Let the nostalgia take flight!
“Beware nostalgia” – it’s holding you back from the rest of your life →theguardian.com
This is from a UK GUARDIAN article in 2014.. the nostalgia has changed a bit. The danger of nostalgia remains the same.
Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. It’s a signifier that you hate how your life has turned out. It’s a sign that you’ve mentally locked off, and you’re doomed to spend the rest of life drifting in a false reverie of a past that didn’t exist. Nostalgia is why Tim Lovejoy still dresses like it’s 1996 and is primed to weep the moment anyone mentions Ocean Colour Scene to him. It’s why all your Facebook friends spend their days in a whirlwind of incredulous bafflement at the passing of time, forever asking people to like JPEGs about conkers, all because they’re trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman they accidentally knocked up after ironically slow-dancing to I Want To Know What Love Is during a hideous School Disco party.
This isn’t a generational thing, incidentally. Everyone’s guilty of it. When I was growing up, I distinctly remember having teachers who would reminisce about their wartime evenings in Anderson shelters. Give them a time machine and the first thing they would do is dart back and relive their glory days shivering in a hole next to a bucket of wee, constantly awaiting terrifying death from above. At least you’re only nostalgic about Blind Date.
Stranger Things, Everything Sucks, and other similar shows have captivated and capitalized on an audience that wants the sugar coated past to come back again. We decorate the fragments of our history with beautiful imagery.. often ignoring the darker forces that are always at play regardless of the time frame.
Nostalgia is a dangerous thing.. it is a time
Nostalgia gives you the rush of memory.. the intense beauty of your childhood and your parents, your family.. the local mall that is now shuddered.. the laughter that has gone away with time.. Yes, nostalgia seems almost fixated in destroying your present time and future alike..
But with nostalgia, as the happiness becomes subdued and subsides, your moral compass turns towards the sadness and grief over the passage of time that comes with it.
We are all aging faster than we want to. Some us just don’t realize it until we have aged far too much.
And as you embrace nostalgia, as you welcome it when it comes knocking.. the inevitable dangers come with it. You will smile at its melancholy colors.. you will laugh along with its stories of past times go by.. and as you give it one last hug, you’ll swell with emotion.
…and that is when it sinks its vampire-style teeth deep into your soul, tearing your very insides out and forcing your body to weep the blood and tears of the past times gone by.
AIM IS DEAD!
LONG LIVE AIM!
AOL Instant Messenger died a silent death today. It was announced many months ago that the messaging service would cease to exist in December.
And today? It was over.
DEAD..
We know there are so many loyal fans who have used AIM for decades; and we loved working and building the first chat app of its kind since 1997. Our focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. We’re more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products.
I, like YOU, spent countless nights in the late 90s and early 2000s getting to the know the Internet while spending time in AIM. My name was Loomicide. And now… It’s AIMicicde. Gone.
And the saddest of all? YOUR BUDDY LIST IS GONE.
Can I save my Buddy List?
Unfortunately you are not able to save or export your Buddy List.
The net is reborn every hour.
But those old days of the wild NET west?…..they are the the days that will never come back again.
RIP.
If you’re like me, this old artwork from Blockbuster video gives you a rush of nostalgia.. a sudden burst of memories come flooding back about spending LOTS of time at places like this. Or maybe Hollywoood Video. Or perhaps your local video rental dive, where VHSs and DVDs were mixed together, and a whole shelf existed to rent old Wrestlemanias and Nintendo and Super Nintendo games.
These were the days.. The sunlight dimming across the ancient sky. And all the while you endless walked through mazes of video aisles trying to find the perfect video.
Be kind.
Rewind.
But time will never go back. The present time is here to stay. At least for this fleeting moment of our existence..
We do this all the time, we relive the nasty events and try to shad them in a civilized way. People strive to bring some common sense and normalcy of thought progression as to why things occurred.
I actually think the reason is quite simple.
THIS WAS MAD MAGAZINE FROM MARCH 1992..
