The 90s

With over 600 blog entries by now, I’m starting to get writer’s block more often.   Fortunately I managed to find a topic which I haven’t previously addressed:  the 1990s.  Not 2000-1990 BC, nor any other century.  Got it?  I’ll try to address general issues but inevitably my analysis will be centered on my own life experiences. Let’s begin. 

My Own Life.   Having been born in 1969, I turned 21 in early 1990.   I was starting my final (spring) semester at University of Maryland, College Park, which I’d finish after the first summer session, mid-July.  I spent the last two weeks of July back in Paris for the last time, as my parents moved home permanently around September 1, moving back into the same home we left in January 1979.  My buddy Phil and I tried our best to renovate the house in August for my family’s return, undoing to a limited extent the extensive abuse it suffered from various tenants over that period of time. 

Then in late August I started at George Mason University School of Law, graduating in May 1993.   I passed the July 1993 Maryland bar exam (admitted December 1993 in Annapolis) and the February 1994 Virginia bar exam (admitted in June 1994 in Richmond).  Thus my legal career got started. 

Aside from a brief interlude from March to December 1994 when I was not working for him, I spent October 1992 through May 1998 working for my first legal employer, Jerry Curran.  He was a sole practitioner who had previously worked for O'Melveny & Myers, a big firm in L.A., and the NRA in DC.  It was just the two of us, handling traffic, criminal, and divorce in Northern Virginia.  Jerry didn’t take any personal injury or bankruptcy cases.  Since he wasn’t licensed in Maryland, I was the attorney handling matters in that state.  In May 1998 Jerry got hired by a big divorce firm in Fairfax and I wound up without a job. 

The remainder, from September 1998 through October 2000, was spent doing document processing at a DOJ contractor, CACI.   Thus the majority of the 90s was spent learning how to be an attorney, an experience which was mostly positive.  I’m still on good terms with Jerry, though our paths have long diverged.

Cars.  In spring 1994, now with a surplus of free time and decision to use that time productively to learn something new, I started working on cars, first taking basic courses with Arlington Adult Education and following up with more advanced courses at NOVA Alexandria along with dealer techs.   I went from having zero clue about cars to passing ASE exams and working on my own.

The 90s also ushered in a time when I finally had a non-economy car which I chose myself.  In November 1992 I got my first new car, a 1992 Pontiac Firebird (base model), black on black with t-tops and 5.0L V8.  In June 1995 I replaced that with a 1992 Pontiac Firebird Formula “350” with the SLP package (290 HP).  By 1998 that had gone from blue-green metallic, its original color, to black, though I never did reinstall the decals. 

Romance.  I went on several dates during this period, but nothing substantial until October 1999, when I began dating a Brazilian woman, Leila, who I met working at CACI.  I’m still on good terms with her now, though the romantic element of that relationship ended when she moved back to Rio in December 2003.  

The Gulf War.  In August 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.  After several months of back and forth with Bush’s dad, George H.W. Bush, then the President, eventually we did something.  In January 1991, around the time the Giants beat the Bills in the first of the four Super Bowls they lost, we liberated Kuwait in a campaign that lasted all of four days.  The Gulf War started our military’s love affair with desert cammo, and our political obsession with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.  “Three Kings” is an intriguing movie depiction of that war. 

Bill Clinton.  Despite the success of the Gulf War, a subsequent recession wiped all out all the political capital GHWB (41) had accumulated and ushered in the first Democratic president since Jimmy Carter:  former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.  And unlike Carter, Clinton won re-election in 1996, beating the Bob Dole-Jack Kemp ticket easily.  Clinton brought his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea, and even did this NAFTA thing.  Clinton had enough charm and humor that it was difficult to dislike him unless you were a hardcore Republican.  Even G. Gordon Liddy, who had a radio show back then, had to admit he supported Clinton’s position on NAFTA.

