The Nostalgia Thread

[H4run]

I miss the Cold War

Made all kinds of things so much more simple in the time I was a kid
And I miss the music of the garage beat bands at school parties... me still being green as grass

The Hunters, Amsterdam, 1966: Russian Spy And I
Do note the balalaika guitar piece of co-writer Jan Akkerman at 1:25

(apologies for some of the vid slides... there is no other vid on the internet)

The music is nice!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

yessss...life the fullest

exactly !

By now ageing does take its toll...

boy o boy I wish I could still dance the whole night through

I can, but I sweat that old man sweat like a fountain if I did so no one would dance within ten feet of me.

 

[Hrothbern]

The music is nice!

I like Jan Akkerman, the guitar player very much

He is a bit the Dutch Eric Clapton when Clapton was playing in for example The Yardbirds
(the guitar players Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck also in the Yardbirds)

I especially liked "For Your Love", 1965, from the Yardbirds... and I still get goose bumps hearing it now

 

[Gori the Grey]

I'm nostalgic, actually for June 12, 2019.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

sometimes we get nostalgic for things we've never experienced ourselves. I get nostalgic over socialist Chile and anarchist bavaria. my first heavy impersonal nostalgia was Boards of Canada though. it is incredible what music does to us, really

another good example of a social phenomenon of nostalgia is millions of young teens getting "nostalgic" over 80s jpop/anime as part of some weird social integration / collective memory process, even though they were born in the 90s/2000s. people connecting with each other over things they never experienced (and still only experience digitally) is probably a good metaphor for what a weird ****** time we live in.

I try to avoid nostalgia because I think it's dangerous - it can lead to glorifying a past that never was, and then trying in vain to bring it "back".

But I will say that I miss being in school and college, when I could regularly see my friends and people my age. I miss discovering all sorts of interests for the first time, lazy summer days between school years, and the days before I realized the world isn't getting better and adults don't actually know what they're doing. I miss the days when I had hope.

damn this got me

Link to video.

nice that we both have nostalgic memories associated with that specific song, even though we're quite a bit apart. I remember summer, sitting on the windowsill and doing things I shouldn't do.

Record stores: There are so many ways that the Web and modern media are superior to The Good Ol' Days of hunting for music like Indiana Jones looking for artifacts, but I do miss going into the many independent music shops around the city and browsing the bins of vinyl records. In high school, weekend trips to the shops with friends were events. It wasn't just used records at these shops, either. The independent shops were how you found the new Cocteau Twins or an imported UK-only record that included a song that wasn't on the US version. And of course they were always playing music, so you might hear something new just walking into the place. There were stores for punk, stores for jazz; stores for R&B and soul; stores for classical. The shops were also how you learned about upcoming shows, from bills posted on the walls, to local newspapers and photocopied 'zines. A handful of these places are still around, but I rarely find myself in them anymore.

I still pop by record stores from time to time. I mostly don't buy, just look around for inspiration.

Well on an individual level about the worst thing this can lead to is something like this but yeah political nostalgia or nostalgia-as-politics is often associated with fascism obviously.

I tend to agree with Phrossac and think nostalgia can be bad/unhealthy even on an individual level, though for most people it's just harmless daydreaming. in that sense nostalgia is a lot like ideology.. very easy to overdose on. zizek:

"ideology is not simply dreaming. it adresses very real problems, but mystifies them. [...] it makes it easier, in some way." he then goes on to describe how we continiously crave for meaning, how meaning makes everything easier to digest. which is exactly how we view the past: we project things onto it, we categorize it in decades, we explain the past (history) in ways we wouldn't explain the present. I think this quote works for nostalgia just as well. it's one mode of making sense of things that "just happened".

I miss 5v5 arena in world of warcraft with a team that actually stuck together across multiple seasons.

holy moly, so much yes. I am way, wayyyy too nostalgic for WoW 2v2/3v3 (I played little 5v5) arena and TBC raids. that game was like crack cocaine, not even kidding. It wasn't just addicting, it was actually that good. I've never experienced PvP on that level ever again. still every now and then I watch PvP videos from that era and it pains me so much that this specific form of PvP has never been properly recreated or triumphed. I did play WotlK and it was fun PvP, but not nearly as complex.

