Leslie Smith does better this time around; I’ll give her that; but still it’s not enough. As tough as she is, her opponent is simply too much. Cris Cyborg wins every round of this rematch in what seems destined to be an unanimous decision victory until Smith eventually goes down and out with just nine seconds left on the clock.
my rating : 4 of 5
2021
With a whopping 300 milligrams of caffeine per serving, this “potent brain and body fuel” is, according to the can, “not your stereotypical high sugar, life-sucking soda masquerading as an energy drink!” There’s actually no sugar at all, a major health benefit, though the inclusion of sucralose as a substitute isn’t much better.
The taste is hard to describe. I’ve never had Rosé (wine) but there are hints of grape, along with strawberry and maybe some Pez. It’s certainly sweet, thanks to the aforementioned sucralose, at least when you first start drinking. The sweetness seems to fade after a while. Drink it partially frozen to get the full conceptual impact.
my rating : 3 of 5
Ladies and gentlemen, how about a big round of applause for the ending of this song in which the beat strips down to just hip-hop drums and what sounds like a short piano riff. It’s the manic record-scratching laid atop that sells it; thousands of tickets worth, in fact.
The J Beez are Comin Through your city on tour. They’re going from venue to venue, performing concerts for fans around the world. If you think the girl; or is that a boy; at the end says their names in the wrong order, by the way, check the Forces Of Nature album cover.
my rating : 4 of 5
1989
Tinashe’s rap is cute; she should do it more often; but the concept of it sort of contradicts what came before it. She goes from feeling sad about being played “like a symphony” to bragging about the guy’s sexual attraction toward her. “This shit got him so whipped,” she says, in reference to her pussy, “slurping it up like a snow cone.”
It’s a strange juxtaposition. She even acknowledges that he’d “wife it if I let his ass, for sure”. I guess her point is that the sex is Something she also enjoys a lot; the way she exhales on the bridge makes my dick stand up to see what’s going on; and, though she refuses to be his other girlfriend, she’ll let him keep coming around in order to get it.
my rating : 4 of 5
2015
Perhaps Paula Cole’s always been an SJW; go listen to her Harbinger debut; but she’s never manifested her advocacy to this degree. The war cry begins right out the gate with a call to action in the form of a bombastic speech by what sounds like an old black man. “We are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness,” he says before revealing the Revolution as a way to bring about a world utopia of “love”.
For Cole, it seems to have more to do with contemporary feminism; Shake The Sky calls for the uprising of women while Silent serves as an anthem for the so-called Me Too Movement; though she also takes on racism and other political issues. Still the album isn’t as musically radical as the aforementioned Intro might lead you to believe. Most of it sounds like Paula Cole, whatever that’s worth these days.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
Courage? I don’t know. Paula Cole decided to play it safe on this album. What we get, after nearly eight years, is a woman who’s mature and sophisticated, relatively stable even, in contrast to the church girl who got lost in religious babble (Amen) or the Lilith who threatened to bite off the head of her housemate’s penis with This Fire.
That latter set, easily her best, is what made the world fall in Love with her in the first place and we do get a small puff of that fiery edge here. She goes into her signature bawl at the end of the first single, another breakup ballad, entitled 14. “This mighty woman’s ready to explode,” she warns, though the “volcano” never actually erupts.
Still this prettier version of Cole who prefers sweeping jazz arrangements and lite reggae over bitchy rock anthems remains a talent. Even given these romantic themes, her voice is smoother than ever and she still has a knack for the kind of ballsy vocal melodies you don’t hear much in the brave new world of pop music.
my rating : 3 of 5
2007
Though infested with killer zombies, nothing in this movie; a remake of George Romero’s Night sequel; is as Dead as the dialogue and plot, both of which lurk in dark contrast to an interesting setup. Instead of a house, Dawn traps its unfortunates; a group of wise-cracking dimwits who do things only characters in horror movies seem to do, like stand too close to running chainsaws; in a Milwaukee shopping mall.
my rating : 2 of 5
2004
This juice tastes like garbage. That’s not to say it’s nasty; it isn’t; just that its flavor is comparable to the sweet smell of trash. It also smells like trash; it’s probably the smell that causes it to taste that way; but without the repugnant stench that often comes with it.
Aside from that, the drink, from the Old Orchard Healthy Balance line, isn’t bad. It’s mostly water and apple juice, so the name is misleading, but there is some Strawberry and Watermelon juice added. No sugar though; just sucralose, which may be as bad for your Health.
my rating : 3 of 5
Future is a rich man with a lavish collection of jewelry and several luxury cars; his money and fame attract so many “bad bitches”, it’s Hard To Choose One; so it’s no wonder he’s High Off Life. He’s also high on “green”. This, his eight album, serves as a soundtrack to his biography; at least the parts he wants us to know about.
Not that his heavily Auto-Tuned vocals are the highlight here. The best parts are the gritty Trap beats; those of us who can’t switch the “yellow Lambo” with the “green Ferrari” have to be careful not to blow our woofers with all this bass; though the set would be a lot less interesting without his singsong raps to set the scenes.
my rating : 3 of 5
2020
I don’t know about Delirious, but Eddie Murphy is certainly hilarious in this HBO special. It’s a stand-up comedy show live from Washington DC, but there’s nothing politically correct about it. Even with kids in the audience, Murphy comes with a barrage of raunchy jokes, often via personal anecdotes and spot-on celebrity impressions. He also goes after white people and “fags”, but it’s all in fun. “I fuck with everybody,” he says, “I don’t give a fuck.”
my rating : 5 of 5
1983
This sounds like a cover of an old pop standard perhaps from the catalogue of The Carpenters. According to the credits, it’s composed entirely by Michael Jackson; its philanthropic theme is to the Dangerous album what Man In The Mirror was to Bad; with musical accompaniment from John Bahler and Marty Paich.
It’s a song mostly layered in schmaltz, but they’re beautiful oceans nonetheless. Jackson’s quivering vocal melodies sound superb. The only bruises (flaws) I can see (hear) have to do with certain words that should rhyme not rhyming (“brothers/plowshares”) and an adult starting monologue being spoken by what sounds like a kid.
my rating : 4 of 5
1991
![Phineas Gage [ A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science ] ( book ) ... John Fleischman](https://marcellee.com/posts/106415.jpg)
This book; a True Story only in the sense most historical biographies are, meaning it’s based on what someone says other people said happened; is compelling at the start. That’s partly because it begins with the Gruesome; Phineas Gage is “world famous” for being cranially impaled by a tamping iron; instead of eventually leading into it.
Once the tale of his Horrible Accident is told, John Fleischman is left stretching the rest of Gage’s otherwise unexceptional life out with what comes across as an extended epilogue. He does so by digressing into detailed medical synopses and Science lessons regarding the Brain, comparing what we “know” now to what they knew back in the 1800s.
my rating : 3 of 5
2002