Bodacious Breakdown: "Electric Blue"

Bodacious Breakdown: "Electric Blue"

The MTV era of music was by far the best and gave us thousands of great (and not so great) music videos to associate with our favorite songs on the radio. Some adjectives we can use to describe '80s music videos include weird, ground-breaking, sexy, epic, and just plain fun. I thought I'd give myself an excuse to rediscover some of these gems and pick one to breakdown on a regular basis.

Nowadays, the ones I love rediscovering are mainly those videos I vaguely remember (or don't remember at all) which display the '80s in all of its glory. Big hair, keytars, acid-washed, epic shooting locations, sexy gals/guys, saxophones, cars, bright neon color, leather, gratuitous close-ups...most (if not all) of these quintessential features are what make these videos so entertaining to watch. There is no rhyme or reason to my selections. I'll just be choosing videos as I stumble across them or as suggested by you. Here we go!

Icehouse "Electric Blue" 

Released: 1987

Peak U.S. chart position: #7

The song was co-written by John Oates of Hall & Oates 

and became the highest charting song in the U.S. for the Australian band.

Check out the video and then the bodacious breakdown...

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0:05 -  Doesn't take long to figure out who "Electric Blue" is. What an entrance! When do you think blue leather is gonna come back in style?

Extreme Makeover: Arcade Edition

Extreme Makeover: Arcade Edition

This week's assignment for the League (as suggested by yours truly!):

You've decided to build an addition onto your house, a rec room that will feature your very own fantasy video arcade. What games are on your shopping list?

I always liked variety in my arcade experience and can't see why I would change that if I built my own rec room. I was never one to stand at one machine all day, pumping quarter after quarter until mom showed up with those three most hated words "time to go." If it took me more than a dollar or so to beat a game, I was on to the next. To me, the best arcades also had more than just video games. So, I'd also want at least one pinball machine, a fold-up ping pong table stored in a corner, a red felt pool table, Foosball and neon black-light style air hockey. #WiisAreForWhoosies

Now, on to my arcade favorites! Here are the arcade games I'd be looking to purchase first for the Video Arcadia wing to my house.

Spy Hunter (1983)

The Peter Gunn theme. The U-shaped steering wheel with the triggers and buttons. The bullet-proof cars and spiked wheels. The weapons van. I could rewrite the "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music with everything I love about Spy Hunter. I remember playing it most at the local sub/candy shop, which was the upright style game. If I had my choice, it would be the first cockpit style game in my arcade (sorry, Pole Position.) Check out more coverage in my Spy Hunter induction into the '80s Arcade.

LEGO Playsets We Wanted In The '80s

LEGO Playsets We Wanted In The '80s

As much as I love '80s fan art and seeing new creations of our favorite childhood franchises today, it makes me wonder...why in the world didn't they come up with some of this stuff back then??!! In a decade that saw and explosion of commercial advertising and merchandise, it's amazing to me that marketers didn't connect the dots (or LEGO bricks.) 

Space Police? C'mon!

We've seen many franchises connect with LEGO over the past several years including Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It's not so much "if," but "when" popular franchises will shrink and go brick nowadays. As featured yesterday, how cool would it have been to have vehicles and minifigures of the Ghostbusters, K.I.T.T. & Michael Knight, and the Dukes of Hazzard back in the day? Instead we got this space crap that Zack the LEGO Maniac dealt out like Lacey Pemberton on Card Sharks. What we really wanted to build was our cartoon and movie heroes! So, on the cusp of finding the radical LEGO vehicles and figures yesterday, I decided to seek out playsets that fans have built that we really wanted as children of the '80s. 

CASTLE GREYSKULL

How many kids would've loved to have been Master of the LEGO Universe and build their own Castle Greyskull? Take a closer look at this masterpiece created by David Frank by visiting his photostream on Flickr.

LEGO Vehicles and Figures From '80s Pop Culture

LEGO Vehicles and Figures From '80s Pop Culture

'80s fan art at its finest! German native Stephen Sander has imagined many of our favorite '80s vehicles and characters using LEGO. His creations were recently featured on the German website Auto News, which showcases many works beyond just the '80s. From James Bond to The Matrix to Cars, I'd highly recommend checking out all his work. But first, enjoy these mini-masterpieces of '80s pop culture and let me know which are your favorites in the comments...

Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters