Retro fridays and california love

Something about california love transports me back to 1995 and 1996 when it was(still is) extremely popular. It has the cool laid back feel of classic west coast rap and deathrow records and has roger troutman using his talkbox. When it came out it was everywhere and by everywhere I mean lots of cars were blasting it. You couldn't escape it now matter how much you tried which is ironic because this song is used in a lot of tv shows and movies and commercials and even played at walmart over the musik. 2pac and dr dre are rolling over in their graves knowing that walmart took out the lyrics and plays it as a "calm" song

California love is anything but a mellow song ok it is but it also gets you hyped up and want to cruise in the evening in southern california as I almost do. I love to blast it on a friday evening or saturday evening or even a saturday morning as I go to my childhood burger king or to a yard sale. It sounds amazing and something everyone has to try as it puts you in a good mood. There isn't much else to say, it was originally a song for dr dre and 2pac ended up getting added to it and it was released on all eyez on me and it became a huge hit and the most well known song in all of rap. Here's the link to the video

Retro fridays and vhs tapes

Is there anything more 80's and 90's then a vhs cassette. For many of us growing up, these were the symbol of our childhood and seeing one triggers instant nostalgia. I had a lot of movies well not that many but it seemed like a lot to me when I was little. I would spend many slow saturday and sunday evenings just looking through what I owned to see what I wanted to watch. I would thumb through and feel the cassettes as you had to feel them just to know what you wanted to watch. Something about physically touching the cassette makes it more your own and can't be replicated even with a dvd disc. I loved to open the top flap and touch the tape and sometimes the tape would jam so I would have to unwind it to get it to play otherwise it crinkles and then it skips a part

Of course there was the fun in stacking vhs tapes and trying to play jengo and/or using them as a weapon against your cousins. Vhs was good for it's time but the quality does degrade over time giving it the vintage 90's look if you use a vcr although that effect can't be replicated with a dvd or on netflix. Nowdays vhs tapes are seen as a relic of a bygone era but for those of us like me, they are a reminder of where we came from

Retro saturdays and judge dredd the game

Judge dredd was a movie released in the 90's about the future and a robot police officer from what I seen from commercials as I have never seen the movie but I have played the super nintendo game. Back in the 90's you couldn't just look up a review of a game and see if it's good or not, you couldn't find gameplay videos either as your best bet would be to hope you had an old egm magazine or nintendo power that reviewed a game. This made game rentals seem like a game of roulette as you only had word of mouth(sometimes not even that) and the cover of the game label to base your choice on. This is why I rented judge dredd for the super nintendo, I thought it was a cool game about some sort of futuristic cop or detective. I was half right but the game itself was standard for the day platforming with "objectives" involving rescuing civilians or finding the right key or destroying 5 objects. I couldn't get past the 1st level as the objectives list was pretty small and the missions can fly right over your head if your a little kid, it's kind like the game aero the acrobat. Anyways i did get my money's worth from the 1 day rental and no I dont' suggest you rent or buy judge dredd and instead you watch the movie

Retro saturdays and batman and robin

This post is about the movie batman and robin(4th in the series) and not the tv show or video games titled the adventures of batman and robin. When released there was already the bar set low from batman forever and although technically batman and robin was a better movie, it didn't move the needle very much and soured a lot of people on the batman brand. I didn't care and focused more on who the villans were(mr freeze,bane,poison ivy) and who was in it(arnold,george cloney,alicia silverstone) and that is why I liked this movie and have a lot of nostalgia for it

I saw it in theaters at a place that long shut down and is now a planet fitness that still gives me memories. As a kid, the marketing for b&r was huge and extended into pop tarts(although no batman logo shaped tarts) and disney adventures(still have that issue) and breakfast cereal and valentines day cards and cookies and gummies. I couldn't get enough of the pop tarts and then this movie was forgotten about when batman begins came along

I didn't forget and batman and robin holds a place in my mind, It may be because of the cheese factor or it was simply the most 90's movie at the right time and is a product of it's time, I am just drawn to this movie

Retro fridays and nintendo 64 players choice games

When the nintendo 64 came out, games were expensive often reaching the $59.99 mark which is 15%more then snes games(I made that up) so it was felt. Nintendo extended the player's choice line from the snes onto the n64(greatest hits) and lowered the price of the games. It was a big deal as a lot of people in the industry thought nintendo was foolish and the games were still selling at full price and they would lose money with the new msrp as the manufacturing costs would be too high

