80’s – Looking to God

Why I Like Zombies

Posted on August 18, 2014August 18, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Have I ever told you why I like zombies? I mean, I write my Monday Mayhem posts, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned the reason why I’m drawn to these ill-fated, putrid-smelling, bile-seeping maggot bags the media affectionately calls zombies. I have a number of reasons for liking them, and today, you’re going to find out.

Asbury Park Zombie Walk 2010 (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)

As many of my regular readers know, I have an affinity for 80’s movies. Because of that love for all things retro, Terminator has always been at the top of my list of sci-fi/action flicks for a cold Friday night. Why? You see, terminators keep coming after you. No matter how many bullets you pump into them, two-by-fours you break over their head, and knives you use to gut them, they still keep coming after you. I like that idea. Zombies are like that, too. If a zombie does not sustain a bullet to the head, it will drag, pull and follow its way to you until you are dead. They don’t know pain. They don’t know exhaustion. They don’t even have a clue they are undead. But one thing’s for sure, they will not give up until they see you screaming in absolute terror, awaiting your fate under their feet.

Apart from my enjoyment of seeing the zombie inclination to persevere, I have fun with the idea that their walk, in a subtle sort of way, embodies the afterlife. Who doesn’t want to know what happens to them when they die? For years, vampires have shown themselves as Horror’s answer to everlasting life. In all truth, though, all things have to end. Enter the zombie. Not much different from vampires, the zombie life depends entirely on the consumption of human victims. The difference being, zombies hunt as part of hordes. Humanity’s fascination with the afterlife has created these creatures as a way to understand what it means to die. What will happen to us? What is the purpose of this life? Why are we here? I don’t know about you, but if I die, I’d rather not imagine a life befitting a zombie. Sounds like a messy affair to me.

The biggest reason I love zombies, and this is purely from a writer’s perspective, is that they can represent anything a writer wants to convey by way of metaphor. In other words, if I want to talk about how oppressive a society is of its people, I can simply write the zombies as a depiction of that society and of its willingness to destroy its victims, eating them to the bone. Same goes for cults that have a way of controlling their brethren. You know the kind, where the members can’t do anything without church consent or recommendation. The zombies in that story become despicable demons bent on absolute destruction of its family members.

The possibility of using metaphors is endless.

So much of what goes on in the media becomes fodder for zombie stories. I can’t dispute the fact that the undead have a way of bringing people together. One day, I’m sure I’ll find out what it all means. Until that day, I’ll keep enjoying movies featuring zombies in thrilling chases, stories about the undead living forever, and of life’s little metaphors.

Now do you see why I like zombies?

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Why do you like zombies?

Freedom Friday

80’s Movie Quotes

Posted on August 8, 2014August 7, 2014 by Jack Flacco

I was watching Commando the other night, not that it’s a movie for the faint of heart but fun nonetheless, and the girl who meets Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character gives him a one-liner that I soon never forgot. Then I realized most of the 80’s movies with Arnie or Sylvester Stallone have an abundant of one-liners no one ought soon to forget.

So, I thought for this Freedom Friday post, I’d give you my favorite one-liners from 80’s movies and perhaps give you a chance to add in your own favorites. If you’re thinking I’m going to have fun with this post—you’re right! After all, the weekend is right around the corner and it’s the perfect segue to start it off on the humorous side. Don’t you think?

Let’s start it off with…

Commando (1985), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger:

Cindy: Can you tell me what this is all about?
Matrix: Yeah, a guy I trusted for years wants me dead.
Cindy: That’s understandable. I’ve only known you for five minutes and I want you dead, too.

Tango & Cash (1989), starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell:

Ray Tango: Do you think he’s telling the truth?
Gabriel Cash: I don’t know. But it’s not raining and he’s standing in a puddle.

Red Heat (1988), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi:

[To a waitress about to freshen his coffee]
Art Ridzik: Look, lady. I just got my coffee the perfect color. It’s the only thing I’ve got going for me tonight.

Die Hard (1988), starring Bruce Willis:

Holly Gennero McClane: I have a request.
Hans Gruber: What idiot put you in charge?
Holly Gennero McClane: You did. When you murdered my boss. Now everybody’s looking to me. Personally, I’d pass on the job. I don’t enjoy being this close to you.

First Blood (1982), starring Sylvester Stallone:

Teasle: Are you telling me that 200 of our men against your boy is a no-win situation for us?
Trautman: You send that many don’t forget one thing.
Teasle: What?
Trautman: A good supply of body bags.

Aliens (1986), starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton:

Ripley: Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?

