Random Thoughts On... Days of Our Lives????

Who knew that struggling to get an old kitchen floor up would inspire this post? Maybe that crappy glue got to me or something. Anyway, we were trying to get our house together before our new son, “Baby A”, was born. Yes, that was his name until we centered on something more concrete like Alexander, Anthony, Aaron, or Thalmus... yes, that last one is made up. I don’t know how he would feel being named after a 70’s blaxploitation actor.  Anyway, as I struggled to get that floor up, I started thinking about actors from Days of Our Lives. Then, that went to thinking about weird plots from the long-running soap opera. If you’re wondering why a black dude from the South knows quite a bit about the show, blame my grandma for that. So, here are some random thoughts on my time with the show.

“In the Beginning…”

For those who don’t know, Days of Our Lives is a soap opera that started in 1965 on NBC and is still running these days. They apparently switched to streaming on Peacock recently, so I hope the old ladies got a nephew who has some streaming knowledge. Days (or DOOL for short) was your usual soap opera. It revolves around a couple of families in the fictional Salem, IL. You get a whole lotta drama. This person is in love with that person, this person’s cheating with that person, someone wants to plot to get their love interest away from their true love, and all-around calamity ensues. Also add in assassins, evil business moguls with cool accents, Satan, plastic surgery, many cases of amnesia, hidden twin siblings, illegitimate kids, and a biiiiiatch named Sami. 

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Weird Music Videos – “White Horse” by Laid Back

This may be the first post where the video AND song are both weird. Also, Hello there! Yeah, I been gone for a little bit longer than I wanted. Life’s still going on, you see. The Lord has been good to us. We’re even having another boy soon, so that’ll be two rascals me and Liz will have to chase. So, let me talk about a Danish song that apparently hit the R&B charts back in the 80’s… yeah. I think America didn’t know what to do with this song.

“White Horse” was done by Laid Back, a Danish electric group. While the song was released on the B-side of their album in 1983, it somehow got a lot of traction over here in the US. I guess we really liked those beats or something. I actually remember my first interaction with this song from 1998. Me and my dad were driving down to Huntsville for Thanksgiving and this song came on 104.3 WZYP during their 80’s hour. Even he was wondering what was up with this song. He even brought it up to my cousin and great uncle who were visiting from Chicago. Apparently, I talked about this song here years ago, so it may be time for a redo and something more detailed.

So, what was this song about? And what was up with the video???

• Shady Dancing Dude – We get introduced to some shady Danish dude being followed by a shady Danish reporter who I guess wants to know about the white horse. Shady Dude also got some dance moves, and I can’t blame him. That intro makes you want to move. I see why this hit the charts over here.
• This song makes no dang sense – After a pretty long, upbeat intro, we learn a few things. First, if you want to ride, don’t right the white horse. Second, if you want to be rich, you gotta be a – uh, let’s say witch. You’ll figure it out. Finally, and most importantly, if you must  ride, ride the white pony. Some say that’s about drugs which makes a lot of sense because they were probably on drugs when they wrote this! I remember one commenter said that the white pony is sex… Okay?
• Cross-eyed Lady – During the video, we see a sultry lady dressed in a suit with a short skirt. Why she has the captain sailor’s hat, I have no clue. She also looks a bit-cross-eyed during it all which adds the video’s weirdness. All I can say to that is “Anchors Away!”
• David Hasselhoff?? – Look, when I first saw this vid, I was like “Michael Knight’s in the house!” I know John Guldenburg (the guitarist) looks nothing like Hasselhoff, but it stuck out to me. Maybe they have the same vibe.
• White Pony – The video ends… with a white pony in a hotel. Don’t know what’s being said there, but at least the fun has ended.

………………………………………..

Le me guess... she hit up some of that White Horse before shooting this video, right?

In the end, this is definitely one of the weirdest 80’s songs. That’s probably why it was such a hit. Even their other hit,“Sunshine Reggae,” isn’t too bad. That’s all I know about the duo. They got a bit of a discography, but I’m not too interested in it. Anyway, that’s all I got for now. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.

This may or may not be me dancing to "White Horse".

Tales from The Trade! - Star Trek: Godshock

During a trip to Nashville back in 2023, I decided to stop by my old comic stomping grounds, The Great Escape, off of Charlette Ave. Even though my comic buying has gone down in the last couple years, I still try to make time for the hobby. Making time to read said comics is another thing altogether. Anyway, I was perusing some of the new stuff, and a recent Star Trek trade popped out to me. The hardcover had a few Trek characters, most notably, Captain Benjamin LaFayette Sisko. You know I had to get this, man!!!

