Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Six

tv shows:

• the golden girls (1985-92) season one, eps 8-10. hahaha, what the hell, the opening of episode 8 shows them returning from a madonna concert, sophia included.

• family ties (1982-89) season one, eps 1-2. i never loved this show, i liked it, but you can never have enough michael j fox in your life.

• married...with children (1987-97) season two, eps 4-8. i only have 48 episodes left to watch that aired in the 80s!

music:

• various 80s comps during my lush shift, including the valley girl soundtrack.

food & drink:

(an interesting day of eating...)

• twinings lady grey tea & sara lee carrot cake.

• strawberry kiss bubble cup w/ pearls.

• leftover vegetable rissole & uh, fantales. good combo.

• er, cheese & a teddy bear biscuit...

challenges/comments:

one of our young regular customers at lush came into the store & we got talking about all these shows we liked, total illegal operation for this month. he's very into nightmare on elm street, so we talked about that for a bit too, but ah, yeah, my bad.

also accidentally asked my workmate cardia about the book she was reading, but it wasn't published in the 80s, bogus!

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Five

movies:

• raiders of the lost ark (1981) indiana jones is such a tex murphy (or tex murphy is such an indiana jones...). i don't remember these movies being quite so gory though! gnarly/righteous melting/exploding head scene at the end.

tv shows:

• good morning, miss bliss (1988-89) season one, ep 9. i've noticed screech is practically subdued throughout this series, they really turned him up a notch for saved by the bell.

• the golden girls (1985-1992) season one, ep 6-7. blanche's grandson visits & teenages the crap out of the place (i.e. his mates visit & SLOUCH ON THE COUCH!).

• married...with children (1987-97) season 2, eps 2-3. most excellent two parter with the bundys holidaying in dumpwater, florida at a murder motel. it's beginning to be established that al & peggy don't really willingly have sex anymore. during the first season, they were shown happily running off to the bedroom most episodes, but during this two-parter, peggy begs al for sex when they get to the motel, reasoning that they're on vacation. al cries at the thought of it. it becomes a running gag throughout the rest of the series, taken to the extreme when peggy becomes pregnant by practically assaulting al after he'd had a few beers.

food & drink:

• kfc chips & potato & gravy.

• twinings lady grey tea & sara lee carrot cake

• vegetable rissoles, avocado, spinach & a blackberry smoothie

• teevee snacks! also fantales, milky bar & jaffas.

challenges/comments:

my favourite lady solved my radio problem, her housemate suggested i try 91.5. they're got this summer 80s thing going on with their programming & they don't play ads between the songs, stoked! as long as i switch it off when the news update comes on, it's safe to have on at work. excellent.
court totally used the word grody too! i don't know how it ever stopped being in common use.

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Four

movies:

• the secret of my success (1987) i love michael j fox, because he's ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE, like me. his love interest in this movie is fairly pretty much totally princess di.

tv shows:

• the golden girls (1985-92) season one, eps 4-5. blanche's sister needs a kidney transplant & blanche struggles with whether to hand over the goods, CLASSIC SITCOM STORYLINE NUMBER ONE!
• good morning, miss bliss (1988-89) season one, eps 4-8. one of the students protests when asked to dissect a frog in science class, CLASSIC SITCOM STORYLINE NUMBER TWO.
• married...with children (1987-97) season one, eps 11-13 & season two, ep 1. buck knocks up another dog in the neighbourhood, CLASSIC SITCOM STORYLINE NUMBER THREE.

music:

• kyle was playing a lot of Les Rallizes Dénudés (all 80s recordings, he assures me).

food & drink:

• cup of twinings lady grey tea & a teddy bear biscuit (STOKED TO HAVE MUCH OF BOTH OF THESE!).
• leftover mushroom pie & salad for lunch.
• sara lee banana cake & lady grey tea.
• cheese & vegetable gratin for dinner, recipe from the marg fulton book.
• milky bar & fantales, tubular!

challenges/comments:

in a somewhat bizarre incident at home, kyle was reading the news online when he suddenly yelled out with major enthusiasm "HAMISH BLAKE IS ENGAGED!". after slapping him for revealing current news, i then spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why he was so excited...

every wednesday after i finish my morning job, i wander down to our main laboratory to spend the afternoon watching people wee for corrections victoria. yep. anyway, i have a little tradition. i stop at safeway to grab my weekly bibles of average aussie trash, that's life! & take 5. of course, i couldn't today & wept until i could weep no more. i'm going to get kyle to buy them over the next month & then, oh boy, i am going to have the best day ever catching up on stories of nigerian love cheats & people's skin removal surgery.