Rocky IV (1985), starring Sylvester Stallone:

Duke: What’s happening out there?
Rocky: He’s winning… I see three of him out there!
Paulie: Hit the one in the middle.
Duke: Right! Hit the one in the middle.

Technically not from the 80’s, but I couldn’t resist…

Demolition Man (1993), starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes:

Lenina Huxley: I have, in fact, perused some newsreels in the Schwarzenegger Library, and the time that you took that car…
John Spartan: Hold it. The Schwarzenegger Library?
Lenina Huxley: Yes. The Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wasn’t he an actor when you…?
John Spartan: Stop! He was President?
Lenina Huxley: Yes! Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st Amendment, which states…
John Spartan: I don’t wanna know. President…

And that’s just scratching the surface. I’m sure you can come up with more. What do you think?

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What are your favorite movie one-liners?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

The Breakfast Chicks

Posted on May 14, 2014May 8, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Saturday, March 24, 1984, Shermer High School—It begins at 7:00 A.M. with five students serving detention. Each one coming from a different background. Each one has a reason for being there.

“… And these children
that you spit on
as they try to change their worlds
are immune to your consultations.
They’re quite aware
of what they’re going through…”

David Bowie

The John Hughes film The Breakfast Club defined a generation. The song Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds became an anthem. For those of us who can remember that far back, we knew who the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal were. We walked the halls. We stayed in our cliques. The one thing we had in common though was we were all going through the same growing pains. Somehow, we could relate with each other.

Two characters in the movie, Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) and Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) have their problems. Claire’s last name should be Standoffish, since she is a stuck-up little rich girl who daddy pampered all the way to high school. Allison, on the other hand, blends in with the scenery. No one really notices her and no one really cares. Together, they make up the girls of The Breakfast Club.

Claire is a self-absorbed user with nothing on her mind other than herself. In Claire’s world no else matters other than what she buys, who’s she with, and what looks good on her. Don’t be fooled. What she represents is an image her spoiled friends will accept. In that hard shell, however, lies a person with a heart. She feels the awkwardness of being well off, and wishes she wasn’t an object her parents use to get back at each other.

Allison calls herself a nymphomaniac, but later admits to being a compulsive liar. Of course, no one knows this until she opens her mouth and spews out lie after lie to those gullible enough to believe her. Like Claire, Allison pretends to be someone else in order to feel accepted by others. Teen angst runs through her veins and her biggest problem is her parents ignoring her.

In spite of their problems, Claire and Allison recognize who they are in a group therapy session. Meant to spark resolution, the students bare their souls to reveal their true selves to those willing to identify with them.

The results?

Dear Mr. Vernon.

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong but we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, with the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain. And an athlete. And a basket case. A princess. And a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,

The Breakfast Club.

Women Who Wow Wednesday has always been about strong women. Claire and Allison belong here. Their confession to who they are and what they pretend to be provides an opportunity for those wondering what life really was like in the 80’s. In reality though, life in the 80’s was not much different to the way life is now.

Everyone pretends. Everyone wants to be accepted.

If you’re from that era, what does The Breakfast Club mean to you? Who do you identify with in the group?

Freedom Friday

The Eighties

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by Jack Flacco

I grew up in the Eighties when the kids wore bright pastel colors, listened to music that had a happy vibe, and the girls wore outfits with shoulder pads as the de facto fashion statement. Our hair was tall and our walk was light. We didn’t have to worry about texting, messaging, blogging, skyping, tweeting, facebooking or pinning. We led simple lives and had simple dreams. I didn’t have Freedom Friday to write about this.

If we wanted to talk with anyone, we’d call them on the phone, land lines no less. If we wanted to have a more substantial conversation, we’d meet for coffee, sometimes until two or three in the morning. Our yes was yes and our no was no. Our principles meant something.

There was also an unwritten rule: take a penny, leave a penny. If you worked in a gas station in Canada, you already know what I mean. A little tray sat on the counter next to the register, sometimes empty, sometimes filled. If you needed a penny, you simply take one from the tray. If you had one or two to dump, place them in the tray. Some gas stations still have them to this day.

Our Christmases were easy to digest. There were no iPods, iPads, tablets, Kindles or Kobos. We’d received books, cassettes, CDs for gifts. The most we’d splurge on was the Sony Walkman. Tops.

Buying books cost a small fortune at the time. Luckily, I worked in a library giving me the ability to read newly released books for free.

We purchased our music on cassette tapes. If we really liked the album, we’d purchase it as a special edition chrome or metal tape. Many of my friends made a fuss over the quality of normal and chrome bias tapes. I could never hear the difference. Besides, LPs sounded better.

