Happy Thanksgiving!!

A 1988 Metlife commercial that appeared during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that year.

Yep, I posted the same clip last year, and I'm too lazy to find another one.

But my wishes are sincere: Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.

....and it is a pretty cool Peanuts clip.

Captain EO

I recently visited Epcot, at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. 

Epcot is very dear to me because it opened in the '80s to much fanfare, and was the location of many a family visit... and of so many of my youthful '80s memories. Epcot, in so many ways was very '80s when it opened, and it was very much a product of its times... the hope and positive vibes and energy of the '80s . . . the visions of the future of that era.

So much has changed since the '80s... and in some ways Epcot's mission has changed as the decade of its birth fades into the past... and yet there are still so many echoes of the '80s in Epcot... in its architecture and some of the rides which have survived since then.

The big ball, above, for example, is actually called Spaceship Earth, and it houses a ride that existed when Epcot first opened... it has had a few changes here and there... but its basically the same.. a ride through the history of communication. Maybe I'll do a post about it some day.

I do still love to visit Epcot, in part for all these '80s memories, and also because it remains to this day a very positive hopeful place.

One place that has changed a lot over the years is the pavilion which, at least back in the '80s, was known as Journey Into Imagination. Although the exterior looks very much the same (thankfully! I like it), the rides and shows inside have gone through a major evolution through the years.

Which brings me to what this post is really about. Back in 1986, when Epcot was still new, at the very height of the vibrant '80s, the Journey Into Imagination pavilion featured a new 3-D sci-fi space film by George Lucas, and starring Michael Jackson, called Captain Eo.

Captain Eo premiered at the very peak of Jackson-mania, when Michael Jackson's image was full of the very hope and positivity of the '80s decade, before his later troubles, and before the world seemed to become a less optimistic and less hopeful place. At least that's how I perceive it.

Recently, after a long absence, Captain Eo was brought back to Epcot, to the very same Imagination pavilion that originally featured it... and providing a wonderful '80s flashback to those who well remember that era.

And here it is, above.

This wonderful short film showcases so much of the good of the '80s: the optimism, the wonderful sci-fi fantasy which so dominated the era, the color and vibrancy... and Micheal when his music and message was a ray of hope that couldn't help but make you smile.

I enjoyed seeing Captain Eo again at Epcot, and am grateful to Disney for bringing it back.

When the world sometimes seems to be growing darker, maybe we need a wonderful flashback like this to remind us to see things in a positive light, and to look for the best in others. Thank you Michael Jackson and thank you George Lucas, for this, and thank you Disney for first presenting this to us, and for bringing it back again just when we need it.

Repost: Thriller

Darkness falls across the land

The midnight hour is close at hand

Creatures crawl in search of blood

To terrorize y’awl’s neighborhood

And whosoever shall be found

Without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the hounds of hell

And rot inside a corpse’s shell

The foulest stench is in the air

The funk of forty thousand years

And grizzly ghouls from every tomb

Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive

Your body starts to shiver

For no mere mortal can resist

The evil of the thriller 

-Vincent Price, off of an '80s classic, 

Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

The videos a classic too!!

Happy Halloween !!!

This is a re-post of a post originally appearing October 28, 2011. Happay Halloween to all my readers!

Freddy Krueger

Halloween is approaching, and thoughts turn to things scary and spooky. . . and horror.

Those of us who grew up in the 1980s and were into horror movies remember Freddy Krueger. The ghoulish star of the horror flick Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy followed in the wake of slasher era flicks like Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978).  During the late ‘70s and the ‘80s, these three movies produced numerous sequels which thrived among horror loving young people.

I first became acquainted with Freddy at an informal video-watching party among several members of my high school drama club, of which I was a member. We clustered together around a couch, munching on popcorn, and watching the first Nightmare on Elm Street.  I always thought that, behind the blood and gore aspects of the Freddy movies, there was actually some psychological insight into all those dark thoughts and fears that young people live with. 

