obsession | talons and tea leaves

I was born in 1989 so, for all intensive purposes, I was a child of the 90’s. I was around for all of the things that made the decade so iconic. No, I wasn’t old enough to really appreciate Nirvana, plaid flannel or acid wash jeans, nor was I old enough to understand why Friends was the greatest sitcom ever. But I was one of the lucky kids who wore stirrup leggings and light-up sneakers, and my Mom definitely rocked the “Rachel” hair cut.

Some of the things I remember most about growing up in the 90’s, in addition to all of the animated gems that I blogged about a week ago, were the talks of the playground or rocked the airwaves when we were listening to our Walkmen. I grew up in a time where every month there was a new fad that swept the playground; as each new toy became popular among a large majority of my peers, it would take a week before a letter was sent home in our “friday folders” to our parents expressing how said toy was now banned from school premises. Among these fads were Tamagotchi’s or Nano Pets, POGS, Crazy Bones, Skip-Its and, of course, Pokemon cards.

Once we were no longer allowed to play with our favourite toys at recess we had to pass our 15 minutes of freedom (is it just me, or did 15 minutes seem to go by much more slowly when you were 8?) any way we could. Although I was quite the indoors-y type and would much have preferred to stay inside to read Nancy Drew or The Babysitter’s Club, that was almost always discouraged and I had to go play outside with my friends. So, without the awesome toys that were all sitting back home in our toy boxes or scattered across our bedroom floors, we instead pretended to play some of the most iconic musicians of the decade: Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Christina Aguliera etc. The amount of pictures I have of my and four other friends in the classic “girl power” pose, with the peace sign and me, of course, dressed as Sporty Spice number into the double digits.

I call the Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Christina Aguliera some of the most “iconic musicians of the 90’s”, which, I guess, is very true, but they, for the most part, survived into the 21st century. Now, however, when I reminisce on the 90’s, I find myself remembering the 90’s a lot differently than how I actually experienced it. Recently, I’ve developed an obsession with music from the 90’s, mostly music that we all remember when we hear it, but we don’t know for the life of us who it’s by or what it’s called. This music could be called, lets see, One Hit Wonders? This obsession began when, having developed an unhealthy obsession with the CBS comedy, How I Met Your Mother, I decided to look up the music that plays in that show. My research showed that a lot of the music in the show is actually from the 90’s, which makes a lot of sense because himym features a number of flashbacks to when the characters were in college between 1996 and 2000. One song in particular kicked off this strange interest in 90’s One Hit Wonders, that song was Chumbawamba’s classic, “Tubthumper”:

When I heard this song I was filled with flashbacks to when I was a kid, but it was baffling to me because, honest to blog, I never, pointedly listened to Chumbawamba ever during my childhood.

I was inspired to make an epic playlist of 90’s music when watching MTV Canada’s The After Show over the past couple days when I should have been studying. On one of the back-logged episodes the hosts, Dan and Jessi, started introducing a segment where they share a 90’s flashback song of the day. The segment came about because Dan was also compiling a playlist for a 90’s throwback dance party he was hosting and wanted great music so he was taking requests and stuff. The first song they featured was, well just take a look:

I didn’t listen to Robyn, but I remember that song as clear as day. I know like, all of the lyrics. It blew my mind.

So, my search for the best 90’s playlist ever continued today and I took to the trusty “iTunes Essentials” to begin. Not so surprisingly, they had a great playlist for “90’s One Hit Wonders” already started, so I knew where to begin. When I previewed each of the songs on their list I knew every single song. Once again I was completely baffled, but figured I knew them from years of watching Much Music and cheesy 90’s teen movies at sleepovers.

I’m still working on creating this awesome playlist, but here it is so far:

Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
Unbelieveable – EMF
You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette
Closing Time – Semisonic
Alright – Supergrass
What’s Up? – 4 Non Blondes
Torn – Natalie Imbruglia
Ironic – Alanis Morissette
Every Morning – Sugar Ray
How Bizarre (Mix) – OMC
When You’re Gone – Bryan Adams
No Rain – Blind Melon
Wonderwall – Oasis
Kiss Me – Sixpence None The Richer
Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…) – Lou Bega
Bitch – Meredith Brooks
You Get What You Give – New Radicals
Time of Your Life – Green Day
Head Over Feet – Alanis Morissette
Save Tonight – Eagle-Eye Cherry
Show Me Love – Robyn
Lovefool – The Cardigans
Its Tricky – Run DMC
You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi
There She Goes – The La’s
I Love You Always Forever – Donna Lewis
Two Princes – Spin Doctors

Some of the songs I’m sure you won’t remember. I don’t remember how most of them sound now just looking at them. But YouTube them or search them on iTunes and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Have fun with your flashbacks!!!

