Era living

That's pretty much me.
What is it you feel you missed out on?

 

If we're just making short trips, I'd go back for Woodstock and the days when punk was a serious movement. Maybe you could convince me to stay in the '60s if we slipped into an alternate history and I got to drive a Ford Nucleon, but other than that, I'd say I'm happier now than I would be seeing how much more miserable everyone other than we suburban white guys were.

 

Mostly? Music. '70s for the radio, '80s for the club scene, '90s for the concerts.

Also, two very awesome words: Roller. Disco.


Plus, being around when Atari came out, drive-in theatres, arcade games, awesome cars, seeing the original Star Wars movies in the theatre, vinyl and 8-tracks, seeing Bill Cosby and Steve Martin start out in standup, the birth of MTV/Apple/Microsoft... some of these were around when I was young, but I was too young to really appreciate them.

It probably doesn't seem like a very interesting choice to those who lived it, but I'd be pretty happy with it

 

Now I feel old.

 

Psssh. You're the perfect age. Besides, you still got it goin' on


Oh, and I also forgot: The Big Red Machine.

 

If I could just hit the hold button, all would be good.

 

I want to go into the future. I want my flying cars that we were promised. Greater longevity. I think things are overall getting better, and I want to live in a better time.

 

When I was living in the 1970s, I always wanted to be older in the 1970s. Still do. I want to wear fabulous silk jumpsuits by Halston and Diane Von Furstenburg wrap dresses with no bra and go to Studio 54 and hang with Andy, Liza, Bianca and Grace. I want to wear pink lycra pants, a tube top and Candies shoes. I want gay pride parades and Sylvester and trash-talking Anita Bryant with my friends.

Otherwise, I wouldn't mind being a female Brassai in Charles' 1930s Paris.

 

Well it does sound better now that you remind me.

Star Wars was the first "grown up" movie that my parents took us to see. I was absolutely blown away.

Atari was way cool. I got it the second year it was out. I think it cost $119 when first introduced, and my parents thought that was too much. I remember them showing me that price and my thinking it was more money than we could possibly have, and not complaining that we couldn't get it when it first came out.

And I vividly remember the birth of MTV. We didn't have cable but my friend Rob down the street did. I remember all the original VJ's, the early videos. Who could have predicted the shlocky shit show that MTV was destined to turn into.

Special bonus trivia question: Name the first music video played on MTV. Song and artist please.

 

the buggles. video killed the radio star.

i can tell you that this "being involved in the 70s and early 80s" is entirely a real-estate matter.

characters in books i may have read were trapped in new hampshire for most of those years. in the town of life-sucking void.

and that, my dears, that is not awesome planning.

so don't be fooled when you set up your time-travel vacation.

life-sucking void new hampshire was firmly in the "disco sucks" camp but for no reason...perhaps some vague bumpkin sense that, somehow, gay people were involved with it. but it was never clear. because, you know, there were only "bachelors" who tended to be "fastidious about their gardens" at the time in that miserable little place.

so there was this other 70s of listening to foghat and shit like that in crappy rural pizza joints and taking mickey-mouse blotter in excessive amounts.

or so i hear.

ahem.

 

Did I just read an autobiography?

I think so.

...

Update: I've decided that--once I reach old age--I want to be sent back in time so that I can punch a velociraptor in the face as a part of my euthanasia plan. The best way to clock out. Ever.

Fuck all that peaceful Jack Kevorkian button-pushing. I wanna don a glittery American Flag speedo, dual wield some brass knuckles and go out fighting the world's most dangerous chicken.

 

Bok bok, motherfucker.

 

I know. I remember. And this is why I fantasize about the other 70s.

 

The other 70s I'd like to visit was NYC and the birth of Punk. I want to shoot heroin with Richard Hell and Johnny Thunders and snort coke with Bowie and Iggy. I want to hang out with the writers from Punk Magazine and sleep with Candy Darling. I want to see the Ramones debut on stage at CBGB.

It's idealized as all these backwards looking things are, but if you grew up caught between sterile suburban nightmare of Highland Creek and the nasty, sometimes violent armpit of Mornelle Court... you'd see where I was coming from. Scarborough isn't the armpit of Toronto, it's more like the taint.

Again, as roachboy points out, it's all about real estate. Right place, right time.

 

Since roachboy already answered, I'll tell you that it aired on August 1, 1981, and "You Better Run" by Pat Benatar was the second. "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll."

 

Oooh...I like this. I'd head to the West coast, though, and catch the Go-Go's and the Runaways.

 

Yeah, I'd like to catch the Go-Go's and The Runaways, too, if you know what I mean. And I think you do. Alright alright...aallllriiiight!


/channeling McConaughey