90s NEON.

If Lululemon wanted to be creative, they’d make 90s-style yoga pants with neon stripes going down the side. To replicate those biking shorts that were so popular in the 90s. Neon has tried so many times to make a comeback, especially in the summer. Now, we’re inching towards it because of all the “brights” that are so popular. They’re not neon, but they’re close. Well, here are a pair of lulus that are inching towards hot pink.

Blossom is the epitome of early 90s style. Biker shorts, socks with sneakers and a skirt, a lot of different hats! I’m not sure if she ever sported Docs but and flannel shirts, but maybe that only came in the mid 90s.

Joey Lawrence visited Fairview mall in the early 90s. I remember I wasn’t allowed to go because my mother said that there were going to be wayyy too many people (which was later confirmed by my best friend who went and said that everyone was piled on top of the tables at the food court to be able to see him and she didn’t even get an autograph). Besides, I never found him cute (even now on Dancing with the Stars), although I always thought David Lascher (Blossom’s boyfriend) was a cutie. What ever happened to him?

When I think of the 90s, Wayne’s World comes to mind. I would say that Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World II were the movies that really represented our mindset in the 90s. Sure, Borat was quoted a lot in the past year (but notice how that’s died down?), but I don’t think any movie has been quoted as much as Wayne’s World. People still quote cheesy and funny lines from that movie. Other movies include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (and later, Bogus Journey).

Headbands worn at the front of the head. Overalls with one buckle unlatched. Fanny packs worn diagonally over the shoulder. Crimped hair. Over-the-knee socks. School-girl plaid skirts and jumpers. Baby-doll dresses (well, we owe it to Courtney Love for making those a must-have) paired with mary-janes. I loved mary-janes. I won’t even put up a picture of a baby-doll dress because they’re so imminent that you can’t avoid them - even last summer they were all over the place. If you don’t look good in a baby-doll then forget dress shopping altogether. There are not too many alternatives (OK, well there’s the tent dress this summer and the sheath dress, but not too many others things).

Tupac definitely represents a good chunk of the 90s. His songs were anthem-like and represented the youth of a certain era. Salt n’ Peppa, TLC, Boyz II Men, and some nonsense bands like Color Me Badd came out around that time too. Ok, Color Me Badd’s I Adore Mi Amor was the cheese of that era, but there was also I Wanna Sex You Up which was less cheesy but too upfront. Bobby Brown came out with “Humpin’ Around” and Salt ‘n Peppa came out with “Let’s Talk About Sex” - it was like a liberation from the 80s innuendos, with the exception of George Michael and Marvin Gaye, and it came out a bit too directly, in my opinionation.

Then there was the whole grunge period where bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden came out of Seattle. And with grunge came the flannel shirts I mentioned, with the docs, the converse one stars, converse all-stars (which every hip kid has on these days) and army boots. Not quite the rock of the late 80s that came about with Guns ‘n Roses and Bon Jovi, but rock with a different edge. There was also a lot of grrrl bands that came out around the same time, bands like L7, Hole, Veruca Salt, etc. And of course, other musicians like Sloan (Canadians, yay!), Lisa Loeb, and later Weezer, who brought back the geek chic of the 60s. These were followed by a slew of “alternative” bands. There were so many, that represented so many different uncategorized genres, that it was hard to keep track of what “alternative” really meant. During this alternative era is when body-surfing and mosh pits came to be (OK, I’m probably wrong, it was probably during grunge, but who’s really keeping track?). In the late nineties alternative became passé and was replaced by “ska” - a mixture of reggae and punk rock.

Veruca Salt, Seether.

Sloan, Everything You’ve Done Wrong.

Scary to think about, but what do we stand for in this decade? It’s 2008, and we still haven’t decided what this decade represents. 2000-2010 seems like a lost time. The world is in travail incomparable to before. Myanmar. The Tsunami. The war between Israel and Lebanon. The war against Iraq, against Afghanistan. 9-11. Too many horrific happenings to go over. Global warming. Genocide. The list goes on. It’s like the problems that were present in the 90s have now quadrupled. And what are we going to do about it?

At least in the 90s we tore down the Berlin wall. Shifts happened. The Soviet Union fell apart. Advances were made. And what do we have to say for ourselves now? So, Europe has a currency. Technology has advanced. The world is united by the Internet… And so on. But what really defines this decade?

