Wave Your Lighters in the Air Like You Truly, Deeply Care

Blogging will continue to be relatively light for the next few weeks, as I’m currently in a sort of Vacation Interregnum– as you can tell from the picture posts, we just got back from the Virgin Islands, and at the end of next week, we’re heading to Japan for three weeks of tourism and Worldcon. Also, I’m still catching up on stuff that happened when I was out of town last week.

As a child of the 80’s, though, I can’t let jefitoblog’s new project pass by without comment: for the month of August, he’s posting a Power Ballad of the Day. Notable songs to date include “The Flame” by Cheap Trick, “Angel” by Aerosmith, and “Love Bites” by Def Leppard. I have two of those three on my iPod, and I’m not going to say which two. (And I’m not going to buy the third. Nope. Not gonna do it.)

Anyway, this is basically Adventures Through the Mines of Mellow Gold for those of us who were teens in the 80’s, and it’s a veritable carnival of semi-shameful nostalgia. I love it.

And come on, admit it, you have a favorite Power Ballad, you know you do. What is it?

I have a soft spot for a bunch of late-80’s hair-band power balladry, because I associate those bands with high school sports road trips. When it comes to Power Balladry, though, it’s a little tough to beat “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger, which is a terrific mix of nonsensical-but-ostensibly-Deep lyrics, slick production, and bombastic delivery. Plus, there’s the coke-dealer scene from Boogie Nights

But really, there’s a welath of material here, and I’m not going to go start buying these songs off iTunes. I’m not. Really. I mean it.