November 23rd, 1979...On ABC

Nothing warms the jaded cockles of my heart like a fresh big ole' mess of commercials from 1979.  It's like God heard my prayer, (no, not the one where The Almighty starts bestowing upon me an unlimited supply of Xanax-infused Magnum ice cream bars, the other prayer) and He had me find His bountiful, um, bounty on YouTube just now.

  These commercials aired on ABC on November 23rd, 1979.

1. Contac
2. Mystique Books
3. Maybelline Eye Color Styling Pencils
4. Tostitos
5. Promo for "The Ropers", "Detective School", "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island"
6. ABC Station ID
7. TV Spot for "10"
8. Chimere
9. Promo for "When She Was Bad"
10. "Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party" Commercial Bumper
11. Promo for "Mork & Mindy"
12. Eyewitness News Update
13. Amoco
14. Promo for "Ski Scene"
15. KSTP Station ID
16. One A Day Plus Iron
17. Signal
18. Promo for "Eight Is Enough", "Charlie's Angels" and "Vega$"
19. Hefty
20. Ruffles
21. Pepsi
22. Mazda RX-7
23. "Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party" End Credits

 I must have done something to please Our Lord.  Oh, I know what it must have been: I didn't steal 23 packets of chopsticks at the conveyor belt sushi joint yesterday like I usually do.  Thanks, Santa Jesus!

"When She Was Bad" = "When Television Movies Had Cheryl Ladd and Robert Urich In Them, And Life Was Great"

Dorothy Stratten was featured heavily in the Playboy show, both roller-skating in a bikini and dancing in modest lingerie with The Village People (ironically, to a song called, "Are You Ready For The Eighties?"). You don't see her in this clip, but it's easy to find on YouTube.  

All kidding aside...I know Dorothy was a gift from God.  
It hurts to look at her, knowing that her happiness on earth would be so brief.

From 1975: Kim, In The Fourth Grade

Beautiful.

I wonder if Kim's mother made that dress for her.

If It's Friday, That Means "Frampton"

What a living doll.

I haven't been around much lately.  I've been really busy with actual writing work, and while I always mean to update this blog, it always seems to fall by the proverbial wayside.

Do you ever read Peter Frampton's Facebook page?  If you don't, you should, as in, yesterday.  He is a very funny, very droll individual.  He writes about his music as well as other little tidbits from his life, such as going to the mall so he can browse at the Apple store. 

Here's my favorite of his, a 1975 recording of "Doobie Wah."

From 1979: KISS Colorforms Set

Dear Santa.

Thirty Years Ago Today, Courtesy Of Casey Kasem

1983 was an unbelievable summer for music.

I remember it like it was yesterday...listening to WFBQ, Indianapolis' own Q95, for hours on end, laying out in Suzanne's back yard, drenched in Coppertone tanning lotion, drinking Tab (Diet Coke was still a very new product that summer).

I was twelve...going on twenty-seven.  Boy crazy and made up like a cocktail waitress most of the time.  Was there a better purple eyeshadow than Aziza, in those days?  I don't think so.  But yeah, most of the time, I was all dolled up like I belonged in Vegas, not in our humble home in Lafayette, Indiana.

Here's to thirty years ago, here's to great music, and here's to Casey Kasem: a voice every bit as cherished to our generation as the records we spun during that long, hot, distant summer.

From 1979: It's All The Rage

In the summer of 1979, my next-door neighbor and best childhood friend, Suzanne, went to London with her family for several weeks.

This was no small feat for 1970s suburban Indiana.  Their trip even made the local newspaper.

When Suzanne returned, she had a treasure trove of records she bought in the Picadilly Circus shops.  Such an education for fascinated me.  I was all of eight years old, but I listened to those records constantly with Suzanne.  "Angeleyes/Voulez Vous," by ABBA.  "Gangsters," by The Specials.  "Born To Be Alive," by Patrick Hernandez.  All of the singles had those peculiar small holes in the middle; no need for the ubiquitous spindle adapters that usually littered the console on Suzanne's stereo.

My favorite record was the triumphant smash hit, "I Don't Like Mondays," by The Boomtown Rats.  Featuring soaring piano and clever, biting lyrics, lead singer Bob Geldof wrote the song in response to the Brenda Ann Spencer massacre in January 1979.  "The silicone chip inside her head gets switched to overload," remains, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant opening lines of a song to date.

Everyone knows and loves that song, right?  It deserves the adulation.  But have you ever heard the B-side?  It deserves adulation, too, as a rip-roaring punk rocker right out of Dingwalls, featuring a double-tracked vocal by Geldof and relentless guitar work by Garry Cott.  The infectious ending is particularly effective.

