Retro saturdays and squeezit juice

This one will be short and maybe not sweet as there isn't much to squeezit. It was a juice that came in a funky plastic bottle by which I mean the bottle had figures on them that I assumed they were the lost souls of kids. Each one had different facial expressions and had molded hands to make it extra kreepy for kids like me. The juice itself was very similar to kool aid so it made you hyper if you drank 1 or 2 or 3 or go crazy and chugged the whole 6 pack like some young alcoholic in the making. I would get these with a pack of skittles and feel like a big man(or kid) and thought I was sooo cool. I'm not sure what happened to this juice but I do know that there is something somewhat similar still being made. The 99 cents store has something called mondo juice that tastes the same but it doesn't have the kool guys on the bottles

Retro saturdays and simba and nala kissing plush toys

There isn't much to say about these plush lion king toys other then that they were extremely popular with guys for some reason and girls too but the guys thought it made them look cool for owning the simba plush. Of course the guys would try to be slick and use it as a "pick up" line well as any pick up line for a little kid. The plush tous had little magnets in the mouths that made them "kiss" if you brought them close together and they were sold together or by themselves

The lion king movie was a surprise hit and anything lion king related was a huge seller as they were extremely popular. I haven't seen one in years and I never owned one but someday I will own a simba and nala plush toys

Today is the 25th anniversary of the rodney king riots

They started on april 29th 1992 and had a big impact in oj simpson getting off free from his trial in a few years. Rodney king was not related to Martin luther king or jr, he was a black man that had a ho hum life until one night in 1991 when he was beaten after a high speed chase. The beat down was captured on tape(not common in those days) and became a huge media story and cause outrage. The officers however got acquitted without a slap on the wrist causing even more outrage and racial tensions and protests. Meanwhile in florence and Halldale there was a group of people "protesting" in the streets and one person was arrested while a crowd kept getting bigger and bigger and more hostile towards the police. The L.T. ordered all the officers out of the area and that's where the leeve broke, the crowd moved south and other "protesters" decided to loot stores and riot

Meanwhile there was no police presence at all and the lapd didn't respond to calls so that meant there was no police and widespread rioting. What I most remember is the beating of reginald denny, a white truck driver who got pulled out of his 18 wheeler then beaten by some "protesters" just for being white, however he was rescued by 2 black guys who drove him to the hospital so not everyone is evil. There was more looting and setting fires to cars and yes the fire department did respond and get shot at and that is how the next few days went. It lasted days without police so it was anarchy for a brief time. Koreatown was another place that didn't have police presence so many small store owners simply loaded up on guns and protected their business from looters. H. Bush made an announcement that anarchy wouldn't be tolerated and even bill cosby told viewers to watch the last episode of the cosby show instead of rioting. By the 3rd day the national guard was in south central(majority of the looting happened here), the lakers postponed a playoff game and the clippers moved a playoff game to anaheim, the dodgers had games postponed and the hollywood park race track was shut down. There was concerts that were cancelled and even the wwf cancelled some shows among with the mta shutting down some bus and rail lines

By the 4th day the violence was mostly stopped thanks to all the troops and by the 5th day things were under control. The curfew was over on the 6th day but there was still pockets of violence that didn't end until the middle of the month. It left an impact that would be felt in the oj simpson trial and was one of the main reasons why he got free and why so many people cheered when he did even though he was guilty. After the riots it was nice to see a black man beat the law and get off free but as the years go by people have changed their minds and realized a murder got no jail time. There was a gathering after a car chase ended in south central a few years ago but the police responded quickly this time and there was the baltimore riots that were a lot less violent then the rodney king riots

It may have been 25 years ago but the riots are still in the back of the public mind

Retro fridays and st anger

St anger is a metallica album that came out in 2003 and was seen as a huge disappointment at the time of it's release. If your not familar with the band metallica, they were a thrash metal band in the 80's and slowed down and changed to a more melodic sound in the early 90's. With st anger they took a left turn and went for a garage band type of sound that I like because it sounds good in a car

That sound change is what lead to them being called sell outs again and it was hugely unpopular but it was cool to hate st anger. The video for st anger was always on mtv and yes I did buy the cd and I still have it somewhere in a cd wallet under my bed. My favorite songs on it are frantik and st anger and yes I still listen to this black sheep of an album from time to time. Nowadays people have forgotten about it except for the cover but it was once an extremely popular album to hate

