1980s Pop Culture Grab Bag: Movies, Music & TV

Hey y'all, welcome to Pastimes at eighties high. Got another good one for you today. We're gonna do another mishmash slash hodgepodge of categories. I have today with me, of course, Kevin. Yo, Mark. Hey guys, and Donald. And I am AJ, of course. And um anyway, so just before we get going, I want to just say a few things. First of all, thank you for all the downloads yet again. And um just want to get our email out there as always, and that is pta80h at gmail.com. One more time. PTA80H at gmail.com. And for all you KISS fans out there, if there's any listening, if they, you know, roll over to this show once in a while, um, and for anyone else that may be interested, please check out the preachers of the night episodes. Uh I got a couple of them rolling out real quick. So if you're into that, that's what uh the preachers of the night um episodes are about. Our favorite band, Kiss. Well, Mark and I. But anyway, so um I guess we'll just kick right off with our first category today, and uh Kevin has the honors. And what we're gonna start with today is our favorite 80s fad.

My favorite 80s fad was getting dressed like a human being. Because you don't see a lot of it anymore. Sweatpants, pajama pants, and whatever else. Right, right. When I was in, I think junior high, I had a full-time job. I spent all my money at Chess King.

Oh, that's where I went to.

I was like, you know, before they went all day glow colors and all that, when it was a little more conservative, pinstripe. You know the shirts that Bob Kraft wears? The white collar and the either pink or blue. Yeah, I wore those when they were in style, not 40 years later, like he does. Those were, I mean, that was a look. And you have the tie bar and the tie tack and the you know the the the string tie or the thin tie. Didn't it be? Or the bolo tie. Don't forget. Or the bolo tie. I didn't go that far, but uh I never got the one with the piano keys on it. But you know, um, but it was it it it was I don't know, it was a sign of like respect for yourself that you dressed up and they and and yeah, they might look goofy today when you look back, but they're they were cool, whether it was parachute pants or yeah, you know, just cool, cool stuff.

I mean the cavericis.

The Z cabaritis, yeah. So you're exactly with the hundred belt loops, and the belt was right under your nipples.

Absolutely, but you know, so it went from it went from that and kind of you know, like I don't know if we were emulating Wall Street or what, but we were looking like, you know, dressed to the nines. And then I mean there was a change. I I remember by I don't know, junior high, I think it was or maybe the beginning of high school, a little bit more, I hate to say it, but like pre-grunge. I remember I had like the um remember the chamois shirts? Everybody had a chamois. I love those. And so I had like the the the waffle finished Day Mart thermal underwear under the sh the you know the the tan chamois shirt with a sleeveless army jacket over the top of it and like grandfather's army boots and you know ripped pants and and whatever. A little maybe maybe akin to um Bender. Any questions?

Yeah, I got a question.

Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe? Give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.

Yes, Bender.

Breakfast Club, you know?

Oh nice. Ironically, right as I moved to Hinsdale from Guilford, I was like you, Kevin, chess king, all that stuff. Um my first day of school when I moved to Hinsdale, it hat must have been right at that switchover from the 80s clothes moving forward, or maybe it was a redneck town because everyone at school, just jeans and a t-shirt, and I went in with my white pants and my nice shirt. I was uh picked on quite immediate. But anyway, awesome.

Oh, when you were in the chestkin gear?

Yes, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a shift. Yes, it is. Mind. Nice. Good pick, Kev.

So that's then to you, my brother. Okay, well, um, I need to tell you, Kevin, I'm a little offended because I am wearing sweatpants right now. And a which is appropriate in your own damn home. It's not appropriate. It's in my own damn home and I have an arm sling. I I can't take a leak without I I I have to like if I put jeans on, my freaking totally appropriate. I can't buckle up without painting.

If you're if you're going out to a sit-down dinner and not recovering from surgery, matted down SpongeBob square pants, fleece pajamas, right, is not appropriate. Yeah. For Walmart.

Fluffy shoes.

Okay, well, you know what I am fluffy shoes. You know they're all carrying disease and how about we take your pick, brother?

Okay, the pick is very similar to Kevin's. Uh it's funny you mentioned Chess King and everything. David used to, I mean, that that's part of this. David, our late brother, God rest his beautiful soul. Um, he he said, I dress way too plain, and I'm like, and uh, so you know, we were uh in said Hinsdale in Brattleboro, Vermont. It was like right before they raised the drinking age in Vermont, with the actual time we lived there. And um I decided, what the hell? You know? So I'm going with Miami Vice Fashion because that's pretty much how I dressed for a couple of years. And I gotta tell you, it made a difference.

Damn right it did.

Yeah, and I I mean I went a little overboard one time. But you know, you had the Hawaiian shirts and everything, and the white sport jackets and the white one time I went to this there was a beer, a beer, a bar called Chairs down there. It was kind of a nightclubish thing, but it wasn't like today's nightclubs. They had bands and everything, and it was really cool. And um, I just remember going in one time with a big red Hawaiian shirt and white khakis or whatever you want to call them. What would you call them? No, they weren't painter pants, chinos, yeah. And then the the the white sport jacket, and I walked in, and this woman says, Whoa, like boy, he's dressed to the nines. But but yeah, I met a lot of girls back then and just uh it made a difference. And of course, looking like I do, looking like I do, you know, it just added on to the already package that was already there, obviously.

So was that Miami Vice or Magnum PI with a red white? Miami Vice, but you know what that I've been thinking about.

I've been thinking about growing a uh mustache and getting a Detroit Tigers hat and becoming uh Tom Selleck, so I thought of that. But yeah, so that that's just kind of added on the evidence and it went with my hairstyle, which I'm not gonna talk about because that probably may come up.

