Don't forget to enter Children of the 90s $60 CSN Store Gift Certificate Giveaway! You have until this Friday to qualify for the prize, so put your entry in today!
Every time I do some sort of countdown list or compilation post, the comments end up chock-full of suggestions for alternative entries or challenges to the post's choices. In the spirit of making Children of the 90s a full-fledged, interactive experience, we want you to vote for your favorites. This may sound suspiciously to you like I'm asking you to do the heavy lifting, and you might be right. Don't worry, though, it's all in the name of effective group reminiscing. It all checks out as legit, I promise. We've looked into it.
I've already delved a bit into the Readers' Choice territory with last week's examination of popular 80s and 90s children's books, of which a post filled with your awesome suggestions is forthcoming. This Reader's Choice countdown, though, is a bit different. I was inspired by a conversation I had with a few friends about how the movies we loved so dearly as children may not measure up against the judgmental yardstick of time, but we tend to continue fervent reverence of these films nonetheless. Nostalgic value is pretty powerful--believe me, I've seen Encino Man and Teen Witch as an adult. The fact I was even able to make it through is a true testament to my childhood devotion. Some of those dancing sequences are pretty brutal.
Whether or not your favorite childhood movies have stood the test of maturity, there's something special about a film you loved unconditionally as a child. It will always hold a special place in your heart, probably just left of the arterial residual buildup left my Koala Yummies and Gushers. Even when you know deep down that some of these movies are not objectively good, that knowledge isn't enough to quell the swell of love you feel for it.
So, the public has spoken. Or rather, the public will speak. Or type. Something like that. Either way, it'll be fun, so come along for the ride. If this experiment fails horribly, I have plenty of untapped 90s material, but I thought it might be a fun twist. You let me know your top 3 favorite childhood movies, and then I think of a clever, humorous way to compile them in a grand countdown post. Just in case you're still not totally clear on how to make your incredibly valuable ideas heard, I'll get things started with my own list. Feel free to judge, mercilessly, as I'm sure you will: 1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun 2. The Princess Bride 3 Troop Beverly Hills
My boyfriend rightly pointed out that my incredibly skewed childhood viewpoint is one-sided--the girl side. I can't help it, I'm a girl. He made me promise to give a shout-out for Independence Day, just in case any males out there are gagging at my choices. Sorry about that. Feel free to add your own testosterone-tinted selections to balance out the frilly sentimentality of my own.
So knock yourselves out, 90s kids. What were your top favorite childhood movies? Drop your list in the comments, and I'll write something worth your while on the top choices. At least that's the idea--it requires a little bit of action on your part. Let the interactivity begin!
Don't forget to enter Children of the 90s $60 CSN Store Gift Certificate Giveaway! You have until next Friday to qualify for the prize, so put your entry in today!
In honor of this week's long-awaited Daria DVD release, Children of the 90s is counting down 10 favorite Daria episodes. While we're not licensed to officially prescribe you anything, we can highly recommend that you spend the requisite time emerged in fully focused Daria viewership. Really, you won't regret it. If nothing else, it will remind you of a time when MTV was so much more than just The Hills and World's Strictest Parents. Oh, the memories.
Daria fans have been calling for the release of all five seasons on DVDs for years, so it's with great pleasure that devoted Daria-heads embrace the 8-disc full series DVD release from MTV/Paramount. Truthfully, all of the episodes are worth watching; Daria gave us some the wittiest, cleverest, smartest humor ever seen on MTV to date. That's not exactly the top litmus test for intelligent, TV, of course; Date my Mom doesn't exactly register in the same tier.
Something must be right in the world. My digital cable's MTV on Demand is even offering the Daria! Musical as a free promotional feature. Verizon Fios must have known I needed some background inspiration on the big screen to write to. Oh, glorious day! The stars have aligned at last. For those of us with a penchant for sarcastic humor, we can now freely celebrate our 90s quipping idol without violating important copyright laws. Well, except for the clips I've posted here. To be fair, I didn't post them and I totally recommend you buy the series for your own collection.
