Friday 80s Flashback for July 17, 2015

Still from an Entertainment Tonight Segment on 1982's Summer Movies

[1982 Summer Flicks] -- The summer of 1982 was a great time for science fiction films, quite possibly the greatest. In that year, we saw the release of The Road Warrior (May 21, 1982), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (June 4, 1982), ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (June 11, 1982), Blade Runner (June 25, 1982), John Carpenter's The Thing (June 25, 1982), and Tron (July 9, 1982). And regarding 1982 as a great year for sci-fi isn't just a view we have with the benefit of hindsight. Even Entertainment Tonight, which was a decent program in its pre-Internet heyday, recognized the significance of that Summer in this Movie Sneak Preview segment. So, for this week's Flashback playlist, we'll look back at one piece each from three of those movies. Which movies and tracks did I select? Read and hear more after the break!

SDCC 2015!

My Wife and Me at the San Diego Convention Center

Greetings my fellow 80s-philes! 

For the next week, I'm in San Diego for that great geek Mecca known as the San Diego International Comic-Con (SDCC for short)! You'll catch some of my photos and musings on Twitter (@brainwise), but there might also be posts at the nerdy blog I now co-author with my wife, Dangrdafne: BookendedByCats.com. If you'd like to keep up on the comic booky (and other entertainment) goodness, go give our fledgling blog a try! 

Friday 80s Flashback for February 15, 2013

An 80s sci-fi image from OMNI Magazine (via Flyer Goodness)

[Sci-Fri] -- I am attending the Grand Slam Star Trek and Sci-Fi Summit in Burbank, CA, this weekend. Now, with the notable exception of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which premiered in 1987, most of the shows represented at this summit aired more recently. Still, I have it on good authority that science fiction ruled the 1980s. Sci-fi inspired tunes, therefore, seem to be a perfect choice for this week's Flashback. There are many options, from movies to TV shows to straight-up concept albums. If you would like to know what I selected, you can read and hear more after the break.

Friday 80s Flashback for June 29, 2012

~newSaint's homage to Joshua's iconic line (from Wargames) | deviantart.com

[A.I. in the 80s] -- The 60s and 70s saw computers intrude more and more in business and manufacturing. In fact, the floppy disk and microprocessor, both invented in the 70s, helped to usher in an age of practical computing. But it was the 80s that saw the home computer industry take off. As computers expanded their territory from labs and offices to homes and schools, they also started to occupy more mental real estate as well. In 1983, Time magazine chose the computer as its "Machine of the Year" for 1982 (bumping their long-standing tradition of naming a "Man of the Year"). And computers provided the plot devices for several movies, usually in morality tales of technology gone amok (or greedy humans misusing innocent devices). This week in the Flashback, we will look at three tunes, each one from an 80s film featuring a computer -- or at least a sub-system -- that is intelligent and can make decisions on its own. What songs did I decide upon? Read and hear more after the break.

San Diego Comic-Con 2011!

I am attending my first Comic-Con. I've been reading comics books since ... well, for a very long time ... and I'm a big fan of sci-fi and pop-culture. But I just never got around to traveling from PA to CA for this pop-culture Mecca.

Until this week, that is.