Let me take you back to 1997.....

Back when SUVs started to take over the roads more, Blockbuster Music was in existence, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs was in his 20's along with his homeboy Mase still rapping and 85% of the publishers on Tumblr right now were still teething and sucking nipples for milk. Back when Mike Piazza was still with the Dodgers, the Macintosh was hard to find and get(cause they sucked and only schools had them), and Tommy Hillfiger and Nautica ruled the cold world. Finally, back when it cost extra to add the Disney Channel to your premium cable package, unless you had a Blackbox.

Speaking of childhood nostalgia, this is what I'm getting at.

Remember this shit? I'm sure as hell you do.

I moved to Granada Hills from North Hollywood in the fall of that year. My first time living in an upscale home with stairs, a wet bar and a Jacuzzi (which doesn't fuckin' work anymore). My sister, brother and I didn't go to the same elementary schools for some reason when school started. Every where I go, I'd see kids in their schools with these damn glasses. I had to get one in order to fit in with the youth of that portion of the San Fernando Valley.

So like every nine-year-old kid, I did what ever I can to make my mom get me those specks. I could've easily gone down to the former Blockbuster Video store that used to be near my house since they participated with the tie-in that Nickelodeon sponsored, but keep in mind that this was the mid to late 90's and I was the one of the only few black kids living in the Knollwood Country Club homes that time. Plus I never walked alone at that age. I made my mom finally got a box of cereal that came with the glasses. Keep in mind I don't eat cereal but this was very crucial and I told her that it can be for my younger sister since she ate almost everything that time. Those glasses looked fucking perfect and sexy when I looked at them up close. Damn, this was when Home Improvement was still one of the hottest TV shows that time and Titanic wasn't gonna come out and blow up the box office in a few weeks.

Now these glasses were supposed to be used to watch 3-D episodes of a weeks worth of Nickelodeon programs. A week before that, my siblings and I had to stay at this married couple's house in Sylmar (my first of many times to visit that town) to watch us for the weekend cause my parents were going out of town (why can't they do that more often nowadays). I took these glasses everywhere I went, including those people's house. Unfortunately, me still being a young kid, I accidentally lost them over there so I wasn't able to view those Nickelodeon shows in 3-D when they were broadcasted. I managed to get another pair and when those episodes were on repeats, they still weren't on 3-D. Cause the network made those re-runs into standard regular 2-D versions as opposed to the 3-D versions that they telecasted before that. Then I misplaced those glasses again later.

This was the the 3-D craze that I knew, way before the overrated shit that's been happening now. About every film that's out now is in 3-D thanks to James Cameron's Avatar flick, which I saw only the first 5 minutes on some photographer's iPad back in May, minus the 3-D. Now Sony is already releasing flat screen Bravia televisions that are 3-D ready and the glasses for those TVs' are worth over, I shit you not, $150. I tried them out at the Sony Style in Topanga mall a few weeks ago and it only works a little bit. Waste of money for both the TV and the glasses. Plus, its overrated. I mean, there are many people out there who are either blind or those that can see but have very poor vision or can only see with one eye. You get the idea.

So finally, it looks like Three Dimension is gonna be a new standard format from now on. From the Princess Leia-style hologram trick that CNN did during the 2008 election broadcast to the World Cup itself being broadcasted in 3-D. To me, its only cool for only 5 minutes and then you get tired of it. When you're a kid, its cool to them for a long time until they realize how far they've gone in their lives.