back when fluffy, spiky bangs rocked

Variations of spiky hairstyles have been around through the years and are still preferred by some today (see pics of current spiky styles here). These days, the styles are a bit more polished and wispy.

Remember the way it was worn in the '80s?

Worn best by Billy Idol.

This could actually still look good today, in a non-mainstream manner.

The pop-rock duo Roxette.

Sometime in the mid-'80s, the style evolved into hideous, fluffy, spiky fringes.

Fringes or bangs went all the way to the top of your head. The rest of your hair could be long and straight, but you had a fluffy crown, like so:

Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys (1987).

David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth (1986).

The spikes weren't always so sleek, but were often worn all fluffy and tousled, sometimes even slightly curled:

With an asymmetrical cut, Cyndi Lauper just wanted to have fun.

Joan Jett sans the Blackhearts.

It wasn't just worn by rock artists and rebel-imaged celebrities; the style went mainstream. It was also sported by everyday people - moms, students, sidewalk vendors. People would tease their friends about having nests on their heads.


See more nest-heads:

Duran Duran.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Relax.

Hair metal bands went overboard and wore it big and ultra-fluffy:

Cinderella

Motley Crue.
With a pre-Pamela Tommy Lee.

Poison.

Even Barbie sported the style for a time:

Rocker Barbie of the "Barbie and the Rockers" set.

And lastly, there was me:

Me, 1987 or 88.
I know, I know.

If you were alive in the '80s, you might also have a photo of your fluffy, spiky fringes that you are now ashamed of. I'd really love to deny I ever wore that hairstyle, but unfortunately I've got evidence against me.

monday music fix manic monday THE BANGLES

It's just another manic Monday (oh,woh)
Wish it were Sunday (oh, woh)

friday flick fix: dazed and confused (1993)

Really sorry I can't credit the photos.

I nicked them some time ago.

A huge '70s revival went on back in the 1990's. Bell bottoms and platforms made a comeback, disco music was covered by showbands at clubs and That '70s Show was a top-rating sitcom. Here and there were movies set in the 1970s.

Dazed and Confused was set in 1976. It shows a day in the lives of some high-schoolers - the last day of school to be exact. It doesn't really follow the story of any one of them, but shows bits and pieces about the incoming seniors and incoming freshmen.

It's supposedly rife with '70s cliches - as in, actual people from back then are supposed to be reminded of actual people who were like the characters. I heard that to fully appreciate this flick, you had to be a teenager in 1976. I wasn't even born then yet.

Cliches in a teen movie definitely mean stereotypes, so here we go ...

There were the football-playing, pot-smoking jocks:

At left is the cute one (Jason London), at right is the brawny one.

The nervous incoming freshmen, straight from their last day of middle school:

The queen bee:

A cute Parker Posey in shoulder pads and super-short, ratty denim cutoffs.
A couple of years ago she played Lex Luther's girlfriend Kitty in Superman Returns.

I think it was the fashion for girls in the late '70s to cut their old jeans so short that the pockets stuck out. I once heard a story of how girls used to sew their clothes themselves, and some daring ones made skirts the length of their hand-span.

The nice bitch / popular jock's steady girl:

Joey Lauren Adams. She was in a few other '90s teen movies after this.
Her most recent notable role was as Jennifer Aniston's character's friend in The Break-Up.

A silent, pot-smoking, hippie-chick girlfriend:

She's so gorgeous, you noticed her presence even if she hardly said a thing.
This is model/actress Milla Jovovich, before she was famous. We know her today as Resident Evil action hero Alice.

A soup-brained pothead:

If you're a fan of CSI: Miami, you may recognize Rory Cochrane as Speedle (the agent who died). He was also in 24.

A dumb bully who will be repeating his senior year with the incoming batch:

Recognize this actor?
This is Ben Affleck, in his pre-Good Will Hunting, pre-stardom days.

One of the other dudes intent on paddling the freshmen:

After graduating from teen roles, Cole Hauser was later in 2 Fast 2 Furious, Tears of the Sun, and The Break-Up.

A sleazy older guy who won't relinquish his high school glory days:

Matthew McConaughey, with the pedophile mustache.

Apparently male fashion included ultratight pants and ultratight shirts with folded sleeves. Men sometimes stuffed a packet of cigarettes into one of the folded sleeves - see McConaughey above. I remember my uncle used to do that up until the early '80s.

The not-so-popular kids:

Adam Goldberg at left.
You may have noticed him from Friends or Saving Private Ryan.

At right is Anthony Rapp. He's Mark in both the theater and film versions of Rent.