Some days suck, don’t they?  Everything goes wrong.  Well, then again, it’s more like some months suck.  But then you get these days that are amazing.  Everything goes smoothly…and it makes me wonder…what’s the catch?  It’s no coincidence, in my opinion.  I think some days you’re meant to have a good day and a good vibe is generally present, whereas on other days less luck is in your hands.  Today was one of those smooth sailing days.  I’m thankful for it.  It’s hard to explain - almost like - today, I missed all of the bad people by a couple of seconds or I was protected from negativity in some way.  I don’t know…or maybe when you give off a positive vibe, you receive positive vibes.  Yeah, that’s what everyone is raving about these days - that book - The Secret.  I don’t think there’s any secret.  And I’m not paying $30 to find out what it is.  The secret is trying your best and praying and thinking positive.

One of my favorite songs, Beautiful Day, by U2.

But, you know.

We go through hard days too.

Bright plus dark. That’s what I see everywhere. Blacks and whites coming from the mod 60s but also the bohemian 70s all bespeckled with neon accents from the early 90s and it all causes quite a head spin when you add the 80s with a modern edge. Designers are trying to bring back all of the last four decades in one shot. Diesel’s new “live fast” ad bears a girl in a very 80s zipper dress. That one we all had in the 80s. But she’s wearing neon pink sandals which are popping and reminiscent of the early 90s. Bohemian styles are remnant of the Dashikis. Or that of Roberta Flack, which she altered, I can tell she took off the collar, for her performance of The First Time.

Now, mix Roberta’s boho look with Cyndi’s 80s punky-brewsteresque thing she had going on. And you get something close to what’s on the runways now. And, maybe even on the streets (scary and badly put together versions of the runway looks).

My favorite wardrobe is that of Cameron Di’s in What Happens in Vegas. She’s got all the cute 60s and 70s style structured monochromatic mini sheath dresses. And they suit her. She even has that all-purpose littleblackdress that she wears when she met Ashton’s parents in the movie. I also saw another picture of her in a similar type dress in a bright coral colour outside of the set. Love it.

Don’t blame it on the judeo-christian work ethic anymore. It’s purely for the love of money (as the O’Jays said). All of this business about “live fast” that Diesel is adhering to in their ads is meant to encourage people to die fast but spend all of their money while their at it and just let materialism take them over. I find the ads repulsive, derogatory, ableist and morally low. Here are a few..

Looking at the spring ‘08 ads that some of the big names have put out, I noticed that Benetton really falls off the mark. They’re never in fashion. Did you notice? They always have these multi-colored weird looking pieces that follow no particular style. Not as original as flea-market finds handmade by the Mayans but just odd. Well, at least they’re uniting colors. It’s not clear what the heck they’re trying to say. Or how the heck you pronounce Benetton (where is the emphasis?). ha…I’m going to bed now.

I always thought there was something wrong with the song Brown Sugar, by the Rolling Stones. It’s blatantly racist. Not only racist, but misogynist. The song is about raping a black girl. In fact, it may also be pedophilia, since she’s just a “girl”. Not only raping her, but it alludes to various other rapists such as the “house boy” and the “slaver”. Also refers to her as a slave. Oh, and she tastes so good “just like a black girl should” - so they’re giving her credit for tasting good and allowing them to rape her. Her mother is a “tent show queen” (read: whore) and her boyfriends were school boys (who were “sweet sixteen”) - so the girl is decidedly underage, since he is “no school boy” and he is the one you hear “just around midnight”.  And they got away with it. And they’re still making money off of that song. Well, they did also write Honky Tonk Woman, which shows that they’re not only racist towards black women - they are putting down white women too. I am just appalled that a song that I not only listened to, but loved, has such derogatory and demeaning lyrics. It’s unacceptable. And it should have been banned 37 years ago.

Just look at the lyrics (of Brown Sugar, 1971):

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields,
Sold in a market down in New Orleans.
Scarred old slaver know hes doin’ alright.
Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should
A-huh.

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot,
Lady of the house wondrin’ where its gonna stop.
House boy knows that hes doin’ alright.
You should a heard him just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a black girl should
A-huh.

I bet your mama was a tent show queen,
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen.
I’m no schoolboy but I know what I like,
You should have heard me just around midnight.

Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should.

I said yeah, I said yeah, I said yeah, I said
Oh just like a, just like a black girl should.

I said yeah, I said yeah, I said yeah, I said
Oh just like, just like a black girl should.

Peace.

No. I know. There’s no peace. Where is the peace? Where is the love? It’s time to decide to locate these things. These essential things that are so essential…that living without them will cause the ultimate destruction of our entire universe. So where can I find this peace? Can I purchase some at the corner store? Can I find it at the bottom of a well somewhere? Or is it at the end of my rainbow.

Do I have a rainbow?

