My Monthly Wrap-Up | March 2023

Posted on by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Hi guys,

The month has come to an end and it’s time to do a quick wrap-up of what has been done.

Reading Breakdown.

Novels read: 5 (-).
Comic books read: 8 (↑1).
Manga volumes read: 7 (↓3).

Viewing Breakdown.

Movies Watched: 10 (↓8).
TV Series’ Seasons Watched and completed: 1 (↑1).

Gaming Breakdown.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War (Finished and to be reviewed).
Gotham Knights (Currently Playing).

BOOK REVIEWS.

Live Fast by Brigitte Giraud.
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS.

Gotham Central, Book Four: Corrigan by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker.
Batman: Detective Comics (Vol. 1): Neighborhood by Mariko Tamaki.

MOVIE REVIEWS.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023).

TV SERIES REVIEWS.

The Last of Us Season 1 (2023-).

VIDEO GAME REVIEWS.

The Last of Us Part I (2022).

MISCELLANEOUS POSTS.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – In Concert.
The 95th Academy Awards Best Picture Oscars Prediction.
Tolkien Reading Day 2023.

TOP BOOK.

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien.

My thoughts: Another wonderful book to further explore Tolkien’s universe and I couldn’t be happier about how things have been so far with his work.

You can check out my review by clicking here.

LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK.

Dragon Ball Super (Vol. 20) by Akira Toriyama.

My thoughts: This yet-to-be-released-in-English volume in the series completes the latest story arc and confirms how shitty it has all been lately. Honestly, I don’t understand the need to keep going… This only deserved a solid one-star for having “Dragon Ball” in its name. That’s it.

TOP MOVIE.

(c) IMDb.

Of the 10 movies I watched in February 2023, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) was my favourite. A bit unfair, actually, since this was the rewatch I happened to have done through the live concert I attended early this month. 😉

What is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) about? Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron’s army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

My thoughts: You can read more about my thoughts on that event by clicking here.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

CURRENTLY READING.

The Art of the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

My thoughts: Having just finished the one for The Hobbit, this will be yet another descent into the picturesque world of Tolkien before I dive back into his more literary works again next month! 🙂

PERSONAL LIFE.

At the end of last month, I hosted a little giveaway on my post announcing one year of blogging at Roars and Echoes. It ended on March 19th and the winner was Todd @ Todd Henson Photography. I am eternally grateful to all of you who drop by the blog to check out what I had to say on just about everything and anything for the past years. It really is an honour beyond description to know that this virtual world is, for the time being, always out there for us to connect and interact! 😉

As for this month… Holy moly was it full of social activities! Most of it happened towards the beginning of the month and I then had the rest of the month to balance it out with my usual routine of hobbies. The month began with a visit to a Pink Floyd Exposition which was quite fascinating in itself, allowing us to discover loads of neat facts about the group, their inspirations, their iconic moments, and the story behind many of their memorable album covers.

The next day, we went to the long-anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) movie in concert event. It feels like it was just yesterday that we experienced the whole thing too. The day after we had a pretty cool brunch at a sugar shack with a bunch of friends. It’s almost an annual thing to go to a sugar shack out here and, boy, was it awesome and delicious! The week was then highlighted by a folk heavy metal concert that we went to check out for the group Eluveitie and that was incredible in itself! If you like the sub-genre, you should totally check out the group and their stuff, it’s epic! 😉

The random country of the month that we got ended up being Great Britain and that was quite a relief for me. I honestly just wanted it to fall on a country for which I know I’ll find stuff I can actually enjoy discovering before being dropped into something that I know next to nothing about and can barely find anything to discover too! While it would’ve been better if the randomizer had split GB into England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, it was up to us to go discover what we wanted at the end of the day. Food-wise, you bet we made the most of this pick to eat up everything remotely British (see pictures below), so we ended up visiting a sweet tea saloon for their scones and tea, ate fish n’ chips, and had an English breakfast. We also ate one more thing, which was my biggest discovery, which still makes me laugh: Tikka Masala. I’ve already tried this dish before but I had a good laugh discovering that it is considered GB’s national dish (more specifically, England’s national dish).

We also checked out The 39 Steps (1935), a Hitchcock movie, as well as Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), this month, and enjoyed them both differently! Reading-wise, it was not difficult to check out at least one book by a writer from that corner of the world when you’ve got your knees deep into Tolkien’s books hahah I did make an effort to pick up another book, which was picking up dust on our shelves, telling myself that there was no better moment to finally try it out: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a pleasant experience but more on that in an upcoming review. So, yes, I went all out in this month dedicated to Great Britain but I also know that we won’t be getting this country again for the next couple of years so I might as well do as much as possible now. 😛 I can’t wait to see what the next country will be for April now! 😀

Thank you all for checking out my monthly wrap-up and don’t forget to check out any posts that might interest you or that you might have missed out on!

Stay tuned for my Monthly Anticipation post coming out soon. 😉

So what’s going on with y’all? What have you discovered this month? What are your thoughts on the books/TV series/movies I’ve checked out?

Yours truly,

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Published by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Reader. Reviewer. Researcher. Criminology Ph.D. Candidate. Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Want to know more? Connect with him!

