I Love The 80's!

Good music and memories

I stumbled over a very awesome net-radio site a few nights ago, SKY.fm ... It's broadcast live over the net from New York, and has an excellent selection of channels to choose from... I've spent today listening to their Best Of The 80's channel... This is where the memories part comes in...

I realise that today it's very uncool to admit that you loved *anything* about the 80's, but I am going to commit the grievous sin of saying I loved nearly everything about the 80's... I loved my big hair, my flavoured shimmer lipgloss, my jelly shoes (and bracelets), and my Walkman full of Madonna and New Wave cassettes... I loved the hot pink streaks in my hair and my Danskin Wear and legwarmers... I loved the excess, the decadence, and the materialism...

And listening to the songs of my younger days, so many memories came rushing back... The carefree days I spent with my clique powershopping, the nights spent dancing until my feet practically dropped off... We were so "awesome" and "radical" and "uber-cool" in those days... And in that world, it seemed like we'd live forever and nothing bad would ever happen... The Cold War was ending, and in our minds a "brave new world" was dawning... Everything glittered in ways that, looking back now, seem hard to imagine...

Were we hopelessly naive...? Yes, probably... But I miss that naivete... I miss that innocent hope for all good things I had then... I miss seeing the future as a landscape of unity and wonder... Today's future seems so grim compared to the idealism of the 80's... And I miss all the outrageousness of that decade... Nothing was ever too much, and you could build whatever extreme image you wanted... There was a freedom in the excess that everyone so condemns now... You could be whoever you wanted, whatever you were inside, no apologies... And if you were *really* unique, *you'd* start a trend...

So I'm nostalgic today... And as I sit here listening to Huey Lewis and The News sing about "The Power Of Love", I feel like crimping and teasing my hair, using half a can of Aqua Net hairspray, and finding my off the shoulder tops, my black lace pouf skirt, my stirrup leggings and legwarmers, and maybe even a pair of jelly shoes and having an impromptu 80's Retro Party downstairs...

This tag is a result of that nostalgia - it's loud, outrageous, and over the top - just like the 80's were... *smiles* This one is Snag Only... (But I promise to have Taggables up in a few days!)

Evanescence

This is one of my favourite bands... I highly recommend you check out their music and their site... I made these tags awhile back and just thought I'd share them with all of you...

All of these are Snag Only...

Friday the 13th

A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in many superstitions around the globe... The origin of the Friday the 13th superstition has been linked to the belief that there were 13 people at The Last Supper of Jesus, who was crucified on Good Friday, but it probably originated in medieval times... It has also been linked to the fact that a lunisolar calendar must have 13 months in some years, while the solar Gregorian calendar and lunar Islamic calendar always have 12 months in a year... Another suggestion is that the belief originated in a Norse myth about twelve gods having a feast in Valhalla... The mischievous Loki gate-crashed the party as an uninvited 13th guest and arranged for Hod, the blind god of darkness, to throw a branch of mistletoe at Balder, the god of joy and gladness... (The mistletoe plant was the only living thing that had not sworn never to harm Balder...) Balder was killed instantly and the Earth was plunged into darkness and mourning as a result... Both the first and last explanations, however, seem more relevant to the superstition linked to having 13 people at the same table during a meal... There is also another theory that Friday the 13th was the day that King John killed the former knights templar to get their money for the English treasury...

Strangely, there is evidence to suggest that Friday the 13th is actually unlucky for some... Psychologists have found that some people are especially likely to have accidents or fall ill on Friday the 13th... This has been attributed to such people feeling a heightened state of anxiety on that day... $800 or $900 million is lost in business each Friday the 13th because some people will not travel or go to work...

The date is also well-known in the motorcycle (biker) community: since 1981, motorcycle enthusiasts and vendors gather every Friday the 13th in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada... This tradition started on November 13, 1981 by Chris Simons as a gathering of approximately 25 friends... The event has grown substantially, with an estimated 100,000 people attending in August 2004, as well as music bands, vendors, a bike show, etc...

In the Spanish-speaking world, it is Tuesday the 13th (as well as Tuesdays in general) that brings bad luck... A proverb says, "En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques" (On Tuesday, neither get married nor start a journey)...

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen...

This one is Snag Only: