Justify Your Existence

Apparently 10 Things I Hate About You is now a TV show.

I have to agree with the article’s writer in that my first question when I heard about this was “Why?”. It’s all kind of random and bizarre. But I’ll probably watch the first episode anyway…

This totally made my day:

Flashback Friday: It Never Rains in Southern California

No, not the Tony Toni Tone song. But sitting here in Northern California while it pours outside inspired me to write a new post (which I haven’t done in like forever, I know, I know). So anyway…

Why is it that almost every teen show ever is set in Southern California? Even my favorite Canadian teen show has four upcoming episodes set in Hollywood.  Oh mythic California, with your pristine beaches and hunky surfers and bikini-clad girls on rollerblades. Where there’s no smog or sprawl or traffic…

I remember back in college when Anh-Thu and I stumbled across a cheap copy of Season 1. Not that Sweet Valley High: Season 1 is ever really going to be expensive.

Anyway, we put an episode on. It was derivative, cheesy, poorly written, and poorly acted.

Of course, I loved it.

This is the basic premise of every single episode of Sweet Valley High: “Bad twin” Jessica does something mean, spiteful, shallow or just generally shady. She totally thinks she’s going to get away with it and might even come pretty close. Then it all blows up in her face and “Goody goody twin” Elizabeth helps her get out of the mess. Then everyone’s like “Ha ha, Jess really learned her lesson this time…”

Except that no, she did not learn a thing because the whole cycle starts again the next episode.

Needless to say, I think we ended up watching most of the season that night.

When I was a kid I was also quite fond of this little show:

Oh yeah, California Dreams. Aside from applying the same old 90s teen sitcom tropes, this show had a few bonuses: 1) It was about kids in a band so you got lots of cheesy songs. Not as many as MMC or Kids Incorporated, but still. None of this Zack Attack bullshit where it’s limited to a few episodes. 2) The blasian factor.

Aww...

Flashback Friday: The Beets

Sorry I haven’t posted in forever, I’ll try to remedy that.

Today I bring you my favorite fictional band from a 90’s era cartoon:

“Killer Tofu” sounds like an awesome horror B-movie. I can totally see some girl screaming as a massive block of tofu jiggles menacingly.

Bonus- Doug and Skeeter singing “Bangin’ on a Trash Can”:

Flashback Friday: more 90s shows

Because there’s never enough time to talk about 90s shows. This week’s theme is “Teenage Girl Protagonists” with a healthy dose of “Where are they now?” thrown in.

I know I posted about Joey Lawrence in one of these before, but I had to give a shout out to Blossom’s star, Mayim Bialik. Did you know that she’s almost finished with her Ph.d in Neuroscience at UCLA? Holy shit Blossom!

But you can’t talk about 90s shows with teenage girl protagonists without recognizing this show:

And what is Melissa Joan Hart doing now? Is she also pursuing some intense degree? No, she’s starring in shitty ABC Family original movies like this one.

I thought about bringing up Alex Mack, but I’d rather mention one of the few shows on TV to feature an Asian American as the main protagonist:

Oh, Shelby Woo, we hardly knew you. After the show ended, lead actress Irene Ng went on to study at Harvard and then went on to be a banker at Merrill Lynch (ouch). I wonder how that worked out for her…

Flashback Friday: 90s Toys

I never actually had this game, but I always wanted one because the commercial was so intense. But I’m betting that the actual gameplay didn’t really live up to the hype:

Plus there’s this, which makes me wish it were summer again:

And my favorite:

Let me know if you find the one for Ribbon Dancer. I couldn’t find it and I’m dying to hear that cheesy ass song again.

Flashback Friday #4: Halloween Edition

This show used to scare the crap out of me:

I always wanted to be a member of the Midnight Society, they were pretty awesome.

Flashback Friday #3

Hooray for 90s “rap” songs with nonsensical mumbling!

Sooo 90s. I love the picture in picture effect and (of course) the Scatman’s ridiculous moustache. And don’t forget this one:

“Ickyboomboomnow” is now officially the word of the day.

Gayme recognize gayme

So today after work, I headed to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. It’s a great place to go if you’re looking for crafting materials, cool antiques, or just random ass stuff. I went because I’m looking for more stuff for my Halloween costume. While I didn’t find anything that would help me on that front, I did find this:

Yes, “The Rainbow Gayme,” an early 90’s gay-themed board game. Check out the ga(y)me board:

It looks like Candyland, but (somehow) even gayer. Since it combines 3 things I love (the 90s, the gays, and games), I couldn’t not buy it, especially when it was only a few bucks. Who wants to play? Let’s get our gayme on.

In other news, my Halloween costume is coming along quite well:

POW! I still don’t know what I’m doing for Halloween, but I know I’m going to make an awesome Wonder Woman.

Flashback Friday #2: 90s era kids shows on PBS

Maybe I’m biased because I was a kid in the 90s, but it was a great decade for kids shows. Like these two gems from PBS:

“He’s a ghost and he writes to us. Ghostwriter!” You can’t argue with the logic of that.

I also was a big fan of this show:

Awww! Wishbone is totally How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read for kids.