40 Years in 40 Days: 1985

Live-Aid was the only thing that mattered in 1985. I watched from my living room. The whole thing. It was the first time I felt immersed in music.

From Wikipedia:

Live Aid was a dual-venue concert held on 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the “global jukebox”, the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 100,000 people).^[1] On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as Australia and Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast.^[2]

Here is the roster of artists (from @u2.com):

Status Quo (London, 12 p.m.)
Style Council
Boomtown Rats
Adam Ant
INXS (from Melbourne, but played at approximately 1 p.m. in London)
Ultravox
Loudness
Spandau Ballet

(Philly begins at this point!)
P – Joan Baez (Philly 9 a.m./London 2 p.m.)
L – Elvis Costello
P – The Hooters
Opus (from Vienna)
L – Nik Kershaw
P – The Four Tops
B.B. King (from The Hague)
P – Billy Ocean
P – Ozzy Osbourne
P – Run DMC (Philly 10:15 a.m./3:15 p.m. London)
Yu Rock Mission (from Belgrade)
L – Sade
L – Sting (3:15 p.m. London/10:15 a.m. Philly) (same as Run DMC)
P – Rick Springfield
L – Phil Collins
P – REO Speedwagon
L – Howard Jones
Autograph (from Moscow)
L – Bryan Ferry (4:10 p.m. London/11:10 a.m. in Philly)
P – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Udo Lindenburgh (from Cologne)
P – Judas Priest (Philly 11:26 a.m./4:26 p.m. in London)
L – Paul Young (London 4:40 p.m./11:40 a.m. in Philly)
L – Bob Geldof welcomes America (5 p.m. in London/noon in Philly)
P – Bryan Adams (12:02 p.m. in Philly/5:02 p.m. in London)
L – U2 (5:20 p.m. in London/12:20 p.m. in Philly)
P – The Beach Boys (12:40 p.m. in Philly/5:40 p.m. in London)
L – Dire Straits/Sting (6 p.m. in London/1 p.m. in Philly)
P – G. Thorogood/Bo Diddley/Albert Collins
L – Queen (6:44 p.m. in London/1:44 p.m. in Philly)
David Bowie/Mick Jagger (on video)
P – Simple Minds
L – David Bowie
P – The Pretenders
L – The Who (8 p.m. in London/3 p.m. in Philly)
P – Santana w/Pat Metheny
L – Elton John
P – Ashford & Simpson w/T. Prendergrass
L – Elton John and Kiki Dee (9:05 p.m. in London/4:05 p.m in Philly)
L – Elton John, Kiki Dee, and Wham!
P – Madonna
L – Mercury and May
L – Paul McCartney
L – McCartney, Bowie, Townshend, Moyet, and Geldof
L – U.K. Finale (9:56 p.m. in London/4:56 p.m. in Philly)

Tom Petty (5:14 p.m.)
Kenny Loggins
The Cars
Neil Young (6:07 p.m.)
The Power Station
The Thompson Twins
Eric Clapton (7:39 p.m.)
Phil Collins
Plant, Page, and Jones (8:13 p.m.)
Duran Duran
Patti LaBelle
Hall & Oates w/Eddie Kendrick and David Ruffin
Mick Jagger (10:15 p.m.)
Jagger and Tina Turner
Bob Dylan/Keith Richard/Ron Wood (10:39 p.m.)
U.S. Finale (10:55 p.m.)

It was simply amazing to an 11 year-old in Shreveport, Louisiana to see all of this music performed. We will never see a lineup like that again playing that kind of quality of music again. It’s amazing that it happened and I know I was fortunate to see it; to recognize I was watching something monumental that mattered and was doing good for the world.

If you haven’t seen the Live Aid documentary, Against All Odds, Google it – the whole thing is on the You Tube.

40 Years in 40 Days: 1983

Excited to get a Versatile Fleece Vest in 1983.

The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet^[1] and the first mobile cellular telephone call. I was already a master of the Speak and Spell and was taking computer classes on a Mac, so technology grew up with me, I suppose.

March 23 – Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan “Star Wars”.
March 25 – Motown celebrates its 25th anniversary with the television special Motown 25, during which Michael Jackson performs “Billie Jean” and introduces to the world the moonwalk.
April 4 – First flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
April 15 – Tokyo Disneyland opens.
April 18 – The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.
April 18 – Channel broadcasting is founded by Disney (the Disney Channel).
May 25 – Return of the Jedi opens in theatres.
June 18 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission.
August 30 – Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-8 mission.
September 16 – Ronald Reagan announces that the Global Positioning System (GPS) will be made available for civilian use.
September 17 – Vanessa L. Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
September 18 – U.S. heavy metal band Kiss officially appears in public without makeup for the first time on MTV.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: At the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honorAmerican civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Music in 1983 was all about Michael Jackson, The Eurythmics, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, The Police, and Duran Duran. Perhaps the biggest year for post-punk. Here are a few songs from the year because it’s one of my favorites. And let us not forget, it was the release of R.E.M.’s Murmur, which is stil amazing.

