Dear Brent: Thanks for the great post! My car radio is permanently set to FM 103.7 here in the SF Bay Area. Those are the call numbers for the I Heart 80s station here. It even has Marsha Quinn, one of the original MTV VJs hosting the midday show. I watch music videos on YouTube almost every night. Some of my favorites are "Gypsy", "Seven Wonders" and "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac, off the "Mirage" album in 1982 and the "Tango in the Night" in 1987. Being a teacher lo these many years, I like anything by John Hughes. If I had the chance to teach an introductory course in education to college students, I would have viewing of the movie, "Teachers", a requirement. It came out the first year I was starting a 6-year stint at Austin High School in Houston, TX, which was 1984. I would've thought the activities which went on at Kennedy High in Cincinnati were so out-of-bounds if I hadn't been experiencing similar shenanigans at AHS. So, whenever you come to the Bay Area, please remember to tune in to 103.7 and remember, "We Built this City" on Rock and Roll! Take care.
Haha, I work out every day to Gypsy and Little Lies. I'm deep in a Fleetwood Mac groove lately (I love Stevie Nicks and always have). I have never seen "Teachers," I will have to look for it. I confess that there's been so much talk of teaching over my entire life, and yet schools seem more controversial than ever (at least in the U.S.) that I do tend to tune much of the discussion out. I guess it's inevitable, since we're dealing with children in a crazy, polarized country. But I am somewhat exhausted by it. (I attended Catholic schools, and while there are many things I object to, I did get an insanely good education.)
Dear Brent: I'm a huge Stevie Nicks fan, too. I saw her with Fleetwood Mac in both 1979 (Tusk Tour) and in 2016 (The Show Must Go On Tour), along with her on her own in 2001 (Trouble in Shangri-La Tour) and in 2007 (Crystal Visions Tour) I'm still in mourning by Ronnie Spector's passing last January, so I can only guess what reaction I'll have if the Gold Dust Woman beats me to the end of the line. As for Catholic education, I'm also a victim...er, I mean a product of it too, and yes, received a topnotch version too. When I started on my sojourn as a teacher, I started out in the Catholic schools in the L.A. Archdiocese. In fact, my favorite 2 years of my 44 year career are the 2 years I spent teaching and coaching at Daniel Murphy High School, now long since closed and sold to a Hebrew synagogue. As for public school teaching, suffice it to say this country suffered another heinous school shooting yesterday when I high school student in Uvalde, TX went into an elementary school, shooting and killing 18 elementary school students and 1 teacher. And this was after he shot and killed his grandmother. As we Catholics used to pray, "Deliver us from this vale of tears". That's exactly what the US is today. Take care.
What an interesting topic! The prevalence of 80s music as we’ve moved around the world has not gone unnoticed by us either. Maybe that’s because my ear so easily picks up those sounds drifting from various cafes and shops. As many times as I’ve commented about how much <insert country> really likes their 80s music, I haven’t ever put much thought into why that particular era of music seems to have such staying power.
I’ll admit that my New Wave playlist is a favorite. There’s something about that distinct synthy sound with subtle layers of 80s Cold War politics that is such a mood. Or maybe I just superimpose that because it was my perspective at that age. Even my recent musical tastes tend to gravitate to artists paying homage to that style of music. In fact, as I’ve been trying to ramp up the amount of Spanish media I consume, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of contemporary Spanish-language music that integrates some of those synth/new wave elements in interesting ways.
You really hit on something about the films of that era. Of course, as a little nerd, I re-watched movies like The Last Starfighter, Krull, Beastmaster, and Clash of the Titans more times than should be legally allowed. Nostalgia is a funny thing because many of those movies really don’t hold up, but they seemed like such adventures at the time. And whenever some studio gets the idea to remake them as a summer CGI blockbuster, it’s always such a letdown that all the magic is gone. Is it because the Movie-Making Machine only sees the story as a vehicle to deliver increasingly impressive CGI monsters? Or is it just because my little nerd brain added something that was never there? After all, a lot of people from my generation were quite let down by the Star Wars prequels, but the people that were kids when they were released are vocal enthusiast adults today.
I also don’t have much of a soft spot for 80s TV. In general, I find the variety and serialized storytelling of modern TV much more appealing, though Star Trek: Strange New Worlds retro return to episodic stories has been surprisingly welcome. I still have a hard time getting into the somber character studies without a sympathetic character in sight. I just need someone to root for, and when everyone is a dick, I just can’t.
