Don't You Forget About Him.

He was the voice of our generation, and now both CNN and TMZ are reporting that director John Hughes has died of a heart attack at age 59.

I can't embed the last scene from "The Breakfast Club", but here's the link. That's right kids...we were emo before there WAS emo!

Thank you for the earworms, the laughs, and a girl like Miss Molly to look up to during my awkward teen years, man.

With a rebel yell, read more, more, more...

My childhood just exploded.

Holy crap! I'm away from the blog for awhile, and look what happens! The world loses both the coolest poster ever and the King of Pop. Suddenly everyone starts talking about said coolest poster ever, how much more they loved Michael Jackson than they thought they did, and why oh why did Ed McMahon have to take half the world with him. I blame Bea Arthur!

Note to celebrities thinking about dying: give us some time, will ya?!

While we all recover, I'm reopening the polls for our Dale Bozzio Cat Karma Extravaganza. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, refer to this post. We're still counting our prior votes (including one for Cheeze that a friend passed along via Facebook), so go ahead, help us pick! I'm thinking Farrah has an unfair advantage. Boo!!

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Thank you to everyone who has voted and/or sent us little notes on Facebook (feel free to join our page there) about our prior post. Please, help us with the task of choosing between adorable cats to sponsor, by casting your vote in the sidebar!

And now on to something totally ridiculous. Superstar Barbie was, I believe, my first Barbie doll, in a seriously long line of Barbies that hasn't ever really stopped growing. I just saw a few weeks ago that the evil empire of Wal-Mart is now selling a Pink Label reproduction of this famed doll, thus making me contemplate a diet of Ramen and generic Cheetos in order to justify her in my budget. Damn you, Evil Empire-Mart!

Besides being my first, this doll is also the only one who my dad carved the head off of, thus pissing me off for life. He had a totally logical reason (some heinous little brat that had come to my house had broken her leg, and his idea of 'fixing' it was to go all Frankenstein-like with a generic doll providing the other parts. What? I know. Birth control is cheap, why does everyone want to parent?). Luckily, I'm a forgiver. Or maybe I'll just make him buy me this thing to make up for it.

For now, we have this awful ad, with our weird friend Judy, who looks a lot like Barbie Benton, ironically. Enjoy!

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Animal Instincts.

Ok, guys. This is going to be a little more serious than my posts here usually are. I feel like it's something I would be remiss to not address, and I owe it to those of you who read my blogs and buy my CDs to be upfront.

We released Bangs...Sounds of the 80's back in 2002 with a few simple goals: celebrate the music we grew up loving, expose people to amazing new bands they would otherwise not get to know, and have a few dollars left over to send to RAINN after expenses, just like we did for Glue: A Tribute to the Music of Duran Duran a few years earlier.

The fact that we were able to hook up with a few actual 80's stars for the CDs blew our minds. All of the acts were important, but it's been a real thrill we weren't expecting to be able to mention people like Stacey Q, "Nagel Baby" (you know who you are), and Gioia Bruno from Expose in our marketing.

But, I have to be honest--having a song featuring Dale Bozzio was the biggest deal to me. She was an influence who I became an even bigger fan of after I'd met her, because she was so sweet and funny. Just exactly the kind of experience you'd want to have as a fan. And I loved Missing Persons and still think they were a band that didn't get as much credit as they should have.

This is why I was extremely shocked when I was perusing TMZ a few weeks ago (shut up, you know you love it too), and found reference to a story that lead me to this video at CNN, detailing that Dale was arrested for severe animal neglect.

This story (with graphic photos, I wanted to give those of you who may be triggered a heads up) said she was convicted, but I've not really seen any other reports (which, in this age of media overload, I'd expect). So I really don't know what's going on with it all, other than it's definitely not good.

I very much want to believe that Dale is simply a well-meaning person in a situation that got out of hand. Anyone who knows me knows that cats are more than an important part of my life. They, in many ways, rival music in my heart (and sometimes, my desk!). So I had a moment of not knowing exactly how to proceed, either emotionally, or professionally!

