My usual comment upon finishing the 8 part series is, "Get comfy and kiss eight hours of your life good bye."
It is truly, truly well done. I have heard it most aptly classified as "Stephen King book, co-directed by Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, and soundtrack by John Carpenter."
Here's the theme from the 2016 show...
The credits come into play more in a bit... And "extended" just means they looped it five or six times. Just watch about 2 minutes, and you will get the gist...
And here is one of my all time favorite "themes" from a movie...
I was watching this program, nay... devouring this program and it made me realize that the 80's are getting more love nowadays. Spielberg's next big flick is going to be an adaptation of the only book written in the past decade I have read more than once, Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One".
That book is a friggin' love letter to the 80's. This also brought into focus that it is not just the 80's that is receiving the adoration... It is 80's GEEKDOM.
I came to the realization that people MY age are now in positions of power and influence in the halls of the entertainment industry. They are enacting out all the wonderful fantasies from their own childhood... and paying homage to all the glorious reminders of geek along the way.
I already done the blog on geek... This is more my adoration of the 80's...
It was a pretty damn good time to grow up...
It was the decade where I and friends started going to movies solo... Mostly with a pack of friends, but it changed the experience somehow. You were no longer tethered to your parents. You were more than likely with your peers, and your honest and visceral reactions could be presented without fear of reprimand... "Holy Fuckballs... The fucking Delorean from the fucking future could FUCKING FLY!!!!" Ebert, I wasn't.
I mean "Raiders", and to a lesser extent "Temple", "Empire", "Return", "Fast Times" - Films you can say ONE WORD from the title, and people don't need to hear the rest... C'MON! "Fast Times" is two words... but you could just say "Phoebe" and most guys will KNOW.
The musical journey I undertook in the 80's can never be measured... I had already been exposed to classic rock and roll, but the pantheon of groups and performers that shaped ME in that decade are too many to list here. Metallica... Guns N Roses... Faith No More...
Well, basically any album with a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" was a guaranteed purchase.
Thinking about the advent of MTV, and furthermore, ZZ Top videos... Brings me to the next point...
The 80's is also when I discovered that girls, while at one time "icky" and "cootie ridden", suddenly looked a little different and made me feel funny...
I remember talking on the phone for hours. Yes. Hours. Seeing how many coils of the phone cord I could wrap around my finger... Seeing how taut you could get the cord, and then swinging it around and around like a jump rope. (Some of you just smiled because you did THE EXACT SAME THING!)
I remember saying goodbye to the title of "virgin".
I remember literally shaking with the butterflies and excitement when my feelings of "love" were returned... And I remember the despair and utter hopelessness of when they weren't.
There were crushes... The word alone takes me to "Sixteen Candles", (OH SHIT!!! John Hughes movies are STAPLES of the 80's!!! C'MON!) with Ringwald's dad explaining that if they didn't hurt so much, they would have used a different word for them...
I managed to say "Hey" to one of my biggest crushes at the 20 year high school reunion... 20 years... One word... PROGRESS!
______________________________
Oh... and to wrap this trip down memory lane up... The credits on "Stranger Things"... I was watching them intently on the 8th, and final, episode. I noticed the there were the "imperfections". Little white spots that used to get on the actual film. Think of them as the "hiss/pops" on a vinyl record.
Seeing them reminded me about the 80's... Imperfections were expected, and accepted. Things were not digital... Things were not auto-tuned. They had a soul.
They were messed up. Just like me. Fer shure.
Gag me with a spoon,
d
This blog brought you by John Carpenter, Journey, Meat Beat Manifesto, Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters, Revels, Ministry, Bryan Adams, Audioslave, David Lee Roth, Lazlo Bane, Green Day, Blue Oyster Cult, Tenacious D, Bullring Bummies, and The Smithereens.
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