Your Daily '80s: Video kills the radio star

Nah . . . just kidding.

Radio, as we all know, committed suicide. And you'll have to go to some lengths to find a music video on MTV today.

At any rate, we present a flashback to the launch of MTV on Aug. 1, 1981. OK, everybody knows the first video played on MTV was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." But what was the second?

Stay tuned and find out.

Your Daily '80s: The Gerry Todd Show

Welcome back to Your Daily '80 . . . with an "s" this time, because why not mine the whole darned decade for tasty nuggets, right?

This time on Your Daily '80s, we check in with what was going on in the world of TV comedy. One big thing that was going on was SCTV, and the debut of "The Gerry Todd Show" skit.

SCTV's May 1981 unveiling of the all-night TV "VJ," sitting at the switcher and racking up all the most popular music videos was significant in a couple of prophetic ways.

One, it preceded the debut of MTV in August 1981 by several months. Yeah, we all saw it coming. By 1981, music videos were nothing new -- a 24-hour channel to air them was.

Two, and this was more prescient -- albeit in a really, really warped way -- the "Tom Monroe" videos on "The Gerry Todd Show" were eerie prefigurements of Paul Anka covering Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

There is none so blind. . . .

This "Holy smokestacks, Batman!" moment is brought to you by the Baton Rouge Business Report:

When the idea of taking the next Canvas trip to Pittsburgh was first suggested to Baton Rouge Area Chamber CEO Adam Knapp, his reaction was to wonder what a “dirty, northern steel town” might have in common with Baton Rouge. But Pittsburgh might have more to teach canvassers than one might think.

Let's go to the videotape

Welcome to May 22, 1958. WRC television in the nation's capital is having a big soirée, and they've invited President Eisenhower.

All the bigwigs are there, including the Sarnoff dynasty -- father and son -- which wields the controls at the Radio Corporation of America, parent of the National Broadcasting Co., which owns WRC in D.C., which is dedicating its brand-new, ultramodern radio and TV facilities.

It's all about color today, and I'm not talking the integration battles up on Capitol Hill. I'm talking color television. And during this particular shindig, the president will be appearing in living color for the first time from our nation's capital.

And it all will be preserved for posterity on something called "television tape." That is -- How do the kids say? -- cool.

NOW IF WE press this button on the television-tape recorder, we can fast forward . . .

. . . all the way to 2010, 52 years in the future. Robert W. Sarnoff, president of NBC in 1958, is long dead. His father, RCA founder and chief David Sarnoff, is longer dead.

For that matter, RCA is dead, too. It didn't survive the 1980s, at least not as a corporate entity. A foreign company bought the name to put on cheap electronics made in China.

Ike is dead, commentator David Brinkley is dead, analog television is dead, broadcasting is dying . . . and TV engineers had to round up a tandem of antique videotape recorders and new technology in 1988 to preserve this, the oldest surviving color videotape, for you to watch here now.

For you to make it -- this lost world -- live again.

On Iowegians: We pity the fools

The things you learn from joining the Big Ten Conference, as Nebraska has just done.

For example, did you know that the state of Iowa is even lamer than you originally thought? I mean, my God, they think this is funny.

Really? Is this the best you got, Iowa? Is this the best the comedic mind of Des Moines media can manage? Well, no, but he left for a bigger job at an AM daytimer in Pixley, so this is all WHO-TV can muster -- total mindlessness.

LISTEN, you Idiots Out Wandering Around, our governor in Nebraska is Dave Heineman. C'mon, the man is the Pillsbury Doughboy . . . on barbiturates.

And you pass up that comedic gold mine in favor of dressing up a Missouri fan in his Sunday best and painting a Nebraska logo on his best hat?

That's all you effing got?

Too bad. You will have invited an overwhelming retaliatory strike by Omaha World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly -- a pique-fueled bombardment of stats, rankings and civic-minded anecdotes proving how up-to-date everything is in Omaha and greater Nebraska -- and you will have invited it for something as totally piss poor as that WHO-TV video.

Iowegians. They never learn.

We were journalists once, and young

There are many ways to tell our stories . . . and the stories of others like us.

For me, this is a new way of doing what I've been doing for most of my life. In other words, video is not my native language.

"Tough," says the new-media universe. Learn some new languages.