But nintendo went ahead and unleashed the players choice and they became best sellers again. I wanted an n64 and all of these games well most of them, how could you go wrong with super mario 64, starfox 64, mario kart 64 and cruisn usa. Even turok and and star wars shadow of the empire were good games. Nintendo proved critics wrong and slowly n64 prices fell and they added more games to the player's choice such as ocarina of time and banjo kazooie

Retro fridays and the 2002 angels

The 2002 angels is the only time in their history that the anaheim/california/los angeles angels have won the world series. It was also improbable and at times seems like a mirage. The 2002 angels weren't a powerhouse in pitching or hitting as they didn't have any players in the league leaders nor did they have any players having a career year. If you look at the roster of the 2002 angels there wasn't much to write home about either but yet they won the world series. It was like a real life angels in the outfield that I got to experience as it happened and it still doesn't seem real. The angels went on a roll and had winning streaks of 20 and 15 games throughout the season and yet they won the wildcard because the A's also caught fire

In the 1st round they ran into the yankees and many assumed the angels would get swept, instead they won the 1st game and then the series as they moved onto face the twins(with a young david ortiz) where they also were heavy underdogs. However something clicked and adam kennedy had 4 home runs in 1 game and they moved onto the world series against the giants(even year too) with barry bonds. Somehow he didn't choke in the playoffs and the angels were actually in danger of losing a series. However they scored 5 runs late in game 6 then won game 7 lead by a rookie john lackey and they won the world series. I remember they had the rally monkey as their mascot that year as they had the most come back wins that season and angels in the outfield was played almost every day in the post season. It's hard to believe it's been 15 years

I have always wanted to play a game called nightmare ned

It's a pc game by the way and not a childhood playground game, I would always see the ads in the back of disney adventures magazines when I had a subscription and they always scared me because I always had to go to the bathroom before bed. I somehow thought someone was going to get me from the toilet. Anyways at the time I didn't have a computer and now i have 2 of them(laptop and netbook) so I can get this game. I somehow pictured it being a point and click adventure game but it seems like a side scrolling platformer so that isn't that bad

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the oj simpson bronco chase

Yes that infamous car chase happened on june 17th 1994 aka 23 years ago. It has stayed in my mind as that year I wanted a the simpsons theme birthday party(my bday is in august) and my dad kept making jokes about oj simpson themed party instead. That would have been so 90's if I would have agreed and I can already picture the um....pictures of the event. Anyways, june 17th 1994 was a busy sports day with arnold palmer playing his last u.s. open and the nba finals being on and the new york rangers having a championship parade and ken griffey junior hitting his 30th home run. As if that wasn't enough, it was also the opening ceremony and 1st game of the 1994 world cup in chicago but oj simpson overshadowed everything

Robert shapiro said that oj would turn himself in at 11am and that came and went with no sign of oj then he had a press conference later on that day. Robert kardashian(yes he made them famous) read a letter to the media that oj write and it sounded like a suicide letter however oj was still missing. It wasnt' until a white bronco was sighted on the freeway and it quickly became a car chase or not much of one as ac cowlings drove extremely slow while the cops stayed behind. It was captivating just to see what would happen to oj and if he would kill himself or go crazy and speed up or whatever else he had in mind. The chase lasted a good while and the nba finals were split screened(picture in picture) with the finals getting the small box. There was a lot of media coverage and the picture signal kept getting crossed(as if you were switching channels). It ended with oj at his house and giving up peacefully and people chanting his name on rockingham and life wouldn't be the same after that

Here's the link to the chase

Retro fridays and livin la vida loca

The song is by ricky martin and it was extremely popular when it exploded onto the scene in the late 90s or it may have been 1999 but 1998 felt similar to it. The song livin la vida loca was everywhere including various english language stations as it was mostly in english with random parts in spanish. I hated this song when it came out and nowdays it just makes me nostalgia for the late 90's to early 00s

When american idol premiered I thought that ryan seacrest was ricky martin as they looked very similar to each other, :o maybe there are and we just don't know it. Ricky followed up with shebang then possibly became a ryan seacrest stuntman/back up/clone

Link to song

Retro fridays and the shaq and kobe lakers

If there's one thing that went by way too fast and I miss dearly, it's the shaq and kobe lakers teams of the mid 90's to early 00's. If you don't watch sports well, shaq was an extremely dominant big man and kobe was a young superstar shooting guard and paired together, they made a great duo for almost a decade. However success didn't happen overnight and there was some growing pains throughout the years(seasons) as the team would struggle in the playoffs

