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.

back when cartoons were for kids ... and back when they started not to be

When I was a child, it was safe for our parents to assume that anything animated was worry-free, wholesome entertainment. They could leave us in front of the television set on a Saturday morning without suspecting Warner Brothers or Hannah-Barbera to corrupt our young minds.

Cartoons even usually had invaluable life-lessons to teach kids, such as:

Monsters aren't real.
They are mostly just disgruntled thieves who have nothing better to do

Icky vegetables are good for you.
Veggies make you strong enough to kick the big bully's butt.

Good always triumphs over evil.
Even if good guys aren't always well-tanned blondes with bulging muscles.

Be nice.
You can overcome your enemies with kindness and warm feelings.

No matter how much money you have, friends are more important.
But it would be utterly nice to be rich too.

It is good to be informed.
And knowing is half the battle.

And that was how cartoons were in the 1980s. "Worry-free kid TV".

At the end of the decade, cartoons took a different turn with the introduction of an animated family with warped values.


When I was twelve, we kids almost bled out of our ears the way teachers, parents and pastors repeatedly warned us against the Simpsons, with special mention to that troublemaker, Bart. We often just shrugged those warnings off with a chuckle because we weren't exactly stupid enough not to distinguish between reality and poking fun at reality.

Eventually all the slander about the Simpsons cooled when the team behind those four-fingered yellow people churned out stuff that just kept getting funnier and funnier. The show continued to get a lot of criticism, but it never got cancelled - it is in fact still going strong to this day. For that matter, it isn't half as irreverent as what a lot of kids watch now.

In the mid-'90s, MTV began to air animated shorts that made The Simpsons look absolutely tame and lame.


The shorts turned into regular series, and kids thought they really rocked. Even if there wasn't much of a plot - nor sense. It was the dawn of a time when cartoons were no longer silly, soppy ways to sell toys and teach moral lessons.

The Japs though have always been a little bit more visual. Them Japanese animators seem to have always made it a point to include upskirt scenes, even in made-for-children shows featuring a giant robot or a tortured little girl.

Of course, the Japs have understood for a long time that animation didn't necessarily have to be treats just for kids. It was also for frustrated perverts and milquetoasts who needed some sort of fodderfor their fantasies.

Though previously known only to small cult followings, anime started becoming vastly popular and accessible in the mid-90s. There wasn't much of it on television at that time save for the edited "safe" kinds, but kids and teens knew where to get their fix (mostly renting from friends or specialized video shops). Parents, teachers and "grownups" had nothing to say about the tiwsted values highlighted in anime, mostly because they didn't know about it.


Sexy and violent imagery were practically staples. Sexual tension and demon-dependence were common themes that would have sent our parishes preaching against it only if they knew about it.

There are still a lot of wholesome animated series around these days, but it's now a well-known fact that they aren't necessarily for kids anymore. Twenty years ago, it would have been disgusting to see a grown man watching mind-numbing "cartoons", but not so these days. A lot of animated films and series actually have dark themes, thought-provoking concepts, visuals and language that should be for adults.

back when rubik's cubes were the cool new toy

I've learned to hate these things from childhood because they they made me feel stupid. I have never had the patience to solve one.

Then as an adult, after learning to convince myself that i am after all a genius, I met a kid who could solve one of these in nine seconds. I concluded he must either be autistic or influenced by aliens.

I heard that current the world record-holder can do it in less than three. I'm willing to bet he's socially challenged.

Although they are now mostly associated with nerds and geeks, Rubik's Cubes used to be a fad trinket of sorts. They were, for a time, ubiquitous, and came in many different incarnations - the classic cube with bright-colored squares, the pastel variation, the kind with icons instead of colors, a tiny 2-inch cube with a keychain attached. In our household alone (I mean my childhood one) we had one each of all those.

We even had this freakishly difficult kind that had irregular quadrilaterals instead of squares, which was supposed to form into a perfect cube. My mom bought it in 'the States sometime '87 or '88, saying it was the cool new version from that Rubik guy. It never caught on; I guess it was just too impossible.

Each Rubik's cube poked fun at me, reminded me that I was not the genius in the family. So I scratched their stickered surfaces out to rearrange the squares in the proper order to show them who's boss.

(So somewhere around the house we had cubes whose facets had dog-ears and little bite-marks. And elsewhere was a regular bright-squared kind that was taken apart "for study").

Fairly recently I was reunited with my childhood taunter, the classic Rubik's cube, through the talented kid who could do it in nine seconds. The Hubby was entranced with the childhood memories the cube brought, so he borrowed it for a while, showing me how easy it was to solve one. I thought I should take a crack at it, telling myself that I am much older and more intelligent now, these things should be a piece of cake. Boy, was i wrong.

I am now convinced that I must be a genius of the artistic, non-geometric inclination, i.e., not the kind that is skilled at geometric puzzles but the kind that can do a whole lot of other things. Yeah, I'm fine with that.

And Rubik's cubes shall evermore be banished from and disallowed within our home.

back when we played atari and used joysticks

I remember the day when our uncle introduced us to Atari. We only used to see arcade games played by white boys on TV, and it was such a thrill that we had our very own Atari thingy - hours of indoor fun! We felt so privileged since none of the other kids we knew had one yet.

Photos from AtariAge.

Back then, "joystick" wasn't the least bit a dirty word. So if I say "Our uncle showed us how to work the joystick", it doesn't mean nor imply anything nasty.

Shift the joystick up, down, left and right to move your "player" - it was that simple. No complex combos, no special attacks. The most special attack was to press the red button to fire or whatever. Everything was in large-pixel, eight-color 2-d.

I was really tiny then, so was Pong was one of the few games I could play with some degree of satisfaction. It's a two-player game of table tennis in simple pixels. All I had to do was move my "player" up and down to deflect the square "ball".


Pong was one of the first - if not the very first - video games. I guess anyone can tell from its pixelated primitiveness.

The most popular game then was Pac Man - it used to be so high tech. I tried playing it, but I always failed at the first level. I developed a sort of hatred toward Pac Man - I think that contributed to my general disinterest toward all things video game to this day.


I had a bit more success with Space Invaders. It was my favorite one - it was as simple as moving left and right, and pressing the red button rapidly to fire at the incoming aliens.

