Well, the junk first of all: If you went to movies a lot in the '80s, like we did, this is a stupendously easy quiz. (A 50-question quiz that 11% of people get 100% right can't be too difficult, after all.) (I did have to guess on a couple, but they don't even make guessing terribly hard. I am kinda the queen of the educated guess ( Read more... )

Music advent for 1986 (although it's a later performance, as Eddie Vedder's presence might tip you off to):

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So, the parade of reminiscences about concerts and such stops abruptly at the end of 1985, because at the beginning of 1986, I left Austin. I gave you the hints in the last entry - I hated my job, I hated my roommate. I loved my friends but ( Read more... )

Well, before I get around to talking about concerts, let me tell you what happened to me in 1985, in a nutshell. I got one full-time job, replacing the two part-time ones. It still didn't pay very well, but better than I was making before. It was back in the Serials department, where I had worked before, and... I hated it. Once the new wore off, I ( Read more... )

Aside: I threatened on Twitter to "rickroll" the last day of Music Advent, since I was on 1987 on Christmas Day and that turns out to be when "Never Gonna Give You Up" was released. (1987, I mean, not Christmas. And I do remember Rick Astley from back in the 80s, but he was never one of my particular favorites, as I remember it.) I don't think you ( Read more... )

I started talking about 1983 in the last entry, let's see if I have anything else I feel the need to say about it ( Read more... )

I was saying "if I thought of anything else that happened in 1982" last night - I said that because I was half-asleep at the time! - but I did actually think of something that might have been '82 or maybe even '81 - again, I'm saying that because of who I remember being with me at the time... We went to this thing, I think it was a political ( Read more... )

"Poison Arrow" is one of several songs that I've posted less for the song itself (although it's a good song!) and more because it evokes an era in my mind. These early-MTV-era songs especially seem to do that.

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As far as concert-going is concerned, I know I went to see The Cars in 1982 because I had a t-shirt that said so. (This one, with the tire ( Read more... )

Videos at the bottom ( Read more... )

For the record, I'm probably going to go on with this for the rest of the month even though Music Advent will of course technically be over Christmas Day - so I'll get up to the early 90s before I'm done. And there will then be a part 3 recap at the end of the month, assuming I haven't run out of steam before that. (I don't know why I like the ( Read more... )

I posted a Lennon song for 1981 - it was released posthumously - but I wanted to say before I forget about it again that I know exactly where I was when I heard that John Lennon was dead: in an elevator. It was in the dorm (Dobie has 26 floors, unless you lived down low you spent a lot of time in elevators, or waiting for elevators) and I think ( Read more... )