tied to the 90s

S and I were reminiscing the 90’s and we discovered that we both went through the same fads albeit in different geographical locations.

We were the mid till late nineties children, the early 90s was too… erm early heh. In 1997 I was still in secondary school (that’s high school to you noobs) and erm… I looked something like this.

class photo

Obviously the only coloured bit was my face. I don’t know if my ex-classmates would be happy to have their face on the Internet, better not risk it.

And later in the year my friends and I were at Kukup.

at kukup

So that was 1997. So much could grow horizontally within a year. Amazing.

Anyway back to the 90s talk… it was GREAT, I tell ya. Of course one never fully appreciate the era they were in until it passed them by, so here I am in the early 21st century missing the late 20th century. Talking with S was such a trip down memory lane. I’ve always wanted to compile something like this, the conversation with S made me really do it, so here are some of our 90s memories that we love so much.

The #1 unifying factor for me and S was Smash Hits.

Smash Hits covers from the 90s

Nothing like the Smash Hits now of course, back then it was thicker and nicer and the editors (especially Gav and Kate) were mucho hilarious.

The first English album I bought was Blur’s The Great Escape in cassette.

Blur - The Great Escape album cover

I think I first got to know Blur from their ‘Country House’ music video which I thought had the coolest lyrics EVER.

City dweller, successful fella
Thought to himself: ‘oops, I’ve got a lot of money
Caught in a rat race terminally
I’m a professional cynic but my heart’s not in it
I’m paying the price of living life at the limit
Caught up in the century’s anxiety…

– Country House; Blur

Then there was Oasis whose line up I’ll always remember as from 1995 – 1999. Some really great songs not like the crap they have now.

Oasis in 1995

Some day you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky

– Champagne Supernova; Oasis

Maybe I just want to fly
I want to live I don’t want to die
Maybe I just want to breath
Maybe I just don’t believe
Maybe you’re the same as me
We see things they’ll never see
You and I are gonna live forever

– Live Forever; Oasis

Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay

– Cast No Shadow; Oasis

And there was the infamous Oasis vs Blur, Liam vs Damon, Noel vs Damon feud. In the heat of the moment, Noel Gallagher let it slip in an interview that he wished for Damon Albarn to die of AIDS, which he immediately apologised and retracted. It was published anyway and it wasn’t pretty.

Then along the same lines was Jarvis Cocker and Pulp.

Jarvis Cocker (Pulp)

You’ll never live like common people
You’ll never do whatever common people do
You’ll never fail like common people
You’ll never watch your life slide out of view
And dance and drink and screw
Because there’s nothing else to do

– Common People; Pulp

Jarvis Cocker also pulled off a stunt which unfortunately would be more remembered than his songs; he sneaked onto the stage during a Michael Jackson performance and mooned.

There was also the beginning of Boyzone, the painful departure of Robbie Take That, the end of Take That (sniff), the beginning of Spice Girls, Scooter, Nirvana (1994’s From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah), Britney Spears’ singing debut around 1996, Super Furry Animals, Kula Shaker, Cast, Suede, Space, Manic Street Preachers, Weezer, Radiohead, REM, Green Day, 911 (kinda embarrassing for me to admit this but they were hot), PJ and Duncan which was basically Ant and Dec (we still listen to Eternal Love), East 17…

Some alt rock album covers
I had these albums

Scatman John, Venga Boys, Gina G from Eurovision (Ooh Ahh Just A Little Bit), Danii Minogue, En Vogue, George Michael (Jesus to a Child), Elastica, Bjork (It’s Oh So Quiet), the ridiculous Dr. Bombay, Cornershop (Brimful of Asha), Run DMC (It’s Like That) etc etc etc…

Stupid music from the 90s
I didn’t have these, thank goodness.

And there was the beginning of Backstreet Boys in late 1995. Their first single was ‘I’ll Never Break Your Heart’, the music video was of them at a skiing place and there was snow and lots of boy band emotions. Back then I loved them so much; when they came to Malaysia for a showcase I got my second sister to go squeeze with the crowd so that I could have photos. She got me a BSB t-shirt as well, it was so cool heh. I got their self titled album in 1997, played it so much that one day my mom gave me a shock by singing ‘As Long As You Love Me’ correctly.

