Monthly Archives: August 2021

Music Video of the Day: Time Heals by Todd Rundgren (1981, directed by Todd Rundgren)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Though it was not my original intention, it looks like I’m going to end up sharing every video that MTV aired on August 1st, 1981, its first broadcast day.  Let’s keep things going with the 8th video that aired on that day, the video for Todd Rundgren’s Time Heals.

Though it was never as big a hit as some of his other songs, Time Heals was a very personal song for Rundgren.  He wrote it while he was still dealing with two traumatic events.  First, he and his girlfriend were the victims of a violent home invasion in August of 1980.  Just a few months later, he learned that, before the assassination of John Lennon, Mark David Chapman made a trip to Rundgren’s home town of Woodstock, New York.  Before fixating on Lennon, Chapman was reportedly obsessed with Rundgren and there was much speculation that Rundgren was Chapman’s original target.  The song was about how Rundgren needed time to heal all of those recent traumas.

Rundgren produced this video with the music that he made from producing Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.  At the time, expensive music videos, like this one, were unusual.  Though it may not longer seem so, this was considered to be very avant-garde for 1981.  At that time, most music videos were just performance clips, often lifted from concert films or TV appearances.  MTV would soon change that forever.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
  2. You Better Run by Pat Benatar
  3. She Won’t Dance With Me by Rod Stewart
  4. You Better You Bet By The Who
  5. Little Suzi’s On The Up by PH.D
  6. We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard
  7. Brass in Pocket by Pretenders

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/1/21 — 8/7/21

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let me tell you about my week. On Sunday, I started to feel slightly congested. The left side of my face hurt a little whenever I smiled. Since I’ve been vaccinated, I wasn’t terribly worried about it being COIVD or anything like that but still, I did think to myself, “I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.”

On Monday, I woke up feeling a bit more discomfort, especially on the left side of the my face. After making sure I still had my sense of taste and smell, I thought to myself, “Well, it is allergy season.”

By Tuesday, I was in the throes of a full-blown sinus infection! AGCK! I’m talking fever, fatigue, pain, the whole thing. Fortunately, the really bad part of it only last two days. By Thursday, I started to feel better and, as I sit here typing this on Saturday, I would say that I’m 99% over being sick. That 1% is still there but I’m definitely read to move on.

Anyway, as a result of being ill and medicated, I spent a lot of this week in bed and not a lot of it watching television. (The DVR, however, is now almost full so I’ll have a lot to get caught up on over the next few days.) Here’s some notes on what little I did watch:

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Uh-oh, Rene’s been captured by the Communist Resistance! Even worse, LeClerc has been captured alongside him. Now, Rene and LeClerc are bound on a circular saw table and it’s up to Edith, Yvette, Mimi, and Michelle to rescue him. I think Rene may be doomed. We’ll find out next week, I guess.

The Bachelorette (Monday Night, ABC)

Since this season began, there have been rumors about Greg leaving the show right before the finale so I can’t say that I was shocked when, this week, he left the show right before the finale. Greg left because he was upset that Katie refused to say that she loved him while she still had two other men competing for the final rose. Uh, Greg — what show did you think you were on?

Anyway, Greg has left and I imagine Katie will now settle for Blake. It’s funny how often this show seems to end with The Bachelorette settling for her second choice after her first choice either leaves the show or suddenly proves himself to be not the man that she thought he was.

Big Brother (Every Day 24/7, CBS and Paramount Plus)

I’m having a really difficult getting into this season but I’m still writing about the show over at the Big Brother Blog!

Love Island (Weeknights, CBS)

Despite having sworn off this amazingly shallow show, I did watch an episode on Sunday night because I was too lazy to change the channel. That’s right, I admit it. I’m lazy! Anyway, this episode featured the women dancing in lingerie while the men made goofy faces. I like dancing in lingerie so maybe I should have applied to have been on this show. Oh well. Missed opportunities and all.

Moone Boy (Sunday Night, PBS)

While the town of Boyle celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, Fidelma got married and gave birth at the same time! Unfortunately, Martin also got his heart broken when he traveler girlfriend mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind a note that explained that she and her family had left town because “that’s what we do.” Poor Martin!

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

Arkwright pretended to be ill in order to get the attention of the local nurse while Granville continued to dream of murder and destruction.

Silk Stalkings (Weekday Afternoons, ZLiving)

On Thursday, I came out of my daze long enough to watch two epiosdes of this show on ZLiving. I have no idea what the plot of each episode was but there were a lot of undressed people, a lot of gunplay, and John O’Hurley appeared in one of them as a wealthy murder victim.

Tokyo Olympics (Every day on every network)

On Sunday, I watched the BMX freestyle competition. Go, BMX Bandits, go!

And that’s it! Seriously, I loved what I saw of the Olympics this year but, once that sinus infection it, I pretty much stopped watching because I was in a bit of a daze. I hear that the U.S. performed slightly below expectations, despite the fact that U.S. athletes won the most overall medals and, as of right now, we’re in 2nd place behind China as far as gold medals are concerned. Usually, as a patriotic American, that would bother me but this year …. eh.

