Summer of DMC

Many of the songs of summer 1985 were excavated from the anus of a dying warthog. They included:

"Everytime You Go Away" - Paul Young
“The Power Of Love" - Huey Lewis & The News
“A View To A Kill" - Duran Duran
"Sussudio" - Phil Collins
"St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" - John Parr
"Never Surrender" - Corey Hart
"Freeway Of Love" - Aretha Franklin

But one song released in February 1985 held more universal sway than just about anything released that summer (that year!) as it exploded thanks, in part, to a dynamic Live Aid performance on July 13: Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay’s “King of Rock.”

As a New York City kid juggling (poorly) Punk, Metal, New Wave and No Wave, rap was almost lost to me. Then Darryl McDaniels and Joseph Simmons stepped forward, arms crossed, grimacing, Adidas akimbo, striking defiant but not wholly intimidating poses... and superheroes seemed to come to life.

This coming October, DMC and I plan on talking about the moment when it all came together in a fanboy's dream of music and comic books. One of the most exciting pop culture events of my youth (of the era) was taking a terrible toll on its creator. Stay tuned for Part II and so much more.

Check it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHZfewPCziU

Check too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-SZBEuEd_I

1984

This is the list of the top 50 movies from 1984, by box office ranking. I was 14 years old at the time, same age as my daughter is now. I am in no way trying to be a crotchety old fart, but comparing films then and now... I dunno, the impression these films made seemed more enduring; and there are some serious duds on this list (yet, somehow, they were/are impactful). And here's the catch: Aleda has seen many of these films and they mean more to her (especially 2, 3, 4, 7, 21, 44...) than almost anything we spend $15.00 to see in a theatre nowadays:

1 Beverly Hills Cop
2 Ghostbusters
3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
4 Gremlins
5 The Karate Kid
6 Police Academy
7 Footloose
8 Romancing the Stone
9 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
10 Splash
11 Purple Rain
12 Amadeus
13 Tightrope
14 The Natural
15 Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan
16 Revenge of the Nerds
17 2010
18 Breakin'
19 Bachelor Party
20 Red Dawn (1984)
21 The Terminator
22 City Heat
23 All of Me
24 Places in the Heart
25 The Killing Fields
26 Friday the 13th: Final Chapter
27 Conan the Destroyer
28 Dune
29 The Gods Must Be Crazy
30 Starman
31 The Last Starfighter
32 Cannonball Run II
33 Teachers
34 A Passage to India
35 Pinocchio (Re-issue) (1984)
36 Protocol
37 Micki and Maude
38 The Cotton Club
39 The Muppets Take Manhattan
40 A Nightmare on Elm Street
41 The Woman in Red
42 Moscow on the Hudson
43 The Flamingo Kid
44 Sixteen Candles
45 The Jungle Book (re-issue) (1984)
46 Missing in Action
47 A Soldier's Story
48 Against All Odds
49 Oh, God! You Devil!
50 Rhinestone