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Three

movies:

• valley girl (1983) basically an 80s slang how-to. best soundtrack. nic cage is extremely nic cage like, as usual. that man manages to both terrify me & make me believe in a better world all at the same time.
• fatal attraction (1987) hadn't seen this in forever & was intensely distracted by how scary glenn close looks. not because her character is a grody creep, but like, her actual physical appearance. ghoulish horseface. i had nightmares.

tv shows:

• good morning, miss bliss (1988-89) season one, eps 1-3. this show is unofficially the first season of saved by the bell. screech, zack, lisa & mr belding are there, but they're in junior high & miss bliss is the featured teacher, instead of mr. belding. it lasted one season before they retooled it, graduated the kids & renamed it saved by the bell. miss bliss is a poncy tart, so i'm glad they got rid of her.
• the golden girls (1985-1992) season one, ep 3. dorothy can't beat sophia at gin rummy, oh the drama that ensues!
• married...with children (1987-97) season 1, eps 7-10. kyle is loving this, having not really seen it before, stoked!
  

music:

• the jesus & mary chain's barbed wire kisses (1988) on the record player while kyle & i were painting in the garage.

food & drink:

• sara lee banana cake & lipton tea (grody...i can't have my usual T2, as they weren't around in the 80s, so had to settle...buying twinings tomorrow to get me through the month).

• cherry apple lollipop.

• shin ramyun noodles...second last pack, won't buy any 'til next month, i have to break the stomach churning addiction!

• mushroom & nut pie, salad, banana smoothie. pie recipe from the margaret fulton book. this was way gnarly, margaret knows what time it is.

• cola zooper dooper. we bought the aldi version of zooper doopers last month and they were grody to the max (i'm genuinely in love with the word grody, by the way). kyle was forcing himself to eat them, but gave in & threw them out yesterday. nothing compares to the original.

challenges/comments:

first day back at my path centre since i started this. the very first thing that the very first patient said to me when i brought him in was "happy new year...how about that guy who blew his head off with the fireworks?". i couldn't scream "NOOOOOOOOOOO, I'M LIVING IN THE 80S FOR THE MONTH & I CAN'T HEAR THE NEWS, DUHHHHH!". instead i said "yeah that was something...but you should've seen my cats on new years with all the carry on, their ears were so pricked up!". yeah.

i really missed having my radio on at work. maybe i can find one of those oldies community stations that have no ads & only play music from the 30s & everyone's name is betty & sound like they're being run from a nursing home. i remember finding a station like that when i lived in st. kilda during my teens, it was my favourite.

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day Two

movies:

• war of the roses (1989) i remember all the bitter divorcées of my childhood loving this movie. divorce/unhappy marriage was seemingly all the rage in the 80s. i am not a bitter divorcée, but i love this movie. michael douglas is grody to the max, but kathleen turner is one righteous babe.
• mr. mom (1983) ahhhh, this was so cute! written by john hughes. martin mull is in it, always a plus.

tv shows:

• married...with children (1987-97) season 1, eps 1-6. i grew up with this show, so it's pretty rad that 3 & 1/2 seasons aired in the 80s, so i can watch them this month. bitchin'! i remember my dad, brother & i loved it & didn't miss an episode, while my mum hated it & grumbled in the background. al bundy is hands down one of the greatest tv characters of all time. it's good straight off from the pilot episode too, most shows take at least half a season to get into the swing of things. uh, tubular.
• freddy's nightmares (1988-90) season 1, ep 1. this show was a spin-off from the nightmare on elm street movies & is an anthology show, like the twilight zone. the first episode was about how freddy became freddy basically & was a bit slow moving. from what i know of it, most of the stories don't actually involve freddy. maybe it gets better, or maybe it's a pile of crap, we'll see.

music:

• the human league's dare (1981) while i cooked dinner. i seriously considered phil oakey-ing my hair for this month (i still kind of want to).

food & drink:

• eggs & avocado on multigrain & a cappuccino for breakfast.

• shin ramyun noodles for lunch.

• smiths crinkle cut chips.

• spinach & potato patties and avocado w/ raspberry vinaigrette for dinner. both are recipes from my trusty margaret fulton book of vegetarian cooking (1989). i made the avocado dish just because it looked like the most hilariously 80s thing in there, but it was actually completely awesome. stoked. margaret fulton looks alive on the back cover of this book, far more pleasant than the zombie apocalypse cardboard stand that haunted me in coles all last year.

challenges/comments:

spent the entire day vegged out at home, safe from outside influences.

i miss my 5:30 eddie mcguire fix. i wish i had some episodes of sale of the century or wheel of fortune to tide me over. i don't think i ever would've crushed on tony barber like i do on eddie, though. burgo on the other hand...

