#Cliff Freeman

[davedyecom]

PODCAST: Mary Warlick

I’ve just finished watching ‘Coco Chanel Unbuttoned’. Not only did I discover Coco wasn’t her real name (Gabrielle), I discovered her philosophy. Pre-Coco, high end fashion used the finest, most expensive materials, like silk, lace and satin – a visual display of one’s wealth. Coco chose instead, the basic materials she’d grown up with, poor and in an orphanage. Like jersey, previously used to…

[eggsrblue]

my kins :))

[greeneyed-thestral]

[wornoutspines]

Malcolm X (1992) Movie Review | A Cinematic Tribute to The Fire and Humanity of Malcolm X

Denzel Washington is magnetic, Spike Lee’s vision is bold, and Malcolm X is unforgettable. This 1992 biopic captures the fire, humanity, and legacy of a true icon. #FilmReview #MalcolmX #DenzelWashington #SpikeLee #MovieReview Read my review. 🔥

Spike Lee (Director) CASTDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettKate VernonDelroy LindoTheresa Rundle Based on “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” as told to Alex Haley Review Spike Lee’s Malcolm X is more than a biographical film, it’s a tribute to one of the most complex and impactful figures of the American civil rights movement. Based on Haley’s biography, the film chronicles Malcolm X’s journey…

[floydmtalbert]

“Clouds breaking like ocean waves over cliffs of England”

A B-17 Flying Fortress over the English Channel, carrying airmen of the 55th Fighter Group home from Paris, March 1945

Taken by Staff Sergeant Robert T Sand of the 55th Fighter Group — © Roger Freeman Collection, IWM FRE 12987

[hot-on-my-watch]

The Hobbit Trilogy Part 2

Me: Maybe we should start on the next Hobbit film because my free trial runs out in five days.

My partner: Ok.... *searches Prime video*... so are we onto Lord of the Rings now?

He doesn't really have time to sit and watch a full Hobbit length film what with his mentally demanding and time consuming job, regular adulting tasks and caring for me, so we're just watching manageable chunks of an evening. And my attention span is gnat-sized and my god they're not half bloody loud in places, but we're enjoying them.

We finished An Unexpected journey on Saturday when my partner was pretty drunk from an afternoon with a friend and more responsive to my terrible jokes. I paused the riddle sequence after every question so that we could work out the answer. He cried "what has it got in its pocketses?!" afterwards and groped at my pyjama bottoms for a bit, but failed to find the item of jewellery (a plastic beaded bracelet) that was coincidentally actually in there. So I told him about it and he tried again.

Now we're about an hour into Desolation of Smaug. We've this far only caught a glance of the eponymous dragon, or "the big boy", as I've begun to call him. I'm not sure how I'm going to approach the reveal that Smaug is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, but I've definitely laid enough mildly unhinged "I wonder if Frodo will fall in love with the dragon" track that this should not come a complete surprise.

I will almost definitely be making comments about them being "hot" for each other, "this sex is on fire" etc. etc., though I will try to keep it classy and resist. I do sometimes feel bad for my partner having to listen to my inane comments through this and any other dialogue-light media. For instance:

"Ok so the main ship for these films seems to be Bilbo and Thorin."

"Oh really? Didn't see that."

"No, Thorin is hot though."

Thorin pulls Bilbo up from the crumbling cliff.

(Suggestively) "Saving his life, ey?"

"Hmm."

Thorin and Bilbo gaze at each other.

"Oh! Well, there it is!"

"Gollum used to be a hobbit, you know."

"I can't believe how young Martin Freeman looks." (again)

"They've probably made him look younger."

"Yeh, I think there's something on his face. Is his nose normally turned up like that? I don't think it is."

"Yeh."

"Apparently this might have been to do with him getting divorced."

"From Mary?"

"Yeh! (impressed that he remembers that Mary was played by Freeman's real-life wife). These films. Being over in New Zealand all the time. Apparently he was aways lots and they eventually decided they just couldn't live together anymore."

"AND he was was shagging Sherlock the whole time."

"Well yeh, and that obviously.... But really, then they had to go back for season four and pretend to still be married as John and Mary and everything."

"What?! Were they actually married?"

"Yeh! The woman that played Mary was really Martin Freeman's wife! Amanda...Abbington..Abbingdon?"

"Oh right."

"Yeh, so in season three they get married again, but in season four they were getting divorced and they had to pretend to still be in love and there are all these scenes where they tell each other they love each other and stuff."

"Oh right."

"And she dies in the first episode. So you think ok well that's that then. But then in the next episode, he hallucinates her the entire time!"

"Oh."

"None of this happens in the book."

"That is TOO MANY giant spiders. I mean one is too many but that is TOO MANY."

"Oh my god is that A NEW FEMALE CHARACTER?"

"There are loads of places like this in Dungeons and Dragons."

"Yeh."

"Loads in Critical Role anyway. Underground complexes and weird cities."

"I bet."

"This bit IS in the book."

"Oh right. I don't really remember the book."

"Me neither."

"I'm not sure who that actress is. Is it Kate from LOST? Eva...Evangaline..."

"No, not Kate. Does look like her though."

"There are a few of them that look like that."

