Like Old Times with Dino Charge

It's great to be excited for Power Rangers again as Dino Charge is really taking me back to the classic Judd Lynn days and is easily some of the best episodes I've seen on TV since the Jungle Fury Spirit Rangers' arc and early SPD.*

• "POWERS FROM THE PAST" starting out with the villains and story for basically the entire first act is more than I ever could've imagined. And right from the get-go they had foreshadowing with all the monsters in the cages. This is how you use the completed sentai to your advantage. Tyler and Shelby's accidental morphing to protect themselves was a nice fresh take on a premiere, plus not seeing the whole team in the beginning.
• Riley's introduction and fight with Fury in "PAST, PRESENT AND FUSION" were pretty cool.
• I loved Sledge and his crew coming to Earth in "A FOOLS HOUR" and immediately plotting to find the Rangers command center... Something we don't see very often on the show. The Rangers got demorphed a little too easily but it was still a pretty decent introduction for Dino Steel.
  
• "RETURN OF THE CAVEMAN" and "BREAKING BLACK" continued good character development setting up backstories. I especially liked what they did with the footage for Chase's episode. Also, I'm enjoying how they're pacing introducing zords/Megazords and the various combos. Pretty sweet looking cockpit too.
• "THE TOOTH HURTS" was a fun episode with some great scenes on Sledge's ship and fight footage. Riley and Chase clashing over how to do things and eventually coming to an understanding was more good character development. 
• "LET SLEEPING ZORDS LIE" through "THE ROYAL RANGERS" were all pretty good as well. I really like how they're doing the 6th Ranger storyline focusing on the gold energem before Ivan. I liked the Rangers plan to trick Fury with Tyler and Shelby pretending to be the Prince and Princess. Hopefully Dino Drive Mode will be seen outside the cockpit at some point.

While the old days often had average filler episodes early in the season and sometimes scattered around, Dino Charge is moving at a great pace and everything Judd's doing is earning at least a 4/5 in my book (5's in the case of Fool's Hour and Tooth Hurts). You really can't ask for more than Judd finally getting to run the entire show and writing the whole season.



* RPM was great and all, but was never seen on TV in the Pacific Northwest.

Taylor's World

When "Love Story" was released back in '08 I never would've imagined I'd be going to a Taylor Swift show someday. "Eh, she's a country singer." But oh how things would change over the years, eventually progressing into my favorite songs of 2015 being "Blank Space" and "Style."

It's Taylor's world and its been that way for awhile - pretty much every time the AMAs, VMAs or whatever is on and sure enough she wins multiple times, plus her power over major corporations like Apple Music. Despite all this, it took some time to decide to see the 1989 tour since I really wasn't  on the Taylor bandwagon until the 1989 CD singles started to roll out last year with "Shake It Off."

I hadn't even been to Centurylink Field before and ended up basically doing a lap around inside the entire stadium. While it was nice to check out the place I quickly realized going the opposite direction to begin with probably would've gotten me to the area my seat was a lot sooner. Vance Joy was one of the opening acts and I still managed to get food and sit down about two songs before the popular "Riptide" came on.

After a break, Taylor made her debut on stage with "Welcome to New York" and it wasn't long before "Blank Space" came up, which was one of the big highlights of the night for me, and really, most of the reason I decided to go. As expected I didn't know half the songs as the night went on but seeing the current stuff and a few fun throwsbacks like "I Knew You Were Trouble" made it all well worth it, before the night ended with "Shake It Off." In between songs there were videos with celebs talking about Taylor and she did a lot of inspirational speeches that you'd expect of her, as well as the crazy performance of "Style" when Ciara came out followed by Russell Wilson.

Going to the show definitely left me with a sense of completeness as I go on living in Taylor's world, a place I'm happy to be part of. Also check out my pics!

Rockin' it at Week of Ranger Bar 2

Day 1
I arrived at Ranger Bar HQ Wednesday evening as a video game tournament was underway. Tron was already there, coming from New Orleans on Tuesday. I provided my Wii and put on Mario Kart (while Super Smash Bros Brawl, GoldenEye 007 and more Mario Kart would be played later on in the week). Afterwards, we had the "Master Vile's Villain Ball" and Batz made tacos.

Day 2
We headed out in the afternoon and dropped by the local hotspots for toys. Later that evening was a huge smokedown in which we were all inside for a couple hours with a fog machine, lots, and lots of water, along with the usual smoking activities.

Day 3
We had a remote control challenge and played a Power Rangers-style trivia game Batz put together. Kabuki Kelsey then drove us to Stonegate - a popular restaurant/bar in Tacoma that has live music. I joined the gang in doing shots for the first time since Ranger Bar's 4th of July 2014. It was pretty rad.
 
4th of July
Batz made hot dogs and setup a hall table with snacks and super punch. We had a fun game with toy weapons throughout the hallway. After it got dark, we headed out to a bridge not far. I had never seen so many fireworks go off over the skyline. They were everywhere! 

Day 5
Tron had to leave early for a prior commitment and I ended up sleeping through the parade for Michael Pare. That evening was the "Fred Dryer Dinner" - a marathon of Hunter - my favorite 80's action police drama. It sort of felt like the annual Ranger Bar Fancy Dinner Dress Party as Batz served up mac n' cheese, soft pretzels, soft tacos, leftover goldfish crackers and garlic bread pizza - capped off with pie and ice cream. Afterwards I passed out harder than Thanksgiving night.

Day 6 / the Finale
Another pretty lazy afternoon as we waited for Kabuki Kelsey to pick us up for the "Island of Illusion" campout. It was a fun night roasting hot dogs, but the cooler washed away (Luckily, Batz retrieved it the following afternoon). Soon the wind started to pick up so we went back to Ranger Bar HQ, and I left Tacoma about 5:00.

-- 

 
Looking back, things have sure changed for me in two years as Ranger Bar continues to evolve. This week saw the debut of "Late Night at the Ranger Bar" episode 3, while two years ago the Late Night web series was just an idea Batz had.

I look forward to seeing Ranger Bar continue to flourish with PMC5 coming up next year, as that in itself continues to expand each time. And I gotta say how good it feels to enjoy Power Rangers so much again (like the classic days) with Dino Charge here for another year and a half. Also check out my pics from the week.