It's all the rage...you're putting me on.

From 1979: I'll Bet You Can Sing This Jingle

Today's commercials are just noise.  Give me a good jingle anytime and I will sing it; around the house, as I bathe, as I drive, and most definitely while I cook.

There is also not a more effective gum on the market to, ahem, "prove to your parents" that you haven't been drinking alcohol.  Trust me.

Give your breath long-lasting freshness with Big Red!

From 1975: The Stoned Rollers

Some pictures are like a gift from God.  

This picture is like if God gave me His million-dollar check from Publishers Clearing House, saying, "Here, I am The Lord Almighty.  I don't need it."

From 1977: Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose

A history of Crazy.
(I was always a Cracked girl, myself.)

Let's Have Some More Of '74

Plaza Sesamo: Lucas Hice Un Sandwich

I've found that watching Plaza Sesamo (that is, Sesame Street in Spanish) is a great way for me to work on learning the language, which I have found really difficult.

And Cookie Monster is funny in any language.  Enjoy.

I love it when he calls the little girl "Muchachita."

Game Change: Ball Buster

I don't know about you guys, but in MY house growing up, this game would have put someone's eye out.

Grocery Store Favorites: How Much I Feel

It pains me to list this as a Grocery Store Favorite, because this song is my jam.

Ambrosia took on several incarnations, this one obviously being the most successful. This tune was their biggest hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard chart in 1978. They would follow up with "Biggest Part of Me" and "You're The Only Woman (You and I)," both in 1980.

All three hits qualify as Grocery Store Favorites, which is a real shame, because they are some great examples of Blue-Eyed Soul.

I suddenly have an urge to order a half pound of pastrami, shaved thin.

Hope You Had A Cool Yule

Me, I'm plum tuckered out from making the Yuletide gay!

We had a really splendid holiday, lots of lovely presents (I got a Kitchen Aid stand mixer!  A cashmere pashmina!  A bottle of Samsara perfume!), gallons of libations, and a Christmas dinner of all-you-can-eat crab legs at our favorite local Chinese buffet.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas, if that's what you celebrate.  May it have been as much fun as this:

1977

I love this picture.  It's from this blog, and I find it so wonderful.

Wait a second...Santa Claus, NO!

What Makes 1975 Spectacular: Little Bryan Costin and His Dad's Subaru

I am thoroughly charmed by this photograph. I think it's his little jean jacket that gets me. Very 1975. Or maybe it's his red tennis shoes.

Or maybe it's that Bryan's Dad loved him so much, he just had to take a photo of his little boy in that very setting at that very moment...there's a spontaneity to this picture.

Bryan Costin

As The 1975 Spectacular Continues, We Take A Look At "Love In The Afternoon"

Housewives, put down your mops, fix yourselves a cocktail or six (yes, I know you learned how to make authentic Singapore Slings the other day while watching Dinah Shore), and prepare to spend the rest of the day in the throes of blissful romance, as only the soap operas of 1975 could provide.

The 1975 Spectacular Continues: Hail, Poetry! Divine Emollient!

That is, if that emollient is globs of delicious special sauce.

Spectacular For Our 1975 Spectacular: A Hard-Workin' Dog

One of my favorite Sesame Street clips from when I was a child, this debuted in a 1975 episode.

There's an urban legend that the vocalist and guitarist here is Neil Young. That isn't true. It's a country singer and jazz musician named Fred Wardenburg. Sadly, Wardenburg died in 2006.

(although I am quite sure that Neil would have done this piece, had he been asked.)

The 1975 Spectacular Continues: Someone I Touched

(AKA, "The Pax Romano Story")

In this memorable 1975 made-for-TV movie, Cloris Leachman is unclean! Phyllis has the syphilis! Even worse, she's knocked up.

Poor Cloris thinks she got "the bug" from her philandering husband, who banged a girl who looks young enough to be his granddaughter, but no! It turns out that she's the family's resident Typhoid Mary, and that she gave VD to her darling hubby, who in turn gave it to the chick from The Boy In The Plastic Bubble.

Oh, 1975. You were such a wacky year, what with your communicable social diseases and county workers with porn 'staches telling nubile young maidens on beaches that they have a whopping case of crotch rot!

"I think you got yourself a case of VD...you're extremely contagious."

Time machine. Take me back now.

Kick Off: The 1975 Spectacular!

Brought to you by The Slacks Worn By The Brothers Gibb.

I think I like Maurice's the best. Sparkly!