A-ha's "Take On Me" Turns 40 – And It Still Sounds Like Something New

 

Norwegian band A-ha's iconic megahit "Take On Me" turns 40 this year, and it still sounds as great as when I first heard it. Well, I really didn't really first "hear" it because I saw the music video on MTV the first time I experienced the song. 

The band A-ha

Directed by Steve Barron, the video is iconic – it has over two billion views as of today on YouTube –to say the least. Mixing a pop-synth sound with catchy lyrics, the song is pleasurable to hear. It is the video, however, that made it a huge success.

The story is really rather simple and as old as time – boy meets girl; boy loses girl, and then boy gets her back in the end. But it is really not that simple since the narrative takes place in two dimensions. Boy happens to inhabit comic pages, while girl lives in the real world.

Despite being innovative, stylish, and slick as can be, the love story at the heart of the video is what captures one's attention. The girl (Bunty Bailey) and the boy (the band's lead singer (Morten Harket) are very attractive and appealing.  

In the comic world, our hero wins a motorcycle race and celebrates with champagne. The loser of the race – appropriately Number 13 – is disgruntled after his loss. We shift to the real world where our heroine is in a café reading the comic book and having a cup of coffee. When our hero extends his hand out of the book to her, she hesitates briefly but then takes his hand and is drawn into the comic world, where Number 13 is unfortunately seeking revenge. 

Image made possible by rotoscoping.

Seeing live images within the pencil-sketch comic pages was achieved by using a process called rotoscoping. This is animation that is achieved by tracing over the live action footage. It also brought the lightsabers to life in Star Wars films. 

The video has appealing leads, a conflict that needs to be resolved, and questionable futures for our hero and heroine. I won't spoil the fun here in case you're not one of the over two billion people who have already viewed it.

So, happy 40th anniversary to A-ha and Steve Barron. The video won six awards at the 1986 MTV Music Awards including Best New Artist and Viewers Choice. When you watch it you will understand why.    

Eating Fish on Fridays During Lent – Fast Food Restaurants Cashing In

 

When I was growing up, I lived in a Catholic household and we observed the rules. One of the most memorable ones for me was not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. 

I recall my mother picking us up from school, and on our walk home we would stop in the seafood store. There were heavenly aromas in that store from the fish frying in the kitchen in the back. 

In the store itself there were glass cabinets filled with ice that featured fish of all types and sizes. I remember them being pressed up against the glass, their dead black eyes sort of magnified by the glass. I felt sorry for those fish, but it seemed as if they were staring at me and blaming me for their predicament. 

Mom would bring home scallops, flounder, or shrimp each week. She would later make the house smell as good as the fish store when she would fry whatever she brought home. For a long time when I was a kid I thought Friday was called Friday because that was when we fried fish.

All these years later, I avoid the seafood store down the block. Not just because of the fish behind the glass, but due to the fact that I am not certain how to cook fish properly. I can cook other meals, but fish worries me because Mom always said you have to "cook fish just right." I'm not sure I can actually do that.

Luckily enough, the fast food giants like Wendy's, Popeyes, and Arby's have their Lenten special fish sandwiches on their menus. McDonald's fish sandwich is available all year long.

Having sampled all three this year since Ash Wednesday –  also a day that abstaining from meat is required – and I must say that they are all very good, but Arby's fish sandwich is the best of the three. 

Arby's fish sandwich comes with shredded lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce on a sesame seed bun. The piece of fish is more than generous and extends over the sides of the bun. They are also offering Fish 'N Cheddar and King's Hawaiian fish sandwiches. They do have a Surf  & Turf sandwich, but that kind of defeats the abstaining from meat idea.

Are you giving up meat on Fridays during Lent? If you are, the fast food giants are there for you. I'm getting my fish on Fridays this way, and I'm just happy that I don't have to go into the store and see those fish on ice with those big eyes anymore.  

Take a Trip to New York City in 1987

 

I grew up in New York City, and I feel fortunate to have called it home. While this video depicts NYC 38 years ago, Manhattan and its boroughs are very similar today than they were back then. 

