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That 80s Thing

Music

From Longtime Reader John L. comes this question:

“I remember you saying that you like 80s music.  I’m trying to get my daughter — a Millennial — to give it a try.  What dozen or so songs would you recommend as a primer?”

Difficult choice, but here we go.  Most of the songs are more about the sound than the music, because the 80s was when recording- and instrument technology started to expand (sometimes not for the better, but there you go).  First, two older guys (from the 70s, but who got it):

Phil Collins:  Sussudio

Peter Gabriel:  Sledgehammer

And then the newer generation of musicians who took it from there:

Gary Numan:  Cars (okay, technically, Numan probably started the whole thing off, but whatever)

Tears For Fears:  Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Howard Jones:  Things Can Only Get Better

Joe Jackson:  Stepping Out

Soft Cell:  Tainted Love

Wang Chung:  Dance Hall Days

Simple Minds:  Don’t You Forget About Me

Talking Heads:  Burning Down The House

Eurythmics:  Sweet Dreams (although I actually prefer  Would I Lie To You?)

Pet Shop Boys:  West End Girls

Some notes:

I’ve excluded from the above those musicians who just kept on playing their 70s-style music for the next ten (twenty?) years, e.g. Richie Blackmore, Journey, Huey Lewis, punk bands, and so on.

I’ve also excluded those who just played their own music during the 1980s, which has proven to be pretty much timeless regardless of decade, e.g.  Level 42 and Prince.

If you think I’ve missed any (and I probably have), have at it in Comments.

Terminology Change Alert

Gummint, The Gun Thing

Just FYI, remember these guns?

These of course were always referred to as “assault rifles”, “weapons of mass destruction”, “evil black rifles”, “military-only weapons”, etc., etc.

No longer.  According to our very own Gummint, these guns — which have been issued en masse  to IRS agents, USPS inspectors, Fish & Wildlife agents, Dept. of Education bureaucrats and pretty much the entire sub-strata of the Deep State — have been classified as…

Personal Defense Weapons (PDW)

Now I know that one’s first thought would be “Defense against whom?”  because as far as I’m aware, these government thugs agents are not being mugged or attacked in the streets of Baltimore, Oakland or even Chicago, nor are they being ambushed in the deep woods (unless by bears, in which case they’d need something a little more effective than an AR-15) or in post offices (unless by their own coworkers), or in similar situations.

Clearly, these weapons are to be used in “self-defense” against… us.  Against We The People.

Oh, and they’re not being issued with semi-auto AR-15s, but with full-auto M4-style battle rifles (once again:  “battle against whom?”  but I think we all know where this is going).

I don’t think I have to say any more on the topic because we’re all intelligent people, and can draw our own conclusions from the above.

Also just FYI:

(via Ammoseek)

…and the above rifles are two examples of Bushmaster’s M4 “Patrolman’s” line.  Apparently, they are reportedly head and shoulders above the older Bushmaster models, which were always a hit-or-miss proposition [sic], quality-wise.

Click on either pic for the link.

Finally, if you’re ever reproached by some gun-fearing wussy (GFW) about your “assault rifle”, you may correct him with the proper term, as defined by our own Gummint.

Shortcoming

Lifestyle, The Gun Thing

I’ve got this pic set as my laptop’s wallpaper.  Can you see what’s wrong with it?

As the Son&Heir commented:  “No room for even a plinking range.  WTF?”

It’s a good point, although there’s enough space to put a clay-tosser for a little shotgunning fun…

…using only non-toxic shot, of course.

PSA

Advice

Today’s public service announcement comes from Noose-Tie, makers of fine hemp rope for over 150 years (motto: “Stretch Necks Not Rope“), and should serve as a handy little reference guide for when we start cleaning up the Swamp come The Glorious Day:

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range because I support shooting over hanging, for obvious reasons.

Driving Fun

Drive Time, Good Stuff

I have frequently referred to Jeremy Clarkson as the Greatest Living Englishman, because he is.  Not only is he unrepentantly un-PC, he’s wonderfully talented as both a writer and a TV presenter.

The fact that he and I agree on practically everything — about cars, politics, social life and society, whatever — doesn’t hurt, either.

