tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42433511683303425972024-03-13T22:05:04.029-07:00Nonstop 80sthe 80s, the 1980s, 80s music, 80s movies, 80s news, 80s fashion, 80s pop culture, 80s stars, where are they nowParishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-59876956740099656722016-01-10T23:36:00.000-08:002016-01-10T23:36:41.869-08:00David Bowie - "Ashes to Ashes" - 1980<i>"Oh no. Don't say that it's true."</i><br />
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A dark day indeed. RIP David Bowie.<br />
A true giant of the music world if ever there was one.<br />
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<br />Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-87039441158739130982015-12-31T05:21:00.000-08:002015-12-31T05:21:22.563-08:00Where are they now? - Andy Partridge - XTC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For several years late in the decade Andy Partridge was one of the most interesting/disturbing/exciting/innovative and talented songwriters/singers/guitarists in popular music. Songs such as "Dear God", "Merely a Man" and "Mayor of Simpleton" to name just a few kept power pop relevant in the days leading up to the grunge onslaught. Partridge's lyrics were brutally cynical and took on all comers from religion to politics to consumerism with a vitriol that seemed not quite consistent with his baby-faced, good boy looks.<br />
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After contract disputes led to the end of XTC following the stellar album "Nonsuch" Partridge became something of a musical vagabond which is what he remains to this day (XTC, says Partridge, is something he thinks of "in the past tense"). He lives a fairly secluded life with his long time gf Erica Wexler and is fond of creating his own board games.<br />
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Left:<br />
Then: Andy Partridge late 80s<br />
Now: Andy Partridge and GF Erica Wexler <br />
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<br />Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-23433392711158302392015-12-27T04:50:00.002-08:002015-12-27T04:50:35.435-08:00Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb"After a long time away during which I've been helping my friend Rich Chambers with his film projects I've decided to get the 80s party back on track as best I can while working around shooting schedules and post production obligations.<br />
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So, without further ado...<br />
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What better way to conjure the glorious 80s than with the desperate lyrics of Roger Waters and perhaps the greatest guitar solo in the history of rock from David Gilmour. Yes, we're going to get this party re-started with "Comfortably Numb" from Pink Floyd's "The Wall"; a snarling dragon of a concept album if ever there was one. No need to remind me it was released in November '79 because it doesn't matter. This album laid down the tone for the decade to come.<br />
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<br />Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-16109213182852537262012-05-04T08:16:00.000-07:002012-05-04T08:16:13.926-07:00Where are they now? - Secret Service agent Tim McCarthyOn March 30, 1981 Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton hotel in D.C. when a deranged man in the crowd outside the hotel opened fire on his entourage at it approached the Presidential limousine. Upon hearing the first shots Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy did the unthinkable - or at least what would be unthinkable to the vast majority of human beings - he turned to face the fire spreading his body wide to use as a shield between the gunman and Reagan. No sooner had he turned than he took a bullet in the gut and fell to the ground wounded as the President's limo sped away. It was an unmitigated act of valor. An extraordinary expression of the professionalism and dedication of the people assigned to the Presidential Protection detail. <br /><br />So where is Timothy McCarthy now?<br /><br />After spending several hours in surgery following the shooting to remove the round from his abdomen, McCarthy made a full recovery. In 1993 he retired from the Secret Service after running the Chicago office for several years. Since 1994 he has been Police chief of Orland Park Illinois. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left) March 30, 1981: Agent McCarthy after taking a bullet protecting the President and (right) in a recent photo.</td></tr>
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<br />Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-40863176283002011422012-03-23T23:42:00.000-07:002012-03-23T23:42:43.962-07:00Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective at MOMA - 1980The modern "blockbuster" art show has come and largely gone over the last 30 years. Sure there are occasional exceptions like the recent Leonardo show in London but for the most part the day when a new year meant at least one new retrospective by some titan of art are dead and gone, killed off by insurance companies.<br />
