Shakedown 1999: What Were *You* Doing That Year?

Today is my 11-anniversary of being in Los Angeles—my L.A.-versary, if you will. I realized this while driving past my old apartment on Melrose Avenue around noon today, and it got me thinking about those halcyon days as the '90s were about to come to an end. So I started compiling a mental list of what was going on, both in pop culture and in my personal life, in the last year of the millennium.

I posted it below, but tell me—what were you doing in 1999? Was it a good year or a bad one? (Or maybe a little bit of both?)

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* In May 1999, I packed up, left behind my illustrious career as assistant manager of a Blockbuster Video store in Butler, Pennsylvania, and drove to Los Angeles. I had no job lined up, but a month prior, I'd flown out and secured an apartment. The trip took four days. I got to L.A. on May 12.

* The #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of May 12, 1999 was Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca."

* The monthly rent on my two-bedroom apartment on Melrose Avenue in 1999 was $775. That included all utilities. You probably can't even rent a post office box for that cheap here now.

* The #1 movie at the box office the week of May  12, 1999: The Mummy.

* The first two purchases I made the day I got to L.A.: a bed and the soundtrack to my favorite TV show at the time, Felicity (which I bought at the now-shuttered Aron's Records on Highland Avenue).

* #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart the week of May 12, 1999:  TLC's FanMail.

* Two weeks later I was hired as a "delivery assistant" at fledgling film production company/overseas distributor Summit Entertainment, where I'd go on to work till September 2000. At the time they made low budget straight-to-video/DVD trash like Kill The Man, and distributed indie movies like Chuck And Buck. These days the company produces classy fare like The Hurt Locker and the Twilight movies.

* Two long-running TV series that ended in May 1999: Melrose Place and Mad About You.

* The first concert I saw in Los Angeles, on June 5, 1999: Saint Etienne at the House Of Blues.

 * Earlier that day, I took this photo of Sarah Cracknell and Pete Wiggs during a CD-signing session at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset Blvd.:

* Other concerts I saw in 1999: NSync (with B*witched as opening act), Backstreet Boys, Pet Shop Boys. Britney Spears played in L.A. that summer, with Steps as the opener, but tickets sold out before I could snag them.

* I had been in a relationship for three years prior to moving. Naturally, relocating nearly 3,000 miles away was the beginning of the end of that.

* In 1999, Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare In Love) won Best Actress and Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful) won Best Actor at the Academy Awards, while Shakespeare In Love was named Best Motion Picture.

* Two movies from spring 1999 that struck a chord: Edge Of Seventeen and Get Real (which I saw two days after moving to Los Angeles).

* Overall, it was kind of depressing and lonely here that first year. I didn't really start to settle in until 2000. But the songs below are the ones that got me through, whether they were singles I bought or jams I simply cranked up on the radio while exploring the City Of Angels.

MY ULTIMATE SPRING/SUMMER 1999 PLAYLIST:




1. "Kiss Me" — Sixpence None The Richer
2. "No Scrubs" —TLC
3. "I Want It That Way" — Backstreet Boys
4. "I Breathe Again" — Adam Rickitt
5. "Angel Of Mine" — Monica
6. "Better Best Forgotten" — Steps
7. "Never Knew Love" — Nightcrawlers
8. "Believe" — Cher
9. "Be The First To Believe" — A1
10. "Viva La Radio" — Lolly
11. "Sometimes" — Britney Spears
12. "Forever" — Tina Cousins
13. "Boom Boom Boom Boom" — Vengaboys
14. "Give It To You" — Jordan Knight
15. "Bailamos" — Enrique Iglesias
16. "Genie In A Bottle" — Christina Aguilera
17. "It's Not Right But It's Okay" — Whitney Houston
18. "The Animal Song" — Savage Garden
19. "That Don't Impress Me Much" — Shania Twain
20. "Bring It All To Me" — Blaque feat. JC Chasez
21. "All 'Bout The Money" — Meja
22. "We Live" — Bosson
23. "So Many Ways" — Ellie Campbell