Yar's Revenge was already a bit complex. I never even got what the objective was. The cartridge had an artwork of a luminous-looking giant fly, but the graphic in the game itself looked nothing like.


Atari was our go-to recreation source for some time (that and the Betamax), and looking back, I can't imagine something so simple being so addictive.

Atari's popularity waned a few years later, after some Japanese geeks developed the Family Computer and introduced colorful, more complicated games that were basically Pac Man with a twist.

In another few years, Nintendo came out with even more complex recreation. And in yet another few years came the Console Wars, in which Sony and Nintendo kept grinding out bigger, better, faster stuff in rapid succession, one after another, for the growing ADHD of our generation. And before we knew it, games came in 3-d, rapid action, multilayered sound.

The video game has gone through a helluva makeover in three decades. Today's MMORPGs are a far leap from Pong.

I am amused though that Pac Man seems to have made a comeback on people's laptops. It's not an upgrade or a remake - it's still classic, up- down-right-left Pac Man. It's like we've come full circle.

back when c.o.d. had a christmas display

Nanonood ako ng news, tulad ng gawi ko bawat gabi, nang may napanood akong maiksing feature tungkol sa C.O.D Christmas display sa Greenhills. Nagpakita ang report ng mga shot ng mga umaandar na manyika, mga automated na train, sumasayaw na ilaw - iba't ibang elemento ng mga moving display.

Nasisip ko lang - tulad yata iyon ng mga pinapalabas sa C.O.D store noon. Kaya ba tinawag na "C.O.D" ang display ay dahil isa itong homage sa dating C.O.D store?

Nalaman ko ngayon lang na ang ibig sabihin pala ng C.O.D ay Christmas on Display, hehe.

Naisip ko rin - never yata akong nakanood ng Christmas show sa C.O.D 'nung bata ako. Although madalas kong nakikita ang mga naka-display na Christmas dolls sa harapan ng C.O.D building kapag dumadaan ang sasakyan namin sa Cubao, parang wala akong maalala na napanood ko ang presentation ng mga gumagalaw na manikin kada 7 ng gabi tuwing Disyembre.

Ang sigurado ko lang na naaalala ko ay ang sinabi ng mga kamag-anak, teacher at mga kaklase ko na nakakatuwa at napakaganda ng mga presentation taon-taon: may mga manyika at manikin na metukuloso ang pagkakayari, gumagalaw sila, sumasayaw at naghahayag ng isang kwentong pang-Pasko. May music at ilaw pa. Ang lahat ay naaliw, bata man o matanda, kaya it's worth the travel and the siksikan.

Simple lang ang trip ng mga tao noon. Sikat na sikat 'yon nung '80s. Medyo yata humina 'nung '90s - pero siguro dahil tumatanda na ako 'nun at wala na akong paki sa mga bagay na parang pambata. Ang tining ko pa nga noon, baduy at laos na ang mga presentation na ganun. Nung 2004, tuluyan na silang nagsara.

Ngayon, alaala na lang talaga ang C.O.D -- at wala pa akong maalala. Hindi ko alam kung bakit nagsara sila. Pero sigurado akong maraming matanda at mga dating-bata nasayangan sa pagsara nila dahil wala na ang mga Christmas show na naging tradisyon na sa Metro Manila. 'Yung mga matatanda at mga dating-bata na nagkaroon ng mga magagandang memory ng Pasko dahil sa sayang dinala ng mga C.O.D. display taon-taon.
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back when cheech and chong had a conversation about santa claus and his old lady

I find it hard to believe that that Santa Claus and His Old Lady was actually released in '71. I first heard it in the mid-'90s, and it sounded quite fresh. It's been a holiday playlist regular of mine, and it still sounds cool. It isn't actually a song but a conversation between a stoned hippie (played by Thomas Chong) and an eager latino (Cheech Marin).




santa claus and his old lady (1971)

CHEECH AND CHONG

CM: (Playing piano) "Ma-ma-ma-ma-cita, donde esta Santa Cleese...the vato wit da bony knees...he comin' down da street wit no choos on his feet...and he's going to..." No, no, that ain't it... "Mamamacita, donde esta Santa Claus...da guy wit da hair on his jaws...he's..." Nah. Hey, man, come over here, man. I need some help, man.

TC: Yeah, man. I can dig that. Like, uh, what are ya doin', man?

CM: Aw, I'm trying to write a song about Santa Claus, man, but it's not comin' out...

TC: About who, man?

CM: About Santa Claus, man. You know, Santa Claus, man?

TC: Oh, yeah, man. I played with those dudes, man.

CM: What?

TC: Yeah, last year at the Fillmore, man. Me and the bass player sat in, man.

CM: Oh, hey, man, you think Santa Claus is a group, huh? No, it's not a group, man.

TC: Wha? They break up, man?

CM: No, man. It's one guy, man. Y'know, he had a..a red suit on, man, with black patent leather choos...you know the guy, man.

TC: Oh, yeah...he's with Motown, ain't he? Yeah, I played with that dude, too, man. He's a good singer, man.

CM: No, no, hold on, man. He's not with Motown, man.

TC: Well, then he's with Buddah, man.

CM: No, aw, man, you don't know who Santa Claus is, man!

TM: Yeah, well, I'm not from here, man. Like, I'm from Pittsburgh, man. I don't know too many local dudes.

CM: Ohhh, I see. Well, hey, man, sit back and relax and I'll tell you da story about Santa Claus, man. Listen...

(background music begins)

Once upon a time, about, hmmm, five years ago, there was this groovy dude and has name was Santa Claus, y'know? And he used to live over in the projects with his old lady and they had a pretty good thing together because his old lady was really fine and she could cook and all that stuff like that, y'know. Like, she made da best brownies in town, man! Oh, I could remember 'em now, man. I could eat one of 'em, man, wow...

TC: Wow, did you know these people, man?

CM: Oh, yeah, man. They used to live next door to me, y'know...until they got kicked out, man.

TC: Wha? They got kicked out of the projects, man?

CM: Yeah, you know what happened, man? They used ta live with all these midgets, y'know, and da midgets used ta make a lotta noise, y'know, like pounding and hammering and pounding all night, man...

TC: Typical freaks, huh?

CM: Oh, yeah, man, they were really freaks, man. As a matter of fact, they all moved up north together, y'know.

TC: Oh, they had to go get their head together, man?

