Trek Novels - Star Trek: The Next Generation - Vendetta

It has been years since I’ve talked about any Star Trek novels here. Heck, it’s been years since I really delved deep into a Trek novel. I might’ve tapped myself out on Trek at some point, but I never lost that passion. I’ll do a re-run of old Trek from time to time.I’ve been trying to catch up with the rest of Discovery’s 5th season and have been watching the newest show, Starfleet Academy, on Paramount+. I’ll just say this about SFA… it’s better than I thought it would be. Maybe I’ll say a little something to help out the kids once I’m done watching it.

Anyway, I thought I’d finally read this novel. I think I bought it at this book store in Columbia, but it could’ve been McKay’s as well. It was actually stuck at my parents’ house for years until I decided to dust it off this year. I also wanted to read it because the author, Peter David, passed away last year. I’ve read quite a few of his comics and novels over the years, so I thought I might as well read one of his first tries with the TNG crew. Vendetta was released in 1991 through Pocket Books. Instead of being along with the usual batch of novels, this was a special “Giant” one. I can see why they may have done that with who’s on the cover.

Favorites - Ranked Dragon Age: Inquisition Companions

Well, I did say I’d be done with Dragon Age Inquisition by Christmas, and that was partly true. Still, when you have a wife, toddlers, a job, and other interests, you can usually push these playthroughs indefinitely… and I still ain’t done. I got sucked into doing the DLCs for the game and actually fought those blasted dragons. I actually have just the rest of "Trespasser" to finish up and then I can call it quits on Dragon Age for a while. Still, I’ve played at least 100 hours of this game to get this written.

If you want a nice overview of the game, just check out my old review because it’s pretty much the same. In fact, I think I’ve fallen for this game more the third time around. It’s as good as I remember it. Each DA installment brings something unique, and this is no different. DAI is definitely a return to form after DA2’s adventures in Kirkwall. You’re back and forth between Fereldan and Orlais in trying to stop Coryheus from destroying the world. Oh yeah, “Cory” still sucks as a villain. That was one thing that hasn’t changed with me. Even though I did complain about the vast emptiness of the world, I kinda got used to it this time around.

The gameplay still rocks with you and your companions dishing out loads of destruction to your enemies. This time, I was a Rogue Inquisitor with the twin daggers, and that was so much fun. The graphics are good, but this was one area I kinda struggled with especially with my character. At least Veilgard has added more black hairstyles… but I’ll get to that someday. Weapons and customization are also pretty dang good. The DLCs were also pretty good and added a lot to the game... including a full ending/epilogue... EA, why are you like this?

I tried to do my hair right... they needed a bigger afro and some curly hair options.

Our companions are good as usual. We get 9 companions this time, and they all range from okay to pretty dang good. I will say that some of their personal missions don’t stack up to the ones from Origins and even Dragon Age 2. I’m not sure if it was that there were too many companions or that there wasn’t as much thought put into their personal missions. Either way, I still think the companions help make the game awesome. So, with that out of the way, here’s my ranking of all the companions from DAI. I’m also adding the advisors (Cullen, Leliana, Josephine, and a surprise) in this as well. You don’t fight alongside them as much, but their presence and stories are right alongside the other companions. 

Quick Thoughts #7 - "Dang, that Animated G.I.Joe Movie Was Weird!"

At the end of the year, I was thinking about trying to get back into some regular blogging. It's like I can't do crap for the first half of the year, and then I decide to churn out something before the year ends or something. Anyway, I thought a post a week would be good, but then I realized that I don't like talking all that much to begin with. Still, I think I can do a little more than 8 posts a year. 

While I was doing some New Year Cleaning, I thought I'd check out Tubi for some random watching and found the G.I. Joe animated movie there. Now, I'm a casual fan of the franchise. I've really only seen a few episodes of the original TV show. I've actually passed some time by watching old episodes on Tubi last year with the boys. I also own the one good live-action movie (Retaliation which also isn't that good), got G.I.Joe Renegades on DVD somewhere, and tried checking out those Energon G.I. Joe comics that Image Comics is putting out. With all that said, I had the movie playing while I did slew of other things around the house. As I watched this, one thing scratched at my head: 

HOW DID I WATCH THIS AS A SEVEN YEAR OLD?

This is probably one of the funniest moments in the movie. Cobra Commander's wiggin' out, and Road Block channels his inner Denzel ("Get you $$$$$$ hands off me!).

