New 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 here.

Conditions at Kennedy Space Center in Florida were anything but ideal for a Space Shuttle launch on the morning of January 28, 1986. The temperature was 31 degrees farenheit, far colder than for any previous shuttle launch. Engineers at Morton Thiokold (manufacturer of the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters, or SRBs) warned against launching in such cold temperatures. They feared there was a distinct possibility that the O-rings on the SRBs might not seal correctly in such temperatures. Engineers at Rockwell International (primary contractor for the Shuttle program) also expressed grave concerns over the temperature. Primarily over the possibility that ice, which had accumulated all over the Shuttle and adjacent launch pad, would break free during launch and damage the critical heat absorbing tiles on the Shuttle's underbelly. Both sets of engineers advised against launching.

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.

They should have listened.

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."

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.

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.

The crew of STS-51L were: Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Christa McAuliffe.

LeMond (left) and his primary challenger in 1986; teammate Bernard Hinault

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.

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.

With "Notorious" Duran Duran took a turn down funky street and "Skin Trade" is a perfect example. A lot of fans thought the band had lost their way but to me this is one of their most satisfying albums ever and serves as a nice bridge between the adolescent energy of the first few records and the exquisite maturity of their later "Wedding Album".

For me this song is the best thing about "Top Gun". Written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock it was the first single released from the movie soundtrack and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 13, 1986. It would turn out to be Berlin's biggest hit.

The Rutan Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop without refueling. The idea for the plane was sketched out on a napkin one day over lunch by the Rutan brothers and built over the course of 5 years using private funds. The finished aircraft was marvel of space age technology that, when empty, weighed a scant 2250 lbs. If it was going to successfully circumnavigate the globe without refueling it would have to have an incredible lift to drag ratio and it did. The 29 foot long, 2-seater which was built of carbon fiber, kevlar and fiberglass and which sported incredible 110 foot wingspan achieved a L/D ratio of 27 (by comparison a 747 has a L/D ration of 17). Another important element in keeping fuel consumption down on the flight would be the weight of the crew. Having both Rutans in the cockpit would have made the plane too heavy so the Brothers enlisted the help of their colleague Jeana Yeager to handle co-piloting duties. She had been a test pilot for the Rutan brother's experimental aircraft and had established her piloting credentials by setting several speed records in those craft during the early 80s.

And so it was that on December 14, 1986 with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager on board Voyager began its historic trip at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Filled to capacity with fuel for the flight the plane's weight ballooned to an elephantine 9700 lbs and it would need to use nearly 3 miles of runway in order to achieve takeoff. During that takeoff run the fuel-laden wingtips actually scraped along the tarmac and were permanently damaged, though it was determined that the damage didn't pose any obvious risk to the flight.

After 9 days of flight at an average speed of 116 mph Voyager and her exhausted crew touched down where they started at Edwards with the world's press in attendance to record the event. Their long journey from napkin to history book complete.

Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan emerge from Voyager after completing their historic flight.

"Batman: The Dark Knight" as it was originally called is a turning point in the Batman myth and in the evolution of the American Superhero genre in general. The four issues that make up the complete story represent a break from kid-friendly tales of good vs evil to more 'real world' examinations of heroic mythology; its origins and its ramifications both personal and societal. Written by Frank Miller it sent shock waves through the comic book world that are still being felt today. Some critics decried the loss of innocence, others embraced it with a hearty "It's about time!" But no one could ignore it.

Presaging Alan Moore's savage deconstruction of the superhero in "Watchmen" which would debut later the same year, Batman: The Dark Knight tells the tale of a middle aged and long retired Batman being pulled back into service to help restore order to a Gotham that has gone to seed in his absence. He's at first ineffective. In fact if it were not for the intervention of a 13 year old girl he probably would have died at the hands of a gang leader. But he recovers and as his profile beings to rise once again he's hounded by the media and his motives constantly questioned. When his campaign to clean up Gotham begins to meet with real success the state begins to see him as an enemy and sets out to destroy him by pitting a seemingly invicible opponent against him. The ending implies complex and troubling times ahead and even slyly begs the question later asked directly by Moore; "Who watches the (insert Superhero name of choice here)?"

Heady stuff.