Somewhere…over the rainbow…blue birds fly…

Someday…my prince will come…

The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun…

A dream is a wish your heart makes…

Thanks to Walt’s musical crew for some of these phrases, we can never forget them. Are these false and pretentious ideals instilled into us as children? Or are they the “hope” that is meant to keep our eyes brightened by the promise of a wonderful future? What are they? Denial? It’s certain - absolutely certain - that children growing up in countries and cities ravaged by war, genocide, or adverse poverty are in no wise exposed to or adhere to any of these “ideals”. What they are exposed to is the harsh reality around them, and nothing else. So, why? Why generation after generation, are we exposing children living on polar opposite sides of the spectrum to both horrific realities in which they will grow up both not knowing any other reality and suffering the consequences of PTSD, and then a world of complete unreality and fakeness - creating delusional people with a false sense of superiority to the rest of the world and instilling into them unattainable ideals to which they cling and are disappointed when their sky-rocketing expectations are not met, like 50-year-olds sitting and sobbing on a high-chair? It is this imbalance and sense of extremity that is caused by apathy to worldwide problems, the effects of which are not limited to the areas that they affect directly, that is ripping the world apart and causing everything to crumble. And top it all off with the children living in harsh realities somehow imagining that America is the land of milk and honey (a false tale probably passed down from generation to generation) - and you get a world that is really screwed up. A world that is so screwed up all of its problems have no beginning and no end and is like a dog chasing its own tail.

Here are some songs that are talking about the world and its situation. That I like. (And maybe some others that are just pointing out things about the human condition not specific to any one person.)

D’you know when you walk into someone’s house or apartment and it’s like the door was actually a time machine that brought you back to 40 years ago? What possesses someone not to change a single thing in their entire abode for years upon years? I think it’s because they’re living in a pastime paradise. They cannot let go of the past and they don’t want to deal with the future (well, the future, being right now). It’s a kind of denial of change. Sure, changes have taken place, but you’re stuck. Stuck in a moment, a moment that happened a long long time ago. Holding on to objects and memorabilia, in my opinion, is a way to save the past and avoid change. Death, difficulties, diseases (all the bad D words) happen regardless of anything. But, sometimes some peoples’ systems cannot handle a negative kind of change. They react by denying the dilemmas.

I’d say it’s all a fear of getting sucked into Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. A fear of forgetting the past and living in a very technologically complex future world where everything has become robotic and mechanical - where feelings do not apply. It’s a very scary process.

There was this amazing movie I watched a few years ago called Lucky People Center International. The movie, for me, when I watched it at the time -in 1998- showed the juxtaposition of what we like to call “modernity” and the rest of the world, or, the traditional peoples. The rhythm of the beat - fast paced - was meant to represent the fast way in which old ways are being replaced by new ones. I guess they were also alluding to the fact that fast-paced drumming often accompanies ritualistic dances and trance dances which lead to a state of nirvana or oblivion. And that self-same state of oblivion that one can arrive at in a trance dance is the same as the oblivion in which these changes are taking place, and stripping the world away tribe by tribe, replacing it with this brave new technological world, fast-paced, and money-driven. To me a pastime paradise is also a way of holding on to those traditional ways and resisting all of the oncoming change that is sucking it all in like a whirlpool and leaving not a scrap behind. Here are some scenes that I will advise you - may be disturbing.

In my heart, I feel that change taking place. I feel the knife of the future cutting the soft flesh of the past. I feel the drum beat of the world mixing rhythms of past and future and the force of chaos and destruction conflicting with the forces of integration and development. A lot of what is considered “development” for the “third world” in North America is really aimed at technologicalizing those places. Introducing computers to villages that have never had a phone. Getting the entire traditional world on track with the new world. Regardless of how valuable their traditions may be. And how much can be learned from them. It’s not enough. It’s not going to change the world to say - let’s develop the developing. What is development? My way over your way? Or let’s build together and learn from each other? For me - the “first” world, actually lacks in development in many ways. It is in a desperate state of spiritual poverty, and the “third” world actually has many elements that the “first” worlders can learn from in terms of love, generosity, heartfelt spirituality and age-old traditions that will not disappear along with the beat of the drums of modernity trying to wring the world dry of fresh life.

A bit of that fresh life is all that this dried up world of intellectualism needs.

I wish North America would get that through their head. And maybe learn to think with the heart. And that way the world would be balanced and it would be more harmonized within itself.