Weird Trek Episodes - SNW's Shuttle To Kenfori aka "Don't Call them Zombies! It Just Not Nice!"

M'Benga: I just can't believe it... we're in an episode that doesn't focus on Spock's love life.
Pike: I didn't realize how much that would be a thing either, Joseph.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just wrapped up its 3rd season, and I gotta say that I'm kinda underwhelmed with this outing. It wasn't a bad season but compared to an almost perfect first season and a good second season, it does feel like the boat's a bit adrift. I think only having 10 episodes a season isn't helping. Also, I think someone misses Lower Decks way too much. Maybe someone needs to make sure the crew hasn't been drinking too much Romulan Ale. That's stuff's illegal, ya know?

Weird Trek Episodes - The Alternate aka "That One Where Odo Turned into a Goo Monster"

Mora: What does it say, Odo?
Odo: It says that you're one overbearing father figure. Apparently, my people had those too!

Why did I get away from doing these? Not only are they easy to write, but they can provide some nice Trek entertainment. I was planning on talking about the episode around Halloween since it's kind of a monster feature, but that didn't happen. "The Alternate" was from the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This was one of the few DS9 episodes I found recorded on a VHS along with some X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons from when I was younger. At this point, DS9 was still kind of in its learning phase, but they did have a better grasp of what they wanted to do with the show. Today, it's an Odo episode.

In the episode, Odo's "dad" comes to the station. Mora Pol, a Bajoran scientist, was the one who realized that Odo was a sentient life form and tried to foster him a bit. While Dr. Mora's come to visit Odo, he also comes with news that he may have found Odo's home world in the Gamma Quadrant. Even though their relationship is a bit fractured, Odo's curious, so he accompanies Dr. Mora, Commander Dax, and another scientist to the planet. All they find there is a statue, a lifeform similar to Odo, and volcanic gasses emanating from the ground.  The gas affects all of them except for Odo who's able to transport them outta there.

This is Halloween 5 - The Blade Trilogy

 

Well, it’s about time I talked about the Daywalker. I think I was going to do this years ago because I had the DVD set of the whole trilogy and the Spike TV series. “Had” is the key word because I think someone took it from my collection. I originally was going to talk about Blade: Trinity in the last post, but after watching Blade 2 as well on Hulu, I knew it was time to talk about these movies.

Now, I’m probably a casual fan of Blade at best. I’ve really only been exposed to his movies, that Spike TV series (yes, he had a TV show and it was weird), his guest appearances in cartoons, and a few comics like Mighty Avengers. I haven’t really read any of his solo work, but that should change soon. For those who don’t know, Blade first appeared in 1974 in Tomb of Dracula as a black vampire hunter who wasn’t a half-human/half-vampire hybrid yet. That came in the 90’s where Marvel started to use him more. The first time I saw him was in the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon where Spidey was going up against Morbius.

New World Pictures got the rights to do Blade in the 90’s when Marvel was selling off film rights for money. David Goyer took on the writing duties for all the films. As for Blade himself, Wesley Snipes took up the challenge. Blade was eventually released in 1998 and was well received. I remember seeing this play a lot on TBS back then. Blade 2 came in 2002, and Blade: Trinity was released in 2004. I vaguely remember that the VHS for Blade 2 was jacked up, so I missed out on part of it. As for Blade: Trinity, I think I saw it  on MTSU’s Movie channel or I rented it from the Hollywood Video down the street. I was sad when they closed up. So, how do these three hold up?

This is Halloween 5 - Third Movie Sorrows

Well, we’re in the spooky season again, and I’ve got a hankering for some Horror. This time, I thought I would continue down the franchise hole and look at the infamous third movie. Now,  third movies tend to have a bad rep in franchises. You rarely see anything that is truly awesome in the third installment. Usually, they’re either disappointingly good or just all-out bad. For every Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you’ll get an X-Men: the Last Stand, Spider-Man 3, or Beverly Hills Cop 3. Recently, we’ve seen this happen with Tron: Ares that was just released in theatres, and you see how that’s being received. I already knew that “Third Movie Problem” would show up there.

Today, I got three movies from different series. I thought I might as well watch the series I’ve looked at in previous years. First up, we swim for a bit in Jaws 3-D from 1983. Next up is Howling 3: The Marsupials from 1987 which is one I’ve never seen. Finally, we get hellish with Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth from 1992. My last pick was going to be Blade: Trinity, but after watching it and Blade 2 recently, I think the Daywalker needs his own post. I also thought Halloween 3: Season of the Witch would make it here, but I’m just not ready for it yet.

