#it would really tie in the 80's nostalgia

[poekiidokidoki]

IM BEGGING ON MY KNEES,

Please- the post production team for Cobra Kai, video Editors, who ever chooses the music for the scenes.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ADD IN JOURNEY'S SEPARATE WAYS TO A FIGHT SCENE

Or anywhere --JUST ADD THIS SONG, ITS SO- IT WOULD FIT SO WELL-

It would be blessed if it could be used for the Sekai Taikai tournament!!!

😭😭 the ideas I have floating in my head. Rrrrrr

[hellyeahheroes]

If you floow me on twitter or are part of our discord server, you probably know that I have announced that for the time being I’m giving up on Marvel and DC, at least when it comes to new releases and announcments. I will make an exception for Runaways (unless that turns into a glorified X-Book as I fear) and catch up to some older books.

As I have said before, for quite some time I am feeling less and less joy and excitement about new Marvel and DC announcments. Especially as DC keeps shrinking and becoming increasingly “Batman Comics Comics”, where even fuckign Scooby-Doo must now be only about Batman, a character I do not like. All while the only thing keeping me in Bat-sphere, the batfamily, gets increasingly more undermined. there are maybe 5-6 Batfam members who consistently get spotlight. 4 if you don’t count Catwoman and Harley Quinn as Batfam members, then it is only Dick, Jason, Babs and Damian. Yes, Damian getting the very arc Cass Cain fans were BEGGING for DC to give her for the last 15 years is what prompted my decision. But really, it is a straw that broke the cammel’s back. Or, as we say in my country, a drop that filled the goblet of bitterness. 

For over a decade I have now watched various character in the Batfam that I like - Cass but also Steph, Duke, Harper, We Are Robin and Gotham Academy kids, etc. - get passed on and ignored or relegated to jobbers and pointless, useless cameoes in crowd scenes, in favor of the same four. And their fans would always say this isn’t the right time and ask me to be a good consumer and buy these books because if they succeed then for sure others will get their moment to shine too. But that moment never came. I’ve been told that during One Year Later, after Battle of the Cowl, during New 52, during DC You, during DC Rebirth, during New Justice and now. If I lach onto a new character they quickly become a victim of the same treatment, as was with Duke, with Harper or with Maya. And if my faves get something it is either immediatelly undermined by other books (See how all work Bryan Hill put into showing Cass as skilled fighter been undermined by King, Thomasi and Williamson who saw her only as a worthless jobber to prop their lame villains) or ignored (see Duke who vanished after that book ended) or isn’t about them at all (see League of Shadows, billed as Cass story but was really about Ras Al’Ghul). 

Currently Batbooks grow even larger but nothing changes, the promised spotlight for anyone else didn’t come. tom Taylor made a huge deal of being a Cass fan and instead he is writing Nightwing and another Batman book. Joshua Williamsone is now handing on a silver platter everything Cass fans asked for to Damian and Future State Batgirls series in anthology got replaced by a Grifter story - because DC thinks a guy so removed from Batfam he is literally from another universe is bigger part of the Batfamily than Cass and Steph. Fucking Joker got a book instead, we need that edgelord incel money I guess. And with rest of DCU shrinking to the point even Aquaman and Green Arrow (two titles I liked for various supporting cast members like Emiko Queen or Jackson Hyde, btw) got axed to make more room for Batman, there is just less things to be excited about outside a line that made it clear fans, who don’t like marketing department-approved characters and only them, are not welcome.

And at Marvel I could repeat above paragraphs with X-Men. More and more X-books that tie-in to an arc I tremendously dislike and been vocal critic of, less and less anything else. Even writers I like and had high hopes of end up doing same X-book as everyone else and it is an X-book in which characters I like are at best given pointless cameo and at worst killed and replaced by someone else in their body to show how dangerous the villain is. Or banished to another dimension. Or shown to be stupid and “manipulated by evil” for pointing problematic things about current books. And that on top of the same spiell of being told to shup up and let X-fandom enjoy their books about same five people and that sure everyone I like, like NXM kids, will get their moment to shine soon....and said moment never comes. Been told that during Manifest Destiny, during Nation X, during Curse of Mutants, during Schism, after AvX, after Secret Wars, after Inhumans vs X-Men, I’m being told that now. Instead X-books scrap bottom of the barrel to only give titles to characters from 80′s and 90′s to the point we have fucking Scalphunter book now.

All the while X-Fandom has shown itself to be extremly toxic and entitled, something I have seen when they wished for Nico and Chase to die in Avengers Arena because they felt X-men deserve to take Molly away from Runaways. And when they cheered the death of Juston for having a good Sentinel. Or when they acted toxic to Inhumans fandom while claiming oppression because they had “only” four books a month. Once again I feel like everything I like about Marvel gets pushed out in favor of its most toxic part, a part that made it very clear I and people who like same characters like me, are not welcome in it. Out of few books who stand out Ms. Marvel and immortal Hulk are ending. Champions, while good, is not the type of story I can stomach in current political climate. Runaways I fear they’ll be swallowed or at least undermined by X-Men too. Similiarly I am anxious about Miles, with Donny Cates lurking around looking like he wants to undermine everything Saladin Ahmed built for the sake of 00′s nostalgia.

Reading news and seeing new books doesn’t give me happiness anymore, just more frustration and sadness. I came to beleive it is not good for my mental health. So for time being I’m going to retreat to regain my strength. If other people running this blog, like @keeper-of-the-lore or @ubernegro or @majingojira want to talk about current books or news here, go ahead, I will just stay away for the time being from these conversations and stick to reading and talking about older stuff I wanted to check out but never had a time to do it properly. And if a book I wanted does appear while I’m taking this time off, well, I’d rather be late to the party that constantly passed on the invtations and waiting like a moron to get one.

-Admin

[pigtailedgirl]

Cobra Kai LOVE

So I finally got to watch all of Cobra Kai after loving the first two free episodes on Youtube but not affording it or having access til Netflix.

Dad and I nostalgia tripped it together and it's so good and it was also a great little family thing to do for us, since we always watched the movies as a family and are missing Mom, and I cried (there were some moments in season 2 especially hard) and laughed and we both loved it and I can't wait for season 3.

What can you say about a show that picks up 30 years after a properties heyday and kills as a tie-in! That honours the themes, and even better the cheese and feelings of the originals. Be it kick-ass karate, 80s style and music, the over the top plotting, and the profound kinda searching for inner life peace mixed with silly karate moves or metaphors and longing for Dad guidance.

I absolutely adore Johnny, who is by no means a perfect person. He's a stunted functional alcoholic who reopens his best part of his life, he tragically peaked in high-school (Christ!), for the best intentioned reasons, not realizing until committing the same mistakes how toxic it was the first go round.

Daniel. Oh you sweet fucking it up-ward man. Every movie was Miyagi having to help you pull your hot head out of your own ass because you were desperate to earn inner acceptance through outer validation and he's not around to do it anymore and you sweet pea think you've got it figured out, that you can give it to kids or protect them from the bullying toxicity of the way that high-school and a loss of place moving to California and Cobra Kai did you in, but you just keep jumping from victim to projecting and anticipating victim-hood and responding against Miyagi's first lesson, learn karate so you don't have to use it to fight.

It's sad and beautiful that these two are twinned and stuck in their pasts. Man-children in their 50s still trying to grow up (And figure out technology in Johnny's case LOL) hurting their future generation.

The teen themes are great.

Teen Breakdown of S1 & S2

The beginning popular crowd being easy and simple bullies. Morphing in Season 2 as both Cobra Kai and Demetri, Robbie and Sam trade off with Hawk and Tory on are we the bullied or the bullies all at once. Free for all high-school fight!

Aisha and Miguel represent the honesty of strength of self and confidence in finding themselves and their voice in Cobra Kai.

Hawk and Demitri, of using a newfound self to bully or staying safe to play victim.

Robbie as the growth from getting respect and guidance from Miyagi karate and Daniel, being the truest student, to the heartbreaking reality it doesn't mean you still don't crave wanting to be declared ultimate right or winner and fuck yourself over with your past issues.

As Miguel does the twin tango with him in having innate respectability and good moral guidance, even passing it to Johnny, but slipping into loss at the karate finals, mentally giving into loss of morality being violent to show his strength and losing himself and his GF, and physically when he's hurt (please be just hurt) defending the good guidance of mercy and stopping fighting.

But yeah, I could do essays on all the teens.

Then there's Sam, Daniel 's daughter. Robbie's mirror student and Aisha should be her foil but I fear based on a rumour and the way of season 2, they went with the easier and show attractive rival GF Tory.  Samantha Larusso is a problem. She is marked good, to be going the way of Robbie to being the child of the former protagonist that leads into a creation of harmony among the two karate's and teachers/families/philosophies. Instead despite the show sympathizing and trying to identify with her as that role, she's straight up a cause of strife and exhibits neither the good traits of Miyagi karate, or a inner self confident bravado of Cobra Kai. She's almost the bizzaro evil version of a teen Ali, and that guy from the third movie. She thinks she's both victim and bad ass and she's just someone who needs a good dose of someone sitting her down to tell her she's owed or earned either status. And Aisha, the friend she wasted for faux status as a popular pretty girl, as well as her adult parents letting her currently skate responsibilities of teenage dramas and violence, and her suitors, whom she waffles unhealthy betwixt so that they all suffer, are the ones to do it. She doesn't need her ass kicked by Tory, who is a one note character, she needs her mindset toggled by realizing her self-wants aren't priority. Basically grow up, and outta the me mentality.

What's fabulous is the show honoring it's roots in teen drama and life so it's not like the drama is too over the top. How their world revolves around them and their perception of the importance of their wants. Romance. Party. Popularity. Identity.

Leading to the teenage version of power posturing. Bullying. (Which even the adults haven't mastered escape from.)

The high-school pettiness and importance of structure and status and coolness. The different norms of today versus the 80's that are still about wealth, the right looks (cultural or physical), and violence being the forever enforcer. Of course kids will break down along the lines of Cobra Kai and Miyagi karate. Brute correctness or passive acceptance?

Seeking strength and refusing to accept weakness of self builds confidence. Using that strength to physically fight in anything but defense brings a cycle of conflict and violence.

Neither the past nor the present generation ignore the other big life influence of the age. There you have the Daddy or parental abandonment angles.

Johnny's step dad failed him in absentee. Kreese used his position as teacher to abuse him. Johnny failed his kid in absentee. Johnny tries to uses his teacher position with Miguel to fix all these errors. Meanwhile Daniel is over there in the opposite corner with lost his father figure, and then Miyagi taught him respect and guidance and Daniel regained one and clung, and now Daniel is a lost or losing father figure to his own son and daughter, the family unit does not respect him or seek his guide. So he entwines his then teaching Sam and Robbie as a fix.

But does karate fix this shit?

So all these kids they drag in are confounded by the lessons because a step would be stop you yokels and talk or acknowledge what really happened in high-school and with All Valley and Ali and Kreese and Miyagi. And move on.

You won 30 years ago Daniel. Miyagi was a great old man and your teacher and like a Dad but you never had to be the best or have the girl to earn him. You got bullied by Kreese & co, were devalued because you weren't rich or popular in high-school. Some people were dicks. Or worse. Tell the world. You don't have to beat them now and forever to hold to knowing that. Be a happy car salesman and focus on your own kids.

Johnny, 30 years have passed my dude. You were okay with defeat when you gave Daniel that trophy and said he was all right. Cling to that guy, not the jerk with a shitty teacher/Dad, pining for a girl you were in conflict with. And stop reliving the mindset you were the loser in those things ending. You missed out on living with your losses and celebrating the moments between and after. Find a GF. Reconcile with your biological son. Admire and mentor your students of now. Take a lesson from your Miguel and be like the young man you clearly are learning from. You will never be a loser to this kid, you will always be the bad ass who defended him.

Also also, I hilariously crack-ship Daniel/Johnny as a love hate bromance. HEAD GAMES vid it!!

Also, Daniel's wife is a treasure with her snark on the childishness of this karate feud. She the MVP.

And I legit cried with my Dad and the Miyagi grave visit. At the Tommy scenes. At the Miguel voicemail. At the Mrs. Larusso Dad on my shoulder scene.

And you can't not laugh at dick billboard.

[agl03]

Can you do a breakdown of everyone few episodes of season 7 like big things you think will happen

Hi Anon,

Not much has changed since I did the big breakdown when we were able to find the ‘leaked’ titles.  However, please bear in mind the only two we are 100% confident on are 1 and 13.  I’ll repost it here and add anything that might have popped into 

1. The New Deal

Aired at D23.  Cliffnotes Mack, Robo Coulson, Daisy, and Deke have to save Freddy Malick from being kill by the Chronicoms.

2. Know your Onions

Well this is one of those weird titles that makes little sense.  There is a song by The Shins  But its also a saying for being very knowledgeable about something.  So this is where we’re really going to see Robo Coulson really showing how invaluable to this.  Also might speak to the learning curve the team is facing with all the new stuff.  Also a good chance we at least get a glimpse of FItz here before he disappears for a bit.

Written By Craig Tiltey AKA the OUT OF THE BOX dude.  He’s given us great episodes like 4722 Hours, Uprising, personal fave Hot Potato Soup, Rewind, and SPACE VEGAS!

3. Alien Commies from the Future

Well the Chronicoms take over some Russians or they think they are Russian, people were pretty paranoid back then.   And I’ll put the time period they visit here anywhere between the 50′s and 80′s due to the “commies” reference.  Good chance we’ll see lots of Military here based on who is already in IMDB.   This may also be when we see Enver show up…or two…depends on where they go after saving Freddy. Also trying not to think of Killer Clowns from Outer Space here.

