#Modern Culture Gets a Makeover Modern Culture Gets a Makeover » Typical 90′s childhood nostalgia Comments Feed Modern Culture Gets a Makeover * About * Archive * Subscribe by Email Typical 90's childhood nostalgia Tweet [pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png] IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/comments.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chic agonow.com%2Fmodern-culture-makeover%2F2014%2F12%2Ftypical-90s-childhoo d-nostalgia%2F%23comments&permalink=1 By Miko, December 30, 2014 at 1:41 pm The decade that began with a recession, and that ended with the biggest surplus in American history. Trust me, no 90's kid really remembers the decade for the Soviet Union finally breaking apart, or the fact that the internet could show us naked people and conspiracy theories were all the rage. Personally, I was born in the mid 90's, so I didn't actually live out my entire youth in that decade, but let me tell you that didn't stop me from immersing myself in absolutely everything 90's. To this day, I still live in the never ending nostalgia that the 90's holds over me, and I couldn't be more happy or proud about it. So I'll leave you with 6 things that, for me, made the 90's all that (and a bag of chips): 1. The Music I couldn't pick just one musical artist to rant about for this section, because I'll be honest when I say that hands down, the 90's had some of the best music. The 90's produced and saw the rise of some of the best bands, artists, and musicians of (perhaps) all time. None of this Lady Gaga or Pitbull crap. Nirvana seemed to capture the angst of an entire decade and put it to music, while musicians like No Doubt and Blink 182 made all our aspirations in life change to desperately wanting to be a punk skater with all the feels in Cali. We saw the uprising of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, and Weezer, as Tupac told us to keep our heads up. Country, rap, pop, grunge, punk, even boy bands had their share of the lime light in the 90's, and were highly celebrated. They demanded their way into our hearts with powerful love songs from Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and many others. No matter the genre, the music was just purely incredible. I will leave you to enjoy what is believed to be the most iconic song of the 90's (even though it came out in 1999 it still counts): IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/C-u5WLJ9Yk4 2. The Wonderball Photo courtesy of mywonderball.com (photo courtesy of mywonderball.com) Every kid remembers the wonder ball and the mystical powers it had over our Pokemon lunchboxes (unless you were a Digimon kid). Nestle knew what they had done when they created the most revered candy of the 90's. Who knew it would turn out to be as simple as a hollow chocolate ball with a surprise inside. Originally, the Wonderball was filled with little plastic toys to later be recalled after they proved to be a major choking hazard (I still have my tiny Simba to this day). The toys were short lived, and well noticed when they were replaced with a disappointing alternate solution. Nestle combated the situation by filling their previous death traps with a smarter and less cool substitute: candy. A few pieces of strangely flavored hard candy in the shape of cartoon characters. Basically, candy inside of candy, something that wasn't anywhere near as genius as before. Needless to say, that wasn't as rad as tiny plastic toys that we may or may not choke on. So yes, the wonder ball was extremely short lived, and if you look hard enough, you will still be able to find the little toys on ebay or the candies lame knock off counter parts "Choco Treasure." 3. Goosebumps We counted exactly how many goose bumps these books actually gave us and we sometimes had to read them in groups (because it was fun, not because we were scared or anything). What better way to enjoy childhood than to read a total of 62 novellas on horror. The author, R. L. Stine, wrote these books with every idea of the word "trolling" in mind. The stories he came up with had odd endings and strange twists and turns. The horror was taking what goes "bump in the night" and making it kid friendly. You would think you're reading a book about sharks and later on it was all about those damn mermaids. Nonetheless, they were an enjoyable staple for my childhood as the Goosebumps books were my favorite. They were so good, they even made (a rather cheesy) television show about it. IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/eHN1FvS1wTc 4. The Fads (geared towards kids) You would be lying to yourself if you grew up in or around the 90's era and could said you didn't own or see anything Lisa Frank themed. Though five year old me never even knew if Lisa Frank was a real person or why she was important, I found myself owning pencil cases and other school supplies with her name and the iconic cheetahs, unicorns, and cats on it. Lisa Frank was so popular, it was crazy to not have a binder or folder with her trademark. Everything was a weird psychedelic technicolor rainbow coloring and neon tiger cubs pranced about with surfing penguins. It's almost like today's equivalency of Ed Hardy themed everything. At least I know Ed Hardy is a tattoo artist and his style is in a sailor manner. I'm still not sure what Lisa Frank does or if she is actually a person. I'll randomly research it for my own knowledge later. Among the Lisa Frank sticker rainbow brigade, slap bracelets, shoes that lit up with each step, and polly pockets were of the norm. Crazy bones cursed our feet just as Legos did, and Bop Its ruled recess as troll dolls with the weird super tall hair littered my worst childhood nightmares alongside Furbies. TY brand hit the jackpot in the 90's when they came up with the most popular stuffed animal, Beanie Babies. They popped out of no where, hitting the motherload, as they soon become the "thing to have." The hunt was on to get every single one and collectors thought that one day they would be worth millions. 5. The Tamagotchi The Gigapet was one of my most prized possessions, and I even had the little Pikachu version, which really was just a glorified pedometer to which you gained "points" from steps so you could play slots with Pikachu. The next "high tech" pet you could get your hands on, though, was something we found ourselves having difficulties pronouncing and didn't teach our kids what gambling was at a young age. The Tamagotchi was the next big thing that trumped giga pets of all kinds, and lived long enough to have multiple versions, connect to other tamagotchis, and I even think the internet at one point. Pretty much it was a glorified virtual pet rock as any other key chain screen pet, but for some reason the added options and the indescribable creatures the tamagotchis were made kids batshit crazy for them. Parents were sent to toy stores all over to try and find one or the next version with the niftiest pattern. Pretty much, you were the cooliest of the cool kids if you had a tamagotchi, or heaven forbid, a collection of them. 6. 90's Cartoons I saved this one for last because it literally is the best part about the 90's. Just as the music of the 90's was too fantastic to pick just one iconic band, the same goes for this decades cartoons. Often referred to as the golden age of cartoons, this decade was packed of so many types of cartoons full of entertainment, various art styles, and content so ridiculous that Catdog was a thing. Even after the turn of the century, myself and many others still find ourselves watching and marveling over these television shows. The amount of satire, inappropriate content, stabs at politics and the dark and crude humor of 90's cartoons was something new that the decade brought to the plate. Shows such as The Simpson's, Spongebob Square Pants, South Park, and Futurama as still playing today as new episodes are still being made, and some forget that they first originated in the 90's as cartoons pushing the buttons of it's viewers. The 90's knew what it was doing with cartoons, or rather, didn't know what they were doing with cartoons. The fact that they had the artist freedom with cartoons made it all that more enjoyable. Characters were insane, the content was sometimes vulgar, and the art styles were close from being perfect. This added to the charm of 90's cartoons. The most enjoyable part was that most of the cartoons from that decade were meant for younger kids, but could also be enjoyed by adults as well. The idiocy and weirdness had multiple levels that could be liked by most age groups, as well as the making of cartoons that was geared just towards adults. If you are interested in checking out some 90's cartoons, I will provide a small list of the ones I found most iconic at the end of this blog post. You might be pleased to find that you can find some of them on Netflix, though you might have to check the kids section. Needless to say, I made it through the decade and after without frosted tips and I don't have to use napster nowadays to get my music (thank you iTunes and Spotify). I'll stick to my Pokemon and cartoon as I run on high amounts of 90's kid nostalgia. List of rather awesome 90's cartoons that I promised (in no particular order): * Captain Planet * Angry Beavers * Swat Kats * Ren and Stimpy * Pokemon * Aaahh!!! Real Monsters * Dragon Ball Z * Beavis and Butt-Head * Rugrats * Daria * Powerpuff Girls * Dexter's Laboratory * Animaniancs * Johnny Bravo * Rocko's Modern Life Type your email address in the fancy box below and click the "create subscription" button. You won't receive any spam, I promise, and you can opt out at any time. * ex: the90sruled@hotm * [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)___________________ Filed under: Uncategorized Tags: 90's Tweet [pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png] IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/comments.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chic agonow.com%2Fmodern-culture-makeover%2F2014%2F12%2Ftypical-90s-childhoo d-nostalgia%2F%23comments&permalink=1 Leave a comment * ChicagoNow is full of win Welcome to ChicagoNow . Meet our bloggers, post comments, or pitch your blog idea. Sign in Pitch your idea * Advertisement: * Fresh Chicago News * Meet The Blogger Miko An artistic and musical queer who has a lot to say and even more to write about. Just like any other informal 21 year old, Michelle writes rants about anything and everything. She thinks feminism is a must, and modern culture needs to readjust. * Subscribe by Email ex: john@hotmail.com [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)___________________ Completely spam free, you can opt out any time. * IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=http://www.faceboo k.com/chicagonow&show_faces=true&stream=false&width=326&colorscheme =light&border_color&header=true&height=290 * Latest on ChicagoNow + You just know the Cardinals are going to land Shields, right? from Cubs Den by John Arguello posted today at 6:08 pm + 10 Reasons Why I Really Dislike My Pre-Double Digit! from Inspire Me Chicago by LadyA-TFM posted today at 3:20 pm + The Chicago Now Year-Long "Issue" Project: The Time of Judges from White Sox and Stuff by Kevin Kaufmann posted today at 2:25 pm + Thank Gene Baker for Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor by Dennis Byrne posted today at 1:28 pm + Cancer and bad luck: healthy people get cancer from Cancer Is Not A Gift by Kerri K. Morris posted today at 12:59 pm * Related posts From Lifestyle: GLBT » + The dream meeting that may be more pipe smoke than reality » Meggan Sommerville on Trans Girl at the Cross Posted Tuesday at 7:50 pm + Splish Splash iPhone Bath » Lia on The World According to Gay Posted January 15, 2015 at 9:21 pm * Related blogs + Trans Girl at the Cross Insights into being a Christian transgender woman + The World According to Gay A gay Chicagoan chronicles her life in college. More from Lifestyle: GLBT * Read these ChicagoNow blogs + Talking to the World A global conversation embracing our oommonalities, sharing our differences o Sweden: Excellence, Equality, and Pippi Longstocking + Future Sox Following the future stars of your Chicago White Sox. o FutureSox exclusive interview with GM Rick Hahn + The Hockey Noob A lifelong fan learns to play the game o Free Skating Lessons & Public Skate at Millennium Park * Read these ChicagoNow Bloggers + Poppy Doyle from Expat Mamma: If I wanted to stay inside I wouldn't have hired a babysitter! + Marian Cheatham from Everyday Eastland: End of Life Decisions - I thought I was ready to say good-bye to Mom, but I wasn't. + Julia Passamani from Lipstick, Lollipops & Life: New Illinois cyberbullying law requires access to student social media passwords * Advertisement: ChicagoNOW * About ChicagoNow * • * FAQs * • * Advertise * • * Recent posts RSS * • * Privacy policy * • * Comment policy * • * Terms of service * • * Chicago Tribune Archives * • * Chicago Internet Marketing Services * • * Car Quick ©2015 CTMG - A Chicago Tribune website - Crafted by the News Apps team #publisher Village Voice: Columns Welcome to villagevoice.com Columns Search______________ Submit * Entire Site * Articles & Blogs * Restaurants * Places * Events * Music * Images * Ads * Bars * Best Of * Movies NEWS CALENDAR MUSIC RESTAURANTS ARTS FILM VIDEO BEST OF PROMOTIONS CLASSIFIEDS New York NewsLocal News BlogLongformThe Holiday IssueSchooledStudies in CrapArchives SearchWeekly NewsletterGet Mobile ARCHIVES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 New York EventsTop PicksSubmit an EventTop ConcertsEvents NewsletterGet MobileEntertainment AdsTicketsDating New York MusicMusic BlogConcert CalendarAsk Andrew W.K.Pazz + JopNYC NightlifeMusic NewsletterSubmit an EventMusic Classes ARCHIVES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 NYC RestaurantsFood Blog99 Essential RestaurantsHappy HoursFind a RestaurantCooking ClassesNewsletterMobileAdsHoliday SpiritsDating ARCHIVES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 New York ArtsNew York TheaterArts NewsletterArtGet MobileEntertainment AdsObie AwardsBooksDanceDatingArt & Dance Classes ARCHIVES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 New York MoviesShowtimesTrailers2014 Film PollPodcastFilm NewsletterStephanie ZacharekRepertory FilmGet MobileFree StuffDating Things to do in New York2013201220112010Best Of NewsletterGet MobileBest Of Ads New York PromotionsPromotional EventsStreet TeamFree StuffPromotions NewsletterVillage Voice Music Video PlayerBuysMusic ChannelTickets New York ClassifiedsPost an AdMedical StudiesAdvertiser IndexBuysAfter Dark Top news Stories * DMV to Internet-less New Yorkers: Get in Line By Jared Chausow * On Lena Dunham's Book Signing By Katie Toth * Road Rage By Elizabeth Flock * City Hid Facts From Feds About Rikers By Albert Samaha * Flood Wall Street Gets Pepper Sprayed and Arrested By Anna Merlan * 'I Was Choked by the NYPD' By Jon Campbell * Report Sheds Light on Anti-Muslim Bias By Jon Campbell * Rikers Island Lawsuits Over Diabetic Care By Albert Samaha Nostalgia Has Wussified Our Culture! Make It Stop! It's getting out of control—hear me out A A A Comments (0) By Michael Musto Wednesday, Feb 29 2012 * * * * * "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be," warned the title of the fondly remembered memoir written by movie actress Simone Signoret. But she lied! Nostalgia is always there, always seductive, and always growing because there's continually more past to draw from and more media to view it on. It develops like a warming blanket made out of a fungus, proving way more treacherous than it was when nostalgia wasn't so bad. The danger inherent in nostalgia—just like in anti-anxiety medication—is that it's so outwardly safe, radiating a comfort level that can insidiously distort the truth and prove positively deadening to the spirit. Obsessively diving back into the joys of yesteryear is guiltily pleasurable, but it interrupts us from dealing with now, preparing for tomorrow, and moving to a better apartment. We love turning to the past because it reminds us of younger days (either our own or our culture's) and also because we only tend to look at the good stuff and forget that just as much crap came out then as now. By harking back to Ingrid Bergman films and Alfred Hitchcock Presents—or even Britney's debut singles and Sex and the City reruns—while wearing rose-tinted glasses that crowd out all the hypocrisy, Puritanism, and malaise of those eras, we're lulled into a sense that everything really was better back then. Nostalgia leaves out the D-list movies, the exploitation, the racism and homophobia, and the way dysfunction and disease weren't talked about except in extremely unproductive hushed tones. It gives us the greatest hits of an era minus the horrors that made those hits essential for any aesthete to survive it all. Owen stands in for Woody in Midnight in Paris. Sony Pictures Owen stands in for Woody in Midnight in Paris. Last year, filmmakers avidly dug into the dusty, musty treasure trove of faded gems and came up with a slew of highly polished nostalgia nibbles, figuring the public would line up to pay for them. (And they would have if the economy were as good as it used to be!) Eight of the nine Oscar nominees for Best Picture were period films, for chrissake. (And the other one—the family drama The Descendants—could just as easily have been. It didn't seem moored in any time.) The cineaste's way out of the horror of today apparently isn't reinvention and protest; it's escaping into retroism, the way the '70s looked back on the '50s, the '40s winked back on the teens, and the Cro-Magnons went gaga for any Neanderthal sitcom. And The Help did manage to make a fortune, mainly because it rewrote the past by giving it a punchline and some modern-day liberal satisfaction. It's the 1960s if a Hollywood screenwriter were there to re-edit it as it happened. Similarly, Woody Allen scored his biggest triumph in ages with the charming literary-lite comedy Midnight in Paris, which makes time travel seem so incredibly appealing because the protagonist gets sucked into a glamorous swirl of big names and supper clubs. Who wouldn't want to go backward if, instead of hanging out with your whiny wife, you're partying with all manner of historically important cognoscenti, glitterati, and fashionisti? In the film, a fortysomething writer travels back to 1920s Paris and runs into virtually every creative artist and celebrity in town. And he gets to side-trip to 1890s Paris, too, at no extra expense! In the process, he manages to act out a lot of the expected know-it-all jokes about Buñuel, Gertrude Stein, and so on, for those who read New Yorker cartoons or Woody short stories. That's because any fool knows that it's not really Owen Wilson doing the traveling. It's Woody foisting his own obsessions on a younger character, the way he has been forced to do by the reality of movie-land demographics. (I'm getting nostalgic for Woody movies starring himself.) Woody is misty for a time when fortyish writers were nostalgic for Hemingway and Fitzgerald, so he has simply acted like it's still happening, and people have bought it out of sheer will. And we can already look back on Midnight in Paris and the lovely time we had seeing it last summer—though I can vividly remember feeling that even if Owen/Woody finally realizes that the present is always better, the movie is peddling the opposite idea with every frosted frame. But the Oscars' Best Picture, The Artist, is the most aggressive attempt to rewind the clock since Ted Turner launched his cable channels. It's not only about the '20s, it's also done as if it were made in the '20s—a silent film about silent films, complete with cute shots of a dog plucked out of a TCM classic. But echoing the '30's A Star Is Born and the '50's Singin' in the Rain, it also turns cinema's transitional period when movies began to talk into the ultimate self-reflexive entertainment, Hollywood happy ending and all. I'm surprised the characters never run into Owen Wilson. Or me! One of the weirdest periods of my life came several decades ago, when I got a free membership to a video store (remember them?) and, deciding I had to catch up with the entire world canon, set about compulsively renting one old movie after another. It really became a sickness. After I rented every romantic comedy ever made, I then had to see the foreign films, the musicals, and eventually even the westerns. And then I had to see them all over again. I was using the past to avoid total life immersion, and as a result, that's one era I don't get too nostalgic for. But I'll tell you what really used to be way better: memoir titles! Even if they were dead wrong. musto@villagevoice.com Show Pages Related Content __________________________________________________________________ Sponsor Content "> [clear5.png] Email to Friend [clear5.png] Write to Editor [clear5.png] Print Article My Voice Nation Help 6 comments Livefyre * Get Livefyre * FAQ Sign in + Follow Post comment Link Newest | Oldest NuRose NuRose 5pts it's made you a wuss, maybe, but i could care less. crying over this crap...this was as insightful as a Yelp! review complaining about a bar/restaurant's clientele being too "Hipster-y". Ryan Schultz Ryan Schultz 5pts Midnight in Paris was definitely a self-absorbed flick by Woody Allen. To the authors point, he's correct. We should let go of the past and enjoy today. We may minimize 'today' now, but in 15-years we'll think this the golden age. Don't disappoint your future self—live well now. Mark Levy Mark Levy 5pts "Midnight" would have been okay if Woody hadn't trotted out every wrong-headed biographical cliche about the characters he resurrects for little Owen...Like many recent Allen films, this one just gets it all wrong in that arrogant self-centered way the author has adopted in the last decade. He's angry at all the wrong people...he should be pissed off at himself for what he's become: a bad writer lost in his navel. connie connie 5pts great article - the dancing in "The Artist" would have made Astaire wince - but who remembers? and sorry, still can't think of "Woody" as anything other than the incestuous pedophile he really is... with knobby knees no less.(unless you think adopting children don't make them your children? what a concept.)btw, sick of Clooney, also, - the advice "be nice to everyone" apparently doesn't apply to his girlfriends - it's not nice to use em and dump em, and make believe no one is conscious enough to notice! phew! Bea Bea 5pts Great column. You've hit the nail on the head about what's wrong with this nostalgia trend. I pray it passes and we get back to Sam Peckinpah-type stuff. (But I guess I'm being nostalgic just by saying that.) Deity Deity 5pts I love "fashionisti". Powered by Livefyre Now Trending * Are New York City's Rats Really Partial to Chinese Food? Are New York City's Rats Really Partial to Chinese Food? * Sorry, Airpnp, but George Costanza Got There First Sorry, Airpnp, but George Costanza Got There First * Here's How Sheldon Silver First Became One of the Most Powerful People in New York Here's How Sheldon Silver First Became One of the Most Powerful People in New York * Issues of Charlie Hebdo Being Sold on Craigslist Issues of Charlie Hebdo Being Sold on Craigslist * Here's How the MTA Fare Increases Add Up Over a Year Here's How the MTA Fare Increases Add Up Over a Year * Brooklyn Cops Load Up Two Vans Full of Teens to See Selma Brooklyn Cops Load Up Two Vans Full of Teens to See Selma * Two New Yorkers Re-Create MTA's Etiquette Campaign Ads Two New Yorkers Re-Create MTA's Etiquette Campaign Ads * New York's King of Open Data Gives TEDx Talk New York's King of Open Data Gives TEDx Talk * The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore Asks the Right Questions, But Doesn't Have Any Answers The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore Asks the Right Questions, But Doesn't Have Any Answers * Reverend Billy Talen Will Seek $500,000 in Defamation Lawsuit Against MTA Reverend Billy Talen Will Seek $500,000 in Defamation Lawsuit Against MTA New York Concert Tickets Village Voice on Facebook IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/activity.php?site=villagevoice.com,blog s.villagevoice.com&width=368&height=300&header=false&colorscheme=light& font=arial&border_color=%23ffffff&recommendations=false Slideshows» * Wooden Wisdom at Brooklyn Bowl * Bull-Riding Covers the Garden in Dirt * The Party People of the DFA Winter Workout * More Slideshows >> * Are New York City's Rats Really Partial to Chinese Food? * You'll Never Guess What TSA Inspectors Confiscated at NYC Airports in 2014 * Reverend Billy Talen Will Seek $500,000 in Defamation Lawsuit Against MTA More News Stories > Special Reports * Stephanie Zacharek at Cannes Film Festival * The 2013 New York Film Festival * The NYPD Tapes: The Village Voice's Series on Adrian Schoolcraft by Graham Rayman * The Village Voice's Exclusive Banksy Interview * The 2014 New York Film Festival * Mario Cuomo in the Village Voice * More Special Reports >> * About Us * Local Advertising * Mobile * RSS * E-Edition * Site Map * My Account Log In Join * Connect Facebook Twitter Newsletters Things To Do App * Advertising Contact Us National Agency Services Classified Infographics * Company Privacy Policy Terms of Use Site Problems? Careers ©2015 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved. Loading... [&c5=&c6=&c15=&cj=1] Quantcast #alternate alternate [view-mobile-icon.png] View mobile site January 24, 2015 Huffpost Healthy Living Edition: U.S. (BUTTON) Show/Hide + Brasil BR + Canada CA + Deutschland DE + España ES + France FR + Ελλάδα (Greece) GR + India IN + Italia IT + 日本 (Japan) JP + 한국 (Korea) KR + Maghreb MG + United Kingdom UK + United States US * * Follow * Newsletters Get Healthy LivingNewsletters Email address ____________________ Enter Email Address Go * Huffington Post Search Search The Huffington Post Enter Search Terms ____________________ Submit Search Go * * iOS app * Android app * More * Desktop Alerts * Log in * Create Account $USERNAME + Desktop Notifications + Profile + Settings + Logout * FRONT PAGE * Women o 17 Changes Every Woman Goes Through In Her Late 20s 21 o Emma Watson Says Women's Potential Is 'Astonishingly Untapped' In Davos Speech 15 o This Is What Masculinity Really Means To Men 50 o Instagram Takes A Step Towards Embracing Women's Body Hair 168 o The Funniest Tweets From Women This Week 0 Go to Women More in Women o Love & Sex o Career & Money o Women's Health You Might Also Like o Style o Weddings o Divorce o Parents o Healthy Living o Black Voices o Latino Voices * Taste o 15 Things You Should Put On Your Peanut Butter Sandwich Instead Of Jelly 107 o The Recipes You Need To Cook This Weekend 2 o Famous Food Critic Reviews McDonald's, And It's Wonderful 22 o What Could Be Better Than Ramen Fried Chicken? 2 o Gwyneth Paltrow Wants You To Eat 'Sex Bark' 13 Go to Taste More in Taste o Recipes o Baking o Entertaining o Healthy Eating o Taste Tests o Thanksgiving You Might Also Like o Food o Healthy Living o Travel o OWN * Good News o Tender Photo Captures Moment 102-Year-Old Woman Fell In Love With A Shelter Cat 133 o Woman Tattoos Her Own Face To Cover Scars, Starts Business To Help Other Burn Victims 6 o Dedicated 'Humans Of New York' Fans Raise Money To Send Underserved Kids On Harvard Visit 6 o Groups Place Free Hats And Scarves Around Cities, Spread Warmth To Those Who Need It Most 3 o Obama: More Women And Minorities Should Take On STEM, And This Student Is Proof 5 Go to Good News You Might Also Like o GPS for the Soul o Weird News o Comedy o Impact o Green o Healthy Living o Comedy o Books o Arts * Parents o 21 Honest Instagram Photos That Show The Messy Side Of Parenting 35 o A Playful Reminder That Judging Other Parents Is Absurd 75 o Students Told To Stay Home Because They Are Not Vaccinated 106 o The Funniest Tweets From Parents This Week 1 o WATCH: Lion Tries To 'Play' With Laughing Toddler 6 Go to Parents More in Parents o Parentry o Moms o Dads o Screen Sense You Might Also Like o Education o Food o Taste o Arts o Teen o Post 50 * Style o Tia Mowry Is Our New Favorite Style Star. Here's Why... 10 o 30 Different Ways To Tie A Tie That Every Man Should Know 52 o Miss Canada's Hockey-Themed Miss Universe Costume Is Totally Bonkers 10 o 6 Times Kanye West Was So Serious About Fashion, We Had No Idea What He Was Talking About 4 o 37 Emma Stone Hairstyles To Inspire Your Next Makeover 3 Go to Style More in Style o The Beauty Page o Fashion Trends o Celebrity Style You Might Also Like o Home o Women o Parents o Weddings o Travel o Divorce o Post 50 * Post50 o This Is What Saturday Morning Used To Look Like (Before Life Got In The Way) 30 o Seniors Play 'Grand Theft Auto V,' And Their Reactions Are Priceless 10 o The Single Most Critical Ingredient For A Lasting Relationship 7 o This Snack May Protect Against Memory Loss 2 o The Surprising People That Helped Me Heal From Anorexia 0 Go to Post50 More in Post50 o Reinvention o Retirement o Parenting o Health o Love o Alzheimer's Awareness You Might Also Like o Parents o GPS for the Soul o Women o Money * Religion o Christian Rock Band's Co-founder Is Now An Atheist 665 o Here Are The Least Bible-Minded Cities In The U.S. 0 o Word Of Caution On 'Oldest Gospel Found In A Mummy Mask' 270 o Anti-Muslim Acts Are Out Of Control In France 425 o Queen Rania Speaks Out On Charlie Hebdo 93 Go to Religion More in Religion o Buddhism o Christianity o Hinduism o Islam o Judaism You Might Also Like o Arts o World o Healthy Living o Impact o GPS for the Soul * Weddings o 6 Things Men Secretly Love About The Women In Their Lives 42 o 20 Awesome Photo Ideas For Wedding Parties Who Know How To Have Fun 0 o Keith Urban: Struggling With Addiction Strengthened My Marriage 23 o 5 Myths Of Happy Marriages 16 o 17 Weird But Endearing Things Couples Do To Annoy Each Other 0 Go to Weddings More in Weddings o Planning 101 o Etiquette and Advice o Indiebride o Honeymoons o Destination Weddings o Weddings 2.0 o After the Wedding You Might Also Like o Style o Travel o Food * HuffPost Live o Next Top Stories For Monday, Jan. 26 o Next DAVOS: The Key Takeaways o Later Finding Pleasure In Weight Loss o Later White House Promotes Rape Documentary o Later 'Ace of Cakes' Baker Duff Goldman LIVE Go to Huffpost Live * All Sections o News # Politics # WorldPost # Business # Small Business # Money # Media # Sports # Education # Crime # Weird News # Good News o Entertainment # Entertainment # Celebrity # Comedy # Arts & Culture # Books # TV o Life & Style # Healthy Living # GPS for the Soul # Style # Home # Taste # Weddings # Travel # Parents # Divorce # Huff/Post 50 # Marlo Thomas # OWN # Dr. Phil o Tech & Science # Tech # Science # Green # Code o Voices # Women # Black Voices # Latino Voices # Voces (en español) # Gay Voices # Religion # College # Teen # Impact o Local # Chicago # DC # Denver # Detroit # Hawaii # Los Angeles # Miami # New York # San Francisco Our Mobile Apps: o iOS o Android o HuffPost Live (iOS) o GPS For The Soul (iOS) o GPS For The Soul (Android) * Healthy Living * Health And Fitness * GPS for the Soul * Health News * Sleep * Healthy Living Videos * Moments Not Milestones * Lifestyle * Third Metric * Thrive * Image for 7 Surprisingly Effective Ways To Lose Weight 7 Surprisingly Effective Ways To Lose Weight 2015-01-23 08:00:40 * Image for He Asked 1500+ Elders For Advice On Living And Loving. Here's What They Told Him. He Asked 1500+ Elders For Advice On Living And Loving. Here's What They Told Him. 2015-01-21 08:30:43 * Image for Changing the World From Within: An Interview with Eckhart Tolle Changing the World From Within: An Interview with Eckhart Tolle 2015-01-21 19:24:10 * Image for What a Month of Yoga Did for a Regular Person What a Month of Yoga Did for a Regular Person 2015-01-20 12:17:11 * Image for Here's Why Lululemon Is Charging $108 For Meditation Beads Here's Why Lululemon Is Charging $108 For Meditation Beads 2015-01-22 15:49:36 * Image for The Crucial Ways Our Friends Make Us Happier The Crucial Ways Our Friends Make Us Happier 2015-01-23 08:01:16 * Image for 5 Things No One Tells You About Living With Insomnia 5 Things No One Tells You About Living With Insomnia 2015-01-22 08:02:00 * Image for 'There's No Shame' In Talking About Mental Illness 'There's No Shame' In Talking About Mental Illness 2015-01-24 09:51:18 * Image for Melinda Gates Speaks Out Against The Anti-Vaccine Movement Melinda Gates Speaks Out Against The Anti-Vaccine Movement 2015-01-22 15:37:59 * Image for How An Enormous Failure Changed Rainn Wilson's Life How An Enormous Failure Changed Rainn Wilson's Life 2015-01-23 08:01:25 * Image for How To Run Faster By Spring How To Run Faster By Spring 2015-01-23 08:00:51 * Image for The Incredible Impact A Few Hours Of Mindfulness Has On The Brain The Incredible Impact A Few Hours Of Mindfulness Has On The Brain 2015-01-23 10:49:30 * Image for I'm Not Pregnant. It's Just My Belly I'm Not Pregnant. It's Just My Belly 2015-01-20 12:50:55 * Image for This Breathing Exercise Is Strange, But Full Of Big Benefits This Breathing Exercise Is Strange, But Full Of Big Benefits 2015-01-23 18:19:51 (BUTTON) Previous Story (BUTTON) Next Story The Incredible Powers Of Nostalgia Posted: 10/05/2013 9:50 am EDT Updated: 10/05/2013 9:50 am EDT NOSTALGIA Getty + + Share + Tweet + 0 + Email + Comment + Share on Google+ + tumblr + stumble + reddit By Jeanette Leardi for YouBeauty Remember basking in the glow of your senior prom and never wanting that night to end? And what about the excitement and joy you felt when you landed your first job? More From YouBeauty: How To Wallow Safely In Sadness The Science Of Scent And Memory How To Fight With Your Partner If you find yourself recalling a fond memory and wishing you could recapture that moment, give in. It may give you the boost you need to deal with a current challenge, or to simply feel better -- not just about your past or present, but also about your future. Nostalgia is much more than mere reminiscing; it’s a feeling. "Nostalgia is the warm, fuzzy emotion that we feel when we think about fond memories from our past," explains Erica Hepper, Ph.D., a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey in England. "It often feels bittersweet -- mostly happy and comforting, but with a tinge of sadness that whatever we’re remembering is lost in some way." According to Clay Routledge, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, reminiscence is the behavior of reflecting on your past, and nostalgia is the emotional response that it sometimes triggers. Hepper and Routledge agree that nostalgizing is a very natural human tendency, and a common one. On average, people engage in it about once a week, set off by such things as a familiar scent, piece of music or old photo. It is most common in young adults in their teens and 20s who are coping with important life transitions, such as leaving home and beginning college or new jobs, and in adults older than 50 who are looking back and reevaluating their lives. But you don’t have to have a lot to look back on in order to feel a nostalgic wave; children as young as 8 years old get that wistful feeling, too. A lot can be said for nostalgia’s benefits. In a 2012 study published in the journal Memory, Routledge and his colleagues showed that nostalgizing helps people relate their past experiences to their present lives in order to make greater meaning of it all. The result can boost their mood and reduce stress. "Nostalgia increases feelings of social connectedness to others," he says. "Nostalgia makes people feel loved and valued and increases perceptions of social support when people are lonely." "When we experience nostalgia," Hepper explains, "we tend to feel happier, have higher self-esteem, feel closer to loved ones and feel that life has more meaning. And on a physical level, nostalgia literally makes us feel warmer." In addition, in an August 2013 study published by Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Hepper and her colleagues showed that nostalgia can produce increased optimism about the future. And consider this: Your nostalgia can affect those around you. Hepper says after nostalgizing, people donate more generously to charity. And sharing a nostalgic conversation with a friend, family member or romantic partner makes you more supportive and considerate, and less argumentative. Making Nostalgia Work for You People tend to nostalgize when they are in a negative mood or feeling lonely. Strategically using nostalgia may be just the thing to give you a welcomed fresh perspective. "Everyone has at least a few fond, precious memories that can be used as a source of nostalgia," says Hepper. "Make the most of them by bringing them to mind when you need a little boost of positivity, warmth or meaning in your life." Here are three ways to do it: Let the past inform your future: Feel your motivation flagging? Recall personal milestones and past achievements in order to reinvigorate your energies and stay focused on achieving your current goals. The most common subjects of nostalgia are the cherished or significant people, places and events in a person’s life. However, nostalgia doesn’t always involve positive memories. It can include negative experiences that, Routledge explains, "have positive or meaningful endings." Hepper points out that a sad memory can be recast as a valuable learning experience. Focus on the sweet of bittersweet. "Imagine," she says, "how you might feel a few years after moving to a new area where you didn’t know anyone and finding that, despite the anxiety, you could go it alone." Make nostalgia a group activity: Asking others to share their nostalgic memories with you is likely to give you all a psychological boost, says Hepper. "And you might be surprised what you learn about your friends or family members," she adds. Indeed, keeping in touch with loved ones from all the stages of your life is a great way to maintain the connection between where you’ve been and where you are today. Routledge suggests taking a trip with old friends to bring you back in time and make you feel more youthful and energized. "Even a little contact on sites like Facebook can bring back memories," he adds. Create new memories and keep traditions alive: "Make deposits into the nostalgia bank that you can draw on when you need a boost in the future," advises Hepper. What happens today will become the memories you hold onto forever. Also on The Huffington Post Close  Black And White Stillness of   * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  Share  Tweet  ✖ Advertisement Share this ✖ close ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ [ ] Current Slide More: Childhood Memories Positive Thinking Looking Back Less Stress, More Living Facebook Nostalgia Memories Happiness Suggest a correction Around the Web [favicon.ico] 5 Things We Need to Stop Feeling Nostalgic For | Cracked.com [favicon.gif] Nostalgia Does the Brain Good Click here to view Conversations Conversations From Our Partners Suggested For You FOLLOW HUFFPOST * (BUTTON) Email Email Address Email Address_______ Sign me up! Please check the checkbox to indicate your consent Options [X] The Morning Email [X] Healthy Living Get top stories and blog posts emailed to me each day.. * (BUTTON) Facebook + HuffPost Healthy Living * (BUTTON) Twitter + HuffPost Follow Healthy Living Follow * (BUTTON) Google Plus + HuffPost Healthy Living * (BUTTON) RSS + Most Popular on HuffPost + Latest News + Healthy Living + All RSS / Feeds * (BUTTON) Phone + Available on the App Store + Android App on Google Play + Get it at Blackberry App World Search The Huffington Post Enter Search Terms ____________________ Submit Search Go + Advertise + Log In + Make HuffPost your Home Page + RSS + Careers + FAQ + User Agreement + Privacy + Comment Policy + About Us + About Our Ads + Contact Us Copyright ©2015 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved. Part of AOL Lifestyle Use this form to alert a HuffPost editor about a factual or typographical error in this story. Notify message * Required * ____________________ * ____________________ * What kind of error is this? [Choose an option__________] * What is the correction? 0 count Describe the error her ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ * Type the words below so we know you are not a cyborg [ ] Sign me up for The Morning Email Send Thanks for your report! [header-logo-2.png] [header_icon_rss.png] [header_icon_twitter.png] [header_icon_facebook.png] TOPICS LISTEN WATCH READ EDUCATE DONATE ABOUT * * * * * Science Friday * Ira Flatow * SciFri Stations * The Staff * The Board * Jobs and Internships * Freelancing * Advertising * Donating * Our Supporters * Contact Us * How to Listen * Home Planet * Space * Body & Brain * Biology * Nature * Go Figure * Physics & Chemistry * Engineers, Gadgets & Geeks * Art, History & Culture * Food & Garden * Energy * Ethics, Education & Policy * Big Thinkers ____________________ submit Read Blog » Ask SciFri Series * The Flatow File * Picture of the Week * SciFri Book Club * SciArts * What We're Working On * Off-Air * Ask SciFri * 10 Questions for... * Food for Thought * You Do What? * Field Work Archive 2014 March May October 2013 April May June July September [205-v1-37x.JPG] Apr. 16, 2013 Why Do I Get Nostalgic? by Julie Leibach [icon_arrow_homeslider_back.png] [icon_arrow_homeslider_next.png] Click [icon_embiggen_right_black.png] to enlarge images Say you’re listening to the radio on your way to work, and a favorite song from 20 years ago starts playing. A sense of wistfulness overcomes you, evoking fond memories of the past. A familiar smell can elicit a similar sensation, as can a movie resurrected from childhood (Jurassic Park, anyone?). The feeling is bittersweet, though ultimately pleasant. Sound familiar? You’ve experienced nostalgia. “When you’re nostalgic about something, there’s a little bit of a sense of loss—[the moment has] happened, it’s gone—but usually the net result is happiness,” says Clay Routledge, a social psychologist at North Dakota State University, who, with several other researchers, has studied the emotion extensively over the past decade. The team has found that nostalgic memories typically entail cherished, personal moments, such as those spent with loved ones. Those memories, in turn, inspire positive feelings of joy, high self-regard, belonging, and meaningfulness in life. While certain smells or sights inspire nostalgia, less obvious triggers—borne from the mind rather than the environment—seem to be more frequent and powerful, according to work done by Routledge and colleagues. In two experiments, for example, they asked participants to describe situations that caused them to experience nostalgia and found that negative feelings, and specifically loneliness, were cited most often. In another experiment, participants read one of three news stories that contained depressing, neutral, or positive content. A story about a tsunami disaster provoked more nostalgic thoughts than an article about space or a polar bear birth, the researchers found. Low self-esteem or a sense of despair over life’s meaning can also drive nostalgic musings. When suffering the existential blues, “People don’t just go back and recruit random memories of driving to work or paying taxes,” says Routledge. “They think about the special times. They think about the times they’ve spent with close friends or loved ones, maybe that family reunion, maybe important rituals—their wedding or graduation.” Nostalgia, then, seems to be one way that people cope with various negative mental states, or “psychological threats.” “If you’re feeling lonely, if you’re feeling like a failure, if you feel like you don’t know if your life has any purpose [or] if what you’re doing has any value, you can reach into this reservoir of nostalgic memories and comfort yourself,” says Routledge. “We see nostalgia as a psychological resource that people can dip into to conjure up the evidence that they need to assure themselves that they’re valued.” So, do some people experience the emotion more than others? Most of us probably wax nostalgic at least a few times a month—and often more than once a week—according to Routledge, although older adults might be more prone to bittersweet longing, he says. And recent work by Routledge’s lab suggests that people who are highly anxious or who worry a lot also tend to be more nostalgic, perhaps because pleasant reflections alleviate their neuroses. (His lab is continuing to explore that theory, as well as investigating whether nostalgia can be invoked to help sufferers manage stress when social support is unavailable.) Given the recent research, it may seem incredible that nostalgia was once considered a psychiatric disorder. Nowadays, however, it seems that living in the past isn't so bad after all. Tweet [spacer.gif] [205-v1-72x.JPG] About Julie Leibach Julie is the managing editor of ScienceFriday.com. She is a huge fan of sleep and chocolate. Follow her @julieleibach. [icon_text_all_posts_black.png] [spacer.gif] The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Science Friday. [spacer.gif] Discussion FEATURED READING [61XTEvhHoEL._SL160_.jpg] The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann [icon_text_more_white.png] ADVERTISEMENT YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE... * Join the SciFri Book Club LIVE in NYC The SciFri Book Club calls its first in-person meeting to order, at New York City's Explorers Club. [icon_text_more_white.png] * The SciFri Book Club Searches for Lost Cities Journey into the Amazonian jungle with David Grann's The Lost City of Z. [icon_text_more_white.png] * Talking Darwin Over Dinner An excerpt from Bill Nye the Science Guy's new book, Undeniable. [icon_text_more_white.png] * Picture of the Week: Zinc Spark The original meet-cute. When sperm and egg meet, sparks fly. [icon_text_more_white.png] MOST POPULAR [lazy.gif] Lasers Help Metal Resist Rust and Ice [lazy.gif] Put Down Your Phone, Give Your Brain a Break [lazy.gif] Picture of the Week: Belize's Blue Hole [lazy.gif] Remembering the Moment Black Holes Went Mainstream [lazy.gif] Behind-the-Scenes at the Explorers Club [lazy.gif] Behind the Scenes of the Explorers Club [lazy.gif] Conserving Cuba’s Coral Reefs [lazy.gif] Scientists Engineer Bacteria With Genetic 'Kill Switch' [lazy.gif] Get Ready to Hike [lazy.gif] Tablets and Smartphones Might Be Sapping Your Sleep NEWSLETTER Sign up for SciFri in your inbox ADVERTISEMENT Science Friday logo share twitter facebook Contact Supporters Newsletter Policies Available from iTunes Science Friday® is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Science Friday® and SciFri® are registered service marks of Science Friday, Inc. Site design by Pentagram; engineering by Mediapolis. [footer-donate.png] Science Friday logo share twitter facebook Contact Supporters Newsletter Policies Available from iTunes [footer-donate.png] Science Friday® is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Science Friday® and SciFri® are registered service marks of Science Friday, Inc. Site design by Pentagram; engineering by Mediapolis. topics Home Planet [50-7.PNG] [50-4.PNG] [50-4.PNG] Space [6-3.PNG] [6-2.PNG] [6-4.PNG] Body & Brain [32-3.PNG] [32-3.PNG] [32-3.PNG] Biology [10-2.PNG] [10-1.PNG] [10-2.PNG] Nature [13-6.PNG] [13-1.PNG] [13-2.PNG] Go Figure [57-2.PNG] [57-1.PNG] [57-2.PNG] Physics & Chemistry [21-4.PNG] [21-2.PNG] [21-4.PNG] Engineers, Gadgets & Geeks [82-2.PNG] [82-1.PNG] [82-2.PNG] Art, History & Culture [23-2.PNG] [23-1.PNG] [23-2.PNG] Food & Garden [1-2.PNG] [1-1.PNG] [1-2.PNG] Energy [51-2.PNG] [51-1.PNG] [51-3.PNG] Ethics, Education & Policy [58-2.PNG] [58-1.PNG] [58-2.PNG] Big Thinkers [108-3.PNG] [108-2.PNG] [108-3.PNG] [loading.gif] Loading... #next * Register * | * Login * Articles + BROWSE BY o Movies & TV o Music o Celebrities o Tech o Sex o Sports o News o Science o History o Weird World o Video Games _________________________________________________________ All Articles * Videos + BROWSE BY o Antiheroes o After Hours o Adventures in Jedi School o Rom.com o Welcome Back, Potter o Artist in Residency o Today's Topic o The Spit Take o Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder o 8-Bits o Marvels of the Science o Dispatches From Goddamn Space o Does Not Compute o The Katie Willert Experience o Cracked Advice Board o Agents of Cracked o Cracked TV o Lonny o Cracked Cut-Ups o Stuff That Must Have Happened o The Start Up o Sketch Competition _________________________________________________________ All Videos * Columnists + BROWSE BY o Kathy Benjamin o Soren Bowie o Robert Brockway o Adam Tod Brown o Chris Bucholz o John Cheese o Felix Clay o C. Coville o Ian Fortey o Gladstone o Christina H. o Kristi Harrison o Cody Johnston o Cyriaque Lamar o Brendan McGinley o Luke McKinney o Daniel O'Brien o Jack O'Brien o Pauli Poisuo o Luis Prada o Tom Reimann o Winston Rowntree o J. F. Sargent o Seanbaby o C. J. Strusiewicz o Michael Swaim o David Wong _________________________________________________________ All Columnists * Forums * Quick Fixes * Photoplasty * + _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Greatest Hits The 40 Most Insane Easter Eggs Ever Found 01 5,083,077 Views By Cracked Write... | 2014-04-25 5 Reasons Being a Male Porn Star Is Less Fun Than It Looks 02 4,711,251 Views By Robert Evans Lance Hart | 2014-06-29 The 42 Most Insane (But Convincing) Fan Theories Ever Found 03 3,597,681 Views By Cracked Write... | 2014-04-30 _________________________________________________________ See More MORE o LinkSTORM o The Cracked Podcast o Craptions Classics o Greatest Hits o The Cracked Bunker _________________________________________________________ * * * + Search Cracked ____________________ Search * Movies & TV * Video Games * Weird World * History * Science * Tech * Music * Write For Us * Store * Viral Now [270417.jpg?v=1] 5 Video Game Adaptations That Missed the Point of the Movie [270417.jpg?v=1] 5 Remakes of Famous Movies That Would Actually Be Awesome [270417.jpg?v=1] 5 Reasons the '60s Batman TV Show Is Better Than You Think 1. Home 2. Weird World 3. 