So sit back and enjoy a partial retrospective of his 30 years’ work as a car reviewer for the Sunday Times.  And just to whet your appetite, here’s a little excerpt from one:

Many years ago I refused to road-test the Vectra on Top Gear, arguing that if Vauxhall couldn’t be bothered to make the car interesting in any way whatsoever, I couldn’t be bothered to drive it.

To understand just how dull this car was, you need to visualise a chartered accountant in a tweed jacket with elbow patches, playing cricket, in a period drama by Jane Austen, in Belgium, while reading out details of the Enron scandal in a Birmingham accent.

This car was Mogadon in metal, hypnotherapy with a hatchback. Driving it was as interesting as listening to the details of someone else’s dream, and thinking about it had exactly the same effect on your neck muscles as that moment at school when the master dimmed the lights and said: “First slide, please …” You immediately nodded off.

They said, remember, it was a car for the new millennium. And how far did it get? Well, it’s only 2002 but already it’s gone.

I can’t stop with just one.

I have read hundreds of surveys in women’s magazines about what women look for in a man and usually it’s a sense of humour or nice eyes. Not once have I ever heard a girl say that what she wants, more than anything, from a man is an ability to do power slides.

It needs to be explained to Gary that, when he’s doing 100mph round the bypass, with jungle noises bouncing the doors off their hinges, his girlfriend is not sitting there thinking, “Gosh. This man’s car control is exemplary and I hope that later he will perform similar miracles with me.”

She is thinking: “Bleedin’ Ada. We’re going to crash and I wish this plonker would slow down.” But of course she can’t say that because then she’d find herself at the side of the road, in the rain.

We need the people who did those amazing Australian “If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot” adverts to pick up the baton on this one. And I think I have the tag line already. “A smooth ride: if you give her one, she might let you give her one.”

Brilliant.  Like I said:  the Greatest Living Englishman.  Here’s his smooth ride.

Different List

Good Stuff

The Daily Mail  has published its list of the Top 39 (?) Beautiful Moments of the last one hundred years.  Of course, a lot of the things they celebrate are among the events I’d have added to my list of the worst moments in the past century (e.g. election of Obama), but there ya go.

Here’s my list of beautiful moments (since Jan 1, 1923, in chronological order).

  1. 1923: Calvin Coolidge inaugurated
  2. 1940: Battle of Britain
  3. 1945:  VE- and VJ Day
  4. 1947: AK-47 first submitted for USSR military trials
  5. 1963: getting my first air rifle (birthday present)
  6. 1964: Beatles release A Hard Day’s Night  album
  7. 1967: Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  album
  8. 1968: first Shakespearean acting gig (in Hamlet)
  9. 1968: French-kissed a girl for the first time
  10. 1969: Moon landing with Neil Armstrong / Buzz Aldrin
  11. 1970: bought my first beer (age 15, Castle Inn, Hillbrow, Jhb)
  12. 1971: lost my virginity
  13. 1971: first played on stage to an audience (rhythm guitar)
  14. 1971: member of team competing on S.A. schools’ radio quiz (we won)
  15. 1971: graduated St. John’s College (First)
  16. 1972: arrested during anti-apartheid demonstration
  17. 1972: bought my first two centerfire guns (Mauser 98K, Llama XI 9mm pistol)
  18. 1973: first professional music gig
  19. 1974: co-founded Pussyfoot Show Band (later Atlantic Show Band)
  20. 1976: bought a Rickenbacker 4001S bass guitar
  21. 1979: first apartment (solo)
  22. 1979: joined A.C. Nielsen
  23. 1980: Ronald Reagan elected
  24. 1980: Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon final
  25. 1981: Hill Street Blues first episode aired
  26. 1981: slept with four different women over a single weekend
  27. 1982: first marriage
  28. 1982: visited America for the first time
  29. 1983: first extramarital fling
  30. 1984: first presentation to the Board of a major client
  31. 1985: bought my first computer (Apple IIe)
  32. 1986: emigrated to America
  33. 1989: Berlin Wall came down
  34. 1989: birth of the Son&Heir
  35. 1997: my first trip to London
  36. 1999: published my first novel (Vienna Days)
  37. 2015: B.A. degree (summa ) in Western European History (UNT)
  38. 2016: Donald Trump elected
  39. 2017: met New Wife again, after over 40 years apart