Hello World

Do you guys remember that song? It reminds me of high school; I think it may be off the soundtrack to Down to You, a thoroughly mediocre Freddie Prinze/Julia Stiles romantic comedy from 2000*. (A quick Internet search confirmed this fact. God bless Google.)

Despite the fact that I routinely get this song stuck in my head -- and for the record, it would be GREAT in a cappella -- I had never seen the video until I looked it up today. Where to begin. Well, no, it's actually pretty obvious: Remember that hairstyle? Good God, what were we THINKING? Beware, trendsetters: You will almost certainly be laughed at a few years from now. Perfect example: Leggings-as-pants. And, according to Christina Schonberg, shirt-as-dress, which we'll hope remains contained within the metaphorical (yay!) walls of Germany. Don't even get me started on shirt-as-pants.

My first-ever MP3 player (circa 2006) held only 32 songs, and this was one of them -- along with the Moulin Rouge version of "Lady Marmalade," "Shake Ya Tailfeather" by Nelly et al, and...er, actually, those are the only ones I remember. I listened to a lot of Aretha Franklin in high school, but I don't recall whether she made it onto the 32-song hot list.

Anyway, isn't this song just adorable? There isn't a single lyric that anyone can disagree with: "Hello world, this is me, life should be fun for everyone." Awwww-inducing. This, to me, is the epitome of late 90's happy bubblegum pop. Another song I'd put in that category is "Perfect Day" by Hoku - who is, no joke, the daughter of legendary Hawaiian singer Don Ho. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) That song came out in 2001.

A few other happiness-inducing selections:
"Oh What a Night (December 1963)" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (talk about a regrettable hairdo...)
"I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown
"Respect" by Aretha
"Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations
"Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Rae
"You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates (The scene from (500) Days of Summer is to die for.)
Pretty much anything by Mika

Any one of these songs can usually perk me up on a given day.

That was a long-winded, overly tangential way of saying, hello Internet world. It appears I've finally arrived. And with more parentheses than you'll know what to do with.


* For those who are chronologically confused, I attended high school between 2001 and 2005, and this song predates that, but those were also the final glorious years of the VHS, so I had that dumb movie taped and would watch it ad nauseum in between viewings of Whose Line is it Anyway? and Blues Brothers 2000. I have superb taste in movies/television.