Review: Jem and the Holograms Vol 1, Showtime by Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

A lot of 80s kids have fond memories of JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS, and I’m no different. I spent seven years in the Hell Decade¹, and Jem et al were one of the things that brightened it up.

That said, the vast majority of my Jem-related recollections have to do with my awesome star stage that was also a tape deck, and with how my one Jem doll² was way taller than everyone else’s Barbies. If I ever saw the cartoon, it's faded from my memory.

So for me, Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell’s JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS [Amazon | The Book Depository | comiXology] falls into that strange realm between nostalgia and brand newness. I have an emotional connection to Jem as a beloved thing from my childhood, but not Jem as a particular story.

Which is to say, I don't mind the ways this incarnation of Jem may or may not differ from the older version.

Jerrica Benton and her three sisters, Kimber, Aja, and Shana, are ready to burst onto the music scene as the Holograms. The Misfits Vs! contest offers the perfect chance to get their video in front of thousands of listeners, especially since they’ll have an opportunity to face off against the uber-popular Misfits in a live battle of the bands if the video gets enough likes. There’s only one problem: Jerrica’s stage fright makes it impossible for her to perform in front of even a small crowd. Ulp!

Luckily, the girls’ scientist father left them the ultimate solution in the form of Synergy, an AI that can project three-dimensional holograms over anyone or anything--including Jerrica. Armed with an amazing stage persona for Jerrica and some kick-ass visual effects to go with their awesome music, the Holograms are ready to take on the world--provided the Misfits' jealous lead singer doesn’t sabotage them before the big day.

Music: Seven Songs For Sailors

Friends, I count it a personal victory that I reviewed three books about sailors without devolving into a 3000-word gush-fest centered on my love of ships.

The sea is my very favourite, an obsession we can probably blame on C.S. Lewis. I've read THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER upwards of twenty times, most of those before the age of ten. I welcome any and all fiction in which ships play a prominent role¹. I leaped at the chance to learn sailing at a local nature preserve when I was a kid². I can't pass a harbor without checking to see if there's a tall ship in residence. And you'd better believe I love any museum that pays particular attention to the history of sailing³.

The weird thing is, I'm batshit terrified of deep water⁴ and have no idea how I'd react if I were ever out of sight of land. While part of me longs to take to the high seas in search of adventure⁵, it's probably best if I stick to drooling over ships from the safety of dry land.

I also love music that reminds me of the ocean, whether or not it's actually intended to pay homage to that most storied expanse. Here are a few of my favourite songs for sailors.

Music: "Only One" by the Goo Goo Dolls

I mostly ignore bands when they're not making music. I'm the same way with actors, and with most writers. Their work speaks to me, but I don't feel much of an urge to read up on their personal lives.

That said, I went through a period where I read up on the Goo Goo Dolls. Their music spoke to my soul and broadened my horizons, and my sixteen-year-old self wanted to know more about the people who'd made it.

A big part of this "reading stuff about the Goo Goo Dolls" schtick involved perusing transcripts of radio interviews and poking at commentary on fan sites. I've forgotten almost everything I learned, but the stuff about "Only One" has stuck with me.

"Everyone thinks it's about Kurt Cobain," the band said (and y'all know I'm paraphrasing here), "but it's not. It is about someone in particular, but we'll never, ever tell you who."

Sixteen-year-old me immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was about the Vampire Lestat and they didn't want to say so in case Anne Rice sued them. (The radio interviews made it clear they'd read her, or at least seen the movie.)

I don't care if I'm right or not. So far as I'm concerned, "Only One" is a Lestat song, through and through. Hell, most of A BOY NAMED GOO fits with one or another of Rice's vampires. It's the album that got me into pairing music with fictional characters. I listened to it several times while I reread THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED.

It also remains one of my favourite albums, even after fifteen years of frequent listening, and "Only One" is my favourite song off it.

Music: "Heaven Knows" by the Pretty Reckless

As much as I love rock radio, my local station drops the ball in one major area: they have a strong, obvious bias towards male vocalists. I haven't applied science to the problem, but I'd be surprised if female-fronted bands get more than 5% of the airtime. Factor in male/female duets and you might hit 7%.

That's a generous estimate.

The only (highly dubious) plus side to it all is that the female-fronted bands that do hit the airwaves tend to stand out. That's the case with the Pretty Reckless, whose song "Heaven Knows" has enjoyed a lot of play recently. I love it and end up with it stuck in my head on a regular basis, so I thought I'd share it with y'all today.

Music: "Seven Sea Blues" by Monster Truck

I'm never sure how many non-Canadians know about Canadian music. My conversations with other music lovers seem to indicate that the majority of Canadian music is either unknown outside of Canada or difficult to come by once you pass over our border.

Granted, I have a somewhat skewed view of the situation, what with my hefty preference for rock. It could be that plenty of non-Canadians have heard of the likes of Monster Truck but I hobnob with people whose musical taste is nothing like my own.

Story of my life, right there.

