What is the worst thing that could happen to someone who has tons of money, never been told no, and has enough hubris leaking out of their butt to start a Greek tragedy fire?
Directed by Helen Stickler in 2002, this documentary delves into mid 1980s professional skate culture, explaining the conditions that could cause a horrific crime such as the rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten in 1991 by pro-skateboarder, Mark "Gator" Rogowski.
Stickler paints a picture of a young man thrown into fame in a niche culture, where his persona as an arrogant teen was praised and rewarded. After climbing to fame in the late 1980s as a vert skateboarder, Rogowski's behavior moved from typical teen antics to erratic manic behavior in addition to alcoholism. Street style skateboarding over took vert skating, and Rogowski had trouble catching up. After Rogowski and his girlfriend Brandi broke up, he lashed out on an old friend of hers, Jessica Bergsten; a woman he considered responsible for Brandi leaving him.
Rogowski phones in his interview from prison as he serves a life sentence. Since California law prohibits live interviews with inmates serving a life sentence, Rogowski's current appearance is left a mystery, save a couple candid shots near the end of the film, taken in prison at undisclosed dates. Stickler inundates the audience with images of Rogowski in his twenties: cocky, attractive, talented, funny, charismatic. Then every once in a while we are ripped back to reality, hearing Rogowski's voice crackling through the phone, haggard by regret. A major theme in this film is that nothing lasts forever, and it is particularly poignant to see the vestiges of Rogowski's fame, youth, and vitality remain only in old footage, while he currently has virtually no identity.
This film is an excellent time capsule of the late 80s. It presents the neon punk attitude of the time, and injects it with a serious reality check.
Keep watching at the end of the credits, it shows the transcripts of police interviews with Gator, and a taped interview at a skating event.
Remember when you could see something like this and not think anything of it? It was the 90s and it was all we knew. It may have even been considered cool. Looking to the future is what we always hope to do, but honestly, when you live in the present you think about it as the pinnacle of your time. This can be said of any decade and generation, but as someone born in the late 1980s, the 90s was the beginning of my reality.
It's no doubt Kids in the Hall were very aware of the ridiculous nature of the - then current - 90s style, and they made a cunning parody of it. However, when we lived the 1990s (or during anytime - even presently) you have to admit, it was difficult to imagine how life would ever be different in the future. We were at the top of our game as far as we were concerned. If the future would lead to differences in our culture it could only logically move from plaid shirts and scrunchies right to silver clothes and flying cars.
circa 1997
Well... I guess we got some of that prediction right.
Of course we are 12 years deep into the 21st century, and it's pretty much just now-ish that I'm stepping back and looking at the 1990s, thinking, "Really? I can't believe I wore that." or "I can't believe we thought that was cool." In the early 2010s the 1990s have come back into fashion, in clothing at least. I have a feeling we're not going to see the 90s style in design and media come back en vogue for a little while longer.
It's really easy to ridicule the past. Hind sight is 20/20 right? Making fun of current cultural norms takes objectivity and an ability to step back and not take yourself too seriously. For instance, check out this music video Chris Rock made in 1997. He unabashedly pokes fun at rap and R&B from that era. He nails the excess, the money, the Lil' Kim inspired wigs, the trash bag outfit Missy Elliott wore in her video for The Rain (amazing song, and the video is also a perfect time capsule for the late 90s).
It was funny to me then, but it's even funnier now for two reasons. Rock has a valid point that the style from that era was over the top, and with hindsight being 20/20 it's not hard to laugh at it. Rock was also able to see it for what it was right then and there. I laugh at videos from the 90s but I laugh with Chris Rock's Champagne.
The best example of this in comedy today is Portlandia. The sketch comedy show created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein is my new favorite thing to watch. They get the characters so spot-on. Armisen is a genius with mannerisms, he doesn't miss a beat. I would just put all their video clips in this post because most of them prove my point, but I don't want to give you all carpal tunnel from scrolling, so here is one clip from the most recent episode.
We live in a culture of instant nostalgia, which means we are extremely aware of what is in, what is out, what is totally last week, and what becomes more and more attractive as it's pulled farther away from us. I can't speak for any decade's views before the 1990s, as far as awareness of collective cultural quirks, but it is clear this is a recent development in our culture. Generally we are savvy in knowing what we are like.
Stickler paints a picture of a young man thrown into fame in a niche culture, where his persona as an arrogant teen was praised and rewarded. After climbing to fame in the late 1980s as a vert skateboarder, Rogowski's behavior moved from typical teen antics to erratic manic behavior in addition to alcoholism. Street style skateboarding over took vert skating, and Rogowski had trouble catching up. After Rogowski and his girlfriend Brandi broke up, he lashed out on an old friend of hers, Jessica Bergsten; a woman he considered responsible for Brandi leaving him. 
