Tis the season. . .

The holiday season is upon us again, and its around this time I always remember this 1977 Coke commercial, with the wonderful sentiment. 

This always makes me feel good, and brings back memories.

And heres a version that played in the '80s, with the same song, and featuring Disney characters.

Happy Holidays to all.

May this be a Merry Christmas season thats just beginning...

and to those who celebrated Hannukah, best wishes too!!

Cyndi Lauper- She's So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper was one of the iconic musical stars of the '80s, and representative of the colorful, freewheeling, and individualistic quality of '80s culture.

Lauper was artistic from an early age, attending a special school for the arts-inclined. Her music career largely began as part of the late '70s, early '80s new wave music group Blue Angel. But most of the music listening public first became aware of her with her first big hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."  The video, a fun loving expression of '80s quirkiness, featured both pro-wrestler "Captain" Lou Albano, and Cyndi's real-life mom, Catrine. The 1983 album which featured the song was accurately titled She's So Unusual.

As a young noncomformist, Lauper experimented with outrageous clothing styles. She also experienced rejection, such as when she had rocks thrown at her by un-accepting peers who treated her individuality with contempt. However, when she reached her massive popularity in the '80s, this quirky individuality and wild fashion became one of her trademarks.

Sensitivity was also one of Lauper's qualities, as expressed through both the song "Time After Time," and its video. 

Lauper continued to express her quirkiness, individuality, and sensitivity in her next album, 1986's True Colors and the song of the same name.

In the years after her '80s fame, Lauper continued her creativity as a musician and performer, and continued to extoll individuality and tolerance. Recently, Lauper won rave reviews as the writer and composer of the musical Kinky Boots.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Another re-re-post, but its a cool one:

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

 Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.

A new post is coming soon.

UPDATE:

Hey, check out Rediscover the '80s, who went through a lot more effort to compile '80s thanksgiving videos.

1989: Berlin Wall Falls

November of 1989 was one of the great turning points in history.

For most of the mid to late 20th century, the Cold War divided Europe and the world. By the end of the '80s, however, Communism started to crumble, and the long suppressed people of Eastern Europe started to stir with the desire of freedom. 

Berlin was a central point in the Cold War, with the Communist-built Berlin Wall separating free West Berlin from the oppressed East. But in the midst of the changes then engulfing Eastern Europe, the people of East Germany began to agitate for change, culminating around November 9, when the desires of so many in East Germany resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Crowds gathered at the wall, the beleaguered East German guards gave way, and the iron curtain fell. People began to tear down the wall in a mass act of liberation.  Here's the account of a reporter from Time of his experiences.

And here are the heroes of November 1989: the freedom seeking people of East and West Berlin.

Happy Halloween Repost

This is me being a bit lazy, but here's my third anniversary Halloween re-post of a great Halloweenish '80s item... Michael Jackson's Thriller  video, with its wonderful Vincent Price narration.

Happy Halloween to all my fellow '80s fans.

The Safety Dance/ Pop Goes The World

This song is so '80s, and it shows all that is so wonderful about that decade. "The Safety Dance" was a song by '80s Canadian group Men Without Hats, becoming a major hit in 1983.  The song, containing the typical '80s quirkiness I love so much, also expressed the equally '80s trait of individualism. According to Wikipedia, it was a protest against bouncers stopping the dancing of more individualistic New Wave styles of dance, at a time when disco was dying. "New wave dancing . . . was different from disco dancing because it was done individually instead of with partners . . . Thus, the song is a protest and a call for freedom of expression."

Heres their follow up son, "Pop Goes The World." Its now being used in a laundry product commercial. Fun video and song!!

 Quirky individualism... and fun.. all very '80s!!

The Last Starfighter

The '80s were an era full of wonderful sci-fi movies. One great little movie that has developed a solid cult following is The Last Starfighter, a 1984 movie which exemplified the '80s in a number of ways. It was, along with Tron (1982), one of the first movies to feature computer animation. It was one of many space-related fantasy movies out at the time, and it featured the '80s fascination with video games.

The film's protagonist, Alex Rogan is a typical '80s teen with dreams and ambitions who lives in a trailer park with his mother and younger brother. He longs to leave for greener pastures, but in the meantime, he bides his time while engaging in that very '80s passion: video games. In particular, he becomes adept at a space oriented Starfighter video game located at the trailer park, where he gets very good at beating the bad guys in an epic space battle.

One day, he is approached by Centauri, who claims to be the inventor of the Starfighter video game. It turn out Centauri is actually a disguised alien who is scouting for starfighters to save the universe from the clutches of an evil space bad guys the Ko-Dan Empire.  The part of Centauri was played by famed actor Robert Preston, most well known for playing traveling salesman Harold Hill in The Music Man (1962).

Alex is taken to the faraway planet Rylos, reluctantly recruited into the Rylan Star League, and introduced to Grig, a friendly repitilian alien who is to be Alex's navigator.

The Ko-Dan Empire is led by the evil Emperor Xur, who leads a sneak attack on Rylos, decimating the ranks of the starfighters, and leaving only Alex and Grig to fight for the freedom of the universe.

It is now up to Alex and Grig to save the universe.

 

Alex is trained to be a pilot and sent off with Grig to fight the Emporer Xur in a fighter craft called a Gunstar.  Caution: Spoilers immediately ahead!

Thankfully, the Gunstar is equipped with a powerful new weapon, called the "Death Blossom."

Suffice it to say, the universe is saved and Alex returns to Earth a hero. Here he is with his girlfriend.

The movie has quite a following, and its a fun and positive little sci-fi adventure that was truly of its time. And true to its time, it encouraged you to look to the future with hope.