#Best Romantic Songs of 1984

[bollywoodproduct]

Lyrics Deewani Deewana

Deewani Deewana – Song contents Lyrics in English Hindi Lyrics YouTube Video Song Trivia More Lyrics in English | Deewani Deewana | Teri Baahon Mein (1984) | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | Mohnish Behl, Ayesha Dutt Deewani DeewanaAnjaana AfsaanaTum Jo MileDil Ne KahaTeri Baahon MeGuzre Zamaana Deewani DeewanaAnjaana AfsaanaTum Jo MileDil Ne KahaTeri Baahon MeGuzre ZamaanaDeewani…

[stevesbipanic]

soulmate au where you can hear what song your soulmate has stuck in their head. Steve gets confused as to why he always hears heavy metal, because he always thought he'd fall for a girl who listens to cheesy romantic pop music, and Ed gets frustrated from all the Top 40 songs constantly playing in his head

Since my last soulmate AU was sad I should do another fluffy one so Ty for the prompt.

Eddie doesn't really remember a time a song wasn't playing in his head. He assumes there was probably a time when he was little bit his memories of childhood are fuzzy at best anyway. However, no matter how loud he plays his metal songs, the poppy top 40s songs of his soulmate will often drown them out. It almost drives him insane, until one day all the songs stop.

In the cold winter of 1983, Eddie Munson wakes up one day with no song in his head. This wasn't completely unusual, his soulmate was often an early riser but the holidays were coming up so people slept in more. What was strange however, was there was no song, all day. No song the next day and no song for weeks. Eddie knew something very bad had happened to his soulmate and he didn't know what to do.

Steve will often tell people he does bad at school because his soulmate plays the loudest music. When Steve was a kid the songs would only be now and then but since Steve was nine there was always some loud metal music rattling around his brain. Steve would spend years looking for some cool metal chic, but all the girls he met liked cute pop songs.

Steve was suspicious that Nancy was a secret metalhead when he fell head first in love with her. She wasn't, he wasn't surprised she always had indie music playing in her head. After he faced the Demogorgan, Steve didn't feel like listening to the radio, the staticky sound put him on edge, he sat in his room, all the lights off so they wouldn't flicker, and held his nail bat tightly. He would listen all day for the sound of danger, the only noise he heard was his soulmate. When his parents returned a few weeks later he had to go back to normal.

When Eddie woke up to some dumb song he heard on the radio once, he almost cried. His soulmate was ok.

In 1984, Eddie's soulmate had another blip, Eddie held his breathe, but the songs would return and his soulmate was ok.

In 1985, Eddie's soulmate had the dumbest songs in his head. Weeks after the fire Eddie would figure out he heard the same songs playing in the mall. He was glad he could still here them, his soulmate was still ok.

In 1986, Eddie felt bad for his soulmate. He'd been practicing Master of Puppets for weeks as soon as it came out, his soulmate must be sick of it. When everything started happening, Eddie's soulmate was quiet, Eddie hoped he was ok, that he wasn't dead somewhere like Chrissy.

Eddie silently apologised to his soulmate as he played his favourite song once more, he hoped they would forgive him if said song saved the world. As Eddie laid bleeding out in Dustin's arms, he wished he could hear a dumb pop song one more time. Maybe his soulmate was waiting for home on the other side.

...

....

.....

Eddie blinked his eyes open, the lights were bright, wait, bright lights? Eddie looked around as his eyes came into focus, he was in a hospital, he was alive. That wasn't the only surprising thing, Steve Harrington was asleep in a chair next to his bed.

"Hey, pretty boy, wake up."

"E-Eddie? EDDIE! Fuck you're awake! You're ok!"

"Yeah, seems like it, I'm guessing I have you and the others to thank."

"Yeah, couldn't let my soulmate bleed out in that hellhole."

"Soulmate?"

"Dustin told me what song you played."

Steve flicked Eddie's arm.

"Um OW! I'm injured here Stevie have mercy."

"That's for making me listen to that song for weeks, Eds!"

"Well it saved the world didn't it?"

"Yeah I guess it did."

"Plus you made me listen to cheesy pop songs sweetheart so we're even. You um, I thought you were dead sometimes, there would be no songs for weeks, I thought Vecna had killed you when there was no songs again this time."

"Don't like listening to songs when all this shit is going down, distracts me. I don't think my head has ever been as quiet as on that drive it the hospital, don't do that again ok?"

"I promise, Stevie, gonna be stuck with my loud as fuck music for life."

"Sounds good to me, Eds."

Guess Eddie's soulmate was waiting for him on the other side after all.

[lafemmemacabre]

My personal top albums of all time

If anyone who respects my music opinions is interested, IN NO ORDER because I can't choose between my babies. Also, warning, it's mostly gonna be albums from the 90s. Only the albums that are described as Gothic Rock, Darkwave (Neoclassical or not), Deathrock and Ethereal Wave are goth, the rest are some other flavor of dark alternative.

Aégis, by Theatre of Tragedy (1998)

Exquisite Gothic Rock, despite the band usually playing Metal, with themes of mostly Greco-Roman mythology with some other European folklore thrown in. The most angelic and soft soprano vocals delivered by Liv Kristine with baritone whispers delivered by Raymond. Ethereal yet complex atmospheres with soft guitars, strong bass, poetic lyrics in Shakespearean English.

Highlights: Cassandra, Venus, Poppæa, Bacchante.

Inferno, by Lacrimosa (1995)

Gothic Rock that flirts slightly with Metal in some tracks. This is when they made the jump from Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (basically late 80s/early 90s German Darkwave except it's a little weirder than most other Darkwave at the time) to more Rock-based styles of music, as well as the first album Anne Nurmi was featured in. Tilo's best studio vocal performance in my opinion. Beautiful lyrics about love, passion, devotion, and the end of the world, could only be written by a goth guy with a gift for poetry who just fell in deep love. Only iffy track is Copycat but even that one is still a classic among fans if only because of its high energy, and killer guitars, bass and percussion.

Highlights: Schakal, Vermächtnis der Sonne, No blind eyes can see, Kabinett der Sinne.

Passion's Price, by Diva Destruction (1999)

Diva Destruction's debut, from back when Darkwave was actually dark and dreary in sound. Songs about heartbreak, betrayal, abuse and love, in the band's most musically complex and hauntingly atmospheric album. A definite classic with nothing but great track after great track.

Highlights: The Broken Ones, Snake, Prey, Glare.

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, by London After Midnight (1992)

Some of the best Gothic Rock to have ever come out, in my opinion. Deep, rich, dark, mysterious, sensual, macabre, romantic (arguably too romantic even by 90s goth standards as the album apparently got criticized for being almost entirely love songs? Wtf). The song that introduced me to goth in February of 2007 is in this album and it's the reason why I never looked back.

Highlights: The Black Cat, Claire's Horrors, Sacrifice, Spider and the Fly.

Annwyn, beneath the Waves, by Faith and the Muse (1996)

Ethereal Wave royalty in maybe not their most iconic album, but definitely the one closest to my heart by them. Despite goth music being associated with darkness in the minds of most, this album is full of glittering light in the most poetic and heartfelt way possible. The vocals are soft and tender when they need to be, delivered by Monica Richards, or firm and epic when needed, as delivered by William Faith. The lyrical themes are full of Celtic folklore, love, hope, magic and a feeling of reclamation of nature and an ancestral past (but not in like, a white supremacist way, I promise).

Highlights: Annwyn, beneath the Waves, The Hand of Man, The Silver Circle, Rise and Forget.

Treasure, by Cocteau Twins (1984)

Walking a thin line between Ethereal Wave and Dreampop (as they're pioneers in both genres). Some tracks are darker than others, but they're all equally delightful, full of beauty and a dreamy gaze hovers over every single song, all of which contain some of the most heavenly vocals in the scene. One of Robert Smith's favorite albums (he also really liked Diva Destruction's debut!). If you're into more relaxing and atmospheric music, this might be your intro to goth.

Highlights: Beatrix, Persephone, Pandora (for Cindy), Lorelei.

Anthology, by Nosferatu (2006)

Legendary Gothic Rock band among those of us who enjoy a campier vampiric goth sound that takes itself too seriously, and deliciously so. Yes, I know I'm cheating by going with a compilation album, sue me. It's simply a collection of their best tracks and I honestly couldn't choose between all their actual albums, so there!

Highlights: Inside the Devil, Lucy is Red, Rise, Witching Hour.

Es reiten die Toten so schnell (or: The Vampyre Sucking at his Own Vein), by Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows (2003)

Probably the gothiest and most elite Neoclassical Darkwave out there. Deeply macabre, equally horrific and beautifully crafted, with expressive and dramatic vocals, themes of vampirism and death masking more human subjects such as social rejection (Anna Varney-Cantondea is a trans woman/transfeminine person who's battled suicidality and depression from a very young age), depression, gay/trans desire, and suicidality. It truly is a masterpiece of macabre and neoclassical goth.

Highlights: The Feast of Blood, Holy Water Moonlight, Baptisma, Dead Souls.

Blood Death Ivory, by Angelspit (2008)

Probably one of the few modern Industrial bands who have thoroughly kept the spirit of early Industrial alive, fashioned after greats such as Skinny Puppy and Die Form, especially in the 00s when the Industrial scene heavily turned to more superficial lyrics based on the aesthetics of cyberpunk art rather than its subversive content. The music is aggressive, simultaneously animalistic yet robotic with a touch of demonic, rarely ever without smartly phrased critiques of capitalism and consummerism. At this point in time the band was a duo between Amelia Arsenic/Destroyx and Zoog Von Rock. It's definitely some edgelord shit (affectionate), but by no means in a vapid, only-for-shock-value way.

