2025 in 2025: Day 173

T is for Time to Listen to More Music!

T-Virus - Kim Tae Woo

Our latest episode of Random K-Pop Song finds us with another romantic sounding pop groove. I dig it!

8/10

T'Pau - T'Pau

Having already established I am an embarrassment to my 80s adolescence, this is purely the single Heart and Soul. Did T'Pau have any other hits? The video sure features the most 80s dancing possible.

10/10

Tailwind(s) - Pile

Now THIS is the Pile I adore; outside of Love Live!, this is her best work by far. A great mix of up-tempo J-Rock mixed with idolness, heavy grooves and big soaring ballads. 

Highlights: FLY, 素晴らしきSekai, 816 not found, 花と翼, MELODY

8/10

Take Off Your Pants and Jacket - blink-182

These might be Tom's funnest songs? And there are flashes of their coming emo peak - flashes only, but the foundation is there. It is a very solid album.... but 19 tracks is just waaaay too long. OH! I have bonus tracks - the real album finished around track 13? Yeah, makes sense; the bonus tracks are shit!

Highlights: The Rock Show, Stay Together for the Kids, First Date, Roller Coaster

8/10

TAKE☆OFF - PASSPO☆

Oh, how I have missed my dear PASSPO☆! I have written in more detail before, but it was always going to be impossible for them to follow up those first 4 songs with anything that could match them. This is not 2017 and Cinema Trip. 2025 LOGMAN also accepts he does not need 3 different instrumental versions of Let It Go!!

Highlights: Pretty Lie, GPP, Go On a Highway, Let It Go!!

7/10

Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks

The songs that were fueled by rednecks trying to cancel them for not liking George W. Bush are very good. VERY good. And some Buddy Holly references are never a bad idea. The rest is fairly by-the-numbers modern country rock, I guess.

Highlights: Not Ready to Make Nice, The Long Way Around, Lullaby, I Like It

7/10

Talk Show - Talk Show

Look, I am not saying Scott Weiland was the greatest front man in rock or anything - though he was awesome - but Stone Temple Pilots were not the same without him, and this album is Exhibit A. Still some great riffs throughout, but there is something missing. Might just be the average vocals and borderline inane lyrics.

Highlights: Hello Hello, Everybody Loves My Car

6/10

Tank-top Festival in Japan - ヤバイTシャツ屋さん

Hilarity! The fake metal screaming is kind of lame, and it takes a bit to get going, but the second half features a tale about being struck by a kid on rolling sneakers and one sentence notes about many different animals. All pretty quick and upbeat.

Highlights: かかとローラー, かわE, ざつにどうぶつしょうかい, 鬼POP激キャッチー最強ハイパーウルトラミュージック

7/10

Taxi Driver - Dynamic Duo

This is pretty funky. Like there is a full-on G-Funk thing going on, but also some... disco?!? I feel like I have been sleeping on these dudes for way too long and need to do a serious listen in 2026.

Highlights: 우리는 바보 (Shake ya 엉덩 to da 이), Superstar (behind the Scene), 신나? (우리가 누구?), Candy

7.5/10

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

The hate for Katy Perry is justified and, quite frankly, not harsh enough. But this album sure does feature some serious bangers. The middle is absolutely dire, however. 

Highlights: Hummingbird Heartbeat, Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.), California Gurls

6.5/10

Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection - Katy Perry

This is the bonus tracks after the album was re-released, because when an album sells a bazillion copies you gotta find a way to sell more! I think there was one more track, but it must have been SUPER awful if I do not have it.

Highlights: Part of Me, Wide Awake

7/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists

This may well be my favourite soundtrack album of all time! Old school hip-hop/New Jack Swing and R&B jams by a bunch of no namers (except for Ya Kid K and MC Hammer!) and then an amazing score that sounds immediately like it was from a budget movie in 1990. Make no mistake, my friends and I were playing this NON-STOP in 1990.

