Something like House Of Cards from circa early '90s strikes me as incredibly quaint (the drama is still brilliant though).
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 11:37 (twelve years ago) link
I think a lot of films, or TV, that were intended to be contemporary or futuristic date quickly
retrofuturism! we all know about the odd '70s ideas about UFOs and aliens that seem retro because that's not really how it panned out, i was just thinking the other day how the digital computer voices and r&b videos set in spaceships that were plentiful around the turn of the century might become the new updated retrofuturism
― lex pretend, Thursday, 25 August 2011 11:52 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, films set in London in 1977 will more likely 'accidentally' have fashions and soundtrack based around 1978-1980 than 1975.Spike Lee's Summer of Sam is a US equivalent of this syndrome. They usually don't get the cars right in this type of movie. One of the things I miss most about the 1970s is all the cool cars from the 1960s that were still on the road.
― Josefa, Thursday, 25 August 2011 12:27 (twelve years ago) link
This is why the TV show "Look Around You" works so well in its mashing together of 60s, 70s and 80s British TV imagery - they never tell you exactly when the show is supposedly set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR8qtxts1jY
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 12:54 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgAp5aqUhXw&feature=related
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 12:57 (twelve years ago) link
one more, only cos i like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNzHwP9qcOU&feature=related
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 12:58 (twelve years ago) link
Was there ever a video for "Mackadaynuu" or whatever it was called?
― Mark G, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:13 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwyuB8QKzBI
― ledge, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:16 (twelve years ago) link
Undercuts: Where did these come from? I don't remember any actual celebrities or tastemakers rocking this haircut and yet every boy - EVERY BOY at my school had one, like a uniform. We've lost something, etc....
Yeah, two of my best mates in school had them. It was a matter of great debate between us as to whether Kurt Cobain had one or not, even to the point of watching a tape of the video of Smells Like Teen Spirit on slo mo (that bit where hes trashing his guitar) and looking at his hair flailing. I dont think he had one, despite my mates insistence.
― Michael B, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:20 (twelve years ago) link
lovely.
exactly how I thought it'd look. (xposT)
― Mark G, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:21 (twelve years ago) link
Undercuts: Where did these come from?
Thompson Twins?
If you watch the old quiz shows on Challenge TV on freeview, seeing contestants in clothes that scream "80s!" is a pretty sure sign that the show was filmed in the 90s.
― ledge, Thursday, 25 August 2011 10:59 (2 hours ago)
ha, yeah playing 'guess the year' in those late-night sessions of watching Challenge TV we'd always be about five years early.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Undercut.jpg
wikipedia really bringing the good stuff here. i've never heard the term undercut before, is there a particular distinction between it and bowl cut?
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
i've never heard the term undercut before, is there a particular distinction between it and bowl cut?
It's shaved underneath the floppy bit. I had one between 94-6, but the top bit was longer, almost chin-length, and it was so I could tie my hair up and put it under my Sea Cadets hat. So much of that sentence is making me convulse in self-loathing.
― Skrillex Ferguson (useless chamber), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
A bowl cut was more, well, bowl shaped. There was a slight distinction between an undercut and a step in that the undercut was shaved sometimes right up to the top of the head with hair hanging over it. Step was a poor-man's undercut in that it was simply shaved into the head. Often kids would grow their hair while maintaining the shaved-under bit. Bit hard to explain this, but there were differences
http://freyajane.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/undercut.jpghttp://magnetiquemtl.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/witz-topfschnitt.jpghttp://thehindsightletters.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/hairstyle1.jpg
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:38 (twelve years ago) link
To be worn with Spliffy jeans
okay, makes sense. round my way they all just came under the umbrella of bowl.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:40 (twelve years ago) link
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTO0EMi7-9Vpe9tBRgWxCyUVZ6bAh5rUkXFUAel0w6pPxjdU0Mb
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:40 (twelve years ago) link
I liked the recent Zomby interview in Wire where he starts romanticising early-90s street fashion.
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:44 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.tradereadingorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/green-lantern-guy-gardner.jpg
― ¯\(°_o)/¯ (Nicole), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:47 (twelve years ago) link
Haircut thread is number one on ILE right now.
― Mark G, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
Speaking archly about haircuts is what I do best, apparently.
― ¯\(°_o)/¯ (Nicole), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:49 (twelve years ago) link
i for one am talking about haircuts in every thread possible.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:49 (twelve years ago) link
haha
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:51 (twelve years ago) link
Wtf is a spliffy jean. Is this lol britain?
― funky house septics (D-40), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:57 (twelve years ago) link
Like how they had a hip hop mag called "big daddy"
― funky house septics (D-40), Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lprpkimmsG1qe6p6uo1_500.png
― ¯\(°_o)/¯ (Nicole), Thursday, 25 August 2011 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, that turned out bigger than I thought...
xxpost yeah the most lol Britain thing really - a slightly chavvy (although the word didn't exist yet) trend among high school teenagers to wear jeans with spliff-men on the back pocket. Also: Dready, Hard Act, Truth etc. Very popular for about a year at my school.
http://www.dreadybrand.com/prodimages/dpt01-denim.JPG
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 14:04 (twelve years ago) link
http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/8/845/XCVY000Z/dready--free-up-de-herb.jpg
Worn with a black bomber jacket and Reebok Pumps or something.
― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Thursday, 25 August 2011 14:05 (twelve years ago) link
90's were buggin'
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kApto83SZK4/TANTFBsREpI/AAAAAAAAJI8/fVTraUTdqRQ/s1600/CROTCHWATCHTWELVE.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 25 August 2011 16:10 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.streetsondemand.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/emeli-sande.png
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 26 August 2011 09:44 (twelve years ago) link
lol at me for avoiding all the discussion on this thread until after I read the book. good stuff though.
― Gukbe, Friday, 2 September 2011 16:22 (twelve years ago) link
been reading the book, v interesting info contained w/in
― D-40, Friday, 2 September 2011 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
From Doran's latest Menk entry:
I’ve recently finished reading Simon Reynolds’ excellent Retromania and I’m reminded of something he said about the positive nature of having fuck all to do – a nostalgia for a “sensation of tedium so intense it was almost spiritual”. These kids are so bored out of their skulls that they have become innovators and originators. This is brilliant. They are geniuses. They should carry on destroying my shit unimpeded by me. I’ll just go into the other room and eat cake.Besides, I know how it feels. I was so bored growing up in St Helens, I feel like stabbing myself in the face with a screwdriver just thinking about it. I remember my friend confessing to me one night while we were on mushrooms that boredom had led him to the most pivotal event of his childhood. He came home from school one day with a box full of red noses which he was supposed to be selling around town in the run up to the first ever Comic Relief. He put one of them on his nose. Then he put another on his tongue. Then he got some glue and decided to see how many he could attach to his head. He fitted nearly the entire box on his head and face, just with gaps where his eyes and mouth were.He ran into his mum’s room to surprise her but she was on the bed with his dad, who had come back home early from work, where they were performing a baroque sex act. He then ran out of the house in tears, head still encased in red noses.
Besides, I know how it feels. I was so bored growing up in St Helens, I feel like stabbing myself in the face with a screwdriver just thinking about it. I remember my friend confessing to me one night while we were on mushrooms that boredom had led him to the most pivotal event of his childhood. He came home from school one day with a box full of red noses which he was supposed to be selling around town in the run up to the first ever Comic Relief. He put one of them on his nose. Then he put another on his tongue. Then he got some glue and decided to see how many he could attach to his head. He fitted nearly the entire box on his head and face, just with gaps where his eyes and mouth were.
He ran into his mum’s room to surprise her but she was on the bed with his dad, who had come back home early from work, where they were performing a baroque sex act. He then ran out of the house in tears, head still encased in red noses.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:07 (twelve years ago) link
baroque?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:12 (twelve years ago) link
that's the best Menk so far imo.
― Yo wait a minute man, you better think about the world (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music.
Righto. Sex with grandeur and exaggerated movements.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:21 (twelve years ago) link
I much prefer the Rococo period.
― The multi-talented F.R. David (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
woody allen's midnight in paris is pretty OTM re: idea of retromania
― fennel cartwright, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 18:14 (twelve years ago) link
I was imagining sex with a harpsichord.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 21:08 (twelve years ago) link
pluck
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 21:32 (twelve years ago) link
When I was just about done with my piece I revisited this long, long, thread, but it seems like only about two people actually read the book. Not to say the discussions here aren't good. Anyone else read it? I enjoyed the book even though I disagreed with most of it.
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/retromania.htm
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 7 October 2011 20:02 (twelve years ago) link
I can't believe how long it's taken me to read this, but I'm pretty much done. It's a victim of time - seems that as soon as it got sent off to print suddenly the music industry got its rear in gear and started making non-retro music again. Also, I agree that while it's a great read and makes some interesting thoughts, it does suffer from assumptive and often contradictory opinions.
― dog latin, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:53 (twelve years ago) link
seems that as soon as it got sent off to print suddenly the music industry got its rear in gear and started making non-retro music again
...uh? Could you explain?
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
Like, I'll be reading a passage and thinking "Careful now Simey, careful now". Luckily, most of the time he manages to just about avoid any "when I were a lad" potholes most of the time, but you get the impression he really really wants to go off on a tirade about how music was all better when he was younger and now it's all ringtones.
― dog latin, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:55 (twelve years ago) link
xpost
seems that as soon as it got sent off to print suddenly the music industry got its rear in gear and started making non-retro music again...uh? Could you explain?― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:54 (44 seconds ago) Bookmark
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:54 (44 seconds ago) Bookmark
Just, from a personal POV, 2011 seems like a bit of a creative unblocking on the whole for music (speaking very generally). We seem finally able to wave bye bye to all the garage rock and furry folk revivalists from the last decade, and maybe looking to move forward again.
― dog latin, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, I'm at work and not explaining myself very well.
― dog latin, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
um
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:22 (twelve years ago) link
no
2011 seems like a bit of a creative unblocking on the whole for music
like...no just no no NO