Tomorrow is my 37th birthday. Since my birthday continues to be tainted by people who think covid is no longer in existence, I've been looking at what was going on when I was born as a distraction. Here are a bunch of magazines and periodicals from that month and day for a look into the world of pop culture I showed up into.
Let's start with sports:
• So TIL that Wade Boggs was sued by an ex-side piece (I didn't know what the love life issue in question was)
• I'm glad I got Andre Dawson (on the Cubs at that time) and Fred McGriff spotlit on the other one
• That surfing magazine sucks for not mentioning the Caribbean in their tagline blurb
Cars are next:
• I'm happy I got a GTO but my god do I hate fox body Mustangs and blowers
• I looked at the hot rod magazines because there are very few cars from that time that I like
• I would've driven a 300ZX
• I don't know why I thought the GSX-R became a thing in the 90s
• I don't like Countachs and the BMW is the only one deserving to win that title
Music, which when from that decade, either is okay or really sucks with no in between:
• Jon Bon Jovi and his Chuck Norris chest hair are not attractive, I don't get the hype
• Why did they put Axl on the cover when Slash was the sexy one?
• I'm cool with Zakk Wylde being on the cover of that guitar one, I like his Les Paul
• I'm glad 2 magazines had Slash on the cover, Axl loses lol
Lifestyle magazines:
• Good for People, I don't care
• Please keep your fucking pants on, Dennis Quaid
• Very happy with Michael Jordan (I'm a Chicago kid, duh)
• Really glad to see Playboy didn't have a white blonde on the cover, but why interview Pamela Des Barres in 1989??
• That Vogue hat is hideous and 25 readers of Cosmo shouldn't have bothered chasing those fools
• Yay for Diana Ross
• Fuck Giuliani
• Jet should've been asking that question 25-30 years sooner than they did
There were a few others I found but there's enough here already. I didn't want to get into the current events either, but Time and Newsweek both had this guy not getting confirmed for Secretary of Defense on the covers.
I do miss magazines being a big thing. They were always fun to go through and so many of the posters I had on my wall as a kid were the glamor shots and centerfolds of bands that came out of them. I used pictures for collages and journaling a lot, too. Vogue and Elle were especially great for the latter because the editorials always had themes and variety to them. I've ordered a shitload of old magazines from the 80s and 90s this week so that I can archive photos and things from them. The internet has lost so much of its culture recording because fansites and forums are mostly dead. So many artists have a poor selection of images prior to 2000, and the ones that do have some, have them in far too low of a resolution to be of any use. Getty Images isn't going to be the only place with decent quality old photos, if I can help it.
GenAI is trash. ChatGPT is trash. Copilot is trash. Every other GenAI product is trash. You suck and you should feel bad about it and the fact that you are stealing from me. You should apologize to the world and then self-destruct for the good of humanity.