Highlights: This is What We Do - MC Hammer, 9.95 - Spunkadelic, Let the Walls Come Down - Johnny Kemp, Turtle Power - Partners In Kryme, Shredder's Suite - John Du Prez

10/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists

Not as killer as the first movie soundtrack, but then the movie was not either. However, there are some great old school hip-hop and dance kind things happening here. And Vanilla Ice has a great moment - just like in the movie!

Highlights: Ninja Rap - Vanilla Ice, Awesome (You Are My Hero) - Ya Kid K, Creatures of Habit - Spunkadelic, Cowabunga - Orchestra On The Half Shell

7.5/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists

Not the best soundtrack. Not the best movie. But, again, there is fun to be had. It is hard to not have fun when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are involved.

Highlights: Turtle Power - Partners In Kryme, Tarzan Boy - Baltimora, Rockin' Over the Beat - Technotronic & Ya Kid K, Can't Stop Rockin' - ZZ Top

7/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1670

FREE PALESTINE

Jim Kelly June Jamboree: Black Belt Jones (1974)

THE MOVIE
We open with the mafia wacking some undercover agent/informant and disposing of him and some incriminating photos in some old wine barrels or something. I'm sure this will play into things later...

Meanwhile, some other old dude is giving a speech. He must be promoting peace or something, because my main man Jim Kelly heads out to make sure the parking lot is safe. And good thing he did, because out there are a bunch of bad guys that need some whooping!

Jim Kelly is our titular hero - Black Belt Jones - and he gets bored of punching these dudes in the junk, so just shoots the last one in the butt. Black Belt Jones is cool.

CUE SUPER FUNKY THEME MUSIC

The Man is making an offer to Black Belt Jones; they've lost four agents trying to infiltrate Don Steffano's mafia operations and they want Jones to be the fourth. Jones, however, is not about to go on a suicide mission for The Man and suggests they pretend it's the ghetto - then they can just send in the tanks! Black Belt Jones knows where he comes from.

Next, we are treated to some vigilantes attacking a dude named "Pinky" in his pool hall; they are sick of him pushing drugs on the street, but Pinky and his thugs get the upperhand. So now you know Pinky is a bad dude. Turns out, he's in cahoots with the mafia, and the henchmen from earlier come pay him a visit. He owes Don Steffano $250K, and to pay off that debt, he needs to get Papa Byrd to sell his karate dojo to the mafia so Don Steffano can make millions on some property development.

Papa Byrd owes Pinky $1,000 in gambling or something, so he figures this will be easy. I'm not an expert on inflation, but I'm pretty sure a building in 1974 cost more than $1,000. Anyways, he hits up Papa Byrd and says that IOU is actually for $11,000 (oooh he's really sneaky, adding a 1 in front like that!). Papa Byrd tells him to step off, and then he and his karate students give Pinky and his boys a beat down. Movie over! Good guys win!

But no! He comes back with some meaner dudes and beats up everyone at the karate school. So the head teacher calls in Papa Byrd's finest student - Black Belt Jones! He comes down and gives everyone a whooping.

Alas, Papa Byrd learns nothing and go gets himself killed by Pinky and his gang, so they come down to the dojo to collect on the IOU - which has now been changed to $41,000. This dude is smart, the way he keeps changing numbers! But the dojo has been willed to Papa Byrd's only daughter and she has no interest in selling to Pinky. And of course, she also turns out to be a karate master. Her and Black Belt Jones whoop the bad guys, then the bad guys whoop the good guys when Jones and her are not around

and then Jones decides to use his brain as well as his fists, and teams up with a group of young trampolining girls he's been training (did I mention them earlier? I'm guessing he was specifically training them to use their trampoline skills in his undercover missions) to steal money from Don Steffano, then pay Pinky with it, so when Pinky pays Don Steffano the $250K he owes him, it's his own money. 

The bad guys only fall for it for about 5 minutes, and eventually everyone has a big rumble at the car wash! And by everyone, I mean Black Belt Jones vs Pinky, his gang and the entire mafia. 

