I celebrated a seminal birthday this month, and, instead of going existential about life’s brevity, I decided to run through my 30-year-old music catalog. Belatedly beginning today, the Nostos Algos Daily Doses of September will present the songs and videos that defined certain epochs in my life (in no particular order) because, as I’ve said before, music marks moments.
So here it is, the first installment: “No Scrubs” off TLC’s second studio album CrazySexyCool, which was released in 1994 when I was a 4th-grader learning the complexities of the California Mission System.
Being an 80s baby, I have a deeply profound nostalgia for the 1990s. The mantra bumper stickers that said “Whatever” or “As If” that were plastered to my bedroom walls. The oxymoronic baby-doll grunge dresses I paired with floppy Blosom hats. The episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I taped onto VHS cassettes straight from TV on Wednesday nights to watch after school on Thursdays. Or maybe they were taped on Tuesdays, and watched on Wednesdays; it doesn’t matter.
Perhaps these nostalgic yearnings are far from profound, but they are definitely deep. In this love I know I’m not alone because I”ve recently seen fashion remnants hitting the streets of San Francisco on proto-hipsters. Every fashion moment has another, just give it time. But these nascent fashionistas may be onto something: (a) the shapeless duds and sturdy Doc Martens of 1990s lore are sensibly efficient and comfortable, and (b) Blues Traveler is playing at The Independent with the elusively billed “very special guests” tonight (13 May 2013). ‘Tis a benefit show so you’re money will go towards charitable endeavors as opposed to booze, broads, semi-legal / legitimately-illegal ingestibles, or any of your other preferred poisons for a change.
If we’re lucky, Hootie and the Blowfish or the Friends Theme Song band will open. Please let it be Hootie. Let it be Hootie.
Nostos Algos 