Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Nine

movies:

• back to the future (1985) holy shit, christopher lloyd was only 46 when he filmed this movie! i mean, i know he was somewhat made up to look older (hell, crispin glover played michael j fox's dad & he was 3 years younger than him), but still!

• back to the future part II (1989) in what i found to be a bizarre revelation, kyle said that he'd watched part 2 the least of all three movies & that he'd probably seen part 3 the most. i thought part 2 was the one everyone had watched a million times, then part 1, then part 3. i'm right, right? BLEW MY MIND. 3 more years to 2015! i have full faith that all technology featured in this movie will be commonplace by then (we can do it!).

tv shows:

• full house (1987-95) season two, eps 13-15. episode 14 is a valentine's day episode & danny, joey & jesse give the girls presents. ok, little weird, but whatever. maybe some families roll like that, i don't know. i always thought it weird that some of my friends got presents from their families for easter, but maybe my family is just cheap. i got presents for my birthday and for xmas, other occasions were not present warranting occasions. anyway, then the girls get cards from all the kids in their classes. this i am sure is not done here. unless it really was & i just went to crappy schools whose budgets didn't allow for the extra paper required to make the cards (this is entirely possible). i've seen it in a few american shows, i guess it's a common tradition over there. i don't think aussie kids could hack it, the temptation to take the piss would be too much.

music:

• there's this six disc 80s hits compilation at lush work that i've had on decent rotation this month, but i'd always skipped the yellow disc for some reason. maybe it'd been hiding behind another disc. anyway, put it on today & not only does it contain the ghostbusters theme, but divine's 'you think you're a man' is on there too! winner!

food & drink:

• twinings lady grey tea & sara lee carrot cake.

• 2 cadbury furry friends. loved these as a kid, but was disappointed to discover they're no longer packaged in foil & a paper sleeve. i loved straightening out the foil with my fingernails & collecting the paper sleeves. bummer.

• glucojel jellybeans.
  

• spicy asian vegetables in crispy baskets (recipe from the women's weekly vegetarian cookbook).

challenges/comments:

in the late 80s, we used to go thing finding around the alleys behind our house in brunswick & one day we found our wonderful stray cat, who we called usagi yojimbo (a character that had been appearing in teenage mutant ninja turtles at the time). he was a great cat & i loved him very much, rest in peace usagi!

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Eight

movies:

• mannequin (1987) mannequin features two faces i've been seeing a lot of this month, andrew mccarthy & estelle getty. mccarthy plays a guy who falls in love with a mannequin (or more accurately, an ancient egyptian woman who time travelled into the body of a mannequin), played by kim cattrall, when she was a little less herpes (i kid, i kid, i actually quite like her...especially after she played britney's mom in crossroads, hoot hoot!). a pretty radical sequel was made a few years later starring kristy swanson, which i actually think is a little better than the first. also features james spader as a somewhat snivelling department store employee.

also, if anyone wants to track this jacket & hat down for me, that'd be swell.

tv shows:

• full house (1987-95) season two, ep 12. dj & kimmy tape over uncle jesse's newly recorded jingle with their own version of the loco-motion. after he rightly tells off dj, he feels bad & buys her a frickin' drum kit! then danny gets angry at jesse for both buying dj a drum kit & yelling at her! these kids get away with freakin' murder! and they're always up so goddamn late, partying with their uncles! it was a stretch for me to be allowed to stay up until 8pm to watch this show when i was their age! damn kids, making me get out the exclamation marks!

food & drink:

• passionfruit bubble cup.

• strawberry daiquiri (good!) and chips (baaaaaaaad) at tgi friday's happy hour (what a gaudy place! everything i expected).

• spring onion pancake & dumplings at dumpling specialist (excellent).

challenges/comments:

i really miss T2 tea. i quite like some varieties of twinings, but none really compare to my favourite T2 blends. tea & cake has become an important part of my day (ahhh, i am truly approaching my thirties now), so this shit matters, ok?

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Seven

movies:

• bill & ted's excellent adventure (1989) my childhood obsession. one of the first vhs tapes we owned. i watched this movie so much that i actually memorised it in full & would watch it in my head every night before i went to sleep. i even went through a stage where i thought i was joan of arc & fashioned myself a sword out of silver gaffa tape. beyond fantastic movie for a litany of reasons, doesn't get much better than this. have some so-crates!

ziggy piggy, ziggy piggy, ZIGGY PIGGY! oink oink oink oink oink!

tv shows:

• full house (1987-95) season two, eps 10-11. uncle joey has the most amazing collection of shirts i've ever laid eyes on. i don't know where on earth you find shirts like this anymore, but kyle needs them. he's a classic uncle joey type of guy. op-shops have proved fruitless. the mission continues. we will succeed.

food & drink:

• agedashi tofu bento set at kaneda for linner.

• twinings traditional afternoon tea & homemade carrot cake.
  

challenges/comments:

oh dear god, i really miss the soup. kyle & i have a sunday morning tradition where we make some awesome shit for breakfast & watch the soup. we call it soup sunday (duhhhhh!). substitutes have included married...with children & full house, but IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME. it's been a hardship. however, next sunday will be a pretty major catch up soup sunday of excellence, that's pretty sweet i guess.