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But lets wind the clock back to the happier days of 1980 when the art blockbuster - as an entire generation of art lovers came to understand the term - was born. The event which gave birth to the new cultural phenomenon was the Museum of Modern Art's Picasso retrospective. This massive, thrilling, disturbing, enlightening and exuberant show took over MOMA from May 22 until September 16 of that year and was as much an eye opener for museums around the world as it was for lovers of modern art. Hundreds of thousands of patrons moved through MOMA's turnstiles and were rewarded with a comprehensive overview of one of the most widely known yet little understood artists who ever lived. The exhibition took over the entire museum, an unprecedented occurrence but a necessary one as nearly a thousand works were included in the show. Day after day lines stretched down West 53rd Street . Inside awaited room after room of paintings that changed the course of visual history. <br />
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From "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" to "Still Life with Chair Caning" to "The Three Musicians" to the to the mindblowing graphic work of the 1930s "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective" prepared the ground and set the bar for blockbusters that followed and made the 1980s a golden age for art lovers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picasso - "Minotauromachy" 1935 - etching</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-49223227710198088462012-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:002012-03-16T23:37:32.626-07:00Richard Pryor on fire: literally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rOJscv9ex8/T2QwQTcrCnI/AAAAAAAAATk/Le-psZNTwzE/s1600/richardpryor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rOJscv9ex8/T2QwQTcrCnI/AAAAAAAAATk/Le-psZNTwzE/s1600/richardpryor.jpg" /></a></div>Richard Pryor emerged from the 70s one of the biggest stars in the world. He seemingly had it all: money, fame and beautiful lovers. None of it though was apparently enough and like a lot of stars with money and time on their hands Pryor got into drugs. Most notably freebasing cocaine.<br />
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On June 9, 1980, in one of the decade's more bizarre celebrity-related events, Pryor was discovered running through the streets of Northridge California on fire. He was eventually caught and taken to the hospital by police where it is said he suffered burns on more than half his body. Initially nobody knew what to make of the incident but it wasn't too long before the facts began to emerge and paint a picture of a man who, in a fit of freebase-induced psychosis, had poured flaming 151 rum over himself then fled into the streets in panic.<br />
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Pryor spent six weeks recovering at the Grossman Burn Center and when finally well enough to resume his career didn't shy away from the incident. On the contrary in typical Richard Pryor fashion he faced it head on making frequent reference to it first in his standup routine and later in the movie "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling" a fictionalized account of the incident and its aftermath.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-79124262624988139552012-03-09T20:20:00.001-08:002012-03-17T23:10:13.000-07:00The Challenger Disaster - Post ScriptNew footage has just surfaced of the Challenger disaster. The short Super-8 film was taken by Jeffrey Ault from his viewing spot at the Kennedy Space Center 10 miles from the launch pad. The film gives the best view I've ever seen of a launch as you get a feel for just how fast the shuttle is going as it roars into space. The footage was licensed by the Huffington Post and you can read their entire accompanying piece <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/challenger-video-film-space-shuttle-explosion_n_1333794.html">here</a>.<br />
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</div></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-60781329418779316042012-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:002012-02-24T07:54:25.720-08:00Terene Trent D'arby - "Sign Your Name" - 1987Terence Trent D'arby (or Sananda Francesco Maitreya as he is now legally called) burst onto the music scene with his 1987 album "Introducing the Hard Line According to Terence Trent D'arby". The album was a massive his and spawned two hit singles: "Wishing Well" and the track here "Sign Your Name". For my money this is one of the best R&B tracks of the decade.<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Xmi_qbUGCKo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-35067156109259443232012-02-24T07:30:00.000-08:002012-02-24T07:30:27.016-08:00Former UN chief Kurt Waldheim... a Nazi?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt Waldheim (second from left) during WWII.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The UN, formed out of the dust-clouds of World War II when the Nazis murderous rampage through Europe shook the world to its core, held itself to a higher ideal of universal dialogue and peaceful co-existence; two concepts the Nazis didn't exactly hold in high esteem. Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981. <br />
