Tag Archives: 1980s

Total Recall: Panasonic Omnivision VCR

I’ve been getting pretty excited about the Console Living Room exhibit we’ll be doing in UMW’s Information and Technology Convergence Center starting the third week in March. Earlier this week I went down to Petersburg to pick up a 25″ Quasar … Continue reading

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The Day After on SelectaVision

Yesterday I purchased an RCA SelectaVision player along with almost 50 movies for about $75 at a local shop here in Fredericksburg called Fat Kat Records & Books. This video format is truly crazy. It’s basically grooved, vinyl-like videodiscs that are read by … Continue reading

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Classes I want to teach

One of the best things about my job at UMW is that I’ve been able to teach a wide range of courses across a few disciplines. So far I’ve taught nine different courses, and one of them six (soon to … Continue reading

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The Dead Zone: “Pretty good, huh?”

I could watch this opening scene from The Dead Zone (1983) again and again, a picture of a teacher reading to his students the best of Poe, and then punctuating it with a “pretty good, huh?” as well as a … Continue reading

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Summer of Love: Yie Ar Kung-Fu

A Perfect Game on Yie Ar Kung-FuI’ve been in the emulator zone as of late after playing around with Dragon’s Lair, so it’s not too surprising the 80s arcade love abounds. And after playing a host of games on MAME … Continue reading

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Summer of Love: Dragon’s Lair

I don’t know why the Summer of Love has taken me deep into 1980s video games, but over time I’ve learned to embrace, rather than fight, nostalgia. A few days ago, right after my last post, I started thinking about … Continue reading

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Zombies and Flamethrowers

Just in case you thought there was no real film basis for the flamethrowing zombie presentation I did with Tom last November, here it is: This above series of edited scenes from Night of the Creeps (1986) actually pairs the … Continue reading

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Leave me alone, I’m a family man, and if you push me too far I just might….

The I Love this World blog delivers the goods again, this time through the Hall & Oates music video for “Family Man.” After watching this video I kind of understand the current dangers of the rising amateur culture. With the … Continue reading

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Horror of the 80s: Step-Parents

Now let me be clear about this before I get started, the horror of step-parents is by no means particular to the 1980s. If one thinks about it for a bit, other examples throughout the Western canon of literature and … Continue reading

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Of Punks, Pimps and C.H.U.D.s: Gentrification in NYC as told by 1980s film

Disclaimer: This is a “media-enhanced” version of a paper I wrote in graduate school for an American Studies course back in 2002. And while I recognize it is both rough and theoretically meager at certain points, I’m still fascinated with … Continue reading

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