OK, I think I will. And, in a roundabout manner, that's one of the points of this video -- the awful costs of a tragic failure of imagination . . . and adaptation.

Stay South, young man!

Omaha, Nebraska -- a snowy hell.

Its citizens hang on to the tattered threads of their sanity as the wintry apocalypse proceeds apace. It's ice cold out. Worse than ice-cold out. It's worse than Greenland out. As cold as the South Pole out.

And it's snowing. It hasn't stopped snowing for a month now. Nearly 3 feet of the white plague is on the ground.

We're all going to die. But no one will find us until spring -- if it comes this year -- because we will have been drifted over. Goodbye, cruel world.

TAKE HEED, Californians! Listen up, Texans! If you are looking to escape the Sun Belt hell of your own making, this is not the place. We have hell of our own -- snowy hell.

If you come, you will freeze and die.

Take this friendly advice, you Southerners in search of Heartland charm and Midwestern wholesomeness. American Gothic froze over after Grant Wood died of frostbite. In other words, "Stay South, young man!"

Horace Greeley said that before he died of frostbite, too. And then his desiccated carcass was blown away by a tornado when June came around.

REALLY, you people don't want to come here. This land is only fit for hardy Nebraskans; we're used to this stuff.

The preceding message has come to you courtesy of the Keep Nebraska for Nebraskans Committee -- M. Favog, treasurer.

Is all right . . . is all right. . . .

You didn't think I'd allude to "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" in the previous post and not throw the original John Lennon promotional video up here, do you?

Nuh uh. That would be wrong.

Yo, Kanye! Your time is up

I think we've had enough from Kanye West, don't you?

Now off with him, then.

Oh, and I'd like to associate myself with these remarks from Pink, who tried to kick Kanye's ass, but was stopped by security:

"'Kanye West is the biggest piece of s*** on earth. Quote me.'"

Oh, and because this is a low-rent, no-class fool we're discussing, note that the first two videos are filled with off-color language. Why couldn't they just let Pink at him, eh?

Because somebody had to

Somehow, I think Leonard Bernstein would approve.


HAT TIP: Red Stick Rant.

Waits, Waits, it's Friday!

Tom Waits. The BBC. 1979. You bet.

Happy Friday, y'all. Solid.

Stumbling upon forgotten memories

If you look long enough on YouTube, you will find something you remember from decades ago . . . even if you've forgotten you remembered it.

For me, it's the syndicated music show Rollin' on the River, which ran from 1971 to 1973. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition were the hosts, and anybody who was anybody in country or rock 'n' roll showed up there. Never missed it.

On the other hand, I haven't thought of that show in I don't know how long.

I wasn't even looking for Rollin' on the River, actually. I was looking for Badfinger. I just felt like posting me some Badfinger.

So, here's Badfinger. As the band appeared on . . . Rollin' on the River.

Here we go loop-de-loop

Long ago and far away, I learned about all the cool tunes on the radio.

That rarely happens anymore. And if it does, it's because I'm listening to a station on the Internet . . . one Not From Around Here. More than likely these days, I hear about exciting artists on blogs, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace.

AND SOME ARTISTS I have heard of but never actually heard until stumbling upon a YouTube posted on a blog. New Orleans artist Theresa Andersson, a fortuitous arrival from Sweden 18 years ago, falls into that category.

My bad . . . and my loss. Until now.

Bought the album on iTunes. Bought two albums on iTunes, actually.

Enjoy the video -- the amazing video when you realize what she's up to . . . you just watch carefully -- which she recorded in her Crescent City kitchen. In fact, that's exactly where Andersson recorded her entire 2008 album, "Hummingbird, Go!"

HAT TIP: Alive and Young.

This ought to hold you till the Big Show

It's 1966, and The Left Banke manages to sound just like it does in the studio . . . while in the middle of a golf course.

And look! It's Renée! SHE'S WALKING AWAY!

OK, so the staging is just a tad cheesy. And The Left Banke is lip synching to its hit record. But you've got to admit "Walk Away Renée" is one great song.

Choo Choo cha-boogie

When I was but a lad in college -- long ago and far away, let me assure you -- really fun bands like Choo Choo seemingly grew on trees.

They were everywhere, and it was good.