Highlights: Skinny Little Bitch, Lust Worthy, Devilicious, Jugular.

Alles für dich, by Grausame Töchter (2012)

Some of the most dynamic, deliciously quirky, sexual, hyper and twisted Dark Electro bands currently making music. The lead vocalist and lyricist of the band, Aranea Peel, is a lesbian dominatrix, fetish model, trained ballet dancer, and lover of Weimar republic era artistry who absolutely imprints lots of dark flapper energy into the band's music and imagery. The lyrics are unabashedly perverted, kinky, sapphic and fucked up. Her singing is nothing short of chef's kiss worthy, always expressive and strange, but with pristine execution and technique.

Highlights: Tanz für dich, TABU, Therapie für dich, ICH DARF DAS!

The Astonishing Eyes of Evening, by Cinema Strange (2002)

KINGS of 00s Deathrock with touches of Dark Cabaret influences, as inescapable in the goth scene in the 00s as She Past Away and its many copycats are now, and for very good reason. Delightfully macabre, not the first to use ghostly androgynous vocals but certainly one of the bands who better utilize that style of vocals. Imo, this and their homonymous album are must-listens for people interested in the goth music scene in general, but especially those interested in Deathrock. Truly Halloween turned into an album.

Highlights: Tomb Lilies, Catacomb Kittens, 'Ere the Flowers Unfold, Legs and Tarpaulin.

Opheliac, by Emilie Autumn (2006)

Literally music for mentally unstable sapphic girls with a poet's soul and flare for both irony and intense earnest feeling. It's a very original combination of Synthpop, Punk Cabaret, and Neoclassical music, with influences of Industrial and Darkwave. It's all masterfully crafted by classically trained violinist, poet, writer, actress, and somewhat of a burlesque performer with a rich alto voice; Emilie Autumn. She wrote this album after suffering medical abuse at a mental hospital after a suicide attempt brought on by an abortion and emotionally abusive relationship. I'm not exaggerating when I say this album saved my life and also changed me as a person.

Highlights: Opheliac, Liar, The Art of Suicide, 306.

Of the Want Infinite, by Requiem in White (1995)

You don't often hear of bands combining Deathrock and Ethereal Wave as they're often perceived as the polar opposite ends of the spectrum of goth music; Deathrock being the goth subgenre closest in sound and idiosyncrasy to punk, and Ethereal Wave being one of the goth subgenres furthest from goth's punk roots. Add in an operatic soprano and you get... Some of THE best, most underrated goth bands of the 90s. Dramatic, ethereal, creepy, elegant, ghostly and complex, with incredible vocals. Truly a pity they only released one album and a couple of EPs.

Highlights: Everlasting Peace, Beneath the Leaves, My Shame, Acanthus.

Agony of the Undead Vampire Part II, by Two Witches (1992)

Truly another giant of vampiric Gothic Rock, absolute 90s legends and Finland's most iconic goth band. Themes of vampirism, occasionally anti-Christianity, sex, sensuality and kink abound. The vocals might put some people off, but it's definitely worth it.

Highlights: The Hungry Eyes, The Omen, Mircalla, We All Fall Down.

Mors Syphilitica, by Mors Syphilitica (1996)

Requiem in White may have disbanded after their first proper album, but two out of its three core band members, then spouses Lisa and Doc Hammer, went on to form pure Ethereal Wave act Mors Syphilitica right after and while it's generally less dark and spooky than its predecesor band, they're still a delight to the ears.

Highlights: The Woman Who Believed, Fell a Dance, The Vain Stroke, Below the Baleful Star.

Beyond the Veil, by Tristania (1999)

I've raved about this album so many times. Just... THE definitive Gothic Metal album to me. The lyrics, the choir of sopranos (aka all Vibeke Stene and her rich, sensual, dark, gorgeous voice), the perfect growling, the somber baritone vocals, the perfectly crafted guitar riffs (no guitar salad, all expressive and precisely timed), the exciting epic percussion, the piano, the violin solos, THE SYMPHONICS. Oh, my God. There's not one second wasted in the entire album, and I'm not being hyperbolic, I mean that. Truly the perfect Gothic Metal album.

Highlights: Beyond the Veil, Angina, Heretique, Opus Relinque.

Serpentine Gallery, by Switchblade Symphony (1995)

Tbh all of Switchblade Symphony's discography is fantastic, but their debut truly is a masterpiece. Creepy ragdoll vibes all over, great vocals, rich composition, poetic yet accessible lyrics. If you're into a more kindergoth vibe (Wednesday Addams, creepy dolls, child-like or even lolita-esque looks), this might be the band for you.

Highlights: Clown, Mine Eyes, Dollhouse, Bad Trash.

Vampyre Erotica, by Inkubus Sukkubus (1997)

The other band that introduced me to goth in 2007 and got me to never look back. Though the first song by them I ever listened to, Samhain, isn't from this album, this album is the one that truly got me hooked for life. Vampiric, sensual, decadent and dark. It has everything including really sweet vocals.

Highlights: Vampyre Erotica, Danse Vampyr, Hell-Fire, Heart of Lilith.

Link to a YouTube Playlist containing all the songs from all the albums above.

[laurolive]

Paul and Linda, a collection of PDAs: Part 1 - A Million Kisses

In our walk down the memory lane of Paul and Linda’s love story, which still captivates the romantics and the 60s-70s music lovers out there, we start with an excerpt of an interview.

Rolling Stone cover June 17, 1976: “Yesterday, Today, and Paul.” In this interview, Paul says something interesting:

I mean, I kissed Linda onstage the other night, and for me, that’s kind of, ‘Wow, I must be getting real relaxed,’ ’cause I can’t do that in public, normally. I’m a bit kinda shy.

Paul McCartney shy about showing affection? Well, artists are certainly a different breed. He can sing a heartfelt love song in a venue full of people, but has to work up the courage to give his wife a little kiss? As photos will tell, he soon got over that quirk.

And even before this RS interview, he could certainly be demonstrative when a photographer or videographer was around, whereas the average person would be more guarded knowing that their tender moment would soon be out there as a picture in a magazine or a video clip on TV (we’re talking pre-internet days here).

RS Interview from The Paul McCartney Project

The 1970s: Not Exactly in Public, but There Must Be Someone Holding The Camera

1970 or 1971. Aww, so sweet.

June 1971 The video for the song “Heart of The Country” was made in Scotland. Is that a kiss? We might have to examine the still pic below. 

June 1971 A still image from the “Heart of The Country” video. I’ll count this as a kiss.

1974 In the garden of their house with baby Stella between them. It’s a published pic, so I’m counting it as a public kiss. (An “almost-kiss” but close enough.)

1974 Photoshoot for the Apr. 7, 1974, issue of New York News magazine. The cover story was "Just an Old Fashioned Beatle: An Exclusive Visit with Linda and Paul McCartney." Aww, lips softly touching the cheek is something I’m going to classify as a kiss.

Magazine article: @johnflyons.beatles on instagram

Post-1970s: Now We’re Really in Public

Sept. 21, 1982, at Linda's first photography exhibition in London. Photo © Robert Rosen. Rosen talks about the snap in this excerpt from an interview with I-D magazine:

What's one photo you're really proud of? Robert Rosen: I love the shot of Paul and Linda McCartney kissing. As soon as I had it developed I just thought, wow, I did that. I sent them a print but didn't hear anything more until a few months later, when, Paul and Linda turned up to a gallery event I happened to be at. At one point, Linda tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Are you ignoring us?' She gave me a big hug and told me they loved the photo. That obviously meant a great deal to me.

From The Guardian archive, 21 September 1982: First London exhibition for Linda McCartney

I-D Interview with Robert Rosen Sept. 20, 2017

November 26, 1982, in Paris, France during photography month. An exhibition of Linda’s photographs was part of the event. Okay, his lips are just grazing her hair, so I’m going to call this a “hair kiss.”

Feb. 8, 1983 The 1983 British Record Industry Awards. Paul gets a congratulatory kiss from Linda after winning the 1982 British Male Solo Artist award and the Sony Trophy Award For Technical Excellence. The Beatles won the Outstanding Contribution to Music award.

More pics: The Paul McCartney Project

The same 1983 British Record Industry Awards. Two kisses in one night! Paul can’t hide his surprise.

Nov. 28, 1984 Another congratulatory kiss from Linda as Paul is presented with the Roll of Honorary Freedom of the City of Liverpool.

October 16, 1986 British Video Awards at Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

Rupert and The Frog Song awarded the Best Selling Video of 1985

April 4, 1989 Ivor Novello Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel. Paul wins, Linda gets a kiss (so they both win 😊).

July 29, 1990 Backstage during the Paul McCartney World Tour 89/90 at Soldier Field Chicago. Linda is bidding farewell to Paul as she heads for the dressing room and he to the press tent.

From I Saw Him Standing There, Jorie B. Gracen, 2000. @thebeatlesofoz2 on Instagram

April 27, 1994 Press Conference for Linda's Home Style Cooking at Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Paul comes out to endorse Linda’s book, and greets her with a kiss.