During the prime of Professional Wrestling, at least in my life..
The stars pictured on the cover were big names.. Earthquake..Undertaker..Hogan..Warrior…Alfred..
I actually fondly recall having this issue, and keeping it around for years. From time to time I paged through it again.. It’s one of those back issues that somehow over the years I lost track of. It has vanished, despite my (sad) collection of old magazines, including several issues of MAD. This one, somehow, is gone..
But in my memory? It exists ..
Thanks for leaving such an indelible mark, Mad..
Not sure if anyone is looking for any last minute Christmas gifts for me.. but if so, find this amazing BLUE Hordak *true to the SHE-RA series and now the gray and black colors of typical actual figure paint jobs* … I saw the photograph of the REAL Hordak on the HE-MAN.ORG website.. I would pay to own this and add to my collection.
When I was a kid in the 80s, I never knew that the REAL types of figures existed. You just had to be in the right country and place to find them.
I recall the back of the HE-MAN boxes. There was a collect them all message with photos of the other action figures you can get. I always noticed the photos of the figures were just a BIT different than the actual action figures I found at my local KAY B toy store.. IT always upset me a bit that my HE-MAN and MAN AT ARMS didn’t look like they did in the cartoon, and that the back of the box showcased them to look exactly how they should look.. and in my hands was just the normal old boring HE-MAN and MAN AT ARMS.
But … the blue Hordak? Now THAT is the figure to have..
I also was checking this out on Amazon. Looks like a really cool book.. ANOTHER amazing gift idea (hint hint
Looks like a great, great book
IT’S OVER! Sorta…
The found horror movie crave is behind us.. So says Variety.. In an article celebrating the box office bomb that is the new BLAIR WITCH, the author, Owen Gleibermein, seems to celebrate the upcoming demise of the found horror movie. He also correctly points out that the demise may be far from happening–but the big profits of found movies may be over..
Horror is cyclical..
There may be some who have actually read postings of mine over the past many years. Thank you if you did. If you didn’t, this concept may be lost on you, so you let me explain my theory. A theory based off of observation and age..
I think horror movies and professional wrestling are allegories for the time that they originate.. the theme of any wrestling storyline or subject matter or popularity of a horror movie concept directly showcase the feelings, attitudes, and experiences of the generation that those said wrestling stories or horror movies come from.
The 1980s.. campy.. Ronald Reagan … The rise of the Christian right. The allegories abounded–Jason Vorhees from FRIDAY THE 13TH was as much a serial killer with a hockey mask as he was a Godlike figure who killed the sinners like a storyline from the Old Testament. Freddy Kreuger was a murderer in sleep, just as in the 80s what hurt us was behind covers. Wrestling? Hulkamania with the American flag and vitamins galore … Wrestling took on the campy feel and actually felt good. When Hulk Hogan beat the Iron Sheik, that fiction felt real .. as he dropped the leg on the Sheik and became champion, America had a feeling that reality just took place.
The 90s mocked the 80s. SCREAM made fun of the whole concept of 80s slashers… WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE attempted to kill off Freddy. Wish it would have. Stone Cold Steve Austin also chugged beer after body slamming authority on Monday Night RAW. The 80s kids grew up and moved into a new era…
In the 2000s, after 9/11 and torture policies, the SAW films became emblematic of torture porn… we accepted more blood and guts. Gore and torture.. Horror films showcased who we were—warfare and death on live TV, streaming online and on Facebook mobile. We see it all. Nothing more can be seen.. nothing more can be shocking.. We have become something from a horror movie itself…
So the death of found footage? Found footage is just a vehicle to deliver a theme. The theme of horror films..
And found footage is cheap. I don’t think it is going away, but certainly waning in popularity..
The good news: It seems like, as we move from torture into a new generation of desiring peace, we want storylines again. We want themes again that matter–big themes about life and death. Concepts that are move than just a few scares. The films IT FOLLOWS and BABADOOK are prime examples.. they portray women as victim and heroine, the ‘monsters’ are figureative and thematic.. and we get scared because the darkness of our minds is much more frightening than someone sawing their leg off to escape a demented killer.
