They are airing special! classic! episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 in anticipation of the new 90210. Christine and I IM’ed while watching the two episodes – Brenda has a sleepover/Kelly tells her rape story and ‘We’ll always have Paris’ – and mocked. we mocked the high-waisted pants. the silk shirts. the cheetah print leggings. the blond curly mullet. the big glasses. the big hair. the overalls (which both Christine and i owned. we are not proud) David Silver’s bad soft core porn music (even though Donna squeals in delight ‘he’s gotten sooo good!’) and the dancing. don’t get me started on the dancing.
and then there was Kelly’s room. Where she had hanging on her walls…wait for it…giant paintings of HERSELF. they were huge and loud and airbrushy silkscreens.
and i remember coveting them.
(hangs head in shame)
these were a big hit back then. the self-portraits. almost Warhol-ian.
(i feel like Zach Morris may have had them too. and i know CC Bloom had them in her gaudy apartment in Beaches. come on…who doesn’t remember the whole post Otto Titsling “we’re leasing but we have an option to buy scene”?!?! no one? really?)
and then i remembered. my rooms growing up. i lived in two houses. my mother’s in the midwest. and my father’s in the south.
and they couldn’t have been more different.
at my dad’s house my room was, well, more Kelly Taylor-esque. It was turquoise and fuschia. the furniture was white. the ONLY thing on the walls were there posters of half-naked Asian women. (i know, right? huh?) apparently, they were very popular back then.
only slightly less popular than what hung on my brother Jonathan’s walls…let’s just say they were NEON. green, red, yellow. and they were diamond shaped. and they LIT up when you walked in the room. BUT…my room had the PINBALL MACHINE in it. oh yes. it did. i swear.
this was my TRENDY room. the one that never looked lived-in. the one that was entirely NOT ali. the one i wanted to bring people home to.
at my mom’s house my walls were white. my furniture was wood. and dated. It was covered in stuffed animals and books, exploding out of bookshelves. the walls housed my David Robinson and Michael Jordan posters…as well as some other posters…ripped out of Bop Magazine, of course. i had a really, really old apple IIc computer. I had a giant boombox and TAPES eveywhere. tapes! imagine! spelling bee trophies. photos in boxes all over the place. my bedding was white and eyelet. and i’d had it since i was a toddler.
this was my COMFORT room. the one that was lived-in. the one that was a mess. the ones with the piles of crap.
the one i miss right now.
(although, to be fair, my room looks almost exactly as it did in 1990. my mom hasn’t really changed anything. there are still posters up. there are still piles. there are still TAPES and pictures in boxes and my middle school clothing. Kelly Taylor overalls anyone??!??!)
(the Atlanta room is all gone. even the half-naked Asians and the pinball machine. thank god.)
what was your room like growing up?!?!?
last Friday we talked about spam. and porn movie titles. and i promised a starbucks giftcard to the best.
Big Trouble in Little Vagina
Children of the Cornhole
My Big, Fat, Greek Labia
Bridge On the River KY
Oceans Eleven Inches
these are my top five. pick your favorite..because i can’t. they are all way too funny. it was hard enough coming up with these five! (heh. i said hard. also? i’m 12)
48