Escape to Witch Mountain
Star Wars
Goodnight Mr Tom
A little Princess (okay I cheated but I read it in the 80s)


Chris

Valley Girl
Weird Science
and the official book on "How to California"
(All very serious subjects from the 80's.) <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

<FONT COLOR="#6699cc" SIZE="1">[ May 28, 2001 02:55 AM: Message edited by: ImSoooSure ]</font>

Valley Girl
The Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Halloween
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Books? Really didn't read much.

Book and movie: "The Thorn Birds"... reading this made me want to be a writer!!! Also, "Valley of the Dolls", (the book, not the movie) for its sheer trashiness... <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

The Valley of the 80s (http://www.SwiftSite.com/80sdude)

Books: Anything that Jackie Collins or Stephen King wrote in the 80s.

Movies:

-Back To The Future
-Beverly Hills Cop
-Ferris Bueller's Day Off
-Pretty In Pink
-The Breakfast Club
-Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
-Stop Making Sense
-Lethal Weapon
-The Blues Brothers
-E.T
-The Muppets Take Manhattan
-The Great Muppet Caper
-Follow That Bird
-Flashdance
-Spaceballs
-Airplane!
-The Naked Gun
-The Running Man
-Caddyshack
-All movies produced in the 80s that space doesn't permit me to mention, because I would be listing movies until I had to go to bed. The 80s were the ultimate decade for the movies, and I couldn't live without any of the movies from this decade. 80s MOVIES FOREVER!

Sincerely,

John "outofplacechild" Kilduff

sombody help me out please. What was Valley of the Dolls? That sounds soooo familiar.

Chris <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Saw the movie "Valley of the Dolls" and it was pretty good. I have wanted to read the book.

All books by John Saul...have to get back to you on the movies....Valley Girl for sure! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

As for books, I like to read anything by Alistair McLean!
When it comes to movies...the list is long! To mention a few: Die Hard (duh!), Top Gun, Airplane, Beverly Hills Cop, and I could go on forever... <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

somebody please give me a rundown of Valley of the Dolls.

Chris

anything with Han Solo, Indy, and the movie "Witness". For a band instead of a book, Duran Duran was helpful for sanity.
Oh, did I mention Han? <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Vilji, if Luke Skywalker is my brother and he's your husband (say) what does that make us? Princess Lea doesn't count <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Chris

just remembered something else and how could I forget? <img src="redface.gif" border="0">

Judy Blume
Norma Klein
the Sweet Valley High series (major) <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
there was also Sunset High and some series about girls in the deep South

Oh and from the early 80s: the Love Boat, Falcon Crest and the Dukes of Hazzard. My friends and I all had the maddest crush on Lorenzo Lamas and of course Luke was far more handsome than the other guy (Matt?).

Oh and Fantasy Islan used to scare me senseless but I always watched it.

Ditto reruns of Happy Days and Laverne&Shirley. When did those series come out?

Well, I'm off to bed now in another hour or so. Gotta walk home first.

Chris

about the book series in the deep south. It was Virginia if I remember correctly and the bad girl was Arlene.

Then there was another one about this girl who stared in a soap and her best friend was Shana or someone. Shana's father was Arabic or something. But that was only touched upon once. The good girl (and of course she was blonde, Shana was just a sidekick) had a younger sister named Jewel. I think her name was Katie.

Chris

The books you were describing sound like one of the VC Andrews books... V.C. Andrews wrote the cult classic "Flowrs in the Attic"... "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann, is the second best selling novel of all time. It was published in the late 1960s, and is the ultimate trashy story about Hollywood starlets, drugs, booze, sex and plastic surgery! There's a "sequel" coming out next month, even though Susann has been dead since 1973!!! Of course, VC Andrews has been dead for fifteen years, and there are two or three new books written under her name by a ghostwriter...