No, well perhaps it would. But not by me. It is on my list, by the way, and I did run with it for years and years, but I'm actually going with something a little different. Kevin, you took another one of my pick during yours, but I won't say it in case it's Donald's, which it probably isn't. But I am going with roller skating. I lived at the Guilford Roller Rink every Friday night. It was just clockwork every week. We couldn't wait to get there. Video games, loud music, uh, girls everywhere, just you know, the snowball and shooting the duck, and just it was so frigging fun. I I I mean, there were so many things I could have picked here, and we can talk about a few of them after we all pick, but just that's what I'm running with, man, is roller skating. And nowadays, a good one. You just I they actually tried to make one in in Laconia, like uh do a rink, like I don't know, like 10 years ago, and it they did it like in a tiny little place where you can barely move. And you know, I took my kids to it. Yeah, yeah, but you gotta do it right. Very nostalgic. Yep. And just a quick story, real fast before I move to you, Donald. The people that own the rink were our neighbors on Prescott Hill. They came into Giuseppe's, I'd say like four years ago, the mom and dad, and their name was the carousellies. They they recognized me and we got chatting, and I was talking to them about it and telling them what the memories that I had there and how awesome it was, and why isn't there one? I would love to open one. And they're like, It's just impossible now with the insurance. Oh so that's probably probably why you don't see it more often, but interesting, right? Oh, yeah, because God forbid somebody falling bumped in.

Well, I wonder if like ice skating rinks deal with the same insurance or something. I would imagine so much difference, yeah.

I would imagine so. I just imagine a ice skating rink could have more going on, you know, like a different activity every hour.

Yeah, probably tied into the schools and youth groups and whatever else.

Yeah, these days.

All right, so to you, Dungo. All right, I'm gonna go with big hair.

Yes, yes, I I had it.

Uh the girls had it. Like I was I was into the you know 80s glam rock, so I was sporting the Bon Jovi hair and oh yeah, you know, the girls with their you know 11-inch bangs and Aquanet and just especially Dan and Rivera. Yeah, yeah. So that was that was mine. I I just loved those days where rocking it out.

But I have a good Donnie story, if you will allow me to tell it. Oh no. No, he's gone with it. All right, well, first Mullet Hampton Beach. No, this is not Hampton Beach, this is Weirs Beach, actually. I had a little Honda CM400 motorcycle. Oh, yeah. Donnie and I worked at the Pier restaurant. Donnie would ride bitch on the bike, and I'll never forget because we're driving down the boulevard and you hear, nice ass. Oh my god. Donnie turns and goes, I'm a guy. Can I come on my a guy yelled, nice ass to Donnie? It was hilarious. But anyway, going on.

So we were I think it was Bristol, New Hampshire, and uh David, I think it was why not playing. And Donnie was doing the lights and whatever, and but you know, at times he was sitting up at the tables, and uh all of a sudden this big hillbilly dude comes up and says, Would you like to dance? And Donnie turns around and says the same exact words. Oh I thought he said I'm a dude at that time.

I'm a dude.

I don't know what it was. I think it was I'm a guy, but yeah, yeah.

I was at the mill street listening. I had like girls always tell me, like, oh, you had awesome hair, beautiful hair. Yeah, girls were jealous of it. And you know, I had dark eyes and eyelashes and eyebrows. You were beautiful, Donald. Yeah, right. Now look at me. Now it looked like him. I looked like job of the hot.

But that was part of it. I mean, that there was there was a bit of androgyny going on there, and everybody kind of yeah, everybody kind of looked the same and was wearing using the same AquaNet and all of that.

So yeah. All right. So let's go to number two here to you, Kevin, and that will be your favorite game show. And I know you're gonna take mine, you ISO.

Deal with it. My favorite game show, Gene Rayburn, match game. That was on my left out. It was it was nothing but sexual innuendo. Yeah, it was a fill-in-the-blank kind of master at that. Yeah, it was such a great show, and he was so hilarious. And the Charles Nelson Riley and and the the whole we had Betty White on there at different times. Brett Summers, Brett Summers, yeah. The whole panel was was always hilarious. It was it was about being funny, just just a great show, great fun, and it wasn't so much about winning as as being really humorous, absolutely, yeah.

So funny Richard Dawson. Oh, he was on that, right?

Yeah, in the middle and the lower row, and they always went to him because he was the smartest one on the show. All right, so do you, Mark? All right. Well, this game, um, a lot of people would think of it as a memory game, which it kind of is. It's called concentration.

Oh, yeah.

Um there was you know many iterations of it, but I'm talking about the one with host Jack Nars. And um the game was basically you there are prizes on the board, and you have to match them. And if you match them, you get the prize in your category on your under your name, and you uh underneath everything is a puzzle. You have to that obviously you have to keep guessing and guessing because it they're hard, they're tough puzz puzzles. They're you know, faces, shapes, this and that. Yep. And uh the best part of it is I used to watch it with my aunt Phil and the uh duplex. But it was it was a fun game and it was great for kids because you could play it as a kid. Oh, I remember that one.

And uh the kids were probably better at it because that's kids were probably better at that type of stuff too.

Yeah, yeah, and uh and yeah, it was just it was a lot of fun, and then you know, if you won the game, you uh ended up trying to get a bigger prize, and you know, you'd you you try to get the three prizes, and then there were three pri prizes listed, and um and then you guess one part of the easy part of the puzzle, you guess the easy, you know, the smallest prize, and so on. Just a lot of fun, uh warm memories. Yeah, a lot of good times and aunt Sills, and so that's my my pick.

Awesome, awesome. Well, I'm shocked that nobody took mine, and that is good old Bob Barker on the prices, right? I think I heard everybody mumble at the beginning, but just I used to love, I unfortunately skipped school quite often, and because of course it was on it was on at 11 a.m. I don't believe that, and the beautiful girls oh that he'd have come out. Holly loved Holly. Oh, yeah, she was yep, there was a genius for sure, yeah, but just so fun, you know. You played along through the whole show and just all the different games, friggin'.

I used to hate the clip anger. No, that's a great show, AK and uh Plinko.

I always hated Plinko.

Oh, is that the one they drop it?

Yeah, just no talent. You know, I mean you're skilled in getting your chips to drop, then you're just at luck's draw. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I like the punchem game. What was that? Punch them something like that. And then if you get one you like, you can either keep going or right. You can trade in. Oh, great show.