CM: Yeah, get their head together. And they started a commune, y'know. It was called the...uh..."Santa Claus and his Old Lady Commune"; it was a real famous one up there, man. And they used to sit around and groove all the time, y'know.

TC: Oh, yeah?

CM: Yeah, a really good time, man.

TC: That sounds heavy.

CM: Yeah, they eat da brownies, man, and they drink da tea, man...and what they did most of da time, though, was make a lotta goodies, y'know? And they had everything they needed; they only needed to come into town maybe once a year or something like that...

TC: To pick up the welfare check and the food stamps, right.

CM: Yeah... No, no, what they did, man, is that, once a year, when they made all the goodies, y'know, they used ta put 'em in a beeg chopping bag and, then, they used ta take da chopping bag and give 'em to all the boys and girls all da way around da world, man!

TC: Hey, well, that's hip, man. That sounds real nice.

CM: Oh, yeah, they were really nice people, man. And so much class, man...they had so much class, y'know. Like, even take da way they used ta deliver da toys, y'know. It's like, Santa Claus used ta have this really charp chort, man, y'know? It was lowered to da ground, had twice-pipes, candy-apple red and button top. Oooo, clean!

TC: Hey, that sounds like a hip snowmobile, man.

CM: No, no, it wasn't a snowmobile; it was a sled, y'know. One of those big sleds, y'know? And he used ta have it pulled by some reindeers, y'know, like, reindeers?

TC: Some what, man?

CM: Some reindeers, y'know. He used ta hook them onto da sled and then he used ta stand up inside da sled and hold on to da reins and then call out their names, like, "On Donner! On, Blitzen! On Chewy! On Tavo! C'mon, Becto!" And then, the reindeers used ta take off into da sky and fly across da sky, man!

TC: Wow, man! That's far out, man!

CM: Yeah! And then, when they flied across da sky, they used ta come down to places like, oh, Chicago, L.A., Nueva York and Pacoima and all those places, y'know, and then land on top of people's roofs and then 'ol Santa Claus would make himself real small, y'know, like, a real small guy, and he'd come down da chimney and then he would give you all da stuff that he made, man. And...dig this, man...he did it all in one night, man!

TC: Hey, just a minute, man. Now, how'd he do that, man?

CM: Oh, well, man, he took da freeway. How else, man?

TC: No, man. No, man, how'd he do all that other stuff, man? Like, how'd he make himself small, man. And, how'd he, like, how'd he get the reindeer off the ground, man?

CM: Oh, well, man, he had some magic dust, man.

TC: Some magic dust?

CM: Yeah, magic dust, y'know? He used ta give a little bit to da reindeer, a little bit to Santa Claus, a little bit more for Santa Claus, a little bit more...

TC: And this would get the reindeer off, man?

CM: Aw, got 'em off, man? Are you kidding, man? They flew all da way around da world, man!

TC: Hey, that's far out, man! Hey, how come I've never met this dude, man?

CM: Oh, man, he doesn't do that bit anymore, man. It got too dangerous, man.

TC: Yeah, I can dig that, man, 'cause that's a dangerous bit, man!

CM: Yeah, lemme tell ya, it sure was, man. Like just two years ago, man, he got stopped at the border, y'know, and they took him into another room and took off his clothes, man, and searched him and searched his bag of goodies, man...and then, when he was leaving, man, he was flying through the air and somebody took a chot at his reindeer, y'know.

TC: Aw, that's a drag, man.

CM: Yeah, it really was, man. And then, man, he went down South, man, and they tried to cut off his hair and his beard, man. And all the time, he was getting stopped and pulled over and asked for his ID, man....just everywhere he went, he ran into too much recession, man.

TC: No, man, you mean he ran into too much repression, man.

CM: Aw, "repression"..."recession"...man, it's all da same thing, man.

TC: Yeah, man. But, it's a drag, man, 'cause we could sure use a dude like that right now.

CM: Oh, he still comes around, man.

TC: Oh, yeah?

CM: Yeah, but he comes in disguises now...

TC: Aw, he went "underground".

CM: Yeah, "underground", man.

TC: I can dig it.

CM: Yeah. But you ought to see his disguise, man; nobody would ever know it was him, man.

TC: Oh, yeah?

CM: Yeah. He's got a job in front of da department store, ringing this bell and playing this tambourine next to this black pot, y'know?

TC: Aw, I seen the dude, man!

CM: Yeah! You know who I'm talking about, man!

TC: Yeah, man! I played with that cat last year, man!

CM: Wha?

TC: Yeah, we played in front of a store, man! We made a lot of bread, man!

CM: Aw, hey, wait a minute, man! Santa Claus is not a musician, man!

TC: I'm hip, man! That cat didn't know any tunes, man!

CM: Oh, hey, wait a minute, man...no, he's not hip to that at all, man.

TC: No, I played with this dude, man.

CM: Are you sure, man?

TC: Positive!

back when there were those december amusement fairs

Like those magical lands at the top of Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree that visit for a time and then disappear, these wonderlands of sorts came by for a few weeks every holiday season: Payanig sa Pasig, Big Bang sa Alabang. Even Star City used to be just a Christmastime fair then. I used to go go together with my friends or cousins, thinking it was such a big thing to be allowed to stay until after midnight. Since the weather got chilly as soon as the ber months rolled in (and I mean really cool by Manila standards, the whole day, not just nippy in the mornings and evenings), our parents would tell us to bring jackets for practicality, and we brought them for pormality. It gave us a chance to show off our cardigans - the looser, the slouchier, the better. We would crumple the sleeves upward to expose our forearms or tie them around our waists- that's how jackets were worn back then.

Those fairs were utter amusement for a child - rides, games, lights, food, shops, fireworks, the occasional celebrity sightings, those geeky production number featuring people in silly tinfoil-laced costumes. Parents who tagged along to babysit from a distance amused themselves with the tiangge while we kiddies hopped from ride to ride.

My favorite rides were the roller coaster and the octopus. In those days, we haven't yet heard of rides conking out mid-transit, or kids losing their limbs or dying from faulty machinery. Lawsuits against carnival operators were unheard of.

I also liked checking out whatever horror train or horror house there was. That was probably one of the first things I'd ask to go to because I liked how the UV lights made white things glow.