The Valley of the 80s (http://www.SwiftSite.com/80sdude)

Originally posted by djnage:
<STRONG>Vilji, if Luke Skywalker is my brother and he's your husband (say) what does that make us? Princess Lea doesn't count <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Chris</STRONG>
Say what?!
Luke's not My hubby. Thanks anyway. He actually did look like a blonde version of my older brother. Ick. Han's my man. The wookie has to move over..ok, i'll just sit in Han's lap.

<img src="smile.gif" border="0">

no nonononono. It was n't 'Flowers in the Attic' although I did read that one and the Heaven series and 'My Sweet Audreena' (boy did I mess that one up. I can't remember the spelling). But I always wondered what the deal was with VC Andrews. I did have a feeling she was dead and that maybe there was some ghostwriting deal going on. So thanks for clearing that one up. <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Does anyone know the details about VC Andrews, who she was, how old she was etc. And what she died of?

Hope this doesn't remain another of my childhood mysteries.

<img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Chris

P.S. I have the high school series at my mother's place. Next time I go home I'll check for the names.

Sorry, Vilji. I meant to write Han is your husband. <img src="redface.gif" border="0">

I do apologise most humbly <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

Chris

Originally posted by djnage:
<STRONG>Sorry, Vilji. I meant to write Han is your husband. <img src="redface.gif" border="0">

I do apologise most humbly <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

Chris</STRONG>

Hey, all in good fun. Only in my dreams he is. (wasn't that a Debbie Gibson song? <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">
I like the rebel-type. But Luke was less grouchy. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
I loved "Fantasy Island", by the way. No matter how positive they thought their ideal fantasy would be, it never failed to backfire and turn out to be hell. lol.

to be honest, I can't remember much of Fantasy Island. Only the short guy and the older one (Ricardo whatever. What *was* his name on the show and the actor?)and the fact that it gave me the creeps whenever I watched it. But at the same time I had to watch it.

Chris

Here's what I know about V.C. Andrews. Her name was Virgina Charlotte Andrews, and that she was confined to a wheelchair due to a case of polio in her youth. She was never married, and was apparently from a wealthy Southern family. I believe she died of pneumonia in 1987, and her family contracted a ghostwriter to continue to write novels in her "style"... hope this helps clear things up...

Flowers of the 80s (http://www.SwiftSite.com/80sdude)

hey MDC, yeah it does. Sounds exactly like something I'd imagine. Thanks.

Chris

Whew! Ok, I got a lot to cover here. First, Fantasy Island. Ricardo Montalban played Mr. Rourke. And the little guy was Tattoo.

Next, You can have Han, but Indy is all mine. I remember sitting in the movie theater the lights were low and then he looked into my eyes. Well, he said it all in that short moment. He pledged he would be mine forever. We have been together ever since. Oh you never see me, I keep a low profile, but he is all mine and I am all his.

Next...Duran Duran and U2 were my bands and The Police, well, I guess I could go on and on.

Movies: No one has mentioned Officer and a Gentleman and Risky Business. Oh, to be whisked out of the mundane by an Naval Officer.*sigh*

Ok, I am obviously VERY tired and must sleep now! <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

80sLady, I know *exactly* what you mean for Limahl has pledged the same to me. He did it through his music and some covert messages he sent. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

But it's great to see there are other like-minded creatures out there. We have to stick together.

Oh yeah and thanx for the info on Fantasy Island I would *really* love to see it again now. Any channels doing reruns?

Chris

The book I couldn't live without isn't really from the 80's. lol My favorite book is the Mists of Avalon. Love tghat book. Read it at least once a year. <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Just bought the 4th book that goes with it.

Jazzmyn

When I was a kid, my mom kept her naughty books hidden away in her bedroom, but I knew where to find them. I got my first taste of sex by reading Harold Robbins "The Storyteller"... wow, what a sleazy book! My mother also had a faded copy of "Her" and "Him" by Anonymous... 70s porn masterpieces...

