i wanna give a shout out to the year 1985. it was, pop culturally, a really transformative year for me. not the actual year, per se, but what came forth from it. such as...

ronald reagan is sworn in for his second term





we are the world
i love the description on this particular youtube upload: "its by michael jackson and a couple of people. and its super touching :]"

compact discs

the dairy queen blizzard

the tv show growing pains

a ton of great movies, including a few of my absolute all-time faves:

spies like us






fletch




back to the future




the goonies

some killer cartoons:

m.a.s.k.




thundercats




wuzzles






and one of the biggest, eternally insignificant, influences of my entire life: the nintendo entertainment system

1985... my hat's off to you. (readers, if you're not standing and applauding by now, i worry about you and am sad for you.)


honorable mentions: microsoft windows 1.0 is released (figured that might draw some jeers), teen wolf, disney's gummi bears, jem

i may be getting old(er) but i'm still young in SOME senses. this was confirmed to me the other day when my mom had me set her DVR for tuesday night to record all her faves. she later commented that it's her favorite night of tv.

i thought to myself, "self, tuesday is the void of the tv week*. it's the one night i could go without and not think 'i missed such and such.' funny that it's her favorite." i ASSUME it's a generational thing. could be wrong i guess.

mom, you read this blog. wanna set me straight in the comments section? ; )


on the other hand, i do like to watch monk and psych with my parents on fridays. next thing you know i'll be wearing black socks with tennis shoes and shorts (like my brother...)




*tuesday used to have house, right? but now it's on monday? i guess tuesday has AI when it's in season. still, thursday is the king of the tv week... not tuesday.

mule train came up on my ipod this morning. it always reminds me of this:

so THIS is how to do ministry...

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

full disclosure: i have had my hair cut at tony and guy (but NEVER highlighted) and used intro music for message series. BUT i hope the comparisons end shortly thereafter!

(and the rest of you, i guess. but specifically the roberts girls, who haven't wavered in their HSM proselytizing!)

mr. walter disney gets weird, but just dismiss him...

just saw this on talk show with spike feresten.

the only place i found that still had the video up was linked to college humor (a site that i do NOT vouch for or recommend)... no telling how long it will be up. if the video is gone, you can watch it here.

i never gave up on snl. of course, i started watching live eps in the late 80s after the anthony michael-hall, terry sweeny years. not sure i would have lasted through those.

my appreciation really intensified after reading Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests and Gasping for Airtime: Two Years In the Trenches of Saturday Night Live. it's crazy what goes into making each show... even the bad ones!

i'll admit. the show has had some really unfunny patches and REALLY UNFUNNY CAST MEMBERS, but each season has had a few cast members who are just funny to watch... even in unfunny skits.

most recently, thanks to tina fey's palin sketches, the masses are tuning in again. while the show is not the best it's ever been, i'm still watching AND still laughing thanks in large part to kristen wiig. everyone knows she's the goldmine on the show and it can get annoying seeing her featured so prominently in so many sketches. give her a break. she's done so many characters that they're starting to overlap. please, snl, use her sparingly. i could have done without gilly this past week... but not without her kathy lee gifford impersonation! check it out below.

WARNING: PG-13 (i wanted to rate it so no one gets offended. i've been more sensitive after our student ministry took heat for showing remember the titans on the way to camp several years ago.) also, i tried to use hulu's clip editing feature to get rid of the pelvic thrusting at the end, but i'm not sure it's working every time or at all. so when doogie shows up, you can stop after he "krunks it" and save yourself the blushing.



while the chases, hartmans, ferrells, murrays, murphys, feys and poehlers are gone, the current cast (in addition to wiig) has some really solid performers (hader, sudekis, thompson) who shouldn't be ignored and the new chicks (elliot and watkins) seem promising, too.

granted, the show ain't what it could be and i fast forward through 99.9% of the musical guests. but i'm committed to this relationship. a 34-year-old show should be allowed some misses. snl at it's worst was still better than mad tv, imo.

wilsonian, out.

so my brother writes this mammoth Christmas letter every year, updating friends and relatives on the things that have happened since the previous letter. it's a great way to catch people up on the milestones and anecdotes from their lives and to express gratitude for God's provision and grace, etc. there's always a cute pic of my nieces in some Christmas-y scenario that they get to dress up and pose for in october or something.

it's great. it's also reminder #638 that i need a life. heh. my year-in-review could fit in a twitter or a facebook status. i joked this year with my mom about writing a "jeremy addendum" and having my brother slip it in with his letter. i'da foot some of the postage with him. maybe next year...

UPDATE: i was just trying to be silly with this post, not ungrateful. a lot has happened this year and i've been blessed beyond measure. perhaps i'll recap 2008 just before 2009 hits...

remember these little guys? pretty polarizing as i remember it, but i liked 'em!