Da Bulls!

The Chicago Bulls dominated the NBA in the 90s.

Question: Which of Michael Jordan's teammates on the Chicago Bulls also had his own line of Nike shoes called the "Air Shake NDestrukt"?

Growing up in Illinois, basketball was THE sport to follow. My high school didn't even have a football team, but basketball was what we all grew up watching and playing. Of course, I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan. That was a lot of fun in the 90s (which somewhat made up for being a long suffering Cubs and Bears fan as well). Coached by Phil Jackson with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and all of the extremely talented players that rotated through the lineup in the 90s, they were seemingly unstoppable. The "Three-peat" was an amazing feat and it was great being a Bulls fan.

There was always controversy, as well. Good old Dennis Rodman and all of his unique features and behaviors. It started out with some colorfully decorated hair and a body full of tattoos. Then he dressed up in a wedding dress and married himself. He was a master of PR (both good and bad). If he hadn't been in the news for awhile, you could bet he would do something even more outrageous and be the talk of the tabloids for the next few months.

Knowing all of this and following the Bulls in the 90s really should have prepared me for seeing the news that Dennis Rodman had befriended North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un. Nothing should really surprise anyone when the name "Dennis Rodman" is involved. He has certainly found a unique way to keep his name in the news even decades after his basketball career ended. It will be interesting to see if he can ever top this one, though.

Answer: Dennis Rodman

All Right, Stop. Collaborate and Listen.

Vanilla Ice invited everyone and their dog on stage

Question: What song became the first #1 rap song ever in November of 1990?

Confession time. I have, for the past 30 years, have an odd fascination with all things Vanilla Ice. I don't think I would ever classify it as a crush or anything like that. It is no secret that I love all types of music and really appreciate very talented artists. I also really appreciate campy artists that don't take themselves too seriously. Music, to me, is supposed to be fun. Enter Vanilla Ice and all of his campy hits ("Ninja Rap", for instance).

I think I can blame my fascination on my mom, really. For Christmas one year in the early 90s (I believe it was 1991), she got me a "karaoke machine". This wasn't a fancy one they use at karaoke bars. It was basically a double tape deck with a speaker and microphone. You put the backing track cassette in one deck, and then you could put a blank cassette and record your performance in the other deck. I loved that thing. Unfortunately, the only tape I had for it was "Hits of 1990". I sang my heart out to such classics as "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles and "From a Distance" by Bette Midler. It was because of this cassette I can still, and always do, rap every word to "Ice Ice Baby".

This particular skill has actually come in handy several times over the last 30 years. It impresses people at parties/clubs/dances/weddings when I bust it out (with accompanying dance moves, of course). It also earned me some "cool points" when I first started teaching at my current school. I told them that I would dance when I chaperoned Homecoming, so they asked what song they should request to get me to dance. I, of course, wanted to show off so "Ice Ice Baby" it was. This is a legacy that has passed down through class after class and I still get pulled onto the floor 12 years later to dance and "rap" (well, either that song or "Bye Bye Bye" because I can do the actual dance...but that might be a different post some day). I also used part of the song in a mash-up with "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" from Frozen to create a glow-in-the-dark lights routine for my dance team (we placed 3rd at the State competition that year with it!). It is a part of me.

I have managed to see Vanilla Ice twice in concert. The first time it was totally random out of the blue when he showed up on stage in the middle of a New Kids on the Block concert in Chicago (ah, yes, another post will come from NKOTB, most likely). My friends thought I was nuts because all I could do was scream "OH MY GOD IT'S VANILLA ICE! VANILLA ICE!" over and over again, but it was so many years of loving all things Vanilla Ice karma finally paying off.

The other time I saw him in concert was on the "I Love the 90s Tour" (great acts, terrible seats and sound, by the way). He had so much pyrotechnics and smoke it was insane. He also went around the audience taking selfies with everyone for like 40 minutes after the concert was over. Again, I had crappy seats, so I wasn't down on the floor to get one of those and the evil ushers wouldn't let us go down. So I only have pictures from the nosebleed section that you can't even tell who it is (see the picture accompanying this post for proof. Vanilla Ice is the guy in a red hat standing on a box with the spotlight on him, just for reference).

Anyway, I will continue loving all things Vanilla Ice and busting out the rap and the moves whenever I hear the song. Word to your Mother.

Answer: Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice

"It's So Good, I Put My Name On It!"

