Dishwalla ~ Counting Blue Cars

This evening, I commiserated with a colleague on the abundant discussion surrounding spirituality.  "So many people have brought up religion to me lately," she commented.  I agreed with the sentiment, but expanded it to include the whole winter.

Like most theological discussions, the one that ensued answered fewer questions than it raised.  That, in my opinion, is the purpose of life: to continue to be more curious than you are certain.  When I meet God, if I haven't already, I'll be sure to ask Her about it...

blink-182 - What's My Age Again?

Over the last month, I have been having a few issues with feeling "old."  Not that I am, oh no!  At 25, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life, with the most responsibilities I have ever had (a cat, an apartment with a lease agreement, working for myself, trusted with specific responsibilies at the jobs that pay me enough to survive, etc.), and the most care-free attitude I have ever wanted.  It is that attitude, perhaps, that makes me feel like the young men in this song...and wonder if, at twenty-five, I should perhaps care just a little bit more about who, what, where and why people respect me...

I won't change, though...I'm enjoying this free spirit lifestyle!  And as my dear friend warned me when I told her I had to stop closing down the bars, "Oh, Jodi...we're just getting started...."

It's odd, though, that as I begin to start feeling my age, it is songs like this, from my youth, that I flock to.  I really am having a Quarter Life Crisis.

Day 99: MC Hammer ~ U Can't Touch This

Oh yeeeeeaaaahhh! Oh, those dance moves! Oh, those colours! Oh, those pants!

I wish I had owned some Hammer pants...they look comfie...

This is it - the last of the 90s music! I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane...and dancing! Why don't we have dance music like this anymore? It makes me sad... I mean, I'd go to those 90s bars for some dance time, but, well, I can't stand it when my hair has to compete with others for volume...

Day 98: Seal ~ Kiss From A Rose

Another song from the nineties...it's almost over.

The other night, I watched the film Definitely, Maybe. I love that film for many reasons. The first chronological reason is the opening scene. The narrator (main character) introduces himself and his life and then takes to the street with his iPod. As he finds the right song for his walk, he reveals something that I love about my life right now. Sometimes, we all need our own soundtrack. With iPods and personal mp3 players hanging from our ears eighty percent of the time, we get that. I love that my life has a soundtrack when I take to the streets myself...

I also love the flashbacks to the technology of the nineties in that film. In 1992, the main character is tossed a huge phone with a long antenna. "What's this?" he asks. "A cellular phone," is the response. Remember when those things were new? Now you can't find people without them, most of the time. All that has happened in such a short period of time. It's crazy!

I remember this song coming out. I remember Seal. He was one of the softer singers of the decade - fabulous! He's made a comeback this last decade, but not to the same extent as before. Music has changed...but he's still a great artist, and this is such a sweet song... Enjoy!

Day 97: Sheryl Crow ~ If It Makes You Happy

Apparently, I was a bit rude today. Everybody was nice about it and nobody said anything, but I noticed. If my sarcasm was too much for you and you were offended, I apologize...but, well, it made ME happy...

This must have been one of the first videos I saw on Much Music. I recognize the video as much as I do the song...now that's innovative!

Day 96: Sir Mix A Lot ~ Baby Got Back

Oh My God,...

You know it, you love it! Sir Mix a Lot, baby! ;-)

Since re-discovering this bumpy tune last week, I've been created my own versions of it. It's just so much fun to sing along with, dance to, and make great merriment out of. I hope you enjoy it so much you get out of your chair and "shake it, (shake it!) shake it (shake it!); shake that healthy butt! ... Baby, got back!" ;-)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Ah, the Fresh Prince... this extended version of the Intro song was never played enough on the show. And I watched this show religiously in the 90's! Will Smith is still so dreamy...

And, this song is WORLD FAMOUS! I have started the rap in hostels all over Europe, with people from all over the world, and the entire crowd generally knows every SINGLE line...trying it out with my friends who were BORN in the 90's, though, and their eyes tend to glaze over. So, friends, here it is - listen, learn and love it!

The Carlton Dance:

Oh, Carlton....



