my frustration, those clips don’t appear to be available on YouTube.)

OK, Aquaman isn’t a pop culture joke anymore. Not when Jason Momoa is cast as the King of the Seven Seas, portraying a charming lunk who could rip your arms off then enjoy a couple of pints afterwards. As Arthur Curry, he’s far more charismatic and compelling than Henry Cavill as Superman or Ben Affleck as Batman. Had Warner Brothers and DC Films tried to properly establish its core characters, rather than impatiently push its Justice League franchise, perhaps that superhero team-up wouldn’t have been such a flop.

Maybe there is no more DC cinematic universe, in terms of an interconnected series of films that all occupy the same storytelling space. But if DC were to call a mulligan and hide Batman v Superman and Justice League in the cupboard, Aquaman (along with last year’s Wonder Woman) is something that the studio could rebuild its superhero franchise around.

Yet Aquaman is perfectly capable of standing on its own, rather than be a piece of a convoluted puzzle. Director James Wan has built an impressive world around his superhero, creating a spectacle that aspires to the heights of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Avatar. However, while its influences are clear, this movie isn’t derivative. Arthur Curry’s journey from reluctant hero to champion might be familiar — a modern-day fable — but Aquaman feels new and exciting, providing visuals that we haven’t seen before.

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Amusement Park Podcast 017: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

spider_trioIt’s a multiple universe thrill ride this week on the Amusement Park Podcast! We go into the Spider-Verse to review the latest Spider-Man movie, then jump to the Arrowverse’s different Earths to cover the CW’s Elseworlds crossover. No Crisis here!

https://soundcloud.com/casselberry/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-review

Thank you for listening! If you’re enjoying our show, please give us a review on iTunes to boost our signal and/or a like on our Facebook page. You can reach us at amusementparkpod@gmail.com or on all the social media @amuseparkpod.

You can subscribe to the Amusement Park Podcast everywhere you find podcasts:

Not a Newsletter 007: Radio nowhere

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

milesspidey_readingWhen I was a kid, working in radio seemed like such a cool job. Every station had to be like WKRP in Cincinnati, right?

That delusion was first dispelled when I won a prize from the old WIQB (Rock 103!) in Ann Arbor and drove to the station to pick it up. Rather than a respectable office with the magic happening behind the glass, WIQB was basically a shack out in Saline.

As I grew older and got to know people in the radio business, I learned how brutal it could be. Many of them had been ruthlessly fired. (My podcast co-host was one of them.) Plenty of people in other lines of work have been let go because of salary cuts or job duties changing. But radio was supposed to be the cool job.

I was reminded again of how cruel working in radio could be earlier this week when a host I’ve worked with for years was fired. Here in Asheville, Bill McClement was a co-host on the sports talk show I’ve contributed to for nearly five years. I’ve talked to him two to three times a week throughout that time. I’ve sat in with him as a co-host a handful of times and always had great fun doing so.

bill_mcclement

Working at home, I’m not always the most social guy, so there have probably been many weeks when Bill was one of the few people with whom I had a conversation — even if it was about baseball for a segment on a sports talk radio show.

No, I don’t know all the details and probably never will. It’s not my business. But watching someone lose his job after 15 years with a company (and 40-plus years in the industry) is heartbreaking. It sure seems like he deserved better.

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