But I believe strongly in karma. That doesn't just mean, "What goes around comes around." It also means that we can spread some good in the direction it needs to go. I feel like Dale probably has a lot of people who love her and will be helping her get back on track after whatever happened, and I want to send some good energy to her work, too, to remove the dark shadow that may be cast.

So...in staying transparent with you all, who have been so wonderful to enjoy our music and our blogs over the years, I want you to know that we will still be donating to RAINN from these releases. BUT...we also want to give back to the kitty community, and send a little healing juju Dale's way, to turn this into something good.

Our dear friends at Best Friends have not only found and provided homes for needy animals over their 25 years, rehabilitated sick and abused animals, helped organize No More Homeless Pets groups in many cities (which, thanks to our branch, is responsible for us adopting our boy James), but they are educators. Because of their work, dog fighting and abuse is at the forefront of compassionate work by many mainstream organizations (and probably families like yours!).

So they're our natural choice. In the name of Bangs, and as a good karma act for Dale's music, we're going to be sponsoring a cat that lives at Best Friends.

Here's where you come in! We love them all and can't pick! So, of these three, help us pick the perfect sponsor cat, by clicking the appropriate box in the poll in the sidebar. You don't have to buy the CDs in order to cast a vote (unless you just want them), and if you'd like to donate, instead of to us, head over to Best Friends yourself and pick a cat to sponsor! Know that you'll be doing good for an animal in need, being aided by an organization you can trust to do right by them.

So...Here's our choices. And don't think it wasn't hard to get it down to three. They're lucky I'm not driving out there to pick them all up tonight.

First up, we have Bogart 2. I love that he's a "2", because I had a "Cindy 2" when I was a little girl. In fact, she's the reason I rescue now!

Then we have Cheeze. I have a fondness for marmalades, and this lovely boy could easily win my heart. He looks a lot like my boy Conner, who looks a lot like Cindy 2's boy Butterscotch! So it's a real family thing.

Last, there's Farrah. What a beauty! She reminds me of my Pepper, only a little darker (Pip's gray where Farrah is black). I understand the stand-offish thing, so I could get behind supporting this girl's time to get to know everyone.

So there you, guys! Help us out, and most importantly, help kitties!

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Would the Regal Beagle have been a grocery store?

Admit it: you loved you some Three's Company back in the day. The first few seasons, it almost made sense! Mainly a great venue for John Ritter's pratfalls, Suzanne Somers' boobs, and well...we love Joyce DeWitt anyway, this endearing little slapstick farce wouldn't make it past the treatment phase now.

But once...Jack Tripper was David Bell, and not even a wannabe chef...he was a wannabe filmmaker. There was no Joyce and Suzanne...or Janet and Chrissie...and Stanley Roper was named "George". Say it ain't so! Imagine what could have been with this complete, un-aired pilot (from 1976...but you children of the 80's love the 70's syndicated versions just as much as you love the 80's episodes, you know you do!).

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We're back like Depeche Mode!

Hey all! Took a little hiatus from the blog since the holidays, but 1980's...Neither Mr. T. nor I can quit you. So get ready for more videos, ads, and internet oddities, my retro-friends!

And what better way to make an awesome comeback than with another awesome comeback story. I know...Depeche Mode have never really been gone. Except to me, because I haven't really liked their last couple of albums. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE me some DM, have since I was a wee flippy-haired lass. But they just haven't been moving me in recent years.

But w00t! Offer me a $3.99 CD download at Amazon on release day and I'm there. Sounds of the Universe may be a few dollars more than that now, but it's well worth it, if only for the Music for the Masses-like first single, "Wrong".

Word on the street from other long-term fans I know that didn't initially like the album is that it's an acquired taste, but it sucked me in immediately, old synths and all. Just retro enough, without being overbearing. I give it 4 Banana Clips!

Apparently at least 10,000 or so of you agree with me, because you made CNN! In honor of the Jimmy Kimmel performance referenced (since I missed it when it aired--thank you, YouTube!), here's some fan footage (beats the real deal, since we won't have to watch Kimmel!):





They'll never let me down again.

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The Feeling of Christmas...

Feels like...cotton balls. Fluffy! And reminiscent of the doctor's office.

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