That’s right. There’s a product out there called “fatgirlslim”. It is basically a cellulite creme that will help you promises to magically make you “slim” if you’re “fat”. But, wait before you buy the product, after all…isn’t it insulting to buy yourself something that is calling you fat? Regardless of the cultural context in which it’s embedded, I’d argue that any product that insults you (even if it said slimgirlfat) is not worth buying because it makes you feel bad about yourself. If they were to call something “uglygirlpretty”, would you feel comfortable picking it up from the counter without feeling ugly? I’m not impressed. (It must be based on Fat Boy Slim, or better yet, Fat Boy Slim may be based on this?).

What do you mean “best minority”? That’s the thought that went through my head when filling in The Mirror’s 19th Annual Best of Montreal. The deadline’s tomorrow if you were thinking of casting in your votes. You think we’ve come far in Montreal, in accepting and respecting diversity, but no, we have to pick a minority and rank it above the rest. Now, call me stupid, but isn’t that racism? Unless it’s a joke, it’s absolutely ridiculous. What are you supposed to say? I like the Haitians, but I think the Chinese rank only second? What? Silly. Tell me it’s a misprint.

The best minority is humanity.

Anyway, I voted filling in most of the categories. But they were hard to think of. I mean, who’s to say who the best dressed Montrealer is. First you have to think of famous Montrealers, who are often members of rich Montreal families, celebrities born in Montreal, outsiders who’ve come to live in Montreal who are celebrities (like, I guess, David Usher, is he still here? Are you, David?). Then you have to figure out which one is best dressed. The truth is, every Montrealer thinks that she/he is the best dressed Montrealer. When leave their abodes and stride out on the street - they strut down the road as though they are what consists of the latest trend to hit the fashion industry by storm. No matter what they’re wearing.

My song of the moment is Can’t Stay Away From You, by Gloria Estefan. Why? Only because it just started to play on my iTunes, on shuffle. Can’t stay away…

You ain’t got nothin’ on me, Willie. No, I’m not about to do a historical recount of all my past loves. But I will do a round up of some of the men who’ve marked each decade whether eligible or not.

First, there was pre-80’s. And I don’t claim to truly appreciate the men of this generation, but I give them a lot of credit. Many future looks are popular based on theirs (i.e. the Dean brow).

One of my faves, Gregory Peck.

A rebel without a cause, James Dean.

Omar Sharif, in Funny Girl.

Paul Newman - gorgeous.

Robert Redford, that country club handsomeness.

Then, the 80s came along, (and I was born) and for me, these then-eligible men marked that era.

My heart melted for Elliott (Henry Thomas), far left, from ET. I wish I was kissing him in that scene where he set all of the frogs free. And I must say, he grew up to be a quite a cutie.

And we can’t forget Magnum PI (Tom Selleck).

Jonathan Brandis won me over in Sea Quest. It’s sad what happened to him.

Michael Jackson, in the Thriller album.

Joey McIntyre.

Wesley Snipes. In the Bad video…

The 90s where a period of many men.

I didn’t like any boy on 90210 other than Brandon (Jason Priestley).

Later in the 90s, LL Cool J…

Speed was what made Keanu Reeves popular.

Brad Pitt.

Nirvana.

My So-Called Life’s Jared Leto, my favorite in 8th grade.

Silverchair.

The 2000s.

David Beckham.

Craig David.

Dave Matthews.

Hayden Christensen.

Everyone was raving about Russel Crowe in Gladiator, but I was raving about Joaquin Phoenix.

Fernando Torres.

Justin Timberlake.

Luke Wilson.

Owen Wilson (well, I find him cute…in a funny way..).

Josh Duhamel.

Martin Henderson, in Bride and Prejudice.

Nobushige Suematsu, who played in Babel.

The Japanese cop, in Babel.

And I’ve created a separate category altogether for royalty.

Swedish Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland

Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi, of Iran

Prince Guillaume Jean Joseph Marie of Luxembourg

Prince Hamza, of Jordan (second from the left)

Andrea Albert Pierre Casiraghi, one-day Prince of Monaco

Prince Maurits of Oranje-Nassau

Prince Cedza Dlamini of Swaziland, Nelson Mandela’s grandson

And my future spouse, Prince William.

What is Ridvan? It is the day that Baha’is celebrate that marks when Baha’u'llah declared Himself as a Manifestation of God . Ridvan means paradise in Arabic. The garden of Ridvan, where Baha’u'llah declared, is in Baghdad. Baha’u'llah spent 12 days there (between April 21st and May 2nd on the Gregorian calendar). We celebrate the 1st, 9th, and 12th day of Ridvan. However, there is another designated garden of Ridvan in Bahji, Israel, where Baha’is go on pilgrimage. A few pictures are provided, below.





This last picture is the Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Iraq, where Baha’u'llah declared His mission.

Joyous Ridvan