California Culture: Circa 2000

[methodwriter85]

   Right. The O.C. and Laguna Beach made "rager", "dunzo", and "sick" popular across the U.S., but there are other terms that came out of the O.C. where I'm wondering if they were made-up slang. Like minty being someone acting fruity.

 

   Speaking of, I do think we should be at the point where they're saying things are sick. I always thought it'd be a hilarious callback to Be Rad if one of our Cali teens tells an Ohio guy that his car is "sick", and the Ohio guy wonders what's wrong with it. But we'd have to do it before we hit the mid-2000's, when everyone and their mother was saying that. I knew the term was "over" circa 2009 when I heard it being said by a businesswoman in Georgia on Househunters.

 

    Blue, what do you call it then when someone's trying to mack on a girl, and his friend/brother, etc etc says embarrassing things about him that leads to a cockblock? "Busting up his moves" or what?

Edited November 3, 2013 by methodwriter85

[B1ue]

Being me, I suppose.

 

To clarify, I can't imagine doing that to a friend, but my siblings, cousins, and I have been throwing off each other's game since forever.

Edited November 3, 2013 by B1ue

[PrivateTim]

If so, it's news to me. I have never even heard of that until this moment.

 

Me either, never ever have heard the expression until I just read it now.

 

   Speaking of, I do think we should be at the point where they're saying things are sick. I always thought it'd be a hilarious callback to Be Rad if one of our Cali teens tells an Ohio guy that his car is "sick", and the Ohio guy wonders what's wrong with it. But we'd have to do it before we hit the mid-2000's, when everyone and their mother was saying that. I knew the term was "over" circa 2009 when I heard it being said by a businesswoman in Georgia on Househunters.

 

    Blue, what do you call it then when someone's trying to mack on a girl, and his friend/brother, etc etc says embarrassing things about him that leads to a cockblock? "Busting up his moves" or what?

 

"Blue, what do you call it then when someone's trying to mack on a girl, and his friend/brother, etc etc says embarrassing things about him that leads to a cock block?"

 

I believe the proper expression is, "that's fucked up bro"

 

As to would an Ohioan or anyone else be confused by slang, like a car being sick, to be confused to the point of thinking something is wrong with the car, that is the stuff of bad Hollywood scriptwriters.

 

An Ohio teen might not know if the expression was good or bad, but they would understand it was slang, not literal.

[methodwriter85]

      Tim, you realized you just dissed Mark, right?

[Mark Arbour]

      Tim, you realized you just dissed Mark, right?

 

How did he do that?  I'm not seeing it.

[PrivateTim]

How did he do that?  I'm not seeing it.

 

Ha ha me either, thanks

[methodwriter85]

 

As to would an Ohioan or anyone else be confused by slang, like a car being sick, to be confused to the point of thinking something is wrong with the car, that is the stuff of bad Hollywood scriptwriters.

 

    Mark wrote that as a plot point in Be Rad, where Brad called Robbie's car "bad" and Robbie asked what's wrong with it.

[methodwriter85]

   Hey, Private Tim, they're running a new T.V. show on Fox called Surviving Jack, which is set in 1991 Southern California. Seeing as that's where and when you went to high school and had your coming-of-age, I thought it'd be cool for you to watch:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gg3T-NeBPc

 

  I'm not totally sold on this, but I'll give it a shot because I fucking love the 1990's. It'll be cool to see if they've good at capturing the time and place of the show. I do think, from the trailers, they were pretty good at re-creating the early/mid-90's look, with the lead's Bugle Boy shirts and his sister's scrunchies and mid-drift tops. And not to mention the Hypercolor T-shirt. I actually have this vintage 1990's t-shirt that I'll wear every once in awhile...it's a GAP t-shirt with horizontal stripes of lavender and aqua. It's hideous but I love how early 90's it makes me feel whenever I wear it.

 

   The 90's are a hard thing to capture period-wise, because it doesn't have that set, defined aesthetic that decades like the 1970's and 1980's have. I think the best films/shows I've ever seen that really captured that era would be Being Erica, in shows where Erica would flashback to the 1990's, and The To-Do List.

