"boring ollie north down in the subway dealing drugs and guns"
March 21, 2017 3:47 PM Subscribe
30 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1987 "Three decades ago, the long-fought Iran-Iraq war had reached a deadly stalemate, the stock markets took a huge hit on Black Monday in October, American politicians were gearing up for the 1988 presidential race, Baby Jessica was rescued from a well, broadcast live on CNN, and much more. Photographers were also busy documenting the lives of Pee-wee Herman, Menudo, Mikhail Gorbachev, Howard Stern, Princess Diana, Donald Trump, Bernie Goetz, and many others. Take a step into a visual time capsule now, for a brief look at the year 1987." (Alan Taylor, The Atlantic)
Empire of the Senseless indeed.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 4:03 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 4:03 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Jesus, that shot of Liza Minnelli. Her face. She knows.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:04 PM on March 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 4:04 PM on March 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
biggest sporting event of the year.
Umm...
posted by uncleozzy at 4:06 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Umm...
posted by uncleozzy at 4:06 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
A lot of these people look kind of sickly. Except Bowie. Bowie looks feral.
posted by thelonius at 4:09 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 4:09 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
I was 16 for most of 1987. I thought mostly about sex.
posted by jonmc at 4:11 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 4:11 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
I was in the middle of a multi-year deep depression; looks like I didn't miss much.
posted by soakimbo at 4:14 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by soakimbo at 4:14 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Too young to remember any of it other than Pee Wee and Mr. Potato Head. Why does all of the women's makeup look so chalky?
posted by eeek at 4:30 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by eeek at 4:30 PM on March 21, 2017
ST:TNG debuted that fall. Also my roommates and I sat in a bar and ordered shots as the market fell. Also also I still labored under the ridiculous delusion that I might have a future as, either, an actor or (oddly) a Russian historian. (I did neither.)
Now get off my lawn,
posted by octobersurprise at 4:36 PM on March 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
Now get off my lawn,
posted by octobersurprise at 4:36 PM on March 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
I was born so that's cool
posted by dismas at 4:44 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by dismas at 4:44 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wow, the Great Storm of 1987. I had nearly forgotten about that. It literally blew a car onto the football pitch at our school. I remember the wreckage was still there on the first day we got back.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by LeRoienJaune at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2017
1987: also about the high tide of Sophisti-pop.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by octobersurprise at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2017
I was a 23-year-old newlywed at the beginning of 1987 and that summer my wife and I moved to Chicago so I could go to graduate school. It was a hard, hard year for us.
posted by briank at 4:47 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by briank at 4:47 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Those felt like some shitty fucking times in terms of news and politics.
posted by drlith at 4:49 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by drlith at 4:49 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Morgan Fairchild looks like she's going to take a bite out of Pee Wee Herman (who's looking a bit powdered doughnut).
posted by kokaku at 4:54 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by kokaku at 4:54 PM on March 21, 2017
I was 16 for most of 1987. I thought mostly about sex. With a little room left over for music and booze.
posted by jonmc at 4:55 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by jonmc at 4:55 PM on March 21, 2017
Whoops on subway sorru
posted by jonmc at 4:56 PM on March 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 4:56 PM on March 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
This is really confusing me! It seems I have my memories all mixed up. I know I was in Rome when Black Monday was reported, in a bus heading out of town. But then all the other memories are really hard to get into the right slots…
I think I also went to New York for the first time that year, and to Tunnel (nightclub).
Anyway, I mostly came in to say that not all women had huge hair and chalky make-up, and it wasn't really fashionable either. The 90's "supermodels" were just starting up wearing Azzedine Alaïa, and then there were people like Cindy Lauper and Madonna who represented a more street style, as well as all the punk and rock people, like Blondie and Nina Hagen. And Laurie Anderson. And Sade for the cool people.
This image of the 80's as something completely pastel colored and big-haired (for all genders) really bothers me, and I think it's because it is as if mainstream America just won history, while all sorts of other far more interesting cultures and subcultures were going on but have been almost completely eroded. It's as if someone decided that the rightwing blondes on Fox news are the most representative women of our time.
posted by mumimor at 5:05 PM on March 21, 2017 [8 favorites]
I think I also went to New York for the first time that year, and to Tunnel (nightclub).
Anyway, I mostly came in to say that not all women had huge hair and chalky make-up, and it wasn't really fashionable either. The 90's "supermodels" were just starting up wearing Azzedine Alaïa, and then there were people like Cindy Lauper and Madonna who represented a more street style, as well as all the punk and rock people, like Blondie and Nina Hagen. And Laurie Anderson. And Sade for the cool people.
