Party like it's 1999!?

Earlier today I was watching a video and they made a joke about this guy being the 99th degree. No doubt a reference to the 90s band 98 degrees. Laughing at the memories of me oogling over NSYNC and BSB, and wanting to be one of the Spice Girls, I went on Youtube to find some old 98 degrees videos and before I knew it I was in a whirlwind timewarp. Listening to LFO, Dream, Dreamstreat, BBMAK, and even some beginner Britney Spears. Music is one of the most amazing things in the world to me, and that is maybe why I'm unable to hear this music without remembering all the other things that encompassed those years for me. My first trip to the USA, the discovery of Anime, the start of my obsession with music, my 2nd & 3rd languages and my first experience at summer camp. Learning from my mistakes and the mistakes of the world around me, leaving the negative connotations in the past and bringing back the fun those years held.

It is with those thoughts that today, I make a tribute to the 90s.

To Marilyn Manson and The Cure who revived Goth. To Kurt Cobain and grunge. To Michelle Pfeifffer in Batman Returns and later to Victoria Beckham for making the catsuit popular. To platform shoes, Dockers, and cargo pants. To Johnny Carson and the premier of Friends and ER. To X-Files, the beginning of Power Rangers, Sailor moon, and even Bevis & Butthead. To the end of Fools and horses and the first ever HDTV. To Ellen Degeneris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and MadTV. To the emergence of Teen Pop, Boy Band Craze, Alternetive Rock, and the start of Hip Hop's top 40 Reign. To MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and TuPac. To Spice Girls Girl Power, Counting Crows, and Ms.Morrissette's Jagged Little overly platinum Pill. To Dolly: the world's most famous sheep, to the pentium processor, mobile phones, the IMAC, and the microdrive. To the hubble, the pathfinder, and genetically engineered crops. To the Hale-Bopp, GPS, and Fermat's last theorem. To AOL, Instant Messaging, and the birth of the buddy list. To Y2K, Lara Croft, Mortal Kombat, and the console wars. To Jurassic Park, Mario, Luigi, and even flaky Princess Peach. To Zelda, Everquest, Starcraft2, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and Pokemon. To the first McDonald's in Moscow, to accepting that homosexuality isn't a disease, to Nelson Mandella, and the simpsons. To U2, Reality TV Shows, the end of the cold war, the Oslo accords, and the gulf war. To the end of the Ethiopian civil war, Bill Clinton and Monica Luinskey, and Margret Thatcher. To Colombine, to OJ Simpson, third wave feminism, and Freddy Mercury. To Hurricane Andrew, Selena, Cindy Crawford, 'the Rachel' haircut, Mother Teresa, and the Wonderbra.

To waking up early on saturdays to watch cartoons, being young(er), and believing the whole world was mine .. or at least had the possibility to be. Some good, some bad, all different, and all questionable .. the 90s were a time we'll never forget.

Peace, Love & Pancakes
-Lib