As the Decade comes to a close this Friday, I sit back and realize that the 00’s were the most influential decade in my development. Let’s take a quick glance, shall we?
When 2000 began I was a 16 year old HS student, watching the ball drop on TV from Chuck’s house. I do believe I was dating a girl at the time who may not have allowed me to kiss her, frankly I don’t recall. I was around 5′8 or so, weighed in at about 200 lbs, did theater in my spare time, worked at my parents company after school, and had been driving for all of two months.
Today, I am 26, living in San Francisco, still about 200 lbs, but now 6′2. I am working again for my parents company, although in a much changed, full-time, and better compensated role, and have yet to receive a single moving violation. In the gap I also…(big breath)….
- Graduated High School
- Attended College in Orange County, actually graduated on time
- Fell in love (more than once)
- Was heartbroken and listened to sad music (more than once)
- Traveled to four other continents
- Was told time and time again that my nation sucked, my President was evil, and I was an idiot
- Lived in the center of the biggest city in the country
- Spent nearly two years overseas
- Wrote a screenplay
- Got fired
- Dated a married woman
- Spent a Christmas in Africa
- Totalled a car (95 Volvo 850)
- Danced at a Luau
- Had a beach side conversation with Jim Carrey
- Protested in the streets
- Celebrated in the streets
- Watched countless hours of CNN/MSNBC to learn more about war, terrorism, tsunamis, hurricanes, HOPE
- Got held at gunpoint by Federales in Mexico
- Spent St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin
- Watched WAY too much sports, only to have none of my teams win squat
- Went to tons of concerts
- Read far too many lists
So as you can see, it was an eventful decade, where I grew by leaps and bounds, traveled around the globe, and eventually ended up back where it all started, in the Bay.
Will and I hosted a little get together the day after Christmas for some old friends of ours. Naturally the topic of the decade came up a few times in conversation. A friend insisted I do this (David Cates, here is your own shout out sir), so without further ado, I present a series of silly lists, some with explanations, others not, based around the past decade.
Top 10 Songs that When I Hear them in 2025, Screams “00’s”
1. Kelly Clarkson - Since You’ve Been Gone
2. R. Kelly - Ignition
3. Beyone - Crazy In Love
4. Outkast - Hey Ya
5. The Strokes - Last Night
6. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
7. Usher - Yeah!
8. Kanye West - Gold Digger
9. Lady Gaga - Pokerface
10. Gwen Stefani - Hollerback Girl
Top 9 “WTF is GOING ON!” (Both Personally and Nationally)
1. Katrina 2005 - This wins, because this was seemingly our fault. I was working at a bar during this, and had the bar TV glued to the news all day long. How could we let this happen to our own people? The wealthiest nation in the world was being exposed as woefully unprepared, while we spent billions on foreign wars, people were dying in our own streets, and it was all completely avoidable. This still gets me upset to this day.
2. September 11, 2001 - Everyone knows where they were when this happened. I was asleep in my dorm room when my roommate’s mother phoned us from Philly to wake us up. Mike answered the phone, “Don’t EVER call me this early! There’s a 3 hour time difference! Wait? What?…I’m sorry…NO, I’M SORRY..yeah, I’ll put it on. (click) Turn on the fucking TV, were getting attacked or something.” Two minutes later the second plane hit.
3. The Invasion of Iraq 2003- I watched the first footage of the “Shock and Awe” from my dorm cafeteria. It felt so removed, so far away, and yet we were at WAR. I went on a protest march in SF a week later, and everyone seemed just as confused as I was. Didn’t Al Queda live in Afghanistan? Didn’t the UN say repeatedly that Hussain had no means to acquire WMD’s? Why are my friends going overseas again?
4. Getting lost in Tangier 2007- I blogged about this at the time. Basically, I was lost in a foreign ghetto, with a random tour guide, who could very well have been leading me down an alley to my death, and I was completely stoked, curious, and on edge the entire time. This was the ultimate 3rd world experience for me.
5. Getting in a bar fight in TJ 2003 - Yup, I started a bar fight in Tijuana. Not my brightest hour, but also the winner of the “moment of clarity” award. I had a frat boy by the collar, arm cocked ready to go when I hear over the loudspeaker the DJ yell, “SECURITY! Break up the fight on the dance floor!” Suddenly images flashed rapidly through my mind: Jail, Tijuana Jail, Tijuana Jail Thugs, donkeys…etc. In about .5 seconds I brokered peace by yelling at my opponent, “TJ JAIL! TJ JAIL!” When the shoving subsided the first thought that came to me was, “WHAT THE F WAS THAT!”