5 Things We Need to Stop Feeling Nostalgic For Cracked Columnists 5 Things We Need to Stop Feeling Nostalgic For By Adam Tod Brown November 20, 2012 1,000,995 Views * Facebook * Twitter * Add to Favorites People love to mourn the passing of trivial things that, deep down, everyone knows nobody really cares about. Take Hostess, for example. That company just went under like three days ago, and already people are eulogizing the Twinkie as if they actually continued to eat them once the very earliest stages of childhood passed. And besides, it's not like some company won't just buy Hostess and keep poisoning schoolkids themselves. But any excuse to act as if they've lost something dear is a good one for the public at large. So now Ho Hos and Ding Dongs are a thing that we all have to pretend we miss for the next few days. Here are a few more things we've been pretending we miss for a lot longer than that ... #5. Mom and Pop Stores [header_adambrown.jpg] Getty Any (well-deserved) discussion about the evils of big box department stores like Walmart will inevitably veer off into a soliloquy about the good old days when tiny mom and pop stores ruled the consumer landscape. Before all of the union busting and forced overtime and other famous atrocities came to light, the biggest complaint about the big chain stores was that they put the little guy out of business. How is a small operation supposed to compete when the competition can afford to sell bucket-sized versions of the same items you sell one at a time for the exact same price? What They Aren't Thinking About You know, mom and pop stores are still a thing. Even if a lot of them have gone under over the years, you can still find them. Provided you live in a city with a decent-sized population, you don't have to buy your albums at Best Buy. You can seek out your local independent record store and make the exact same purchase. So let me ask you this ... how often do you do it? For everyone's constant bitching about how the Walmarts of the world destroyed small businesses, you sure as hell don't see a lot of that outrage translating into patronage of the smaller shops and stores that are still trying to stay afloat in the face of the Big Blue Machine. If you did, things like Record Store Day wouldn't be necessary. [header_adambrown.jpg] RecordStoreDay.com Reminder: Steve Jobs did not invent the music industry. What's that, you ask? It's a day when major and independent record labels alike put out releases by big name artists that are only available that day and only at participating independent record stores. It's intended to compel consumers to ignore the allure of $8.99 CDs at the large retail chains, even if for just one day. And that's the thing -- it usually is just one day. Needless to say, most of the clientele at this yearly effort to help keep a CD section in the head shops of America consists of enterprising eBay sellers hoping to turn a quick profit. [header_adambrown.jpg] Ebay.com The Foo Fighters doing a bunch of cover songs can be yours for just $229.99! But why does this day even exist? Aren't music fans the ones who automatically rally around the little guy and fight against corporate power? Why do people need to be reminded to visit independent record stores each year like some kind of dementia-addled relative? Simple: Because mom and pop stores just aren't that convenient. With very few exceptions, the selection is dick and the service becomes nonexistent as soon as two or more customers arrive to monopolize the sole cashier's attention, leaving you plenty of time to write your 1,500-word Yelp review about "how charming and retro this place is" while silently cursing yourself for being too much of a working-class hero to take a bus to Target like a normal person. And it's just a sad fact of business that smaller stores can't afford to sell you things at the same low prices the larger stores can. Especially in an economy like this, you shouldn't feel bad about making your purchasing decisions based on what makes the most sense for you financially. The smaller stores are going to lose that battle every time. I'm not saying that big chain stores are objectively superior to smaller stores or that the mom and pops are at fault for not being able to provide the same amenities that a plush, luxurious Walmart can, but I am definitely saying that if you're going to bitch about the big guys putting small businesses under, you should at least make it a point to support the ones that haven't been taken down yet. If you don't, you really don't have anything to complain about. #4. Violence in the NFL [header_adambrown.jpg] Getty Watch an NFL game in the company of a large group of people and you could probably set your watch by the regular intervals at which someone is going to complain about how they long for the days when "the refs just let 'em play out there." Translation: "Rules be damned, if Ray Lewis wants to stab an opposing quarterback on the field, he should be allowed to do so. It's a game for men, after all. And defense wins championships!" What They Aren't Thinking About Here's the thing. Defense does indeed win championships, but offense sells tickets. Offense makes the fronts of Wheaties boxes. Offense gets shoe contracts. Offense is able to do all of that because it's fun to watch. A New England Patriots game is a whole lot less interesting if Tom Brady isn't under center. I mean, you do actually want to watch football, correct? You want to have the option to do that in your life? I ask because, without the Peyton Mannings of the world, the NFL probably wouldn't exist, so that career-ending knee injury you've been praying for (because that's how God and sports work) probably isn't the best thing. And besides, if you think allowing more violence is going to make the game more interesting, I'd like to remind you that we tried that, and it was a failure of spectacular proportions. [header_adambrown.jpg] Getty That cocky grin lasted about three weeks. In 2001, Vince McMahon had the bright idea to launch the XFL, a bastard version of the NFL that added the gimmicks and unmitigated violence of professional wrestling to the usual mix of play-action passes and halfback dives and such. It was like regular football, but ... manlier. Unfortunately, it was also painfully boring to watch. How could this be? For one thing, they allowed what's called bump and run coverage. That means a defensive back can hit a wide receiver any time at all before the quarterback releases the ball. And that, in turn, means the chances of anyone catching a pass are slim to none. Without a passing game, offense slows to a screeching halt. When that happens, which it totally did with the XFL, you're basically watching soccer. And as we all know, America collectively sighed and said "Man, fuck soccer" like a hundred years ago. We don't like it when the players are running around in spikes with exposed thighs, so we certainly aren't buying into it when everyone is padded to the hilt. Cry all you want about the NFL protecting quarterbacks and receivers, but it's never going to change, because the end result is a Super Bowl that ends with a score of 6-3, and nobody wants that shit. #3. The Days Before People Sent Text Messages [header_adambrown.jpg] Getty People love to reminisce about the days when folks talked in person or, at the very least, over the telephone instead of sending all of these obnoxious text messages. Everyone knows that one guy (always a guy, never a girl) who just flat-out refuses to send or reply to text messages. If you want to tell him you're on your way, you're going to have to make a phone call to do it. Even if this guy knows you're coming and to tell him is a mere formality, you must do it through the majesty of voice, he'll have it no other way. What They Aren't Thinking About You know what? Fuck that guy. Whether he realizes it or not, he's actively conspiring to make all of our lives a little bit more difficult. This is the technology equivalent of the old woman at the grocery store who steadfastly refuses to give up her decaying checkbook in favor of a newfangled debit card. And it's time for it to stop. [header_adambrown.jpg] Getty Above: A man wishing he was a real drug dealer. I understand not wanting to carry on an entire conversation via text message. We can't hammer out our feelings 160 characters at a time. Some things require actual human contact. But asking me to pick up ice on the way to your party is not one of those things. These exchanges of mundane information and requests are in no way enhanced by me fumbling around to hit the green button fast enough to hear your sweet voice. And besides, how fucking lonely are you that you miss the days when your dipshit cousin had to ask you if you know where to find weed in person? How deprived of human interaction have you become that exchanges like this now hold some kind of sentimental value for you? Rest assured, if any of this applies to you, your problem isn't technology, it's depression. Buy a cat and start sending text messages like a normal person before everyone stops communicating with you altogether. * Prev * Page 1 of 2 * Next * Facebook * Twitter * * * [zig.gif?Log=1&v=JT01.02&wa_wot=PLATFORM&ev=lnkimpression&wa_mp=photosh op&wa_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Fblog%2F5-things-we-need-to-st op-feeling-nostalgic-for&r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&wa_l=http%3A %2F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Fphotoplasty_994_27-sex-myths-you-need-to-stop-b elieving%2F;1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Fphotoplasty_793_16-insane- facts-about-making-everyday-products%2F;2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.com% 2Fphotoplasty_559_if-you-could-tell-companies-one-thing-about-their-pro ducts%2F;3&category=&wa_user1=319&wa_user2=Cracked+Photoshop&wa_user3=0 000000&wa_wsid=102&wa_un=2ebc0c91-cc41-4e14-a6d6-d0e29ad3ddb5&vid=14220 60362] [zig.gif?Log=1&v=JT01.02&wa_wot=PLATFORM&ev=lnkimpression&wa_mp=content &wa_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Fblog%2F5-things-we-need-to-stop -feeling-nostalgic-for&r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&wa_l=http%3A%2 F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Fblog%2F5-obnoxious-things-restaurants-need-to-sto p-doing%2F;4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.com%2Farticle_19447_6-arcade-game s-too-awesome-to-get-released-in-west.html;5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cracked.c om%2Fblog%2F9-ludicrous-trends-in-advertising-well-never-see-again%2F;6 &category=&wa_user1=478&wa_user2=Cracked+Content&wa_user3=0000000&wa_ws id=102&wa_un=743e81ed-e2b6-4336-a59d-b875140c9975&vid=1422060362] Recommended For Your Pleasure * 27 Sex Myths You Need to Stop Believing 2,467,606 views * 16 Insane Facts About the Making of Everyday Products 775,614 views * If You Could Tell Companies One Thing About Their Products 580,931 views * 5 Obnoxious Things Restaurants Need to Stop Doing 1,143,393 views * 6 Arcade Games Too Awesome to Get Released in the West 968,675 views * 9 Ludicrous Trends In Advertising We'll Never See Again 963,595 views Adam Tod Brown * * Tweet * Rss More by Adam Tod Brown: * 6 Of the Happiest Songs Ever (Are About Death) January 22, 2015 | 336,600 Views * What 5 Dead Celebrities Would Be Up to Today January 15, 2015 | 322,589 Views * 5 Famous People We Didn't Hate Enough in 2014 January 08, 2015 | 838,004 Views See More Other Columnists: * Soren Bowie * Cody * Pauli Poisuo See More Add New Comment_____________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ To turn on reply notifications, click here Submit Comment 2,371 Comments Recent Votes You | Show Profanity (BUTTON) More Comments * [javascript] 17 Images That Will Ruin Your Childhood By David Wong 7,207,080 views * [javascript] 6 Myths Everyone Believes about Space (Thanks to Movies) By Jesse Clark, Pete Griffin 3,102,315 views * [javascript] The 7 Stupidest Things That Make People Proud By Christina H 2,132,925 views * [javascript] 5 Wildly Popular Car Modifications That Must Be Stopped By Christina H 1,460,618 views * [javascript] 5 Products that Will Be Exposed as B.S. in 2011 By Soren Bowie 1,198,617 views * [javascript] The Worst Skymall Products of All Time Posted: Yesterday * [javascript] Inside the Kinkiest Arthouse Film of the Year Posted: Yesterday * [javascript] Nice Guys Finish Last Is Horseshit According to Science Posted: Yesterday * [javascript] Conan O'Brien Takes a Jab at Bill Cosby Posted: Yesterday * [javascript] Old People Playing GTA Will Brighten Your Day Posted: Yesterday The Cracked Podcast * [javascript] 6 Upcoming Movies You Should Be More Excited About With Cracked Staff GO LISTEN * Recommended Podcasts * [javascript] Kyle and His Mother With Tig Notaro Kyle Dunnigan David Huntsberger GO LISTEN * [javascript] Al-Qaeda's NCAA Violations With Jason Sklar Randy Sklar GO LISTEN Popular Videos [363518_v1.jpg] Proof Han Solo Is Sort of an Idiot By Cody Johnston 2015-01-21 Why the 'Firefly' Crew Were the Bad Guys 314,124 views 5 Racist and Sexist Messages Hidden in Forrest Gump 190,027 views Why Scar Is Secretly the Good Guy in 'Lion King' 156,545 views Choosing to "Like" Cracked has no side effects, so what's the worst that could happen? Cracked.com on Facebook About * About Us * Write for Cracked * Contact Us * Advertise * Sitemap * Terms & Conditions * Privacy Policy * [363518_v1.jpg] AdChoices Cracked Mobile Apps * iOS * Cracked Reader for iPhone * Reader for iPad * Best of 2011 for iOS * Android * Cracked Asstrology * Cracked Reader for Android * Best of 2011 for Android Popular Topics * Boobs * Zombies * Hipsters * Urban Legends * Skyrim Stay Connected * Like us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter Follow @cracked * * Sign up for our weekly Newsletter Enter Email Address Sign up * Mobile * | * Desktop Cracked, Cracked.com, the "Cracked" logo, and Demand Media are each a trademark or a registered trademark of Demand Media, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Copyright © 2007-2013. Demand Media, Inc. an advertisement [?content_type=blog&content_id=21898] [zig.gif?Log=1] Quantcast The Weekly Hit List Sit back... Relax... We'll do all the work. Get a weekly update on the best at Cracked. Subscribe now! ____________________ Sign Up #publisher For full functionality, it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser. MNT - Hourly Medical News Since 2003 * Sign in IFRAME: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/account/login-form-iframe.php?curr entPage=/articles/268902.php * News by email * * A - B Categories A - B + Abortion + Acid Reflux / GERD + Addiction + ADHD + Aid / Disasters + Alcohol / Illegal Drugs + Allergy + Alternative Medicine + Alzheimer's / Dementia + Anxiety / Stress + Arthritis / Rheumatology + Asbestos / Mesothelioma + Asthma + Autism + Back Pain + Bio-terrorism / Terrorism + Biology / Biochemistry + Bipolar + Bird Flu / Avian Flu + Blood / Hematology + Body Aches + Bones / Orthopedics + Breast Cancer * C - D Categories C - D + Cancer / Oncology + Cardiovascular / Cardiology + Caregivers / Homecare + Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine + Cholesterol + CJD / vCJD / Mad Cow Disease + Cleft Palate + Clinical Trials / Drug Trials + Colorectal Cancer + Complementary Medicine + Compliance + Conferences + COPD + Cosmetic Medicine + Crohn's + Cystic Fibrosis + Dentistry + Depression + Dermatology + Diabetes + Drug Approvals + Dyslexia * E - G Categories E - G + Ear, Nose and Throat + Eating Disorders + Ebola + Eczema / Psoriasis + Emergency Medicine + Endocrinology + Epilepsy + Erectile Dysfunction + Eye Health / Blindness + Fertility + Fibromyalgia + Flu / Cold / SARS + Food Intolerance + GastroIntestinal + Genetics + Gout + Gynecology * H - L Categories H - L + Headache / Migraine + Health Insurance + Hearing / Deafness + Heart Disease + HIV / AIDS + Huntingtons Disease + Hypertension + Immune System / Vaccines + Infectious Diseases + Inflammatory Bowel Disease + Irritable-Bowel Syndrome + IT / Internet / E-mail + Litigation + Liver Disease / Hepatitis + Lung Cancer + Lupus + Lymphology / Lymphedema + Lymphoma / Leukemia * M - O Categories M - O + Medical Devices / Diagnostics + Medical Innovation + Medical Malpractice + Medical Practice Management + Medical Students / Training + Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP + Melanoma / Skin Cancer + Men's Health + Menopause + Mental Health + MRI / PET / Ultrasound + MRSA / Drug Resistance + Multiple Sclerosis + Muscular Dystrophy / ALS + Myeloma + Neurology / Neuroscience + Nursing / Midwifery + Nutrition / Diet + Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness + Ovarian Cancer * P - R Categories P - R + Pain / Anesthetics + Palliative Care / Hospice Care + Pancreatic Cancer + Parkinson's Disease + Pediatrics / Children's Health + Personal Monitoring + Pharma / Biotech Industry + Pharmacy / Pharmacist + Plastic Surgery + Pregnancy / Obstetrics + Premature Ejaculation + Preventive Medicine + Primary Care / General Practice + Prostate / Prostate Cancer + Psychology / Psychiatry + Public Health + Pulmonary System + Radiology / Nuclear Medicine + Regulatory Affairs + Rehabilitation + Respiratory + Restless Legs Syndrome * S - Z Categories S - Z + Schizophrenia + Seniors / Aging + Sexual Health / STDs + Sleep / Sleep Disorders + Smoking / Quit Smoking + Sports Medicine / Fitness + Statins + Stem Cell Research + Stroke + Surgery + Swine Flu + Transplants / Organ Donations + Tropical Diseases + Tuberculosis + Urology / Nephrology + Vascular + Veterans / Ex-Servicemen + Veterinary + Viruses / Bacteria + Water - Air Quality / Agriculture + Wearable Technology + Women's Health Opinions ____________________ (BUTTON) Search [__________________________] Categories MNT - Hourly medical news since 2003 * Sign in IFRAME: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/account/login-form-iframe.php?curr entPage=/articles/268902.php * News by email * Opinions ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Categories __________________________________________________________________ Nostalgic feelings about the past linked to optimism Last updated: 16 November 2013 at 12am PST Last updated: 16 Nov 2013 at 12am PST __________________________________________________________________ Psychology / Psychiatry add your opinion email MNT featuredAcademic journal __________________________________________________________________ Ratings for this article (click to rate) Ratings require JavaScript to be enabled. Public / Patient: 2.5 2 ratings Health Professionals: 0 0 ratings Vintage life seems to be all the rage. Whether a Roaring Twenties party, an Art Deco mirror or a vintage record collection, it would appear that nostalgia is here to stay. And according to new research, this yearning for the past increases optimism for the future. Researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK published a paper about four experiments focusing on nostalgia in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. They note that for a long time throughout history, nostalgia was considered a "doomed state of mind: an escapist reaction to the demands of the present and an anxiety toward the future." But their series of studies examines the notion that nostalgia's focus is not only on the past, but also on the future, resulting in a positive outlook. Co-author of the study Prof. Tim Wildschut comments on why he and his colleagues decided to focus on this topic: "Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone, and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort. For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can increase a feeling of optimism about the future." Self-esteem, optimism for future boosted by nostalgia Vintage photograph of girl laughing Nostalgic about the past? New research suggests yearning for the past increases optimism in the present. For one of the studies, Prof. Wildschut and colleagues asked participants to think about a nostalgic event and write about it. The team then compared the number of optimistic words in the narratives with those of a control group, which was asked to write about an ordinary event. They found that the nostalgic stories had a much higher proportion of optimistic phrases, compared with the ordinary narratives. In another study, the researchers asked participants to listen to either a nostalgic song or a control song. The researchers had previously determined which songs were nostalgic in a pretest, which involved listeners rating the extent to which a song produced nostalgic feelings for them. The participants who listened to the nostalgic song self-reported higher levels of optimism, compared with the individuals who listened to the control song. In yet another study, the participants were asked to complete questions about how they felt when presented with nostalgic song lyrics. Here, too, the participants who read the nostalgic lyrics reported higher levels of optimism than those who read other control lyrics. The researchers say this study establishes that nostalgia "fosters social connectedness, which subsequently increases self-esteem, which then boosts optimism." Prof. Wildschut explains their findings further: "Memories of the past can help to maintain current feelings of self-worth and can contribute to a brighter outlook on the future. Our findings do imply that nostalgia, by promoting optimism, could help individuals cope with psychological adversity." So follow a nostalgic blog or mull over hidden treasures at an antique shop. Your level of optimism may receive a boost. As the researchers write: "Nostalgia is not just an old, sepia-toned photo, locked in a box. Its power is far-reaching and can brighten up the path ahead." Written by Marie Ellis Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission. Follow @twitter * References * Additional information * Citations These tabs require JavaScript to be enabled. Back to the Future: Nostalgia Increases Optimism, Tim Wildschut, et al., Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, doi: 10.1177/0146167213499187, published online ahead of print August 2013, Abstract. Visit our Psychology / Psychiatry category page for the latest news on this subject. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: MLA Ellis, Marie. "Nostalgic feelings about the past linked to optimism." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Jan. 2015. ______________________________________________________________ APA Ellis, M. (2013, November 16). "Nostalgic feelings about the past linked to optimism." Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/268902.php. ______________________________________________________________ Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead. Rate this article (click stars to rate) Nostalgic feelings about the past linked to optimism Public / Patient: 2.5 2 ratings Health Professionals: 0 0 ratings Ratings require JavaScript to be enabled. email add your opinion Suggested ReadingYou may be interested in these related articles Study Reveals How Memory Affects Decision Making Smoking Might Restore Self-Control How our brain resists temptation in preference of 'future rewards' Everyday experiences may bring us unexpected joy in the future IFRAME: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/account/opinions-form.php?opiniontype= article&threadID=&articleID=268902 __________________________________________________________________ Contact our news editors For any corrections of factual information, or to contact our editorial team, please see our contact page. Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms of use. Close IFRAME: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/account/email-an-article-iframe.php?id =268902 Spotlight on: Psychology / Psychiatry * What Is Psychology? What Is Psychology? An introduction to psychology, the science of the mind and behavior. Find out about the origins, the branches of psychology and how psychologists study the mind. __________________________________________________________________ Trending in: Psychology / Psychiatry This category's most read articles: * High intelligence linked to reduced risk of schizophrenia * Perfect pitch may be explained by connection between two brain regions * Selfie-posting men present 'antisocial traits,' study finds * Learning a musical instrument boosts kids' brains * 'Early to bed' may curb negative thoughts * Parental suicide attempt linked to increased suicidal behavior in offspring * 'High-intensity' disruptive behavior may indicate future problems for children * Did arrhythmia influence Beethoven's music? __________________________________________________________________ Knowledge Center * [-- Select a subject --_____________________________]Want to see our most detailed pages about specific areas of medicine, including conditions, nutrition and forms of treatment? Visit our Knowledge Center. __________________________________________________________________ [ask-a-doctor300x250.gif] Scroll to top Navigate * Our most popular news * All written articles * Complete category list * MNT knowledge center Your MNT * Personalize MNT * Login to your MNT * MNT newsletters * Share our content About MNT * About us * Contact us * Advertising with MNT * Submit news articles More from MNT * Accessibility * Help & FAQ * Useful links from MNT * News feeds from MNT Privacy policy | Terms of use | Advertising policy MediLexicon International Ltd, Bexhill-on-Sea, UK © 2004-2015 All rights reserved. MNT is the registered trade mark of MediLexicon International Limited. This website is certified by Health On the Net Foundation. Click to verify. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. This page was printed from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/268902.php Visit www.medicalnewstoday.com for medical news and health news headlines posted throughout the day, every day. __________________________________________________________________ © 2004-2015 All rights reserved. MNT is the registered trade mark of MediLexicon International Limited. Quantcast #alternate Edit wikiHow (en) wikiHow Atom feed publisher wikiHow: How-to of the Day alternate alternate alternate alternate alternate * MESSAGES * LOG IN Log in via Log In Username____________ ____________________ Log In [X] Remember me Forgot password? Create an account * EXPLORE Community DashboardRandom ArticleAbout UsCategoriesRecent Changes * HELP US Write an ArticleRequest a New ArticleAnswer a RequestMore Ideas... * EDIT Edit this Article [wikihow_logo.png] ______________________________ Search * Home * » Categories * » Youth * » Health for Teens and Kids * » Emotional Health and Well Being * Article * Edit * Discuss Edit Article How to Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia You've now reached the awesome teen years, and your parents are even nicknaming you 'obnoxious'. But suddenly life seems to suck, and you keep wishing you were back in your fun, carefree kiddie past. The only thing you can do is learn to deal with this depressing nostalgia and start to appreciate the great things in your life right now. Remember that your teenage years have the potential to be some of the best of your life, so don't let them slide by - embrace them! Ad Steps 1. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 1.jpg 1 Think about why you are miserable now, and what's making you long to be back in the past. There could be many typical ( or random ) reasons why you may feel this way. Did someone bully you? It may be the whole new workload that high school is giving you, or the fact that you are you missing your old friends. Or it may simply be the major change you're experiencing as a teenager. You must discover the reasons for your sadness. Write the reason(s) down on a list. Ad 2. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 2.jpg 2 If you really don't know what is getting you down then, fill a diary with your current thoughts and feelings every week or so. When looking back upon diary entries, people are usually surprised by what they thought during the time! 3. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 3.jpg 3 Accept your present situation. There's no point wishing that you could be in playgroup or kinder again, when you know it's impossible. Life will always involve some work from now on, because you are on your way to being an adult. 4. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 4.jpg 4 Look through the list you created. Decide upon which complaints are realistic, and which ones are unachievable. For example, if you wrote "I'm sad because I want to be 3 again so I don't have school and can watch 'The Wiggles' all day," -get over it! A whim like that is totally unachievable and will never happen again. However if you wrote "I'm sad because I wish to be 7 again, because then I had friends but now I don't.", that's actually reasonable, because something can be done about it. 5. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 5.jpg 5 Ditch all those impossible whims from the list, it's a total waste of time mourning over it. Attempt to make the possible ones real. So try to make more friends, try to have more fun, play chase once in while, laugh a lot, watch funny movies, etc. 6. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 6.jpg 6 Get moving! Try to make your teen years the happiest, they can be, because you only get 7 years. Have fun! 7. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 7.jpg 7 If you are sad because you are away from home(for kids studying abroad), it can be really difficult. But read, or study, or socialize, and somehow try to make yourself forget about the situation. 8. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 8.jpg 8 Find out if there is anything you can do. Why are you feeling nostalgic? If you are missing old friends, then contact them by telephone or e-mail and arrange to meet up. If you miss an old school/childhood, it may help to wander around the school once more and maybe say hello to familiar faces if it helps. 9. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 9.jpg 9 Stick with people who are friendly and can help you. If you are still with some people who were with you during the times you now long for, talk it over with them. They might be feeling the same way. Talking it over certainly helps. 10. Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia Step 10.jpg 10 Give your nostalgia a chance. Nostalgia is not a bad thing: it's just your mind suddenly remembering a certain period in time. When you have the time, listen to a song which makes you nostalgic to relieve yourself and to remove the pressure. Ad We could really use your help! Can you tell us about Adobe Photoshop? Yes No Adobe Photoshop how to use Photoshop CS3 [-crop-127-140-127px-Use-Photoshop-CS3-Step-11Bullet1-Version-2.jpg] Can you tell us about self-help? Yes No self-help how to be an individual [-crop-127-140-127px-Be-an-Individual-Step-19.jpg] Can you tell us about magic tricks? Yes No magic tricks how do different magic card tricks [-crop-127-140-127px-572761-18.jpg] Can you tell us about Cookie Clicker? Yes No Cookie Clicker how to cheat at Cookie Clicker [-crop-127-140-127px-4242292-15.jpg] Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about ... Tell us everything you know here. Remember, more detail is better. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Tips Provide Details. Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation. Don't worry about formatting! We'll take care of it. For example: Don't say: Eat more fats. Do say: Add fats with some nutritional value to the foods you already eat. Try olive oil, butter, avocado, and mayonnaise. ____________________ Submit Tips * If you want to retain your past, then make sure you don't lose contact with your old friends or class buddies. Call them to catch up, or arrange friendship 'reunions' every 4 weeks or so. * A lot of teenagers experience nostalgia deep down. A lot. Just ask some of your friends (if you're close enough). * To be honest, most cases of nostalgia result from fallen friendships or relationships. Broken romantic relationships are understandably the most difficult to overcome. If this is your case, then obviously you're wishing it was the past, when you were having fun with your BF/GF. Sorry, the only solution here is to move on. * Just relax. You may be relieved to know that most teens feel depressed whenever they are doing homework. However that is no excuse to let it impede upon your grades. The teacher probably won't be satisfied with your explanation "I get depressed when I do homework, so I couldn't do it last night." Related wikiHows How to Help a Teen Through Depression How to Make Sure Your Party Guests Have a Good Time How to Improve Your Diet (Teens) How to Get Help in Living With Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) How to Express Your Emotional Pain the Healthy Way How to Cope With Suicidal Thoughts Article Info Categories: Emotional Health and Well Being In other languages: Español: Cómo lidiar con la depresión y nostalgia en la adolescencia, Italiano: Come Affrontare la Depressione e la Nostalgia Adolescenziali, Português: Como Lidar com Depressão e Nostalgia na Adolescência, Русский: справиться с подростковой депрессией и ностальгией * Discuss * Print * Email * Edit * Send fan mail to authors Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 106,170 times. Did this article help you? Yes No About this wikiHow 141 votes Helpful 106,170 views 30 Co-authors 59% of people told us that this article helped them. Random Article Write An Article Related Articles How to Deal with Child Protective Services How to Cope With a Controlling Parent How to Recover From Being Groomed How to Balance Power in Conflict Share Pin It Tweet Featured Articles How to Be Talented How to Know if That Person Truly Loves You How to Find All the Warp Tiles in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past How to Barbecue Meet a Community Member [1323584.jpg?20141025011557] Meet Davjohn, who has been an active patroller, Booster, and Admin on wikiHow for over 7 years. He enjoys checking spelling, patrolling tips, and voting on articles that have been nominated for deletion. He has started 32 articles and patrolled over 15,000 edits. His favorite articles that he’s worked on include How to Support Deployed US Troops and How to Become an Ordained Minister. He’s proud of helping other editors in the community out, just as they have for him. He enjoys having the opportunity to contribute to something positive and constructive, and he advises new community members to take wikiHow editing seriously and use the resources available around the site and community to make the best articles, copyedits, and improvements possible. Join The Community Follow Us On... * Home * About wikiHow * Terms of Use * RSS * Site map * Log In * Mobile view All text shared under a Creative Commons License. Powered by Mediawiki. Become an Author! Write an Article 500 Skip to: * Main Content Stanford University Website Search this site: _______________ Search Taube Center for Jewish Studies Taube Center for Jewish Studies Home About Us * About Us * Mission * Blog: The Scroll * History * Newsletter Archive People & Partners * People & Partners * Faculty * Staff * Visiting Scholars * Affiliated Departments & Centers * Stanford University Press * Other Jewish Studies Programs and Scholarly Organizations * Community Partners For Students * For Students * Undergraduate Students * Graduate Students * Current Course List * How to Pursue Jewish Studies Projects & Resources * Projects & Resources * Sephardi Studies Project * Hebrew@Stanford * Yiddish@Stanford * Jewish Studies and Education * Text & Culture Speaker Series * Judaica and Hebraica Collections at SUL * Jewish Social Studies Calendar & Events * Calendar & Events * Events - List Format * Events - Calendar Format Contact Us * Get in Contact * Contact Us * Mailing Lists "Red Star Over the Shtetl: Nostalgia in Post-Soviet Jewish Culture around the Globe" with Anna Shternshis Monday, November 3, 2014 - 12:00pm Clara Sumpf Yiddish Lecture Anna Shternshis, Al and Malka Green Associate Professor of Yiddish Studies Bldg 360 - CCSRE Conference room (map) This lecture is in English. There is another lecture in Yiddish at 4:00pm. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many contemporary Russian musicians of Jewish origins turned to Yiddish language and culture in search of a meaningful connection to their past and identity. Richly illustrated with media clips, the lecture examines how post-Soviet Yiddish music addresses issues of Soviet nostalgia and Soviet government anti-Semitism, and how it reaches out to both Jewish and non-Jewish Russian-speaking audiences across the globe. View current events Facebook Facebook For Students Receive emails about events and opportunities For the General Public Receive emails about events Our Blog Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the Taube Center Support Jewish Studies [SGS_logo.jpg] Stanford University © Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 SU Home | Maps & Directions | Search Stanford | Terms of Use | Copyright Complaints | SGS Home #alternate alternate A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD Sign in BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Earth * Future * Shop * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News Magazine Monitor * Home * UK * Africa * Asia * Australia * Europe * Latin America * Mid-East * US & Canada * Business * Health * Sci/Environment * Tech * Entertainment * Video 16 October 2014 Last updated at 13:27 GMT Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print What was on TV on the day you were born? Magazine Monitor By Magazine Monitor A collection of cultural artefacts Radio Times cover from 1976 Continue reading the main story More from the Monitor * The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio * 10 things we didn't know last week * Weekendish: The best of the week's reads * The Magazine in full A new digital archive of Radio Times listings has opened up a treasure chest of TV nostalgia. So what BBC shows are people celebrating from the day they were born, asks Tom de Castella. It is a gold mine for nostalgia buffs. The BBC's new digital archive, called Genome, lets users look at the Radio Times TV listings from any given day between 1923 and 2009. It covers just BBC output until 1991 when TV listings were deregulated and Radio Times could include ITV and Channel Four. Many Twitter users seized on television or radio that went out on the day they were born. @jon_melville: Thanks to #Genome I know that Seaside Special with Sacha Distel, The Grumbleweeds and Keith Harris aired on the day I was born @flyfour: Angela Rippon read the News on the day I was born, and June Whitfield read "The House That Sailed Away" on Jackanory #genome TV reviewer Julia Raeside tweeted: An hour after I was born there was an Open University programme on BBC2 about HAMLET. I knew it @AliceBG_: BBC #Genome project shows I'm so old that, whilst I was being born (11:22am, so not middle of night), what was on TV was 'Pages from Ceefax' @drl: By my calculations, The BBC News at One o'clock with Martyn Lewis was on BBC One when I was born @awgossip: thank god I wasn't born 15 minutes earlier: "6.45 Social Science: Abortion", sends the wrong message Simon Blackwell, comedy writer on Veep and the Thick of It, tweeted: On the day I was born, Music While You Work was on the Light Programme. God I'm old Two Radio Times covers @RyanJL: Newsround was on when I was born. @HeathyChanDesu: According to #Genome, Chucklevision was on BBC One 3 minutes after I was born. I couldn't ask for better! :) @jasew: On BBC1 the day I was born: Watch with Mother, Play School, Jackanory, Wacky Races, Babar, Z Cars, Tomorrow's World, and Boxing. #genome @baroness_sheene: 45yrs & I have been lied to my whole life. Told I was born upstairs whilst dad watched match of the day downstairs @LisaMarieArt: Just found out that Jackanory, Take Hart, Star Trek, The Wombles and Miss UK 1979 were on BBC One the day I was born. Thanks #Genome @rupinjapan: Captain Pugwash and Kojack were on BBC One the afternoon I was born… my dad was in the pub #genome @Ravenser: #Genome Jackanory, Champion, The Wonder Horse, Animal Magic, Tin Tin and Softly, Softly were on TV the day I was born Radio Times covers showing the Two Ronnies and the Beatles @mandymachado: Found out from #genome that the Cricket was on all day on BBC 2 on the day of my birth - impressed my Dad made it to the labor ward @TheDashingChap: BBC1 schedule on my birthday: Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, World Cup Grandstand, Kojak, Sailor, Sinatra & Friends - not bad! #genome @Mr_Lingo: mine was Wildlife on One; Gannets Galore Narrated by David Attenborough @RosieB_London: I had a brilliant TV listings the day I was born (29/12/1978): Buck Rogers, Playschool and The Ashes! #Genome @AlanJSlater: No idea... we didn't have a television set back then. @bbcnewsmagazine #genome Not everyone was talking about their birthday. @alanconnor tweeted: Things you find on Genome: '5 television quizzes about practical electricity with BOB HOLNESS as the Question-Master' Radio Times writer Andrew Collins calls the Genome project "a brilliant time capsule". Most of the period covered is pre-video, iPlayer or Catch Up. You get a snapshot of what Britain was sitting down to watch at any given time, he says. Sometimes it makes for awkward reading - The Black and White Minstrel show was still on in 1973. It was a different age. As @FrankieForber tweeted: "Goodness! BBC TV stopped at 22:40 for News (sound only)!" Collins, who was born in 1965, recalls how for long swaths of the day there were no children's programmes - no bad thing, he says, with a faint echo of Why Don't You. The 1970s, he believes, was a "Golden Age" for television, especially sit-coms. "Man About the House looks a bit shaky, the sexual politics are dated but it's still funny," he says. There would be two good sit-coms a night - Dad's Army and On The Buses are other favourites that still work, he says. It was part of the national conversation. "There was nothing else to watch and everyone was watching the same thing. Look at the Radio Times now and there's so many channels and so much choice." Today the communal experience - barring exceptions like Bake-Off - is nostalgia. Share your birthday TV and radio highlights by tweeting @BBCNewsMagazine and include #genome - we'll update the story throughout the day. Radio Times cover showing image from Dad's Army Images courtesy of Radio Times Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. More on This Story More from the Monitor * Old radio The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio Early in World War Two, Britain's agent in Sharjah noticed an alarming rise in support for Nazi Germany - so he slipped on a disguise to find out who was responsible. ______________________________________________________________ * woman praying with crucifix 10 things we didn't know last week Women are almost two thirds more likely to believe in God than men, and other nuggets. ______________________________________________________________ * Weekendish: The best of the week's reads But there's more * The Magazine in full Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Follow us * twitter Magazine on Twitter You can follow the latest updates on Twitter ______________________________________________________________ * facebook …and on Facebook You can also become a fan of the Magazine on Facebook ______________________________________________________________ Our archive * Monitor And previously Click here to read older posts from our blog Elsewhere on the BBC * RV Life on the road Real stories on the joys and pains of mobile living Programmes * Circus performer The Travel Show Watch Mama Africa’s circus school - the ground-breaking production seen by seven million people Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Media Action * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #alternate alternate A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD Sign in BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Earth * Future * Shop * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News Magazine Monitor * Home * UK * Africa * Asia * Australia * Europe * Latin America * Mid-East * US & Canada * Business * Health * Sci/Environment * Tech * Entertainment * Video 3 October 2014 Last updated at 13:45 GMT Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Weekendish: The best of the week's reads Magazine Monitor Magazine Monitor A collection of cultural artefacts The Queen Mary liner Continue reading the main story More from the Monitor * The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio * 10 things we didn't know last week * Weekendish: The best of the week's reads * The Magazine in full A collection of some of the best reads from the BBC News website this week, with an injection of your comments. It looked like a "great white cliff", but one with a fashionable nod to Art Deco. Eighty years ago the Queen Mary was launched, but what was its lure? Why does it give off such a whiff of nostalgia? Its four-day Atlantic crossings were the height of style, with black-tie dinners, tennis courts and even telephones. It was glamorous, entertaining the likes of Winston Churchill, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and more. But despite being a titan of its time, the Queen Mary eventually lost out to the transatlantic flight and now pales in comparison to modern cruise liners. Taller and almost three-times the tonnage, today's cruise liners may be monsters, but they lack the luxury of 1934. Queen Mary: Liner that helped launch monster cruise ships 464 gray line Almaz's story Cartoon frames of Almaz cleaning and cooking Last year writer Benjamin Dix and cartoonist Lindsay Pollock introduced Magazine readers to Amiir and Family via this cartoon: Somali family living in Norway. This week, they were back with another. It tells the disturbing story of Almaz - a young Ethiopian girl living in poverty who travels to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid. She is tricked and her employers abuse her. As they complain about her cooking, speak condescendingly to her and talk of luxuries with wealthy friends, she is raped and refused her salary. Her passport has been taken and she is trapped. She is also cut off from her mother - unable to write or send money to her. Abused and unpaid - the story of an African servant in Saudi Arabia 464 gray line The first trainspotter Train drawn by Jonathan Backhouse, 1825 He may not have been the first trainspotter, as we know them now. But Jonathan Blackhouse certainly has a good claim for being the first train enthusiast. In September 1825 he watched the inaugural journey of the Stockton to Darlington railway. The drawing he made, and his enthusiastic letter to his sisters are now on display at the National Railway Museum York until 1 March 2015 as part of their trainspotting season. Amy Banks, the exhibition manager, describes the drama of a steam train going past, its 1960s heyday and the controversial steam or diesel question. Locospotters are an enthusiastic bunch who yearn to tick train numbers off their list and will climb up signal lights to do it. The craze started with Blackhouse and continues with Nick Beeson on Facebook, who calls it the "best hobby ever!" Who was the world's first trainspotter? 