The not-so-popular readhead was played by Marisa Ribisi.
Today she's mostly known as Giovanni Ribisi's twin sister, or Beck's significant other.

And the various background people:

You probably didn't spot her, but that's a chubby Renee Zellweger in an obscure role.

This flick was cool stuff when I was a teenager - I don't remember exactly why though. I recently watched it as an adult and went, What the heck was that all about again? There were funny and/or interesting scenes in there, but as the credits rolled I realized that the whole movie was just a series of funny and/or interesting scenes that don't make up much of a story - which isn't really a bad thing, especially since the movie title includes the words dazed and confused.

back when cylons were metallic and starbuck was male

Images from Battlestar Wiki.
[Spoilers up ahead]

When I was a kid, I watched Battlestar Galactica reruns every Tuesday night on Channel 4. It was wholesome sci-fi series for the whole family.

Though I have a vague recollection of the original BSG (now referred to as "The Original Series", or T.O.S.), I remember enjoying it. I recall there was a mothership of sorts called a battlestar and it was named the Galactica. There were two male lead pilots; their aircraft were called Vipers which came in Viper Squadrons. I remember Apollo, Starbuck, Adama, Dillon, Troy and Boomer. There was a kid named Boxey and his robot bear/dog. The bad guys were walking metallic beings called Cylons with cool, moving red-light eye visors; the humans called them "toasters". I remember that the survivors from Caprica eventually made it to Earth and interacted with modern-day earthlings.

In 2003 I heard about a remake of Battlestar and I was thrilled; I hoped whoever was working on it didn't botch it. At that time we didn't have cable or satellite TV at our place so we had to wait for a (pirated) DVD.

Well it wasn't a botched job at all; it turned out to be spectacular and stimulating. Really good stuff.

But I lost interest halfway through the second season, around the time they had a squalid settlement in New Caprica.

Though it was an amazing series, I felt like it was too far a stretch from the original Battlestar Galactica that it shoudn't have used that same title. I felt duped into thinking it was a remake; it kinda just used the same title to trick people familiar with the original series into watching it. All the original names and terminology were in there, but it was a whole different reconstruction.

Later I heard that the new BSG was called Re-imagined. It's not a remake.

And by the way - I noted it was no longer entirely wholesome family viewing; there were a lot of bits in there that weren't exactly for kids.

I couldn't entirely enjoy it at first, since I struggled to wrap my mind around the re-imagining that the characters they called Starbuck and Boomer were female, that Baltar was an awkward but cute scientist-politician, and that Cylons were sexy, cell-based organisms, one of whom had a romantic psychic connection with Dr. Baltar. Periodically I would ask questions in my head such as, To what purpose do these Cylons have to be smoldering eye-candy?, Who are all these unfamiliar characters?, and, Where is Boxey and his robotic bear/dog?

The Hubby does not remember the original BSG series at all, so he wasn't obsessively making mental references to it in his head, so he truly, thoroughly enjoyed this new BSG without being distracted by the deconstruction of childhood memories.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I managed to forgive the new BSG for betraying me, and I joined the Hubby in a Season 1 to 4 marathon.

Uh, well, not exactly. The Hubby watched all four seasons while I sat in to point out how it misused the original title.

But I must admit, it's great stuff - it still really got me curious and entertained. I just had to shut down all the fond memories of the original BSG and embrace the re-imagined series. I had to constantly remind myself it's a re-imagining.

Okay, it's a re-imagining, that makes sense.

The hot, humanoid Cylons were actually a good idea.

Those humanoid Cylons create more depth and complexity to the story - so it's forgivable. But then there was too much complexity and subplots than I could care for (It's not that I couldn't follow; I guess I still kept looking for echoes of the original plot - which would have been crap now, I realize).

I just missed seeing those vintage metallic Cylons; they're like BSG icons. Memories of BSG TOS often conjured up images of those walking trash cans that lit up like Knight Rider's car.

The first time I watched the re-imagines series a few years ago, I started to brew the dislike when it was suggested that Boomer was one of the toaster baddies. I trusted that the story would redeem itself, so I watched on.

Watching on, I found that the words" toaster" and "baddie" didn't really fit, since she was neither made of metal, nor such a baddie.

T.O.S. Boomer was a dude; he was one of the main viper pilots with easy-recall names.

The new Boomer is a pretty Asian chick with multiple copies.

Well, let's face it - nowadays the name "Boomer" is hardly fitting for a badass male fighter pilot since it's been used on dogs a lot, so might as well make it a lady's call sign.