I throw in this could be where we could see Stoner.

Written by the Zuckermans have given us episodes Lockup, Boom, A LIfe Spent, Option Two, Code Yellow, and This Sign.  They do have a decent amount of Philinda under their belts so this could be where we see May on a mission with Robo Coulson for the first time.

4. Out of the Past

Well something from someone one the teams past is likely going to come back to haunt them here.  And it also might tie into the 1947 movie bearing the same name about a small town gas station that has his life turned upside down when figures from his past return.  So they’ll be going for someone who ‘got out” and now is being pulled back in.

This would be the first opening I see for Afterlife and those involved in it to come into play.

Written by Mark Leitner, relatively new to the writing team he did Inside Voices and Toldja.

5. A Trout in the Milk

Guys I swear my google history for this show.  Another title based on a saying.  The meaning is that although you did not see the dairy farmer do it, he most probably dipped the milk pail in the stream to water down the product. It’s not direct evidence but a very strong circumstantial case.It is attributed as follows: “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. ‘ (Henry David Thoreau)  

So the team will have strong evidence on something but can’t be 100% on it.  This could speak to who they feel the Chronicoms are after, if there is a traitor in their midst (its an annual tradition after all), or this could be where something could be wrong with Fitz and Jemma is starting to worry more/pick up on it.

Written by Iden Baghadadchi also relatively new she’s done Rise and Shine aka Hale’s Back story and squee inducing we are invincible and Collision Course Part II.

6. Adapt or Die

Raise your hand if this SCREAMS when we are gonna see Ward/Hydra again!   Because he said that a few times when he was discussing why he followed Hydra.  I just have no idea WHAT Ward we are dealing with…preturn Ward, Hydra Head Ward, Squidward (yay I got to use it again).  

If not Ward someone has to adjust to the new situation and fast in order to survive.  This could speak to someone being captured, gone under cover, or something out of left Field.  Knowing who the writer is…could me buckle up for some Fitzsimmons feels people.

If it is heavy Fitzsimmons, this could be the where we learn more about “we had time” and possibly the Secret Child Theory gets some legs.  Adapt or Die could also speak to Fitzsimmons having to drastically change their lives in order to survive and move forward saving the others and the world.  

Written by DJ Doyle…and a favorite with Fitzsimmons fans as he has given us some of the most iconic Fitzsimmons moments.  Past credits include The Things We Bury, Melinda, Purpose in the Machine, Many Heads on Tale, The Team,  Deals with Our Devils, INESCAPABLE!!!!!Also worth pointing out the sixth episode of each season has a history of being big FItzsimmons Episodes.

7. The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and the D

OMG are we getting a Bill and Ted esque Mack and Deke Team up. EEEEEEEEE!!!!!  I do believe this is where we are going to get “The closest thing to a Musical Episode the show will ever do” and Deke in the Red Leather pants Chloe talked about.  

Bring on the 80′s/90′s nostalgia folks.  I don’t even care what is happening this one is gonna be awesome.  Also considering the writer we need to be on the lookout for a FItznapping….this is the dude who has written most of them.

Written by Brent Fletcher who has done some major major episodes.  The Dirty Half Dozen, Closure, Broken Promises, Farewell Cruel World (IE thank goodness we are FINALLY out of the Framework), FUN & GAMES, Space Vegas, and New Life.  

8. After Before

I wanna lean flashback here and this could be another option where we get some answers from Jemma as to what happened during “we had time” and the fallout from that.  It could also speak to a comparison or a change in someone, a play on a “Before and After” King of Reveal.  Once again the writers lean towards something happening on the FItzsimmons front as they are the other resident Married couple with Jed/Mo on the writing team.

Also worth noting this is the first episode that Enver is in IMDB in so they’ll need to go back in time to meet up with him and I think they’ll find him at a point well after Agent Carter had ended.  Meaning there could be some critical early days of Shield backstory here as well.

Written by James and Sharla Oliver they’ve done Paradise Lost, The Patriot, The Honeymoon.

9. As I have Always Been

Episode LIL Directed…YAY!  

Clark said this was one of his favorites of the season.

Lil directing means Jemma will be light in both it and 8.

This screams something to do with Enoch to me (like i hear him saying it when i read it), its pretty much what he said to Fitz before he gassed him.  In the trailer we see Enoch seemingly getting left behind as the the Zephyr Jumps away, stranding him in time.  It also means if we lose sight of him for a bit we might need to be concerned about him getting co opted by the evil Chronicoms and used against the team.  It should also be said that Enoch was on the planet for centuries, it could be only a matter of time before they come across his past self.

I feel this could also speak to Robo Coulson doing some soul searching about who he is now and coming to terms with the whole LMD thing.

Written by Drew Greenberg, another one of the long time heavy hitters.  Dirty Half Dozen, Who you Really Are, Absolution, Wake Up, All the Comforts of Home, and Leap.

10. Stolen

Well this screams someone getting kidnapped and/or having their memories messed with.  It could also speak to an item stolen or stolen time.  This is the point where we really could see Fitz coming back into the mix more.  This is also the point in the Season where everything typically starts to go to poop and the team suffers a major loss.

Targets for kidnapping for me are Robo Coulson as he’s what Shield has been using to keep ahead of the Chronicoms.  Fitz because well it’s Fitz and he’s in hiding for a reason.  Enoch to be used against the team.  

Also worth noting this is the last episode that Enver is listed in IMDB for.

Written by Mark Leitner who is completely new to the writing team.  However vet George Kitson (yes the one they named Kitson after) did the screenplay.

11. Brand New Day

So I think that just like in Season 6, Episode 10′s Stolen is going to be a real kick in the teeth to the team.  In Leap they lost Davis, Piper shot her had, Sarge’s true self really got released, Izel escaped with the “monoliths”, and Mack and Elena were kidnapped.  Out of the Ashes was the team picking themselves back up and starting to fight back.  

Brand New Day also represents new beginnings and a fresh start.  So after suffering a major loss in 10, they are gong to pick themselves up, regroup, and fight back.  But this all but confirms someone is getting kidnapped in 10 for me….looking at Robo Coulson and Fitz still.  

Written by Christopher Fryer he’s another new writer but based on IMDB has been on the production team for a bit.

12.  The End is at Hand

Yeah that is not ominous at all.  And just like The Sign this season hold onto your hats because its going to be a major run up to the end.  I’m fully expecting a two hour series finale event.  

The Chronicoms and if a new baddie is in the mix will have their plan in full motion (I fell like the we need to save this point in history kind of thing will be abandoned in favor of something bigger and scarier), the team will be scattered, some could be prisoners, and my stress level will be through the roof.  

Expect it to end on an insane note just as The Sign did (with May being killed).

Written by Jeff Bell.  As doom and gloom and generally no fun he can be in interviews he has given us some amazing/huge episodes and his last one shouldn’t be any exception.  It may be worth nothing he has a knack for putting Fitz/Fitzsimmons in danger.  Previous credits include 084, Ragtag, What They Become, SOS 1, Maveth, Good Samaritan, World’s End, Real Deal, and Collision Course Part 1.  

13.  WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING FOR

Pause for screaming with @eclecticmuses because this THIS is what we wanted from that first tease!

It’s the PERFECT title for a final episode and all cards are going to be on the table here.  I feel like not only will the team be fighting to save the world as usual but every single one of them is going to have a more personal stake in the game.   

They are literally going to be fighting for THEIR futures as well.   Perhaps even their Past, Presents, and Futures depending on horrible plan they are trying to stop.

There is only one I am willing to theorize on right now because I don’t know what character arcs are coming and how things could change over the season for a lot of the characters.  FItzsimmons. They are going to be fighting for their future, their family, their happily ever after.  Come on Secret Kid Theory!

This is going to be action packed, major fight scenes, emotional as all get out as 7 seasons come to a close.  Their will be wins, their will be losses.  Mack is going to give an epic speech before he falls (sorry still don’t think he makes it) and Daisy will rally the team after he does.

Piper is back!

Written by Jed who has had his hand in every episode and penned some of the biggest ones.  

[aion-rsa]

How Double Dragon’s Abobo Became a Beat em up Legend

https://ift.tt/2F8DPGk

In the late ’80s, video games started featuring over-the-top, meaty musclemen. Metro City had Mike Haggar, a shirtless former wrestler who became mayor and decided that being “tough on crime” meant ridding the streets of criminals with his bare hands, his girlfriend’s psycho boyfriend, and a ninja in Nikes. Circus strongman Karnov scoured the world for adventure and treasure, fighting all kinds of mythical monsters. Bald Bull was trying to dominate both the boxing ring and the arm-wrestling circuit. Gutsman was a jacked construction robot who was later rebuilt as a 40-foot-tall tank centaur.

And then there was Abobo, the gigantic antagonist from Double Dragon. He wasn’t THE antagonist. Hell, in the first game, you fight him within the first two minutes. Despite his low-level status, he’s still far more fondly remembered than the main Double Dragon bad guys like Willy and the Shadow Master. There’s just always been something about this random brute that’s made him special.

Abobo’s journey begins in the original Double Dragon, Technos’ 1987 arcade hit. The game’s story is very simple. A dystopian, lawless, post-nuclear war version of New York City has been overrun by a gang called the Black Warriors or Shadow Warriors or Black Shadow Warriors. (They kind of workshop that name from game to game.) Billy and Jimmy Lee are two martial arts brothers whose mutual friend Marian is captured by gang members. Off they go to lay out everyone in that gang with their bare fists and occasional barrel/whip/knife/baseball bat.

While the cannon fodder is mostly made up of normal-sized guys, out walks Abobo, who makes his entrance by punching his way through a brick wall. From the moment he appears on screen, it’s clear Abobo is meant to stand apart from the rest. He has longer reach, takes more hits, can’t be thrown, and is able to throw Billy and Jimmy like ragdolls. The only guy more dangerous than Abobo is Willy, the final boss, who brings a machine gun to a fist fight.

Weirdly, Abobo has various forms in the game. His initial form is as a bald, pale guy with a mustache. Soon after, we fight Jick, an Abobo clone who closely resembles Mr. T. Later, we face off against an Incredible Hulk version of Abobo. This is post-nuclear war, so I suppose this tracks.

But it was NES port that really delivered the ultimate form of Abobo, whose appearance was seriously altered for the 8-bit console. With orange-brown skin, Abobo is still bigger than everyone else, but also looks inhuman. He has a giant, bald head almost the size of his bulky torso, and a black arch on his face that is apparently a mustache merged with a frown! While the NES version had its own quasi-fighting game mode with everyone redrawn with a bigger and better sprite, Abobo looked exactly the same. You just can’t mess with perfection!

Abobo sort-of-but-not-really appeared in the sequel, 1988’s Double Dragon II: The Revenge. In a game filled with giant enemies, there was a guy named Bolo who looked exactly like Abobo, but with long, black hair. Actually, in retrospect, he looks a lot like Danny Trejo.

Huh.

Abobo sat out of the next few Double Dragon games, as the Lee brothers busied themselves fighting mummies and chubby clowns. But he returned in a very unexpected crossover: 1993’s Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team. The game featured a bizarre team-up between the Dark Queen from Battletoads and the Shadow Warriors. As Double Dragon didn’t have too many memorable boss characters that could stack up to the likes of a giant rat in a singlet, they went with what they could get.

As with the other bosses in the crossover gamer, Abobo was depicted as an absolute giant compared to the Lee Brothers and the Toads. He was also very generic-looking, appearing as a shirtless, bald guy with no ‘stache. Due to the sci-fi nature of the crossover, his storyline ended with him getting booted off a spaceship and sent spiraling through space itself.

1993 also gave us the Double Dragon animated series. Somehow, this thing ran for two seasons (26 episodes) and Abobo was there from the beginning. The first episode was a weird Saturday morning-style retelling of the NES game’s plot, down to Billy Lee having to fight his “evil” brother at the end. Abobo acted as a henchman, alongside a very colorful take on Willy.

In the cartoon, Abobo was a bald muscleman with blue skin, meaning he has the same mysterious complexion situation as Captain N’s King Hippo. Abobo was also strangely competent on the show, all things considered, although the only fighting he ever did was throw oil drums at Billy and miss every single time. He spent more of his time annoyed at Willy, who was depicted as a psychotic cowboy with a laser gun — one-half Yosemite Sam and one-half the Interrupter from Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

The second episode introduced the Shadow Master, who immediately showed disgust at his underlings’ failure by magically bonding Willy to a giant mural of punished souls. Abobo tried to run for it, but succumbed to the same fate. The two would remain in that mural for the rest of the series.

While there was a fighting game released based off of the Double Dragon cartoon, Abobo wasn’t part of the roster. It was just as well. Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls was a really bad game and Abobo had bigger things on the horizon.

Abobo was about to go Hollywood!

In 1994, Imperial Entertainment Group released the Double Dragon movie, a total cheesefest that couldn’t make back its $8 million budget. But Robert Patrick’s scenery-chewing main villain made the movie almost watchable. The story takes place in a version of Los Angeles that’s a cross between The Warriors and No Man’s Land from the Batman comics. Billy and Jimmy are teens who get roped into a plot that involves two dragon-shaped necklaces that form an all-power medallion when put together.

Initially, Nils Allen Stewart plays the gang leader Bo Abobo. As head of the Mohawk Gang, he’s there to act all intimidating in a goofy ’90s bully sort of way, but he really doesn’t actually do much. He takes part in a car chase and teases a fight scene, but nothing happens.