After the success of the four individual issues DC released them together in a boxed set and the whole series took the name of the first issue: "The Dark Knight Returns". But whether you call it Batman: The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Returns the story represents Batman's transition from Modern to Postmodern superhero. It's occassionaly gripping, always visually arresting and may be the most influential comic book mini-series of all time.

Len Bias was supposed to be the future of the Boston Celtics. He would pick up the mantle from Bird and be the keystone of great Celtic teams into the 90s and beyond. That was the theory anyway.

Following their incredible '86 championship season the Celtics held the #2 position in the '86 NBA draft and used it to select the big forward from Maryland. He was quick, strong, had a nice scoring touch and could leap over tall buildings with a single bound. Unfortunately he also had an affinity for cocaine and on June 19th, just two days after being selected by the Celts and one day after signing an endorsement contract with Reebok for a reported $3 million, he died suddenly from cardiac arrythmia brought on by cocaine ingestion.

The University of Maryland and many close to Bias attempted at first to mask the truth by fabricating a tale of how he'd spent a quiet evening on campus with friends. They argued that he'd died of natural causes and stuck with that fairy tale for quite a while. But the reality was that his car had been spotted and his license plate number noted by police during the evening of the 18th cruising Washington DC's drug neighborhoods and more than a few people were aware of his coke habit (it was rumored by never proven that Maryland coach Lefty Dreisell had other players do a coke sweep of Bias' dorm room after his death). It also came out after the fact that he was 21 credits short of being eligible to graduate, a fact that had been hidden from the media.

Put in the tough position of having to honor someone who misrepresented himself, died from drugs and left them with myriad problems going forward the Celtics did the only thing they could from a PR perspective; they held the requisite memorial and gave the family his number 30 jersey which he'd never actually worn, then moved on.

But where they moved on to was not exactly the fabled halls of Mount Olympus they'd envisioned when they'd drafted Bias. Instead, they hobbled into the 1987 Finals on crutches only to lose to the Lakers in 6 and after that the slide began in earnest. 10 years after their '87 Finals appearance they would post a record of 15-67 and it would be another 10 years after THAT before the C's returned to something resembling their historical selves when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were brought on board to compliment Paul Pierce.

(left) Len Bias on June 17, 1986 and (right) his funeral a few days later.

The Hyundai Excel first appeared on American streets in early 1986. Originally most people looked down their noses at this South Korean "McCar" and few thought it would make much impact in the marketplace. But the Excel became the little import that could. With a base price of $4,995 it got the attention of lots of people who, until then, couldn't have afforded a new car. In its first year it sold nearly 170,000 units in the US, a record at the time for a first year import and it quickly became a fixture on American roads.

While quality problems dogged the Excel over the next few years and it would be discontinued after 1994 (replaced initially by the Sonata and then by a slew of higher priced, higher quality models), Hyundai itself was here to stay. Today, the Hyundai Kia Group is the worlds fourth largest automobile manufacturer, operates the world's largest automobile plant in Ulsan South Korea and Hyundai automobiles regularly win top quality awards around the world.

Print advertisement for the 1986 Hyundai Excel

BE WARNED: SPOILERS AHEAD

Built around the premise of Sigourney Weaver's character Ripley (from Ridley Scott's horror masterpiece "Alien") going back to face the primal alien beings on LV426 "Aliens" is a one of a kind film experience that transcends easy classification.

The film exists on at least a half dozen levels simultaneously: first rate action flick, Vietnam war parable, visionary sci-fi epic, old-school special effects bonanza, horror movie and redemptive tale while all the while churning toward its primary thesis about the transcendent power of family. But, like the Beatles, the movie is more than the sum of its parts as Cameron intertwines aspects of all those narrative types in complex and satisfying ways. Everything the director/writer places on the table at the beginning of the film turns out to be artifice which he then strips away scene by scene until we arrive at the heart of the matter. His genius here is to make the process of stripping away that artifice a thing to behold in and of itself. He paints his characters in broad strokes and doesn't get bogged down in moral relativism or irony (as in his breakout film "The Terminator" there is little doubt about who's bad and who's good) because that would only dilute what he's trying to say, and he doesn't pander to the audience by beating you over the head with his central thesis. If you miss "the point" the film can still be enjoyed for its myriad other attributes.