The non-ride feature I enjoyed the most has got to be the giant maze - it was absolutely safe, risk-free, mentally challenging and physically fun, especially if we raced with each other. Plus points for getting to punch the guy in the ape costume.

The giant slide was the main attraction of Big Bang, which I think was imitated by the others. It remained popular in spite of the high ticket price and the rumors going around that some kid's neck snapped on descent. I tried it out a few times and would have gone a few more if it wasn't so pricey.

During the down-time, we'd stroll around the shops and see if there were any interesting trinkets worth buying - glow-in-the-dark shoelaces, plastic digital watches, those cylindrical glass pendants with tiny plastic flowers and colored water in them, those heart-shaped balloons with teddy bears inside. When we got hungry, we'd stop by a Burger Machine. I personally preferred Smokey's because it had those wrap-around dogs.

At the end of the night, we'd have a hard time locating the car that we came in because it'd be covered with dust - well, that's what you got when the parking space happened to be an unpaved lot with several hundred cars that went to and fro. We'd noisily chatter about how this guy fell on his butt as the giant ape chased him, how mirrors must have been used for that shifting ghost effect in the horror house, how surprised we were that Richard Gomez and Joey Marquez were so tall pala, how cute that stranger at the ticket line was.

The lot where Payanig used to be held every year is now an MC Home Depot. Where Big Bang used to visit now stands the elaborate Town Center complex. Star City has become a year-round feature of Pasay City and has since faced lawsuit after lawsuit for from disgruntled customers for faulty machinery, including one that allegedly resulted in the death of a child.

I didn't even notice when these December amusement fairs stopped coming by, and I didn't even notice what we did in place of going to those places during the holidays. I didn't even notice that ATC was in the Big Bang lot (until someone pointed it out to me just recently). It must have been the time when Enchanted Kingdom opened in Sta. Rosa and distracted the amusement-fair patrons. Ah, well.

may nakakaalala pa ba sa mga lumang variety show?

Kung ngayong first decade ng ng 2000's ay usong-uso at gasgas na gasgas ang mga reality show, noong 1980's naman, usong-uso at gasgas na gasgas ang mga variety show.

Kapag accomplished ka at sikat na sikat na artista, either gagatasan ka pa ng mga handlers mo or lalong pagkakakitaan mo pa ang kasikatan mo - kaya magba-branch out ka. Pwede kang mag-producer, mag-recording o mag-direct. Kung sawa ka na sa showbiz, tumakbo ka na lang ng mayor sa probinsiya mo.

Noong 1980s, kasama sa option ng pag-branch-out ng kilalang artista ang pagho-host ng variety show.

Nakakatawa nga eh. Kasi noon, ang mga nagkakaroon ng variety show ay ang mga sikat at marami pang fans (kaya lalong pinagkakakitaan pa sila ng kanilang mga manager). Ngayon, - maliban na lang sa iilan tulad nina Joey, Vic at Tito - karamihan sa mga nagho-host ay mga batang artista na wala namang talent hindi pa kilalala at gustong sumikat, o di kaya ang mga dating-batang artista na ngayo'y palaos na.

Kung pag-uusapan ang mga variety show ng '80s, kailangan talagang banggitin ang Eat Bulaga. Nasa channel 9 pa sila noon, tapos lumipat sa 2, bago nanahan sa 7 kung saan naroon pa rin sila ngayon. Kuhang-kuha nila ang panlasa ng masang pinoy, kaya naman may Eat Bulaga pa rin ngayon na ginagaya pero hindi talaga mapantayan. Noong una, Tito, Vic and Joey pa lang 'yon, plus Connie Reyes. Nandoon din minsan sina Chiqui Hollman at Ritchie d'Horsie. Sumali si Aiza pagkatapos niyang mag-runner-up sa Little Miss Philippines. Hindi pa uso ang pa-sexbomb-sexbomb noon.

Meron ding Student Canteen sa channel 7. Hindi ko na masyadong maalala 'yon, pero parang mas pa-sosyal nang konti kesa sa Eat Bulaga kasi nag-iingles yung mga host minsan. May pagka-game show din yata 'yon.

Ang pumalit, Lunch Date - medyo pa-sosyal din, pero baduy pa rin ang kinalabasan. Ang masaya sa Lunch Date noon ang Sing-Along-Dugtong, na ginagawa nang larong libangan ng mga tao. Ang mga host noon sina Randy Santiago, Tonirose Gayda, Tina Revilla, Louie Heredia. Madalas na ekstra ang komidyanteng si Jon Santos, at dito unang nakilala si Mahal.

May mas-baduy pa nga pala na noontime show sina Richard Gomez at Joey Marquez, ang Kalatog Pinggan. At dahil nauso ang may pinagtratrabahong bata tulad ni Aiza (o matandang mukhang bata tulad ni Mahal), meron din silang nakakainis na child talent, Che-Che yata ang pangalan.

Pagdating ng linggo, nandiyan ang pamatay na GMA Supershow at ang Germs Specialna hino-host ng walang iba kundi si Kuya Germs. Kuya Germs na nakasuot ng kumikislap na Amerikanong de-kolor, kasama ang kanyang mga ghels at ang Bellestar Dancers na may mataray na production number.

Big time si Kuya Germs - binibigay sa kaniya ang weekend noontime pati na ang prime time, kasi alam ng mga producer na maraming manonod. Hindi siya nilalagay sa hatinggabi (tulad ngayon). Noon, sa weekend prime time actually nilalagay ang mga magagandang palabas, kasi given na na nasa bahay ang mga tao sa mga oras na 'yon. Although meron nang mga pa-gimmick-gimmick pag Sabado at Linggo, hindi pa 'yon ganun ka-uso. At hindi nagka-club-club ang mga bata noon.

Meron pang Superstar si Kuya Germs - sa gabi 'yon, kasama ni Ate Guy. Tignan niyo nga naman - variety show, palabas pa sa weekend prime time.

Wala sa bahay namin makapanood ng TV kapag Sabado o Linggo ng gabi dahil kailangang manood ni Mama ng mga variety show, at naalala ko pa, palipat-lipat pa siya ng channel kasi magkakasabay ang mga show sa magkabilaang istasyon. Ang palusot niya, inaabangan daw niya ang tita naming Vicor Dancer (pero totoong merong kapatid si Papa na Vicor Dancer noon, at lumalabas talaga siya sa mga variety show).