Sadly, the glorious Twin Towers seen in lower Manhattan here are long gone since the devastating attacks on our city on September 11, 2001. But, like the New Yorkers who call it home, New York has bounced back and Freedom Tower stands tall at the southern tip of our gleaming island of glass and steal.

This video is a nostalgic look back at a New York we used to know. It was vibrant, brash, bold, cluttered, and beautiful. Today's city remains mostly the same except for new buildings that have risen since then. We also have new baseball stadiums in Queens and the Bronx (both worth a visit). Despite everything that has changed since this video was made, New York City is still our shining gem welcoming all visitors with a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in our beautiful harbor.   

So, enjoy this look back at the way New York City used to be. It was and is the City That Never Sleeps, the Big Apple, and a destination that is like no place else on Earth.   

Top Ten Hit Songs from 1983

 

Where were you in 1983? Perhaps you were not even born in 1983. I came across this video when I was searching for something else, and I was sucked into the memories of each of the ten great songs in the video – two of which are from the late great Michael Jackson. 

This video will either bring back great memories or make younger people aware about how great the music of the 80s was and still is today. 

Watch and enjoy the music!

'Star Trek: Unification' – Kirk and Spock Get to Say Goodbye

 

What happened to Captain James T. Kirk after he died in Star Trek: Generations? Besides the fan outrage and turmoil that his death caused back in 1994, there seems there are still reasons to feel like we were cheated. His death did contribute to stopping Dr. Sorin (Malcolm McDowell) long enough that Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) could thwart Sorin's crazed plan to get back into the Nexus that would destroy two stars and a nearby planet inhabited by millions of people. 

If you are still wondering about Kirk's journey, the short film Star Trek: Unification depicts Kirk's journey after death. It is preceded by the short films  765874, Memory Wall, and Regeneration that lead up to it. All directed by Carlos Baena and produced in coordination with studio OTOY and the Roddenberry Archive, they are not technically canon, but it is more complicated than that. 

The Spock seen here is the one from the Prime Universe who went into the Kelvin Universe where he meets a younger Spock played by Zacahry Quinto in the JJ Abrams' films. After Kirk dies in Generations, he is zapped into the Kelvin timeline to meet up with a dying Spock. Along the way he encounters an older Vulcan Lieutenant Saavik from Star Trek: The Search for Spock and her son, whom Spock fathered in that film. 

It is a surreal blur as we see Kirk (played by Sam Witwer with William Shatner's features) move through a space where three versions of himself converge. Eventually the Kirk who died in Generations enters a room where a dying Spock is lying on a bed. The unification thus occurs and is delightful.

I will write no more so that you can enjoy the ending better. I do suggest you watch the three short films listed above first and Unification last for a more rewarding experience.

These short films are lovingly made and pay homage to the characters Kirk and Spock. All these years later, it is no understatement to say they started it all. Everything that came after them would be nothing without them. 

Live long and prosper! 

Book Review: Donald Capone's 'Just Follow Me' – A Girl Travels to NYC to Meet John Lennon in December 1980

 

I just finished reading Donald Capone's extraordinary book Just Follow Me – that describes what it was like in New York City in the days before John Lennon was shot. I remembered that night like it was yesterday. By reading this book, I experienced it all over again in the story of a teenage girl who goes to New York City to meet John Lennon for a very important reason. 

Unfortunately, she goes to see him in December 1980, and we all know what happens because, just like the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Dr. King, everyone remembers where they were when those killings took place, so the book brought back my own memories since I was a college student at the time just like the main character Angela Girardi.

Angela is in the dorm in the college in Loch Sheldrake, New York, coming to the end of the fall semester. This is when she learns that her mother has committed suicide. Angela is devastated, of course, but she is also in despair because her tuition needs to be paid for the next semester, and on top of that her mother left a sealed suicide note addressed to John Lennon.  

