33 posts from 2009

2003

 

Politics:

• “Weapons of Mass Destruction”– I always sort of wondered what if we reconsidered and started treating things like oh I don’t know poverty, poor health care, bad educations, unemployment you know… day to day stuff as “WMDs” THEN WHAT?

• The short lived U.S. boycott of “French Fries,” and by boycott I mean that several red blooded patriots still ate them, just called them “Freedom Fries” instead. This was seriously one of the most passive aggressive forms of taking a stance on something I’ve ever seen. I mean REALLY? A) They aren’t French. B) WHAT DOES RENAMING THEM REALLY ACHIEVE? C) :AL:KJSDFKLjasdklajsdfa!

• In a moment that nearly broke my California–loving heart… we recalled Gray Davis (who didn’t really do shit wrong, I think Pete Wilson’s reign just made republicans all kinna messed up in the head) and elected the EM EFFING TERMINATOR instead. Seriously, few things have ever embarrassed me in terms of being from CA, or the Bay but between Schwarzenegger and Hyphy music, I’m really not sure which is worse.

Fashion:

• Late ‘03 saw the birth of Ugg boots being every goddamn sorority girl’s go to shoes if heels weren’t an option. Living in NY, and during the winter, it sorta made sense, but otherwise… ?!?! I realize they were invented in Australia and were in part related to aviation and surfing but IT AINT THAT COLD nor are you just exiting the surf. Having lived in Hawaii in the spring of 2004 and these bitches were still hot… I really really think there is a time and place and for the most part it is neither the time nor the place for these shoes. I’ll let out a disclaimer though that I think sheering is wonderfully warm and comfortable, but for house shoes folks. HOUSE SHOES.

•Ruffle Skirts… often paired with uggs… ugh, and I don’t mean that to be corny. I mean got damn no way. Ugh.

 

Movies:

•If you didn’t know, but some of you do. The movie Big Fish, which came out this year, could have been about my grandfather. My grandfather IS the main character in this movie. And while I could have commented about any of the other million of movies that came out this year I urge you people who are close to me, if you want to understand me better, watch this movie.

• Finding Nemo brought us Ellen Degeneres as a fish with short term memory loss and some of the best lines ever. More relevantly to someone who cares, Pixar masters digitizing water.

• Charlize Theron wins an Oscar for Monster proving yet again that for a pretty girl to be taken seriously in acting she’s either gotta be a vamp or ugly to win.

 

Other:

• Harley Davison celebrates their 100th anniversary, (relevant in that my Mom’s cousins are bikers and it’s

a random fact possibly more interesting that yesterday’s tooth whitening bit).

• We lose Kate “The Great” Hepburn. I made that name up I don’t think anyone actually called her that.

 

Music:

 • 50 cent, and his mumbling self hit the airwaves with In the Club which becomes the over played song at the club when it’s someone’s birthday. Why it gotta be a birthday to have a reason to party? That never seemed to matter before this song? I also got a little weird about everybody being called shawty…

 

• Justin Timberlake releases his solo album… and in an effort to try and be the greatest sings, dances, writes songs, plays instruments and is generally cocky which girls swoon over. Personally his only work that really touches me, are his guest appearances on SNL as of late. Quit the whole serious acting/music thing and go join the cast. Take Neil Patrick Harris with you please!!!

 

• The world is graced with the insanity that is Jay-Z + Beyonce. I guess you could call them one of the world's power couples, but I don't think they got shit on Michelle and Barack. Bey becomes a bit harder and Jigga becomes... you know what, Jay stays stayed as himself.   

2002

Politics:

• A ton of companies including K-mart file bankruptcy. FYI: It started then.

 • Bush 2 continues his plot to bring down terrorists, but passes the No Child Left Behind Act… a law that is deeply connected to why I do the work that I do, and why so many of our kids are failing… what a messed up name for a law.

 • U.S. Hosts 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

 

Fashion:

• Crocs. The horror. The disgrace. WILL THEY EVER DIE?

• Asymmetry is in. Every girl I know who likes or has a reason to wear club wear is sporting a one shoulder top to the campus night club. Those who don’t really ‘get it’ have their bra straps exposed. I however still rock my favorite indie hip hop folk’s graphic tees.

