HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Today, I’m spending Valentine’s Day eating last year’s Halloween candy while watching the Biggest Loser. FML.
Throwback Kingdom
the best of the 90s
CHOKER NECKLACE
Looks so incredibly cheap now but tattoo-looking choker necklaces were the créme de la créme of any boho/goth outfit.
A Choker is a close-fitting necklace worn high on the neck. This type of jewelry can consist of one or more bands circling the neck.
Chokers can be made of a variety of materials, including velvet, plastic, beads, metal and leather.
They are often adorned in a variety of ways including with sequins, studs, a pendant or a cameo.
Chokers can be made out of any kind of fabric by stitching two rectangles of fabric together and then sewing on some velcro.
DUKE NUKEM
Duke Nukem is a video game series focusing on its protagonist, Duke Nukem. Originally created by Apogee Software Ltd/3D Realms as a series of video games for the PC, the franchise expanded to games released for various consoles by third party developers.
The series has been generally popular since its inception. Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, along with Commander Keen helped make the genre popular on the PC as against games like Super Marios Bros. for video game consoles.
The games broke out of the shareware niche and into the mainstream gamer audience with Duke Nukem 3D, which also brought the series to the forefront of video game controversy.
Yet another PC fave of mine however Duke Nukem 3D has been dubbed too controversial with depictions of sexuality, pornography, obscenities, graphic violence, drug use and other taboo topics.
CORY & TOPANGA
A true power couple of the 90s… Cory & Topanga from “Boy Meets World.”
If you remember growing up with the life lessons of Cory Matthews (played by Ben Saveage) you’ll have remember his journey wasn’t complete without his sweetheart Topanga Lawrence (played by Danielle Fishel). Boy Meets World aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000.
Cornelius A. “Cory” Matthews is the main character of the show. In the early seasons of the show he is portrayed as a slacker who is intelligent and capable, but does not pay attention in class. Throughout the later years his “slacker” tendencies diminish, and instead he seems more neurotic.
From season 2 onward, Cory openly expresses his feelings for Topanga. It is explained in ‘A Long Walk to Pittsburgh’ that although he teased her during the first season, “she was the girl [he] sat up at night thinking about.”
Despite his strong feelings for Topanga, he still has strong attractions to other women and has been unfaithful to Topanga on a few occasions. He had his first kiss with Topanga in season 1 episode, ‘Cory’s Alternative Friends’ and in the 7th season they got married.
Topanga Lawrence Matthews is Cory’s girlfriend and later wife. Like many characters in the show her personality changes as the show progresses. However, her change is probably the most drastic. From the first season to the second, she changes from an eccentric hippie with interests in the supernatural phenomena to a calm and collected, mature teenaged girl.
Topanga’s only romantic relationship for the duration of the show is with Cory. She proposes to Cory during their high school graduation and they marry during their sophomore year of college.
Throughout the relationship, Topanga is generally the realist to Cory’s idealist. When her parents get divorced, she is plagued by doubts and insecurities about their own relationship.
I was more of a “Shaun & Angela” fan and I loved how they’re romance blossomed and seemed so much more realistic than Cory & Topanga’s relationship because they actually had real problems and real break-ups.
However Cory was the main man of Boy Meets World and as much as his ‘unconditional love’ for Topanga made me gag Disney kept shoveing that sugar-coated moon pie fairy tale romance down my throat giving me but no option but to eat it up.
SHE’S ALL THAT
A disgustingly predictable teen-romcom with all the clichés and a dash of Freddie Prinze.
She’s All That is a 1999 film directed by Robert Iscove and is a modern adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. It was one of the most popular teen films of the 1990s and reached #1 at the box office in its first week of release.
The film has received mixed reviews by critics, with rate of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes and Top Critics rating the film with 25%.
Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as a high school hottie who makes a bet with a fellow classmate that he can turn geeky Rachel Leigh Cook into a Prom Queen. Problems arise when hot shot Prinze becomes involved and in love with the transformed Cook.
Most of the criticism is directed to the now infamous choreographed group dance scene at the prom near the end of the movie.
Many felt it was completely unrealistic that all of these student would be so perfectly in synced with their dancing.
However many fans disagreed and argued that the dance scene fits in perfectly with the film, and is often rated among a handful of other choreographed dance scenes in a comedy as one of the best.
We’ve all seen it before… artsy weird girl gets made over transcends in highschool popularity, kicks Queen B off her thrown and gets hot jock to fall in love with her… Happily Ever Whatevs!
