Counting Down to 30: The 2000s, Part 1
Okay so if 1999 was “the first year of the rest of my life”, then I had no clue what the past decade would be like. We come to what sparked this whole countdown, what I hope will be a more complete recap of what the 2000s were to me than I’ve given so far. I think about where I was as the century turned and it’s almost as wild as when we sit around sometimes at home and ponder the events and advances my dad never knew of that occurred since he died in 1980.
In 2000 I had barely heard of Cat Stevens; had never heard of Janis Ian, and that’s the tip of a whole iceberg of musical discovery awaiting me. An Apple computer was as much a fantasy to me then as, I don’t know, a Second Life Sim is to me now. There were no iPods, let alone iPhones. I think my flash-based mp3 player held 32MB, which I would stretch by compressing songs to sub-telephone quality just to be like, “wow I have 50 songs in my pocket!” I’d never been to Paris. In fact, as 2000 dawned, I’d never been anywhere on my own. How fast that would change. Nobody had heard of Dakota Fanning, Hannah Montana, or Lazytown. The Harry Potter books had begun to be published, but I wouldn’t hear of them for a couple of years, when I’d say in an AIM chat with Laura and Keri from AFLS, “I’ve heard of Henry Sugar?” lol.
So let’s try and plot this crazy decade, shall we? I left off with me on my Mickey Mouse course at college. In 2000 after being breathlessly introduced to the wider world of musicals on AFLS, I decided to go to London, all by myself, and see Les Miserables. Part of this plan worked out. I’ve still not seen Les Miserables. I cringe whenever I tell this story because it is probably the most pathetic, on reflection, that I’ve ever been, being as going to London for me now is like the smallest deal in the world lol. But at the time, I really hadn’t been anywhere by myself, and I was nervous to use public transport… to pretty much do anything in fact, and I ended up exhausting myself by the end of the day, and convincing myself that the show wouldn’t end in time for me to get the bus home (this is, I’ve worked out since, probably true, ‘cos Les Mis is a longass show). The day wasn’t wasted though, I did some shopping, I saw some sights, I went to the Trocadero IMAX to see Fantasia 2000, and I came home with Fiona Apple’s first two albums. Yeh, I’d never heard of her outside South Park until 2000 either.
My next solo trip would be much more ambitious, and much more of a success. At some point between 1998, when I first got Sky TV (and therefore MTV, VH1, etc), I’d rediscovered (or really, since I’d barely known or heard much of her before) Vanessa Paradis. Actually I’ve just thunk this thru and I guess it was that which led me to want to see The Girl on the Bridge when it came nearby in 1999, and I guess it was that movie which really made me a Vanessa fan enough to get her 2000 album Bliss straight from Amazon.fr as soon as it arrived. And I guess it was that that had her relatively foremost in my thoughts whenever her Bliss tour was announced. I had never been to a concert before in my life, and I was astonished to see the ticket prices were so low, and bought one immediately, with no travel plans, just figuring it was worth having the opportunity to see this show whether I actually figured out the travel plans in the end or not, lol. The fact that everything worked out from this plan has most certainly shaped my travel decisions since. Anyway, the following March, I took a 5 hour bus to London, with a long wait in London, and an even longer bus journey under the tunnel to Paris, a total journey time of 20 hours or more. It was so cold in Victoria Coach Station that I truly thought I might die, and I was in such a state by the time I got on the bus to Paris I thought they mightn’t let me on. It wasn’t just the cold, I think, it was nerves too. Wait, I have a longer write up of this trip, here.
So, like I said, the fact that this trip went so well - that is, by my actually getting to the darn event lol - certainly did much to boost my confidence regarding doing things for myself. As a matter of fact, the very day I returned, I would go to the pub with my best friend and take part in karaoke for the first time, something that for a good 6 months became quite the weekly ritual, sometimes I’d almost takeover the whole night lol. So I guess it was around this time I started thinking about music for the first time that much more than I had previously spent my time thinking about film.
I got my 2:1 in American Studies in the middle of 2001, and I’ve always found this slightly ironic. I spent 3 years half-assedly studying America, and just a few months after I graduated, with whatever I learned of the place, everything changed so irreversibly on 9/11. I still feel a weird guilt whenever I talk about 9/11 because it feels like I don’t have the right to claim it affected me as bad as I believe it did, not being American, not knowing anybody it closely affected, etc, etc. But really, I think I’m still kind of getting over the bazillion things that day meant in the grand scheme of things. It was the day that so many things went FUBAR, and it hasn’t got better since, it’s just gradually got worse; and that awareness has heightened my awareness of the other things that are wrong in the world.
lol I have no clue how many parts this 2000s thing is gonna be, I was thinking 2 originally but I feel I should post at this point ‘cos I’m getting long and I’m only on 2001. I think most of my life - like over 75% of it - happened in these past 10 years - and I’m interested in mapping it all out, even if for now it’s a little all over the place… in the long run it really helps make sense of oneself.
So before I finish this part, let’s talk movies quickly. 2000 had a very important movie to me, though I wouldn’t see it till around 2002-3 when I finally got it on DVD. It was Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. This formed about as much of my inspiration to make my own music as when I first heard Janis Ian’s Miracle Row or Cat Stevens’ Izitso. I won’t say any more on it ‘cos my linked review kinda covers it. Other movies I was slightly crazy for in varying measures were Dancer in the Dark, 28 Days, American Psycho, The Emperor’s New Groove (because it would be the last movie to feature in my college dissertation on Disney) and Final Destination (the opening of which truly freaked me out first time around). 2001 brought AI, Moulin Rouge!, Riding in Cars With Boys (which again I wouldn’t see until later but I adore), Vanilla Sky, I am Sam (another I was slow on, I was late to the Dakota party but I hung around longer than most LOL) and Blow.
In music I already mentioned Vanessa Paradis, but at that concert I’d encounter another French musician who seriously has kinda become more important to me, Raphael Haroche. His debut came out in 2000. Through Paul Thomas Anderson, whose Boogie Nights and Magnolia had mesmerised me, and Fiona Apple, who I’d only just discovered, I’d find Michael Penn, who released my fave album of his MP4 in 2000, and his wife Aimee Mann, who had just released Bachelor No. 2. I wouldn’t find out about Belle and Sebastian for years yet but they released Fold Your Arms, Child, You Walk Like a Peasant in 2000. 2001 would bring Alisha’s Attic last, greatest album The House We Built, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Read My Lips, Jon Brion’s Meaningless, and Ani DiFranco’s Revelling/Reckoning.
I was reading too. Something I’ve failed to cover in the other entries here have been the books that have shaped me. I plan to finish up with a few lists at the weekend maybe. But I got the paperback of Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama in 2000/1 and it absolutely must be mentioned. I’d got into Ellis via my college literature module and never looked back. Glamorama pretty much described the 2000s before they happened. I mean, it was frightening as soon as 9/11 happened but that was just the start of so many things it foretold. I was probably just starting to read Poppy Z. Brite’s stuff at this time too.
I was discovering so many of my favourite things. But I really do have to wrap this up now, lol.