You know when they spin the wheel to to do the showcase showdown thing? Yes. You know what reminds me of that now is whenever you order something online or register for something, you gotta put your date of birth. Yeah, and you gotta spin, I gotta spin the wheel. And you're like, bam, yeah.

If it has to go around the whole way, if it doesn't go around one turn, you get owed.

I loved that. I used to get mad when some big dude would go up and spin it like a pussy. Yeah, it would go about it. And then you get the women that the poor, like older women that almost like fall under the wheel when they see it.

Seldom would it not go around a full rotation? You know, he'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry, we gotta do that again.

Yeah, and the crowd would boo him, the whole crowd would boo. Even an old lady.

But uh remember Bark uh Bob Barker on uh uh that what was that Adam Sandler Madison? It was happy Gil Gilmore's wrong, Bob. Yeah, and then Barker's assist is ass.

So funny. Well, he was uh he was a US military guy, World War II, you know, so he probably could do some kick ass, yeah.

Yeah, and he also I have heard enjoyed some of the ladies. Yes, yeah, god bless them, yeah. Absolutely, right? I sure would have tried. All right, so to you, Donald.

Cool. So I went with another kind of you know common one is Wheel of Fortune, and you know, it's been around forever. Um the game itself isn't that great, but I just love the people and I love some of the instances where they're like, you know, they have like everything but one letter and they still get it wrong, they say it wrong. I'm so dumb. And he's like, no. Um, but I also, you know, thinking back to my childhood, was they used to do it where you would have to like they called it the prize round or something, where you had to purchase like they had a little spin at and you had to like purchase the shit that with your prize money, which is kind of bullshit, you know. You just won the money and now you can spend it on the people that are sponsoring the show, like, yeah, I'll buy the vacuum cleaner for $400.

Right.

Your prize is a store credit. It's like fuck no, I'm taking like $1,200 and now you gotta spend it on shit that you probably don't need, you know.

You remember at the end, Donnie, they said, I'll take the rest in birth certificates.

Rest and birth certificates. Gift certificates, right?

Right, gift certificates, right? Yeah, it's like no, I just want the cash. I don't want to buy that stupid whatever it is, you know, vase. Yeah, exactly.

Got rid of that.

I got rid of that. Yeah. All right. I'll take the pack of gum pat, and could I have the rest on a birth certificate?

I won't let that one down either.

Oh boy. Okay. Okay. Moving on. Number three to you, Kevin, and this is going to be our biggest celebrity crush.

Celebrity crush. Well, as much as I love Damone, I had to hate him for the way he treated her because I love Jennifer Jason Lee. She was like the perfect girl next door, sweet. Kind of reminded me of a young lady that I had a relationship with at that time. She was just, I don't know, something about her career. Be somebody's baby. Damn right. She did it right.

Be somebody's baby.

Oh, yeah.

The salesman.

Stereo salesman.

Yeah.

Yeah. She made some bad choices with men. I'm surprised that I wasn't one of them. But I was over there making bad choices with women. Right. She was making bad choices. See, we were made for each other. It's no perfect match. No, always loved her. Yeah. That would be my celebrity project.

From the 80s. How about Damone when he bangs her in the beginning and his pink sock is hanging half off his foot? Right, you see a sock. I gotta go. I gotta go now, Stacey. Awesome. Okay, brother Mark.

Yeah. All right. My celebrity crush is Susannah Hoffs from the Bengals.

Ooh, good one. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice Jewish girl from uh uh yeah, from the Bengals. I had I I was gonna say I don't know where she is I don't know, but something about the Cincinnati Bengals.

Oh the Bengals of the Bangles.

Oh god.

Bengals and there's Bengals.

Was she the running back? Maybe she was a maybe she was a cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals. Kind of funny because there was a girl I met uh at I don't know if you remember this. Steve McDonnell, a cousin, had a party over in uh almost the New York State border.

I do not remember this.

And David, uh actually Sular Dwellers. I was in the last uh formation of the Solid Dwellers. But anyway, uh they played there and I met this girl that her name was Sue, and her last name was very similar to Hoff. And if I recall, and she was a sweetheart. Nice and um and I would have had a better weekend if I wasn't afraid of public bathrooms, you know. And I just really just put a damper on things, really did. You know, that's just something I I'll I I don't I'm 60 years old now, yes. And uh I haven't gotten over it yet, but uh anyway, yeah.

George Costanza, what are you talking to me about, George Costanza?

Okay, Mac. You know that George Costanza has a problem with public bathrooms, right? Yeah, well, so do you. I do, but that was my point.

Oh, he does.

I I guess I I missed that part, but yeah, and you know, she was an actress as well, and just you know, she was extremely attractive, but I think what put her over the top was looking up and to the right in that video. Yeah, when she looks up and to the right, it's just like, oh, oh, she just looks so good, like and I really wanted to make noise with her, you know, like in uh Manic Monday.

Manic Monday written by Prince Noise, yeah, boy. Oh, awesome. So all right, I struggled with this one greatly, and I'm gonna go.

So you could have picked a guy if you wanted to, hey, we wouldn't have judged it.

So I'm just gonna go with my initial thought that went into my head, and I was a little kid, you know. I'm going with Alyssa Milano. God, on who's the boss? I mean, if you go back and look at now this young girl, it's like, well, it's inappropriate now, but of course, I was younger than her. But man, when I was a kid, I found her so attractive. And I loved the show Who's the Boss? Watched it constantly, but there were so many that I could have picked here, but I went back in time to think of like when I was a kid and like what did it for me, and she was and she's pretty sexy later in life, too.

So yeah, she made the transition. Yes, she didn't know. Wait, wait, whoa. What from child actress to adult actress, not adult film actress, adults.

Gotcha, gotcha. Well you said transition, and I'm like, oh wait a minute, forget it.

She is yeah, but I agree with that one, yeah, AJ.

No, good one. What's the show she's in or was in later? The like witches.

The like the yes, charge's one.

