When MTV was the S#!+...

As the Cap'n was taking a drive into work the other day he had the satellite radio on 80's on 8. I know I'm dating myself, but that was the pop music I grew up with. It is my only musical vice and I enjoy the hell out of it.

As the country is turning to shit with the evolution of Barack Obama's vision of Bolshevism, I am growing increasingly nostalgic. Well, Obama's destruction of America as we know it, getting older, seeing family members die, having friends come down with horrible conditions, etc. etc. etc. is probably an exact description of my feelings of nostalgia....

Anyway...I was singing along to Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" and started thinking when was the first time I heard this song. Amazingly, it was in 1982 when I was eleven years old. It was also the first time I watched MTV on cable television.

Wow....1982..It actually came back pretty clear. I was with my grandparents in San Francisco at their friend's house in Pacific Heights during the Christmas season. They had stopped by to have a drink and visit, and the family's daughter brought me upstairs to hang out and get out of the way. She was in her late teens, so she was heading out, but turned on MTV and gave me the remote.

Awesome! I'd never even seen cable TV before, and MTV was only talked about on the schoolyards. Hell, we were lucky to be able to watch Friday Night Videos on NBC if Mom and Dad let us stay up, or taped it on the vcr.

Now, I had music videos coming on one after another after another. First one: Golden Earring's Twilight Zone. Truth be told, it was like watching the Holy Grail. I was mesmerized watching all these different videos and cool VJ's from a room in New York.

If we ever got cable television, I would never watch anything else. MTV was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

I also got to thinking how times were just simpler back then. No Internet, XBOX360, 500 channel cable systems, on demand anything for instant gratification, I Phones, etc.

Back then it was just 5 or 6 television stations, your radio, and your friends you hung out with. Maybe an Atari 2600, and if you were lucky a Commodore 64.

Back then our enemies were the Commies. Now it is our self.

Back then it was Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Now it is Avatar.

Back then you read a newspaper. Now you read a blog.

Back then it was records. Now it's mp3's.

Back then my heroes played baseball. Now they wake up every morning and go to work to make sure their family is taken care of.

Back then MTV was the coolest. Now it is my kids.

Stay Strong,

The Cap'n