Ang reyna ng variety show ay si Ate Vi. Nagkaroon siya ng V.I.P : Vilma In Person, at maya-maya, ang Vilma! - yun ang nakalagay sa neon sign. Nung mid-8os, nauso ang paggamit ng neon sign sa stage, habang palaos na ang styro cut-out na may glitters at palara. Wala pang mga higanteng colored LCD screens (ang LCD nakikita lang sa calculator noon).

Pinauso ni Ate Vi ang dance numbers na may pabuhat-buhat. Siya din yata ang nagpauso ng production na pabawas nang pabawas ang saplot -- balot-na-balot sa umpisa, complete with glittery blazer and sash in the hair, pero sa ending, naka-tangga na lang na puro sequins.

Uso din nga pala ang bonggang-bonggang sequins noon.

Sa katapusan ng bawat show ni Vilma, hindi niya nakakaligtaang batiin ang anak niya ng "I love you, Lucky!" Naisip ko noon, kawawa naman ang batang 'yon pag pumasok na sa eskwela, pagti-tripan siya ng mga kaklase niya, "Lucky" pa man din ang pangalan niya.

Ayan tuloy, pagtanda niya, galit na galit si Luis Manzano sa palayaw niyang "Lucky".

Bukod kay Ate Vi, si Alma Moreno din sumubok sa mga dance step na may pabuhat-buhat. Although magaling si Alma sa pagsayaw, natanggap niya rin siguro na walang makakadaig kay Ate Vi sa buhat-buhat, kaya dinaan na lang ni Alma sa pagsuot ng tangga, ine-expose ang mga hita niyang malusog. Loveli-Ness ang palabas niya, every Wednesday. "I love you Vandolph" naman ang drama nito. 14344, 5254!

At doon nga pala sa palabas na 'yon napansin ng taumbayan ang talino at galing niya sa English, kaya nagkaroon ng sangkatutak na Alma jokes.

Inaabangan ko noon sa Loveli-Ness si Francis Magalona - doon siya unang sumikat na master rapper. Hindi pa uso ang rap sa 'Pinas nun, pero pinauso ni Kiko nang nabigyan siya ng break sa pag-rap ng Top Ten segment linggo-linggo.

May naalala pa akong Tonight With Dick and Carmi, kung saan Ginasgas ni Roderick Paulate ang mga kanta ni Rick Astley. Hanggang ngayon kapag nakakarinig ako ng Rick Astley sa mga retro program, si Roderick Paulate ang naririnig ko.

Kahit nga pala puro gay roles siya sa pelikula, mhin na mhin mag-host si Rhode, kaya naman nung bata ako, akala ko na mhin talaga siya at yung "gay" ang ina-acting niya.

'Pag sabado, may Maria Maria - kay Maricel Soriano naman 'yon. Inaabangan ko noon ang dance step tutorial. Naaalala ko pa ang steps na pinauso sa Maria Maria, tulad ng Swiss Boy, Rico Mambo, La Isla Bonita (usong-uso kasi noon si Madonna) . Ang"the nerd" na sinasayaw sa tugtog ng Thai Nana. Ang Body Dancer, na sinayaw siguro ng bawat bata sa elementary 'nung 1987.

Meron din si Zsa Zsa Padilla, pero hindi ko na masyadong maalala. Zsa Zsa lang yata ang pamagat.

Meron siyempre si Ate Shawie, ang The Sharon Cuneta Show, o TSCS, kung saan nasaksihan ng madla ang unti-unting paglaki niya. Sinusubukan pa nilang itago sa mga kaweirdohang costume, pero halata pa rin naman ang taba niya.

My gulay, Ate Shawie! Those clothes that you used to wear!

Paminsan-minsan, makukunan ng camera sa audience ang cute na cute at misteryosong si "megadaughter"KC - gustong-gusto siyang masulyapan ng mga fans, dahil pruweba siya ng Sharon-Gabby loveteam na kina-kiligan nila noon.

Marami ding variety show na pang-teen ager. May Lotlot and Friends, ang palabas ng anak ng superstar na si Nora Aunor. At tila walang patawad, may isa pa si Lotlot na hindi ko maalala ang pamagat, kung saan kasama si Kuya Germs. Kung tutuusin, kung hindi lang siya anak ni superstar, wala naman talagang karapatan si Lotlot maging artista noon (pero medyo magaling na siyag umarte ngayon, in fairness), at lalong lalo na ang mga friends na kasama niyang mag-host.

May Teen Pan Alley sina Janno, Regine at Bing Loyzaga. Sumikat si Regine nang manalo siya sa Tanghalan ng Kampeon. Cute na si Regine noon, although iba pa ang ilong niya (kung gusto mong makita ang dating ilong ni Regine Velasquez, i-search sa You Tube ang Beautiful Girl ni Jose Mari Chan). Natigil yata ang show after nabuntis ni Janno si Bing. Nakakagulat 'yon, kasi ang alam ng madla, si Janno at si Manilyn. Oh wellz.

At huwag kalilimutan ang waging-waging That's Entertainment ni Kuya Germs - Monday to Saturday - kung saan sumikat ang maraming artista at recording artist. Magaling ang Thursday group, palaging nananalo. 'Dun natin nakita si Sheryl Cruz na may pa-cute na pa-kaway-kaway, at si Casselyn Francisco na trying-hard kumanta kaya nakakapagtaka kung paano nakapasok yon sa Miss Saigon.

Naalala ko pa may mga variety show din na pambata, isa na doon ang hinost nina Aiza Seguerra, RR Herrera et al. Wala talagang patawad, 'no?

Pagdating ng gabing-gabi, wala pa ring tigil 'yang mga variety show na 'yan. Meron pang Penthouse Live nina Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez. Napalitan 'yon ng M.A.D. o Martin After Dark. Tinapatan naman ni Edu Manzano sa Not So Late Night With Edu. Meron pang Oh No, I'ts Johnny ni Johnny Litton. Parang gumaya lang naman sa format ng The Tonight Show.

Opening song and dance (o music video) + pagbati ng host + special guest numbers + mga kung-anu-anong game na mag-aadvertise sa produkto ng mga sponsor + pa-contest + joke time + pagbati sa katapusan. Ginagamit pa rin ang formulang 'yan ng mga natitirang noontime show ngayon. Kung ano man yon, salamat naman at hindi na ganun karami ang mga variety show.