*googles*

"By the way that was Evangeline Lilly. Kate from LOST."

"Oh."

"I don't think this happens in the book. Not sure though."

"'She-elf'. Bet he doesn't call the male elves he-elf. Fucking sexist."

"You know, I'm starting to think there might be something up with this ring."

[martitheevans]

Gordon freeman is a stronger man than I ever could be, people keep going "Hey why doesn't gordon do the thing :D" I would absolutely just drive off a cliff instead

[blistering-typhoons]

BBC SHERLOCK REWATCH - A STUDY IN PINK (REAL TIME NOTES)

From the perspective of someone who watched this show when they were thirteen, made it their whole personality and then stopped being a massive prat.

I thought about organizing this into a cohesive review, and maybe as I go on I'll delve deeper into some of my observations but for now I thought it would be funny to present my findings in raw, mostly unaltered form:

- loud ass opening, my god

- only bit of acting Martin freeman ever does lmao

- dances along to theme against my will

- god the effects and transitions are so shit

- all the shots of the pills are so ugly

- oh yay molly - whoo - yayyy

- the potential withe these two goddamn

- also this sherlock does not drink his respect women juice by god

- fucksake the deduction about john's sister- not only is it translated awfully into this modern setting, it's explicitly a deduction Sherlock is supposed to make once they know eachother a bit better

- THE POTENTIAL

- also sherlock displaying one insecurity when john accidentally insults his stuff- well done moftiss, characterization

- How far away is the crime scene, why it dark

- pls the transitions

- PIPE BOMB, WHOO Phone deductionnnn

- oh my god it's so shit

- uuuuuuuugggghhhh the potential I hate this shooooow

- fuckin deduction as a way for witty one liners and sexism, i hate this place

- 'you were thinking it's annoying' i'm going to send myself off a cliff, CRINGE

- RACHE- moffat, come here a sec- literally putting ACD on par with the police, who are always wrong the sheer audacity- also just a bad change

- these lens flare white lights are so goofy please, you will never be a whole scene of silence with jeremy brett

- benedict cumberbatch is very pretty i will grant

- terrorized by the fact i used to quote this show unironically

- from a writing point of view I understand that John gushing over Sherlock is to show off and emphasize their specialest boy- but, some sincerity is infused into it from an acting standpoint

- 30:02 GIRLIE WHAT IS THAT SOUND EFFECT

- OOH YAY THE PSYCHOPATH/SOCIOPATH STUFF WHOO YEAAAAH

- All the phones calling as john walks past is kinda cool but mostly stupid

- oh anthea, what a rich character lmao

- how long was mycroft posed like that

- First johnlock queerbait whooo

- Where does he fuck off to???

- he just vanishes lmaoooo

- Three patch problem. Bruh.

- I am bored as shit, help

- This music- girl

- Bloated is a very good word to describe some of these scenes

- HERE SHE IS- THE BIG DADDY OF QUEERBAITING

- this scene is insane fucKING INSANE I HATE THIS SHOW

- god how much episode is left fucksake

- the stop/go signs- pick a tone girl

- this episode is so almost good and it's anytime Sherlock makes a mistake lmao

- not the drugs bust :/

- ooh sociopath line- whoo

- "I don't have to [imagine]." OOOH OKAY, WELL, YOU GUYS GET *ONE* POINT FOR THAT SHEESH

- this is so ridiculous- COME WITH ME- girl shut up

- I wanna be done I wanna be doooone.

- lamenting the confrontation we had in the unaired pilot

- The 'Frwhoomp' noise as the light goes out, girl

- 20 Minutes left my christ

- BRO- I forgot that bit of ADR wooooof

- and thus begins the scree of Moriarty

- five years, why is Scotland Yard still doubtful of Sherlock's skills? I know he might have been deep in his addiction during some of that, but they evidently kept him around for crime solving.

- Great man/good man quote has me fumin babes, my god, what a fundamental misunderstanding of Sherlock Holmes

- boring ass back and forth

- this piano is giving me war flashbacks

- is it a five orange pips reference?

- also the pills look like that speckled gum that burns your throat

- when is it oveeer

- falling asleep

- bomb under the table but the table is made of glass and hates gay people

- she tooks the kidssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

- 13 min

- love, or rage, dude, come on Sherlock

- i hate this 'enjoying crime too much' theme they've written

- like watching a stupid play

- once more, the potential

- moriarty he said calmly

- also, so out of character for Sherlock do I even need to say

- peaks of what could have been- FUCK

- this mycroft fake out- lord

- also, mummy, fucksake

- cheesy ending BUT IT'S OVER

[hislittleraincloud]

You're the one who started screaming "pedo" over a gay ship. Sounds pretty conservative to me.

Also literally none of the actors in the show are teenagers. So you're just a fucking weirdo.

I never "screamed "pedo" over a gay ship".

I have called out the behavior of Wenclairs around their ship and the crazy parasocial shit re: Jenna Ortega that's going on.

You do(n't) realize that it's a running Gen X joke that teens in teen shows or that feature teens are more often than not portrayed by older actors/non-teens (though Ortega turned nineteen during the filming of Wednesday 1). But that has fuckall to do with the pervasive insistence that a show penned mostly by, and directed by, cis het people featuring a boy crazy girl who likes rainbows is somehow coding for her being a total lesbian for her roommate.