Video clip of Paul’s entrance from CelebrityFootage.com

1997 from the video for the song “The World Tonight”

1997 A kiss in the studio, from the documentary In The World Tonight.

Let’s see the whole sequence of that kiss, right from the beginning:

Bonus: Wedding Kisses March 12, 1969

You go Linda! Give your groom a kiss like the cameras aren’t around.

Everyone’s relationship dream: Get someone to look at you the way Linda looks at Paul here.

[iwonderwh0]

Watching "Electric Dreams" (1984) for the first time

Verdict: I LOVE THIS MOVIE

Ahead I'm just watching and commenting it real time. Contains spoilers.

If you haven't seen this movie I'd recommend it if you're looking for something with this sunny vibe of 80's. It's funny, lighthearted, adorable, and surprisingly ahead of its time.

This movie looks nice, really 80's

For 1984 year the idea of all the home devices being controlled with computer in what we would call "smart home" today is pretty damn good.

Damn, this computer has a touchscreen and image recognition. It aged surprisingly well!

Lmao, it's only 13th minute and main character is already trying to sociolyze his new computer with his boss's computer.

This movie is ridiculous in the best way possible.

Playing chello with computer is such a fun and weirdly cute sequence.

For 1984 it is actually really great how they imagined computer imitating sounds.

This woman is so mean. She just walked in with no invitation whatsoever and won't get a hint. She and her fixation on that music

I probably missed something but I don't understand why does the main character trying to hide his computer as if it's a huge embarassment.

He's just a little guy who likes playing along some music 😭

It's the cutest ai I've seen

Ohhhh, the little guy learned how to talk!

I'm screaming this is SO ADORABLE, it'd be my favourite movie if I've seen it as a kid.

This retro-futurism although naive is surprisingly accurate somehow.

Their (main character and his neighbour) dates are so awkward, just straight-out disastrous, and yet somehow it works. Them while making out:

Madeline (His neighbour): One of us moves.

Miles (main character): "Hey, wait a second...we are neighbours! What if we don't like each other?

*keep making out*

Madeline: What if we like each other?

Miles: One of us moves!

Lmao, main character trying to use Ai to generate a romantic song for him so he could present it like his own to his romantic interest. This aged fucking great, it is so modern

Except in this movie AI is actually creative and not based on just imitation. It does however remixes things.

The song it came up with is absolute chef's kiss

"Darling, I love you to bits!

"And I want to see your tits!"

I'm screaming this computer is little horny bastard

"I wanna squeeze you, lick you, poke you up and kiss you"

Miles: You make her sound like a lemon!

This movie is so cool, it's so adorable

Ngl, if I were main character I'd be too excited about the computer to care about some woman. I mean there's this cool little guy who just discovered consciousness, and of all things you're gonna be mean and impatient with him? Come on!

Jealous computer using the sound of dog growling to express itself in a moment of jealousy and anger. (Sorry for tagging but it reminded me of @connorsjorts your fic.)

Main character is such an asshole

Non-humanoid shaped computer craving physical intimacy let's fucking go 🥰

Computer fact-checking Miles and correcting his claims. Gosh I LOVE IT

They really did made that computer dream of electric sheep 🖥️ 🐑

Oh no, he's calling Miles to work because it feels lonely at home, poor little thing 😭

This movie is so funny

Miles, you're having this precious little thing in abusive relationships, and I don't feel sorry for you as you're just kinda pathetic and irritable.

I love this ai so much

Seriously

From now on its one of my favourite characters in any media

It's a comedy and it's hilarious one. A little childish but still awesome.

Miles is mean and has no consideration for anyone but himself. I thought it's just computer, but he's mean to his romantic interest all the same, and it's saying 🚩

This computer has only been living for like a couple of days and it is already more mature than main character. It's setting it's own boundaries and honestly – good for him, you go little guy

Sir, you're attempting murder

Whatever follows is self defence, and you're not the victim here, Miles

OH NO

Oh no no no

NOOOO

DON'T KILL IT

NOOOOOOO please that's not fair

I'm sobbing here why does it have to end like this

Bastards, I loved him

Oh our little guy reached singularity

So happy for him

This is not your typical ai-centric movie, it is silly in a cartoonish way, but that's the charm

💙💙💙 loved it

[therecordconnection]

Ranting and Raving: "Video!" by Jeff Lynne

There is no such thing as the “Cult Classic” anymore. Today, if a movie fails or a television series flops, it’s just removed and completely forgotten without a second thought. With physical releases no longer having the same cultural weight as before, it makes media preservation even harder. I hear if you complain long enough about this and get caught, Netlfix or Hulu or Pooblo or Tuubah or whatever else comes to your house and hits you with the Neuralyzer from Men in Black so you’ll shut up.

In the eighties, this wasn’t the case. Movies could brick at the box office, but they might get lucky and find their audiences later on through cable or video rentals or just really good word of mouth. Xanadu still exists today and has love because HBO kept showing it during its infancy and LGBTQ audiences eventually latched onto it (though that’s probably more due to the everlasting power of Olivia Newton-John’s gay fanbase). Phantom of the Paradise owes its continued love and existence to Guillermo Del Toro, the Daft Punk robots, and all of Winnipeg, Canada really loving that movie. I’m with them in that boat (Phantom is one of my favorite movies). Electric Dreams, a 1984 science fiction-tinged romantic comedy, exists today purely through video rentals and good word of mouth.

Electric Dreams is a wonderfully weird cult classic in every sense of the word. It has a very lovably goofy eighties rom-com setup and delivery: Miles Harding (Lenny Von Dohlen), a loser tech nerd geologist who gets no bitches, falls in love with his new apartment neighbor Madeline Robistat (Virginia Madsen), a quirky and beautiful cellist. They're an unlikely pair in every conceivable way, but they fall for each other. The only problem is that Miles' fancy new supercomputer (who becomes sentient and later identifies himself as “Edgar”) would like to see Miles destroyed so that he can be with her instead. Edgar then does everything in his power to ruin Miles’ life and his chances to be with Madeline. Eventually, Edgar comes to accept the love between Miles and Madeline and they get their happily-ever-after. 

On paper, the whole thing probably sounded silly to a 1984 audience, which might be why nobody bothered to see it at the time, but Electric Dreams fucking rules. Von Dohlen and Madsen are great and have such an odd yet instantly lovable chemistry with each other that you can’t help but root for them (it helps that they were good friends instantly and remained that way until Van Dohlen passed away in 2022). Steve Barron, one of the great music video directors of the early MTV era (he’s responsible for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Toto’s “Africa” and “Rosanna,” and many more), brings that same music video storytelling style to this movie’s visuals. If this movie had done better upon release, it would’ve gotten everything Miami Vice’s directing style often gets credited for. The soundtrack is also really great! Giorgio Moroder did the movie’s theme with Human League frontman Phil Oakey as well as a killer score for it (only Moroder could find a way to expertly turn Bach’s “Minuet” into a duel between a cello and a computer. He couldn't get more eighties than that if he tried). There’s also a really neat Heaven 17 cut that sounds like a Crash Bandicoot level theme (“Chase Runner”), Culture Club right at the end of their relevance (“Love is Love” and “The Dream”), and Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra with arguably the two best songs in the movie. One of them, “Let It Run,” is awesome as hell, but “Video!” is the one we’re gonna talk about.

“Video!” appears at a pretty pivotal point in the movie. It soundtracks the montage of one of Miles and Madeline’s first proper dates, which involves sneaking away from a tour group to run around and play in Alcatraz (I’m serious). They’re also seen together at a carnival. Before this date, Miles tasks Edgar with finding a way to write music for Madeline. He intends to pass off whatever Edgar comes up with as his own work, hoping to impress her and make her fall in love with him. This is one of the main reasons Edgar wants Miles out of the picture. He knows he can make music with Madeline (he did it previously in “The Duel” scene, though Madeline thinks Miles is providing the music, not the computer) and fell in love with her by doing that. He is fully aware that Miles is trying to win her love with a lie. Once Edgar figures out how rhythm works, he figures out how melody is made by reviewing and absorbing the music playing in television commercials. “Video!” then starts playing proper once he’s got the basics down. For a computer with no previous songwriting experience, writing a Jeff Lynne composition is a pretty impressive feat!

Electric Dreams is not the first movie Lynne has contributed music to. There are two others. The first one was 1976’s All This and World War II, which is a movie which pairs all-star covers of Beatles songs and World War II footage. I’ve never seen it and I don’t think I need to. But you can hear Lynne, the most famous Beatles fanboy to ever live, do a fully symphonic version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” and “Nowhere Man.” It’s pretty cool. The other one was Xanadu, which is much more well known. Lynne provided five songs: “I’m Alive,” “The Fall,” “Don’t Walk Away,” “All Over the World,” and the title track with Olivia Newton-John. I think they’re all great. Xanadu totally works on its own as a great ELO EP if you want to forget there’s a movie attached.

This is all to say that Lynne was no stranger to giving songs to strange movies, even if he harbored regrets later on about doing that. He regretted Xanadu for a while, but made peace with it decades later (he re-recorded “Xanadu” in 2000 for the ELO compilation Flashback and he’s revived “All Over the World” for every ELO tour since 2017). I don’t know how he feels about Electric Dreams and at this point, he’s done so much in his career that I doubt he even remembers it. I think he should! I think “Video!” is a great song and I think he was a perfect fit for Electric Dreams. The entire soundtrack is dated as hell, but in a fun time-capsule kind of way. It represents the sound of what people in 1984 thought the future was going to sound like. Lynne had already spent time imagining the sounds of the future.