Anyways, today I want to share a track from the abovementioned Monster Truck in the hopes of spreading the love to those of you who aren't familiar with them. Monster Truck caught my attention a little over half a year ago with "Seven Sea Blues," which is a pirate song if ever there was one. You can just feel the roll of the ship beneath your feet; smell the crashing waves; weather the urge to rush off and do seriously awesome shit, preferably while headbanging in slow motion.

I love it, y'all.

I also highly recommend "Righteous Smoke," "Sweet Mountain River," and my personal favourite, "The Lion." The band hasn't yet made a video for "The Lion" available on YouTube, but you'd better believe I'll share it with you when they do. If, at the end of my life, one can say of me, "Monster Truck's 'The Lion' was her theme song," I will be content.

Music: "Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin

Last June, I had Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" stuck in my head for a solid week. I couldn't turn around without my subconscious wailing about the darkest depths of Mordor.

This was no hardship. I love "Ramble On," which I've linked with those happy moments from my childhood when my father read THE HOBBIT to me, and I was quite happy to spend a week humming it inside my head. And as the earworm sang on, I began to reevaluate my relationship with Led Zeppelin.

I grew up in a world largely devoid of appealing music. My parents almost always had something on, but very little of it spoke to me. We had a few folk artists in common, but that was our only point of connection.

The music my peers listened to wasn't much better. It only took a few forays into pop radio before I realized I really wasn't a boy band person or a rap person. The rock the DJs spun, though... I could get behind that.

I switched to a contemporary rock station that played a few older songs here and there. When the programmers changed their focus to classic rock a couple of months after that, I happily followed them down the rabbit hole.

I spent my mid-teenage years listening to the likes of AC/DC¹, Steppenwolf, The Doors, Bon Jovi, and Led Zeppelin. And when my beloved classic rock station became a rap station overnight (the hell?), I found another that played a blend of new stuff and old².

Basically, the Mighty Zep and I go way back. But I never made an effort to listen to them. I never sought out any of their albums, or looked them up on YouTube, or anything like that. I made do with what the radio gave me--which, to be fair, was an awful lot.

My June earworm made me wonder why I was content to let Led Zeppelin come to me. Surely it was past time I went to Led Zeppelin.

So I did.

I bought MOTHERSHIP, which effectively serves as a greatest hits compilation, and I gave it a listen. And another. And another. Then I accepted that it now lived in my CD player (yes, I still use CDs) and was destined to be but the first of many Led Zeppelin purchases.

My media budget isn't as large as it might be, so I'm still putting my collection together as I find used and discounted CDs. I trust it'll be awesome once it's done, though.

I could easily spend the next year sharing beloved Led Zeppelin songs, but I'll limit myself to just this one (and, okay, maybe some others way down the line). I've chosen "Achilles Last Stand" because I love it deeply, and because I hadn't heard it before I bought MOTHERSHIP. At ten minutes and twenty-five seconds, it doesn't get a whole lot of radio play 'round these parts.

I once saw an infographic that maintained Led Zeppelin songs fall into two categories: songs about sex or songs about hobbits and vikings and shit. This is the latter. It's sweeping and epic and steeped in mythology. You probably don't want to just sit here and listen to it, but I strongly encourage you to press "play" and leave it open in another tab while you go about your business for the next ten and a half minutes. If your tastes are anything like mine, you won't regret it.

---

1. I'll admit, AC/DC required a bit of an adjustment. You couldn't listen to classic rock radio in the late 90s unless you were willing to hear an awful lot of AC/DC, though, so I fought hard to like them, and I won that battle, and I now love them. My second music commandment is, "Thou shalt always dance to AC/DC." I take that seriously, much to my dog's distress.

   I should also note that Murchie dislikes early Led Zeppelin. He leaves the room when I've got 'em on, though he'll sometimes stick around for their later stuff.

2. I say a blend, but my current radio station basically considers music "brand new rock" until it's, like, three years old. Older stuff gets a lot of airplay. I once drifted away from radio for three or four years, and when I came back they were still playing exactly the same songs as they were when I left.

   Progress? What's that?

Music: "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel

Music is an integral part of my life, but I almost never talk about it. I know very few of the technical terms, so I doubt my ability to describe what I hear in terms others can understand.

I'd like to get a bit better about sharing things I love, though, so lets spend the next few Saturdays talking about music.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've listened to Idina Menzel's rendition of "Let It Go" in the four days since I saw FROZEN, Disney's newest animated musical. It's exactly the sort of hopeful, sadly joyous song that never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Elsa, one of the film's central characters, has spent at least a decade in isolation, afraid to get close to anyone or experiment with her powers in case she hurts someone. Then the worst happens. She loses control and reveals her magic to the world.

"Let It Go" is the moment she quits trying to be perfect. She embraces her self-imposed exile because it means she can finally discover who she is, rather than who others want her to be. For the first time since she was a very small child, she takes pure, unbridled joy in her abilities. She plays.

It gets me every single time.

I'll note, too, that it's well worth watching the video for this one. (Disney made it available themselves, so you needn't worry about the legality.) Hurray for great animation!