You can call me conservative if you want, but you obviously haven't a clue and have only popped in here recently. SNS, not going to give you a full lesson in who I really am. You've already opened your mouth, so I'll just keep opening mine.

I don't think like Wenclairs; then again, by the time I was their age — the bulk of you are young/Gen Z and below — I already knew what I needed to do to grow up and survive in a world that is against my way of life.

But I also knew it was fucking weird to obsess over an actor so much that you write RPF and/or y/n shit about them. Singularly and as a couple. Sure, fandomers have written Mary Sue/Gary Stu since the dawn of fic, but it wasn't like this. This is aberrant...you're all acting worse than the Johnlockers who went after Martin Freeman's partner, Amanda Abbington, when she joined Sherlock. Pretty sure that kind of toxic fandom behavior — pushing things on the showrunners and actors — is what the problem is here. Not the ship itself, if it happens organically.

But there isn't going to be anything organic about it because it wasn't written in canon as such. Y'all just seeing what you need to see to justify the obsession. I mean, friendship. That's what was with the dramatics of The Hug. Everyone in the school knew that Wednesday eschewed touching/friendship and expressions of friendship. The scene's the core of M&G's intentions for Wednesday and Enid.

But y'all took Myers' "roomates" joke and ran right off the side of the cliff with it. And even as she's stated in so many words that you shouldn't ship real people, y'all still fucking do it.

So who's really the fucking weirdo(s) here? The ones who can separate real life from fiction or the ones who can't?

[marahsfandomloves]

So I'm not sure if others remembered, but I remember asking back in 2022 when season one was released if this series was connected to Jackson's Middle-earth films. I know the legal deal between Amazon and the Estate, but after watching half of season two now(I can't believe we are halfway over already!) I definitely believe that the show makers are trying to connect it to the films as close as they can without treading on anyone's toes on the legal matters. What I have noticed that makes me think they are trying to connect it-

1- The Balrog is one of the strongest crossovers between the show and the films, and after I found out that Weta worked on the series, that just make more sense.

2-The brief shot of Narsil in season one during the Numenor segment.

3. The Stranger's dialogue. Blue Wizard or Gandalf, he is definately quoting alot from the previous films.

4. The scenery of certain locations, we only saw Khazud-Dum (outside briefly in the Hobbit during Azog and Thorin's fight) and it was very broken down other than Dwarrowdelf in the Lord of the Rings movies, but the way inside of Khazad-Dum looks, you can tell they were trying to make it look like what it did in it's glory days.

The Grey Havens, despite less buildings, the horizon shot looked the same between the two cliff faces that you see when the ship leaves in the Return of the King.

5. All ties to the Eye, the shots of Halbrand's eye. When they were making the Elven rings and the molten metal looked similar to the Eye on Barad-Dur.

6. Interviews with the cast, I've seen quite a few of them for season two where they show scenes from the PJ films and then talk about the films which I feel like is them trying to bridge the two.

7. Young Shelob when Isildur injured her eye, Shelob has a closed eye in PJ's film.

8. The cast members such as Elendil, Galadriel, Elrond, Isildur and even Gil-Galad and Cirdan look like younger versions to their film counterparts( much like Martin Freeman did to Ian Holm's Bilbo).

9. Sauron's Armour in the Prologue of Rings of Power is similar to the Armour in the Prologue of the Fellowship of the Ring.

10. Amazon is the top bidder own the rights to the videos games and films for Middle-Earth.

11. Both Rings of Power season 3 and the Hunt For Gollum will both come out in 2026, so by then we may see more of an officially connection if legal stances chance in two years.

12. Elrond 's sword in Rings of Power season 2 looks very similar to Hadafhang, which he had in the Hobbit and Arwen had it in the Lord of the Rings.

So fat, the biggest difference is the three Elven Rings, but that could of been before Amazon got some of the film rights to PJ'S films. We may see more connections in the next few years if Amazon aquires the rest of the film rights.

If there is more that I see, I will definitely connect the dots, I know that there are a few differences such as the look of the three elven rings looking not like what they did in the Jackson films, but that is a smaller detail in the grand scheme of things. Even if they are meant to be two different adaptions of Middle-earth, I like to think they are connected in one big story. Just something I've been wanting to share!

[therecordconnection]

Ranting and Raving: "Dreams" by Van Halen

Picture it: A team of teenage superheroes piloting a giant fighting machine have just defeated an evil wizard (who himself has just fused with a different giant fighting machine) who was trying to achieve world domination by unearthing two long-buried giant death machines that lie underneath a bustling city. The wizard couldn’t free these machines on his own, so his plan was to hypnotize the parents and adults of an entire city so he could have enough slave labor to free them. The machines were successfully freed and used to try and destroy the entire city, which was only made possible by convincing all the parents and adults to buy and use purple ooze (made by the wizard) sold in a can and advertised as a multi-use product. Once the wizard got what he wanted, his final command to the hypnotized masses was to march and throw themselves off of a cliff like a giant herd of human lemmings. They are eventually saved when the kids of the parents and adults figure out that dumping water on them undoes the hypnotism. They do this while the heroes are off fighting the wizard.

