Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with eighties

Modern VL-Tone?

dmd — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:24:53 -0800

What's the modern equivalent of a Casio VL-Tone? I've seen suggestions like the microKORG, MINIKP, and KAOSSILATOR, but that really doesn't capture the same segment. I'm looking for something appropriate for a 5 year old.

Dreamlike Animation from the Eighties

lilyflower — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:39:23 -0800

Half remembered international animated short story from the 80's - does anyone recognise this story? I have a faint memory of a cartoon in my head from when I was a child in the eighties, I believe it was an international animation as there was no language, it wasn't feature length and was very simple animation.

The basic outline of the story as I remember it was a man living in a house in suburbia with all the mod cons (at least that the 80's had to offer!). He was out driving in his car but when he went to fill up at the gas/petrol station there was a huge queue. He goes home and it seems that the lights aren't working and the heating is off too. Food becomes scarce and one day while driving his car runs out of fuel. He leashes an ox to the car and uses it as a cart to be pulled home on.

He soon runs out of food so has to go out hunting, he has no heating and the winter starts to come in so he chops up all his furniture to make a fire in the house. I think spring comes around and the trees have grown through his house and he ventures outside. A mammoth starts chasing him and he can't get away, he is then caught under the hoof of the mammoth and when you think he is about to be crushed he awakens in his bed! He jumps out and runs to the lights and flicks them on and off, he turns on the thermostat and runs hot water through the taps. He is so excited and relieved...

And that is what I can remember, sounds a bit like a dream but I am sure I saw this on TV and watched it over and over on video.

Anyone remember it? Any suggestions would be most welcome!

Red leather skirt costume (no witty headline included)

nextian_geometry — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:47:44 -0800

I have an upcoming costume party and the theme is 80s or 90s - but how can I incorporate a red leather skirt? I doubt I'll ever wear this skirt in a normal context, so I'd like to get some use out of it. Problem is I'm drawing a blank when it comes to any 80s/90s icons who famously wore a red skirt - any ideas? Ideally I'd love to dress up as some sort of comic book or cartoon character, but I'm open to a more generalised costume such as dressing new wave, or grunge etc..

Skinned Goats and Film Reel

Juliet Banana — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:50:45 -0800

I'm on a search to find a movie that can live up to The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Please recommend trippy, surreal, psychedelic cult movies. I'm having trouble finding these films because I'm not looking for what "cult movies" are traditionally defined as. No zombies, no horny female prisoners, no giant bugs, nothing that could be shown on MST3K.

We've been calling them Fucked-Up Movies, for the lack of a better term. They blow your mind. They creep you out. As soon as you finish one, you want to inflict it on someone else. You can't stop quoting them. They're visually stunning, and have enough philosophical, intellectual, and spiritual depth to invite viewing after viewing.

Holy Mountain, as mentioned, is the epitome of Fucked-Up Movies. I honestly don't think I'm ever going to find another movie I love as much as Holy Mountain, but I know there's more out there for me to find.

I've seen most of Jodorowsky's work (El Topo is a close runner-up to Holy Mountain, Fando y Lis was crazy surreal and I'm still confused by it, La Cravate was adorable early work). I'm still looking for Santa Sangre, and I'm not sure if Rainbow Thief will be disappointing.

I watched Zardoz, a retro-futuristic parable laced with sex and violence and almost-naked Sean Connery, based on the recommendation of Hipster Musings. I also stole the term "Fucked Up Movies" from her. Zardoz totally changed my life, and gave me hope that Holy Mountain hasn't ruined all other movies for me forever.

Clerkdogs recommended Space is the Place, a trippy 1970s Sun Ra vehicle about liberating the Black race from Earth and into outer space, and I loved it.

Liquid Sky was chockablock with acid-trip neon visuals and certainly extremely weird, but it was also really eighties and terrible. Not perfect, but it's definitely a fucked up movie.

Head (the Monkees movie) is a lot more light-hearted than the rest of these, but undeniably drug-inspired and nonsensical.

I'm trying to stay away from too much gore, but Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom seems to be plenty fucked up, with politics switched in for spirituality. Still trying to muster up the stomach for it.

I also probably haven't seen as much Lynch and Cronenberg as I should, so recommendations for specific movies in their filmographies is welcome.

There's got to be more out there; I'm sure you're all about to embarrass me with my lack of film knowledge. Please do.