At least mas madaling sikmurahin ang mga kalokohang reality show kesa sa mga production number na pamatay sa sequins.

back when it wasn't so easy to be a music fan

photo from this blog

Seeing kids these days with their tiny, candy-colored MP3 players, I can't help but appreciate how much easier it is to be a music fan today. Things used to be a lot more complicated, and er, primitive when I was young.

The main source of music back then was mainstream radio. If you felt like being cooler, you plugged into the alternative stations so you knew tunes that not many people have heard yet.

If you carried around a huge boom box, that was an inconvenience but still considered pretty cool.

The Sony Walkman was a more clever invention.

Back then, you didn't have Frostwire or iTunes. You didn't have the convenience of buying music online or downloading shareware. You listened to the radio and waited for your favorite songs to come up, and when that happened, you cranked up the volume to enjoy it. You had to suffer the random selection of the disk jockey though - an odd hodge-podge of NKOTB, Garth Brooks, Bon Jovi, Megadeth, Paula Abdul and Boyz II Men in one hour.

The only way you could affect the line-up on radio was to phone, page or fax the station. The convenience of SMS sending was yet unheard of.

Dial ... busy.
Redial ... still busy.
Redial ...

As you considered the volume of listeners trying to get their requests in, you kept your fingers crossed. If you succeeded in contacting the station, depending on the timing, you might have to join one of their dorky contests. You greeted your friends while you were at it, of course. Afterward, you would put down the phone and wait for your song - only for the DJ to turn over to the next shift. A new DJ would come in and he wouldn'tt even know about your request, so you had to go through the trouble of phoning in again.

You shelled out a hundred bucks or so (which would be around two to four days' worth of allowance for the average, middle-classs kid of the late '80s / early '90s) to buy a cassette tape which probably had only one or two tracks that you liked.

And yeah, I just remembered - they weren't called "tracks" ... I don't even know what they were called.

You couldn't press next track when you got bored with something unbearable; you couldn't shuffle for variety.

If you kinda didn't have that much money to spend on your musical interests (or were just plain cheap), you played your radio, kept a blank tape in the player, and when the DJ cued your song of choice, you pressed rec.

You borrowed a tape from a friend and did some homemade bootlegging with the help of a double-cassette. If you weren't so lucky to have one, you used two separate players - one played your tape of choice, the other recorded on a blank, and you hoped that the other people in your house would keep it down for the next 3:22 minutes.

If you wanted to share tunes with a friend, you couldn't yet transfer data via USB or Bluetooth. You couldn't rip from a CD, much less burn one. CD writers were available only to music and software manufacturers, and not yet to the average joe. Instead, using one ore more of the previously mentioned primitive processes, you a made a compilation called a mix tape.

CDs were kinda pricey then, and you bought only albums that you would consider "special", i.e., worth blowing several hundred bucks for, like Michael Jackson's Dangerous or Miss Saigon. If you had a large collection, you were probably conio.

Since CDs caused considerable damage to your savings, you handled them delicately. You didn't leave your disks lying around naked. Whenever one of your friends made the mistake of making the tiniest smudge on the underside, you threw a fit and immediately polished the disk off. If you were really fussy, you bought this near-useless plastic tong-like implement designed especially for handling CDs.

There was no You Tube. If you wanted to watch a particular music video, you turned your television to something like Video Hit Parade or Video Hot Traxx while you did your homework. You waited until something good came on. Those one-hour shows were usually frustrating in the way they only played - rather, overplayed - Janet, Whitney, Michael Bolton, and that annoying boy band with the monkey. You realize you waited for an hour for nothing.

Not many homes had cable. If you were one of the lucky ones, you tuned in to MTV and again, waited. If you didn't have cable, you hung out at your rich classmate's house just for that purpose.

On the hours that MTV was made partially available on channel 23, you turned it on for some background noise, keeping it on for chunks of hours, hoping something you liked would finally play. That's why everyone, regardless of their musical preference, would have been familiar with George Michael's Too Funky, Madonna's Like A Prayer, the bee girl in Blind Melon's No Rain. Even Rico Suave and Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth.

You couldn't Google for lyrics or tabs. If you needed lyrics but none came on the album sleeve, you acquired them the usual way - play, pause, write, play. The words would sometimes be unintelligible so you often had to make something up, and you hoped that no one noticed when you sang To Be With You at the orientation party.

You bought your tabs from music stores like RJ or Perfect Pitch - that is, whenever you were fortunate enough that they had something in there more recent than Bob Dylan or Don McLean. You went to Filbars and bought yourself a copy of BOP! or Tiger Beat and hope the line-up actually had the ones you wanted, and not just a Whitney Houston collection.

... Or you challenged your own skill and figured the notes out one by one.

There yet weren't many fan sites or official websites of your favorite artists. If you wanted news or gossip about your idols, you got snippets on MTV. You consulted the magazines and trusted that the stuff were up-to-date. If you wanted pictures, you gambled for the glossy spreads in those magazines, hoping after you purchase one and remove the plastic wrapper that the 'zine it isn't all just Vanilla Ice photos.

If you had some talent and wanted to pimp yourself, there were no UUC websites for that purpose - besides, you didn't have the convenience of recording yourself through digital means. You bought a blank tape, put it in the Karaoke and pressed rec while you sang into the mic. Or you got your band-mates together, set up your instruments in your bedroom and played in front of a recording cassette player until your parents complained of your racket. You sent a copy of your demo to your auntie who knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a talent scout. Or you just sent one to a show like NU 107's In The Raw and hope you got noticed.

These days, almost everything you need to be a music fan is available via the www. A shot at stardom, even. Download here, listen there, tweak here, upload everywhere - it's so easy to be "musically inclined" without having to spend much.

back when we watched cartoons on weekday afternoons

Back when we didn't have Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel, the local stations aired animated programs every single afternoon, even on weekdays. After coming home from school and before sitting down to do homework, we could wind down in front of the Tube for some cartoons.

My favorite one was The Puppy, on every Wednesday. It was about a little brown puppy named Petey who was estranged from his master, Tommy. In each episode, Petey and his friends Dash, Duke and Lucky and a cute girl-dog have a bit of adventure at some part of the world in search of Tommy. They get reunited eventually of course.