Then when their next album came out, it was so crap that I got disinterested in them.

There were other boy bands too, such as Worlds Apart, Code Red and so on who obviously didn’t leave much impression.

And before there was hot Kylie as we know her now, there was Louise Nurding.

Louise Nurding

She was with then-Liverpool bench warmer Jamie Redknapp (now they are married and have a kid), she was the darling of Brit-pop (don’t think she could sing that well but then she was h-o-t). S said that back then, Beckham could suck kok (he still can now).

Hmm what else can suck kok? Oh yeah bands that sound all the same today like Simple Plan and company. PFFFTTT!!!

High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
Shaking their bits to the hits
Drag acts, drug acts, suicides, in your dad’s suits you hide
Staining his name again
Cracked up, stacked up, 22, psycho for sex and glue
Lost it to Bostik, yeah
Shaved heads, rave heads, on the pill, got too much time to kill
Get into bands and gangs

– Beautiful Ones; Suede

A thousand thundering thrills await me
Facing insurmountable odds gratefully
The female of the species is more deadly than the male

Shock shock horror horror shock shock horror
I’ll shout myself hoarse for your supernatural force
The female of the species is more deadly than the male

– Female of the Species; Space

Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
But what price now for a shallow piece of dignity

– A Design For Life; Manic Street Preachers

The future teaches you to be alone the present to be afraid and cold
‘So if I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists’
Bullets for your brain today but we’ll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper turns me into a gutless wonder

– If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next; Manic Street Preachers

Pop rock alternative songs today… no depth… no substance… nothing that’s not been said before… recycled tunes… 2 or 3 miserable albums then putting up a Greatest Hits album… PFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!!!! Only The Killers are doing a good job. The popularised others… PFFFFFTTTT!!!

Or maybe I am getting older… 🙁

Before Harry Potter, there were…

Some book covers from the 90s

There were also…

Some movies from the 90s

And Casper, Pocahontas, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, Reality Bites, Free Willy, Home Alone, The Mask (the debut of Cameron Diaz)… all these I remember oh-so-well.

And there were: Saved By The Bell, Blossom (Mayim Bialik), Seinfeld, Home Improvement, the Olsen twins always babies in our eyes…

And HOT child actors…

Child actors from the 90s

I didn’t know that Jonathan Brandis committed suicide in 2003. Seaquest DSV was one of our favs.

One of my favourite movies of all time is Now and Then in 1995, starring Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Devon Sawa, some other kids and some grown ups like Demi Moore.

Now and Then movie screenshots

S’s top 10 reasons to go back to the 90s :

1- Smash Hits
2- ponteng
3- budaya bohsia
4- who had sex and who hasn’t
5- metrovision/mega tv/astro
6- hitz fm in the beginning

Unfortunately she stopped at 6 because I had to go off somewhere.

But man, those were the days.

We’re stuck in a path
Where fashion is fast
And nothin’ is lasting
It’s all ghetto blasting
And Lord knows
Where it goes
But I know
That if so well I want to tell you
We’re tired of the 90’s
We’re tired of the 90’s
Tied to the 90’s

– Tied to the 90s; Travis

the fat diaries

My sister is always telling me, you can’t run away from things, you have to face them sooner or later.

OK. I am facing it. I am facing it now.

It is staring right back at me from the mirror.

Join me in my unedited journey to the Vogue world of Kate Moss (as if).

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Year 2001

Early part of the year. I brought my fatdoom from Batu Pahat.

Later part of the year. Nothing changed.

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Year 2002

Taken in January and March respectively. I sort of remained like that for the rest of the year.

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Year 2003

Ta-dahh! The gods decided to reward me by skinning a few pounds of my flesh.

But a few months later I ate too much again.

At the end of the year…

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Year 2004

Chubby.

Less chubby.

These things go up and down faster than the NASDAQ.

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Year 2005

As you can see, I didn’t waste any time on New Year’s Eve finishing all the chow.

Then I had to go had my hair curled, which left me in a state of very dry hair with split ends today.

So here I am now and still growing.

Call me for makan, thanks.