A Royale with Cheese.

1994. The movies. The music. 30 years later.

[Warning: Lots of pop culture references from the 90s in this post. And profanity. And a movie clip with fake blood + profanity. All of which are on-brand. #IFKYK.]

[Transparency clause: I posted a shorter version of this to LinkedIn earlier today to help drum up business. But this ‘Stack is way cooler.]

Dude. 1994 was a crazy-ass-year.

(You can check out more events from 1994 over at History.com’s site.)

• Los Angeles Northridge Earthquake (6.7 magnitude) hit at 4:31am

• Rwanda experienced the massacre of an estimated 500,000 to 1 million innocent civilian Tutsis and moderate Hutus

• Kurt Cobain died by suicide at the age of 27

• Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered

• Quickly followed by the infamous slow police chase of O.J. Simpson in the Bronco

• Nancy Kerrigan attacked by thugs connected to fellow ice skater Tonya Harding

• John Candy died at the age of 43

• Richard Nixon died at the age of 81

• The “Chunnel” between England and France opened

• Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa’s 1st black president after 27 years as a political prisioner

• Amazon was founded (WTF? It’s been around for 30 years!?)

• The MLB canceled the World Series

• My husband started a new job — at the same place he still works today

• I was a junior in high school

• The billboard top 100 singles were all over the place — from Springsteen, to Elton John to Beck to Madonna to Janet Jackson to Richard Marx to Melissa Etheridge and even, 69 Boyz’s song, Tootsee Roll.

  • The Sign by Ace of Base was #1

  • Boyz 2 Men were signing about how they’d Make Love To You (#3)

  • At #6, Lisa Loeb, with her guitar and glasses, was asking you to Stay (cause I Missed You).

  • Salt-N-Pepa were flexing that women had needs, too, via Shoop (#29).

  • Snoop Dogg was sippin’ on Gin & Juice (#52)

  • At #82, Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y. let people know women shouldn’t tolerate assault and asked us, “who you callin’ a bitch!?”

• Movies, you ask? Speed, The Crow, Schindler’s List, The Lion King, True Lies, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Interview with The Vampire, Jurassic Park and Pulp Fiction AND SO MANY MORE were released.

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Yes, I’m aware all of the gifs are for Pulp Fiction except for this one.
Keanu will always be special and will always be an exception in my book.

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The idea for this post came from my convo with a creative director the other day, when he asked what do I do to help businesses. After rambling on for a minute, I responded that I'm a problem solver. He asked if I saw myself as "The Wolf" character from the 1994 movie, Pulp Fiction. Bingo. I even quote it on my resume.

During one scene in particular, there is a big problem and very little time to solve it. The interaction between John Travolta (Vincent Vega), Samuel L. Jackson (Jules Winnfield), Quentin Tarantino (Jimmie), and Harvey Keitel (Winston Wolfe) goes something like this:

The Wolf: Jimmie, lead the way. Boys, get to work.
Vincent: A please would be nice.
The Wolf: Come again?
Vincent: I said a please would be nice.
The Wolf: Get it straight buster, I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do, and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better fucking do it and do it quick. I'm here to help, if my help's not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen.
Jules: No, Mr. Wolf, it ain't like that, your help is definitely appreciated.
Vincent: I don't mean any disrespect, I just don't like people barking orders at me.
The Wolf: If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please, with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car.

Super early in my career, I actually had an office. On the wall behind my desk, was a large, framed picture of Sam Jackson (as Jules) holding his wallet with the words Bad Mother Fucker underneath the image. As a very young woman, in the very male-dominated video game industry, this sent a strong message for sure — and it served me well. (Side note: Does this mean I peaked at ages 21-25? Because I haven't had an office since thanks to stupid fucking open-floor plans and cubicle-hellscapes.)

I've channeled both The Wolf and Jules throughout my career to help keep me going through corporate bullshit and workplace shenanigans. I'm a very action-oriented- problem-solving-results-driven person, but I always make sure to say please and thank you, even in stressful situations — because of Pulp Fiction. And, like The Wolf, I too, enjoy a good cup of coffee (medium cream, no sugar).

FUN FACT: I once quoted The Wolf during an in-house presentation on the importance of consistently using work management software, and wanted to lighten the mood and make it memorable. So I closed my presentation with, "After watching Pulp Fiction this weekend, I'll end this with: pretty please, with sugar on top, use fucking Workfront" and was quickly reprimanded for my use of language. Another sign (I ignored), that it wasn't the right place for me.

Besides the stupid amount of quotable lines from Pulp Fiction, the soundtrack was superb — it felt different than others with a retro-vibe, crazy diatribes and other movie quotes. I must have listened to it for months on repeat.

My friends and I saw Pulp Fiction many times during ‘94 and ‘95, mostly around the South Bay of LA, and many times at the amazing Bijou Theater (RIP) in Hermosa Beach. I lost count how many times I saw it, but without fail, each time I crave pancakes and bacon afterwards. The diner that they filmed the famous honey-bunny-wallet scene was over in Hawthorne. I was lucky enough to eat there once before it shut down. Tarantino grew up in Torrance, so his connection to the South Bay is prevalent in most of his movies… but I’m way more South Bay than he is. At this time, I wasn’t hip to Reservoir Dogs yet, but would later go back and appreciate it.

If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a Big Kahuna Burger! Or just go grab some popcorn and enjoy some movie clips:

Thanks for stopping by.