A celebration of Zoom's 50th

Half a century later, I can still sing the address: "Write Zoom. Z, double-O, M. Box 3-5-0. Boston, Mass. 0-2-1-3-4. Send it to Zoom!"

Read my essay/appreciation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking kids show Zoom.

The '80s, 'D&D' And Pre-Tech Nostalgia Return In 'Stranger Things'

Why is "Stranger Things," the original Netflix sci-fi series full of 1980s nostalgia, synthesized music, kids on bikes and "Dungeons & Dragons," so popular? How do the references to other 1980s films influence the reception of the TV series? I appeared on WBUR's Radio Boston to discuss. Listen to the archived show here.

Book Picks on WGBH

Um, how terrifying is TV? Not so bad, once you're on camera. And the time just flies.

I'm late to posting this, but I appeared before Xmas on WGBH's Greater Boston program with Andre Dubus (House of Sand and Fog) and Marianne Leone (Jesse, a Mother’s Story). We discussed our holiday book selections. 

Watch below, or get the video plus text of our book picks right on the WGBH site.

Appearance on the Discovery Channel program

I was lucky to be interviewed for a Discovery Channel program called "Forbidden" that has begun to air around the world. Last I heard, the program was being aired in Poland, Indonesia, and a zillion other countries. Not sure when it actually aired in the U.S., if at all. But someone kindly tracked down an excerpt on YouTube. Here's a snippet from the Nordic "dark Larp" segment I appeared in. I'm also supposed to be in other episodes about farmer role-playing (don't ask), people who dress up like animals, and mermaid subcultures. For some reason, I look a little grumpy in this still. I'm probably just role-playing.More information here.

Happy Birthday, MTV

Who killed the video star? Was it MTV? (Pictured: Video for "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles)Wait, I’m how old?

Yep, MTV — that’s “Music Television” for those of you who may have forgotten what the acronym “MTV” stands for — just turned 30 years old yesterday. It was on Aug. 1, 1981 that MTV aired “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. Since that time, MTV indeed did sort of kill the radio star. Or, at least, MTV ushered in a new age of image-, not music-based, music consumption.

Once upon a time, MTV more or less controlled the music industry, or at least the popular understanding of music and its increasingly coiffed image. If you recall, MTV played music videos hosted by on-air hosts known as “VJs.” Remember Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn? Wasn’t J.J. really annoying?

Kids like me growing up in a small, rural town didn’t have cable. So to catch MTV, I had to hang out at my friends’ houses in the next bigger town to see the likes of David Bowie, Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Culture Club, The Fixx, The Police, and The Cars strut down the street, play their guitars on rooftops and enact some hokey drama involving street gangs, locker rooms or candles blowing in the wind.

The channel quickly has its imitators: HBO had a program called Video Jukebox, SuperStation WTBS created Night Tracks, NBC launched their MTV-like Friday Night Videos, ABC had its ABC Rocks, and TBS started the Cable Music Channel, then sold it to MTV, who turned it into VH1.

In its day, MTV had a profound impact on the music industry and popular culture. But by the 1990s, the video had lost much of its appeal and novelty, and MTV began programming (and pioneering) reality TV series such as “The Real World,” “Jackass,” and talk shows such as “Loveline” and “The Jon Stewart Show,” and later, celebrity-based reality shows like “The Osbournes.”

The times they have changed. I prefer to think of those days of the 1980s,when like parrots we’d repeat the slogan “I want my MTV” and stay up late watching Van Halen, RATT, and Def Leppard videos (in between watching Heavy Metal for the 7th time and checking to see if the signal from the Playboy Channel was still scrambled. Yep, still scrambled).

Here’s a link to the other 10 “first” videos that ever aired that day: Aug. 1, 1981.

The occasion of MTV’s  anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how we consume music and the Hollywood star system. And what changes the Internet has already wrought. It’s YouTube and Facebook that monopolizes our time. Do people even listen to the radio any more?

Meanwhile, is it fair to say that iTunes killed the video star?

[This post originally appeared on wired.com's Geek Dad]