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June 05, 2008

80s Costume Party Ideas

ot sure what to wear to an 80s costume party?        This is your guide to what to wear to an 80s party.  The key to achieving the 80s look,       regardless of the specific costume you choose, is excess. It was after all       the decade of excess – the me decade, the greed decade. So don’t skimp or       be weighed down or held back by your 90s and 00s sensibilities – go for       it. Add the extra layer of blush or blue eyeliner, go for another spray       with the Aqua Net, and pile on another couple of bracelets. Moderation is       for other decades – there are no points for class, subtly or       understatement. The 80s look is about color, volume, and abundance.       Whether you choose the Like a Virgin, the Preppie, or the Let’s Get       Physical, do it with flourish and abandonment. Choose from the 80s costume       party ideas below or use them as inspiration and develop your own.

Please let us know how it goes!       Tell about your 80s costumes and by all       means, send us your pictures.  Click on the costume ideas below       to get decked out to the max or look at the examples sent in by our site       readers.

                           
         

For Women:

         

Let’s Get Physical
          Like a Virgin/ Madonna
          The Preppy
          Punk Rock Girl
          Flashdance
          Punky Brewster
      Mall Rat
          Blondie/ Debbie Harry
          Hey       Mickey/ Toni Basil
          Pretty in Pink
Prom Queen 1983
      

Click for great 80s Costume Pictures:

Page           1,           2

         

For Men:

         

Robert Smith of The Cure
          Karate Kid
          Michael Jackson
      Boy George/Marilyn
          Breakdancer
          Metal Head / Axl Rose
          Devo (great as a group costume too!)
          Flock of Seagulls
          Mullet Man
          Miami Vice
      Preppie/Yuppie - Val Dude
          The John Bender (Breakfast Club)

80s Costume Wigs

Click for more       great 80s wigs to top off your 80s       party costume just right.

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June 04, 2008

Awesome Lamp

                       
                         I was watching season one of Kids in the Hall and they had this lamp as a prop in a sketch. I’ve seen it in several movies from the ’80s, too, and it definitely brings back memories because I had it as a kid, too. Was it that popular? Any other Tumblrs grow up with this lamp?

                                                    
I was watching season one of Kids in the Hall and they had this lamp as a prop in a sketch. I’ve seen it in several movies from the ’80s, too, and it definitely brings back memories because I had it as a kid, too. Was it that popular? Any other Tumblrs grow up with this lamp?

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June 03, 2008

Eighties rock heroes bloom again for charity

EIGHTY hours of rock straight from the 1980s will be released as a CD compilation called 'Sunflower Nights' in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF), writes Olivia Kelleher.

Some of the best known Irish rock bands of that decade are featured on the CD.

All of 'Sunflower Nights' was recorded live at Kiely's of Mount Merrion in Dublin between September 2005 and September 2007.

Bands featured on the CD are Full Circle, Bree Harris  and the Alias B Band, BeatClub, Big Easy, The Bogey Boys, Rocky de Valera and the Gravediggers, Fit Kilkenny & the Remoulds, Jimmy Faulkner & the Houseshakers, Jump The Gun, Katmandu, The Donal Kirk Band, Stepaside and Rob Strong.

Copies of 'Sunflower Nights' are on sale in Kiely's (www.kielys.com) and online on www.hospice-foundation.ie. The double CD costs €20.

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June 02, 2008

Faves: '80s Music Videos

A true child of the '80s, I grew up watching MTV. Back in the day when they did nothing but play music videos 24/7. I know that's a hard concept for today's young whippersnappers to grasp, but trust me when I say it was awesome. (I now get my daily music video fix with VH-1's Jump Start mornings.) Martha Quinn, J.J. Jackson, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, and Nina Blackwood were my friends. My very cool friends who introduced me to very cool music videos, the likes of which -- first viewing them at a very impressionable age -- were immediately and forever burned into my brain. My dad would always tell me to "turn that shit off," but the second he left the living room, I would always turn that "shit" right back on. If I hadn't, how would I ever be able to share with you some of my childhood favorites?

10. "Video Killed the Radio Star" - The Buggles

The first video to ever play on MTV, "Video Killed the Radio Star" made its stateside debut on August 1, 1981. This was the epitome of cheesy gloriousness for me. The video boasted women in cool-at-the-time-but-never-since sunglasses, mod haircuts, and leotards. A tinsel-bewigged woman getting sucked up a tube like the one that sucked Augustus Gloop out of Willy Wonka's chocolate river only made the video cooler. That same woman later flew around on wires, bringing to mind the carousel scene in Logan's Run. And, for sure, the lyrics were a harbinger of what was to come. What more could I have asked for? 