The film opens with Cameron paying homage to Scott: like the characters from the earlier film's "Nostromo" Ripley is gliding through the void in hypersleep. This is the sleep she entered after vanquishing the alien from her escape pod at the end of the previous film. Her tiny ship is recovered by a deep salvage crew who are disappointed that she's alive but deposit her at an earth orbiting space station to recover. While there she learns from company slime-ball Carter Burke that she had been drifting through space for 57 years. Later, she's hung out to dry at a corporate meeting for destroying the Nostromo and has her pilot's license yanked. She also learns that the company has had colonists living on LV426 for decades working to create a livable atmosphere for future settlers. When she asks a company honcho how many colonists there are Cameron tips his hand slightly by having the guy answer "I don't know, 40 maybe 50 families" to which Ripley softly replies "Families!"

Grounded and forced to do basically menial work after having her license revoked Ripley is haunted by nightmares of her alien foe and is as lost and adrift in her new home as she was on the escape pod. Soon though Burke arrives with Lieutenant Gorman to inform her that contact has been lost with the colony and to ask her to join them in going out there "as an adviser" to see whats happened. If she agrees the company will re-instate her as a pilot. She very reluctantly agrees.

Once the story moves back toward Ripley's personal hell the film kicks into another gear. Cameron is at the very top of his game here in every respect. Within a minute of the sleep chambers opening (as the Sulaco arrives in orbit around LV426) he has sketched in the basic outline of each new character. Like the artist that he is he then fleshes out those characters carefully and deliberately as the action moves to the surface where a little girl named "Newt" is discovered among the destruction. A bond quickly develops between this motherless waif and the childless Ripley.

The troop has a brief but traumatic encounter with the aliens in which Sargent Apone is killed and the team leader, the feckless Lieutenant Gorman, is incapacitated. In the aftermath of this debacle Burke attempts to assert company control over the operation but Ripley will have none of it. She reminds Burke that it's a military operation and that Corporal Hicks is next in the chain of command. The decision is made to evacuate and nuke the colony from orbit but an alien has infiltrated the waiting drop ship. As it's swooping in to pick them up the pilot is killed and the ship crashes nearly taking out Ripley and Co. in the process. As they retreat to mull their options the principle characters begin to assert themselves. Hicks, though obviously not interested in command, doesn't shrink from it either and soon he and Ripley form a working partnership of equals. Hicks' authority comes from his service rank and his cool demeanor. Ripley's authority is without rank or title. It's never spelled out or made official. It is also never in doubt. It is maternal authority; subtle yet unwavering, feminine yet rock solid. Weaver skips across the ice of this pond of contradictions with ease in stark contrast to the lumbering, dour, disastrous performance doled out by Linda Hamilton in a later and far less successful Cameron film, "Terminator II".

Through a series of ensuing set pieces Cameron gives us hope only to quickly add conditions. They can expect a rescue, but only after 17 days. They barricade themselves inside their command center to wait it out only to discover that their earlier battle resulted in ruptures in the atmosphere processor's cooling system and a nuclear explosion is imminent. There's another drop ship on the Sulaco so it's possible they may get off the planet after all, but wait, there's no uplink inside the command center to the orbiting Sulaco to call the drop ship with. The android Bishop volunteers to go outside to remotely pilot the second drop ship from the orbiting Sulaco, mindful of the probability that he'll come face to face with the enemy.

As the film careens toward its climax Burke's role in the events that led to the catastrophe the troop now find themselves enmeshed in is revealed but there's no time for frontier justice as the aliens press their advantage. One by one the remaining characters (including Burke) meet their doom though all (save Burke, the one person acting strictly out of greed) are given redemptive moments. The whiny Hudson goes out in a blaze of glory. Vasquez is wounded covering the rear of the retreating survivors and is apparently lost but the now recovered Gorman, who has accepted a reduced role, finds within himself the courage to go back after her. He finds her stricken in a ventilation duct. With multiple aliens converging on their position and escape impossible Gorman activates a grenade. Even Vasquez's last minute dig at him doesn't prevent him from doing the right thing and saving them from a fate truly worse than death.

