A Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

12.30.2004 - 9:00 a.m.

Some things just feel so right...

***

Last night my girlfriend confided in my that growing up she had a pet fruit fly. His name was Phil Donahue.

He lived for so long though, she's beginning to suspect there was more than one Phil Donahue.

Then I said, ".....".

***

Driving into work this morning a local radio station was playing it's "Bizarre Love Thursday" no talk/non-stop 80s music tribute. Somewhere between Erasure and When In Rome I got to thinking...

Maybe one of the intangible factors of the 80s that made them so memorable was it's perfect mix of light and shadow.

The dark Cold War was set to a shiny synth soundtrack. It's kind of hard to believe now that New Wave and Synth Pop were the mainstream for a brief period.

It's also the only time German pop culture permeated the mainstream even slightly. That had to help contribute to the 80s quirk-factor.

You have a time when America's economy and factories were shut down and boarded up, and Uncle Sam was standing toe-to-toe in a nuclear blinking contest with The Bear - but Europeans, they were dancing in the streets, key-tars in hand.

To think - such behavior while living beneath such a shadow. You can't help but respect that.

***

By popular demand:

and also try on:

out to pasture - to the barn raising