When you do, here are ten of my favorites to check out. I'm obviously leaving out a horde of great material, so share your own favorites in the comments section. If you don't have any favorites, you've got a lot of make-up work to do. Let's get started:
The Invitation
Even in the second episode of the first season, the Daria writers were well on their way to establishing complex and well-fleshed out adolescent characters. They aptly captured the high school social hierarchy with a tongue-in-cheek commentary on its de facto caste system. Popular cheerleader Brittany invites outcast Daria to her weekend soiree, which Daria takes as a prime opportunity to humiliate social cliber younger sister Quinn. We also get a good look at Quinn's ubiquitous suitors, Jamie, Jeffie, and Joey, whom she tries to date simultaneously.
Quinn the Brain
As Daria muses, "Only Quinn could turn having brains into a fad." After Mr. O'Neill reads Quinn's "Academic Imprisonment" aloud in class and publishes it in the school paper, Quinn adopts a pseudo-intellectual persona whose main features are a black turtleneck and a beret. She also writes stellar poems like, "The greasy fry/it does not lie/the truth is written/on your thigh." Brilliant.
Monster
To fulfill their English class assignment of creating a short film, Daria and Jane settle on the perfect subject: Quinn. They set out to capture her vapidness and superficiality and capture some pretty solid material. Quinn tries to stage the whole thing to make herself look better, but when she asks Daria, "Don't you want to shoot me?" The only appropriate response is, "Yes. I want to shoot you." A guilt trip from mom Helen turns the whole project from an expose into a soft focus ode. Quinn emerges from the whole ordeal more popular than before, but we do get to see a softer side of Daria.
Ill
Daria's Trent-induced anxiety at a Mystik Spiral gig leads to a mysterious rash that lands in her the hospital. Between her mystery illness, an attractive young doctor, and Brittany's desperate attempts to cover up the fact that she too was at that gig incognito as an alternative chick, this episode is pure gold.
Arts n' Crass
Trust Daria and Jane to turn a benign district-wide arts contest into a social commentary on the skewed values of teen society. To fit the contest theme of "Student Life at the Dawn of the New Millennium," Jane draws a beautiful girl gazing into the mirror. Daria adds the wittily dark poem, "She knows she's a winner. She couldn't be thinner. Now she goes to the bathroom and vomits up dinner." Not exactly Pulitzer-worthy, but it does make a statement. The girls fight the school's censorship of their work and embark on an undercover mission to save their poster. Awesomeness ensues.
Daria!
What if the town blew away? It's a legitimate question. As Jane says, "Being a post-apocalyptic town will be cool. Other towns will be scared of us." Sounds like a pretty good deal.
This musical episode is chock full of earworms, so watch with caution. You'll be singing along all day, particularly with gems like "God God Dammit" and "They Must be Worried." You've been warned.
Speedtrapped
What can I say? I'm a sucker for the sappy stuff. I have a soft spots for episodes where Daria and Quinn work as a team. Daria finally gets her driver's license, but she doesn't have much of a chance to enjoy it; Jane and the guys from Mystik Spiral land in jail on traffic charges and need Daria to come bail them out. Quinn's not one to miss out on an adventure, sweeping Daria into her schemes. "Face it, Daria," she says. "You're already accessorizing." Daria asks, dumbfounded, "Do you mean I'm an accessory?" How can you not love the banter between these two? It's just so on.
The Lost Girls
This episode is just pure brilliant commentary on the skewed and underhanded tactics adults use to market alleged youth culture at young girls. Mr. O'Neill enters Daria's essay in a contest for teen magazine Val. Daria lands the prize in the "Win a Day with Val" contest, meaning a self-obsessed name-dropping celebrity hanger-on dressed ten years too young for her true age shadows Daria around at school for the day. In the ever-wise words of Val, things get "jiggy" and "edgy" pretty quickly. Whatever that means.
