Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

  A catchy, extremely popular album in your youth becomes the lyrics that describe your life at some point. If you're lucky......

 It's almost a damn shame how much I love ragging S&TC nowadays.  But I think that was my favorite part of Susan Seidelman's memoir.....her discussion of her involvement in the HBO mega-hit.  She directed the pilot and also two of my favorite first season episodes: The Power of the Female Sex and The Baby Shower.  That was when that show was fun and unique.  Later even Susan recognized it as becoming tone-deaf and out of touch.   I also liked hearing her stories about Lower East Side Manhattan in the late 70's and early 80's.  It's one of my fave historical times of NYC for its creativity and grit.  When I was a kid I didn't understand how the different neighborhoods and boroughs of NYC worked.....I just thought it was funny how different the places looked in films.  Her effort to keep the Lower East Side and the "dirtier" life of New York was so much more real and entertaining than the glossier films of the city. Probably her bigges...

 Sure, you can watch them any time of year.  But watching in the summer makes them sooooo much better! And true, these films do seem to have a stamp of Gen X on them, but have we ever steered y'all wrong? One Crazy Summer, 1986 Dazed & Confused, 1993 Jaw, 1975 Stand by Me, 1986 Stealing Home, 1988 The Love Letter, 1999 Rear Window, 1954 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, 2005 Dirty Dancing, 1987 Woodstock, 1970 Secret Admirer, 1985 Mystic Pizza, 1988 Summer Catch, 2001 Southside With You, 2016 How I Spent My Summer Vacation, 1997 Beaches, 1988 Little Manhattan, 2005

 I know you're all very busy living your best fabulous lives in the summer, but don't tell me you don't want to crash on the couch with your dirty hair from time to time and watch some informative tv! When you're chilling in the domicile, why not learn something? Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders will remind you of that scary time back in the early 80's when we thought Tylenol was just the beginning.....soon all of our medicines would be poisoned!  This documentary gets into an interesting conspiracy I had no idea about and only vaguely remember, and it is FASCINATING!  It also introduces a very creepy man that will haunt your dreams and explains why we now have tamper-proof packaging.  The Paul Reubens documentary, Pee-Wee as Himself, touched my heart so much. As a child of the 80's I was too old for the Saturday morning show, but I loved his ridiculous Pee-Wee Herman movies.....even the circus one!  Seeing him as a young actor and performer, his self-enforced se...

 Another audiobook in which the sound of the author's voice is everything.   Ione Skye is a semi-interesting women who can definitely speak to a very memorable time of Hollywood and music in the late 80's to late 90's.   However, I unfortunately didn't love this book.  The more I read, she seemed less like a survivor and more like a woman hanging on to every sad soggy crust thrown out by a man.  And I just can't help but feel that it's sad when a woman is most known by the men in her life: her worthless hippie dad, Donovan; let's call a spade a pedophile, Anthony Kiedis, probably the best man she ever met, Adam Horovitz; let me have a baby with a rich guy I barely know, David Netto; and then yeah this guy will do, Ben Lee. I know, I know.  I shouldn't be so mean.  But listening to her story truly made me feel that there are about 867,000 other women out there with more interesting stories.  And luckily, I've read a ton of them. As a big ...

 This has been a lifelong habit of mine.....falling down rabbit holes.  I discover a subject, and I go all in.  I've watched it happen with a few various topics, and then for my own amusement, I traced back how it all happened.   With Gary, it went like this....... I had been listening to a lot of audiobooks on my Spotify.  After a weekend of listening to early 80's New Wave and British New Romantics, I decided to give Gary's book a listen.  And so it begins...... I'd always heard the term "New Romantics" but didn't really know much about who or what it referenced other than Duran Duran and maybe Culture Club, so I found an awesome doc online explaining the musical movement including London Club, The Blitz, the significance of Covent Garden, The Winter of Discontent, Saint Martin's School of Art and on and on and on..... From there I learned that Spandau Ballet was basically decided to be THE band of the New Romantics/Blitz Kids scene.  And even t...

 George Michael.  Oh, George Michael.  His name incites something.  It stirs something.  It makes you feel some kind of way.  I know his name for sure does something for me.  It did back in the 80's and it still does now.   When I was a girl waaaay back in the 80's, I loved George with Wham!  He was sexy and fun and mysterious in a way I couldn't even explain or understand.  It was a time period in which we were all still grappling with how we felt about gay and straight, what it all meant and how it did or didn't affect us personally.  Like most girls, I was bummed when I found out George was gay.  Not because I cared or thought it was wrong, but because it meant I (a girl light years away and twelve years younger) would never have a chance with him.  Disappointment! His solo record, Faith, came out in October 1987.  I was twelve and I got it for Christmas on cassette that year.  I could have watched that s...