Where would hopeless dancers of today be without Carlton Banks to blame for making it acceptable to be so "unusual."

I remember going clubbing with some coworkers my first summer in Vancouver. One of them was nearing thirty and danced like a maniac on the dance floor. I kidded him about it briefly, but he remained confident in his body. "I dance like nobody's watching, or else it's just not as much fun." Today, I dance like nobody is watching when nobody is actually watching...until I have a few beers and then the world disappears and I think I have the best rhythm in the world. Inside all of us is a little Carlton just waiting to dance his way out...




Carlton and Will

The thing about family is that, regardless of whether or not you even like them, they will be in your life forever...even if they become estranged, they are STILL there. I'm glad that I have a family that I love not because of this, but despite this fact. I think that the Banks eventually found their way to having the same feelings toward Will in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

For example, Carlton puts up with a lot of teasing from Will, but they have the strongest bond in the entire show. They're more than just cousins, they are like brothers...and friends. Who else would you let do that to you?

Will's Dance Moves

The videos aren't uploading onto my site very well, but I recommend checking out this link. Just copy and paste this into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfswUJmqMnA&feature=related

So, how can we criticize Carlton and not Will? Seriously?!? I think extraordinarily funny dance moves run rampant on that show...

...or maybe that was just the 90's. Remember MC Hammer?

Spice Girls - Wannabe

Now, here is something I DID listen to in the 90's...

Ah, the Spice Girls. The group acted as a bonding agent between my two "hometowns" - Meacham and Meadow Lake. I remember doing an "Air Band" (where you get up on stage and lip-synch to a song while doing the dance from the music video) to Wannabe while in school in Viscount (when I lived near Meacham) and then gathering in the halls of my junior high in Meadow Lake to listen to the Spice Girl's new cd...

Music groups and celebrities are amazing in their ability to bond people together. Even today, if somebody tells me they like folk music, I know we'll be friends! And, we won't even have to talk about music that often in order to maintain that friendship. It's almost as if the music creates this instant bond that we don't have to communicate to one another through several conversations. It's immediate - oh, you appreciate the same music as ma, you probably have a similar temperament and philosophy guiding your life, I guess we're friends now...

That's why music is so important to young people. And pop music, too. Especially when you're living in a small town when the only other option is country. Not to berate country, I can appreciate it now. But listening to pop music when we were young teeny-boppers was partly our way of fitting in with one another, while maintaining some difference from our parents. Or, perhaps it was even a way for us to connect with the world outside of our small town... When you're young, you need to fit in. Ages 11-15 are all about "fitting in." That's why there are so many cliques and groups and social divisions being created at that age - we are sorting out the pecking order. Clinging to a pop music group, such as the Spice Girls, became the one common denominator among all of those cliques, though...and I guess that's why there will always be pop music, and it will always be appreciated more by young teenage girls than by music snobs...

This is an interesting thought, I'll have to think more on it and expand over the next few days. Until then, back to the Spice Girls...

When I moved to Meadow Lake, liking the Spice Girls, BSB, and other pop music groups helped me make my group of friends. Sadly, by the time their second album rolled around and we were all headed towards high school, having sorted out the pecking order of junior high, I could no longer appreciate "pop music." This second video of the Spice Girls features a song I hated! I didn't murder the lines as we sung along to it at dances (as I did to Britney Spears), but deep down inside, my body groaned from agony whenever my friends HAD to listen to Spice Girls' new cd while we got ready for the dance... Somethings, I learned, should stay in junior high...

Now, I actually kinda like this song... It's nostalgic!




Also, watching these videos as a twenty-something woman, I have a better appreciation for what the artists were going through in their life. Unlike the pop music of today, these songs are aimed at an older audience. I'll clarify that. They make no reference to school or class in their lyrics, and could therefore be appreciated by people (ie. adults) who no longer have to contend with those things in their lives. Part of it is probably nostalgia, but I will always like 90s pop music more than pop music produced in my adult life.