Culture Club's Boy George — Culture Club’s Boy George

Some of the bands that were hot were The Police (the hardest working band of the early Eighties and my favorite), Utravox, J. Geils Band, Culture Club, Duran Duran (incredibly hot), and Bobby McFerrin. Our anthem in our neighborhood was Sunshine Raggae by Laid Back. The radio was what brought us together and the concerts were what made our summers.

We wore baggy pants at the thighs with belt buckles that nearly covered our belly buttons. Our shoes were practical, designed to slip off easily.

Everything was expensive. For a student, it took so much to save for anything, but when we finally purchased it, we appreciated it more. At least the movies were cheap. Four people could go to a matinee for under twenty dollars. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

I suppose the best part about the Eighties was knowing we had our whole life ahead of us. Not much different from what it is today for those growing up.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

If you lived through the Eighties, what is your favorite part?

Freedom Friday

Technology Love

Posted on June 14, 2013June 14, 2013 by Jack Flacco

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I mean, I enjoy playing with new toys and all, but the effort to get them to work exactly how I want them to work kills my love for them. Especially when I find they’ve suddenly become obsolete. Here’s a brief narrative of my experience with technology as part of my Freedom Friday series.

Hogan's Heroes (Photo Credit CBS) — Hogan’s Heroes (Photo Credit CBS)

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Whoops, wrong narrative. Let’s try this again.

Back in the Eighties. Gosh, that does sound like a galaxy far, far away. Anyway, back in the Eighties, I became a lover of the VHS tape recorder. I’d get excited knowing I could tape my favorite program and watch it over and over again. And over and over. I can’t forget how many times I watched a certain episode of Hogan’s Heroes. Why? Well, because I could, of course. I treasured that tape. Looked after it. Coddled it. Then again, I was a geekboy with very little friends. Not really, but you get my point.

Then I discovered I can actually record programs without my being home. I couldn’t believe the instruction manual. All I had to do was program the timer on the display and I can enjoy an evening out playing mini golf with friends while the VCR taped an episode of David Hasselhoff’s Knight Rider. Yeah, yeah. Laugh. I liked the show. What can I say?

David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider (AP Photo/NBC)

That evening the mini golf was a bust. It had rained. I then thought, well, at least the evening wasn’t a total loss. I still had my Knight Rider. I eased in the comfort of my couch, flicked the remote, dimmed the lights, and greeting me was a documentary of the lifespan of a wasp. Fascinating. Where’s my show? Maybe I forgot to click on the TV/VCR switch. Am I getting PBS? Nope. I can see the timer on the display going forward. Second by second. Where’s my show!

It wasn’t the first time I had missed what I wanted to watch because of something that went wrong on the device. It wasn’t only me either. My dad would sometimes forget to change the timer from A.M. to P.M. He’d get lovely shows like three-hour marathons of Korean infomercials spanning the length of the tape. Livid? It isn’t the word I’d use to describe the nuclear meltdowns the VCR would initiate in our household. Oh, and let’s not ignore the chewed-up, mangled tapes the little sucker would spit out those wonderful days whenever the tracking heads were dirty. You might as well have placed crime scene tape at the entrance of our home.

No matter how bad those memories sound, I haven’t described the worst of the worst. If anything stuck in my mind as the epitome of time-recording nonsense in the VCR age, I would have to say it was Daylight Savings Time. All I wanted to do was record my program after 12:00 A.M.. Nothing complicated. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Huh, did I have a lot to learn. It wasn’t until later years that I learned the phrase “spring forward, fall back.” Before then, I was at the mercy of the programming lords of the universe.

For instance in Canada, DST doesn’t kick in until 2:00 A.M. I chuckle knowing the pain this caused. Every Spring and Autumn I was all over that timer. I was always an hour either late or early. Could never figure it out. Of course because it was late at night the programs recorded were less than appropriate for family consumption. The next day, I’d find things on my tape like catching the start of Buxom Bikini Babes from Biloxi staring at me. Believe me, not fun when your mom’s in the same room waiting for a classic movie.

Good golly, thank goodness we now have the internet where we can stream anything we want whenever we want. I don’t know how I survived the early days.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Do you have a technology mishap you’d like to share? Any other memorable moments?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Marion Ravenwood

Posted on May 1, 2013May 2, 2013 by Jack Flacco

If there were a word to describe the dark-haired beauty Karen Allen played in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it would be feisty. I could have chosen fiery, but fiery gives the connotation she has a temper, something I’d attribute to any Molly Ringwald character from the ‘80s. No, feisty’s more like it. Besides, what better way to add another entry to my Women Who Wow Wednesday series than to feature the feisty love interest of Indiana Jones?

