nerditry

The 80s. A time when I was coming up, taking notice of the things around and building a repertoire of references for when pop culture knowledge can win cash and/or prizes. Also a time that Jay-Z was having his second set of early teenage years due to his lack of any Bar-Mitzvah be it a man or becoming a wolf en route to becoming a man. No one knows for sure.

The 1980s gave us the big tv intro full of computer graphics and strange synthetic noises.

The greatest sports introduction is that of the NBA on NBC. Because of its weekly occurrences, millions of fans (there were millions watching the NBA on tv then as it will again happen soon, though begrudgingly, due to ABC/ESPN ruining broadcast basketball) this amazing ditty grabbed all of our attention. It was as important as the Monday Night Football song sung by Hank Jr., but relevant because of its lack of pretentious truck commercials and lyrics.

Kids, we either sung the sound out loud, even amongst friends or we actually made up words. It’s true. The same way that I made up words for the West Wing introduction. “Everybody likes Martin Sheen because they don’t know his actual name is Martín Estevez and iiiiiiiiiiiis a better President than Bush…ba da da Even though he’s [Ron Isley Voice]faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkke[/Isley].

We had NBA on NBC Sunday Tripleheaders. And all three games were generally worth watching and always included the Bulls or Knicks and then a rotating cast of Celtics, Lakers, Rockets, Suns (1992+), Sonics, Blazers and those who were flavor of the week or entertaining. Many an event during the run was introed by Bob Costas who emitted a pure, distilled gravitas that Stephen Colbert now uses in sanctification rituals. What drama for an introduction and how good it is to have the same on TNT.

We had Marv Albert at his prime, though we had to contend with Ahmad Rashad. Ohhhh Ahmad. The man owes Chuck Woolery some real scratch for making that 2 + 2 happen when MJ began his ascendence. When Michael learned to fly, Mr. Mrs. Huxtable was eye level with Hair Jordan and he had no problem hosting Inside Stuff.

Word to Willow Bay in the early 90s.

Written and performed by John “Hogan Hair” Tesh

The other invoked such a visceral response I had to scream at a Teddy Pendergrass album. Didn’t even play it, but he was the only person who invokes such emotion with the ability to tell you to the letter what he wants in return.Via the The Sports Guy’s links, the full HBO intro.

Good things were in their way in the 80s when this masterpiece played. Could have been Revenge of the Nerds, maybe Ferris Beuller, I’m Gonna Get You Sucka or Real Sex. I won’t front, we had some type of electronic wizardry for the Home BO hookup in my earliest days remembering tv and when that didn’t work we waited just like everyone else for those few free weekends a year. Our copy of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from some Labor or Memorial Day went through the vcr for at least 2-3 dozen shows.

What are your favorite intros? Post a video response.

E!NU!

the biggest interlog celebrity i’ve made acquaintance with is dallas. dude is so strong on his grits that he’s always lookin to help other younglings get their wheels turning and grow the conscious, keyboard whitmans into stronger members of this online fam-lay.

as his old school vibrations got me thinking about the times as a young jit, running the mean streets of suburban ft. lauderdale, but not without origination in miramar. see, you don’t know what’s really goin on at the time of growing up because it’s normal for you. if you’re poor and all you’re friends are, it’s not likely that a 6 year old is going to realize that in fact everyone is poor and what that means.

i grew up till i was 8 in i think a 2/1 or 2/1.5 townhouse and shared a room with my brother. it wasn’t a bad neighborhood in perspective of the folks that lived there, but we had a winn-dixie right across the street in a strip mall that you can only find in south florida. winn-dixie generally meant that you lived in a hole part of town and my mom, growing up in lakeland stuck to publix and almost nothing else. never wanted for nothing that i can think of, but if you can remember having breakfast for dinner regularly, we’re just diff’rent leaves on the same tree.

back to the lecture at hand, perfection is perfected so i’ma let em understand.

i rocked a first look at my 80s reparte on forever freestyle and committed my undying love to the sound. it felt good to get that out, mostly because younger heads such as myself weren’t doing it big in 87, but the radio i kept above my bed and the skating ring keep us in the mix.

it struck a chord (ooooh big pun, rip (n. khaled looking like an ass like joey did holding that umbrella)) with dp dot com and he sent me a swank 80s mix. complete with a blondie kickoff and moving through synth pop, was a swell set of 17 tracks. i fired off my salvo back, bringing light back to the following:

blondie – rapture
midnight star – freakazoid
royksopp – follow my ruin
aim – cold water music (the most underrated cd in my recent life)
herbie hancock – rockit
……..
others more

if anyone that reads this wants to mixtape swap, email me:evan@nerditry dot com and let’s get it goin. privacy is key, your info is safe and this may be a blast. some lucky winner could get a couple dvds full of music (i need a secondary mp3 hard drive, least 160gb if you can spare).

welcome to another installment of 26 is the new foetus (get british). this episode, we will rearrange the mush in our heads to remember a certain afroed whiteness that did his best to get us to understand the body and eat healthy.

my friends, do you remember SLIM GOODBODY?

slim is a character created by John Burstein that wears the form-fittingest spandex suit showing all of the body’s major systems and bones. he was a positive dude, way ahead of the curve in getting fat kids (n. meeeee) to exercise and fill their gullets (nullus) with better things that a McDLT or parish priest.

he was a mainstay of my in-school PBS programming that beat the shit out of Cable in teh Classroom. it was never planned, but we could always count on a few showings every year in class as it was probably nancy reagan thought up when smokin on noriega’s finest (n. where ya been superthug?). the irony of this being that kids have become progressively fatter per the increased diet of screen time for everything leisurely.

so a special Nerd Up! to Slim Goodbody and to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. you were the last hope before Nickelodeon came into my world.

My friends, I’d like to share with you the music that makes my world go round. This installment brings to you a sound that is nearer and dearer to my heart than the remnants of a veggie calzone lunch (shite was 90% veg/10% ricotta) and is my old man music from here on out.

I came up in south florida at a time when Power 96 ran the airwaves and DJ Laz was the biggest thing in local music next to Gloria, Emilio and the band. 2 Live Crew was the shizz, but being shy of double digits in age precluded me from hearing most of their stuff outside of whoever had their tape. My sound, the stuff that I jam out to in the car and hope they rock at the club is Freestyle.

A beautiful amalgam of synthesizer beats, club breaks, equal amounts of male & female singers, songs mostly about love and all of them were made for having fun. The sound has always resonated with me for reasons that I can’t fully explain besides saying that when I hear music it makes me dance (n. Debbie Deb).

To prepare for the upcoming Forever Freestyle concert at the UCF Arena, I offer you my heart, YouTubed.

Cover Girls: Show Me

Rockell: In A Dream

TKA: Louder Than Love

Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam: I Wonder If I Take You Home (wish I had seen her in her prime)

Shannon: Let Music Play

I close by saying if you don’t know about the skating rink, then I’m sorry that you’ve missed out forever.

check out what jay wilson has to say about his newest honorary supernegro, the pbs picasso, mr. bob ross.

as a fellow 80s baby,

which means that i can’t remember things that happened in the 70s or very early 80s (n. hallucinating hova, re: this side of 40 is the new mid life crisis)

.

a show that made a solid impact on me and can easily be seen as the template for my genial demeanor is Head of the Class. a show all about gifted kids and their ultra hip teach resonated with me in kindergarten, having to hang with the 2nd graders in gifted. i think i stopped watching in the end when billy connolly turned in into some kind of foreign language affair that my SAP didn’t understand.

what was your 80s intro? (2nd place for me is perfect strangers. those were some grown-ass men to be living at home that long).

check your speakers