6. Pacific Tsunami 2004 - Just trying to think of the magnitude of deaths (230,000) is enough to make your head spin. That’s like 75 9/11’s rolled into one massive wave. I can’t even come close to imagining the horror of something like that.
7. Bush Gets Elected in 2000 - It’s pointless revisionist history to even speculate on what would become of the world if Al Gore had been elected President, but any true look at the circumstances and politics surrounding the 2000 election should point the middle finger squarely at the state of American politics. This was a partisan, money grabbing, shocking display of events. It is truly amazing, more violence and civil unrest didn’t come of this. If anything to showed that heading into the 21st Century the idea of a two party system was completely flawed, and yet inexorable.
8. Bush Gets Re-Elected in 2004 - Are you kidding me? He steals the first election, leads the country into a war on false pretenses, is clearly a puppet ruler, and the people say ‘Sure, why not try another four.” I was in Australia when this happened, and was taking a politics course there. The class after the election was basically me trying to explain the American political climate to a group of 100 unbelieving Australians who couldn’t fathom that somebody so universally loathed still managed to keep his job. No matter how much Red/Blue ’splaining I did, I was tainted in those people’s eyes.
9. The Banking Collapse of 2008 - So wait, basically there is pretend money that keeps passing hands, that nobody actually has, that creates a bubble, that can’t ever be filled, and now people are losing their homes, and the guys pushing the fake money around are gonna get bailed out by the Feds, and nothing is going to really change? And to top it off everyone is panicking, Bernake says the sky is falling, and people are losing their jobs…all over fake money that didn’t exist to begin with…wait…what?
Top 5 Times I Thought “Why Do I Care About Sports. This is dumb”
1. The Jeter Tag 2001- Easily the worst day of my life. I witnessed this gem from 9 rows above the first base dugout. DJ, out of position makes an incredible back handed flip to get Jeremy Giambi at home plate. Yanks go on to win Game 3 1-0, Jermaine Dye shatters his tibia a day later and the inevitable collapse follows. I also got dumped that day, capping a truly horrible, horrible evening.
2. Dallas beats the Sharks in 4OT 2008 - After two extremely disappointing 2nd round defeats, the expectations were enormous on the Sharks. After battling through a 7 game series win in Round 1, they immediately went out and dropped the first 3 games to Dallas to fall in a 0-3 hole. Two victories followed, forcing a game 6 in Dallas. I watched the game at 3rd and Long, which stayed open, for only me, until the game finally ended sometime around 3am EST. A victory would have meant all the momentum going into a Game 7 at the tank, a loss like that, as devastating as they come. 6 full hours of heart wrenching tension, all ending on an opposition goal. Season over.
3. TO Sabotages the 2003 49ers - This was the man that made possible my favorite 49er moment of all time (The Catch II). He was the heir to my hero, the ceaselessly classy Jerry Rice. But in one ridiculous season, Terrell Owens became the TO we all know and loathe. Dropped passes, dogging plays, screaming matches with coaches, spreading rumors about the quarterback’s sexuality. He seemed capable of anything. And the worse his attitude got, the worse the team played. And before long what was a sure lock for the playoffs, became a 7-9 disaster, kicking off 7 straight non-winning seasons, which has continued until today. By far, the most frustrating season I have ever watched as a fan of anything.
4. Red Sox beat the A’s in 5 aka the Derek Lowe game 2003 - The A’s were up 2-0 in the ALDS…again…and again had dropped the next two to bring forth a game 5. Zito v. Pedro at the Coliseum. I spent what little money I had (which was none) to get a last second flight home to catch the game in person. Manny crushed a 5th inning homer off of Barry to put the Sox up but the A’s rallied to within 1, forcing the Sox to bring in D-Lowe for the save. It felt in the stadium like the A’s could actually make the comeback happen, unlike the previous 3 game 5’s they had lost. But in the 9th, a long fly ball out to the warning track ended it, Lowe and Miggy almost fought, and the best era of A’s baseball in 15 years ended without a playoff series win.
5. Mark McGwire Isn’t Here to Talk of the Past 2005 - Big Mac and Jerry Rice were my two favorite athletes growing up. I idolized them both. When Mark was traded from the A’s and broke Maris’ home run record I kept the next day’s paper. So when he basically admitted to being a cheat, but wouldn’t fully own up to it by avoiding the question, ruining his legacy in the process, I was distraught. “Come on Mark! Just say I’m sorry!” Never happened, still hasn’t.
