Madonna continues on. This album; the umpteenth since her 1983 debut; has her playing an alter ego of sorts. You can call her Madame X; a feminist and romanticist version of Malcolm X; though the music still sounds like Madonna.
That’s not a good nor bad thing. She’s far from the music goddess she’s often described as, but sometimes she manages to create something special. Crave is a highlight here. Most of the other songs are aesthetically mundane.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
Excellence? Not even close. That, of course, has less to do with Lindt than my taste buds, which were never keen on dark chocolate. The flavor of these bars remind me of Raisinets, though there are no raisins; just tiny bits of roasted hazelnuts, which are overwhelmed by the chocolate.
my rating : 3 of 5
It’s a relatively close fight, sure, but I think Demetrious Johnson is the obvious victor. Why two of the three judges give it to Henry Cejudo is a mystery to me. The wrestler scores some impressive takedowns but doesn’t do much with them. DJ is clearly better on the feet, where most of the fight takes place.
my rating : 4 of 5
2018
He’s not referring to the cliché “love” most singers sing about. It’s even worse. Kirk Franklin is a diehard Christian, so when he speaks of Love, it has to do with his purported God; the all-loving Jesus.
“I don’t wanna love nobody but you,” the congregation, whose album this really is, declares during an early refrain; one of the better bits of an album that can’t seem to rise above mere decency.
Just For Me could reach glory if the chorus matched the rest of its aesthetic. OK is okay. Spiritual is too, though it gets a lot better as it conjures a fun jazz horn session during its final third.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
What really bothers me are the major grammatical inconsistencies happening here. One song is entitled I Make You Famous, but Billy Danze says “I’ll” on it. It’s a similar case with He Alright, which should be “He’s” as Jay-Z says it on the lead vocal sample.
That latter song is a damn good opener though; easily the best of the six on this solo (EP) “album”, which the MOP rapper insists is no indication of something being wrong with the (duo) “group”. The others pale in comparison, though their beats are mostly solid.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
Pettis is no slouch, but Ferguson’s fighting style is hard to deal with. It’s a barrage of pressure from a guy who doesn’t seem to get tired. He gets rocked in round 2 but recovers and continues to attack.
The ending is, as Jon Anik describes it, somewhat anticlimactic as the bout ends with Duke Roufus throwing in the metaphorical towel for Anthony Pettis. He’s apparently done in by a broken hand.
my rating : 4 of 5
2018
“It’s all over now,” Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan declares. She’s right. She died in the process of making this album, which, as a result, is purported to be the band’s final.
It’s essentially a set of demo songs, at least when it comes to the vocals, but they sound complete to my ears. Their melodies, while unexceptional, are groovy enough.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
“All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us,” the refrain, a ghetto street chant, goes, but what is it saying? That upper class white people (“they”) are generally apathetic toward (“us”) blacks? Michael Jackson, who one could jokingly say went from the latter to the former, suggests so.
“I’m tired of being the victim of hate,” The King Of Pop declares, “You’re raping me of my pride… for God’s sake.” The best bit is the one about Martin Luther King, which is harmonized to perfection before the final chorus section, where this anthem starts to sound like another Michael Jackson classic.
It could’ve been just that, but the guitar break, which serves as a bridge, is jarring. Not to say there shouldn’t be a guitar break; there absolutely should; just that there should be a better, or at least more fitting, one. The song also goes on for too long at the end. It should end at about the 04:10 mark.
my rating : 4 of 5
1995
Anderson Silva’s UFC 234 bout against Israel Adesanya almost ended like this. The Stylebender landed a kick to the knee of The Spider’s lead (right) leg early in the third round that buckled him, but he recovered. Jared Cannonier must’ve studied that fight. Here he kicks Silva’s same leg until it gives.
It’s an odd and anticlimactic ending to a fight it seems was just getting started. Anderson Silva goes down near the end of the “very” first round; a point at which Jared Cannonier’s speed and strength advantage has him at a slight edge, though Silva manages to land some impressive kicks of his own.
The man is 44 years old and looks good for that age, but these losses are adding up, which only tarnishes his legacy as arguably the best UFC fighter ever. If he’d retired after his first loss to Chris Weidman, which is what I said he should’ve done at the time, there wouldn’t be much to argue about.
Instead he went for a rematch and got his leg broken. That loss is eerily similar to this one, which takes us back to the question of the end. BJ Penn, who Silva once praised as one of the best ever, earned his seventh straight loss at this same 237 event. The way Silva’s career is going isn’t much better.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
Hershey’s Gold is one of their better candy bar varieties. Chocolate has long been a flavor overrated in my mind and this bar has none. It’s a sweet caramel made with tiny bits of peanuts and pretzels, the salt of which makes for an interesting juxtaposition.
my rating : 4 of 5
“What a fight,” Joe Rogan comments at the end. I agree. This is one hell of a fight; a kickboxing brawl that, while Chris Weidman looks a tad sharper, goes back and forth fairly evenly until Souza shuts him down.
That’s literally what it looks like; someone pressing a robot’s off button; as Weidman slowly falls over from a big overhand right to the temple. It’s a third round KO and his fourth loss in less than three years.
my rating : 4 of 5
2018
Frank Baum’s Wizard Of Oz is good on its own. It’s not Wonderful, thanks mainly to its anticlimactic ending, but it’s better than this unnecessary sequel, which takes us back to Oz to follow not Dorothy but an orphan boy named Tip. He meets eccentric characters, some we know, along his way.
General Jinjur and her Army Of Revolt; hundreds of feminist (sexist) girls with pretty faces; make for alluring villains. More time should be given to their zany antics. Jellia Jamb, a servant in The Emerald City’s Royal Palace, is also cute. Tip’s adventure is inferior to Dorothy’s though in nearly every way.
my rating : 3 of 5
1904
Mykola :
the Land of Oz in the Russian cartoon “Adventures in the Emerald City”, 1999
