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Saturday Night Retro

Saturday September 04TH 2010
Volume 3 / Number 1 / Edition 98

Although it certainly wasn’t as wild and crazy as the legendary Summer of 1990 this past Summer of 2010 will certainly be a memorable one for my own personal historical archives.

In June I stepped foot in New England for the very first time ever. I flew in to Hartford Connecticut, and I spent the better part of a work week up in ‘West Mass.’ as the natives refer to it. I enjoyed my short visit, and I can see myself returning for an encore visit on a future vacation. I wish to explore Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine as well.

In July I spent the long Independence Day holiday weekend out west in the Dallas Texas area with my family. I got to see my favourite Uncle and Aunt for the first time in about 7 years, and I also got to see another favourite Uncle and Aunt while I was there. It was like a ‘Day Family Reunion’ in Texas for a few hours on the 05TH of July, and as it turns out it would be the final time that my Dad got to see everyone together. He passed on to Heaven just 13 days later. He died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). I got the news just a few hours after returning home from a road trip up north and west in the rural panhandle of Florida.

I haven’t taken any trips since then, so I’m really looking forward to this upcoming vacation of mine that begins tomorrow. I’ll cap off the memorable Summer of 2010 on a high note out on the high seas as I visit Grand Cayman Island, Isla Roatan Honduras, Belize City, y Cozumel Mexico via the Carnival Valor. I’ll actually have a camera with me on this trip (for the first time ever), so I’ll try to take some pictures of my adventures on and off the ship and then post them on here and on Twitter upon my return back home.

This weekend’s ‘pick-hit video’ is from Milli Vanilli. It actually features LIVE footage from the “Club MTV” tour of 1989 that stopped over in Miami on June 30TH of that year that I was in attendance at. This was their 5TH and final smash hit in a row before the bottom fell out on their short yet extremely successful worldwide hit music career. From the Spring of 1990 I present to you the final song of ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’. It’s “All Or Nothing”. It’s ‘Retro’.

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Saturday Night Retro

Volume 2 / Number 47 / Edition 96

On this 96TH weekly edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ it’s time to continue my month-long-plus celebration that is ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’. After this edition I’ll have two more on the 28TH of August and the 04TH of September. I also begin the 3RD year of the ‘Retro’ here on this blog on that 1ST Saturday of September. Who would have thought back in 2008 when this blog was peaking that ‘Saturday Night Retro’ would outlive all of the other weekly blog series at that time. I mean – besides me ?

ON to this week’s ‘Retro’ and back during the Spring of 1989 Time, Inc. and Warner Communications merged to become Time Warner. It was the beginning of the end for Eastern Air Lines, as it went bankrupt after over 60 years in the air. The Exxon Valdez ran aground off the south coast of Alaska, and it created an environmental disaster at sea. My favourite theme park at Walt Disney World – The Disney-MGM Studios – opened its doors for the very first time. Gas prices were right around $1 per gallon as I drove all around South Florida in my sparkling new 1989 Geo Spectrum.

On the radio the U.K.’s Fine Young Cannibals scored BIG with back-to-back International pop and dance smash hits. Here’s one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s “She Drives Me Crazy”. It’s RETRO !

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Saturday Night Retro

On This 95TH weekly edition of my ‘Retro’ I take you back 22½ years ago to the Spring of 1988. I remember it well. I was a young 20-year-old USAF Airman First Class (two stripes) on the verge of becoming 21 and a Senior Airman (three stripes) at bustling Homestead Air Force Base Florida. My total annual salary was about $11,000, but I had no car, lived on-base in a dormitory, and all of the food was free. I rode my bike to and from work on-base through the heat, the wind, and the rain. I dreamed of someday owning a car and driving it all around South Florida. That day would NOT occur in 1988, but rather in January of 1989. So back in 1988 I had friends with cars, and that’s all that mattered. All I wanted to do was to eat and party – and so I did. I ate and partied so much that I ended up gaining a lot of weight. In fact I reached my maximum lifetime weight of approximately 185 pounds !  That’s about 15 pounds more than my stable weight of today. I was not very healthy back then, and the situation would only get worse once I hit the legal drinking age of 21 that June (of 1988).

Back then during what I like to refer to as ‘The Golden Age Of Miami Top 40 Radio’ we here were blessed with three competing hit music radio stations – Power-96, Y-100, and Hot-105. All three played the big hits of the day, and each station also specialized in its own genre. Power-96 was a bit more urban than the other two, and Hot-105 actually played American hard rock and European club dance back-to-back. Y-100 was the heritage mainstream pop station of its time.

As I rode my bike all over the air base – dreaming of tuning in to each of these three stations on my eventual new car’s radio – this smash was playing everywhere. It’s the Spring of 1988 here in South Florida !

‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’ continues next week as we enter the wild and crazy world that was 1989.

Until then my friends – “GET OUT OF THE CITY !” (Balki Bartokomous from “Perfect Strangers”)

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Saturday Night Retro

On this 93RD edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I take you back to a wild and crazy life that I like to refer to as the Fall of 1986. I was a young 19-year-old USAF Airman (one-stripe) at the time living and working in the United Kingdom at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. During the work week I analyzed KC-135A Stratotanker aircraft maintenance data for the 11TH Strategic Group. After work during the week I took in the British radio and television pop culture via the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4. During the weekends I enjoyed discovering the free nation. Cirencester, Swindon, Oxford, and London were frequent getaways. Shopping and music were common themes. Music concerts were frequent at The Apollo in Oxford and London’s famed Hammersmith Odeon.

This week I continue ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’ with a memorable act from the Fall of 1986. Celebrating their 30TH anniversary in existence it’s the English HI-NRG dance act known as Dead Or Alive. Fronted by Pete Burns (who celebrates his 51ST birthday next week) they scored their biggest smash ever 25 years ago this Summer in 1985. You may remember “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)’. They followed-up that anthem with a second hit that was nearly as huge and memorable – “Brand New Lover”. It’s a track that I memorized all of the words to way back then, and even today I could sing it Karaoke style at the drop of a glowstick. It’s one of the greatest dance songs of its style ever made in my lifetime. Let’s kick this thing into HI-NRG !