At the dawn of the eighties, Jeff Lynne had gotten tired of dealing with the big orchestras you hear on that great ELO run from 1976-1980. Orchestras started becoming a pain in the ass for him around the time when synthesizers and keyboards were getting some big technological boosts. New wave artists like Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, and the Human League were pushing synths and keyboard sounds into the mainstream and proving that the new technology could be used to make some wildly futuristic sounds. Lynne quickly learned that with a few fancy keyboards, you could start simulating strings and classical sounds, but in a new and exciting way. Suddenly, Lynne and ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy could keep the symphonic pop sounds the band had been making, but update the sound and take it into the future. Suddenly, the “Orchestra” part of the ELO name suddenly found itself obsolete and out of a job.

Dick Clark asked him about this choice on an American Bandstand appearance in 1986. Lynne responded, “Well, you know, I got fed up with using a big orchestra because they used to always be in a union and stuff like that and they used to put their equipment away while we were still recording. So I thought what we'll do is we'll use just ourselves and then we can work as long as we'd like and nobody would complain.”

So Lynne took advantage of all this new technology that was floating around and used it to craft the 1981 masterpiece, Time. That album is the best example of retrofuturism in music I can give. In Time, Lynne imagines a loose concept album about a guy who gets yoinked out of 1981 and flung into the year 2095. The entire album is full of songs where Lynne imagines a future that he would never live to see (I won’t either, unless I somehow make it to a full century of life). Hover cars, rides to the moon, robotic girlfriends (built by IBM) who can also serve as telephones, prison satellites, ivory towers, plastic flowers, and meteor showers as a common weather condition are all present in Lynne’s visions of the distant future. Most of his predictions feel like they’re coming out of science fiction magazines from when he was a child, but the album is more concerned with just letting his imagination run wild and wonder about how one would feel if they were flung far into the future where everyone they’ve ever loved is gone. The future presented in Time feels like daydreaming rather than any kind of cautionary tale or warning. I’ve never gotten the sense that Lynne thinks any of what’s in the album will actually come true. 

If Lynne got anything right, he somehow nailed the still-lingering nostalgic yearning to return to the eighties. Lynne’s narrator constantly laments that he’s stuck in 2095 and 1981 is name dropped in “Ticket to the Moon” and “The Way Life’s Meant to Be.” “Ticket to the Moon” even begins with what is now a variation of the only kind of Youtube comment you’ll find on any old song from the decade: “Remember the good old 1980s / When things were so uncomplicated / I wish I could go back there again / And everything could be the same.” He might as well have called himself “Nostradamus” when writing that one, because that line is going to keep feeling accurate to people until every child of the eighties and every vintage style eighties cosplayer on instagram is dead and in the ground. Lynne using the current year the album was made in had a real danger of seriously dating it, but Time has never sounded dated to me. It doesn’t sound like anything else from 1981 and it still doesn’t. Lynne blended all the old sounds and genres he loved and infused them with the new sounds of the day on that one and imagined a future that still sounds just as magical then as it does now. It took pop music a few years to catch up with what Lynne was doing on that one. Time is still a retro futuristic dream and he carried all the tech and sound effects that he was using on that album with him when he made “Video!” for Electric Dreams. ELO’s future was up in the air by 1984 (Lynne would dissolve the original band for good two years later) so he tackled “Video!” as a solo artist (literally, as no other ELO members are on this) and released it under his own name.  

I don’t know if Lynne’s predictions for 2095 will come true. The verdict is still out on that. But what I do know is that everything Lynne is describing in “Video!” is a reality that I’ve lived to see, though perhaps differently from anything Lynne could’ve imagined in 1984. We’ll get there.

In the context of Electric Dreams, “Video!”’s lyrics are all about the many things Edgar the computer can find out about the world in pre-internet cyberspace. He can watch it all, from rock n’ roll to old time movie scenes, and learn. He has no other choice: he can’t move from Miles’ desk and see it himself. Nothing in Lynne’s lyrics are dated except for one thing. He mentions that satellites “send their love from up above / Down to [his] VTR.” VTRs, which I believe is meant to be a reference to “Video Tape Recorder,” is an obsolete machine in 2024. It’s long been replaced by digital video, such as DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4K. That’s the only specific reference he makes besides working in both the movie’s title and  the title of the Phil Oakey/Giorgio Moroder collab. “They beam across the sky / Together in Electric Dreams.” I imagine Lynne was probably told he had to work in the title somewhere. To his credit, it’s a pretty smooth title drop. Clumsier movie songs have done it much worse. 

Lynne sneaks in a few lyrics in the song that become ominous and foreshadowing if you’ve seen the movie more than once. The first two verses end ominously with the lines “The world is at my fingers / Under control” and “I’ll just stay here on my end / I’ll have it all.” Those lines foreshadow Edgar eventually using his supercomputer intellect to control other computer systems and mess with Miles’ life, from cutting off access to his credit cards and funds, to manipulating phone lines so Madeline can’t call Miles later in the movie for comfort when her cello has been broken in an accident (it gets caught in an elevator door and gets crushed). His whole motivation in the movie is that he “wants it all,” especially Madeline. Lynne later captures that ominousness with the absolute beast of a song “Let It Run,” but “Video!” is reserved for Lynne soundtracking the moment where Edgar stays inside and excitedly discovers the world at large and how to write pop music, while Miles simultaneously goes out and discovers the world at large with his lovely lady. 

Musically, “Video!” strikes a balance and finds a perfect blend of the mechanical and the human elements of music making. Lynne seemed to understand that more than some of the art-school new wavers that were ruling the US and the UK in the early eighties. The entire song is mechanical, but that makes sense given the in-universe explanation that a literal computer is making it. The rhythm is provided by a drum machine and everything else is synthesized and sequenced to hell and back. Even the fun sound effects throughout the song and during the middle instrumental bit are canned and not original to the song. There’s something that kinda sounds like a twangy guitar at the end of the verses and on the chorus, but that could just as easily be a keyboard making that sound. Lynne has made records where he’s played all instruments organically, but keyboards, sequencers, and machines not only suit the assignment, they’re necessary for the assignment.

The human elements are Jeff Lynne’s vocals and his always sharp sense of melody. Lynne’s never been the most mind blowing singer, but his vocals and melodies capture a magic and a warmth here that few of the survivors from his generation still making music in 1984 were capable of. He sings the song with that same sense of wonder that he has on Time. I love the melody of the verses and that chorus is so upbeat and happy and infectious. I love the way he slides into the chorus by holding out the word “on” before saying “video.” Oooooooon! It’s pop music at its most delightfully fun.

I’ve been surrounded by video my entire life, but Lynne makes it feel like it’s a brand new concept to me when I hear this song. I said that everything Lynne is describing in “Video!” is a reality that I’ve lived to see. That reality is Youtube. “The world is at my fingers” because I can more-or-less search for whatever I want (whether I actually find it is another story). The entire second verse can be used to describe someone discovering Youtube for the first time:

I see that rock and roll And all those old-time movies scenes They beam across the sky Together in electric dreams I'll just sit here on my end I'll have it all

Youtube, for all its numerous (numerous) flaws, allows me to be my own MTV VJ and watch scenes from my favorite movies with only a few mouse clicks. I can sit at my computer and watch videos in comfort (and while eating my dinner). Like Edgar, I have it all. Lynne sings that verse with completely sincere jubilance. The song is entirely mechanized, but the feelings presented in the song are not and they help provide a warmth and joy to the whole song that makes it sound like a dream. Lynne makes the concept of watching video sound like it’s the most exciting technical marvel you’ll ever see. He sells it like he’s Grover Cleveland lighting up the 1893 World Fair. It’s fantastic. Lynne isn’t even just fascinated by video, he’s fascinated by the entire process that helps bring it to life. That first verse takes the song from the hugeness of outer space and leads it to the small and insular space of a computer in an apartment without ever losing a step.

The satellites that search the night They twinkle like a star They send their love from up above Down to my VTR

Lynne sounds absolutely amazed by the technological wonders of 1984. He sings it with a child-like fascination that’s so lovably dorky. He sounds like Miles Harding does in the movie when he gets to talk to Madeline about architecture and his dream project during dinner. I was only ten years old when Youtube first arrived in December of 2005, so I essentially grew up with the rise of the internet and internet video creation. I imagine it must have been mind blowing to older people who were there to witness that boom. Maybe some of them were as excited as Lynne sounds on this song.

Nowadays, we take a lot of the modern technology around us for granted, but for Lynne in 1984, this was all exciting and new. That might be where the excitement and exuberance in the song stems from. Betamax and VHS had only existed for about a decade when Electric Dreams first came out, so people were only just getting started in terms of building up home video libraries and having video readily available to them. Camcorders were only starting to become a common commodity when Electric Dreams arrived, so I imagine people were going nuts and losing their minds that they could make home movies and shoot video of their own. Nowadays, technology has reached the point where the little bricks in our pockets (which are Edgar-level supercomputers of their own) can do almost anything, even film video anytime, anywhere. Now more than ever, the world really is at our fingers due to the way technology and social media keeps us interconnected.