Hicks pulls Ripley away from what he sees as a hopeless attempt to rescue Newt (who's been lost down another ventilation shaft) and gets her to safety. Bishop has managed to bring the second drop ship to the surface and is anxious to leave as the nuclear detonation is drawing close but Ripley orders him to stay, arms up, and leaves the now-injured Hicks to make sure Bishop doesn't pull a unplanned exit. Down she goes into the circles of hell after her adopted daughter. With little time left she finds her and Newt jumps into her arms crying "I knew you'd come". It is the assurance every child instinctively has that their mother will always be there for them.

Finally Ripley, Newt in her arms, comes face to face with her alien counterpart: the previously unseen queen jealously protecting her egg cache. Cameron pauses for a tense moment, as if teasing us about the possibilities here. Will Ripley be overwhelmed by a feeling of camaraderie and exit, leaving the alien mother unscathed? Not a chance. In Cameron's world, as in the real world, you must pick a side or accept being subjected to the whims of those who do, and that is not in Ripley's character. She torches the nest and heads back up with Newt. The queen dislodges herself from her egg-sack and pursues.

When Ripley reaches the rendezvous platform high in the disintegrating atmosphere processor Bishop has left with her only means of escape. The alien queen reaches their position. Out of ammo and with no where left to run Ripley does the only thing she can think to do. She holds on to her "daughter", tells her "Close your eyes baby" and waits to meet her fate. But Newt, cut from the same tough cloth as Ripley, disobeys her mother and spots Bishop attempting to land on the platform. He swings in close picking up debris along with Ripley and Newt and then hightails it out of there just in time to escape the atomic fireball.

Back on the Sulaco calm settles over the proceedings. The nominal family of Ripley, Hicks and Newt with their technological sidekick Bishop (who redeemed his kind quite nicely) share a quiet moment before, suddenly, Bishop is impaled by the stinger of the queen, who managed to hitch a ride on the drop ship when it came in for its close pass on the platform. Bishop is torn in half and tossed aside. Hicks is inside the drop ship under heavy sedation. Ripley tells Newt to hide and the whole movie comes down to mother vs mother with everything at stake. After a furious battle during which Ripley spouts the now oft-copied "Get away from her you bitch!" Ripley emerges triumphant. In the final scene the family head back out into the void, scarred but transcendent, to dream new dreams and face the future together.

The cast and their performances are all first-rate. Weaver brings immense integrity to her role and, surprisingly, comedian Paul Reiser is perfect as the greedy little toadie Carter Burke. Bill Paxton gives the performance that made his career possible and Jeanette Goldstein is spot on as Vasquez, the Latina warrior. James Horner's score is also a perfect accompaniment to the action and the flourish he created for the scene where the "family" are making their final escape ahead of the nuclear blast has been used by countless others since it's debut here. As Roger Ebert noted in his original review of the movie it's an exhausting experience. The final hour is perhaps the most intense hour of cinema ever created. But it's not pointless, gratuitous 'energy' that Cameron is after here. He knows that no amount of action will be enough to save a film if the viewer is not emotionally invested in the characters. And we are, thanks to Cameron's attention to detail. I've watched the film more times than I care to admit looking for weaknesses and can't find any. There's not a single wasted line of dialogue, not a single scene which doesn't contribute to the complex narrative structure. Michelangelo was fond of saying that he never carved anything; all he did was remove the surrounding material from a block of marble to reveal the statue that was already within and Cameron shapes his story the same way.

If Cameron has a weakness as a film maker its this: his inability to effectively edit his own work. This is a problem that first became apparent with the release of the Aliens "Director's cut" and one which has resurfaced in each of his subsequent films. For my money the Director’s Cut doesn’t add anything to the conversation and the added material only serves to bog the story down. So I'm giving credit in this review to the part played by the studio when they invoked their editorial prerogative. Their intervention resulted in the theatrical release of Aliens being what, in my opinion, it is: the best movie ever made.

Halley's comet is the thing of legend. Every 76 years or so it revisits the earth foretelling, foreshadowing and foreswearing momentous events in human history. From the birth of Christ to the Battle of Hastings Halley's has been there to witness them, a celestial sentinel checking in to see how we're doing. So when Halley's scheduled 1986 visit approached the world waited with baited breath to catch a glimpse of our cosmic hall monitor. Breathless predictions of a tale stretching halfway from horizon to horizon filled the press. Millions of commemorative t-shirts were printed, viewing parties planned and births timed to co-incide with the harbinger from the heavens.

