In film:

Xanadu was released. Interestingly enough, the soundtrack of the film performed much better commercially than the movie itself. Which is surprising considering it’s a film about a Greek muse taking human form and building a roller rink. The only premise nearly that good since then has been Rubber.

Births: Chris Pine, aka the James T. Kirk who isn’t Shatner. Macaulay Culkin, famous for being that blonde kid from every movie in the 90’s.

In music:

The first ever Monsters of Rock festival is held in England. Notable performers at the festival include Rainbow, April Wine, Scorpions, and Judas Priest.

The Heatwave festival was held at Bowmanville, Ontario. Out of every festival I’ve ever read about, including Woodstock, Heatwave is the one I most wish I could have attended. The list of bands was just insane: The Pretenders, the B-52’s, Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello. The Clash was scheduled to perform at the festival but cancelled at the last minute.

In addition to that amazing festival, four albums that would be important to the emerging New Wave music scene were released. Siouxie and the Banshees released Kaleidoscope. The Cars released Panorama. The B-52’s  released Wild Planet. Finally, Killing Joke debuted with their self-titled album.

Births: Vanessa Carlton, anybody who says they don’t love “A Thousand Miles” is a liar.

Billboard #1 Song of August 1980: “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John

In comics:

Marvel – Former villain Mesmero decides to give up crime, instead focusing on his love of Broadway productions. He offers Spider-man a large sum of money to make appearances in his play, but Spidey declines. Mesmero ends up using his powers of hypnosis on a harsh critic who Peter Parker has to save, lest the tragedy that befell Gwen Stacy repeats itself.

DC – Dr. Alchemy attempts to use the Philosopher’s Stone to turn the Flash into a cloud. Yep. That’s the best use he can come up with.  Green Arrow decides to resign from the Justice League. Bummer. He does manage to save the day first, despite not using what is clearly the most logical arrow to use.

In television:

The soap opera Texas premiered. Though it only lasted two years, it managed to have over 600 episodes.

Deaths: Tex Avery, creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, dies at age 72.

In lieu of the July 1980 article, here are some quick facts about it:

1.     Bjorn Borg beat John McEnroe in tennis. Here’s a fun fact- Bjorn Borg was the basis of the character Richie Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

2.      Ronald Reagan received the nomination to be the Republican candidate for President. Due to a large amount of influence from Christian political groups, the Republican Party dropped its support of the Equal Rights Amendment. This marked the beginning of a general shift towards conservative policies in America.

3.     The Summer Olympics are held in Moscow, Russia.

4.     AC/DC release Back in Black, the second highest selling album of all time. Also, how did I not know until now that AC/DC is an Australian band?

5.     Caddyshack premiers in theaters.

In hindsight we often remark how certain novels capture the entire spirit of the time period in which they are written.  The Great Gatsby does this to the Roaring 20’s. The Grapes of Wrath does this for the Great Depression. While the 1980’s had a wealth of excellent literature, few captured the spirit of entitled ennui found in the decade’s more trangressive moments quite like Bret Easton Ellis’ debut novel Less Than Zero (named after the Elvis Costello song). The novel was published in 1985, when Ellis was 21 and still an undergrad. Yeah, it makes me feel great about my accomplishments too.

Clay tells us in the novel that he wants “to see the worst”. Taking the reader along through a post-modern wasteland of listless hedonism and superficial desires, we see the worst with him. The first-person narration coupled with the (mostly) present tense of the novel allows Clay to feel like a character we know intimately while also being completely enveloped in the nihilism of his world, our world.  He is home in LA during winter break from his New England university.

After reading the book I’m wracking my brain to think of a character who does not partake in some form of controlled substance abuse. I’m coming up blank. I’m pretty sure every named character (and quite a few unnamed characters) is high at least once, and often several times. This isn’t gradual. Clay’s cocaine use is evident early on. A number of people whom he interacts with act as some form of supplier or enabler to his behavior as he does to their behavior.  This leads to a downward spiral to the depths that people can sink. We “see the worst”. We watch the horrible realities of snuff films, prostitution, and human trafficking with the queasiness and disgust that Clay feels, though his morbid curiosity manages to get the better of us as readers.

The book has been extremely loosely adapted into a film. Andrew McCarthy plays Clay, film-version-Clay is on a quest to save his friends from their dependencies, something which novel-version-Clay only does to one character in the most desperate of inescapable situations. The movie is good, and certainly enjoyable as its own entity, working best if you imagine it as a film that has the same setting, title, and character names by pure coincidence. It lacks the impact that the novel carries. If you haven’t read Less Than Zero, I strongly encourage you to do so. Despite its age, it still feels new. It feels as though it would have been just as believable as a recent novel looking back at the 1980’s with the same warm intrigue as the writers and artists at NRW. The book has such a fast pace, to the point that even people who don’t read much can easily enjoy it.