Write Where it Hurts
Like I said, I go for the sappy stuff. This episode is sharp and funny and places our favorite characters in unfamiliar literary situations as pawns in Daria's story writing attempts, but it also ultimately heartwarming. After many failed tries at writing something good, Daria settles for writing something honest, giving us a peek into the Morgendorfer's future. Daria's parents are astoundingly relaxed, Daria's a famous journalist with an intellectual husband, and Qunn is hilariously a homemaker and mother to several small children. It's touching and sweet, without too much schmaltz.
Boxing Daria
Possibly the darkest episode of the series, "Boxing Daria" gets to the heart of some of Daria's more serious emotional issues. It's the last regular episode of the series before the final TV movie Is it College Yet? In "Boxing Daria," Daria is forced to come to terms with her different-ness and social isolation, recalling a fight her parents had when she was young that culminated in her hiding in a giant refrigerator box to avoid dealing with the situation. The reappearance of a large box in her house coupled with her anxiety about her impending graduation unleashes a Pandora's Box of emotions, culminating in one of the most honest and heartbreaking series conclusions.
CSN Stores recently approached me about giving away a $60 gift certificate to one of my loyal readers (that's you! Or, alternatively--that could be you! Start reading! Loyally!) Anyway, I jumped at the opportunity to offer you some great free stuff. With all the hard work you do reading about the 90s day after day, week after week, you deserve a little something something special. CSN has a great selection of housewares, kitchen accessories, and furniture, so you've got loads of fun stuff to pick from. My favorites are the sectional sofas--this $60 gift certificate might not cover a whole sofa (no upholstery pun intended), but it's a pretty good start.
The 90s Game! With this generous gift and CSN's reasonable prices, you could afford a couple, so feel free to buy one for yourself and send your favorite nostalgia blogger one, too. You know, whoever she is. I'm sure she's pretty cool.
Lucky for all of you, it's incredibly easy to enter this fabulous giveaway. Here are the entry rules: Entry 1: Be a Facebook fan. Actually, a Facebook "liker." They keep changing that stuff around. Just click that little thumbs up on the top(ish) right. Entry 2: Be a Blogger Follower. Scroll up, to your right. There you go. Entry 3: Be a Twitter Follower. Link's also on the sidebar. In case you can't find it, it's a bird. Holding a Twitter sign. You know what, it's pretty obvious, I think you can find it without my help. If not, you don't deserve Entry #3. Entry 4: Blog or Tweet about the giveaway with a link back to this post. It wouldn't hurt to mention how much you love Children of the 90s. You know, just for some good karma to inspire that random number generator to choose you as the winner. I hear that helps.
Let me know in the comments section how many and which entries you qualify for. I can't go chasing down all of your internet affiliations, so you've just got to let me know. Even better, feel free to check out the CSN Stores' sites and let us all know what you would buy. That way we can all be jealous when you get it. If you don't have Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, or a blog of your own, don't worry, you can still enter--just let me know in the comments and you'll qualify for an entry. If I find out you are harboring a secret Facebook account or blog, though, you're totally busted. We investigate that stuff. Don't mess with us.
Okay, fine print: Winner will be chosen next Friday using a random number generator. If you're our lucky winner, I will send you your very own CSN gift certificate code good for $60 on their sites. It doesn't include shipping costs, but many items include free shipping. It's a one-time use gift certificate, so don't get all greedy trying to parcel it out over several weeks with a bunch of tiny hand-towel and barbecue tong purchases. In the ever-wise words of Blanche from the Golden Girls, "This is found money. This is fun money." I'm going to leave off the rest of the quote because it gets a little PG-13 after that, but suffice it to say, this $60 is yours for the free, fun spending. Go nuts.
Oh, and the giveaway is only open to US and Canadian readers--sorry, international readers! We love you, but CSN just can't ship to you. I knew you'd understand. I'd send my condolences, but unfortunately we can't mail them that far.
A winner will be announced right here on Children of the 90s next Friday (May 21) so be sure to come back and take a look. If your comment is not linked to a Blogger profile or any other account, let me know here or on Facebook or Twitter how I can get in touch with you if you win. Good luck!
