September 28, 2010

Blast from the Past (Or, How Gangsta Rap Ages)

Way back in 2006, I wrote about my top underutilized purchases at that time, which included, among other things, a 12'', 400 W subwoofer that got a total of maybe ten uses in six years; a Kenneth Cole Reaction briefcase that would be replaced by a superior Tumi model within three months; and the second season of Dark Angel on DVD (don't judge!) that I never managed to complete. The past couple of days have presented an opportunity to undertake a similar retrospective. That's largely because along with existential angst and geeking out, my time thus far in (the) OC has also been accompanied by coaxing, pressure, and the occasional threat from my parents to clean out the crap that I have managed to accumulate over nearly three decades of (necessarily futile, much lamented) existence on this planet.

Yesterday, amidst the trash stacked up high in my closet, I came across a gem: a sealed box containing roughly a hundred albums from my youth (a/k/a the 1990s) that I had neither seen nor thought of since I left for college. Converting those compact discs into a format more suited for the new millennium has given me the chance both to wax nostalgic and reflect on how these anthems of my adolescence have aged. The short answer? To a large extent, not very well. After the jump, a list of some of the best and worst finds.