I couldn't hear you, brother. Yeah. All right, man. To you, Donald.

So I was very I was on the same wavelength as you, where I was like kind of thinking, you know, what was my first celebrity crush? And that would have been when I was young. And if you name that person who was a child actress at the time, it's like, yeah, it's a little creepy, or whatever. Right. So I went Shirley Temple? Yeah. So, you know, just way older than I don't want to use two because it's not fair. But I went with one that was like, okay, I hit puberty. Um I'm starting to, you know, really appreciate the female body. I went with Pamela Hensley, which, if you don't know who she is, I do not. She she was Princess Ardala on Buck Rogers.

Oh, wow. I still don't know. Buck Rogers.

So there's two very attractive women. There's there's Erin Gray, who was Wilma, who's immensely beautiful, but she was always fully clothed. But Princess Ardala was scantily clothed in that in that show, and she you know, she's a beautiful woman, just dark skinned, kind of Mediterranean features. That's good. Yes, so she was she was quite beautiful.

I need to look that up. I never watched that show. Yeah, you never watched Buck Rogers? I never did. Nope. Beatty, beatty, beatty, beatty. I didn't know. It's such a great show. Um one just honorable mentions, a couple honorables that I want that were on my list that I just wanted to mention were um a name that just her name was Andrea Elson, and she was the daughter in Alf. And she was just cute to me. Not beautiful or hot or sexy, but cute.

So my first was Christy McNichol. But yeah, I was I was probably like eight years old or whatever when you know Christy McNichol was right, was out there, and then Heather, probably the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life.

Um, well, I'm gonna have to go with a character, uh, but Pam Ferris, Miss Trenchbowl. What a beautiful woman.

You're an idiot. I knew a mark joke was coming.

What are you talking about? That's the teacher in Matilda. Why she threw that woman, that little girl by your pig ales like 158 yards.

She was a rugged one. Uh well, your uh your who's the boss made me think of um Charles in charge, Samantha Eggert. Yeah, who was also very, very attractive at that time.

Awesome. All right, so our next one, um, we've done this in the past, but we love the category, and because and what that category is, I should lead off with is another favorite pop song. And this is because pop music is obsolete now, it sucks so bad, it's fake, it's all tracks, a hundred writers, it's brutal, lip syncing. But back in our time, man, pop music was fucking incredible.

So even 80s pop song, yes. Yeah, okay.

So sorry, yes, 80s pop song. So to you, Kev.

Yeah, rolling through, it's it's amazing. It's not until like the late 80s, um, where you start to see like the Tiffany's and the the prefab stuff come in that's not great, but uh so so many to choose from. I ended up with for some reason something so strong by crowded house just kind of like embodied that error for me. It felt good. It wasn't um, you know, the the grunge that they sold us after that. It wasn't the but it also wasn't saccharin and sickening sweet, new kids on the block. It was just, you know, it was a good pop, good solid pop song.

Nice, awesome. Okay, and then Mark.

Okay. Join the Pepsi people feeling free, feeling free. Um, you said pop song. So oh, you idiot.

Go ahead.

Okay, no, I went with uh Nina 99 Red Balloons. Oh my god, I almost picked that. Yeah, 99. 99 Saint 1983. Gabrielle Susan Kerner is the lead singer. Very, very attractive. Indeed. And uh the German version is my favorite version of it. This is a band from West Berlin, Germany. And back then, this is 1983. So, what do you remember about West Berlin? What was on the other side of West Berlin?

Russia, the Soviet Union, yes, Soviet Union, right? East Berlin.

Yes, East Germany, obviously, and this song was pretty much an anti-war song, and it's just it's so powerful. Go listen to it. Oh, yeah, and then compare it to Britney Spears or something, and just another just off the record kind of thing. Is I used to hear it all the time. I don't remember if you remember that summer, that summer of 83. Me and Dad went fishing like on the salmon peewigle like five days a week, going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and catching 15-inch uh salmon on a uh trolling rod. But yeah, I used to hear it all the time going with dad, so that's just a memory, but just a powerful song. Look at the video. They're not singing about balloons, believe me.

Great song, though. Great pick. That's a great pick, Mark. Love that song. But anyway, so to me and Donald, my first pick, I'm actually not gonna go with because I have a feeling it's a possibility for you, but perhaps not. You gotta pick the one you replaced it with. I'm gonna go with Safety Dance. Men without hats. This song to me, this video to me, just astronomical. I love it to death. It's just on go you can dance if you want to. If you want to. You can leave your friends behind blah blah blah.

If your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, then they're no friends.

Yeah, we can go and we won't go. Little baby and we're gonna find and we can go.

Awesome song. I don't know why, it just clicks with me. And I I could not name you another song that band does, but I find you think that there is another song. Right, yeah, I assume they had an album, but I don't know.

Still waiting for the follow-up hit. Yeah, right, exactly.

Yeah, talk about a one-hit one day. But God, I just I love the song. The video's hilarious.

That was always an AJ song to me. Oh every time I heard it, I thought of AJ, even though I really you know I said I love it.

Yes.

But it was very like the literal video.

Yeah, you showed it to me. It was hilarious. Yeah, you sent that to me, Kev. It was a riot.

It almost sounds like a song that uh the talking heads would do. We gotta singing.

If you can find that video again, Kev, send it to the group because it's pretty damn funny. I will do so. Awesome. Well, that's my pick, man. I loved it. And my first pick, uh, I was yeah, I don't know, Donald. I thought you might have it. No, say it. Say it because hungry like the wolf.

Oh no, that's that's great. Uh amazing song.

Amazing song. We talked about it a lot in the past, though.

So but anyway, so do you, Donald? Oh, yeah. I mean, this category, favorite pop song of the 80s, is impossible because there's so many good ones. It's we can hear that, you have to snappers out there. There's the plethora of just endless. And I remember on the last cath, like I had to pick um and I in Jesse. Jesse's girl. He pulled that, you know, it's like, you know, what are the odds of that, right? So many. I mean, there's there's too many to choose from. So I went with ones that I could remember being in the 80s and being young, and like, oh, that's kind of a cool too. That's interesting. So I went with she's a maniac, a maniac.