9. "Mickey" - Toni Basil

Easy-to-memorize lyrics? Cheerleaders? Combined with what was quite possibly the most fun song I'd ever heard? Sold! Also the only time in my life I gave serious thought to someday becoming a cheerleader.

8. "Hold Me Now" - The Thompson Twins

Luscious keyboards, cool British accents, split-screen imagery, and the fact that the Twins were actually a trio all added up to a feast for the eyes and the ears. And youthful confusion as to why they called themselves The Thompson Twins and not The Thompson Triplets. 

7. "Turning Japanese" - The Vapors

All-around coolness. British band, Japanese geisha, swordplay shenanigans. Sure, they mention sex (they said "SEX!") at one point in the song, but how was I to know that's what the whole song was about?
Bonus points for the lead singer's mullet.

6. "Come Dancing" - The Kinks

Quite simply, this song and video never fail to make me happy. The Kinks channeling a big-band era band is a wondrous thing. Having a lousy day? Listen to the song or watch the video, and I guarantee you'll feel happier almost instantly. And you, too, will rue the day they built a parking lot where the palais used to stand.

5. "West End Girls" - Pet Shop Boys

This is the video that made walking cool. And the actual song? Music like I'd never heard before. Therefore making the Pet Shop Boys the bomb as far as I was concerned.

4. "Hungry Like the Wolf" - Duran Duran

Filmed in Sri Lanka, the first Duran Duran video I ever saw really stood apart from the pack of videos of the day. More a mini-movie than a music video, these Brits added adventure, danger, and all-around cool to MTV. The fact that they were British only made them all that much cuter.

3. "Don't You Want Me?" - The Human League
Dramatic and mysterious, this song and video enthralled me with the tale of an ill-fated relationship. The noir atmosphere, the movie-within-a-movie concept, the style -- it was all good. And how beautiful was lead singer Philip Oakley? One of my first musician crushes, he introduced me to guyliner before I even knew what guyliner was.


2. "Take On Me" - A-Ha
Like there was any chance this wouldn't make the list. One of the first truly groundbreaking videos I remember seeing, it still stands the test of time. Arguably the Norwegian band's best-known single here in the U.S., despite their having sung the theme song to the James Bond movie The Living Daylights. Lead singer Morten Harket was another early childhood musician crush. And how.


1.
"No Myth" - Michael Penn
Apartment residents' live intersect in the music video equivalent of an art-house movie. Sad and hopeful and yet romantic at the same time, I still think this is one of the most perfect songs ever written. Not just one of my '80s faves, but one of my all-time faves. Bonus points for Michael Penn's wife being the equally cool Aimee Mann, formerly of Til Tuesday.


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May 30, 2008

'80s Fashion For Women


'80s Fashion For Women

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May 29, 2008

John Mayer Loves the '80s

John Mayer stepped out of the hair salon in NYC yesterday, showing off his freshly blow-dried, fluffy new 'do. John is so excited about his '80s reminiscent haircut that not only was he already brushing out his locks as he headed into Armani, but he blogged about his new hair goal — a full-on feathered style. We hope Jennifer Aniston likes his new look, since apparently the couple is just starting to heat up and already miss each other.  Maybe she can bring back the '90s Rachel haircut to keep up with her man's throwback hair.    


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May 28, 2008

I Heart the 80s: 'Son of Rambow'

Remember the 80s? Teased hair, spandex, Atari? And how the ultimate movie was First Blood — 130 totally awesome minutes of Sly Stallone stalking through the forest with a red bandana and a kick-ass knife? Son of Rambow director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith (known collectively as Hammer & Tongs, the duo behind Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) haven't forgotten that time. In fact, they've spent the last eight years on a script that is a love letter to their years growing up in England.

Son of Rambow tells the story a friendship between two British boys and their attempt to pay homage to the greatest action flick of the decade. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a wildly creative kid who has been insulated from the excesses of the 80s by his mother, a member of a stoic conservative Christian group Plymouth Brethren, which forbids television, films and popular music. When he is banished from the classroom because he is not permitted by his faith to watch an educational film, he runs into Lee Carter (Will Poulter), the obnoxiously malevolent school bully. Lee has been left to his own devices by a wealthy mother who relies on her eldest son Lawrence (Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick) to raise his brother while she flits around Europe. Lee has all the material needs a kid could desire. He doesn't give a sod about school. All he wants to do is direct, executive produce and star in a sequel to his favorite film, First Blood. Lee initially exploits the naïve Will by roping him into his filmmaking adventure, but the overly ambitious project proves to be the exact creative outlet Will has needed, and the two boys develop a blood-brother bond. "We were trying to capture how great it felt to be twelve, using this story about these kids' friendship through the making of this crazy movie as a way of doing that," says Jennings. "[And] by having a boy who has never seen any movies and the first thing he ever sees is First Blood everyone gets it from that point on, especially as he has been established as a very imaginative little child, and you smash those two things together, and then you are off and running."

