Wednesday, April 23, 2008

2 Legit 2 Quit


Number of e-mails sent today:  32
Number of e-mails related to work:  2
Number of e-mails related to figuring out if I had been to an MC Hammer concert:  6
I grew up in Scripps Ranch, a suburb of San Diego.  Scripps Ranch had streets named Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Scripps Ranch boasted a sign at its entrance that said "Country Living."  
  • Country = Track homes where you were within 20 feet of your neighbors.  
  • Living = Drinking wine by the bottle and divorce.  
  • "Straight Ahead, Five Floor Plans!  Divorce and Alcoholism Imminent!" = Not the same ring to it.
My sister and I were proper San Diegans.  We wore Esprit and Guess religiously.  I had a horse.  She had a convertible VW.  We were BFF's with Salon Selectives.  Our tans were courtesy of "Hawaiian Tan."  We could quote The Brady Bunch and The Cosby Show verbatim.  And for a brief period in 1989?  We LOVED us some rap.

Eazy E, NWA, Rodney O & Joe Coolie you name it, we had the cassette tape, peeps.  We even took our bicycle short wearing, Matilda Bay Wine Cooler drinking asses to a concert that featured one hit wonders (due to a lack of material to headline their own show).  The guests included:  Vanilla Ice, Candyman and (we think?) MC Hammer.   The concert was in the VERY gritty urban part of San Diego called Balboa Park.  Home of the San Diego Zoo and the Ruben H. Fleet Space Museum, it's REALLY just like Compton, but with eucalyptus trees, ice cream stands, pretty fountains and tourists.  

After a while, fluffy rap bored us.  We were hard core!  So we went to see Digital Underground, we knew we really liked that song they played on the radio called "The Humpty Dance."  And whatever other band was there, we'd be fine with seeing them too.   So we drank.  And we walked past the t-shirts that said "In Fear of a Black Planet."  And I'm SURE we were working our teased bangs and frosted hair.   I KNOW I was wearing my Reebok high tops.   And we had a great time.  I just didn't know the second band's songs very well.  But whatevs, I was BUZZED, yo!

I told this story to a girl I worked with a few years ago.  She was toying with the idea of starting up a clothing company and I told her she should make a t-shirt that said "Blame it on Hip Hop."  She looked at me like "what the F does this white girl know about hip hop?"  So, wanting to prove my street cred, I told her about the myriad of concerts that I had been to--Vanilla Ice, Candyman, Digital Underground, when I stopped and said ... "I can't remember the name of the band they opened for though.  It was the band where the guy wore the clock around his neck?"

"FLAVA FLAV?" she shouted?
"Yeah!"  I responded.
"You were at a PUBLIC ENEMY concert?"   
"Um, YES!" I rolled my eyes and turned back to my computer.

The computer from which I promptly e-mailed my sister:

"UmrememberthatDigitalUndergroundconcertwewentto? DID YOU KNOW THAT WE WERE AT A PUBLIC ENEMY CONCERT?!"

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