Generation X (The Blog)

He didn't tweet, he didn't blog. He reported.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:35:56 PST

Anthony (Photo credit: Terissa Schor)

"I remember how many times we sat around saying, 'That would be a great story for Anthony Shadid to write, or someone like him. But there was never anyone like him.'"
-- Blake Hounshell

Something is wrong with me if I write about Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Farrah Fawcett dying and not Anthony Shadid. The New York Times, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and native Oklahoman died yesterday while reporting in Syria. He was only 43.

Today, on MSNBC, Mike Barnicle of the Boston Globe said this about Shadid:

"He didn't tweet. He didn't blog. He reported. He was a reporter. He talked to people. He spent time thinking about what he was going to write."

I became an admirer of Shadid because my friend Louisa loved his work so much. She tweeted about him often, and during his captivity in Egypt more or less led the unofficial hometown Twitter vigil as we all prayed and hoped for his safe return. He did return, but now we know that it was only for awhile.

It's awful when your heroes die. It's even worse when they're your age and from the small state you call home. RIP Anthony Shadid, and prayers for your family, near and far.

Flashback Friday, Rollerskating Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:53:57 PST

rollerskates, originally uploaded by vanessaandres.

Hey, I'm gonna get you, too.
Another one bites the dust. --From Queen
Hey, Gen Xers, welcome to Flashback Friday, Rollerskating Edition.

Remember the kid who showed up to the rink with her own skates? Was it just me or was she a total showoff? She'd parade around with her pristine white skates draped over one shoulder while the rest of us stood in line for a stinky brown pair with chewed up laces. Good times, my friends!

I need a size 8, please.

I loved rollerskating as a kid even if the "turn yourself around part," in the Hokey Pokey totally stressed me out. Ha!

What do you remember about skating as a kid? Feel free to get nostalgic over rollerblades.

Who the heck is Bon Iver?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:17:44 PST

When Justin Vernon of the American Indie Folk Band Bon Iver took the stage this past weekend at the Grammy's to accept the Best New Artist Award, I just soaked in the moment. His wrinkled suit, his scraggly hair, his unintentional lack-of-put-togetherness was pure perfection. Next year, the stylists will have got a hold of him and completely ruined him.

So, on Twitter, everyone was like, "Who the heck is Bon Iver?" I've been asking myself the same question, in a slightly different vein. Is Justin Vernon Generation X or Gen Y? Born in April 1981, he is technically Generation X. With his beard, ski cap and flannel shirt, he's certainly Seattle-esque. He feels and sounds like a 90s indie band. (The broadest definition of Generation X, by the way, is 1961 to 1981.) To make things even more interesting, Vernon landed upon the name for the band while watching episodes of Northern Exposure (click here to read my recent post about that show). Bon Iver is an intentional misspelling of the French "Bon Hiver." It means good winter.

Either way, Bon Iver is something very special. I like what I hear. Vernon probably has a foot in both Generation X and Gen Y, but his songs are universal. He writes original, magical lyrics about ordinary things we have all experienced: leaving, losing, pretending.

Here he is performing Flume for Minnesota Public Radio.

Being a Girl in 1981

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:48:04 PST

Being a Girl in 1981, a photo by Solitaire Miles on Flickr.

This post features an excerpt from a post on Flickr by the popular Chicago-based jazz singer and artist Solitaire Miles (her real name). I was so taken by this photo she posted of herself at age 14, and what she wrote about it, I wrote and asked her if I could publish it on this site. She obliged.

I think she looks so beautiful, and she embodies so much of what it meant to be a girl in 1981. It's iconic, really, and I'm glad I can share it with all of you. Click here to read her complete post.

What were you like in 1981? What did you wear and where did you go? Who did you love and what did you want to become?

From Solitaire Miles:

"I found this old pic of me from 1981 dressed in my Linda Ronstadt rollerskating wanna-be outfit, right before I went skating with my friends. I was 14 in this pic, and I wasn't allowed to wear or own a tube top, but I did wear it to skating with a satin baseball jacket over the top, like Linda Ronstadt, and my Mother never knew. The top was loaned to me by my 17 year old baby sitter, who was the scandal of our neighborhood because her mother put her on the pill.

"When I was 14, the kind of things I looked forward to were roller skating with my girlfriends, reading copies of Tiger Beat magazine, and sneaking into the theater to see films that my Mom wouldn't allow me to watch, like The Blue Lagoon with Brook Shields and Little Darlings with Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol. Both of these films dealt with issues of teenage girl sexuality, and they were VERBOTEN in my Roman Catholic home, but I found a way to see them, none the less..."

Click here to connect with Miles on Facebook.

Graffiti Wednesday: Belle Isle Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:17:01 PST

Under the Belle Isle Bridge, Oklahoma City, February 2012

Between Penn Square Mall and the Belle Isle Bridge, this graffiti is hardly visible from the road.

When I was a little kid living in a suburb of Los Angeles, we had a big storm sewer like this one behind our house. My dad told me never to go down there, but I did at least once. It was quite an adventure for a four or five-year-old, sitting in a damp, dark space under a bridge. It was cool, but scary, and I could hear cars overhead. I remember a time or two the drain, which was like a street, filled with rushing water. I always wanted to go swimming in it, except for the trash. This would have been right around 1972, the year the Clean Water Act was passed.