40 Years in 40 Days: 1982

Ah, 1982.

I’m skipping the facts of 1982 and jumping immediately into the Kerry Facts of 1982. 1982 for me was all about Annie coming out. I wanted to see Annie for my birthday in 1982 and was all excited about my friends going with me because in my 8 year-old mind, we were all a ragtag group going to see Annie, a redheaded girl like me. I was the only redhead in my school if you don’t count Mr. Hays, my 3rd grade teacher. So, my birthday came and Annie here we come! But, no. My mom takes us to the Eastgate shopping center to see E.T. I did not want to see E.T. I sulked throughout the entire movie and ended up dropping my giant Pixie Stix on the floor and spilling the delicious flavored sugar. I dressed up as Annie for Halloween that year and made my sister dress up as the dog, Sandy. My mom made her dog ears out of panty hose, which kind of awesome.

The best thing of 1982 was the release of “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, which was the first single I bought with my own money. I still love that song.

BCoop in short shorts

First we had the perm. Now BCoop is sporting these on the set of a movie that is clearly about short shorts.

BCoop wears short shorts. If you dare wear short shorts, be BCoop in short shorts.

40 Years in 40 Days: 1978

What a strange year you were, 1978.

February 1 – Hollywood film director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France, after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Serial killer Ted Bundy is captured in Pensacola, Florida.
March 1 – Charlie Chaplin‘s remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
The New York Post publishes an article about David Rorvik‘s book The Cloning of Man, about a supposed cloning of a human being.
March 6 – American porn publisher Larry Flynt is shot and paralyzed in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
April 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone production of the neutron bomb – a weapon which kills people with radiation but leaves buildings relatively intact.
May 26 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.
June 12 – Serial killer David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam,” is sentenced to 365 years in prison.
June 15 – King Hussein of Jordan marries 26-year-old Lisa Halaby, who takes the name Queen Noor.
Garfield, which eventually becomes the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
Louise Brown, the world’s first test tube baby, is born in Oldham, Greater Manchester, UK.
August 26 – Pope John Paul I succeeds Pope Paul VI as the 263rd Pope.
September 5 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin the peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
September 28 – Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law which allows homebrewing of beer in the United States.
October 16 – Pope John Paul II succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope, resulting in the first Year of Three Popes since 1605. He is the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523). He will later die in 2005.
November 18 – Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan is assassinated by members of Peoples Temple shortly beforehand.

1978 saw music begin to turn a corner. Thank Baby Jesus. Elvis Costello and The Attractions released This Year’s Model and we were off to the races. “This Year’s Girl” still holds up and is a beacon in the disco days of ’78. He summed it up well, ““Those disco synthesizers / Those daily tranquilizers / The body-building prizes / Those bedroom alibis” and then “All this, but no surprises for this year’s girl.” Elvis, you brilliant songwriter, you.

40 Years in 40 Days: 1976

1976 was weird.

February 4 – The 1976 Winter Olympics begin in Innsbruck, Austria.
March – The Maguire Seven are found guilty of possessing explosives and subsequently jailed for 14 years.
The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London via the British Parliament.
March 14 – After eight years on NBC, The Wizard of Oz returns to CBS, where it will remain until 1999, setting what was likely then a record for the most telecasts of a Hollywood film on a commercial television network. That record is broken by The Ten Commandments in 1996, which began its annual network telecasts on ABC in 1973 and is still (as of 2012) telecast by that network.
March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank.
April 1 – Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak .
April 10 – Frampton Comes Alive!, the multi-platinum selling live album by English rock musician Peter Frampton hits #1 in the Billboard 200 and remains there for 10 weeks, becoming the best-selling album of the year.
July 4 – United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
July 6 – The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
July 9 – I turn 2 and Fred Savage, American actor and director is born!
July 17 – The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Canada
July 31 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.
September 25 – The Irish rock band U2 is formed after drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. posts a note seeking members for a band on the notice board of his Dublin school.
September 20–September 21 – The semi-legendary 100 Club Punk Festival ignites the careers of several influential punk and post-punk bands, arguably sparking the punk movement‘s introduction into mainstream culture
November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.

Music in 1976 was in a pretty sad state. Except for this:

Movies in 1976 brought us Rocky and All the President’s Men. Shut up, my favorite movie.

