Jayzik Azikiwe (the "Skateaway girl") May 1958- 31 January 2008

[Kris Baker]

Jayzik Azikiwe, the rollerskating, dreadlocked girl who
made Dire Straits' "Skateaway" so memorable, died of
cancer last year at age 49.

Late obit, to be sure - but although she was famous in
Gambia as "The Phenomenal Woman", her name wasn't
well-known in the US or UK. I see only one obit on Usenet,
in a reggae group.

Obits:
http://observer.gm/africa/gambia/article/2008/2/8/jayzik-azikiwe-phenomenal-woman
http://www.snwmf.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=156621&t=156621

Skateaway:

Everyone Loves the Gambia:

(Still beautiful in the early 2000s)

Kris

[La N]

Post by Kris Baker
Jayzik Azikiwe, the rollerskating, dreadlocked girl who
http://youtu.be/Qc1D81q7PAI
(Still beautiful in the early 2000s)

Awwwww ... what a sweet video ... makes me want to go to Gambia. And she
*was* beautiful. I had never heard of her until you posted this, but I am
reminded when I daily scan the world online newspapers, I often run across
obits of people who are wildly popular in their own country, but whose names
would be meaningless to the typical a.o. audience.

- nilita

[Kris Baker]

Post by La N

Post by Kris Baker
Jayzik Azikiwe, the rollerskating, dreadlocked girl who
http://youtu.be/Qc1D81q7PAI
(Still beautiful in the early 2000s)

Awwwww ... what a sweet video ... makes me want to go to Gambia. And she
*was* beautiful. I had never heard of her until you posted this, but I am
reminded when I daily scan the world online newspapers, I often run across
obits of people who are wildly popular in their own country, but whose
names would be meaningless to the typical a.o. audience.
- nilita

Toro Toro Taxi!

I might not have even read her obit, without something
other in the subject. She was "just" one of the more
beautiful women who appeared in 1980s videos, and
one of the more memorable for us. It's just because
I rewatched the video this afternoon, and saw a comment
that she had died, that I researched.

Actually....I should have called her "Rollergirl", and said
Toro Toro Taxi!

Kris

[Terry del Fuego]

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:45 -0600, "Kris Baker"

Post by Kris Baker
http://youtu.be/Sn3HKRnR2Cw

Wow, thank you for that. I'd certainly heard the song a million
times, but never knew there was a promo for it. (Can't bring myself
to say "video", given the vintage.) Pretty elaborate for being
pre-MTV!

Wandering further off-topic but back to another thread that wandered
off-topic, "Romeo and Juliet" from the same album was covered by The
Killers on their "Sawdust" album. Unsurprisingly, it isn't as
beautiful as the original.

[Matthew Kruk]

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:45 -0600, "Kris Baker"

Post by Kris Baker
http://youtu.be/Sn3HKRnR2Cw

Wow, thank you for that. I'd certainly heard the song a million
times, but never knew there was a promo for it. (Can't bring myself
to say "video", given the vintage.) Pretty elaborate for being
pre-MTV!

Gary Numan, Cars (1979):

Devo, Whip IT (1980)

Even Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star (first video played on MTV) is
from 1979:

Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV. Quite a lot of good ones. Hard to
track down ...

[Kris Baker]

Post by Matthew Kruk

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:45 -0600, "Kris Baker"

Post by Kris Baker
http://youtu.be/Sn3HKRnR2Cw

Wow, thank you for that. I'd certainly heard the song a million
times, but never knew there was a promo for it. (Can't bring myself
to say "video", given the vintage.) Pretty elaborate for being
pre-MTV!

http://youtu.be/Ldyx3KHOFXw
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw
Even Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star (first video played on MTV) is
http://youtu.be/XWtHEmVjVw8
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV. Quite a lot of good ones. Hard
to track down ...

Remember Night Flight on USA? It was on weekend evenings.

Here's one that Night Flight would show, but never on MTV:

Kris

[Matthew Kruk]

Post by Kris Baker

Post by Matthew Kruk

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:45 -0600, "Kris Baker"

Post by Kris Baker
http://youtu.be/Sn3HKRnR2Cw

Wow, thank you for that. I'd certainly heard the song a million
times, but never knew there was a promo for it. (Can't bring myself
to say "video", given the vintage.) Pretty elaborate for being
pre-MTV!

http://youtu.be/Ldyx3KHOFXw
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw
Even Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star (first video played on MTV) is
http://youtu.be/XWtHEmVjVw8
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV. Quite a lot of good ones. Hard
to track down ...

Remember Night Flight on USA? It was on weekend evenings.
http://youtu.be/MYibOaLGOh8

Sigh. The good old days.

[NickCC]

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:46:45 -0600, "Kris Baker"

Post by Kris Baker
http://youtu.be/Sn3HKRnR2Cw

Wow, thank you for that.  I'd certainly heard the song a million
times, but never knew there was a promo for it.  (Can't bring myself
to say "video", given the vintage.)  Pretty elaborate for being
pre-MTV!

http://youtu.be/Ldyx3KHOFXw
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw
Even Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star (first video played on MTV) is
http://youtu.be/XWtHEmVjVw8
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV.  Quite a lot of good ones.  Hard
to track down ...

Remember Night Flight on USA?   It was on weekend evenings.
http://youtu.be/MYibOaLGOh8

Sigh.  The good old days.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

IMHO "Making Movies" was Dire Straits' best album.

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by Matthew Kruk
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw

Devo (or DEVO) were filmmakers from the beginning.

Post by Matthew Kruk
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV. Quite a lot of good ones. Hard to
track down ...

