Musical Monday - The Reflex by Duran Duran

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: June 23, 1984 through June 30, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: June 16, 1984 through June 23, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: May 5, 1984 through May 26. 1984.

The Reflex is one of those iconic 1980s era songs that is emblematic of the era, and also highlights one of the worst things about music from that time period. The song is catchy and danceable, like pretty much everything else that Duran Duran produced. It is also complete nonsense, like pretty much everything else Duran Duran produced. This is kind of a running theme with a lot of popular music on he U.S. music charts in the mid-1980s - it is often upbeat and fun, but it is empty and meaningless. Duran Duran generally, and The Reflex specifically, is more or less the poster child for this phenomenon.

Previous Musical Monday: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Subsequent Musical Monday: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Denice Williams

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: When Doves Cry by Prince

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springstein

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Hello by Lionel Richie

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Duran Duran     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Bogger Hop March 20, 2021 - April 1, 2021 - In 375 B.C., the Theban Sacred Band Defeated a Much Larger Spartan Force at the Battle of Tegyra

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What creative places do you keep books other than bookshelves?

Boxes. I have a lot of books stored in boxes, which I have stacked in several rooms in my dwelling. I also keep books in a storage area, on a shelf that is actually inaccessible at the moment. There are some books that I just keep in stacks on my desk, just waiting to be read.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Spearthrower Owl Became Ruler of Teotihuacan in 374 A.D.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Fritigern Launched the Gothic War Against Rome in 376 A.D.

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: April 21, 1984 through May 5, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: April 21, 1984 through May 5, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

This is yet another song associated with a movie, in this case, the movie Against All Odds. Oddly, while most of the other movies that have appeared on this list have been considered fairly slight: Xanadu, Fame, and Flashdance are all regarded as pop culture fluff, and even the one with the most studio muscle behind it - Footloose - is kind of a goofy trashy movie, this movie was definitely intended to be taken seriously. It starred Jeff Bridges, a prominent actor who had already garnered two Academy Award nominations (and who would garner another one in the same year this movie was released for his performance in Starman). Appearing alongside Bridges was Rachel Ward, who was coming off of an award-winning performance in the critically acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds. Cast as the villain was James Woods, who had already had a notable career before he showed up in this movie. The movie was a remake, loosely based upon the 1947 film noir movie Out of the Past, considered one of the greatest examples of that genre. In a bit of stunt casting, the ingenue from Out of the Past was cast as Rachel Ward's mother.

Despite all of that, I suspect that far fewer people continue to watch this movie than watch Flashdance or Fame or any of the other movies that have thus far had musical hits on this list. Lots of people are familiar with Footloose, especially the final dance scene. Lots of people know routines from Flashdance, especially, once again, the final dance. A fair number of people are familiar with iconic scenes from Fame. But I figure very few people would be able to even give a rough synopsis of the plot to Against All Odds without looking it up first. That isn't to say that Against All Odds is a bad movie - it is well acted and has a fundamentally strong story. It just hasn't had the staying power in popular culture that the other "lesser" movies that had his songs associated with them have had.

Previous Musical Monday: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent Musical Monday: The Reflex by Duran Duran

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Hello by Lionel Richie

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Hello by Lionel Richie

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Phil Collins     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop - March 19th - March 25th: Spearthrower Owl Became Ruler of Teotihuacan in 374 A.D.

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What books have you read/reviewed that you think are hidden gems, although they haven't found a big audience so far?

I have to say my top hidden gem would be Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn by Day al-Mohammed and Danielle Ackley-McPhail. It is a steampunk fantasy set in the Middle-East that is imbued with interesting characters, clockwork creatures, and magical flavor. I also have to raise the entire Unidentified Funny Objects series edited by Alex Shvartsman. The series is up to eight volumes now, and each one of them is full of short works of funny science fiction.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Emperor Valens Converted to Arianism in 373 A.D.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: In 375 B.C., the Theban Sacred Band Defeated a Much Larger Spartan Force at the Battle of Tegyra

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Footloose by Kenny Loggins

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: March 31, 1984 through April 14, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: March 31, 1984 through April 14, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Throughout this series, I've commented on how much interaction there is between large studio movies and the music charts, and Footloose is another example of this phenomenon. As the title track to the movie of the same name, Footloose followed in the footsteps of Flashdance and Fame, which were also early 1980s era movies about kids and dancing. A generous person might put Xanadu into that same category, but Xanadu seems to have been an artifact of an earlier roller-disco-oriented era.

