It’s Morphin’ Time

If you saw my tweets recently, you could’ve made a good guess that this blog post was coming. Yesterday I saw the much anticipated Power Rangers movie. If you grew up in the 90’s like I did, you probably watched or at least knew about the Power Rangers. They were all the rage back then.

Power Rangers (TV) was a TV series created by Haim Saban about teenage superheros that defended Earth against monsters and creatures who tried to threaten their town and their planet. The rangers were recruited by the leader Zordon. Becoming a ranger gave each teen special powers that allowed them to fight those that threatened Earth. Sometimes that wasn’t even enough to defeat the beasts. When that happened, the rangers utilized vehicles called Zords that were based off of prehistoric animals to help them win battles. The Zords could also come together to create a giant Megazord when necessary. The original TV series used battle footage from a similar Japanese TV series called Super Sentai. The only difference was that the American series used American actors for parts of the show when the Rangers weren’t in battle and voiced over the other parts in English using the American actors.

The movie which was released last weekend was based off the original TV series but set in modern time. It was written by John Gatins and directed by Dean Israelite. It stars relative newcomers Dacre Montgomery as Jason (Red Ranger), Naomi Scott as Kimberly (Pink Ranger), RJ Cyler as Billy (Blue Ranger), Becky G as Trini (Yellow Ranger), and Ludi Lin as Zack (Black Ranger).

Power Rangers (Film) tells the story of the formation of the rangers and ends in one giant battle with villain and former ranger Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) and her minion Goldar. Rita, who was banished to the bottom of the sea from a meteor strike ordered by Zordon (Bryan Cranston), a former Red Ranger, comes back to life when her body is discovered while simultaneously the group of teenagers discover the power coins (the Rangers’ power source) in the mountains of their hometown Angel Grove. Zordon of course returns as well once the Rangers discover his underground spaceship/base. He is still the commander/go-to guy of the Power Rangers. (Fun Fact: Bryan Cranston, who plays Zordon, actually did voice overs for the original series and the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, was named for him.) Zordon’s assistant, the robot Alpha-5 (Bill Hader), returns as well.

The movie does something the TV show failed to do though. It goes deeper. The film really explores the rangers on an individual level. Each teenager has depth and a story to contribute to the overall concept of the film which is the whole Power Rangers/teenage superhero thing. That’s why I consider this new film to be based off the old series and not a remake of it. The Power Rangers concept in total is re-imagined in this new film.

I saw the Power Rangers preview trailer a few months ago without knowledge of the film at all. I never thought I’d be interested in seeing the Power Rangers again, but the trailer made the film look so good that I couldn’t help but want to see it, especially as a former fan. Luckily I didn’t have to wait that long. I was anticipating the release for the last month or so though.

(WARNING: Some spoilers in here.) My first impression of the film gave it this sort of Breakfast Club vibe with a few of the kids meeting/recognizing each other in Saturday detention that they all received for different reasons contributing to each characters’ story lines. As the film went on though, it lost that feeling and created this new age Power Rangers that was better than the original. It was as if the story of the Power Rangers grew up while at the same time so did its fans. I thought this new movie represented exactly where the Power Rangers needed to be in this day and age from the setting, to the characters, and to the characters’ stories, which provided brief moments relevant for those on the autism spectrum as well as for members of the LGBT community that didn’t overshadow the main story. It also provided just the right amount of nostalgia for fans of the original series with the brief incorporation of the Power Rangers theme song and the cameo appearance by Amy Jo Johnson (the former Pink Ranger/Kimberly) and Jason David Frank (the former Green Ranger/Tommy). It’s a movie that people of my generation who were fans can bring their kids to see and both can share in this new yet old experience together.

According to what I’ve read, there’s supposed to be 6 Power Ranger films so the story and story lines will obviously develop much further if the first movie is any indication. The end of Power Rangers also teases the next film in such a way that fills fans with anticipation. I know I’m already ready for the second installment in this new series. I might just have to satisfy my Power Rangers craving by seeing this movie again. It was that good and even better than I expected! If you were a Power Rangers fan and you haven’t seen this movie yet, go see it! I promise you’ll love it.

I Love Music

So this week, I’m gonna take a little break from previewing Coachella bands and artists. I honestly figured I would write another preview, but I just wasn’t feeling it this week. Instead, I’m gonna write about myself, which I usually incorporate into each post, but only in limited capacity. This started because I got distracted from writing by wanting to play music. So I played music for an hour. The whole time I kept thinking that I should just write about my love for music instead of doing a Coachella Band Preview that I didn’t feel like writing. Well, I decided to go for it so if you’re expecting this to be about something in particular, stop reading now and if you wanna know more about me, here it goes.