REACTION
Look, I am not one to just throw around strong words for a laugh, so please believe me when I say... bah gawd THIS IS A PERFECT MOVIE! Non-stop action (seriously, when people aren't throwing down, there is a car chase thrown in for fun), hilarious dialogue, a funky soundtrack and fantastic characters; you've got mafia dudes with thick accents and names like Big Tuna and Don Steffano, like they're straight out of an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then you've got a crazy old man with a gambling problem who is running a karate dojo, when he can barely throw a kick - and he's none other than Scatman Crothers, AKA the voice of Hong Kong Phooey! You've got a serious badass woman in the supporting lead role. Okay, sure, she throws around homophobic slurs like she throws karate chops, but she whoops the bad guys and never gets in the way or anything. And then there is Black Belt Jones...

JIM KELLY
Now this is the movie that made me a fan. He's clearly having a lot of fun in this movie - and why not? He's like some sort of Afro-American James Bond; The Man wants him to work for them, but he's too smart for that bullshit, he has some great lines all over the place, he looks good and he gets to stay true to himself - again just hanging with regular folk and helping them against bad dudes. Also, he straight up whoops all the butts in this movie. I'm pretty sure he only got punched once or twice in the whole thing - that's a pretty good ratio, considering I think the UFC statisticians had him throwing something like 2,100 significant strikes over the duration of the film.

Instead of gifs and pics, I just want to buy you all a copy of the movie on DVD to watch. Black Belt Jones is the best.

Jim Kelly was the man!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rewatch: Half-Time Report

It's been 9 years since I my initial complete viewing of the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, so I figured it was time to make another go of it. 100 episodes in, let's check in how things are going, shall we?

• There is not a bad episode in the first 3 seasons. Sure, there are a couple in season 3 that aren't so awesome as the others, but until I hit the European Vacation side-season, I didn't find myself not enjoying any of the episodes.
• But boy, that European Vacation side-season is pretty terrible. The whole things feels much cheaper and less polished. Raphael and Shredder having the replacement voices throughout (except for a couple of episodes for Shredder) doesn't help either. Also, and I'm guessing this is due to the Euro production involved, but people got way more into April. Shredder often talked to her about being beautiful and everyone wanted to kidnap her.
• Even more nonsense approach to the Euro episodes, is that Shredder and Krang knew the turtles were in Europe and decided this will be the one time they will explore the area. The turtles live in New York - if Krang knew about some special metal that could only be found in Italy, why didn't he go check that out in like episode 20? They can teleport to anywhere in the world, but the turtles can't.
• I think it was episode 74 when The Shredder said something like "I'm sick of the turtles foiling my plans!". Poor dude - we're not even halfway through them foiling your plans!
• David Wise was a great writer, but it is kinda funny how many similar stories he wrote for other cartoons.
• Shredder's Mom might well be one of the funniest episodes I never saw as a child. 
• I totally didn't notice when I was young, and I don't think I was paying too much attention last time I went through the series, but bah gawd Rob Paulsen, Cam Clarke and James Avery did a lot of voices. Peter Renaday as the various mob bosses always cracks me up.
• Irma is awesome. I think she used to annoy me, but now she is absolutely one of my favourite characters.
• Naming Zach "the fifth turtle" is incredibly ludicrous; he helped them ONE TIME and they give him such an honour, but then we only see him like twice afterwards - clearly he is not an important part of their lives or success. April, however, is always there and often helps the turtles in various ways. She's awesome and is the real fifth turtle.
• Elvis makes many appearances and in many forms.

I just read a quote from the voice of April O'Neil where she compared the main voice cast to the Marx Brothers and it all makes sense. I love the humour in this show and I love old vaudevillian humour. The bad puns, the play on words, and breaking the 4th wall. It's all hilarious to me.

Anyways, I think that is enough for now. Let's see how the next 93 episodes go!