2025 in 2025: Day 54

Devil's Playground - Billy Idol

Billy and Steve are back together making fun hard rock again! Man, Billy's voice on this is cranking! Did he just admit he drinks and drives all the time? The innuendoes in Yellin' at the Xmas Tree are quite funny. 

Highlights: Super Overdrive, Rat Race, Yellin' at the Xmas Tree, Cherie, Summer Running

7/10

Diamond Hoo Ha - Supergrass

This is one of those albums that gets going and a few tracks in you are thinking to yourself 'hotdamn this is a great album!' and then the rest of it is just okay and not nearly as awesome as it started. Supergrass were awesome, but this was not their most consistent album. The highlights, though, are seriously fab.

Highlights: Rebel In You, Diamond Hoo Ha Man, Bad Blood, 345, Butterfly

7/10

Diamonds and Pearls - Prince & The New Power Generation

Prince does New Jack - like MJ did! And just like MJ before him, Prince kills it. He also delivers some not so awesome songs, as well. Whenever I hear a song like Cream, I find it so confounding that I hated it so much when I was young. That song is pop-funk perfection. 

Highlights: Diamonds and Pearls, Cream, Jughead, Gett Off, Live 4 Love

8/10

Diamonds and Pearls (Super Deluxe Edition) - Prince

Prince opens the album admitting to date rape? Then he moves on to (hilarious) fat-shaming. Prince is going to get cancelled if he isn't careful. While there are some uncovered gems to be found here, a lot of these feel quite unfinished; we get a few songs that ended up being further refined and recorded for the album, some demos or songs that get demoed again later in the set, and also some random extended versions. I'm not overly complaining, because I will always take a big collection of Prince very happily. It's just that after how awesome the Sign O' The Times Super Deluxe Edition was, this first disc of Vault Tracks kind of felt like a step down. But then discs II & III are mostly great and full of Prince being Prince; there's a big extended funky jam, gorgeous ballads, and preachy songs about God's love. Can we get another Super Deluxe Edition of a Prince album in my lifetime, please?

Highlights: Diamonds and Pearls (Long Version), Something Funky (This House Comes), The Voice, The Last Dance (Bang Pow Zoom and the Whole Nine)

7/10

Diamonds and Pearls: Promo Mixes and B-Sides - Prince & The New Power Generation

Horny Pony sounds like Prince was having a big ol' barrel of fun. And I actually dig these dance remixes, as well. I genuinely do not get all the hate for Tony M's rapping - I think the dude was solid.

Highlights: Horny Pony, Do Your Dance, Diamonds and Pearls (Edit), Gett Off (Damn Near 10 Minutes)

8/10

It was a very diamond day!

"Albums" listened to so far: 418

Jim Kelly June Jamboree: Melinda (1972)

THE MOVIE

We open with the funkiest of instrumentals, while a dude drives the coolest looking Corvette in 1972.

We're off to a great start!

Then, we find ourselves in a community centre or something where my man Jim Kelly is training locals in the art of Karate. He decides to demonstrate his superior skills by whooping the dude that was driving the Corvette.

After embarrassing him, my man Jim Kelly tells this dude (Frankie J. Parker - our actual main character) that he needs to talk to the owner of the centre about giving him a break on the rent, because they are there to help people and fight against drugs. 

Jim Kelly is the man.

Anyways, Parker is a DJ. And a ladies man. And supremely full of himself.

He goes to a bar and picks up a woman named Melinda, and takes her to a party on a boat being held by his dear friend, Tank. Tank made lots of money in the NFL. And if this wasn't a 1972 blaxploitation film, I would swear Tank is actually in love with his friend Frankie; I know that wasn't the intention, but the way he is portrayed just screamed secret crush. Especially with lines about how all his gifts to Frankie "are from the heart".

Plus he totally gets in the way when Frankie is trying to mack on Melinda - even interrupting by introducing Frankie's ex-girlfriend! 