40 thoughts on “My Monthly Wrap-Up | March 2023”

  1. How did you like that irn bru? The Film Authority is always talking about it, so I’m at least familiar with it. I probably won’t ever drink it myself though since it’s not sugar free.

    And just so you know, I’m quietly sharpening my knives and hatchets over here in preparation for your review of 3 Men in a Boat. Wouldn’t want to influence you in ANY way though, no sirreee 😉

    I think that pizza should be its own country so I can claim to be a genuine Pizzaian citizen. I eat enough of the stuff….

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    1. Honestly, being so used to countless other soft drinks, I didn’t find it particularly special. It’s more on the caffeinated tangy taste side but nothing that makes you think it’s a crazy good drink hahah

      Welp. 😛 I do remember your review for it a while back too. 😉 I definitely won’t be on the same page as you though hahaha

      I agree. Pizza should a country. Especially if there’s free pizza. 😀

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  5. I’ve never tried Tikka Masala, but I’ve heard of it. Didn’t know it was England’s national dish, so I learned something new there.
    And a sugar shack sounds great. I’m imagining all sugary things, so since you had brunch at one, I’m thinking it was just pancakes, waffles, and French toast with lots of syrup. It sounds yummy, in my head.

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  6. Looks like a good month, especially Tolkien-wise 😀
    The Lord of the Rings in concert must have been amazing. I like movie soundtracks and it struck me how good the music was when I was watching the first movie.

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  10. What a lovely time you had in March:)). And I love your monthly exploration of cuisine from around the world – what a brave thing to do. And yes… statistically speaking, I do believe that Tikka Masala is now England’s favourite dish, rather than its national dish:)). I prefer a yummy korma! And Iron Bru is absolutely disgusting – give me English Breakfast tea, any day! And *moan of horror* you don’t LOVE Three Men in a Boat??? Oh noooo… I hope you have lots of lovely books and films lined up for April, Lashaan:).

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    1. Yep, every month we randomly select a new country and we set out to explore different stuff on the country. I like to discover history, food, book, and movies, in particular. Crazy, right? I too love korma! Then again, I do love any spicy Indian dish with a healthy dose of rice. 😀 Bahahahaha I too would pick English Breakfast tea over IRN BRU, if I had to choose! Oh no, you’re a fan of Three Men in a Boat too? 😛 I hope April has been good to you so far, Sarah! 🙂

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  11. Wow what a fantastic month Lashaan. I bet that was a relief getting Great Britain for your country. 😂 How fun that you tried the typical British food including a tikka masala curry, excellent. Which one was your favourite? You’ve definitely educated me about folk heavy metal, I didn’t even know that existed. Is it a bit like pirate metal? 😂

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    1. I’m a sucker for fish n’ chips, Nicki! I’ve been craving it for a while but my girlfriend wasn’t interested in eating some, so the satisfaction of eating it in a good restaurant was too good! 😀 I don’t think it’s very piraty but there’s a lot of hurdy gurdy (check out the instrument if you’ve never heard of it) which makes many songs pretty epic!

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  12. Looks like you had a great month! I’m still jealous that you got to see Return of the King with the soundtrack live, but my friend and I are going to see the RotK extended edition in the theater later this month, so there’s that.

    How was the Irn Bru? I managed not to have it while I was actually in Scotland, but there’s a little shop that sells it here, so I have tried it. It was… fine? Orange, but not really orange?

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  13. You got to see Eluveitie in concert? That’s awesome! I only discovered them in the past few years and though some of their songs are more hit or miss for me based on how prominent the harsh vocals are, others are complete winners. I love the mix of folk and metal with traditional and modern instruments and styles.

    Regarding the food, looks like a couple deviled eggs there? I just love those. I also love Scotch eggs. Food from GB can be very hearty. But Tikka Masala is England’s national dish?!?!? I’d never had guess that. Too funny. But great dish.

    Finally, thanks very much for the giveaway. I truly appreciate it, just as I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on all these interesting topics that I find fascinating, entertaining, and worth coming back for over and over again.

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    1. I agree with you. When the growling starts, I’m usually less enthusiastic but everything else is pretty cool! Getting to see the hurdy gurdy live was also pretty awesome!

      Yep, them eggs were delicious and were gone as fast as they appeared! Like you, I had a good laugh when I discovered England’s national dish was Tikka Masala hahaha

      No problem, Todd! I hope you enjoy the book and have a fantastic time with it! Take care and happy reading! 😀

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  14. I looked at the Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien book after seeing it on your Instagram, and it is really reasonably priced. I’m going to buy one. 📘

    You had a busy month! I’m chuckling a bit about tikka masala being England’s national dish. If someone asked me I would have said fish and chips. 😊

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    1. I can already tell you that The Art of the Hobbit was pretty good and I expect that I’ll enjoy this one too for TLOR. The fish n’ chips was delicious! I’d go to that restaurant anytime for it. Yep, with how huge the Indian community has gotten in England especially, I’m not too surprised that their cuisine is dominated by it. 😀

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  19. Sounds like you had a great month! The Irn Blu reminds me of fried mars bars, mostly because I had both for the first time together (that was… a lot of sugar).

    All the LOTR stuff looks great! And in time for all the Tolkien posts happening in the blogosphere!

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