Top 5 Time I Thought “THIS is why I love Sports”
1. Game 3 ALDS 2006 - “MARCO!! SCUTARO!!” Again sitting 9 rows up from the dugout, the A’s manage to knock off the Twins, completing the sweep that had alluded them three times previous in the decade. When Marco hit the game-breaking, bases-clearing double the Coliseum exploded and rocked more than I have ever seen it. Ben Peters commented that it was probably the happiest he had ever seen me. It was damn close.
2. Joe Thorton Scores with 7 seconds left Round 1 Game 4 2008 - Just listen to this call and tell me the hair on your neck doesn’t stand on end. Huge win, fantastic goal, and it made it seem like the tide was finally turning for Los Tiburones. I saw this one at 3rd and Long, and I did laps around the bar, high fiving anybody who would look at me.
3. Big Papi’s ALCS 2004 - Look, I hate the Red Sox almost as much as the Yanks, but you have to hand it to Big Papi and the series he had to help overcome the 0-3 deficit. As a huge baseball fan, that was the single most compelling series of the decade, and to overlook it based on the participants would be just plain wrong. This had it all, the underdog, the come from behind, the curse, the region. As obnoxious as the Sox have become, you couldn’t help but get swept up in the ‘04 run.
4. Fresno State wins the NCAA Baseball WS 2008 - The longest of long shots. This was like a 16 seed running the table in the BBall tourney only if that team had to win 6 do or die games just to make the tourney. I loved watching this team play. Nobody was destined to be a big time pro, this was simply 25 guys who played for each other and for the love of the game. Simply great.
5. The Warriors make the playoffs 2007 - The day that the Warriors clinched the 8 seed, I received a call from my oldest friend, and Warrior fanatic Ben Peters. He was crouched in the corner of a bar, giddy as hell, breaking down just what making the playoffs meant to him and the years of his life he had devoted to this heinous franchise. When they miraculously stunned the Mavs to win in Round 1 he reacted like a war survivor, unable to comprehend the magnitude of what he had just seen. To this day if you ask him what the greatest day of his life was, he will say Game 6, unless his fiance is around, in which case he’ll give a standard answer, but really, it was Game 6…
Top 5 Comedies (Movies)
1. Superbad
2. Wedding Crashers
3. Old School
4. 40 Year Old Virgin
5. Waiting…
Top 5 Reality Show Stars
1. Mike “The Situation” - Jersey Shore
2. Danny Bonaduce - Breaking Bonaduce
3. Issac - The Real World Sydney
4. Flava Flav - Flavor of Love
5. CT - The Real World Paris/RW RR Challenges
Top 10 Favorite Songs - Emotional Attachment Necessary
Okay, so these are songs that immediately illicit a strong emotional reaction. It was the only way I knew how to even think about compiling a best of list. Music at its best makes you feel something deep down in your gut. It becomes a sense memory exercise that puts you right back into a moment, however fleeting. This is my list for the 00’s. It may not be the best songs, but these were the songs that defined me over the past ten years. (Skip over this, if you don’t want wallow in the small amount of schmaltz I allow myself…)
1. The Format - If Work Permits (2006)
The song is not very well known, hell the band isn’t all that well known outside of a cult like devout following. But without question, my favorite album of the decade was Dog Problems, and this, the final track from that record my favorite song. It’s tough to sum up succinctly why this song means so much to me. But I will try.
In this decade I grew up, discovered myself, traveled, made mistakes, failed, got back up, searched, sought, fought, clawed, and at the end of the day it was the backing of my family and the love of my friends that got me through it all. This lyrics in this song represents to me the constant search for the betterment of oneself. “Sometimes when sailors are sailing/they think twice about where they are anchoring/I think I could make better use of my time on land” But when that journey ends, the thing that brings us back is the love and warmth of those people who were there all along. “Love is speaking in code/ it’s an inside joke/ love is coming home.”
2. Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness (2001)
“Are you listening? WHOA!” This song is one of my all time favorites, not just because its amazingly beautiful and fun as hell to sing, but because this song IS me moving to college. This song is me turning 18, this is me falling in love, this is me discovering myself on my own for the first time.
3. Against Me! - Even at Our Worst, We’re Still Better Than Most (2005)
I’m somewhat embarrassed by this one. But in 2005 I graduated, got my first “real” job, got fired, was broke, and decided to move home and travel. A great decision, but an emotional difficult one for myself, as I had promised to never move back in with my parents. This song is two minutes of frustration, anger, and resignation. And it matched perfectly with my mood.