Anyway, sorry about this rambling comment 🤓. Really liked the read! Cheers!
No! This is great stuff. Yeah, a LOT of the stuff doesn't really "hold up," even though I distinctly remember loving it. But some of it does, which is fascinating too. I stand by my take that everything was much MUCH less cynical then -- not just the characters, but the actual storytelling. It wasn't just an excuse to overwhelm you with CGI (and, yes, I know this makes me sound old and cranky). I don't know what to think about the "nostalgia" thing, because (apart from Stranger Things), so much of the "new" old stuff really is bad -- cynical. I go back to the thing I've learned as a writer myself: writing and creating stuff is really hard! It looks effortless when it's working, but it's not AT ALL effortless! I suppose there are two different topics here -- music AND movies -- but there are hopefully similarities. And yeah, I loved the antihero thing for a year or two, but then it feels like it just collapsed into the same "everyone is an asshole" vibe that has consumed everything else. And everyone is NOT an asshole! Thanks for chiming in -- someday we really DO need to have that long dinner over wine...
I was JUST talking about something similar to a friend of mine! I really miss the 80s horror movie vibe; the original Fright Night. Come ON! Does it get any better than Chris Sarandon and his big 'ol shoulder padded trench coat?! And Near Dark, fabulous. Like you, I don't really want to re-live the 80s, but I do miss the sincerity of 80s movies (REAL GENIUS, looking at you). And I hear you about 80s TV, but even so, I miss Magnum P.I., Murder She Wrote, and Knightrider. Again, the sincerity (and lack of pharmaceutical ads) was a real treat now that I think back on that time in life.
Stranger Things is utter crap. Not only that it's opened the door to more crap 80's style films - that don't look anything like the 80's. The 80's never ended and they're not going anywhere soon.
Huh, I really disagree. I think Stranger Things was something really different and unique -- though I agree subsequent seasons have been of varying quality.
Dear Brent: Thanks for the great post! My car radio is permanently set to FM 103.7 here in the SF Bay Area. Those are the call numbers for the I Heart 80s station here. It even has Marsha Quinn, one of the original MTV VJs hosting the midday show. I watch music videos on YouTube almost every night. Some of my favorites are "Gypsy", "Seven Wonders" and "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac, off the "Mirage" album in 1982 and the "Tango in the Night" in 1987. Being a teacher lo these many years, I like anything by John Hughes. If I had the chance to teach an introductory course in education to college students, I would have viewing of the movie, "Teachers", a requirement. It came out the first year I was starting a 6-year stint at Austin High School in Houston, TX, which was 1984. I would've thought the activities which went on at Kennedy High in Cincinnati were so out-of-bounds if I hadn't been experiencing similar shenanigans at AHS. So, whenever you come to the Bay Area, please remember to tune in to 103.7 and remember, "We Built this City" on Rock and Roll! Take care.
Haha, I work out every day to Gypsy and Little Lies. I'm deep in a Fleetwood Mac groove lately (I love Stevie Nicks and always have). I have never seen "Teachers," I will have to look for it. I confess that there's been so much talk of teaching over my entire life, and yet schools seem more controversial than ever (at least in the U.S.) that I do tend to tune much of the discussion out. I guess it's inevitable, since we're dealing with children in a crazy, polarized country. But I am somewhat exhausted by it. (I attended Catholic schools, and while there are many things I object to, I did get an insanely good education.)
Dear Brent: I'm a huge Stevie Nicks fan, too. I saw her with Fleetwood Mac in both 1979 (Tusk Tour) and in 2016 (The Show Must Go On Tour), along with her on her own in 2001 (Trouble in Shangri-La Tour) and in 2007 (Crystal Visions Tour) I'm still in mourning by Ronnie Spector's passing last January, so I can only guess what reaction I'll have if the Gold Dust Woman beats me to the end of the line. As for Catholic education, I'm also a victim...er, I mean a product of it too, and yes, received a topnotch version too. When I started on my sojourn as a teacher, I started out in the Catholic schools in the L.A. Archdiocese. In fact, my favorite 2 years of my 44 year career are the 2 years I spent teaching and coaching at Daniel Murphy High School, now long since closed and sold to a Hebrew synagogue. As for public school teaching, suffice it to say this country suffered another heinous school shooting yesterday when I high school student in Uvalde, TX went into an elementary school, shooting and killing 18 elementary school students and 1 teacher. And this was after he shot and killed his grandmother. As we Catholics used to pray, "Deliver us from this vale of tears". That's exactly what the US is today. Take care.