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When Waldheim was running for President of Austria in 1985 a popular Austrian paper began to raise questions about his role during the war. He had admitted to being in the German army but said he had no choice and spent the war "confined to a desk". But in the wake of the paper's initial article others began to dig into Waldheim's past and allegations surfaced that he had not, in fact, been hiding in the hinterlands behind a desk during the war but was, allegedly, a member of the SS and had, again allegedly, participated in the reprisals against partisans in Greece. Waldheim called the allegations "pure lies" though he did later admit that he was aware that most of the Jewish community in the town near where he was stationed in Greece were being rounded up and sent to Auschwitz, something he'd previously denied any knowledge of. <br />
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In the end the controversy surrounding Waldheim seemed to degenerate into a series of allegations and counter-allegations none of which went anywhere substantive but which nonetheless served to permanently sully Waldheim's reputation in the eyes of millions around the world. He died in 2007 and though he was given a state funeral no sitting heads of state were invited. A telling sign of just how far he'd fallen.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-31300624344260903132012-02-14T19:07:00.000-08:002012-02-14T19:07:16.117-08:00Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - 1985They just don't make 'em like this anymore. Melodic, ironic, lean and mean it's one of my favorite driving songs.<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ST86JM1RPl0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-31544851465982845472012-02-11T06:23:00.000-08:002012-02-11T06:23:32.341-08:00The Trade -1988Wayne Gretzky was a secular saint in his home country of Canada. Canadians revered him as the undisputed master of their national game. Kids spent countless hours on their backyard rinks attempting to make those blind passes and hit the puck out of the air into the goal like their hero. It was assumed by everyone (including Gretzky) that he'd stay in Edmonton with the Oilers for the length of his career. But hockey teams aren't run by players, they're run by owners and in this case the Oilers were being run by an owner, Peter Pocklington, who had become hard up for cash after a series of business deals had gone bad. <br />
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So what's a cash-strapped owner to do? Well, if you're Pocklington you eye the secular saint on your hockey team's roster and shop him around to the see what kind of offers you get. In this case he got one from the Los Angeles Kings that he couldn't refuse (a slew of draft picks and, most importantly, $15 million in cash).<br />
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And so it came to be that on August 9, 1988 after weeks of back door negotiation Pocklington called a press conference and confirmed that Wayne Gretzky - The Great One, the NHL's MVP for the past 8 consecutive years, the man who had delivered 4 Stanley Cup Championships to Edmonton - was being shipped off to southern California. There were attempts made in Parliament to find a way to block "The Trade" (as it became known). Pocklington was burned in effigy. Oiler fans were outraged with some labeling Gretzky a traitor and others too broken up to speak. But it was all for naught. Gretzky was gone and nothing was going to bring him back. It was as if Elvis had moved to London. The closest parallel that could be drawn in sports was the trade that sent Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees seven decades earlier. <br />
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Hockey in Canada would never really be the same after his departure, nor would hockey in the US. Because while the Kings never won a Stanley Cup with Gretzky (they did make it to the finals once) his presence in LA created a bandwagon of biblical proportions, one that not only transformed Kings games from sedate exercises conducted in a half empty arena into star studded sellouts but that ultimately led to the league expanding into markets it had never considered viable before. The San Jose Sharks, Phoenix Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks can all be said to owe their existence either directly or indirectly to the effects of The Trade. <br />
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Here's an short piece chronicling the Gretzky effect on the LA sports scene. <br />
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Their bosses however, feeling the pressure to launch after a week of delays and in the full glare of the public spotlight due to the presence of the first "teacher in space" (Christa McAuliffe) among the crew, overroad their engineers and gave STS-51L the green light.<br />
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They should have listened.<br />