Every once in a while someone will claim that Michael Nesmith or the
Beatles or...whoever..."invented the music video", but that ignores a
big old pile o' history going back arguably to the pre-"Jazz Singer"
Vitaphone days.

[Brad Ferguson]

Post by Terry del Fuego

Post by Matthew Kruk
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw

Devo (or DEVO) were filmmakers from the beginning.

Post by Matthew Kruk
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV. Quite a lot of good ones. Hard to
track down ...

Every once in a while someone will claim that Michael Nesmith or the
Beatles or...whoever..."invented the music video", but that ignores a
big old pile o' history going back arguably to the pre-"Jazz Singer"
Vitaphone days.

The later seasons of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet always ended
with Ricky lip-syncing a song. Ozzie Nelson once insisted he'd
invented the video because he'd spliced in travelogue shots of the
cities Ricky was singing about in Travelin' Man.

There was a show in the '50s called Continental Miniatures that
featured nothing but then-contemporary videos made in Europe -- usually
Italy, as I remember. It was on Channel 11 in New York, so you know it
was cheap.

Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos. It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.

[Jane Margaret Laight]

Post by Brad Ferguson

Post by Terry del Fuego

Post by Matthew Kruk
Devo, Whip IT (1980)
http://youtu.be/Xbt30UnzRWw

Devo (or DEVO) were filmmakers from the beginning.

Post by Matthew Kruk
Promo videos were fairly common pre-MTV.  Quite a lot of good ones.  Hard to
track down ...

Every once in a while someone will claim that Michael Nesmith or the
Beatles or...whoever..."invented the music video", but that ignores a
big old pile o' history going back arguably to the pre-"Jazz Singer"
Vitaphone days.

The later seasons of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet always ended
with Ricky lip-syncing a song.  Ozzie Nelson once insisted he'd
invented the video because he'd spliced in travelogue shots of the
cities Ricky was singing about in Travelin' Man.
There was a show in the '50s called Continental Miniatures that
featured nothing but then-contemporary videos made in Europe -- usually
Italy, as I remember.  It was on Channel 11 in New York, so you know it
was cheap.
Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos.  It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

The Now Explosion (for you folks who remember it--I was a mere child
at the time [snicker]):

http://www.thenowexplosion.net/

JML
also a note about Jayzik--her father was one Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe
who was the first president of the country of Nigeria; he is treated
as a god in Lagos--here's his wiki entry:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Nnamdi+Azikiwe&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10

[Matthew Kruk]

"Jane Margaret Laight" <***@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:01508e55-763f-4b93-9c6d-***@j32g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
...
The Now Explosion (for you folks who remember it--I was a mere child
at the time [snicker]):

http://www.thenowexplosion.net/

JML
...

Wow, thanks very much for that Jane. Never seen the show myself but remember
similar in nature shows (usually half hour to hour weekly). Wow, my eyes
hurt.

[Brad Ferguson]

In article

Post by Jane Margaret Laight
The Now Explosion (for you folks who remember it--I was a mere child
http://www.thenowexplosion.net/

Ah. Thanks for that!

[Terry del Fuego]

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:02:07 -0400, Brad Ferguson

Post by Brad Ferguson
There was a show in the '50s called Continental Miniatures that
featured nothing but then-contemporary videos made in Europe -- usually
Italy, as I remember. It was on Channel 11 in New York, so you know it
was cheap.

Even Google seems to have forgotten about that one.

Post by Brad Ferguson
Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos. It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.

That looks fascinating.

Then there were the Scopitones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://scopitones.blogs.com/

[Matthew Kruk]

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:02:07 -0400, Brad Ferguson

Post by Brad Ferguson
There was a show in the '50s called Continental Miniatures that
featured nothing but then-contemporary videos made in Europe -- usually
Italy, as I remember. It was on Channel 11 in New York, so you know it
was cheap.

Even Google seems to have forgotten about that one.

Post by Brad Ferguson
Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos. It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.

That looks fascinating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://scopitones.blogs.com/

Fabulous! Thanks for the links. Never heard of them.

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by Matthew Kruk

Post by Terry del Fuego
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://scopitones.blogs.com/

Fabulous! Thanks for the links. Never heard of them.

I was surprised to learn that they lasted into my lifetime and were
allegedly somewhat common. I've seen some of the films in recent
years, but I don't remember ever seeing a player as a kid.

[Allen Abel]

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:02:07 -0400, Brad Ferguson

Post by Brad Ferguson
Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos. It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.

That looks fascinating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://scopitones.blogs.com/

There was also the Panoram:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundies

[Matthew Kruk]

Post by Allen Abel

Post by Terry del Fuego
On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:02:07 -0400, Brad Ferguson

Post by Brad Ferguson
Later on, around 1968, there was a syndicated thing called The Now
Explosion that was nothing but wall-to-wall videos. It ran for hours
and hours on the weekends.

That looks fascinating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://scopitones.blogs.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundies

They don't make nurses like that anymore.

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by Allen Abel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoram

"The specially-made 16mm films ran in a continuous loop and stopped
when an in-line metal strip passed a sensor."

Basically, 16mm as an 8-track tape!

Post by Allen Abel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundies

Thanks for that...I knew about Soundies, I didn't know the name of the
machine that played them. It's interesting that both Soundies and
Scopitones had non-standard features (reverse-image printing and
magnetic soundtracks, respectively). Scopitones would theoretically
have gotten higher-quality sound out of the magnetic system, but the
reverse-image Soundies are a bit puzzling...yeah, I know the player
used mirrors, but it could have just used one more. Some odd patent
thing? Theft deterrence?