Then, the villain Koga Shuko transforms him into a literal steroid freak with some experimental machine. From there on out, Abobo is played by Henry Kingi in a bloated, rubber suit. Despite being a muscle golem at this point, Abobo STILL doesn’t actually fight anyone and is instead kidnapped by Power Corps.

Abobo eventually sees what he looks like in the mirror. Broken over what he’s been transformed into, he turns on Koga and…still doesn’t fight anyone. He just gives Power Corps some advice to help turn the tide against the bad guys. At the end of the movie, he asks the Lee Brothers if they could be buddies and recklessly drives their car.

Yeah, it’s…almost something. Not the awfulness of Super Mario Bros, but not the good-for-the-time quality of Mortal Kombat. It’s also not quite as fun-bad as the Street Fighter movie, but it does share one major similarity to it.

Much like Street Fighter, the Double Dragon movie had its own fighting game spinoff. Rather than a one-on-one fighter featuring digitized actors (which was the original idea until it wasn’t deemed viable for the deadline), Technos put together a Neo Geo animated fighter that isn’t so well-known these days due to how run-of-the-mill it was. It looked like your average SNK fighting game, with no real identity of its own. The game was released for arcade, Neo Geo CD, and PlayStation.

The 1995 fighting game was loosely based on the movie’s plot and featured some FMV clips. Showing up from the movie are Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee, Marian, Shuko, and Abobo. The rest of the roster is made up of original characters, though Technos did redesign Burnov, the Big Van Vader-looking boss character from Double Dragon II: The Revenge. Abobo more closely resembles his initial, more human-looking form from the movie, complete with mohawk, although he’s cartoonishly big in the game. Fortunately, he occasionally transforms into his blobby, tumor-like mutant form during certain moves and winposes.

His ending in the game features him eating a lot of meat at a restaurant, demanding to eat meat so rough that it’ll make his teeth bleed. Heh. And Roger Ebert said video games aren’t art.

Read more

Games

Double Dragon and Kunio-kun: Retro Bundle Coming Soon

By Rob Leane

Games

Double Dragon 4: Story & Multiplayer Modes Detailed

By Matthew Byrd

After the inexplicable crossover, animated series, failed movie, and fighting game tie-ins, Double Dragon as a franchise was finally spent. As the arcade scene died down in the late ’90s, the side-scrolling beat ‘em up disappeared for a time, and it would be a little while before nostalgia for it would kick in.

Fortunately, there was still some juice left in the fighting game genre, and in 2002 the Neo Geo had just enough time left before SNK’s hardware line was discontinued. The company Evoga developed what was, for a time, meant to be a Double Dragon fighting game, but ultimately the team wasn’t able to secure the rights and was forced to make the game with a knockoff cast of characters. The result was Rage of the Dragons, a tag-team fighting game featuring Billy Lewis, Jimmy Lewis, and Abubo…

Abubo does not have a tag partner and is instead a mid-boss so powerful that it takes two opponents to stop him. He’s depicted as a low-level mob boss with a ponytail, sunglasses, pink tank top, and overly-long, muscular arms. It’s a decent enough redesign of the original, but…Abubo? That’s the best they could come up with?

As for the official Double Dragon, it made its comeback a year later. Double Dragon Advance for the Game Boy Advance took the original arcade version, updated the graphics just enough, added more stages, enemies, and attacks, turning this installment into a souped-up take on the classic. This of course meant the return of the real Abobo!

2012 would be a banner year for the musclebound henchman. Since 2002, I-Mockery’s Roger Barr had been trying to develop an Abobo-based fangame, and in early 2012, the free-to-play masterpiece Abobo’s Big Adventure was released to the public and we were better for it.

Using 8-bit graphics, the game follows Abobo as he searches for his kidnapped son Aboboy. Each level is based on a different NES title and features a dizzying amount of Easter eggs. There’s a Double Dragon level, underwater Super Mario Bros. level, Urban Champ, Legend of Zelda, Balloon Fight, Pro Wrestling, Mega Man, Contra, and finally Punch-Out. The game is an absolute blast, especially for anyone who grew up with the NES and features such whacked out moments as:

Abobo mating with the mermaid from Goonies 2, which gives him a forcefield powerup made up of Abobo/mermaid hybrid babies, one of which begs for death!

An Abobo vs. Amazon wrestling match that includes the summoning of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Roddy Piper, and Undertaker assists in the form of Pro Wrestling sprites.

Taking on Krang’s giant robot body with Kirby in the abdominal area.

An incredibly long and over-the-top ending that gets extremely and laughably violent. If you’ve ever wanted to see a muscular child drink blood from the Shredder’s dismembered arm, this game is for you!

In terms of OFFICIAL nostalgia, 2012 also saw the release of Double Dragon Neon for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (and later PC). Using 3D graphics, the game was a modern update of Double Dragon’s playstyle while playing up the 1980s aesthetic. It was a lot more ridiculous than the original series. In fact, it’s more in line with the Battletoads crossover since this game also lets you launch Abobo into the deep recesses of outer space to die.

This game also gave us the first – and, as of this writing, only – polygon Abobo. This time a towering, hunched over brute with lots of spiked armbands. All that AND the mustache!

But of those two 2012 releases, Abobo’s Big Adventure is surprisingly the better game in terms of its portrayal of the big man, as it solidified his status as nostalgic beat em up icon.

In 2017, Arc System Works put together Double Dragon IV for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Rather than emulate the arcade original’s aesthetic, the game took its art style from the NES games. That meant the return of the classic NES Abobo as not only a recurring enemy but an unlockable playable character. Double Dragon IV actually lets you play through the story mode as various enemy characters, but honestly, who else would you pick in that situation? Well, maybe Burnov.

Sadly, playing as Abobo in Double Dragon IV leads to a non-ending. I know you can’t improve on “Abobo punches Little Mac’s head off so hard it transcends time and space,” but at least TRY!

Around the same time, another game tried to play up Abobo’s ironic/iconic status. River City Ransom: Underground was released for the PC in early 2017. The River City Ransom series has always had ties to Double Dragon, but this high school brawler goes the extra mile by putting Abobo on a big pedestal. First off, he’s the school principal. If you attack any of your teachers, you’re sent to Principal Abobo’s office to suffer a serious slap on the wrist, shoulder, jaw, spine, etc. Sometimes he’ll even enter classrooms by punching holes through the brick walls, all while shirtless and talking like the Hulk.

Even better than that? Abobo’s not only the school principal but the Mayor of River City! No wonder everyone’s always kicking the shit out of each other! God bless Mayor Mike Haggar for being a true trendsetter.

The Double Dragon/River City connection only grew stronger when 2019 brought the absolutely must-play River City Girls. As the story goes, River City Ransom heroes Kunio and Riki have been kidnapped, so their badass girlfriends Misako and Kyoko go on a violent rampage to save them. Early in the game, while Misako and Kyoko fighting in a classroom, there’s a projector playing a short film about a boy learning about puberty.

It just so happens that the kid in the video is being taught by Abobo, who thanks puberty for his monstrous size and strength. This, my friends, is foreshadowing, as Abobo shows up later in the game as a boss.

Misako and Kyoko confront Abobo about their missing boyfriends, and Abobo admits that he isn’t sure whether or not he kidnapped them since he kidnaps a LOT of people. They throw down and we’re treated to the most powerful take on Abobo yet, considering the length of his life bar. Once defeated, Abobo admits that he has nothing to do with the missing boyfriends, but gives the heroes a lead by talking about his side job as security for an upcoming concert.

In 2020, Arc System Works released a collection for PS4 and Switch called Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun Retro Brawler Bundle. It collects 18 8-bit games, including the three NES Double Dragon games, River City Ransom, and all the old spinoffs from the River City Ransom universe. And who’s on the cover?

Yes, despite technically being in one game out of 18, and not even being the final boss of any of them, Abobo gets a major spot on the cover of this huge collection among the games’ hero characters. Finally, the world understands that Abobo is a star. Now we just need Abobo to appear in Guilty Gear Strive and then we’ll really be cooking.

The post How Double Dragon’s Abobo Became a Beat em up Legend appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Gl5jJ9

[rambleonwithrosie]

Hello my lovely thirst babies! (It's what I call my followers)

For all of you new followers hi! Welcome! Enjoy the music and stay for the cute dish that is Queen's drummer.

All you previous 200 followers know that when I hit a milestone of 50 I always do a 50 questions type thing.

This one is gonna be all Queen!

(Also thank you everybody for sending a post from 0 to 500 notes in roughly one day!)

Opinion on Freddie Mercury calling himself "Mr. Farenheit"? It's adorable and almost like a little play on words with his birth name of Farrokh

Early 80's porn star Freddie or late 80's suburban dad Freddie look? Well I guess dad Fred because I'm not a stache person and the less facial hair and the shorter the better!

Stone Cold Crazy or I'm Going Slightly Mad? Tough choice but I'm Going Slightly Mad is the one I heard first and it's one of my favorites off of Innuendo. Sheer Heart Attack would be a great album even without Stone Cold Crazy

If Freddie asked you to house sit for him would you do it? Unless the cats are somewhere else no. I'm allergic and prejudiced against cats.

Satanic Prawn Onesie from It's A Hard Life music video or Disco Ball Red Devil Romper stage costume? Anything is better than the 800 eyed abomination

Get Down Make Love or Body Language? Get Down Make Love because at least musically it has some quality even if lyrically it's utter garbage (well if you chop off the first part it's not the worst)

Freddie in I Want to Break Free video or in Radio Ga Ga? Radio Ga Ga outfits always win. Plus other than the blouse I personally wouldn't wear anything Fred has on in I Want to Break Free

Opinion of Delilah? I think even if I actually liked cats I'd still cringe at it. As it is I definitely do not enjoy it

Bohemian Rhapsody or Bicycle Race? Oooh see Bicycle Race was my fav as a kid but BoRhap is legendary... I guess Bicycle Race because nostalgia and Star Wars!

Favorite 70s Freddie outfit?

Fat Bottomed Girls or Tear It Up? Ooh. Tear It Up. It's so delightfully naughty and grinds so hard. It's my dirty jam

Brian song you would really go all-out air-guitaring to? Tie Your Mother Down

Sail Away Sweet Sister or 39? I love the nerdiness of 39. But Sail Away Sweet Sister speaks to me and the main character of the novel I'm writing a lot. So gotta be SASS

"Hammer to Fall" or "Headlong"? Hammer to Fall probably. It's such a power jam. Not that Headlong isn't. It's also less dirty and it's on one of the best Queen albums ever

Favourite Brian solo? Oooh. Probably Tie Your Mother Down (I honestly can't recall if it has a solo. I just know it slams really hard and I live for that intro)

Briana in "I Want to Break Free" or Death in "It's a Hard Life"? Aghh. I love sassy Brianna but death is the only remotely sane looking one in Its A Hard Life

Favourite Brian solo song? I don't know a lot so Driven By You I guess

If you could spend a weekend with Brian, what would you do? Take nature hikes and talk about music and C S Lewis works and play with hedgehogs if at all possible

Would you rather stargaze with Brian or study in a science library with Brian? Stargaze for sure. I love it anyways and then he'd know all this brainy stuff that might put me to sleep but would still be fascinating

Favourite photo of Brian? I want his shawl thingy. Glam bastard.

Is Deaky one thicc bih in your opinion? He is certainly the thickest member of Queen. Have you guy's seen his apple bottomed ass of perfection?

If you could redo John's hair for Radio Ga Ga how would you do it? Maybe spiky with gel or something. Anything to reduce the electrocuted squirrel look

Describe John Deacon using 5 foods? Celery. Tall and kind of forgotten but essential. Onions because he's so savage at times he could make you cry. Hazelnuts because his hair and he's earthy and complex. Cheese because you are what you eat. And cherries but the tart pie kind not the sweet ones.

Where would you take Deaky on vacation? Hmmm. Some place with not a lot of people. I feel South America somewhere. Maybe a beach or to Patagonia

Favourite Deaky song? You're My Best Friend timeless and sweet

If you could give Deaky a new nickname what would it be? Salty the Hermit Crab

Favorite Deaky facial expression? His soft blushy sort of modest smile. Especially in the 70s.

Favorite photo of Deaky?

Favourite Deaky outfit?

Favorite salty Deaky face?

Which Monty Python sketch does Roger remind you of? The Encyclopedia Salesman because he could charm his way into somebody's house and sell them anything like the time he bs-ed that he was a Hoover vacuum salesman with I want to say John

Favourite harmonising by Roger? Probably Somebody to Love. He adds so much to those harmonies. And when they do it live it's even more noticeable but in a different way

What kind of car do you think I'm In Love with My Car is about? Whatever it is I see it as red. Probably a red Ferari. Or that's what I see and I'm sure Rog wouldn't have said no to one of those

You can have Roger do one of the (metaphorical) things to you that he mentions in "I'm in Love with My Car", what do you choose? Well giving him a thrill while my radials squeal does sound pleasant 😉😍😈

Favorite Roger Taylor solo work? Original composition it's probably Let's Get Crazy off of Fun In Space but if we're counting songs he covered Racing in the Street HANDS. DOWN! It's my fav song all time now. It and Brandy by Looking Glass

If Roger was an accessory, what would he be? Sunglasses of course 😎😎😎

"Modern Times Rock and Roll" or "Loser in the End"? Modern Times Rock N Roll. That song is not long enough. I love it.

You can talk to Roger for the rest of your life or have one night of passion with him, which do you choose? This is torture... but you didn't say I couldn't make out with him @squeezemylemon so trap there. I'm gonna talk to Rog and make out with him but no night of passion sadly. I'll still be happy kissing and chatting and being friends with a side of inspecting each other's tonsils with our tongues 😉😁😂

Favourite stage outfit of Roger's?