The superheroes, before saving the day, have had to travel to a distant planet in order to find “The Great Power.” This was needed after the wizard destroyed the heroes’ main base and placed their leader into a near-death state, which strips the heroes of their powers. Long story short, the heroes find said great power, return to their city, and quickly spring into action to save the day. Once the day is saved, our heroes, disguised in their civilian identities, celebrate with the entire town and enjoy a fireworks display put on by the town in order to properly thank their heroes. 

That thank you is spelled out on a billboard in bright lights and pyrotechnics. It reads, “Thank You POWER RANGERS.” Van Halen’s “Dreams” plays during this entire fireworks display and it’s a glorious end to one of the campiest, silliest, most beautiful mid-nineties time capsule movies ever made.

Everything about 1995’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie is so lovably, shamelessly, unabashedly DUMB! But that’s the incredible beauty about it. In this movie version of the popular TV show's world, the rangers, who never had that much characterization to begin with, become one-liner machines saying stuff so heinously idiotic that even Spider-Man would shake his head in embarrassment. Consider: The movie's absolutely bonkers first fight scene against evil wizard Ivan Ooze’s Ooze-Men. The following lines are all said in rapid succession: Tommy (White Ranger): "Welcome to my nightmare." (said right after Ivan said this, which is a reference to an Alice Cooper song.) Adam (Black): "Wanna play Kick the Can?" (Adam then kicks a bucket at one of them.) Aisha (Yellow): "Kiss & Make-Up!" (Aisha slams two ooze-men together, knocking them out.) Adam: "Let Me Get the Door." (Adam hits one of them by opening a door in an ooze-man’s face.) Billy (Blue): "You Ooze, You Lose." Kimberly (Pink): "SIT DOWN!" (said when she kicks one of them and they land on their butt). 

I'm pretty sure whoever wrote this movie only had passing knowledge of the show and assumed the rangers always talk like this while fighting. Whoever choreographed the fight scenes REALLY loved watching the rangers do backflips. They do it SO FUCKING MUCH! I never noticed until my most recent watch with friends. Billy, Kimberly, and Rocky (Red) backflip like Olympic gymnasts throughout this entire movie (for Kim makes sense, she's a gymnast in the show).

The writing of the movie is at its strongest whenever Ivan Ooze is on screen. Paul Freeman gives the performance of a lifetime and plays Ivan exactly the way a corny villain in a nineties kids movie needs to be played: Over the top, gleefully evil, with a backstory that is basically 1:1 Rita Repulsa's story from the show (locked in a bucket, freed by humans, seeking revenge). Everything he says in the movie is gold. My friend Brian and I knew it was coming and laughed like bandits when Ooze delivered the best line in the movie: "Oh the things that I have missed: the Black Plague, the Spanish Inquisition, the Brady Bunch Reunion." Freeman delivers all of this like a perfect Saturday morning cartoon villain. On some level, he knows he's playing a purple monster wizard in a kids movie, but on another, he takes it seriously. A superhero movie is only as good as the villain the heroes need to defeat. He's better than any villain in the show mostly by merit of being in something longer than a TV show episode, but he's also better because he just oozes (heh heh) personality from minute one until the end (when he's crotch-kicked into a comet).

This movie is also smart enough to know its audience and plays to it. It knows that it was made for kids ages 5-10 who had been watching the show for two years and already know everything about the rangers and their world. The movie correctly assumes you've watched the show in some capacity, so it doesn't have to waste any time. We just get into it immediately and the movie is better for it. The pacing is great! It never feels like the movie drags at all and there's always something happening. It revels in its own camp and ridiculousness. It just throws everything at you and it never fully loses that delightfully light-hearted tone, even in its most dramatic moments.

You can immediately tell where the extra budget for a movie went. Normally this would be sarcastic, but it's not in this case. The movie begins with the rangers going skydiving and roller skating through the park. The new metallic look for the ranger costumes still holds up. The costumes really pop and I think they're visually better for "The Movie" than the spandex from the show would've been. The re-designed Command Center looks great (despite the fact that Ivan destroys it in about two minutes). Zordon looks goofy, but you can tell he got "The Movie" treatment by having a more realistic looking hologram head. The Alpha-5 costume is a little shinier and he clinks and clanks more like a robot. The zords and Megazord fight in this one got the budget of CGI, but that's the one place where I think the budget wasn't worth it. That's where the movie really looks the most dated and I'd even argue it looks like dogshit dripping from a paper bag. But it's so bad in the funniest ways. If anything, the movie gets more charming because it was bold enough to go with something that bad.

