I wore a LOT of flannel in the mid 90’s. I tried wearing steel-toe boots once but I tripped and skinned both my knees. There was a phase where I wanted to die my hair fire-engine red, but I couldn’t commit to it, so it ended up this weird orangey-sad-blonde. The grungy-badass thing was not a great fit for me.

1996 was the year that Romeo + Juliet (the movie) came out. Leo and Claire came barging into my awkward consciousness, convincing me that love is only true love if it involves dramatic prose, Venice Beach, bed forts, drag shows, and a lot of crying. It has not been proven otherwise.

Garbage joined the Cranberries, Nirvana, Fiona Apple, The Smashing Pumpkins and 4 Non Blondes in my Discman rotation when I was 13. This meant that a song like “I’m Only Happy When it Rains” was taken literally. Since I grew up in Tucson, Arizona (where sunshine was born), I spent a lot of time in my room, writing in my diary and jamming hard to this.

So on this rainy Friday morning in Phnom Penh, I revisit Garbage and reconsider going all out with the Manic Panic.