Son of Rambow is the final product of a life-long ambition for Jennings, who says he too had been "blown away" by a pirated copy of First Blood as a kid and made a film inspired by Rambo. "I have the original film," he confesses. "It is called Aaron Part 1. I play the head of the Military of Defense and I am kidnapped by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and my Dad was the get-away driver and then I am thrown in a shed and tortured and held to ransom and then my friend Aaron, who is a Rambo guy comes over, and beats everybody up and burns the terrorists alive — which must have been weird for my Mum and Dad to watch, especially as it was all filmed in their back yard!"

"We set out to try and capture how great it is to be at an age and in a position to not consider the consequences and have no fear of making mistakes," says Jennings, "and not really care where someone is from: if you like them and you share an interest, you become friends. And those friendships can be really deep."

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May 27, 2008

Mel Gibson back in front of camera for Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson is to return to acting for the first time in six years in a feature adaptation of 80s BBC drama Edge of Darkness.

The Mad Max star has not topped the bill in front of the camera since Signs and We Were Soldiers in 2002, having concentrated on directing with The Passion of the Christ in 2004 and Apocalypto in 2006.

But after Martin Campbell, director of the original television series, developed a cinematic version of the show with Graham King and William Monahan, the Oscar-winning producer and screenwriter of The Departed, Gibson has now committed to his first acting role in years, Variety reports.

The Bafta-winning BBC miniseries featured Bob Peck as a policeman whose activist daughter is murdered in front of him.

When he delves deeper into the case, he uncovers a dense conspiracy of government intrigue and nuclear corruption.

According to Variety, Gibson is a long-time fan of the show and was receptive to King and Campbell's overtures.

The role in Edge of Darkness, which begins shooting in Boston in August, will represent the Braveheart star's first attempt to court public affections since his approval ratings declined after a drunk-driving arrest in 2006, following which he made anti-Semitic remarks.

Having had his drivers' licence suspended, received three years' probation and a $1,300 (£650) fine and been ordered to attend alcohol education classes and a three-month alcohol education programme, he later described the incident as a "moment of insanity"

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May 23, 2008

Cher: I was crazy about Tom Cruise

Legendary singer Cher has admitted she enjoyed a fling with Tom Cruise   - and revealed that she was 'crazy about him'.

The star made the revelation in a recording of the Oprah show, to be aired next month, admitting that, if they hadn't been forced apart by work schedules, their relationship could have been a 'great big romance'.

The pair are thought to have met at a White House fund-raising event in the Eighties, when 23-year-old Tom's star was in its ascendancy, and he was enjoying the limelight his first hit film, Risky Business, had brought upon him.

Cher, meanwhile, was 39 and had enjoyed nearly two decades of fame and success.

In the show, Cher describes Tom as an awkward young man, who struggled to fit in at school.

She told Oprah: 'He was shy. He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him. We went on a date once for dinner in a New York restaurant and the waitress was from his old school.

He told me she never talked to him back in school, but now he was recognised he got all her attention.'

She added: 'It could have been a great big romance because I was crazy for him.'

The crowd burst into whoops and cheers when she described one particularly 'long night' spent in his arms.

They are thought to have dated for a several months, but the affair came to an end when Cruise met Mimi Rogers, who was six years his senior, and who became his first wife. Cruise separated from Rogers after three years in 1990.

He went on to marry Nicole Kidman the same year, and stayed with her for 11 years until 2001.

He married third wife Katie Holmes in 2006.

Cher has been married twice. Her marriage to Sonny Bono ended after 11 years while her second to rock star Gregg Allman lasted a paltry nine days.

She told Oprah Winfrey she was currently single, and that she broke up with her last serious boyfriend, actor Rob Camilletti, nearly 15 years ago.

'Dating is a strange thing,' she declared. 'It's not every man who can be comfortable with me. Being Cher is a hard thing and difficult for him to hold his place.'

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May 22, 2008

How to make a totally awesome Rubik's Cube cake!

Ohhh, yes. The ever infuriating Rubik's Cube. No doubt we have all spent a good deal of time on our favorite 80s toy. Some of us are naturally gifted...most of us are not. Alas.

Regardless, I think we all hold a place near and dear to our hearts for the cube. It is a timeless symbol of geekiness! Let us not forget it!

In this instructable, I will teach you how to pay tribute to this awesome cube. It's simple to do and anyone can achieve the awesomeness that is the final project. Wow your friends and read on!
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