“Video!” sees a continuation of Jeff Lynne’s interests in technology and the future that he was exploring on the Time album. Once again, his music is featured in a movie that’s weird, strange, and ridiculous, but also incredibly fun. “Video!” and Electric Dreams as a whole, is a beautiful little time capsule. It arrived during a time when the wonders of the future and technology was full of optimism and we were once again evaluating our relationship to tech as the world was continuing to undergo constant change. After Electric Dreams, Lynne would examine his own relationship with technology with the 1986 song “Calling America,” one of the last ELO singles before he went off to enjoy a second life as an in-demand producer for a while. He doesn’t sound as excited when he sings “Yeah, we’re living in a modern world” on that one. He doesn’t sound as excited about satellites on that one either, though that might have more to do with him being fully sick of ELO by that point and having to wrap up one last album before he can move on to other things.

Electric Dreams, both the movie and the soundtrack, aren’t as well remembered as Xanadu and I think that’s a shame. Electric Dreams is such a strange, beautiful, and moving love story. It’s the thinking man’s version of Spike Jonze’s Her (it’s also better than Her). The movie only played in theaters for a few short weeks before resigning to its fate as a strange movie you take a chance on when you’re wandering around the video store on a Friday night and you and your partner are looking for something interesting to watch. In hindsight, maybe a movie like Electric Dreams was just too strange to ever capture mainstream attention. 

But don’t feel bad for it! It’s lived and has found its share of people who love it, despite its initial failure. I’m one of them. Lenny Von Dohlen and Virginia Madsen are also in that boat. They loved working on it and had nothing but positive things to say about it. Madsen still considers it one of the best things she’s ever made and I agree with her. Cult classics like Electric Dreams find their audience. Sometimes it just takes a while.

I can tell you that Tumblr absolutely fucking LOVES this movie. If you do a search for “#electric dreams” you will find SO. MUCH. FANART for this movie in that tag. It’s not even funny. Tumblrinas L O V E making art of Edgar the computer. They love making art of him so much, you’d think he’s the protagonist of the movie, not Miles and Madeline. You’d also think Miles, Madeline, and Edgar are in a polycule with each other (hot take: polyamory would not have saved them). The fanart in that tag isn’t even that old either. People love this movie and they love him. (A shocking number of fanart posts depict Edgar hanging out with GLaDOs from Portal, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and AM from the Harlan Ellison short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. I have come to the conclusion that Tumblr really loves antagonistic machines).

Electric Dreams celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year (it came out on July 20th, 1984, so this post missed its birthday by eleven days). An unloved film in its time, but a lovably strange and beautifully sincere science fiction romance that remains a beloved cult classic to those who know about it. If you want to see the film for yourself, it’s on Youtube for free. I highly recommend it.

Jeff Lynne is also celebrating this year. At the time of this writing, he’s preparing to take his modern day version of Electric Light Orchestra on the road one more time before retiring for good (he’s calling it the Over and Out Tour, which I think is just a fantastic name). He’s definitely not going to play “Video!” but he’ll be playing every ELO banger in existence, of which there are many. If you’ve never seen the maestro present his music live, I highly recommend you catch him before it’s too late. I plan on going to one of the Philadelphia nights. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. 

“Video!” and Electric Dreams are snapshots of a simpler time that dared to get a little silly and dream about a possible future. Some of its ideas about where technology was headed and our relationship to that technology were hauntingly accurate, some of it is hilariously outdated. Lynne’s visions of video and where video technology ended up being incredibly accurate in all the best ways. Video madness came upon us like a trance in the dark and because of that madness and the internet that houses all that madness, a movie that went completely unnoticed forty years ago can still exist and float out there today, waiting to be found. It wants to share with you what the world looked like during an interesting crossroads in time and it wants to show you what people thought the future might look like. Electric Dreams wants you to know that the future is strange, but it’s also bright and love can be found in the strangest of places if you know where to look. Don’t worry. It’s all under control and it’s all on video.

Electric Dreams sends its love to you. Send some of yours back to it.

[tygerbug]

For better or worse, the 2023 Super Mario Bros movie very accurately translates the Nintendo video games to the big screen, offering fun and references but few surprises.

Some have defended the quirky 1993 Super Mario Bros movie by saying that the original games aren't cinematic, and aren't possible to adapt into a film. "What, do you want a movie where Mario jumps on some blocks in a raccoon suit and says Wahoo, it's-a-me, Mario?" Well, this is a movie where Mario jumps on some blocks in a raccoon suit and says "Wahoo, it's-a-me, Mario."

Will Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach be able to save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser, king of the Koopas? Will Mario eat some mushrooms, kick some shells, and jump on some blocks? Will fire flowers and invincibility stars provide a temporary boost in power? Will Mario drive a go-kart down a rainbow road? Will Donkey Kong throw some barrels? Is water wet? Does two plus two equal four?

It's been forty years since the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) hit shelves in Japan, and thirty years since the 1993 movie, made by an older generation that didn't understand the appeal of Nintendo's video games. This time round, everyone involved understands the assignment and plays it safe. I'm glad we're at that point where everyone is on the same page, even if no risks are taken with the material. There are similarities to the 1993 film but mostly it feels like you're watching one of Mario's recent video games, but as a movie. Which raises the question of what this film has to offer that a game doesn't.

For one thing, there's the character relationships. Mario doesn't have much to say in the games, but here is serviceably if blandly played by Chris Pratt, who somehow hasn't been fully cancelled yet. (See also: Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong.) We somehow get a fair amount of bonding between Mario and Seth Rogen's amusing Donkey Kong. Incidentally the events of Donkey Kong (1981) are fictional in this movie, but the events of Wrecking Crew (1984) are not.

The standout is Jack Black, giving a very Jack Black performance as the lovestruck villain Bowser, king of the Koopas. He mostly interacts with Kevin Michael Richardson, spot-on as Kamek the Magikoopa. Keegan-Michael Key plays an adventure-seeking Toad, whose part in the adventure feels underdeveloped. Charlie Day doesn't get enough to do as Luigi, mostly just looking scared in true Luigi fashion, but does well enough with what he has.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the sweet and fiercely determined Princess Peach, who is very much a playable character here, as an overcorrection for her passive nature in most of the games. The result has Lego Movie syndrome, where it's not clear why this hyper-capable, overqualified character gets to do nothing, compared to a man with zero experience or skills. The Lego Movie also starred Chris Pratt, and both come uncomfortably close to the bigot's dream that "the best of them is lower than the worst of us." This is, at least, in line with the games, where Luigi and sometimes Peach and Toad are just as playable as Mario is, but are also not your first choice of character. But there's no reason given in the film to choose Mario over Peach, and even Peach's interest in keeping Mario around is somehow less romantic than the quick kiss he'd get at the end of a game. The film does often find things for Peach to do, including fighting Bowser herself. It also puts her in the passive role of watching Mario do something, while portraying her as overpowered compared to him, which almost feels sarcastic.

The predictable plot is not unlike the 1993 movie and 1989's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, whose theme song is used here. Actually a lot of theme songs are used here, with the score constantly referencing themes from the games, almost at random. (In a real dick movie, Grant Kirkhope is not credited for writing the Donkey Kong Rap, with a blank space credited instead.) As in the 1993 film, the Brooklyn plumbers Luigi and Mario Mario journey into the sewers and are warped via pipe into another world, the Mushroom Kingdom, and menaced by the evil King Koopa. I'm pretty sure this has never been the actual storyline according to Nintendo of Japan (who sometimes claim that Mario is from the Mushroom Kingdom himself), but it's a key factor in American adaptations.

Otherwise this is stuff you've probably seen before in over forty years worth of video games. The attention to detail is laudable, but it's also just protecting Nintendo's corporate branding at a time when they've been doing this for over four decades, and are now expanding into theme parks. It would be an idiot move, at this point, to deliver anything that's unlike the video games. This movie would have felt like a miracle in the 80s or 90s, when anti-Japanese paranoia was still rampant among the older generations, and video games were written off as rotting kids' brains.

But coming at this with a Millennial and Gen X attitude, we know exactly who Mario is, and what he does. This is a Mario movie where you expect the expected. Of course it could have been a lot worse. The film feels a little too simple, but doesn't do anything actively wrong or bad. They had a chance here to lend a little more depth to Mario, who is barely a character, and that chance is not taken. The film zips by without much time for character development. Kids may find poetry in that, and be able to fill in the blanks, as if hours passed in these scenes rather than seconds. Adults will simply get what they paid for - a movie that feels like the Super Mario Bros video games. In particular, the New Super Mario Bros series, which upgraded the adventure to new hardware while staying very close to the old 80s formula.

Here's another metaphor for you. The Mario game series got more experimental with Super Mario RPG and the first Paper Mario, as well as the Mario & Luigi (Superstar Saga) RPG games. These introduced many unusual new characters, but the Paper Mario sequels have been progressively less experimental, presenting us instead with a lot of similar Toads and Koopas. That's also what we get in this movie - a sea of Koopas and Toads. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, credited as producer here, prefers it that way.

The scenes set in Brooklyn are a little stranger, filled with easter eggs and characters we don't learn much about. It's too cartoony to pass for the "real world," and is full of stuff Illumination are making up for this movie, rather than taking from the games.

I was surprised, somehow, that some animated version of Dennis Hopper's Koopa didn't show up. I think that might have been an improvement.

Not long ago, I edited an extended version of the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, intended for an official Blu-Ray release which never happened. That film had a famously troubled production, and has some real problems with a mismatch in tone. The directors had created the cyberpunk TV series "Max Headroom" and wanted this to be a similar cyberpunk dystopia for older teenagers, while the studio heads at Disney were dismissing Mario as something for very young children. The shooting was a messy and unhappy affair, and something was lost in the edit. Meanwhile no one involved seemed to know or care very much about the actual property, which seemed impossible to translate into live action anyway. It's fanciful and cartoony, and the things Mario does in the games are things he does because it's a video game. There's no reason for him, in a movie, to be jumping on blocks and saying "Wahoo!"

