Tag Archives: 80’s song for every moment in life

Stay gold, Ponyboy (Subtitled: Don’t forget about the robots)

by | Leave a comment

Because Sissy is A-Number-One Citizen, she has already read her two Summer Reading Assignment books and is wrapping up her essay on same.  Need I mention that it’s still actually summer vacation?  And the assignment isn’t due until the Friday AFTER school starts?!  Yes, I need mention that, because then you’ll agree – God bless A-Number-One-Citizens!

But because the assignment was written in a confusing way (Two sets of paragraphs, one for EACH book?  Or one set of paragraphs, to cover BOTH books??  See?!  Confusing.) Sissy called me into the computer room where she was typing her assignment for a clarification discussion.

Once that discussion was over, we moved into a conversation about the setting of one of the books.  She had been going down some path where she was trying to place it in time (mid-1960’s) and actual mid-Western state (implied but unnamed).  But she revised it slightly once I started asking my usual insightful questions, “Was the name where the book took place mentioned?  If not, WHERE did it take place – in the country, or a city?  A big, wealthy city or not??  Were there any clues about the time of year when it happened?  Summer?  Winter??”

Then, because I’m a fun and pretty mother – and just a teeeensy bit mean (ok, a LOT mean) – as I’m walking away I say, “And don’t forget about the robots.  I think you should definitely mention something about the robots.”

…processing…processing…processing

“WHAT??!!?!  I DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT ROBOTS!!!!  HOW CAN I MENTION ABOUT ROBOTS WHEN I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THERE WERE ROBOTS?!??!!”

I suppose it would be helpful if you knew which books I was talking about, right?  One was uglies by Scott Westerfeld.  Published in 2011.  Never heard of it.  Never read it.  However, it looks intriguing: “A world where everyone’s ugly.  And then they’re not.”  Hmmmm…

But the other book?  The one with the robots??  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.  Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’bout.  Read it.  Lived it.  LOVED it!  It was the book of my generation.  Well…more like the movie of my generation, but still.  Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released in 1983.  It starred all those hot boys from back in the day – C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio.  Oh my GOSH!  And?  It introduced robots into the mainstream.  It doesn’t GET any more 80’s than that, who’s yer daddy?!  Except when I mention that the movie popularized that song “Gloria” by Them.  G-L-O-R-I-Aaaaa.  Glooo-ria!

Turning book reports into winning strategies for the “80’s Song for Every Moment in Life” game we play. 

And now that I’ve won this round, all I have to say in closing is: Stay Gold, Ponyboy! 

And no, there aren’t any robots in the book OR the movie.  I was just funnin’ ya.

Inferno

by | Leave a comment

So I’m finally reading Inferno by Dan Brown.  

Is it just me or does anyone else think that “The Consortium” in the book is eerily similar to “The Foundation” that Kelly Taylor worked for on that show from the late 80’s, Beverly Hills 90210?!

For some strange reason my husband always referred to Beverly Hills 90210 as Beverly Cheese Nine Oh Cheese One Cheese. I can’t think why ’cause it was a real “quality” show wherein all of the eating disorders were solved at a restaurant-com-nightclub called the Peach Pit (After Dark). Total. Quality. Show.

Anywho, Inferno has all the usual Dan Brown bidnid – history, art, codes, symbolism blah, blah, blah.  But with the added benefit of being based on Sandro Botticelli’s extremely gruesome “Map of Hell” drawing – which itself is based on the descent-into-hell portion of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”.  So that’s…fun.

There’s even this one part in the book where the main character, Robert Langdon, describes how one theoretically gets to Hell.  And if you’ve ever taken Robert Langdon’s Harvard Hell 101 course, you know that you have to cross the River Styx to get there.  The ferryman Charon takes you in his boat to the mouth of the underworld.

Wait.  A.  Second.  Did someone say FERRYMAN?!? 

Dah-nahhhh-nah-na-nah!  Dah-nahhhh-nah-NAH!!