NOW, APPARENTLY, you have to go to Bern, Switzerland, to have the kind of thing we took for granted in 1981. Either that says something bad about the United States today, or something good about Switzerland.

Probably both.

Focus on the Family: Water on the brain

A commentator working for the political arm of Focus on the Family thinks it would be cool for prayer-believin', right-thinkin', right-wingin' Christians to pray for some torrential, "network cameras can't see the podium rain" during Barack Obama's open-air acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention.

Yea, verily the Almighty will unto us giveth a sign, and it shall be wet.

ACTUALLY, with Stuart Shepard's video, the Almighty already hath given unto us a mighty sign: Focus on the Family has gone nuts. Loony. Goofy. 'Round the bend. Here are some details from the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Focus on the Family Action pulled a video from its Web site Monday that asked people to pray for "rain of biblical proportions" during Barack Obama's Aug. 28 appearance at Invesco Field in Denver to accept the Democratic nomination for president.

Stuart Shepard, director of digital media at Focus Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family, said the video he wrote and starred in was meant to be "mildly humorous."

But complaints from about a dozen Focus members convinced the organization to pull the video, said Tom Minnery, Focus Action vice president of public policy.

"If people took it seriously, we regret it," Minnery said Monday.

"Pray for Rain" was posted July 30 and blazed its way through the Internet, scoring 20,000 page views, Shepard said.

It was one of Shepard's weekly video commentaries that appear on www.citizenlink.org, Focus Action's Web site. The general timbre of Shepard's videos is tongue-in-cheek as he examines political issues from the conservative Christian viewpoint of Focus Action.

Most of "Pray for Rain," which lasted less than three minutes, showed a lighthearted Shepard at Invesco Field asking viewers to pray for "torrential" rain during Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

"I'm talking ‘umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain,'" he said on the video.

The video's point, Shepard said, is that in his view Obama has not clearly stated his stances on abortion and gay marriage, important themes within the Christian right.

"I'm still pro life, and I'm still in favor of marriage as being between one man and one woman," Shepard said in the video. "And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."

As for his praying for a deluge: "It's called hyperbole," Shepard said Monday. "It is meant to be humorous."

Minnery said the video was taken down because several Focus members complained that prayer shouldn't be used to bring harm on someone else.

"We are not about confusing people about prayer," Minnery said.

WELL, I GUESS confusing people about prayer would be worse than the usual menu of confusing people about the Republicans' actual commitment to fostering "Culture of Life" social aims.

Still, it's troubling that anyone at the organization -- or its political action group -- would approve such an audaciously stupid video. It also points out just how tone-deaf the evangelical politico-cultural machine has become . . . and how mindless.

Really, if the ancient Israelites had been this gobstopperingly stupid back in Old Testament times, Yahweh might have been forced to move up the Babylonian captivity by decades. Which brings up a funny thing about the Almighty and His often self-righteous posse -- a lot of the time, the Wrath o' God comes down a lot closer to home than "His people" were expecting.

Before I go, here's something I found on YouTube that struck me as just totally capturing that hysterical, "James Dobson jumps the shark" vibe Focus on the Family has been giving off for a few years now.

Enjoy.

Keeping hope alive

Some people prefer to look for hope in unlikely places. Like here:



I prefer to look for hope where I'm more likely to find it. And where I'm much less likely to be disillusioned.

Like here:



Find more videos like this on The BPP Diner

And here:



Find more videos like this on The BPP Diner


HAT TIP: The BPP Diner.


UPDATE:


Find more videos like this on The BPP Diner

We offer greetings to our new robot overlords

Be nice to the machines.

Or else.

'Jesus Is for Losers' and other wise words

Christian music really needed Steve Taylor to save it from not only a piety overload, but also from a thought shortfall.

Unfortunately for Taylor, evangelicals' piety oftentimes overloaded their thought process. (Note: Jesus IS for losers.) And the biting satire of "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good" was lost on every side of the abortion debate.

It sucks being a genius. But it's great that, years later, we can watch all that genius on YouTube.

While I'm stealing from Mark Shea. . . .

This, I dare say, is the most brilliant and hilarious thing produced this presidential campaign.

The fact that it's absolutely, positively, literally and metaphorically true makes it even more perfect. God, I love the Internet. And computer audio and video editing.

Alexander Payne: prophet.