Batman Day 2019

September 21, 2019, was the annual instance of Batman Day.

I know it's late in the day, but as part of my own observance of Batman Day 2019, here are several of my favorite Batman stories (in no particular order):

Friday 80s Flashback for September 20, 2019

[Beatitude for a Car] -- 80s fans lost another icon this past week. Ric Ocasek, best known as a member of The Cars, passed away at his home on September 15. He was recuperating from surgery. By now, many tributes have been posted and Ocasek's best songs with The Cars have been shared. But this is my little corner of the 80s, so for this week's Flashback post, I want to remember Ric Ocasek by revisiting his first solo album: Beatitude (1982).  The title was meant to be pronounced "beat-itude" -- mashing "beat" together with "attitude." There were no singles released from this effort, so I'm going to go ahead and share the full album. The embedded playlist has nine tracks while Ric's album had ten -- the ninth video here contains both the ninth and tenth tracks from the album. While Beatitude might not contain anything near as catchy as his work with The Cars, it is still compelling. My own favorites are "Jimmy Jimmy," "I Can't Wait," "Prove," and "Connect Up to Me." Which ones strike your fancy? This is Ric in a playground of his own making. This is a personal, if sometimes strange, visit with a songsmith.

RIP you odd duck of a musical genius, Ric.

Flashback: "connect up with me | i feel your heartbeat | a pounding soft | oh i, i'm taking off."

---

That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for September 13, 2019

[An Affair Less Remembered] -- Another Friday the 13th has rolled around, and I briefly thought about a horror or bad luck theme to honor the rare occasion when the Flashback crosses paths with Friday the 13th. But, no, I'm not going there. Instead, I'm going to tell you about a record that is celebrating its 30th anniversary on this date: Tina Turner's seventh solo album, Foreign Affair (1989). It launched six different singles, only two of which were able to crack the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself peaked at #31 on the US Billboard 200. And while the record sold over 6 million copies, it was not as commercially successful as her two prior outings, Private Dancer (1984) and Break Every Rule (1986). You don't recall Foreign Affair? Well, I'm sure you remember one single from it. Let's see if you do; just read and hear more after the jump.

(Note: The last time a confluence of Flashback and Friday the 13th occurred was 10/13/2017, and I didn't do a 13-themed post then either). 

Lucifer Convention

A friend of mine was worried when she saw I was attending a Lucifer convention. She did not realize it was for the TV show Lucifer.

We flew to LA and stayed right at LAX. We didn't say in the convention hotel but we easily walked to it. The convention hotel was the Hyatt Regency and it was a lovely hotel and the ballroom we were in worked out very well. It was small and intimate with good sound and our seats were very good too.

This was a Creation Entertainment convention and I always go Gold because it is always worth every penny and this was no exception. We were close to the stage, we got all but one autograph included and we had a special Gold panel on Sunday morning with Tom Ellis, Kevin Alejandro and Tricia Helfer.

We met some amazing attendees and throughly enjoyed meeting all the actors and hearing their stories. They were all hilarious and all very engaging. They LOVE their show and the fans too. And the fans LOVE them right back. All the fans were well versed in the show and at times stumped the actors with their questions. It truly was a lovefest and it was sad it was only two days. They mentioned maybe doing another in Chicago in 2020 and we will definitely check it out if they do.

Friday 80s Flashback for August 30, 2019

[Not Toto-ly Solo] -- I'm a fan of Toto. I mean the band, though I suppose that little dog is cool, too. Now, much of what I like about Toto's recordings comes down to the fret work of cool hand Steve Lukather. Even before Toto released their first record, Lukather was a regular guitar slinger in recording studios. He can be heard on countless records for a variety of artists. But until very recently, I did not know that he had recorded his first solo album and released it August 28, 1989 -- 30 years ago this week! It came about because Toto mutually decided to take a bit of a break after 11 years together. But it wasn't a fully solo project. No, Steve Lukather took the songs he had written, songs that had not yet appeared on a Toto record, and worked them with such recording luminaries as Eddie Van Halen, Steve Stevens, Richard Marx, and Jan Hammer. He even included fellow Toto members, Jeff Porcaro and David Paich, in the mix. As far as I can tell, Lukather (1989) features no singles, but a promo video was made for one of the songs, "Lonely Beat of My Heart." So, outside of that link, I'll feature the album in its entirety for this week's Flashback. 

---

That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for August 23, 2019

[Jefferson Tuna] -- This week in 1989, thirty years ago, Jefferson Airplane released their eighth and final studio album, Jefferson Airplane. There can be some confusion surrounding the whole Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship details, particularly in terms of who was in which band at which time and who owned what. Even here, vocalist Grace Slick had left the 80s rock band Starship, and a few other folks had been recording/touring as the KBC Band or as Hot Tuna. And I think that pretty much shows in the final project which ends up sounding closer to Hot Tuna (sort of?) than anything previously identifiable as Jefferson Airplane. Rolling Stone equated this reunion record with watching your favorite ballplayers trying to play well past their prime. Maybe there's something to that description. Anyway, there were three singles from this record, which itself peaked at 85 on the album chart (Billboard Hot 200P). Only two of the three singles charted, and only two received the music video treatment. Do you remember any of them? I have to admit that I didn't. But, as usual, you can read and hear more after the jump.

Friday 80s Flashback for August 16, 2019

[Lucifer] -- I'm heading to LA today. The wife and I have tickets for A Salute to Lucifer, a convention for Lucifans. Now, across its four seasons, Lucifer, has been known for showcasing some excellent music. Check out the songlists here or here. But for the most part, there has been very little from the 80s featured on the show. So, I'm here to correct that oversight by offering up a few devilish tunes from our favorite decade. I tried to find songs that could still make sense if actually played during an episode. And that meant ruling out quite a few, shall we say, of the more metallic variety of songs. Still, I think I have a few overlooked gems for you, and one super popular song that I'm sure you've already guessed. Wondering if you've guessed correctly? Well, read and hear more after the jump! (And don't worry; Lucifer has been on Earth, so you're not jumping into Hell. Not yet anyway.)