So after telling Frankie that she absolutely will not be having sex with him, Melinda of course has sex with Frankie and they fall madly in love. We see them going on dates and telling each other how much they love each other, so I assume they are now in the midst of a serious relationship. Turns out, it has only been two days! I'd say something like 'maybe the sex was really good', but they showed it. It was weird.

Frankie comes home from the radio station on the second day of this whirlwind romance, only to find his beloved Melinda has been murdered. His arrival is promptly followed by the police, who quickly assume he is the murderer and arrest him. Now, I'm not Batman (I'm LOGMAN), but I would think the fact Frankie just arrived, has no blood on his clothing, and there is likely nothing in the room to say he did it would have me considering it may have been someone else. But that's why they are the police. Realising the man is never going to believe him, Frankie sets out to find the real murderer. But of course, it is not simple. He has to fight off some junkie whore and some trusted allies, until he is finally able to come face to face with the man responsible. And then beat the crap out of him and his cronies, with the help of Jim Kelly and the other karate students.

REACTION

Is my write up here boring? Because this movie was... kinda boring. And dumb. Frankie J. Parker was completely unlikeable - just an arrogant douche that just expected everyone to worship him. The biggest failing for me, was that the movie didn't seem to know what tone it wanted to portray; the whole thing seemed to take itself way too seriously, but also featured some bizarre silly gags, like every time Tank was getting sexytimes with a lady he would be interrupted by Frankie, or at the start where the guy following Melinda sat outside Frankie's door listening to them have sex - and he was so turned on by it, he had an orgasm in the hallway. At one point, it felt like a serious version of Dolemite!

And did I mention how unlikeable our main character was? And to add further nonsense to it all, when we are first introduced to his ex-girlfriend, she is portrayed as being obsessed with him and he chews her out for not being worthy of his love. But then about halfway through the movie, she turns into his biggest ally and they are madly in love again. Which again, is only like a day or two removed from his latest girlfriend being murdered. Dude just moves quickly, I guess...

JIM KELLY
Well, like I said - he ran a community centre, taught Karate, and beat up a lot of bad guys to help the main character. I originally thought this was done after Enter The Dragon, due to that movie billing him as "Introducing", but here he was only billed in a very minor way amongst a million other names - which had me concerned that the opening scene was all I was going to see of him. Had ETD been released first, I am certain he would have received some type of co-headlining credit. Or maybe they would have redone the whole movie to make him the star? I don't know. What I do know is Jim Kelly beating up drug pushers and telling Parker how jive he was, was the highlight of the movie and I am glad he appeared more than I actually thought he would. The two hours were literally bookended by Jim Kelly displaying Karate supremacy. And that made it worthwhile, I guess.

I would recommend watching the first few minutes and then skipping to the end for the karate fight.

Jim Kelly June Jamboree

Jim Kelly was cool.

After becoming a world champion in Karate, Mr. Jim Kelly would go on to star in many action movies throughout the 1970s, where he would whoop the bad guys and charm the ladies, while showing off his impressive martial arts skills and rocking an iconic afro. He inspired African-Americans to take up martial arts, his image became iconic and his influence can still be seen today in pop culture. He also supported community causes. AND was a professional tennis player!

Jim Kelly was cool.

Now, I will admit that I have not actually seen a great deal of his movies. But I do have a t-shirt with his image displayed on the front, which I wear with pride. And the films that I have seen, I've enjoyed immensely. African-American badass karate expert that fights against the man? Count me in. Four times a week, in fact. Because this month, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his passing, I will be watching four Jim Kelly movies each week. And bLogging about it. Maybe. Because I haven't done any sort of movie reviews for quite some time, and I think it might be fun. Well, it will be for me. So it's time to throw on my Jim Kelly t-shirt, make a hot chocolate, and pay tribute to the coolest karate cat of the 70s.

Because Jim Kelly was cool.