Favorites - Ranked Dragon Age 2 Companions

Now, this was definitely one game I wanted to revisit. Dragon Age 2 was released in 2011 and was underwhelming for fans. I didn’t play it until like 2015 since I was in my Bioware phase. I remember liking DA2 and can kinda see why some folks didn’t like it. It did feel a few steps below Origins. We had a lot of reused dungeons and areas, some of the gameplay could be repetitive, and some of the writing wasn’t the best. Still, I had a fun time back then and eventually went on to play Inquisition. 

Now that I’ve replayed it and some of the DLCs (I skipped Mark of the Assassin), DA2 really grew on me. The fact that this game was rushed out of development and made to shelves playable was a miracle. While I get that some wanted an experience similar to Origins, I like how DA2 changed it up. We’re limited to Kirkwall  and get to see how bad things are for Hawke, his companions, and the rest of the city over a span of a few years. Last time, I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know what to expect when some big moments happened.This time, I really wanted to see what could happen with these characters. I came away with a bit of a realization from some of my companions. I was Warrior Hawke this time and I had so much fun with that big sword/axe/hammer. I might go two handed for Inquisition, but I’m not sure yet.

So, how were the companions this time? They were pretty good as usual. Some of them don’t hold a candle to the ones from Origins, but there are some that are on par. We also have a limited number of companions which I think helped things a bit story wise. Since we play Hawke over a span of years, we get to see these friendships go through the ringer, and you sometimes don’t know how things will end. 

Favorites - Ranked Dragon Age Origins Companions

I did not want to be gone this long! This is what happens when you’re married, have two growing kids, have a job, and have other activities that get in the way of writing on your pretty old blog. One of those things that took a lot of time away from here was revisiting one of Bioware’s greats: Dragon Age Origins. After Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released, I had a hankering for some Thedas action especially since I can’t play the thing yet. “That will happen one day,” I wistfully say to myself. 

I thought about maybe doing a bit of a retrospective on it, but I already don’t have that much time. Just know that I still had a blast replaying this game. This time, I was able to really delve into it unlike with my first long playthrough. I made some thankfully better decisions. Alistair didn’t leave my party, Zervan became a good friend, and I held off going off into those dang Deep Roads. I still couldn’t romance Morrigan nor Wynne (Bioware dropped the ball on some old lady action!), but Leliana still fits that role in a good way. I also was able to play more companion quests as well.

The game play is still the same in that weird “turn-based/real-time action”, but I got used to it. I was also curious about the rest of the DLCs I didn’t play through way back when. That Witch Hunt DLC was a waste, finding an old Warden castle was alright, and returning to Ostagar was interesting. Anyway, since I have been able to do a more detailed playthrough of the game, I thought a new companion ranking would be good. I did one back in 2015 with all the main companions in the games. This time, it’s just gonna be the Origins ones, and I mean all of them. I’ll even throw in the DLC ones this time. I’ll also add a quick tip on gameplay.

Weird Music Videos - "Rapture" by Blondie

 And my first post back from a pretty long sabbatical is... a random post about the first Rock/Rap combo. Well, the blog is called "Random Thoughts", so there you go. Anyway, Blondie was a rock band from the late 1970's. They blended a bit of new wave, punk, and other genres.  They're known for songs like "Heart of Glass" and "One Way or Another." Those two songs and today's song, "Rapture", are the only ones I know from them though. They're aren't exactly on my "Find Old Music To Listen To" journey, but some of their songs are catchy. 

"Rapture" is from their fifth album, Automerican, released in 1981. The music video was released about the same time on MTV and Solid Gold. It was a bit of a rock and rap mixture. Rap was in the early stages at this point but not on the grand stage just yet. You had ones already out like the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambatta, and Fab Five Freddy. Fab Five Freddy is important to this because he knew Debbie Harry and Harry Stein, two members from Blondie. They were inspired by Freddy and the growing rap sound to write some into one of their songs. It was pretty much a success on their end with "Rapture" being one of the first successful rap songs. I would see this video show up on VH-1's Pop Up Video when I was younger. Is it good though?