40 Years in 40 Days: 1975

Ah, 1975, I barely remember you.

January 1 – Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.
January 6 – Wheel of Fortune premieres on NBC
January 15 – Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom) opens at Walt Disney World, and to this day remains one of the park’s most popular attractions
April 3 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
April 4 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
July 9 – I turn 1 and Jack White, American rock and blues musician is born
July 30 – In Detroit, Michigan, former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
August 3 – The Louisiana Superdome opens in New Orleans.
September 14 – Elizabeth Seton is canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint.
October 11 – NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live (George Carlin is the first host; Billy Preston and Janis Ian the first musical guests).
Peter Gabriel departs Genesis, and is replaced on lead vocals by drummer Phil Collins.
The first Monster Truck, Bigfoot, is created by Bob Chandler.

1975 in Film saw Grey Gardens released. WIthout question, this is one of my top 5 documentaries. Watch this clip.

1975 in Music was pretty crappy. I’m not kidding. Disco and soft rock, but here’s a song I like and I can’t put my finger on why, but I like it.

Material for my book is happening

Because I say so, listen to this while you read:

Y’all, I moved to Texas two months ago and have felt exactly like this every day:

Say "everything's bigger in Texas" one more time. — Say “everything’s bigger in Texas” one more time.

Our closing was postponed by 5 days while our possessions were on a truck along with my suitcase, because I AM A GENIUS. During that time we had the Mother-in-Law staycation, while we were homeless because all of our possessions were on a truck and we couldn’t close on the new house yet because we hadn’t closed on the old house. During MILStaycation, I had exactly two McDonald’s apple pies, two TCBY mint chocolate chip shakes, a bunch of sunflower seeds, 42 cups of coffee (half were iced), and bites of ham and cheese. That was my diet for a week. Super health nut, I know.

And so, we moved to Texas. Three children, one husband, and one basset hound, The Honorable Former Judge Lucille Brown of the Great State of Mississippi. This is the house.

It kind of looks like a painting, but it’s real. I have real landscaping with real roses and oleander in the backyard. I have a courtyard that I can lock, so no one can actually come to my front door if I so desire. Suck it, trick or treaters.

Here are half of the light switches for my open concept living/kitchen. Yes, I’ve been watching way too much HGTV and I have open concept everything in my home. And granite and wood and tile floors. Just once I want the people on House Hunters to say “UGH! Granite countertops?! I want butcher block counters and wall-to-wall linoleum, textured wallpaper and all vertical blinds.”

Like I said, we have a dog. She’s a hound dog. We got this note stuck in the gate of our courtyard after being in our new neighborhood for one week.

First, I do not respect someone who writes in Arial and prints a note to a neighbor in landscape mode. Yes, let me adjust my seven-year-old hound dog’s morning routine for you. Is there anything else I can do? Do the tiny yippy dogs not bother you? Just my hound dog? And, she did not howl for 30 minutes; I am home every weekday until 7:40 and I would never let her howl for more than a couple of minutes. Also, I do tutoring for English/Grammar if you’d like to drop by. No, I don’t – I hate people, but seriously – it’s called proofreading.

Because we are such wonderful pet owners, we decided to adopt a kitten. Actually two kittens, but one died due to Fading Kitten Syndrome. I promise I am not making this up. This is the kind of shit that happens to me because of course it does. This is F. Catz Fitzgerald.

We adopted Fitz the day before Easter. Guess what? There was a note waiting on my car when we happily carried the kitten to come home with us. Texas hates my guts. Texas couldn’t hate my guts more if I punched the ghost of Ladybird Johnson. The Ghost of Ladybird Johnson is my new band’s name, by the way. Here is the note from the person who hates my parking.

Yes, they wished me a happy Easter and drew a picture of what may be a happy sun. You should know that I was parked far away from any other cars in the parking lot and there were no other cars around me when I returned to my car. I do not understand the Texas Notewriters, but I suppose I need to carry stationery in my car just in case. Hell, I’m putting one of my typewriters on the dashboard, baby. Y’all are going to get real notes – and I’ll sign them with my name, not anonymously as if I’m writing for the greater good of society. Bitches. Of course, I’m not going to do this because I’m in Texas and everyone has a handgun, shotgun, and grenades in their trucks and I’m afraid of them. I mean, THIS is an ambulance.

Really, this is around the corner from my subdivision. Everything in Texas is on steroids. It’s not that things are bigger, it’s that they’re on steroids and have major anger issues. As well as other issues. Even the art is angry. What do you expect when this is a painting in my new favorite restaurant?

Texas came in like a wrecking ball. No joke.