Beastie Boys - "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)"

This song was the start of a long love affair with The Beastie Boys. MCA (Adam Yauch) is my fave. Because Universal Music Group is, apparently, a really clueless operation, they do not allow anyone to embed the video. They are one of the big music conglomerates who fail to see the promotional value of YouTube and believe they should make LOTS of money from the enterprise. So, here is a link to the awesome, awesome video:

(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)

What was the name of the place a block from the train station that hosted "safe" dances for us teenagers? We used to make them play this every time we went.

Happy New Year, all. Hope you have a happy, healthy and kick ass 2009. I'm hoping I do.

INXS - "Don't Change"

The best INXS song and arguably one of the best songs of the 80s. This was recorded in 1982. I saw INXS on the Listen Like Thieves tour at The Beacon Theater when I was in the 9th grade (with Betsy B. and Rebecca L., if I remember correctly). When I was in 10th grade, I won tickets to see Eric Clapton and Tracy Chapman at MSG by calling in to WNEW and identifying this INXS song. That was cool.

This song is seriously connected to my teen years - not sure why it had such an impact, but it takes me back every time I hear it. It's a bittersweet kind of connection. And Michael Hutchence was one of a kind.

Sponge Bob Perpetual Pants

When is Sponge Bob NOT on television? Seriously? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a fan, but it's become a running joke in our house because every time O asks if he can watch the show, it's on. I know, we've ruined his brain by letting him watch. I know. And H.R. Pufnstuf did absolutely NO damage to me, so there!



And don't forget Sigmund and the Sea Monsters or Land of the Lost. Good times.

Ah, Sid and Marty Krofft, why are you so awesome?

Does your first real concert count if your mom and little bro go?

Thompson Twins - "Hold Me Now"

I didn't say this would be pretty, did I? Ah, but how I loved this song when I was 13. I can remember listening to this album in the living room of the duplex my mom, brother and myself lived in when my parents separated for the 5th or 6th time. We weren't there long before my dad moved back in with us. Fun times. Not.

In August of 1984, my mother took me to see the Thompson Twins at The Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ (now the PNC Bank Arts Center) - along with my little brother (he was about 9 at the time). Berlin opened and my mom let me sit a few rows in front of her, closer to the stage. The concert was not well attended, as I remember. I almost caught a drumstick the drummer of Berlin tossed into the crowd, and sang along when they played "The Metro." The Thompson Twins put on a pretty good show as I recall, but hey, I was 13 and liked them - a lot. So take that with a teenage grain of salt.

Or, you can listen to David Fricke, who wrote in April of 1984, "...they seemed to aspire to be the Pink Floyd of the white dance floor. Except it's a classy ambition that threatens to burst the bullseye simplicity of what is already a sure-platinum dance attack."

Ah yes, classy - a sure-platinum dance attack. To be fair, he was talking about "Doctor, Doctor," I believe, and not this ballad:

Happy Life Day, Star Wars Geeks!

Ha ha I forgot this existed and now I 'm going to share it with you so you, too, can have it's terribleness burned into your brain. Behold, the Star Wars Holiday Special!! The Wookies celebrate Life Day and Leia sings! Jefferson Starship trips you out with music. Bea Arthur...runs the cantina...and sings. Since it's sort of still Christmas (get out there and spend more money at the post-holiday sales - our retail economy depends on YOU!), I'm only going to make you watch a three-minute clip. I'll provide the link to the full special, in all its glory, at the end of the post. Oh, and look for the first appearance of Snuggies - the blanket with sleeves! - on the Wookies.



You should also read the Vanity Fair article about the 1978 special.

Here the full version. You know you want to watch it.

Happy Holidays!

Day Three - Bowie and Bing

Because it's Christmas Eve - and because I love this song and video, here's Bing Crosby and David Bowie performing "Little Drimmer Boy." I wonder how the wife beater/alcoholic could stand to be around the super cool and talented bi-sexual?



I have several favorite 80s holiday songs...I might post a few more later today and certainly tomorrow.