The Incredible, Edible Eighties (http://www.SwiftSite.com/80sdude)

Does anyone remember a book called 'Disturb Not the Dream' by Paula Trachtman? I got it from a neighbour when I was 14. Boy did that teach me something about sex. It was also a great story.

Chris

I was glad to be of service, Chris. I have nowhere near the level of knowledge the "Great 80s Gurus" here have displayed, but it is great to have an answer now and then. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Yes, Yes, let us like minded creatures stick together, hold hands, sway to the beat of our own drummer (Peter Gabriel, perhaps) and live our lives to the fullest. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Hey, Can I be Queen of the Graemlins? I love these little guys....I wish we could have little smurfs. Remember all the little smurfs you could buy for every mood and profession!!! Darn, but that was a good decade!!!

I herewith crown you queen of the Graemlins,oh 80sLady.

Yes, we *must* stick together and sway to the beat of the drummer. But may I propose another drummer as well, Rusty Egan (Visage fans unite). He also played drums on the theme tune of Top Of The Pops (Yellow Pearl with Phil Lynot), which I guess was something like the equivalnet of Soul Train, so he must have been good.

And I miss the Smurfs, too.

<img src="frown.gif" border="0">

Chris

Yeah, I get to be Queen, I get to be Queen!!! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

It takes so little these days to make me happy. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Colleen - Queen of the Graemlins.

Going to go change my profile......hee hee <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

As the father of smilies (or graemlins if you prefer to call 'em that <img src="smile.gif" border="0">), you may henceforth be their queenie <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> The empire rejoices!

http://www.80sxchange.com/ubb/smilies/smiley5.gif

easy little fellas...easy <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

You're teasing again Roem!!!! I want the smilies back!! <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> Miss my little witch and vampire.

Jazzmyn

What?!?!?! My subjects are not free? <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

As Queen of the Graemlins, I hereby declare on this date, that all Graemlins shall be freed and shall remain free unless they offend me or do not pay their proper tribute. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Let's all remember that I was seven when the 80's ended... Gremlins, Goonies, Back to the Future. And I could not stop reading Bruce Covill, Does he still write? Anyway My Teacher is an Alien and all those...

Man this is not an easy question when it comes to books.
For movies I think Flashdance is the one that if I had never seen (60+ times and counting), I would just not be the same person at all. In fact my life...who knows. I'm not sure about books. Maybe Catcher In the Rye! by J.D. Salinger.

Movies:

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Sixteen Candles
Modern Girls
Breakfast Club <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

<FONT COLOR="#6699cc" SIZE="1">[ June 25, 2001 04:33 AM: Message edited by: sarasunshine ]</font>

Originally posted by MDC:
<STRONG>Book and movie: "The Thorn Birds"... reading this made me want to be a writer!!!]</STRONG>

I love that book! I wasn't too impressed with the reunion movie "The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years" where Dane goes back to live with Luke and Ralph and Meggie have to get him back... sheesh. The story was fine the way it was.

Stuff I would have a tough time living without--

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
Star Wars trilogy-- though I could live without Episode I
The Last Unicorn movie
Anne of Green Gables books
Dragonriders of Pern books

Any John Hughes Flick
Transformers The Movie
The Nightmare On Elm St Series
If Looks Could Kill
TMNT
Batman
And for Books
The Def Leppard Biography Animal Instinct & Any Book On Bon Jovi
And Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns

Let's see if I can limit myself <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Books (not all from the 80s but I read them in the 80s):
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings I-III
Watership Down
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Outsiders
The Catcher in the Rye

Movies:
The Breakfast Club
Dirty Dancing
St Elmo's Fire
Blues Brothers
Top Gun
Indiana Jones I-III
Star Wars IV-VI
Das Boot
La Boum
Desperately Seeking Susan
Neverending Story
When Harry Met Sally
The Elephant Man
Footloose
Gandhi
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
An Officer and a Gentleman
Platoon

argh...somebody stop me... <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Kristina

Very nice, Kayenne. Happy to see you list "The Hobbit". It is one of my favorites also. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

I'm going to have to say:
Book - "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Movie - "Clerks" (not an 80's movie, but just too funny...) <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

I bet everyone thinks I'm a weirdo because Flashdance is my favorite movie huh? Well I don't care...it is.

