Drewography

90s alternative rock stuff

Spring Break 1995: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Have the Pictures to Prove It

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The little boombox that could.

This is the story of four boys from Queens making their way to Cancun, Mexico for Spring Break in the 1990s. With a legal drinking age of 18, going south of the border was the only viable destination.

Thanks to an old school travel agency, the kind where you sit on the other side of a desk from a human being and plan a trip, we were able to make our booking and pay in installments. Without the “layaway” option, that $600 trip would have never been a reality.

Every other week, I would stop by Empress Travel in Bayside to drop off an envelope filled with cash. All told, I probably had to work over 100 hours to pay for the trip. But as we all learn, the sacrifice to make “forever” memories are always worth it.

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Ariel Rider Rideal Review – One of the Best Electric Bikes Under $1,000

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Ariel Rider Rideal high-step bike in black.

With working-from-home days for the masses winding down, I knew it was time to up my bicycle commuting game.

I’ve biked back-and-forth to the office a handful of times a year. But given the advancements in the electric bike category, including hill-flattening PAS systems and more affordable entry points, there is no excuse for me NOT to make an e-bike my primary mode of transportation back-and-forth to work.

However, I was unprepared for the number of lightweight electric bike choices currently on the market.

I quickly found myself spiraling down a rabbit hole, and indecision paralysis set in. What started as an innocent hunt for a solid bike turned into a quest for perfection. My budget ballooned from a $1,000 e-bike to $5,000. I became consumed with torque sensors vs. cadence sensors. I obsessed over bike classes and weight. Honestly, there was a time when I spent as much time watching Court Rye on ElectricBikeReview.com than with my kid!

I needed to break out of the rut. I had taken enough test drives and done enough reading. So armed with all of the data I collected over several months, I did what any logical human being would do: I bought a bike that didn’t have a single review available on the Web.

The Ariel Rider Rideal

And it is easily one of the best electric bikes under $1,000.

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Aerosmith: My Angel to Winning Radio Contests (and gateway to Vanilla Ice)

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At 12 years old, every night wound down the same way. After brushing my teeth, I’d lay down in my “captain’s bed” with the steering-wheel headboard, my yellow Sony Sports boombox against the wall, and fall asleep with my ear pressed against the speaker, the volume just loud enough to be audible.

Then it happened. Usually, between 2am – 3am.

Aerosmith’s “Angel” would come on the radio, and I would rise from the dead.

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Tom Petty’s “Walls” Paved the Way for the 1996 New York Yankees Championship

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Sports and superstitious rituals go together like baseball and chicken. 

Well, that’s true if you ask Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who correlated his hitting success to chowing down on pre-game chicken.

And that’s not even the strangest sports ritual. 

We can pick apart Wayne Gretzky’s baby powdered hockey stick, Jason Giambi’s golden thong, and Moises Alou’s “pee hands.” But today, we are here to talk about how I single-handily helped the New York Yankees win their 23rd world championship after an 18-year dry spell back in 1996.

OK, OK. I didn’t help the Yanks win alone.

My sister helped.

Tom Petty helped, too.

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Kmart Radio Network: The Soundtrack of Minimum Wage

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As a Kmart employee back in the 90s, I spent many days and nights having my ears infiltrated by the Kmart Radio Network.

It was never a smooth transition from Bryan Adams, “Everything I Do” to an ad for two-ply paper towels. There was no easy way to shift from the Muzak version of “Always” by Atlantic Starr into “Save with Layway!”

But that was the Kmart way.

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The Nelson Twins Asked: “Will you love me, like you loved me yesterday?” And the answer is, “YES!”

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The Nelson twins . Too hard to be soft and too soft to be hard.

Their manufactured fashion sense and pretty boy looks made it hard for anyone to take them seriously.

But I did.

From the moment I hit record on my Fisher VCR to tape the “Love and Affection” video on Saturday Morning Videos, I was enamored.

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