Thursday, December 31, 2009

End of the Year Blog

You know I was going to write an end of the year blog, but I thought this year was pretty crappy. To be honest I really don't want to look back on it. Plus I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like really writing a blog anyway.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Misinformed Tourists (a Rose Parade Blog)

On Sunday in the Tribune there was suppose to be a magazine insert for the Rose Parade. It's a helpful little magazine for tourists and stuff. It has information on such things as the parade float order, the game and the queen and the court.

Well anyway my dad went looking for one. He called up the newspaper office. According to him they told him that they only put that magazine in there for subscribers now. HOW STUPID! What are the tourists suppose to use for informative parade information? And why did they put an ad on their front page advertising the magazine? It's not like they subscribe to the Tribune. I guess that was a cost cutting measure since they are Bankrupt. I think? I know they are hurting for sure. He had to pay $1 for the magazine.

Speaking of things affiliated with the Tribune. I'll be watching the parade coverage on KTLA. They are the only English language station that does local coverage. A lot of people get mad at me because I don't watch the Spanish language telecast, but I'm sorry I don't understand Spanish very well and I'm sorry if that offends you. You know parade banter is pretty easy to write. I mean that was made fun of in a Christmas Frasier episode. Frasier wrote his own parade banter. The station I use to like watching when they did local parade coverage was KTTV. They use to do a lot of gimmicky things. I remember one year the parade was in "3-D", but when I watched it with the glasses it didn't look very 3-D at all. This was a long time ago like back in the 80s. When I use to live in Rosemead I use to hear the jet planes from the parade fly over my house. Well I did live in a flight path anyway.

I remember one year I think it was 2000 it was nearing 2001. My cousin and I wen to Knott's Berry Farm just to hang out and stuff during the afternoon. That day Disneyland was so overcrowded with tourists they had to close it down. (it was filled to capacity and they didn't let anymore people in the park). I guess the over spill went there. The place was filled with Washington Husky fans. If I recall I didn't see many Perdue fan there. Well Washington is closer than Perdue.

The Rose Parade is a good place to go when you are ingoing somebody, and then post picture of yourself there on the Internet. This person was in the crowd watching it, and not actually in the parade. Actually if they were in it that would have been a better more believable story.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Decade of Fashion

There were a lot of different fashion trends this decade. Early in the decade it started off with a lot of carry over from the late 90s. I wonder what will carry on into the next decade?

Avril look
Back when she was “punk”. When she use to wear ties and tank tops. Don’t forget the heavy black eyeliner and black nail polish.

Arm warmers
These were popularized by Avril. I think? But they aren’t totally “Avril”. I think they are cute. Wait doesn’t Jeff Hardy wear them too? Or he use to.

The western look
This look was popularized by Madonna. You know with the cowboy hats, big belt buckles and the low rise pants.

Low rise pants
I thought I’d group this with the western look although not all low rise pants are western inspired. I’ll admit I’ve worn my pants too low and I cracked a bit. There was a time where you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing somebody’s butt crack. You might need some aspray. (This is a real item!) I sort of liked this trend because I don’t like high waisted pants. I haven’t worn high waisted pants since about 1997. Low waisted pants are good if you have a big gut so you can wear them low and let you gut hang over the pants. Let you gut break free and do its own thing! (Muffin top!)

Skechers Energy shoes
A lot of people love this style of shoe. I thought they were so ugly! They looked like the running shoes my dad wears. Those shoes are really more about style than exercise. Everybody wore them! Boys and girls. Maybe that’s another reason why I was so annoyed by them. I’m not sure if there was only one color available in the area, but it seemed like all the girls wore the ones with the light blue stripe.

Pink hair
Look! I blatantly put this picture of Gwen Stefani in my blog! Pink hair was a trend in the early 2000s. Not just Gwen had pink hair there were other celebrities who had pink hair too. Pink hair was really popular at my high school.

Flipped hair
This was more popular earlier in the decade. Hair was very flippy or feathered.