 • Apparently the whole bohemian ethnic inspired top thing came out this year, shit that you know my family wore often but is now out in stores… gives every white girl I know an opportunity to feel… “natural and connected to,” you know… the struggle or something.

 

Other:

• Friendster becomes one of the first of the more modern social networking sites– and will be rendered obsolete by its predecessors.

•American Idol Madness… season 1. Thanks to this I will forever have those random moments where Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” pops into my head to torture me.

• Oprah releases Dr. Phil into the wild for his own show. All that’s provided us with is wonderful parodies.

• Tina Fey, after finishing her 2^nd year as head writer at SNL, and the writing staff win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program, perhaps there is hope for me to do the same some day?

• The beloved “Wire” begins its short lived run on HBO. By short lived I mean 6 seasons wasn’t enough.

 

Movies:

• Selma Hayek plays Frida Khalo, Khalo who’s long connection to the Bay Area has never been so sessí…

It frustrates yet fascinates my sister, mother and I who’ve long been fans of her art. Hayek just reminds me of what pretty girls with big chichis can do with themselves. (Draw on a unibrow and suddenly be considered Oscar worthy… though she wasn’t bad in the role.)

• Chicago is released… dancing singing, Renee Zellweger’s  ribs. Catherine Zeta-Jones tears it up.

• Eminem releases 8mile… the movie/rap album about his life. BIG WHOOP. The Dave Chappelle Parody is better “SPAGHETTI SPAGETTI SPAGETTI.” (But we’re not blessed with his show till a year later).

 

Music:

• Hip Hop starts its whole “Part I and Part II” thanks to Diddy making way for R.Kelly to write a million part song about cheating… awesome.

• 2002 also seemed to be the year for insane hooks that get stuck in your head… Looking at the top 100 billboard singles… I can sing part of at least 59 of the songs attached. Yes they were the top 100 but they were also on the heaviest rotation and over saturated us.

• Sean Paul... brought a dance hall vibe to mainland U.S. and as a result made way for other such island things like the sometimes oft putting reaggeaton. I can say that "Get Busy," did provide for many a hilarious moment watching people to try and shake it like a video girl. And by people I mean EVERYONE.

2001

 

I left my beloved San Francisco in the fall, for upstate New York, a vortex where things just weren't quite real– at least not to me.

 

Politics:

• 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. 9/11.

P.s. This was my second day of classes. Thought I’d have to hitch hike back to the bay. 

By October, when the world had slightly settled I got to go home for a week (damn you private schools for such wonderful things as October break) I decided to pierce my nose (one of the many types of things I do when I’ve been through something ‘big’).

On my way back, airport security asked if the sea salt I had to clean my piercing was actually anthrax. Irritated I said “No, it’s salt do you want me to eat it to prove it?” He said sure. It was a pretty gross mistake on my part but he let me through.

Fashion:

• Army Fatigues were in (though they never really seem to stray too far.) And could be found in about 800 different colors. I don’t know I it was some anti-establishment sort of thing with me but I never got into this trend. Maybe it was some new patriotism.

• Pink was no longer taboo for men.

• The appalling revival of trucker hats. From the cliché vintage or found in a goodwill sort to the highly over priced contour trucker hat set.  An ex made me a personalized one. I think I wore it twice… a fact that makes me shiver to admit.

Movies:

• To my chagrin the Lord of the Rings empire began to make its mark. For me that was on a housemate who’d later write her thesis on it and hang a map of middle earth in our living room. Never got it. Probably never will.

•  Ocean’s 11 was re-released. Which seemed to cause a lot of women I know, even ones who didn’t care for him a great deal, to question what is it about Brad Pitt eating?

• Halle Berry gets her Oscar for Monster’s Ball. Big up for women of color, for crying in public and thanking Oprah instead of god.

 

Other:

• Jack Lemmon passed away, Walter Mathau the year before, ending their grumpy old men franchise.

• A random fact I managed to find that I’m not sure fits neatly into a category- “The tooth whitening industry sees a boom.”

 

Music:

• Alicia Keys debuts her voice, her piano and those BRAIDS. Cornrows on the comeback hello braids and beads of the past. But be forewarned just cause you got your hair did like AK, does not mean you were meant to sing ‘Falling,’ even if you feel like your personal anthem should be ‘A Woman’s Worth,’ please leave the singing to her.

