A decade is a long time

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I think it's awesome that I've known several people here for almost 8 years.

I'm trying to remember when MP started. I think I met everyone in 2002. I've known BE since 1997.

[Strangler Lewis]

I think the theme party for this decade would involve feverishly checking various devices to see if some other decade was trying to hook up with you.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

MousePlanet was around long before, but MousePad started the same time DCA did, I believe - February 2001. I joined in August of that year.

Regarding the distinctive decades discussion, we've already beaten this debate to death in another thread not too long ago (which I'm too lazy to look up) but for me, a 1990's party would be very easy to throw.

Grunge, MC Hammer and LL Cool J and C&C Music Factory, Pop Tarts and Bagel Bites, a "coffeehouse and bagel shop" with open mic poetry...throw in a little Bush Sr/Clinton White House and you're set.

I can spout some things off the top of my head that made this last decade distinctive...Emo, Backstreet Boys/Britney Spears, Reality TV, Dubya, Harry Potter....but it's still too soon.

[innerSpaceman]

Hey, CP ... I forgot to mention how much progress was made with Women in America in the 1960's. If you were your age now in a time before that, you'd be de facto chattel.



But without the clue of Clinton on the tube at the party, I wouldn't know I was at a '90s party if I walked into that scene. Pop Tarts? Really?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Just because you're too old to have participated in the decade's cultured doesn't mean it didn't exist.

[Deebs]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Grunge, MC Hammer and LL Cool J and C&C Music Factory, Pop Tarts and Bagel Bites, a "coffeehouse and bagel shop" with open mic poetry...throw in a little Bush Sr/Clinton White House and you're set.

Thanks for these 90's reminders, CP. I was coming up blank, thinking about how that decade would be themed. Grunge, duh. And C&C Music Factory, how could I forget that? But wait, Pop Tarts? I ate those when I was little. And that sure wasn't in the 90's.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Hey, CP ... I forgot to mention how much progress was made with Women in America in the 1960's. If you were your age now in a time before that, you'd be de facto chattel.

To think that everything changed overnight because of one decade is ridiculous. Yes, there were strides made in the 60's. They laid some groundwork for the bold women of the 70's, the career women of the 80's...

There have been a lot of jokes about the Boomers not being able to get over the 60's. Everyone dramatizes the era when they discovered themselves. I grok the 90's, because I was THERE, I was paying attention. To call your own precious time periods somehow more interesting or more important than mine, or those of today's kids, is shortsighted and lame.

Seems your latest gig is insulting anyone who isn't you. Let me put this in your old-timey terms - You're being a downer.

However much I love my own coming of age, at least once a week I say something along the lines of "I am so glad to be alive in today's age." I may not have the time of a high-schooler to study the exact nuances of what's up today, but I can appreciate the march of time, the urge to see what's around the bend, and oh yeah, living NOW.


Anyway - anyone else have anything they want to say about the last decade, the changes, the time gone by?

[innerSpaceman]

Grunge? Saying Grunge is 90's is like saying legwarmers is 2000's. Just because something is rehashed in a decade does not make it the culture of that decade.

And I think I picked the most defining element of what most consider 90's culture. But so-called "grunge" music is pretty indistinguishable from generic rock, and plaid shirts are hardly a defining fashion statement.



But, in deference to CP and GD, I will grant that the Rave Scene is pretty much an identifiable cultural touchstone of the '90s, and if I went to a party that was a Rave, I would think I was in a '90s' theme party!


If I went into a coffee house where people were wearing plaid and speaking poetry into an open mic, I would think about 4 decades earlier.


* * * *

More in line with what I think the OP had in mind, I'm reminded of the phrase, "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same." With a number of decades under my belt, I don't think there's too much difference between now and 10 years ago ... though of course the particulars are completely different.

Life, however, is pretty much the same. I think post-child-raising years tend to become same-like. CP is precisely on the opposite end of that equation ... and, I daresay, about to find out what a difference 10 years can REALLY make. OMG, KIDS!!!! They grow so fast, you can practically watch it happen!

[Alex]

I think what iSm is trying to say is "whippersnapers get off my lawn!"

[innerSpaceman]

Saying I like the Beatles is not putting down any other band.


Get over it. Saying the 60's was great and, yes, even unique is not putting down other decades. Sheesh. I did, however, say poor stuff about the 90's and the 2000's in that I think the usual markers of culture have been indistinguishable from some generic median.

Perhaps there hasn't been enough time distance to determine what those markers might be. But I believe I could recognize something "80's" by about 1993.

And I specifically said lots of decades, most I didn't even live through, had recognizable style. That doesn't mean I'd like to live in 1937, just that it had cool artifacts.


I wouldn't even like to live in 1966. I've always liked the current time just fine. 2009 is just as glorious as 1999. The decade flew by for me only slightly faster than that 7-minute YouTube video that led this off.



But please point out where I insulted anyone. That was not my intent, and I don't believe I did that anywhere.