Vids From the Street

I love parodies, especially when they're done well, and who could possibly do a better parody than the Sesame Street crew featuring Jim Henson's Muppets?

Sesame Street never missed a fad in music since their premiere in 1969. The 80s, with the help of MTV, was the decade that turned music into a visual thing, so it was only natural that Sesame Street featured music video-like parodies of the latest hits.

For obvious reasons, Madonna never guested on the children's show, especially during the 80s when most moms of that time labeled her a "tramp" and other equally endearing names.

However, her Muppet likeness made the cut, largely because she was created for cuteness, rather than rolling-on-the-floor-showing-off-panties-sexy. Like the real Madonna, Cereal Girl encourages her viewers to try new things, except that the "things" tend to differ between them.



The Muppet band, Over The Top, is the Sesame Street likeness of ZZ Top. It has the same sexy-blusey sound as ZZ Top, but is sadly a one-hit-wonder on the Muppet charts.



On a more fun note, Cindi Lauper's likeness made the cut as well. However, rather than antagonizing her parents by inviting dozens of strangers from the street to party in her bedroom, the Cindi Muppet sings about the social coolness of oral hygiene.



One of my favorites has more of a hard rock sound. Muppet Billy Idle, created after the steamy and spiky Billy Idol, has possibly the sweetest Street video of its time.

The Show is On

Some videos depict a story where the artist is on stage attempting to impress a tough audience. It's fun to see the different ways in which this is done.

Rick Springfield's "Bop Till You Drop" follows a common theme in many 80s sci-fi adventure movies. The dashing hero is dressed in leather, metal, and mesh garb as he helps an oppressed civilization to freedom.

At first he tries it by singing to the oppressor, who is unimpressed and attempts to do away with the mulleted hero, who in return, uses the attempt of his execution to his advantage.



The Eurythmics' "There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)" has a much different setting. Lovely Annie Lennox is dressed in an angelic costume and is tonight's entertainment for King David Stewart.

At first he is about as unimpressed as Springfield's scaly oppressor, except rather than attempt to shoot lasers at Annie, he simply falls asleep. But he is awakened half way through her number to find that she has added a colorful twist to the show that he likes very much.



Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" deals with more of an accidental audience, where people are simply drawn to his music along a crowded street, the one exception being a neighbor yelling at them to "Shut up!"

Healing Steel

There are all kinds of relationships and there are just as many reasons why relationships dissolve. Right now, I am married to a wonderful guy who has filled many voids in my life and I have no reason to leave him.

My first marriage, however, was dissolved because of my husband's meanness towards me. These cases always start with the breaking down of the emotional strengths. That way, when the physical abuse starts, it's often expected and, sadly, accepted and even defended.



It's difficult to get out of toxic relationships. It's not as easy as walking out, especially when children are involved. The beginning of the end often starts when the victim realizes that "this isn't right." Only then can they take steps to distance themselves and hopefully not get killed in the process. (really!)

My story of an abusive past is terribly common. For many people, the abuse is present and has no sign of ending. Victims are also often in denial that something is wrong. Sometimes they know something is wrong but they are ashamed of it and pretend that all is well.



Abuse knows no social class. It knows no race, religion, age, sex, or how one relates to the next person. It cannot be assumed that this or that person is not involved in an abusive situation. Even the superstars are not immune.

Tina Turner is a tough ole' broad with a bigger-than-life voice who rocked the nation in the 60s and 70s with her husband, Ike. It wasn't until later we learned that Ike was beating her bloody on a daily basis during that time and she would meekly apply makeup to cover the bruises so she could sing and make more money for him.

It took a while but something clicked in her and said, "This isn't right!" She took some life-changing chances and managed to escape.



Her story gave me strength. It was one of the many factors that led me to realise that something was not right with my own life and there were some serious changes that needed to happen.

My road has been long and complicated. My ex is severed from my life, but there are still scars, flashbacks, setbacks, and nightmares. Little by little, I have moved past many of the wounds. At times, I can still be very mousy, weepy, indecisive, and shy, but it's because it's who I am and not because of what he made me into. I am who I am IN SPITE of him!

Kiss of Opportunity

I have said in previous posts that I don't care for much hard rock, but as I have also said before, there are some notable exceptions.

Billy Idol is one of those exceptions. He was one who bridged the gap between punk and mainstream rock. People who wouldn't normally listen to a spike-haired punk found themselves begging the radio stations to play his tunes.

Starting in the mid 70s, Idol sang in a band called Generation X before leaving it for a solo carer in the early 80s. In my opinion, he couldn't have made a better choice. Although I like Generation X, there is little doubt that Idol had so much more to offer than what the rest of the band could support.

However, the band did well for getting Idol's foot in the door of opportunity. For that I am grateful.

I Heart You

It's Valentine's Day. Some people celebrate it, some don't.

Some are in between relationships, in which case, the holiday of romance may be a bitter reminder of something gone wrong.



Then there's those who are in a relationship and celebrate Valentine's Day. It's just a fun little reminder for those of us who are in a relationship to do what we're already supposed to be doing, except to just turn things up a notch.



