The Fistful of Soundtracks channel is bringing new life to that lunchtime radio staple, the '80s flashback hour, with its own '80s-centric hour, "Soda and Pie," at noon on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Yeah, the '80s had a lot to answer for: mullets, jhericurls, Full House and crappy Scott Baio sitcoms. But the decade also gave us Akira, Public Enemy, The Young Ones and Phoebe Cates in a red bikini. Remember the things about the '80s that don't make you cringe as "Soda and Pie" streams great '80s movie and TV score cues from the "Assorted Fistful" library.
The same old '80s songs always get played during most retro lunch hours. Also, these lunch hour programmers' ideas of '80s movie music appear to be limited to Flashdance and Top Gun. There's more to '80s movie music than just Simpson/Bruckheimer power ballads. What about all those great original themes by the likes of John Carpenter, Goblin, Danny Elfman and Ry Cooder? Or themes from '80s cult flicks like Akira, This Is Spinal Tap and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka? "Soda and Pie" streams these cool tunes, as well as some of the more popular, chart-topping original themes from movies like Purple Rain, At Close Range and Weird Science.
The "Soda and Pie" playlist also includes covers of '80s themes, like the Dan Band's foul-mouthed "Flashdance/Fame" medley, Swedish musician Peter Benisch's remake of "Crockett's Theme" from Miami Vice and some of the selections from the '80s tribute album High School Reunion.
Radio Nigel: "'80s with Attitude."
Everybody Hates Chris' '80s soundtrack is an old-school radio station programmer's wet dream.
Slate looks back at the '80s NYC graffiti scene, which was captured in the classic 1983 documentary Style Wars.
As Pop Will Eat Itself once sang, Alan Moore knows the score.
The best '80s sitcom nobody watched? Sledge Hammer!
McSweeney's and Yankee Pot Roast both poke fun at '80s nostalgia, whether it's VH1-style or flashback lunch hour-style.
A writer for PopCult Magazine explains why Wet Hot American Summer, Whatever and Donnie Darko got the decade right.
Set during the early '80s, Freaks and Geeks rocked, even during those episodes when the writers made mistakes about certain aspects of '80s pop culture.
After having to sit through director Louis Malle's barely released turkey Crackers, Filmbrain posts on his blog about why he would rather forget '80s cinema, while some of his readers are a little more fond of the decade.
Each article in Film Score Monthly columnist Scott Bettencourt's "Not Even Nominated" series focuses on one particular year in film music, starting from 1980 and continuing through the '00s. It's a fun year-in-review series, even though you won't agree with everything Bettencourt says (like his description of the underappreciated Crooklyn as one of Spike Lee's weaker joints): 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989
One of Yahoo's favorite sites of 2005, the History of the Batmobile site is Batmobile porn, with images and details of every single version of the Batmobile in the comics and on screen, including the Tim Burton version designed by Anton Furst, one of the coolest-looking movie and TV cars of the '80s. Too bad it moved so slow during the 1989 Batman film's car chases it looked like Aunt Harriet was behind the wheel.
Check out the fan sites for Scarface, Miami Vice (actually, it's more of a forum than a site, but unlike other Vice fan sites, at least the content is always up-to-date), Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, Big Trouble in Little China, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Better Off Dead.
Underrated '80s:
Cool Things Ignored by Those Never-Ending VH1 Shows About the '80s
By Jimmy Aquino
1. Chan Is Missing
Director Wayne Wang skewered Charlie Chan movies in this little-known 1981 indie flick, an inspiration for Asian American filmmakers fed up with Hollywood stereotypes of Asians.
2. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Nineties cartoons like Tiny Toons and Animaniacs jumpstarted
the whole Saturday morning meta-toon trend of poking fun at rival cartoons.
But the Ralph Bakshi/John Kricfalusi version of Mighty Mouse actually went meta
years before—and with funnier and wilder results—in the
"Don't Touch That Dial" ep, which launched an unprecedented attack on cookie-cutter '80s
cartoons and viewers' short attention spans. During Mighty Mouse's first season, the writers skewered one particular '80s cartoon, NBC's revival of Alvin and the Chipmunks. They reimagined the Chipmunks as "Elwy and the Tree Weasels" (the band's signature song was called "Twitch and Writhe") and turned David Seville into a pseudo-pedophile—an eerie foretelling of creepy teen pop Svengalis like Lou Pearlman and Joe Simpson. In season two, instead of targeting just one show, the writers decided to go after a whole bunch of shows with "Don't Touch That Dial," which follows an impatient
kid viewer as he channel-surfs after Mighty Mouse's latest adventure bores
him. Evicted from his own show, Mighty Mouse gets zapped by the kid's
remote into lame cartoons that resemble The Flintstones, The
Real Ghostbusters and Scooby-Doo (complete with canned laughter).
It's a shame this little-seen incarnation of Mighty Mouse is remembered
only for the uproar caused by the religious right (they thought they saw
Mighty Mouse snort coke from a flower) and not for moments like "Don't
Touch That Dial," the funniest and most brilliantly conceived 10 minutes
of small-screen animation from the '80s. Fans who are too lazy to hunt down bootleg copies of the show should go to YouTube. Just type the words "mighty," "mouse" and "adventures" in your YouTube search and voila.