Money definitely went to the soundtrack, which is almost undeserved: Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Higher Ground" cover is here. DEVO (who recorded songs for movies when they felt like it) gives us fight music with "Are You Ready?" Shampoo's "Trouble" soundtracking parents marching to their death like lemmings is unintentionally funny. The orchestral version of the Power Rangers theme that plays during the morphing sequence (which still rules) is big, ridiculous, and epic all at once, just like the movie is. But if you ask me, the one soundtrack moment everyone remembers is the very end, when Van Halen’s “Dreams” plays. Say what you will about the Power Rangers movie, but it absolutely earns the right to have that song as its ending theme. The first time I ever heard Van Halen, as I imagine a bunch of people my age did (I’m 29) was when I was a little kid watching that movie on VHS in the late nineties. I can’t hear the song without thinking of the Power Rangers. Evidently, I’m not alone in that regard. If you scroll through the comments section on any Youtube video for “Dreams,” you’ll find somebody referencing the movie in some form. “Dreams” works as an anthem for the Power Rangers because lead vocalist Sammy Hagar’s lyrics and thesis statement for the song are basically proven and reinforced by what the Rangers do in the movie. The biggest, brightest, cheesiest superheroes deserved (and, more importantly, earned) one of the biggest, brightest, cheesiest songs made in a decade that was full of them. “Dreams” is special. It’s a perfect song, and, oddly enough, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie, of all things, reinforces why it’s a perfect song.

I highly doubt Sammy Hagar or any of the guys in Van Halen saw the Power Rangers movie. All four members of the band had kids by the time the movie came out, but they were all scattered in age (and some of them were older than the target demographic). My only guess as to how Saban Entertainment got the rights to the song is that somebody told Hagar and the guys that the song would do business because the movie was going to do business (and it did: $66.4 million box office against a $15 million budget. It was fourth on its opening weekend against Apollo 13, Pocahontas, and Batman: Forever). I imagine they were paid a nice check for that and thought there wasn’t any harm in having a nine year old song of theirs featured in a kids movie. It wasn’t like Van Halen needed the extra exposure. They were one of the survivors of the grunge era. They were still consistently doing good business and playing arena shows. Hell, they had scored their fourth #1 album (Balance, which would end up going triple-platinum) five months before the movie came out. They were doing just fine.

“Dreams” was never the biggest Van Halen hit (it peaked at #22 on the Billboard Hot 100) but chart success isn’t always the best indicator of a song’s history and life. “Dreams” is one of the most beloved songs of the Hagar-era of the band and it remained a live staple for the entire time Hagar was in the band. Even after the “Van Hagar” years, it stuck around after that. Sammy has played it a healthy amount during his own solo ventures and other bands post-Halen. I remember hearing the song a lot (among others) when Eddie Van Halen died in 2020. A great song always finds ways to stick around.

I’ve always had the theory that by the mid-eighties, Eddie Van Halen was starting to get a little bored with being one of the best guitar players in the world. Around the mid-eighties with the 1984 album, he started really experimenting with keyboards and synthesizers, the instrument that invaded eighties rock and threw rockers to the ground in a Big Show-style choke slam. Of the eighties dad rock bands that incorporated keyboards into the mix, I think besides Geddy Lee in Rush, Eddie was one of the best to do it. It helps that he didn’t have to learn how to play them on the job. Before becoming a guitar god, Eddie trained to be a classical pianist. That’s what his parents wanted him to be before he got bitten by the rock n’ roll bug. As a fan in the eighties, it was probably weird to suddenly see the wildly technical guitar hero suddenly start banging on keys, but I doubt it was to Eddie. He already had experience with the instrument and just like guitar, Eddie was good at playing keyboards.

You can hear all of that experience in the intro to “Dreams.” It’s a stunning and beautiful melody, played on an Oberheim OB-8 (for all you gearheads keeping score at home). It’s coupled with Eddie mirroring it with an acoustic guitar and it just adds to the beauty of the whole thing. It’s soothing. It’s euphoric. It’s enticing. It’s any number of adjectives you want to ascribe to it. 1986, the year “Dreams” came out, was the beginning of the really overwrought synth-cheese years. Say what you want about the synth-heavy Van Hagar songs, but Eddie knew good keyboard sounds when he heard them.

I love that little two second pause right before the rest of the band launches into the song. It’s great! Van Halen always had great energy and “Dreams” comes right out of the gate with it. Alex Van Halen’s drum sound is so underrated to me. I’ve always loved how much weight his drum sound has. He comes crashing in and it feels like he just punched through a gate and sent it flying into a wall. His drums are just so beautifully pronounced without getting in the way of everything else. He might have been one of the only rock drummers on Earth in the eighties who didn’t buy into the whole gated reverb craze that Phil Collins invented. It really makes him and his whole sound that much more unique in hindsight.

Sammy Hagar had the improbable task of replacing David Lee Roth when he left Van Halen in 1985. For the record, I like both singers, but prefer Sammy. Roth was a great showman and frontman, but as a singer, I’ve always found him goofy and limited. He basically modeled his entire approach––from his look to the way he sang––on Vegas-era Elvis Presley (he kicks like the king, but he jumped around more than the king could). To me, his lyrical contributions always came with a sense of danger and unpredictability, but when he sang about specific people, it always sounded like he was armed with sarcasm. Nothing out of his mouth ever felt sincere, but I also recognize people didn’t want that from him. They just wanted a party animal. He obliged, and he was certainly entertaining to watch, but as a singer he only had a small toolbox of skills. Sammy didn’t have the sense of danger and that wild man/party boy spirit, but he was still a great showman in his own way and––let’s face it, people––a better singer with much more range and skills. I think one of the most important skills Sammy had, the one skill above all else that made his time with the band so successful, was Sammy’s sincerity. 