Freddy represented the dark and scary stuff that lurked in all of our nightmares.  Things that bother us. Things we run away from.  The kind of stuff that we all are relieved to know doesn’t follow us into our waking lives. . . but in all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, they did.  

Signs of the Times: Karras, Love Boat, Newsweek

Alex Karras passed away on October 10, 2012.  Previously a football player and actor in such films as Mel Brook's classic Blazing Saddles, most '80s audiences will remember him for his presence on the '80s sitcom Webster.

The same day that the passing of Alex Karras was announced, I was listening to a radio talk show, where they mentioned that the cruise ship which was featured in the '70s and '80s television show The Love Boat, known to all who watched that show as the Pacific Princess, was being sold to a company to tear apart for scrap metal. Of course, the talk show hosts having been at the right age to have seen the show originally, were all waxing nostalgic about it. 

They were chatting up about all the characters . .. .Captain Stubing, Isaac the bartender, Julie the cruise director, Gopher, and the doc. And about how the show was part of an escapist Saturday night TV schedule that also included Fantasy Island. One of the hosts mentioned how the the Love Boat came from a much gentler time for television. 

Indeed, all the shows mentioned in this post so far seem from a totally different era which was much less hard-edged, and frankly nicer: Webster, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island. 

And more recently, the news came out that Newsweek, the classic news magazine, was ceasing print publication, relegating all future work to the internet.

So many changes... reminds me of just how old I'm getting.

When Crue Were Glam

The 1980s was a great time for music, in part because there was just so much of it. So much variety... music of all kinds, and usually with a quirky and fun twist: New Wave, classic rock, Springsteen and Mellencamp roots rock, dance music, synth-pop, ballads, etc. etc. 

Heavy Metal was one of the main aspects of '80s music, a kind-of mutant genre that created loud, aggressive, rebellious music. At a time when boundaries of all sorts had already been broken, and audiences had already been thrown everything except the kitchen sink, '80s metal groups were there to break that final barrier and throw you that kitchen sink. 

Motley Crue first broke into '80s popularity with a gruesome leather-clad appearance, and an album with a black cover and an ominous theme, Shout at the Devil (1983). Although a case could be made that the concept was as much as anything against the devil (after all, the albums' intro exhorted its listeners to "rise up . . . and shout at the devil"), Motley Crue were at the time the group that parents and censors loved to hate.

Then, in 1985, a change. At the time, Crue adopted a more glam (but I'm sure they would tell you, a still rockin) image, with their album Theatre of Pain (1985). Crue during this time were among a growing number of spandex clad, makeup wearing groups into what was known as glam metal, a genre that adopted the colorful, eye-popping glitter/glam rock styles which hearkened back to the early '70s, but added the ear-bursting heavy metal of the '80s.


It was during this time that Motley Crue's audience grew to include teens that may not have gotten what they were about during their earlier period. And they were capable of adding a soft ballad alongside their heavy rock. Here's Crue doing "Home Sweet Home," off of Theatre of Pain.

Glam Metal spread far and wide... I always thought it fit well with the fun-loving, color-filled atmosphere of the '80s. 

Heres Poison, another of '80s big glam metal bands.

It shows how interesting a decade the '80s were, that such an overtly "macho" style as metal adopted such clearly androgynous styles without anyone even commenting. It was macho with makeup and eyeshadow. And it was perfectly and un-ironically accepted as such.

And, of course, this metal ball would not be complete without another big glam metal group, Cinderella.

Rick Springfield

I've got some more posts in the works, so stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, let me direct your attention to fellow retro blogger Trapped in the 80s Mom, who is having a series posts devoted to 80s rocker Rick Springfield. This includes an interesting advanced preview of the upcoming Rick Springfield docu-film An Affair of the Heart.  Its a series of '80s related posts about one of the most important and well remembered performers of that era, and sure to be of interest to those of us who remember that era so fondly. Check it out.