You can have a three-way with two different Rogers... 1) Do you do it? 2) Which Rogers (photo examples are encouraged)? Not my thing but I'm such a thirsty bitch for Rog that in this case hell yes. Sign me up for this sandwich right here

Brian or Freddie singing "'39"? Brian all the way baby. He has that perfect folk singer type voice

Which songs from other bands best describes each member? Brian is Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. Freddie is Elton's 'Rocket Man'. Roger's anthem has to be 'Big Spender' even if musically the style isn't him, musically he's Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen. John is Beethoven's 5th Symphony or The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel but don't ask me why

The members of Queen as characters from the Muppets? Hmm. John is one of the salty old guys from the audience. Roger/ina is miss Piggy because he's such a diva. Bri would be Kermit for somehow patiently dealing with Piggy!Rog. And I had to Google the other Muppets and found one named Pepe the King Prawn and if that isn't Freddie Mercury I don't know what is

The members of Queen as the Avengers? Brian is Director Fury (he counts as an Avenger right?) John is The Hulk, Freddie is outrageous Iron Man of course and Roger is Hawkeye full of sass quips and sex appeal

Queen as cake flavors? Freddie is Cherry Chocolate. John is Lemon. Brian is a really dark chocolate that probably has coffee flavoring to it. Roger is strawberry.

Queen as Classic Hollywood actors? I weirdly want to say Freddie as Clark Gable but I think he's more Douglas Fairbanks. Brian is Lawrence Olivier. John is William Powell. And Roger would be James Dean (he counts right?)

FMK: Rogerina, Briana, Frederika? Fuck Rogerina obvs. Briana is a suitable housewife. And as usual poor Fred gets killed. Sorry.

Which song would you have liked to have been around the composer as they created it? Well as much as I want to say a Roger song I'd be too busy distracting him for that to work so I'm gonna say Brian writing Dragon Attack

Favorite album art/cover? The Game. 1980 Rog in leather is my sexuality. Otherwise I'd probably say Sheer Heart Attack

Who or what is the (not actual) love of each band member’s life? Freddie's was the 4000 cats. Roger's amore is cars of course. John is in a committed relationship with cheese on toast. And Brian is a slut who while he's married to Red Special he goes around having affairs with badgers and faucets/taps

Thanks again @squeezemylemon and @zestysexmachinefromzanzibar for helping with all of these questions!

[doomonfilm]

Review : VHYes (2020)

Back when we were still allowed to visit movie theaters without restrictions, I kept myself informed in future films to cover by those wonderful trailers at the beginning of movies.  80% of the time you see the same four or five trailers, but depending on the quality of theater you frequent, there is a chance that you may find film-lovers that choose a variety of trailers to place in front of films.  As 2019 came to a close, one extremely odd trailer had me excited for the year that could have been : VHYes.  I missed my chance to see it in a theater (for now), but thanks to Hulu, I was able to finally catch it and put it into consideration for my 2020 wrap-up.

On Christmas of 1987, Ralph (Mason McNutty) and his family receive a VHS camcorder as a gift.  Ralph immediately takes to the camera like a duck to water, filming his mother (Christian Drerup) and father’s (Jake Head) actions, as well as much of the content he sneaks watches on late night television.  Ralph soon learns that the videotape he is using contained his parents’ wedding, but due to complications in their relationship, nobody is too upset by it.  Sadly, this lack of caring about the wedding tape begins to mirror Ralph’s parents’ relationship and the way it is falling apart.  As Ralph and his buddy Josh (Rahm Braslaw) continue to explore the world through their VHS adventures, it quickly becomes apparent that their world is rapidly falling apart.  

VHYes falls into the company of films like The Kentucky Fried Movie or Amazon Women on the Moon with its irreverent comedic approach, tapestry of events and vast range of appearances from different actors and actresses.  The film also instantly brings nostalgia to mind with its VHS-based look, a testament to the fact that the entire film was shot on VHS and Betacam equipment.  Many will also overlook the fact that the film serves as an abstract period piece, with tons of costuming and set design that screams of the 1980s aesthetic, the last of what many would consider the simpler times.

Though not the strongest of narrative structures, the balance of having a kid escape into new technology to avoid problems at home versus a series of abstract vignettes works surprisingly well.  The characters built outside of the main “plot” (if you want to refer to any aspect of this film as plot driven) serve as escapists enjoyment, similar to an action figure or a comic book, as each new element introduced has a smaller world build of their own to navigate.  That is what makes this tangled mess so wonderfully strange when all of the aspects find their way into occupying the same space, thus creating a world breaking event that further blurs our receptive lines.

The channel-flip aspect of the editing keeps us holding on from narrative beat to beat, as our curiosity is heightened with each new odd aspect thrown into the overall mix.  The humor is completely off-beat, oscillating between a complete opposite tone of the 1980s era and a very ham-fisted mockery of the era (in all the best ways one can be ham-fisted).  The VHS and low-budget, low technology look helps tie everything together, both for us as viewers and in regards to the diverseness of the stimulus mixed into the visual stew.  

As far as characters go, it is hard to really and truly break down performances, as everyone holds down extremely unique, puzzle piece-like forms that bring the bigger picture together.  Mason McNutty and Rahm Braslaw bring their youth and wonder to the viewer perspective, giving us a sort of baseline in regards to how we are meant to process the stimulus given.  Jake Head emits the frustration of a man who feels as if his potential has been stunted due to a wife and kid, while Christian Drerup moves through the proceedings with a sort of disconnected, inward happiness that plays as acceptance of the situation fueled by unconditional love for her son.  Outside of that, it’s best to let the wave of familiar comic faces present themselves to you in the form of a watch, as the characters that inhabit the world of the VHYes television programming often defy basic description. 

This film is definitely tough to write about, as it is more of a low level drug trip than it is a standard narrative-based movie.  That being said, if you find yourself bored by traditional fare, then VHYes may be worth your time and attention.

[missconduct]

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

Oh yeah and don’t forget to tag 9 people.

I usually don’t do these. It’s not that I’m anti-social or anything I just don’t post much about my personal life outside of fandom on the internet. This one is pretty cool and not too invasive though so I’m in...

Relationship status- Married to my best friend.

Favorite colors: Red, Black, and White

Top 3 Ships- Reylo, Reylo, and Reylo, I’m not really a shipping kind of person but this ship hooked me, it’s intriguing, interesting, and I see it as a beautiful dynamic. Plus the chemistry between Adam and Daisy is amazing.

Lipstick or chapstick- would I be to much of a Rebel if I said Lipgloss or carmex lol I use both on almost a daily bases.

Last Song- Kiss with a Fist by Florence and the Machines.

Last Movie- Mayhem directed by Joe Lynch. I can’t get enough of that movie right now it’s amazing. Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving are incredible in that movie.

Top 3 shows- idk if this is for recent or of all time but I’m going with all time top 3.

3. My So Called Life I’m still hoping someday I’ll find out what happened after they cancelled that show. It was really cool and I fell in love with Jared Leto. His character was every crush I ever had from 2ond grade through adulthood lol

2. Is a tie between Cheers and Frazier. They are both by the same writers and both made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants at times.

1. Game Of Thrones, the most unique story full of characters and mythology that I love.

Top 3 Bands/Artists- I literally can’t answer this question because music is such a huge part of my life. It’s like asking me to pick with chocolate I love best when I love them all so much. And I love so many different genres of music I can’t even begin to classify myself according to my taste in music. it would leave me confused about who I am and send me plumitting into a severe identity crisis lol I love all music is my answer to this so I’ll just name some of my favorites that come to mind; Joan Jett, Janice Joplin, Patsy Cline, The Ramones, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Dead Kennedy’s, Joy Division, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Elton John, Freddy Mercury... this list goes on for a long while so I’ll stop here lol

I am currently reading- Ready Player One. This is a great book. This is the second time I’ve read it. I’m doing a review with my brother soon on my YouTube channel podcast before the film is released because hot damn this book was incredible. If anyone has a chance to read this book do it trust me when I say you will love this story especially if you love 80’s nostalgia.

Anyway that’s me 😊

[simplyfandomish]

MARVEL Headcanon

so I’ve been mulling this over and imagine when Peter Quill and Steve Roger meet:

 Both are “men out of time" 

Peter=30 years 

Steve=70+ years 

 so both are confused little old beans in an entirely new societ/world

 Peter’s devastation when he finds out all of his favorite old musicians have passed away - Michael Jackson and David Bowie especially

 Steve is Peter’s guide as the former has had time to get used to this new era

Peter being his usual self, even though deep down he’s freaking the f out

Peter being in absolute awe that he’s in New York City, it’s always been his childhood wish to visit the Big Apple. The alien guardians are amazed at Earth in general

Even though they try to accept new things, both continuously have those heavy feelings in their guts they missed out on multiple eras; who wouldn’t feel weird??

Both console in each other over this "feeling”

 And to lose the angst - Dear Marvel, we need Chris x Chris to happen bro wise, not romantically

fingers crossed for Infinity War

Of course with the help of the Avengers, both learn to become properly acquainted with today’s crazy times

Peter helps Steve with the 80’s as he still has all the cool retro shiz stored in the Milano

Troll Dolls™

Walkman Mix Tape Jams™

Full House marathons because Peter no doubt has a man crush on Uncle Jesse

Footloose-athon for both the Cap and Gamora. 

“See there’s no sticks up their butts.” -P

 "What???“ -S

Movie and TV-athon’s for nostalgia and intellectual purposes

Nirvana ✓

Star Wars  ✓

Marvin Gaye’s "Trouble Man" ✓

Now let’s get metal papa in on the mix!

basically everything above^^

Our angsty robotic cinnamon roll has been around for all the generations, but he couldn’t experience them as he was too busy smashing heads and shootin guns

So when Peter comes into the mix and insists on showing our super soldiers life through the times he’s vv eager

He wants to know the big deal about parachute pants, tie-dye everything, fanny packs, and the mullets and perms 

Basically Peter is the 80’s professor, while Steve and Bucky are his eager students

Tony would like to help in the lessons, as he was a teen in the 80’s, but everything fell apart after Civil War - so Peter is now called Professor Peter Quill 

nobody calls him this

Our three boys making pillow and blanket forts to watch their marathons

Basically, Peter genuinely wants to help these large cinnabuns with what they missed out on throughout the years which means: TV, music, and movie marathons from throughout the ages - the whole nine yards!

 "Tom and Jerry”. Steve and Bucky’s homage to their childhood. Any classic cartoon is on their list tbh

“I Love Lucy”. 

Fight me on this (ง •̀_•́)ง

 "The Twilight Zone". Steve and Peter quiver in their blankets at the thrill, while Bucky just munches on popcorn

 "Wonder Woman". Because Linda Carter is fiiinnnneee

“Happy Days”. Because it’s a classic 

“ALF” and “Mork and Mindy.” Because aliens. 

Peter finds it hilarious how off the writers were of alien life forms and behaviors.

“Peter, no one knows aliens exist.” “There’s a mantis girl and a tree man in the next room. And we’re gonna be fighting an evil, giant eggplant - you really wanna have this debate?”

Anndddd finallyyy “Golden Girls”?? Anybody on board with this??

And I think my heart just died for these boys

[theretroperspective-blog]

Is "Trolls" About Battling Depression? Or is it Just Me?

“Trolls” DreamWorks, 2016

So. “Trolls” came out November, 2016, but I didn’t get to see it until around March of this year. And I LOVES IT. While I really, REALLY loved all the songs and characters, what hit me hardest was the story they had to tell - at least, the story I heard them telling, which I thought was about fighting depression.

I’ve had depression and anxiety my whole life, and what’s helped me the most (well, the pills help, too), is movies. If you’ve followed this Tumblr, or know me at all, you’ve already figured that out. Movies have taught all of us a lot, and can be a helluva catharsis, therapeutic in many ways.

I also don’t seek out movies ABOUT depression. The subject might be part of a film’s subtext, or even a B - line, but not usually the main focus.

“Trolls” was just supposed to be a fun movie. It had Zooey Deschael, Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” as a major part of the soundtrack, and felt-like, stylized CGI I hadn’t seen before (well, not as much of it as is in this movie).

I guess quirky nostalgia is a thing of mine.

By the end of this thing, I was sobbing like a baby deer with a dead mom, all snotty and choking on my own spit. It was great! I told my best friend Missy that I wanted to blog about my ‘theory’, but wondered - I couldn’t be the ONLY ONE who made the connection, right? I figured that if I looked online (mistake #1), I would find a review (mistake #2) that thought the same (mistake #3).

Take a DEEP BREATH with me…

QUICK-ISH STORY BREAKDOWN

To begin, these aren’t the trolls from the 70’s and 80’s. The minute-sized pencil toppers with a shock of primary colored tuff have been replaced with neon-toned smurf-a-likes that (most of them) wear clothes and fart glitter. 20 years ago they escaped Bergen Town where they’d been trapped by the Bergens, gigantic in comparison to the trolls, and that reminded me of the trolls from the 1980’s Christmas cartoon “The Trolls and the Christmas Express”, both ironic AND nostalgic! The Bergens caged the trolls in a tree in the center of Bergen Town in order to use them to celebrate the annual Trollstice; wherein every Bergen had the chance to EAT a troll, and thus gain True Happiness.

However, King Peppy (sir Jeffrey Tambor) leads them all on a fantastic escape, and saves every - last - one (AKA - setting the precedent), and finds them all a new home - about a mile away, but the trolls are tiny, and have camo-effect, so they’re settled for the next 20 years (and start of the story).