Roth wouldn’t have pulled off a song like “Dreams.” Part of that is because Roth couldn’t do a vocal like Sammy’s if his life depended on it. A bigger part is that Roth would’ve scoffed at Sammy’s lyrics for the song, which are very simply about following your dreams and never giving up, no matter how hard it gets. He would’ve laughed like a school bully and called him a clown (which would’ve been the pot calling the kettle black, but I digress). 

Sammy’s not the most gifted lyricist in the world (“Only time will tell if we stand the test of time” from “Why Can’t This Be Love” is a prime example of this) but Sammy’s greatest strength as both a lyricist and a singer is a tried and true one: It doesn’t sound stupid if you believe it and know how to sell it.

On paper, Sammy’s lyrics to “Dreams” aren’t impressive in the slightest. Most of them read like obvious and cookie-cutter motivational quotes that wouldn’t look out of place on a Hallmark card or a motivational calendar. But when he sings them? That’s what makes the difference. The great energy that the song already has gets immediately amplified to greater heights once Sammy steps up to that mic. When Sammy delivers the lines, “Yeah, you reach for the golden ring / You reach for the sky! / Baby, just spread your wings” he starts getting extremely hammy, but not in a bad way. It’s even more hammy during the chorus, if you can believe it, where Sammy practically screams out to the masses and assures us that we’re gonna get higher and higher and climb straight up. That chorus turns the entire song into a spectacle and Sammy sings it with such heartfelt sincerity that even the most cynical asshole you know would be swayed by it. He believes every single word of this song and that’s what gives the song its power. He delivers the lyrics with unshakable belief that we can fly higher and climb higher than we think we can. It’s glorious. If you listen to this whole song and it doesn’t make you feel fucking invincible, if it doesn’t motivate you or help make you feel like you could do anything and achieve anything, then I don’t know what to tell you.

The song’s most beautiful moments are during the post-choruses, when the melody from the intro returns and Sammy delivers his most impactful lines:

So baby, dry your eyes Save all the tears you've cried Oh, that's what dreams are made of 'Cause we belong In a world that must be strong Oh, that's what dreams are made of

Alex’s quick dum-dum-dum-dum drum hits during that are incredible. I love that bit when Sammy sings”Oh, that’s what dreams” and then Alex crashes back into the beat just as Sammy is finishing the line (“are made of”). A musical moment like that was born to soundtrack boxers and UFC fighters scoring knockouts, heroes defeating villains, people performing wild and incredible feats. It’s magic, that’s the best way I can describe it to you. 

Eddie plays keyboards throughout the song, but he’s still Eddie Van Halen, so that means that he’s gonna give you a guitar solo. Come on, what do you think this is? There are better Eddie solos than what’s on “Dreams,” but one of the reasons Eddie is so revered as a master of his craft is because he understood that a guitar solo has to serve the song. It has to give the song something. Eddie fires off two quick solos during the second half and they’re everything you want from the guy. They serve the song by ramping up the ridiculousness and hamminess of the lyrics by giving the song a triumphant melody and energy. The end of that first solo near the 3:07 mark sounds like victory and it opens up the song for Sammy to return and wail that chorus again. That second solo around the 4:00 mark keeps that triumphant feeling and it’s everything you love about Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing in just fifteen seconds. Excellent tone, wonderful melody, that always-cool finger-tapping thing, what more could you ask for? That shit rules and it’s not hard to understand why so many classic rock fans miss Eddie so much.

The song ends in the most wonderful way possible. Sammy sings, “And in the end / On dreams we will depend” but instead of repeating that’s what dreams are made of, he switches it and sings, “‘Cause that’s what love is made of.” Only in the mid-eighties could you end a song like that and have it be so feel-good and so lovably silly. I love Eddie’s keyboard outro right at the end and that held note that just fades out. It’s a great ending and leaves you with the best feeling. It’s awesome. No notes.

“Dreams” is a perfect song because it’s so over the top, so ridiculous, but so lovably and unabashedly sincere. It revels in the cheesiness of its entire production. It does the exact same thing that something like Stan Bush’s “The Touch” (another pumped-up motivational eighties classic that famously appeared in a ridiculous-yet-incredible kids movie) and serves as lovably campy motivation music.

For Sammy Hagar, the motivational lyrics to "Dreams" were written as a sort of victory lap and  testimony from himself. He was a kid who grew up dirt-poor and struggled in poverty for most of his adolescence, but powered through that and somehow grew up to become a successful, world conquering musician. “Dreams” was his way of telling his fans and anybody who needed the song that if he can do it, so can you. If you have a dream, fight for it. You can make it happen if you work for it, believe in yourself, and don’t give up. You know who believes that kind of stuff? The Power Rangers.