A Journey with a Purpose

Despite upcoming final exams, Angela enlists her friend Tommy to take the bus trip to New York City to meet John and give him her mother's letter. Angela's mother Jessica loved the Beatles and John especially, and Angela became a fan because she had been listening to the music all of her life. The purpose of her journey is to do one last thing for her mother. If she could not help her during her life, at least she can do this for after her death.

Her Mother's Troubled Life

The story employs flashbacks to Jessica's time as a teenager, and we learn how she had a troubled life. After the high school prom at the Concord Hotel, Jessica sleeps with numerous boys and thinks it is okay because her period is due. When she learns that she is pregnant with Angela, she has no idea who is her child's father. 

Capone also uses flash forwards where we see Angela in the present (2005) writing in her journal about what she did back in 1980. This provides the reader with a welcome news that Angela survives and moves forward with her life, but it is not until the very end when we learn specifics of her situation in the future.

Mark David Chapman

There are also flash-sideways to the creepy character Holden – a name he tells Tommy and Angela because Mark David Chapman is always reading Catcher in the Rye – who is a weird fellow staying across the hall in the same YMCA. In these sections we see Chapman preparing to meet John and get his autograph. As the story unfolds, we also see him slowly unravel and justify his reasons for wanting to kill John.

Waiting to Meet John

Once they get to the city, Tommy and Angela start hanging out at the Dakota Building where John lives with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son Sean. They get to know a photographer named Paul and the Lennonites Jude and Jerry. They all hang out on the corner or on a bench across the street by Central Park hoping for their chance to meet John. 

They talk about things we all used to talk about before John was killed. What is the Beatles' greatest love song? "Which Beatle has the best songs and albums since they broke up?" And the big one we all used to debate – will the Beatles ever get back together again? It is all good natured, enjoyable, and very relatable to anyone who lived at that time, but it will also be interesting to anyone who likes the Beatles no matter how old or young they are.  

For Angela, none of this is just fun and games. While she good naturedly interacts with the others, this is a serious matter for her. It is not just about meeting him as a fan like they want to do –  the mission to get her mother's suicide note into John's hands is her top priority. 

Like seeing the movie Titanic, it is not that we do not know how this story ends, but it is how we get there that is the magic. Capone weaves some of the songs into titles of the chapters, making the music omnipresent in the story. He artfully flashes back and forward to insert key information that adds to the experience. His characters are fully realized, and Angela is a revelation as a young woman who is uncertain of where she is going but knows exactly what she has to do right now no matter what. 

Attention to Detail

While this is a work of fiction, I fully believed that this story was happening. As a New Yorker, I appreciated Capone's attention to detail about the streets of New York City, especially the gritty and sometimes ugly stuff I remember from back in 1980.  

With final exams pressuring Tommy to go back home, Angela knows that she is running out of time to meet John. Will she be able to meet him and give her mother's note to John? Should she go home and take her final exams and then come back with Tommy afterwards?  I kept turning the pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen, and I believe you will be doing so as well.  

The Verdict

This is one of the most emotionally moving books I have read in a long time. It brings back memories of that time however bittersweet, and it also tells the very relatable story about a girl who has to do one last thing for her mother before she can move on with her life.

I highly recommend Just Follow Me whether you are a Beatle fan or not. It will bring back memories for those of us who lived through that dark December, and for those who did not it will give you an excellent idea of what is was like to be in New York City in the days before the night John Lennon died.  Either way, I promise you that it is story that you will never forget. 

MTV Video Clips Prove the Case About Great 80s Music

 

Okay, everyone has a decade that is dear to them in regards to music. It is usually when they are teenagers and can extend into their 20s and even 30s for some people.

This video is from October 20, 1983. Hosted by the lovely Martha Quinn (who was everyone's crush back then). You get to see clips of some great videos from some fine groups and performers. And don't fast forward those commercials. They are a great window into the past to see how people actually lived back in the 80s.

Grab some popcorn, your favorite drink, and sit back and enjoy. You'll know why we used to say "I want my MTV!"