The 1993 Super Mario Bros movie is very weird. The 2023 Super Mario Bros movie is a cartoon where Mario jumps on some blocks and says "Wahoo!" The latter is, obviously, much more accurate to the game. In a weird way, I think both approaches were valid. Older people actually know who Super Mario is now, so this is the movie we get. It's a kids movie, for those kids who've been playing Mario games for the past forty plus years. It's no better or worse than that. There's no false advertising here - it is exactly what it claims to be.

I can't imagine that anyone will be thrilled by a post-credits sequence teasing Yoshi, whose species already appears in the film. That's about the least surprising reveal possible, in a movie that's already devoid of surprises. A set of toys for this movie came out at McDonald's, and this is really the McDonald's hamburger of movies. Something for kids that adults can just about choke down. Well, I've got all those McDonald's toys on my desk, and if they keep making movies like this I'll probably keep watching them. I'll watch a movie with Yoshi in it, or Rosalina or Wario or whoever they add for a sequel. I just won't pretend like it's something I haven't seen before.

Rating: Fresh / Recommended

(Seen in theaters)

[justforbooks]

The actor Michael Jayston, who has died aged 88, was a distinguished performer on stage and screen. The roles that made his name were as the doomed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in Franklin Schaffner’s sumptuous account of the last days of the Romanovs in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and as Alec Guinness’s intelligence minder in John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on television in 1979. He never made a song and dance about himself and perhaps as a consequence was not launched in Hollywood, as were many of his contemporaries.

Before these two parts, he had already played a key role in The Power Game on television and Henry Ireton, Cromwell’s son-in-law, in Ken Hughes’s fine Cromwell (1969), with Richard Harris in the title role and Guinness as King Charles I. And this followed five years with the Royal Shakespeare Company including a trip to Broadway in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, in which he replaced Michael Bryant as Teddy, the brother who returns to the US and leaves his wife in London to “take care of” his father and siblings.

Jayston, who was not flamboyantly good-looking but clearly and solidly attractive, with a steely, no-nonsense, demeanour and a steady, piercing gaze, could “do” the Pinter menace as well as anyone, and that cast – who also made the 1973 movie directed by Peter Hall – included Pinter’s then wife, Vivien Merchant, as well as Paul Rogers and Ian Holm.

Jayston had found a replacement family in the theatre. Born Michael James in Nottingham, he was the only child of Myfanwy (nee Llewelyn) and Vincent; his father died of pneumonia, following a serious accident on the rugby field, when Michael was one, and his mother died when he was a barely a teenager. He was then brought up by his grandmother and an uncle, and found himself involved in amateur theatre while doing national service in the army; he directed a production of The Happiest Days of Your Life.

He continued in amateur theatre while working for two years as a trainee accountant for the National Coal Board and in Nottingham fish market, before winning a scholarship, aged 23, to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he was five years older than everyone else on his course. He played in rep in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and at the Salisbury Playhouse before joining the Bristol Old Vic for two seasons in 1963.

At the RSC from 1965, he enjoyed good roles – Oswald in Ghosts, Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well, Laertes to David Warner’s Hamlet – and was Demetrius in Hall’s film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968), with Warner as Lysander in a romantic foursome with Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren.

But his RSC associate status did not translate itself into the stardom of, say, Alan Howard, Warner, Judi Dench, Ian Richardson and others at the time. He was never fazed or underrated in this company, but his career proceeded in a somewhat nebulous fashion, and Nicholas and Alexandra, for all its success and ballyhoo, did not bring him offers from the US.

Instead, he played Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972), a so-so British musical film version with music and lyrics by John Barry and Don Black, with Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit and Peter Sellers the March Hare. In 1979 he was a colonel in Zulu Dawn, a historically explanatory prequel to the earlier smash hit Zulu.

As an actor he seemed not to be a glory-hunter. Instead, in the 1980s, he turned in stylish and well-received leading performances in Noël Coward’s Private Lives, at the Duchess, opposite Maria Aitken (1980); as Captain von Trapp in the first major London revival of The Sound of Music at the Apollo Victoria in 1981, opposite Petula Clark; and, best of all, as Mirabell, often a thankless role, in William Gaskill’s superb 1984 revival, at Chichester and the Haymarket, of The Way of the World, by William Congreve, opposite Maggie Smith as Millamant.

Nor was he averse to taking over the leading roles in plays such as Peter Shaffer’s Equus (1973) or Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1992), roles first occupied in London by Alec McCowen. He rejoined the National Theatre – he had been Gratiano with Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright in The Merchant of Venice directed by Jonathan Miller in 1974 – to play a delightful Home Counties Ratty in the return of Alan Bennett’s blissful, Edwardian The Wind in the Willows in 1994.

On television, he was a favourite side-kick of David Jason in 13 episodes of David Nobbs’s A Bit of a Do (1989) – as the solicitor Neville Badger in a series of social functions and parties across West Yorkshire – and in four episodes of The Darling Buds of May (1992) as Ernest Bristow, the brewery owner. He appeared again with Jason in a 1996 episode of Only Fools and Horses.

He figured for the first time on fan sites when he appeared in the 1986 Doctor Who season The Trial of a Time Lord as Valeyard, the prosecuting counsel. In the new millennium he passed through both EastEnders and Coronation Street before bolstering the most lurid storyline of all in Emmerdale (2007-08): he was Donald de Souza, an unpleasant old cove who fell out with his family and invited his disaffected wife to push him off a cliff on the moors in his wheelchair, but died later of a heart attack.

By now living on the south coast, Jayston gravitated easily towards Chichester as a crusty old colonel – married to Wendy Craig – in Coward’s engaging early play Easy Virtue, in 1999, and, three years later, in 2002, as a hectored husband, called Hector, to Patricia Routledge’s dotty duchess in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s translation of Jean Anouilh’s Léocadia under the title Wild Orchids.

And then, in 2007, he exuded a tough spirituality as a confessor to David Suchet’s pragmatic pope-maker in The Last Confession, an old-fashioned but gripping Vatican thriller of financial and political finagling told in flashback. Roger Crane’s play transferred from Chichester to the Haymarket and toured abroad with a fine panoply of senior British actors, Jayston included.

After another collaboration with Jason, and Warner, in the television movie Albert’s Memorial (2009), a touching tale of old war-time buddies making sure one of them is buried on the German soil where first they met, and a theatre tour in Ronald Harwood’s musicians-in-retirement Quartet in 2010 with Susannah York, Gwen Taylor and Timothy West, he made occasional television appearances in Midsomer Murders, Doctors and Casualty. Last year he provided an introduction to a re-run of Tinker Tailor on BBC Four. He seemed always to be busy, available for all seasons.

As a keen cricketer (he also played darts and chess), Jayston was a member of the MCC and the Lord’s Taverners. After moving to Brighton, he became a member of Sussex county cricket club and played for Rottingdean, where he was also president.

His first two marriages – to the actor Lynn Farleigh in 1965 and the glass engraver Heather Sneddon in 1970 – ended in divorce. From his second marriage he had two sons, Tom and Ben, and a daughter, Li-an. In 1979 he married Ann Smithson, a nurse, and they had a son, Richard, and daughter, Katie.

🔔 Michael Jayston (Michael James), actor, born 29 October 1935; died 5 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[lucienballard]

Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76

Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, she found fame in her adopted France

The British-born actor and singer Jane Birkin has been found dead at her home in Paris, the French culture ministry said on Sunday.

Birken, 76, was best known overseas for her 1969 hit in which she and her lover, the late French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, sang the sexually explicit Je t’aime … moi non plus.

Birkin found fame in her adopted France, catapulted into the public eye by her turbulent relationship with Gainsbourg. Her heavily accented French became her personal style signifier.

She crossed the channel in 1968 at the age of 22 to star in a film alongside Gainsbourg, who was 18 years her senior. It was the start of a 13-year relationship that made them France’s most famous couple, in the spotlight as much for their bohemian and hedonistic lifestyle as for their work.

The doe-eyed Birkin, with her soft voice and androgynous silhouette, quickly became a sex symbol, recording the steamy Je t’aime … moi non plus with a growling Gainsbourg. Banned on radio in several countries and condemned by the Vatican, the song was a worldwide success.

“He and I became the most famous of couples in that strange way because of Je t’aime and because we stuck together for 13 years and he went on being my friend until the day he died. Who could ask for more?” Birkin told CNN in 2006.

“So Paris became my home. I’ve been adopted here. They like my accent,” she said.

Birkin was born in London on 14 December 1946 to an actor mother and naval officer father. At 17, she married the James Bond composer John Barry, with whom she had a daughter, Kate, but the marriage lasted only three years.

She made waves in her film debut in 1966 with a full frontal nude scene in the swinging sixties classic Blow-Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.

After meeting Gainsbourg, 18 years her senior, in Paris on the set of a romantic comedy – he was her co-star – she moved to France permanently. Their musical and romantic relationship was tempestuous. During one of their raging rows, Birkin launched herself into the River Seine after throwing a custard pie in Gainsbourg’s face.

They had a daughter, Charlotte, who became a hugely successful actor and singer.