[methodwriter85]

       Hey, Blue, curious...when did the "Undercut" haircut  become popular in California? I first started noticing it in 2010-2011, and then Macklemore exemplified the extreme version of the look:

 

 

 

      David Beckham also has a version of it. Now it seems like a lot of guys are doing the look. It's reminiscent of the Zack Morris surfer haircut from the early 90's, I think, only that style was courtesy of mouse rather than pomade. And the sides weren't shaved as high up. Did you wear that hairstyle, Tim? I've always pictured you as having blond hair for some reason, and you're about the same age as Zack Morris (the gang was the class of 1993), so I kinda figured you dressed like Zack Morris/Saved By The Bell in high school. (I sure as hell can't picture you doing the flannel grunge Jordan Catalano look when you were 17.)

 

     I do remember Mark having a bit about the early/mid-90's surfer haircut in If It Fits...that look seemed to go out circa 1998, when guys started spiking their hair instead, which stays popular at least to 2003-2004. The mid/late part of the 2000's, it seemed like guys were leaning towards longer hair, like Zac Efron hair, as what I referred to as the 'winged look.'

 

      Now it seems like guys are going back towards shorter hair again, or at least shorter hair on the sides. I can definitely see JJ doing the David Beckham version of the undercut, not so sure about Will.

[B1ue]

Sorry, but I have not the slightest idea. I didn't even know what it was, although it's vaguely how I get my own hair cut. So, um, 2006 or so? Probably earlier, but that's when I started, and I started based on a look I saw in a barbershop. It stood out, because it is one of the few styles that compliments hair as thick as mine.

 

I'm actually due for a hair cut, so if I remember I'll post a pic later this week with it.

Edited December 30, 2013 by B1ue

[methodwriter85]

   Interesting. I associate 2006-2007 with the Faux Hawk, but sometimes this stuff is hard to pin down.

 

   Anyway, Blue and Tim, I really have enjoyed reading about your insight on California culture. I think it's great, and very illuminating. I had this viewpoint of Californians- I thought they either were Beach Bunnies, Napa Valley types, South Central L.A. types, Valley Girls, Hollyweird types, San Francisco Hipsters, Silicon Valley Tycoons, Orange County Rich Republicans, or Beverly Hills Rich People...it's been cool learning about the nuances of the culture.

 

   I mean, really though- think about T.V.- all the shows set in California are like always in San Francisco or Los Angeles...the closest people get to rural life there would be Nappa Valley. It's been cool learning about the nuances.

[methodwriter85]

     This week is the 20th anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake. Any memories of this one from our Cali posters?

 

 

    It wasn't quite as notorious as the World Series Quake in '89, but it did seem to do a lot of damage.

[B1ue]

Personally, I studied the Northridge earthquake to the full extent I was able when I was a teenager, as I was looking towards an engineering degree for college, and earthquake resilience is a primary concern in California, particularly in the City of Los Angeles. I'm not sure if it's still true, but at the time our structures had the highest earthquake tolerance in the world, and our building code (in terms of resilience) was the strictest.

 

The Northridge earthquake is often used as a case study for that field, as it is readily able to be compared to the Kobe earthquake approximately one year later. Similar magnitude, centered on a similarly dense population, but the Kobe (also called the Kyoto 1995 earthquake) earthquake was far worse in terms of damage caused, and orders of magnitude worse in terms of lives lost. It is also compared to the San Fernando earthquake of 1971, which was also similar in magnitude and centered on almost the same spot.

 

Ah, but you asked for memories. Sorry to disappoint, but I had already left Los Angeles. Though only my youngest sister and I were out of the city; my elder sisters and dad still lived in LA (school and work), and my mom had been down that weekend to visit. Her original plan had been to leave early that morning, but my dad insisted she leave the night before. So my sister and I woke up, saw the news, and freaked the hell out until my mom came strolling into our house.

Edited January 22, 2014 by B1ue

[Daddydavek]

My youngest brother who was working for Boeing at the time was out there on a business trip when it hit and I remember he was really shaken up by it.   He wasn't in any immediate danger but he was amazed at how long it seemed to go on and was worried it was going to get much worse as in the "Big One" that is in the back of the mind of most people out there.  Every time there is any news about a temblor his experience comes to his mind and he has to comment on it so it left a pretty lasting impression.  

[methodwriter85]

   Oh, another thing Blue...do you remember people saying "Not gonna lie" back in 2001 California? I first started hearing it around 2005, but Delaware tends to be a few years behind the curve.

 

   Anyway, interesting stuff. I think Los Angeles probably benefits from its suburban sprawl, and the bulk of the buildings there being built throughout the mid to late 20th century when standards were strengthened. San Francisco is screwed by the fact that it has so many tall buildings due to the denser population, and all those post-World War I to mid-20th century buildings that were built under relaxed building codes. You can retrofit and stuff, but still...I imagine liquefaction is still going to be an issue when the next big one hits 'Frisco.