464 gray line A Taste of history Woman in silhouette drinking from litre jug of beer at Oktoberfest Beer and sausages? It's got to be Germany. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, tells BBC News Magazine readers about the importance beer and sausages have in German culture and identity. The ornate tankards they drank from were statements of pride and the act of drinking itself was used as a pledge of good faith or an oath of allegiance. As well as beer, the great emblem of Germany's national diet is the sausage. From coronation specials to plain ones in a bun, sausages are Germany's history on a plate. With Oktoberfest being the largest popular festival in the world, German culture has a long future. The country with one people and 1,200 sausages 464 gray line Japan's deserted beaches Children playing in the sea in Japan Japan has nearly 30,000km of coastline but people only visit the beach in the summer Japanese children have it drilled into them at school: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." They follow this so closely that on 1 September Japanese beaches are deserted, outdoor pools are locked up and swimwear put away for another year. A beach that had thousands basking in the sun will overnight be emptied despite no change in weather the next day. Michael Fitzpatrick explains the strong and strict social norms which cause this. Not going to the beach might be a form of "kata", which governs the behaviour in many situations from making tea to whether to wear short-sleeve shirts. It is a strong sense of what should be done and is diligently followed. Andrew Gould tweets: "I used to see the short sleeve to long sleeve seasonal change (and vice versa) on the train in Japan. It's so striking!" Why Japan's beaches are deserted - despite the sunshine 464 gray line Magazine monitor Lee Ben David's cutlery Magazine monitor, a collection of cultural artefacts, had some treats this week. There was the origin of the recently much-used phrase "boots on the ground", the reasons why so many drivers are still shunning seatbelts, whether yoga is actually about exercise and the strange world of super-specialist cutlery. 464 gray line Here are some things we've enjoyed this week from elsewhere around the web: The Gender Politics of Pockets - The Atlantic To understand life in East Germany, all you need is this board game - PRI Parenting as a Gen Xer: We're the first generation of parents in the age of iEverything - Washington Post The Self-Made Man: The story of America's most pliable, pernicious, irrepressible myth - Slate Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. More on This Story More from the Monitor * Old radio The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio Early in World War Two, Britain's agent in Sharjah noticed an alarming rise in support for Nazi Germany - so he slipped on a disguise to find out who was responsible. ______________________________________________________________ * woman praying with crucifix 10 things we didn't know last week Women are almost two thirds more likely to believe in God than men, and other nuggets. ______________________________________________________________ * Weekendish: The best of the week's reads But there's more * The Magazine in full Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Follow us * twitter Magazine on Twitter You can follow the latest updates on Twitter ______________________________________________________________ * facebook …and on Facebook You can also become a fan of the Magazine on Facebook ______________________________________________________________ Our archive * Monitor And previously Click here to read older posts from our blog Elsewhere on the BBC * RV Life on the road Real stories on the joys and pains of mobile living Programmes * Circus performer The Travel Show Watch Mama Africa’s circus school - the ground-breaking production seen by seven million people Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Media Action * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #alternate Low Graphics A to Z Terms of Use British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Home Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation * Skip to bbc.co.uk search * Accessibility Help BBC News BBC News Magazine News Front Page [USEMAP:v3_map_world_rb.gif] Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East South Asia UK England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales UK Politics Education Magazine Business Health Science & Environment Technology Entertainment Also in the news ----------------- Video and Audio ----------------- Programmes Have Your Say In Pictures Country Profiles Special Reports Related BBC sites * Sport * Weather * On This Day * Editors' Blog * BBC World Service [agencyrep_bbc_usa_uk_home] Page last updated at 16:48 GMT, Friday, 5 February 2010 E-mail this to a friend Printable version What is nostalgia good for? Remembering past times By Stephen Robb BBC News A Standard Life study suggests 28 to 40-year-olds don't plan for the future because they prefer to reminisce about past times. Yet experts say nostalgia can give meaning to our seemingly dull lives. What was the most recent film you saw? Chocolate you bought? Fashion trend you noticed? Or friend you contacted on Facebook? "If it was Star Trek, a Wispa, shoulder pads or school friend, then don't fear, you are entirely typical of someone who lived through the Noughties," says a report from financial services provider Standard Life, which concludes that more than any other decade, the 2000s were very retro. The Fantastic Mr Fox Filmmakers are turning to the books of their childhood Businesses and advertisers have known for years that nostalgia sells, that the products popular during a person's youth will influence their buying habits throughout their lifetime. "But they didn't know why, and they perhaps didn't care - that was their endgame, to figure out how to sell things," says psychologist Clay Routledge, of North Dakota State University. In recent years, psychologists have been trying to analyse the powerful and enduring appeal of our own past - what Mr Routledge calls the "psychological underpinnings of nostalgia". "Why does it matter? Why would a 40-year-old man care about a car he drove when he was 18?" he asks. It matters, quite simply, because nostalgia makes us feel good. Heart sick Once nostalgia was considered a sickness - the word derives from the Greek "nostos" (return) and "algos" (pain), suggesting suffering due to a desire to return to a place of origin. Vintage stall Not second-hand, oh no... it's vintage A 17th Century medical student coined the term "nostalgia" for anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home, although some military doctors believed their problems were specific to the Swiss and caused by the Alpine racket of cowbells. Understanding has moved on somewhat since, with dedicated research in recent years suggesting that nostalgia is "good psychological medicine". Studies by Mr Routledge, along with colleagues at the University of Southampton, have found that remembering past times improves mood, increases self-esteem, strengthens social bonds and imbues life with meaning. Not bad for just a few minutes' daydreaming about scoring the winning goal for the school team, aged 12, or reminiscing about a family caravanning trip in a balmy summer gone by. Micro scooter Even toys are now for grown-ups "Most of our days are often filled with with routine activities that aren't particularly significant - shopping for groceries, commuting to work and so forth," says Mr Routledge. "Nostalgia is a way for us to tap into the past experiences that we have that are quite meaningful - to remind us that our lives are worthwhile, that we are people of value, that we have good relationships, that we are happy and that life has some sense of purpose or meaning." Because the psychology of nostalgia is a relatively new field of research, there is no evidence to show whether particular generations are becoming more nostalgic. Dr Tim Wildschut, of the University of Southampton, stresses that nostalgia is a "fundamental human emotion" and "not something that changes overnight". Rose-tinted view But Damian Barr, who wrote the 2004 book Get It Together about struggling 20-somethings, fears the generation that reached adulthood in the 1990s and 2000s could find themselves handicapped by excessive nostalgia. Spandau Ballet back in the day Big in the 80s, now reformed "We are less prepared for our difficult present by having had a very easy time of it when we were very young," he says. "We grew up in a boom - we are living in a bust." Facing a present defined by recession, the threat of international terrorism and warnings of environmental doom, young adults are fixated on the happy associations from a more hopeful past, says Mr Barr, who helped develop Standard Life's report. It is a paradox of technological advances such as the internet and the proliferation of TV channels enable us to wallow in the past. Digital channels replay favourite shows, and countless fansites are devoted to yesteryear's bands and confectionery. "We are going back to the bands, the TV shows, the films - all the kinds of things we enjoyed at school and at university. And the market is responding to that - bands are reforming, TV shows being remade." But Mr Barr warns the past can be fun in measured doses and for the right reasons. Dancing at the School Disco Even better than the real thing? "You shouldn't revisit it as a way of avoiding the present or not thinking about the future. If you spend too much time thinking about the past, you are simply not going to be prepared for the future socially or emotionally." While highlighting the benefits of nostalgia, a 2006 report in Psychology Today magazine has warned that "overdoing reminiscence" risks an absence of joy derived from the present, and a reliance on past memories to provide happiness. Thinking about the past could also trigger painful emotions, such as grief for lost loved ones or feeling like a has-been if recalling a distant career success. Instead, focus on the positivity of the experience, rather than feeling bad because it happened so long ago. A NOSTALGIA 'WORKOUT' List cherished memories Find photos or mementos from happy times Close your eyes and think about what is outside the "picture frame" to conjure subtle details Reminiscing with people from your past strengthens relationships Take mental snapshots and save mementos of happy times for future nostalgia Source: Psychology Today "People who see each good experience as permanently enriching are more likely to get a mood boost," the article noted. Nostalgia is usually involuntary and triggered by negative feelings - most commonly loneliness - against which it acts as a sort of natural anti-depressant by countering those feelings. But, just as businesses aim to exploit nostalgia in consumers, psychologists suggest people could employ nostalgia "workouts" to enjoy its benefits. Mr Routledge describes tests in which people suffering worries that their lives lack meaning spend just five minutes writing about an experience that made them feel nostalgic. "People who were low in meaning in life who were then given the nostalgia 'workout' did have a significant increase in psychological wellbeing. They felt more alive and energetic, their life [felt] worthwhile." "But one of the interesting things about nostalgia is that most people engage in it spontaneously without requiring a 'workout' regime." __________________________________________________________________ Below is a selection of your comments. Like Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we can modify our memories. In our memories we are probably all funnier, more popular, braver and better than we ever were in real life at the time. I don't think Facebook helps - I can't see any of your old school chums popping up and saying "actually, you were a complete waste of space at school" because you might do the same to them, so we embark on a kind of complicit airbrush and re-write of our personal histories. And then we buy the re-issued music to reinforce the new version of history; the music is re-issued for the same reasons - a couple of old band members get to reminiscing, and before you know it Tenpole Tudor's Greatest Hits is unleashed on the world. Ian, Walsall Whilst I was reading this article my colleague was getting me a Wispa bar. I also want to get my niece a My Little Pony. I agree that people under 40 are probably prone to nostalgia as everything seems bleak at the moment. As children of the 80s we grew up in comfortable times and now can't even afford to buy a house. Gemma, Sidcup Looking back can be cool if it is an occasional pastime. I've split from my recent partner and one of the reasons is that he will not move into the present day or future, wants to relive the 80s with his Dr Martens, re-watching Brush Strokes and ska music. What about the miners strikes, Falklands and political agendas? Like everything in the past - it's only the good bits we recall. Julie, Fife "Once nostalgia was considered a sickness... Understanding has moved on somewhat since." Maybe, but I preferred it the way it was back then. James, Leeds The essence of who we are as individuals is based on our own unique accumulation of memories. Even looking to the future and saying "been there - done that" would not be possible without reliving the experience to some extent. ChrisJk, UK Hearing one word does it for me and the nostalgia all comes flooding back - to a bygone era when there were no bills to pay, no daily hassles, no wondering what was for tea, well, no stress really! The word? BAGPUSS. Dave Wicks, Chippenham The other night I was listening to a song I hadn't heard in about 20 years, and I still knew all the words. People are inclined to be nostalgic because it takes us back to a time when things were far simpler and our impressions fresh. I have recently caught up with a great many old friends via Facebook and am enjoying the memories they trigger, but also pleased to hear what they are doing now and how their lives have changed over the years. On a personal note, although I have some souvenirs, I burned all my teenage diaries a couple of years ago; I saw no need to preserve the ramblings of my teenaged self as I am much happier with the way I am now than I was then. Kate, Oxford, UK This article is absolutely spot on. I hit 40 last year and, over the past two or three years, a wave of nostalgia has overwhelmed me, from buying lots of 80s compilation CDs to trying to buy my favourite game (Treasure Of The Pharaohs) on eBay. Add to that Facebook helping me get in touch with old school friends and I am routinely being sent back to a time when life was easier and, dare I say it, a lot more fun. Mat Fletcher, Essex When I was 35, and prior to getting married, my fiancee asked that I got rid of any photos of previous girlfriends. I looked at my old albums and decided I didn't need any of them, got a bin-bag and dumped every photo I possessed. I've never regretted it. Magus, London I once had a purge of photos. At another time I also lost a lot of stuff (diaries and photos) thanks to someone else's ignorance. Far from seeing it a release I feel as if there's a big hole in my life. It may seem good at the time - but these things have a habit of coming back at you. Your "nostalgia" is part of your soul. Without it? Well. Patrick, Lancaster It does worry me that my generation is so backward looking, but I don't blame us in a lot of ways. The future is always predicted to be so bleak, so full of potential disaster, that can you blame us for focussing on a time before all of that worry? If SOME positivity could penetrate the relentless media view that we're all doomed to desperate future then perhaps we'd pull our heads out of the sand. But until then I don't see anything changing. Lisa, London Bookmark with: * Delicious * Digg * reddit * Facebook * StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version Print Sponsor In today's Magazine Model elephants in London Big beasts How elephants helped to shape human history, by David Cannadine Manhattan skyline Change a-coming Justin Webb on America's love affair with progress Woman sitting alone in a theatre Audience of one Would you watch a play all on your own? Paul the Octopus 7 days quiz What now for Paul the eight-limbed oracle? Magazine regulars Facebook/Twitter Tweetbook Say goodbye to worktime boredom. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Magazine Monitor Paper Monitor, Your Letters, Quote of the Day, Caption Competition and more MOST POPULAR STORIES NOW * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * Girl, 4, attacked by Rottweiler Most popular now, in detail * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth * Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine * E-mail error ends up on road sign * Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' * Condoms 'too big' for Indian men * US planes targeted by bomb threats * ECB warns over "weakened" EU project * Lungu wins Zambia presidential poll * Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff * World leaders pay respects in Riyadh Most popular now, in detail * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * video Why Saudi matters - In 90 secs * video Unnamed page * video Is this the goal of the year? * video Cameron and Charles in Saudi Arabia * video Transgender 13-year-old 'like any girl' * video Video of bystander tackling robber * video The drone operator who said 'No' * video Musketeers return in BBC drama * video Chemotherapy on your doorstep * video What you can (and can't) get in Cuba Most popular now, in detail FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS Horses sculpture in memory of Genghis Khan, Ordos, Inner Mongolia Ghost town Has China's housing bubble burst? Afo - the world's oldest clove tree The guerilla plant How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire Sergei Polunin Walking away Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit Most Popular Now Most Popular Now | 29,614 people are reading stories on the site right now."; Skip to top PRODUCTS & SERVICES * E-mail news * Mobiles * Widgets & Alerts * News feeds * Podcasts Search term: ____________________ Search BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Capital * TV * Radio * More... * CBBC * CBeebies * Comedy * Food * History * Learning * Music * Science * Earth * Local * Northern Ireland * Scotland * Wales * Full A-Z of BBC sites BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine Low Graphics A to Z Terms of Use British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Home Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation * Skip to bbc.co.uk search * Accessibility Help BBC News Magazine News Front Page [USEMAP:v3_map_world_rb.gif] Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East South Asia UK England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales UK Politics Education Magazine Business Health Science & Environment Technology Entertainment Also in the news ----------------- Video and Audio ----------------- Programmes Have Your Say In Pictures Country Profiles Special Reports Related BBC sites * Sport * Weather * On This Day * Editors' Blog * BBC World Service [agencyrep_bbc_usa_uk_home] Page last updated at 13:58 GMT, Monday, 19 January 2009 E-mail this to a friend Printable version A bit of vibraphone nostalgia Tony Hart with picture from The Gallery With glitter and lentils a lot could be achieved The late Tony Hart gave a generation of children enthusiasm for homemade art, but he also helped popularise a tune now used to tap into our sense of nostalgia. Anyone who was a child in the 1970s will remember hearing Left Bank Two, although probably not the name. Hearing it should conjure up images of blurred chalk-drawn sailing boats and landscapes rendered in leguminous media - all the magic of The Gallery on Vision On, on which Tony Hart, who died at the weekend, became a children's TV star. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. A vibraphone tootles away while a brushed drum and a strummed acoustic guitar meander around in the background. By comparison with Left Bank Two the average piece of shopping centre or elevator music sounds like thrash metal. As a piece of music it ambled along in sympathy with the cut-up card creations and intricate stencil work that flashed up in The Gallery, which also became a fixture of Hart's subsequent venture, Take Hart. The piece was written and published in 1963, the work of a "Wayne Hill", also responsible for the award-winning theme to the 1960s TV series The Power Game. It was recorded by anonymous session musicians in the Netherlands as library material for the British film and television music company De Wolfe. The session musicians were dubbed the Noveltones. "They were just given names to give it some authenticity," says Frank Barretta, senior music consultant at De Wolfe. The track would have been sent to the BBC on a promotional record, and having been chosen for a programme De Wolfe would then supply a broadcast version on magnetic tape. There quite a move now towards folk music, going back to real instruments - some of our kids stuff has got an organic feel to it Frank Barretta De Wolfe But for its appearance in Vision On, the music would have disappeared into relative obscurity, used occasionally but with no significance for the listener. De Wolfe also supplied two other pieces of gallery music for Vision On, Merry Ocarina, by Pierre Arvay, and Accroche-toi Caroline, by Claude Vasori. And being cheap and accessible library music with an emotional appeal, Left Bank Two has been used many times over the years, particularly on adverts. "It's a natural reference to something with pictures or paintings. There is a certain demographic who would recognise it. It has been used on campaigns for cars, directly aimed at people of a certain age." Distinctive pieces An advert a couple of years back for a company called Picture Loans used Left Bank Two. A woman is negotiating a £25,000 loan while her husband hovers and her son searches for his lost scooter. The tootlings of the song provide a subliminal link with the "picture" of the firm's title. Volkswagen is among the other firms to use the piece. Of course Left Bank Two was not the only distinctive piece to run over The Gallery section of Hart's programmes. Vision On also used the syrupy guitars of Cavatina, and the slightly odd Gurney Slade theme. Later shows used Water Buffalo and Marguerite. And of course if a children's show theme was picked today it would sound very different - altogether less easy listening for starters. "There is quite a move now towards folk music, going back to real instruments - some of our kids stuff has got an organic feel to it." __________________________________________________________________ Some of your comments: Vision On was full of hoopy tunes, but people only ever seem to remember the gallery theme. The Vision On theme itself was a very 70's vocal/bongo-drum offering, while the end music was the tune used by Olga Korbutt in her legendary Olympic floor routine. Each of the regular features on the programme had its own tune. I remember in particular: "The Burbles" - (clocks that spoke in speech bubbles), the little girl with her tortoise, the digging man, and who could forget - the Prof! Kelly Mouser, Upminster I am in my late forties and only had to listen to that tune for a few nano-seconds before I was back in my first home, wearing shorts and eating my tea watching Vision On on a black and white TV. Such is the power of music to resurrect long forgotten memories! William, Oxford The piece is also used in the Playstation 3 game 'Little Big Planet'. Perhaps it gives a hint to some early influences felt by the games developers from the late great Tony? Damian, Brighton I grew up watching Take Hart, I now have a five year old and she would love it. There is a TV show now called Mr Maker, which is in the same mode, but Take Hart was great and Tony Hart seems to have had a great way with showing kids how to make stuff. Me and My sister tried every week to get one of our painting on the show, but never managed it. TV has changed a lot since than but it really was a great show. As for the music, I'd love that as a ring tone, very mellow. Simon, Manchester Ah - pure magic, an ear massage. Alex, Swansea I would love to see a re-run of Tony Hart's programmes, including the Adventures of Morph - the way he inspired creativity in young people (and older people, too, I suspect) was wonderful, and would be a counter balance to all the stress of SATS, GCSEs and the rest. Just what we need now! Lindsay Kemp, Wainfleet, Lincs This filled me a bit of sadness and nostalgia when I read that Tony Hart had died. Vision On was so distinctive with the Gallery music and lots of home made art. I can't help wondering if it harks back to a better time when kids could spell, add up and didn't need a PS3 or XBOX to keep themselves entertained. Dick M, Liverpool In the 90's we had a band - (Top Banana!... surely one of the best 5 piece pub bands in the North Chester region) - and we used to play this piece during the otherwise awkward silence during instrument changeovers. I say play, I never did quite master it... got the vibraphone sound perfectly, got most of the notes, just never quite got them in the right order. But everyone recognised it. Vision On was my absolute favourite programme in the mid seventies. Used to dream of having a picture up there in the Gallery. Ditto Smith, Bedford Bookmark with: * Delicious * Digg * reddit * Facebook * StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version Print Sponsor In today's Magazine Model elephants in London Big beasts How elephants helped to shape human history, by David Cannadine Manhattan skyline Change a-coming Justin Webb on America's love affair with progress Woman sitting alone in a theatre Audience of one Would you watch a play all on your own? Paul the Octopus 7 days quiz What now for Paul the eight-limbed oracle? Magazine regulars Facebook/Twitter Tweetbook Say goodbye to worktime boredom. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Magazine Monitor Paper Monitor, Your Letters, Quote of the Day, Caption Competition and more RELATED INTERNET LINKS De Wolfe The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites MOST POPULAR STORIES NOW * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * Girl, 4, attacked by Rottweiler Most popular now, in detail * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth * Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine * E-mail error ends up on road sign * Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' * Condoms 'too big' for Indian men * US planes targeted by bomb threats * ECB warns over "weakened" EU project * Lungu wins Zambia presidential poll * Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff * World leaders pay respects in Riyadh Most popular now, in detail * SHARED * READ * WATCHED/LISTENED * video Why Saudi matters - In 90 secs * video Unnamed page * video Is this the goal of the year? * video Cameron and Charles in Saudi Arabia * video Transgender 13-year-old 'like any girl' * video Video of bystander tackling robber * video The drone operator who said 'No' * video Musketeers return in BBC drama * video Chemotherapy on your doorstep * video What you can (and can't) get in Cuba Most popular now, in detail FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS Horses sculpture in memory of Genghis Khan, Ordos, Inner Mongolia Ghost town Has China's housing bubble burst? Afo - the world's oldest clove tree The guerilla plant How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire Sergei Polunin Walking away Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit Most Popular Now Most Popular Now | 29,614 people are reading stories on the site right now."; Skip to top PRODUCTS & SERVICES * E-mail news * Mobiles * Widgets & Alerts * News feeds * Podcasts Search term: ____________________ Search BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Capital * TV * Radio * More... * CBBC * CBeebies * Comedy * Food * History * Learning * Music * Science * Earth * Local * Northern Ireland * Scotland * Wales * Full A-Z of BBC sites BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #BBC NEWS | Technology Low Graphics Skip to main content Access keys help BBC logo * Home * News * Sport * Radio * TV * Weather * Languages __________ go [an error occurred while processing this directive] Low graphics|Accessibility help BBC News watch One-Minute World News mobiles News services Your news when you want it News Front Page [USEMAP:v3_map_world_rb.gif] Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East South Asia UK Business Health Science & Environment Technology Entertainment Also in the news ----------------- Video and Audio ----------------- Programmes Have Your Say In Pictures Country Profiles Special Reports RELATED BBC SITES * SPORT * WEATHER * ON THIS DAY * EDITORS' BLOG [4667390.stm~RS~r~RS~(none)~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~07~RS~] Last Updated: Friday, 3 February 2006, 11:57 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Sega nostalgia trip goes wrong By Neil McGreevey BBC Sega Classics Collection Classics like Outrun have suffered unnecessary facelifts Players who first dipped their toe into the world of gaming in the 8 and 16bit era would be forgiven for riding a wave of nostalgia with this collection of hits from the golden age lovingly slapped onto one disc. Yet a wave of nausea is more likely after playing Sega's Classics Collection for the PlayStation 2. Simply culling the classics that fed your Megadrive and Master System seems a simple enough money-spinner to task Sega with. Yet while gaming glitterati such as Outrun, Golden Axe, Space Harrier, Columns, Fantasy Zone, Monaco GP, Virtua Racing and Bonanza Bros are all here in name, they have suffered such unnecessary facelifts as to be barely recognisable. In most cases the 2D graphics and levels you know and love have been dressed in a shabby 3D coat and crippled with clunky control systems. The resulting halfway house between pixel-perfect original and bona-fide remake will have you fetching the Megadrive from the attic. Space Harrier is stripped of its manic charm, Outrun is a mere shadow of the sun-kissed arcade original, while Golden Axe is just plain sloppy. Bad trip The games that survive with their dignity intact are those that have been interfered with the least. Sega Classics Collection The games are hampered by clunky controls Hallucinogenic shooter Fantasy Zone can still raise a grin through its pastel haze. Sega's 1990 answer to Tetris, Columns, is a passable enough puzzler, although the one area they should have changed - the infuriating music - remains in all its cacophonous glory. Rather than the joypad greats that ushered in the turbulent early nineties, we have a less than rose-tinted collection that gives nostalgia a bad name. When a simple collection of the originals would have sufficed, you have to ask yourself why? E-mail this to a friend Printable version GAME REVIEWS LATEST Wii players Wii Sports Nintendo wants to revolutionise gaming but does the novelty wear off quickly? RELOAD Need for Speed's carbon copy Axe meister Gears of War is a bit of a grind Pro Evo 6: a flawed gold-standard Fifa 07 hints at beautiful game Sam Fisher keeps spy game fresh Big guns out for Xbox 360 High definition Tokyo Dead Rising alive with promise It's me! Mario! Going loco over LocoRoco RELATED INTERNET LINKS: Sega Classics Collection The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites TOP TECHNOLOGY STORIES US lifts lid on WikiLeaks probe Bing gains market share in search 'Virtual human' makes Xbox debut PRODUCTS & SERVICES * E-mail news * Mobiles * Alerts * News feeds * Podcasts * BBC Copyright Notice MMIX Most Popular Now | 7,100 pages were read in the last minute."; Back to top ^^ * Help * Privacy and cookies policy * News sources * About the BBC * Contact us #A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD Sign in BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Earth * Future * Shop * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News Magazine * Home * UK * Africa * Asia * Australia * Europe * Latin America * Mid-East * US & Canada * Business * Health * Sci/Environment * Tech * Entertainment * Video * Magazine * In Pictures * Also in the News * Editors' Blog * Have Your Say * World News TV * World Service Radio * Special Reports 19 January 2012 Last updated at 02:35 GMT Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print A little bit of High Street nostalgia A selection of old and new photos of shop fronts By Tom de Castella BBC News Magazine Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine * The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio * The lost sons * The cigarettes that worry tobacco firms * The photos stopping people in the street The closure of dozens of branches of Little Chef can prompt an outpouring of nostalgia for bygone brands on Twitter. But why do people get misty-eyed over High Streets of old? You pop out of the house, cash a cheque at Midland Bank, hire a television at Radio Rentals, buy a jumper in C&A, pick up some screws at Texas Homecare, do the weekly shop at Gateway, before repairing to Lyons Corner House for a cup of tea and an individual fruit pie. Ah, those were the days. In the 1970s, the High Street was a bustling place of traditional, albeit occasionally stodgy brands, untroubled by out-of-town retail parks, let alone the virtual shopping of Amazon and its internet competitors. The announcement by Little Chef last week that it was to close a third of its outlets caused an outbreak of nostalgia on Twitter for businesses strongly associated with the 1970s and 1980s that have either disappeared or are struggling. Under the hashtag #lost70s, people bemoaned the passing of Texas Homecare, Woolworths and Radio Rentals. This week clothing retailer Peacocks, another 1970s staple, revealed it had gone into administration, showing the vulnerability of these once powerful brands. Woolworths Woolworths have been replaced by pound shops and posh supermarkets To people entering middle age, it is easy to look back with nostalgia at a land where Wimpy hadn't yet succumbed to US invaders like McDonald's and Burger King, and where the Berni Inn was synonymous with a slap-up dinner of sirloin steak, jacket potato with sour cream, a visit to the salad bar, and Black Forest gateau for afters. Continue reading the main story Why we look back longingly image of Jonathan Coe Jonathan Coe Author __________________________________________________________________ A provincial High Street in the 1970s was a recognisable, easily navigable space. Having greater choice has taken us out of that comfort zone. It's like growing up and having to cook for yourself instead of having your mum put a plate of fish fingers and a bowl of Angel Delight in front of you every evening. The choice of food in a Berni Inn or Little Chef may have been narrow, but that's not the point - what's important about a meal out is the sense of community around the dinner table. I think because our lives were bounded by the same, limited set of choices, people have a memory of being less atomised. Shopping on the High Street was a more leisurely and sociable experience, too. We've sacrificed that for the sake of convenience - by building by-passes, which shave a few minutes off a car journey and out-of-town malls where the parking is slightly easier. It's not all gloomy. You can get a better cup of coffee than you used to, and for my daughters' generation, a trip to the shopping mall is still a social event. I can imagine them tweeting nostalgically about Caffe Nero and Accessorize in a few decades' time - nostalgic for the certainties of their own childhoods in the same way that my generation looks back longingly on theirs. Jonathan Coe's book The Rotters' Club is set in the 1970s. His latest novel is The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim * Most ex-Woolworths stores re-let And yet the businesses that people feel nostalgic for are those that lost market share or failed completely. So why do we look back on them so fondly? Robert Opie, founder of the Museum of Brands in London, says the loss of familiar brands "causes us to pick up our rose-tinted glasses and recall a time from our childhood like being at the seaside with mum and dad". Visitors arrive at the museum expecting to see a display of impersonal brands but end up being propelled into their emotional past, he says. The same applies to people's view of the High Street. If someone has grown up going to the same place every Saturday, the drip-drip of repetition turns a seemingly banal moment into something much more profound. "If something like going to the Berni Inn happens a sufficient number of times it becomes embedded in the mind. It's become much more than just a Berni Inn." People like consistency and continuity in their lives, Opie says. "We like to go into shops we went in 20 years ago. And we're upset in a deep-seated way when it closes down." Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, says these shops will transport us to key moments in our lives. "It's because they're tied up with memories and associations - the first time we had that burger, even the first time we ate it without cutlery." But as with more important things in life - girlfriends, your health - you only appreciate them when they're gone, he says. Which is not much good to a business that needs to post quarterly accounts. Continue reading the main story Twitter discusses the #lost70s * @kevinbakhurst Closure of 67 Little Chefs reminder of consumer changes since 70's/80's - Woolworths; Brit Leyland; ICI; GEC; Radio Rentals; what else... * @CameronYardeJnr Midland Bank!! Of course. And Bradford & Bingley. Your money's safe with The Woolwich. #lost70s * @Coops_tv Safeway supermarket (remember them?), Army & Navy. Also, Do It All and Courts (Fads?) #lost70s * @CharleneWhite OMG @kevinbakhurst's #lost70s list has got me missing shops I'd totally forgotten about! Oh & Woolworths will always be sorely missed. RIP * @richardmorrisuk Texas DIY; Corona; Dandelion and Burdock #lost70s There's also a sense that we're looking back with affection at the 1970s because we view it as a simpler age. Nowadays retail outlets such as Apple can resemble a mixture of art gallery, museum and shop rolled into one. Coffee chains like Starbucks offer a dizzying array of brews, froths and sizes. But in the 1970s, a shop was characterised by its window display, often a simple logo of capital letters on the frontage, and the choice of hot beverage in Lyons was confined to tea or coffee. There was also the appealing sense that we were more easily pleased in those days. For instance this was a time when one might order a glass of orange juice as a starter in your local restaurant, says Sutherland. Memory can produce a hazy, inaccurate picture, says Andy Beckett, author of When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies. Apple stores Before Apple stores existed, there was Apple Boutique founded by The Beatles He argues that while there was industrial strife, political upheaval and racism, the 1970s was also the decade that Britain discovered a consumer culture. "It was the first time we really had big High Street brands. It was also a time of excitement at the American imports coming in - there was a sense of abundance in the 1970s that feels paradoxical today." But we tend to find a simple narrative for each decade. And it takes time for us to dress up an era with a clear, romantic narrative, Opie argues. "The decade beginning in 2000 is very difficult to define at the moment. History needs a bit of time to think that through, we almost need to find a stereotype for it." Banks Midland Bank's logo disappeared after HSBC took it over in 1992 Some might argue that such revisionism is dangerously distorting. But any view of the past is bound to be subjective depending on factors like your age, Opie believes. "I don't think it's a problem to romanticise these shops. For most of us, it's all taken in quite a tongue-in-cheek way." Additional reporting by Sophie Robehmed What are your memories of the High Street of old? Send us your comments using the form below. (Required) Name ______________________________ (Required) Your E-mail address ______________________________ (Required) Town & Country ______________________________ (Required) Your telephone number ______________________________ (Required) Comments ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions. Terms and conditions (BUTTON) Send (BUTTON) Clear More on This Story In today's Magazine * Old radio The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio Early in World War Two, Britain's agent in Sharjah noticed an alarming rise in support for Nazi Germany - so he slipped on a disguise to find out who was responsible. ______________________________________________________________ * Naftali Fraenkel and Mohammed Abu Khdeir The lost sons The story two murdered teenage boys, an Israeli and a Palestinian, whose mistake was to stand by the side of a dark road. ______________________________________________________________ * The cigarettes that worry tobacco firms Tobacco companies warn smuggling could rise if the UK removes branding from cigarette packets - when Australia did this the biggest rise was in sales of brands known as "illicit whites". * The photos stopping people in the street Photographer Daniel Morel has opened an exhibition on Haiti's streets to remember the earthquake that killed an estimated 250,000 people. * The Texas flag. Texas parents object to 'Lebanon' school In Frisco, Texas, some parents say they feel naming a new high school after an old farming town recalls the 'sad and turmoil' of the Middle East. ______________________________________________________________ Related Internet links * Museum of Brands The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Top Stories * Islamic State militants (file photo) Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' * Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine * US planes targeted by bomb threats * Lungu wins Zambia presidential poll * World leaders pay respects in Riyadh Features & Analysis * Clutter - generic Clutter epidemic The hazards of drowning in too much stuff ______________________________________________________________ * Old radio Radio sheikh The British ally who played Nazi broadcasts for all to hear ______________________________________________________________ * brain scan Mysterious phenomenon What causes deja vu - and how does it feel to have it constantly? ______________________________________________________________ * Rat Rodent problem The project to kill an island's entire rat population ______________________________________________________________ Most Popular Shared 1. 