3. It's Your Move
Twenty years before sitcom journeyman Jason Bateman finally scored with the delightfully twisted cult favorite Arrested Development, he starred as a teenage schemer whose cons and scams manage to trick everyone except his equally shrewd neighbor (David Garrison), who also happens to be Mom's new squeeze. Producers Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt's disdain for '80s sitcom hugs and platitudes was too brazen for prime time in 1984, but three years later, their brash, hug-free humor finally clicked with the audience when they reunited with Garrison for a little show called Married... With Children.
4. Real Genius
Sixteen years before the original CSI made science nerds heroic and sexy, there was this cult favorite, which stars Val Kilmer as the party-animal ringleader of a group of college whiz kids who get even with smarmy professor William Atherton after they discover he's exploiting their talents to build laser satellite weaponry for the military.
5. They Live
One of John Carpenter's best flicks. Wrestler Roddy Piper plays a migrant worker who discovers that yuppies are really evil aliens who are using good old fashioned consumerism to distract humans from their plot to deplete Earth of its resources. Like Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which also dropped in 1988, They Live is a gigantic middle finger to the Reagan era. The rhetoric delivered by one of the aliens at a dinner party is so Bush Jr. Administration-esque it's frightening.
The Fistful of Soundtracks channel's "Soda and Pie" assorted block flashes back to the '80s Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at noon.
© 2008 Jimmy Aquino
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"I can be big, but I am no cracker moves"
"The Super Bowl Shuffle" translated into Portuguese and back
In 2002, some genius entered the lyrics from the 1985 Top 40 radio staple "The Super Bowl Shuffle" into an English-to-Portuguese translation site and then had them translated back into English a la "Super Karate Monkey Death Car." (The link that originally posted this back in 2002 appears to be dead. It was a Baseball Primer blog post.)
The chorus: we are the Shuffling of Crews of Shuffling of Bears in for do bass he for you. It be so bad we know that we are good. Blow lie his as we knew that we I laugh. He knows that we finish pavonears for enjoyment Pavoneia our stuff for everybody. We are not here do not he begin no problem. We are only here he do the Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
Payton of Walter: Well, they call me Sweetness, AND I like of dance. It run to ball is as do romance. We had to goal since of camp of training give a Formidable Champion of Bowl for Chicago. And we nao do this because we are gananciosos. The Bears do feed the indigent one. We nao came here find problem, We Finish coming here do THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
Gault of Willie: This is Willie Quick, and I am world class. I like of run but I love receive to passage. I practice all day and dance all night, I received stayed ready for the Sunday fight. Now I am so smooth as much as a redemoinho of chocolate, I danço a funky small, then girl observes myself. There is not a here that does like me, My Shuffle Formidable of Bowl the porá libertar.
Singletary of mike: I am Mike of Samurai, I stop them cold. To part from the defense, big and bold. I have filled for well a while, Do what sfor right and by the style, Give-Me a chance, I am going to go stone you good, No one messing in my neighborhood. I nao came here he find problem, I finish coming do THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
(Repeite Chorus)
McMahon of Jim: I am the QB of punky, McMahon known. When I hit the turf, I did not receive no plan. I finish playing my body all about the field. I nao am able to dance, but I am able to play to pill. Motive the cats, I like of importunar. I play then I chill, I aim please. That it is to reason by the which you all received here in him I fold catch do me the Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
Wilson of Otis: I am Otis of boy from the mamãe, singular. You all love me For my body and mine lie. I am escorregadio in the ground as I can be But ain' gonna of no bundle of t receives past myself. Some boys are ciosos Of my style and class. That it is to reason by the which some end for top in his I eat. I nao came here he find problem, I finish receiving below tO tHE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
The Steve Fuller: they say Jimbo is our man. If Jimmy nao is able to fazeê-read, I dependable is able to. This it is Steve, and is not no amaze. I run like lightning, passage as thunder. Then it brings in Atlanta, brings in the Dalas, This is for Mike and Halas of Bear of Dad. I am not here hardly its ruffle, I finish coming here do THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
Richardson of mike: I am L.A. Mike, and I play chill. They nao steal for me because I am do not I mislead. I fly in the field and subobe below. Everybody knows that I do not do disorder to the around of. I am able to quebraá-the, sacudode-the, Any time by day. I like of roubaá-read and does pay them. Then please nao tries beat my hustle Because I am only here do THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
(Repeite Chorus)
To Recess of richard: THE sackman comes, I am his Recess of man. Himself the quarterback he is slow, he stayed fold. We stop it run, we stop to passage, I as to boys of I cram in his I eat. We love play for the best fans of the world, You better begins do His flat Formidable of Bowl. But nao stayed ready neither goes to any
problem unless practices THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
Fencik of Gary: is Gary here, and I am Mr..Clears. They call me "man of strike," nao knows what do they want to say. They play in the long one and observes run me, I am in my man, in. The boys of the companion cover in the below to the bone, that he is to reason by the which they call us to 46 zone. Come in everybody leaves squeak and
squeak, fazremos the Shuffle, Then touches their bell.
Perry of william: they look in the Refrigerator, I am the recruit. I can be big, but I am no cracker moves. It saw hit me, saw run, When I kick and I pass, we will have more amused. I am able to dance, he will see, THE others, they all learns how of me. I nao come here find problem, I finish coming here do THE Shuffle Formidable of Bowl.
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