You're browing the archives for the month of April 2013

Top Five Settings in Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop” Video

1. “Burger Klone,” the fast-food restaurant serving biker gangs and lines of zombie-like (presumably non-masturbating) customers. 2. “Uncle Siggy’s Masterbingo,” a game show hosted by Freud–Lauper is a big winner. 3. A cartoon landscape, brilliantly animated by Gary Panter of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Mark Marek in a mode only slightly less realistic than Lauper herself. 4. […]

posted 29 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 5 comments

VJs Live and in Person

Hey, good people! As you may have heard, I have a book coming out on May 7, called VJ, written with the original MTV VJs (Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn). If you want to hear Mark talk about “the $10,000 haircut” he got from MTV, to learn the secrets of Adam […]

posted 26 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 2 comments

Friday Foto: Palm Tree

Greetings from sunny California.

posted 26 April 2013 in Photos. no comments yet

Hey, Kids! Free Excerpts!

Perhaps you can’t wait twelve days for the publication of VJ, the book I wrote with original MTV personalities Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn. Perhaps you are wishing that a tabloid would excerpt some of the juiciest passages, with stories about David Lee Roth, David Bowie, Madonna, and John Cougar. Then […]

posted 25 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff, Links. no comments yet

Top Five Looks in Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” Video

1. Springsteen, with sideburns, in blue jeans, a thick black belt, and a white short-sleeve shirt half-unbuttoned. 2. Clarence Clemons, with sunglasses and a high-top fade. 3. Max Weinberg, in a paisley shirt and vest, with a puffy haircut that looks like it’s trying to escape from his scalp. 4. Roy Bittan, with a pre-grunge […]

posted 22 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 1 comment

Top Five Elements in Yes’s “Owner of a Lonely Heart” Video

1. The voiceover “Maybe there’s another way to do this,” which prompts the members of Yes to transform into animals, like a prog-rock Justice League of Lycanthropes. 2. The protagonist (of a Kafkaesque tale of abduction and escape) washing his face with maggots. 3. Lead singer Jon Anderson’s ruddy complexion, feathered hair, and elaborately paneled […]

posted 15 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 2 comments

Top Five Elements of John Waite’s “Missing You” Video

1. Waite kicking off the video by giving the overhead lamp a push, better to get the drama of an oscillating light. 2. Waite looking gaunt to the point of ill health. 3. Waite’s powder-blue suit, worn nonironically. 4. Waite singing the song’s chorus as he walks down a city sidewalk, eyeballed by pedestrians who […]

posted 8 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 7 comments

Expert Lagniappe

My favorite part of doing The Experts was tackling the Hardest Question in the World, which tested the outer limits of Carrollania:

posted 3 April 2013 in Links. no comments yet

The Experts

I hadn’t been on a game show for a while, so when the good people at The Experts, your new favorite YouTube game show, asked if I would come on and demonstrate my expertise in something nonmusical, I was happy to compete on the basis of my decades-long obsession with Alice in Wonderland. Curious how […]

posted 2 April 2013 in Links. no comments yet

Top Five Madonna Identities in “Borderline”

I know you’ve been thinking, “Hey, Gavin! VJ, that book you wrote with the original MTV hosts Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn–when does it come out? Can I preorder it? Are you going to do any fun MTV stuff before its publication?” Well, I’m glad you asked. The publication date is […]

posted 1 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 1 comment