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Six

movies:

• adventures in babysitting (1987) classic out-all-night movie. elizabeth shue is a bonafide 80s babe. also features a future 2000s babe, vincent d'onofrio a.k.a. detective goren, looking a tad bleached.
  

tv shows:

• amazing stories (1985-87) season one, eps 11-12. clint eastwood, the episode you directed was a bit of a dud too. go sit in the naughty corner with burt.

music:

• various bits & pieces during my lush shift, inc. echo & the bunnymen's grey album (it's the only bunnymen album i can get away with playing in the shop)

food & drink:

• homemade carrot & walnut cake, twinings irish breakfast tea & bits of cardia's dip & bread at lush work.

• avocado, eggs & sundried tomatoes on toast (breakfast for dinner always!).

• twinings lady grey tea & homemade carrot & walnut cake.

challenges/comments:

kyle is starting to get really distressed about not being able to talk to me about current events & stupid internet stuff. seriously. about twice a day he'll throw his arms up in the air & yelp about not being to show me the latest white ninja or some dumb thing someone somewhere did & stories containing the word poopdick & more often than not, tim & eric. SOON, K-MAN, SOON.

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Five

tv shows:

• tales from the crypt (1989-96) season one, ep 1. another horror anthology show, bit addicted to the format it seems. this series is based on the tales from the crypt comics from the 50s & uses stories from that & other related comics of the era. i remember buying a lot of reprints of said comics when i was 13, good readin'. there was an amazing sounding tales from the crypt christmas album released featuring xmas classics spookified & sung by the cryptkeeper (the zombie type guy who introduces the episodes). titles include "we wish you'd bury the missus" (we wish you a merry christmas) & "deck the halls with parts of charlie". must have.
  

• full house (1987-95) season two, eps 1-9. i remember absolutely hating stephanie (the middle sister) when i watched this show growing up, she was an utter jan & i remember being very glad that i didn't have a sister, because i thought i'd be unlucky enough to get one like her. i idolised DJ (the oldest sister) & wanted to be like her. now, the complete opposite is true. i think stephanie's a really cool little character (and really, a pretty good actor, that kid) and want to punch DJ in the face every time she's in frame. hmmm.

• amazing stories (1985-87) season one, ep 9-10. burt reynolds, the episode you directed was pretty half-arsed. just, ah, yeah.

music:

• does the wail of a screaming child while it waits an hour & a half with it's mum for the doctor count? kyle would probably say it's music. i swear kids cried less in the 80s. well, except me. i was big on the sound of my own voice. mum had to quit her job because i refused to stay at kindergarten & would scream until they had to call mum to come collect me. sorry mum.

food & drink:

• twinings english breakfast tea & homemade carrot cake.

• diet coke, mineral water, curly wurly & pomegranates for lunch at the lab.

• spring onion pancake, vegetarian noodles & banana fritter for dinner in box hill.

challenges/comments:

i'm starting to feel really horrible for the effect my month is having on people! i try & discreetly stick my fingers in my ears when my friends bring up current pop culture or the news, but they notice & look horrified & apologise! poor friends, it's ok!

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Twenty Four

movies:

• weekend at bernie's (1989) so many questions with this movie. didn't people notice the smell? the cold skin? aren't people supposed to decompose fairly quickly when they die? the fact that all of the above was ignored just makes this only-in-the-80s classic even funnier. i have this weird memory from when the sequel was released. we were living in watt st, thornbury (where do you live? watt st. yeah that's what i'm asking, what street? WATT ST. WHAT'S THE STREET NAME? IT'S FREAKIN' WATT ST.) & a radio station was doing one of those random promo giveaways outside our house. we were the only household in the street willing to sacrifice our dignity to go on the air answering stupid questions to win prizes. we didn't know the answers to anything, they were asking things about kim wilde or some shit, but they gave us prizes anyway. double passes to weekend at bernie's 2, chips, cds & soft drinks, HOORAY.

tv shows:

• growing pains (1985-92) season one, eps 8-9. fun fact: the mum has a baby during the fourth season & i guess the writers got a little bored of writing baby/toddler storylines, because the kid ended the fifth season a toddler & started the sixth season as a six year old.

• murder, she wrote (1984-96) season one, ep 2. oh man, so i hear there's a recent murder, she wrote pc game. on it.

• tales from the darkside (1983-88) season one, eps 1-4. episode 2 has a man selling his soul to a friend for a million dollars & i of course thought of that episode of the simpsons where bart sells his soul to milhouse. it's such a classic storyline, i wonder where it originated.

• amazing stories (1985-87) season one, eps 1-8. a fantasy, sci-fi & horror anthology show created by steven spielberg, something i’d never watched, but heard a bit about from time to time. i finally bothered to track it down for the purposes of this month & as it turns out, love the crap out of it. quite a few famous directors & actors were involved in episodes & it has somewhat higher production values than some similar shows than ran through the 80s (tales from the crypt, tales from the darkside, freddy’s nightmares etc.). a thoroughly engrossing show (some eps more than others, as with any show), evident in the fact that i postponed my planned movies for the night to smash out 8 episodes instead.

food & drink:

• mocha.

• twinings irish breakfast tea & homemade carrot & walnut cake.

• vegetable dumplings.

• peach from our newly discovered peach tree!

• twinings lady grey tea & homemade carrot & walnut cake (it's really rather good).

• shin ramyun noodles w/ egg.

• choc wedge ice cream.

• frozen blueberries.

challenges/comments:

no seriously, i've got an unhealthy attachment to shoulderpads a-brewing...even when i'm not wearing them, i find myself adjusting my posture to look more, ah, shouldery.