Velour sweat suits
These were not flattering to everyone. When ever I see somebody wearing them it usually makes their ass look really jiggly in bad way. Velour is not a forgiving material. Is draping your self in it socially acceptable? When I see them it just gives me a metal snap shot circa 2004/2005 of a girl wearing the suit with her designer purse with her ipod mini and razr phone, and possibly having some frosted streaks in her hair.

Designer bags (real or knockoff)
Everybody had to have one real or fake. If you couldn’t afford the real thing you could go to the swap meat or someplace similar that sold the fakes or even the internet.

Uggs and similar boots
I never really got into that trend. I was thinking about buying some knockoff ones. I never did because I knew my dad would tease me mercilessly if I did.

Crocs and similar shoes
Jelly’s ugly cousin; or so they say. I’d rather wear a jelly shoes than a pair of crocs. Maybe it’s just because jelly makes me feel nostalgic. I was considering buying a knockoff pair of crocs, but I realized how ugly they look and decided not to.

grillz
I really never saw the point of this trend. I guess it was like having gold/silver you could take out.

Bling
Everybody was into that trend even Barbie. These dolls are the My Scene My Bling Bling line. They came with jewelry.
I’ve always hated that word. I don’t think I’ve really ever used it. Maybe I might have said “phone bling”. It’s like the words “swagga/swagger/swag”.

Side bangs
Here I am blatantly putting a picture of Shirley Manson in my blog. Actually it belongs in this one. Everybody wore side bangs this decade including her. But they don’t look bad on her. I’m not just saying this because I like her. They are flattering to her. There are a lot of people who wear side bangs who really shouldn’t. Like me they make my cheeks look really fat.

Flats
I like this trend. I don’t like stilettos or platforms. I can’t wear them very well because of my weak ankles, and height complex. I think flats are more comfortable than “frumpy” like some people say they are. They put less stress on the calves.

Skinny jeans
Another 80s revival. This look was not for everyone although it seemed like everyone or pretty much everyone was wearing them. Some jeans were way too skinny and looked painted on. Sometimes they were so tight you could see the shape of the items in the person’s pockets.

60s style
Ever since the show Mad Men became popular people have been wearing 60s inspired things including their clothes and hair. It’s the 20 40 rule. Everything that was popular 20 years ago (80s style) or 40 years ago (60s style) come back in style.

80s revival
There were the skinny jeans (which I already wrote about), neon/day-glo colors and paint splatter. I loved wearing neon colors and paint splatter clothes back in the 80s. I use to have a neon paint splatter denim skirt when I was 4 or 5. I didn’t really embrace this trend this time it came around. I do like neon socks with black flats. I think that looks really cute.

Big hair
Because of the 60s and 80s fashion revivals, and scene big hair was everywhere. I mean if it wasn’t popular Bumpits would not have been invented.

Leggings This is an 80s revival item. They are not pants! So don’t wear them like that! I admit I committed a fashion crime like that back in the early 90s. (They were still popular back then, and I was like 6) I’m not sure if the same rules apply for the cotton ones though. I’m really confused! @.@

Scene
I don’t know who popularized this look, but it needs to go away! I wonder what people will think who embraced this style and then look back at photos of themselves like 10 years from now.

Coon hair
I think this type of dye job is just ugly. It looks like a raccoon sat on your head. Do you think you could cheat by attaching the tail of a coonskin cap to your hair?

Over sized sunglasses
These things could almost double for goggles. Sometimes they were just so large they looked like those giant clown glasses or something Elton John would wear. They look ok on some people if they are not outrageously large. They offset fat cheeks.

Slutty Halloween costumes
This trend started around back in about 2002. Pretty soon by like 2004 you could only find slutty Halloween costumes. I’m not going to divulge more into this topic since I already wrote like 4 blogs about the subject.

Crystal Tattoos
I thought this trend was kind of dumb. Most of the time I’d see people wearing these and usually the stones would be falling off.