Indiana Jones' Marion — Indiana Jones’ Marion

The first time we meet the character Marion Ravenwood is in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones, the adventurous archeologist, visits her in Nepal. Before he enters the scene, she has her hands full in an all-out drinking game. There must have been at least twenty or thirty shot glasses on her side of the table. Whatever the amount, she easily out drinks this burly beast of a man who passes out as a token to her win.

When Indiana Jones shows up, the smile on her face couldn’t be bigger. Long lost love. Past moments. Regrets. This is how it all went down:

Indiana: Hello, Marion.
Marion: Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you’d come walking back through my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable. So, what are you doing here in Nepal?
Indiana: I need one of the pieces your father collected.
[Marion surprises him with a right cross to the jaw]
Marion: I’ve learned to hate you in the last ten years!
Indiana: I never meant to hurt you.
Marion: I was a child. I was in love. It was wrong and you knew it!
Indiana: You knew what you were doing.
Marion: Now I do. This is my place. Get out!

Feisty much? Never one to fold, Marion digs her heels.

Indiana: I can only say I’m sorry so many times.
Marion: Well, say it again anyway!
Indiana: Sorry.

Unfortunately, her bar goes up in smoke when a firefight breaks out between Indiana and the Nazis looking for the same artifact. Seeking payment for the destruction of her place from her former lover, Indiana becomes her new partner.

From there they travel to Tanis, Egypt where Marion finds herself threatened by a knife-wielding hood, is captured by the Nazis, attempts to escape, gets interrogated, is left for dead in an ancient Egyptian tomb with Indiana, fights a brood of snakes, escapes again (this time with Indy), and manages to thwart the transport of the ark to Cairo by single-handedly commandeering a plane and firing its machine guns on the Nazis. Whew!

This girl never lets up! Marion can find herself in the worst possible scenario, and no matter what, she’ll find a way to make it all better. Nothing seems to throw her in the dumps. She’s a fireball of energy. A spitfire of a maiden. A true-to-form overcomer. If anyone needs help, it’ll be the other guy because she’s the one who’ll cause the trouble.

Indiana Jones, you’ve met your match.

Ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark? What did you think of Marion?

Freedom Friday

Today’s Technology

Posted on January 4, 2013December 30, 2012 by Jack Flacco

Here we are again, Freedom Friday. If you’re joining this series for the first time, you can search for all the posts by simply clicking on the Freedom Friday link above this post. For those who need a refresher, I use Freedom Friday to express my views about what’s current, what’s not or anything else that may trickle into this brain of mine at the time of writing.

At this moment, I’m thinking technology. In particular, I’m thinking about how far technology has come from the good ol’ days when a large 27-inch TV and a VCR dominated our entertainment centers. Anyone remember this? For some of us, we had two VCRs—one for recording and one to watch recordings. It made for a simplistic life, but much of what the 80’s had, delved on simplistic.

We cherished those cold, winter evenings when we got back home from work, prepared a warm soup for dinner and plopped on the couch to watch the latest episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Let’s not forget those autumn Tuesday night comedies. How can I forget taping episodes of Home Improvement so I can watch them later. Those episodes always shattered my funny bone for some reason.

So much has changed.

Today, we live as a traveling society. We bring our entertainment with us. We can download any episode of any series we’d like; plop it on our iPods, iPhones, Nexus 7’s, Samsung Galaxy Tab’s, whatever—and we can watch them on the go. Gone are the days where we sit in front of the TV as past generations. The media we consume, at the rate we consume it, is unbelievable to those who’d lived in the VCR age.

Take, for instance, music. I remember a time when I’d recorded my favorite tracks on a cassette tape in a specific order based on how the songs meshed. Then, when I traveled with my Sony Walkman, I could listen to them on the go.

Boy, that no longer happens. At least, I don’t think.

Today, I can carry my entire music library I had carefully culled over the period of decades on my iPod. I have mixtape playlists, compilation playlists and even live playlists (those used when rating songs during my travels).

Insane!

This is what our technology has brought us. We can carry our whole media library anywhere we go and consume it at a bus station, truck stop, library, museum, deli, newsstand, restaurant, friend’s house, wilderness, bus, train, woods, park, walking, hiking, boating, sailing, running, riding, traveling, etc. all in the confines of our realities.

I laugh. How did we do it back in the 80’s?

Anyone else notice how far technology has advanced? Anyone else have the same idea I have with the way we consume our media? What about books? Do you like hardcover books or do you read them on a Kindle or another reader?

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