Gummi Bears weren't just candy. They were these annoying cartoon bears who bounced here, there and everywhere.

I hated Donald Duck's nephews in Ducktales.

The Wuzzles were these cute, candy-colored creatures who were two animals in one.

There was Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, with the classic cast of characters seen also in other animated series: cute boy hero + wise mage type + strong warrior type + girl + gifted kid + runt, with the inspiring father figure in background support. The bad guys were these ugly, evil plant mobiles who always got beat at the end of every episode and reincarnated good as new in the next. This had a sci-fi setting and a glam-rock-like theme song (complete with falsetto).

Inhumanoids was another sci-fi type. The art wasn't that impressive, but it was sufficiently entertaining. Taught me a lot of vocabulary words too.

Visonaries was this cool mishmash of sci-fantasy and medieval. Troops of the two rival factions wore suits of cyber-armor with their holographic avatars on their chests. It was one of those earlier animations that were awkwardly dubbed in Filipino, producing disastrous (and hilarious) results.

I hardly remember anything from Centurions and Silver Hawks, but i remember enjoying them.

Another fave was Street Frogs, featuring hip-hopping amphibians. It alternated with Karate Kat, Mini Monsters and Tiger Sharks.

My Fave '90s Movies

(Reposted from my other blog)

Thursday thirteen: '90s movies

I love the 90's - that was my teenager decade. I loved watching movies back then, I watched at least one every single week. Of course cinema rates back then were much more pocket-friendly.

And here's my 13:

1. Forrest Gump (1994). I thought it was both touching and brilliant in a not-too-deep sort of way.
2. How To Make An American Quilt (1995). I loved the visual and verbal poetry.
3. Before Sunrise (1995). Rare. Ethan Hawte!
   
4. Schindler's List (1993). I think Schindler's List is on everybody's.
5. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).
6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994). I cut class when i watched this. Wasn't disappointed.
7. A Few Good Men (1992). Linear but powerful.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Love the premise, the conflict and the Burtonesque eye-candy.
9. James and the Giant Peach (1996). Tim Burton + Roald Dahl = Happy kid movie.
10. Reality Bites (1994). Has a memorable hit song too.
11. Romeo + Juliet (1996). It got me hooked the first scene the moment I realized they used the original Shakespeare text set in 90's USA. Stunning visuals besides.
12. Saving Private Ryan (1998). I'm a sucker for WW2 flicks.
13. Good Will Hunting (1997). Watched it at least twice. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Oscar acceptance speech was just as remarkable.
    
    

I realize that there are a ton of 90's movies that I like. Here are otheres that don't quite make it to my top 13 but are otherwise memorable: The Matrix (199), The Devil's Advocate (97), American Beauty (99), Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (99), 54 (98), Edward Scissorhands (90), Clueless (95), Gattaca (97), Titanic (97), Se7en(95) , Braveheart (95), Beauty and the Beast (91), Jurassic Park (93), Pulp Fiction (94), The Fugitive (93), The Lion King (94), Speed (94), Independence Day (96), There's Somethig About Mary (98) , Boogie Nights (97), Pretty Woman (90), With Honors (94), Sleepers, LA Confidetial, Fight Club, Scent of A Woman (92), Alladin(92), The Man In The Iron Mask (97), Ever After (98), Titanic (97), My Best Friend's Wedding(96), Great Expectations (98).

Fave 80's Movies

(Reposted from my other blog)

I wasn't quite old enough to watch movies on my own in the 80's (though I do recall tickets weren't that unaffordable for a student), but I still got to watch a tonload of movies at home. Back then, cable TV wasn't quite as common as it is today; only rich people and hotels had them. DVDs were unheard of; compact disks weren't yet that popular, and they weren't yet nicknamed "CDs". Those disks were darned expensive, so you handled them with paranoid care, even if they only played music you couldn't rip.

Additional entertainment was provided by a then-useful gadget called the Betamax, a.k.a. the VCR. Kids could just walk over to the nearest video rental place (every other corner had one), rent a few beta for 10 to 15 bucks each and watch and re-watch to their heart's content. That's where the other handy-dandy gadget came in: the rewinder.

This here is a list of my fave 80's movies - most of which I watched via Betamax. Most of them I liked as a child, some I still love. Others made it to my list not necessarily because i enjoyed them, but because they were big chunks of the 80's ladscape from my perspective.


My fave 80's sci-fi / fantasy flicks

• Labyrinth (1986) - This was groundbreaking in its time, me thinks. And David Bowie was just so cool (O Goblin King, Goblin King, I don't have a kid brother but if you're that cute I hope you visit my room next).
  
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and
  
• Return of the Jedi (1983) - Love to the point of committing it to memory. As expected from a geek like me. And who wouldn't remember that scene -
  

" I am your father! -- "

• Back To The Future (1985) - I've seen it soooo many times, there was I point I could recite it from memory.
• Willow (1988) - Magic and stuff. I never knew that was Val Kilmer until lately.
• Legend - fantasy with a love story on the side, starring a young, awkward Tom Cruise.
• Flight of the Navigator (1986) - Another amazing Disney that fed my fantasy-hunger. The most unforgettable bits were the protagonist's first flying lessons, the ending, and the silver, liquid-metal ship.
  
• The Last Starfighter (1984) - It wasn't that great a movie, but I enjoyed it, watched it over and over until I memorized it.
• Neverending Story - What 80's kid wouldn't have this in his list of faves?
• E. T. - I thought (still do) that the alien was incredibly gross, but I enjoyed the story.
  
• Ghostbusters - Monumental, me thinks. The movie spurred on a cartoon, a sequel, tons of toys and various merchadise that were all part of the 80's experience. My fave would be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
• Return to Oz (1985)
• Short Circuit (1986)
  
• Tron - I think this was the first film to use CGI, so that makes it a landmark of sorts in film history. The characters were a bit two-dimensional - well, because, they really were. It's one of those iconic movies that can't be remade - because it would just seem absolutely low-tech and stupid; updating the story would require a 99% overhaul and that won't be a remake anymore.
  
• The Princess Bride (1987) - A lighthearted classic.
  

" My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. "

My fave 80's drama flicks

• Empire of the Sun (1987)- Intense. The young Christian Bale was remarkable. It helps that he was cute, too.
  
