Honestly this whole idea hit me at 3 AM last night – got sucked into watching an old MTV documentary and bam, Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” started playing. Couldn’t shake that nostalgia itch, so decided today’s project had to be some 80s Cyndi magic. Grabbed coffee, stumbled to my messy workroom.
Where The Hunt Started
Dusted off a plastic tub labeled “OLD MUSIC MAGZ” buried under expired camera batteries. Pulled out my battered Rolling Stone issues, some Creem back numbers, even some fan club newsletters so ancient the paper felt like tissue. Flipped pages like my life depended on it. Found a pile of old concert ticket stubs – no pictures but dang, that energy!
The Real Work Begins
Decided this needs digital life. Took my dad’s ancient Epson scanner (the clunky green one), spent like an hour cleaning dust off the glass with my t-shirt. First few scans looked like garbage – photos stuck together? Peeling them slow felt like bomb defusing. Nearly cried when a tiny corner ripped off her iconic New Year’s Eve shot. Thought “ruined it!” but Photoshop fixed it later.
- Step 1: Scan 37 individual pages/photos – scanner sounded like dying lawnmower.
- Step 2: Digital cleanup on each – cropping random fingers out, fixing yellow stains. Got lazy after 20, used a ‘magic restore’ button.
- Step 3: Sorting absolute chaos. That girl changed looks faster than my internet drops! Made folders: Rainbow Hair Phase, Crazy Outfit Era, Just-Cyndi-Being-Weird.
Editing Slog
Okay. My ancient laptop actually overheated twice running Photoshop on these huge files. Fan sounded like a jet taking off. Forgot how much detail old concert shots had – like spotting Prince photobombing in the background! Highlighted those unexpected moments separate. Spent way too long arguing with myself about filters. Vintage feel? Nah, kept it mostly clean color fixes.
Finally Posting It
Wrestled my dumb blog uploader for ages (“file too large” ERROR!). Broke the collection into chunks. Preview looked weird, so moved titles around ten times. Added a short bit screaming about Cyndi’s fashion guts in ’85. Hit publish. Went to make tea. Came back, saw seven comments already! Old Mike from Detroit remembered seeing her at Cobo Hall. That made the dusty-tub-dig totally worth it.
Anyway this took forever and my back hurts from hunching over magazines. But man, finding that shot of her wearing bubble wrap? Pure 80s gold. Think I’ll dig through the Prince bin tomorrow… if the scanner survives.