Unfortunately it was almost a complete dud. Scientists told us it was up there, somewhere, but it was nearly impossible to see without a telescope. What was anticipated to be a once-in-a-lifetime date with destiny, turned out to be more like a cosmic stand-up. Oh well, we'll always have Kohoutek.

Halley's Comet 1986

The Red Sox had come back from a 3-1 series deficit against the California Angels in the ALCS, then jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in the World Series against the New York Mets. In game 6 with a chance to close it out and win their first World Series since 1918 the Sox jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. In the 5th inning the Mets tied it but the Sox went back in front in the 7th on an error by Ray Knight. The ride was hardly over though because in the 8th inning Sox manager John McNamara removed Roger Clemens from the game in order, he said, to get the left handed bat of Mike Greenwell up against Mets ace Roger McDowell and extend the lead. Let's be kind and say it didn't quite work out that way. Greenwell struck out and the Sox failed to score. In the bottom of the inning the Mets scored (off Clemen's replacement Calvin Schiraldi) to tie it again on a Gary Carter sacrifice fly and when neither team scored in the ninth the game went to extra innings.

The Sox put up a pair of runs in the top of the tenth and were sitting pretty with the Mets down to their final out with nobody on. The scoreboard in right field at Shea Stadium flashed "Congratulations, Boston Red Sox, 1986 World Champions". Problem was the game wasn't over. With Schiraldi on the mound Gary Carter singled then pinch hitter Kevin Mitchell singled to advance Carter to second. No problem right? A strikeout, a popup or a force at 1st, 2nd or 3rd and you're home free, Sox. However, down to his (and the Met's) last strike Ray Knight singled and brought in Carter. McNamara yanked Schiraldi for Bob Stanley who proceeded to throw a 2-2 wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score. Mookie Wilson (who had been at bat for the wild pitch) hit Stanley's 10th pitch of the at-bat to first. A sloooooooowwwwww roller that Bill Buckner proceeded to allow to pass peacefully through his legs and into right field scoring the winning run for the Mets. Ouch!

While definitely hard to swallow, the fact is the Sox still had a chance to redeem themselves.

They seemed well on the way to redemption when they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game 7. But the Mets came back in the sixth with 3 runs of their own to tie the game. In the seventh they scored 3 more against (surprise!) Calvin Schiraldi again and this series was over.

Bill Buckner has endured decades of flack for his horrendous fielding error that allowed the winning run to score in game 6. But to me the real goat of game 6 (and for that matter of the '86 World Series) was Calvin Schiraldi. His job in game 6 was to hold the lead he inherited from Roger Clemens (just as surely as Buckner's job was to field that ground ball) and he didn't do it. But he still had another chance when the Sox scored 2 in the top of the 10th. Once again it was his job to hold that lead and he didn't do it. (All 3 runners that scored for the Mets in the 10th were his responsibility.) By the time that ball dribbled up the first base line toward Buckner the Sox had already crumbled due to Schiraldi's softball pitches and Buckner's error was simply the last in a chain of blunders and ineptitude that cost the Red Sox a golden chance to cap a magical season with a World Series title. Oh and for the record, the 3 runs that Schiraldi allowed in the 7th inning of game 7 also made him the losing pitcher of that game too. Thanks Calvin.

Watch Calvin pitching with a 2 run lead in the 10th give up 3 hits to doom the Red Sox in game 6.

Chernobyl was the worst case scenario anti-nuclear power activists had been warning about for the previous 20 years. Gross negligence created a situation that threatened the lives of millions of people in the western Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Only the unimaginable heroism of a small number of Soviet firefighters and soldiers prevented an even greater catastrophe.

