Stuff I Did in the '80s
You’re the One That I Want
You’re the One That I Want

I was crushing on Olivia Newton-John in 1980. Not as her incarnation as Sandy, the goody-goody-turned-juvenile-delinquent in Grease, but as Kira, the muse in Xanadu...you know, the movie where she’s roller-skating all over downtown LA dressed in a curtain.

Here’s why I loved her:

  1. She entered the Prime Material plane through a mural and was a muse to artists (that’s me).
  2. She was magic—as in she glowed in magical neon colors and sang a song letting you that she was magic and nothing could stand in her way.
  3. She could transport you into a Don Bluth cartoon with the snap of her fingers.
  4. She was a time traveler. Whether she was a crooner in WW II, a fun-loving cowgirl, a sultry MTV rocker or a cosmic alien queen from Flash Gordon, Olivia Newton-John was made of awesome...until she cut her golden tresses for her Physical album. Somehow that broke her spell over me. I then fell in love with Stevie Nicks.

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Introduction Half a Boombox I’m Not a Member I was Simon Le Bon (For Fifteen Minutes) Motown 25 Watch Whatever, Whenever Snowblind You’re the One That I Want Call Me Your Kiss is on My List Electric Boogaloo Dear Daryl Hall and John Oates Where Shopping is a Pleasure Dialect of a Decade I’m Alright The Sunshine State Shazam! It’s Just a Fantasy I’ve Got a Secret Sunday Funnies Impeachment American Top 40 License to Drive Risky (Show) Business Jumping Someone Else’s Train Yakety Sax I Want to be Elton John When I Grow Up Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Tetherball, Dodgeball & Flag Football Sk8 or Go Home Roll a Saving Throw vs. Velour Piano Man The Duckman Cometh Money for Nothing Waiting for the Bus More Than Meets the Eye The Legend Begins Whip It When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best Master Chef Muppetmania I Want to Ride My Bicycle WW III My Octopus Teacher Some Like it Hot Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs Dare to Be Stupid Keeping the Faith
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Never Abandon Imagination Tony DiTerlizzi: Never abandon imagination.

Imagination is a world of possibility that exists within each of us. It is what makes us uniquely human. It is our creative fingerprint that touches and influences the world around us. Imagination is essential to art and science; to innovation and prosperity. It gives us hope, calls us to action and leads to change.

Whether it’s fairies, dragons, robots or aliens, all of my children’s book characters are siblings born of my imagination – an imagination strengthened through years of encouragement from family, teachers and friends. While so many others abandoned it during their transition from childhood to adulthood, I fiercely held onto mine, hoping for a day when I could share it to inspire the next generation of dreamers. Innovators. World changers.

Imagination empowers us to envision and create a reality of what could be. We must hold it dear, foster it and never abandon it.