More Retro Tunes!

The sequel to my playlist "Old school dance" comes back and hits hard with more old school tunes from the 70s and 80s. So if you can't find your 8 track just hit play and let these awesome (and for some, a little obscure) classics take you away to another world, or just back in time. Whatever you want to do, it's your trip.

Straight Forward Reviews: Bubblegun # 1

Aspen debuts another brand new series this month after Jirni debuted in April. In this edition of Straight Forward reviews we look at cyberpunk action in Bubblegun issue 1. Sparkling issue 1!

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story

The story in this issue, as it should do since it is a first issue, is set up the characters and the world. They debut in a big action scene that quickly lets you know what each characters strengths are and then afterward have some character building dialog and then at the end delve into what the plot for the next issues are going to be. In a spoiler free nutshell. 

The writing is not bad, the dialog between characters is believable and well done. The world seems to be pretty huge and have a lot of lore for it. In this issue, it seems to be a good thing and a bit of a drawback. It looks like there's going to be plenty going on in this world to not run out of stories to tell but it also feels like there's some important things about the world that the reader should have known about the world; like a little as to why certain corporations are extremely powerful or important t the characters. The story doesn't stop being enjoyable but it feels like there could have been some more information. Though I'm sure there will be more explanations in the second issue.

Characters

The main character and the crew she's in are all distinct and, although some got more time to shine than others, it's obvious when reading their dialog that they all have tons of personality. Also their designs are all fantastic. I love their character designs, they all have this nostalgic flavor and new sensibilities at the same time. Plus they're all bright and colorful and Molli and her sister look fabulous. It's nice to see colorful characters like them. 

Molli as a character has a lot of spunk and is very animated. Her sister is a nice foil for her, and their crewmates are all very distinct. 

To speak about how well the character designs are, I originally was not supposed to review this book! But after seeing the first two pages and how the characters looked I was intrigued enough to want to review the book and see if it really was good. 

Art

I already mentioned how much love I have for the characters. The whole comic is a colorful cyberpunk adventure and the inventive designs don't just stop at the characters. The weapons and technology are cool and the action looks flashy and stylish. The art is what made me pay attention and it will most likely get you to pick up the book. So it more than does it's job in my book.

Verdict

This book is tons of fun to read. There is less information about the world than I would like but it looks great and the characters are awesome. Plus there being less information than I'd like doesn't mean it is by any means not followable or poorly written. Quite the opposite. I give this comic an 8.5 out of 10

Techno Takeover 2: Save Your Heart (Revised)

“Save Your Heart”

Remady

 (Remady is the guy in the hat

 and the guy in the white shirt Manu- L)

((I originally reviewed this as the second song of techno takeover, it’s still the second review of Techno takeover but I felt the need to improve it because I’ve been doing this for a few months now))

I don’t have a reason for editing this other than I hated the original so here’s the new one. Hopefully I like this one slightly better.

From the time I originally reviewed this until 2013; Remady was given a Wikipedia page and has some pictures on Google as well. I can now efficiently tell the world about this guy.

Remady (named Marc Würgler) is a Swiss music producer from Basel. In the beginning of his career he worked with DJ Player and went by the name Player & Remady. Remady found fame when the single “No Superstar with Emmanuel Gut (Manu – L) spent 48 weeks in the international single chart and sold 300,000 copies. He’s worked with Lumidee; for anyone who doesn’t remember her she was kind of famous a few years back for some songs she did that I forgot the name of. I suggest Goggling her name if you’re interested in her.

Emmanuel is the vocalist and guitarist for the band Myron and they aren’t on Wikipedia. From what I’ve heard, he’s a pretty decent singer.

That’s about all I could find from Wikipedia and Remady’s website, so I guess it’s time to move on to the song and music video. This is a song that actually got a music video; I know those are rare in Techno Takeover.

(Opening verse)

“You gotta save your heart

You gotta save your heart
You gotta save your heart for me”

It’s really important that you save your heart that the singer has to repeat it twice before getting out the full sentence.

Verse One:
“Woke up in the morning and my heads all messed
I must have made it through the loneliness
But I can’t find your address where are you now
Everywhere I go all I see is your face
There’s something missing that I can’t replace
I turn around but it's not you, will we ever meet again?”

Wait a minute?! “All messed” I thought it was “… and my head’s a mess...” I like my lyric better. Oh and the music video is basically this guy becoming superhuman while trying to return this woman’s key that she dropped while getting into a taxi. There are two security guards (Manu-L and Remady) helping him track her down while watching the whole thing from monitors located somewhere... Another thing he's not very clear when he said I can't find your address, it seriously sounds like “I can't find another your address…”

Chorus:

“You gotta save your heart (oh ooh oh)

You gotta save your heart

You gotta save your heart
You gotta save your heart for me”

Yes it’s a weak chorus, but it works for the song. I think a staple in some electronic based songs, is that the music does the work and the lyrics are there for the sake of having it stuck in people’s heads.

And again with repeating I understand your emotions are strong but you only need to tell me once.

Verse two:

“No matter what I do I can’t let go
I got to find a way to let you know
But all I do is spin around and around where are you now
You got me going crazy can’t you see
That I was made for you and you for me
If not today I know tomorrow I will be with you again”

In the video the guy does some epic jumps and just does this spinning jump right over the heads of a couple making out in the middle of the sidewalk. He then proceeds to jump off of a roof then onto some lower levels and then onto a sign and twists onto the ground... this guy is bad ass!

I really want to know why the couple felt the need to hog the sidewalk, seriously just stand off to the side, sit down, or just generally move out of the way so other people can walk, it’s really irritating to other people trying to walk somewhere and then people are just hogging the walkway like they own the damn place.

The bridge:

“Don’t cha don't cha don't cha forget about

Don’t cha don't cha don't cha forget about
Don’t cha don't cha don't cha forget about me”

This man doesn't want the girl to forget about him even though no dialogue was shared between the two they just looked at each other smiled and she got in the car and left. I don’t think she listened if he has to constantly repeat himself…

Also he gets the keys back and a kiss on the cheek from the girl he pulled out Spiderman stunts for to give back her keys...

I’m pretty sure this is how filming the video went:

-Director to stunt man-

“Okay you're going to do this and jump down there then flip over that wall and land on your feet.”

-Stuntman to director-

“Sure no problem but how are we supposed to explain this to the bystanders?”

-Director to stuntman-

“We don’t need to explain it, they can just watch in awe.”

This song is rather odd with its message of: don't forget about me since we met for a brief period of time and that we might not be able to be together now so save your heart for when we can be together.

Saving your heart rarely works and is just time to build up this fantasy relationship only to be heartbroken in the end. That’s how life works most of the time. It might be nice for a day but that’s about it.

This kind of reminds me of another song with short lyrics but is straight to the point...and quite brunt about it...

((Spoiler, this was part of a thing leading up to my review of stereo love by Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina. I was going through a time in my life where that song was my life. Literally it was describing exactly what happening at that time. I might post those reviews just to give me more time to review other things.))

So that’s the end of this revised review, I think it turned out slightly better the second time.

~Pugsly

Get Ready To Dance

Get ready for some techno, trance and more. It's Hyped Dance from own on Jeremias de Leon.

Music: 80s and 90s dance

Mostly 90s though I'm not going to lie.