Music has always been a big part of my life. It has made me feel a range of emotions. It has been there in good times, in bad times, in sad times, in mad times (look at that rhyme skill). It has inspired me. It has pissed me off. It has made me laugh. It has made me cry. Most importantly, it has always been there for me through everything. It’s like a friend, who up until this moment I never realized was actually like a friend.

My mom likes to credit my love for music from when I was in her tummy. She used to take aerobics classes when she was pregnant and at the classes they did the aerobics to modern music. I guess I was into it. When I was young, my mom would play the piano for me when we visited my grandparent’s house because the apartment we lived in was too small to hold the piano. I used to enjoy trying to play too and singing along to whatever songs she played. She would also play records for me. I distinctly remember being a fan of two songs from the Footloose soundtrack, the title track “Footloose” and “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”. I also liked the song “Ghostbusters”, the theme from the Ghostbusters movie.

In Kindergarten, besides being into the Power Rangers, I loved A Goofy Movie, especially for the music in it. I had the soundtrack on cassette. One time at a friend’s house, we put the cassette on and decided to jump around on his bed and all over his room while listening to the song “Stand Out”.

In 1st through 8th grade, I mostly listened to the radio and I liked pop music. I didn’t have any one super cool in my life to play me anything different. The first CD I owned was the Men in Black soundtrack, followed by OMC’s How Bizarre, Smash Mouth’s Fush Yu Mang, and Chumbawumba’s Thubthumper. After that, I forget who came next because a lot did.

In 5th grade on the bus to our yearly middle school camping trip, my whole class sang along to “All-Star” by Smash Mouth as we pulled into the camp. I remember having so much fun in that moment. I also had a brief interest in good music in 5th grade thanks to the video game Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Well, at least I was exposed to some good music because I was only hooked on 1 song from the game, “Superman” by Goldfinger. I also saw my first concert between 5th and 6th grade. It was Britney Spears. I went with my best friend Michael, his mom, and my mom. I only knew a handful of songs, but we stood on our chairs in the very last row of the amphitheater and sang along anyway.

I started writing my own Weird Al parodies to songs in 6th grade and it became a hit in my class. In 7th and 8th grade, I got really into basketball and started listening to more rap music than just “The Real Slim Shady”. Although, most of the rap music was on the radio anyway. 9th grade is when my whole music life changed. I wrote about it once so you can check it out here. That’s when I really got into good music though, high school, and from there music became one of my things. It was the same in college and right before I graduated I started listening to music that was part of a different scene than what I was listening to for the previous 8 years. I wrote about that too. Again check it out here, if you want to know more. I’ve been listening to that type of music ever since and even branching out further into the electronic spectrum recently.

So what’s the point in me giving you a life synopsis of my music life? Well, it’s to prove my love for music. I have a pretty good memory. I remember a lot of shit people might normally forget. Sometimes I even pretend to not know things because it might seem strange to remember so much. I have a great memory of time and place because I can visualize memories, but even so, after all these years I even forget a lot that’s happened to me from when I was younger. The point is that we remember things that are important to us. Going through and thinking about all the music in my life and remembering things about it reminds me that I have memories of music from when I was little because music has always been important to me. I also have a lot of memories involving music from high school and beyond, because that was the point that it started to rule my life in a way. In general I guess a lot of my favorite memories and life moments involve music. Being in a band, going to shows, playing and listening to music with my friends are all part of my collection of favorite moments.

I started this blog as a means to write for fun about my favorite things, which are music, sports, movies, and television shows. Let’s be real though, if you’ve read my blog continually since I started it, you’d know music has always been my number one. Honestly sports are probably number two, but I’ll get into that another time. It’s about music today. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to study in college, I basically settled for something that I found interesting. After I graduated and took a few grad school classes, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted. Sure I found that subject interesting, but it wasn’t what I wanted to spend my life doing. Thanks to an amazing group of inspirational women I decided I should go after what I’m most passionate about, but initially I couldn’t figure out what that was. It took going to Coachella to make everything click. It was music. It was always music. If I had enough confidence and motivation to go after it sooner, I probably would have. It’s never too late to chase your dreams though. So I decided to pursue the music industry as a career and I know that no matter what I do as long as I’m passionate about it or as long as it involves music, I’ll love what I do. That’s part of the reason why I keep up with this blog. I do enjoy writing, but it’s much more fun to write about something I love.

So thanks for reading this specific topic-less blog post. I needed it as a reminder today. Then again, I think wanting to play music instead of write in the first place was a reminder in itself. And just FYI, if you ever want to talk music/play music/write music with anyone, I’m your girl because I love music. Duh.