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p.s. If you have any suggestions for my playlist, let me know!!!

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beda day 6… stuff – and by stuff I mean a person – that I like…

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awesome, beda, clothes, nylon, obsession, studying on April 6, 2009| 2 Comments »

Hey there.

So, today I really don’t have much to talk about. It’s dark and dreary outside again, I’m working on my take-home exam for hebrew scriptures, I don’t want to be working on my hebrew scriptures take-home exam, and I’m sooo sleepy because people next door were raging until 1:30 last night – the music was so loud I could have had my own party in my apartment and I wouldn’t have had to put on music.

Other than those basic observations/complaints I don’t really have anything exciting to say so, as a result, I will talk about one of my favourite actresses/musicians/fashion icons. That person is Zooey Deschanel.

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Zooey Deschanel is probably best known for her role as Jovie in the Will Ferrel Christmas classic, Elf, and perhaps for her spectacularly awesome band, She & Him with M.Ward. Among Nylon subscribers she’s known for being, well, awesome and beautiful and basically has a style that everyone wants to achieve. I’ve never seen anyone pull off a pouffy, baby-doll dress so well in my lifetime, but that ability may have something to do to her doe-like features and adorable 4-year-old-girl bangs, but even still, it’s just not fair.

She’s just so… cool. Zooey has this great, old-soul vibe, which can be heard when she sings classics such as “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” on She & Him ‘s appropriately titled first album, Volume One. Her voice is so unique, which makes She & Him ‘s sound just so interesting and refreshing. Loves it.

She’s been in a few movies recently, but she has a movie coming out this this summer that looks like it’s going to be amazing. The movie’s called (500) Days of Summer and well, since I obviously haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer:

Right? I love when she plays that sort of, weird, insecure girl because she does it so well, and well, being weird and insecure myself makes her quite relatable in such roles.

Anyway. This blog is getting creepy, so I’ll stop.

For the future, when I find that I have nothing to talk about, be prepared to be bombarded with lengthy accounts of the things I like. It’s easy to come up with material, plus it’s a good distraction from my work.

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Good day, sirs.

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on fan-girling…

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged barobiney, Harry Potter, how i met your mother, love, obsession, shipping, writing on March 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Do you remember the good old days?

Those summers when you were 11 or 12, not yet old enough to work, but old enough to not have to be in summer camp. You’d spend most of your days inside with a cup of tea and Harry Potter, reading and re-reading the first four books. You discovered the online fandom during those summers. You found people who shared your theories, ships and crushes. Your OTP (one true pairing), Ron and Hermione was already outrageously obvious but the S.S. Harmony was still afloat (though losing passengers by the second). Livejournal stole your pre-teen heart at this point and it was there where you first discovered fan fiction and from that point, you were hooked. You wrote about Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny (the valentine in CoS was all the proof you needed) and You/Dan Radcliffe (danradliffe.com forums stole your heart). Some stories you finished. Some still sit in your hardrive, 40,000 words long and ongoing (you return to them on occasion to escape the realities of university life). These fictional relationships kinda became more than words on paper – they consumed you. You read books emotionally, like you are there. You have a crush on the crushes. It’s not just R/Hr or H/G, it’s R/Hr/Samantha. H/G/crazy-obsessed-fangirl. Your faith in love basically rests on the success of these characters…

…As you write this blog post you start to realise you are absolutely mental….

Okay, I’m crazy. But I’m pretty sure there’s at least one person out there who knows what I’m talking about.

Anyway, the point of that ramble was to express that I’m kinda having these weird, obsessy feelings again…and not with Harry Potter.

If you saw my last post I’m sure you know who I’m about to go on a tangent about now:

Barney Stinson/Robin Scherbatsky, Barobiney, Robarney, brOTP.

I’ve always loved this pairing, but since I read this article on Tuesday I’ve been obsessed. I’ve been watching and re-watching episodes of HIMYM from all seasons to catch any sideways glances, conversations or moments between the two, finding clues that point towards them getting together.

I’m a dork, whatever.

But seriously, apparently it’s happening soon and oh my god, I’ll probably cry of happiness when it happens.

Until then, I feel like writing fan fiction about them, simply because I cannot hold in all the possibilities for a future real relationship between Barney and Robin.

I need to get a life…

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