Tuesday, February 19, 2008  

Top 5 Worst Trends of the 90’s

Top 5 Worst Trends of the 90’s

I was a youngster during the 1990’s and what a great time is was for pointless t-shirt sayings and bad album art graphics. I feel that you could level with me on this, that the 90’s were a much simpler time. Remember knowing your top five best friends home phone number? Do you remember having any phone numbers memorized? I have to say, I don’t know my girlfriends phone number by heart, but i remember my best buddies home phone number from when we were twelve which have probably been expired for at least 6 years now. But it simplicity, the simplicity to throw on an ugly white Bush shirt and a flannel over it and head out for the say with your hair parted perfectly in the middle and a quarter in your left shoe just in case you had to call some one. Ah...reminising, it’s great thinking about all these great trends about the 90’s, but remember some of those not-so-great trends? Here we go.

1. Beanie Babies: Oh what a phenomenon that we all now wish we had nothing to do with. Why where they just so darn lovable. For the sake of our dignity, i’ll reference from asking how many many beanie’s were in your collection. But if you remember, not all beanie babies during the 90’s were created equally, we only like beanie babies made by “Ty,” why? who knows. Despite how much you think your 1000+ collection of beanie babies being stored in your basement next to your old Pearl Jam cassettes are worth, hate to break the bad news, but you can now buy Ty beanie babies at your local drug store for about $4 bucks a pop.

2. Power Rangers: We’ll, when something is truly amazing, what can you do but obsess over getting your hands on a real power ranger action figure. I remember being in kingdigarden when power rangers was the hippest trend for a little kid to be a part of. It was fun for everyone, even for the girls, they had their choice of an american pink or an asian yellow. I remember pretending to be a power ranger during recess, I seemed to always be the blue one, Billy, the color seemed to have stuck with me since.

3. Tie-Dye: The temporary return! Going back to the clothing trends, I was one of those kids who looked like a miniature Kurt Cobain. I dug the tie-dye shirt with the plaid pullover, and of course, some doc martin’s for some trendy footwear. It probably had to do with the fact that I got so into rock music so early and at the time, it was Nirvana, Bush, Pearl Jam, Local H, and Green Day back then, of course, played punk rock music. Also, music was allot more straight forward then, a couple quick chords, some tie-dye shirts and a cynical “Ghost World-like” title and you set and signed to a major and on your way to being a one hit wonder like the New Radicals.

4. Pogs: I was there, I had them, I got it, but I really just didn’t think that Pogs were that cool. I never really knew exactly how you were supposed to play, and as far as I’m convinced, no one really did. I think that they were more of a social way to show that your were an indie, crunchy granola type by keeping them humbly displayed on your desk. Upon buying their cassette, I remember receiving a free Gwar pog, lucky duck I was hu?

5. Boy Bands: The absolute worst trend of the 90’s was the age of boy bands. Let’s take a look, Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, 98 degrees, 5ive, LFO, West Life, and so many more pointless forgotten once “talented music artists” part of the boy band trend. The hype was catastrophic, and record labels soon found that the formula was simple. Like their early 1980’s pioneers New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC found that the formula was five guys with this description, The young blond one, The heart throb, the wild one, the the heart throb with some foreign decent, and the older fatherly one. This pattern was repeated for years and many bands following until the turn of the century realized once again that a music act needs to actually be talented at singing or playing music, leaving most of these has-beens to reality shows and/or rehab.

Hope these were good for a laugh!
Jeremiahcity
posted by Jeremiahcity @ 9:44 AM 0 commentslinks to this post

Thursday, February 14, 2008  

The Best Valentines Day Ever...

Let’s cut to the chase, the big V-day’s around the corner and according to the world defined by mass-marketers, the mainstream media and Martha Stewart, if you don’t have someone to spend tons of money on and give ‘em a card, with sentiments you don’t mean, then you aint’ got it right…

Wrong! The best valentine day celebrations I had was when I was single. Oh yeah! No more pressure on spending $40 bucks on long stemmed roses which the lady takes as a given. So, everyone, in my infinite wisdom here are some cool tips on how to weather the Valentine Day BS , whether you’re single or attached (painful word)

Hangin’ out with friends :

Valentine’s Day is meant to be about love, and is not necessarily just for couples. It can be just as rewarding to get a gang of single friends together for an enjoyable dinner. Perhaps even more pleasing to do so with good friends, except for the fact that you won’t be having sex as the night comes to an end…unless of course, you have some ‘really good’ friends (with benefits).

