The Chicago House scene spawned many new artists, most of them former DJs, and forged a new sound that evolved into different house music variations over the years. A classic example of the classic Chicago House sound was one of my personal favorites – “Jack Your Body” by Steve “Silk” Hurley. Though the jury is out on what exactly it means to “jack” your body, you can’t ignore the addictive nature of the 1987 classic to make you move your body.
Author: Retroguy
Pac Man – The College Years
Sad to see that even in college our yellow cheese wheel shaped buddy was tormented by the ghost like meanies. It was tough but eventually the meanies were expelled and he did meet his better half there so everybody wins.
Must Have Retro Car Accessories
We’ve always had a love affair with our cars. Especially if it’s your first car, no attention to detail is too great to try and make this symbol of freedom your very own. We spend countless hours washing and detailing them and hard earned money on accessories to try and put our mark on them and make them not only unique, but the envy of the neighbourhood.
Back in the day, these accessories had to include:
Back in the day, these accessories had to include:
Foxtail
What better symbol of machismo could you possibly hang off the rearview mirror (other than a garter belt you caught at your cousin’s wedding) to show you were a virile, hot stud on the prowl than a genuine foxtail? The bushier the better. Even though it impeded your view of the street and the dangers that lurked just beyond your dash, it showed you were an animal and an easy target for PETA.
Fuzzy Dice
If you were more of the gambling risk taker sort, you could always opt for a neat set of fuzzy dice. It would impede your view just as well as a foxtail but these came in all sorts of colors and designs and allowed you to really show some personality………. or that you liked fuzzy things.
Dashboard Hula Girl
Although I’ve got one on my monitor as we speak, I never understood why people sported one of these on their dashboard. What message did it really give to other motorists? You liked girls in grass skirts? You were into Don Ho? You’d rather be surfin’? You never got over your freakish fetish for your sister’s Barbies?
Racing Hood Locks
Although a must have accessory for any street legal machine that had the muscle to do damage on a race track, it always cracked me up when you’d see them show up on a stock Cavalier or Hyundai Pony right off the showroom floor.
Rear Window Louvres
As exotic sport car makers kept introducing us to sexier machines, the average guy longed to try to mimic the same effect on their own beasts. So maybe you couldn’t afford a 1967 Lambo Miura or a Ferrari 312P, atleast you could hang plastic covers on your Firebird or Mustang. It’s close………right? (sniff….tear….)
Side Pipe Exhaust
Undeniably a bad ass accessory on a vintage muscle car or sweet street rod. Paired with a set of headers, it would give you the throaty rumble that announced to the world you had a car that meant business. It looked nasty and it sounded mean. Problem was that the same people that would put hood locks on a VW Rabbit would also put side pipes on a 1985 Crown Victoria. Just not the same effect.
Retro Video of the Day – Domino Dancing
I remember first spinning the original West End Girls track on a white label and thinking that this was completely fresh (how long has it been since you used that word in that context?) and probably the start of a new and prominent trend in dance music. Whether you called it Electro-Pop, Electronica, EuroBeats, or crap, it was undeniable that pop music was moving away from strictly guitars and experimenting with new electronic sounds that ushered and defined what ’80s music was all about.
The Pet Shop Boys have always been on the forefront of that movement and have continually put out new music over three decades. Domino Dancing, released in 1988, really helped them cross over to a wide range of audiences. It reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard Club Play listing and cracked the Top 10 of almost all the countries it was released in.
The Pet Shop Boys have always been on the forefront of that movement and have continually put out new music over three decades. Domino Dancing, released in 1988, really helped them cross over to a wide range of audiences. It reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard Club Play listing and cracked the Top 10 of almost all the countries it was released in.
Extra Retro Bonus !
What’s in a Name? (Part 1)
If you’re going to make it in show business you need to have a good name. You also may want to use a different name to allow yourself a little anonymity when you want to get away from it all. You also may need a new name to help bolster the image your trying to portray. Let’s face it, John Wayne would never have commanded the respect in those Westerns if he went by his real name, Marian Morrison. Here’s a list of some famous people and their not so famous real names.