Gladiator sandals
These came back. I think they were popular in the 70s? They came in many styles including ones with convertible straps, metallic straps and the long straps that wrapped all the way up your calves.

Graphic tees
I still wear these. I’m not trying to be trendy. They are like my thing. I get the cheap ones at the department store and stuff. I don’t like to pay a lot for them. They usually have some kind of witty saying or character on them.
There are also generic graphic tees. You know the ones that say something like “Tiger’s softball” and the graphic is distressed; there is usually a picture of a tiger on it or something like that.
Don’t forget those expensive Ed Hardy shirts with skulls and stuff on them.

Strange make up almost Mimi like
I’m not sure what this particular tend was called, but whenever I saw girls with outrageous colored eye shadow I thought about Mimi.

Filigree
At first I didn’t know what this pattern was called. I see it everywhere especially on shirts. I don’t really like it.

Nostalgia tees
These aren’t a new concept or anything, but now new designs are appearing that feature 90s characters like the Rugrats, Power Rangers and Animaniacs characters.

Ruffley skirts
Short or long they were in style. I guess this went along with the Bohemian look.
Chucks
These were popular pretty much for the whole decade. They come in all colors, patterns and combinations. I’ll admit I have a few pairs. They are pretty classic and go with a lot of different outfits.

Rubber charity bracelets
Mostly they are for a good cause. Like cancer, autism, AIDS, or child abuse. Then they became trendy and said pretty much anything on them like “Rey 619”, “I love soccer” or even “Brat".

Monday, December 28, 2009

Entertain Me! Then Feed Me!

This is a blog about the entertainment and food trends of the decade. This blog is probably the weakest of all my "looking back at the decade" blogs.

Disney
Now Disney has been around for a while, but I’m talking about those tween shows like Hannah Montana and That’s So Raven. Don’t forget their movies like High School Musical, the Cheetah Girls and Camp Rock. Oh yeah and Disney music.

PokémonA trend that carried over from the 90s. Did Pokémon ever really go away? They just added more characters and Pokémon. I can’t wait until Pokémon Uranium comes out!

Pirates
I’m not talking about the baseball team.
After Pirates of the Caribbean everybody wanted to be a pirate. The funny thing was I always wondered was did all pirates along time ago wear dreadlocks and eyeliner?

Vampires
The thing that debunked the pirates; they are hotter than ever. Better not eat that garlic! Now they do silly things like sparkle. I liked when they wore capes or when Buffy was slaying them.

Penguins

They were really popular with movies like March of the Penguins Happy Feet, and Surf’s Up. They were everywhere and trendy.

This is the music portion of the blog. Please don’t complain if I accidentally misclassified something.

Nu Metal
This genre was really popular at the beginning of the decade and pretty much held on strong.

Garage Rock
This genre started off strong at the beginning of the decade.

Boy Bands
They carried over from the 90s, and pretty much lost their popularity by around 2002.

Emo Music
Don’t get mad at me and tell I’m misclassifying music. I’m talking about the early 2000s emo that came out. There was some spillage from the late 90s. Then there was that wave after it when a lot of bands were being misclassified as emo. It was used as umbrella for a lot of music that didn’t belong to the genre.

Pop Punk
This is a genre a lot of people hate. I like it. Kill me ok? I have a crush on Mark Hoppus. *blushes* This genre waxed and waned throughout the decade.

Reggaeton
Ok I’ll admit I never really listened to Reggaeton. “Gasolina” is probably only one of reggaeton songs I can name.

I’m gonna talk about food trends.

Low Carb Craze
This was started by the Atkins Diet and other similar plans. You couldn’t go anywhere without find something that said “low carb”. I sort of liked this trend. You could just eat meatballs and no pasta. (I don’t really like pasta). I embraced it …sort of. It was the low carb wraps I couldn’t stomach.

BaconI loved bacon ever since I can remember. A lot of people say that it has become a trendy food due to the low carb craze. Bacon isn’t exactly a new food or anything though.

Boba
Well you know my views on boba.