4. Junior Senior - Take My Time (2005)
Finally a happy song. This one is pajama pants, breakfast burritos, Beavis and Butthead, silly dance moves, Manhattan, and Lonergans. This is my year living with Dave in NYC. I was more excited to move to New York on a whim than I was any of my travels abroad. It seemed like such a challenge, such an adventure, and was the single best decision of my life. I proved to myself I could make anything of my life if I chose to. And the perfect mesh to that optimism was this song. Pop bliss, at its finest. “Love is all you need/In the world to succeed!”
5. Dashboard Confessional - A Brilliant Dance (2001)
Oh come on. The title of this freaking section was “emotional attachment”. Did you really think you’d make it through the top 5 without a Dashboard song? Well I don’t think I really have to break this one down too much. It was 2001, I listened to this song a lot. You can figure it out. “Well this is incredible, starving, insatiable/yes this is love for the first time/ You’d like to think you were invincible once/yeah weren’t we all once?/before we felt loss for the first time”
6. Taking Back Sunday - Cute Without The “E” (Cut From The Team) (2002)
I hear this song, I get pumped. This song was film school for me. All the time spent with friends bands, all the time studying music videos, going to shows. This was the best song from that entire movement as far as I was concerned. Also this reminds me of one of my favorite concerts ever. Slim’s 2002, Rufio headlined, with openers Brand New and TBS…yeah…I know…
7. New Found Glory - Hit or Miss (2001)
This is my Senior year of High School, me losing 50 pounds, having girls notice me for the first time, graduating High School, and generally liking things for the first time in several years. This was the big song for me at the beginning of the decade, and fittingly I saw NFG play this December, and they played this song. “Have I waited too long?/Have I found that someone?”
8. Say Anything - Walk Through Hell (2002)
This is the song that sold me on one of my favorite singer/songwriters of the decade, Max Bemis. A simple love song, this was the anthem of many a college sing along and party. When I hear this song a flood of memories from my days living in the La Veta Grand Apartments come flooding back.
9. Bloc Party -Positive Tension (2005)
Boys Night Out. This was every Thursday night for an entire year. This was the debacle at the Glasshouse where we drank tall cans, tossed them in the air, and don’t remember them landing. This is Cow Bird, X, P Town, Irv, Fat Man, and Mary. This is dancing with 20,000 sweaty people at Coachella. This is the single greatest bridge of any rock song…ever…
10. The Format - The First Single (Cause A Scene) (2003)
I know this is the second song by The Format, but this HAD to be on here. Every one of my friends knows this song (probably because I forced them to listen to it). It is the Delta anthem, and no list would ever be complete without it.
Top 5 Most Ridiculous/Awesome R Kelly Singles
1. Pregnant
Saving his greatest for last. “Girl I want to get you pregnant” Oh yes, indeed.
2. Feeling On Your Bootie (2000)
-Please check out the 4:00 mark, for probably my favorite R moment of all time when he grabs an imaginary bottie while singing falcetto.
3. Trapped In The Closet (Chapter 1)
Only the greatest DVD of the decade.
4. Ignition
He actually brags in the behind the scenes how he turns his feet so smooth for the closeups of his braids…
5. I’m A Flirt
While the T-Pain verse might be the most ridiculous, you got to love those shades!
Top 5 Parties
1. Conception Day Party MacQuarie Uni - Sydney
The DORM provided free all you can drink booze starting at 6am.
2. Water Polo Party - Boulder, CO
Crowd surfing indoors to Flogging Molly
3. Spring Break 2004
If you were there, then you know. 4 days, 20 people at the delta…
4. Labor Day Orange Street Faire 2005
I had to list the only time I got ticketed for Disturbing The Peace…
5. The Pendelton Wedding
Two of my favorite people, one amazing venue, a bunch of old friends…
Top 5 Technological Innovations
1. ScoreCenter iPhone App - Serious? It sends texts to my phone everytime somebody scores? And I can follow plays, like all of them? On my phone? Anywhere I am? Even in church and stuff? AWESOME.
2. YouTube
3. GPS on Phones
4. Fast Wireless Internet on Buses/Airplanes
5. Facebook - simply for the photos
Things I Want To See In the 10’s
1. Asia
2. A Stanley Cup for the San Jose Sharks
3. The US Soccer Team in a World Cup Final
4. A cure for Hangovers
5. More Love
Enjoy 2010!!!
KB