Demi Moore – Demetria Guynes (named her kids Rumer Glenn, Scout Larue, Tallulah Belle)
Tom Cruise – Thomas Cruise Mapother IV
Shania Twain – Eileen Twain (married a guy named Mutt Lange)
Bono – Paul Hewson
Prince – Prince Rogers Nelsen
Eddie Money – Eddie Mahoney
Winona Ryder – Winona Laura Horowitz
Meg Ryan – Margaret Hyra
Seal – Sealhenry Samuel
Meatloaf – Marvin Lee Adair
Martin Sheen – Ramonón Estevez
Joan Rivers – Joan Sandra Molinsky
Jackie Chan – Chan Kong Sung (means Born in Hong Kong)
Alice Cooper – Vincent Damon Furnier
Stevie Wonder – Steveland Judkins
Retro Arcade Game of the Day – Asteroids
One of the first games to suck the quarters out of my pocket at an alarming rate was the classic Asteroids game. It was one of the first games that let you continue where you left off which usually meant you’d be dead alot quicker the further up the levels you went.
Here now for your entertainment and gaming pleasure is the original classic Asteroids. Use the mouse to press START, the arrow keys to move around and SPACE bar to shoot. Keep the quarters in your pocket.
Proof Our Climate is Changing
This post could have actually had another title since it serves as a small history of women’s panties as well. I love dual purpose posts – two messages in the same amount of time.
Seeing the trend portrayed in the image, all I can say is I look forward to the future (nudge nudge, wink wink).
Retro Video of the Day – Kiss Them For Me
I’ve been in a alternative kind of mood lately. Now when I say alternative, I mean late ’80s and early ’90s as opposed to what alternative came to mean in the late ’90s and beyond. I got a fever and the only cure is more cowbell…… okay, this song doesn’t have cowbells but it has some very cool percussion and inspiration from Indian Bhagra style music. The production on this track is simply sublime.
If you’ve never heard of Siouxsie and the Banshees then your in for a treat. If you have heard of them then you’ll probably send me a list of better songs they’ve done and maybe you’d be right however this song has a great vibe to it which is perfect for chasing the mid-morning blahs as you toil away waiting for the noon hour lunch break. Enjoy!
The History of a Clown
No other fast food mascot comes to mind quicker or is more recognizable than Ronald McDonald. Other than Santa Claus, no other character is more recognized around the world than the hamburger loving spokesman for the McDonalds Corporation.
Ronald McDonald was actually an altered version of Bozo the Clown created by an ad executive and a clown from the Ringling Brothers Circus. One of the early actors to portray Ronald was a part time Bozo performer and NBC Today Show weatherman, Willard Scott. Not only did he give the clown a name, Ronald, he also took a stab at creating the look of Ronald by creating a costume out of a paper cup for a nose and a cardboard tray as a hat. Pathetic? Yes….. yes it was.
Bozo the Clown (R.I.P)
Willard and his recycled Costume
However, although crude, he was responsible for giving the character a personality and help promote the local franchises. Willard was dumped in 1966 when the corporation took Ronald national citing the reason for dumping Willard as he was “too fat”for the roll and didn’t give the proper corporate image. Ironic isn’t it? McDonalds wasn’t really synonymous with health food at the time (or now) so I’m sure Willard had a chuckle over that one.
Renaissance Ronald
The company went back to Ringling Brothers where one of their clowns worked to give Ronald his new look including the now famous white-face, put him in a canary-yellow jumpsuit which he found on a mannequin in a women’s clothing store, plus a fire-engine red wig. The new Ronald was introduced to the world on November
25 1966, at the Chicago Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Ronald circa 1971
Ronald circa 1985
By 1971, Ronald had his own kingdom, McDonaldland, and was joined by more odd-ball, burger-headed characters such as Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Sheriff Big Mac and Grimace, a purple milkshake that could talk.
Ronald McDonald has always followed a strict set of secret guidelines that govern how the fast-food icon looks, talks, moves and where and what he can do. To date there have been about nine actors to officially play Ronald on television with many more trained by the company to ensure consistency in mannerisms during local promotions.
Rejected Ronald Update
In 1998, McDonald’s ad agency, Leo Burnett, hired LA stylists to refashion Ronald’s hair again and spent months studying whether to increase the width of the red stripes on his socks. If only they spent that time working on their pizza and McLean Supreme sandwiches, I think we’d have been better off!
Retro Video of The Day – Images of Heaven
If your looking for a prototypical ’80s sounding song with a prototypical looking ’80s video to go with it then you need not look any further than Peter Godwin’s “Images of Heaven”.
Peter was part of the band called Metro in the late ’70s and went solo in the early ’80s producing his most memorable track, “Images in Heaven” in 1982. His other hit that got some Alternative radio play was “Baby’s in the Mountain” but in my opinion Images was a much stronger song. Enjoy!