21 Years of Ska

21 years ago was 1998. I was in 8th grade and had decided to leave behind the darkness of my gothic days for the bright world of ska, pop-punk, and the So-Cal music scene. It would be simplistic to say that ska saved my life, but in retrospect, I think it did. In the same way that joining a high school theater group rescued me from the raging drug scene that was unfolding in San Diego in the early 2000s, it’s safe to say that the music, the bands, and the movement of ska pulled me out of the incredibly self-destructive place I was in during my goth days.

21 years later and it’s now 2019. I can’t believe how much time has passed since those days. It’s wild to me because I remember those days so clearly. I remember wearing little red cardigan sweaters from the local thrift store with black mini-skirts and black Converse. I remember painting black checkers on my white shoelaces to be more “two-tone.” I remember paying $5 at the EpiCenter to see bands like MxPx, Less Than Jake, Noise Ratchet, and SpareChange play to a bunch of pre-emo Scene kids.

Why am I walking down this particular memory lane tonight? Why am I retreating back to LiveJournal-style blogging after almost 20 years? Because I’m watching a new documentary called Pick It Up — Ska in the ’90s. This movie is rocking my world. Singers and musicians from ska bands have come together to share about this golden time in music history.

I’m in the middle of watching it right now and it is giving me sooooo many feels! Hence, I felt it was time to bring back my LiveJournal. Of course, my original LiveJournal is long gone, so we’ll use Medium. My message board handle from back in the day is also gone. Wanna know what it was? Just for old time’s sake: SkaDelucious. Yup. My handle on the SpareChange message boards of 1999 was SkaDelicious. My first handle ever was DeadDoris, which was during my goth days, and my original Yahoo handle was PunkRawkGrrl. So you could say I went from the dead girl to the ska girl to the punk girl. Ah, youth.

I’ll have a full review of Pick It Up — Ska in the ’90s tomorrow. I’ll also have links to share about where you can pick up a copy of this amazing film.

Bless,

Lauren Gallaway — formerly SkaDelucios*