December 3, 1985 (Revisiting the Past)

I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.

December 3, 1985. I might have been bombing out in my first semester at M.T.S.U., but I still enjoyed the student newspaper Sidelines. I would end up going back to school a few years later and end up with a Bachelor's degree so it's good. Today's post features some stuff from the December 3, 1985 Sidelines.

First up is an advertisement for a show on December 4, 1985 at MainStreet. I wonder who the surprise band was? Maybe that was the name of the band. My pal Smiley led the always rocking Riff Raff. I think this was for the Association of Recording Management Students, but don't quote me. I don't know if they were all playing Dire Straits tunes on this night either as I didn't have a fake ID so I couldn't get into clubs unless they were having an all ages show.

One of my favorite writers at Sidelines during my ill fated first semester was Clyde Crawley. Here's a snippet of his last one for 1985 featuring a bit on Lars Hall. I think it had been a running gag.

These coupons have expired and so have the Murfreesboro Cat's and Mazzio's. 

The ARMS show wasn't the only thing happening at MainStreet. You could check out rising country punk band Walk the West opening for Jet Set. The Nighthawks were a pretty well know blues band. My local favorites The White Animals were coming on the 11th. It's a really good looking month of music.

I've had all of these releases in my record collection at one time or another. I miss Cat's Records the most, but I really do miss the Sound Shop's Jackson Heights location too. That was another great record store.

I also miss Phillips University Bookstore which was in the K.U.C. right across from the post boxes. 

September 18, 1985 (Revisiting the Past)

I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.

September 18, 1985. It wasn't quite paradise, but M.T.S.U. did announce they were going to pave over the rugby field on this day 38 years ago. Even though it was often a struggle to find parking on campus that semester I didn't welcome this development. There was too much concrete and pavement already.

August 26, 1985 (Revisiting the Past)

I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.

August 26, 1985. My freshman year at Middle Tennessee State University was beginning. I had decided on a Mass Communication major. I can barely remember my classes these days. I took English 101, Introduction to Mass Communication, Typing, History, and something else. Maybe I'll go dig my transcript up. I know my final grades would end up being F's after I quit going midway through the semester in all classes save English and that one stayed incomplete for some time until the teacher (she wasn't a professor) decided I was never going to turn in my final paper. I did end up getting a Bachelor's degree eventually, but it would be a few years before I went back. What happened during this washout of a semester. I'll fill you with some details in a future post. 

Film Flashback January 17, 1975

Sometimes it's hard for even the most avid film lover to find something worth seeing at the movies. This is what happened with me this week. I looked at week after week of movies playing Murfreesboro on various January 17th's through the years and came up empty. When there were decent movies to write about the advertisement quality was terrible or there was no YouTube trailer. I was faced with skipping a week and then it came to me. Why not see what was playing at the M.T.S.U. cinema? So I have landed back in 1975. I'm a bit disappointed that arriving on January 17 means we have missed the showing of blaxploitation classic The Mack, but here's a taste of the film with the dynamite Willie Hutch soundtrack. Max Julien stars in this movie and if you haven't seen it, please do yourself a favor and sample it yourself. After all, this movie is still being sampled by hip-hop artists these days.

Soylent Green is what was playing the U.C. Cinema on the 17th. It's a film with the different genres of crime and dystopian future sci-fi put into a blender...I hear you get people in the end. Charlton Heston chews up the scenery and the foodstuff Soylent Green. Actually Charlton is quite reserved until the end of this terrifying film. Edward G. Robinson is fantastic too. Be sure and run when the scoops start coming. 

As you can see there were plenty of stellar movies coming to the U.C. Cinema in 1975. When I attended M.T.S.U. in the 80's and 90's I would often see movies there. That's all for this week, but be sure to visit Soulfish Stew anytime as I'm always putting something here. Next week's film flashback will take you back to the era of film noir.