Desperately Seeking the '80s

02/03/2025

Shōgun, the 1980 miniseries based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel, was the first network show to use the word “piss” and to show urination.

⭐️Something Fishy + Captive Audience⭐️

Meg checks out the cult responsible for America’s love of sushi. Jessica explores Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero’s play Short Eyes and its rise to Broadway acclaim.

**un

02/03/2025

Miguel Piñero co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café on East 3rd between B and C. He wrote “A Lower Eastside Poem” in 1985, which begins:
Just once before I die
I want to climb up on a
tenement sky
to dream my lungs out till
I cry
then scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.

⭐️Something Fishy + Captive Audience⭐️

Meg checks out the cult responsible for America’s love of sushi. Jessica explores Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero’s play Short Eyes and its rise to Broadway acclaim.

01/31/2025

In 2014, PETA rescued 420 chinchillas from Boonville, California breeding and fur farm funded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

⭐️Something Fishy + Captive Audience⭐️

Meg checks out the cult responsible for America’s love of sushi. Jessica explores Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero’s play Short Eyes and its rise to Broadway acclaim.

**un

01/30/2025

Short Eyes was filmed in the Manhattan House of Detention for Men, otherwise known as The Tombs.

⭐️Something Fishy + Captive Audience⭐️

Meg checks out the cult responsible for America’s love of sushi. Jessica explores Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero’s play Short Eyes and its rise to Broadway acclaim.

01/30/2025

Moonie fish pioneers and the bluefin they caught in Gloucester.

⭐️Something Fishy + Captive Audience⭐️

Meg checks out the cult responsible for America’s love of sushi. Jessica explores Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero’s play Short Eyes and its rise to Broadway acclaim.

**un

01/28/2025

01/27/2025

On July 1, 1982, 4,150 followers of Sun Myung Moon were married at Madison Square Garden.

⭐️The Marriage Plot + Dance Democracy⭐️

Meg learns the ways of Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church, and his “Moonie” followers. Jessica revisits partying at Nell’s, the iconic club that welcomed all - as long as they paid the $10 cover.

01/27/2025

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon believed fish would save the world.

⭐️The Marriage Plot + Dance Democracy⭐️

Meg learns the ways of Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church, and his “Moonie” followers. Jessica revisits partying at Nell’s, the iconic club that welcomed all - as long as they paid the $10 cover.

01/27/2025

Andy Warhol’s pic of Nell Campbell, 1986.

⭐️The Marriage Plot + Dance Democracy⭐️

Meg learns the ways of Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church, and his “Moonie” followers. Jessica revisits partying at Nell’s, the iconic club that welcomed all - as long as they paid the $10 cover.

01/24/2025

“When Bob Colacello made it past the ropes to write about the place for Vanity Fair in early 1987, he noticed that “the young English aristocrats are here, but so are the American art stars, including Papa Warhol himself.” The article also mentioned Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Bianca Jagger, Princess Alessandra Borghese, Reinaldo and Carolina Herrera, Calvin and Kelly Klein, Lauren Hutton, Rupert Everett, Jenny Lumet, Julian Sands and Deborah Harry.” New York Times about Nell’s

⭐️The Marriage Plot + Dance Democracy⭐️

Meg learns the ways of Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church, and his “Moonie” followers. Jessica revisits partying at Nell’s, the iconic club that welcomed all - as long as they paid the $10 cover.

01/23/2025

When Rev. Sun Myung Moon bought the New Yorker Hotel for $5.6 million in 1972, much of the Art Deco details were removed the Louis Jambor murals were painted over.

⭐️The Marriage Plot + Dance Democracy⭐️

Meg learns the ways of Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church, and his “Moonie” followers. Jessica revisits partying at Nell’s, the iconic club that welcomed all - as long as they paid the $10 cover.

01/20/2025

Joel Rifkin’s arrest.

⭐️Gone Girls + Deep Dive⭐️

Meg learns how dedicated girlfriends discovered the identity of Joel Rifkin’s first victim. Jessica takes a tour of dive bars, and the communities they created, in the East Village circa 1986.

01/20/2025

Carolyn, the bartender at Downtown Beirut.

⭐️Gone Girls + Deep Dive⭐️

Meg learns how dedicated girlfriends discovered the identity of Joel Rifkin’s first victim. Jessica takes a tour of dive bars, and the communities they created, in the East Village circa 1986.

01/18/2025

Robert Bierenbaum finally confessed to murdering his wife Gail Katz at his 2020 parole hearing. He remains in jail.

⭐️Gone Girls + Deep Dive⭐️

Meg learns how dedicated girlfriends discovered the identity of Joel Rifkin’s first victim. Jessica takes a tour of dive bars, and the communities they created, in the East Village circa 1986.

01/16/2025

Alex Smith of Flaming Pablum with friends at Siberia Bar. (see stories for link to his blog)

⭐️Gone Girls + Deep Dive⭐️

Meg learns how dedicated girlfriends discovered the identity of Joel Rifkin’s first victim. Jessica takes a tour of dive bars, and the communities they created, in the East Village circa 1986.

01/15/2025

Heidi Balch, Joel Rifkin’s first victim.

⭐️Gone Girls + Deep Dive⭐️

Meg learns how dedicated girlfriends discovered the identity of Joel Rifkin’s first victim. Jessica takes a tour of dive bars, and the communities they created, in the East Village circa 1986.

01/12/2025

In Salon, Marc Spitz calls Rivers Edge the darkest teen movie of all time. ““River’s Edge” was the one film that seemed to understand that it wasn’t the rap music, heavy metal music or even drugs that made ‘80s kids, it was … nothing.”

⭐️Lost Boys + Grisly Griselda⭐️

Meg discovers the true story behind a Satanic Panic scare on Long Island. Jessica sniffs out the facts behind co***ne queenpin Griselda Blanco’s violent rise and fall.

01/12/2025

Griselda Blanco is suspected of being involved in 40 murders across the U.S., including all three of her husbands.

⭐️Lost Boys + Grisly Griselda⭐️

Meg discovers the true story behind a Satanic Panic scare on Long Island. Jessica sniffs out the facts behind co***ne queenpin Griselda Blanco’s violent rise and fall.