• Great Music Arrangement - Say what you want about the rapping, but the music and Harry's vocals in the beginning are awesome. It's got a slick bassline, good drumming, and some nicely placed saxophones. It's what I love from music. The added bonus are the chimes which give it a dreamlike vibe.
• THE RAP IS KINDA WACK - Hey, I like the song, but the lyrics are pretty bad. I don't know if I can relate to the man from Mars who eats cars and then suddenly decides to eat guitars. Harry's flow is alright. You can kinda tell where they ran out of stuff to say at times. I guess they didn't know what to rap about which I get. If you listen to rap songs from this era, their lyrics tend to be weird. Just check out "Rapper's Delight" where you'll hear about the following: The hip-hop hippity hop, Super-sperm, and something about bad macaroni and cheese.
• Dreamlike Video - Not only does the song have this dream-like vibe, the video is about the same. You got all sorts of randomness here. You got dancing, people painting graffiti, and a few other things I'll mention in a minute. Also, were Debbie and the rest of the band mannequins at first? That's what it seemed like to me. I also gotta admire most of it taking place in one shot. 
• Black Man in a White Suit - I don't even get who the dude in the white suit was supposed to represent. I know it ain't Fab Five Freddy. I know that from Pop Up Video. He apparently sports red, glowing eyes, so maybe he's the man from Mars... or what some people think Jesus might've looked like. He even dances with the girl ballerina for a sec, and that was cute... oh yeah, why is a girl ballerina hanging in an alley with all sorts of mischief ?!?
• Random Indian who looks like Richard Pryor - Yes, I know what I said. When I first saw this vid, I was like, "Why's Richard Pryor dressed up like an Indian Chief?" I now know it wasn't him now, but still, so random! I ain't even mentioning Homeless Uncle Sam, the weird scientist, the dancers from a cult, and some lady who looks like she escaped Arkham Asylum.

.....................................

In the end, it's a classic song and video with some weird rap lyrics. When I say it like that, it definitely sits in good company. I might add Blondie to a listen pile, but I'm not sure. Maybe someday.  I don't know how much I'll post these days, but hopefully, I won't take too long with something. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there... The Richard Pryor chieftain may still be around.

Look I'm just saying... it looked like Richard Pryor to me, dang it!!!

Favorites - 18 Favorite Characters from the Vampire Diaries Universe

Well, it’s finally time to end my time with this franchise. I mean to post this a while ago, but I've been kinda busy. Life does that sometimes. I gotta say that it’s been fun visiting these shows. I didn’t think I would’ve found these shows cool, but here we are. I got my wife to thank for that. She can be good with choosing some shows at times. This made for a fun binging.

While I wouldn’t throw any of the Vampire Diaries shows on my “Greatest TV Shows Ever” list, they were decent shows for the most part. They hit great highs and fell into some pretty bad lows. Their respective areas were pretty interesting, and the characters made these shows work even when the writing failed. Each show tried to do something unique. Of the three, I’d say that The Originals was my favorite of the bunch. The Mikaelsons made for some fun characters, and the conflicts between the supernatural factions in New Orleans were good television.  

I really couldn't keep the count low for my favorite characters, so 18 should do it. It’s not a ranked list, but I will have the best ones up first. I had to include all three shows with this. I know some don’t like Legacies, but that was where it really started for me. I got some main characters and even some side characters that I really liked from all three shows.

The Pros and Cons of... The Vampire Diaries

Well, this took longer than usual. When you have kids, some of the more violent stuff has to be put away for a bit. This kind of happened with The Vampire Diaries. I guess Andy wasn’t the only one who doesn’t like Rippers! So, where do I start with this show especially since I watched its spinoffs first? I guess the beginning’s a good point.

The Vampire Diaries was a supernatural soap opera that aired on the CW from 2009 to 2017. Twilight was in its hey-day at this point, so the CW decided to throw their hat in by adapting this young adult series. When it was airing, I only watched one episode, and that was because either Supernatural or some other show came on beforehand. It really wasn’t until last year where we had an inkling of watching the show in full. Besides, we had to see how it all began. We took a break around the third season because of Andy.  We didn’t get back on the Mystic Falls train until this year. We just finished the show recently.