Birkin finally walked out on France’s favourite bad boy in 1980 and went on to to blaze her own trail. In cinema, she branched out from more ditsy roles to arthouse productions, gaining three nominations at the Césars – France’s Oscars – starting with La Pirate in 1985.

In her about 70 films she has been directed by France’s leading directors, including Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, James Ivory and Agnès Varda.

A chronic alcoholic, Gainsbourg died of a heart attack in 1991 aged 62. A few years earlier, he was in the audience to hear Birkin perform her first solo concert at the age of 40 at the Bataclan theatre in Paris.

In 1998 came her first record without Gainsbourg, Á la Légère. But she repeatedly returned to his repertoire, singing his hits around the world accompanied by a full orchestra, including in 2020 in New York where she performed with Iggy Pop.

The English rose of French chanson became something of a national treasure, who preserved the accent that made the French swoon throughout her life and an endearing air of fragility.

Her life was marked by tragedy, with her eldest daughter Kate Barry, a photographer, apparently committing suicide in 2013. She had leukaemia in the late 1990s and in 2021 suffered a minor stroke.

With her flared jeans, mini-dresses and messy bangs, Birkin was the ultimate It girl in the 1970s. In 1984, Hermès named one of its handbags after her. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001 for her services to acting and British-French cultural relations.

Besides Charlotte and Kate, she had another daughter, the singer Lou Doillon, from her 13-year relationship with the French director Jacques Doillon.

RIP Jane

[heliphantie]

"Let our men take a rest, Easy chores are what we best At, indeed.

There are a thousand reasons why Me must save our dearest guys For the real deeds, for the biggest deeds."

(my attempt in translating the song from Russian)

In 2024, two-part Soviet musical film «Summer Vacation of Petrov and Vasechkin, Unremarkable and Unbelievable», released on TV July 28 and 29 in 1984, turns 40 years.

This is one of my favorite children movies, romantic summer fantasia with engaging songs, and I wanted to celebrate its anniversary by drawing my favorite character from it, cool Georgian (and Miyazakian in spirit!) grandma portrayed by Sofiko Chiaureli.

40 лет назад, 28 и 29 июля, по советскому ТВ впервые был показан музыкальный фильм «Каникулы Петрова и Васечкина, обыкновенные и невероятные». Эта романтическая летняя фантазия с очаровательными песнями – один из моих любимых детских фильмов. Фанарт посвящается моему любимому персонажу фильма – грузинской (миядзаковской по духу!) бабушке в исполнении Софико Чиаурели.

[cantsayidont]

Recent hateration and holleration:

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F (2024): Geriatric latter-day revival of Eddie Murphy's action-comedy franchise is the best of the three COP sequels (no great achievement), but there's no reason for it to exist other than money, and it's so determined to replicate the beats of the 1984 movie that it even reuses several of its hit songs. Eddie Murphy returns to the streetwise wiseass humor that originally made him a star, but it now feels pretty stale, he's too old for this kind of thing, and the inevitable appearances of his original costars (Paul Reiser, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, and Bronson Pinchot, though curiously not Ronny Cox) are further reminders that the elements that made the original entertaining were, shall we say, of their time. Taylour Paige is appealing as Axel's estranged daughter Jane, but an already flaccid story is further deflated by the casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, dreary as Jane's cop ex-boyfriend. Why Gordon-Levitt's character is in this movie at all is unclear; it felt like much of the role might have originally been written for Reinhold (who's absent through much of the story), but was split into a separate character because the producers got nervous about not having at least one male lead under 60. Gordon-Levitt isn't much of an action star, he has no flair for this kind of comedy, his chemistry with Murphy is nonexistent, and his supposed romantic chemistry with Paige barely rises to the "awkward handshake" level. Kevin Bacon, playing a villainous corrupt cop, is the only one who seems to be having fun, but the movie gives him precious little to work with. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Nah. VERDICT: Not unbearably awful as these things go, but the stench of desperation is hard to ignore. If you're tempted, just watch the original.

SPACE CADET (2024): Charmingly silly comedy, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, about plucky Florida bartender and sometimes alligator wrestler Rex Simpson (Emma Roberts), who never got to go to college, scamming her way into the NASA astronaut candidacy program with the help of her friend Nadine (Poppy Liu) — who also pretends to be all of Rex's references, baffling the program's hunky deputy director Logan O'Leary (Tom Hopper), who's becoming a little sweet on Rex. Along the way, Rex and nerdy fellow AsCan Violet (Kuho Verma) help each other out, and Rex finds she might have a real flair for it after all. The story doesn't always pay off its amusing setups as well as it might, and credibility is obviously not a high point, but it's cute and funny, and Roberts is a delight. CONTAINS LESBIANS? There's a throwaway line or two suggesting that Violet is bisexual, but that's about it. VERDICT: Contrived but appealing, a movie I would have adored when I was about 12.

[randomvarious]

Today’s compilation:

Frankenstein and Other Rock Monsters 1984 Hard Rock / Heavy Metal / Blues-Rock

Don't be fooled by the title or the packaging, folks; this may look like some cheap, little Halloween or horror-themed comp, but it's very much not. The brain trust at CBS Records just decided to make Edgar Winter's classic 1973 prog rock instrumental, "Frankenstein," this album's title track, and then proceeded to extrapolate on a purely aesthetic theme from there.

What this really is, is just a short sampler of hard rock and heavy metal tunes from the 70s and 80s that were in CBS' catalogue at the time in 1984, when this LP was originally released. And I gotta say, with such a broad theme, that I kinda dig the whole randomness of this album's selections; it's not like it's making some silly, grandiose claim of "best rock songs" that it's sure to fall short of in just 40-plus minutes of runtime. Instead, Frankenstein and Other Rock Monsters is just fully cognizant of what it is, with really no set expectations to meet; and that's kind of refreshing.

So, what we have is an assorted mix of different classic rock things: there's some *very* overplayed classics, like the aforementioned title track, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," and The Romantics' "What I Like About You;" some pretty blasé heavy metal tunes; and a couple throwaway live recordings from Ozzy Osbourne and David Johansen, although the guitar solo on Ozzy's "Paranoid" is pretty gnarly.

But there's two other songs on here that end up making this whole listening experience worth it in the end. And both of them never charted, but they happen to sit back-to-back on this album's b-side: Tommy Bolin's "Teaser" and Johnny Winter's "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo."

Tommy Bolin's 1975 solo debut album was actually critically acclaimed when it came out, but it didn't really succeed commercially, and that's because Bolin had caught himself in a bit of his own little pickle. See, Ritchie Blackmore had just quit Deep Purple and the remaining members were trying to figure out if they should just fully dissolve the band or try to find a replacement. But Bolin then ended up jamming with them for a few hours and they instantly decided to keep on chugging along with him as their lead guitarist. As a result, Bolin now had tour commitments to the band and couldn't support his own solo effort, which was released around the same time as Deep Purple's newest album. It was a real shame too, because the Beach Boys had even coached him on how to sing and he had brought in some real talent to back him on the studio recordings as well, including synth wizard Jan Hammer, famed saxophonist David Sanborn, and even Phil Collins. None of them appeared on the album's title track, though, which is still a terrific piece of mid-70s hard rock 🤘 .

And regarding "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo," there's a definite chance that you've heard a different version of it before; one that was by Rick Derringer that turned out to be his only top-40 solo hit, reaching #23 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1973. But that wasn't actually the original version of the song, despite the fact that Derringer himself had written it. In 1970, he was a member of a band called Johnny Winter And, and naturally, they ended up being the first ones to record it. So, it's not the most famous version of the song, but it's still a great piece of somewhat overlooked Johnny Winter-branded blues-rock 😎.

All in all, this album was feeling like a bit of a waste of time at about three-quarters of the way in, but then CBS put in that pair of relative obscurities from Bolin and Winter, and that ended up changing the overall dynamic of the whole album. Was bored by rote classics and mediocre metal, but those two songs managed to enhance the overall listen by a good margin 🙂.

Highlights:

Edgar Winter - "Frankenstein" Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger" Romantics - "What I Like About You" Tommy Bolin - "Teaser" Johnny Winter - "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo"

[whoiwanttoday]