George Foreman hawking a Play-Doh version of his grill

Question: Who is the oldest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing?

It was the 90s, and infomercials were becoming a popular thing to watch at 2 AM for insomniacs and those shopping addicts with no need for quality. At first, they were all just a bunch of the inventors or pitch-men or pitch-women who would talk about and show off their products for 30 minutes of air time. Then long forgotten celebrities who would do anything for a buck started to show up on the screen (Suzanne Somers, anyone?). 

Enter George Foreman -- boxing legend and apparently a hater of fat drowning out his foods. He slapped his name on an indoor grill and dubbed it the "lean, mean, fat-reducing, grilling machine". It wasn't long before George and his grill were everywhere. Every store you went to was a display of these awesome food making machines. You couldn't turn on the TV without seeing George's mug smiling back at you while talking about his grill. It was the must-have appliance of the 90s and George Foreman made a fortune off of it. 

Speaking of George Foreman and a fortune, he probably needed the money because that man had TWELVE kids. Also, he named all of the boys George Edward Foreman. That may seem a bit strange to normal people, but he did explain it once saying he wanted them all to always have something in common. Apparently he wasn't the only 90s star who did this -- Michael Jackson's sons are both named Prince. I also recently found out that another of my favorites from the 90s, Wanya Morris from Boyz II Men also named his 4 sons Wanya (they all sing together as a group called "WanMor"and were recently on a Nickelodeon show called "America's Most Musical Family") My kids both have family names, but that's a little too much for me.

Anyway, I digress. I never did have a George Foreman grill. However, we still consistently use our George Foreman knock-off grill in the winter time. Yet another great invention that has lasted the past 3 decades and is beloved by all.

Answer: George Foreman

Ode to My Beloved Flannels

My friend Larissa and me in our flannels around 1996.

Question: The Grunge movement led to the popularity of what kind of shirts?

Ah, 90s fashion. It has been making a comeback for the past half decade or so, and I couldn't be happier. It's not like I ever stopped wearing my flannels, but now they seem stylish. I even own one flannel still that I had in my college days back in the 90s.

As the question indicates, the flannel look went from being what a lumberjack would wear to being what any lovable slacker of the era wore thanks to the Grunge movement. Thanks to alternative bands like Pearl Jam and their contemporaries, the Grunge look, including flannels, were what everyone wore. Male, female; rich, poor; any race wore them. It was accessible for everyone. Even people who weren't into Grunge wore flannels. It became the uniform of the times. It was the deconstruction of fashion that became the most fashionable, much like the 90s as a whole.

While nowadays I haven't gone so far as to wear turtleneck bodysuits under a pair of overalls with combat boots under my flannels like my favorite combination from the 90s, I'm still wearing t-shirts with a flannel over them quite often when it's cool enough outside. So thank you, Grunge, for existing and for making it acceptable to wear my flannels without having to carry an axe around.

Answer: The Flannel Shirt

Living in the Present - Loving the Past

Me and Chuck at Fall Prom 1995

Here it is, 2020, already. How can 1990 be 30 years ago? In my mind, the 90s were only like 10 years ago. I suppose it doesn't help that I pretty much exclusively listen to Sirius XM 90s on 9 in my car and that I still wear my beloved flannel as much as possible. I also currently have the same haircut I did for the late 90s...do we see where this is going? Yes, I'm living in the present, but I love the past and in particular the 90s. Times were a lot simpler then. Of course, the 90s were the decade that I went through all of middle school, high school, and college. Now I'm a grown "adult" in her 40s (ugh) with middle aged problems.

I needed something creative to do in order to get me out of my mundane day to day rut. That's where this blog comes in. I thought it would be fun to reminisce through my writing about the decade that shaped me -- the 90s. Therefore, I ordered myself the Trivial Pursuit 90s Edition game off of Ebay and will use the questions to guide this blog (I did something similar to that about 15 years ago now when I got the 80s edition of Trivial Pursuit. It was fun, but life got in the way of updating it -- check it out for fun: That Retro Blog). I'll also have weekly spotlighted music, movies, and TV shows from my favorite decade over in the right sidebar to continue the nostalgia.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking back as much as I do. Leave me some comments and let me know your favorites from the 90s. I love to talk about everything 90s and really do want to hear from you!

(The picture above, by the way, is of me and my best friend at the time at my "Fall Prom" in 1995. How is that for some 90s nostalgia?)