Maximize opportunities, minimize mistakes.
BrianWilkins.org
October 7, 2022
My cousin and best friend Boo always used to give me shit for loving “shake your booty” music over the conscious Public Enemy, X-Clan, etc. stuff when we were kids. I’ll always wonder what he and I could have accomplished as artists and rappers if my parents didn’t separate us via divorce.
Regardless, “Bust A Move” is one of the best end of the 80s tunes – and a great “shake your booty” song. It topped out at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 14, 1989.
BrianWilkins.org
September 18, 2022
You can’t get much more 80s than the Commodores “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” video. The short afros (compared to the 1970s), the short shorts and, of course, the ode to a special woman.
Yes, the short shorts that both men and women wore.
“Lady (You Bring Me Up)” peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 19, 1981. Not sure why it couldn’t get any higher, considering, in my world, only Juice Newton’s “Queen of Hearts” (one of the seven songs ahead of it) has equal or more lasting memories.
BrianWilkins.org
August 8, 2022
I’m so sad right now.
My top five Olivia Newton-John songs.
Such an 80’s icon. R.I.P.
BrianWilkins.org
April 29, 2022
The 1989 movie “Chances Are” isn’t exactly a classic. But it’s definitely weird and worth a watch if you’re bored one night. The short, spoiler version is that Louie Jeffries was a young lawyer in the 1960s. He was married to Corrine Jeffries, played by Cybill Shepherd. Louie get killed when he’s hit by a car while crossing the street. But when he goes to the “pearly gates” after death, he slipped through the cracks and was instantly reincarnated as baby Alex Finch (Robert Downey Jr.).
BrianWilkins.org
April 24, 2022
Once upon a time, circa 2000, I downloaded 90 episodes of Family Feud via Napster because I was bored and had broadband. The original show ran from 1976 to 1985. It was a daytime game show, wedged between a bunch of soap operas. So I only saw it when I was faking sick or really sick, and at home from school. There were a few prime time (night) special episodes of Family Feud, like the Three’s Company vs. The Love Boat vs. Soap vs. Eight is Enough casts episode in 1978. I saw the re-reruns, as obviously I was too young to remember this live.
BrianWilkins.org
April 23, 2022
The year 1980 is to the oldest of Generation X, as 1990 is to the youngest of Generation X (i.e. ME). Those years transitioned from one era to the next. I talked about Disco Demolition Night in another blog post and in a 2006 podcast I created while a student at Arizona State University.
Disco (circa 1972-1980) was one of the grooviest eras in music history; and the last truly creative genre of Black American music. Synthesizers came along in the 1980s and trivialized pure music talent, meaning people who played actual instruments. The 80s, by far, is my favorite decade of music. But it was nowhere near the most talented decade for artists.
BrianWilkins.org
March 4, 2022
I’m just bored tonight, ran a few hundred rounds through the AK, and now just posting a few pics.
The above was my first gun, an AR-15, back in 2009. And that’s my buddy Max. Notice how hard I’m gripping him with my left hand. He’s a Brindle Pit Bull, weighed close to 80 pounds, and was trained to hurt certain people at certain times. One of those certain people were in the vicinity and he was ready. That would not have been pretty. Max was my first, last and only dog in adulthood (2004-2010).
BrianWilkins.org
February 27, 2022
“This Is How We Do It” gradually climbed the charts for the next seven weeks, until it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 15, 1995.
Montell Jordan dethroned Madonna and “Take A Bow,” which had been number-1 for seven-straight weeks. That’s a feat to be proud of.
Jordan and “This Is How We Do It” stayed at number-1 for the next seven weeks. Bryan Adams and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” knocked “This Is How We Do It” out of the number-1 spot on June 3, 1995. I like a lot of Bryan Adams songs, particularly “This Time,” “Heaven,” and “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.”
BrianWilkins.org
November 26, 2021
So the headline isn’t 100% true. The Facts Of Life Season Two debut aired on November 19, 1980. But it was a two-part series. “The New Girl: Part 1” aired on November 19. Part Two aired on November 26, 1980.
Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) joined Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), Dorothy “Tootsie” Ramsey (Kim Fields), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), and housemother Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) at Eastland, a private, upscale all-girls high school in upstate New York.
BrianWilkins.org
November 19, 2021
I watched “An Officer and a Gentleman” way late at night on Cinemax or HBO in 1983. My calendar journal from that year has a little side note on the August page. It says “Paul’s mom looks like the Officer Gentleman woman.” I don’t recall who exactly Paul (or his mom) is.
I had no idea what was going on in this movie, or what I was watching, in 1983. Most 8-year-old kids wouldn’t. But something about it, particularly the soundtrack, stuck with me. I still love it today.