Until Princess Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) decides to throw a rager on the anniversary of their escape, to celebrate not being dead. The only one who protests this plan is Branch (that’s Justin Timberlake), a broody, loner-type with a sad backstory who of course winds up helping Poppy (because every princess in every story needs help… #bitterfeminism). But their relationship feels authentic, showing the steps the two wind up going through to become as close as they do by the end of the movie.

And on that point - SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS

Branch has to help her because her party included screaming-loud electronica, complete with blasting bass and fireworks. And that grabs the attention of the exiled Bergen Chef (oh god I love her Christine Baranski), who’s been kicked out of Bergen Town when the trolls escaped, and ever since then has just been waiting on the outskirts for her opportune moment. When she sees the party and reaches the troll village, she grabs all of Poppy’s closest friends, taking them back to Bergen Town and fully intent on coming back and finding the rest later.

Back in Bergen Town, Chef presents the captured trolls to Prince Gristle (Christopher Mintz Plase), and begins to work on programming him to believe completely that happiness can only come from eating the trolls, that only SHE can provide. But what the prince doesn’t know is that the scullery maid Bridget (Z.D.) is frantically in love with him, and ends up getting a makeover and friendship from Poppy, who of course travels to Bergen Town to rescue her friends, and has brought a 'reluctant’ Branch, who eventually gets his own chorus for the tragic backstory flashback where the reason why he doesn’t sing is revealed. In the end, everyone learns how to be happy on their own terms, people fall in love, and find their places in their world.

That is BASIC outline material. What I can’t show you are the musical numbers that hit you almost out of nowhere (I won’t hear Simon & Garfunkles’ “Sounds of Silence” the same way again), the most poignant being Kendrick’s spritely rendition of the original song “Get Back Up Again”, where she sings/screams about not letting anything stop her while dodging various predators and near-death experiences that gives it a sardonic twist, helps the medicine go down.

I’VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE

So I’m watching this movie, and I’m wondering to myself - is it just me, or is this movie actually about fighting depression?? And what better way to find out than to randomly peruse the internet, and a Google search later and I had me some revues.

YEESH….

It's fine that not everyone enjoyed this movie, I even expected some backlash of cynicism for something so unabashedly cheerful, bright, AKA 'spunky'. It's a cynical world, and I'm a weird, realistic optimist, but almost every bad review was following one central theme; that this flick is trying to sell you something, and it ain't happiness. Like the review from rogerebert.com by Susan Wloszczyna (11/4/16), who writes: "We are but mere humans, and it will be hard to resist the pre-fabricated pseudo charms of an escapist musical fantasia that invests most of its ingenuity into its insanely infectious soundtrack." I agree with the first part, it IS hard not to like this movie. It's bouncy. It's fun. But I believe she continues to say your enjoyment would be mostly due to the soundtrack only, which is overly critical of the narrative. While the characters aren't any study in depth, they do have actual conversations with each other, act as protagonists that MAKE things happen (as they should), and feel real. They're more than just CGI puppets on the strings of commercialism. You root for Poppy and Branch, both to save their friends AND find common ground with one another. From that same review; "Of course, love eventually conquers all but it can't camouflage the fact that the narrative is so weak that it is not just secondary to the musical numbers, but perhaps even tertiary, considering the merchandising push behind this enterprise." Which was actually pre-empted by "All you have to do is sit through the end credits to see how many bodies were devoted to securing licensing deals (Target.com alone lists 165 tie-in products)." I eye rolled so hard there I have permanent strain. Yes, the music is often spot lit, but in no way does it over-shadow the story that's being told here. From the beginning there's an undertone of empathy, like with baby Prince Gristle's prayer of "Please make me happy Princess Poppy." (Morbid, since he's gonna eat her, but we've all said a prayer that things go right), to King Peppy's regret when he realizes, "...I'm not the King I once was." These are thoughts and feelings we can all say we've had in our lives. That bit about Target - it's true, this movie had a LOT of tie-ins, but it's not shoving it down your throats. Do I believe there's a marketing element? Sure! I think there's marketing in ALL high concept, possible tent-pole studio releases. I'm paranoid like that. At least five of the eleven reviews I read continued on in this line of cynicism. Here's another one, from Matt Goldberg's 11/3/16 collider.com review: "But DreamWorks Animation saw an IP, assumed it was valuable, and that's how we've come to a 'Trolls' movie that no one particularly wants, needs, or should care about..." Now that's just mean. There are a LOT of unneeded, unasked for movies out there that still get made ("Smurfs", "Transformers", "Smurfs 2"). THIS movie has something those don't - a solid message. There was one person that made a critical and exceptional point. From pluggedin.com, "However, always being that euphorically enthused does have its drawbacks. For one thing, it emphasizes to those less happy sorts that they're kinda missing out." THAT ... is a great statement, and very true. In the film the Bergens only realize their inherent depressive state in comparison to the Trolls unending happiness. But it's an important tool in showing the audience the Bergens' state of being, an example of why these guys are searching outside themselves to find the joy they're looking for. THE GOODS OK, enough cynical, downer BS - to the good stuff! Let's start with those musical numbers and how they were used. From Owen Glieberman's 10/8/16 variety.com review; "The films' disco pulse gives it a throb of ecstasy, and this does more than create a handful of kicky musical sequences. It lends resonance to what it really means to be a happy troll - it lifts them out of the realm of the Smurfs or the heroes of a genial mediocrity like 'Gnomes'." That's what I'M saying! In the climax to Act 2, when all the trolls are captured and it looks like they're literally about to be in the frying pan AND the fire, Poppy has lost all hope, and actually turns gray, losing all color and, showing their solidarity, the rest of the trolls follow suit. It's at this moment that Branch finding it in himself to care, sings a beautiful rendition of Cyndi Laupers' "True Colors", and its haunting how well that song fits not only the moment, but the idea that this film is about struggling with sadness, not just in certain moments, but a life-long act of defiance for some of us. It also proves that there was definite thought given to the musical choices, to how they'd fit in the narrative. As Gwen Ihnat from avclub.com put it in her 10/31/16 article; "Trolls may have a lower bar going in, but the movie scales it quickly and admirably by defying conventions, adding both new and familiar musical numbers, and hiding a valuable, Zen-like message in plain sight...Trolls winds up transforming from a prospective toy commercial to a spiritual lesson about being content with what you already have." IS IT ABOUT DEPRESSION OR NOT? To me? Yup. "Trolls" hit that chord hard in me, and maybe it will in you, I'm not sure. I think a lot of moments reached that idea, plus the film has an overall optimism but doesn't punch you in the face with it like a lot of movies for younger audiences tend to do these days. I'd encourage anyone who leans to films that say a little more than intended to check out "Trolls". As for the grumpy pundits on commercialism that can't see the forest for the merchandising - I feel really bad for you, and if you need somebody to talk to, I'm here. "Trolls" is available to rent now or you can catch it streaming on Netflix.

[sejinpk]

Top 5 pre-2000 manga/anime, for the ask meme?

Thanks for the ask! I’ve read almost no manga, so this is gonna be all anime. Instead of just making a list, I thought I’d go into more detail on what I like about these shows that makes them my top 5. I actually keep going back and forth about which I like more between my #1 and #2 picks, so you can probably consider them a tie for #1.

1. Great Teacher Onizuka

Great Teacher Onizuka is easily one of the funniest things I’ve seen, whether animation, live-action, Japanese, or non-Japanese. Onizuka’s faces and the noises he makes are absolutely priceless. Uchiyamada’s (the Vice Principal) faces can be equally priceless. The English dub isn’t *good* (and they have a handful of VAs doing multiple roles), but that just adds to its charm for me in this case (I haven’t seen the Japanese dub). I like how Onizuka helps his students through their problems by teaching them how to become good people, not just good students, even though he’s not necessarily a good role model himself. I like how he views them as people, not students. I like how the show keeps its characters around, and doesn’t sideline them after they’ve had their feature episode(s), so we can see how they interact differently with each other as they grow and change.

FWIW, Urumi Kanzaki and Onizuka are tied for my favorite character from the show.

2. Belladonna of Sadness

Belladonna of Sadness (Kanashimi no Belladonna in Japanese) is an absolute visual treat. Its visuals can be incredibly surreal and metaphorical/symbolic, which I tend to find inherently interesting aesthetically. They can also be pretty psychedelic/mind-trippy at points. The movie was released in 1973, and had never had a U.S. theatrical release until last summer (apparently it had a limited screening here in 2009), when it was restored and shown in 4K. Unfortunately, no theaters in my area showed it, which is a huge shame, as I think it would’ve been incredible to see on the big screen.

I like how the movie handles misconceptions of sexuality as inherently bad: The setting of the story is feudal, so its world’s ideas about sexuality, especially for women, are incredibly limiting. The main character, Jeanne, has internalized that mindset, so she views her sexual awakening as being brought on by the devil. There’s a lot that I’m leaving out, but eventually she makes a pact with the devil, and expects to be thrown into a world of fire and darkness and evil, etc. etc. as a result, but she wakes up and it’s springtime, and it’s lush and green and vibrant. I love that way of conveying Jeanne’s misconceptions about (her own) sexuality and her realizations that her previous mindset was wrong.

Jeanne’s journey and growth and change over the course of the story is something I really enjoyed watching and found very gratifying, both emotionally and thematically/ideologically.

I feel like there’s a lot more I could say about the stuff I mentioned above, including about the movie’s source, and how that informs the movie. I’ll probably write a post about it at some point.

I should also mention that this movie is INCREDIBLY sexually explicit. It had a red band trailer, and is rated Rx on MAL (that’s the rating they give to hentai). I’ve heard it also inspired Kunihiko Ikuhara, one of my favorite anime directors, to work in anime, though I don’t think that’s something he’s confirmed.

3. Mega Man

Mega Man is the first anime I ever saw, well before I even knew what anime was. I remember getting up super early before Sunday school literally every week when I was a kid (I wanna say it was like 5 a.m.), just so I could make 110% sure I was awake when Mega Man started. Like, it was usually about an hour early, because I distinctly remember watching episodes of two other shows before Mega Man came on.

I don’t think it holds up well in terms of “objective” quality, but at the same time, I also don’t think there’s really anything bad about it. It’s a very average, typical, episodic kids’ show. The animation and (especially) art quality can vary wildly from one episode to the next. The one-liners can be pretty bad, though I have a massive tolerance for (read: love of) bad puns, so that doesn’t really bother me. XP

It’s simple fun soaked in nostalgia, but I also love some of the really silly/doofy absurdities here and there. For example, in one episode, a vampire robot created by Dr. Wily hypnotizes a human character into believing she’s a vampire robot. And she actually turns into a vampire robot somehow, even shooting lightning from her fangs. XD In that same episode, Dr. Wily creates a werewolf robot that actually transforms based on moonlight. In another episode, a robot dinosaur lays an egg, which hatches. And in yet another episode, there are lion men who shoot eye beams that turn humans into lion people.

This isn’t the case anymore, but when I was a kid, my favorite episode was the one where Mega Man X, Vile, and Spark Mandrill from the Mega Man X video game make an appearance. As a kid, the Mega Man X games (at that point it was just the first three on Super Nintendo) were my favorite, so I thought that the episode with Mega Man X was the best thing ever. :’D I still want a full-fledged Mega Man X cartoon/anime, preferably based on the earlier games (up through X4 at the latest).

My favorite bad robot used to be Elec Man, because I thought he looked really cool, and also Vile and Spark Mandrill when they had their one-off appearance. More recently (yes, I do still re-watch this show from time to time), I’ve come to really like Proto Man. In general I enjoy his attitude, and I find it amusing that he compliments Mega Man from time to time. I’ve also come to like Roll quite a bit.

4. Yu Yu Hakusho

Of the really long-running (70 to 80+ episodes) shounen stuff I’ve seen, Yu Yu Hakusho is easily my favorite. I love the English dub (I’ve never seen it in Japanese), as well as the English-dubbed versions of the OPs and EDs (man, I miss when companies did that). I really like how much character work and moments there are in the relationships between characters. For a show that has the oft-used theme of friendship that so many shounen shows have, I like how Yu Yu Hakusho handles it, where it’s not just characters supporting each other, but it actually feels a bit more…real? Like, I can easily see these characters hanging out or interacting in very normal circumstances. It’s not just, “Yeah, you can do it! Keep going!”

These are the relationships that have stuck out to me the most:

Yuusuke and Kuwabara

Yuusuke and Keiko (mainly in the 4th season)

Yuusuke and Genkai

Yuusuke and Younger Toguro

Genkai and Younger Toguro

Yuusuke and Raizen

Kuwabara and Shizuru

Kurama and Yomi

There are just so many good moments, too. Some of my favorites are Genkai’s “final” words to Yuusuke in season 2 about having to fight with time to find your place in the world; the stuff between Genkai and Younger Toguro (especially in Spirit World) and their backstory; the stuff between Yuusuke and Keiko before he leaves for Demon World in season 4; Sensui’s final moments; the stuff between Yuusuke and Raizen.

I love how the characters all have such distinct voices and perspectives. Like, Genkai’s views of Toguro, what he did, and why he did it are different than Toguro’s views of those things, and both characters’ views of their own past and present are surprisingly nuanced and complex, given the rather limited screentime those things get. And I love how they both, in their own way, sort of become surrogate parents to Yuusuke. And then, at the end of the series, he also has Raizen, and I love the dynamic the two of them have.

I think maybe the best I can explain what I like so much about Yu Yu Hakusho is that it has the fun stuff that a lot of shounen shows have, the fighting and the superpowers and overall energetic tone, but it also has a lot of meat under the surface, and that meat is woven throughout practically all of the character work in the series, which I think is part of what makes the character interactions and friendship themes in the show seem more real and true to life, somehow, than many of the other shounen shows I’ve seen (I think the English dub helps with this a lot, too).