I could take that the new Boomer was a pretty Asian chick. I was just always distracted whenever her face came on screen because she had certain angles that made her look ugly, and I kept trying to find the angle that made her look really cute. So imagine my horror when several of her appeared at the same time.

Anyway.

In the big picture, the story seemed to of revolve more around Cylons; the human survival part was more like a subplot. Which isn't so bad, really.

And heh, Commander Tigh turned out to be a Cylon too. I didn't like that either, but I watched on.

Well, I guess a Cylon XO is not as bad as the suggestion that Starbuck was this mysterious otherworldy creature who happened to be married to another cylon. That kinda felt like a convenient copout resolution

About Starbuck. I actually liked that the Starbuck character was a woman. That was brilliant - placing strong women characters in an originally male-dominated story. The top gun happened to be a cocky, attractive blonde woman with flat hair.

I just thought that Kara Thrace's awkward "thing" with Apollo was cliche-ic and near-revolting. Ah, well. At least they weren't both male.

The original BSG's Starbuck was played by the guy who played Faceman in The A-Team, a.k.a. Dirk Benedict.

Yes, Starbuck was a man - a cocky, attractive, blonde womanizer. A very straight man by the way, and he did not have a thing for his best friend Apollo.

BSG 1978 centered on the adventures of Starbuck and Apollo. BSG 1980 centered on two other pilots, Dillon and Troy (Troy was the grown-up Boxey), but Starbuck was still in the story.

I like the new Apollo, a.k.a. Lee Adama, mostly because he's gorgeous.

The original Apollo wasn't so bad though.

The actor who played Apollo in the 1978-79 BSG, Richard Hatch, also happens to play a new character, Tom Zarek in the re-imagined series. Nice touch.

And well, there was a character in the re-imagined series named Boxey , though he was only in one episode, and he didn't have a pet robot bear-dog.

I also tried watching Caprica, an offshoot / precursor of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. I ... really ... can't say I enjoyed it. I fell asleep seeing the Pilot episode and simply refuse to follow it through.
.

back when sunflower hats were all the rage

If you were a teenage girl in the early '90s, you might now be hiding a picture of your young self wearing a hat with a big, bright, flamboyant flower.

Blame it on Mayim Bialik, star of the TV hit Blossom.

Blossom and her colorfully-cardiganned friends sparked a worldwide fashion trend: flower hats. The most popular was the kind with an enormous sunflower or daisy.

Pretty soon sunflower hats cross-pollinated with other apparel and accessories: there were sunflower hair ties, sunflower pins, sunflower shirts, sun dresses, jumpsuits, pants, bags, Trapper Keepers and everything else. Bright yellow flowers were blooming everywhere.

In my junior year in our all-girls high school, we had this clothing tech class in which we were each supposed to design and sew a dress. At the end of the term, we were required to model our "creations" in our very own fashion show - concept, lighting, stage direction and all. One section went with a sunflower theme for their show, rocking their homemade threads with sunflower/ daisy hats and accessories (Our group didn't have much imagination - we had no theme. I remember I had a rushed, misshapen blue-and-silver dress that I decided to wear grunge-style with a pair of boots and a slouchy denim hat. It was an ugly dress, but I at least passed the class). My classmates thought that the other section's sunflower motif was pretty brilliant and wished we'd come up with it ourselves. I'm glad we didn't. I just wasn't cheery enough to wear a sunflower.

I still wonder whether anyone who sported them at that time actually thought those hats were pretty; I kinda believe girls wore them because of the pressure of buying into the fad.

I always thought it was a silly trend. Yeah, I did. Though I did happen to have a sunflower hat myself. And a sunflower button-down, a daisy hair clip, a sunflower hair clip, a sunflower vanity kit and a daisy pendant necklace. And a shirt with what looked like they were supposed to be sunflowers but were a bit too red. All were gifts, mind you.

monday music fix: enveloped ideas THE DAWN

I quite enjoyed last Monday's reminiscing, so I thought about doing another one from The Dawn this week.

Enveloped Ideas is one of The Dawn's earliest. When it first hit the airwaves, listeners thought it was another new-wave song by some British pop-rock band. It had that uber-cool sound to it that made us so proud back then that they were Pinoy.

Trying pointlessly to understand
Having nothing to say
Just shadows are what remains boxed inside
This is what I call my envelope ideas

Singing out my enveloped ideas
Doesn’t seem all too bad
Hoping it would be easier
To sing out my enveloped ideas

Why should I carry this platter?
Did it just pass me by?
And does one cleave right on the edge?
I have an empty dream, this here my ideas

Singing out my enveloped ideas
Doesn’t seem all too bad
Hoping it would be easier
To sing out my enveloped ideas

This was written and performed by founding member and original lead guitarist Teddy Diaz. Wala pa si Francis Reyes noon. Francis Reyes is awesome, but Teddy Diaz was something else.