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Just 73 seconds after lift off the Thiokold engineer's worst nightmares were realized as super-heated gas leaking through a failed O-ring on the right hand SRB burned through the external fuel tank causing a cascading series of events that led to the breakup of the Shuttle Challenger 48,000 feet over the Atlantic. Contrary to popular belief at the time the Shuttle was not torn apart by the explosion of gases in the external fuel tank but instead by aerodynamic forces exerted on the orbiter when it veered off its intended trajectory due to thrust anomolies coming from the right SRB (which had broken loose) and the external fuel tank. The last words heard from Pilot Michael Smith just milliseconds before the orbitor was torn apart were an ominous "Uh oh."<br />
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In a grissly discovery made some weeks later it was learned that several members of the crew had apparently survived the orbiter's breakup and activated their emergency oxygen supplies. Indeed Pilot Michael Smith - in a valiant but hopeless attempt to gain control of the situation - had been working the control panel, activating switches in an apparent attempt to restore electicity after the breakup. Because of these discoveries many experts now believe that at least some of the crew members survived the entire 2 minute 45 second free fall to the ocean's surface and that it was that impact with the water - at 207 mph - that was the likely cause of death, not the explosion or orbiter's initial breakup.<br />
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In the aftermath of the Challenger disaster the Shuttle program was grounded for 31 months while changes to the decision making culture at NASA as well as new, more robust safety procedures were implemented. <br />
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The crew of STS-51L were: Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe.<br />
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So what ever happened to Bunty Bailey?<br />
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After "Take on Me" Bailey went on to star in Aha's follow-up video "The Sun Always Shines On TV" and then had a short career in motion pictures. After a 16 year hiatus she returned to the silver screen in the 2008 low-budget comedy "Defunct". These days Bailey is a dance teacher who describes herself as "happily married" and is the mother of two teenage children.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left) Bunty Bailey in Aha's 1985 video "Take on Me" and (right) in a recent photo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-18395284106968864172012-01-27T05:38:00.000-08:002012-01-27T05:38:45.977-08:00UB40 - "Red Red Wine" - 19881988 represented the low point of 80s music, what with the likes of Tiffany, Richard Marx, Rick Astley and Whitney Houston cluttering up the airwaves. Music was in a holding pattern as new wave had exhausted itself and the seismic shift that was Nirvana was still a ways off.<br />
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Still there were a few gems to be found if you were willing to sift through the waste material and this is one of them. A remake of a minor 1968 hit by Neil Diamond UB40 took the original and reggaed the s**t out of it. The result was a pop music masterpiece that sounds as good today as it did then.<br />
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<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zXt56MB-3vc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-46237713183897601112012-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:002012-01-25T08:01:12.451-08:00Michael Dukakis and the tankMichael Dukakis was doing well in the polls in the late summer of 1988. Comfortably ahead of George Bush and basking in that post-convention afterglow. Then somebody in his campaign had the idea that what they needed to really put him over the top was a butch image. Something that would head off any claims that he was 'soft on defense'. So the campaign packed up the wagons and headed to Michigan where MD donned some standard issue tank wear (including a helmet with Princess Leia ear buns) and was photographed riding around conquering the General Dynamics parking lot.<br />
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To say that the resulting image backfired would be an incredible understatement. The hooting and hollering started almost immediately though nobody could quite put a finger on exactly what there was about the image that made it so cringe worthy. Dukakis was an army vet after all and had served his country honorably. Personally I think it was the helmet.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Help me Obi Wan. You're my only hope!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-38268173235680424972012-01-20T10:44:00.000-08:002012-01-20T10:44:25.095-08:00Mikhail Gorbachev assumes power in the USSR - 1985On March 11, 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, became General Secretary of the Communist Party of The Soviet Union. His ascension was hailed as the dawn of a new day for the hidebound superpower with leaders in the West salivating over the prospect of finally having someone in the Kremlin that they could, in Maggie Thatcher's words, "do business with". <br />