For a long time, Kurama was one of my absolute favorite anime characters because he embodies what I think is sort of the pinnacle of humanity: he has great intelligence, wisdom, and logical abilities, but he also has tremendous warmth, empathy, and caring. And he sort of uses them to augment one another, like a synthesis/harmonization of these two general aspects that we all have.

5. Princess Mononoke

(Sorry there’s no video here. I couldn’t find an AMV I liked, I can’t think of a particular clip that would be fitting, and I wasn’t too fond of the movie’s trailer, either.)

It’s been a long time since I last watched Princess Mononoke, so this entry is shorter and less detailed and/or in-depth than some of the others.

Generally speaking, I like how the man vs. nature theme is handled. It wasn’t simply man = bad, nature = good. Both sides are given depth and nuance. Further, I like how the nature side is depicted as such, where the animal gods behave more…beastly? animal-like?, if that makes sense.Like, I’m thinking of the way that Moro talked to Ashitaka the night after he’s saved by the Forest Spirit. Nature isn’t humanized, but it’s still presented in a way that you can empathize and sympathize with it.

I like how the movie doesn’t sugar coat anything, as well as how the ending doesn’t tie everything up nice and neat with a bow. The way it ended felt very realistic, which I thought was very much in keeping with the movie’s overall approach.

Honorable mentions:

-Revolutionary Girl Utena

-Serial Experiments Lain

-Neon Genesis Evangelion

-The Vision of Escaflowne

These aren’t actually “honorable mentions,”but I couldn’t think of a succinct way to put it. Rather, the first three of the abovetitles are shows that I feel like, based on my first viewing, if I understoodthem better, could very likely have made it into the list. I think this isespecially true for Revolutionary Girl Utena, based on my first viewing, as well as things I’vecome to understand in retrospect about both the show and itswriter/director/original creator, Ikuhara. As for The Vision of Escaflowne, I’m currently watching it, though I’m only seven episodes in.

Again, thanks for the ask! I had a lot of fun writing this! :)

[passer-fringillidae]

Agent of Chaos, review 3/5

Garcia’s novel is billed as the story of how young Fox Mulder became a believer. Although it provides some tantalizing hints to the greater “Truth” that’s out there, it tells us more about Mulder’s development as a character, specifically as a behavioral profiler

 Agent of Chaos connects well to the grand scheme of The X-Files. It may even provide some clarity for someone, for example, who didn’t grow up with the series, but spent the last year binge watching it. I found Agent Of Chaos an illuminating tie in to the series. Any avid watcher of the X Files will appreciate the details scattered through out this origin story of Fox Mulder.

Full of 80's nerd nostalgia, one is reminded of Stranger Things, but with less other worldly demons and more conspiracy theories. It centers on his evolution into a behavioral analyst, but also delves into how he became a rule breaking little shit, with the help of his “side kick” Gimble, and his equally nerdy, hot friend Phoebe. Garcia provides some nice insight through out the book on Mulder’s key traits; his fixation, and his wise cracking humor in the face of darkness.

Being a teen fiction novel and based on a tv series, the most we get is eye-roll inducing teenage kissing and some disturbing forensic details. Though I do wish Fox would talk about his problems instead of "losing himself in her lips" It’s not bad, just lame. (Spoiler: he doesn’t get better with girls)

Despite taking place a good 30 years before Mulder opens the X Files, the book is not lacking in our favorite recurring theme and characters. Careful readers will spot a great reference to Langley in the first few chapters and a certain chain smoking man. 

The drama doesn't really build in this murder mystery until near the end. Readers unfamiliar with the series might see the connections made to our hero as contrived, or the willfully imaginations of a traumatized teenager, but it’s very true to Fox Mulder as a character. It's one of the things I appreciate about Agent of Chaos, despite its format as a formulaic mystery. While it lacks some of the thrilling supernatural elements of other X-Files tie ins, the characters keep you reading. 

One can't read an X Files novel with out the rational voice of Dana Scully in their head. It's not hard to pick out, absent though she is in this book, Garcia doesn’t forget her voice of reason. Yet again, our heroines are looking after Mulder on his misadventures, so it’s not the greatest when it comes to “Strong Female Characters,” but Phoebe is likable and strong willed. I don’t hold it against the book, and I’m waiting to see how Dana comes across in the companion book, Devil’s Advocate. 

My one strong criticism is the repeated references to Stormbringer. Being unfamiliar with the high fantasy series, I found those parts confusing, and it only has a wikipedia stub. 

Otherwise a nice read in between binge watching. Also works as an introduction to the series with out many spoilers. 

[givencontext]

My Must-Own Albums

When I recently upgraded my cell phone I lost a lot of music that I had imported from my CD collection and transferred from computer to phone for years. I also lost one of my favorite audiobooks that I listen to repeatedly. This has me pondering if I should pull out the old CDs or if I should just pay for these again in a digital format that can live in the cloud. Of course, when it comes to music, I am also a subscriber, so I find myself making more playlists and stations and not buying albums. Sometimes I neglect my love of music because I am so busy listening to audiobooks, but lately I’ve been feeling prone to stress, depression, and panic attacks, so I’ve been giving my brain a break and busting out some of my favorite tunes.

I go to a lot of concerts. One my pro-tips is to look up the set list on setlist.fm and make a playlist of all the songs for all the bands for a show. This allows me to refresh myself on my favorite songs and brush up on the lesser known acts. I recently made this playlist for an upcoming Breaking Benjamin show. I had a ton of their albums on my old phone. I also recently saw Bush (playlist) and Gavin Rossdale asked how many people had their Sixteen Stone album. It was one of the first CDs I owned. All of this got me thinking about how we rarely buy or even stream entire albums anymore. I assume this changes the way albums are made, and I found this Forbes article that agrees with me.

Considering all of this, I wanted to reflect on some of the albums that shaped my life that I will always feel a need to own and listen to in album form. Most of these are motivated strictly by nostalgia with very little musical expertise behind my decision. Bear with me, then share your favorites in the comments.

The Grand Illusion – Styx

This is the first album I owned that didn’t have an image of Strawberry Shortcake or a Care Bear on it. One of my older sisters either gave this to me or left it behind when she moved out. Either way, it was mine, and it was sort of creepy and weird, and I loved it. Some of Styx’s greatest hits come from The Grand Illusion, but if you haven’t listened to the entire album, you are missing out. When I saw them in concert, I lost my mind when they started with the actual song “The Grand Illusion,” because I have attended a LOT of concerts and at the beginning of each one I have had this song in the back of my head…

Welcome to the Grand Illusion Come on in and see what’s happening Pay the price, get your tickets for the show!

I was seriously ecstatic. Plus, my tickets were free, but we all know there’s deeper meaning to that “pay the price” lyric, don’t we? If I could see Styx perform this album from beginning to end, that would seriously be a highlight of my life, but starting their show with this familiar old favorite that started the album definitely took me back to my childhood. This album is almost as old as I am, and we both still have a lot going for us. I recently woke up with Fooling Yourself stuck in my head, and my family only thought it mildly weird that I was busting my moves to it while making my breakfast. Every song on this album is wonderful, and there are only eight of them. If you want your kids to grow up appreciating music, introduce them to this Styx album early.

Licensed to Ill – Beastie Boys

If you were a teenager in the late 80’s/early 90’s, chances are you already own this and have owned numerous copies of it over the years in various formats. This was a monumental album for me, because, let’s face it, I was a (lower) middle class white girl growing up in a small town in Arkansas. Thank god for the little while that our cable company provided MTV, because it introduced us to things like this. Brooklyn was like a foreign country to me, and showing a rap video that featured a guitar solo by Slayer’s Kerry King… let’s just say this was a brilliant way to capture the attention of my metal head friends.

This is one of those albums that I listened to end-to-end so many times that when I hear a song from this album when it ends I automatically start to sing the next song. Paul Revere is probably my favorite rap song ever. I have no shame. I am sure there are better songs and better albums, but this was literally the soundtrack to so much of my youth. It’s a keeper.

Doolittle – The Pixies

I first learned of the Pixies when a boy put “Here’s Comes Your Man” on a mix tape for me, and I still wasn’t sure if this boy liked me or not… I just thought he had killer taste in music. To be frank, no one ever liked me, so assuming he didn’t like me was perfectly reasonable. It was also reasonable to buy Doolittle on my next trip to the “record store” and proceed to wear that cassette out. This is an album that runs like one big, long, complicated song to me. You start with Debaser, end with Gouge Away, and everything in between is sort of a blur. But it’s awesome. When I listen to my iPhone music on shuffle and it gives me just one song from this album, it’s just weird. You have to listen to the whole thing.

True Blue – Madonna

I have never listened to much pop music, but EVERYONE listened to Madonna. This was new when I was about 10 years old, so I have no idea how I came up with the money or got to the store to buy this cassette, but I owned this and listened to it nonstop. I even sang these songs over the phone to my very first boyfriend. He must have thought I was really cool… because he eventually married me. Thanks, Madonna!

An Innocent Man – Billy Joel

This is another one that someone gave me. My dad was a Walmart truck driver, and working for Walmart meant we got to go to the “Sample Store.” One glorious day my mom came home from the Sample Store with a reasonably sized boom box and a cassette. This was an official upgrade from my record player, because I could take it outside! Nevermind that it had a nice big “S” melted into the side of it to designate it as a sample… my music just got portable! Thank goodness my mom had the foresight to understand that a portable cassette player called for a cassette! She probably picked whichever one was cheapest, but however it happened, she brought home Billy Joel. This was prior to whatever spending spree helped me get True Blue. Let’s just say that my friends and cousins were subjected to a LOT of Billy Joel. I might still remember the dance we choreographed to Uptown Girl.

State of Euphoria – Anthrax

Now, when we start to get into metal, we run the risk of this list going on and on and on, so I will wrap up today’s list with State of Euphoria and let’s assume there might be a related post somewhere in our future. This was not my first metal album, and it doesn’t necessarily tie to any significant event in my life. I never even saw Anthrax in concert until a few years ago. This is just a really good album, and I have been listening to it for 30 years. I think this was the album that made me realize how smart heavy metal could be. It includes references to books I had read and movies I had seen. I was 100% certain that me and these guys would have been friends. It also had a brilliant song that used the F word a lot. To my 12 year old self, this was glorious. But I could play the A side of this album without getting in trouble, and I played it so much that my mom would hum along to Be All, End All. This is just a brilliant album that every metal fan should own.

Do you have a list of must-own albums? What are you listening to lately? Leave a comment and let me know!

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[talhaghafoor2019-blog]

Bryan Ferry on how Roxy Music invented a new kind of pop: 'We were game for anything'

More than 45 years ago, a new group released their first album. They didn’t wear denim, nor had they, apparently, paid their dues. Indeed, their heavily stylised presentation – a model posed archly on the cover in a 1950s pastiche, the musicians inside clad in leopardskin and leather with styled quiffs – could not have been more opposed to the rock modes of the day. “Is this a recording session or a cocktail party?” inquired Ferry’s friend Simon Puxley in the liner notes. Before you even got to the music, the record cover was a gauntlet thrown down – an explosion of glamour in a wasteland of faded blue cotton.

“The clothes we were wearing at that time would have put off quite a large chunk of people,” reflects Bryan Ferry. “What I liked about the American bands, the Stax label and Motown, they were into presentation and show business, mohair suits, quite slick. And the cover art, I thought of all the American pop culture icons, Marilyn Monroe: selling cigarettes or beer with a glamorous image. But it was a bit off-kilter as well; there was something a bit strange about it, futuristic as well as retro. All that, instead of a picture of the band, in a dreary street, looking rather sullen. Which was the norm.”

Timeline

Bryan Ferry: his career highlights

1971

Roxy Music form

Bryan Ferry was working as a ceramics teacher in a girls' school after leaving art school in Newcastle, having already played with Roxy bassist Graham Simpson in the band the Gas Board. They began amassing band members, including Brian Eno, eventually recruiting the final piece of the Roxy puzzle, guitarist Phil Manzanera.

1973

For Your Pleasure

Roxy Music's self-titled debut was a hit, as was this second album, which reached No 4 in the UK. It would be the last album with Eno, and features some of Ferry's most evocative performances, from the debonair strut of Do the Strand to the creepy In Every Dream Home a Heartache.

1974

Love is the Drug

Love is the Drug, from the Country Life album, is perhaps the most enduring Roxy hit – an irrepressible disco stomp, with Ferry peacocking through it with a magnificent staccato delivery. It was the band's only US hit, and reached no 2 in the UK.

1976

Let's Stick Together

During a two-year Roxy hiatus, Ferry released a pair of solo albums, with the title track from Let's Stick Together hitting the top five. It's a cover of the blues song by Wilbert Harrison, and Ferry has proven adept at covers down the years – his debut solo album in 1973 featured versions of everything from Piece of My Heart to Sympathy for the Devil, while Roxy Music's cover of John Lennon's Jealous Guy became the band's only No 1 single.

1982

Avalon

The final Roxy Music album was a long way from the fiendishly psychedelic art pop of their first records – it helped define the slick sound of 80s soft rock with tracks such as More Than This. It was released a month before his wedding to Lucy Helmore, a marriage that lasted until 2003.

1990

Fourth son Merlin born

Ferry has four sons: Otis, Isaac, Tara and Merlin. The latter survived a terrible car crash in 2014, while Otis became infamous for his support of fox hunting.