I loved that movie, but my all time favorite was
Lady Hawke with Mathew Broedrick (spelling?). I love that movie and i have watched it over 70X. <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

The Princess Bride and I'm not sure when it's from, but, Steel Magnolias. Grease too, but that's 70's.

Dont anybody laugh!!
Charlotte's Web

Originally posted by TheBear2000:
<STRONG>Dont anybody laugh!!
Charlotte's Web </STRONG>

That's an excellent choice Bear. Don't worry. None of the meanies will laugh. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Books I couldn't live without:

Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Lolita - Vladimir Nobokav
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
Short Stories/Poems - Edgar Allen Poe
Collected Poems - Arthur Rimbaud
The Stranger - Albert Camus

*also all my art books from the pre-raphaelites to andy warhol. ;)


~xistenza

Wow, xistenza, your choices sound almost exactly like what my best friend from high school would say... last I heard, she was living in Boston. I miss her! She tried to get me to read Baudelaire, but I never really got into it. She succeeded with Oscar Wilde and Camus.

Lolita reminded me of when I got the book for my 18th birthday. some memebers in my family have a weird sense of humour.


Chris

That's too funny DJ. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> Did you happen to have a crush on anybody older at the time?

Originally posted by Mary C:
<STRONG>Wow, xistenza, your choices sound almost exactly like what my best friend from high school would say... last I heard, she was living in Boston. </STRONG>

Funny you should say Boston. My best friend from highschool lives there and the 2 of us used to go through all the Edgar A. Poe stories together. (how goth of us! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">)

I do like Baudelaire. He was actually inspired by Poe. I studied French, so I can (sometimes)understand his poetry as it was originally written.

We should both call our friends in Boston. (it's been too long) <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

~xistenza

Books...some of them were only issued in Germany, I´m afraid. Read a lot (and still do), the here mentioned impressed me most:

Lothar Guenther Buchheim "Das Boot"
Stephen King "Christine"
Antoine de Saint-Exupery "Little Prince"
Wolfgang Borchert "Draussen vor der Tuer"


For movies...the usual stuff which was hip in the 80s, I guess...

Bogie, strangely enough the only time I came close to fancying an older man was three years ago.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why I got the book. One of my best friends was always dating men 20+ years her senior.

Chris

I'm a total movie and book NUT!
I think I already posted some of my fave movies here somewhere..

as for books..I spent most of my eighties childhood reading Judy Blume, Robin Klein, and the Baby Sitters Club.

I (and by the looks of it along with a couple of others) loved Virginia Andrews Books..I was practically reared on them! She died before she finished Fallen Hearts (from the Casteel series) and I was quite dissapointed with the ghost writer's effort thereafter (andrew neiderman, I think his name is..).

Some of my favourite books today include
Rebecca - daphne du maurier
Jane eyre - charlotte bronte
Alice's adventures in wonderland - carroll
the bell jar - plath
ANYTHING by NEIL GAIMAN (oh my god, he's sooo great!)
and a great book I read this year called "House of Leaves" by Mark Z Danielewski.

If there is one book you should check out this year it is House of Leaves..it's a story about a house, that is bigger on the outiside than it is on the inside. It's one of the most amazing journeys I've been on while reading..

Ferris Buellers day off is my fav film ever and my book was something about a rich princess who dosen't fit it, I can't remember the name of it but it was a childhood fav

I can't believe I forgot about The Chronicles of Narnia!!! My absolute favorite book as a kid was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I must have read the book fifty times as a child!!!