Livin' in the 80s Month: Day One

movies:

• hot pursuit (1987) john cusack tries to find his girlfriend in the caribbean, hi jinks ensue. i'd never seen this before & wish i'd kept it that way. also features jerry stiller playing the exact same character he plays in everything ever.
• star wars episode VI: return of the jedi (1983) finally. years ago, i promised kyle i'd watch the original star wars movies with him (having avoided them all my life). i got through the first two ok a while ago, but couldn't bring myself to watch the last. well, it's done now & may we never speak of this franchise again (though i did like that part where chewy hugged han solo...and those teddy bear things were kind of cute).

tv shows:

• the golden girls (1985-92) season 1, eps 1-2. i forgot how much i loved this show. blanche gets involved with a bigamist! dorothy confronts her cheating ex stan at their daughter's wedding. i was having trouble remembering the gay housekeeper coco while watching the first episode, which makes sense as the character was dumped when the show was picked up.

music:

• various 80s compilations during my shift at lush, inc. dickie wilkins hits of the 80s #1 and #2!

food & drink:

• space food stick on my way to work! plus choc coconut & lemon slices & some fruit salad when i got there courtesy of my workmate whitey.

• kumquat & taro pudding bubble tea. i don't even know what a kumquat is, but the taste was not unlike regurgitated orange juice.

• japanese curry & rice for lunch.

• home time, west coast coolers! this was the only pack at my local bottle-o & i'm pretty sure it's been there since the 80s. later on, i had a bacardi & coke and a cosmopolitan.

• microwave popcorn with the movies.

• shin ramyun noodles (thankfully sold since 1986...i've been going through a phase with these, even though my digestive system is less than keen about it).

• top deck chocolate.

challenges:

i already really, really miss the news. i can't shake this feeling that something really important has happened & I DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT. in 80s news, there's lots of shit going down in the USSR...

on the bus on my way to work, well, as i put it on my facebook "a posse of newjacks are blasting their boom box on my wheels! i can't tell them to step off, but am saved by the earplugs in my bag! bitchin'!".

watching my slang is proving tricky...going on my lunch break yesterday, i said "BRBBBBBB", as i always do, then had to slap myself hard on the face for doing so. which you can only get away with so many times in public before they put you in the loony bin, but it's THE ONLY WAY I'LL LEARN!

Livin' in the 80s Month!

a few weeks ago, i decided i wanted to live an entire month confined to 1980s culture (for nothing other than my own personal kicks).
december was going to be too busy, so i settled on january & here we are, january 1st.
i rang in the new year last night with some footage from the countdown to 1984 & distressingly woke up with "she blinded me with science" in my head, fuck it. i hate that song. i mean, i hate that latest smash hit by thomas dolby.
i'll be updating this blog daily with how i'm going. here's the rules:

• movies/TV: i can only watch movies and TV shows that were released/aired during the 80s. watching qualifying shows/movies on free to air television is risky, as i can't watch the ads, so i'll likely be avoiding it altogether and just relying on my own collection (we've disconnected the aerial).
  
• music: i can only listen to music released during the 80s.
• books/magazines: i can only read books/magazines released/issued during the 80s.
• food/drink: i can only consume food and drink that was available in the 80s. it doesn't necessarily have to have been available in australia during the 80s, anywhere in the world will suffice (for instance, today i had bubble tea, which originated in taiwan in the 80s, but did not become available here until much later).
• video games: i'm a nintendo nerd, but we only have consoles from SNES onwards, so no video games for me. we have plenty of board games, though (unfortunately my all time favourite, the home improvement board game, will have to have the month off).
  
• technology: given how hard it was going to be to access enough old technology to get me through the month (signing up for a home phone again, obtaining playable VHS tapes etc.) & the fact that i wanted to keep an internet based record of this whole thing, i am giving myself a fair amount of leeway with this. my movies and tv shows are all either on DVDs or are avi files being watched through a usb stick connected to my set top box. i can only use the internet for work related reasons, for research purposes relating to this project (e.g. was cadbury top deck available in the 80s?), and for the purposes of updating this blog and my facebook regarding this project. my "home phone" is in fact my iphone, however i am banned from using it for anything other than phonecalls, and facebooking/internet relating solely to this project or work (i am rather upset that all my words with friends games are going to lapse!).
• news: i cannot watch any televised news, read a newspaper, or listen to radio. i can however read news from the 80s. my husband kyle is planning on printing a page of news from online archives every day for me to read.
  
• work: i work two jobs, one being as a pathology collector in a medical centre. i have my own room there & usually have talkback radio playing for background noise/entertainment/patient distraction. this will have to stay off for the month. i can't even play gold fm, because they play 90s music now (plus the news updates & ads are a problem). i don't anticipate other problems there, apart from patients talking to me about the news, as they sometimes do. my action plan if that happens is to just yell "LOOK, KITTY!" and point to the pictures of my kitties i have around. my other job is at a LUSH cosmetics store, the girls there have already been given the heads up & have pledged support to only play 80s cds when i'm rostered on, chaaaaaaamps! i sometimes need to use the internet to update our store's facebook page & this is allowed.
• language: i am awkwardly trying to incorporate 80s slang into my everyday vocabulary...so, ah, bag your face.

other rules/issues will be dealt with as they happen. day one's blog post to come in the morning!