She's a man, maniac, Michael Michael Bello.

And uh Chris Farley singing. It was the flash dance soundtrack, you know. Yep. And it was just a cool tune. It was different, it was very different for the time. Oh, yeah.

I could see the girl dancing to it right now.

The dance video to it, I don't know if that was a video or if that was just movie clips, right? I think it was movie clips.

A lot of the movie clips in it for sure.

Yeah, but it was cool, you know. It was like it was very unique and very just different for the time, and it just kind of burned in my brain. And that's that's why I went with that one.

That was yeah, that was a great movie.

I think love a woman bent backwards in a chair with a bucket of water dumping on her.

Awesome.

No shit, no shit. Yeah, no, but I could have picked a hundred other tombs. Oh, yeah. That's an endless category.

Yeah, for sure. All right, let's see. Here we are to number five now, which is something you did as a kid that you would not see a kid likely do today.

So do you, Kev? Well, that immediately came to me the the big difference, and and I'm sure that you see it in the restaurant business, um, but it's everywhere. Hang out in person. Imagine that. Kids just don't do that. Yeah, surely you jest everything we did was about getting out of the house. You know, you see the memes where the bicycles are laying on the lawn, and that's how you knew where everybody was, and then that turned into you know getting cars and hanging out in town and and whatever else. And it just doesn't seem like they do much of anything in person anymore. They don't they don't go out roller skating, they don't go to bars, they don't hang out like like we hung out. It was immediately what are we doing? I mean, that was that started like Wednesday night. What are we doing this weekend? Yep. Were we hanging out? Right, right. I mean, we have a party web every day.

Yeah, every single day, AJ, every single day.

Unbelievable. And Kevin, you talking about you and me being in the restaurant business. I'll give you a perfect example of something that well, it's kind of ironic because I guess they were hanging out in person, but we had a we have a round table in one spot, and there were six kids sitting at it. Okay. I come down the stairs, all six of those kids are on their cell phones not talking to one another. And all I can think of is like they're probably texting each other right now. It's fucking unbelievable. But that's a yep, that's a hanging out in person. That's a great one because I have that in different words, so to speak. But it's unbelievable.

All right, Martin. It is okay. So mine is uh basically going fishing everywhere, anywhere, everywhere, every time of the day. Um, parents not ever asking asking you, where are you going fishing? Where are you going fishing? Is it I don't want you? Can you just go to the pond and cast out with a barber and you know make sure no strangers come up? An adult has to go with you. An adult. And no, we fished everywhere, different towns. We would go two towns away on our bicycles, um, and um like Apthorpe Dam was not a safe place to fish where I could see a uh friggin' you know, a 10-year-old fishing today. I can't see it at all.

You have a waterfall. Is that where you dropped the brown trout?

It is where he dropped the brown trout.

Okay, yes, it is. Yep, yep. That's that but no, I all right. Well, this is you this is the category. I mean, I wanted to do sweating in the car, rolling the windows up. Okay, but I was not allowed to do that. I got vetoed by my wife and my brother. But no, I mean, we just fished everywhere. We left it breakfast, came back for lunch, left it after lunch, came back for supper, then went fish until sometimes after dark. Didn't matter when the street lights were on or off. Didn't matter. We stayed out all hours of the day, we played football in the back of the yards, we didn't need any sanctioning.

Yeah, so that is yes, so I'm gonna kinda move forward with it, Mark, but I'm gonna kind of reiterate your category for you because you started out with the fishing thing, and I think what your category really is all about is the fact that you could disappear forever, do what you wanted as a kid, exactly, and not have to check in, and you know, so no matter what you were doing, fishing, playing football, like you said, and that way I don't think kids would have the attention span for fishing today, right?

Yeah, right.

Just made me think, you know, you see the movies today about you know the kid getting kidnapped, and they asked the parents when was the last time you saw him? Well, we put him to bed at at 8 30, and that was the last time we saw him. Can you imagine them asking our parents last Wednesday? Tuesday? I think I saw him on Tuesday, maybe it was right, it was Wednesday. No, oh yeah morning, I think.

Yeah, last weekend.

You know, like 1974. Oh my god. It's like if you do not get a phone call, I'm okay. Exactly. Right. It's when you get a phone call, that's when it's like, you know, hey, can you pick up your son?

Or how many because we were with our friends, so so if you died in the woods, somebody would eventually make their way to a phone, a pay phone, somebody responsible, not just like walk off. So if you don't get a phone call, I'm okay.

Everything's fine. Absolutely. That's exactly right. So, agent, what is your pick?

I well, I haven't gotten that far, brother.

I didn't think so. That's why I'm making sure you don't skip past yourself.

So, my pick is gonna be it's riding in the back of a pickup truck. I can't tell you how often that happened. And when you were a little boy, how exciting it was to be able to do that. And I have a story from uh being a kid that's really important to me with this. It was our neighbors on Farmer Drive and Guilford, the the Gamoshes, and I was invited to the ocean with them, okay, which is about I'd say an hour and half, hour and 45 minutes away. Mom and dad said, sure, you can go with them. So there were three of us kids. The parents were in the cab of the truck, and they said, hop in the back. And I just remember driving by mom and dad's house and them waving to me, smiling. And the only rule was once we got on the highway, no sitting on the wheel well. Okay, we had to swallow it down on the bed of the truck. But can you friggin' imagine just not in a million years of you know, an accident on the highway with three? Yeah, I mean, but we did it everywhere, and it was awesome, and you'd never see that today, but it was just I don't know why or what. Changed to make it such a different world where everyone lives in such fear. I mean, maybe a lot of it is also common sense and smarts, but you know, the worry wasn't there, I guess, is what I'm saying. And that's something that was really enjoyable, enjoyable about back then, you know.

Yeah, but it's just it's the worry has spiraled into just taking all of the fun and spontaneity out of everything. Out of everything.