The reason “Dreams” works so well as the end-credits song to the Power Rangers movie is because like the song, The movie revels in how ridiculous and over the top it is, but it never loses its sincerity. Like Sammy Hagar, the movie believes in everything it's selling to you and it remains unshakably optimistic. There's not an ounce of cynicism to be found in one single second of that movie. The only sarcasm are the quick one-liner jokes that come out of the rangers' mouths. After almost twenty years of MCU garbage, the Power Rangers movie becomes surprisingly refreshing. They also stand by what Hagar preaches in “Dreams.” They’re a source of motivation and just like Sammy, they believe that keep going and you don’t give up, no matter how bad things get or how impossible things seem. The movie reinforces “Dreams” by showing you six people with unbreakable determination. Here’s a superhero team that effectively loses their powers (it happens when Zordon is practically killed by Ivan Ooze, which makes no sense because the ranger powers aren’t directly tied to Zordon in the show) and become ordinary people again. Rather than wallow and accept all is lost, they risk their lives to travel to an unknown planet and find a great power that will restore them to being Power Rangers again and allow them to save both Zordon and the city of Angel Grove. No matter how tough their journey gets, they never break. They know they can turn things around and save the day if they don’t give up and keep going. Whether they have their ranger powers or not, they’re in a world where they have to stay strong and keep going. No matter what.

It's really easy to listen to “Dreams” or look back at the Power Rangers now and laugh at how silly and cornball it all is... but kids in the mid-nineties certainly didn't think it was stupid. I didn't think it was stupid either when I was a kid in the late nineties. Look me dead in the face and tell me Tommy Oliver doing impossible bicycle kicks and, later, a wild corkscrew kick dressed to the nines as a ninja isn't the coolest shit in the world. Go on. Do it. 

The Power Rangers are six of the silliest heroes ever put on Western TV and movie screens, but they're still heroes. Even when things get tough and the situation is dire, they refuse to break down and give up. They keep going. They endure, because they know they have to. Because they know people need heroes. They always will. “Dreams,” as over the top as it is, is a song that reflects that sentiment of endurance and the belief that nothing is impossible. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie earned the right to have a song as perfectly uplifting and as gloriously electrifying as Van Halen's “Dreams” close the curtain on their Hollywood movie experience. We’re all better for having their specific brand of cheesy optimism in the world.

Thank you, Power Rangers.

[runilareads]

Review: The Cup and the Lip - Elizabeth Ferrars

Title: The Cup and the Lip Author: Elizabeth Ferrars Series: N/A Release Date: 1975 Publisher: HarperCollins Rating: 4 stars

Favourite character: Peter Least favourite character: Kate

Mini-Review: Okay so this was amazing as usual. I love Elizabeth Ferrars books, her writing is just… ugh, I love it. My reason for it not being 5 stars is because of the ending. Not the reveal of the whodunnit, that shocked me. No the romance subplot that was never followed through on. I feel cheated.

Fan Cast: Peter Harkness - Harry Lloyd Gina Marston - Ellie Bamber Max Rowley - Tom Burke Kate Rowley - Olivia Colman Juliet Weldon - Laura Carmichael Walter Weldon - Martin Freeman Helen Braile - Clare Holman Anna Weinstock - Celia Imrie Adrian Rolfe - Aaron Taylor-Johnson Daniel Braile - Bill Nighy Arthur - Harry Holland Cliff Paton - Anthony Boyle Rosie Paton - Simona Brown Detective Superintendent Crabtree - Alex Price

[byneddiedingo]

Christopher Walken in Brainstorm (Douglas Trumbull, 1983)

Cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson, Jordan Christopher, Donald Hotton, Alan Fudge, Joe Dorsey, Bill Morey, Jason Lively, Georgianne Walken. Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin, Robert Stitzel, Philip Frank Messina. Cinematography: Richard Yuricich. Production design: John Vallone. Film editing: Freeman A. Davies, Edward Warschilka. Music: James Horner. 

Brainstorm is a sci-tech thriller based on a premise familiar to the genre: Brilliant scientists come up with a breakthrough and face the threat that it will be misused by nefarious forces. In older films, the nefarious forces tended to be foreign ones, Nazis or Commies. Today, however, they usually come from our own corporate-military-industrial complex. Working together, Dr. Michael Brace (Christopher Walken) and Dr. Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) have created a way to transmit the brainwaves of one person to another, stimulating not only the visual and audible sensations but also the bodily ones -- respiratory, muscular, etc. The transmissions can also be recorded and stored. It's virtual reality gone whole hog, especially after Brace's wife, Karen (Natalie Wood), an industrial designer, comes up with a snazzy little headset. Brace and Reynolds are hopeful for all sorts of peaceful uses of the technology, but to get funding for it, they have to agree with the head of the corporation for which they work, Alex Terson (Cliff Robertson), that it can be shown to investors. And you know who has the money to fund such a project. The inventors are dismayed at the prospect of misuse, but they put up with it until the real dangers of the invention show up. A researcher records himself having an orgasm and gives it to another man who plays it on a loop, sending himself into a coma from the experience. And then Reynolds herself, a chain smoker, has a heart attack and dies, but not before hauling herself to the device and recording the experience. Brace discovers the tape and almost dies playing it before he's able to disconnect. Finding that the company has kept the tape and has actually killed someone with it and is experimenting with other malign uses for the technology, Brace and Karen team up to find ways to stop it. It's a worthy premise, but Trumbull, a noted special effects director making his first (and only) feature in the director's chair, encountered a perfect storm of difficulties, the chief of which was Natalie Wood's death in 1981. Wood's major scenes in Brainstorm had already been filmed, but MGM, which was in financial difficulties, pulled the plug on the project. Fortunately, the production was insured by Lloyd's of London, which stepped in and allowed Trumbull to complete the movie. Wood's sister, Lana, doubled for her in the remaining scenes. Still, Brainstorm was not a critical or commercial success. There's a funny sequence in which Brace causes the robots on the assembly line to go haywire, and Fletcher's performance is great. Wood is fine, but Walken, a specialist in offbeat characters, seems miscast. The subplot, which involves the Braces using the technology to communicate their feelings to each other and repair their fraying marriage, is tedious and sentimental. And the concluding sequence, in which we find out what Reynolds saw when she was dying, is almost inevitably a letdown.   