This image of the 80's as something completely pastel colored and big-haired (for all genders) really bothers me, and I think it's because it is as if mainstream America just won history, while all sorts of other far more interesting cultures and subcultures were going on but have been almost completely eroded. It's as if someone decided that the rightwing blondes on Fox news are the most representative women of our time.
posted by mumimor at 5:05 PM on March 21, 2017 [8 favorites]
Before you go getting all "wow '87 really did suck didn't it" remember: Nitzer Ebb released That Total Age in 1987 and it was brilliant. Still is.
True, there were others it's just this post dovetailed with a search I was doing for N.E. track info.
posted by Zack_Replica at 5:14 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
True, there were others it's just this post dovetailed with a search I was doing for N.E. track info.
posted by Zack_Replica at 5:14 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Understandably, because we had been so captivated by it, Baby Jessica's rescue from the well was announced between plays during the high school football game that night. The announcement received a standing ovation. It was like the most classic Friday night in Texas possible.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:21 PM on March 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by mudpuppie at 5:21 PM on March 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
Is Frank Viola letting out an otherworldly bloodcurdling scream here? 'Cause I'm getting major "Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibes off that photo.
posted by anthom at 5:24 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by anthom at 5:24 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
That was a fun time capsule (except for the photos of Sanders, Pelosi, and Biden, whom nobody cared about then, included just because they're famous now, a cheap trick)—I'd forgotten all about the "gar-barge," which dominated the tabloid headlines for weeks. I was working in Midtown Manhattan in those days. The Viola photo reminded me that the Mets went 92-70 that year and lost out to the fucking Cardinals. Again. Bah. Anyway, great post!
posted by languagehat at 5:35 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 5:35 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I was in my last year of college, and the world was scary and bleak. But holed up in a little town in Oregon, everything seemed far away. The decade of Reagan was really no fun at all for us kids, but holy shit, we had no idea what was coming down the pike.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:55 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:55 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
A 1987 photo shows televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker while they were still married. Tammy later divorced Jim while he was in prison for bilking 116,000 followers of his PTL ministries out of $158 million in the 1980s.
Eh. He's still doing it, only with prepper slurry:
Home >Christmas Offers > Emergency Food > Tasty Pantry Basic Bucket
Tasty Pantry Basic Bucket
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posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:05 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Eh. He's still doing it, only with prepper slurry:
Home >Christmas Offers > Emergency Food > Tasty Pantry Basic Bucket
Tasty Pantry Basic Bucket
Our most popular basic food recipes all in one bucket! The Tasty Pantry Basic Bucket includes 273 servings of warm and delicious comfort food! 46¢ per serving! 25-Year Shelf Life!
Total Calories: 44,230
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:05 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
One thing that strikes me is how the famous people's teeth don't have that blindingly white polish. They look more normal.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
And Sade for the cool people.
Parachute pants! I just remembered: the coolest girl in my dorm wore parachute pants. As to Sade, I have the distinct memory of going to my fave pizza place, which was open late and featured one of those projection TVs, and watching some kind of Sade marathon, probably on Night Flight. It was all very cozy.
But beyond Sade, albums that came out that year:Sign O The Times, Jane's Addiction, Diesel And Dust, by Midnight Oil, and REM's Document.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:40 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
Parachute pants! I just remembered: the coolest girl in my dorm wore parachute pants. As to Sade, I have the distinct memory of going to my fave pizza place, which was open late and featured one of those projection TVs, and watching some kind of Sade marathon, probably on Night Flight. It was all very cozy.
But beyond Sade, albums that came out that year:Sign O The Times, Jane's Addiction, Diesel And Dust, by Midnight Oil, and REM's Document.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:40 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
So much film grain! It's a little shocking to see that after getting used to bland digital photography for the last couple of decades.
posted by octothorpe at 6:43 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:43 PM on March 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's funny, because I was teasing my younger co-worker who was born in 1988, and I told him that nothing interesting happened in global geopolitics in the year that he was born.
posted by ovvl at 6:59 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by ovvl at 6:59 PM on March 21, 2017
In 1987 I was a fresh dropout from college and spending most of my time on my friends' couch getting high and watching CNN all day for all of the political and religious scandals that were happening then. Amazing that it was thirty years ago now.
posted by octothorpe at 7:20 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 7:20 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
That Bowie picture is wrong, it's apparently from 1983. He wasn't so blond by '87.
Besides Baby Jessica, I don't remember much about 1987 in the news. It was a very rough year for me, personally, and I was 17/18. The one great thing about that year was leaving the awful people I'd been obligated to live with for 14 years. And yes, Document. When I think of pop culture in 1987, that album dominates it for me. Had it on repeat on my cheap portable CD player.
posted by droplet at 8:18 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Besides Baby Jessica, I don't remember much about 1987 in the news. It was a very rough year for me, personally, and I was 17/18. The one great thing about that year was leaving the awful people I'd been obligated to live with for 14 years. And yes, Document. When I think of pop culture in 1987, that album dominates it for me. Had it on repeat on my cheap portable CD player.
posted by droplet at 8:18 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
That shot of Liza with Kissinger and the Trumps is giving me the horrors. It looks like an Aphex Twin video.