Day Two - The Lords of New Romance

Day Two - Duran Duran

I loved Duran Duran as a confused 12-year-old and I still love them today. I am not ashamed to admit that John Taylor is the reason I insisted on playing bass guitar as a pre-teen. He's no Geddy Lee, but I still dig his playing - and the ruffled shirts. The walls of my bedroom were covered with pictures ripped out of magazines and giant posters I bought at The Union Market. Sadly, I discovered during my last trip home to NJ that the Union Market is now a Home Depot. There was an Indian food stall that had some of the best samosas I've ever had. Anywho, remember when you actually stayed home so you didn't miss the World Premiere of a video on MTV? Ah, those were the days. I won't bore you with too many installments of early-Eighties romantic pop, but here's one of the songs that started it all for me:

Duran Duran - Girls On Film



The MTV version was always edited, as far as I recall, so I was SUPER excited when my cool aunt in Cali sent me a copy of the VHS tape with the original and uncut version of the video. Good thing my dad never saw it (he wasn't exactly pleased when I rented Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and walked in on the scene in the high school classroom...). I think I have a picture of me with a Duran Duran shirt and a perm somewhere...I'll have to find that.

One more D2 story: When I was in 7th grade, a classmate of mine, Samantha D., had tickets to see Duran Duran at Madison Square Garden (they might have been box seats - her dad got them through his office). Even though I wasn't good friends with Samantha, she asked me to go with her because she knew how much I loved this band. Because the show was on a school night, my mom wouldn't let me go. I have not forgiven her to this day, even though I got to see many other concerts later due to divorce guilt). I never got to see Duran Duran live. I had another opportunity in my twenties when I lived in Hollywood and they were scheduled to play the Hollywood Bowl. Simon LeBon had some throat issues and they had to cancel the show at the last minute. Damn you mom and Simon LeBon!!!!

Enjoy!

The semester from hell is over, and a countdown of sorts

Well, grades are turned in, so that's a huge relief. What's an even bigger relief is the reopening of O's daycare after almost 2 weeks. I love love love our DCP - she's essentially O's daytime mom and there have been times when O has called me by her name and I got over it, really I did - but did she HAVE to close for a week-and-a-half right at the end of the semester to move into a new house? Much of the furniture, boxes, etc. were already moved over before she closed. Ten days? Really? Sigh. We got through it and now she's open for two glorious days before the Christmas break. I am lounging on the couch doing nothing, eating bowls of cereal and watching bad television. I need a book to read.

On a completely different subject, my 20-year high school reunion is this coming summer. I did not attend any of the previous reunions, but I think I'll go to this one. Should be fun to see people, hear 20 years of condensed life, all that good stuff. I hated high school. I was miserable, my home life was pretty miserable (divorce, instability, all the good stuff), I think I drove most of my friends crazy with my mood swings and obnoxious personality and self esteem issues. I don't know that I was always easy to be around. Thank goodness for music. I don't think I would have made it through my teen years without copious amounts of awesome music and the hours spent record shopping, listening, concert-going - seriously, it freakin' saved me.

I'm going to try to post a song/video every day leading up to the reunion - songs and artists that remind me of those years, that set the foundation for my love of music, that made me laugh, cry, escape, songs that have special meaning. I'm going to start with some of the early and cheesey crap I listened to before I did an abrupt 180 and became a punk/indie/superdork music snob. I am not ashamed of any of the music I've liked - it's all good and it plays a role in my life.

So here's day one:

Rickie Lee Jones - Chuck E.'s In Love
When we moved from CA to NJ in 1982, I was in the middle of my transition from listening to whatever my parents were listening to and falling asleep with Dr. Demento on my radio, to teen-appropriate pop. I won this album by calling into a SoCal radio station just a few months before we moved to New Jersey. That move to NJ is responsible for the direction my music tastes took in junior high and high school. I don't know that I would have "discovered" the same music I did in my teen years, had I stayed in SoCal. Who knows. So I will start with the song I associate with my last memories of living in California...

It's all a blur

I taught five classes this semester - no time to post - enough said. Semester is done, grading almost finished. I'm all about non-school related distractions now. I just discovered there's a video for one of my fave songs from the past 5 or so years. It's The New Pornographers, "The Laws Have Changed" from Electric Version (2003). It's an amusing video (check out the denim jumpsuit lady toward the end), but the song rocks.



Apparently, this video was based on the film "Simon of the Desert" by Louis Buenel. Hope you enjoyed it.