Oh no, everything is scheduled. Your day is like this is what you do from one to three, and yeah, it's ridiculous.

I mean, I think you know, thinking about when my son was young being in a more less urban area, you know what I mean? Where we grew up, there was at least three kids on my block, right? You know what I mean, that I could hang out with, where I lived out in the woods, you know, and so it wasn't like there was he could ride his bike to anybody's house or anything like that. So it's it's a little bit of difference from oh yeah, just geographic location, but that's kind of personal to us as well. But yeah, it just seems like everything's gotten so like Mark said, scheduled and pre-planned and exactly organized, spontaneous, yeah, not at all. Like that time we all got together and walk down the railroad tracks to look at that dead body. You guys remember that?

Right. Oh, I wish I could think of the song I was gonna start singing. Sickballs. Oh, people used to jump trains and everything.

Sickballs. Oh, we used to jump the train all the time. It went past the high school and it went up to my buddy's house about five miles up and to the uh drive-in movie theater. So we just leave school and just run alongside the thing because it was going through town. It would slow down to really deadly speed, but not not top speed, and it would be picking up speed, so you'd have to buy the movie theater. You had to dive. Yeah. What train are we talking about? What's that?

What train are we talking about?

The one that ran past my high school. I have no idea. It was probably a BNM or something like that.

What town did you live in? I forgot. Rochester. Rochester, New Hampshire?

Yes. Okay. I thought you were gonna like rain man me with, oh, that was the oh no, Rochester, New Hampshire. That was the B1112 Baltic. The 235 DM from very dangerous train, very dangerous train.

Definitely, definitely very dangerous. Yeah, definitely.

So let's move on to you, Dongo.

All right. So I had a lot of very similar ones, and you know, it's funny we all have kind of the a very similar take. Um, and it boils down to like safety. Like mine originally was gonna be like climbing trees, like kids don't climb trees anymore. Never seen a climbing tree above. That you saw back then is we could we could get on a bike and go downtown, go somewhere and cut and return and find things, and even as young adults or first-time drivers, we could go to Boston and find something and come back without any internet or map quest or GPS, right? Exactly. Like we could circumnavigate the globe with a sextant in the stars, and now if you ask uh a young adult to go pick something up, if they don't have a phone and Google and you know map quest or you know any kind of directions, they're not gonna be able to find it. They're done for.

Yeah, I'm just as bad. If I gotta go to Dunkin' Donuts, I plug it into my maps just because I want to know what my timing is and whatever else. Yeah, but that's different. You could get there without it. But even so, when we travel, when we go away for games and whatever else, I I know I could do it, but you know, if the phone goes out, it's a luxury. It's certainly and you look at you like, oh shit, I gotta read street signs again, and I gotta remember which exit am I looking for? What route do I need? And remember how to do that because it's kind of turned off in our brains now.

Right. Right. So I mean it's just a thing that if God forbid something stopped, like a you know, coronal mass ejection, oh yeah, sunflare, or uh we get no electronics. Let's see, EMP or whatever, you know, yeah, yeah. That type of thing that takes down technology, we're not gonna be able to navigate. No, the world will end.

Yeah, yeah well, maybe people our age might be able to. The can I the the world will end for people that cannot adapt.

Right exactly.

Adapt or die. We're gonna rant on now to number six. I like the this category. I do too. It's a band that you don't care for, that absolutely everyone else seems to like or love.

If they pick kiss, we're gonna kill them.

Cross my mind. Go ahead, Kevin.

It crossed his mind. Crossed my mind.

Well, I don't think I'm gonna surprise anybody with this one because they were a photocopy of one of my favorite genres of music 20 years later, and I don't think they brought anything to the table, and I just fucking loathe that Rolling Stones called Green Day the top band. They're not a punk band, they're a bunch of punks, is what they are. They can go f gang bang oasis. I don't give a shit. Everyone says I say F too much. I know. Well, I I don't really do it all the time. This one kind of right, it's appropriate in certain circumstances.

Right.

Yes, it kind of this one gets me because I just really I mean, actually, I when the album came out, I just I remember sitting there listening to it, going, just kind of makes I didn't hate it, but it made me want to listen to real punk rock. Um, it's now I'm just disgusted by it because they get all this admiration and that Billy Joe bobblower or whatever they just hangs out, he hangs out at the fucking uh rock and roll hall of fame, which is a joke to begin with. It is indeed all of that. It's like like you're somebody, you're not anybody. You had one album that was like a pop album that's with a with a punk attitude, and they just I don't know. I just I loathe them.

Good, yeah, that's a good pick. Good job.

Did that get to the meat of the I know what you wanted to say, believe me, Kevin.

And it's a it's a go to you. Okay, well, this is a band that was massive in the 1970s. Massive. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing more than a feeling coming out of a window. This band is Boston. Oh my god. I do not like Boston. I find them overpolished, I find that they seem like they're not having fun at all. It seems to me like they're working, they're not playing, it just seems extremely uptight to me. And if I offend anyone out there, I don't give a rat's ass.

That's great. That's a great pick, though, because that's a friggin' amazing band, but that's the point of this category. Right, right? Go on, brother. Thank you.

Yeah, Tom Schultz seems like he would be uh yeah, you you know the band Creative Force. It seemed like Boston was a version of Creative Force that my brother David was in, and they were just just tearing everyone apart.

A bunch of assholes.

A bunch of assholes, other than David. He was not an asshole.

All right. So that's to me then, and this is a tough one for me because there's so many, but I think uh I guess I'll say this one and then I'll say an honorable laughter if I need to, but I fucking hate the doors.

I don't just don't like them.

So yeah, I know so many people just get into their music and the whole hype of their music, and Jim Morrison with his attitude and you know the movies and all that, which I actually like the movie, but their music doesn't do it for me. It fucking bores me, it depresses me. So I I don't know. That's that's the one I'm going with today.

It wasn't right in a head, yeah.

So I will go to you, Donald.

Cool, and this category was extremely hard for me because I am a lover of all.

I am I need a hug.