On the other hand, it reminds you a bit about the context behind some of the things from 1988.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:47 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
On the other hand, it reminds you a bit about the context behind some of the things from 1988.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:47 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
19. Wearing traditional robes of the Invisible Empire, Ku Klux Klan members form a circle around a burning cross in Rumford, Maine on September 27, 1987. Lead by the group’s national leader Imperial Wizard James W. Farrands,I was closing in on the end of my teen years in 1987. I suspect by the time I turn 75, the distinction between the present tense "lead" and the past tense "led" (and also between the present tense "read" and the past tense "read") will be as fusty as the the proper conjugations for the pronoun "thou."
Whoops on subway sorru
Don't worru about it.
In 1987, I left university indefinitely, moved to Montreal aimlessly with the dwindling savings of a well-paying summer job to fund myself, crashed on a friend's couch, and wandered my new city with a newly-purchased cassette of Abbey Road playing endlessly on my Walkman. The lines,
"Out of college, money spent,
See no future, pay no rent,
All the money's gone, nowhere to go."
... summon up fall leaves crunching under my sneakers in Outremont in a way nothing else ever will.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:51 PM on March 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Is Frank Viola letting out an otherworldly bloodcurdling scream here? 'Cause I'm getting major "Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibes off that photo.
That's not where I went.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:55 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
That's not where I went.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:55 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile they were dancing at Stratus Dance Club (SoCal's preeminent alcohol-free, under-21 dance club. Located in Casa de Oro, a San Diego suburb at the foot of Mt. Helix) until it closed in 1987.
posted by unliteral at 10:15 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by unliteral at 10:15 PM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Hey, that was the time they nearly broke the GG Bridge by letting a million people on it at once. I'd forgotten about that.
posted by fshgrl at 10:46 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by fshgrl at 10:46 PM on March 21, 2017
all i can remember about 1987 right now was that i was in junior high school, so by definition it was one of the worst years of my life
posted by murphy slaw at 11:26 PM on March 21, 2017
posted by murphy slaw at 11:26 PM on March 21, 2017
My brother went to the Boys State national convention that year and told us that most of the people there were pro ollie.
posted by brujita at 11:29 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 11:29 PM on March 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Serious weather in the UK? Naah, Michael Fish said it would be alright.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:47 AM on March 22, 2017
posted by MartinWisse at 1:47 AM on March 22, 2017
all i can remember about 1987 right now was that i was in junior high school, so by definition it was one of the worst years of my life
Can confirm. Was in junior high, got braces and glasses in the same year.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:43 AM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
As usual, William Shatner appears in order to save us from ourselves.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:09 AM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:09 AM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
Carrying the ironically named Compaq "Portable" III on trains and buses gave my wife a Michelle Obama-toned upper body configuration and strength.
posted by Chitownfats at 7:12 AM on March 22, 2017
posted by Chitownfats at 7:12 AM on March 22, 2017
I was working at IBM in Chicago in 1987, had just moved into my first house ever, in Rogers Park, just down the street from Indian Boundary Park. I was so naive back then......
posted by pjern at 8:39 AM on March 22, 2017
posted by pjern at 8:39 AM on March 22, 2017
Meanwhile they were dancing at Stratus Dance Club ...
Those are great. It's definitely 1987 in those videos. I sort of fell down the rabbit hole of 1987-iana so I'll just dump it all on you:
• From the late, great, Nelson Sullivan: The First Nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village. Watch for the yellow They Might Be Giants flyer on the street pole.
• Sullivan, A Ride on the Cyclone Roller Coaster at Coney Island in 1987.
• Closer to Myville, Sullivan: In the dressing room with The Butthole Surfers at the 688 Club, 1986. I went to the 688 Club for the first time that summer. I saw my first drag queen there and I saw someone shoot up in the bathroom.
• Sullivan, Riding Aunt Nancy around Columbia SC. In 1987, the Pope visited SC and everyone went nuts.
• Greenville SC once had a great pub. Ad. This was a "great pub" in G-ville in 1987. For some reason, darts became a huge fad around that time and suddenly every bar had a dart board.
• The Feelies, performing "She Said She Said" at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA, March 1987. When I was a kid we were taught that if you lived a good life, then you'd go to the 40 Watt Club after you died.
• The Indigo Girls, performing on the Square in Decatur, GA, just after the release of Strange Fire.
• Brother Jim at Georgia Tech, March 1987.
• The PTL Club! Jim and Tammy say good-bye and Tammy sings "The Sun Is Going To Shine Again." Klassic!