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Gorbachev energetically undertook the daunting task of trying to breath life into the corpse of the USSR initiating his programs of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) and letting it be known that the USSR was no longer intersted in playing the role of the cranky old uncle with all the guns in international relations. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iTSVj1uq-g0/Txm0c48qspI/AAAAAAAAARM/n6ldan_qjMg/s1600/gorby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iTSVj1uq-g0/Txm0c48qspI/AAAAAAAAARM/n6ldan_qjMg/s1600/gorby.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A new kind of General Secretary: "Gorby" mingles with the people - 1985</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
To say that his 6 years as the big cheese atop the Kremlin wall were eventful would be an enormous understatement. He signed agreements that ultimately lead to huge reductions in the number of nuclear weapons held by the US and USSR, he relaxed state oversight of Soviet media and encouraged criticism, he released political prisoners, began the process of opening up the Soviet economy to privately owned business and reduced the overall size of the Soviet military. Yet he also oversaw the catastrophe that was/is Chernobyl, tried desperately to prevent Soviet satellite states from gaining their independence as the USSR began to crumble and was largely ineffective in trying to ram through meaningful economic reform. In the end his efforts would come back to haunt him in unexpected ways and he'd wind up losing power to Boris Yeltsin and overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union.<br />
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In 1985 many saw his coming to power as a sign that significant change was on the horizon. Few, if any, could have predicted just how significant those changes (intended and unintended) would turn out to be.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-58260486029438637252012-01-17T05:53:00.000-08:002012-01-17T05:53:51.300-08:00"Everywhere" - Fleetwood Mac - 1987For me Christine McVie's contributions to Fleetwood Mac are almost always overlooked. She had a beautiful soft voice and wrote uncomplicated, catchy love songs that stuck in your head on the first listening. This gem from the band's 1987 multi-platinum album "Tango in the Night" is a perfect example. The song reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 3 weeks at number 1 on the adult contemporary charts.<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iQlWe0SwAuw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-32487655110603836452012-01-15T21:51:00.000-08:002012-01-15T21:51:59.122-08:00Pete Rose admits to betting on baseball - 1989Say it ain't so, Pete!<br />
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Pete Rose was (is) Major League Baseball's all-time leader in hits and games played, has three World Series rings won three batting titles and made 17 all-star game appearances. There was never a sliver of a doubt that he was going to the baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot. That is, until allegations surfaced in early 1989 that Charlie Hustle had bet on baseball games and not only that, but that he'd placed many, large bets on games involving his own team the Cincinnati Reds. Outgoing commissioner Peter Ueberrroth dismissed the allegations but his replacement Bart Giamatti reopened the case after assuming the commissioner's job and retained a lawyer to formally investigate. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mQXsIXb4wi8/TxO54R_BryI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Tk1u02JodWc/s1600/pete_rose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mQXsIXb4wi8/TxO54R_BryI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Tk1u02JodWc/s320/pete_rose.jpg" width="320" /></a>On August 24, 1989, when it had became clear that there was substantial evidence against him Rose voluntarily accepted placement on baseball's permanently ineligible list and lost his job as the Red's manager. Two years later the Hall of Fame voted (in a move nearly everyone believes was directed specifically at Rose) to ban anyone on the ineligible list. Thus Pete Rose, undone by his own boneheaded decisions and hubris, was sent off to wander in the baseball wilderness.<br />
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He remains there to this day, a kind of curious ghost inhabiting the fringes of baseball culture, desperately seeking validation from the fans and hoping against hope that one day baseball will open it's arms to him once again and welcome him back.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-34599429068121881522012-01-14T07:44:00.000-08:002012-01-14T07:44:51.054-08:00Where are they now? - Huey LewisHuey Lewis and the Afterthoughts, uh, I mean the News became music superstars with the release of 1984's "Sports". Lewis himself looked like he worked at a machine shop during the day and let his sister-in-law cut his hair and pick his stage outfits. In many ways though it was his everyguy image that underpinned his popularity and Lewis never shied away from it. Following the pinnacle of "Sports" and it's followup "Fore" HL&TN began a long slide into obscurity. By the late 80s they had parted with their record company and gone on an extended hiatus. The advent of grunge drove the final nail into the coffin of Lewis' brand of feel good, uber-mainstream, working class pop.<br />