"I got a call last night from Washington (the president)"

Lentrohamsanin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:40:22 -0800

In the late seventies or early eighties there was a song with a lyric something like:

I got a call last night from Washington/(the President)

Do you recognize it? This is terribly vague I know. The lyric isn't exactly that, or if it is, the lyrics aren't on google. Here's what else I remember:

1) Male vocalist, not too deep, nice and clear (not gravely)
2) I believe this was playing on Top 40 Radio
3)Rock but not too hard
4) The line "the president" was sung by a couple of other male voices
5) I think this was in heavyish rotation at the same time as Bob Seger's Against the Wind, so 1980 might be the exact year.
6) I might have heard this while my family was on vacation in D.C., so it's possible this was some kind of regional hit.
7) The lyric above was towards the end of the song. The next line might have been "he said this can't go on" but I'm not too sure about that.

Does this ring any bells?

All angular fields of pastel color atop each other

Countess Elena — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:12:32 -0800

Was there a name for this '80s kitsch art aesthetic? Last night I saw Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone, and I was delighted (and offended, appalled, and delighted again). The extremely stylized art reminded me of so many things I saw when I was just a kid in the '80s -- Zippy the Pinhead, Lynda Barry, set designs in Tim Burton's early work like Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Beetlejuice. There was a retro-Googie day-glo feel to everything.

Was there a "school" of High Weirdness coming out of California at that time? Or is it just a number of trends started by one designer or another, all running together? I do apologize for not knowing quite how to describe it.

Who played a Pollock like neon guitar in the 80s?

Java_Man — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:25:47 -0800

In the 80's, which guitarist played a white guitar daubed with paint splotches and Pollock-like streaks of neon pink and green, among other colors? I recall seeing the guitar (probably in a video), but can't place the guitarist or find any images.

I want my obscure 80's

pointystick — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:42:34 -0800

Sometimes I can’t find what I want at the local House o’ Used CD’s or on iTunes. What are your favorite sources for (legally) obtaining music? I’m a big fan of 70’s and 80’s music* Most of the music on my iPod is either ripped from my own CD collection or downloaded from iTunes but I want more. More disco, more new wave, more obscure soundtracks… Alas, I am far from expert about the ways of music downloading.

- I don’t mind paying – although cheaper is better, of course.
- IANAL but I’m presuming that even if a CD is out-of-print that doesn’t mean one can just download it willy-nilly.

I’m sure they’re other things to consider as well as finding sources so I bow to the superior knowledge of my fellow meFites.

* yes I like cheesy music- trying to be brave by not posting anon!

Was the coin even important?

cmyk — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:32:36 -0800

Help me identify a movie I barely remember. Coins, pools, abandoned houses, and maybe a war? A boy is given a coin by his father, and he throws it (or drops it) into the swimming pool behind his home. Much later, he returns to the house, now abandoned, and he finds the coin in the bottom of the dry pool. I want to say the family left because of a war, not a natural disaster.

That's really all I've got, except that the movie was on video in the mid to late eighties. It's been tickling my brain, on and off, ever since -- and I was maybe five when I saw this! Help?

No good punks

ReiToei — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:49:51 -0800

80's movies featuring really lame punk gangs? You know the type... Return of the Living Dead, Police Academy 2, Short Circuit. The lamer the better. Has to be the 80's. Can you dig it?

Honey, recommend me some weird science movies back from the eighties

soundofsuburbia — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:27:50 -0800

Do you know of any movies with improbable technology as a plot device? I really enjoy movies like Explorers, Weird Science, Back To The Future, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Innerspace. Their common ground is - of course - that they're all from the eighties and that they've all got improbable technology as a major plot device. Can you recommend any similar flicks, preferably made in the eighties? I'd really appreciate that.

And, yes, I've read this question, but I think mine is different enough to be warranted.

Ooda bada bim bo, go yeh go...

Toekneesan — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:09:40 -0800

AlbumFilter: I've asked this to guys at used music stores and just got a duh. What is that album my ex got? Can I still get it? Album only, to raise money for Africa. 80s-ish. Pretty sure it includes a live version of Biko performed by Gabriel. The bulk of the rest of the performers are from everywhere. World Music. Specifically looking for South American cut (Brazil?) that got animated into some mini-video about soccer. Extra credit for the video. Album cover looked like a banner for the Broadway version of Lion King. Please... I miss that song so much.

Money Changes Everything

ZenMasterThis — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:27:35 -0800

EightiesFilter: Where can I buy LEGAL song downloads of slightly(?)-out-of-the-mainstream eighties artistes like The Brains, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Tonio K., The Church ("The Unguarded Moment" full band studio version) for my iPod? Striking out with iTunes and emusic. Prefer one-stop shopping.

One night of what exactly?

ramix — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:27:21 -0800

Name that tune/artistfilter: Mid to late eighties i think, maybe a little later?, sounds like a youngish man singing, and all i remember are the words (sorta) to the chorus: "one night of (touching?), two nights of (lust?)(trust?), three nights of (hugging?)(fucking?) makes one night of love."