I stopped there before my life got out of control.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:26 AM on March 22, 2017 [5 favorites]
Those are great. It's definitely 1987 in those videos. I sort of fell down the rabbit hole of 1987-iana so I'll just dump it all on you:
• From the late, great, Nelson Sullivan: The First Nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village. Watch for the yellow They Might Be Giants flyer on the street pole.
• Sullivan, A Ride on the Cyclone Roller Coaster at Coney Island in 1987.
• Closer to Myville, Sullivan: In the dressing room with The Butthole Surfers at the 688 Club, 1986. I went to the 688 Club for the first time that summer. I saw my first drag queen there and I saw someone shoot up in the bathroom.
• Sullivan, Riding Aunt Nancy around Columbia SC. In 1987, the Pope visited SC and everyone went nuts.
• Greenville SC once had a great pub. Ad. This was a "great pub" in G-ville in 1987. For some reason, darts became a huge fad around that time and suddenly every bar had a dart board.
• The Feelies, performing "She Said She Said" at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA, March 1987. When I was a kid we were taught that if you lived a good life, then you'd go to the 40 Watt Club after you died.
• The Indigo Girls, performing on the Square in Decatur, GA, just after the release of Strange Fire.
• Brother Jim at Georgia Tech, March 1987.
• The PTL Club! Jim and Tammy say good-bye and Tammy sings "The Sun Is Going To Shine Again." Klassic!
I stopped there before my life got out of control.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:26 AM on March 22, 2017 [5 favorites]
I was on the trading floor of a then little known but later notorious investment bank so Black Monday (which had been preceded by a pretty grim Friday) is the standout moment for me. The markets weren't digitized to the current extent (although program trading was blamed for the crash) so in order for back offices across the country to have time to process all the trade tickets, the markets closed early for several days, maybe a week? We were pleased to be among a minority of institutions who had no customers renege on trades.
posted by janey47 at 10:35 AM on March 22, 2017
posted by janey47 at 10:35 AM on March 22, 2017
I was seven. I mostly just remember being sick of hearing about that baby in a hole. "Jeez Louise people, watch your babies!" I frequently thought.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:46 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:46 PM on March 22, 2017
Wonderful post! <music-pedant>Except the album The Mekons Rock n' Roll, which contains the song "Empire of the Senseless" quoted in the title, came out in 1989, a year after the 1988 authorization of Section 28, as referenced in the verse starting "This song promotes homosexuality..."</music-pedant>
posted by ardgedee at 4:09 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by ardgedee at 4:09 PM on March 22, 2017
Applause for the Mekons reference in the title!
posted by deadbilly at 8:49 PM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by deadbilly at 8:49 PM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, that's definitely '83 Bowie. '87 Bowie was known mostly for the Glass Spider Tour, a big extravaganza that was financially successful but critically panned (although history has been kinder to it over the years) and helped revive Bowie's old schoolmate Peter Frampton's career.
As for me, I spent the first half of the year working as a child care aide at a group home for developmentally disabled children with behavioral disorders--a job that was not only innately stressful, but was at an agency that was spectacularly mismanaged at every level--and the latter half as a janitor, which was not only much less stressful but paid more and had better hours and benefits.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:13 PM on March 22, 2017
As for me, I spent the first half of the year working as a child care aide at a group home for developmentally disabled children with behavioral disorders--a job that was not only innately stressful, but was at an agency that was spectacularly mismanaged at every level--and the latter half as a janitor, which was not only much less stressful but paid more and had better hours and benefits.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:13 PM on March 22, 2017
• From the late, great, Nelson Sullivan: The First Nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village yt . Watch for the yellow They Might Be Giants flyer on the street pole.
There are, in fact, two TMBG flyers on that pole: Saturday, March 7 at the Village Gate and ... another one below it for Friday and Saturday shows (10pm / Midnight) which might be February 27/28 at Darinka.
posted by mykescipark at 1:15 AM on March 23, 2017
There are, in fact, two TMBG flyers on that pole: Saturday, March 7 at the Village Gate and ... another one below it for Friday and Saturday shows (10pm / Midnight) which might be February 27/28 at Darinka.
posted by mykescipark at 1:15 AM on March 23, 2017
This image of the 80's as something completely pastel colored and big-haired (for all genders) really bothers me, and I think it's because it is as if mainstream America just won history, while all sorts of other far more interesting cultures and subcultures were going on but have been almost completely eroded. It's as if someone decided that the rightwing blondes on Fox news are the most representative women of our time.
I'd bet money that's what will happen. That's the way history works.
posted by bongo_x at 10:28 PM on March 24, 2017
I'd bet money that's what will happen. That's the way history works.
posted by bongo_x at 10:28 PM on March 24, 2017
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posted by BWA at 3:56 PM on March 21, 2017