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So where is Huey Lewis today anyway?<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk-YLuTRKjo/TxGiFSmaZAI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/KUL22FboZuA/s1600/huey_lewis_then_now.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk-YLuTRKjo/TxGiFSmaZAI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/KUL22FboZuA/s1600/huey_lewis_then_now.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Huey Lewis then and now.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Huey Lewis and the News still do a fair number of live shows each year, though these days they play venues like the California State Fair and the Cape Cod Melody Tent. Their new album "Soulsville" did manage to crack the Billboard 200, peaking at number 121. Lewis himself doesn't seem to have changed much over the years. He's still a happy go lucky figure who seems quite content to get together with the boys and play to whoever will listen.Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-11657466382503909212012-01-12T07:32:00.000-08:002012-01-12T07:32:32.931-08:00"Spanish Bombs" from London Calling - The ClashSpanish Bombs is my favorite tune from the Clash's third album, the double LP classic "London Calling". Some have said that London Calling is a 1970s record but the fact is that while it was released on December 14, 1979 in Britain it wasn't released in the US until January of 1980. That same month saw the release of the Pretenders self-titled debut album. What a great time for rock music.<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XANAiNreYL8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-62131632586107866792012-01-09T07:40:00.000-08:002012-01-09T07:40:05.265-08:00FloJoThere were two big stories that came out of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. One was splashed all over the front pages of the world's papers, the other was whispered about from Seoul to Timbuktu. The front page story was Ben Johnson being disqualified for using steroids after setting a new world record in the men's 100 meter dash. The other story concerned one Florence Griffith Joyner (better known to the world as FloJo) and her, let's say "remarkable", performances on the world's biggest athletic stage. <br />
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Before 1988 FloJo had been a pretty good sprinter. Nothing incredible, nothing to indicate that she'd shatter world records and set marks that would still stand nearly a quarter century later. Her fastest pre-1988 100 meter dash had been 10.96 seconds and her quickest 200 meter had been 21.96. Yet at the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials she ran the 100 meters in 10.49 seconds, destroying the previous world record. At the Olympics themselves she ran the second fastest women's 100 ever, clocking in at 10.54 seconds. Then she shattered the world record for the 200 meters during the Olympic quarter finals and then beat <i>that</i> time with yet another world record in the finals, covering the 200 meters in 21.34 seconds; more than 6/10ths of a second faster than her pre-1988 best. Mature sprinters (she was 28 at the time of the Olympics) just don't make quantum leaps in speed like that.<br />
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The fact that she was mowing down records wasn't the only thing that made people suspect she'd been drinking from Ben Johnson's water bottle, her physical transformation was just as shocking as her new found speed. Her huge, rippling muscles were in stark contrast to the lithe physique she sported just a couple of years earlier. She attributed her new superhero profile to a new workout routine. Ahem, uh, okay.<br />
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To almost no one's surprise FloJo retired from competitive racing immediately after the Olympics and her records were allowed to stand. Tragically she died in her sleep in 1998 at the very young age of 38.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yEtr5ZUNG0c/TwsEzapCHaI/AAAAAAAAAHI/QbZ-DSlKk7g/s1600/flojo_before_after.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yEtr5ZUNG0c/TwsEzapCHaI/AAAAAAAAAHI/QbZ-DSlKk7g/s1600/flojo_before_after.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FloJo in 1986 (left) and 1988 (right).