The staircase scene (Rachael Leigh Cook walking down in the red dress) will continue to be parodied by 90s kids while playing Sixpence None The Richer’s “Kiss Me” in the background.
FUDGE PAINTBOX
All generations experiment with changing their hair colour but in the 90s to change your hair colour was regarded more as fashionable choice rather than to cover those stubborn greys.
Thanks to music videos that oozed sex appeal we all went out to the chemist to either buy a bottle of spray on “sun-in” or to be a bit more extreme a packet of Fudge Paintbox.
Fudge was a brand of creative colour conditioning that electrified dull hair for a total colour transformation. Paintbox is semi-permanent creative colour and lasts between 3 and 30 washes.
It was the ‘balayage’ for us Gen Ys and pop stars like Christina Aguilera and Aaliyah were the leaders of the pack, dying the tips of their locks.
Phew! Less re-growth.
SNAKE RATTLE N ROLL
Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll is a platforming video game developed by Rare. It was published by Nintendo and released for the NES in North America in July 1990. It was ported to the Mega Drive and released by Sega in June 1993.
The game features two snakes Rattle & Roll, as they make their way through eleven 3D isometric levels. The object is to navigate the obstacles in each level and eat enough “Nibbley Pibbleys” to ring a weigh-in bell located in the level which will allow the snakes to exit.
The game can be played by a single player or by two players simultaneously.
Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll has been named one of the top games released on the NES and one of the top games released by Rare.
It was well-received by various video gaming magazines and praises include well-designed 3D environments and graphics, playability and controls, and challenge.
BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
This got me jumping on the couch and chating “San Dimas Highschool Football Rules!”
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a 1989 science fiction-comedy bromance film and the first installment in the Bill & Ted franchise in which two metalhead slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.
It stars a young Keanu Reeves as “Ted” Theodore Logan, Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esquire and George Carlin as Rufus.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure received reviews which were most positive upon release and was commercially successful. It is now considered a cult classic.
The film opens in San Dimas, California in the year 2688 AD. Rufus (Carlin) prepares to use a time-traveling phone booth to travel back to 1988 to ensure the Two Great Ones–Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan – remain together to form the band “Wyld Stallyns” whose music will become the core of the future’s Utopian society.
Rufus finds that Bill and Ted are on the verge of failing their high school history class and should Ted fail his father will ship him off to an Alaskan military academy, effectively ending the pair’s dreams of forming a band.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventurewas a financial success, grossing $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.
Most memorable quotes:
- “This is a dude who, 700 years ago totally ravaged China and who we were told 2 hours ago, totally ravaged Oshman’s Sporting Goods.”
- “Be excellent to each other. And… PARTY ON, DUDES!”
- “Sounds good, Mr. The Kid!”
- “So, Bill, what you’re telling me, essentially, is that Napoleon was a short dead dude.”
- “Oh, you beautiful babes from England for whom we have traveled through time… will you go to the prom with us in San Dimas? We will have a most triumphant time!”
A theatrical sequel, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” was released in 1991 and an untitled third film is planned to be released in 2013. Yipee!
Fingers crossed they don’t massacre a classic.
DOCTOR DREADFUL
Looks gross, tastes great!
Doctor Dreadful is a children’s toy involving the creation of confectionery of viscous consistencies, lurid colors or in molds in the shapes of animals. It is produced by Umagine.
Based on the principle eat everything you make, it’s pretty much a boy’s version of an easy bake oven.
Products include:
- Organ Grinder (crank up delicious juicy goo-filled Zombie organs)
- Spider Eggs (lays hundreds of edible spider eggs, devour them before they hatch)
- Zombie Lab (brew bubbly brains and watch as your Zombie barfs a delicious drink)
- Stomach Churner (pour out foamy belly brew and mix up tomach acids)
RICKI LAKE
“Go Ricki, Go Ricki!”
Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American actress, producer and TV host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original “Hairspray”, her ground-breaking documentary film “The Business of Being Born” and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from 1993-2004.
Ricki Lake was Lake’s first daytime talk show. The wildly successful show specialized in topics involving invited guests and incorporated questions and comments from a studio audience (think a more female-geared and less tame version of Jerry Springer/Maury Povich).
The show debuted in syndication on September 13, 1993 and ended first-run episodes on May 25, 2004.
The best thing about taking a sickie from school was staying in bed and watching day time TV.
Back then, Ricki Lake topics were so scandalous like “Mom, let me do it int he house or I’m gone!” and “Girl it’s gonna get heated… I got proof your man cheated!”
THE 90s
the greatest decade ever!
Throwback Kingdom 