A View To A Roof

Various songs can bring about certain memories.

Some songs take me back to when my folks decided to have the roof redone. Exciting, yes?

This was done during an incredibly warm summer in my youth. These very hot guys came over to work on our roof. They came to spend several days working on our roof. Did I mention that they were hot?

Incidentally, this was the perfect time of summer for me to spend long hours tanning in the backyard. It just happened to work out that I could survey their... progress.

I mentioned that they were hot, right?

Anyways, they worked for several days on the roof. They tended to spend a significant amount of time on the side where I happened to be. I guess the south side needed a lot of attention.

They also talked to each other and I could hear much of the conversations. They talked about girls, cars, girls, sports, girls, work, girls... Oh well. At least they were hot.

After some days of this, their conversation turned to music. My ears went *perk!* Talk of music is always worth overhearing. They mentioned several bands that I enjoyed until...

Someone mentioned Duran Duran. Someone else chimed in that Duran Duran was all a bunch of **** (rhymes with tags.) This was followed with mutterings of agreement.

It was at this point that I figured I had tanned enough for the time being. After all, it was tedious listening in on a bunch of mediocre-looking guys with crummy taste in music. I went inside.

I then went into my room, opened my window wide, and blared my Duran Duran music. Every day for the remaining time that they had to spend on my roof I gave them a generous dose of Duran Duran through my open window. The roof was completed very quickly after that. I'm glad I was able to help quicken the task.

Odd Medicine

I like a bit of oddness; hence my fascination and adoration for 80s music.

The Thompson Twins: A band consisting of three artists; none of the members are twins and none of them go by Thompson.

It doesn't matter. They made some memorable music worth mentioning.

Must... Eat... Dots...

A huge part of the whole 80s experience was arcade video games. Video arcades were often very large store-sized with standing room only due to the zillions of games and the even larger number of people waiting in lines to use them.

I am guilty of donating enough quarters to buy a small country by laser-blasting dragons in "Dig-dug," saving galaxy space in "Asteroids," dodging barrels from a gorilla in "Donkey Kong," beef-smacking fried eggs in "Burger Time," eating dots in a maze in "Pac-Man," and other ridiculous tasks that seemed like a good idea to do at the time. I was quite good at many of the games and often better than my guy friends, who tended to spend more time playing video games than the girls did.

Well, as we know, whenever there is something of interest going on, someone writes a song about it. Jerry Buckner & Gary Garcia did just that by devoting an entire album to songs about the most famous video arcade games at the time, using sounds from the actual games.

Their most famous, "Pac-Man Fever," hit the airwaves in 1982 and us video game zealots appreciated it dearly. Then, just as quickly as it came, the song, the album, Buckner and Garcia, went to the same decade dumpster as parachute pants, Wacky-Wall-Walkers, and Urkel.

Gone, but not forgotten...