 

   Although seriously...I don't know if I'd be willing to ride the subway in Los Angeles.

 

   I did have an interesting conversation with some Cali people though...they were telling me how much they liked seeing brick buildings on the East Coast, because they don't build a lot of brick buildings in California due to the earthquake threat. Interesting cultural difference,  I think.

Edited January 23, 2014 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

   Oh, another thing Blue...do you remember people saying "Not gonna lie" back in 2001 California? I first started hearing it around 2005, but Delaware tends to be a few years behind the curve.

 

   Anyway, interesting stuff. I think Los Angeles probably benefits from its suburban sprawl, and the bulk of the buildings there being built throughout the mid to late 20th century when standards were strengthened. San Francisco is screwed by the fact that it has so many tall buildings due to the denser population, and all those post-World War I to mid-20th century buildings that were built under relaxed building codes. You can retrofit and stuff, but still...I imagine liquefaction is still going to be an issue when the next big one hits 'Frisco.

 

   Although seriously...I don't know if I'd be willing to ride the subway in Los Angeles.

 

   I did have an interesting conversation with some Cali people though...they were telling me how much they liked seeing brick buildings on the East Coast, because they don't build a lot of brick buildings in California due to the earthquake threat. Interesting cultural difference,  I think.

 

Sigh.  It's been more than 25 years since I lived in the Bay Area, and I still cringe when people call it Frisco.  Frisco is a suburb of Dallas. 

 

San Francisco has some of the most earthquake resistant building on the globe.  The biggest problems come from areas built on landfill, like the Marina District, which got hammered in the last big earthquake there.  We never lived in a brick house; they were always made of wood and stucco, and when there was an earthquake, they would sway, not crumble.  I have no fear of being in places like subways in California.  An old brick building:  maybe. 

 

It's been a while since I've been in an earthquake, but I always thought they were kind of cool.  The last one I remember, I was in our house, upstairs, and the whole house started swaying.  I got up and stood in the hallway, waiting to see if it would get stronger, or just fizzle out.  It got strong enough to make me go downstairs, then it ended. 

Edited January 23, 2014 by Mark Arbour

[methodwriter85]

Sigh.  It's been more than 25 years since I lived in the Bay Area, and I still cringe when people call it Frisco.  Frisco is a suburb of Dallas. 

 

San Francisco has some of the most earthquake resistant building on the globe.  The biggest problems come from areas built on landfill, like the Marina District, which got hammered in the last big earthquake there.  We never lived in a brick house; they were always made of wood and stucco, and when there was an earthquake, they would sway, not crumble.  I have no fear of being in places like subways in California.  An old brick building:  maybe. 

 

It's been a while since I've been in an earthquake, but I always thought they were kind of cool.  The last one I remember, I was in our house, upstairs, and the whole house started swaying.  I got up and stood in the hallway, waiting to see if it would get stronger, or just fizzle out.  It got strong enough to make me go downstairs, then it ended. 

 

I was testing you on that one to see if the Encyclopedia article I read when I was 10 about San Francisco was right. They said that SFers absolutely resist attempts to shorten the city name...other than the "City" they don't really do nicknames. Pretty funny for me, as I've grown up in the Greater Philly area...people here just generally call Philadelphia "Philly".

 

As for the building codes deal...they do have them now, but between post-World War I and the 1970's, San Francisco "relaxed" their building codes because they were in a big rush to rebuild the city, and  that has left a lot of the early to mid-20th century buildings vulnerable. Apparently the biggest problem now is trying to stabilize "soft story" buildings in San Francisco.

[methodwriter85]

If so, it's news to me. I have never even heard of that until this moment.

 

   Hey, Blue...was saying "Not gonna lie" and "It's whatever" around in 2001? I feel like the former is more mid-2000's slang, and I didn't really hear the latter until circa 2007-2009, with it becoming really popular this decade.

[B1ue]

I was still living in the forest at that time, sorry. The internet was still new and exciting to me about then.

 

EditL And, er... my memories of the times I went off the hill to go party are somewhat spotty. For various reasons. And did not involve a lot of *talking* either way.

