Top 20 80s coronavirus songs

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Risto

Here’s my Top 20 list of 80s songs for the Covid-19 era. Because, it’s all in there in the 80s songs. They’re like Nostradamus.

Mötley Crüe – Home Sweet Home (1985)

Madness – Our House (1982)

Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now (1987)

Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)

Gary Moore – Walking by Myself (1989)

38 Special – Long Distance Affair (1984)

Dire Straits – So Far Away (1985)

The Police – Don’t Stand So Close To Me (1980)

Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You (1984)

UB40 – Red Red Wine (1983)

Genesis – Invisible Touch (1986)

The Georgia Satellites – Keep Your Hands to Yourself (1986)

Heart – Alone (1987)

Dan Hartman – I Can Dream About You (1984)

Cheap Trick – Ghost Town (1988)

Phil Collins – Take Me Home (1985)

Laura Branigan – Self Control (1984)

Guns N’ Roses – Patience (1988)

Aretha Franklin – Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985)

USA for Africa – We Are the World (1985)

Let’s go to the tape

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Risto

For a couple of years now, regardless of sport, Daughter and I have played Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” album in the car on our way to one of her games. When we play it during the trip isn’t set in stone, but we do always play it, and we do always play it from the top, starting with “Eraser”.

And we talk about this and that, but most often we simply sing along all the way to the arena, and get our minds in the right frame of mind. Hers into playing her best game, and mine, getting ready to show those hotdogs who’s boss.

Does it work?

Of course it does. Those hotdogs don’t stand a chance.

As for Daughter, it’s a nice little routine that makes her feel like a player, and gets her in a game frame of mind.

Also, it’s nice.

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Clouds across the moon

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Risto

Look, there he is. His hair flowing in the air, or at least the half mullet that’s sticking out from underneath his baseball cap, as he rolls down the hill on his Persian green bike, a Peugeot. He’s on his way to … well, nowhere to be honest. He just hopped on his bike and rode around for a while, and here he is now, a walkman clipped to the waist of his shorts, listening to music and taking in a perfect summer’s day. Just as comes to the edge of town and rides by the car dealership he’ll buy his first car from a couple of years later, he hears computer making beeps and bleeps.

He puts his hands back on the handlebar and turns up the volume. He’s never really listened to the song before.

“Good evening. This is the intergalactic operator. Can I help you?”
“Yes. I’m trying to reach flight commander P.R. Johnson, on Mars, flight 2-4-7”

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Keep pushin’

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Risto

Her name was Gladys. Must’ve been. Well, one hundred percent it would’ve been if she’d been a character in a book. An American book. From the seventies, maybe. Come on, man, that was prejudiced. Maybe even racist?

Racist? Puh-lease. How could it be racist when she was a white woman and I’m a white man.

Fine, it was a little … rude. And probably – what’s the word – “namist”? Slapping a name on to a person who I knew nothing about, except for what I saw right in front of me, and then thinking the name is a catch-all for everything. And what’s in a name? Not all Gladyses are the same. (Gladysi?)

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That funny feeling

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Risto

He lay on his bed in the darkness, unable to sleep, and for that, he was angry at himself. He knew had to get some sleep and if there was one thing, one personality trait he took pride in, it was his ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

It was such a cliché, too. That he couldn’t fall asleep on the night before the big exam. It had nothing to do with that. He knew there was no need for him to be nervous about the exam, and he wasn’t, he really wasn’t.

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Door 23: Re-gifting

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Risto

Almost there, everything’s almost ready, I’ll just do this, fix that, and make sure the third thing is done.

Oh, and, I’m re-gifting this old story. Enjoy!

This is the From The Desk of Risto Pakarinen 2017 advent calendar. Behind every door, you’ll find something related to the 1980s

Door 22: Breaks

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Risto

The biggest thing about Christmas has always been the Christmas break. First, there were the school days and the break that was weeks long, that sometimes felt almost too long.

Then, in the university, it was suddenly even longer, with the lectures ending in early December so, with careful planning, I could take off to my parents’ by mid-December the latest, after my last exam, and then return in mid-January.

My salad days.

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Door 20: Wrapping presents

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Risto

Every time somebody in Wife’s family gets a present that is shaped like a box, just after s/he has torn the wrapping paper off it but before s/he opens the actual box, somebody will say, “oooh, did somebody pull a mormor?”

Mormor is Swedish for maternal grandmother, and pulling a mormor is a reference to the fact that Wife’s mormor often gave presents that were packed inside boxes that were just the right size for the purpose, but wasn’t the box in which the actual present came. For example, cookie cutter may have been in a razor box, creating confusion and hilarity.

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Door 19: Homemade decorations

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Risto

We all have them, and we all know Xmas wouldn’t be Xmas without them. They make us laugh, they make us see each other in a little different light, and we’re proud of them, every single one of them.

I’m not talking about opinions.

I’m talking about all those wonderful, hideous, gorgeous, ugly, weird, beautiful, and “interesting” pieces of Xmas art we produce in kindergarten and at school.

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Door 18: Empathy

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Risto

This is the From The Desk of Risto Pakarinen 2017 advent calendar. Behind every door, you’ll find something related to the 1980s