I too am heartbroken over the shooting. So tragic! I've only ever seen Stevie with Fleetwood Mac -- I need to see her solo. She's the real deal!
What an interesting topic! The prevalence of 80s music as we’ve moved around the world has not gone unnoticed by us either. Maybe that’s because my ear so easily picks up those sounds drifting from various cafes and shops. As many times as I’ve commented about how much <insert country> really likes their 80s music, I haven’t ever put much thought into why that particular era of music seems to have such staying power.
I’ll admit that my New Wave playlist is a favorite. There’s something about that distinct synthy sound with subtle layers of 80s Cold War politics that is such a mood. Or maybe I just superimpose that because it was my perspective at that age. Even my recent musical tastes tend to gravitate to artists paying homage to that style of music. In fact, as I’ve been trying to ramp up the amount of Spanish media I consume, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of contemporary Spanish-language music that integrates some of those synth/new wave elements in interesting ways.
You really hit on something about the films of that era. Of course, as a little nerd, I re-watched movies like The Last Starfighter, Krull, Beastmaster, and Clash of the Titans more times than should be legally allowed. Nostalgia is a funny thing because many of those movies really don’t hold up, but they seemed like such adventures at the time. And whenever some studio gets the idea to remake them as a summer CGI blockbuster, it’s always such a letdown that all the magic is gone. Is it because the Movie-Making Machine only sees the story as a vehicle to deliver increasingly impressive CGI monsters? Or is it just because my little nerd brain added something that was never there? After all, a lot of people from my generation were quite let down by the Star Wars prequels, but the people that were kids when they were released are vocal enthusiast adults today.
I also don’t have much of a soft spot for 80s TV. In general, I find the variety and serialized storytelling of modern TV much more appealing, though Star Trek: Strange New Worlds retro return to episodic stories has been surprisingly welcome. I still have a hard time getting into the somber character studies without a sympathetic character in sight. I just need someone to root for, and when everyone is a dick, I just can’t.
Anyway, sorry about this rambling comment 🤓. Really liked the read! Cheers!
No! This is great stuff. Yeah, a LOT of the stuff doesn't really "hold up," even though I distinctly remember loving it. But some of it does, which is fascinating too. I stand by my take that everything was much MUCH less cynical then -- not just the characters, but the actual storytelling. It wasn't just an excuse to overwhelm you with CGI (and, yes, I know this makes me sound old and cranky). I don't know what to think about the "nostalgia" thing, because (apart from Stranger Things), so much of the "new" old stuff really is bad -- cynical. I go back to the thing I've learned as a writer myself: writing and creating stuff is really hard! It looks effortless when it's working, but it's not AT ALL effortless! I suppose there are two different topics here -- music AND movies -- but there are hopefully similarities. And yeah, I loved the antihero thing for a year or two, but then it feels like it just collapsed into the same "everyone is an asshole" vibe that has consumed everything else. And everyone is NOT an asshole! Thanks for chiming in -- someday we really DO need to have that long dinner over wine...
I was JUST talking about something similar to a friend of mine! I really miss the 80s horror movie vibe; the original Fright Night. Come ON! Does it get any better than Chris Sarandon and his big 'ol shoulder padded trench coat?! And Near Dark, fabulous. Like you, I don't really want to re-live the 80s, but I do miss the sincerity of 80s movies (REAL GENIUS, looking at you). And I hear you about 80s TV, but even so, I miss Magnum P.I., Murder She Wrote, and Knightrider. Again, the sincerity (and lack of pharmaceutical ads) was a real treat now that I think back on that time in life.
Thanks for a great post! :)
Thank you! 😉🙂😍 And I agree, the earnestness existed on TV too
You’re fucking brilliant. Just subscribed.
Haha thanks!! Both things just made my day. 🎉🎉🎉
And then there’s…. Abba! Dancing Queen and more! ❤️
Haha yes very true!
Stranger Things is utter crap. Not only that it's opened the door to more crap 80's style films - that don't look anything like the 80's. The 80's never ended and they're not going anywhere soon.
Huh, I really disagree. I think Stranger Things was something really different and unique -- though I agree subsequent seasons have been of varying quality.