Some say 1997 was the best year for different wines – like a vintage wine itself, I’ve already uncorked my belief that 1997 was a particularly fine year for culture on some of my communication media; so as much as I’d love to work this up more, today I thought I’d pour us a glass or two of 1997 culture daydreaming:
Remember “Life Is Beautiful?” – Roberto Benigni’s infant-like perfection – like a serenade to the world – something truly, to the point of happy… beautiful tears, beautiful itself, Life Is Beautiful is without a doubt my favorite movie I’ve ever happened across.
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Being recorded in 1997 & released the following year, was a blowout celebration of festive ((rides & everything)) passionate Christian(!) bunny-punk, with a more melodic sense of melody than most, with dowsed, strongly resonant, meaningfuller-than-most’s lyrical vapors: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea; this would boom later, when alt rock gave way to indie; baby girl Lauryn would also record then release a lastingly catchy hip-hop mover-shaker around this time — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill; It was also organically Christian, too;
Already released & getting plenty of spin on my record player was Odelay from Beck & The Dust Brothers;
But I think being there at the time, really breathing Life in thru the nostril to the ’90s artistic aesthetic — giving it a living form, ‘coloring in’ its personality with a definite sound & ambiance — was Radiohead’s OK Computer.
This 1997 ‘decade’ piece was a coming of age album for many of us – my girlfriend introduced it to me at 16 – & it is where the mouth of a river was for cultural currents for many of us.
Had Radiohead not released this I would not be bringing them up in the same stream of consciousness as Life is Beautiful & In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
It was bringing spiritual poetry to computers, radios, & very “modern,” at-times-mechanistic elements of our lives; with a ‘backend’ of artistic / personal choices casting our anti corporate excess sentimentality many of us were feeling, into something concrete, (remember W.A.S.T.E.?), something we could cheer on; to a tune of a genuinely artistically modern musical atmosphere — just how much did Johnny Greenwood, not nearly appreciated enough for his musical genius, write?)
It & all of these became a real part of the soundtrack to my life.
Here’s some selections:
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Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com, in our new era of virtual communications media – was founded as well in 1997; our fine-wine year; a fountain of “alternative” medicine news & views, many know of it as it became the #1 most clicked natural health website, sowing seeds with enormous effort & stamina for a new natural living revolution that would thrive globally, thruout culture: again as a response to corporate greed being too loud, & in this case, deadly & harmful to our health.
His website’s annual celebration this year will include a documentary about Dr. Mercola & a broad ‘master plan’ webinar presenting the kernel of his ideas (something Iike I once collated (i’m “lakitu” in the comments section) & have been whiteboarding to write for my ideas); they will probably be very great ways to learn both about Dr. Mercola, & his actual health ideas – here is Doctor Mercola’s announcement for those.
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As a final send-off, 1991 was ‘The Year [The Music Scene] Broke’ – Smells Like Teen Spirit & the “Alternative” scene culture-dam broke & we enjoyed a very fun, much-needed departure from Axel Rose’s “Welcome To The Jungle” & 80s music & culture; this counterculture was loosely, & at times playfully, kitsch-ily, based on the ’60s & ’70s counterculture, like more liberal art & Peace & Love . . .
It was also an act of vandalism against the iron curtain of corporatism & commerciality we were bombarded with, evident every commercial break that we felt co-occurred with much 1980s music. (Truth be told, U2 & especially some variably-more underground acts from The Cure to The Cocteau Twins, & The Pixies were very lovable, & congruent with our ’90s mentality that would soon ‘break’.)
But this is already widely recognized – today, I am giving an affectionate ‘lift’ to the year 1997, as, from me, getting the nod for a ‘grand year’ of our culture in the escapades that were The Nineties.
Thanks for reading this.
Joe