Monday, 19 September 1994
Twenty years ago today.
John Major is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Bill Clinton is President of the United States of America. A couple of days ago, the British government lifted the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland, meaning that actor Stephen Rea no longer has the steady gig of dubbing Gerry Adams's voice in those surreal interviews the BBC and others used to do. Right now, US troops are engaged in a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the country's elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power following his ousting by a military coup. Spoiler: he turns out to be a baddie too in the end.
In UK cinemas, a young Matthew McConaughey is among the cast of Richard Linklater's coming-of-age tale Dazed and Confused, Guillermo del Toro's off-beat vampire flick Cronos probably isn't getting the audience it deserved and Harrison Ford is Tom Clancy's CIA stalwart Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger, inferior second sequel to the much, much superior (imho) The Hunt for Red October. Terrible Bruce Willis-starring "erotic" thriller Color of Night is possibly still stinking up some screens too.
In music, Danish Euro-dance sensation Whigfield has just unseated Wet, Wet, Wet's all-conquering behemoth "Love is All Around" from a staggering fifteen weeks on top of the singles chart. Da, ba, da, dan, dee, dee, dee, da. Other new entries include R.E.M. with "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and Cyndi Lauper's re-released version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". More zeitgeisty, perhaps, than any of these, Blur are holding on at number twenty with "Parklife".
Roy Evans is managing Liverpool Football Club. On Saturday, we were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United, with Andrei Kanchelskis and Brian McClair scoring the goals.
I'm sixteen years and four months old. I finished my GCSEs earlier in the year and I'm just in the process of starting my A-Levels. At the last minute, I was talked into doing French instead of Art by my history teacher, of all people. Je ne regrette rien. Twenty years ago today, I'm getting ready to watch a new US television series that is premiering on BBC Two. It has already been shown on Sky 1 earlier in the year, but we don't have Sky telly in our house, although a couple of my mates from school who do say it's good stuff. The series in question didn't make that much of a splash when it showed in the States over a year ago, but the second season is just starting there to better figures and reviews. I know nothing about this. It's twenty years ago today and I've never heard of the internet. I know nothing of any buzz, only the word of mouth of a couple of mates who've seen this American sci-fi series and reckon it's the kind of thing I might enjoy.
I'm sitting on my bed watching a tiny black and white portable TV, possibly the same one I watched Season 26 of Doctor Who on at my granddad's house five years ago. My mum and dad are downstairs watching I know not what. My sister is in her own room, possibly doing homework. I don't know yet that my life, at least that part of it that involves film, TV and other such media, is about to change. I'm about to start watching what is, for me, the second most important TV series I've ever watched. It's going to turn out to be surprisingly influential on pop culture in general, of course, over the course of the next few years.
As already said, it premiered in the US on 10 September 1993, and had its UK premiere on Sky back in January, but those dates passed me by.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that, from my perspective, and I suspect those of a lot of people of my age group and rough geographical locality, today, 19 September 2014, is the twentieth anniversary of the first time we watched The X-Files. Little did I know what I was getting into...
Ever since I realised the significance of today's date a couple of weeks ago, I've been thinking about the series and the times and places in which I watched it in a somewhat wistful and nostalgic way. I've been watching repeats from the first couple of seasons on one of the cable channels too, in the case of some episodes my first re-watch for probably more than ten years, and it holds up. It really does. So, don't be surprised if I make some more Files-related posts in the near future. I'm kind of digging Mulder and Scully and their escapades right now, and the memories.
:)
This entry has also been posted at http://jjpor.dreamwidth.org/209448.html. Please feel free to comment either here or there.
John Major is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Bill Clinton is President of the United States of America. A couple of days ago, the British government lifted the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland, meaning that actor Stephen Rea no longer has the steady gig of dubbing Gerry Adams's voice in those surreal interviews the BBC and others used to do. Right now, US troops are engaged in a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the country's elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power following his ousting by a military coup. Spoiler: he turns out to be a baddie too in the end.
In UK cinemas, a young Matthew McConaughey is among the cast of Richard Linklater's coming-of-age tale Dazed and Confused, Guillermo del Toro's off-beat vampire flick Cronos probably isn't getting the audience it deserved and Harrison Ford is Tom Clancy's CIA stalwart Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger, inferior second sequel to the much, much superior (imho) The Hunt for Red October. Terrible Bruce Willis-starring "erotic" thriller Color of Night is possibly still stinking up some screens too.
In music, Danish Euro-dance sensation Whigfield has just unseated Wet, Wet, Wet's all-conquering behemoth "Love is All Around" from a staggering fifteen weeks on top of the singles chart. Da, ba, da, dan, dee, dee, dee, da. Other new entries include R.E.M. with "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and Cyndi Lauper's re-released version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". More zeitgeisty, perhaps, than any of these, Blur are holding on at number twenty with "Parklife".
Roy Evans is managing Liverpool Football Club. On Saturday, we were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United, with Andrei Kanchelskis and Brian McClair scoring the goals.
I'm sixteen years and four months old. I finished my GCSEs earlier in the year and I'm just in the process of starting my A-Levels. At the last minute, I was talked into doing French instead of Art by my history teacher, of all people. Je ne regrette rien. Twenty years ago today, I'm getting ready to watch a new US television series that is premiering on BBC Two. It has already been shown on Sky 1 earlier in the year, but we don't have Sky telly in our house, although a couple of my mates from school who do say it's good stuff. The series in question didn't make that much of a splash when it showed in the States over a year ago, but the second season is just starting there to better figures and reviews. I know nothing about this. It's twenty years ago today and I've never heard of the internet. I know nothing of any buzz, only the word of mouth of a couple of mates who've seen this American sci-fi series and reckon it's the kind of thing I might enjoy.
I'm sitting on my bed watching a tiny black and white portable TV, possibly the same one I watched Season 26 of Doctor Who on at my granddad's house five years ago. My mum and dad are downstairs watching I know not what. My sister is in her own room, possibly doing homework. I don't know yet that my life, at least that part of it that involves film, TV and other such media, is about to change. I'm about to start watching what is, for me, the second most important TV series I've ever watched. It's going to turn out to be surprisingly influential on pop culture in general, of course, over the course of the next few years.
As already said, it premiered in the US on 10 September 1993, and had its UK premiere on Sky back in January, but those dates passed me by.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that, from my perspective, and I suspect those of a lot of people of my age group and rough geographical locality, today, 19 September 2014, is the twentieth anniversary of the first time we watched The X-Files. Little did I know what I was getting into...
Ever since I realised the significance of today's date a couple of weeks ago, I've been thinking about the series and the times and places in which I watched it in a somewhat wistful and nostalgic way. I've been watching repeats from the first couple of seasons on one of the cable channels too, in the case of some episodes my first re-watch for probably more than ten years, and it holds up. It really does. So, don't be surprised if I make some more Files-related posts in the near future. I'm kind of digging Mulder and Scully and their escapades right now, and the memories.
:)
This entry has also been posted at http://jjpor.dreamwidth.org/209448.html. Please feel free to comment either here or there.