Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

My smile from the Tumble 4 Ya blogfest still looms and I just can't help it---I want to share my summary observations from the fest. Think of it as an after party. ;) The Guys:  The fellas' crushes seemed to be fairly evenly split between rocker chicks (like the girls from Heart, Stevie Nicks, and Cyndi Lauper) and the girl-next-door types.  My favorite quote from the fest is from the Armchair Squid , who said of Ally Sheedy's character in St. Elmo's Fire : "The eyes, the hair and the impish smile just made you want to gather her up in a blanket for the evening" Awww! A notable lady missing from the guys' 80s crush list was Princess Leia: Really boys, did ya not see Return of the Jedi ? The Girls :  I'd have to say the top ladies' choice is a tie between the boys of Duran Duran and, well, this isn't exactly a person, but...the Volleyball Scene in Top Gun .  Don't act like you don't know exactly what I'm talkin' about.  ...

Welcome, welcome to the Tumble 4 Ya Blogfest!  I'm so excited to see which 80s faces are going to pop up in the blogworld today.  Thank you to all of you who signed up--and so many of you who mentioned the fest on your blogs. Tim Brannan even had a contest to guess his crush! You've all made this so fun. And HUGE thanks to my cohorts, Suze and M.Pax who've made setting up this fest, like, totally radical. Right, onto my 80s crush...  I graduated high school in 1985, so I was of prime crushing age throughout the 80s.  As you can imagine, the list of my celebrity crushes from the 80s goes on and on and on.  And yet, picking just one ended up not being as difficult as I thought it would be.  Because as I scanned through pictures and videos of my top 80s men, there was only one who still made me all giggly the moment I saw him again. He's the one who had me glued to MTV just waiting and waiting and waiting for him . I speak of Joe Elliott , lead singer o...

First, a few announcements:  Three Daves is now available on the Barnes & Noble Nook , and also in ePack (PDF, ePub & MOBI).  Much thanks to Omnific's hardworking graphic designer, Coreen Montagna, for making it happen.  Also... Three Daves got a super awesome review at A Tale of Many Reviews !!!  Here's a snippet: Three Daves is the sweetest, tragic yet works out well, love story I have read since The Notebook . Elson has written characters that I adore and every twist, turn, change, growth, obstacle, and step they took I went right along with them. Having just finished reading, I have a sense of relief for the characters,  goose bumps on my arms, and a smile on face. Yeah, pretty big smile on my face too.  And now for some pics from London...1980s style!  My darling sister threw an 80s bash for me and her girlfriends, all of whom are also ex-pat Americans living in London.  It was so much fun getting a peek inside of my sister's...

Because of the maximum fabulosity of my Top Ten Countdown (bloghop hosted by Alex J. Cavenaugh ), I've created a Top 10 You Tube playlist for your enjoyment. I had two main criteria for my selections: * The songs had to be by bands/performers that have a whole stable of great songs.  No one-hit-wonders here.  So each song on the list represents one of my personal favorite bands/performers. *  The songs have to be timeless .  When I listen to them years later, I have to love them not because of whatever memory they dredge up, but because they still rock.  And so, the order here was simply decided by how much time they've been tested for...i.e. in order of release date, starting w/ the most recent. **Please note, if asked again tomorrow, I reserve the right to completely change this list ;)** 10   "Just Breathe" Pearl Jam 9 "I'm Shipping up to Boston" Dropkick Murphys 8 "Pretty Vegas" INXS (I feel like a traitor choosing a song post ...

I can't believe it, but I've received the first submission to my Junk in a Box competition!  The rules are to design an 80s-themed diorama and e-mail a photo of it to elson.nicki@gmail.com by January 31, 2011 . (Now that I've seen people might actually do this, I've extended the deadline to the end of January.) It's that simple. The prizes for the winning diorama are: One Hit Wonders of the 80s CD Signed Copy of Three Daves Your blog & your book (or whatever you want) featured in a post  Plus, all entries will be invited to be a guest blogger here at Not-So-Deep Thoughts and will get a link to wherever they want on my side bar!   Want to see the new entry? It's a recreation of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ,  released in 1980.   I'm told this is the entrant's first diorama attempt ever.  Nice job! :)  He doesn't have a blog, so I'm linking his diorama image on the sidebar to his excellent Star Wars fanfiction: Such a Q...