Just as an example:

Last weekend, I heard Katy Perry's "Peacock" song as I was riding along in my sister's truck. "How can artists put out music like this - that's so suggestive - to an audience as impressionable as teeny-bopper girls?"
"Well, they don't actually say any of the words, Jodi? What is it that YOU think they are referring to?" My sister tried to make me feel bad for the obvious interpretation of the song.
"Yeah, fine, you're right...." I conceded and a conversation regarding the censorship of sex over violence ensued. As I re-watched the first video of the Spice Girls posted here, I flashed back to listening to it as a young, impressionable girl myself. Yeah, I knew what they were referencing with "ziggy-ziggy-zig-ya" AND that was part of the APPEAL of the song. Granted, it talks about being the woman being respected in the relationship and having the option of saying "no" and "goodbye" if the other person in the relationship was "boring," or respectful to her. This "girl power" is what made the Spice Girls so famous, and accepted by the censors. So, this then makes me wonder, does Katy Perry carry the same girl power with her songs? Or, do we just assume that impressionable young minds don't understand what a "peacock" means?

Video From Day Fourteen: R.E.M. ~ Shiny Happy People

Day Fourteen: You should learn at least one new thing each day. This is why I love cbc. Today, they taught me about civil unrest, fear, the gov't trying to cover it all up, and REM's artistic expression of this oppression. Thank you, art! Where would our society be without the freedom to listen to this song first thing in the morning?

Link to original post (video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ0vDAbF7s&feature=related

Update:I love the internet. You can find out the most interesting things here...tonight, specifically, I'm calling upon wikipedia to learn more about this nineties band that I have previously featured in the first fifty days. I learned numerous new things with a quick look there. Here's the top five:
5) This song was recorded on my sister's tenth birthday.
4) This song was performed on Sesame Street, as "Furry Happy Monsters."
3) This song was the original choice for the Friends theme song, but they went with "I'll Be There For You" instead.
2) The backing vocals are by Kate Pierson of the B-52's, who is also in this music video. (I thought it sounded familiar...)
1) There is no mention whatsoever of this song's relation to civil unrest...which make me scratch my head trying to remember what the name of that Square that the massacre happened in that CBC said this song was inspired by... Well, I guess, I didn't need the internet to teach me that my memory is fading - I already knew that!

Enjoy this extra nineties video today!

Day 92: Ben Lee ~ Cigarettes Will Kill You

This song is not about nicotine...

It's amazing how many things in this world are addictive. How far will we go to fill a craving? What will we do to ourselves just to get that high? Is it a high we're looking for? Or sometimes merely contentment? Or, is it that we're too afraid of what would happen if we didn't have what we're addicted to? Is our fear of ending the addiction what keeps us on a path to the end of our lives?

Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment (Video)

It would not be a complete 90s list without some BnL, especially from me.

Day 90 - I Go Blind

Doesn't this just scream nineties?

I've been watching a lot of Friends this week, which is never a bad thing. In fact, watching Friends always makes me feel better about having no idea where my life is going. The series begins with Rachel searching for a calling; Phoebe never knows where her life is heading (and relishes in that fact); Ross changes careers (slightly) after a nervous breakdown; Monica is advanced, fired and then has to build her career up from the bottom (and a romantic funder) in her late twenties; Joey's career in show biz is all about the ebs and flows of career success; and then Chandler plugs away and away at a "filler" job for almost a decade before realizing that he is unhappy and he takes the plunge into finding his dream! So, there is NOTHING wrong with being obsessed with Friends right now!

Which brings me to this song, which was featured on Friends at the height of its popularity in the 90s. In fact, Hootie and the Blowfish were all over theepisode where Monica has her career setback.

Anyways, enjoy!

And then, realize that Hootie is actually doing a cover of a Canadian band: 54-40! Here is the original version of the song, released in 1986...not realy the nineties, but everything builds on itself. The sound quality is not as good, but, well, that was twenty plus years ago...

Fiona Apple - Criminal

Haven't we all been here?

Ok, maybe not...but it's fun to realize that it's ok...don't take life too seriously, just have fun - nobody gets out of here alive...and if you're ok with the possibility that you might get hurt, jump right on in. Getting hurt is just a reminder that you're human and you have emotions...

Ah, the 90s...they begin tomorrow! :-)