Tag: Inspiration
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Nostalgia and the Beautiful Return to Pain
What is nostalgia? How can it help us? How can it hold us back? And what are it’s origins? A song, a smell in the air, a taste in your mouth, or even an image and suddenly a part of you has traveled through time and space. Sometimes we hold these close to us for…
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Love My Way: The Psychedelic Furs and the Marimba That Woke Me Up
What if one song could tell you it was okay to exist exactly as you are? What if it came from a group of straight guys who decided silence wasn’t an option? And what if that song , of all things, started with a marimba? Let’s talk about “Love My Way” by the Psychedelic Furs!…
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Chrissie Hynde Taught Me How to Listen
What do a Midwestern punk queen from Ohio and a Beauty Queen from Chicagoland have in common? How would they intersect in a young man desperately trying to be better? Can combat boots and leather impact high heels and lace? Let’s talk about Chrissie Hynde and Lauren. Before I had a vocabulary for feminism, before…
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Generational Fan Fusion Heals My Heart of Glass IRL
In my years as a journalist I have covered Fan Cons with press pass in hand in Baltimore, Washington DC, Chicago, Joliet, and Milwaukee. But I have never been to one as a vendor. The experience would change me and that change came at the hands of Millennials and Gen Z. That change would come…
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Sample Chapter of Hearts of Glass & An Open Heart
Hi Readers, I’m back this Friday. Earlier this evening I started writing “Hearts of Glass Fade Away and Radiate”. It is the second book in the Hearts of Glass series and it releases black Friday of this year. To get back into the writing seat I needed inspiration. I got it a few ways. The…
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Gloria Estefan Taught Us How to Come Out of the Dark
Gloria Estefan is a Fem Friday icon. I’ve got Pat Green to thank for helping me remember just how iconic she really is. I asked him if he had ever considered writing about her. He said he had a rough draft and notes on her-as well as other women from the 80s. I asked him…
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Not Your Stepford Sister: How to Be Fem Friday Hero
All women are in danger right now. Our rights, the ones we have left, are under attack. Our bodies are being legislated. Our stories are being erased from history, and government websites like NASA. Whether you’re a white straight women in Boston, trans woman in Florida, a Black mom in Illinois, a disabled activist in…
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Ready to Rage? The Great Fem Friday Takeover
Hi! My name is Heather and I will be running Gen X Watch until the end of June. I have exactly one fond memory of the 1980s: the weekend Pat Green saved my life. Everything else about that decade can burn for all I care. Gen X nostalgia? Hard pass. I’m not here to romanticize…
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Jill Sobule: Social Legacy Far Beyond One Hit
I was scrolling my Insta on May 1st when I saw my favorite human and Go-Go, Jane Weidlin post in grief that it did not feel real. What didn’t feel real? Jill Sobule passed at age 66. I felt the breath escape my lungs and a wave of emotion hit. She’s one of those icons…
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Gen X Needs to Be Cool Without Being Cruel
One of the reasons I started Gen X Watch was to be the antithesis to the flood of memes on my social feeds. The ones posted by fellow Gen Xers bragging that we had the best childhood. You know the ones: pictures of kids from the 80s on BMX bikes, in muscle cars, hanging out,…
Recent Posts
- Nostalgia and the Beautiful Return to Pain
- One Cent Record Clubs and Predatory Discovery
- Em Dashes and Witch Hunts With New Literary Inquisitors
- Love My Way: The Psychedelic Furs and the Marimba That Woke Me Up
- When Free Speech Fought Back in 1985
Tags
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Comments
Thanks for the tour through the bittersweet… Obviously, for everyone that trip back is going to be different even though…
Wow, this article is so well-written! I really enjoyed how you highlighted Tina’s race as a factor that prevented her…