1: UK Ebola nurse 'happy to be alive' 2. 2: Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff 3. 3: Tangerine Dream's Froese dies at 70 4. 4: Ukraine rebels in Mariupol 'attack' 5. 5: The man trapped in constant deja vu Read 1. 1: Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth 2. 2: Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine 3. 3: E-mail error ends up on road sign 4. 4: Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' 5. 5: US planes targeted by bomb threats 6. 6: Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff 7. 7: Obituary: Benazir Bhutto 8. 8: Condoms 'too big' for Indian men 9. 9: Cooper brings Elephant Man to London 10. 10: Brazil in 'worst water crisis' Video/Audio 1. 2: Transgender 13-year-old 'like any girl' Watch 2. 4: Is this the goal of the year? Watch 3. 5: Crew plucked from sinking boat Watch 4. 6: Japan's resurgent army - in 60 secs Watch 5. 7: Indians enjoy tech success in US Watch 6. 8: China's President Xi Jinping - 60 secs Watch 7. 9: Footage captures hippo chasing boat Watch 8. 10: What is King Abdullah's legacy? Watch Elsewhere on the BBC * RV Life on the road Real stories on the joys and pains of mobile living Programmes * Circus performer The Travel Show Watch Mama Africa’s circus school - the ground-breaking production seen by seven million people Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Media Action * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD BBC iD * Settings * Sign out BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * iPlayer * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News China * Home * World * UK * England * N. Ireland * Scotland * Wales * Business * Politics * Health * Education * Sci/Environment * Technology * Entertainment & Arts * Africa * Asia * Australia * Europe * Latin America * Middle East * US & Canada 24 December 2011 Last updated at 01:33 Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Nostalgia for old-style Chinese stores By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing Sales assistant Mrs Zhang Sales assistants in state-run store did not always provide service with a smile In the Village, an up-market shopping complex in Beijing, China's newly rich shoppers jostle to buy expensive foreign brands. With its steel and glass buildings, the centre has become a monument to China's vision of a materialistic future. But shoppers have not always had such a wide choice of products. Just a few decades ago most non-food items had to be bought in traditional department stores, selling cheap Chinese-made goods. Many people have now deserted them for a more glitzy shopping experience. But some stores remain and have even seen an increase in interest over recent years from people looking to buy a little bit of the past. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Things have really changed a lot - it's now 'service with a smile'” End Quote Mrs Zhang Sales assistant As China changes rapidly, there is nostalgia for a bygone communist era that is quickly being swept away. Less fashionable products The Yong'an Road Department Store is just one traditional outlet that has seen an increase in custom recently. It opened in 1958 in a four-storey block in unfashionable southern Beijing. Many modern shops tend to go for minimalist surroundings; a few products displayed in large, open-plan spaces. Poster of Chairman Mao Chairman Mao still stares down at customers at the Yong'an Road Department Store Not at the Yong'an Road store. Goods are packed, stuffed and crammed onto shelves and into glass cases. In a tiny shop that has paint peeling from the walls there are all manner of daily necessities on sale, from tin cups to thermal underwear to bolts of cloth. Liu Xiurong has worked at the store for more than 30 years, selling kitchenware and beauty products that have slowly gone out of fashion. But she said things have started to look up again. "There's not so many of these traditional stores selling Chinese-made goods. People like to go to the new, bigger shops," said the 54-year-old, whose job would once have been an enviable position. "But we've seen more young people coming into the store because they've realised that our products are good value." Big rice bowl One of those young people is Wang Xin, who was buying hand creams, the kind that her mother used years ago. "I get a warm feeling looking at these products. The packaging hasn't changed for so many years. Everyone's talking about nostalgia these days," she said. The Yong'an Road store has a number of services that are fast disappearing, a tailor and a watch repairman, both shoe-horned into tiny work spaces. Mrs Zhang, another long-term sales assistant, sells cloth shoes, an old-fashioned version of trainers worn by generations of Chinese people long before they had heard of Nike. Watch repairman The watch repairman - just one of the services offered at the department store She said one thing had changed since she first started working at the store more than 20 years ago - the service. Sales staff working in state-run stores were often fierce. One of their favourite phrases was "mei you", which translates as "we haven't got it". But competition has forced them to soften their attitude. "At that time everyone followed the 'one, big rice bowl' principle. It didn't matter whether you worked well or not - everyone got the same wages," said Mrs Zhang. "But things have really changed a lot. It's now 'service with a smile'." As if to prove her point, she dashed off to serve another customer. Those customers are a varied bunch. Many of them are made up of Beijing's poorer residents, who would struggle to buy anything other than cheaper, Chinese-made products. Some live or work nearby and find it convenient to shop at the Yong'an Road store. There are also a number of loyal customers, who have been returning for years, and a group who are attracted because of the nostalgia of shopping in a communist-era shop, where Chairman Mao's picture still smiles down benignly from the wall. Musician Xue Shixia is one such shopper, who had travelled from across Beijing to see what was on offer. She could hardly contain her delight as she looked at a selection of cheap pots and pans. "Now I'm old, I miss things from my youth. It's all very different to life nowadays," said Mrs Xue. "Everyone likes progress. But even as we develop, I can't help thinking about the past." Fortunately for Mrs Xue, and others who want a taste of that past, there is the Yong'an Road Department Store and its collection of everyday items from a time fast disappearing. Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print More China stories RSS * O2 store in London Li Ka-shing set to buy O2 for £10bn Asia's richest person Li Ka-shing confirms his company is offering to buy Britain's second-largest mobile provider O2 for up to £10.25bn ($15.4bn). * Fake bank swindles China savers * China stampede families compensated Top Stories * Pauline Cafferkey UK Ebola nurse 'happy to be alive' * UKIP MEP Bashir defects to Tories * Mourinho 'ashamed' of FA Cup exit * Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' * Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine Features * People reading Weekendish The best features you may have missed this week ______________________________________________________________ * Clutter - generic Clutter epidemic The hazards of drowning in too much stuff ______________________________________________________________ * brain scan Mysterious phenomenon What causes deja vu - and how does it feel to have it constantly? ______________________________________________________________ * richest 1 % Go Figure A look back at the week in numbers ______________________________________________________________ * Rat Rodent problem The project to kill an island's entire rat population ______________________________________________________________ Most Popular Shared 1. 1: Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff 2. 2: Tangerine Dream's Froese dies at 70 3. 3: UK Ebola nurse 'happy to be alive' 4. 4: The man trapped in constant deja vu 5. 5: 28 taken to hospital after M4 crash Read 1. 1: M4 crash: 28 taken to hospital after collision near Cardiff 2. 2: UKIP MEP Amjad Bashir defects to Conservative Party 3. 3: Two US airliners searched at Atlanta after bomb threats 4. 4: Ebola nurse: Pauline Cafferkey 'happy to be alive' 5. 5: Gloucester pub 'machete' killing prompts murder arrest 6. 6: Japan PM Abe condemns hostage 'death' video 7. 7: Terrifying time loop: The man trapped in constant deja vu 8. 8: Tangerine Dream's Edgar Froese dies at 70 9. 9: Rockets kill 30 in Mariupol as rebels launch offensive 10. 10: AirAsia flight QZ8501: Bid to raise fuselage begins Video/Audio 1. 2: Wee Kris's AC/DC Hampden dream Watch 2. 3: 'I lost a week of my life' Watch 3. 4: Man arrested after 'machete' death Watch 4. 5: Why Saudi matters - In 90 secs Watch 5. 6: Killer whale could be set free Watch 6. 7: The drone operator who said 'No' Watch 7. 9: Anti-Trident 'peace scarf' protest Watch Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. [p?c1=2&c2=17986528&cv=2.0&cj=1] #A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD BBC iD * Settings * Sign out BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * iPlayer * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News Politics * Home * World * UK * England * N. Ireland * Scotland * Wales * Business * Politics * Health * Education * Sci/Environment * Technology * Entertainment & Arts British films nostalgia attacked by Michael Portillo Michael Portillo Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. 27 January 2012 Last updated at 11:14 Help Michael Portillo attacked the British film industry for trading on nostalgia - calling it "cosy, safe and unambitious" - and said it was pale when compared to more edgy and commercial work from Spain. He sent the opposite message to David Cameron who visited Pinewood studios this week and called on UK film-makers to make more "commercially successful" movies. It was part of a wider discussion with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrew Neil and Alan Johnson on the balance between art and commerce for performers. MORE FROM THIS WEEK More clips and news on our BBC website; 'like' us on Facebook page; follow us on Twitter Read More * UK films urged to go 'mainstream' * Call for UK film week celebration * Cameron: Thatcher film 'too soon' Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Most watched/listened 1. Play 'I lost a week of my life' 2. Play Man arrested after 'machete' death 3. Play Wee Kris's AC/DC Hampden dream 4. Play Will celebrity kill page three? 5. Play Why Saudi matters - In 90 secs 6. Play Video of bystander tackling robber 7. Play Anti-Trident 'peace scarf' protest 8. Play UKIP MEP revels defection plan 9. Play Japan PM condemns IS 'death' video 10. Play Killer whale could be set free UK * Watch The big changes in British birdlife Starling - numbers have declined by 84% since the first survey in 1979 * Watch Former soldiers take to the stage Former soldier on stage * Watch Anti-Trident 'peace scarf' protest CND protesters * Listen Flag etiquette on death of a monarch The Union flag flies at half mast to mark the death of Saudi Arabia"s King Abdullah, at Buckingham Palace in London. * Watch Celebrating Churchill 50 years on Sir Winston Churchill World * Watch Greek campaigning ends ahead of vote Alexis Tsipras at the rally in Heraklion * Watch Rat eradication ship sets sail Rat * Watch Witnesses quizzed over Nisman death Alberto Nisman * Watch Goodbye gadgets: SkyMall files for bankruptcy Women reading in bed * Watch Sharpton: 'Permanent change is coming' Reverend Al Sharpton Science & Technology * Watch Killer whale could be set free Lolita the killer whale * Watch Manhole explosion just misses child Still from video footage * Watch Tech review: This week's headlines Water droplets bouncing off a laser-etched water repellent metal surface * Watch How criminals clone your card The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones finds out how criminals go about cloning your card * Watch AI technology 'will take your job' Robert Shiller Business * Watch Who would you put on a banknote? BBC composite image of an imagined banknote * Watch Carney welcomes ECB stimulus Mark Carney * Watch Davos focus turns to climate change Davos snowmen * Watch Osborne against 'major tax rises' George Osborne * Watch Kenyan media: Is it profitable? Kenyan newspaper stand Politics * Watch 'No logic or rationality' to TV debates George Galloway * Watch Dodds: Grossly unfair to exclude DUP Nigel Dodds * Watch Is there a Green 'surge' in the polls? Poll graphic * Watch Misprint sends UKIP calls to photographer Alexandria Hall * Watch Political dark arts Isabel Oakeshott Entertainment * Watch Bremner's satire turns to coalition Rory Bremner as Boris Johnson * Watch Winstone giving soldiers a voice Ray Winstone * Watch Wee Kris's AC/DC Hampden dream kris mcdowall * Listen The Tempest as an opera The Tempest * Watch Mortdecai 'criminally fun to make' Paul Bettany and Johnny Depp Health * Watch Body clocks and blindness Sunrise over the Thames * Watch Doctors in drive to attract new GPs A GP's surgery * Listen Coma sufferers can hear stories Hospital room * Watch Ebola experience 'life changing' Dr Christopher Mair in Sierra Leone * Watch How winter wards help hospitals Hospital ward Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. [p?c1=2&c2=17986528&cv=2.0&cj=1] Skip to main content Access keys help BBC logo * Home * News * Sport * Radio * TV * Weather * Languages __________ go [an error occurred while processing this directive] Low graphics|Accessibility help BBC News watch One-Minute World News mobiles News services Your news when you want it News Front Page [USEMAP:v3_map_world_rb.gif] Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East South Asia UK England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales UK Politics Education Magazine Business Health Science & Environment Technology Entertainment Also in the news ----------------- Video and Audio ----------------- Programmes Have Your Say In Pictures Country Profiles Special Reports RELATED BBC SITES * SPORT * WEATHER * ON THIS DAY * EDITORS' BLOG Last Updated: Friday, 6 February, 2004, 11:51 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Why nostalgia's not what it used to be By Brendan O'Neill Nostalgia is big business. Not a month seems to go by without the relaunch or revival of some fashion item, music trend, car, toy or fad from the 1950s, 60s, 70s or 80s. But is it time for us to grow up? Those in the know predict that the 80s will be big in 2004. According to one US newspaper, "Blame it on nostalgia - the decade you loved (or hated) makes a comeback". Apparently, girls will be sporting the "aqua eye shadow and side ponytails" made popular by Madonna and her ilk circa 1985, while the charts will be dominated by 80s-inspired electro-pop. Earlier in January, the 70s made a brief reappearance with the relaunch of the Chopper bike (again). For 2004, Raleigh has made 2,004 new Choppers - in order to, as one report described it, "capitalise on nostalgic interest in the bike" which many refer to as an "icon of the 70s". The reassuring thing about the past is that we already know the outcome Andrew Calcutt The 60s seem to make a comeback in one form or another every year. Currently, the Mini (as in car) and mini (as in skirt) are riding high in the must-have stakes. One fashion writer says the 60s remain "the most referenced era for fashion designers". Last year there was a 50s revival, via the 70s, when the film Grease was re-released for the noughties. The musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John was given a cinema release to celebrate its 25th anniversary, allowing those who remember it from 1978 to get nostalgic about a film that itself was nostalgic for the music and fashion of the 50s. It seems the best way to get ahead today is to go retro. As well as retro-clothing and retro-music, there is the rise of retro-gaming - where video-game aficionados opt for the simple block graphics and bleeps of Atari games of the 70s and 80s over the dazzling games of today. Gucci designer Tom Ford Gucci designer Tom Ford sporting oh-so-80s stonewash jeans Many hailed 2003 as the "year of the retro toy", as My Little Pony, Care Bears and He-Man and his Masters of the Universe (words guaranteed to tug the heartstrings of all men and women who were boys and girls in the 80s) became hot sellers on both sides of the Atlantic. Everywhere you look, it seems that some era or other is being resuscitated and relived - it's the 80s now, it could be the 70s next month, and who knows, we might be looking back to the 90s before long. (Indeed, in summer 2001 BBC Two showed I Love 1999 - suggesting that the time limit for getting nostalgic about bygone eras can be less than two years.) One of the most striking things about this "new nostalgia" is that it is most widespread among younger generations, among people in their 20s and 30s - and often they are getting nostalgic, not about some distant, black-and-white past from the archives of history, but about events that happened just 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Traditionally, nostalgia has been associated with older generations, with those who find the modern pace of change overwhelming and who reminisce about a time when life was simpler and "we did things differently". Indeed, one of the definitions of nostalgia is "a severe and sometimes fatal form of melancholia, due to homesickness" - capturing its association with a sense of loss and confusion. Bagpuss Bagpuss, often revived, recently 30 The Australian academic Tony Ryan goes so far as to describe nostalgia, perhaps a little uncharitably, as some kind of madness. "I have always been very wary of nostalgia", he writes, "regarding it as an evil similar and related to the onset of senility.... The past becomes a lost golden age when nothing went wrong and the present a cold wasteland without hope for the future." So are today's nostalgics, reliving the fashion and fads of the late 20th Century suffering from some kind of "sickness"? Have they become old before their time, returning to the past in favour of looking to the future? For David Turner, founder of the Nostalgia Central website, reliving the past is harmless fun. Nostalgia Central is a "one-stop shop for everything from the 60s, 70s and 80s", providing potted, year-by-year histories of the pop culture, television shows, fashion and movies of the modern era. I have always been very wary of nostalgia, regarding it as an evil similar and related to the onset of senility Tony Ryan Turner says the people who visit his site enjoy it as "pure nostalgic entertainment". All they want to do is "cherish the memories of the three greatest decades of the 20th Century". But according to Andrew Calcutt, a lecturer at the University of East London and author of Arrested Development: Pop Culture and the Erosion of Adulthood, young adults' obsession with their 80s childhoods suggests they might feel uncertain about their own futures. "Older people have a reason to be nostalgic. Most of their life is behind them. That young people are looking over their shoulder so much is a sign of underconfidence, I think. The reassuring thing about the past is that we already know the outcome." Grease Grease, revival of a revival Calcutt notes that where older generations became nostalgic for the past because that is where their lives and experiences are, today's young adults appear to hold on to their childhoods as a "comfort blanket" against the future. "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be", says Calcutt. "When 'youth culture' first went back to its roots in the 70s, it went in search of seemingly significant qualities such as authenticity. Today's pop culture is more likely to revel in its own insignificance, as shown in the nostalgia for silly toys and faddish fashion rather than for anything more serious." The occasional trip down memory lane is one thing - but when it comes to living in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, surely once was enough. Now that the children of the 70s and 80s have become the men and women of the noughties, it must be time to put away childish things. __________________________________________________________________ Had enough revivals? Let us know, using the form below. Name ______________________________ Your e-mail address ______________________________ Country ______________________________ Comments ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ Send Clear Disclaimer: The BBC may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. E-mail this to a friend Printable version In today's Magazine Model elephants in London Big beasts How elephants helped to shape human history, by David Cannadine Manhattan skyline Change a-coming Justin Webb on America's love affair with progress Woman sitting alone in a theatre Audience of one Would you watch a play all on your own? Paul the Octopus 7 days quiz What now for Paul the eight-limbed oracle? Magazine regulars Facebook/Twitter Tweetbook Say goodbye to worktime boredom. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Magazine Monitor Paper Monitor, Your Letters, Quote of the Day, Caption Competition and more PRODUCTS AND SERVICES * E-mail news * Mobiles * Alerts * News feeds * Podcasts News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature | Technology | Health Have Your Say | In Pictures | Week at a Glance | Country Profiles | In Depth | Programmes * BBC Copyright Notice MMIX Most Popular Now | 7,100 pages were read in the last minute."; Back to top ^^ * Help * Privacy and cookies policy * News sources * About the BBC * Contact us #alternate alternate A to Z Terms of Use For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site. BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help BBC iD Sign in BBC navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Earth * Future * Shop * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (BUTTON) Search BBC News Magazine * Home * UK * Africa * Asia * Australia * Europe * Latin America * Mid-East * US & Canada * Business * Health * Sci/Environment * Tech * Entertainment * Video * Magazine * In Pictures * Also in the News * Editors' Blog * Have Your Say * World News TV * World Service Radio * Special Reports 26 September 2014 Last updated at 01:54 GMT Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Nostalgia for an old-fashioned milk bottle By Tom Heyden BBC News Magazine Look and Learn Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine * The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio * The lost sons * The cigarettes that worry tobacco firms * The photos stopping people in the street The announcement that Dairy Crest's last glass milk bottle plant is to close has prompted a flood of nostalgia for a former staple of the British street. Travel back in time to a British doorstep in 1975 at, say, 7.30am. There's almost certainly a couple of foil-topped glass milk bottles there. Maybe more. Some of the tops may have been pecked by birds, although if you left a couple of plastic cups out the milkman probably popped those over the top of the bottles to protect them. Then, 94% of milk was put into glass bottles, according to Dairy Crest. By 2012, this was just 4%. "I can remember that wonderful clinking sound of the milk bottles arriving," says consumer historian Robert Opie. Then there was the ubiquitous morning whirr of electric floats. Others remember the colour coding on the foil tops. And that weirdly satisfying way of opening them - a push just powerful enough to dent but not break it. Bird pecking milk bottle top "Birds were attracted to peck away at the caps to get to the cream line," says Paul Luke, editor of Milk Bottle News and the owner of some 12,000-13,000 glass milk bottles. Cream lines occurred all the time even if it was semi-skimmed, he says, since milk didn't go through the same standardisation process as it does today. "When you poured out the milk you'd get a big bulk of cream drop on to your cornflakes, rather than your watered down milk [of today]," Luke says. As a nine-year-old, Luke started helping out milkmen on their rounds during the 1980s. Leaving out the empties represents many people's first understanding of the concept of recycling. But there's been a slow and sure decline, says Opie. The proliferation of fridges in the 1950s, which allowed milk to be kept longer, meant fewer daily deliveries. By the 1990s, the deregulation of the British milk industry and the decision by supermarkets to sell milk - cheaply - in plastic containers changed everything. Some still mourn - on taste grounds alone. "I can remember that relatively traumatic moment when I switched from glass to a carton," says Opie. "There was just something innately wrong about pouring milk out of a carton because it didn't have that refreshing coolness of a glass bottle. "A cold bottle of milk has a certain integrity to it and the glass retains that." But, of course, Opie - as well as virtually everybody else - went ahead and made the switch. "Nostalgia has a waft which extends into every sphere you can think of," Opie says, "and sometimes it's only when things disappear that you suddenly stand back and think, 'Oh, what a shame'." Milk bottles, generic Convenience and cost has triumphed. Smaller dairies may continue to provide milk in glass bottles. But Dairy Crest switching to plastic is significant. In 1970, almost 99% of milk would have been door-delivered, says Tom Phelps, the author of The British Milkman. Last year Dairy UK found that doorstep delivery stands at less than 5% of the liquid dairy market. But there are still about 5,000 milkmen left in the UK, Phelps estimates. About 1,400 of those are employed by Dairy Crest, which stresses that the switch to plastic containers is to "ensure the livelihoods" of its milkmen and women. Much of this is due to the costs of plastic against glass. Glass bottles are more expensive to make than plastic containers and also weigh 15 times more, says Dairy Crest. This means plastic containers are cheaper to transport, with the company claiming that they're now as environmentally friendly as glass bottles. The issue is unclear. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) published a 2010 paper suggesting that the carbon footprint of glass bottles over the course of a life-cycle is helped by the fact it is recycled. The era of the glass milk bottle has left a legacy. Not least memories of the way milk used to be advertised. "The best ever promotion to sell milk was done by Unigate," says Luke. He's referring to the series of 1970s adverts in which mysterious creatures called Humphreys attempted to steal milk with long straws. "Watch out, watch out, there's a Humphrey about," was the slogan. Muhammad Ali got involved. Taken from YouTube ad Unigate Gotta lotta bottle ad The catchphrase "Gotta lotta bottle" followed. It's hard to imagine a series of more 1980s-style videos - whirlwinds of dazzling neon, innuendo, and the chanted tagline "nice cold, ice cold milk". This was an era when Linford Christie raced a milk float. But the nostalgia relates as much to the diminished presence of the milkman as the bottles themselves. Their ever-presence in British lives made them ripe for pop culture parody - mainly the faintly ludicrous idea of them having adulterous relationships with lonely women. Benny Hill's 1970 comedy song Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) - one of David Cameron's Desert Island Discs - was about the protagonist's love for a lonely widow named Sue. A Monty Python sketch depicted a semi-dressed woman luring Michael Palin's milkman into her house - only to lock him away into a room of other long-lost milkmen. line A brief bottle history Milk bottles, generic * First glass milk bottle patented in 1874 in the US * Gradually transferred to UK but until WW1 milk mainly delivered on horse-drawn "milk pram" - ladled into tin cans from a churn * At that time, milk was delivered three times a day - "pudding round" later dropped due to WW1 constraints * By 1920s and 1930s glass-bottled milk is the norm, but bottles had cardboard slips at the top, which children used to play "pogs" * 1935 - slender-neck bottle introduced, giving the illusion of more cream and supposedly favoured by housewives * Aluminium foil tops eventually replaces cardboard for hygiene concerns - but WW2 shortages mean experimentation with zinc, tin and lead-based alternatives * Estimated 30 million lost glass bottles a year during WW2 - some return to tin can delivery using ladles * 1980 - modern version of bottle introduced. Shorter and wider, initially it was nicknamed "dumpy" Source: Tom Phelps, author of The British Milkman line It was probably an unfair reputation for most milkmen, but the jokes rested on the centrality of milkmen in daily life. Milkmen regularly had a career of 30 to 40 years and often became family friends, says Phelps. "The milkman would go around and collect the money and would then be invited in for a cup of tea," adds Luke. Familiarity meant that customers were happy to leave money in the bottles. Or sometimes just notes like "not this week, thanks". Not that these were always intelligible, recalls Phelps from his brief personal experience as a milkman before he worked for Unigate. Benny Hill as a milkman Benny Hill dressed as a milkman But often there were birthday messages, and sometimes even gifts for milkmen's newborn kids, he says. Such message-in-a-bottle correspondence seems like a quaint relic today. And now face-to-face interaction is even sparser. Milkmen sometimes start their shift as early as 23:00 the night before, Luke says. Fewer customers mean that they have to cover larger areas, he adds. Payments are often by debit card. "Certainly now, when you go into a school and ask a child where milk comes from, the response is always Tesco's," says Luke. "You show them milk bottles and they don't know what they are." Norman Wisdom in Early Bird 1965 Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. More on This Story In today's Magazine * Old radio The sheikh who listened to Nazi radio Early in World War Two, Britain's agent in Sharjah noticed an alarming rise in support for Nazi Germany - so he slipped on a disguise to find out who was responsible. ______________________________________________________________ * Naftali Fraenkel and Mohammed Abu Khdeir The lost sons The story two murdered teenage boys, an Israeli and a Palestinian, whose mistake was to stand by the side of a dark road. ______________________________________________________________ * The cigarettes that worry tobacco firms Tobacco companies warn smuggling could rise if the UK removes branding from cigarette packets - when Australia did this the biggest rise was in sales of brands known as "illicit whites". * The photos stopping people in the street Photographer Daniel Morel has opened an exhibition on Haiti's streets to remember the earthquake that killed an estimated 250,000 people. * The Texas flag. Texas parents object to 'Lebanon' school In Frisco, Texas, some parents say they feel naming a new high school after an old farming town recalls the 'sad and turmoil' of the Middle East. ______________________________________________________________ Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print Top Stories * Islamic State militants (file photo) Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' * Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine * US planes targeted by bomb threats * Lungu wins Zambia presidential poll * World leaders pay respects in Riyadh Features & Analysis * Clutter - generic Clutter epidemic The hazards of drowning in too much stuff ______________________________________________________________ * Old radio Radio sheikh The British ally who played Nazi broadcasts for all to hear ______________________________________________________________ * brain scan Mysterious phenomenon What causes deja vu - and how does it feel to have it constantly? ______________________________________________________________ * Rat Rodent problem The project to kill an island's entire rat population ______________________________________________________________ Most Popular Shared 1. 1: UK Ebola nurse 'happy to be alive' 2. 2: Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff 3. 3: Tangerine Dream's Froese dies at 70 4. 4: Ukraine rebels in Mariupol 'attack' 5. 5: The man trapped in constant deja vu Read 1. 1: Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth 2. 2: Rockets kill 30 in eastern Ukraine 3. 3: E-mail error ends up on road sign 4. 4: Japan PM outrage at 'hostage death' 5. 5: US planes targeted by bomb threats 6. 6: Viewpoint: The hazards of too much stuff 7. 7: Obituary: Benazir Bhutto 8. 8: Condoms 'too big' for Indian men 9. 9: Cooper brings Elephant Man to London 10. 10: Brazil in 'worst water crisis' Video/Audio 1. 2: Transgender 13-year-old 'like any girl' Watch 2. 4: Is this the goal of the year? Watch 3. 5: Crew plucked from sinking boat Watch 4. 6: Japan's resurgent army - in 60 secs Watch 5. 7: Indians enjoy tech success in US Watch 6. 8: China's President Xi Jinping - 60 secs Watch 7. 9: Footage captures hippo chasing boat Watch 8. 10: What is King Abdullah's legacy? Watch Elsewhere on the BBC * RV Life on the road Real stories on the joys and pains of mobile living Programmes * Circus performer The Travel Show Watch Mama Africa’s circus school - the ground-breaking production seen by seven million people Services * Mobile * Connected TV * News feeds * Alerts * E-mail news About BBC News * Editors' blog * BBC College of Journalism * News sources * Media Action * Editorial Guidelines BBC links * + Mobile site + Terms of Use + About the BBC * + Advertise With Us + Privacy + Accessibility Help * + Ad Choices + Cookies + Contact the BBC * + Parental Guidance BBC Copyright © 2015 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. #PubMed New and Noteworthy PubMed search Warning: The NCBI web site requires JavaScript to function. more... * NCBI NCBI Logo * Skip to main content * Skip to navigation * Resources + All Resources + Chemicals & Bioassays o BioSystems o PubChem BioAssay o PubChem Compound o PubChem Structure Search o PubChem Substance o All Chemicals & Bioassays Resources... + DNA & RNA o BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) o BLAST (Stand-alone) o E-Utilities o GenBank o GenBank: BankIt o GenBank: Sequin o GenBank: tbl2asn o Genome Workbench o Influenza Virus o Nucleotide Database o PopSet o Primer-BLAST o ProSplign o Reference Sequence (RefSeq) o RefSeqGene o Sequence Read Archive (SRA) o Splign o Trace Archive o UniGene o All DNA & RNA Resources... + Data & Software o BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) o BLAST (Stand-alone) o Cn3D o Conserved Domain Search Service (CD Search) o E-Utilities o GenBank: BankIt o GenBank: Sequin o GenBank: tbl2asn o Genome ProtMap o Genome Workbench o Primer-BLAST o ProSplign o PubChem Structure Search o SNP Submission Tool o Splign o Vector Alignment Search Tool (VAST) o All Data & Software Resources... + Domains & Structures o BioSystems o Cn3D o Conserved Domain Database (CDD) o Conserved Domain Search Service (CD Search) o Structure (Molecular Modeling Database) o Vector Alignment Search Tool (VAST) o All Domains & Structures Resources... + Genes & Expression o BioSystems o Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) o E-Utilities o Gene o Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) Database o Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) Datasets o Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) Profiles o Genome Workbench o HomoloGene o Map Viewer o Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) o RefSeqGene o UniGene o All Genes & Expression Resources... + Genetics & Medicine o Bookshelf o Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) o Genetic Testing Registry o Influenza Virus o Map Viewer o Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) o PubMed o PubMed Central (PMC) o PubMed Clinical Queries o RefSeqGene o All Genetics & Medicine Resources... + Genomes & Maps o Database of Genomic Structural Variation (dbVar) o GenBank: tbl2asn o Genome o Genome Project o Genome ProtMap o Genome Workbench o Influenza Virus o Map Viewer o Nucleotide Database o PopSet o ProSplign o Sequence Read Archive (SRA) o Splign o Trace Archive o All Genomes & Maps Resources... + Homology o BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) o BLAST (Stand-alone) o BLAST Link (BLink) o Conserved Domain Database (CDD) o Conserved Domain Search Service (CD Search) o Genome ProtMap o HomoloGene o Protein Clusters o All Homology Resources... + Literature o Bookshelf o E-Utilities o Journals in NCBI Databases o MeSH Database o NCBI Handbook o NCBI Help Manual o NCBI News o PubMed o PubMed Central (PMC) o PubMed Clinical Queries o PubMed Health o All Literature Resources... + Proteins o BioSystems o BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) o BLAST (Stand-alone) o BLAST Link (BLink) o Conserved Domain Database (CDD) o Conserved Domain Search Service (CD Search) o E-Utilities o ProSplign o Protein Clusters o Protein Database o Reference Sequence (RefSeq) o All Proteins Resources... + Sequence Analysis o BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) o BLAST (Stand-alone) o BLAST Link (BLink) o Conserved Domain Search Service (CD Search) o Genome ProtMap o Genome Workbench o Influenza Virus o Primer-BLAST o ProSplign o Splign o All Sequence Analysis Resources... + Taxonomy o Taxonomy o Taxonomy Browser o Taxonomy Common Tree o All Taxonomy Resources... + Training & Tutorials o NCBI Education Page o NCBI Handbook o NCBI Help Manual o NCBI News o All Training & Tutorials Resources... + Variation o Database of Genomic Structural Variation (dbVar) o Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) o Database of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (dbSNP) o SNP Submission Tool o All Variation Resources... * How To + All How To + Chemicals & Bioassays + DNA & RNA + Data & Software + Domains & Structures + Genes & Expression + Genetics & Medicine + Genomes & Maps + Homology + Literature + Proteins + Sequence Analysis + Taxonomy + Training & Tutorials + Variation * About NCBI Accesskeys My NCBISign in to NCBISign Out PubMed US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health Search database[PubMed___________] Search term ____________________ (BUTTON) Search * Advanced * Help Result Filters Display Settings: * Abstract Format * ( ) Summary * ( ) Summary (text) * (*) Abstract * ( ) Abstract (text) * ( ) MEDLINE * ( ) XML * ( ) PMID List (BUTTON) Apply Send to: Choose Destination * (*) File * ( ) Clipboard * ( ) Collections * ( ) E-mail * ( ) Order * ( ) My Bibliography * ( ) Citation manager * Format[Abstract (text)] (BUTTON) Create File * 1 selected item: 21787094 * Format[Abstract_______] [ ] MeSH and Other Data * E-mail ____________________ * Subject 1 selected item: 21787094 - PubMed_____ * Additional text ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ * (BUTTON) E-mail Didn't get the message? Find out why... (BUTTON) Add to Clipboard (BUTTON) Add to Collections (BUTTON) Order articles (BUTTON) Add to My Bibliography Generate a file for use with external citation management software. (BUTTON) Create File See comment in PubMed Commons below J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 Sep;101(3):638-52. doi: 10.1037/a0024292. The past makes the present meaningful: nostalgia as an existential resource. Routledge C^1, Arndt J, Wildschut T, Sedikides C, Hart CM, Juhl J, Vingerhoets AJ, Schlotz W. Author information * ^1Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5075, USA. Clay.Routledge@ndsu.edu Abstract The present research tested the proposition that nostalgia serves an existential function by bolstering a sense of meaning in life. Study 1 found that nostalgia was positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that nostalgia increases a sense of meaning in life. In both studies, the link between nostalgia and increased meaning in life was mediated by feelings of social connectedness. Study 3 evidenced that threatened meaning increases nostalgia. Study 4 illustrated that nostalgia, in turn, reduces defensiveness following a meaning threat. Finally, Studies 5 and 6 showed that nostalgia disrupts the link between meaning deficits and compromised psychological well-being. Collectively, these findings indicate that the provision of existential meaning is a pivotal function of nostalgia. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved. PMID: 21787094 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Share MeSH Terms MeSH Terms * Adaptation, Psychological/physiology* * Adolescent * Adult * Aged * Analysis of Variance * Child * Defense Mechanisms* * Emotions/physiology* * Female * Humans * Interpersonal Relations * Life Change Events * Male * Memory/physiology* * Middle Aged * Social Behavior * Social Support* * Young Adult LinkOut - more resources Full Text Sources * American Psychological Association * EBSCO * Gale Databases * Ovid Technologies, Inc. * ProQuest Other Literature Sources * COS Scholar Universe * Labome Researcher Resource - ExactAntigen/Labome * Access more work from the authors - ResearchGate Medical * Memory - MedlinePlus Health Information Miscellaneous * NCI CPTAC Assay Portal PubMed Commons home PubMed Commons 0 comments How to join PubMed Commons How to cite this comment: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ * Supplemental Content Full text links Icon for American Psychological Association Loading ... You are here: NCBI > Literature > PubMed Write to the Help Desk Simple NCBI Directory * Getting Started * NCBI Education * NCBI Help Manual * NCBI Handbook * Training & Tutorials * Resources * Chemicals & Bioassays * Data & Software * DNA & RNA * Domains & Structures * Genes & Expression * Genetics & Medicine * Genomes & Maps * Homology * Literature * Proteins * Sequence Analysis * Taxonomy * Training & Tutorials * Variation * Popular * PubMed * Bookshelf * PubMed Central * PubMed Health * BLAST * Nucleotide * Genome * SNP * Gene * Protein * PubChem * Featured * Genetic Testing Registry * PubMed Health * GenBank * Reference Sequences * Gene Expression Omnibus * Map Viewer * Human Genome * Mouse Genome * Influenza Virus * Primer-BLAST * Sequence Read Archive * NCBI Information * About NCBI * Research at NCBI * NCBI News * NCBI FTP Site * NCBI on Facebook * NCBI on Twitter * NCBI on YouTube External link. Please review our privacy policy. NLM NIH DHHS USA.gov Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy | Browsers | Accessibility | Contact National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD, 20894 USA #Everything2 New Writeups ____________________________ search [ ] Near Matches [ ] Ignore Exact Everything2 False nostalgia (idea) by tkil Sat Jun 23 2001 at 6:28:38 Or: "Yearning for a past I never had." Nostalgia is looking back at actual past experiences and remembering them, usually fondly, sometimes desiring to go back and relive them. Sometimes this is valid escapism, other times it's just a consequence of the nostalgia effect. False nostalgia, on the other hand, is when the past I'd like to go back to never happened. It's fantasizing about the past. Sometimes this imaginary past is created by others, particularly the media. Anyone who grew up in the eighties will remember the John Hughes brat pack films: Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles. They helped solidify the image of what high school was supposed to be like; since my actual experiences didn't match, it created envy at the time, and false nostalgia ever since. It doesn't help that I didn't (and still don't) take many risks. So, of course, I didn't experience much, and I never really grew up. Maybe that's why I idealized these manufactured images. Even seeing later spoofs of these movies (e.g., Heathers), and after seeing with older eyes just how shallow the whole miserable experience was, I still think I did it wrong. Of course, I can't go back and fix it, so I'm just wasting time. More broadly, we're always fighting out of the preconceptions of the previous generations. The ideal image of a community in the USA used to revolve around the small town. Even into the 1950s, the white picket fences and June Cleavers ruled the media images. Contrast that to the increasingly fragmented lifestyle of the eighties and nineties. My dad worked for the government his whole career. At Hewlett-Packard, I regularly see retirement parties for people with 30+ years of experience. Me? I've never held a job for longer than 20 months since I graduated college in 1995. My mom lived in the same area for the first 20 years of her life. By then, I had spent 8 years in New Jersey, a year in Louisana, and the rest in New Mexico. Environment and climate can be a breeding ground of false nostalgia. Even if you moved a lot, you'd never experience all the possible weather and seasons everywhere. Indeed, true experience of a region's climate means that you stayed there a while, to get some feel for both the average and the exceptional. Having grown up in southern New Mexico, I've always yearned for snow, rain, cold, and cloudy days. (Yes, dammit, I wanted winter.) Looking back at manufactured reality, these types of weather made them more desirable and more alien. A few that come to mind: the Peanuts It's a Charlie Brown Christmas; Dead Poets Society; Marillion's "Kayleigh"; The Sisters Of Mercy's "Driven like the Snow"; The Cure's "Same Deep Water as You" and "Prayers for Rain"; Sometimes this feeling of false nostalgia comes out of nowhere; it just bubbles up from the subconscious, sometimes overwhelming us. Most of the time, it's triggered by something else. Like deja vu, this false nostalgia mixes real experiences from the past with something from our fantasies. As you've probably figured out by now, most of my fantasy worlds are from the mass media (which might explain why I try to avoid most of it, these days). Music is far and away the most powerful of these triggers for me. As a classic example, listening to a collection of prom songs makes me wish that I hadn't been too smart for high school. Most of my experiences with false nostalgia are a result of empathy with characters portrayed in songs and movies. Add to this a low self-esteem as a result of various defense mechanisms, and too much self-consciousness. Finish it all off with a huge desire to escape, be it through booze, work, or ... false nostalgia. I like it! 1 C! (idea) by know_no_bounds Thu Jun 17 2004 at 1:01:47 I burned my teenage diaries long ago. It wasn't really a sacrifice; there wasn't much in them aside from horrendous poetry, boring ruminations on the Meaning of Life, and endless lovesick moaning about people whose faces I can no longer remember. Stupid stuff, on the whole, and better off as smoke and ashes. But I did save one scrap of paper out of the whole mortifying mess. I tucked it in my wallet, and when it seems necessary I take it out and look it over. It's a letter I wrote to myself many years ago: Dear KNB, Today I woke up early and went to the stadium to watch the seniors graduate. The principal gave his usual pretentious speech, salting it with countless literary references, trite sayings, and a series of personal anecdotes carefully selected to reveal to the world that he's a true Renaissance man. I don't remember most of it--which is good; no need to waste brainspace on crap like that--but I do remember his last words: And so, graduates, your time at this school has come to an end. Some of you, I know, look forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. And some of you may be happy to leave this place behind, to cast away the failures and the falterings, the squabbles and the heartbreak--all the petty slings and arrows of adolescence. But I have something to tell you, something that comes with the certainty of experience. That is this: years from now, you will look back at your time at this school, and you will smile and feel a twinge of wistfulness, a twinge of regret. For you will realize that these years that have just ended, your years at this school, were without a doubt the best years of your life. You have my congratulations, and my best wishes for your future. "The best years of your life." He really said it, and he seemed to mean it, as much as the old wooden bastard ever means anything he says. The best years of your life have just ended. Go forth and enjoy the sunset of your life. KNB, I don't know what's going to happen to you. Maybe you'll end up achieving something great; maybe you'll spend your days moving paper from one pile to another. Maybe you'll conquer your demons; maybe your demons will end up conquering you. Maybe you'll give up every belief you hold dear, every goal you ever set for yourself, every dream you ever had. Maybe you won't even exist--I've never been able to envision life past the age of seventeen. But whatever happens, if you change entirely, if you forget everything else about your adolescence, you damn well better remember one thing: You were not happy. You were not happy, you were miserable, and don't you dare be so stupid as to forget it. Good luck. Yours very truly, --KNB Tough stuff. I don't really remember writing it, except that I have a vague impression that I wrote it during a particularly bad week in a particularly bad school year. In my head, I know I was right: I was miserable, and I'm much better off now. But some days it sure doesn't seem that way. I'm driving home from work, and I'm hitting every red light as I navigate my way through stop-and-go traffic. I get home and pick up my mail and discover that for the third straight month, the cable company has billed me for services I never requested. As I cook dinner, I feel like I'm just moving backwards, because every dish I use is another dish I need to clean. Meanwhile, as I was busy sauteeing the onions, my cats started playing floor hockey with their feces, and now there's cat shit all over the house, and by the time that's cleaned up, it's past ten and time for bed. That was today, and it was yesterday, and it'll be tomorrow too--an endless succession of errands and chores and niggling distractions that build and build into a towering wall of utter crap. And I feel that if I just set my mind to it, I could break through the wall and get on with the real business of life. But every day, no matter how much I hack away at it, the wall always seems to grow back. That's when it happens. I look out my window at the teenagers coming home from school, and I find myself thinking: It was better then. It was a happier time. It can't have been that bad; it wasn't as though I was a starving child in some war-torn Rwandan village. My daily troubles seemed so much more important, too. I didn't lie awake worrying about the strange noise my car makes when it goes up a steep hill; instead I thought about fundamental things like romance and destiny and the need to live a meaningful, useful life. I remember that I spent my days learning all sorts of new things about the world, things I've since forgotten (why do we have seasons? I used to know but can't remember). I remember that I spent my nights falling in love, trying to figure out how to get gorgeous young things to take off their clothes in my presence. And I remember how I felt when I touched a girl's breasts for the first time. Ladies, I don't know if I can possibly make you understand how wonderful that moment is, how soft and warm and deliciously sexy it feels. Maybe it's like the moment when you first brush your hand across a guy's pants and feel that he's hard--hard because of you. All I know is that my hands were trembling, but I felt like a god. I haven't felt like a god in a long, long time. What I forget--what I forget more and more as I get older--is that I didn't feel like a god very often. I wasn't terribly good at getting those sweet young things to show me their treasures--usually they laughed or cringed at my stammering attempts to ask them out. I forget that at one point in my youth, I went two full years without the comfort of a girl's arms. I forget how terrifying it was to feel uncertain about love or life or fate--how scared I was when I looked into my future and couldn't see anything but blackness. But these days I have some answers to all those big questions of life. Not all the answers, of course, but I have some idea where I'm going and what I'm doing. I have a long-term partner whose body lacks the allure of mystery but offers the comfort of warm familiarity. Most of all, she's more than just a body--she's my friend and companion and lover, the person who helps me build myself into a stronger person. True, our free time never comes freely; it has to be seized by force, wrested from the grasp of bills and errands and mindless faceless bureaucrats. But for the most part, I'm more content than I've ever been, even if I never do feel like a god anymore. Maybe I had to give up intense pleasure to rid myself of intense pain. And that's what I think about when I take my letter out of my wallet and read it through. When I hear a student agonizing about college or graduation or a summer job, I feel relieved because I have a job and a career that I enjoy. When I hear a teenager moan about his latest heartwrenching romantic escapade, I look at my lover and smile. I'm done with all that now, you see. I've figured it out, and I've done a pretty good job on the whole, much better than a lot of the adults I've encountered in my life. And so I fold the letter, put it back in my wallet, and think: No. I wouldn't really go back. Not a chance. I like it! 2 C!s Too smart for high school a snapshot of time nanostalgia Things never were what they used to be Naked teenage girl Nostalgic for a time that I never experienced and for a person I never was Touch the Puppy Nostalgia ain't what it used to be Four American letters I kiss your eyes. You are breakfast, summer, and streetlamps. The Best Years of Your Life And nothing changed except the future John Hughes scars Chuck Cunningham Welcome to 2002, the twenty-third year of the eighties The Shirehorses Because I want to. Because I'm good at it. Psychedelic Guide: Psychedelic Reality Learn how to drive, dammit! self-hatred Letters I've written, never meaning to send bright future behind it Prodigal Son Log in or registerto write something here or to contact authors. Sign in Login __________ Password __________ [ ] remember me Login Lost password Sign up Need help? accounthelp@everything2.com Recommended Reading About Everything2 User Picks * You who never arrived * hummus * what she kisses twice * E2 Red Light District * Donald Duck * Freeman's Mind Editor Picks * Shooting people with your gun at a -90 degree transformation * Bert Kaempfert * Saint John's wort * Emmett Till * estimating software development time * Homosexual equivalent of a pregnancy scare New Writeups * fragile (poetry) by arylisa * Freeman's Mind (thing) by Dustyblue * January 22, 2015 (log) by Pandeism Fish * We're sorry to inform you: Tony Orlando has been postponed (fiction) by borgo * traffic light (idea) by Glowing Fish * Horus and Set (essay) by Pandeism Fish * Propaganda (review) by legbagede * Ask moJoe : Dear Credulous in Cambridge (idea) by moJoe * Galavant (Episodes 1 & 2) (review) by chickwiththeface * Vaporizer (thing) by Sinepyriah (more) Everything2 ™ is brought to you by Everything2 Media, LLC. All content copyright © original author unless stated otherwise. #alternate IFRAME: //www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-NJLTHL [LS-splat.png] LiveScience [search-icon-trans.png]-Submit ____________________ IFRAME: //www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com/ livescience&send=false&layout=button_count&width=90&show_faces=false&fo nt&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=80 Follow * TECH * HEALTH * PLANET EARTH * SPACE * STRANGE NEWS * ANIMALS * HISTORY * HUMAN NATURE * SHOP LiveScience Submit search LiveScience__ Follow via Facebook Follow via Twitter Follow via Linkedin Follow via Google+ * TECH * HEALTH * PLANET EARTH * SPACE * STRANGE NEWS * ANIMALS * HISTORY * HUMAN NATURE * SHOP TRENDING: CES 2015 // Ebola Outbreak // Military & Spy Tech // 3D Printing // OurAmazingPlanet // Best Fitness Trackers // Human Origins What 'Midnight in Paris' Tells Us About Nostalgia by Wynne Parry | February 14, 2012 04:00pm ET [share_more.png] [] [] In Woody Allenʼs film Midnight in Paris, the main character Gil, played by Owen Wilson (center) travels back in time from modern-day Paris to the city in 1920s. In Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris, the main character Gil, played by Owen Wilson (center) travels back in time from modern-day Paris to the city in 1920s. Allen is on the right. Credit: © SONY PICTURES CLASSICS View full size image Spoiler Alert: This story contains plot details from the film "Midnight in Paris," including its ending. For some of us, the past has a special allure. In the Oscar-nominated film "Midnight in Paris," the main character, Gil, doesn't just daydream about escaping the unsatisfying present to Paris in the 1920s — his place and time of choice. Picked up at the stroke of midnight by famous writers in an antique car, he travels there. In spite of these nostalgia-filled trips, Woody Allen's film is, in fact, a story about coping with the present, according to two psychologists. "It was Gil's journey through the past that helped him identify what was missing in his present and that gave him the courage to take steps to correct it," said Krystine Batcho, a professor of psychology at Le Moyne College in New York who studies nostalgia. Historical vs. personal In the film, Gil appears to experience two distinct kinds of nostalgia, according to Batcho. Gil's relationship with 1920s Paris represents historical nostalgia, or a yearning for a time in the past, which he hasn't actually experienced. It contrasts with personal nostalgia, which is tied to one's memories. While Gil's historical nostalgia is vividly portrayed in Allen's film, his personal nostalgia is more subtle, but it grounds Gil and ultimately makes it possible for him to return to the present, she said. Research indicates personal nostalgia may offer benefits, helping people maintain a constant sense of identity through changes and traumatic experiences. Historical nostalgia is different. A character in the film, Paul, refers, unflatteringly, to nostalgia as "denial of the painful present." "To some extent, that is true, because by definition, it really is dissatisfaction with the present in a way where the dissatisfaction is great enough that someone actually prefers an era or time period from the past," Batcho said. Research indicates historical nostalgia is linked to a more cynical outlook and Batcho's own research indicates people prone to historical nostalgia tend to have a more negative view of their own past and find less satisfaction in their relationships — this plays out in Gil's relationship with his fiancée. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad for You] Out of the past "If someone were to maintain the fantasy, [using] that as a psychological device would not be very healthy. The character Gil does not," Batcho said. "Gil does find his way back and that is what makes the film so special." Gil's own personal nostalgia is rooted in his past success as a screenwriter and his old dreams of becoming a great writer, like those he meets in the 1920s, including Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. These thoughts keep Gil from becoming lost in the past, according to Batcho. "He comes around to saying 'Maybe I could still write that great novel'. He is still trying to chase after some of those old dreams," Batcho said. "Those old dreams, because he was busy being successful in Hollywood, are part of his nostalgia for his personal past." Moving forward Jennifer Yalof, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, who has examined the psychological dimensions of Allen's films, sees Gil's journey as a repudiation of nostalgia, since he ultimate rejects the past for the present. But like Batcho, she sees Gil's journeys back in time as crucial to his progress. "It's kind of a writer's dream to be near Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and not only have them look at your work, but say you really have talent. … He used the fantasy of going back in time to gain that strength to be able to function in the present," said Yalof, who is also interning with MIT Medical's Mental Health and Counseling Service. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds] Realizations Nostalgia can be interpreted as a type of fantasy, and fantasy is generally thought of as a defense mechanism that allows someone to lose themselves and block out the bad, according to Yalof. The story culminates when Gil ends his fantasy by acknowledging the past was not all golden and the future isn't so bad. During a conversation with his love interest Adriana in Belle Époque Paris, Gil recounts a dream that prompted him to realize there were no antibiotics in the past. The moment reminded Batcho of an interview she did as part of her research, in which an older person was recounting fond memories of childhood, and then remembered, less fondly, using an outhouse. "It was kind of a Woody Allen moment," she said. "I consider that a turning point or a realization." In the same conversation, Gil gives voice to the other important realization: While the present can be unsatisfying, so is life itself. Escapism Yalof points out that people turn to the past to escape in many ways — from participating in historical re-enactments, to attending Renaissance fairs or even reading books, such as "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights," depicting bygone eras. "I believe these opportunities to 'escape' into a historical era hold a different appeal to different individuals," Yalof told LiveScience in an email. "Who knows what Civil War re-enactors think/feel when they put on costumes? However, something comes alive for them that is impossible to experience in the present." Other movies Allen has made, including "Manhattan" and "Radio Days," employ nostalgia as a theme, but Allen tempers the romanticism with a realization that the good old days weren't always so good, she said. You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook. Editor's Recommendations * 10 Things You Didn't Know About You * Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds * Inside the Brain: A Photo Journey Through Time More from LiveScience Author Bio Wynne Parry Wynne was a reporter at The Stamford Advocate. She has interned at Discover magazine and has freelanced for The New York Times and Scientific American's web site. She has a masters in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Utah. Wynne Parry on Contact wynne_parry on Twitter Contact Wynne Parry by EMail Science Newsletter: Subscribe enter email here..._ [email-grey.png]-Submit Follow Us Follow via Facebook Follow via Twitter Follow via Linkedin Follow via Google+ COMPANY Company Info About the Site Contact Us Advertise with Us Using our Content Licensing & Reprints Privacy Policy Sitemap NETWORK TopTenREVIEWS Tom’s Guide LAPTOP Tom’s Hardware BusinessNewsDaily Tom’s IT Pro SPACE.com LiveScience FOLLOW US Follow via RSS Feed Follow via Facebook Follow via Google+ Follow via Twitter Follow via YouTube SUBSCRIBE enter email here..._ [footer_email_submit.gif]-Submit Purch Copyright © 2015 All Rights Reserved. #publisher Film RSS feed Family RSS feed Animation RSS feed Postman Pat: The Movie RSS feed Television & radio RSS feed Television RSS feed Animation RSS feed Culture RSS feed Society RSS feed Children RSS feed Life and style RSS feed Family RSS feed Comment is free RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK US AU * Your activity * Email subscriptions * Account details * Linked services * Sign out Profile Beta About us * About us, * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * Main section * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Tech Monthly * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe The Guardian home ____________________ Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Comment is free Beware nostalgia – it's holding you back from the rest of your life Excited about the Danger Mouse, Paddington Bear and Postman Pat reboots? Big mistake! Adults shouldn't idealise the past * Share * Tweet this * * [pin_it_button.png] * * Email * Stuart Heritage * + Stuart Heritage + + The Guardian, Tuesday 17 June 2014 16.06 BST * Jump to comments (…) Postman Pat: The Movie Postman Pat: The Movie … enough to make you weep. Your childhood is under attack. One by one, the entertainment industry is systematically dismantling all your golden memories in the most obscene way possible. Look what it's done to Paddington Bear. The first images from the new Paddington movie show him looking gaunt and haunted, like he's just spent the night tearfully attempting not to stab you to death in your sleep. New Paddington still likes marmalade sandwiches, obviously, but only to wipe across his torso as part of a ritual to appease the dark lord Satan. Another happy memory down the drain. IFRAME: //www.youtube.com/embed/olf4StiBnmY?enablejsapi=1&version=3 Watching this on a mobile? Click here to watch the video It doesn't stop there, either. It's just been announced that there's going to be a Danger Mouse reboot, where Danger Mouse has got some sort of iPad attached to his face. The new Postman Pat film? Full of Terminators. All the happy innocence of your youth, vanished without trace. It's enough to make you weep, or crawl under the table, jam your hands over your ears and sing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme tune over and over again until it all goes away. Or at least it is if you're the sort of dimwit who actively subscribes to the notion of nostalgia. The reaction to the Danger Mouse news, from people my age in particular, has been dismal – teetering between ironic "I remember Danger Mouse" sub-reminiscences and outright fear that it won't be as good as the thing they watched in their pyjamas when they were six. Obviously the correct response to this news is to ignore it, because it's about a children's cartoon and you're now a sensible adult with a creatively unsatisfying yet financially secure job in middle management. You have more important things to do than revel in a falsely idealised past. Any time you spend taking part in a terrible Which Ironic 1980s Haircut Are You? online quiz is time that could be spent earning money to provide for your loved ones, you backwards-looking ninny. There's a chance that I might be slightly overreacting here, but I really do hate nostalgia. I hate the idea that creativity peaked with The Clangers, or that Wagon Wheels used to be bigger, or that Button Moon was a timeless work of art and not an endless, tedious, imagination-free wasteland where a bloke dangled a spoon from a bit of string inside a dark cupboard for 10 minutes at a time in the hope that it'd shut annoying kids up. Things weren't better when you were a kid. They were just as crap as they are now. The only difference is that you used to be stupider. Danger Mouse Danger Mouse … reboot alert. Photograph: FremantleMedia Ltd/Rex Want proof? Fine. The internet exists now. Remember The Frog Song? Try watching it on YouTube. It's 14 minutes long. Paul McCartney does all the voices. Nothing happens, some frogs sing a song, then nothing else happens and then it ends. I guarantee that you won't be able to watch the whole thing. And I enjoyed The Frog Song as a kid – not because it was great, but because I was an idiot with an undeveloped brain. I used to enjoy Fingermouse too, for crying out loud, and that was just a bloke playing a trumpet with a paper cone on his bloody hand. God, I used to be such a dickhead. 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. I hate nostalgia so much that I've probably tilted too far in the opposite direction. To avoid becoming complacent, I've compensated by actively hating anything that happened in the past. I've become convinced that my entire childhood was spent eating poison in a ditch. I hate everything that isn't happening now. I just reread the first line of this column, and it made me furious because I wrote it half an hour ago, back when everything was awful. This is clearly a step too far, but it's better than indulging in pointless nostalgia. So let's all just do the normal adult thing and ignore the new Paddington Bear movie. It clearly wasn't designed for us. And let's make a pact to end nostalgia for good. Better that we do it now than in 20 years, when we'll have to make it through the inevitable round of ironic Gangnam Style retrospectives. Daily Email close Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3q76e * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * del.icio.us * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@theguardian.com * Letters for publication should be sent to: guardian.letters@theguardian.com * If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Article history About this article Close this popup Beware nostalgia – it's holding you back from the rest of your life | Stuart Heritage This article was published on the Guardian website at 16.06 BST on Tuesday 17 June 2014. A version appeared on p5 of the G2 section of the Guardian on Wednesday 18 June 2014. It was last modified at 16.31 BST on Tuesday 1 July 2014. Film * Family · * Animation · * Postman Pat: The Movie Television & radio * Television · * Animation Culture Society * Children Life and style * Family More from Comment is free on Film * Family · * Animation · * Postman Pat: The Movie Television & radio * Television · * Animation Culture Society * Children Life and style * Family * More on this story * Danger Mouse Crumbs! Danger Mouse to return on CBBC Animated hero and his sidekick Penfold, who appeared on ITV from 1981 to 1992, to appear in 52 episodes on BBC channel * postman pat Postman Pat: The Movie review – shiny, slightly scary spin-off 2 out of 5 With bland digimation and sinister cyborgs delivering the post, the film lacks the charm of the TV original, writes Mark Kermode * postman pat 5 Postman Pat: The Movie trailer – Greendale goes postal with robot cats Stuart Heritage: Pat has always had something of the serial killer about him. But in his new 3D movie, he's really lost the plot * (FILES) In a file picture taken on Novem Colin Firth to voice Paddington Bear in animation co-starring Nicole Kidman Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent also to feature in film produced by Weinstein brothers and David Heyman and directed by Paul King * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Best and worst in cinema * [e40a779e-ba13-4b36-b184-88c4c62ffed7-140x84.jpeg] * Sundance 2015 review: The Witch – a focus on themes over plot elevate it to near greatness * Jordan Hoffman * [4.png] * [little-shop-of-horrors-006.jpg] * Little Shop of Horrors review – perfectly pitched horticultural sci-fi horror * Clare Brennan * [4.png] * [Point-and-Shoot-films-006.jpg] * Point and Shoot review – profile of a macho misfit * Mark Kermode * [2.png] * [The-Gambler-film-still-006.jpg] * The Gambler review – Mark Wahlberg is unconvincing in a contrived remake * Peter Bradshaw * [2.png] Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on theguardian.com because you don't have JavaScript enabled. Today's best video * Agony Aunt ep1 orgasm illustration I'm 58 and I've never had an orgasm Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry responds to a woman who is suffering from anorgasmia and doesn't want to resort to faking it * 140x84 trailpic for Why Bruce Cleveland 1978 album you should hear this week -video One album to hear this week Michael Hann recommends Bruce Springsteen's The Agora, Cleveland 1978, a widely bootlegged live album * 140x84 trailpic for The Guardian Film Show: Ex_Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year - video reviews The Guardian film show Our critics review Ex Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year * 140x84 trailpic for Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick Brick-by-brick - video Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick – brick-by-brick Animated reimagining of 1995 set-to with Crystal Palace fan Soulmates The Guardian's online dating site * GinFizzHuntress, 27 * stephenwatershed, 51 Meet someone worth meeting * I am a[Man__] * Seeking[Women______] * Aged[25] to [45] * In[United Kingdom______________________________] * Within[20 miles_] * Of ____________________ (BUTTON) Search On Comment is free * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [crop_KP-72414_140.jpeg] 1. Someone stole naked pictures of me. This is what I did about it – video 2. 2. Is women's visible pubic hair really so shocking that it must be censored? | Jessica Valenti 3. 3. If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath | Lucy Mangan 4. 4. Every new restaurant serves the same 'unique' dishes as every other place 5. 5. Why love is hard to find in the bright lights of the city | Nell Frizzell 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [968141b1-26bc-404e-b81a-6799a951b5aa-140x84.jpeg] 1. Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters 2. 2. Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? |David Mitchell 3. 3. Britain’s welcome for Mexican president is worrying 4. 4. The Tudors live on – thanks to Henry VIII’s lavish spending 5. 5. The ballad of Broon and sonsie Jim:… by Robert Burns? | Kevin McKenna 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Guantanamo Diary 1. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi £15.00 2. 2. Exposures by Jane Bown £7.50 3. 3. Cameron's Coup by Polly Toynbee £7.99 4. 4. Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin £16.00 5. 5. Getting by by Lisa McKenzie £14.99 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (BUTTON) Search comment is free… Latest posts * 24min ago Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters Chris Riddell (with apologies to Goya) on the delayed Chilcot report * David Mitchell 24min ago Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? David Mitchell: The London Eye’s deal with the US dissolved-sugar giant adds another touch of ugliness to modern Britain – but isn’t it a little late to start complaining? Comment from the paper * Hala Al-Dosari: King Abdullah’s gone, but the Saudi monarchy’s pact with the mosques remains * Martin Rowson: Martin Rowson on the death of King Abdullah – cartoon * Christie Watson: If I were queen for a day, this would be a month of real food, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Today in pictures * sports peronality 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – in pictures Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London * Martin Parr's M Video Christmas party photograph Dinner, dusk and dancing Russians: my best winter shot A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites … in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them * Kimon, a long-tailed monkey grooms a kitten, whom, she treats as her baby, Bintan Island, Indonesia Monkey adopts kitten – in pictures Kimon, an eight-year-old pet female long-tailed monkey, treats a kitten as her baby in Bintan Island, Indonesia * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. * Share * Tweet this * * #publisher Technology RSS feed Internet RSS feed Digital Britain RSS feed Instagram RSS feed Twitter RSS feed Nintendo RSS feed Media RSS feed Digital media RSS feed Blogging RSS feed Society RSS feed Young people RSS feed Comment is free RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK US AU * Your activity * Email subscriptions * Account details * Linked services * Sign out Profile Beta About us * About us, * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * Main section * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Tech Monthly * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe The Guardian home ____________________ Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Comment is free How the digital age turbocharged nostalgia It may seem funny how quickly the generation that grew up online starts to reminisce. But taking stock of how things have changed is no longer about a quiet yearning * Share * Tweet this * * [pin_it_button.png] * * Email * Holly Baxter * + Holly Baxter + + theguardian.com, Wednesday 30 October 2013 17.38 GMT * Jump to comments (…) Gameboy device with Tetris 'There's widespread excitement about the just-announced 2014 Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican, which is due to showcase Gameboy, Tetris and MacPaint devices to a 90s kid’s heart’s content.' Photograph: Graeme Robertson Nostalgia is a funny thing in the digital age. Take Throwback Thursday, beloved of the generation known as millennials (people who were children in the year 2000). Throwback Thursday is a Twitter and Instagram phenomenon in which 25-year-olds post pictures of themselves at 20 and loudly philosophise about how and why everything has changed since those halcyon days. To which you'd be perfectly within your rights to reply: hey sunshine, this is not visual proof of your patriotic contributions during the great war, this is Warwick University's freshers' week in 2008. And yet if you did say that, you'd be missing a trick. Because nostalgia is a completely different beast to generations who have grown up documenting their lives online. It is no longer an internal emotion or a quiet yearning for what has passed. Instead, it is a deafening roar of collective online voices about how far we've come, how we can present that progress, and how our teenage identities on MySpace can be reconciled with our twentysomething personas on Facebook. Such behaviour shouldn't be too surprising in a cohort of people who actually buy assorted "vintage" hand-me-downs for more than new clothes. But things really do move lightning-fast in the digi-world, so why shouldn't we become nostalgic in a timeframe that might otherwise seem ridiculously premature? Remember the man who bought $27 worth of bitcoins in 2009, forgot about them for a while, and recently found out that they're now worth $886k? (OK, the story only broke yesterday, but bear with me while I reminisce). His windfall is testament to how digi-time is monumentally different to real time. If you need further illustration of this, then look no further than the widespread excitement about the just announced 2014 Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican in London, which is due to showcase Gameboy, Tetris and MacPaint devices (no word yet on whether side ponytails and Jumanji T-shirts are compulsory for entry). The show promises young adults, hyped up on Sega Sonic, earnestly discussing how you couldn't use the phone while you were on the internet in the good old days. Like Digital Archaeology, a similar exhibition that was developed as part of Internet Week Europe 2010 (yes, really) and showcased "a selection of the most significant sites of our time", it draws attention to how far we've come in a short space of time. The internet is still very young, yet we can already fill galleries with its many different incarnations. There are more reasons to be nostalgic about the digi-world beyond fond conversations about nights spent on MSN Messenger. For instance, the surge of technological creativity that accompanied the opening of the App Store and a supposed new age of internet democracy is worth being nostalgic about. In the last couple of years (decades in Apple-speak), the platform has instead been awash with refinements of existing APIs, put together with very little innovation. By remembering our initial enthusiasm for such new forms, perhaps we can reignite those fires of inspiration. Willard Foxton argued recently in the Telegraph, that there was no point in teaching children how to code because it's an "extra difficult, boring subject" with few applications. Foxton is wrong, of course; the point of teaching coding is not just to develop a useful amount of future computer programmers, but to give children the tools to be creative in the digital world. Creative coding is as nuanced an outlet as any other form of expression and has the potential to entirely reshape the cyberworld as we know it, once again. So long as nostalgia drives us forward as well as making us glance back, then it can be a powerful force. And if we don't teach our kids about that, then we won't have anything to feel nostalgic about in three years' time. Daily Email close Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3kxnp * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * del.icio.us * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@theguardian.com * Letters for publication should be sent to: guardian.letters@theguardian.com * If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Article history About this article Close this popup How the digital age turbocharged nostalgia | Holly Baxter This article was published on the Guardian website at 17.38 GMT on Wednesday 30 October 2013. It was last modified at 08.20 BST on Thursday 22 May 2014. Technology * Internet · * Digital Britain · * Instagram · * Twitter · * Nintendo Media * Digital media · * Blogging Society * Young people More from Comment is free on Technology * Internet · * Digital Britain · * Instagram · * Twitter · * Nintendo Media * Digital media · * Blogging Society * Young people * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on theguardian.com because you don't have JavaScript enabled. Today's best video * Agony Aunt ep1 orgasm illustration I'm 58 and I've never had an orgasm Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry responds to a woman who is suffering from anorgasmia and doesn't want to resort to faking it * 140x84 trailpic for Why Bruce Cleveland 1978 album you should hear this week -video One album to hear this week Michael Hann recommends Bruce Springsteen's The Agora, Cleveland 1978, a widely bootlegged live album * 140x84 trailpic for The Guardian Film Show: Ex_Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year - video reviews The Guardian film show Our critics review Ex Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year * 140x84 trailpic for Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick Brick-by-brick - video Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick – brick-by-brick Animated reimagining of 1995 set-to with Crystal Palace fan Soulmates The Guardian's online dating site * GinFizzHuntress, 27 * stephenwatershed, 51 Meet someone worth meeting * I am a[Man__] * Seeking[Women______] * Aged[25] to [45] * In[United Kingdom______________________________] * Within[20 miles_] * Of ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Guardian Professional * Media Network Media network survey: data usage and privacy top agenda Customers worry about their data and are sharing less, but companies could be doing more to enhance protection * Media Network Treat us with respect: how to become your PR agency’s favourite client Get the best results from your PR, stop treating the client-agency relationship as merely transactional * More from our Media network On Comment is free * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [crop_KP-72414_140.jpeg] 1. Someone stole naked pictures of me. This is what I did about it – video 2. 2. Is women's visible pubic hair really so shocking that it must be censored? | Jessica Valenti 3. 3. If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath | Lucy Mangan 4. 4. Every new restaurant serves the same 'unique' dishes as every other place 5. 5. Why love is hard to find in the bright lights of the city | Nell Frizzell 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [968141b1-26bc-404e-b81a-6799a951b5aa-140x84.jpeg] 1. Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters 2. 2. Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? |David Mitchell 3. 3. Britain’s welcome for Mexican president is worrying 4. 4. The Tudors live on – thanks to Henry VIII’s lavish spending 5. 5. The ballad of Broon and sonsie Jim:… by Robert Burns? | Kevin McKenna 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Guantanamo Diary 1. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi £15.00 2. 2. Exposures by Jane Bown £7.50 3. 3. Cameron's Coup by Polly Toynbee £7.99 4. 4. Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin £16.00 5. 5. Getting by by Lisa McKenzie £14.99 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (BUTTON) Search comment is free… Latest posts * 24min ago Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters Chris Riddell (with apologies to Goya) on the delayed Chilcot report * David Mitchell 24min ago Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? David Mitchell: The London Eye’s deal with the US dissolved-sugar giant adds another touch of ugliness to modern Britain – but isn’t it a little late to start complaining? Comment from the paper * Hala Al-Dosari: King Abdullah’s gone, but the Saudi monarchy’s pact with the mosques remains * Martin Rowson: Martin Rowson on the death of King Abdullah – cartoon * Christie Watson: If I were queen for a day, this would be a month of real food, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Today in pictures * sports peronality 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – in pictures Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London * Martin Parr's M Video Christmas party photograph Dinner, dusk and dancing Russians: my best winter shot A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites … in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them * Kimon, a long-tailed monkey grooms a kitten, whom, she treats as her baby, Bintan Island, Indonesia Monkey adopts kitten – in pictures Kimon, an eight-year-old pet female long-tailed monkey, treats a kitten as her baby in Bintan Island, Indonesia * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. * Share * Tweet this * * Poetry Foundation Poetry Foundation Skip to content * About Us * Visit * Contact Us * Newsletters * * Poems & Poets + Browse Poems + Browse Poets + Seasonal Poems * Features + Articles + Audio & Podcasts + Video + Harriet: News & Community * Resources + Learning Lab + Children’s Poetry + POETRY Mobile App + Poetry Tours * Programs & Initiatives + Foundation Events + Gallery Exhibitions + Foundation Awards + Foundation Library + Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute + Media Partnerships + Poetry Out Loud * Poetry magazine + o January 2015 Tommye Blount, David Baker, Rae Armantrout, David Shapiro, Samuel Amadon, Fady Joudah, and more. o Table of Contents o Browse All Issues Back to 1912 o Subscribe to Poetry o Submissions & Letters to the Editor o Poetry Magazine Prizes o Advertise with Us ____________________ Submit Home > Poems & Poets > Nostalgia * POEM * RELATED CONTENT Discover this poem's context and related poetry. IFRAME: widget Language Portraits Language Portraits Bob Holman on the Nuyorican, oral tradition, and how poetry led him to activism. By Adam Plunkett Read more articles * Share * Print * Nostalgia Nostalgia By Billy Collins b. 1941 Billy Collins Remember the 1340s? We were doing a dance called the Catapult. You always wore brown, the color craze of the decade, and I was draped in one of those capes that were popular, the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework. Everyone would pause for beer and onions in the afternoon, and at night we would play a game called “Find the Cow.” Everything was hand-lettered then, not like today. Where has the summer of 1572 gone? Brocade and sonnet marathons were the rage. We used to dress up in the flags of rival baronies and conquer one another in cold rooms of stone. Out on the dance floor we were all doing the Struggle while your sister practiced the Daphne all alone in her room. We borrowed the jargon of farriers for our slang. These days language seems transparent, a badly broken code. The 1790s will never come again. Childhood was big. People would take walks to the very tops of hills and write down what they saw in their journals without speaking. Our collars were high and our hats were extremely soft. We would surprise each other with alphabets made of twigs. It was a wonderful time to be alive, or even dead. I am very fond of the period between 1815 and 1821. Europe trembled while we sat still for our portraits. And I would love to return to 1901 if only for a moment, time enough to wind up a music box and do a few dance steps, or shoot me back to 1922 or 1941, or at least let me recapture the serenity of last month when we picked berries and glided through afternoons in a canoe. Even this morning would be an improvement over the present. I was in the garden then, surrounded by the hum of bees and the Latin names of flowers, watching the early light flash off the slanted windows of the greenhouse and silver the limbs on the rows of dark hemlocks. As usual, I was thinking about the moments of the past, letting my memory rush over them like water rushing over the stones on the bottom of a stream. I was even thinking a little about the future, that place where people are doing a dance we cannot imagine, a dance whose name we can only guess. Billy Collins, “Nostalgia” from Questions About Angels. Copyright © 1991 by Billy Collins. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press, www.pitt.edu/~press/. Source: Questions About Angels (1991) back to top RELATED CONTENT Discover this poem’s context and related poetry, articles, and media. Poet Billy Collins b. 1941 POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic Subjects Time & Brevity, Humor & Satire More about this poem Billy Collins Biography Dubbed “the most popular poet in America” by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, Billy Collins is famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself. John Updike praised Collins for writing “lovely poems...Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all . . . Continue reading this biography back to top Poems by Billy Collins * Aristotle * Canada * Cheerios * Creatures * Design * More poems by Billy Collins (31 poems) + Fishing on the Susquehanna in July + Forgetfulness + Her + Introduction to Poetry + Irish Poetry + Madmen + Man in Space + Memorizing “The Sun Rising” by John Donne + Morning + No Time + Print + Questions About Angels + Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles + Report from the Subtropics + Silence + Snow Day + Study in Orange and White + The Breather + The Chairs That No One Sits In + The Death of Allegory + The Parade + The Wires of the Night + Today + Winter + Workshop + Writing in the Afterlife back to top Poem Categorization SUBJECT Time & Brevity, Humor & Satire POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic If you disagree with this poem's categorization, make a suggestion. back to top Related Audio * Listen Poem of the Day: Aristotle * Listen Poetry Lectures: Billy Collins * Listen Essential American Poets: Billy Collins: Essential American Poets * Listen Poem of the Day: Forgetfullness * Listen Poetry Off the Shelf: Garrison Keillor, Billy Collins, and Kay Ryan * Listen Poem of the Day: January in Paris * Listen Poetry Off the Shelf: The Joy of Sax * Listen Poem of the Day: Litany * Listen Poem of the Day: Liu Yung * Listen Poem of the Day: Man in Space * Listen Poem of the Day: Morning * Listen Poem of the Day: Nostalgia * Listen Poetry Off the Shelf: The Poetry Garage * Listen Poem of the Day: Silence Video * Watch Poet Billy Collins discusses humor, authenticity and Aimless Love * Watch Poet Billy Collins Reflects on 9/11 Articles * Animal Magic by Aidin Vaziri * Talking To, Talking About, Talking With by Toby Emert * The Taste of Silence by Adam Kirsch Events * Billy Collins | A Reading * Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Sandra Cisneros, Robert Hass, Edward Hirsch, and Kay Ryan | In Conversation with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour Report a problem with this poem NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP [ ] poetryfoundation.org Biweekly updates of poetry and feature stories [ ] Press Releases Information for the media. [ ] Poetry Magazine A preview of the upcoming issue [ ] Poem of the Day A daily email with a featured poem [ ] Events Chicago-area and Poetry Foundation events [ ] American Life in Poetry Weekly Column [ ] Paper Mail Event calendars and other materials by postal mail (requires email address) ____________________ Sign up ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Cancel Sign up RSS Feeds * Articles * Poetry magazine * Harriet: News & Community * Poem of the Day * Audio Poem of the Day * Glossary Term of the Day Network * Find us on Facebook + Poetry Foundation * Follow us on Twitter + Poetry Foundation + Poetry Magazine + Poetry News Site Index Poems * Browse All Poems * Love Poems * Poems for Weddings * Children’s Poems Poets * 20th Century Poets * Women Poets Features * Articles * Audio & Podcasts * Video * Harriet: News & Community Resources * Learning Lab * Glossary of Poetic Terms * Children’s Poetry * POETRY Mobile App Poetry magazine * Subscribe * Poetry magazine Archive * From the Editors: Blog * Submissions * About the Magazine * Advertising & Media Kit * Poetry magazine Prizes Programs & Initiatives * Events * Awards * Foundation Library * HMPI * Media Partners & Affiliates * Poetry Out Loud About The Foundation * About Us * History and Mission * Press Releases * Plan a Visit * Staff & Board * Policies * Privacy Policy * Terms of Use * Jobs Contact Poetry Foundation General Inquiries | Poetry magazine | Media & Press | Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute | 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60654 Hours: Monday–Friday 11 a.m.–4 p.m. © 2015 Poetry Foundation Originally appeared in Poetry magazine. This poem has learning resources. This poem is good for children. This poem has related video. This poem has related audio. Whoops! Your browser sent a request that we were unable to process, clearing the browser cache and cookies is a good first step to try to resolve the issue. Instructions for clearing cache and cookies are different for each browser and version. Google has outlined the steps for all major browsers: Clearing cache and cookies #publisher Television & radio RSS feed Downton Abbey RSS feed Television RSS feed Period drama RSS feed World news RSS feed UK news RSS feed Comment is free RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK US AU * Your activity * Email subscriptions * Account details * Linked services * Sign out Profile Beta About us * About us, * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * Main section * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Tech Monthly * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe The Guardian home ____________________ Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Comment is free Downton Abbey’s class nostalgia is another toxic British export The period drama is the latest conservative cultural product to peddle our outdated national stereotypes to foreign audiences * Share * Tweet this * * * Email * viv groskop * + Viv Groskop + + The Guardian, Wednesday 17 September 2014 18.00 BST * Jump to comments (…) The team behind Downton Abbey at the 2012 Golden Globe awards. The Downton Abbey team accept the award for best mini-series at the 2012 Golden Globe awards. ‘The US in particular has taken the series to heart’. Photograph: Getty Images George Clooney is to “star” in Downton Abbey. Mr Charisma, King Celebrity himself, will play the role of an American guest at a wedding at the country estate, alongside Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary) and Hugh Bonneville (the Earl of Grantham). The programme makers are so overcome they’re virtually wetting themselves with excitement: “This is the biggest moment in Downton history and shows it’s now the biggest drama in the world.” Fetch the sherry, Carson – and the bedpan while you’re at it. A moment of great celebration for British culture? Not quite. Read the small print and you soon discover that Clooney isn’t appearing in the actual show. He’s in a sketch for an ITV Christmas charity appeal. The same fundraising spot previously featured Cheryl Cole sitting in Coronation Street’s Rovers Return with a bucket of champagne. But it isn’t wholly hyperbole that Downton is one of the most successful TV series ever. You can watch the show in Persian, Russian and Korean, and it has an estimated global audience of 160 million. On a cycling trip to Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, the actor Jim Carter, who plays the butler, was greeted by a throng of tourists screaming “Mr Carson!”. The series did well abroad immediately and, as series five starts in the UK on Sunday, the upward curve of viewers shows no sign of flattening. The US in particular has taken the series to heart: Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks and Katy Perry are all fans, while Michelle Obama requested early previews of the last series. Should you wish, you can buy Downton Abbey wine, soap and jewellery. Yet Downton is just the latest in a long line of conservative cultural phenomena that get lapped up internationally and end up representing Brand Britain, whether we like it or not. From Merchant Ivory and Jeeves and Wooster to Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill via royal baby fever, our best-known cultural exports are painfully reinforcing “olde worlde” class stereotypes. And let’s not kid ourselves that what we’re broadcasting to the world here is great drama. What we’re actually exporting is nostalgia, an unhealthy obsession with class, and a peculiarly dusty form of conservatism. It turns out that people can’t get enough of these things. One sign that Downton is received overseas as something closer to documentary rather than glossy fiction is that no one has tried to do their own version. When the Americans “acquire” Broadchurch or The Office, they remake it. It would not occur to anyone to remake Downton because it is already seen as the most accurate portrayal of Britishness possible. In some ways this is a compliment; in other ways, it is depressing. Abroad (and perhaps closer to home, too) Downton is an exercise in wish fulfilment. Viewers want this world and the class order it represents to exist. They wonder whether they themselves would be “upstairs” or “downstairs”. They want to visit the real Downton, Highclere Castle in Hampshire. The series’ creator, Julian Fellowes, is rather coy about all this. The appeal of the show, he says, lies in something far more simple and less political: “Most of the stories are about emotional situations that everyone can understand.” But it is not these stories that capture viewers’ imaginations. It is the class relationship between the characters. It also reinforces the myth that to be British means to love the Queen, doff your cap and stop for afternoon tea at four o’clock. In China there is, apparently, the “fastest-growing market in the world for British butlers”. A British businessman based there was reported as saying that last year he “must have had more than 100 calls congratulating me on the birth of Prince George”. This is not completely Downton’s fault, but it’s a crucial part of the narrative. Talking about the BBC’s great tradition of TV exports, the corporation’s director general, Tony Hall, has said that the “soft power” influence of British telly abroad has a diplomatic effect equal to that of the armed forces. This is true of Downton: it’s a deadly weapon, shooting to kill every radical bone in your body as you yearn for the return of dowagers, entails and primogeniture. At the recent TUC conference in Liverpool the general secretary, Frances O’Grady, described Britain as “becoming like Downton Abbey”, in the sense that the “living standards of the vast majority are sacrificed to protect the high living of the well-to-do” – a place where “class prejudice” is respectable. True or not, this is definitely the narrative that sells best in fictional form abroad. What Downton’s international fans believe they are buying into, then, is what the New York Times described as “a bit of Britain where the sun still never sets”. Five series in, it shows no sign of stopping. My eye mask, Anna, before I have one of my turns. Daily Email close Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/4xk3n * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * del.icio.us * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@theguardian.com * Letters for publication should be sent to: guardian.letters@theguardian.com * If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Television & radio * Downton Abbey · * Television · * Period drama World news UK news More from Comment is free on Television & radio * Downton Abbey · * Television · * Period drama World news UK news * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on theguardian.com because you don't have JavaScript enabled. Today's best video * Agony Aunt ep1 orgasm illustration I'm 58 and I've never had an orgasm Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry responds to a woman who is suffering from anorgasmia and doesn't want to resort to faking it * 140x84 trailpic for Why Bruce Cleveland 1978 album you should hear this week -video One album to hear this week Michael Hann recommends Bruce Springsteen's The Agora, Cleveland 1978, a widely bootlegged live album * 140x84 trailpic for The Guardian Film Show: Ex_Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year - video reviews The Guardian film show Our critics review Ex Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year * 140x84 trailpic for Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick Brick-by-brick - video Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick – brick-by-brick Animated reimagining of 1995 set-to with Crystal Palace fan Soulmates The Guardian's online dating site * heartintheclouds, 35 * Wotnot, 44 Meet someone worth meeting * I am a[Man__] * Seeking[Women______] * Aged[25] to [45] * In[United Kingdom______________________________] * Within[20 miles_] * Of ____________________ (BUTTON) Search On Comment is free * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [crop_KP-72414_140.jpeg] 1. Someone stole naked pictures of me. This is what I did about it – video 2. 2. Is women's visible pubic hair really so shocking that it must be censored? | Jessica Valenti 3. 3. If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath | Lucy Mangan 4. 4. Every new restaurant serves the same 'unique' dishes as every other place 5. 5. Why love is hard to find in the bright lights of the city | Nell Frizzell 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [968141b1-26bc-404e-b81a-6799a951b5aa-140x84.jpeg] 1. Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters 2. 2. Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? |David Mitchell 3. 3. Britain’s welcome for Mexican president is worrying 4. 4. The Tudors live on – thanks to Henry VIII’s lavish spending 5. 5. The ballad of Broon and sonsie Jim:… by Robert Burns? | Kevin McKenna 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Guantanamo Diary 1. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi £15.00 2. 2. Exposures by Jane Bown £7.50 3. 3. Cameron's Coup by Polly Toynbee £7.99 4. 4. Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin £16.00 5. 5. Getting by by Lisa McKenzie £14.99 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (BUTTON) Search comment is free… Latest posts * 24min ago Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters Chris Riddell (with apologies to Goya) on the delayed Chilcot report * David Mitchell 25min ago Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? David Mitchell: The London Eye’s deal with the US dissolved-sugar giant adds another touch of ugliness to modern Britain – but isn’t it a little late to start complaining? Comment from the paper * Hala Al-Dosari: King Abdullah’s gone, but the Saudi monarchy’s pact with the mosques remains * Martin Rowson: Martin Rowson on the death of King Abdullah – cartoon * Christie Watson: If I were queen for a day, this would be a month of real food, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. #publisher Technology RSS feed Internet RSS feed Digital Britain RSS feed Instagram RSS feed Twitter RSS feed Nintendo RSS feed Media RSS feed Digital media RSS feed Blogging RSS feed Society RSS feed Young people RSS feed Comment is free RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK US AU * Your activity * Email subscriptions * Account details * Linked services * Sign out Profile Beta About us * About us, * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * Main section * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Tech Monthly * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe The Guardian home ____________________ Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Comment is free How the digital age turbocharged nostalgia It may seem funny how quickly the generation that grew up online starts to reminisce. But taking stock of how things have changed is no longer about a quiet yearning * Share * Tweet this * * [pin_it_button.png] * * Email * Holly Baxter * + Holly Baxter + + theguardian.com, Wednesday 30 October 2013 17.38 GMT * Jump to comments (…) Gameboy device with Tetris 'There's widespread excitement about the just-announced 2014 Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican, which is due to showcase Gameboy, Tetris and MacPaint devices to a 90s kid’s heart’s content.' Photograph: Graeme Robertson Nostalgia is a funny thing in the digital age. Take Throwback Thursday, beloved of the generation known as millennials (people who were children in the year 2000). Throwback Thursday is a Twitter and Instagram phenomenon in which 25-year-olds post pictures of themselves at 20 and loudly philosophise about how and why everything has changed since those halcyon days. To which you'd be perfectly within your rights to reply: hey sunshine, this is not visual proof of your patriotic contributions during the great war, this is Warwick University's freshers' week in 2008. And yet if you did say that, you'd be missing a trick. Because nostalgia is a completely different beast to generations who have grown up documenting their lives online. It is no longer an internal emotion or a quiet yearning for what has passed. Instead, it is a deafening roar of collective online voices about how far we've come, how we can present that progress, and how our teenage identities on MySpace can be reconciled with our twentysomething personas on Facebook. Such behaviour shouldn't be too surprising in a cohort of people who actually buy assorted "vintage" hand-me-downs for more than new clothes. But things really do move lightning-fast in the digi-world, so why shouldn't we become nostalgic in a timeframe that might otherwise seem ridiculously premature? Remember the man who bought $27 worth of bitcoins in 2009, forgot about them for a while, and recently found out that they're now worth $886k? (OK, the story only broke yesterday, but bear with me while I reminisce). His windfall is testament to how digi-time is monumentally different to real time. If you need further illustration of this, then look no further than the widespread excitement about the just announced 2014 Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican in London, which is due to showcase Gameboy, Tetris and MacPaint devices (no word yet on whether side ponytails and Jumanji T-shirts are compulsory for entry). The show promises young adults, hyped up on Sega Sonic, earnestly discussing how you couldn't use the phone while you were on the internet in the good old days. Like Digital Archaeology, a similar exhibition that was developed as part of Internet Week Europe 2010 (yes, really) and showcased "a selection of the most significant sites of our time", it draws attention to how far we've come in a short space of time. The internet is still very young, yet we can already fill galleries with its many different incarnations. There are more reasons to be nostalgic about the digi-world beyond fond conversations about nights spent on MSN Messenger. For instance, the surge of technological creativity that accompanied the opening of the App Store and a supposed new age of internet democracy is worth being nostalgic about. In the last couple of years (decades in Apple-speak), the platform has instead been awash with refinements of existing APIs, put together with very little innovation. By remembering our initial enthusiasm for such new forms, perhaps we can reignite those fires of inspiration. Willard Foxton argued recently in the Telegraph, that there was no point in teaching children how to code because it's an "extra difficult, boring subject" with few applications. Foxton is wrong, of course; the point of teaching coding is not just to develop a useful amount of future computer programmers, but to give children the tools to be creative in the digital world. Creative coding is as nuanced an outlet as any other form of expression and has the potential to entirely reshape the cyberworld as we know it, once again. So long as nostalgia drives us forward as well as making us glance back, then it can be a powerful force. And if we don't teach our kids about that, then we won't have anything to feel nostalgic about in three years' time. Daily Email close Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3kxnp * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * del.icio.us * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@theguardian.com * Letters for publication should be sent to: guardian.letters@theguardian.com * If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Article history About this article Close this popup How the digital age turbocharged nostalgia | Holly Baxter This article was published on the Guardian website at 17.38 GMT on Wednesday 30 October 2013. It was last modified at 08.20 BST on Thursday 22 May 2014. Technology * Internet · * Digital Britain · * Instagram · * Twitter · * Nintendo Media * Digital media · * Blogging Society * Young people More from Comment is free on Technology * Internet · * Digital Britain · * Instagram · * Twitter · * Nintendo Media * Digital media · * Blogging Society * Young people * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on theguardian.com because you don't have JavaScript enabled. Today's best video * Agony Aunt ep1 orgasm illustration I'm 58 and I've never had an orgasm Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry responds to a woman who is suffering from anorgasmia and doesn't want to resort to faking it * 140x84 trailpic for Why Bruce Cleveland 1978 album you should hear this week -video One album to hear this week Michael Hann recommends Bruce Springsteen's The Agora, Cleveland 1978, a widely bootlegged live album * 140x84 trailpic for The Guardian Film Show: Ex_Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year - video reviews The Guardian film show Our critics review Ex Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year * 140x84 trailpic for Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick Brick-by-brick - video Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick – brick-by-brick Animated reimagining of 1995 set-to with Crystal Palace fan Soulmates The Guardian's online dating site * GinFizzHuntress, 27 * stephenwatershed, 51 Meet someone worth meeting * I am a[Man__] * Seeking[Women______] * Aged[25] to [45] * In[United Kingdom______________________________] * Within[20 miles_] * Of ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Guardian Professional * Media Network Media network survey: data usage and privacy top agenda Customers worry about their data and are sharing less, but companies could be doing more to enhance protection * Media Network Treat us with respect: how to become your PR agency’s favourite client Get the best results from your PR, stop treating the client-agency relationship as merely transactional * More from our Media network On Comment is free * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [crop_KP-72414_140.jpeg] 1. Someone stole naked pictures of me. This is what I did about it – video 2. 2. Is women's visible pubic hair really so shocking that it must be censored? | Jessica Valenti 3. 3. If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath | Lucy Mangan 4. 4. Every new restaurant serves the same 'unique' dishes as every other place 5. 5. Why love is hard to find in the bright lights of the city | Nell Frizzell 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [968141b1-26bc-404e-b81a-6799a951b5aa-140x84.jpeg] 1. Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters 2. 2. Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? |David Mitchell 3. 3. Britain’s welcome for Mexican president is worrying 4. 4. The Tudors live on – thanks to Henry VIII’s lavish spending 5. 5. The ballad of Broon and sonsie Jim:… by Robert Burns? | Kevin McKenna 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Guantanamo Diary 1. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi £15.00 2. 2. Exposures by Jane Bown £7.50 3. 3. Cameron's Coup by Polly Toynbee £7.99 4. 4. Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin £16.00 5. 5. Getting by by Lisa McKenzie £14.99 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (BUTTON) Search comment is free… Latest posts * 24min ago Chilcot: the sleep of reason produces monsters Chris Riddell (with apologies to Goya) on the delayed Chilcot report * David Mitchell 24min ago Corporate sponsorship is everywhere so why see red over Coca-Cola? David Mitchell: The London Eye’s deal with the US dissolved-sugar giant adds another touch of ugliness to modern Britain – but isn’t it a little late to start complaining? Comment from the paper * Hala Al-Dosari: King Abdullah’s gone, but the Saudi monarchy’s pact with the mosques remains * Martin Rowson: Martin Rowson on the death of King Abdullah – cartoon * Christie Watson: If I were queen for a day, this would be a month of real food, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Today in pictures * sports peronality 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – in pictures Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London * Martin Parr's M Video Christmas party photograph Dinner, dusk and dancing Russians: my best winter shot A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites … in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them * Kimon, a long-tailed monkey grooms a kitten, whom, she treats as her baby, Bintan Island, Indonesia Monkey adopts kitten – in pictures Kimon, an eight-year-old pet female long-tailed monkey, treats a kitten as her baby in Bintan Island, Indonesia * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. * Share * Tweet this * * #publisher Life and style RSS feed Fashion RSS feed World news RSS feed Second world war RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK US AU * Your activity * Email subscriptions * Account details * Linked services * Sign out Profile Beta About us * About us, * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * Main section * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Tech Monthly * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe The Guardian home ____________________ Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Life & style Austerity addicts: why is 1940s nostalgia all the rage? With 1940s vintage clothing and re-enactment weekends booming, are enthusiasts rose-tinting the horrors of the decade? * Share * Tweet this * * [pin_it_button.png] * * Email * Dorian Lynskey * + Dorian Lynskey + + The Guardian, Tuesday 13 August 2013 17.32 BST * Jump to comments (…) Re-enactors in Russian second world war uniforms, surrounded by tents Re-enactors dressed as Russian soldiers at the Festival of the Forties, near Peterborough. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian On a humid summer's day, in a field just outside Peterborough, half a dozen twentysomethings are sitting in a foxhole. Every item of their clothing is from the 1940s. Every detail of their encampment is from the 1940s. Two women are eating brandied peaches from a jar, prepared according to a wartime recipe. "A few years ago I had no idea this scene existed," says Jodie Roe, a recent graduate who is dressed in khaki. "If my history teachers saw me now they'd say: 'What are you doing? You hated history.'" "It takes over your life," says Annie Andrews, a part-time singer and wartime-style pin-up model. "You get bitten by the bug." This is the Festival of the Forties, just one small event in a packed six-month calendar of events ranging from colossal hardware displays to strict re-enactment weekends where you can eat only wartime rations. In the "battlefield", dozens of men in uniform set up camp in preparation for tomorrow afternoon's military re-enactment, complaining about the price of blank ammunition. In the main field, a row of gleaming classic cars is flanked by stalls selling vintage clothes and assorted wartime paraphernalia. Somewhere in the distance Glenn Miller and His Orchestra are playing In the Mood, seemingly on a loop. Two men and woman in 1940s clothes at the Festival of the Forties Roaring 40s: dressed to impress at the Festival of the Forties. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian Over by the tea stand sit Bob and Chines Stewart, two former evacuees who visit these events in a blackout-ready Austin 10 to educate people about the blitz. This is their 21st booking since Easter and their weekends are full until October. Even two years ago the 40s circuit was nothing like this. "There are two camps," says Chines. "The ones that want to dress up and enjoy the dancing …" "Promenaders we call them," says Bob. "Then there are the others who are trying to educate people. And there's a third little clump." Chines grins conspiratorially. "Men who just like boys' toys." There is nothing new about air shows or war games but the exponential growth of interest in the 40s extends way beyond the battlefield. You can see it in the proliferation of tea shops in which women dressed as land girls or WRAFs serve cakes on antique china, in the number of wartime designs sold on eBay and Etsy, or in the unprecedented demand for vintage clothing. The home front's make-do-and-mend spirit has helped feed the recent resurgence in handicrafts, cake making and allotment gardening, reflected in BBC hits such as The Great British Bake Off and Wartime Farm. And the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, originally designed by the Ministry of Information for use in the event of a national catastrophe, has infiltrated British life to an extent Hitler could only have dreamed of. Because the 40s scene has grown organically, nobody can quite explain why it has happened, although they all have theories. "It's a collective sense of pride," suggests Roe. "People like to know Britons in the past did something amazing together. They like to know it was possible. They were some of the best times our country had." Obviously, this reading is problematic. Every decade has its horrors – 70s nights tend to focus on disco and flares rather than Pol Pot and the PLO – but the 1940s were uniquely hideous, giving the world the Holocaust, Hiroshima and more than 60 million war dead. Are the enthusiasts romanticising it too much by equating it with only the cheerier aspects of Britain's wartime experience? And is it possible to detach benign collective pride from the belligerent patriotism of people who venerate the war for more reactionary reasons? "We all cherrypick the past but you have to be aware that you're cherrypicking," says Wartime Farm co-host Ruth Goodman, a historian and presenter who also studies the Tudors and Victorians. The 40s trend began with fashion. "There's always been an underground vintage movement," Angel Adoree tells me over the phone. An early adopter, she started by selling clothes, and then moved into events, design and styling. "It used to be people who lived and breathed it but it's mass market now. It can be slightly annoying, especially when it's done badly, but I've had to embrace it." Kathy Stafford, a home front re‑enactor who runs the 1940s Style for You stall, says that in the past few years the price at auction of desirable items such as women's shoes has tripled. Recently, she was outbid for some dresses by a group of teenage girls who wanted unusual prom-wear. "People want the real," she says. "They want a piece of history." Karen Poole sitting in her caravan museum surrounded by 1940s paraphernalia Karen Poole in her caravan museum. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian Inside a classic caravan that's been transformed into a mobile museum of the 40s, I meet Karen and Bob Poole. Everything in here is authentic, Karen says proudly, indicating a collection of tea sets, ration books, gas masks, bars of soap, faded boxes of washing powder, yellowed newspapers and several clocks drumming a manic rhythm. "I think people want to keep a piece of the past," she says. "Everything's computers now. People want to go back to basics." "They're fed up with technology," agrees Bob. "That's what they say when they come in here." That's clearly part of it. You can understand the emotional pull of historically resonant artefacts and handmade goods as an antidote to the intangibility of digital life. There is also the economic context. When times are hard, it can be appealing to consider a period when Britons managed with even less and were more self-reliant. "At re-enactments you lose all the modern trappings and interference," says Stafford. "And it does tip over into your real life. You become a lot more thrifty. God help me, I actually wear darned jumpers now." There are elements of the 40s scene, however, that should give anyone on the left pause for thought. Participants find moral virtue in austerity and valorise local community activity while paying little attention to such landmark achievements as the NHS, social housing and the welfare state. You wonder if it's another iteration of the passive comfort-blanket nostalgia that fuels the country's current love-in with the Windsors. Can 40s fetishism be anything other than politically regressive? Goodman thinks so. She points out that the second world war was a "brief, bright moment" of empowerment for young women, and thinks the interest in the lives of ordinary Britons, which seeps into the postwar period via the likes of Call the Midwife and David Kynaston's bestselling social histories, is a progressive development. "History in general is changing focus from being about celebrities to being about the rest of us. Heroes and guns have been celebrated a lot but the sort of people who plugged through for years on end tend not be talked about. I do think the resurgence in interest in the home front is semi-political. You have to show the breadth of experience." People in 1940s-style dress browse clothes rails Vintage clothing and collectables at the Festival of the Forties. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian At the Festival of the Forties, politics only rears its head in the shape of an long-running disagreement about whether there should be re-enactors on the German side. This year, the Wartime Weekend in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, turned away anyone arriving in black SS uniforms. "It's a very unhappy divide," says Stafford. "People are either perfectly OK with it or they bitterly resent it. We belong to the camp that says what the hell are you doing here when there are people who were POWs who will look at this uniform and quake?" I head over to the "battlefield" and approach Mo Mowbray, a former British soldier who has been a Wehrmacht re‑enactor for more than 20 years. Doesn't he find it strange playing the oppressor, with a swastika on his shirt? "You have to be careful," he says over "barbed wire" made from grey-painted string. "On at least two occasions a veteran has walked past and shouted and sworn at us. You can understand it. We're not here to upset anyone. Somebody has to be the bad guys. You won't find many people who do the political side – the black uniforms and that – because nobody will have them around. They're bad news." You could argue that a German presence is an uncomfortable but necessary reminder that it wasn't all Glenn Miller and nice hats. Nostalgia is selective and tends towards the positive, but sanitising the nastier elements of history can lead to dangerous sentimentality. "I do get a little bit cross with the rose‑tinting: 'it was the best time of our lives'," says Goodman. "I think it was pretty darn grim." "I think our parents would feel this was a bit of a charade," says Chines Stewart, watching two "promenaders" walk past. "My mum would say 'we'd never do that!' I can hear her saying it now. Kids today think world war two is a big computer game." "It's very difficult for people to understand how hard it really was," says Bob. "People were tearing themselves apart. There was a lot of pulling together, but there was also a lot of looting and robberies. It was played down by the government." When he wears the uniform of an Air Raid Precaution warden, with its armband reading Casualty Collection, most people assume the job involved collecting the wounded, but no. "They'd collect the bits up in potato sacks and try to match them up," he says, suddenly solemn. "Fingers. Heads. But you don't tell the children that." At this event alone, there is no single, consensus version of the 40s but rather several readings, sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting. It's impossible to assign one motive to the people who spend their weekends poring over the decade. The only thing everyone I speak to shares is an awareness that this period still has living witnesses whose individual memories prick holes in simplistic narratives, and they need to be heard. "People like me have a lot of emotion attached to vintage," says Adoree. "My favourite pastime is to sit and talk to an old person and give them tea but we're a different breed to the mass market. People who jumped on this bandwagon will jump on the next one and things will calm down a bit. Maybe that will be better." Goodman thinks the current 40s bubble will ultimately be beneficial, even at the trivialising Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake end of things. "It opens up a subject that might not otherwise be opened," she says. "You hope people get a chance to go beyond that and move into something a bit more meaningful." Back at the caravan museum, Bob and Karen Poole talk about older visitors who see the Mickey Mouse gas mask or smell the Lifebuoy soap and burst into tears as long-submerged memories rush to the surface. "We do it for the people who died and the people who survived," says Karen as the clocks tick on. "We do it so people don't forget." Daily Email close Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Sign up for the daily email * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3t2xt * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * del.icio.us * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Contact Life & Style editor lifeandstyle@ theguardian.com * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@theguardian.com * Letters for publication should be sent to: guardian.letters@theguardian.com * If you need help using the site: userhelp@theguardian.com * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Article history About this article Close this popup Austerity addicts: why is 1940s nostalgia all the rage? This article was published on the Guardian website at 17.32 BST on Tuesday 13 August 2013. A version appeared on p9 of the G2 section of the Guardian on Wednesday 14 August 2013. It was last modified at 03.21 BST on Thursday 22 May 2014. Life and style Fashion World news * Second world war More features * More on this story * Dambusters anniversary flypast Linnets for Lancasters - bid to turn Dambusters airfield into wildlife reserve Historic Woodhall Spa base in Lincolnshire, home to 617 Squadron after the Ruhr raids, currently a derelict sand and gravel quarry * The lapwing and their frequent companions take flight * Giant first world war gun on the move across southern England this week * Peter Jackson lines up Dambusters remake * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on theguardian.com because you don't have JavaScript enabled. Today's best video * Agony Aunt ep1 orgasm illustration I'm 58 and I've never had an orgasm Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry responds to a woman who is suffering from anorgasmia and doesn't want to resort to faking it * 140x84 trailpic for Why Bruce Cleveland 1978 album you should hear this week -video One album to hear this week Michael Hann recommends Bruce Springsteen's The Agora, Cleveland 1978, a widely bootlegged live album * 140x84 trailpic for The Guardian Film Show: Ex_Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year - video reviews The Guardian film show Our critics review Ex Machina, The Gambler, Mortdecai and A Most Violent Year * 140x84 trailpic for Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick Brick-by-brick - video Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick – brick-by-brick Animated reimagining of 1995 set-to with Crystal Palace fan Soulmates The Guardian's online dating site * heartintheclouds, 35 * Wotnot, 44 Meet someone worth meeting * I am a[Man__] * Seeking[Women______] * Aged[25] to [45] * In[United Kingdom______________________________] * Within[20 miles_] * Of ____________________ (BUTTON) Search On Life & style * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [Homeworkers-main-006.jpg] 1. Home truths: the secret lives of other people’s houses 2. 2. I had to accept I was gay at the age of 46 when I fell in love with a woman 3. 3. Five reasons to have children 4. 4. The rice man cometh: Yotam Ottolenghi’s pilaf recipes 5. 5. What I’m really thinking: the secret admirer 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [Barbara-Windsor-in-hot-wa-002.jpg] 1. The best luxury bath oils 2. 2. From Venus to Katie Price: A brief history of the breast 3. 3. Observer sudoku 4. 4. Competition: Win a Verenti bike from Wiggle! 5. 