I’ve been bitten by the 80’s bug. Again. First the incessant fooling around with, and subsequently ordering two of, the Rubiks Cube:

(For those of you who want to know how I got the cube-in-cube design on it, here’s the algorithm. Start with a solved cube: L, F, L, D’, B, D, L², F², D’, F’, R, U’, R’, F², D. A thank-you goes out to Jessica Fridrich for this. Have fun!)

Then, I see a new post on Captain Picard’s Journal asking what was our favorite decade in music and name some influential tracks from that time period. That simple question opened the floodgates in my raised-in-the-80’s heart. I’m giving him this list:

Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know
Dead Or Alive – (You Spin Me) Round And Round
The Cars – Shake It Up
Nena – 99 Luftballons
A Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran So Far Away
Talk Talk – It’s My Life
Dokken – In My Dreams
Ratt – Round And Round
Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon
Whitesnake – Still Of The Night
Poison – Talk Dirty To Me
Quiet Riot – Cum On Feel The Noize
Stryper – Calling On You [not linked; see below]

When I listed that last song, it got me pining for a video. Soooooooo I went to YouTube for my fix. Yes, they’re cheesy in those bumblebee outfits, and yes their message is corny sometimes, but I admired their conviction to sing about their beliefs and spread the Good Word in a music market that preached the vaunted sex and drugs in their rock.

I saw these guys in concert and, for all the cheesiness, they were just unbelievably talented. Talent in the sense that everything they did was note-for-note perfect compared to the studio. That’s something rarely ever seen in performances; Queensrÿche and Dream Theater are also exceptional live bands in this regard.

Update: After writing this entry, I linked the songs in the list above to their YouTube videos. I especially liked the Nena and Ratt vids! Those videos brought back some good childhood memories.

Well, back to watching the birds while cruising the cyber-highways. Cheers!

Technorati Tags: 80’s, Eighties, Rubik’s Cube, Picard, Pop Music, Rock Music, Christian, Stryper, Video, YouTube

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Around the Web, Cool Videos, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.