Category / music

by Lexine

Throwback Covers!

Britney Spears on Teen People magazine, February 2000

I used to be a magazine hound as a teen, and the late 90s through mid-2000s were quite the era for magazines. The fashion editorials, the celebrity profiles and covers, those sex articles in Cosmo that had my friends and I snickering…it was quite the time. But going back to those covers: the magazine editors then put some serious effort into those covers. The cover star, the photography, the blurbs and typography…it all got my attention. So, since I’m a sucker for nostalgia and enjoy celebrating #throwbackthursdays, starting every first Thursday of every month, I’ll revisit some of my favorite magazine covers from yesteryear. I aim to post covers that celebrate a milestone anniversary this year (like covers from 25/30/35 years ago), but it’s not a promise. 

This month, I travel back to the year 2000. If you’re an old like me, you’d remember seeing a mag called Teen People at the newsstands. TP, which was created by the editors of People magazine and lasted from 1998 to 2007 (?), competed with Seventeen, Teen, and YM. Among those titles, I liked reading TP and Seventeen the most, and TPs issue with Britney happens to be part of my collection (not my pic, btw). That cover exudes pure Y2K teen beauty. The futuristic tone of her makeup and jewelry, the aura of optimism and joy she’s giving…and to witness her ascent to Icon status in real time! You just had to have been there. Us olds remembered Britney when she was happy and on top of the world, and, going by her interviews then, she seemed like someone us teen girls at the time could relate to. 

Snippets of her cover story can be found here (I can’t find the full article anywhere right now). Is it just me or was fashion more simple yet cooler then? 

Also, that “Bush Is Back” blurb…🤭

by Lexine

Thursday Random Thoughts

Like many real ones with social media these days, I have joined the land of blue skies. I haven’t abandoned the right-wing cesspool known as Twitter just yet, although I may consider it if I get more followers on Bluesky than Twitter.  The Bluesky app also needs some work, but I must say: it’s soooooo refreshing to see a social media site not bogged down by its MAGA manchild owner, vile right-wing trash, algorithms that are obviously drunk, and dumb bots. Here’s hoping the site stays the course and doesn’t devolve like Twitter.

I’m also on Threads and still have my IG. I got a TikTok but I haven’t touched it for a year now. (I’m just not a TikTok girl.) In the hierarchy of SM posting, Bluesky now gets first dibs on my short-form nonsense, then Threads, and, if I feel like it, Twitter.

My Vegas birthday trip pics will be coming shortly. I’ve posted some on my socials a few weeks ago, but I got a lot more pics and a whole lot to say about them!

I travel for my day job a few times a week, and some of the things I’ve been seeing on the digital billboards when I take 880 North back home…😒”Be Kind”? “Choose Love”?? What in the sappy Etsy boymom hell is that? Many people in this country certainly weren’t kind at all at the polls two weeks ago!

By the way, IT’S STILL THE MOOD

Meanwhile, that parallel universe is looking more lovely by the day. We’re all looking forward to what the Kamala administration will bring to this country after her landslide election win two weeks ago, the House and Senate going blue, Trump and Elon finally going to jail, the racists/misogynists/Nazis all staying pissed on their Truth Social accounts, and next summer bringing us the release of Xtina’s newest album and the Batgirl movie. *sighs*

I think I found THE cold-weather fragrance…

…and THE scent for femme fatales, divas, and the bad girls your mother warned you about. In other words, MY kinds of scent! It’s a few steps above Black Orchid, which I also own, and that’s all I can say because I’m not well-versed in describing fragrances and its notes (and that’s something coming from a novelist-by-night).

Someone send me back to Vegas for the next seven months with a $15,000/month stipend to cover lodging, food, gas, bills, my rent back home, and miscellaneous. I only say this because the Penguins aka my hockey team won all their games while I was in Vegas. Superstitions and all that.

I’m really gonna miss Rafa. It was only a matter of time before he hung up his racket for good. The first time I saw him play was Wimbledon 2008; I tuned in after getting curious over the whole Nadal-Federer rivalry going on then. That Men’s Finals match, honey…talk about an intro! I enjoyed watching him play ever since, and he was the total package: talented, class act, and, yup, a hottie. 😘Him and Federer defined one hell of an era in Men’s Tennis that I doubt can be topped any time soon. Happy trails, Rafa! 🫶

I know Dolce & Gabbana are sketch (as people; their clothes are fine), but their Fall 2024 ads with Miley are STUN.