If you want a hug who can like appreciates music and and can see the good and everything, so it was very difficult for me, but I did like one thing that just kept coming into my head was you two. Ah, yes, I'm so happy you took it.

That's a good pick, Donnie.

Because they have songs that I enjoy that I love. Like, I I like um where the streets have no name and stuff like that. And and Sunday. On a whole, I just didn't like them as much as other people did, and that's what the category was. Right. They're we get pretentious in my mind. Like a yeah, so that I had to come up with a pick, and that's who I came up with. But again, it was very difficult for me. But that's what I went with. Yeah, all right.

I don't hate the whole band, it's it's boner. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, so Kevin is right there, yeah. Douchebag that that he is with his purple sunglasses, yeah, looking like somebody's grandma now. But anyway, uh totally text tonight. I I remember, I mean, talk about being wrong in life. I remember sitting in drafting class with this young woman whose name I won't mention. She was a huge YouTube fan, and I'm like, they'll be gone in a month and whatever else. Well I was I was terribly wrong because I will give them this. They're still around today. I could do without them. But yeah, just I never saw them as a super group, but along the what 40 years of career, they've had some yeah, we've had some good tunes. There's a few things they did that I liked, but as a whole, I I didn't seem to be a theme. But but I also medal of freedom from the the current resident. Yeah, exactly. Um consider the uh I would like to before we go on to the final round, I would like to hearken back just for a moment to AJ's Doors pick because I don't know if a lot of people know this, but Jim Morrison being the icon of the counterculture at that time, his father was the commander of the ship that did not get attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Total false flag that started the Vietnam War, but never happened. That's an interesting little bit. Kind of weird that you've got that dichotomy of two people, a man and his son being on both sides of that strange society that we were in at that time, right? And and so dad's over there faking stuff to start a war, and and Jim's taking acid and and uh talking about well, never mind, we won't go, we won't go into some of his stuff.

Oh my god. Oh man. All right, so here we are to our last category. Um, I love that last one, by the way. What a great category that was. That'll come up in the future, I'm sure. But anyway, what we're gonna do now is our favorite movie character, not actor, but character, and that's to you, Kevin.

All right, well, I am not gonna take my initial gut reaction, that character, because I feel like it might come up. So I went with my second thought, which I I really think is probably truer to what I want or what I feel. Um he was before the 80s and and still exists today, but the ultimate and cool uh was James Bond. Yes, sir. The guy just he he was cool, personified.

Oh, yeah.

He exudes cool, yes, and sex, uh, not active.

You know what I meant.

I know like the I mean I mean it's obvious that that you know Connery was the best. I would probably put in um I'd probably say Roger Moore for number two. Yeah, actually, George Lazenby was probably number one, just kidding. Uh I really did, you know, Timothy Dalton did nothing for me. Um I th I thought um Pierce Brosnan was I thought he was good. I thought he was good. I liked him. He was a solid pick. And now the direction they've taken it, I don't know. I mean, they're not they're not bad, but they just don't he doesn't he doesn't exude that class and sophistication and and the coolness that that the previous actors did.

But is it still Daniel Craig? I think so. Or have they moved on? I think they moved on from Craig. But I get what you're saying about that, and you had said it in the past, but it's good, it's just different, you know what I mean?

It was like that, you know, Connery and and even Dalton to a degree was was that kind of debonair kind of English chap that's you know, yeah, he had everything figured out, and they got the girls because he got the girls because he was cool, not this super friggin' supermodel.

You know what I mean? Right, yeah, right. You know, the if things kept going down the road they were going down, the next James Bond would have been Jamie Bond, and she would have had long hair.

They talked about it. Well, I mean, there is they actually talked about this gonna be a female James Bond and you know inserting.

I did like the one, I don't know the name of the movie, I can't remember it, but I really liked the Craig one in the casino when he was playing Blackjack constantly. Do you know the one I'm talking about? Casino Royale, that's it. Casino Royale, yeah. That was a good one.

So the the last one I see is No Time to Die in 2021. Uh and that was Daniel Craig.

So so it's still him anyway. Awesome pick, though. What a great character that flew under my radar somehow today.

Yeah, definitely a a noteworthy, solid character. Damn, right.

Absolutely.

All right, Mark, to you.

All right, this is a character from a cult classic. The movie's office space. The actor is Peter Gibbons, a man that works in a mundane office doing it. Wait, is the actor or his name? Peter Gibbons is Ron Livingston is the actor for anybody. Okay, that's what I was wondering. And um, he's working in a mundane office with a bitch girlfriend, you know. Corpus accounts payable just a moment. It was just so mundane. And uh, so basically what happens is he goes with his bitch girlfriend to a hypnotist, and he gets hypnotized, and the guy dies during the hypnotism, and he all of a sudden, I mean, I'll give you his best quote uh in the movie. No, I'm not quitting my job. I'm just not gonna go anymore.

I uh I don't like my job, and uh I don't think I'm gonna go anymore.

You're just not gonna go?

Yeah.

Won't you get fired?

I don't know. But I really don't like it, and uh, I'm not gonna go.

So you're gonna quit?

No uh, not really. Uh I'm just gonna stop going.

Um, when did you decide all of that?

About an hour ago.

Really?

Yeah.

About an hour ago.

And he goes and he goes and he puts in like 10 or 15 minutes a week. And he in one scene he's cleaning a, I think it was a smallmouth bass at his table. And and it it hit with me because not much longer. I mean, uh within a year and a half before that, I was working office jobs, and it was quite boring.

And I was loved that pick, Mark. That was great. Oh, because I strive to be like that man. Oh, yeah, just totally. Like how he was like, I did nothing, yeah, and it was magnificent.

You know, like I know, I know, but if he didn't care, Johnny, no, I mean worries.

I love that he was so like aloof and nothing mattered, and yeah.

Yeah, and it it his girlfriend. And he's sitting there in bed, and Pete Lump uh Peter Lumberg, yeah. I called you five minutes ago, and you still haven't come in, yeah. If you could show up, that would be terrific. And uh and he's just sitting there yawning, whatever, and then he gets a text message, I mean a voicemail from his his girlfriend. By the way, I've been cheating on you, and uh he doesn't care. Anyway, it goes on and on like that.