[villainessbian]

- you said how Portal 2 lets you get tricked by the transparent ploys of Wheatley and GLaDOS but I'd like to recount them, they're just too dumb. The first one is when you're escaping with Wheatley from GLaDOS, and she says "nooo you were at the last test, look, you just have to go in that box with a button that says you win" and if you do it, of course the box closes and you get killed. the Wheatley one is worse. You're escaping with GLaDOS from Wheatley, and there's a giant pit. He asks you to jump in, because in that pit there are your parents, new clothes, a pony, boys, a boy band, and they're not picky because they haven't seen a woman in years, and also the rare and elusive triple portal gun. If you come back to even hear him babble, GLaDOS starts wondering if you do actually have brain damage. If you jump in the pit, he's surprised that it actually worked.

- in the same continuity, you have the Half-Life games. You can have non-standard game overs in a lot of ways, most of which are just text from the G-man saying why "your evaluation was terminated." Here are some of them:

in the original half-life, if you kill plot-relevant NPCs (none of which are secretly relevant, it's always obvious that you need them), you get terminated for "failing to effectively utilize human assets"

at the end, this one is famous, the G-man offers you a deal. He says, if you refuse it, he'll give you a battle you have no means of winning. If you refuse, he does that. You have no weapons and you're faced with an army of some of the most annoying enemies in the game. You don't even get to try to run, you just see them and it's game over.

in half-life: opposing force, the game starts with a firing range tutorial. you can shoot the drill instructor who directs the tutorial. you get court-martialled.

in the same game, you can actually follow Freeman from up-close into Xen, or shoot him before then. you (not your evaluation) are terminated for attempting to create a time paradox.

You can also apparently damage and detonate the nuke yourself. While in its vicinity. I don't think I need to say more.

if you use the Displacer Cannon (read: low-tech portal gun) to teleport yourself rather than whatever you're pointing at, it always gets you somewhere that looks random and is unexpected (you have no way of knowing or picking). There's a chapter where it will 'port you in the air, and you fall in an endless void. you're terminated by "displacer self-teleport mishap"

in half-life: blue shift, if you kill allied NPCs before the incident, you get fired.

if you kill a plot-relevant (was going to help you up through a vent or activate a thing) NPC, or if you wait a very long time to enter a very slowly collapsing portal and stay stuck on Xen, your status is unknown (as opposed to being terminated, your observation being terminated, or your employment being terminated) seeing as you are "assumed to have perished with remaining personnel during Lambda incident."

in half-life 2, there's the long drive chapter. you know the one. get in the dune buggy and drive for hours. if you destroy or strand the extremely resilient, can't-be-punted-farther-than-50-cm-even-with-a-literal-gravity-gun buggy, your "assignment is terminated" for "failing to preserve mission-critical resources"

same with "mission-critical personnel" if you stupidly empty a clip in the head of a named NPC

if you jump off a cliff, you are only left with the message that you "demonstrated exceedingly poor judgment"

if you wait, again, for very long for the Big Bad to get away, he says that was "a predictable failure" before the screen fades to black and you learn you "failed to prevent time-critical sequence"

if you leave Alyx behind in HL2 Episode 1, you are told that you must proceed with her, and if you do not learn from your mistakes, you will end up in an endless vortal loop

if you fail to prevent the Striders from getting to the rocket and destroying it, which is something so ridiculously easy not to fail I did it first try with a broken computer, an average of 3 FPS, and all the while being bad at it, the message is hilarious: "magnusson's misgivings about the freeman are completely justified. the game now ends"

I just love it when video games let you do really stupid shit that kills you immediately. I love being like "oh this is a terrible idea" and being able to do it and then die. It's good game design.

[burt60]

1) Woman of the month Venus Williams 2)Woman Executive of the month Mrs Tina Sloan Green 3)HBCU Basketball updates (SWAC , MEAC) men and women 4) NCAA women's DI basketball top 10 teams 5) WNBA off season trades 6) NCAA DI gymnastics top 10 ranked teams 7)Aja Wilson and Caitlin Clark have their college basketball jersey's retired 8) NCAA and NFL coaching changes 9) NBA's big trade Anthony Davis (LA Lakers)  for Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks) 10) Special guest interview with Dr Rashaye Freeman ( Diabetic Educational Specialist) Part II

[nene-san49]

Put my anime watching on hold today to go see the 30th anniversary of Se7en on the big screen with my kid and bestie. It was so worth it even with the fire alarm going off in the middle of one if the best scenes. It left such a cliff hanger. 😅

After all Morgan Freeman can't make a bad film. 😎