2001

Roxy Music reform

Roxy Music reformed for their 30th anniversary, and went on to tour in 2005, 2010 and 2011. Ferry continued to release solo work, including more cover versions – an album of jazz standards, As Time Goes By, was followed by an album of Dylan songs, Dylanesque.

2010

Olympia

After teasing new Roxy Music tracks for a number of years, including sessions with Eno, Ferry released the songs on his solo album Olympia, which also features Nile Rodgers, David Gilmour, Johnny Greenwood and Flea – plus Kate Moss on the cover.

Thank you for your feedback.

The music inside lived up to the cover’s challenge: a collage of pop-culture nostalgia, hard-rock guitar, piano-driven melodies, stylised high vocals, strange musical structures and experimental sound pictures. Roxy Music’s eponymous album sounded like nothing else in 1971 and 1972 – and like nothing else the group would ever attempt again. Recorded in the first full flush of inspiration, songs such as Ladytron, The Bob (Medley), and Sea Breezes exist outside of their time: a radical synthesis that mapped the future at the same time as it plundered the past.

Watch Roxy Music performing Ladytron on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972

“We were definitely trying to show our versatility,” says Ferry now. “I had lots of musical influences, plus what the band brought to the table.” Lead guitarist Phil Manzanera, he says, “had this Latin heritage, being born in South America”. Saxophone and oboe player Andy Mackay was classically trained. “[Brian] Eno with his deep interest in experimental music. They were specialists in their field. Paul Thompson brought a lot, with his very powerful, earthy drumming, which was one of the features of the Velvet Underground.”

The cover of Roxy Music immediately marked it out from the rest of 1972’s fare

Ferry is talking in his west-London studio. We walk past repeated Warhol Marilyns and sit under a large print of Jerry Hall on the north coast of Anglesey, the cover for Roxy Music’s fifth album, Siren. Wearing a blue jacket, V-neck pullover and tie, Ferry is measured, at once diffident and supremely assured. At 72, he looks great. “The only bit I don’t like is analysing it,” he says of his work. “I do sometimes envy the people who don’t ever have to describe what they’re doing.”

Despite its age and apparent familiarity, Roxy Music’s debut remains thrillingly strange. A new reissue, eight years in the making, traces the development of this revolutionary record that seemingly arrived out of nowhere in June 1972. Combined with the group’s first, 1971 demos, three 1972 John Peel sessions and album outtakes, the songs that would populate Roxy Music come into focus as the bold, honed culmination of lifelong fixations.

Growing up in Washington, County Durham during the monochrome 1950s, Ferry found a lifeline and an inspiration: “I loved American music,” he says. ““From the age of about 10, every week you’d discover somebody new. I was very much into jazz. You know how English people are; there’s a certain amount of musical snobbery. I mean, I loved Little Richard and Fats Domino, but when I heard Charlie Parker for the first time, this was something I really loved, and nobody else who I knew knew anything about him. It’s good to have your private obsessions.”

Roxy Music photographed at London’s Royal College of Art, July 1972 (from left): Phil Manzanera, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Brian Eno, Rik Kenton and Paul Thompson. Photograph: Brian Cooke/Redferns

As a paperboy delivering newspapers and weekly music magazines, Ferry read about more music than he could actually hear. “There wasn’t a great deal of jazz on radio. Radio Luxembourg was very important for emerging pop and soul. The BBC had one or two programmes. When the skiffle thing happened, that was when you started hearing Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy. That intensity of feeling; that’s what I got, hearing Leadbelly with a 12-string guitar, that yearning in his voice, it struck such a magical chord in me.”

He had similar revelations from hearing Lotte Lenya singing the songs of her husband Kurt Weill and the German soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf singing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, He loved the beat poets, TS Eliot and American show tunes. “I liked Fred Astaire, Cole Porter, and I’d hear those songs played by Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billie Holiday. There was a music store in Newcastle where you could go into a booth and listen to stuff. I lived in there.”

While in the sixth form at Washington Grammar, Ferry joined a group called the Banshees, who played R&B in the local clubs – including the famous Club A Go Go that had provided the launch pad for the Animals. In autumn 1964, he entered the fine art department of Newcastle University, where he was inspired by the British pop-artist Richard Hamilton and Warhol associate Mark Lancaster. After completing his degree, Ferry moved to London, where he supported himself by teaching art and ceramics at a Hammersmith school.

Roxy Music began in the late 1960s, after this move to the capital. Having sung R&B and soul with groups such as the Gas Board and the City Blues, he began to pursue the idea of striking out on his own. “In my college band, I had been imitating whichever song I was singing. We used to do quite obscure covers – Bobby Bland, BB King – but by the time I was writing my own songs, I didn’t want to sound too American. At the time, most English bands tried to sound American. Except for people like King Crimson. They had an English voice, which was quite interesting.”

He was convinced that he could start his own band. “First of all, [it was] just me and Graham [Simpson], the bass player. He had been in my college band. He was a very cool guy, into the beat poets, had a huge jazz collection, all those Blue Note records. He was one of the most interesting people in the band, actually. Sardonic sense of humour. Then Mackay, next, then Eno.”

Another early shot of Roxy Music from 1972. Photograph: Brian Moody/Rex Features

Each new addition brought an element that enabled the new group’s individuality. “The oboe was Andy Mackay’s first instrument, his main thing, although he developed into a great sax player. I met Andy because he had a synthesiser. So Andy brought a) the synthesiser and b) the oboe. Eno, of course, manipulated the synth in the band as soon as he joined, really. Those textures: the oboe is very precise, and the synth sounds were washes, colours, textures, mood enhancers, and so on. So, yes, it was a key part of the sound.”

Together with first guitarist Roger Bunn and drummer Dexter Lloyd, Roxy Music recorded their first demos in May 1971, early versions of The Bob (Medley), Grey Lagoons, 2HB, Chance Meeting and Ladytron. “They were all done in Eno’s flat in Camberwell, which is where we ended up doing a lot of rehearsals. There was a derelict house off Portobello Road where we went as well. That’s when it started. I thought of nothing else, I was quite driven to make it all happen. I would carry the tape around to record labels on my days off from teaching.”

A key early supporter was Richard Williams, who featured the group in Melody Maker during august 1971 before they had any whiff of record company interest. Williams had written glowing and informed reviews of, among other things, the recently reissued first three Velvet Underground albums, which piqued Ferry’s attention. “I always seemed to agree with his taste. So I thought, if anyone is going to like my music, it’s going to be this guy, so I sent him the tape. And he phoned me the same day to say how much he liked it.”

Slowly Roxy Music came into their time. With their Velvet Underground influence, they were tapping into similar sources to David Bowie. But the connections went deeper, into the Warholian fusion of pop and art – an approach prompted by Ferry’s friendship with Lancaster, who had worked in the Factory as a screen-printer in the mid-60s. “He was a really influential guy for me. He was the link between us and Richard Hamilton. All of those people were very influential, working with pop imagery.”

Ferry in 1973. Photograph: Ian Dickson / Rex Features

It was Roxy Music’s explicit intention to dissolve the boundaries between high and low. As Michael Bracewell writes in Re-make/Re-model, his account of the group’s founding years, “they chose to inhabit the point where fine art and the avant garde met the vivacity of pop and fashion as an almost elemental force in modern society”.

Produced by King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield, Roxy Music came together over two weeks in March 1972. The range of material is extraordinary: almost every song contains sudden twists and turns, like the galloping Joe Meek-style descent that comes out of nowhere in Ladytron. The opener, Re-Make/Re-Model, begins in party noises and breaks into brief, emblematic solos from each instrument. In Sea Breezes, synthesiser washes introduce a heartfelt torch song, which then segues into a strangulated guitar part: next up is the cocktail doo-wop of the tart album closer Bitters End.

“A lot of the first album is first or second take,” Ferry remembers. “Thinking about the songs, some of them are collage-like, with different sounds and moods within them – they will change abruptly into something else. For instance, Sea Breezes is a slow song, and suddenly moves into this angular, quite opposite mood. I found that interesting, and this band was perfect for that; they were game for anything. We were constantly fiddling around, changing things. I was still trying to find my voice. I [now] think sometimes I’m singing too high, or I should have had another go at that.”

It would have been easy to write Roxy Music off as pastiche – as a few die-hard hippies did at the time – but the feeling is authentic: the love, loss and regret in songs such as If There is Something, Sea Breezes and The Bob (Medley). It’s an album of chance encounters and wistful, evasive memories. “On one hand, you try to shape the emotion, but you’ve got to feel it,” says Ferry, “you don’t analyse as you’re doing it.”

Released in the same week as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Roxy Music entered the UK album charts in late July 1972. Within a month, the group’s first single, Virginia Plain, which wasn’t on the album, was on its way to the Top 10 (it reached No 4). Referencing an art college painting by Ferry, it distilled Roxy’s art-pop manifesto, “what’s real and what’s make-believe”. “It is much more confident,” Ferry says. “We’d made an album and we knew how to do it – sort of. Everyone was featured. It had oboe, the synth, the drums are powerful, and the lyrics were much more assured. I was still finding my feet as a songwriter.”

Roxy Music: 10 of the best

Roxy Music had no sense that the album would reach a mainstream audience. “We thought art students; people like us; limited interest; underground. Coming overground was … interesting.” When did he realised Roxy Music were really taking off? “I suppose when I heard Virginia Plain on midday radio. When the record came out, we were still playing tiny places – driving up to Scarborough or somewhere to play in a club. Hearing Virginia Plain on daytime radio, that felt like … something. Or seeing this album filling the record store window in King’s Road, which is where we went to the manager’s HQ. That was quite moving for me. Walking past, at night, and they’d just filled the window, I couldn’t believe it. It was so great, seeing the image repeated.”

Like a Warhol, you mean? “Exactly, yeah.”

Roxy Music: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is out now on Universal (£130). A 2-CD version is also available (£20)

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[itsworn]

Rare Lightweight 1964 Plymouth Belvedere Still Hits the Track with Mucho Gusto

Like many of the local kids his age, George Edwards was a car crazy juvenile who was just itchin’ to get behind the wheel of his own potent ride. His dad was in the trucking business, and good ol’ pop saw fit to feed George’s passion for horsepower by buying the teenager his first ride at 14. Still too young to legally drive, George settled on turning wrenches on his “new” Model A, and waiting it out until the great state of Pennsylvania would finally let him get a driver’s license to call his own.

In the meantime, George obtained another ride, a ’48 Ford coupe, which he quickly turned into a stock car to race at the local circle track. Since he was still under age, he had to watch another guy drive his racer around the track while he manned the pits. But relief was just around the corner, as the young gun would soon turn 16, and with that celebrated day, his world would become a much happier place.

With license in hand, George hit the strip running. He realized that living life a quarter-mile at a time was what he wanted to do. So he built up a succession of hot rides, starting with a ’35 Ford sedan, which he raced C/Gas solely at his local track, the Pocono Drag Lodge, in nearby Bear Creek, Pennsylvania. Next in the garage was a stout ’33 Ford coupe, which he bought as an unfinished project. He turned it into a nasty C/A class car, which he raced till the fall of ’67.

A Yenko would soon follow, and became his weapon of choice out on the dragstrip. That car would see him through the next four years out on the quarter-mile, and it even accompanied himself and his new bride on their honeymoon, lighting up the rear tires at Cecil County Dragway along the way. Talk about a marriage made in hot rod heaven.

Light Reading George retired from racing in 1972 to keep on his family life and work. He tucked away his racers and held on to them over the years, to remind him of those great days that were now behind him. But something strange happened to him 30-odd years later. He started to get the itch to get back out on the quarter-mile again; and it was a persistent prickling that George knew that he just needed to scratch.

So in 2008, George decided it was time to go fast again. He had a few speed-demons in his collection, but he wanted something new, something different. He had always admired the super stock racers from the ’60s, and thought that might the direction to go in. “Every racer from the ’60s dreamt about owning or just racing one of those drag monsters, especially the factory lightweight ones,” says George.

It was a weekend at the Atlantic City Auto Auction that George’s life changed for the better, a case of “divine” driving intervention some would say. “I didn’t know this particular car would be there, but I guess it was just love at first site,” says George. The car that became the apple of his eye was certainly one of the finest, baddest, and most interesting of the drag wars of the mid ’60s, a ’64 426 Stage III Belvedere lightweight racer, proudly named The Reverend Mr. Black.

This particular Belvedere is certainly a rare ride, a factory race car specifically built by Chrysler to take on Ford and GM out on the country’s 1320s and do it in style. This was one of only 50 lightweight Belvederes built that year, and this one luckily survived the rigors of quarter-mile life, and did it with most of its original drivetrain intact. Only the original rear had been swapped out for an improved Dana 60, still stuffed with beefy 4.56 gears. The 12.5:1 compression, dual-carbureted Max Wedge was still there, and shifted by its original 727 transmission.

So, knowing this was the car he truly “needed” in his life, he sought out the owner and started the ball rolling. Turns out the title bearer wasn’t in the best of health, and really needed to see the car go to a new owner. So George hashed out a deal with him without the car crossing the block, and claimed her as his own. Before the first gavel fell, George already had the car packed away and ready to head to its new home. “Automobiles of this pedigree do not come around often, so I just had to buy it,” confesses George.

Mr Black’s Story The Ebony-skinned coupe had been raced since new, taking on the moniker “The Reverend Mr. Black” after the Kingston Trio song of the same name. Having other racer cars prior to this one, the original owner Howard Williamson dubbed it “III” as it succeeded two other Plymouths of the similar breed. It was purchased new at Powell Plymouth in Jacksonville, Florida. It was in the southeast where the car did most of its damage on the local dragstrips in its early years, preying on the meek Brand X rides that took him on. It won the SS/A class at the ’65 NASCAR Drag Racing Winternationals and even match raced against Richard Petty in Albany, Georgia, and beat “The King” to the finish line.

