Thursday, December 21, 2017

D-Day Is Here! MA-118 – ’80s Armageddon

            As everybody knows, a few years ago there was another one of those dumb flurriesof worry that the world would end -- this time is was supposed to be on December 21, 2012.

            Now, something momentous DID happen on that date -- a grandson was born to us.
      
            Chicken Little-like cluckings and hysteria about impending doom have always been with us, even in fiction ... vide the Monster Shouter in Stephen King's The Stand, or Rorschach's secret identity in Watchmen.



            This week our compilation is not only from the 1980s, but songs from the 1980s of a certain pessimistic slant.  These performers had a lot of nuclear angst. 

             What do creative people write and sing about when they’re afraid the End Is Near? They perform songs about the fear that humanity is just about ready to “Bite the Wax Tadpole.”  WAIT, that didn’t mean doomsday, just a bottle of Coke.

Anyway, here are the songs.

01 - Political Games - Day After   1984  (3:03)
02 - 1985 - Out of Data   1985  (3:13)
03 - Drop the Bomb - 24 Hours   1981  (1:39)
04 - Instant Annihilation - Stereo-Types   1986  (3:43)
05 - Wardance - Art Interface   1984  (4:27)
06 - Atomic War - Leo Keling   1980  (3:04)
07 - Ask - The Smiths   1986  (3:07)
08 - This Mourning - Chalk Circle   1987  (3:32)
09 - Atomic Age - Elli & Jacno   1981  (4:02)
10 - This Is Not a Test - Christmas   1989  (3:07)
11 - Chernobyl Baby - Baby Amphetamine   1987  (2:49)
12 - We Got the Bomb - The Conservatives   1983  (2:55)
13 - Beat the Bomb - Alex Space   1981  (3:10)
14 - Love Missile F-11 (single version) - Sigue Sigue Sputnik   1986  (3:45)
15 - Humatomic Energy - Slickaphonics   1985  (4:01)
16 - Gonna Put My Face on a Nuclear Bomb - Mojo Nixon and Kid Roper   1986  (2:36)
17 - Hydrogenic - Bohemia   1981  (3:10)
18 - Images of Fire - Fatal Charm   1986  (4:11)
19 - Watch the Skies Go Red - Forever 19   1985  (3:59)
20 - She's a Nuclear Bomb - The Dull   1986  (4:30)
21 - Atomic City - Plastic Money   1984  (3:19)
22 - Z-Bomb - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission   1980  (3:35)
23 - Isotope Tan - Transport   1982  (3:14)

            Despite the mostly pessimistic viewpoint, these are some *ahem* KILLER songs (get it?).  Hope you can dig ’em!




            See you back here next Thursday, friends, with perhaps a more cheerful outlook ...

Monday, December 18, 2017

Welcome to the Fortress of Markitude! #6




NOTE:  all of these pictures were taken a few years ago when the place was less cluttered.  All text is in the present tense anyway.



            For this instalment we’re focusing on more items on the westside shelf of glasses and stuff.






            From the left we have a Thermos from a Superman: The Movie Aladdin lunchbox set, the Superman Slurpee cup, and the “Superman  holding the world” mug.  To the right are two Pepsi / Pizza Hut glasses, and another Aladdin Thermos, this time from a Super Powers lunchbox set.




            Here’s a close-up of the next item, a “Super Smurf” mug.





            Next is a Supergirl Pizza Hit glass and another of Supes.  Between them you can see a DC Direct Bizarro.



            Stacked atop each other are two thermal photo mugs for Superman: The Movie.  To their right is an odd paint-it-yourself Superman statuette.






This has a copyright date of 19*78, so we must assume it was released as a tie-in for the movie.  It’s not hollow, it’s got a hole in the bottom like those bathtub squeaky toys, although Superman doesn’t squeak.  (How dare you insinuate such a thing.)




Next we have a Superman Soakee-type of bath soap (from the 1980s), flanked by a Superman-vs-Darkseid version of Rock-’Em-Sock-’Em-Robots.  Perhaps in times to come we will zoom in on this little jewel.



Well, that’s the extent of your guided tour THIS week, little friends!  We’ll see you Thursday for another new music compilation in this month of sharing!




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© by Mark Alfred