However, as noted, the GOP didn’t appreciate him and tried to bring him down with Monica-Gate, Paula Jones, Ken Starr, and this business of Vince Foster’s suspicious suicide.  Sadly for them, he served his full term.  He’s still around though somewhat older – possibly wiser.   

“I didn’t inhale”.  By the way – pot brownies have been around for awhile, so it’s possible Bubba got stoned without inhaling.  Speaking of which, California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, leading the nation in this regard and beginning the process by which MJ became far more potent:  4% THC in the early 1990s vs 24% THC for today’s stronger strains.   For those of you who care about these matters.

The Internet.  In 1990 most of us had no clue what the Internet was.  By 1999 most of us did.  There was Prodigy, AOL, and the Web.  At this time it was dialup, so we needed dedicated phone lines – no cable modems or DSL back then.  No Myspace or Facebook either – mostly we were on AOL back then, or for those of us on the Web, Netscape Navigator.  Nor was there streaming, but there was Napster (beginning in 1999), much to Metallica’s dismay. 

Cell Phones.   Same deal here – only snotty Gordon Gekko types had them before 1990, but by 1999 most of us had some kind, though they were flip-open types with cheesy screens and by no means “smart” – and you couldn’t get the Internet on them. 

TV Shows.  I'm neutral about TV, neither being a devoted aficionado nor a snob who refuses to watch, considering it all crap.  I'll watch some and not others as it suits my particular fancy.  Of the shows on during this time, these were my favorites that I watched the most:  

ALF, The Drew Carey Show, Frasier, Friends, Home Improvement, L.A. Law, Married...With Children, Seinfeld, and That 70s Show.  Of these, I'd list Friends, L.A. Law, and Seinfeld as my top shows, which I watched on the most regular basis.  

Movies.  Likewise with movies.  My favorites were Terminator 2, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Heat, The Big Lebowski, The Matrix, and my top favorite of many decades, Saving Private Ryan.

Grunge.  Taking care of the overindulgent metal of the 1980s was grunge, four bands in particular:  Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden, all out of Seattle.

Pearl Jam is still around and is the only band to remain continuously active.  Nirvana released Bleach (1989), Nevermind (1991), and In Utero (1993), but Kurt Cobain died in 1994 – by killing himself.  AIC’s Facelift was released in 1990, its third and final album, self-titled, in 1995, the band stopped in 1996 (though not formally disbanding), mainly due to Layne Staley’s drug use (he died in 2002).   Soundgarden were the oldest of the four, beginning in the mid 1980s, releasing Ultramega OK (1988), Louder Than Love (1989), Badmotorfinger (1991), Superunknown (1994), and Down on the Upside (1996) before disbanding.  Of the four, I didn’t like Nirvana or Pearl Jam enough to see them in concert, but I did see Soundgarden as a headlining band on the Superunknown tour in 1994 and Alice in Chains opening for Clash of the Titans (Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth) in 1990 and for Van Halen in 1991.

As you can see, I remember the 1990s.   How much do you remember?  Hopefully the same, and ideally as fondly as I do.  

Welcome Back to 1995

It’s been 20 years.  What was life like – for me? (as if you care) – back then?

Household.  This was an efficiency at River Place, Rosslyn, Virginia, across Key Bridge from Georgetown, DC.  Since my brother was working next door at a Dilbertesque defense contractor, he was living with me at the time – about the only time since since college that I had a roommate.  A few years later he got married and moved out.

I’ve mentioned Rosslyn in a previous blog, so it doesn’t need much in the way of ad nauseam Turtledove repetition, but suffice to say that, with a Metro stop and walking distance to DC, plus Route 50, I-66, Route 29, and the GW Parkway, it’s hard to find a more convenient place to live in Northern Virginia.