5. Observer killer sudoku 6. All today's stories Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Today in pictures * sports peronality 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – in pictures Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London * Martin Parr's M Video Christmas party photograph Dinner, dusk and dancing Russians: my best winter shot A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites … in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them * Kimon, a long-tailed monkey grooms a kitten, whom, she treats as her baby, Bintan Island, Indonesia Monkey adopts kitten – in pictures Kimon, an eight-year-old pet female long-tailed monkey, treats a kitten as her baby in Bintan Island, Indonesia * Key topics * Recipes * Nigel Slater recipes * Restaurants * How to cook the perfect ... * Fashion * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. * Share * Tweet this * * #Badass Digest RSS Feed * Alamo Drafthouse * Fantastic Fest * Mondo * Drafthouse Films * Forever Young Adult * * [badassdigest_logo_194.png] [ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=123] Talking about all the things movie lovers love. Main Menu Skip to content * Features + The Badasscast + The Badass Broadcast + The Badass Hall of Fame + The Badass Interview + Borders Line + Collins' Crypt + The Devin's Advocate + Film Crit Hulk Smash + Holy Hunter Of Music Videos + Our Daily Trailer + Reelizer Presents + Sam Strange Remembers + Schlock Corridor + TV Talk + TV Timewarp + Vault of Secrets + Video Hate Squad * Reviews + Books + Comic Books + Games + Home Videos + Movies + Music + TV + Video Games * Filmmaking Frenzy + Trans-Human + Intergalactic Fantastic + Don't Talk or Text + Time Travel Is Fantastic + Commander-in-Chief ____________________ Search [badassdigest_logo_194.png] * Cool * Nerd * News * Reviews * Stuff * Travel * Tweet * * * * [floating_box_stt.png] The Devin's Advocate: Devin has opinions. See More... Published June 24, 2014 by Devin Faraci The Nostalgia Will Eat Itself How our world of constant nostalgia is devaluing the very concept of nostalgia. The Nostalgia Will Eat Itself Nostalgia, in the right doses, can be a joy. Proust totally understood that when, in Swann's Way, he wrote about taking a bite of a madeleine that had been soaking in his tea and being transported back to his childhood: And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea. Walking streets we knew as children, hearing a song that recalls a specific time and place, seeing a movie that imprinted itself on us when we were young - these are powerful things. In small doses. And privately. We are drowning in nostalgia today, and every time I think it can’t get any worse the movie geek internet convulses with oral histories and lists to commemorate the anniversary of yet another mediocre film from 10, 15, 20 years ago. And through it all the same properties keep rearing their ugly, boring heads, properties that weren’t good in the first place and whose continued popularity seems to be largely due to audiences having a Pavlovian reaction to what they used to like. Look at how many adults are legitimately invested in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie to get a sense of this. Nostalgia, when over-indulged, really sucks, but it sucks these days in two very particular ways. First, nostalgia is a conversation killer. When you like a work of art for nostalgic reasons - you saw it as a kid, your sick dad showed it to you before he died, it evokes memories of a magical time in your life - you’re not actually talking about that art anymore. You’ve left the art behind, just as Proust has left the madeleine behind. That quote makes for a shitty review of a cake, but it makes for a good discussion of the writer's childhood, and that’s what you’re doing. You’ve taken the conversation away from the art and made it squarely about you. The big truth here is that nobody cares. Nobody cares what age you were when you first saw The Goonies, they want to talk to you about why it’s good or bad. And when your appreciation for a work of art is tied almost exclusively into your personal experience, any attack on that art becomes an attack on you, which is also a conversation killer. If I say here that The Goonies is a horrible piece of shit movie, I guarantee there will be people who get their feathers ruffled and feel like this is a personal attack because their nostalgia has internalized the movie to an unhealthy extent. This doesn’t mean everything you liked as a kid is unworthy, although I imagine an awful lot of it is. If there’s something you liked as a kid that you still like today and you can articulate why you still like that thing in ways that go beyond “I saw it when I was eight,” that’s a sure sign you’re operating on a higher level. A level on which you want to be operating, one where you’re actually thinking about the stuff you consume, and one that allows you to actually have conversations with people about art. I grew up loving the Planet of the Apes movies, and I still do, and I think I can make a pretty convincing argument why these films are great - arguments that extend beyond the circumstances in which I first saw them, at the very least. There’s a second, and more insidious, way that nostalgia sucks. It’s a very modern way of sucking, and it’s a kind of sucking that the internet has perfected - overkill. The sheer amount of nostalgia in which we traffic has absolutely devalued nostalgia in general. Let’s put it this way - if Proust was chowing down on those madeleines every single day, all day long, their evocative power would fade. The connection between that sensory experience and his childhood would become diluted by repetition; eventually they would just become some pretty good madeleines he’s eating a bunch. That’s what the constant nostalgia cycle is doing for us online. I write this at the tail end of the 25th anniversary of the release of Tim Burton’s Batman, and I’m shocked by all the nostalgia I see for the movie. Not just because the film is pretty mediocre and largely interesting as a historical oddity, but because the film feels fucking omnipresent to me. Nostalgia works best when it’s a rare, when the feeling is bringing back memories and emotions that aren’t always at the forefront. A guy who never moves out of his childhood home has a very different response to walking in that front door than a guy who left home at 18 and hasn’t been back in 20 years. We’ve never left the home of Tim Burton’s Batman, so I don’t understand how we’re able to wax nostalgic about it. So many of the things we celebrate in this geek culture we celebrate constantly; I don’t understand how someone can be nostalgic for Star Wars if Star Wars never goes away. I mean, I guess I can, because we already established that reacting nostalgically to a work of art has little to do with the art itself and everything to do with your personal history, but at a certain point living with that constant nostalgia has to become nothing more than dwelling in the past. It feels fundamentally unhealthy. Our obsession with nostalgia and anniversaries and living in the past hasn’t gone unnoticed. We all complain about reboot/remake culture, but it’s a direct reaction to the endlessly simmering nostalgia. We bring it on ourselves. Proust was writing almost exactly a hundred years ago, so modern audiences didn’t invent nostalgia, but we have perfected it. The Baby Boomers really honed nostalgia, fixating on Howdy Doody and the TV shows of their childhood. My generation, Generation X, hung on to all sorts of 70s bullshit in an irritatingly ironic way. And the Millennials have truly upped the ante, living in an almost constant state of nostalgia, often for things that happened less than a decade ago. Heck, I’m getting nostalgic for all those “Things Only A 90s Kid Will Understand” articles that dominated Buzzfeed two years ago. Last week I saw a Huffington Post headline that crowed about how a Harry Potter cast reunion photo would make your heart leap. The last Harry Potter film came out three years ago - this reunion isn't exactly a long time coming. This gives you a sense of how much nostalgia is catching up with us. Done right, done sparingly, nostalgia is a wonder. There’s an endorphin rush that happens when you see a trading card or a TV commercial that you haven’t thought about in decades, a thrilling firing of the synapses as your brain dusts off old memories and begins reconnecting dots you forgot were even there. Events and people come rushing back, and you feel like you have jumped over canyons of years to return to a place long gone, like you’ve been granted a brief view of the machinery of the world. Everything has a sudden and bracing perspective. Proust said: An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory--this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. “It was myself.” Nostalgia, done right, is an understanding of the self, a way of communing with the totality of your experience. You can’t carry all of that with you all the time - your brain would buckle under the burden - but short nostalgic leaps allow you to realize the wholeness of you. You can see, for a moment, the entire path you’ve walked. You get God’s perspective on time. But as with any drug that high gets harder to reach with each repetition. What does the 25th anniversary of the release of Back to the Future III really mean if you’re constantly talking about and writing about and buying mash-up t-shirts of that movie? You wear away the specialness, and it’s not about getting high anymore, it’s about getting a fix. I don’t begrudge anyone their nostalgia, just as I don’t begrudge anyone their fetishes. But like fetishes, nostalgia works best when it’s personal, when it’s private and when it’s practiced with those who you love and trust. I feel the same way when you tell me you like to spooge on feet as I do when you tell me why seeing Return of the Jedi in your local theater at age 7 was such a seminal event - good for you, please keep it to yourself. Categories: NerdThe Devin's Advocate Tags: Back to the Future IIIBatmanNostalgiaStar Wars Devin Faraci's photo About the Author: A ten year veteran of writing for the web, Devin has built a reputation as a loud, uncompromising and honest voice – sometimes to the chagrin of his readers, but usually to their delight. t [ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=123] Featured Book [i-should-just-not.jpg] The Magazine [bmd-jan-2015.jpg] Popular You Should Be Able To Recognize Oscar Isaac As X-MEN: APOCALYPSE’s Apocalypse You Should Be Able To Recognize Oscar Isaac As X-MEN: APOCALYPSE’s Apocalypse This Might Be The Greatest TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE Poster Ever This Might Be The Greatest TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE Poster Ever Advertisement ZergNet Facebook Recommendations [ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=123] Related Badass New Batman Stage Show (Yes) Reminds Us Of The Aborted Batman Musical New Batman Stage Show (Yes) Reminds Us Of The Aborted Batman Musical Happy STAR WARS Day! Happy STAR WARS Day! “Rrrmph Emphrhgh Drhtghfml” Says Bane In New THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer “Rrrmph Emphrhgh Drhtghfml” Says Bane In New THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer New DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer Phones It In New DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer Phones It In Why Reports Of Yavin 4 In STAR WARS VII May Be Greatly Exaggerated Why Reports Of Yavin 4 In STAR WARS VII May Be Greatly Exaggerated Comments Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.blog comments powered by Disqus [ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=123] [footer_logo2012.png] Talking about all the things movie lovers love. Categories * Cool * Nerd * News * Reviews * Stuff Reviews * Books * Comic Books * Games * Movies * Music * TV * Video Games BAD * About BAD * Advertise * Submit News * Report Problems * Heavy Metal Elsewhere * Facebook * Google+ * Twitter * YouTube ©2014 Badass Digest. All rights reserved. The opinions on this site belong to the authors and do not reflect the views of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. Site design by R.E. Tinch. Quantcast #InVisible Culture » Feed InVisible Culture » Comments Feed InVisible Culture » Mourning Becomes the Mad Men: Notes on Nostalgia Comments Feed Serializing the Past: Re-Evaluating History in Mad Men “So Much Woman”: Female Objectification, Narrative Complexity, and Feminist Temporality in AMC’s Mad Men Skip to content * about * contact * contribute * journal archive * reviews * blog Type and enter ...__ Search InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture (IVC) is a student run interdisciplinary journal published online twice a year in an open access format. Through peer reviewed articles, creative works, and reviews of books, films, and exhibitions, our issues explore changing themes in visual culture. Fostering a global and current dialog across fields, IVC investigates the power and limits of vision. Articles in this Issue The Right to Look How We Think Touching Photographs The Affect Theory Reader Introduction / Through the Looking Glass, and What We Found There: Ourselves “So Much Woman”: Female Objectification, Narrative Complexity, and Feminist Temporality in AMC’s Mad Men Serializing the Past: Re-Evaluating History in Mad Men Analyzing Mad Men: An Interview with Scott F. Stoddart Conclusion / “Made me think of you”: Borrowing Books from Don Draper’s Library Contributors / Issue 17 Tweets by @IVCjournal Mourning Becomes the Mad Men: Notes on Nostalgia Issue 17 Aviva Dove-Viebahn Modern nostalgia is a mourning for the impossibility of mythical return, for the loss of an enchanted world with clear borders and values; it could be a secular expression of a spiritual longing, a nostalgia for an absolute, a home that is both physical and spiritual, the edenic unity of time and space before entry into history. ~ Svetlana Boym^1 I. “Don Draper’s Guide to Picking Up Women,” a 2008 Saturday Night Live skit featuring Jon Hamm, who plays Don on AMC’s critically acclaimed television show Mad Men (2007-present), succinctly identifies both the satisfaction and the absurdity of the series and its nostalgic appeal. In this satire, Don explains those who wish to emulate his success with women (as defined by quantity not quality of relationships) need only follow a few “simple” steps, the last of which articulates what is simultaneously seductive and disconcerting about the show’s unabashed nostalgia for the 1960s and Draper’s inexplicably charming misogyny: Finally, step four: look fantastic in a suit, look fantastic in casual wear, look fantastic in everything, sound good, smell good, kiss good, strut around with supreme confidence, be uncannily successful at your job, blow people away every time you say anything, take six-hour lunches, disappear for weeks at a time, lie to everyone about everything, and drink and smoke constantly. Basically, be Don Draper.^2 While step four begins with markers of the standard fantasy presented to us by television—characters “look fantastic in everything,” are often “uncannily successful at [their] job[s],” and win us over with their wit—his list meanders off-course, presenting some undesirable behaviors most of us would not wish in a romantic partner (disappearing, lying, drinking and smoking). These latter traits evince a stark divergence in Mad Men’s particular brand of nostalgia; it acknowledges that sometimes we want to indulge in bad behavior (and in bad history) and that one of the functions of television, generally, and the show, specifically, is to allow us to do so—at least by proxy. A significant lure of “be[ing] Don Draper” is being able to misbehave and get away with it. Fig. 1: “Lie to Everyone About Everything.” Photo Credit: © 2008 Carin Baer/AMC It’s in this fantasy of misbehavior—the desire to be bad and still be loved—that much of the draw of Mad Men’s first season, in particular, lies. Later seasons temper Don’s roguishness somewhat, but he and other characters still frequently make ill-informed, if not brazenly stupid, decisions and somehow come out on top. Not to mention that the show basks in an era notable for its disavowal of authority, the 1960s, chronicling the lives of people (Manhattan ad executives) who thrive on anticipating social trends. Notably, advertisers rely on consumers’ desire to belong while convincing them that they’re unique, that their product choices help define their singularity and their normality. That the characters of Mad Menaim to perpetuate this myth of mass consumer consciousness overlaid by a façade of individual sovereignty is patently obvious; however, whether or not the “mad men” themselves buy into their own mythology remains unclear. At times, even Don, by far the most introspective character on the show, remains blissfully oblivious to the machinations around him, to his own failures as a colleague, boss, husband, lover, and father, and to the challenges to his authority. Other times, he has moments of self-awareness, moments when he seems to realize his own tenuous power, his fallibility or the problematic nature of his self-fashioned isolation. In these moments, Don’s regret is palpable, and yet he is helpless to change his past, present or future. As a character, Don Draper symbolizes both the darkest fantasy of individualism, that we have absolute agency over our decisions and their outcomes, and the deep-seated fear of a consumer society, that there are no true choices left to be made. II. To say that Mad Men exhibits some ambivalence toward Don Draper as a character anyone might admire or emulate would be an understatement. So, too, the show’s sense of nostalgia evinces a continual tension between longing and disavowal. The series represents its era, setting and cast of characters as simultaneously alluring and repellent. In this essay, I explore two aspects of the show’s nostalgic appeal; in both cases, the pleasures of Mad Men’snostalgia are such that the show both indulges and repudiates its viewers’ desire(s). First of all, it presents a fiction of the 1960s that renders some of its most abhorrent elements at the very least fascinating, if not downright appealing, from sanctioned workplace misogyny and widespread philandering to rampant smoking, alcoholism and consumerism. Mad Men asks, “Wasn’t it beautiful?” while flaunting the era as past; here fiction and history merge to offer a joint disavowal: you can’t go home again, but would you really want to? Secondly, the show presents us with a prickly protagonist; despite his success, Don does not quite fit in with his coworkers. More overtly charming and confident than his coworkers, he is also the most damaged character and, as a protagonist, does not offer much of a foothold for potential viewer identification. While he is innovative as a creative director, Don’s personal life is stuck in the past. He is constantly bogged down by his troubled upbringing, war-time secrets, and memories of his once-happy marriage.Therefore, he is unable to fully assimilate into the rapidly changing present. Mad Men articulates not only viewers’ potential nostalgia (for being part of an era of hope and radical change), but also Don’s yearning for an identity that has always been a fiction. It is through Don that these desires merge and Mad Men plays out the dangers of living in the past, but it also marks viewers as helpless against its nostalgic appeal. Don’s explicit longing and whatever yearnings the show might attempt to cultivate in its viewers speak to the heart of nostalgia’s etymology: from medical condition and psychoanalytic trope to a sentiment exploited by advertisers and a lure of mass media. Originally considered a disease, nostalgia was first diagnosed by Johannes Hofer in 1688 as an extreme form of homesickness he noted in his observations of Swiss soldiers.^3 In its three-hundred-plus year evolution, nostalgia has shifted from medical conundrum to socially-accepted sentimentality. As Svetlana Boym elaborates, “Nostalgia (from nostos—return to home, and algia—longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but it is also a romance with one’s own fantasy. […] A cinematic image of nostalgia is a double exposure, or a superimposition of two images—of home and abroad, past and present, dream and everyday life.”^4 This description of nostalgia as a double exposure, past and present juxtaposed in a wild romantic dream, speaks to the heart of Mad Men’s wistful historical fiction. And we must not forget the place of loss in the nostalgic imaginary; without loss, we have no longing, and without longing, we cannot seek pleasure in the fantasy of a past in which we never took part or only half-remember. This pleasure, often found in nostalgic daydreams, separates nostalgia from its cousin, mourning. Together, mourning and nostalgia often merge in our thoughts of loves found and lost and cherished memories half-forgotten, but they are nevertheless separate emotional responses.^5 While mourning constitutes a typical reaction to the loss of a loved one, place or object (or, in some cases, even the loss of an idea: a fantasy never to be realized, a dream unmoored), nostalgia frames that sense of loss and imbues it with the richness of desire. III. Sometimes dwelling in nostalgia can be better than the actual lived moment. In the final episode of Mad Men’s first season (“The Wheel”), three notable plotlines intersect, converging at Don’s irreclaimable past. First, he finds out his estranged brother has committed suicide; this recalls Don’s true past, as the destitute and mistreated Dick Whitman, a past he would just as soon forget. The real Don Draper died during World War II and Dick, a foot soldier under his command, stole his identity. Secondly, Don’s wife Betty laments having to take the children to her parents for Thanksgiving without her husband, who ostensibly has to work. In part because of his frequent absences from family events, she begins to suspect at least some of Don’s many infidelities, among other betrayals.^6 In fits and starts, their marriage begins to unravel (it takes two more seasons for it to fully dissolve). Thirdly, the ad team at Sterling Cooper struggle to come up with a campaign for Kodak’s new slide carousel (which the company at first dully dubs “the wheel”). Fig. 2: “Longing for a home that no longer exists.” Photo Credit: Carin Baer/AMC These three narratives come together through Don’s pitch to Kodak when he, in a burst of melancholy inspiration, arrives at the perfect narrative for their ad campaign. Setting up the slide projector in the room with the Kodak executives, Don fills the carousel not with stock images but with deeply personal family photos: Betty and the children playing in the park, Don napping on the couch with their daughter while their son plays in the background, Don and Betty kissing, etc. While he flips slowly through these intimate moments from his family’s history, his pitch resonates with a yearning far more complex and private than his co-workers or the people from Kodak could possibly understand. For viewers of the show who know and understand his history, Don’s words expose not only a desire for the perfect marriage reflected (but always already a fiction) in his photos, but also a longing for an identity that’s truly his: Nostalgia—it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, “nostalgia” literally means “the pain from an old wound.” It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship; it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel; it’s called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels—around and around and back home again, to a place where we know are loved. What does it mean that Don mistranslates nostalgia as a sort of remembered pain, a scar not quite healed in mind or body? The desire implicit to contemporary (and commercial) uses of nostalgia are not reflected by the phrase “pain from an old wound,” nor does it quite correspond with Don’s verbal imagery: a time machine, an ache, a carousel, a child’s journey round and round, a “place where we know we are loved.” Don’s supposed literal translation aligns nostalgia more closely with mourning than with fantasy or desire, as do his photographs. Here is his beautiful marriage, his family, his home, his wife, his children—captured only in the static memory of photographs that cannot really hold them and figuratively dissolving in front of his eyes. His old life as Dick Whitman is a life Don doesn’t want to remember, and yet his brother’s suicide resonates all the more sharply because of Don’s prior disavowal of his half-forgotten sibling. His present life as Don Draper is becoming past so rapidly that he cannot catch up—especially with Kodak’s carousel which only takes him “around and around and back home again.” The episode’s denouement, then, is all the more fitting as a double ending in which desire abuts reality. Don arrives home and catches Betty and the children as they’re about to head out the door; just in time, he is able to accompany them to Betty’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Then, the scene repeats: Don arrives home and his family is already gone, the first arrival only a fantasy of his return. In this scene, Don’s nostalgia, on such stark display during the Kodak pitch, works forward instead of backwards, projecting an impossible vision of familial forgiveness into a future that will never be realized. Fig. 3: “Pain From an Old Wound” – See Kodak Carousel Slide Show. Photo Credit: © 2008 Carin Baer/AMC IV. Don’s “old wound”—his abandoned identity, his no longer happy marriage—manifests itself as a desire to be part of a family, by reliving the past and/or changing the future. Don, Betty tells her therapist, “doesn’t know what family is; he doesn’t even have one.” He lacks an identity in that he has a stolen one; he is no longer Dick Whitman nor can he ever truly be Don Draper, at least not to himself. Likewise, his inability to remain faithful to Betty, or any woman, suggests his inability to accept the fantasy of a perfect family, past, present or future, no matter how much he longs for it. As a character, Don is fundamentally broken, but it’s because of his fractured identity that he is able to reach consumers so effectively. After all, isn’t one of the fundamental ideas of advertising to make consumers yearn for something they weren’t missing in the first place and then offer them the product, that misplaced puzzle piece that will resolve their ideal image of themselves? Don’s ability to channel his loss into creative acumen manifests this loss as productive, instructive and profound; he understands better than anyone the appeal of Kodak’s carousel: an endless repetition of visible memories taking him backwards and forwards. Tellingly, in the final episode of the third season, the conclusive end of Betty and Don’s marriage intersects with Don’s defection from Sterling Cooper. Conspiring with some of his co-workers to create a new agency, Don attempts to convince secretary-turned-rising-star-copywriter Peggy Olson to join them by appealing to their mutual sense of loss: “There are people out there who buy things. People like you and me. Then something happened. Something terrible. And the way that they saw themselves is gone. And nobody understands that. But you do. And that’s very valuable.” To Don, loss and nostalgia are powerful tools of the advertising trade, lending both him and Peggy a special aptitude to seek out and manipulate consumers’ hopes and dreams. Throughout the series, Don frequently compares himself to Peggy in both obvious and unspoken ways, and it’s notable that she is one of the few women in the company whom he doesn’t attempt to seduce. However, Don and Peggy deal with their respective losses, the destruction and reconstruction of their identities, in different ways. Don is nostalgic; Peggy is expectant. Don regresses: he wallows in his past, continually trying to revive his previous prowess as both a lover and a brilliant ad man. Peggy progresses: she rejects her past (as daughter of a working-class family in Brooklyn, as a naïve secretary, as mother to an illegitimate and unwanted child) and imagines a future in which she is exactly who she wants to be. Don’s mourning for a lost selfhood and attempts to reclaim his virility reflect a popular, if overly melodramatic, narrative of the 1960s as an era of upheaval during which defiant rebels loosened the stranglehold of a traditionalist status quo. Don, still mired in 1950s notions of masculinity and the male privilege, sovereignty and dominance it implied, struggles to overcome “the loss of [this] enchanted world with clear borders and values.”^7 Through Peggy, Don may see a possibility for looking forward and not back, but it is one he is not able to fully adopt for himself. Peggy’s refusal to follow traditional feminine inclinations—motherhood, marriage, domesticity—predicates her willingness to sidestep the status quo and make her own future in spite of her past. Fig. 4: “People Like You and Me.” Photo Credit: Michael Yarish/AMC V. What of the viewer’s nostalgia, then? Does Mad Men’s success and the flurry of recent attempts to capitalize on 1960s retro chic (e.g. Banana Republic’s Mad Men clothing line and Barbie’s collectible Mad Men dolls, as well as NBC’s recently-cancelled The Playboy Club and ABC’s moderately-more-successful Pan Am) speak to a desire, or a perceived desire, for seductive fictions of our collective past? Mad Men offers at least two paths towards this nostalgic imaginary. Embodied by Peggy, the first frames the viewer’s potential nostalgia as a pleasurable performance of historical fiction. This perspective renders the era’s charm—the fashion, the glamour, the blissful ignorance of the dangers of tobacco and alcohol, the burgeoning potential for radical change at home, at work and in the government—as alluring. Its foibles—misogyny, racism, homophobia, cutthroat consumerism, political upheavals—we can consequently read as regrettable peculiarities of a now-uninhabitable past, not forgotten, but overcome. A highly-flawed fantasy, but a tempting one, it puts aside the most glaring questions. Have we actually overcome the civil rights issues of the 1960s? Have we tamped down on our rampant consumerism or alleviated our political turmoil? The second nostalgic model, following Don’s lead, is more honest and less appealing, but equally captivating. From the first to the (most recent) fourth season, Don’s deterioration of character evinces a stern refusal on the part of the show to allow viewers to easily identify with him. He is a rakish bad boy, a charming philanderer, a brilliant innovator, a snake oil salesman, a loving father, a careless husband, a pitiable outcast and a pathetic fool. His past isn’t pretty and neither is ours, but while nostalgia may lead Don astray, his loss is our gain. His mournful performance of lost identity echoes a sentiment many viewers feel when watching (fictional) others make mistakes: a deep sense of schadenfreudejuxtaposed with the mitigated desire to behave badly ourselves. Don struggles with his impossible desire to shut out the world and live in the past and his compulsion to repeat the site(s) of his loss into the future and beyond.^8 The past holds enormous sway; it can, according to Roland Barthes, “fulfill and lacerate.” In A Lover’s Discourse, Barthes goes on to ruminate on the power of memory: “The imperfect is the tense of fascination: it seems to be alive and yet it doesn’t move: imperfect presence, imperfect death; neither oblivion nor resurrection; simply the exhausting lure of memory. […] I remember in order to be unhappy/happy—not in order to understand.”^9 This idea—that memory cannot change the past, present or future, that it cannot lead to deeper understanding and that it only leads to sentiment (feelings of loss or pleasure or both)—speaks to the heart of both Don Draper’s and Mad Men’s appeal. The series does not give viewers a deeper understanding of the 1960s, of ad executives, or of charming philaderers like Don. Understanding might require acceptance. Instead, Mad Men offers us nostalgia as a lure. The show basks in the past, reveling in both its triumphs and its failures. As viewers, not part of the show’s fictions or its history, we can indulge in the fantasy of someone else’s memory. While Don twists in Kodak’s carousel with the relics of his misdeeds, we are free, like children who do not yet have his painful past to remember, to spin “around and around and back home again.” 1. The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 8. ↩ 2. From Season 34, episode 6 (aired October 25, 2008). Accessed on hulu.com, December 5, 2011, http://www.hulu.com/watch/40972/saturday-night-live-don-drapers-gui de. ↩ 3. “Medical Dissertation on Nostalgia” (1688), translated by Carolyn K. Anspach, Bulletin of the History of Medicine2 (1934): 376-391. ↩ 4. The Future of Nostalgia, xiii-xiv. ↩ 5. Mourning as a normal result of loss is discussed in more detail in Sigmund Freud’s seminal work “Mourning and Melancholia” and in the countless psychoanlytic and critical texts which reference it. In The Freud Reader, edited by Peter Gay, 584-589 (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1989). ↩ 6. For example, Betty also discovers that her psychoanalyst has been reporting back to Don about all of their sessions. ↩ 7. Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 8. ↩ 8. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud articulates this struggle to derive pleasure from the repetition of a traumatic loss through the well-known example of fort-da (“there-here”), a game played by Freud’s grandson who repeats his mother’s departure and return by continually throwing a reel on a string away from him and then pulling it back.. In Freud’s estimation, the boy envisions the reel as his mother, and can therefore enact his agency over her when he sends it/her away from him, marking her absence and return not as an uncertain or random event but as one in which he is an active participant. By mimicking the departure again and again, his mother’s absence becomes just one of many. The compulsion to repeat and the boy’s imagined agency are both central to an underlying analysis of a psychoanalytic concept of therapeutic working through (trauma or loss). Beyond the Pleasure Principle, translated and edited by James Strachey (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961), 15. ↩ 9. Barthes refers here to the French imperfect tense (imparfait ), which indicates an incomplete, continuous or repeated action in the past. A Lover’s Discourse, trans. Richard Howard(New York: Hill and Wang, 1978), 217. ↩ One Response to "Mourning Becomes the Mad Men: Notes on Nostalgia" April 17, 2013 at 3:24 PM Rosie / Reply [” The real Don Draper died during World War II and Dick, a foot soldier under his command, stole his identity.”] The real Don Draper died in Korea, not World War II. Leave a comment / Cancel reply Name (required) ______________________________ Email (will not be published) (required) ______________________________ Website ______________________________ Message (required) _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Submit comment Top of Page * /about * /contact * /contribute * /journal archive * /reviews * /blog © 1998-2014 InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, ISSN 1097-3710 Designed in WordPress by Apollo13 and The Press Villains #RSS Feed alternate publisher next * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> Entertainment '80s Nostalgia Goes on Tour June 22, 2004 By Bruno del Granado Summer's almost here and the time is right for … catching your favorite musician on the road. With the continuing uncertainty in the music business brought upon by illegal file-sharing and sales declines, recording artists are focusing their efforts on the one revenue source they can count on — touring. Even though the record business is in trouble, the business of music is experiencing an explosive growth, thanks in part to the concert business. Concert ticket sales revenues in North America have been on the upswing for the past four years, with 2003 revenues jumping 20 percent to $2.5 billion, according to industry watchers, and there are signs that 2004 could be an even bigger year. Last year, veteran rockers and country acts were the "hot tickets." Figures from Billboard and Pollstar show the Rolling Stones grossed $299,520,230 from 113 shows, Bruce Springsteen's tour netted $221 million from 121 shows, and the Dixie Chicks set a record for first-day sales with 790,000 tickets sold on March 1, 2003. The list of acts hitting the road this summer is extensive and it includes artists as diverse as Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews, Rush, Jessica Simpson, Bette Midler, Jimmy Buffett, No Doubt/Blink-182 and Linkin Park. Perennial favorites Lollapalooza, Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest and the Warped Tour promise to give the fans a real "bang for the buck" with strong artist lineups. Undoubtedly, the hottest tickets are for those 1980s favorites who are now hitting the tour circuit to reassert their importance in the pantheon of pop culture. Call it nostalgia for the decade of excess, or a yearning for a time when MTV's programming consisted of nonstop videos by artists such as Haircut 100, Adam Ant, Duran Duran and a young lass from Detroit who desired to "conquer the world." Fast-forward 20 years and Madonna — the Material Girl-turned-mom — is embarking on what will certainly become the year's top-grossing tour, while fellow '80s mega-superstar Prince has rewritten the book on what constitutes the perfect comeback with his critically acclaimed, sold-out U.S. tour. Yes, 2004 is already being dubbed the "Totally '80s — The Retro's So Bright I Have to Wear Shades" year. Are you surprised? Didn't you see the signs? VH1 scoring huge ratings with its I Love the '80s series, a Broadway musical based on Boy George's life, and Jennifer Lopez channeling Jennifer Beals' Flashdance splash in a video — all were dead giveaways that we are headed back to the future. If you came of age during the awesome '80s or merely wish to experience an era when greed was good, you're in luck this summer. Madonna's "Reinvention" tour kicked off May 24 in Los Angeles and will run through Aug. 2 before she heads on to Europe. The tour will focus on her classic material with the set list consisting of her older repertoire — something that the fans were left craving for during 2001's "Drowned World Tour." With top-tier tickets priced at $300, the "Reinvention" tour will easily surpass the $74 million that her last tour grossed. Meanwhile, Prince's "Musicology" tour is the "must-see" concert with everyone from the critics to the fans hailing it as a true religious experience. If you long to hear "Purple Rain" live and in the round, His Purple Majesty will be crisscrossing the United States through September. As an added bonus, all ticket holders receive a copy of his new CD Musicology as a take-home souvenir. Page * 1 * | * 2 View Single Page Related Topics: Van Halen, Pixies, Coachella Festival 2014, Lollapalooza 2014, Rick Springfield, Dixie Chicks, MTV, Rolling Stones, Pat Benatar, Marilyn Manson Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: View: Remarkable Images of the World’s Oldest Trees International See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast #RSS Feed alternate publisher * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> Entertainment Bring on the Nostalgia With 'Dumb and Dumber To' Trailer June 11, 2014 By DAN GOOD Dan Good More from Dan » Digital Editor/Reporter Follow @DGood73 via Good Morning America VIDEO: Dumb and Dumber To movie trailer. VIDEO: Dumb and Dumber To movie trailer. ABCNews.com Share
Wor ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Copy After 20 years of rumors, skepticism and hope, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne are returning to the silver screen. The trailer for "Dumb and Dumber To" -- yes, To, not Two -- aired on Tuesday's episode of "The Tonight Show," the public's first extended look at the long-awaited sequel to the 1994 original. The trailer opens with Lloyd (Jim Carrey) sporting a “Castaway” beard, still mourning his missed opportunity with Mary from the original movie. Harry (Jeff Daniels) is back, providing a new dose of slapstick comedy. The trailer features bits of nostalgia: They have the same apartment! And aptly-named animals, too. "Dumb and Dumber To" is scheduled for release on Nov. 14. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 24083393. * '90s Stars: Back and Bigger Than Ever * Jeff Daniels Discusses 'Dumb and Dumber' Sequel * Jim Carrey Pens Children's Book 'How Roland Rolls' * Jeff Daniels Dishes On New Show 'The Newsroom' More Video » Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: View: Remarkable Images of the World’s Oldest Trees International See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast #RSS Feed alternate publisher next * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> Money Wishing for the Boom Boom '90s Oct. 31 By Catherine Valenti Wendy Wallis looks back on the 1990s as a time when she didn't need to give a second thought to the cost of things like dinner out with friends. An independent software consultant for 20 years, Wallis says her company had more work than it could handle during the boom years of the '90s. But 18 months ago, she was forced to abandon her career path — and her comfortable six-figure salary — when the work dried up. Now, the 49-year-old from Walnut Creek, Calif., is working as a mortgage broker and selling off possessions to maintain a cash flow. "It's an incredible place to be when you're used to going out to dinner every night and you haven't been out to dinner in three months," Wallis says. But more troubling to Wallis is the lack of innovation she sees going on in the technology world because many of the major players have had to cut research and development budgets. And like Wallis, many of her friends and former colleagues who worked in technology in northern California have been forced to look for work in other industries. "They're missing the drive of changing things and moving things around and making a difference, all the way to 'Will we be able to afford the same lifestyle again?'" she told ABCNEWS.com. Such nostalgic feelings for a time period that ended not so long ago might seem unusual. But experts point to the dramatic changes in many peoples' financial situations and increased anxiety levels since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the recent sniper shootings. They say the good old days — for some people — weren't all that long ago. "Normally it would be odd to start getting nostalgic on a cycle of four years rather than a cycle of 10 or 20," says Robert Thompson, director of Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "But it's not unusual given that we've had some cataclysmic and fundamental changes going on." Return of the Sock Puppet Pop culture watchers say nostalgia for 1990s pop culture will probably not emerge for years to come, simply because many television shows, songs and movies that were popular late in the decade are still hot now. "You're only going to get that charge off of the things that we aren't even aware that we've forgotten," says Tim Burke, a cultural historian and history professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa. But looking back on 1990s cultural icons is already starting to show up in the media. For example, the infamous sock puppet that was once the pitchman for Pets.com (a company that spent a reported $2 million on a 30-second Super Bowl commercial spot in 2000) is now the "pitchman" for 1-800-BAR-NONE, a company that provides car loans to people with bad credit. And a recent magazine advertisement by Phoenix Wealth Management shows a group of four young, hip-looking 20-something men wearing open-necked shirts that would not look out of place at the latest nightclub opening, with the caption "Company founders, circa 1997." Seated in front of the these young entrepreneurs is an older, graying, distinguished-looking man in a light blue button-down shirt and conservative yellow tie, described as the "Company whiz kid, circa 2002." The tagline for the ad: "Money. It's just not what it used to be." A spokeswoman for Phoenix says the ad is meant to convey the message that traditional ideas on who has money has changed and that people from a wide range of backgrounds can be considered high net worth individuals. Page * 1 * | * 2 View Single Page Related Topics: New Year's 2015, Middle Class, Korean War, Berlin Wall, Depression, Terrorism, Enron Corporation Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Nations Top 10 B&Bs View: Nation's Top 10 B&Bs Travel See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast #RSS Feed alternate publisher * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> Lifestyle Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test Sep 24, 2014, 12:14 PM ET By LIZ RAFTERY via Good Morning America PHOTO: Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test The author gorged on unlimited salad and breadsticks as well as linguini alfredo with chicken fritta. Liz Raftery Ever since I shelled out a hundred bucks for Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Pass (arguably a misnomer, since the promotion does, in fact, end after seven weeks), I’ve been planning my eating strategy with the meticulousness of a wartime general. I had calculated that I would have to go to Olive Garden at least 10 times in that time period, as each pasta bowl is regularly priced at $9.99 plus tax and tip, to make the purchase worth my while. Challenge accepted. Operation OG begins for me on Tuesday, Sept. 23, the second night of the promotion, with three girlfriends in tow. My goal for this first visit is simple: to come out of the restaurant paying as little as ethically possible to see just how good a deal this is. Approaching the host station, I request a table for four and announce triumphantly that I am a Pasta Pass Holder (PPH), thrusting my envelope at the hostess with enough gusto that it could have been a winning lottery ticket. She seems unimpressed. Our waiter, by contrast, is thrilled to tell me that I am his first PPH. He goes on to (mis)inform us that the Pasta Pass is actually good for pasta bowls for up to seven people. I know this is not the case, because I have carefully read the instructions on my Pasta Pass repeatedly, and it clearly states that guests of a PPH are entitled to complimentary soft drinks, but nothing else. Despite gently arguing with him, he continues to insist that we’re all about to eat for free, so we let the issue drop. PHOTO: Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test Liz Raftery PHOTO: Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test We check out the separate menu created especially for the promotion – 150 possible combinations in all. I opt for a fettuccine alfredo with chicken fritta, one friend gets penne with five cheese marinara and chicken, and the other two friends both get penne with five cheese marinara and sausage. We all enthusiastically agree to unlimited salad and breadsticks. Because my goal on Night 1 is frugality, I opt for just a soft drink (also included with the Pasta Pass). My other three friends splurge for wine. Three baskets of breadsticks and a heaping bowl of salad later, I’m ashamed to say that on Night 1 of my Italian Renaissance, I don’t even make it through one single bowl of pasta, let alone infinity. The alfredo sauce was a little bland and, let’s be honest, there was no need for the chicken to be fried. My companions reported that they enjoyed the five-cheese marinara (which was not that cheesy and really just vodka sauce), and their sausage was fine, but could have been a bit spicier. Two of us carry leftovers home; the other two clear their plates but also can’t progress to a second bowl. No one orders dessert. PHOTO: Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test Liz Raftery PHOTO: Putting the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Pass to Test At the end of the night – once the manager has cleared up the waiter’s “misunderstanding” – my friends pay about $25 each for their meals. (A plain pasta bowl with sauce is $9.99, meat is $3 to $4 extra, wine is about $7 a glass, plus tax and an 18% included gratuity.) My bill, on the other hand, is zero dollars – though I do leave a $5 tip. My fellow diners said they would go back to Olive Garden with me during the Pasta Pass promotion for the "novelty and nostalgia" factor, but that the quality of the food didn't justify the price at the end of the day. However, as a PPH with a quota to hit, I have no doubt I’ll be making several more trips to Olive Garden between now and Nov. 9. One future quest will include testing the restaurant’s (and my digestive system’s) understanding of “unlimited.” If nothing else, I have 149 other Unlimited Pasta Bowl combinations to try. Stay tuned for updates as I take on this challenge. Related Topics: Italy Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: View: Remarkable Images of the World’s Oldest Trees International See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast #RSS Feed alternate publisher * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> ABC News Pop Rocks Celebrates 50 Years of Fizzing April 18, 2006 The same year that Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine for polio, a little-known chemist at General Foods stumbled on to what would provide a revolution in mouths across the country. Find out more on this story along with the latest headlines during the 'World News Tonight' webcast, daily at 3 p.m. ET. Click here to watch. William A. Mitchell had a simple hope in 1956 -- make instant soda from a tablet. The soda didn't pan out, but he created a hit. His research led to the invention of Pop Rocks candy. Twenty years later, the colorful, sugary treat that explodes on your tongue became one of the most-popular candies in America. Packets were found in candy machines and stuffed in lunchboxes. What makes these candy rocks pop on your tongue, though? The tiny shards of candy include a gasified form of carbon dioxide. When they hit saliva in the mouth, the result is an unmistakable buzz. As concerns were raised over potential injuries from these small explosions, health officials said the candy was safe, but urban legends about Pop Rocks fatalities still ran wild. One example involved actor John Gilchrist, who played the finicky child Mikey in the Life cereal ads. As the false story went, Gilchrist mixed Pop Rocks and soda, and met his death. Today, the makers of Pop Rocks hope the brand can live on as a nostalgia product. Related Topics: Jonas Salk, Infectious Diseases Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Nations Top 10 B&Bs View: Nation's Top 10 B&Bs Travel See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast [Aboutstrathmain-2.jpg] primary navigation skip to secondary navigation * Home * About Strathclyde * Studying * Research * Campus Life * Visiting * A-Z Index * Contact * Home > * Cross-Functional Work > * Nostalgia in the 21st Century university of strathclyde secondary navigation skip to main content * Nostalgia Home * About Us * Seminars * Aye Write! * Glasgow School Days * Call for Papers: CMC special issue * Press Releases * Contact Us Search this Search UK’s University of the Year in the 2012 Times Higher Education Awards. Check out our YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/unistrathclyde Visit our Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/universityofstrathclyde Follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/unistrathclyde Visit our Flickr Group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/strathclyde/ Nostalgia in the 21st Century main content Nostalgia is a shaping cultural force in the new millennium, and is impacting on a wide range of consumer behaviours and cultural productions. The study of nostalgia is especially timely because technological advancements and the digital media environment are producing new dynamics between past and present, and determining relationships between individuals and communities. New technology presents a paradox: on the one hand, it has the capacity to stimulate nostalgia by bringing large numbers of globally diverse people together, but technologies can also create fragmentation and alienation from the present; our increasingly mediated relationship to the material world has led to perceptions of social and moral decline and loss of traditional values. The study of nostalgia is important because it influences the behaviour of consumers, marketers, writers and other cultural producers, and because it underpins or connects with a range of trends in contemporary culture. IFRAME: http://www.strath.tv/embed/?v=638z5813t The ‘Nostalgia in the 21st Century’ project consisted of six one-day seminars hosted by staff in Marketing and Humanities at the University of Strathclyde during 2010 and 2011, together with associated events and publications. For the ESRC Festival of Social Science in 2010, we organised a writing competition, Glasgow Remembered: Food and Nostalgia, while for the 2011 Festival, in the first week of November, we held an exhibition and workshop for families, Glasgow School Days Remembered at Scotland Street School Museum. We are also currently editing a special issue of CMC: Consumption, Markets and Culture, and maintaining an ongoing research network on the subject of nostalgia. ESRC logo Schooldays Remembered Are schooldays the best days of your lives? * Privacy & Cookies * Accessibility * Equality * Staff * vacancies * Freedom Of Information * Feedback * The Hub © University of Strathclyde Edit #RSS Feed alternate publisher * Now * NFL Patriots * • * Ernie Banks * • * Klay Thompson * • * SkyMall * • * Mom On Strike * • * Weather * Good Morning America * World News Tonight * Nightline * 20/20 * This Week * * Sign In * Search______________ Search * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * Shows + GMA + World News Tonight + Nightline + 20/20 + This Week * More + Investigative + Money + Sports + Good News + Photos + Fusion + Job Search + Live * [gear_icon.png] Weather Preferences ____________________ Cancel Set * ABC News * Home * Video * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech * Health * Lifestyle * Money * More + Investigative + Sports + Good News + Photos + Job Search + Fusion + Live Home> Entertainment 'Dancing With the Stars' 2014': Watch Pros Cheryl Burke, Val Chmerkovskiy, Karina Smirnoff’s Audition Tapes Aug 13, 2014, 2:02 PM ET VIDEO: Watch DWTS Pros Candid Audition Videos VIDEO: Watch 'DWTS' Pros' Candid Audition Videos ABCNews.com Share
