Putting Things In Perspective

Whether car-jamming to your Pandora radio or quoting lines from your favorite end-of-the-world movie, you don't generally think about how long you've liked a song on your iPod or a movie on your shelf. It's just one of your favorites that's always been there. Thing is, as you've grown up, so too has all the stuff you used to love. Here are some things that sometimes seem like they just happened, or at least they don't feel like they happened that long ago.... 

#1- Billie Joe Armstrong is 41 Freaking Years Old

And still trying to rock a pixie cut.

The youthful, energetic punk appeal of Green Day sort of fades when you realize their initial album "Dookie" is now almost two decades old (released Feb. '94). "American Idiot" was their last hurrah, released almost ten years ago to crowds of adoring eighth graders who are now college graduates. Billie now spends his time nursing a drinking/pill-popping habit, and frustrating his barber with ridiculous demands.

Added Perspective-

"So what?" you say, "2004 wasn't that long ago, really!" Wrong. In that same year this man was trying to get himself into the White House:

Since we're in the middle of a "memory lane" article, 

here's a video you haven't seen for a while.

Also, you sports fans might recall a spectacular Superbowl halftime show from that same year. 

#2- The Year 2000 Was A Great Year in Movies 

Before Game of Thrones, 300, or Troy, there was Gladiator. There were also a ton of other movies released in 2000 you ought to have on your shelf- (ahem) The Perfect Storm, The Replacements, Meet The Parents, Castaway, Unbreakable, The Emperor's New Groove...

This movie is 13 years old

...Gone In 60 Seconds, O Brother Where Art Thou, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Chicken Run (don't give us that look, you absolutely saw that movie) and even freaking Remember The Titans. In addition to all the great films listed above, many of the movies that enabled Hollywood to coast on sequels for the following 13 years seemed to debut this same year: The first X-Men, the first Scary Movie, Pitch Black, Final Destination, Charlie's Angels, the original Bring It On, and even the first Hunger Games movie Battle Royale. 

All of those movies were released before the iPod existed.

#3- "Semi-Charmed Life" is Now Old Enough to Drive

Yep- released summer of 1997, Third Eye Blind's best ever single is now 16 years old. The band is now in the middle of one of those fired band member songwriting disputes, delaying the release of their not at all anticipated fifth album. 

Added Perspective-

When "Semi-Charmed Life" was number four on the charts, gas was less than $1.40 a gallon and the President Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal was still a year away from being a national punchline. And "Friends" was only in its fourth season.

The season where they finally sleep together and Ross almost marries the English girl.

The fact that "Friends" has been off the air for almost ten years now sums up the major point we're trying to stress here; the world is changing in a weird way. Fads have been born, overhyped, and died all within our lifetimes. Remember Homestar Runner? Remember Panic at the Disco? Remember those silicone wristbands everyone wore for a year? Dare we even mention....Myspace? ('00, '04, '03, '03 respectively). 

-L