• Napster shuts down. Again something I did not understand as of yet. But college did introduce me to Kaaza, Audio Galaxy and Limewire especially since we had the bandwith at school to download music. Though remember how long it took to download ONE song?

• Apple releases the iPod. I eventually owned the second generation one that came out 2 years later. Boy did I save for that thing but god was it worth it. I know I rip on youngings for not knowing what life was like before cellphones. But truth be told, the idea of carrying around a discman, or walkman… seems ridiculous.

• 2001 in music marked the reign of Ja Rule, J Lo and Ashanti. Actually, I lie. It wasn’t Jlo or Ashanti that dominated… forreal it was Ja. I could barely go ANYWHERE without hearing Always on time, Living it up or his remix of I’m real.  And actually, that’s a lie. Love Don’t cost a thing, I’m real the original, aint it funny, and play were on heavy rotation even in the grocery store too.

And as much as this shit bugged me (my friends and I clowning on the chorus of always on time– all the time, in the campus night club) I will be totally honest in saying that I was absolutely inspired by J.Lo’s hair in her Play video. And went to prom with the curliest mop I possibly could earlier that year. Even snuck some Peacock feathers in it. Yeah it sounds nuts but you know what, I think I looked pretty fly with that.

 

 Update: I have a master’s degree on its way to me… some how… eventually. 2 weeks paid vacation from work. Having spent the better part of four months focused and driven to finish my thesis, I feel like I have no direction and no drive. So after a pity party of one yesterday it dawned on me...

In my last stand-up routine in college I joked that all I was qualified to do with my degree was commentary on “American Culture” and for one of those I love the “whatever” shows, and well being that we only have 10 days left in the decade, I figured WHY not?

 

So here goes, one year a day, five categories per day for the rest of the year. It ain’t necessarily what I <3 but it sure is worth a rant.

 

2000

Y2k aside 2000 marked the end of my junior year in HS and start of my senior year making us the 2nd class of the new millennium–  a fact which pissed us off to no end. In the fall of the next year I’d be moving to NY and starting college. But here’s what happened that year that I think is rant worthy.

 

Politics:

• Vermont legalizes gay marriage– and in California we pass the “defense of marriage act” which prohibits it – clearly all our granola munching hippies have retried in Vermont.

• We also pass a law known as prop 21 targeting juvenile’s and gang related offenses which in essence turned any three young people dressed alike into a gang– not so convenient given we had a dress code at school and couldn’t walk together in groups of 3 or more from that point on– cause you know a rag tag bunch of kids in white collard shirts and black pants are CLEARLY trouble.

• Bush 2’s first term. (That’s all he’s getting).

 

Fashion:

• Pointy toed heels are in, causing me to sort of lose it as a shoe lover. At 17 I think they look witchy yes witchy.

However, in a HUGE departure from the clunky platform shoes the 90’s had left us with it is at the least a step somewhere. A pointy-toed step somewhere.

• Nike re-releases the Air  ax 90s which I’m deeply pleased about.

• Track suits are in and  while b-boys will b- boys (what’s up Mos Def!) anyone can be throw back hip with these. I cop a red and black original Adidas jacket I find in my dad’s closet that I have a hard time believing he once fit it. Velour even makes its comeback from out your uncle’s wardrobe (cause he thought it’s proximity to velvet made it appropriate for fancy occasions) onto the bods of J-lo and them. It was cool for a minute in that it kept ya warm– but really it just made people look like fuzzy sausages.

 

Movies:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon makes anyone even slightly involved in martial arts think that all we need to do to learn to fly is take karate lessons, and then we can kick ass like them. That’s all that mattered. We all wanted to kick ass.

• Bring it On bestows us with a few gems of quotes such as: "She puts the 'ass' I 'massive".  And “…this is not a democracy, it's a cheerocracy. I'm sorry, but I'm overruling you.– You are being a cheer-tator…”

It does, however sadly drop a bomb on the way over quoted “BRING IT ON!” phrase it self. Not every event merited a retort challenging your friend to bring it, but damn did it seem that was the go to phrase for a few years. I mean really, what is there to BRING and what are we putting it ON?

 

Other:

•Mp3s and digital music emerge becoming the go to for music. Having been computer illiterate– being too broke to have the latest (not even knowing what would happen to my world when I started downloading music and using AIM) this was beyond me.

