Tag: nostalgia

Kate Bush and the Rubber Band Girl Who Broke

Is Kate Bush a powerful and complex person? Are we more than the labels we deny or accept? Are boundaries important? Is mental health misunderstood? The answer to all of these things is yes. Cloud Busting With Kate Bush Kate Bush is a powerhouse in the music industry. With a voice that is ethereal and…
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March 29, 2024
Yearbook Nostalgia and the Artistic Quest to be Kind

Dear Mr. Vernon. We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms,…
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March 27, 2024
Poly Styrene & the X-Ray Spex That See Through Bondage

Could a young woman change punk and inspire Riot Grrls? Would misdiagnosis of mental health derail her? Would she inspire someone to say up yours to bondage? If we are talking about Poly Styrene, the answer is definitively yes! I Am a Cliché Not a lot of you will know who Poly Styrene is, keep…
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March 22, 2024
The Soundtrack of Your Life in a Walkman

Did a man make a wholly unimpressive device just to listen to his tunes on a plane? Did the lack of features worry engineers? Were Sony executives concerned about social isolation? Did the world change and did we all want one? In the matter of the Walkman, yes. Making Plane Trips Tolerable and Accidental Revolutions…
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March 20, 2024
Dolores O’Riordan and the Need to Survive

Raise a glass to former lead singer of The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan this St Patrick’s Day! In the article is an award winning photograph I did with a model shortly after Dolores’ passing and remains one of my best selling pieces at art shows I present at. It was a labor of love and honor…
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March 16, 2024
I Want My MTV to be Less Racist

Did MTV forever change how we consume music? Was MTV responsible for positive social change? Was there a racism problem that needed to be addressed? Yes. The Good August 1st of 1981 a new television station would air on cable television. MTV entered pop culture playing “Video Killed the Radio Star” by synth New Wave…
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March 11, 2024
Justin Case You Need to Read Great Books

Can a struggling PI find his missing girlfriend and Africa? Will aliens, time travel, multiverses and the pyramids of Giza all be part of the adventure? And are ghosts more than what we think them to be? In the case files of Justin Case by author Scott Edwards, the answer is yes. Sunday Showcase: A…
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March 10, 2024
Musical Discovery and the Crime of Gatekeeping

By Jeremy Ritch I’m a later Gen Xer born in 1975, but it still is my generation. For years the later members of this generation tended to feel just as much a part as the older members. That changed a bit when the much larger and closer to my age Millennial generation came to be…
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March 7, 2024
Sixteen Candles Burning With Truth

Did Molly Ringwald matter then? Does she matter now? And could the Dawn of a woman’s truth change me? Yep! Molly Ringwald Then Molly Ringwald was the 80’s. You could not walk by a magazine rack without seeing her on the cover of something. John Hughes may have created the Brat Pack and the movies…
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March 1, 2024
Let’s Go Back to the Mall for a Better World!

Do Gen X and Gen Z long to return to the mall? Does the mall give a sense of space that is important to a civil society, democracy and engagement? Was I a mallrat? Hell yes! Fox Valley Mall Though I live near quite a few indoor malls, Fox Valley mall was my home away…
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February 26, 2024