One year it all clicked(1999-2000) and the lakers became nba champions and then they won 2 more times. Those were fun years, I would pencil the lakers in the finals before the season would even start and I would watch a lot of the games with my cousins. The kings were the biggest rival to the lakers dynasty and there was a lot of taunting and the playoff games were electric. I remember that 2002 western conference finals where robert horry had the game winning 3. I was already imaging "this isn't were it ends" and bam the lakers won. Sadly the shaq and kobe lakers were plagued by in house fighting by the duo and the team slowly imploded in the most public stage

Both players now regret not staying together longer and they both admitted they could have won more championships together, so while it may not have lasted long(winning titles) there was some great memories made during the early 00's that are still talked about

23 years ago, nicole brown simpson and ron goldman were found murdered

yes it was exactly 23 years ago when they were found murdered and they were probably murdered late on the 12th. Yes I do believe back then and still do, that oj simpson did it single handly and tried to weasel out of it. I do with both nicole and ron were still alive. It just feels weird that it's been that long since the murders. Stay tuned for the anniversary of the bronco chase

Retro saturdays and hungry hungry hippos

"they're hungry hungry hippos" that's what I most remember about this childhood toy. The little jingle in the commercial was and still is, extremely catchy. Anyways, hungry hungry hippos is a simple game, it's 4 hippos in a circle that gobble up little balls. There's no electronics or score keeping, just open and close. Your supposed to be timed and have someone keep score but it's fun just to go crazy and try to eat as many balls as you can

My mom might have gotten it from a yard sale or a neighbor might have thrown it out and she might have cleaned it up and gave it to me. I wish I could time travel to that exact moment to know as I am getting some deja vu but it's not good enough. I would play 1 player growing up and yes it did get lonely and tiresome but I had to make due, I don't know how my childhood hhp game vanished but I didn't have it for long and I miss it

Retro saturdays and band aid bubble gum

If you were in any part of the 90's then you will surely remember band aid bubble gum. It seemed like everything in that decade was made into a gum for kids. Made by hubba bubba, it was just gum shaped like a band aid in a tin box but everything tastes better when it doesn't look like how it's supposed to. There was a rainbow of fruit flavors but it seems like everything was a variation of red such as strawberry and cherry. I used to get some from the ice cream man and the liquor store when I was little. It was pretty chalky and not much to write home about but that nostalgia has stayed with me throughout the years

Retro fridays and goosebumps the haunted school.

So why the haunted school when there are more iconic goosebumps books? it's the one that gives me the most nostalgia and brings back the most vivid memories. The 59th book in the series and released in 1997 towards the end of the main run(62 books in goosebumps main series) the haunted school stands out the most to me. I got it on a warm summerish day(it may have been sept or oct) at a super kmart that went somewhere and is now a target. I walked in after we arrived in her white 1989 f-150 with a white camper shell on the back(it was a 2 door model with the dual gas tanks) and I told her I would be checking out the books/magazines so that's what I did. I don't remember looking at the magazines but I sure did look at the goosebumps. I decided between the beast from the east, the haunted school and ghost camp and I ended up getting those 3(yes my mom paid for them and she used to make really good money when I was little and no I wasn't spoiled) that day and I was happy. I still have my beast from the east and ghost camp books complete with the filled out order forms in the back and original price stickers. Sadly my the haunted school book got ruined in the rain as my dad left it out in a milk crate but happily I have another copy of it

The haunted school is about a haunted school, a new kid named tommy is on the dance committee and he is setting up for a dance when a girl asks him to run somewhere to get some more supplies, he ends up going into an elevator that takes him sideways instead of up or down. When he steps out, everything is in black and white and in the 50's, if only time travel was that easy. Anyways it turns out that the elevator is a portal between the new and old school(that got trapped in time by a photographer wirh an evil camera) and yes tommy does end up escaping the dark world. The twist ending is pretty nice too and the book itself might be worth a read if only for the interesting plot device

Retro fridays and batman returns

Batman returns holds a special place in my heart, it's the first movie I vividly remember seeing in theaters. I was with my cousin and dad and possibly my little brother and it was at a small 3 screen movie theater that is sadly gone now and replaced by a planet fitness. Anyways I wasn't that much into the movie so I spent a lot of time playing arcade games in the lobby and goofing off and generally being a little kid. I only remember that it was set in winter and catwoman and the batmobile. That experience has stayed etched in my mind all these years so it's why I like batman returns so much. Sure it's not a AAA movie but it's still great and holds up well and has good atmosphere among with catwoman and the penguin and the batmobile is a lot cooler then the tumbler.

