Sick and tired of donning the hazmat suit and goggles needed for trips to the mall? We've all grown weary of the post-apocalyptic dreamscape that is our current reality and that is why we're helping transport you to a time when your biggest worries were the height of your hair and if your legwarmers matched your sweater. This holiday season we've picked a crop of 80s themed books that are guaranteed to bring you back to a simpler time when we could only imagine the world we live in as the plot of a bad sci-fi movie.
Brat: An 80's Story, by Andrew McCarthy
A fascinating memoir with a peek behind the scenes for those of us curious about what it was like to come of age in the midst of the infamous "brat back". If you caught yourself pining for the soulful-looking McCarthy as a zit-covered teenager, this is the guilty pleasure read for you.
Life & Death on the NY Dance Floor 1980-1983, by Tim Lawrence
If you want a no holds barred look at the New York dance scene, the clubs that made the news, and the DJ's that made them the place to be, then this blast from the past will send you right back to that extremely unique time in New York City history. This fertile artistic and creative timeframe spawned some of the best stories of New York nightlife culture and the people behind it.
In between Days: The Cure In Photographs 1982-2005, by Tom Sheehan
The audience for this one might be a little slimmer (ie; Cure fans) but if you want a comprehensive visual history of the band shot by a photographer who worked with them over three decades, then this is for you. An extra bonus for longtime followers is some never-before-seen pics and a forward by Robert Smith himself.
If you were a child of the 80s, you grew up on the comedy and films of Belushi, Chase, Murray, Aykroyd, Murphy, Martin, etc, and they eventually helped create the movies and tv that became the cultural touchstones of our generation. This is an honest, warts and all love letter to our favorite funny men and their work. Any book that starts off with a fistfight between two comedy legends is on my must-have list.
Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from 80s Movies, by Hadley Freeman
Looking for inspiration and a guide for rewatching all the magical movies that shaped you into the human being you are today? Stop searching because Hadley Freeman has a comprehensive, well-researched book that includes lists, interviews, social commentary, and personal anecdotes to help drive home exactly why the movies that hit so hard three decades ago are still must-watch cinema for so many of us. Stop pretending you didn't lister to Ferris. take a day off, steal your best friend's dad's car and spend the day in the city as a teenager and order this immediately.
Nöthin But A Good Time: The Uncensored History of the 80s Hard Rock Explosion, by Tom Beaujour
And finally, for our hard-rocking hair metal fans, here is the over-the-top history of the 80s heavy metal explosion that came to define a decade of excess and the overuse of hairspray. A frothy walk back through the era that helped everyone forget the blandness of their everyday existence and step into the glory years of leather, big hair, and screeching guitars.
For this week'd Ranked!, we decided to take a look at our favorite songs by The Cure. After the mascara was smeared, we ended up with our twenty-five favorite Cure songs.
We devoted our show to The Cure on this week's Culture Brats Radio. In case you missed it or just want to reminisce, here's the playlist:
It's not the best album ever, as South Park's Kyle Broflovski claimed, but Disintegration does kick much ass.