We are maturing.. we are changing. And with it, so will wrestling and horror movies.
I end with a cautionary note… There is a chance that if Donald Trump wins, a remeregence of nationalism will come .. flags will wave.. and yes, the 1980s will be back in spirit. Expect a new Hulk Hogan. And slasher films.
Because just as much as horror and wrestling are thematic of the times we live in, life itself is cyclical.
I said snow. Strange for May. Of course in the 1800s we had a season with no summer, hope that won’t happen in ’16 but it sure felt it yesterday.
But one image I wanted to share. In the aftermath of the rain and snow and storm clouds, rainbows were popping up everywhere. Some dramatic photos showed up on my news feed on Facebook and Instagram. I stole one photo from my sister in law that shows a beautiful rainbow. The picture is unfiltered, nothing added … and the rainbow appears to be directly where St. Mauritius Church stood until only a few months back.
You may recall that I wrote about the structure as it was being torn down last year..
And now, a reminder of a building that was once there on a cold day in May.
Believe it or not, I am mostly a positive person with some negative traits. While admiring those who can see the glass half full all of the time, I strive for that. But lately, things in this area could not be more depressed..
This past weekend, after 20 years of existence, another store in my local mall shuddered and fell by the wayside. Black Diamond antiques in the Schuylkill Mall, Frackville PA.. it was a strange little place, filled with coveted items of yesterday, trinkets that had no specific meaning but most likely meant a lot to someone who passed away within the last 100 years, and old relics like typewriters, newspapers, and He-Man toys. As a matter of fact, I was able to mostly recreate my entire stock of He-Man toys that were tossed into the garbage late 20th century. My son Ayden gets the collection now. He was upset this weekend to learn that Black Diamond’s He-Man selection will vanish.
The problem with malls is that it is not 1989 anymore. Music stores? No need.. fast food? Less interest.. Specialty shops? Amazon!
Just as malls killed main street, Walmart killed malls. Walmart is being slowly impaled on the information superhighway, along with the remaining malls that still survive to today. People have no need for brick and mortar when they can click and order. It’s just the way of the world..
Will these same Amazon shoppers miss malls? Maybe not. A friend of mine complicit in the death of retail shopping holds no guilt. He is fine with the choices he made, completely lavishes in the speed of his goods being shipped and can’t wait for the day when drones can do it.
But those jobs!? (minimum wage, of course.. but summer employment for students and year round employment for seniors… all gone.)
I have been long enamored with the fate of malls. I always sensed it would happen. I am sure you did, too. Nothing after all lasts forever.
I have fond memories of teenage years, scavenging the mall for things to do but finding little. These days, teenagers in the mall would actually be a welcome site—back in the 90s they were always kicked out. Now they doors would be left wide open for ANYONE to come in.
I don’t give my own local mall too much longer.
The Schuylkill Mall even ended up on Deadmalls.com in 2006. No updates since that …
About a year and a half ago, I decided to call the mall management and give them some ideas. I actually penned them and typed them up, making a concise list of practical things I think they could do to replenish shoppers or even have new ideas that don’t involve shopping. One idea was to quit playing 80s music—that generation is gone and there’s no getting it back. Other ideas was an commerce center, indoor farm and market, and lots of free rent for a few months to spawn independent restaurants.
However this was before I completely read the graffiti on the bathroom stall like the holy scripture of the shopping mall: things aren’t coming back. Maybe there will be a few places.. but not many. Malls are gone. Main street USA is boarded up and not reopening. Jobs are vanquished. Drugs dominate. Towns that once celebrated sundown now fear it. The dead eyes of night stare at empty store fronts and peer into windows of dilapidated structures.
With all that said, I am positive for the future. Somehow.
But things indeed are changing.
The future will be drone delivered.
Perhaps what I will miss most? The photos of people trampling each other on Black Friday.