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-69737003517646533782012-01-06T23:55:00.000-08:002012-01-06T23:55:14.702-08:00Nikkei stock index hits an all time high - 1989On December 29, 1989 Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index hit it's all-time high of 38,915. That lofty point represented six times the value the market had only a decade earlier and reflected what became known as the Japanese asset price bubble. The next day the slide began and 2 days later as the 80s became the 90s the Japanese economy officially entered its "lost" period. Some say what followed was a lost decade while most others contend that all the 22 years since the Nikkei hit its incredible high qualify as 'lost' since the economy of Japan has shown no signs of emerging from its long funk. Few things illustrated the wild and crazy days of the bubble quite like the Nikkei and the same can be said of the 'lost' years as yesterday's official Nikkei 225 close was a less than impressive 8,390, a full 30,525 points below the Dec 29, 1989 high.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5Fpt6Qc7U0/Twf5nUqr9tI/AAAAAAAAAQc/5LPySc2xvE4/s1600/nikkei225.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5Fpt6Qc7U0/Twf5nUqr9tI/AAAAAAAAAQc/5LPySc2xvE4/s1600/nikkei225.png" /></a></div>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-83668218510332343262012-01-05T05:59:00.000-08:002012-01-05T05:59:17.384-08:00Greg LeMond wins the 1986 Tour de France<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6SnkpGQW3Ns/TwWr-aM0s0I/AAAAAAAAAP0/HhpmqayBBlI/s1600/LeMond_Hinault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6SnkpGQW3Ns/TwWr-aM0s0I/AAAAAAAAAP0/HhpmqayBBlI/s1600/LeMond_Hinault.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LeMond (left) and his primary challenger in 1986; teammate Bernard Hinault</td></tr>
</tbody></table>In 1986 Greg LeMond became the first American and first non-European to win the Tour De France. He did it with a dramatic final stage rally to claim the victory over his teammate (and 1985 Tour winner) Bernard Hinault.<br />
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It was a watershed event for cycling and put the Tour De France on the sporting map for countless Americans who previously had little or no knowledge of or interest in it. LeMond's victory was all the more impressive due to his having to beat back constant challenges by his own teammate, Hinault, who simply refused to support LeMond's bid in spite of public assertions that he would.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-12494824122131150822012-01-03T06:01:00.000-08:002012-01-03T06:01:46.044-08:00"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"Dan Quayle was a controversial selection for George Bush (Sr) to make for a running mate. The guy had the face of Opie from Mayberry and (publicly at least) he did not seem to be what anyone would call an intellectual giant. Still he had the backing of conservative Republicans and there was no chance he was going to outshine the man at the head of the ticket. <br />
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But on October 5th 1988 in the only vice presidential debate of that election year he still managed to draw the media spotlight to himself and earn a place in American political sideshow history when he remarked in response to a question about his qualifications that he had as much experience as John F. Kennedy did when he sought the presidency in 1960. Though technically true his counterpart, Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, jumped on the comparison and countered "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."<br />
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The crowd whooped and hollered, applauded and snickered. Quayle was left a bit red faced at having been bitch slapped so publicly but generally kept his composure and called Bentsen out for his breach of political etiquette. Bentsen earned plenty of democratic cred for his mean spirited put down but it was Quayle who'd get the last laugh in November when he and Bush won the general election.<br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O-7gpgXNWYI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02228056451703340150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243351168330342597.post-15068404489415399752012-01-02T07:22:00.000-08:002012-01-02T07:22:19.112-08:00January 3, 1983 - Kilauea begins its marathon eruptionOn January 3, 1983 Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii began what seemed to be a fairly routine eruption. It wasn't anything that caught the attention of the world's media like Mount Saint Helen's or Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. There were no spectacular explosions or wide spread devastation from thick ash falls. There was virtually no ash at all. What there was was lava. At first in the form of a fountain or geyser and then, as the years passed (yes, that's YEARS) the lava took on what vulcanologist call an "effusive" character where it simply oozes out of various vents and flows downhill. While it occasionally still produces geyser-like outbursts its been basically oozing lava continuously now for 28 years expanding the landmass of the Big Island by 2 square kilometers in the process. <br />
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<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gq4kIS1SOSQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533251957787685583noreply@blogger.com0