Retro fridays and spyro the dragon 1

When it came out, spyro the dragon was seen as sony's answer to mario (especially super mario 64) so it had some pretty high hopes and dreams on it's tiny scaly shoulders. Like it's name suggests, the game is about a dragon named spyro who has to rescue his elder dragons and save his town from gnasty gnorc. It's not the most original story but it's fine because most people cared about the gameplay which is very similar to super mario 64 with it's level portals and a main hub and doors that open once you get a certain amount of gems

The graphics were good for it's time and the controls hold up well. It was a solid and successful game that is easily worth playing at least once then it sucks you in. My cousin got this game and a playstation in 1998 and I was extremely jealous of him however, he would let me play it when I was over so it worked out ok for me. I did get this game in 2008 or 2009 for $1 at a swap meet(disc only) but I haven't played it since then(only to see if it works). Spyro would later have a trilogy of ps1 games and have some ps2 games before fizzing out on the gba and returning with the skylander series. Not bad for a mario clone

Retro saturdays and crash bandicoot warped

Crash bandicoot warped or the 3rd game in the crash trilogy holds a special place in my heart. It was the very first playstation game I owned and purchased if that sentence makes sense. I would play it every day after school and weekends were spent doing homework and play warped, just trying to beat the game. It was addicting and the tight controls made crash an extension of your self. It is a 3D platformer but iinstead of going from left to right, you go from the bottom of the screen to the top and the levels are confined but there are also some free roaming airplane and jetski levels. My favorite are the motorcycle races as you get to go over ramps and knock people off and this seems like a pre cursor to crash team racing. The gameplay can get pretty hard in the later levels but it's nothing that can't be beaten in a few tries as the game gets tough but fair

The graphics were great for their time(especially the water) and they still hold up well. The bosses of each world are innovative and each one has different methods to defeat them(my favorite being the space ship battle), This game is a must play and you really get your money's worth. It's also the last good platforming crash game for the sony consoles and home consoles, after this it went downhill

Retro saturdays and jumanji

Released in 1995, Jumanji is the title of a movie that revolves around a board game called jumanji. 2 kids named alan and sarah get trapped in a board game as kids, so many years later 2 more kids named judy(played by a young mary jane aka kristen dunst) and peter(sadly it wasn't tobey mcguire) find that board game and let loose an aged alan(played by robin williams) and sarah among with other animals and things like the evil hunter. I'm not sure how it's explained but judy and peter have to play and finish the game of jumanji to restore the city back to normal so they do and that's pretty much the whole movie

I'm not sure why this movie because so popular in the 90's but it did. Maybe because the name jumanji was just too weird but this movie became pop culture even if it wasn't that good. If your thinking about seeing it, well it better be on netflix and you are not missing much

Retro fridays and crash team racing

Crash team racing was easily the best kart racer on the playstation 1 and one of the greatest racing games on that system(2nd only to gran turismo 2). Nintendo's mario kart games started a trend and sony wasn't going to take it laying down so ctr was created. It stars crash bandicoot and his friends and enemies in a kart racing game very similar to mario kart 64 but I believe ctr has better graphics and no slow down even when you play 4 players together

Let's say you only had a playstation 1 and you were jealous of your friends that had mario kart 64, crash team racing was your answer and it made your n64 friends jello(jealous). Ever since I played a demo, I really wanted ctr and I finally bought it when I sold my old neighbor's nes games to funcoland(they were common bad games). Me and my brother would play this game in 2 player mode over the years. We didn't agree on much but ctr was our go back to play together. I still miss those times and even though my brother is still around we haven't played ctr in years and I think 2012 might have been the last time we played together and I lost interest playing 1 player mode. The memories still linger, if you never played it, PLAY IT! it's that good

Retro fridays and kirby's superstar

Kirby's superstar is a game I hold in high regard even though I never owned it as a child and I only rented it twice but the game made a strong impact on me. The first time I went to see big bear(because of the snow) I rented kss at hollywood video then spent that evening and the next day playing as much as I could, The music from the great adventure game has stayed stuck in my head all these years. I would rent it again just one more time as it was too expensive too buy and ironically a sealed copy is worth the same as it cost back then new