Job.  I was working for Jerry, a sole practitioner who had moved to Virginia from California.  I had sworn into the Maryland bar in December 1993, passed the February 1994 Virginia bar and swore in down in Richmond in June 1994, but spent most of 1994 unemployed.  By December 1994 Jerry hired me back part-time.  By June 1995 I was back to full-time again.  The “firm” was just the two of us, so it gave me a lot of experience at a local level.  I zipped down to Richmond a few times to file appeals on concealed weapon permit cases.  Mostly I was handling traffic, criminal, and uncontested divorces in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Prince William.  Although I was also licensed in Maryland, Jerry wasn’t, so he was reluctant to have me screw up there without the benefit of his supervision.  Fortunately I handled a few cases there without a problem.  If there was a hopeless case I could cut my teeth on, Jerry sent me there to get experience (e.g. kept Pablo out of jail despite a JDR judge who hated his guts).  Plus we’d go to the range or the gun stores – fairly often.  It wasn’t great in terms of pay, but it was very satisfying.

I also started working part-time at Trak Auto, plus taking automotive classes at NOVA Alexandria.  I learned enough in those classes to be able to pass a few ASE exams: engine repair, automatic transmissions, and manual transmissions. 

Two Weddings, A Beginning, and no Funeral.  In May, my friend Jim married his first wife Elizabeth, in Princeton, New Jersey.  I attended that wedding but left the reception fairly soon.  The very next weekend my sister married her first husband Kyle in Gaithersburg, Maryland.   In October, my friend Phil first met his ex-wife Julie at a bar in Arlington.  As for myself, I wasn’t even dating anyone – any dates were one-and-done – and my next GF wouldn’t arrive on the scene until October 1999.

Performance Upgrade.   In June 1995, after searching for a year and a half, I finally got the car I wanted as my daily driver: a 1992 Pontiac Firebird Formula “350”, one of the rare models with the 5.7L V8, the top engine available.  This was purchased used from a couple in Maryland, it was blue-green metallic with black interior, and no options except the potent V8.  The original owner had given it the SLP package, an impressive 50 HP upgrade installed by Koons Pontiac at Tysons Corner.  It wasn’t black, but it was very fast: almost 300 HP, a substantial difference from the 200 HP in the 1992 base Firebird I had been driving up till then, and which I sold to Jerry immediately. 

In fall of that year, my friend Phil and I took a trip up to Detroit in an attempt - unsuccessful - to purchase a 1968 Pontiac Firebird 400.  This was white with an ivy green interior and automatic.  It had been in California for most of its life, so it had no rust.  But it wouldn't start, and we couldn't get a tow truck to bring it back, so we had to cancel the purchase and drive back in a rental car.  Too bad.

Music.  I saw Hawkwind at Jaxx, Grateful Dead at RFK (one of the last shows with Jerry Garcia), White Zombie (twice), once with Kyuss, and Ozzy Osbourne.  I had my Gibson SG ’62 reissue, my Gibson Explorer ’76 reissue, a Fender Stratocaster (62 Vintage Reissue), and my Marshall 2554 Jubilee Edition 1x12” combo, 25/50 watts. 

The outside world.  Bill Clinton was President – he’d trounce Bob Dole in 1996.  The Internet was just getting cranked up; most of us still used America Online (AOL: “You’ve got mail!”) or Prodigy.  Cell phones were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are now, and we still kept land lines as a matter of course.  The top films were “Twelve Monkeys”, “Toy Story” (the first one), “Braveheart”, “The Usual Suspects” (one of Kevin Spacey’s first films), and “Batman Forever”, Val Kilmer’s only shot (Riddler & Two-Face were the villains).  Kilmer also managed to do “Heat” in this same year, a seriously underrated film which puts Al Pacino and Robert Deniro against each other.  

Black Oak Arkansas

Inspired by a recent article in Classic Rock magazine – those guys should get kickbacks from bands! – I delved into this until-now neglected-by-me band.  As the name implies, they are from Black Oak, Arkansas – probably the only major band from that state.  According to singer Jim “Dandy” Mangrum, the band has finally sorted out its myriad issues and is back in business.  In fact, they have a new album out.