Batman returns is also the 2nd part of the batman "quadrilogy" with all of the movies being very loosely interconnected and it's the last good one then came the modern rebooted the dark knight series. I own the vhs even though I never had it when I was little, just to remind myself of how far I come since those days

I have an addiction to nostalgia

Have you ever noticed that nostalgia is like a drug and no I'm not a drug user

Everytime I watch music videos, cartoon intros or video games from when I was a kid, I feel like I'm injecting heroin. Never did soft or hard drugs but I imagine that's what it feels like. Feeling safe again.. everything's gonna be ok, living in a simple world where you only think about good things like how cool that lego set is that your mom bought you to your 7th birthday. There's just so much peace and endless joy in your mind.

The feeling lessened over the time and I have a hard time now finding the right triggers. I get angry and more depressed if I can't go back to the mental state when I was a child. It is one of the few things that give me hope to live. I have a hard time finding material that triggers the right amount of nostalgia

Retro saturdays and smells like teen spirit

When released this was THE song that changed everything, the music iindustry took a 180 and everything got flipped upside down. Micheal jackson and pop music and hair metal went out and in came grunge. Smells like teen spirit is the lead single from the 2nd nirvana album nevermind. It starts off with the now familiar guitar solo then explodes into a wave of bass and drums. In the 90's it was fresh and popular on the radio(it still is) and it gave angsty teens and adults from generation X a voice and made kurt cobain that so called voice of a generation

For me I always thought it was a cool song that was always on the radio and I associated it with my childhood, everywhere I went, there was a car that was blasting smells like teen spirit or when I was in a car with my mom it would come on the radio. If I was riding bikes with the neighbor boys someone would have a walkman and they would be blasting it. If I was at the mall it would be on the muzik system. Everywhere i went, I couldn't escape it

Nowdays it's just a normal song but I still blast it sometimes when I drive especially on retro fridays and saturdays just to give myself those memories. I'm sure somewhere out there, krist is listening to this song and thinking to himself "I used to be in nirvana" The music video also gives the song that edge that has caused it to stay in our collective memories long after it's so called expiration date. When I saw it I thought it was scary and confusing but calming kind of like the song itself
Here's the link to the music video

Retro saturdays and the tv cart at school

When you saw the teacher or a ta or another teacher roll this cart into class you knew things were going to get good or jim ross would say "business is about to pick up" that little(well not so little) cart would brighten up anybody's day. We all knew that learning would stop and it was time to "veg" out and watch a video, usually it was education related such as bill nye the science guy but no one cared because wooo we get a break. There isn't much else to nostalgia about the tv cart, for some reason a lot of schools had the same cart with the same size tv and the same kind of vcr that's all held in place with velcro and straps

I'm not sure if they have dvd players on them now or what not but for a generation of kids like me, just seeing one of these brings back good memories. I got to push one of these downhill one time when I was in high school and I had a friend bring up the rear so the both of us somehow ended up letting go of the cart, it quickly gathered speed and we realized neither of us had our hands on the cart so we took control of it. No one else noticed otherwise we would have gotten in major trouble

Retro fridays and water toys

If you lived through any part of the 90's then you will remember these water toys. I don't know the exact name for them but just by seeing a picture, most people will know what I'm talking about. Anyways I owned a couple of the "ring toss" kind where you would press buttons that blasts the water pressure and you would try to get some small rings on a stick. I also had one that served as a goopy hourglass. The inside was filled with water and some sort of dyed cooking oil that would give the effect of a blob. Yes they were simple toys but when it's all you had, you used your imagination for hours(ok not quite) but it felt like hours on a long slow day. I don't have any of my water toys anymore so I will get some from yard sales for the nostalgia

Retro fridays and oreo o's ceral

Remember that episode of the simpsons where bart eats that ceral that has a jagged circular metal looking thing as a "prize"? that's similar to how it was like eating oreo o's ceral. Ok that's an exaggeration but it is quite close. Oreo O's like it's name suggests, is cereal that was released in the mid to late 90's and possibly the early 00's, it was small, circular shapped O's similar to cheerios but black and white. They tasted like dust and mouth pain, something about the texture made it really hard to chew even when it was getting soggy

If you have eaten captain crunch cereal it was like that but worse, I sure did like being a sucker for mouth punishment. Maybe it was the cool design on the box that drew me to oreo O's, but I would get it fairly often. Sometimes I would switch to cookie crisp or frosted cheerios or to golden grams so I could give my mouth a break. Something about that box makes me miss the oreo cereal and I wish it would come back