On April 26, 1986 technicians at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were running tests on the plants backup cooling system. Somehow during the testing the reactor's core was allowed to power down to a state of near total shutdown. No one knows exactly how this happened since the technicians responsible died of radiation poisoning shortly after the accident. In a nutshell, once it was discovered that the core had cooled so precipitously someone made the decision to remove all control rods from the core in an attempt to bring it back up to speed. After several other missteps too complicated to explain here power in the reactor core spiked causing an explosion that was quickly followed by a second larger explosion that blew the roof off the reactor building and exposed the core to the environment. Tons of radioactive materials from the core were blown into the air.

At first the Soviets kept their mouths closed about the accident hoping nobody would notice. But people did. Two days after the accident nuclear plant workers in Sweden were found to be contaminated with radiation. When no sources were found at the plant where they worked scientists concluded that the radiation could only be coming from the Soviet Union and that it must represent some form of nuclear disaster. Shortly after more evidence started to come in from Finland as well as other countries. Finally Soviet officials caved in to the facts and admitted what happened. The radiation released was hundreds of times greater than that released by the bombing of Hiroshima and spread west across not only Scandinavia but many other parts of Eastern and Western Europe as well.

Back at the accident site soldiers and firefighters were recruited to deal with the catastrophe. The men who volunteered during the first days of the crisis to contain the fire in the core knew they would not survive but went in anyway. Without their sacrifice radiation would have continued to leak unhindered into the atmosphere indefinitely and the human and environmental toll that resulted from the disaster would have been many times worse than it was. After the core fire was extinguished a steel sarcophogas was built around the destroyed reactor 4 building, one that will need to remain in place for thousands of years to come. Pripyat, a city of 50,000 that was the company town of the power plant was completely evacuated and remains a ghost town to this day. The long term effects on surrounding countries is a hotly debated topic even today with some reports claiming that hundreds of thousands of cancer deaths can be expected as a direct result of radiation that leaked from Chernobyl in 1986.

Left: Doomed soldiers remove radioactive material from the reactor's roof. Right: The sarcophagus.

They had already won two championships since Larry Bird arrived on the scene: 1981's endurance test of a title and 1984s bruising battle against the favored LA Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareen Abdul Jabbar. But 1985 ended with those same Lakers finally breaking through their history of championship failure against the Celtics and taking one from the green (on the parquet floor of the old Garden to boot).

Something needed to be done. Red Auerbach had always been a fan of Bill Walton and he had also not forgotten what happened at the end of the '83 season when it seemed like some players, in particular Cedric Maxwell, quit playing for (then coach) Bill Fitch which resulted in the C's getting swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. So, when Auerbach found that he had a chance to aquire Walton from the Clippers he killed two birds with one stone by getting the big redhead and paying back Maxwell by shipping him off to basketball purgatory in return.

The stage was now set for one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. The revamped Celtics with a rejuvenated Walton coming off the bench went 67-15 in the regular season while losing only one game at home all year. Bird had what could arguably be called his best season as he and Walton tore up defenders with an array of mind-blowing pinpoint passes. There was often laughter on the floor and a look on the faces of the players that said "Is this really happening?". Yes it was.

The Celtics lost only one playoff game (in the second round to the Hawks) on their way to their third straight Finals appearance. The much hoped-for rematch with the Lakers, however, never occurred as LA was eliminated by the Houston Rockets and their "Twin Tower" combination of Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwan. No matter, the Celtics dispatched the Rockets in six games and claimed their third title of the Bird era. Bird won his third straight MVP award and Bill Walton, who'd spent much of the last 10 years sitting injured on various benches, made it through the entire year without hurting himself and won 6th Man of the Year.

Here are the Celtics and the incomparable Larry Bird picking apart the Rockets in game 6 to win the 1986 NBA Championship.




All of the main pieces were under contract to return for the '87 season and the Celtics had the 2nd pick in the upcoming NBA draft as well. It seemed that Celtics fans were in for 5-10 more years of championship basketball. But the '86 team, as well as being perhaps the greatest basketball team ever assembled, was also the last Celtic team that would raise a banner for the next 22 years. I'll get to the '87 season and the collapse of the dynasty in a future post.

Before allegations of steroid use, before charges of lying to Congress and before Joe Torre's claims that Roger had his, uh, private parts massaged with hot lineaments before every game, Roger Clemens was just a pitcher. An amazing, overpowering, strike-throwing machine of a pitcher. On April 29, 1986 pitching against the Seattle Mariners in a damp, cool Fenway Park Clemens achieved something no one else in Major League history (to that point) ever had. He fanned 20 batters.

