I Love the Eighties, Man!

I expect to be in Paris or Portugal when you read this, taking many pictures and storing up adventures to tell you about when I return. While I may find a computer and Internet to post occasionally, I’m concentrating on just being there and enjoying Paterfamilias’ company. But I’ve taken advantage of Blogger’s delayed publishing feature to leave some posts so that you don’t forget me while I’m gone. Comments are welcome as always, and I’ll see them if/when I check my e-mail. I might not be able to answer them from Europe, but I’ll do my best to respond when I get back.

I’m not really a big 80s fan. The title’s a quotation from the very terrifying Escobar on Nip/Tuck (truly, he’s right up there with Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant and Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast). But I thought you might like to see how one might dress for the 80s now, if, say, one had to attend a 50th birthday party built around that theme. Here are some recent shots from such an event a couple of weekends before I left.

Paul’s look lacks a certain authenticity due to a lack of commitment to the project and to a serious lack of 80s hair. He’s wearing old jeans, hoping they look 80s despite our advice to the contrary. I grabbed as neon a t-shirt as I could find in my quick pass through Value Village, but the secondhand treasure trove meant that he got some corny team logo with his neon. The look is rounded off with a nod to Miami Vice in the form of a linen jacket (39 Euros, summer before last, H&M Paris) with the sleeves rolled up and my Ray-Bans. The light linen jacket was a sub-theme at the party — there were three others!

Much more authentic is my favourite son-in-law, Adam, who has got more use out of this wig than you can imagine.

And my daughters have definitely got the 80s down pat, no? Here they’re working on the big hair

and you’ve got to love these matching dresses — oddly, these dresses, bought secondhand at Value Village, are by different labels, but seem to be exactly the same other than colour. and what about an 80s group — or at least, rocker and groupies

On the way to the party, we had to stop to buy the BYOB, andAdam, ham that he is, didn’t mind getting out, which was good, since no one else would. That group on the sidewalk stopped laughing and talking about him when they saw him walk back out, but they were pretty amused.

So we dared Rhiannon, and she declined, until we sweetened the pot and made it a monetary bet. Then she took it to the streets.Oh, and I suppose it’s only fair that I show you my own garb, also a Value Village find. I could double as a linebacker. And yes, I know what Adam’s doing in the background — so childish!That was then. In the now, I’m trying to look more sophisticated somewhere in Europe. A bientôt