Words Seem Out Of Place

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. ***** A note on the series and this site: This might be the final post in the "Misspent Youth" series - at least here. Maybe it'll eventually move with me. Oh, right, I buried the lede: I've moved, and would love for you to come visit me at my new site, The Starfire Lounge ! Moving forward, this site will likely cease to be updated, but will remain around for posterity and your continued reading pleasure. I have a few more things to post here over the coming days or weeks as a sort of "everything must go" send-off to the old girl. I also plan to write a final farewell post to my main online home for the last five years. Stay tuned and, as always, thanks for reading. ***** It's no surprise that the talented but now mostly forgotten Randi Brooks would make an appearance in the Misspent Youth series. She may not be a household name, but her resume...

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. When a friend tweeted recently that the first season of the criminally underrated 1980 sitcom  It's a Living,  about waitresses at the Above the Top restaurant located atop a swanky Los Angeles hotel, had appeared on Amazon Prime, I literally shouted out loud with joy. Then I spent the rest of the work day eagerly anticipating binging it later that night. Now, I hadn't seen the show since the 1980s, probably in reruns and when it was in its syndicated run (and retitled as Making a Living ). The series debuted in 1980, when I was in kindergarten, and it's entirely possible I watched it as it aired because, as I keep coming back to in this series, we Gen Xers were practically raised by the plethora of excellent pop culture of an era that coincided with the true golden age of the television sitcom. It's a Living will likely never be considered among the greats, but ...

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen Xer's gloriously misspent youth. The American actress Carol Lynley passed away earlier this year at 77, leaving behind a strong legacy on stage and in film. Born Carol Ann Jones in Manhattan in 1942, she began her career as a child model before seguing into acting. Lynley went on to star in several noteworthy film and television roles over the years, ranging from the controversial teen pregnancy drama Blue Denim (in which she starred on Broadway in 1958 and in the film version the following year) to the sex comedy Under the Yum Yum Tree (in 1963 alongside Jack Lemmon) to one of the most successful disaster movies of the 1970s, The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Lynley appeared in episodic television from Police Woman to Charlie's Angels , and the occasional TV movie, like 1972's The Night Stalker . That smile. Wherever she appeared, Lynley made an impression. Blonde, blue-eyed, and stunningly beautiful,...

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. I was born smack in the middle of the "Me decade," the 1970s, so I missed 1972's sociocultural atom bomb,  Deep Throat . Still, the most famous porn film in history sent shockwaves through the culture, the reverberations of which were felt long after the film left theaters. In the early 1980s, kids were still whispering its name, and the name of its legendary—and legendarily talented—star, Linda Lovelace. So, while it was several more years before some of us actually witnessed Lovelace's, um, talents, she was certainly a known commodity to kids my age. Born Linda Susan Boreman in the Bronx in 1949, Lovelace first starred in a series of hardcore "loops" at the behest of her husband/manager/pimp Chuck Traynor. She went on to do a small clutch of films, both porn and otherwise, none more famous than Deep Throat . Traynor had discovered Boreman's astoni...

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen Xer's gloriously misspent youth. I first laid eyes on screen and stage actress Kate Nelligan watching John Badham's Dracula (1979) a few years after its release. Even at that time, at a very young age of seven or eight, I was captivated by her. I understood nothing about romance or attraction yet, but I could still see why Frank Langella's Dracula wanted to sink his teeth into that neck. There was something in her eyes—an attractive melancholy that I'd be increasingly drawn to as I got older and became more melancholy myself. She had a pensive, thoughtful look. Something about her face felt safe and comforting to little me: "This," some omniscient narrator declared in my head, "is what quiet beauty looks like, kid." Nelligan was heartbreakingly good as Lucy in Dracula . That must've been the early 1980s, probably during the brief halcyon period when my parents subscribed to...