At the end of 2022, IDW started to release a new Star Trek comic that featured a lot of notable characters from the franchise with Captain Sisko being the lead. It even has a sister series called Star Trek: Defiant which features a few other popular characters. Since Trek continuity is pretty busy these days, they had it take place a couple of years after the end of DS9 and before Star Trek: Nemesis. “Godshock” contains the first 6 issues of the series. It’s being written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing who I don’t know too much about. The artwork is being done by a few like Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo. So, what happens when someone is killing “gods?”

 

Star Trek: Godshock

Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing

Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo

Colors: Lee Loughridge

Letters: Clayton Cowles

 

Quick Thoughts #6 - How did I get sucked into the Phantasm movies?

Even though we have passed the spooky season, I still had a hankering for some horror movies. After I finished a rewatch of Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf (yes, this exists and I will talk about this next time), I got curious about the Phantasm series. The 1978 cult classic was on Prime, so I thought I’d check it out. It’s actually not my first foray into the franchise. I didn’t remember who it was (I thought it might’ve been Allison Pregler, formerly known as Obscurus Lupa), but when Channel Awesome was on Blip.tv, someone talked about the first four movies. In fact (just checked this), it was Allison since she used to review cult horror at that time.

After my viewing of the first movie, I saw that Prime had the rest of the franchise on there, so I decided to go down this weird rabbit whole. Phantasm was released in 1979 and was written, produced, and directed by Don Coscarelli. Even though it made some decent money for its budget, it didn’t fare well critically. Luckily, the positive press came later, and it got regarded as a cult classic. It took a decade, but it eventually got a sequel in Phantasm 2. The next movie, Phantasm 3: Lord of the Dead, was released in 1994. Phantasm 4: Oblivion was released in 1998. It would take almost two decades for one more to come out, but Phantasm: Ravager was released in 2016.

Random Weird Music Videos - "Whatzupwitu" by Eddie Murphy featuring Michael Jackson

For my next foray in the wonderful, weird world of music videos, it's time to look at one of my favorite comedic actors: Eddie Murphy. Yes, he actually recorded a few music albums. I guess he thought he could also hit it big in this realm. No, he's not the best singer around, but he ain't too bad. I imagine that he'd do well at a church on any given Sunday. Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the One-Hit Wonder known as "Party All the Time" which was produced by Rick James. No, I got "Whazupwithu," a song off his third album that features one of my favorite singers, Michael Jackson. 

I always wondered why I never heard of this song back in the day. I mean, knowing that it was on an Eddie Murphy album definitely didn't help. I saw the video for this a few years ago and was amazed at how horrible it looked. My sister (who's a big MJ fan) sent a reel of it to me on Instagram a while ago. I also saw a reel of the podcast Double Toasted reacting to it, so that's why it's here. I gotta put my piece in on this wholesome horridness.

• "The Elephant is dying!" - Excuse my French, but what the hell was that? I had to do a double take at the beginning!
• "Eddie Mercury" - I saw a comment on Instagram and that just made me LOL. I definitely see it! I guess Eddie thought he could fill the void left by Freddie Mercury or something.
• Why, Michael? Why? - While I could be asking that question to MJ on a plethora of stuff, this is definitely a question that has to be asked. He's featured on stuff for years, but this one is the most baffling to me. Apparently, he liked the wholesome feel of the lyrics, so he agreed to do the song and the video. I can say that at least it looked like they were having fun making the video. Plus, MJ brought his usual A-game to the song.
• PBS Intro - This seriously looks like it could be an intro to a kids' learning show. That's not the vibe you should be going for... unless you're trying to create an intro for a kids learning show. It's like the wholesome version of "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" featuring Michael Jackson as the magic imp!
• Disney Channel Feel - All this video made me think of was those Disney Channel drawing bumpers you'd see from the early 2000's.  You'd have someone from those shows come on screen and be like "This is Disney" and pull out some magic wand. I almost thought the song was gonna end with Hilary Duff or Raven showing up with that wand!
• "Whatzzzuppwithuuu" - I don't know what Eddie was thinking adlibbing that in the song. The song itself is okay at best, but hearing him say it like that throughout the song is hilarious!
• The children choir - No comment there. While I got my theories about all that involving Michael, seeing a kids' choir show up here cracked me up. I guess this was shot before all those allegations started.

In the end, this is horrible. The song itself isn't that good, but the video just... dang! I don't know what the heck the creators were thinking about this! At least it's a video you can laugh out loud to. We need some of that these days. It may not be what Eddie Murphy was going for, but not only did he create one of the worst and funniest music videos ever. Anyway, I'm outta here. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.

At least some fun was to be had.