• The Last Emperor (1987) - Though found it immense, I wanted to know more about Henry Pu Yi and China. I felt sorry for Pu Yi though he was a jerky kid who grew up into a careless statesman. Watching it helped me with my Asian history in later years. To this day I can still recite the dynasties of China in order.
  
• Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Unforgettable and powerful. My parents should not have let me see this with them.
• St. Elmo's Fire
• Dead Poets' Society (1988) - Profound story, wonderful script, delightful cast.
  

" I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world. "

" Oh Captain, My Captain. "

• Excalibur - I think this would be the best King Arthur movie I've seen ever. Or do I feel that only because i was young (too young, actually; it was R-rated) when i saw it? I think my knowledge of the Arthur legend is based on what I saw in Excalibur ).
  
• Dirty Dancing - Cute. I heard Jennifer Grey later had a nose job that made her so much cuter, but no one wanted to cast her anymore because her new look just didn't have that edge.
  
• Gandhi - Heaaaavy.
  
• Stand By Me (1986) - Indelible, like its theme song.
  

My fave teen cheese flicks from the 80's
Some of them were actually silly, but they were light enough for my young mind to appreciate and remember:

• Sixteen Candles (1984) - From the late great John Hughes, this flick featured the teen movie archetypes. I still think it's a laugh trip, and I still love the soundtrack.
  
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - I LOVE this. The ultimate feelgood movie.

I still want this shirt

• Pretty In Pink - This was actually a painfully sucky movie - Molly Ringwald must roll her eyes at this now - but I still put it on my list of likes because it's iconic. And besides, I love the soundtrack.
• The Breakfast Club
• 3'o Clock High
• Satisfaction - It's corny, I know, but I liked it. It made me want to be in an all-girl rock band too.
• Can't Buy Me Love - Back in the day when Patrick Dempsey was cast as one of the "loser" kids
  
• Some Kind of Wonderful - Cheesy romantic but memorable.
  
• Footloose - Kevin Bacon in a teen movie.
  

Not-exactly-drama-but-not-exactly-comedy

• Karate Kid - So many themes to this story.

" Wax on, wax off... "

• Only You - Still one of my fave romance flicks to date. I fell in love with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey and Rome in this flick.
• Chances Are - Really sweet.
  
• When Harry Met Sally - Though it took me a few years to get what that diner scene was about. The more recent "A Lot Like Love" (Ashton Kutcher, Claire Forlani) is SOOO similar.
  
• Mannequin - I actually thought it was cool back then, the song too. These days I'd be ashamed to admit it publicly.
  
• The Secret of My Succe$s - I was a Michael J. Fox fan; did't care if the movie reeked. I thought it was a brilliant thing to do to make for yourself a non-superhero alter-ego.
  
• Oh God, You Devil - Had a valuable lesson.
  

My fave animated / children's movies from the 80's

• Annie - As far as i recall, this was the first movie I watched in the cinema
  
• The Explorers - with a very young but already cute Ethan Hawke
• The Little Mermaid (1989) - The first Disney fairy tale in a long while was certainly impressive, given its fresh, more modern flavor
  
• Transformers: The Movie - no, not the Megan Fox one; the cartoon.
  

" Baa weep gran na weep nin ni bong! "

• Starchaser: the Legend of Orin - The one with the bladeless sword.
  
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - It fascinated me when it came out but it got old quickly.
  
• Rainbow Brite - A girl cartoon, of course. I watched it before almost everyone else did and that was a big thing to me. My best friend and I had a make-believe game pattered around Rainbowland.
  
• Rock & Rule - I think it had a bit of adult things in it, but I recall enjoying it
  
• Macross: the Movie

" Stage fright, go away ... this is my big day... "

• Troop Beverly Hills (1989) - Ever wonder how Tori Spelling looked before the nose job? But besides that, it was entertaining for pre-teen girls. This movie was special to me because I shared it with my best friend.

• The Secret of NIMH - This was profound for a cartoon, me thought. Of course years later I started thinking it's just a cartoon.
• Scrappy - First movie that made me cry. It was a really sad cartoon movie about a lost dog. It had a happy edong of course.
  

My fave 80's Action / Adventure flicks

• Goonies
• Big Trouble in Little China - When I was a kid, i thought this was thrilling, fast-paced and complex. I caught it on cable lately and suddenly it seems a lot simpler than I thought it was - but still good. For an 80's flick i mean.
  
• Batman - Tim Burton trumps Joel Schumacher.
  
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen - I wouldn't mind watching this now and letting my kids see it (except for the part with Uma's exposed breast prolly).
  
• Terminator - Another iconic flick.
  
• Inner Space - I found it fasciating, the thought of a miniaturized pilot being able to explore the human body from the inside. I thought I wanted to do it too.
  
• Robocop - It was disturbing for me as a kid, but I liked it.
  
• Crocodile Dundee - There was something cool about it, but I can't seem to recall... the knife, perhaps?
  
• Jake speed (1986) - Cornball flick, but it grew on me since it was one of those TV movies that were played over and over as fillers in the afternoons.
  
• Indiana Jones - I grew up thinking i never saw a single 'Indiana Jones'. A year ago just before "Crystal skull' came out, I borrowed some DVDs of the first three 'Indies'. It turns out I already watched all of them as a kid, I just forgot. There were a lot of "treasure hunt" movies in the mid-80's and they all managed to merge into one in my head.
  
• Die Hard - Bruce Willis rocked. This is the only 'Die Hard' that I like because he actually looked credible as an action star.
  
  

To this day, i have never seen Top Gun.


Spookies i didn't necessarily enjoy but were nonetheless unforgettable parts of my childhood

• The Fly - Okay, not too spooky, but gross.
• The Abyss - Back then, the CGI in this one was considered flawless.
• Nightmare On Elm Street - I never wanted to watch this, but my mom shared an office with a video rental place and it was showing one afternoon.
  

" One, two, he's coming for you,
Three, four, better lock your door
Five, six, get a crucifix,
Seven, eight, better stay up late... "

• Poltergeist - First watched it with some playmates. Darnit. Gave me paranoia for days. I watched it again recently and despite my adulthood and the movie's old-school visual effects, it still spooked me.
  
• The Shining
• Gremlins
• Jaws - This is another thing parents shouldn't let their kids watch.
  
• Beetlejuice - I loved this.