Wor ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Copy Beloved pros Cheryl Burke, Val Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff are all back for the new season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” The lineup of 12 professional dancers for season 19 was announced today on "Good Morning America" before the big reveal of the new crop of celebrity contenders Sept. 4. (See the full list of all the season 19 pro dancers here). PHOTOS: Fun Facts and Pictures of All the Season 19 Pros! PHOTOS: 'DWTS' Pros as Kids: Can You Guess the 'Dancing' Pro? To celebrate the pros’ return to the ballroom, “GMA” got access to the “Dancing With the Stars” vault and unearthed never-before-seen video of some of the pros’ auditions. Get ready for some serious nostalgia in these audition videos of Burke, Chmerkovskiy and Smirnoff. (Do you recognize them?) Chmerkovskiy was surprised on “GMA” today with his audition video in which he boasted: “I will bring a whole different dimension -- youth, energy, the obvious good looks and a full head of hair.” “Oh, my god, geeze,” Chmerkovskiy said after seeing the throwback video. “Facial hair is the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life.” Two-time mirrorball champ Cheryl Burke, one of the longest-running pros on the show, also made her pitch to the “DWTS” producers, and it’s equally as candid. “On the dance floor I’m very wild, aggressive and sexy, but off the floor I’m very to myself, mostly like an all-American girl. I’m very sweet,” Burke says in the throwback video. “I would bring my own personality and dynamic to the show.” Throwback Thursday has arrived early. You’re welcome. * 'Dancing With the Stars' 2014: Season 19 Pro Dancers Announced * 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 19: Meet the New Pros * 'Dancing With the Stars' 2014: Season 19 Pro Dancers Announced! * 'Beverly Hills Pawn' Star Reveals His Suspicion About Potentially Stolen Art * What NFL Knows So Far About 'Deflate-Gate' More Video » Related Topics: Dancing with the Stars 2014 Season 19, TV Show, Cheryl Burke, Karina Smirnoff, Good Morning America Join the Discussion Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Hot Right Now 1 PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch 2 PHOTO: ABCs Diane Sawyer, center right, walks through a Port Authority bus terminal with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, left, and Officer Jack Collins, center left, and Sgt. Hector Martinez, right. How Young Women Become Sex Trafficking Victims 3 PHOTO: Police found Harry ‘Wade’ Atchison’s 1969 Dodge Coronet in a canal in West Broward County on Wednesday. Dana Null was last seen with Atchinson in 1978. Remains Found in Car Linked to 1978 Missing Teens Case 4 PHOTO: Bradley Cooper appears in a scene from American Sniper. What 'American Sniper' Got Right and Wrong 5 PHOTO: Cory Redding #90 of the Indianapolis Colts tackles Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the third quarter of the 2015 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxboro, Mass. Players Pile on Pats QB Over 'Deflate-Gate' You Might Also Like... Photo Galleries [spacer.gif] Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World View: Futuristic Scenes of Urbanization Around the World Travel [spacer.gif] PHOTO: Gluta the dog. View: Cancer-Surviving Rescue Dog Shines Brightly With Bliss Lifestyle [spacer.gif] null View: Injured Soldiers Use Art Therapy Masks to Cope With Wounds US [spacer.gif] null View: Oymyakon, the Coldest Village on Earth International [spacer.gif] PHOTO: View: Remarkable Images of the World’s Oldest Trees International See It, Share It PHOTO: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of the NFL football AFC Championship game, Jan. 18, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/AP Photo Belichick: 'Climatic Conditions' May Have Under-Inflated Balls PHOTO: Burger King Restaurant signage is shown, Dec. 29, 2014. Dave Rowland/Getty Images Woman Gets Bag Full of Cash at Burger King Drive-Thru Sinatras Former Glittering Grotto Under Contract Zillow.com | Inset: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Frank Sinatra's 'Glittering Grotto' May Finally Have Buyer Orange County Fire Authority paramedics Alex Van, right, and Donovan George, left, treated a passenger while on board their flight from Orange County, California, to Houston on Jan. 23, 2015. Orange County Fire Authority Hero Paramedics Save Man Whose Heart Stopped During Flight VIDEO: Inmates cook for hungry patrons at restaurant at Welsh prison in Cardiff. ABC News Prison Restaurant Takes Top Honor in Capital City PHOTO: The SkyRest Travel Pillow. SkyMall SkyMall Bankruptcy: Top 10 Products We Never Needed PHOTO: Paper bag lunch. Getty Images Dad Posts Teacher's Meddling Note Over Packed Lunch Yahoo!-ABC News Network Privacy Policy Your CA Privacy Rights Children's Online Privacy Policy Interest-Based Ads Terms of Use Contact Us © 2015 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Quantcast #Central NY News syracuse.com Menu * Home * * News * Weather * Crime & Safety * Syracuse University News * Sports * Entertainment * Obituaries * Classifieds * Jobs * Autos * Real Estate * Rentals * Opinion * High School Sports * Living * Photos * Videos * Find&Save * Local Businesses * Place an Ad * Site Index * Follow Us * Subscribe * Back to Main Menu * News Home * Local News * Politics & Elections * Business * CNY Schools & Colleges * Syracuse University News * U.S. & World * Health & Science * Lottery * Obits * Sean Kirst * Back to Main Menu * Weather Home * School & Event Closures * Back to Main Menu * Crime & Safety Home * Police Blotter * Reported Crimes * City of Syracuse * North Suburbs & Oswego County * East Suburbs & Madison County * West Suburbs & Cayuga County * CNY Traffic * Back to Main Menu * Sports Home * Orange Basketball * Orange Football * Orange Lacrosse * Orange Women Sports * Orange Sports * Buffalo Bills * College Sports * Minor League Sports * Bud Poliquin * Brent Axe * CNY Road Races * CNY Outdoors * Scoreboards * NFL * NBA * MLB * NHL * CNY & Pro Golf * Motorsports * TV Schedule * Back to Main Menu * Entertainment Home * CNY Restaurants * Movies Times & News * CNY Events Calendar * Destiny USA Events * CNY Music Scene * CNY Arts & Theater * CNY Festivals * CNY Tickets on Sale * TV News & Listings * New York State Fair * Celebrity News * Back to Main Menu * Opinion Home * Editorial Board * Your Opinions * Submit Your Opinion * Columnists * InterFaith Works Opinions * Back to Main Menu * Living Home * Homes * Food * Tourism & Travel * CNY Pets * CNY Proms * CNY Graduations * CNY Celebration Announcements * Comics Kingdom * Puzzles & Games * Back to Main Menu * Photos Home * Photo Essays * Buy Photo Reprints * Your Photos * Back to Main Menu * Videos Home * News Videos * Sports Videos * High School Sports Videos * Entertainment Videos * Living Videos * Back to Main Menu * High School Sports Home * Boys Basketball * Girls Basketball * Boys Ice Hockey * Boys Swimming * Girls Volleyball * Boys Volleyball * Girls Gymnastics * Boys Gymnastics * Boys Bowling * Wrestling * Competitive Cheer * Boys Winter Track * Girls Bowling * Girls Winter Track * Girls Ice Hockey * Girls Skiing * Boys Skiing * Off Season Sports * Back to High School Sports Menu * Football * Boys Soccer * Girls Soccer * Girls Swimming * Girls Tennis * Boys Cross Country * Girls Cross Country * Boys Lacrosse * Girls Lacrosse * Baseball * Softball * Boys Tennis * Boys Track and Field * Girls Track and Field * Field Hockey * Boys Golf * Girls Golf * Boys Rowing * Girls Rowing * Back to Main Menu * Visit our Facebook Page * Follow us on Twitter * Follow us on Pinterest * Follow us on Instagram * Visit us on Google Plus * Back to Main Menu * The Post-Standard * ps.plus * Email Newsletters * Mobile Apps Back to Main Menu Close Customize Your Weather Set Your Location (Enter City and State or Zip Code) ____________________ Submit Congratulations! Your weather is set to . You can change the location at any time. [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)____ AccuWeather.com Quick Look Change your current location » View Full Weather Report Search Search Search ____________________ Search syracuse.com Account Sign In Close Sign in to syracuse.com ______________________________ ______________________________ Sign In [ ] Remember me Forgot your username and password? Don't have an account? Register now for free, or sign in with any of these services: Facebook Google AOL Twitter [btn-signin-Twitter.png] You are signed in as Edit Public Profile Sign Out * Favorite Schools expand * Favorite Teams close Subscribe * The Post-Standard * ps.plus * Email Newsletters * Mobile Apps comments Merriam-Webster dictionary names 'culture' 2014 word of the year; 'nostalgia' is No. 2 dictionary.jpg (File photo) Print The Associated Press By The Associated Press The Associated Press Follow on Twitter on December 15, 2014 at 5:59 AM, updated December 18, 2014 at 2:44 PM View/Post Comments NEW YORK (AP) -- A nation, a workplace, an ethnicity, a passion, an outsized personality. The people who comprise these things, who fawn or rail against them, are behind Merriam-Webster's 2014 word of the year: culture. The word joins Oxford Dictionaries' "vape," a darling of the e-cigarette movement, and "exposure," declared the year's winner at Dictionary.com during a time of tragedy and fear due to Ebola. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last on Merriam-Webster.com, along with interesting, often culture-driven -- if you will -- spikes of concentrated interest. In the No. 2 spot is "nostalgia," during a year of big 50th anniversaries pegged to 1964: the start of the free speech movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the birth of the Ford Mustang and the British Invasion heralded by the landing of the Beatles on U.S. soil for the first time. Nostalgia was followed by insidious, legacy, feminism and a rare multiword phrase that can be looked up in total, in a foreign language at that: the French "je ne sais quoi." The Springfield, Massachusetts-based dictionary giant filters out perennial favorites when picking word of the year, but does that formula leave them chasing language fads? "We're simply using the word culture more frequently," said Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster. "It may be a fad. It may not. It may simply be evolution." Sokolowski noted that the reasons words are looked up aren't just about not knowing what they mean. Sometimes, he said, we seek inspiration or a way to check in on ourselves. Of an estimated 100 million lookups on the website each year and a similar number on the company's app, culture enjoyed a 15 percent year-over-year increase. Percentage-wise, it doesn't sound like much, but the raw number in that stratosphere is large, Sokolowski said. He wouldn't disclose actual numbers, though, citing the proprietary nature of that data for a company still privately held. Sokolowski is a lexicographer, not a mind reader, so his observations about why any single word takes off in terms of lookups is well-informed but theoretical. "The word culture's got a cultural story. We have noticed for years that culture has a cyclical spike every year at around Labor Day. That is to say back to school time during the month of September, so we've been watching this word spike at that time for years," he said by telephone from Springfield. "In recent years we've seen similar spikes at the end of semesters during finals." But traffic throughout the year indicates that culture is a "chameleon," Sokolowski said. "When you put it next to another word it means something very different. For example, 'consumer culture' or 'rape culture,' which we've been reading about lately." There's the "culture of transparency" in government and business, and "celebrity culture," and the "culture of winning" in sports, he noted. "It's a word that can be very specific, like 'test prep culture,' or it can be very, very broad, like 'coffee culture.'" One standout reference that caught Sokolowski's eye in The New Yorker's December issue is from a new book, "How Google Works," which includes a description of a software fix by a few engineers that made ads more relevant on the search engine: "It wasn't Google's culture that turned those five engineers into problem-solving ninjas who changed the course of the company over the weekend," wrote the authors, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former head of product development Jonathan Rosenberg. "Rather it was the culture that attracted the ninjas to the company in the first place." Before the word culture exploded, Sokolowski said, "we used to talk about 'society' a lot. Certain groups are taking 'society' out of their names now. It seems to be receding. Part of that seems to be because it's elitist. We're using the word culture more frequently in that place." Not all lookup spikes are quite that complex. The reason "je ne sais quoi" landed at No. 6, for instance, is "dead simple," he said. The fast-food drive-in chain Sonic, known for TV spots featuring two goofy dudes eating in a car, had them munching on boneless chicken wings in September. "I've finally found myself a wingman," goofy guy No. 1 says of the wings he hopes will make him a chick magnet. "Oh right," sneers goofy guy No. 2, "gonna give you that certain je ne sais quoi." Responds No. 1: "Jenna said what?" They mine the word play a couple more times, but you get the picture. "Since September when this ad came out this word has been close to the Top 10 or in the Top 10 of our lookups almost every single day," Sokolowski said. Fast-food aside, he called this year's list a relatively sober one. Insidious, for example, received a bump early in the year when a new trailer was released for "Insidious: Chapter 3," a prequel in the horror film franchise "Insidious," out in June. The word surfaced in a big way again, on Oct. 8, when a Texas hospital released a statement on the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first confirmed Ebola patient in the United States. The statement spoke of his courageous battle and the hospital's profound sadness when he "succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola." Rounding out the Top 10 are innovation, surreptitious, autonomy and morbidity. "This is a fairly sober list. It was a fairly sober year," he concluded. View/Post Comments Related Stories Crime in Central NY Police Blotter Search for arrests by Syracuse and Central New York law enforcement agencies and local New York State Police. * Map Onondaga County reported crimes * Crime database: A look at local stats * Crime & Safety forum More Crime & Safety news » Photo of the Day Nottingham vs. Henninger boys basketball, Jan. 23, 2015 See All Photo Galleries Syracuse and CNY Photo Essays Videos by The Post-Standard More News Topics * [blank.gif] Sean Kirst: Read his latest columns * [blank.gif] Opinion: Editorials, letters & more * [blank.gif] CNY Obituaries Active Discussions Most Read Best of syracuse.com Kohlton Pascal gives back 'Idol' ticket 5 things to watch for: SU vs. Miami Hurricanes Scrap king Weitsman buys stake in Metalico Inc. syracuse.com logo * About Us * Advertise with us * Jobs at Syracuse Media Group * Contact Us * Blogs * Photo and Page Reprints * Submit a Press Release Subscriptions * The Post-Standard * ePost-Standard * Email Newsletters syracuse.com Sections * News * Business * Sports * High School Sports * Entertainment * Living * Travel * Opinion * Obituaries * Jobs * Autos * Real Estate * Rentals * Classifieds * Shopping Good Deals * Local Businesses Mobile iPhone, Android apps | Tablet Apps More on syracuse.com * Forums * Videos * Photos * Interact with us * Weather * Post a job * Post a free classified ad * Sell your car * Sell/rent your home * Sitemap & search Follow Us Twitter | Facebook | Google+ Advance Digital logo Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy © 2015 Syracuse Media Group All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Syracuse Media Group Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Contact interactivity management. [ad_choices_arrow_transparent.png] Ad Choices #alternate alternate alternate [p?c1=2&c2=6036472&cv=2.0&cj=1] We notice that your web browser is out-of-date. For the best experience on AXS.com please consider upgrading to one of the following: * Google Chrome * Mozilla Firefox * Safari * Opera * [Upgraded] Internet Explorer If you are still having issues, please contact support at support@axs.com. Hello! We see your preferred language is English (United States), would you like to stay on English (United States) or switch to English (United States)? Sign in * Sign in * Create an Account Los Angeles, CA Change Location Sorry we can not find that location. Please try your closest major city. ____________________ (BUTTON) Browse All Cities Welcome Life lived live! ____________________ (BUTTON) Trending Topics: * Las Vegas * Concerts * Rihanna * Sam Smith * Dallas * Grammy Awards * Jazz Fest * Coachella * Music * NFL * festivals * AXS Buzz * Sports * Ed Sheeran * rock * * * * Here comes a blast of '80s nostalgia: Culture Club confirm reunion and tour Scott Shetler - AXS Contributor By: Scott Shetler AXS Contributor Jun 14, 2014 977686 472901 16541761 6 y2014m06d14 12274 Here comes a blast of '80s nostalgia: Culture Club confirm reunion and tour For children of the '80s, pop music news doesn't get much cooler than this: Culture Club are reuniting with a new album and tour. Boy George and his mates appeared on British television to discuss their decision to get back together, 30 years after the height of their popularity and nearly 15 years after their last reunion. “We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years - it’s taken a while for us to get to the point where we all decided what we were going to do," George explained during an interview on the talk show Lorraine, as reported by The Mirror. “I wanted very much to make a new record, I didn’t just want it to be about the past, and I think everyone agrees that it was the right thing to do now.” George said he and the boys finished their latest work - and first since their 1999 reunion album Don't Mind if I Do - in record time. "We spent less than two weeks in Spain and recorded 19 tracks so we’re on fire at the moment... I think it was a bit of a risk getting back together actually, because it could have backfired, but it’s been amazing.” Comprised of Boy George, drummer Jon Moss, and guitarists Mikey Craig and Roy Hay, Culture Club rode a wave of pop hits - "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me," "Time (Clock of the Heart)," Karma Chameleon," "Miss Me Blind" - to worldwide success starting in 1982. They sold more than 10 million copies of Colour By Numbers and captured the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Culture Club were as much a part of '80s pop culture as E.T., Pac-Man, and the Rubik's Cube, but personal problems caused them to flame out early, and the group to disband in the late '80s. It turns out that George and Moss, whose brief but volatile love affair wrecked the group during its heyday, have finally made up for good. "We’ve transcended our relationship, I think, through time," George noted. Moss added, “Most people should be friends with their ex-lovers. Unless something truly terrible has happened, you have to be friends eventually, otherwise it negates why you were together in the first place.” For now, the tour appears to consist of U.K. dates only, but we can cross our fingers that the guys will cross the Atlantic and give their U.S. fans a nostalgia trip as well. Hay noted, "George was a diva before he was famous – a diva in the clubs, a diva when we were in his squat writing our first song.” True to his legacy, Boy George is still very much the one in charge of the group, as he was quick to explain: “I had a very clear vision, though they all felt I was being difficult. I just felt it was our last chance to do this and actually have fun doing it. For me Culture Club is like this room in my house that was in disarray, left unloved. “In the spirit of getting my house in order it was the one room that needed love and attention. The way I finished the band wasn’t the way I wanted it to be. Romantic that I am, I thought there was a chance to do something soulful, from the heart. “No one is offering money, we don’t have a record label – it had to be about us finding what we wanted to be. The last month has really done that.” Keep checking AXS.com for more Culture Club news and upcoming tour dates. By: Scott Shetler AXS Contributor Jun 14, 2014 Sponsor Share This: http://www.axs.com/h * * * * In this article Topics: National pop culture club boy george Live Music Artists: Boy George Featured Event Sponsor Related Events Share This Article [promoted-media-optimized_539c979b36403.jpg] Here comes a blast of '80s nostalgia: Culture Club confirm reunion and tour By: Scott Shetler AXS Contributor Jun 14, 2014 From: First Name__________ Send to: Email Address_______ Add a personal message:_____________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ (BUTTON) Send Privacy Policy Share this article [promoted-media-optimized_539c979b36403.jpg] Here comes a blast of '80s nostalgia: Culture Club confirm reunion and tour By: Scott Shetler AXS Contributor Jun 14, 2014 Email Sent! Send another?Close * Browse by * Cities * Festivals * Featured Events * Arts & Family * Music * Sports * AXS Corporate * About AEG * Careers * Arenas * Convention Centers * Entertainment Districts * Stadiums * Theaters/Clubs * AXS.com Info * Features * Contact Us * Cookies * Feedback * Help * Privacy Policy * Purchase Agreement * Refund Policy * Shipping Policy * Sitemap * Terms of Use * Tickets by Phone * RSS * Language * Hey! (United States) * Hello! (United Kingdom) * Hallå! (Sverige) AXS is Proudly Partnered with [amex.png?2.0.567] [renaissance.jpg?2.0.567] © 2011-2014 AXS. All rights reserved. IFRAME: //privacy-policy.truste.com/privacy-seal/Axs-Digital-LLC/seal?rid=6127a a04-0153-4c52-b39f-9538cfb5ff7b Your browser does not support iFrames. [musicbrainz.png?2.0.567] Cookie Policy The AXS Cookie Policy This website, like most others, uses cookies in order to give you a great online experience. By continuing to use our website you accept to our use of cookies. Alternatively, you can find out more about cookies and how to change your cookie preferences. Continue and Accept [cookie_triangle.png?2.0.567] * Events * Music Music Genres Back ALL MUSIC + Alternative / Punk + Christian + Classical + Country + Dance / Electronic + Festivals + Folk / Acoustic + Hard Rock / Metal + Hip Hop / Rap + Indie / Emo + International + Jazz / Blues + Latin + Other + Pop + R&B + Reggae + Rock * Sports Sports Genres Back ALL SPORTS + Baseball + Basketball + Boxing + Competitions + Cycling + Extreme Sports + Festivals + Football + Hockey + Mixed Martial Arts + Motorsports + Other Sports + Rugby + Soccer + Tennis + WWE / WWF * Arts & Family Arts & Family Genres Back ALL ARTS & FAMILY + Circus + Comedy + Expo/Convention + Fairs and Festivals + Family Events + Lectures and Seminars + Museums and Exhibits + Opera + Other + Theater * Festivals * My AXS * Sign in * Create an Account * Help * Just for * Account Information * My Communications * My Events * I'm Following * AXS Invite * Logout * Help Welcome, please create an account. * Save your billing info and buy tickets faster. * View your purchase history. Sign up with AXS.com with your Facebook account Sign up with Facebook By signing up with your Facebook account, you'll get the most personalized event recommendations possible. Don't worry, it's secure and we'll never post anything without your approval IFRAME: //www.facebook.com/plugins/facepile.php?app_id=417096598310966 or Have an account? Sign in Create an AXS.com account Enter your first name: ____________________ Enter your last name: ____________________ Enter your Zip/Postal code: ____________________ Enter your email Address: ____________________ Confirm your email Address: ____________________ Enter your password: ____________________ Confirm your password: ____________________ [ ] By checking this box, you consent to receive personalized marketing communications from AXS and the Ticket Supplier for the event, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You may opt out of these communications at any time via your online account or via the 'unsubscribe' instructions in any communications you receive. (BUTTON) Next By clicking Next, you agree to the AXS.com Terms and Conditions. By creating an account, you consent to receive personalised marketing communications from AXS and the Ticket Supplier for the event, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You may opt out of these communications at any time via your online account or via the 'unsubscribe' instructions in any communications you receive. [ ] Yes, I'd like to receive additional offers and email communications from third parties, such as the event promoter, related to this event. Privacy Policy Welcome back, please sign in. Sign in to AXS.com with your Facebook account Sign in with Facebook By signing in with your Facebook account, you'll get the most personalized event recommendations possible. Don't worry, it's secure and we'll never post anything without your approval IFRAME: //www.facebook.com/plugins/facepile.php?app_id=417096598310966 or Sign in with an AXS.com account. Enter your email ____________________ Enter your password ____________________ Forgot your password? New to AXS? Create an account [ ] Remember me for the next 30 days (BUTTON) Sign in Privacy Policy Sign up for our weekly event guide email. Be the first to know. Get personalized event announcements, updates, and reviews every week with the AXS.com event guide email. Enter your first nam Enter your last name Enter your Zip/Posta Enter your email Add Confirm your email A (BUTTON) Send Privacy Policy Thanks for signing up for the event guide! IFRAME: //www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-W9SLGS Reuters * Edition: U.S. + Africa + Arabic + Argentina + Brazil + Canada + China + France + Germany + India + Italy + Japan + Latin America + Mexico + Russia + Spain + United Kingdom Search News & Quotes__________ Submit * Home * Business + Business Home + Davos + Deals + Business Video + Aerospace & Defense + Financial Institutions + Autos + Reuters Summits * Markets + Markets Home + U.S. Markets + European Markets + Asian Markets + Global Market Data + Indices + Stocks + Bonds + Currencies + Comm & Energy + Futures + Funds + peHUB + Earnings + Dividends * World + World Home + U.S. + Special Reports + Reuters Investigates + Euro Zone + Middle East + China + Japan + Mexico + Brazil + Africa + Russia + India Insight + World Video * Politics + Politics Home + Supreme Court + Politics Video * Tech + Technology Home + Science + Tech Video + Top 100 Global Innovators + Environment * Opinion + Opinion Home + The Great Debate + Data Dive + Morning Bid * Breakingviews + Equities + Credit + Private Equity + M&A + Macro & Markets + Politics + Breakingviews Video * Money + Money Home + Lipper Awards + Global Investing + Unstructured Finance + Linda Stern + Mark Miller + John Wasik + James Saft + Analyst Research + Alerts + Watchlist + Portfolio + Stock Screener + Fund Screener + Personal Finance Video * Life + Health + Sports + Arts + Entertainment + Oddly Enough + Faithworld + Lifestyle Video * Pictures + Pictures Home + Reuters Photographers * Video * Article Alexander takes family on 'Very Bad Day' in Disney comedy By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:00am EDT * Tweet Share this Email Print Related News * 'SNL' actress Jan Hooks dies aged 57 - agent's office Thu, Oct 9 2014 * LA police revisit 2012 criminal case against '7th Heaven' star Wed, Oct 8 2014 * Downey Jr. sheds superhero armor to face Duvall in 'The Judge' Mon, Oct 6 2014 * Walt Disney rescues Euro Disney with $1.3 billion funding deal Mon, Oct 6 2014 * Actors Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds expecting first child Mon, Oct 6 2014 Analysis & Opinion * Marvel settlement with Kirby leaves freelancers’ rights in doubt * And Then One Day: Naseeruddin Shah on his memoirs and life Related Topics * Stocks » * Markets » * Media » * Cyclical Consumer Goods » LOS ANGELES Oct 10 (Reuters) - A rogue crocodile, a green baby, a puking Peter Pan and a punching kangaroo are troublesome yet comedic obstacles that befall the Cooper family on a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" in Disney's new live-action family comedy. "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, is expanded from the 1972 book of the same name about a perpetually unlucky pre-teen boy. After a particularly bad day at school that includes setting the science lab on fire, Alexander, played by Australian newcomer Ed Oxenbould, makes a wish on his 12th birthday that his family could experience just one very bad day. And that's when things start going wrong for the Coopers - mom Kelly (Jennifer Garner) must try to avert a publishing disaster involving Dick Van Dyke while dad Ben (Steve Carell) tries to juggle baby duties with a job interview. "I really thought about how relatable it all was, how it related to my life as a parent," said Carell, who has two young children. "So much of it rang true, and when things didn't ring true to us, we would speak up." Eldest son Anthony (Dylan Minnette) destroys the family vehicle during his driving test and gets suspended before prom, while his aspiring thespian sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) gets the flu ahead of playing "Peter Pan" on stage. As the Coopers navigate the numerous hazards thrown their way, including fire, shrimp and some hunky Australian cowboys, they find themselves bonding. "(Alexander) realizes everyone goes through the bad days, he's not alone, and when he has this bad day with his family, he really connects with them and they really understand him," Oxenbould said. Walt Disney Co. has most recently delivered family fare in animated, fairytale and superhero genres, with hits including "Frozen," "Maleficent" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." "Very Bad Day," made for $28 million according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, sees the studio embracing live-action family friendly movies that it was known for making, with classics such as the "The Parent Trap" in 1961, 1976's "Freaky Friday" and 1993's "Cool Runnings." It is projected by BoxOffice.com to open with $16.5 million at the box office. "It's so fun that Disney is making movies for whole families, live-action films, for families again," said Garner, who has three children with husband Ben Affleck. Director Miguel Arteta said he was inspired by 1980s movies such as John Hughes's "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and wanted to infuse some nostalgia into "Very Bad Day." "Family movies have mostly become animated movies, and they're doing incredible work in that area, but I was excited that Disney wanted to go back to something they had done great in the sixties," Arteta said. "This is a movie where people will have fun, laugh a lot, but they also recognize the family and feel like that family is a little bit like their family." (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Ken Wills) FILED UNDER: Stocks Markets Media Cyclical Consumer Goods IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters. com%2Farticle%2F2014%2F10%2F10%2Ffilm-verybadday-idUSL2N0S501T20141010& layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=recommend&colorscheme =light&height=35 * Tweet this * Link this * Share this * Digg this * Email * Print * Reprints IFRAME: http://www.smartlinks.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=1734 Davos Photo After wave of QE, onus shifts to leaders to boost economy DAVOS, Switzerland - Central banks have done their best to rescue the world economy by printing money and politicians must now act fast to enact structural reforms and pro-investment policies to boost growth, central bankers said on Saturday. * Will return UK inflation to 2 percent within two years: Carney * BOJ's Kuroda sees Japan growth of 2 percent in fiscal 2015 » More from Davos Trending On Reuters Follow Reuters * Facebook * Twitter * RSS * YouTube IFRAME: http://www.smartlinks.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=1836 * Edition: U.S. + Arabic + Argentina + Brazil + Canada + China + France + Germany + India + Italy + Japan + Latin America + Mexico + Russia + Spain + United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com * Business * Markets * World * Politics * Technology * Opinion * Money * Pictures * Videos * Site Index More from Reuters * Reuters News Agency * Brand Attribution Guidelines * Delivery Options Support & Contact * Support * Corrections Connect with Reuters * Twitter * Facebook * LinkedIn * RSS * Podcast * Newsletters * Mobile About * Privacy Policy * Terms of Use * Advertise With Us * [icon1.png] AdChoices * Copyright [tr-source-txt.gif] Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation * Thomsonreuters.com * About Thomson Reuters * Investor Relations * Careers * Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here. [p?c1=2&c2=6035630&cv=2.0&cj=1] DCSIMG IFRAME: //www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-W9SLGS Reuters * Edition: U.S. + Africa + Arabic + Argentina + Brazil + Canada + China + France + Germany + India + Italy + Japan + Latin America + Mexico + Russia + Spain + United Kingdom Search News & Quotes__________ Submit * Home * Business + Business Home + Davos + Deals + Business Video + Aerospace & Defense + Financial Institutions + Autos + Reuters Summits * Markets + Markets Home + U.S. Markets + European Markets + Asian Markets + Global Market Data + Indices + Stocks + Bonds + Currencies + Comm & Energy + Futures + Funds + peHUB + Earnings + Dividends * World + World Home + U.S. + Special Reports + Reuters Investigates + Euro Zone + Middle East + China + Japan + Mexico + Brazil + Africa + Russia + India Insight + World Video * Politics + Politics Home + Supreme Court + Politics Video * Tech + Technology Home + Science + Tech Video + Top 100 Global Innovators + Environment * Opinion + Opinion Home + The Great Debate + Data Dive + Morning Bid * Breakingviews + Equities + Credit + Private Equity + M&A + Macro & Markets + Politics + Breakingviews Video * Money + Money Home + Lipper Awards + Global Investing + Unstructured Finance + Linda Stern + Mark Miller + John Wasik + James Saft + Analyst Research + Alerts + Watchlist + Portfolio + Stock Screener + Fund Screener + Personal Finance Video * Life + Health + Sports + Arts + Entertainment + Oddly Enough + Faithworld + Lifestyle Video * Pictures + Pictures Home + Reuters Photographers * Video * Article * Comments (3) Tom Hanks' new app an homage to manual typewriters By Natasha Baker TORONTO Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:20am EDT * Tweet Share this Email Print Actor Tom Hanks speaks at the 64th Annual ACE Eddie Awards in Beverly Hills, California February 7, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Actor Tom Hanks speaks at the 64th Annual ACE Eddie Awards in Beverly Hills, California February 7, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni Related Topics * Tech » * Media » TORONTO (Reuters) - A new app for the iPad aims to recreate the nostalgic sense of typing on a manual typewriter, but ramped up to meet the demands of digital-age word processing. The brainchild of Oscar-winning actor and collector of vintage typewriters Tom Hanks, the app, perhaps aptly called Hanx Writer, replicates the aural and visual sensations of old-fashioned typing. "In the late 70s's I bought a typewriter - portable enough for world travel and sturdy enough to survive decades of 10-fingered beatings," Hanks stated in a note shared in the app. "I've since acquired many more - each different in design, action and sound. Each one stamps into paper a permanent trail of imagination through keys, hammers, cloth and dye," he wrote. The app allows users to type emails, letters and stories on a virtual typewriter, accompanied by the sound of clanking keys as each character appears on the page beneath the type hammer. Users can also "insert" new pages or pull pages up or down to adjust where text appears - just as they would with an old-school manual. After text is written, it can be emailed, printed, and shared from the app. The free app includes one style of typewriter with two more on offer featuring different sounds, visuals, ribbon colors and other features, at $2.99 each. According to Clinton Mills, co-founder and chief executive officer of Hitcents, the Bowling Green, Kentucky-based creative agency that developed the app, the appeal lies in hearing the rhythm of one's work. "Whenever you type, the sounds the typewriter makes you feel like you're composing something special," he said. Mills said that Hanks was actively involved throughout the creative process and often came up with solutions to challenges. "He wanted to create a product that gave the nostalgia of a typewriter, but also composed well," said Mills, adding that Hanks "didn't want it to be gimmicky." The actor uses typewriters daily and has even written several screenplays with vintage devices, Mills said. The company plans to continue developing the app and will add more keyboards to the three now available. Several other typewriter apps such as TypeWriter for Android devices and miTypewriter for Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad replicate the sound and visuals of a typewriter. They cost between $0.99 and $1.99. The free Electratype for iPad is a virtual typewriter app for creating greetings that can be shared via email or social media. While the app was the top downloaded iPad app in the United States last week, some question its staying power. Toronto-based journalist David Hayes, a typewriter collector and aficionado, is skeptical about the app's staying power. "I grew up learning how to type on a typewriter. I still have the one I learned to type on, a Remington No. 2 from 1921, so I've experienced the romantic clickety-clack of the keys, ringing of bells and wonderful feeling of the keys as you type, called 'action,'" he explained. It is that action that cannot be replicated via a touchscreen or keyboard, Hayes said. He also noted that while he appreciates the typewriter's iconography and history, the ones he collects are mainly decor. "As soon as computers came along, I didn't see the point," Hayes said. "I consider them 'objets d’art.'" (Editing by Chris Michaud, G Crosse) FILED UNDER: Tech Media IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters. com%2Farticle%2F2014%2F08%2F26%2Fus-apps-hanx-idUSKBN0GQ0UZ20140826&lay out=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=recommend&colorscheme=li ght&height=35 * Tweet this * Link this * Share this * Digg this * Email * Print * Reprints IFRAME: http://www.smartlinks.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=1734 Davos Photo After wave of QE, onus shifts to leaders to boost economy DAVOS, Switzerland - Central banks have done their best to rescue the world economy by printing money and politicians must now act fast to enact structural reforms and pro-investment policies to boost growth, central bankers said on Saturday. * Will return UK inflation to 2 percent within two years: Carney * BOJ's Kuroda sees Japan growth of 2 percent in fiscal 2015 » More from Davos Trending On Reuters Follow Reuters * Facebook * Twitter * RSS * YouTube IFRAME: http://www.smartlinks.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=1836 * Edition: U.S. + Arabic + Argentina + Brazil + Canada + China + France + Germany + India + Italy + Japan + Latin America + Mexico + Russia + Spain + United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com * Business * Markets * World * Politics * Technology * Opinion * Money * Pictures * Videos * Site Index More from Reuters * Reuters News Agency * Brand Attribution Guidelines * Delivery Options Support & Contact * Support * Corrections Connect with Reuters * Twitter * Facebook * LinkedIn * RSS * Podcast * Newsletters * Mobile About * Privacy Policy * Terms of Use * Advertise With Us * [icon1.png] AdChoices * Copyright [tr-source-txt.gif] Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation * Thomsonreuters.com * About Thomson Reuters * Investor Relations * Careers * Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here. [p?c1=2&c2=6035630&cv=2.0&cj=1] DCSIMG Skip to main content Follow us on Twitter Visit us on Tumblr Visit us on Facebook Visit us on YouTube * Search Courses * Calendar + Five Year Calendar * About Us + Staff Directory + Directions + Contact Us Search form Search _______________ Search * Registration & Degrees + Online Registration & Enrollment + Cross Registration + Tuition Assistance + Graduation & Diplomas o PhD Dissertation Submission * Courses & Exams + Courses of Instruction o Previous Courses of Instruction + Search Courses + Course Evaluations + Sectioning for Students o Sectioning Instructions for Students + Exam Policy * Transcripts & Records + Order Transcript + Certifications + Test Scores & Advanced Standing + View/Edit Directory Information * Forms & Petitions * General Information + FAQs + John Harvard and Harvard College Scholarships + Handbooks o Archived Handbooks + Reporting & Analysis Services + Religious Observation Policy + Voter Registration + FERPA * For Faculty & Staff + Courses o Catalog Coordinators o Enrollment + Online Grading o Grade Changes + Classrooms o Inventory o Requests + Sectioning o Sectioning Instructions + Exams o Schedule o Procedures o Attendance + Communication Packet + Pre-Term Planning * Home * Courses & Exams * Search Courses * Print / * Share on emailEmail / * Share * Courses of Instruction + Previous Courses of Instruction * Search Courses * Course Evaluations * Sectioning for Students * Exam Policy . [Italian 262. About Time: Nostalgia, Apocalypse, and Change in Italian Culture] Catalog Number: 3847 Francesco Erspamer Primarily for Graduates Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-3 pm Studies the development of the concept of time in modern thought, with examples drawn mostly from Italian literature. Readings include Galileo, Vico, Leopardi, Verga, Pirandello, Tomasi di Lampedusa, Buzzati. Note: Conducted in Italian. Copyright © 2012 The President & Fellows of Harvard College | Privacy Statement | Contact Us