The big difference between Footloose and its spiritual predecessors Flashdance and Fame is that it was following the success of the earlier movies (and songs), and the studio seems to have put a lot more resources into this movie. Whereas the first two movies featured mostly little known or even unknown actors, and their music was performed by mostly unknown singers, Footloose featured veteran actors John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest in significant roles. Kevin Bacon was an up-and-coming actor coming off an award-winning performance in Forty Deuce and critical acclaim in Diner. Lori Singer was coming off of a two year run as a cast regular in the television adaptation of Fame. In short, this cast was full of actors who had much more substantial resumes than those who populated Flashdance or Fame.
The song itself was also sung by someone with a bigger resume than the earlier movies. Kenny Loggins spent the first half of the 1970s as half of the hit making duo Loggins and Messina, charting top twenty Billboard hits like Your Momma Don't Dance and Thinking of You. Picking him to write and perform the theme song for the movie wasn't quite like selecting a first round draft pick to do the job, but he was still an industry veteran with an extensive resume. It is also notable that the movie soundtrack also included songs by Bonnie Tyler, Sammy Hagar, and a duet by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Anne Wilson of Heart. The movie producers weren't leaving anything to chance with this one.

In the end, this all worked out. Footloose grossed eighty million dollars at the box office against a production budget of eight million. Bacon went on to appear in dozens of movies. This song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Loggins continued to push out hits, including one other notable movie theme song later in the 1980s.

Previous Musical Monday: Hello by Lionel Richie

Subsequent Musical Monday: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Jump by Van Halen

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Kenny Loggins     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop - March 12th - March 18th: Emperor Valens Converted to Arianism in 373 A.D.

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What percentage (roughly) of the books you read do you write blog post reviews for?

I usually end up reviewing most of the books I read, with a couple of notable exceptions. This might seem like an odd thing to say, given the dearth of reviews I have posted over the last year, but the reality is that I haven't read very many reviewable books over the last year. One might think, given that the global pandemic has kept most everyone home a lot more than they otherwise would be, that I would have lots of time for reading. The problem is that other commitments have grown to occupy most of my time. I somehow got talked into running two different RPG campaigns, and that time commitment, along with retaining my full-time job (which has been converted to full-time telework) and wrangling a three-year-old, has basically driven most reading time out of my schedule.

This has also driven what reading I do into areas that I don't normally review. I have read a lot of RPG books over the last year. I don't generally review those. I have read a lot of books aimed at two to three year old kids. I never review those. Reviewing those types of books is perfectly legitimate, but I just don't really have a lot of interest in doing that. Reviewing gaming books inevitably ends up just being mostly a review of the game they are associated with, and in general if I am playing a game, I enjoy it, which would make reviews of the associated sourcebooks kind of repetitive, and reviewing kids books would mostly end up being an assessment of whether the childhood memories of the books are justified or if the books have been visited by the suck fairy in the interim.

I do have a handful of books sitting waiting to be reviewed. I read them, and I just haven't written up reviews for them. I'll get to them soon. Of course, I've been saying that for several months for some of them. But I will. Really. I promise.

The direct answer the the question is simply this: I review most of the books I read. Except when I don't.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Saint Augustine Adopted Manichaeism.in 372 A.D.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Spearthrower Owl Became Ruler of Teotihuacan in 374 A.D.

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Hello by Lionel Richie

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: May 12, 1984 through May 19, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: May 12, 1984 through May 19, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: March 24, 1984 through April 28, 1984.

Lionel Richie was the master of Dad pop in the 1980s. Hello is pretty much Dad pop distilled to its purest essence. A soft-rock ballad in which the singer pines for a woman he has apparently never directly spoken with, this song's narrator is pathetic in ways that would not be equaled until James Blunt's You're Beautiful. After leaving the Commodores, Richie more or less settled into producing commercially successful albeit mostly forgettable songs for the entire decade.

The thing about this song is that while the song is bland and fairly boring, the video is creepy as hell. Apparently, Richie decided to not only be the king of Dad pop, but also the king of Dad stalking. The entire video depicts Riche as a teacher who is apparently smitten with an attractive blind student in his class. He spends the entire video silently stalking her, looming creepily behind her in several scenes, calling her house in the middle of the night, and generally behaving like the villain in the first half of a horror movie. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that the blind student has sculpted a bust of Richie that somehow looks a little bit like him. This video is genuinely weird and off-putting. It certainly made me reevaluate Richie's character given that he didn't look at this concept and say "no way in hell".

Previous Musical Monday: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper

Subsequent Musical Monday: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Denice Williams

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Denice Williams

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: 99 Luftballoons by Nena

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: The Reflex by Duran Duran

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Lionel Richie     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Musical Monday - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: March 17, 1984 through March 24, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

While Nena was singing about the specter of nuclear armageddon, Cyndi Lauper was putting out an anthem of female empowerment phrased as a simple statement: Girls want to have fun. Though the lyrics seem somewhat banal now, the fact that they centered a woman and her desire to enjoy herself was somewhat revolutionary. In the case of this song, it was originally written by a man, and was written from a male perspective, with the lyrics being gender-bent for Lauper to sing. The original was somewhat bland and boring, since songs of male empowerment are a dime a dozen, but the mere act of switching the genders for one of those male-empowerment songs makes it into a revolutionary anthem.

I hope that maybe, someday, this sort of gender-flip won't be such a big deal. We aren't there yet, but we seem to be closer than we were in 1984.

Previous Musical Monday: 99 Luftballoons by Nena

Subsequent Musical Monday: Hello by Lionel Richie

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: 99 Luftballoons by Nena

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Cyndi Lauper     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home