Happy 50th birthday, Martha Quinn

Can you believe it? Martha Quinn, sweetheart of the 1980s music video viewing generation and former gal pal of Stiv Bators (Dead Boys, Lords of the New Church), turns 50 today! Happy day, Martha. We still love you.

It’s not just me, right? Martha was the best VJ ever. UPDATE: Further evidence that Martha rules: she left a comment! Yay!

Michelle Obama on ‘Sesame Street’

“I think it’s probably the best thing I’ve done so far in the White House.”
-Michelle Obama on her visit to Sesame Street

Relive the first 24 hours of MTV

I’ve written fondly of my childhood love for MTV. I was not cynical enough at 10 to realize that music video’s emphasis on good looking performers would prove to be the downfall of pop music.

No when I was 10, having a channel all to myself was thrilling. I could watch music videos all day long. And I did. Through MTV I found a lot of cool New Wave acts. I fell in love with Duran Duran and Culture Club and Adam and The Ants. The Go-Gos, Missing Persons, A Flock of Seagulls, which all the cool kids dubbed A.F.O.S.

Hey, remember the MTV ditty?

So, if, like me, you were an excited youngster watching cable television on August 1, 1981, and the names Martha Quinn, J.J. Jackson (RIP), Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, and Nina Blackwood are forever linked with your youth, you might like to relive MTV’s first 24 hours on the air.

And now you can here at the channel’s official web site. Hard to believe so few performers made videos back then, MTV had to air the same handful of artists over and over.

If you were watching since the first day — and even if you weren’t — share your MTV memories here.

OMG, no. Bea Arthur has died.

Oh, cruel, dark day.

Share with us your grief in the comments.

Did you watch ‘Grey Gardens’ last night?

I thought it was very good. I think Drew Barrymore could have an acting career beyond Adam Sandler movies. Who knew? Jessica Lange was at her very best. Wow. There is a scene where she (as Big Edie) sings “Tea For Two” while surrounded by squalor and it’s haunting. Whoever did the make-up on this film needs to win an armload of awards. Bra-vo!

Did you like it? How many of you have seen the original documentary?

Happy Anniversary!

It’s Gina Vivinetto’s Greatest Hits’s eight month anniversary! Woo-hoo! Let’s celebrate with a clip from The Flinstones:

This blog is way more popular than I ever thought it would be thanks to you guys.

We’re going to get our 190,000th hit today. Can you believe it?!

XOXO

Teeny tiny television show interiors

I love Apartment Therapy because it offers great decor posts, links to old magazine archives and strange Flickr galleries like this one where an artist known only as “On The Set” recreates famous American television shows’ interior sets.

Recognize these? (Click on any to enlarge)

The Brady Bunch:

The Facts of Life:

The Golden Girls:

The artist behind the “On The Set” series writes that he/she visited Hollywood TV show sets as a kid and though the show’s producers forbade taking pictures, he/she could rush home and recreate the sets using various items including Legos.

Go to the “On The Set” Flickr page to see the sets of Murphy Brown, Three’s Company, Roseanne, Designing Women, and more.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs on ‘SNL’

Watch the videos before NBC brass takes them off YouTube:

Here’s “Zero”:

and that old chestnut “Maps”

Karen O. = god. (Probably not appropriate to say on Easter, but so be it).

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are performing again Tuesday (4/14) on Letterman and and Wednesday (4/15) on Jimmy Fallon’s show.

Help keep America looking good!

Give a hoot! Don’t pollute. I miss the 1970s.

A quick round-up

Here are stories I found interesting and you might, too:

* Wall Street Journal piece on the chemicals in household cleaners.

* Showtime wisely passes on insulting, asinine L-Word spinoff.

* I feel sorry for this Graffiti Girl who’s facing serious hard time. Am I a sap?

* Kooky Cloris Leachman and Gene Hackman had “epic sex”? Weird.

* She’s gonna play Judy Garland?!

* Artist Justine Lai paints realist portraits of herself having sex with U.S. presidents.

* Wow, talk about old meets new: Modernist architect Frank Gehry has been picked to design an Eisenhower monument in D.C.