Realizing that you’re single cos it’s cool :

People are single for all different reasons: whether you just don’t want a relationship, you have lost a significant other or there is no one you can see yourself dating at the moment. Whatever the reason is for you being available, just roll with it and have fun. You’ll be on spring break in a month or so anyway, and no one wants to be in a relationship while you’re surrounded by hot guys or gals having a fun time.

Self-awareness (Knowing yourself as defined by you and not the media) :

Somewhere some marketing cat decided that St. Valentine was this dude who professed some ’love’ – duh wazaat? For someone and decided that he could make money by branding a day with the dude’s name. the Result – you got all these diamond stores shoving rocks down your throat (yeah, it’s a great feeling to give a loved one a diamond that came from blood money in Africa) Watch the movie,’ Blood diamond’ instead – get more informed and realized that like the Beatles said “money really cannot by you love’ If someone loves you for what you are, you’ll know.

Also, if you’re a dude just think about how much money you save on jewelry, flowers, candy, and not to mention all the stupid crap that sings or says “I Love You!” And if you are a chica, you won’t have to feel bad about throwing out all that dumb shit that you received from your man.

No self-pity. Period :

Speaking of dumb shit…you might be one of those people who are continuously searching for a girlfriend/boyfriend, and I really hope you aren’t. To do this would be a waste of time, especially if you’re a student. Worry more about your degree rather than a relationship, which probably won’t last too long anyway considering you are obviously desperate and want to date someone just for the fact of “dating someone.” It’s not like the love of your life is playing hide and seek with you, so you shouldn’t be looking.

Also, think of the financial savings : typically, most dumb couples spend at least $200 or more on themselves on this day. Take $200, put it in a Roth IRA every Valentine’s day and when you turn 60, you’ll see that you now have more that $40 Grand in your account. Gee, how did that happen? Well, it’s cos you were smart.

Finally, Be Cool :

Relationships just happen, so if this year you happen to be single and are still unhappy about the whole situation, there are still 365 more days to bump into your potential soul-mate before the next Valentine’s Day. In the meantime focus on the more important things, like yourself and your career. Who knows? Maybe you’ll fall into a relationship or get rich, buy yourself a new face and get anyone you want!
posted by Tony B @ 3:03 PM 2 commentslinks to this post

Wednesday, February 06, 2008  

The not-so-Superbowl

One game away from making complete history of a 19-0 season, which has never been done before and probably will never happen now. 18-1. I almost cried. It’s the Superbowl…one game to win to achieve perfection and not one Patriot seemed to be able to tackle Eli Manning in the last 2 minutes of the game.

I blame the loss of my much-loved Pats, not on the Patriots themselves or on the Giants actually coming to play, but on my two friends who hosted the viewing of every Pats game this season at their apartment except for the Superbowl. They watched it with their family in New Hampshire. What a way to break a tradition.

With their house out of the picture, my roommates and I picked up the slack. We hooked up four TV’s that included: our big screen in the living room, one in the dining room, the kitchen and even hooked one up in the bathroom…just in case. The place was packed with food and beers, while we all sat patiently, clenching our teeth, biting our lips, just waiting for Tom Brady to yet again be a miracle man…but it didn’t happen this time. With the conclusion of the game, some of us went silent, some of us were flipping out.

What started off to be an amazing day for the history of football turned sour for us faithful fans. For the next few weeks watching Sportcenter or the news or any station is like getting kicked in the (you know.) If spring break were this week I would spend it in solitude with a bottle of Jack. However, I am glad it’s not so I can have a few more weeks to recover from witnessing the murder of perfection.
posted by Tony B @ 9:28 AM 0 commentslinks to this post