And um being interviewed by the guys, and he's like, Yeah, and that's what's in the bobs, right? I kind of sneak in, I sneak in like 15 minutes late every day. I kind of zone out at my computer for a few hours. I actually only do about two hours of actual work. I think it was 10 or 15 minutes. Those guys were like, this guy's management material.

Exactly.

Right.

That's actually I'm just gonna go ahead now. They they call it quiet quitting, right? Yeah, right. Right?

You just don't want to work or you just stop doing the job. Exactly. Lumberger's like, yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you. But anyway, so but I mean that was another thing that's fake. We actually had people, uh, there was a guy that looked just like the Bobs coming in and interviewing everyone, what they did. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna lose my job. Maybe I would have been I left the job within a year. Right, right.

Anyway, that shows the people that are like, oh my god, I need I need to they're stressing out. Oh yeah. But meanwhile, he's like, Yeah, whatever. What happened today?

Did you know that we were putting cover letters on the TPS reports now? I don't know if you're great, though.

Yeah, but seven other guys told me about the damn TPS reports. Right, right.

Oh god you get the memo.

Oh yeah, we'll we'll send you another copy. I already got it. No, no, no, yeah.

I can't believe seven pick the stapler didn't come up once. Stapler. But anyway, uh before I go to building down.

Wait, I'm out, I'm out. Did you find my stapler? I've been looking at it. Exactly. Before I go to my class, last time I was here when we had cake, I did not receive a piece.

All right, so to me, uh favorite movie character, and this is another intensely, intensely difficult one. I'm going with my first choice, and that is Darth Vader. And I just want with a villain. Yeah. As a kid, every time he came on the screen, I just was in awe. I loved him. I mean, I had like six different picks here that could go here easily, but James Earl Jones and David Prouse, you know, the combo of the two, and just he was just awesome. Iconic. He gave, yeah, iconic. Thank you. That's a great word. I mean, I don't think I have to go in depth here because it's Darth Vader. I mean Darth Run now, who doesn't know that? Yeah, you know, so I will just move on to you, Darth.

Another character that just exudes cool, like who's a cool villain. Battle ass. He never gets flustered. He he's just like badass. Badass.

Is Darth his first name in the theater show?

What's a traw?

I know. Before I knew Darth, like what it meant, I always thought that. I thought that was his name. But Darth.

Awesome, Dongo to you. All right. So the yeah, again, challenging, challenging topic. And I went through a few possibles, but I kind of landed on Clark Kent. Oh, nice, not Superman. So you have to separate the two individuals. What a great that that is. Yeah. So, and the reason why I like it is because he is he's badass. Like he knows he's badass, but yet he has to pretend to be this like feeble, like incompetent. And does it so well meek person, and it's just I love that dichotomy. I love that. Like he knows he can do better and he can kick ass and he could do, you know, like especially when he's a young Clark Kent. Like he knows he can like he tells his dad, I can I can get a touchdown on every time I get the ball.

That was in Smallville, that was awesome.

But he can't do it because he's has to be, you know, he has to hide his idea. Yeah. And he has to be humble. And for some reason that's endearing to me. I just think it's a really cool character.

Still the secret identity superhero kind of. And and honestly, the first really, right?

If I didn't know anybody fit right in on Big Bane theory at the comic store.

The first that I can think of, I don't mean Batman or Superman, I think were but Superman, black and white, right? Like back with the original.

I mean, I've seen I've seen Batman and Superman stuff from from the 30s. Yeah. Yeah. Um old school. I don't know which comes from first, but still, I mean it's that that was the setup of that secret identity. And and I think that that Superman did it best by being that, you know, the the weak need Clark Kent. Right. Um whereas you got like Iron Man and and Tony Stark is this cocky son of a bitch, or whatever else, which is you know, not quite as endearing as you know, Christopher Reeves, who I think was one of the best, you know, like pushing his glasses up.

And to me, that's the one that the Christopher Reese star Superman, he's my favorite by Far. That was a great rendition of that. One of my favorite.

If Black Hand was attacked in self-defense, he would have been fine now, right?

Well, that's exactly exactly where I was going, Mark, is one of my favorite scenes is when he loses his powers in the ice house, you know, like the his castle there, and he's at the bar and he's like, I'll I'll handle this, honey, you know, with Lois Lane, and the guy kicks his ass. It's just great. Awesome boys picked on. Yeah, awesome pick. Yeah, that is my favorite pick of the day for a character. That's awesome. I love Clark Kent.

Yeah, my immediate reaction was Indiana Jones. Yeah, I had Indiana Jones, I had Dan Solo, and Mark.

I was shocked that you didn't pick Caesar. No, that you well, yeah, that's a good one too, but that you didn't take Dirty Harry because he was on my list too. No, no. Yep, yeah.

But Peter Gibbons fit into yeah, Peter Gibbons spoke to me. That was kind of inspirational to me. Although that's a good one. It would have been more inspirational if I saw it before I'd left the state, but yeah.

Awesome boys. Well, that was great fun. Love doing these hodge hodgepodges, you know, mixing it up a little bit and going from there. So I just once again, as I like to do at the end, I would like to get our email out there, and that is pta80h at gmail.com. And the reason I really want to get this out there, folks, uh, seeing all the downloads and we love the contact, and just you know, we'd like you folks to get involved because I know just from listening to podcasts constantly, I'm yelling at the speaker, and you know, want to speak my mind at times, and we'd love to get some comments in here from you folks, and you know, maybe maybe even a call-in, or you know, maybe you can't.

Tell us what you like, tell us what you don't like, tell us what you'd like to see. You know, we can always accept outside ideas, you know. You can, you know, if we're missing something, and you think, why don't they why don't they do an episode about this? Exactly. Send us an email or why aren't they doing an episode about that?

Yep. Perfect. Well, awesome. So good show, boys. Great hanging out. And we always are out.