In the Loop: June
It seems like Stranger Things has everyone reminiscing about the 80s (and thankfully Kate Bush is finally getting the attention she deserves). But is that *really* the decade that deserves our nostalgia? A trip down memory lane has but one destination and it's lined with gold: Floral dresses and work boots. Crushed velvet and beanies (that's toques for those of you from the True North). Flannels, vests, brown lipstick. Tamagotchis and Beanie Babies. The Macarena. Teen television. Magic Eye pictures. Lollapalooza. Complaint rock. Brit pop. Total Request Live. Google. Lisa Frank. The Hubble telescope. Dolly the sheep. Third-wave feminism. DVDs and Y2K.
We experienced the 90s in very different ways. Different ages, different locations, different world views, different foundations. The 90s are welcome to come back (with a vengeance), but only if we get all of the good and none of the goofs. Of course, we sentimentalize our younger years because they remind us of simpler, easier times. The 90s weren't objectively better than any other decade, but it was a time that demanded less of us—full adult realities didn't fully hit until the naughty aughties. And as we know by now, reality bites.
Nostalgia. Escapism. Revival. Whatever you want to call it, could the 90s *be* any better? As if.
Editing Q&A: How to Cite a TV Show (from the 90s)
MLA Style
“U4EA.” Beverly Hills, 90210, written by Allison Adler, directed by Charles Braverman, Spelling Television, 1991.
Chicago Style
Bright, Kevin S., dir. 1998. Friends. Season 4, episode 12, “The One with the Embryos,” aired January 15, 1998, on NBC. https://www.tbs.com/shows/friends/season-4/episode-12/the-one-with-the-embryos.
APA Style
Cherones, T. (Director). (1991). “The Chinese restaurant.” Seinfeld [Television series]. Burbank, CA: Columbia Pictures Television
'Cause you can't, you won't, and you don't stop!
What's the Diff?
There are a lot of sneaky words out there—those that sound awfully similar to others, but with a different meaning. Here’s the dish on some of those commonly swapped-by-accident words.
Alternate (adj. & n.); Alternate implies (1) a substitute for another, a choice apart from the first offered (e.g., an alternate route, director’s alternate ending) or (2) every other or every second (e.g., alternate Tuesdays).
Alternative (adj. & n.) Alternative implies availability as another choice or possibility that is different from the usual or conventional (e.g., alternative medicine). Specifically, alternative connotes the kind of option that might be considered apart from mainstream traditions, something that exists outside of the established cultural, social, or economic mainstream (e.g., alternative music, alternative newspapers, alternative energy).
Both words can refer to a different or backup option, but typically alternate refers to an action of taking turns while alternative refers to nontraditional choice. Alternate also works as a verb, meaning to take turns. Alternative has no verb sense.
Cool Guides
If you're old enough to be nostalgic for the 90s, you might find these keyboard shortcuts to be pretty helpful.
Stuff We Like
Happy birthday to Windows Solitaire. Thanks for helping us waste time like the modern working girls we are!
Rebecca Solnit laments the end of the pre-internet days.
The Kids in the Hall are old and they know it. And they’re back.
They don’t make soundtracks like they used to, but they really should.
How Lilith Fair broke music’s glass ceiling and changed the idea of “women’s music.”
The delight and nostalgia of reading back issues of Wired magazine.
The AV Club reviews The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle, a book about 90s teen horror films.
“Check Your Head” (which brought us one of the most 90s videos of the 90s) is thirty years old.
It’s the end of an era. We say so long to Bitch—a “feminist response to pop culture”—which will stop publishing this month.
Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice six times faster than in the 90s.
Vanity Fair started publishing the Hollywood Issue in 1995—see who’s who and who was who on 26 covers (and counting).
More than ten million tamagotchis were sold in one year (mine was pink).
It was the music festival that defined the decade. Lollapalooza been resurrected for a new generation of music lovers.
Two fiercely feminist graphic novels.
Michael and Dave (aka The Center Cut guys) watch only the first and last 15 minutes of True Romance and have a lot of questions about the movie and a lot of comments about pie.
Simone Polanen talks about the Beanie Baby craze on the Not Past It podcast: "Ty Warner was a master of manipulating supply and demand."
Pay It Forward
We had the pleasure to work with Greg Beckett and Laura Wagner on “Haiti beyond Crisis,” their powerful and provocative collection of essays for Cultural Anthropology. The essays appear in English, French, and Kreyòl, and feature contributions from scholars, activists, journalists, and others to offer insights and analysis of contemporary Haiti.
Greg has been studying Haitian history and politics since the 90s. You can follow him on Twitter, if you like that sort of thing. He doesn’t like to toot his own horn, so we like to do it for him.
Read more about his work over on the blog. (You’re going to love it.)