Fortunately, there’s still one more day of coverage to go and I plan to watch as much as I can on Sunday!

Upstart Crow (Sunday Night, PBS)

I loved Sunday’s episode, largely because it dealt with the production of one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays, Julius Caesar! It was very interesting to see the show’s version of how Julius Caesar went from being a comedy about Caesar taking a vacation in Kent to being one of Shakespeare’s best historical plays. Of course, along the way, we also had time for Shakespeare to prevent an attempted coup in the theater company and for Kate to once again call everyone out for their foolishness.

Music Video of the Day: Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The sixth music video to air on MTV on August 1st, 1981 was Cliff Richard’s We Don’t Talk Anymore.

The seventh was Brass in Pocket, by the Pretenders.  Up to that date, Brass in Pocket was the band’s biggest hit and the video — which featured a narrative theme with Chrissie Hynde as a waitress — also represented the future of direction of music videos.  Today, it can be surprising to see how many of the first music videos were simple performance clips.  In the days before MTV, videos were viewed as a novelty as opposed to a necessity.  Due to the popularity of MTV, future music videos would have more in common with Brass in Pocket and Video Killed The Radio Star, designed to generate buzz as well as to show off the music.

When the song was first recorded, Hynde hated it and said that listening to her voice made her cringe.  The song was released over her objections and went on to become one of the Pretenders’s first and biggest hits.  For the record, Hynde says that her feelings on the song have since mellowed and she enjoys it now because “it’s served me well.”

Enjoy!

Film Review: Macho: The Hector Camacho Story (directed by Eric Drath)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It has been nearly ten years since Hector “Macho” Camacho was murdered in Puerto Rico.

He was shot while sitting in a parked car, by several gunmen who fired from a passing SUV.  The driver of the car, Camacho’s childhood friend Adrian Mojica Moreno, was also shot.  Moreno died at the scene.  Camacho died four days later.

Since then, there’s been a lot of speculation about who may have ordered a hit on Camacho.  At one time, Camacho was one of the world’s biggest celebrity athletes, a boxer who was both loved and hated by boxing fans.  He was also well-known for his struggles with addiction and his self-destructive behavior.  After he was shot, nine bags of cocaine were found in his car, leading many to suspect that the hit was the result of drug deal gone wrong.

However,  not even the details surrounding his death could overshadow Camacho’s accomplishments inside the ring.  His flamboyant antics and costumes may have driven purists crazy but Camacho was a fighter who could usually be trusted to back up his bluster once the fight began. From 1980 to 2010, he fought 88 professional fights and compiled a 79-6-3 record.  Along the way he won and lost multiple titles, went from being viewed as a scrappy underdog to a villain, and he fought everyone from Oscar De La Hoya to Julio Cesar Chavez to Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and Vinny Paziena.

The documentary Macho: The Hector Camacho Story takes a look back at Camacho’s career in the ring and his life outside of it.  While it doesn’t shy away from discussing his struggles (and the final thirty minutes are dominated by his murder), the best part of the documentary is the footage of Camacho in his prime, throwing punches and defeating opponent after opponent.  The film shows why Camacho was one of the best boxers of his era while also acknowledging why his success drove so many fight fans crazy.  This is a documentary that will be appreciated by those who remember what the sport of boxing once was, when the fighters could not only play to the stands but could throw a punch as well.  It’s both an exciting boxing film and a study of a fighter who could beat almost any opponent but not his own demons.

Music Video of the Day: Little Suzi’s On The Up by PhD (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Over this past week, I’ve been sharing the first music videos that played on MTV on August 1s,t 1981.  Little Suzi’s On The Up was the fifth music video to be shown on that day, following The Who’s You Better You Bet.  Unlike many of the music videos that played that day, Little Suzi’s on the Up was not just a performance clip but instead used the type of camera trickery and bizarre humor that would become the signature of many subsequent music videos.

I don’t know much about Ph.D, beyond that they were a British new wave group.  The name of the band was play on the last names of the members — Phillips, Hymas, and Diamond.  Their biggest hit was I Won’t Let You Down in 1982.  Unfortunately, around the same time, Jim Diamond contracted hepatitis and could no longer tour, which led to the dissolvent of the band.  Watching this video, I’m reminded a bit of Madness.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Better You Bet by The Who (1981, directed by John Crome)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This week, I’ve been counting down the first videos played on MTV when it premiered 40 years ago.  Today’s music video is the fourth video to be played on MTV, following Video Killed The Radio Star, You Better Run, and She Won’t Dance With Me.

The video for The Who’s You Better You Bet was filmed at Shepperton Studios in March of 1981 and it provided a look at the new Who as this was the first video to feature Kenney Jones on drums.  Jones, of course, replaced Keith Moon after the latter’s tragic death.

Enjoy!