My favorite books.....

1. Anything by Stephen King
2. Anything by Robin Cook
3. Anything by James Patterson
4. Scruples
5. Midwives
6. Anything involving true crime (I know, it's kinda sick, and if anyone I know is ever murdered, I am sure I'll be high on the list!)

Movies...

1. All Audrey Hepburn movies (I have them all!)
2. Grease
3. Footloose
4. Stayin' Alive
5. Dirty Dancing
6. Sound of Music

~G

P.S. MDC...I always wanted a wardrobe...I wanted to disappear and get away from my mom in the worst way when I was young!!

Anybody else crack up reading Adrian Mole? We used to get liquored-up and take turns reading the books out loud. It's not a classic, I know. But boy were they funny.

A particular incident involving a Kevin Keegan keyring still brings tears to my eyes. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Originally posted by Bogie:
<STRONG>Anybody else crack up reading Adrian Mole? We used to get liquored-up and take turns reading the books out loud. It's not a classic, I know. But boy were they funny.

A particular incident involving a Kevin Keegan keyring still brings tears to my eyes. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"></STRONG>

Oh, I loved those! There was a hilarious TV series on PBS in the US... that's what got me into the books. I often read them on the school bus and just laughed myself silly. I can see where they'd be even better with a little, er, sauce!

On the topic of uproariously funny-- the original Freaky Friday by... oh dear... I don't remember! Mary Travers?

Spunk and Zip in the sunken ship! Spunk and Zip in the Frozen Fjord!

Wanna play Nok Hockey? <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Adrian ha ha ha ha Read all the books...Loved them no end <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Read a lot of books in the 80s, don't think I could really pick a fave, but I must admit I always liked the works of Jules Verne. Fantastic stories, they're so classic IMO <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Today I tend to read books that let's me inside peoples head like "The Dice Man", Anne Rice's vampire chronicles & "American Psycho".

specifically eighties stuff that springs to mind:

risky business
koyanisquaatsi
liquid sky (what a film)
the adrian mole books
heathers
the goonies
the sure thing (john cusack is sooo cute)

i'll think of tons when i've posted this <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

L
xo

I couldn't live without my Judy Blume Collection and as far as movies...
-Better Off Dead
-Sixteen Candles
-Grease
and of course, Top Gun..*sigh*
"Maverick, You Big Stud, Take Me To Bed or Lose Me Forever"

Originally posted by Poison PJ:
<STRONG>Transformers The Movie</STRONG>

I don't think I could live with out Transformers: The Movie or any Transformers comic books, either. (Well maybe I could, but I probably won't enjoy life nearly as much!)

Originally posted by soundofherwings:

&lt;snipped&gt;

and a great book I read this year called "House of Leaves" by Mark Z Danielewski.

If there is one book you should check out this year it is House of Leaves..it's a story about a house, that is bigger on the outiside than it is on the inside. It's one of the most amazing journeys I've been on while reading..[/QB]

Earlier this year, I bought a CD (Haunted) created on the occassion of his death by his daughter (Poe).

The CD is fantastic and based on the rave review you gave 'House of Leaves' I'm gonna check it out.

-Dis

-Silverado
-The Untouchables
-A Fish Called Wanda
-Say Anything

Movies I couldn't bear to live without:
Anything with John Cusack - especially Better Off Dead & One Crazy Summer.
The Breakfast Club, St Almo's Fire
Simon Birch, The Matrix, Goonies, and lastly...Dirty Dancing

Books:
Tom Jones (not the singer LOL)
Voltaire's Bastards - John Ralston Saul
Patterson -except what exactly happened in the last one????
Anything Kathy Reichs
Anything Patricia Cornwall
Anything Anne Rice before Pandora
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Some Tammy Hoag
Peter Hoag's Smilia's Sense of Snow

Xistenza - I loved The Stranger. It opened me up to de Beauvoir. Thanks for reminding me.