If it's any help at all, the singer sounded a lot like Kevon Edmonds or the group After Seven and the actual song sounds like an uptempo rhythm and blues song.

I have always wondered what the actual words are, and now i have the chorus stuck in my head. Please help me, oh great hive mind, figure this out before i go insane and throttle my cat because i can't get the chorus out of my head!

Anyone remember a sitcom named Whoops?

jon_kill — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:52:52 -0800

Does anyone remember a sitcom named Whoops? It was from the eighties at some point. The opening credits involved a military parade in which a live nuclear weapon goes off accidentally. The pilot included the cast holing up in a cabin somewhere and fighting a huge mutated spider.

[Any of these facts might be inaccurate, including the name.]

Anybody remember this eighties kids TV show?

aqueousdan — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:17:22 -0800

Does anybody remember a kids TV show from the eighties with a yellow flying saucer robot, a boy and, as far as i remember, a dog? I remember an american show aired on BBC 1 here in England on kids teatime TV that is based around the adventures of a young boy and a yellow robot but cannot for the life of me remember the title...

The only details I remember are that the robot is a kind of flying saucer with a neck and head coming out of the top.

The title sequence involves the robot inside a dustbin.

There may be a dog involved in the story somehow.

If you can form any ideas of what on earth i'm talking about then please help! I don't think I particularly liked the show more than any other but its really bugging me that I can't remember its name!

Identify this alien-related mid-eighties children's TV show

greycap — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 07:01:45 -0800

Help me figure out the name of an alien-related mid-eighties children's TV show... I have only the haziest memory of it, but can remember one scene particularly vividly - which has been bugging me for ages. It was screened roundabout 1986 or 1987 in the UK, on ITV (I think). I think that it was produced in Australia or New Zealand. As far as I recall, an alien craft had crashed in the middle of the countryside. Bits of it were distributed all over the area. The scene I recall involves one particular piece, which was mounted on the roof of a farmhouse or similar building. It might have acted as a weathervane, although I'm not certain on this detail. At various points it produced some kind of high-frequency noise or an equivalent effect, which had a strange effect on people - it might have done something like freezing time or slowing it down. The UFO-part was black and spiky, and looked a bit like an off-cut from a stealth fighter. It had the same sort of matt black, angular appearance. I think it had a central hub and four triangular offshoots.

I can remember nothing else about this programme. Have I invented this memory? I know the details are sketchy... but I will be very grateful to anyone who can figure out what it might have been.

Does this decade have a name?

airguitar — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 00:49:03 -0800

It's been six years. Do you have, or does anyone you know use a term, in conversation, comparable to 'the nineties' or 'the eighties' for this decade?

Odd Oldschool Rap/Dance

NewGear — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:36:30 -0800

I'm looking for the title/artist of two rap/dance songs from around the mid-Eighties, one of which says "change the beat", and the other says "freeze...defrost". Sketchy details inside. I heard both of these while hanging out with a friend in college in the mid-1980s. I'm afraid I don't have many details; I'm relying on memory of songs I heard once, twenty years ago.

Both are rap/dance/club songs, something in that general area.

The first has someone saying "ch-change, change the beat", although it's done with the french pronunciation, so it sounds like "sh-shanj, shanj the beat". Can't remember if it was a man or a woman.

The second is a dance-type song (as I recall) that had the singer say at one point in the song "freeze", followed by a pregnant pause, and then "defrost". Pretty damn funny. Don't know anything more about that one.

Anyway, if either of these strikes a chord with somebody (no pun intended) and you can steer me towards a title/artist and/or a source for a cd, that would rock like thunder.

Thanks!

A PC Game Involing Gangs from the Late Eighties

dbarefoot — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:49:30 -0800

I have very fond memories of playing a graphically-simple game in the late eighties or possibly early nineties. It was set in the future, in a plague-ridde, post-apocalyptic America. You were a gang leader, and your job was to assemble gang members, vehicles and guns and essentially deliver America from ruin. There were two modes--a map of America and then a tactical view for vehicle to vehicle battles. The game featured fairly detailed resource management. I remember that there were five kinds of troops, each starting with the letters A through E (D was definitely dragoons). I also recall that if you stopped by the California city where the game was developed, you could get your vehicles super-charged. Any takers?

Can you help me find these building blocks?

Jeff Howard — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 19:10:00 -0800

Eighties educational toys. When I was growing up, I had some plastic building blocks that I'd like to find again. They came in bright colors and were covered in densely packed, tiny pegs on each face (front, back, and sides). If you pressed two blocks together, the pegs would interlock and stick together. They came in all sorts of shapes, but were thinner than wooden blocks and slightly flexible. Any idea what these were called or where I can find a set?