I purchased “the Original Album Series”, as I did with Argent, a collection of the first five albums in mini-sleeves and nothing in the way of liner notes:  Black Oak Arkansas (self-titled), Keep The Faith, If An Angel Came To See You, Would You Make Her Feel At Home, High on the Hog, and Street Party.   Of these, the first three are poorly produced and not overly impressive.  High is their most famous album, and the production takes a huge step up to mainstream 70’s rock, with Street Party following closely behind.

Their 70s live album, The Complete Raunch’N’Roll Live [“Complete” being a recent re-issue which restored the collection to two full shows] showcases their live talent, mainly Jim Dandy’s tendency to talk between songs and ramble on.  He’s not as entertaining in that regard as Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) or Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), but somewhat more coherent than Ian Gillan (Deep Purple).  For some reason he’s into getting the audience into deep breathing exercises.

The new album is Back Thar N’ Over Yonder, which includes 5 new songs – of comparable quality to High, and 10 previously unreleased tracks.  They can join Blue Cheer as yet another band covering the Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

Finally I had to top this off with the live DVD, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, filmed in London at their peak in the 1970s.   Dandy slithers across the stage with lusto and gusto, and even pulls out his washboard prop (with practically no musical contribution therefrom) amidst a set that even includes a cover of the Beatles’ “Taxman”.  The overall impression is “Lynyrd Skynyrd fronted by David Lee Roth…hold on, is that Ozzy’s drummer?”

David Lee Roth.  When Gene Simmons tried to get Van Halen a record deal, he noted that one problem the band had was being confused with Black Oak Arkansas due to Roth’s resemblance to Jim Dandy.  Listening to  studio albums and a live album, I hear ZERO resemblance, vocally, between the two.   Jim Dandy has an exaggerated backwoods growl he uses for most every song – sorta like Billy Gibbons’ sing-talk at the beginning of “La Grange”.  It’s also reminiscent of Doug “The Greaseman” Tracht’s way of talking.  Like Geddy Lee and Burke Shelley, it’s a unique and distinctive vocal style that definitely has to be an acquired taste.  By comparison, both David Lee Roth and Ronnie Van Zant have far more accessible and mainstream vocal styles.

But visually?  This is where the DVD comes “to the rescue” indeed.  Long, straight, blonde hair?  Check.  Bared hairy chest?  Check.  Flashy bell bottoms?  Check.  Sorry, but style-wise, David Lee Roth owes Mr. Dandy some serious royalties, if a singer’s image could be copyrighted.   Then again, on “Dancin’ In the Streets”, which both bands covered, the difference in their vocal styles can be directly compared.  So long as we keep our eyes closed and ears open, listening but not seeing, Roth is in the clear. 

Notable songs.  “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul”, “Fever in My Mind”, “Jim Dandy” (obviously the inspiration for the Greaseman’s “Redneck” song), “Moonshine Sonata” (an excellent instrumental), and “Dixie” (yes, the theme song of the CSA).  Dandy’s style is half “I’m a hopeless, horny loser, always on the prowl for pussy” and half, “God, Jesus, please forgive me” overtly religious praying and/or sermonizing, e.g. “Everybody Wants To See Heaven, Nobody Wants to Die”. 

Miscellaneous.  Tommy Aldridge, the drummer for Ozzy between Lee Kerslake and Randy Castillo (Diary of a Madman era) was the drummer for BOA at their peak and shows up in the RAH DVD.   Also, “You’re Crazy”, from G’N’R’s Appetite For Destruction, shows that Axl Rose can do a de facto BOA tribute song.  As the most famous band from Arkansas in the 1970s, BOA was friends with the governor, Bill Clinton.  On the new album, Dandy even remarks that, “me and a President, we didn’t inhale.”  Finally, BOA was on the bill at the famous California Jam in 1974 which featured Black Sabbath (Tony sans mustache), Deep Purple (Mark III) (Blackmore kills the TV camera with his Strat), and ELP, the headliner.