The pearl-clutchers need to take all their outrage they’re wasting over how suggestive Sabrina Carpenter is in her shows and instead apply it to why Fist Brown (thanks, Dlisted) still has a career. Go after the abusers in the industry, why don’t you. Or is that too difficult for them?

Ending this post with a song that will go multi-platinum in the households of young women fighting against the emboldened, yucky incels. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll know!

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #14

Amazing Vocalists!

Aretha, Shirley, Whitney, and Christina…if vocals were energy, their pipes would power a metropolis for days. 

I will always love me down a singer that can sing. Having listened to pop and R&B during the 90s, I got spoiled by singers of the time. Whitney, Mariah, Celine, Toni Braxton, Faith Evans, Leann Rimes, Christina Aguilera…While I don’t mind an artist who may not boast the best pipes (but at least make catchy songs), what a great singer does with their voice–on top of making good songs–is next-level art that seems to be a rarity nowadays. (Really, who is the vocalist of the current generation of pop stars?)

Also, if you don’t know who Shirley Horn is, give her a listen! My favorite jazz station played one of her songs a while back, and I got hooked by her voice. She’s an underrated vocalist, IMO. 

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #30

The month of October! 

Out of all the months in the year, October is the best-ever month. Bay Area weather is near-perfect, Halloween at the end, holiday gifts and decorations hitting the shelves, the start of the NHL and NBA seasons, playoff baseball and the WNBA Playoffs, pumpkin spice everything, and the national holiday that is my birthday!!!! 

(PS: I’m very aware that song has nothing to do with the month of October but I still like to play it at the start of the best-ever month!) 

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #32

Lounge/”Naked” Music!

After a Saturday night party, we chill on Sunday. These are the tunes I listen to when I want to unwind or sleep. For those wondering what “Naked” Music is, it’s basically chill-out music from the late 90s/early-mid 2000s. And it’s free of things like autotune, anger, and artificial lyrics. 

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #33

90s Dance/House Megamixes! It’s Saturday night, so let’s party.

I touched on this in an old entry, and if you’re wondering why I’d rather rave at home instead of a club these days, it’s because of these hours-long mixes of 90s dance/house/rave music. There’s something to that era of dance music (mid-late 90s) that always hooks me in. It’s probably because when that music was happening, life seemed to be more socio-politically sane. The Gen Xers that were partying to all that were partying–no cell phones, no social media, and no taking selfies of yourself every other minute (because cameras were bulky back then). There was also no pandemic and the fashions from that time were lit. I was born a decade late to experience all that in real time (I was a preteen/teen when those mixes played in the clubs), so if you see rave lights coming from my studio apartment on a Saturday night, that’s just me clumsily raving like an X-er to one of those fun megamixes.

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #34

Megan Thee Stallion!

No question: Megan is the current Queen of Rap and if you want to argue, argue with the wall. Us Hotties have been FED this year, from the chart-topping “Hiss” and the, ahem, drama that surrounded it (that kept my winter warm 😆) and the fire visuals of her music videos, to her first arena tour that also sold out (I attended two of those dates, TYVM) and Pepsi commercials and hosting the VMAs… and possibly a sequel album to Megan?! It’s truly the Year of Thee Stallion.

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #36

Christina Aguilera!

Out of all the modern pop music icons, I feel like Christina is one of the most underappreciated pop icons out there. She gives you voice but can’t crack the Top 100 of a supposed list of Greatest Singers of All-Time. She gives you fashion yet the press labels her “Worst Dressed”. She gives you iconic performance but is snubbed for an act far lesser than hers. She gives you music videos but gets overlooked in favor of others with a videography that is also far lesser than hers. She kissed Madonna but some of you still forget that part. But don’t forget this: Christina remains relevant 25+ years after her start, selling out shows, scoring magazine covers, starting a successful sexual wellness line, doing political PSAs, influencing a new generation of pop girls, and, of course, giving you voice and fashion. (And face!)

Now go listen to her live album on Spotify! The vocals, the emotions…everything is served!

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #37

1980s/90s R&B and Rap!

What a time to have been alive for this golden era of R&B and rap. If you remember watching MTV Jams, Yo MTV Raps, or/and BET’s Video Vibrations, you know! The beats were beating, the vocals were vocaling, and the remixes remixed (especially Mariah’s remixes). Almost every hot artist then had either a gold single or platinum album (what streams?), bridges were present, and the top hits were over three minutes, TikTok be damned.

(By the way, I’m very aware that the era also had its problematic figures. *cough*RKelly*cough*Diddy*cough* I’ll replace any of the vids above if I find any bad tea on the artists featured.)