Don’t pay the ferryman
 Don’t even fix a price
 Don’t pay the ferryman
 Until he gets you to the other side

And now?  Now the Chris de Burgh song “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” is in my head.  And yes, that IS the same song from de Burgh’s “The Getaway” album which hit number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 song list in 1983. 

This thing I do with 80’s songs?  How I make it seem like there’s an 80’s song for every moment in life??  It’s a gift really.  But still, there should be an award for being so good at it.  Being able to take a hellish book about all of the hellish symbolism in a hellish painting and give it a theme song?  Amaze-balls.  Awards Materials.

Dan Brown who?

Dah-nahhhh-nah-na-nah!  Dah-nahhhh-nah-NAH!!

Comment-ary

by | 3 Comments

I love getting electronic comments to my blog posts.  I get a little thrill when I open up my blogging dashboard to see that I’ve received a comment.  Take for example this latest one…

It’s from someone called Nike Air Jordan.  Nike A.J. writes: Hello there, I found your site by way of Google even as looking for a comparable topic, your site got here up, it appears to be like good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

While Nike A.J.’s name seems a little self-promoting, the rest of the post is all very thrilling.  She (I’m assuming ‘she.’  You’ll see why in a sec) says that my post appears to be…like…good.  Hmmm.  A little too…like…Valley Girlish for me, but I’ll take the compliment.  Also?  Me thinkey me have a new follower since Nike A.J. has taken my site (which got here? Up??) and bookmarked it in her google bookmarks.  Score!

Next comes a comment from Oakley Frogskin Sunglasses.  Future’s so bright, gotta wear shades writes that: This website is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists….

Uh…I think it’s a problem on your end.  No one else has mentioned the loading issue to me.  Because you guys would mention the loading issue to me, right?  And Future’s So Bright??  Please don’t check back because the problem will still exist, because yer not wanted round these here parts.

Or how about this comment from someone called Yves Saint Laurent Bags:  Shop the latest collection of Miu Miu dresses. Find the largest selection of Miu miu women dresses – miu miu women dresses on line sales. Discover Miu Miu’s new-season dresses, miumiu dress 2014 & more on sale. Fast shipping germany, france, usa, cana…

Ok.  Gotta cut ya off right there, Yves.  You’re name seems a little too…familiar.  And I’m not really sure why are you offering the latest Miu Miu dresses (with a variety of capitalization options, by the way) in your precious comment space when you could be saying instead about how my blog appears to be…like…good.  I will call this one spam.  Moving on…

This next comment comes from someone named オメガコピー時計 who writes:ブルガリスーパーコピー(Bvlgari),人気ブルガリコピー時計,ブルガリ偽物時計.ピアジェスーパーコピー(Piaget),人気ピアジェコピー時計,ピアジェ偽物時計：シチズンスーパーコピー(Citizen),人気シチズンコピー時計,シチズン偽物時計.

Er – thanks, オメガコピー時計. May I call you Mr. Robot?  And if you’re sending me secret coded messages in the form of watch brand names, you should probably stop.  Because Homey don’t play coded messages – or watches for sale.  In fact, I’m not really sure what your post is all about, so instead, I’ll assume you’re saying something along the lines of, “Kudos on a witty, insightful blog.”  To which I reply, “Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto.  Dōmo, dōmo.  Dōmo, dōmo.”*

*Why yes, that does mean, “Thank you very much, Mr. Robot,” in Japanese.  And since you brought it up, yes, those ARE the lyrics to the song “Mr. Roboto” by Styx which was recorded in 1982 and released in 1983 on their album, “Kilroy Was Here.”  And now?  Now there’s talk of a lifetime achievement award.  For me.  For RULING in this game that we play called “An 80’s song for every moment in life.”  But don’t worry, I’ll include you in my acceptance speech.  To all the people who played – and played poorly – but who ultimately made this award possible for me, dōmo, dōmo.