But whether you're in a relationship or not, it's best to be kind to those you care for all year round. It will make people wonder what's wrong with you.

Maximum Big Surprise

Things have taken an incredible turn for me.

Several posts back, I mentioned fellow Duranie, Durandy. Through Facebook, I sought him out and sent him a link to that post. Not only did he respond, but he did so very sweetly and extended an invitation for me to visit his archive!

What a fascinating display of rare pictures and other forms of memorabilia! I felt like a Catholic exploring the sacred Sistine Chapel. I very happily took in the delight of gazing over zillions of pictures of the members of Duran Duran. To the untrained eye, one would say that many of those pictures look the same, but I marveled at the subtle differences in each snapshot.




And Durandy? He seemed to be basking in the glow of my reactions just as much as I was basking in the radiance of his artifacts! He made me feel as important as the very subject of his archive.

Unfortunately, one afternoon gave me only enough time to admire, reflect, and converse over just a tiny fraction of Durandy's grand Duran Duran archive. The time to leave was much too soon. I hope that someday, over the course of many visits, I can have the pleasure of being able to have seen everything.

~~~~~~~SIGH~~~~~~~

Once Upon A...

It's always cool when you find that the people you know have personal links to people who are famous.

I used to belong to a small Episcopal church choir. We were a wonderful group! I have never known a group of people to get on so well together. Sometimes we even stopped goofing off enough to sing a bit.

I became particularly close to a gentleman named Billy Ray. No, not Cyrus. Just Billy Ray. I kind of adopted him as my uncle. Outside of church he played in a band called The Billy Ray Band. They're totally awesome!

It turns out, Billy has had quite a history in the rock n' roll world. One of the many impressive things for me is that he was in a Seattle band called Outlawed in the early 70s. When their guitarist left, he was replaced by a then unknown Steve Lynch. Outlawed disbanded after only a few years.

Steve played in a few bands before finding fame in the band Autograph in the 80s.




Billy Ray hasn't yet found the same kind of fame that Steve Lynch has, but that doesn't make his music any less awesome. http://www.last.fm/music/The+Billy+Ray+Band

Also, if he had become famous, I might not have had the pleasure of knowing him. I'm very glad to know him. He's a heckuva guy!

The Music We Want

For elementary classes, I went to a Catholic school. Yes, ugly uniforms and dress-codes. We didn't have penguins teaching us, though. They were "regular" teachers, but some of them were sweet like the nun in the "Blues Brothers" movie. Some of them were sweet for real too.

Sometimes there were voiced concerns about the music we children listened to. Teachers wondered if there was an essence of sex, drugs, and violence in these songs and were they harmful to our young minds.

Of course, the answer to that was a resounding and unspoken "YES!" by us kids (after all, the songs wouldn't be any fun otherwise,) but it was our call and duty to deny the very presence of anything "unwholesome" in the music and that there were really some very basic and innocent interpretations to the lyrics.

Pleading for the innocence of some songs was not very easy. Ever try and convince a Catholic teacher that Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is not Satanic? Or that Huey Lewis and the News' "I Want a New Drug" is really a metaphor for something else? Or that when Billy Idol was singing "Dancing With Myself" he wasn't really... well...

In the end, the arguments were so strong (noisy, really) that they were simply dropped. I don't think the teachers were actually convinced of anything. I just think they knew a losing battle when they saw one. It was apparent that we were going to listen to what we wanted regardless of what was seen as impure. After all, the music the teachers listened to at our age wasn't that terribly innocent, as one bright kid pointed out.

Many of us grew up messed up, but if you want to blame the music, you just found yourself a whipping boy. No, we were messed up in our own individual and special ways and we used music to deal with some of that. More often that not, the "unwholesomeness" in music simply articulated what we were already feeling and it was good for us to know that we weren't alone with our feelings.

New Things

When the 80s started, it really was the dawn of a new era. Music was evolving in ways that was unforeseen but directly descended from the sounds of the 70s.

December 8th, 1980, the music world was shaken by the sudden death of former Beatle, John Lennon. People wondered, "What will happen now?" the same way people will when their world is drastically changed. Naturally, a full Beatles reunion was out of the question, though in 1995, the three surviving Beatles took some old tracks that John recorded in 1977 and used them to record, "Free as a Bird." However, in 1981, people clung fiercely to John Lennon's music, determined to never allow him to be forgotten.

In 1985, people stopped in their tracks to listen so something that they could not believe. It was John Lennons voice, but it was singing something new and unfamiliar. Was this some track he made years ago and now released? The problem with that is that the style was too modern. It was too... 1985ish.

Radio DJs soon assured the listening world that they were not hearing a ghost, but to Julian, the older son of John. With his face and voice, Julian could have passed easily as a younger version of his father.

People begged for the Beatles to get together and have Julian take the place where his father stood. Julian, very diplomatically, rejected the idea. He knew that those were awful large shoes to fill and he really didn't want to try, though he did mention the possibility of doing it once if it were for a charitable cause, but nothing came of that.

He also wanted to pursue his music career in his own right. Although there are some who will say that he only became famous because of his father, that's all bunk. Julian is a good musician and did well by himself.