When the game started there were only 13,414 paying customers in the seats. As the night wore on though and the strikeouts began to add up people started coming from all around the Boston area to witness the proceedings. He had 5 strikeouts after 2 innings and at one point struck out 8 in a row. By the end of the 8th inning Clemens had 18 strikeouts, just one shy of the Major League record (for a 9 inning game). He started the 9th by striking out future teammate Spike Owen and then struck out Phil Bradley with a fastball for the record.

Some 150,000 Major League baseball games had been played up to that night and no one had ever struck out 20 batters in a 9 inning game. Clemens glove, cap and shoes (along with the ball he used to strike out batter #20) were sent immediately to the Hall of Fame. Overnight, Clemens went from a promising young power pitcher to the "Rocket". He finished the '86 regular season with a 24-4 record and won both the AL Cy Young Award and the AL MVP award.

Years of records, awards and controversy would be in Clemens future but on this night he delivered the kind of performance that legends are made of.

Funky Funky Funky Funky

When Prince wrote Kiss he didn't originally think it had much of a future so he gave the song to the band Mazarati for them to record for their debut album. They in turn hired producer David Z. who took Prince's demo track and turned it into a stripped down funkathon. Prince was so enamored by what he heard that he snatched the song back, tweaked it here and there and added his own vocal track before including it at the last minute on his 1986 album Parade.

The song became a monster hit, reaching #1 in the US, and almost singlehandedly carried Parade to multi-platinum status.

Because the diminutive one is such a control freak however finding the original video anywhere on the internet these days is nearly impossible, which is a shame because it's the kind of song that could really make younger listeners, raised on a queasy oatmeal of stolen hooks and cookie cutter lyrics about DJs playin' in the cluuuuubb, realize just what they're not getting from their image-ready, lip-synching pop stars.

I was able to find this one fan-made video that includes the entire song along with snippets from the original video. It's not perfect but if you close your eyes and just listen to the music you'll understand why an entire generation of fans have always believed that this guy, personality quirks and all, is something special.

Note: it's possible, no make that probable, that at some point Prince will force the removal of this video too. I'll keep my eye on things and if it becomes unavailable I'll do my utmost to find a suitable replacement.

It was one of the most stunning victories in sports, not just of the 80s, but of all-time. Jack Nicklaus - that's 46 year old Jack Nicklaus - comes from behind at the 1986 Masters and snatches victory out of the hands of a half dozen players young enough to be his sons.

And it's not just that he won, it's how he won. He didn't put in some pedestrian round and then come out on top when those younger guys in front of him imploded. He went and TOOK it. He played the last 10 holes of the tournament in 33 strokes knocking in 6 birdies and an eagle along the way. 46 year old guys just don't do that. They're supposed to be done, cooked, over the hill, just showing up to try and pad the bank account a little. Not Nicklaus. He was always all about winning.

For Nicklaus this was major #18. For a while it seemed like Tiger Woods would surpass that total, but not anymore. And if he doesn't it might just be this victory that keeps Jack Nicklaus on top.

The Human League took a long winding road to fame; starting as an all-male techno synth band in the late 70s before splitting into 2 bands (the other being Heaven 17) due to personal and musical differences and finally recruiting a couple of teenage girls off a club dance floor in an attempt to give the band a more 'glamorous' appearance. Those teenage girls were Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall and, together with lead singer Philip Oakey they formed the core of the group that would rise to international stardom in the early 80s.

In 1985, in search of fresh inspiration, they flew to Minneapolis to record with the production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The sessions did not go well, however, with the producers and band members wrestling constantly for control. Finally Oakey pulled the band from the studio and returned them to England and it was left to Jam and Lewis to finish the album, which became "Crash".

"Human" was released as the first single from Crash and went to #1 on the US charts. An exquisite blend of pop and R&B with a timeless melody Human lodged in the pleasure center of my brain the first time I heard it and has stayed there ever since. One of true high-points of 80s pop and one of my all-time favorites.

Listen to that Steve Stevens highway blues solo. Painfully primal. Utterly compelling. Makes me break out in a whiplash smile babe.