Tag: nostalgia
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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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One Cent Record Clubs and Predatory Discovery
What’s the value of music when your life is falling apart? How did that “ten albums for a penny” deal really work? And could a kid’s mail-order music club from the 1980s have predicted today’s subscription trap? In the summer of 1983, I was a wreck. My grandfather pulled into a RadioShack parking lot and…
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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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Pee Wee Herman: Lessons From a Manchild
By Rachael Price Nowadays, one does not usually understand the term “manchild” to be a compliment. Whereas it once denoted a young person who had to deal with adult challenges early in life, such as the autobiographical protagonist of Claude Brown’s landmark Civil Rights-era novel Manchild in the Promised Land, it now tends to invoke…
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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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Surviving the Cold War (Again): A Gen Xer’s Guide
If you were a Gen X kid, you remember the Cold War and may be having a familiar feeling right now. Global tension you didn’t fully understand but could feel. We didn’t learn about the Cold War from history books. We learned it from Sting songs, Stallone movies, and being told by our teachers that…
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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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Phil Collins and the Long Long Way to Go Now
Is the world too hard to handle? Do we need to face the suffering? What happens when we turn off empathy? Phil Collins’ “Long Long Way to Go” is a punch to the gut, a reminder of the world I came of age in and how it shaped us. Whenever I hear that haunting chorus,…
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Hearts of Glass Library Homecoming: Join Me!
I want to extend a heartfelt invitation to an event that means the world to me. This Saturday, April 5th, from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM, I’ll be at the Bolingbrook Fountaindale Public Library for a very special book launch celebration. This isn’t just any author event… it’s a homecoming for me, and I’d love…
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March Hopes for the Winds of Change
The month of March is at end. With that comes the month end wrap up at Gen X Watch. Before we continue with that… thank you! This year has already featured 3 guest writers and continued growth every month. Additionally, some of the readers here have been so wonderful in their continued support as Patreons,…
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
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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…