1990: Already ten years into trickle down economics, a rise in cynicism, growing racial and class tension, and the widening gap between the very rich and the rest of us. L.A. before the riots of 1992. A time of defunding vital social programs, the abandonment of the ideals on which our country was supposedly founded. …
There’s a critique of American films of the 1990s that calls out an excessive focus on slacker protagonists: the too-cool-for-school hipsters, always rolling their eyes, coolly mocking authority without actually challenging it, all affect and no action. Think Reality Bites, Slacker, or even The Big Lebowski. As one character in the film Slacker notes disapprovingly …
(Re)consider the Slacker: films of the 1990s at the Blanton More
As I put my nineties mixtape playlist together recently, I was reminded just how many cultural points of entry there are into the nineties. I spent the first half of the decade scouring for clothes for my grunge wardrobe at thrift stores and spent the latter half on AOL Instant Messenger, writing HTML on my …
Be Kind, Rewind: A Look Back at the 1990s with “Come as You Are” More
The year was 1995. Gas was $1.09 a gallon. OJ was found innocent. A broken laser pointer was the first item that sold for $14.83 on a brand new site called eBay. Pedro Martínez pitched a perfect game (kind of). Kid ‘n Play broke up. Microsoft released Windows 95, and people camped out in lines to get copies, for …