So, the show takes place in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. It mainly revolves around a young girl named Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) as she falls for a handsome, generous 160-year-old vampire by the name of Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Of course, things start to go down into the depths of Hell as Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), Stefan’s older brother, comes into town. Not only does Damon notice something familiar about Elena, he also has a massive bone to pick with Stefan. Eventually, we find out why Damon hates Stefan as well as why Elena has a stark resemblance to Katerina Patrova, another woman Stefan and Damon loved back in 1866. Of course, a lot of other stuff happens like death, more vampires, witches, werewolves, Klaus mother-loving Mikaelson, doppelgangers, prison worlds, vampire-like witches, bad writing, broken necks, and the Devil… kinda.

Random Thoughts On... Similarities Between the Star Trek and Alien Movie Franchises

hen I was re-watching the Alien films, I was reminded of Star Trek a lot more than usual. Yeah, they both take place in the future and in outer space, but they are light years different. Trek’s an optimistic future where humanity’s got their crap together. The Alien franchise is so dour with corporations and the military doing really shady stuff. In fact, it's kinda today! Anyway, this one thought led me down a bit of a rabbit hole, and I ended up finding more similarities between the two franchises. Now, I’m mainly talking about the Trek movies from that time, not the many series. So, excuse me as I go down this weird rabbit hole I’ve created for myself. 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture/Alien

 

While there aren’t too many similarities, they are there:  

• The Plot - both plots are kinda similar. Both movies involved their respective crews going up against unknown life forms that endanger them and others. Of course, you can’t compare a simple Xenomorph to the behemoth of a ship called V’Ger, but they were threats that the crews of the Enterprise and Nostromo had to deal with.One Enterprise member gets taken over by V’Ger while John Hurt’s character (I can’t remember his name) becomes the Alien franchise’s first Xenomorph host. 
• The Effects - One of the things I really noticed about both films is how they were both influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both movies take measures showing how big and vast these ships and space is. They try to show off the coolness and relatability of this tech. They also kind of linger on these effects a little too much. Alien doesn’t do it as much as TMP did. It’s one of the reasons TMP is considered to be a bad movie. 
• The Composer - Jerry Goldsmith composed both films and did a tremendous job on both. I’d say that TMP’s score is more memorable for me since I basically grew up on the TOS movies, but the Alien score is pretty solid. 

This is Halloween 4! - The Alien Prequels and Spinoffs

Next up, I wanted to talk about the other movies from the Alien franchise like the prequels and the crossovers. I know the crossovers may not line up with the main Alien movies (especially after Prometheus…), but they still gotta be talked about. I’d probably even talk about Alien: Isolation, but I still can’t finish that game. Yes, there are Alien games out there and they vary from good to quite horrid. I might as well do this in the order they were released.

This Is Halloween 4! - The Original Alien Movies

Well, if you were wondering what franchise I was talking about last time, this would be the one. The Alien franchise added a new layer to horror and scifi. It also started the career of the awesome Sigourney Weaver. Unfortunately, it’s one that I’m not an uber-fan of. Over the years, I saw the four movies either on TV or at someone else's house and not all the way either. My folks weren’t renting this for us. I somehow ended up watching Aliens at the young age of 7 at my uncle’s house for some holiday, but I didn’t finish it. I guess they thought I couldn’t take too much Alien-ess. It was kinda like that for Alien 3, but I caught the ending instead of the beginning.

Since Alien: Romulus has come out, I thought I’d watch all the movies in full. I’m waiting for streaming to see Romulus, but my sister thought it was good. For this part, I’m only looking at the original four movies featuring our heroine, Ellen Ripley. I’m saving the prequels and spin-offs (yeah, I’m touching on the AVP movies too) for another post. 

This Is Halloween 4! - A Bit of 80's Randomness

Well, we’re getting closer to All Hallow’s Eve, so it’s time to get back into posting about some horror movies. Today’s bunch is a random lot from the 1980’s. I have a couple of more posts about a somewhat beloved franchise coming up, so I wanted to get these added since they don’t really tie in at all. The only hint I can give is that this franchise involves cool ladies surviving the odds. Yes, that is quite vague!

I’ve been meaning to talk about a couple of these for years, so now is the best time to do so. It’s a mixture of overall weirdness. We got vampires, sexy were-cats, de-evolving scientists, and even more sexy werewolves... the 1980’s were weird. First, it’s The Lost Boys from 1987 because I might as well get the best out of the way. Next is Altered States from 1980, a movie straddling the fence between sci-fi and horror. Next is a new viewing for me. For some reason, Cat People from 1982 piqued my interest. Finally, I save the “best” for last with Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf from 1985. 

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.