Weekend self-care open thread: 1980s dance music

B-boys and B-girls breaking in NYC

My mutual, and tzaddik, Myron Clifton posted on my timeline a short clip of the seminal 1980s after-school dance show, "Dance Party USA" this week. Let me tell you, my friends, him doing that had an analogous effect on me to Marcel Proust's madeleine which launched a three-thousand page novel. I hadn't thought about that show in decades. And yet, every day after school, I would be glued to my TV set watching it as I did my homework and listened to their thick Philadelphia accents. I went down a rabbit hole of episodes from the show, and then just imbibing all the music to which I danced that decade. It really was a glorious and happy time, when the only thing I had to worry about was what mousse product to try in my hair. 

We are in very troubled times. But we were in troubled times then, as well, when the threat of nuclear holocaust was ever in my generation's mind. We were the kids who watched The Day After, Threads, and Testament. We didn't know if we'd survive to adulthood. And yet, we lived our lives, and we danced. That's a good thing to remember today, as we face as perilous times as those in the dying days of the Cold War. We can choose to shut down and cower in the face of all our troubles, or stand up, face them, and maintain our joy. If all you do is focus on all that's wrong, you will never be ever to make that wrong right, because you will be paralyzed. 

This weekend I will share with you some of the music which sustained me during my teenage years, music to which I danced at basement parties in New York, and at house parties in LA. Share your own favorites in the comments, or anything which got you or gets you through troubles.

I am not joking when I say that I could post 20 or 30 songs here. And that wouldn't even touch the surface of my nous. But his is a sampling. 

As always, dear friends, be ever kind, gentle, and joyful with yourselves and those around you. And never become too old to dance.