For those of you who don't know what happened, Diaz passed away after three years of fame with the band. He was stabbed by hold-uppers and left to bleed to death on night in QC. He was 25 years young.

While looking for Enveloped Ideas on You Tube, I stumbled upon this, labeled Teddy Diaz Rare Clip. It's from 1987, so you'll have to excuse the costumes and the ostentatious make-up

back when there was the betamax

This week I've been having a mini-flimfest at home, thanks to a friend who lent me a loaded external hard drive. It's even got some hard-to find classics and art films - stuff that I've long been looking for at various video shops but haven't been able to.

I muse about how easy it is to acquire movies and entire seasons of television series now, even ones that just recently showed. Thanks to streaming or stealing file-sharing. Really easy. Tech-savvy teens swapping USBs could put movie pirates out of business, and the Optical Media Board can't really go after them.

Not that I'm an advocate - though I do admit I also enjoy the convenience. ^_^

Before the rise of digital media, we employed the use of a Japanese inventions called the Betamax. Beta for short.

The first Betamax I befriended was the machine in my Grandfather's house. Our then-new electronic acquaintance supplied us with weekend entertainment, and I was sure it was going to be a big part of our lives. Except that there a few major considerations: First of all, it wasn't our machine to abuse. And secondly, there were no Beta tapes for children at my Grandfather's house.

Eventually, my Dad bought a Betamax for us. It was a promise of less-boring weekends and possibly funner summers. He had it installed in their bedroom in no time and it was used mostly by my brother and I.

Luckily we discovered two video rental shops just outside our village (They were near enough to walk, but we weren't exactly allowed to walk there so weren't able to visit them as often as we wanted to). Naturally, we had to rely on the selections offered to us by the shops. Choices were very limited, and we had to find new shops every few months.

We also had to make do with the generalized write-ups on the inner labels - "action", "drama", "comedy", "cartoons" and so on. It was a gamble; we had to choose based on the sound of the title and the less-than-useful inner sticker. We often found really enjoyable stuff like Labyrinth and Legend, though we sometimes ended up with something we didn't like. Every now and then we unknowingly borrowed stuff that wasn't for kids at all (Like, how were we supposed to know that titles like Hot Bubblegum and Lemon Popsicle were R-rated? Those titles seemed quite kiddie to me!) Of course, why would the video shop people care about screening what the neighbor children took home if it made them easy money, right?

But we soon encountered another problem: The tapes we borrowed were usually not re-wound. Be kind, Rewind wasn't yet a known adage, and unfortunate renters had to go through the hassle. Initially, my brother would rewind entire tapes using the Betamax player just so we could watch them, but we were later told that this damaged both the tape and the player. I remember attempting to wind the tapes by hand.

The stress led to my Dad's next purchase: a video casette tape rewinder. Our first one looked like a little red race car.

The next Beta-related acquisition was a tape head cleaner. Betamax players were very prone to accumulating dust, which affected its performance. A cleaner looked exactly like a Beta tape, except that it didn't have any real tape in it. You put a few drops of cleaning solution on specified spots on the cartridge, stick it into the player, hit play and let it go run a few seconds to clean the inside parts.

By the time I was in high school, Betamax lost popularity due to the supposedly better-quality VHS (though it was common for homes to have both a Betamax and a VHS player at that time; well-to-do families also had LaserDisc players, which were wrongly perceived as futuristic). By the time Y2k rolled in, the VHS had also already faded into the background because of video compact discs and digital video discs.

When the Hubby and I cleaned out the house a couple of months ago, we discovered a stash of old tapes inherited from my Mom's old place - some even had good titles I would have loved to keep in our movie collection. But we don't have a Betamax or VHS player anywhere, and we don't know anyone who still does. We tried selling the tapes at a garage sale, but no one showed the slightest bit of interest - even the tricycle drivers laughed at those tapes!

And these days, the only "betamax" around here are these:

Some people have now discontinued buying DVDs since it's easy (albeit "illegal") to download movies and TV series for free. There are even those who have begun to give away their space-consuming DVD collection and opted to store films in hard drives.

You know, the word "film" is a major misnomer now, since the stuff we watch aren't even in film anymore (I learned to be very discriminating with words like "film", "movie", "cinema" and "video" when I was a film major, back when we used real, actual film). They aren't exactly "movies" either; everything is just video now.