Friday 80s Flashback for March 30, 2018

Fun Is Just Over There - by brainwise

For this week's Friday 80's Flashback, I'm revisiting a Flashback post from 3/29/2013. Five years ago this week, my mother and I were with my father while he was in the care of the Cleveland Clinic. 3/29/2013 was the start of Easter weekend, the first I had spent with both my parents in many years. And it was my second holiday overall with them at the Clinic (the first was Thanksgiving 1999). Unfortunately, it was Dad's last Easter; he succumbed to the complications of his cancer in May of 2013. And a mere five years later, I'm entering my first Easter weekend without either him ... or Mom. She passed away unexpectedly in October last year. 

So, much like that weekend of five years ago, I still have a tendency to  experience highs and lows in the wake of my adult orphan status. And these songs are still appropriate. You could check them out at the original link (see above). Or keep reading here because I've duplicated the entire post here for your convenience.

[Highs and Lows] -- I'm still at the Cleveland Clinic with my father (17 days and counting). And this week (like much of his stay) has had its share of ups and downs. At one point, we were told to prepare ourselves for "this may be as good as it gets" (Dad on ventilator and bed-ridden for however long). And then we were told that, even without a specific diagnosis, there are things that can be done to ween Dad off assisted breathing and even strengthen his other muscles. So, this week's Flashback reflects the highs and lows we have felt here rather than the upcoming Easter holiday (though I am sure holidays also have their fill of ups and downs). Today's image comes from my own collection on Flickr. I figure the Ferris Wheel is a good model of the cyclic nature of ups and downs. If you want to know what tunes are playing on my Ferris Wheel this week, just read and hear more after the break.

Black Panther

Dangrdafne point of view

One word: incredible

I give it 4 paws!!

Everything amazing that everyone is saying is true. The action, the story, the women, the music, the everything. I loved this movie.

SPOILERS:

Chadwick Bozeman is perfect in my mind. Like Wonder Woman had to wait for Gal Gadot to come along, Black Panther had to wait for Chadwick Bozeman. He IS Black Panther. He just embodies the character how I think it should be. I have never read the comic books or really know anything so maybe I am crazy but I would have to say I pictured Chadwick whenever people mentioned Black Panther being in the movies... and I didn’t even know who he was. I just think he is perfect here. He is a king.

I also did like Michael B Jordan as Killmonger but let’s just get it out there, I am female so of course I like Michael B Jordan :) But seriously he is great as this character. I hated that I hated him but that means he played him well. I could feel the pain and anger he felt and that was certainly the point. I am sad that there couldn’t be a redemption for him as I would have liked to see him and Chadwick work together to meld Wakanda and the world but with a name like Killmonger, redemption really doesn’t seem to be in the cards for him.

The women in this movie are my world. Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Sydelle Noel and Angela Bassett are glorious. I felt empowered by watching them. They were intelligent, athletic, sassy, beautiful and best of all they were women. Nothing had to be lost in the characters just because they were women. It was equal footing and equal screen time and I am forever grateful for it. Young girls of color should cheer every time they appear, for the theaters would be filled with noise for almost the whole movie and that is just how it should be. I look forward to more stories of these women and supporting anything they do.

Friday 80s Flashback for March 16, 2018

[ASIA] -- Geoff Downes, John Wetton, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer were already famous individually for playing in some of the biggest prog-rock bands of the 70s. And the sound they created in the early 80s as the four-piece called Asia owed more to the 70s than the New Wave that was taking over the radio. Still, their eponymous debut album was released in March of 1982 -- 36 years ago! -- and spawned two huge hits. Besides the hits, other songs on this album also achieved considerable radio play. Asia's sound was slickly produced yet still muscular, likely due to Palmer's steady percussion and Wetton's driving bass. All these elements propelled the album to great success, including peaking at #1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart. Asia's music was majestic in scope -- you have to play at a grand level if you choose to name your band after a continent -- and I still feel something magical in the opening chords of just about every song on this album. Hel, I still have my original vinyl copy. I can't tell you how many times I tried to draw the serpentine dragon from this album cover, but I can tell you that I no longer have any of those attempts.

If you'd like to sample some tunes from this album, you can read and hear more after the jump.  

Friday 80s Flashback for March 9, 2018

[Don't Throw Stones] -- I've been focusing on records rather than themes for the last several Flashback posts, and I wanted to continue in that vein. But picking this week's feature took a little longer than usual. Yeah, it's from March 1980, so you might think I would have stumbled across that quickly. But I don't run through the decade in chronological order until I find something. But when I finally stumbled across this week's record, it was a B-side that struck me. Don't get me wrong: I like the singles from this record, too. But the B-side holds the stronger memory for me. Anyway, this week's record is Glass Houses, Billy Joel's seventh studio album. It was released on March 10, 1980, so it is 38 years old this week! Glass Houses features Joel's first Billboard #1 hit, and the album itself peaked at #1 on the US Billboard 200. If the videos for this record's top singles were your first introduction to Billy Joel, you might have been confused by his reputation as a pianist. 

Friday 80s Flashback for March 2, 2018

[Saint Julian] -- I discovered Julian Cope in 1987. By that time, he had released two albums with his second band, The Teardrop Explodes (1978-1982), and three solo albums. That third solo album, Saint Julian, was released in March of 1987. Given my crash course in Cope's musical output, I can say Saint Julian was the most directly rock'n'roll record that Cope had recorded up to that point, his previous ventures being more of the neo-psychedelic vein. In keeping with the new musical attitude, Cope even tried to embrace the role of an 80s rocker, wearing leathers and adopting the arrogant posture of a "Rock God." And as much as I enjoyed my brief exposure to the earlier material, Saint Julian record reached me on several levels the other records didn't. I'm not saying it was deeper than his prior work, but I do feel it was better crafted. Or, maybe, I just think it was better because it resonated so much with my gut. If you would like to sample this 31-year-old record, then read and hear more after the jump.