Kirby's superstar is a kirby platforming game butttt it is made up of smaller shorter games and includes some mini games such as karate chopping and a race. Each game has a different premise and it starts off easy then they get harder. I would get the later DS port and I still have that version. If your interested, both versions are pretty similar but the ds version(kirby superstar ultra) is cheaper and easier to find. Both are great classic games that hold up well even if you never played a kirby game

Retro saturdays and portable tv

Back in the 90's, portable tv's were a thing and you could go out to best buy(I don't remember the electronics section of target) and get one if you had the $. To a kid the allure of having a small tv when your in the back seat of a car seemed like the best thing ever. The cheapest one I saw at best buy was $99.99 for one that was shaped like a convex snoball and yes that didn't make sense so it was shaped like a thick short thumb. I saved and saved my money including christmas and bday money for almost 2 years but I finally had enough to buy the little tv

This was in 2001 when I bought it and it was great. I would carry that thing similar to how flava flav carries a big clock(I said clock) around. It had a strap that doubled as a necklace and antenna. Most of the time when I was sitting down I got pretty good reception especially when my mom was driving her white 1989 f150. I would never miss an episode of blind date or elimidate and my mom would take it to her work sometimes to watch tv on her lunch and breaks

The battery life was decent and it used 4 AA batteries, When the batteries were close to dying they screen would get darker and darker until it turned off. I would trade it for a mexican soccer team jersey to my uncle when I went to visit him in mexico and that was that. I thought about getting another one but with the switch to digital tv it wouldn't get reception unless I jerry rig a converter box but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a portable tv. Maybe I can use it as a screen to play ps2/wii on it

Retro saturdays and micro machines

Me and micro machines go way back. Ever since my 5th or 6th birthday I got a micro machines van and 2 packs(I think) of micro machines cars. Micro machines have been part of my childhood ever since I was very little and I still have a lot of my childhood ones that my mom saved from destruction(or from giving them away). If you don't know what micro machines are, well they are small cars that are 1/4 the size of a hot wheel and they came in a pack of 5 in a package with a big blister that took up a lot of room, that's probably the reason why there aren't that many unopened micro machines at yard sales compared to hot wheels. For my 6th birthday( I think) I got a micro machines van playset which is a big van that unfolds into a city play area for micro machines, it had a drag area and a mini mountain and a bridge and a river, police station, airplane hanger, gas station, car wash and an airport. All this in a van the size of  big shoe box. i also got 2 five packs of mms so I spent a lot of my childhood playing with that van and those tiny cars and pretending there was a police chase and traffic jams

That van got left outside in my teen years and it got ruined by rain but I kept most of my micro machines cars/trucks into my adult years and I still have them. I like them even more now compared to in my childhood so I always look for them at yard sales and swap meets and thrift stores. Little kid me would be so jealous of adult me and all the micro machines I own. I wish the cars/trucks/vans/airplanes/boats were still made but they would probably be considered a choking hazard. I always wanted a lot when I was little but at least I had my small collection

retro fridays and wrestlemania the arcade game

"welcome to wrestlemania" that's what the arcade game would say at the character select screen. wwf wrestlemania the arcade was a fighting game at it's very core(it had life bars) but it had an "extreme" edge to it thanks to midway. Fresh off nba jam, they applied that little something extra to a wwf wrestling game and the result was wrestlemania the arcade game. It was first an arcade game then it was ported to the snes and genesis and playstation and I believe the sega saturn. I would borrow my cousin's genesis to play it(they also had the game) then I would dominate with yokozuna. The wrestlers were:the undertaker, lex luger, bret hart, shawn micheals, yokozuna, doink, razor ramon and bam bam bigelow. For the longest time only hbk and the undertaker were the only active wrestlers from this game

The game is over the top with the undertaker having a tombstone as a weapon among with souls and ghosts, shawn micheals uses a baseball bat and razor ramon uses razors. It's worth a play if you never played it and the controls are simple to get used to

Retro fridays and electronic gaming monthly

Ah egm magazine, me and egm go way back and it is a staple of my childhood and teen and adult years. It is a video game magazine that has some extra wit in it but what gives me the memories are the april fools jokes and the size of the magazine. In the 90's there was some issues that were easily 400+ pages in lenght, the size of a phone book and it was $4.99 too. The april fools jokes were/still are legendary. For example everyone bought into the shen long in street fighter 2 joke or the remake of the wind waker with 3D graphics or the all bonds cheat in golden eye or sonic and tails in super smash bros melee. EGM always knew how to get people talking about april fools and it was great