The car was decked out from the start the way any racer should. From birth, it possessed the 12.5:1 high-compression Super Stock 426-III powerplant, fed by a pair of Carter AFB carburetors on an aluminum cross-ram intake. A stout 727 TourqueFlite did the shifting via the Chrysler pushbutton system (the last year for those controls), and it fed a stout 8 ¾ rear out back stuffed with 4.56 gears. It was also decked out with other divine goodies from Mother Mopar, including a dual-breaker distributor, heavy-duty radiator, and rear located 90-amp battery.

With the purchase of the 12.5 compression engine, you also could order the Light Weight Package, which Mr. Williams did. That option consisted of an array of front-end panels built from aluminum. These included the hood with scoop, fenders, front bumper and supports, and radiator air shield, stone deflector, crossbar, and vertical support brace. Even the carpet was of a lightweight fabric to help shed a few more pounds.

These factory racers were just that, a complete package ready to hit the track with owner’s needing just to “tune and gas-up” to dominate the strip. But there were several modifications made to this lightweight from the start by Williamson. The 12-point rollcage was a must for safety precautions. Dodge van seats replaced the originals and continue with the lightweight racer theme. A set of headers was added to get rid of the spent gases.

All this godly-goodness led to some low e.t.’s and high trap speeds. Williamson held onto the car for a few years, and then passed it on to a small succession of owners, each of whom continued to bring Mr. Black to the track, and thrash any Brand X racer that dared line up against it. More mods were made to the car at this point, including the Dana 60 with Strangle axles out back, a floor shifter between the seats and mini-tubs out back. Skinny mags were added up front, and wide steelies were placed out back — shod in 32×14.5-15 slicks.

These Mopar lightweights continued their quarter-mile domination that its predecessor Plymouth and Dodge racers forged the years before it. The Reverend Mr. Black carried on over the years, taking on comers at tracks across the east. In the mid ’80s, the car was stripped down and the paint refreshed, with the painter recreating its complete graphics package. It then moved on to a small collection in New Jersey, where it sat for a few years, decommissioned from racing with less than 1,000 miles showing on the odometer. The last in line was the gentleman that George ended up purchasing the car from.

King George and the Reverend Once in Edward’s possession, the car got a few new add-ons to help out its time on the track. One key ingredient added by the new owner was a new powerplant. Worried that his thrashing might damage the Max Wedge, he built a new one up from period-correct parts. “I ran the car hard for two years and, as most drag racers, wanted to go faster and also I didn’t want to hurt the old bullet,” Edwards says.

The new powerplant is a stroker motor from Carolina Machine in Johnston, South Carolina.  It’s a 522ci beast based on a 440ci block that’s pushed the dyno to 640 hp at 5,500 and 690 lb-ft torque at 4,400 rpm. It uses a repop cross-ram intake (a Mopar Performance piece which differs slightly from the original) and OEM AFB carbs. It also has the original oil pan with the tie-rod cutout. “My goal was to have the car run a consistent mid 10s, and I’ve accomplished that. Anything more would be tough on the drum brakes,” Edwards admits. Other changes include a transbrake for take offs, a new torque converter to improve 60-foot times, and 4:10 gears to keep the rpm down through the traps.

Future Plans George is smitten with his Mopar ride, and it makes you wonder why he didn’t race more Pentastars back in the day. Having owned only Fords and Chevys over the years, he has now realized that he had missed something. “My one regret is that I only wish I could have owned the Reverend when it was new. It would have been very exciting driving it back then.”

Well, luckily George is making up for it now, hitting the local nostalgia drag races, and thrashing the competition whenever he gets the chance. The 50-plus-year-old ride shows no mercy to its rivals, and dishes out a fiery “sermon of speed” whenever it hits the 1320. Like the rear trunk panel says; “The Reverend Black is Back … and is he ever MAD.”

Fast Facts

ENGINE TYPE: RB Wedge Head, steel block BORE x STROKE: 4.35 x 4.375 BLOCK: 1974 440 ROTATING ASSEMBLY: Scat Crankshafts Stroker crank, forged rods and pistons CYLINDER HEADS: Edelbrock Max Wedge heads COMPRESSION: 12.5:1 CAMSHAFT: Comp Cams solid lifter roller cam VALVE TRAIN: Hughes solid lifter roller rockers INDUCTION: Mopar Performance crossram intake/stock 2×4-bbl Carter AFB carburetors OILING SYSTEM: stock EXHAUST: restored vintage Hooker 2 ¼-inch headers IGNITION: stock tach drive distributor with MSD two-stage ignition box COOLING: stock radiator FUEL: Holley electric fuel pump OUTPUT: 640 hp, 690 lb-ft torque ENGINE BUILT BY: Carolina Machine Johnston, South Carolina

DRIVETRAIN TRANSMISSION: 727 TorqueFlite three-speed auto CONVERTER: Dynamic Converters 9-inch 3,800-stall SHIFTER: Winter Racing floor shift STEERING: stock manual FRONT BRAKES: stock drum REAR BRAKES: stock drum ROLLBAR/CHASSIS: custom cage/Dana 60 rear with 4:10 gears stock springs

WHEELS & TIRES WHEELS: 15×4 American Racing (front) and 15×12 steel (rear) TIRES: 28×4.5-15 Moroso DS2 (front) and 32×14.5-15 Dragway Special slicks (rear)

INTERIOR SEATS: Dodge A100 van seats INSTRUMENTS: Stewart-Warner 9k cable tach WIRING: stock

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[onestowatch]

Q&A: The Night Game Releases “Do You Think About Us” From Forthcoming Album - And It’s About a Real Girl

Last year around this time, I headed to the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood to catch a show for a band called The Night Game. Admittedly, I didn’t really know who The Night Game was at the time, but I ran into several of my hard-to-impress music friends during the opening act, who filled me in that this mysterious musician was the best thing they’d seen in a while. Chatterings of Mr. Night Game spread through the audience while we awaited his set, hearing mention of “He’s best friends with John Mayer,” to “He used to be in an emo band, but not sure which one...”

Looking around, I wondered how someone I’d never heard of could sell the place out and manage to bring all the hipster musicians boys to Hollywood all the way from Silverlake — this dude must be something special.

The stage was covered in a thick haze, and when The Night Game finally took the stage, he was only lit in silhouette and appeared to be a tall, slender guy with a mullet. His guitar player was sporting a nascar jacket and a cowboy hat, and he was legitimately one of the best guitar players I’d ever seen. For a moment, I wondered if this was a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, but just then, they started to play their single, “The Outfield,” and my friend leaned in and said, “You know that’s Martin Johnson from Boys Like Girls, right?”

Over the next few months, I would listen to the new singles by The Night Game, “Kids in Love,” “American Nights,” never fully making the connection to the former Boys Like Girls vocalist in terms of recognizability. I would later find out that this was done on purpose — since the brand’s aesthetic was initially born out of trying to trick people into NOT knowing it was him, in an effort to simply let the music speak for itself.

After almost a year of ultimately confusing most listeners, and having fully knocked his mid-2000’s “affected emo vocals” of the past, The Night Game unknowingly created one of music’s best executed identity coos ever — and the mysterious one will release his debut album on Sept. 7, followed by a hefty tour in both the US and Europe. Today, he released one of the stand out tracks from the album titled, “Do You Think About Us?” featuring Caroline Polachek from Chairlift. If you’re at all a sap, this song will definitely make you cry for the boyfriend (or girlfriend) you don’t even have.

The new single is rumored to be about a real girl in young MJ’s life — who also makes lyrical appearances in various other songs throughout the album. As far as the connection between the old “emo Martin” and the new “Night Game” Martin, there’s no doubt that there’s obvious musical growth in every way possible — and we’re loving all of it. In the end, MJ claims his return to the spotlight was because he wanted to sing again but mostly it was a way to “see if I could love music again…” If that statement doesn’t break your heart, you’re likely not human.

Take a listen to “Do You Think About Us?” and peep our Q&A with Martin Johnson of The Night Game below.

OTW: The sonic vibe of "Do You Think About Us"  is still in the same ‘80s vein as all your other songs so far — but with slightly more synth production. How did you land on the production you've used in the final version?

Martin: It’s funny — a lot of journalists are talking about this “80’s vein.” I suppose it was the choice to make most of the album’s sounds with analog synths and drum machines as opposed to simulations in the box with midi. The choices were less about finding the right sonic brand and more about how the song makes you feel...like, “Is that guitar part saying something or is it just filling space?” Francois (the albums’ co-producer) and myself wanted to put in the time to be respectful to the stories. On “Do You Think About Us?” the verses are a bit sad and melancholy; the vocal is wet in reverb and it feels like another time — Maybe in the past, with a bit of longing and nostalgia. Then the hook dries up and gets a lot louder,  and almost feels like a BPM jump — which sort of makes it go into the “Now;” [it] jumps out of the fantasy of what could have been, and becomes a direct question to a lost lover.

OTW: How does the song tie into some of your previous songs like "The Outfield" and "American Nights"?

Martin: I suppose there are some big broad stroke themes on this album: sports, sex, nostalgia, loneliness and searching for love/lost love (sometimes in the wrong places); searching for the American dream (what is it exactly? is it just a mirage?). I think this song fits into the sex, nostalgia, and searching “boxes,” but could probably also fit into the sports box depending on what type of sex you’re having.

OTW: We were lucky enough to preview the album which comes out on Sept. 7. There are references to remembering "being 18" in other songs on the album.... is there a specific person this song is about?

Martin: Depending on the day, it’s more the “being 18” than it is the girl, but yes, there is a specific girl for this one. She just had her second kid and is very in love with her husband — I’m happy for her. “Do You Think About Us?” is less an “I want you back” and more of a “sliding doors” type fantasy. What would it have been like if I went with her to that college instead of getting in a 15 passenger van with some boys back in ‘04?

OTW: Caroline Polachek is featured on this track and has a great voice, what made you decide to feature her on the track?

Martin: I tried a couple different features on this song but believability and vulnerability were both really important to me. I needed the right voice to tell the story. I had been working with a version of the song where I was temp singing the female part for months when Caroline and I met in Eastside LA with a group of people and became fast friends. We went for a hike the next day and were talking about writing together, and I played her the song in my car. She said “I like this. Do you want me to try to sing it?” — it was as simple as that. I’m really grateful to have her a part of it — she’s an incredible vocalist and performer both in the booth and on stage.

OTW: What are you most excited/nervous about for when the album comes out?

Martin: You know that feeling when you’re a kid: it’s sunday night at 10:30pm and you have an essay due the next day that you haven’t started yet, and you’ve had a week to work on it? I’ve had that feeling for four years. I think the thing I’m the most excited about is just actually being done with it. I’ve been picking at it for quite a while. Once it comes out, I can’t work on it anymore — it just is what it is. I’m doing my best to disconnect from the immediate results. I didn’t make this album for financial gain or to earn praise, I made it to see if i could love music again. I’m still not sure about that one, but I’m hoping the answer is out on the road.

OTW: Speaking of which, you’re about to go on a pretty big tour starting around the time of album release. What are you most excited about for the new tour?

Martin: I’m hoping they put some ice backstage in Europe. usually It's pretty hard to get ice in Europe.I like cold beverages. Sue me, I’m American.

EUROPEAN  &  FESTIVAL  DATES 9/8  Berlin,  DE 9/10  Vienna,  AT  -  Flex 9/11  Zurich,  CH  -  Plaza 9/12  Dresden,  DE  -  Beatpol 9/14  Gottingen,  DE  -  NDR  2  Radio  Festival 9/15  Baden  Baden,  DE  -  SWR  3  Radio  Festival 9/16  Munich,  DE  -  Strom 9/18  Frankfurt,  DE  -  Zoom 9/20  Hamburg,  DE  -  Reeperbahn 9/22  Cologne,  DE  -  Gebaeude  9 9/24  Amsterdam,  NL  -  Melkweg  Upstairs 9/27  London,  UK – Electrowerkz

NORTH  AMERICAN  TOUR  DATES 10/8  Vancouver,  BC  -  Vogue  Theatre* 10/9  Portland,  OR  -  Wonder  Ballroom* 10/10  Seattle,  WA  -  The  SHowbox* 10/13  Sacramento,  CA  -  Ace  of  Spades* 10/14  San  Francisco,  CA  -  August  Hall* 10/17  San  Diego,  CA  The  Observatory  North  Park* 10/19  Los  Angeles,  CA  -  The  Novo* 10/20  Anaheim,  CA  -  House  of  Blues* 10/31  Denver,  CO  -  Larimer  Lounge 11/2  Chicago,  IL  -  Chop  Shop 11/3  Pontiac,  MI  -  Pike  Room 11/4  Cleveland,  OH  -  HoB  Cambridge  Room 11/7  Brooklyn,  NY  -  Warsaw 11/8  Boston,  MA  -  Great  Scott 11/9  Washington,  DC  -  Rock  n  Roll    Hotel 11/10  Charlotte,  NC  -  Visulite  Theater 11/12  Nashville,  TN  -  Basement  East 11/13  Atlanta,  GA  -  The  Loft 11/14  New  Orleans,  LA  -  Gasa  Gasa 11/15  Houston,  TX  -  The  Studio  at  Warehouse  Live 11/16  Dallas,  TX  -  Trees 11/17  Austin,  TX  -  The  Parish 11/20  Phoenix,  AZ  -  Valley  Bar *  Supporting  St  Lucia