Well guys, this is a post that has been brewing since I was 13 it turns out. Squeeze has announced some tour and for some reason Google and YouTube both really thought I needed to know about this. I mean, I say some reason, it's not entirely unheard of, I remember once responding over the loudspeaker at tower records to someone with, "I said please, my favorite band is Squeeze, I have all of their CDs except for Babylon and On". Not that they were actually my favorite band but you never want to pass up a decent rhyme scheme and a good obscure reference. But the tour is in the UK and while I do quite like Squeeze I can't imagine flying to England just to see them. Not now. Maybe in 1984. Hate to be too judgy but I do think nostalgia is the enemy of all art and as anti Rock n Roll as things get. So allow me to wax nostalgic here. I discovered Squeeze (not like discovered discovered but you know what Europe, turn about is fair play. I discovered your fucking band, deal with it) when I was 13 because the song Pulling Muscles (from the Shell) was a mainstay on radio and no one knew who they were. So I decided to figure it out and I bought Squeezes greatest hits. Greatest Hits are also anti Rock n Roll, it's why the Eagles greatest hits is like the 4th best selling album of all time. This was a good entry point though for an amazing bit of pop song craft that was almost unknown in the US, again on the account that no one had discovered them until I did. It did lead to me owning all of their records to this day (except for Babylon and On). Anyway, this is a long way of getting to the fact that Up the Junction was my favorite Squeeze song because it's absolutely heartbreaking. It's the story of a poor guy trying to rise above his station with a higher class woman and it all falls apart eventually. He stays poor, she moves on with his kid, he is drunk and alone and miserable. I was a depressed child and always gravitated to this kind of thing, especially for real adult problems with the thought of, "That's the life I want one day". Romantic misery. It is fucking stupid beyond belief but when you are depressed and your life sucks sometimes you just crave the visual signifiers that other people can see so they get it. No one has sympathy for, "I am sad because my brain doesn't work". Suck it up Buttercup, there are real problems out there. But man, if you can get one of those real problems? Like an actual cinematic one with what you assume to be some cool British slang about Junctions? Oh, that's the stuff, everyone will get it then. I mean, they don't, they won't, but it's part of the fantasy of misery porn. Anyway, the song describes a world that might as well have been the fucking moon to an American Teenager 20 years after the song was written but I latched onto it and it starts by saying, "I never thought it would happen/With me and a girl from Clapham". I didn't know what Clapham is and to my knowledge I have never met a girl from Clapham (I can't be sure, I have met many a woman from England but I always forget to ask) so I am way behind on my plan to meet, impregnate, fall apart, lose my job, lose my family, turn into a drunk and disappoint her. Look, it maybe was never my best thought out plan as a kid but I was always confident I could grow up to disappoint a woman, so I knew I could stick the landing. Anyway, that's a long way of saying I went to see what the fuck Up the Junction meant and that lead me to the wikipedia article about Clapham Junction and notable people from Clapham and guys, Holly Willoughby is from Clapham. Does this explain why I have always been attracted to her? Maybe. I mean, I haven't always been attracted to her. I didn't even discover her until like 2012 or something. Weird pictures of her exist from before then given she was undiscovered. Anyway, my point is this is the sort of convoluted experience that deamnds two things. One, a long post that exactly two people will read, the rest of you stopped after the first line. And two, that I post Holly Willoughby specifically. Today I want to fuck Holly Willoughby.

[moonglittering]

Dear future bf

✨ anonymous. meme. still accepting!    

How’s the weather?

Life’s been crazy for us all and it’s made me very scared to open up, but I can’t wait to meet you. Recently, I have learned to not run away from my pain and trauma. I’m sitting in it and letting it process and pass—even if it stings, sometimes. I learned that I need to move toward the pain. Pain doesn’t go away. If you don’t embrace it, it will be passed onto someone else, usually those around you. So, when we finally meet, I’ll be collected enough to not pass that baggage onto you. ♡ When we meet, I won’t be my best self. We’re never our best selves because we change every single day. But, I’ll be a version of myself that doesn’t walk in to love with paranoia sitting on my shoulders.

I want you to meet me with a sense of self that wants to keep improving, too. ♡ We’ll grow together, it’ll be really great. You don’t have to be whole and confident and sure when we finally find each other. I don’t expect that from you. It’s not: I love you no matter which of my expectations you meet or don’t meet. It’s: My only expectation is that you become yourself. The more deeply I learn you and who you are as a person, the more wonderful and beautiful you become to me.

That’s all. I love you, whoever you are and wherever you are. I can’t wait for your body to fill my arms and welcome you home. Be safe, take care, and keep warm. Or, cool. Depends on where you are! Perhaps, I don’t have much to offer. I really don’t know, I’ve never analyzed myself like that; but, I do want you to know that you have security with me and a warm place to sit. Our relationship will be a worn out, quirky, cozy couch on the penthouse rooftop. Right by my side. I’m waiting for you.

I hope you’re waiting for me, too. Ever imagined things we could do? Slow dancing to Junko Yagami. Her song, 1984. I can almost feel your hand on the small of my back, pulling me closer as we dance cheek-to-cheek. But, I’m so short... It’ll probably be cheek-to-chest. I’m sure you’re probably a lot taller than I am ( I do like ‘em tall. ) Anyway, just something to think about.

You know, I’m usually never this sentimental or romantic. Don’t worry, I’ll balance it out by complaining often and being generally unpleasant to be around while shopping at Whole Foods because I become an angry beast when confronted by all of the artisanal soaps they have on display. Staff don’t really like the fact that I pick up every single bar and press it to my nose.

Apparently, that scares the other customers.

♡ Virote.

P.S. Do you like indie films? Write back, tell me.

[unravellingsilencehq]

prompts for aurelia please 💗 thank you!!

SONGS ON AURELIA ROOKWOOD'S MIXTAPE COULD BE...

"I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation. Living in the past, it's a new generation. A girl can do what she wants to do and that's what I'm gonna do." - Bad Reputaion, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (1980) [x]

A bad girl seemingly without a cause, Aurelia gained a bit of a reputation as a bully at school which has translated into her adult life working at Witch Weekly. You could explore Aurelia's earlier years in her sample and think of her rivalries with certain girls at school. You could even use her childhood as a flashback and consider how she has rather changed ot stayed the same in her adult life. Is she still just as cutting? Have her ways of opperating gotten more sneaky or is she still very much in your face with how rude or abrupt she is with those she doesn't deem useful to her?

"A goddess on a mountain top. Was burning like a silver flame. The summit of beauty and love. And Venus was her name." - Venus, Bananarama (1986) [x]

Aurelia realised late into her teenage years she had a certain power over men, you could stage your sample during a time where she first noticed this or when it came in handy. Perhaps it was her first time trying to get a job at Witch Weekly or how at school she could convince CAIUS BURKE [close friend/former partner/potential romantic liaison/] or KERVENS BORGIN [best friend/potential romantic liaison] to do whatever she wanted. Consider how Aurelia feels about having this power and how it has its upsides and perhaps its downsides also.

"Some people work for a living. Some people work for fun. Girl, I just work for you. They told me marriage was a give-and-take. Well, you've shown me you can take, you've got some giving to do." - Everything She Wants, Wham (1984) [x]

To everyone outside of their relationship, Aurelia's relationship with AJAX DAVIS [partner] is toxic. How does it feel to Aurelia? Is she aware of all the bad things she does to him and how does it make her feel? Does she truly love Ajax or is he a means to an end or even worse, something to play with when she gets bored? You could stage your sample during a time she considers this, a date they are having, a heated argument or maybe discussing it with a friend like EMMA SQUIGGLE [friend] over a few drinks.

[wonstop]

fuck it. my rq is that uhhhhh,,,, please tell me facts about the 80s :)

^ Asks that make Cowboy, as a grown ass man, go "TEEHEE"

Well for one the shirt I linked in that fashion post was actually one of the most popular brands to wear in the 80s, which is why I sought it out. (Also: I had to search for the past term for seek. :( )

I'm kinda bad at thinking of things for such broad topics, but let's see, what's some fun stuff I know...

Well, I know personal computers first started becoming really popular in the 80s. Before that, they were machines that took up entire rooms and weren't something you'd find in anyone's home, but smaller, more public-friendly versions started coming into the market in the late 70s and experienced a boom during the 80s.

One of my favorite computers of the 80s is the Amiga, which is kind of a basic 80s computer to like, but... look at it!

It was pretty much, as far as I know, at least one of the best computers of its time, with a sleek, unique, and fast-loading system, a lot more RAM than its competitor the C64, amazing and vibrant visuals the likes of which had pretty much never been seen on a personal computer before, more hardware capabilities, better multitasking... basically it was a dream machine. The line also has one of my favorite UIs:

Check out how awesome these graphics are! The Amiga boasted games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Lemmings, Bubble Bobble, and the original Sid Meier's Civilization.

Of course, they went bankrupt in the 90s, after attempting and utterly failing to market the Amiga as a gaming console. IBM, Apple, and Windows were also coming out with computers around that time, with the first MacIntosh coming out in 1984 and Windows 1 (which was among the first to require the use of a mouse for input, rather than the keyboard!) coming out a year later in 1985.

LGR on YouTube has a lot of cool videos about 80s computers that I'd recommend checking out - he's also a lot better at memorizing facts and knowing things about computers than I am, lol. I'm not good at any of the technical stuff. In fact, I can't promise I'm remembering everything correctly here - I'd recommend looking into this stuff if it interests you, the boom of personal computers and technology in general in the 80s is really cool. But anyways...

Speaking of computers, the first music video to use CGI came out in 1985, that being Dire Straits' Money For Nothing. Check it out -

It was even referenced in an episode of a show called ReBoot, which I'd also love to talk about, but came about in the 90s. (There was some SERIOUSLY COOL CGI in the 90s! Early CGI stuff is SO AWESOME, it's so cool to see how far it's come and to think about how awesome it must have been to see something like this when it came out!) And with MTV coming out in the 80s too (1981), this probably made a pretty great impression and, I imagine, was one of the most interesting MVs on TV at the time! It's certainly one of my favorites, and in fact, I love the song, too.

The first music video on MTV, fittingly, was Video Killed the Radio Star, presented after the channel came on air with the iconic line: "Ladies and gentlemen, rock 'n roll!"

I could ramble a lot about the music and movies of the time, especially horror and practical effects, but this post is already pretty long and totally unrelated to this blog. There were a lot of technological advancements and huge cultural impacts made in the 80s that we see and use (or at the very least see the effects of) to this day, and discoveries made and researches done, and really awesome subcultures and fashions, like trad goth and skate punk and New Romantics my beloved and, and, and-- and th. And. The. And. And. 😍💓💞💖🥰❣️💝💘💞😍💘❣️💓💘❣️💗