OMD - Metroland

(Via Jared Braden)

HomoQuotable - Richard Kim

"By January 1984, New York City under Koch’s leadership had spent a total of just $24,500 on AIDS. That same year, San Francisco, a city one tenth the size of New York, spent $4.3 million, a figure that grew to over $10 million annually by 1987. The mayor of San Francisco during those years was Dianne Feinstein, who like Koch was no radical. She came from the centrist coalition that included Dan White, the city supervisor who murdered Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, whose office Feinstein assumed in the wake. Like Koch, she had a troubled relationship with the gay community (she infamously vetoed a domestic partnership bill in 1983). And like Koch, she was, above all, a political opportunist with national ambitions who happened to live in a liberal city with a large, politically active gay population. But she was straight, and paradoxically, that made a difference in how those two cities treated people with AIDS in those formative years.

"Ed Koch might not have been in a position to accelerate antiretroviral drug development or slow the transmission of HIV on a national scale, but he definitely could have made the lives of thousands of people with AIDS in New York City a whole lot more humane, which might also have extended some of those lives until an effective treatment was available. That he has blood on his hands seems likely. That he is guilty of the curious combination of paranoia, myopia, self-interest and callousness that so often attaches to closeted public officials seems undeniable. Would the fight against AIDS been helped had Ed Koch come out of the closet? Possibly. But it definitely would have been better had he just been straight. God bless his surely weary soul. I won’t." - Richard Kim, writing for The Nation.

Read the full essay.

Bananarama Releases New EP

Thirty years after first hitting the charts and now pared down to a duo, Bananarama has released a four track EP of dance numbers that seem right out of the Almighty catalog. Here's a sampler.

(Via Allure Of Sound)

Susannah Hoffs - Picture Me

Bangles lead singer Susannah Hoffs steps out solo with a new track and video that features a young lesbian couple.

Aimee Mann - Labrador

Amusing set-up with Jon Hamm, who plays a director who wants to do a shot-for-shot remake of Mann's debut 1983 hit, Voices Carry.

(Via - Boy Culture)

When Raquel Met The Leathermen

Gothamist has dug up a vintage 1980 television dance sequence in which Raquel Welch encounters some stereotypical New Yorkers on the subway. Jive-talkin' blacks! Hot-blooded Latinas! Dancing leathermen! All the boys are gay gay gay, of course.

Aimee Mann - Charmer

The Voices Carry singer is back with a new track and a video featuring Laura Linney as her too-talented robot double. Paging Margo Channing...

Teach The Children About Hammertime

I actually do remember JFK's assassination rather vividly and I was only four years old. Source.

Tetris Light

On sale for $47. I would change it every day.

(Via Buzzfeed)

The Fixx - Anyone Else

Some fans of 80s chart-toppers The Fixx aren't pleased with the new video from the band, which features Westboro stand-ins being splashed with mud by an angry mob of kids. The below clip also appears to support the Occupy movement. The Fixx is still touring after 33 years and scored four Top 20 pop hits in the early 80s after heavy rotation during the first years of MTV.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

#1 Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

Kraftwerk's only American pop chart hit was 1975's dreamy and iconic Autobahn, which got to #25. They had more success on the dance chart, such as with Telephone Call, which rode the top for two weeks in 1987.

Madonna Goes Pop: Jean Paul Gaultier Launches Madge-Inspired Diet Coke Ads

Sorry fan boys, the bottles are sold only in Europe.

#1 Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

In 1977 Jody Watley was plucked from the Soul Train dance floor to become part of Shalamar, Don Cornelius' grudging acknowledgement of disco, the genre he scorned nearly as much as he would later loathe hip-hop. In 1987, ten years after Shalamar began a long run of hit singles on the pop, R&B, and club charts, Watley's debut solo release, Looking For A New Love, was her first of seven smashes to top Billboard's dance chart. TRIVIA 1: An electronica remix returned the single to #1 in 2005. TRIVIA 2: The single's most memorable line, "Hasta la vista, baby," was later spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. TRIVIA 3: Even though Shalamar had a Top Ten pop hit in 1979 with The Second Time Around, in 1987 Jody Watley won the Grammy for Best New Artist.

#1 Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

When I saw them perform this at Uncle Charlie's in Miami, the bartenders all wore white wigs too. At least, that's how I remember it.

#1 Thirty Years Ago Today

Ian Dury & The Blockheads member Chaz Jankel went solo and scored the longest-running dance hit of 1982 with seven weeks atop Billboard's chart. This is still one of my all-time favorite tracks and vividly recalls the first time I stepped into Fort Lauderdale's sprawling Backstreet complex during a riotous Sunday t-dance over that year's spring break. Trivia 1: Quincy Jones' 1981 hit Ai No Corrida was a Jankel original. Trivia 2: You might be more familiar with Jankel from Number One, his minor 1985 hit on the Real Genius soundtrack. Trivia 3: The innovative clip for Jankel's 1981 hit Questionnaire was an huge favorite in the then-nascent video bar scene.

#1 Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

An uncharacteristic blemish on their discography. Corn!

Girls Cartoons That Boys Watched

"It's cartoon coming out day!"

Trike - Makeout In The Sun

I suppose Canada's Trike is poking some fun at 80s pop (talk about low-hanging fruit), but this reminds me so much of The The, I'm loving it.

Gloria Estefan - Miss Little Havana

After an eight year dry spell, Gloria Estefan returns with the below Neptunes-produced flashback to 80s freestyle, complete with the genre's famously corny lyrics. Last week Estefan took some heat from activists after signing an exclusive deal with Target. Calling gay fans her "core audience," Estefan praised Target's efforts to right itself with the LGBT community.

"I know that they donated to a third party who then donated to this candidate and - I did my homework - since then they donated $150,000 to that candidate. They apologized profusely for having done so, and they have established an actual committee that oversees all political donations to make sure that this doesn't happen again. They've also donated a half-million dollars to LGBT organizations. They're part of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. They give domestic partner benefits. They have 300,000 employees that are from all walks of life, and it's very important for them to be supportive. They've extended family medical leave benefits and adoption benefits to their gay employees. They've really supported very much their gay peeps."

Madonna Launches True Blue Contest

To mark the 25th anniversary of its release.

(Via - Pop In Stereo)