BrandonMeowMeow via Flickr | Blogger share enabled

Graffiti always scared me as a kid and it kind of still does.

***

Have you heard of storm drain graffiti? It's all the rage in some parts of the world, but I haven't discovered any in Oklahoma. Check out these images from Sao Paulo, Brazil, a city of 20 million people where graffiti colors the concrete jungle.

In the end, it wasn't about the fact she couldn't sing

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:08:08 PST

I don't know if I'm going to make it
But, I'm gonna do the best I can.
From Whitney Houston's last album, I Look To You, 2009

In the end, Whitney Houston looked more like her aunt, Dionne Warwick, than the Whitney with whom we came of age. She, who at one time embodied all the neon glory of Generation X, has joined the ranks of the dearly beloved: Cobain, Phoenix and Jackson, just to name a few.

A lot has been written about how Whitney lost her amazing voice, partly due to aging, but mostly because of drug addiction. As I listened to that famed clip of her Good Morning America concert in Central Park in 2009, I was struck not by her failure to perform, but by the surrender in her voice and in the words to her song, I Look To You:

"I thank God for NEVER letting me go..."

As I lay me down
Heaven hear me now
I’m lost without a cause
After giving it my all

Winter storms have come
And darkened my sun
After all that I’ve been through
Who on earth can I turn to?

Chorus:

I look to you,
I look to you
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong
I look to you,
I look to you

And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song
I look to you

'bout to lose my breath
There's no more fighting left
Sinking to rise no more
Searching for that open door

And every road that I've taken
Led to my regret
And I don't know if I'm go'n make it
Nothing to do but lift my head

My levees are broken
My walls are coming down on me
My rain is falling
Defeat is calling
I need you to set me free
Take me far away from the battle
I need you
Shine on me

In the end, it wasn't about the fact Whitney was an addict; had a middle-age spread and couldn't maintain the persona of a perpetual teenager. It wasn't about the fact she couldn't hit high notes or sing. It was about who we look to when our lives have completely fallen apart; who we look to during the battles that rage in the darkest alleys of our lives and in the most private chambers of our hearts. In the end, Whitney's scratchy, low-octave, Good-Morning-America performance gave us the gift of a gesture to the heavens; confession and surrender. She is healed from addiction now.

And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song
I look to you...

Whitney Houston in Seventeen Magazine, 1983

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:26:41 PST

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of...
From The Bodyguard Soundtrack, 1992

Whitney Houston, the Generation X entertainer who got her start singing in church, passed away today around 7 p.m. ET. She was only 48.

Whitney Houston, Seventeen Magazine, May 1983 | She was 19-years-old in this picture.

Houston's cause of death is still unknown. Although her passing was not as predictable as that of Amy Winehouse (whose death I wrote about here) or Michael Jackson (whose death I wrote about here), it isn't altogether a surprise either. It's so sad to see someone die so young and assumably tragically.

30 years goes by very fast. Her suit reminds me of 80s aerobics and shows like the 20-Minute Workout.

I passed a billboard tonight advertising an upcoming B.B. King concert at some nearby Indian Casino. The first thing I thought of was, "B.B. King is still alive?!" When you're a little kid and even a teenager, everyone seems old. I remember when I was in the third grade my sister had an album of Elton John in her bedroom. He was wearing funny glasses, striped pants and platform shoes. Sometimes, I can't believe Elton is still going strong. Some people get so many years while others seem to have far too few.

RIP Whitney Houston.

Saturday Cartoon: Fractured Fairy Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer James) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:41:11 PST

Switchpak Poison Death Apples!

Fractured Fairy Tales were cartoon segments or "shorts" that appeared during The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The show appeared on network television from 1958 to 1973, and most older Gen Xers will recall both with some affection.

There were actually several Rocky and Bullwinkle bookends including Mr. Peabody's Improbable History, Aesop and Son, Bullwinkle's Corner (watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat!) and Commander McBrag. As a kid, I loved them all and still do, but looking back, they could be kind of disturbing.

As the opening indicates, the fairy tales are crushed by some grim reality or turn of events. They're basically classic tales told in comic fashion so they don't have to reach too far in the re-tellings to be too devastating. For example, In a Son of Rumplestilskin episode the daughter of the king pretends like she's shooting herself in the head with a gun. Nice. (By the way, the elf, a "funny little man in a green suit," acts and talks an awful lot like Sponge Bob.)

Of all the Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, I think I liked the Mr. Peabody's Improbable History the most, but they all bring back such great memories of my Gen X childhood! I'd get up early on Saturday mornings, pour myself a bowl of Super Sugar Crisp, Lucky Charms or Cap'n Crunch, and watch show after show after show. The later it got, the more disinterested I became with the lineup.

Eventually, my Saturday morning ritual would come to a close with something I could only mildly tolerate like Land of the Lost or Shazam. By then, my parents were usually awake and they'd take me to Sambo's leaving behind my sleeping teenage siblings. I can't remember one time during my childhood that my there wasn't milk in the fridge and cereal in the cabinet. My dad was always going to the store for both as well as bread and eggs. We run out of all four of these things all the time in my house, so thanks, Mom and Dad, for all those trips you made!

What was your favorite cartoon short as a kid?