Quote of the Day:
“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion. –Jack Kerouac
It came to my attention today that another decade is almost come and gone. It has been an eventful one, like most of them are, I suppose. But a question was posed to me earlier today–won’t we wonder, twenty years hence, what in the heck we were thinking as a culture when clips of a show like “Dancing With the Stars” gets showed on VHocho (and mocked as if she remembered it by some little hipster who is at this moment probably still in diapers)? Yep, I thought. We’ll be wondering. TB’ll be denying he ever watched the show, save under duress, but as a group, we’ll deserve the hazing. So I got to thinkin’, what else should we be ashamed of?
Looking back on the 80’s it was the mullets, the big bow-headed chicks and the Talibanesque clothing that seems so bad now. The 90’s still seem too fresh to be terribly embarrassed, but I already laugh at the giant cordless phones you see on shows like Seinfeld. There was that Billy Ray Cyrus song too. I can’t think of too much else on the 90’s that was so bad, at least not yet. Oh yeah, Zima, but I never drunk that crap.
Anyway, try to put yourself in that yet to be invented time machine and fast forward a couple of decades. What should we, the cosmic we that is, have thought the better of over the last 9 1/2 in the world of pop culture? “Dancin” is just one of many reality shows and I think we’ll be sorry for that genre altogether. Computers are getting smaller so I imagine this sleek, beautiful, lightnin’ quick Mac will be just another grotesque paperweight to the next generation. I hope we are laughing at ourselves by then that we ever drove cars that got 18 miles per gallon of gas, better yet that we are laughing at our use of the internal combustion engine at all. I definitely think we will be unable to explain why Paris Hilton became a household name–same goes for Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson. This ain’t a politics thread (MD) but I think it stands to reason a bunch of us are gonna have egg on our faces over the debate on global warming come 2029. I’m not saying here which side, but by then there ought not be much left to discuss on that issue. We guys will have to try and explain to the kids why there was no college football playoff in addition to what in the hell the “BCS” was. In the tech world I think we’ll laugh at the My Space/Facebook/Twitter fads, and undoubtedly, some of us will be at a loss as to why we thought having a blog was such a damn good idea. But TB’s forte is looking to the past, not forward. My crystal ball is cloudy, so how about a little help on this one. Honestly, right now, I’m not that embarrassed by anything I’ve thought about, except maybe the bloggin, but then again, I thought that mullet in my tenth grade picture was pretty dang sweet too. At the time.
Travellinbaen 
I’m running on little sleep, so you’ll have to forgive me. I was going to say the Snuggie, but then I realized that that’s already made fun of. But as I wear mine on this chilly morning I surely don’t care.
It would be great if the hosts for the VHochos show were the Gosselin kids.
And ’09 should be known as the year of the Falcon. 😉
The Macarena back in 1996. My birthday at America Live in Gulfport – were you there? Everyone (mainly the girls) were doing the Macarena. A smart guy wanting to hook up would have been right in the middle of that melee – I’m sure it would have worked on someone.
IR had what he called the “Mullet Parade” on his wall comprised of pictures of PHS students with the worst versions of the hairdo that he took from the annuals of that era.
SM, the Gosselin kids hosting VHochos in the 2020’s is genius. Nicely played.
JL, I can honestly say I never, NEVER, have done the Macarena. I shudder to even think of it. However, I was part of a trial team that used that Ricky Martin video as inspiration one time. I can’t recall if he is late 90’s or 00’s. But the Macarena craze….oh man, you nailed it with that. I feel like I need a shower.
There was a group of Lesbians there that night, or at least appeared to be to me – perhaps filming a segment of Girls Gone Wild – and one of them grabbed my arms from behind because apparently I didn’t know how to do it either so she felt the need to help me. All of that is to say I felt like I needed a shower as well after all that – but it is a funny memory. They were even trying to get parents to do the Macarena at a Trent Lott Middle School function – I did not budge from my seat. I’m more of a freestyle, white girl dancer – unfortunately my Caymanian roots do not lend themselves to rhythm, just kinky hair.
Ricky Martin was around 1999 or so – all the Mexicans on the mission trip I went on that summer wanted to know if we liked Reeeky Marrrtin. I must admit I have two of his songs on my Ipod – it got a great beat I can walk or run to.
One word…..Crocs.
I have hated them from day one and continue to hate them to this day. My wife bought some for both of my boys a few years ago, and I made such fun of them for wearing them that day that they have never done so again. My boys and I all enjoy a good laugh when we see a guy wearing them. My wife just gives me that look.
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The whole reality show trend (I hope) from Survivor and American Idol to Wife Swap to all of the rest of that garbage as they are a complete waste of the airwaves. I will be proud to say that I have never watched any of them.
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Global warming—–I can’t wait for 2029 TB and sweet. I hope that you each have saved all of those global warming is BS articles that I have emailed to you over the years……I have.
I thought I’d have to read a book for a dicrovesy like this!
Ashamed of the fact we never advanced picture in picture TV. I still think that is on of the greatest TV advances and it is still on many TVs today but things like DirecTV don’t/can’t utilize it.
I have to say, on the “Mullett Parade”, that was not my doing. I wish I had had that idea, but that one belongs to Wes Lucas.
On the gosselin kids, one of my favorite sports writers, Bill Simmons (aka The Sports Guy), had a segment in his column discussing how he and some of his close friends had a quick fantasy football style draft of celebrity kids who will be messed up when they grow up. The Gosselin kids went in the 2nd round.
People will ask, “How did that Alaskan lady get so famous?”
We’ll get made fun of for our mass reaction to the steroid era.
And god willing, hipsters will be mercilessly ridiculed.
Holy cow – ZIMA! I only ever bought it to pour on other people. Made the dance floor good and slippery.
I’m going to regret grunge. I’ll never regret my EMO/goth days – but I will regret grunge. And the grungy boys I dated. Yuck.
We’ll also get made fun of for the Anna Nicole Smith death coverage. Why did our society pay so much attention to a no talent bimbo?
I knew many people in high school who would drink Zima’s with jolly ranchers in them. Gross!
irvineredd, I remember people using skittles, too. And once when I was bartending some little skank threw a fit because we didn’t have jolly ranchers behind the bar. And this was WAY after Zima’s “prime”. Zomething different. Ugh.
I also love the football draft with the Gosselins!
Jessie Lou, I have no idea what you look like, but I’m “picturing” you speed walking, getting your groove onto “She Bangs.”
Oh, so close…..”Shake Your Bon-Bon”. I’m not afraid to say I like it. 🙂
MD and the crocs – that is hilarious! I’ve never owned a pair myself.
80’s
swatches are still cool, things that are not calculator watches, Boom Boxes, Wrestling, Baby on Board signs and the like, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the term “SIKE”
90’s
actually the first reality show was the real world,
Napster, Beanie Babies, Fannie Packs, Boy Bands, The term “wassssup” of budweiser fame.
MD. I agree crocs are really gay.
coach, I love “sike”
Eddie Murphy “Wanna lick? Sike!”
100% on the Crocs – Hate them – Plus they never wear out.
80s – Guys with perms in their mullet were pretty bad. MD?
that was a body wave larry!!!! and we all know those are cool, especially for a 12 year old with a mullet