Edited January 24, 2014 by B1ue

[B1ue]

   Anyway, interesting stuff. I think Los Angeles probably benefits from its suburban sprawl, and the bulk of the buildings there being built throughout the mid to late 20th century when standards were strengthened. San Francisco is screwed by the fact that it has so many tall buildings due to the denser population, and all those post-World War I to mid-20th century buildings that were built under relaxed building codes. You can retrofit and stuff, but still...I imagine liquefaction is still going to be an issue when the next big one hits 'Frisco.

 

   Although seriously...I don't know if I'd be willing to ride the subway in Los Angeles.

 As to liquefaction, San Francisco is better off than you may think. Even the building built on the landfill area have some interesting characteristics. For instance, the Pyramid building goes as far down into the ground as it goes up in the air over 50 ft. down as well as all those stories up in order for it to be anchored on actual bedrock. There's some really neat stuff they did in that city.

 

But, still. LA does it better

 

Also, I highly recommend watching Volcano. My family was tickled by it; we're strangely amused by any movie that involves large swaths of destruction to our hometown. That movie will guarantee you'll never want to ride on the subway in LA ever. Granted, we only have a very short line, and it's not exactly the safest hang out in the first place, so you're possibly better off avoiding it regardless.

 

Edit: upon waking up, I went fact-checking to see if I remembered that stuff correctly. Turns out, not quite.

Edited January 24, 2014 by B1ue

[methodwriter85]

    In retrospect, I think "Not gonna lie" had to have been around in the early '00s...it's the "It's whatever" that I'm wondering about, because I really didn't start hearing it until circa 2007. Whatever has been around forever, but the "it's whatever" seems like a newer thing. And I've talked to Adam Phillips, who was college-aged circa 2001, and it doesn't seem like a phrase he and his co-horts used, because he teased me about saying it.

 

    Private Tim, your thoughts?

 

   As for the other stuff yeah, I saw Volcano. It came out in 1997 and for some reason they played "Lovefool" by the Cardigans for the movie trailer. I still think it's the height of stupidity to build a subway in a seismically active area that seems to be having considerable earthquakes every couple of decades.

 

   Because of Clueless and Volcano, I kinda always wanted to see the Bev Center. Alison Arngrim wrote that before the Bev Center, the area was an amusement park...right next to a bunch of oil rigs. Oh, the 1960's.

Edited January 25, 2014 by methodwriter85

[PrivateTim]

Sigh.  It's been more than 25 years since I lived in the Bay Area, and I still cringe when people call it Frisco.  Frisco is a suburb of Dallas. 

 

Right.

 

But it was named "Frisco" because it had a spur of the St. Louis - San Francisco Railroad there and it was named to honor San Fran

 

SF was called "Frisco" a lot in the old days and you can find it in lots of literature and old movies (can anyone say The Frisco Kid? And please, James Cagney version only).

 

Getting uptight about Frisco is how phony transplants and the affected try to establish their SF bona fides. It wasn't until Sacramento transplant Herb Caen wrote Don't Call It Frisco that people had permission to get snobby about the name.

 

Fornicate Frisco-ites if they can't take it

Edited January 25, 2014 by PrivateTim

[PrivateTim]

  . I still think it's the height of stupidity to build a subway in a seismically active area that seems to be having considerable earthquakes every couple of decades.

 

   Because of Clueless and Volcano, I kinda always wanted to see the Bev Center. Alison Arngrim wrote that before the Bev Center, the area was an amusement park...right next to a bunch of oil rigs. Oh, the 1960's.

 

Ummm, you mean like BART and Muni???

 

As to expression, unless it is tied to a money (show me the money) I never remember when they start or stop, I just don't pay enough attention.

 

My grandmother remembers Beverly Park and Ponyland well. She also remembers when Rodeo Drive had a green grocer and hardware store on it.

[Mark Arbour]

Right.

 

But it was named "Frisco" because it had a spur of the St. Louis - San Francisco Railroad there and it was named to honor San Fran

 

SF was called "Frisco" a lot in the old days and you can find it in lots of literature and old movies (can anyone say The Frisco Kid? And please, James Cagney version only).

 

Getting uptight about Frisco is how phony transplants and the affected try to establish their SF bona fides. It wasn't until Sacramento transplant Herb Caen wrote Don't Call It Frisco that people had permission to get snobby about the name.

 

Fornicate Frisco-ites if they can't take it

 

Which just further substantiates my theory that San Franciscans are so much classier than their peers in LA. 

[B1ue]

Does classy mean "wears a jacket or sweater?" because you're right, y'all do that a lot more often than we do.