For the longest time, egm is where I got the latest video game news and cheats and to see if a particular game was good or not. I got a subscription to it in the early 00's and kept it for a few years until it lost some of it's luster. Then it stopped being made and came back and I'm not sure if it is still being made or not.  I still have a lot of my egms and I recently acquired a lot from the mid 90's. EGM magazine may not be popular anymore but it holds a special place in my heart

I have been working a lot the past week

so I haven't been posting because of that. For example I have worked 5 days in a row with yesterday being the 5th day and I worked almost 9 hours yesterday. I could have worked 8 days in a row if I took one of my co workers shift but I have been working a lot lately and I needed a break. Anyways I really want a early 90's ls400 and I'm saving up for one

Look at this pictures of a 600SEC's interior

In case your not familiar with a 600SEC, it is a car made by mercedes benz from the 70's to the mid 90's I believe. It is a coupe version of the S class but it has more presence and a bigger price tag and more technology. Unlike the S class, you don't see many of these on the road today. The 600sec has a 6.0 v12 engine that follows mb's naming scheme at the time and it has the timeless attention grabbing squared edges that a lot of mb's had in the mid 90's. But what drew my attention is the interior, more specifically all the buttons and switches. Just try to figure out what all the switches and knobs and buttons do. There's even more at the top of the ac vents, it's like the 600sec is from alternative steam punk dimension where we have technology but no touch screens

I think 2 of the switches are to recline the seats back and 2 others are to control the heated/cooling seats and another is to lock the doors, I'm not sure what the little knob is for on the lower left and I believe the numbers are for a phone or some sort of fax/pager. I would love to own a 600sec and sit in it for hours just trying to figure out what does what. It would amuse the nerd in me but the car itself would be so expensive to maintain among with the insurance and registration(nevermind the gas mileage) as it was a $140,000 car when new in 1993 and that's in 1993 money, adjust it for inflation and it's $236,000.00 dollars. Yeah 236K, although the used car prices are 95% of that

Retro fridays and final fight 3

One of the few instances in a trilogy where the 3rd entry is the best one, easily the pinnacle of the final fight series, ff3 is the one you must play.  Building up the previous 2 games, ff3 has a super bar that lets you do super moves similar to street fighter alpha1-3. The stages have more variety and the gameplay has been tightened up so there is the satisfying feeling of destroying goons with a well timed jump kick

I used to rent it a lot from a small video store and I would always try to beat the game with my brother or cousin but we were never able to as the later stages got too hard. It was my go to game if I didn't have any game in mind. I own it on my wii and still play it from time to time. It's just that good and a great example of a by gone era and genre. Beat'em ups aren't so popular nowadays so it is a nice little time capsule

Retro fridays and pepsi commercials

By pepsi commercials I mostly mean the ones with a little girl with curly hair and other ones that had britney spears in them. Anyways I'll start with the ones with a little girl. Usually it was a girl that was at a soda shop or "bar" and she asks for and gets a can of pepsi. She has a deep manly voice with customers and a little girl voice with the owner then it goes into the bap bap bap bap bop jingle that's used in the britney spears ones

The pepsi commercials with britney spears commercials came later in the 90's towards the end of it and they had a memorable run at least for me. Ir was usually britney dancing to the beat of the pepsi song and sometimes singing it too(the one I most remember) and that was that. I'm not sure why they have stayed stuck in my mind but pepsi did something right

Here's the link to the britney spears pepsi commercial

It's hard to believe it's been 23 years since they death of kurt cobain

Especially because it seems like the 20th anniversary was just yesterday. But anyways I wish he was still alive as I wish there was more nirvana music. His loss is still felt in music even after all these years. If your not familar, kurt was the singer of the band nirvana and they changed the music industry with the hit album nevermind based off the strength of the hit song smells like teen spirit. He would commit suicide on april 5 1994 after years of drug abuse and pressure to be the voice of a generation and with that he was gone, forever to be remembered

All of the nirvana albums are good but the ones worth a listen are: In utero, nevermind, unplugged in new york. Then there's the concert dvds with: live and loud,unplugged in new york and the halloween show in 1991. The unplugged show is pretty depressing with the background set, there's stargazer lillies and candles and a chandelier, it's almost like a funeral with it's atmosphere

Kurt is gone but his music still lingers on among with his presence(he had the montage of heck movie 2 years ago)