Hey, I feel like giving y'all something, and so I'm sharing what is quite possibly the most awesome Christmas playlist ever .  This Lyonaland must be one cool chicka.  The first video is a Christmas card from the characters of The Light Series by Jennifer DeLucy .  And yeah, there just might be some 80s Christmas tunes in the mix too. ;) Enjoy!

Well, it happened. Thanks to all of you... I hit a triple-digit follower Trifecta! 1 0 0 ! ! ! And so, I introduce my 100 follower Junk in a Box Competition Not this kind of junk in a box. Minds out of the gutter now,  I'm talking about dioramas! There is only one qualification to enter, and that is that you follow me on either Blogger , Twitter , or Facebook . Didn't see that one coming, did you?  The idea hatched as I watched my daughter build this stellar *award winning* Peter and the Starcatchers diorama for the local library. I had the same thought that got me into this writing thing to begin with: Why not? Do you remember these from grade school?  If not, here's a definition: diorama (ˌdaɪəˈrɑːmə)   a miniature three-dimensional scene in which models of figures are seen against a background  THE THEME The Awesome 80s THE RULES Create an 80s-themed diorama and e-mail a photo of it to elson.nicki@gmail.com by January 31, 2011.  Ent...

The other night I saw the funny and sweet Going the Distance , starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long and was surprised and ridiculously delighted by all the 80s references. The film is most definitely set in current times with texting and skyping galore, but someone involved in this movie was clearly jonesing for the 80s and found any which way to stick the decade in there, starting but certainly not ending with a game of Atari's Centipede. Then there was a quick move over to a guy in a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, collar up, and before I knew it we were staring at a poster of Tom Cruise in Top Gun !  This was followed up by a  morning wake-up call with " Time of My Life " from Dirty Dancing .  While the Going the Distance soundtrack is by no means an "80s Mix Tape," 80s bands get plenty of play in the film, including songs by The Cure, The Replacements, The Pretenders, and Berlin. I didn't hear any Beastie Boys, but our main boy does name Licensed ...

History Lesson: Back in the 80s, before there was the Real World , Cribs and Jersey Shore , MTV (short for Music Television) used to play a little something called music videos.  Weird, huh?  Well, a good portion of my youth was spent in front of my boyfriend's telly (my parent's hadn't gone for this new-fangled "cable television" yet) just waiting and waiting for Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, and Mark Goodman to play one of my favorites (my parents hadn't gone for the new-fangled VCRs yet either).  And who can forget the big Michael Jackson "Thriller" premier? So bring on the nostalgia!  Here's a widgetbox with top MTV videos from the 1980s.  The collection will be changing cuz there's so, so, so many to choose from, and I'm taking requests, so feel free to drop me a comment with yours. Get the &a...

Just some pics of the set-up for the 80s Night party & book signing at The Meeting Place in Geneva, IL last Thursday. What I've discovered is that it's impossible not to have fun when you're getting your 80s on---the quirky music, the over-the-top fashions, the Ferris Bueller... Bueller... Bueller... Much thanks to the Merra-Lee girls for setting the shops back a few decades, my friend Tami for letting us use her awesome posters, and to everyone who came out to join us! As evidence that 80s pop culture will never die, our winner of the One Hit Wonders of the 80s game was born in 1985!  Need more proof that the 80s rock on?  Come on in to The Meeting Place to check out the Fingerless Gloves I spied on the shelves among fall 2010 fashions, or get a load of the back-to-school shoes my son just picked out yesterday -- black Chuck Taylor high-tops, as seen front and center at the top of this blog's artwork.  How totally cool.

You're looking at it!  I spruced up my blog and added a few new features. I've now got tabs with a peek inside Three Daves, Book Club discussion questions, music/personality Quizzes, and 80s Playlists.  Please take a look around at what I've done with the place and have fun playing. :)

As promised, here's the One Hit Wonders of the 80s playlist.   Dare ya not to dance. ;)

If you haven't already taken this quiz at my website, here's your big chance to exhibit your in-depth knowledge of 80s culture.  These bands may have only had one hit, ah but what glorious hits they were.  I'll post the playlist on Friday. :) Quizzes by Quibblo.com