I've gotten the urge to delve into some classic '80s music videos, and the music on those videos. After all, it was a cutting edge art form back then, and unleashed loads of quirky fun.
Here's Wall of Voodoo with "Mexican Radio"
Oddball, fun song. Love the lyric: "I wish I was in Tijuana, eating barbequed iguana."
I remember well the opening sequence from Friday Night Videos, a music video program broadcast on NBC round about midnight on Fridays. The show was often a substitute for MTV, giving access to the then cutting edge medium of music videos to homes without cable. For the teen I was at the time, the flashy graphics were the epitome of '80s cool.
I've been reminiscing a lot about my first year in college, and everything about it: how I was back then, what was going on around me, and what was happening in the world. I started college in fall of 1988 at a university which was small compared to other universities, but larger than an average community college. It was a state university, but not one of the larger and more well known in the system. But it was close to home, and a convenient place to start college before going off to bigger schools farther from home. It was a commuter school, with most students living off campus, so I spent a lot of time in my car driving to class and getting around. It gave me plenty of opportunity to listen to the radio.
This beautiful song from The Church was often on the radio that year, "Under The Milky Way." (1988) I loved listening to this. (Acknowledgment for video to Rogerio Viera.)
I was a somewhat of a loner at that time, as I still am to some degree. I made friends, and spent time with, a few individual friends who were like myself. I remember one thing we had in common was our love of music, and discussion of various topics. I spent a lot of my free time at the movies that year, including this big hit: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), a movie that created a new interest in animation. (Acknowledgment for video to Tue Nguyen.)
U2's film, Rattle and Hum (1988), was out that year, and I remember seeing the film at the theater. This song from that movie was another radio favorite. (Acknowledgment for video to MofoU2Slovakia.)
Here's another song I heard a lot on the radio at that time: Love and Rockets' "So Alive." (1989)(Acknowledgment for video to Albert Alls)
The late '80s was a time of great nostalgia for yet another era: the Sixities. One example of this was the movie 1969, which came out in 1989. It gave a fictional account about young people in that year, experiencing the idealism of that time, and facing the reality of the Vietnam War. In the late '80s, many looked back with fascination at that time. (Acknowledgment for video to PennyKeating10.)
1989 was the year of the Tiananmen Square protests in China, and the subsequent crackdown by the government against the protesters who were seeking freedom. I remember watching the TV news reports of he dramatic events.
Later that year, Communism fell in Eastern Europe, leading to the end of the Cold War. It all seems so distant today, but its a historical moment that should never be forgotten. (Acknowledgement for video to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.)
I remember seeing this movie that year, a movie about a college debate team debating serious issues that were in the news back then. It featured two of the decades biggest young stars, and, although the plot was so-so, it kind of reminded me of my own situation of being an hopeful young college freshman. It was called Listen to Me (1989). (Acknowledgement for video to osdatabase.)
Bud Light put out a Super Bowl commercial featuring the ghost of Spuds MacKenzie.
Does anyone remember Spuds MacKenzie? Although he seems to have been forgotten nowadays, he was a popular advertising character during the late 1980s. Portrayed as "the original party animal," Spuds was the mascot, of sorts, for Bud Light beer during that decade.
Spuds was always portrayed as a fun-loving good times party goer, and always the center of attention, especially from the ladies.
In the '80s, comedy was often quirky and offbeat . . . just like the '80s themselves. One of my favorite comedians who became popular at that time was Steven Wright, whose routine was to give unusual, and often bizarre, observations in a dry, deadpan manner. His comedy is one of those authentically '80s things that gave that decade its distinctive style, and which made that time so much fun. And he's still at it. Here are some of his best lines from his '80s routine:
"For my birthday I
got a humidifier and a dehumidifier...I put them in
the same room and let them fight it out."
"Sponges grow in
the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper
the ocean would be if that didn't happen."
"Winny and I lived in a house that ran on static electricity...If you wanted to run the blender, you had to rub balloons on your head. If you wanted to cook, you had to pull off a sweater real quick."
"My house is made
out of balsa wood, so when I want to scare the
neighborhood kids I lift it over my head and tell them to get
out of my yard or I'll throw it at them."
"I went to the
hardware store and bought some used paint. It was in the
shape of a house. I also bought some batteries, but they
weren't included. So I had to buy them again."
"The judge asked,
"What do you plead?" I said, "Insanity, your honour,
who in their right mind would park in the passing lane?""
"All of the people
in my building are insane. The guy above me designs
synthetic hairballs for ceramic cats. The lady across the
hall tried to rob a department store...with a pricing gun.
She said, "Give me all of the money in the vault, or I'm
marking down everything in the store.""
"In my house
there's this light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so
often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday,
I got a call from a woman in Germany. She said, "Cut it out.""
There's a fine line
between fishing and standing on the shore looking like an idiot.