• Tiger Woods achieves the grand slam in golf. Alls I gotta say is “Remember when?”

 

Music:

Ima try to keep this brief because this could EASILY be all I write about. For what it's worth, R&B and Pop DOMINATED. Clothes were bright red, shiny pleather and rhinestone covered because of the Genuwine's, Puffy's and Britney's all over the scene.

•Christina’s a genie in a bottle and Destiny’s Child wants you to say their name– especially since two of the then members would be no more by the end of the decade. Nsync and the Backstreet Boys tell us it’s gonna be them and what the shape of their heart is.

•Santana, who has always been on heavy rotation in my house, makes his comeback in late 99’ featuring Wyclef, RobThomas, as well as everyone and their mother. But 2000 does not begin without everyone woman being told that “its just like the ocean, under the moon, it’s the same as the emotion that I get from you,” or that “you remind me of a Westside story”.

• The most thrilling single, released however, had a profound impact on our lives. By our I mean two fold, we saw the resurgence of a particular clothing item: and by resurgence I mean we now knew which bitches were wearing them (yeah I said that too). And the other our, is my high school. Small though it was, we were a strange, clever, funny bunch. And 2000 was the year of our first and I mean first ever, junior prom. We’d had a knack for choosing slightly inappropriate themes for dances but a heavy contender for us that year was this single.

No it’s not that we wanted our theme to be the ‘thong song’ instead we wanted it to be “the thong th thong thong thong PROM.” No we weren’t a class full of proud thong wearing folks, we just thought it was hilarious. So did the staff, who kindly acknowledged that it was clever, but incredibly inappropriate. Don’t ask me what the theme was after all, instead I just remember what it wasn’t.

Not really wound per say... just... off? Tired. Light at the end of the tunnel in sight but so far. Holidays looming– yet whatever the opposite of looming is.

Swirly head but sooo happy that the count down to a new year is here. I want every day to be a day to "reset" my life, and they are and they have been and they can be... but 2010 will hopefully mark a new new new... new new new new start.

That said. Something I have only a few words for. In case I never made my self clear, I *heart* sneakers. In peeping thatonedood's latest posts last week or so I thought... "oh snap" (yes I only say oh snap to myself) "my collection is incomplete until I get some J's... I had a pair of Team Jordan's when I was in HS and on the basketball team but I think they had to get tossed. So I started searching... and I came across these... (I can't even remember what site. So for those really intrigued... Google image search is the hyper link).

Jordan's...     Air Jordan's...     High Heeled...    High Heeled Air Jordan's...    Gross.

 That's it. Nuf' said. COME ONNNNNNNNNNN 2010.

Please peep my second oldest friend thatonedood's blog.

fresh dls. fresh clips.

he took good care of me in seattle this weekend. last of my 3part vacay.

Ok... one month left yall. ONE MONTH.

not even. i'm tryna be done by 11/20.

but for now, for thatonedood... the mp3 version of wale's live performance of pretty girls on late night with jimmy fallon. if you didn't know i have a very crazy love affair with the roots, and well this is just the ish.

here's the vid...

Seriously, can ANYTHING Top this???

The headlines say it all. Here's a select few.

• " On Barack Obama's Nobel: Prize for appeasement"
• " Obama's Nobel Prize will Exacerbate His Narcissistic Tendencies"
• " The Last Thing Obama Needs is A Nobel Peace Prize"

• " Obama Says He's 'Humbled' and 'Surprised' by Nobel Prize"
• " Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action' "
• " President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Viewed Positively in 62 Percent of Twitter"

And as if it weren't clearly articulated above:

• " US divided over whether Obama has done enough to merit award" 

Clearly– this man could sneeze and people on both sides of the fence will loose their minds, and yet he hasn't even been in office for a full year.

NYC I'm Coming Home, built with love, and help.
P.S. Didn't manage to set an order, just shuffled it every time I played it... lame? Maybe. Convenient, YES.

September is over. Out with the old.... I'll drink to that. 
SF->LA->SF

October is here. Halloween too. Here's to reconnecting with the past.
SF->PK->NYC->SF

November is just around the corner. Here's to being on the brink, but not forgetting what's up– Same page, different book, the sequel. I can definitely drink to that.
SF->SEA->SF