 This story might take a minute to tell. Bear with me. When my sister and I were little girls, my mother took us to a large baptist church in town. Even as a child, I never remember feeling welcome there.  But I do remember the lovely older couple that kept my Sunday School class. They gave us saltines and kool-aid, and I remember thinking they would be nice grandparents to have. At Christmastime, the Sunday School class was set to have a random gift exchange. Every child was supposed to bring a gift that could be exchanged with any other child.....no specific gift designations.  I received the gift of an Avon 7 bead necklace which was very popular at the time.  I loved it so much and was thrilled to have it!  I was somewhere between 5 and 7 at the time. (Back in the 1970's and 80's, Avon was a cosmetic company that was also known for it's inexpensive jewelry.  I couldn't find a price on what this necklace would have cost back then, but apparently there is ...

 Sometimes it's hard to know how we came to love the the things we love.  And other times it's really clear. I knew I loved the movie "The Age of Innocence" from the first time I saw it as a teenager.  Maybe it was DDL , maybe the gorgeous costumes or that phenomenal Scorsese snap that the film seems to have.  (The close-ups of handwritten notes.....the scenes through gauzy lace.....when Newland SMELLS the handle of her umbrella and KISSES her shoe!!!!) But I digress. And sure, sure.....I loved the 1997 version of Titanic with Leo and Kate.  (And no, y'all, she COULD NOT HAVE moved over.) And though I was late, I jumped right into Downton Abbey as well.  Now I watch HBO's The Gilded Age.....because well.....I think I signed a waiver or something along the way.  (Kidding.  Or am I????) But truthfully, it was all loooooong before all of this media.  And I think it has a little something to do with being a North Carolina girl. As any true Gilded...

Resharing this classic Barbie post in light of the current movie phenomenon.  I haven't seen the film yet, but I absolutely plan to as soon as possible! (Inspired by this previous post here  and this one as well.)  Peaches 'n Cream Barbie was so beautiful!  I loved her dress and styling her hair! Crystal Barbie's hair wasn't as easy to style, but I loved her iridescent gown.  This one was called Great Shape Barbie....working out was a real craze in the 80's. The Western Barbie was not my fave, but country western wear had a thang in the early 80's. IYKYK, am I right? And this was the plastic case we carried them in! I was a  child of the 1980's.  Most of these Barbie dolls were introduced between 1981-84. Since then there have been many strides made in Barbie dolls of different nationalities, levels of ability and careers.  I think it's fabulous!  While her proportions may be impossible to attain, may Barbi...

Kathy Valentine is a great storyteller.  I have read very few memoirs in which a person could truly tell a story from such an unemotional, honest level.  It makes for a great read as you travel with the narrator through their catharsis.  And Kathy definitely had a lot of those!   As she walks us through two abortions (one at the tender age of 12), her early drug and alcohol use, both a fun and tumultuous relationship with her mother, her sobriety.....it's really a lot to take in!  But Kathy is not one for rest or self-pity.  I guess the most heartbreaking thing of all is how much she just really, really wanted to be in a band.   Thus the title of the memoir. Her famous name-dropping from the Vaughn brothers to The Police to Clem Burke and Carlene Carter also adds a lot a spice to a tale that never winds down to boredom.  (Kathy was friends with Rob Lowe.....whaaaaatttt????) I actually think there's a few different kinds of fans that love...

 I was listening to a podcast recently about the problems of the corporate world, and nearly every assertion was pitting millennials against boomers.  It kinda reminded me of this over-used meme: And just as Gen Z was being brought into the mix of work life and I was beginning to feel really sad and left out the moderators said something kinda like "we're not mentioning Gen X because their numbers are really so small and really don't factor into this dynamic".  Um, Jayden, whut? This was a discussion about work life.  About corporate culture.  And these turds, either young millennials or older zennials didn't think Gen X had a part in the discussion.  Who exactly do you think your bosses are, sweetie?  It ain't a boomer.  Not today.  He's a stock holder.  He's a CEO.  Your manager, your supervisor, your boss?  Is a Gen Xer. How did Gen X get left by the wayside?  I've read hundreds of articles about this.  Some say it...