 

[Hrothbern]

I tend to agree with Phrossac and think nostalgia can be bad/unhealthy even on an individual level, though for most people it's just harmless daydreaming. in that sense nostalgia is a lot like ideology.. very easy to overdose on. zizek:

"ideology is not simply dreaming. it adresses very real problems, but mystifies them. [...] it makes it easier, in some way." he then goes on to describe how we continiously crave for meaning, how meaning makes everything easier to digest. which is exactly how we view the past: we project things onto it, we categorize it in decades, we explain the past (history) in ways we wouldn't explain the present. I think this quote works for nostalgia just as well. it's one mode of making sense of things that "just happened".

Nice link between nostalgy and ideology....
something like the Lost Paradise of the past and the Messiah of the future

I think you should not dwell too much in places where you cannot really engage socially in the now

Even if you are good in immersing yourself in for example a past with empathy helping to make persons, situations like real again... it does stay a product of yourself...
and yes it helps to see more of what you already know and feel and are
there is I think a side effect of tightening yourself in that making of more connections and synergies in yourself.
Seeking the balance between internal and external processes and inputs is like an art..

and future thinking gets so easily system-thinking of an exclusive nature
An antagonist for social connecting and harmony

 

[Birdjaguar]

Record stores were wonderful. At UNC (college) there was only one real record store in town, The Record Bar. I spent months during 1967 chasing down one particular girl to try and get her to speak to me and maybe even have a conversation. One tactic I used was when I saw her at the Record Bar, was to ask her about new albums and if she had heard them. She ignored me in spite of my persistence. She was very beautiful and this went on for a long time.

 

[H4run]

I like Jan Akkerman, the guitar player very much

He is a bit the Dutch Eric Clapton when Clapton was playing in for example The Yardbirds
(the guitar players Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck also in the Yardbirds)

I especially liked "For Your Love", 1965, from the Yardbirds... and I still get goose bumps hearing it now

Hroth, The thing that I like about the music that you posted is the guitar I wrote it but delete it again I thought it's not necessary to said it out-loud, but you read my mind. I will go down and see Jan Akkerman piece for sure later on.

Jimmy Page is easily one of my favorite guitar player, I posted lots of Zeppelin song here obviously, the dishes that he cook in the studio, Omg, cannot put that into words. And yes I know Yardbirds because Jimmy played there but I have a little knowledge about the Band or Jeff Back.

another good example of a social phenomenon of nostalgia is millions of young teens getting "nostalgic" over 80s jpop/anime as part of some weird social integration / collective memory process, even though they were born in the 90s/2000s. people connecting with each other over things they never experienced (and still only experience digitally) is probably a good metaphor for what a weird ****** time we live in.

With the commonality of internet, and free database for all-very nice indeed, time is pretty much mashed and blended. Our life pretty much "modded" by everbodeh

I tend to agree with Phrossac and think nostalgia can be bad

For me is just a little "time machine". I'm most powerful, most money, most free and most everything now. Well except I cannot do what I do in high-school, and I need to use my patient and brain more to get what I want. And also I'm not as attractive anymore, but what attractiveness for right now? I already got what I want!

So nostalgia for me, is just to access that sweet innocent moment. Sometime that feeling is so deep, like accessing a replica of the feeling that once you have but no longer there, a "hologram" of feeling, a simulacra?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've never worn a watch.

So you're the one that old grandfather clock joke was based on!

I miss the Cold War

I think of Trump in the place of Reagan, and shudder. That "we start bombing in five minutes" comment could have started World War III, if they hadn't convinced everyone it was a "joke" not meant to be heard (as in "I didn't realize the microphone was on").

I miss going to real bookstores on my weekly hunting expedition, trying to find anything on my "to get" list.

I've whittled that list down quite a bit thanks to eBay, but there are still some that have eluded me over the years... either because they're not available at all, or they're only available for an insane price. Yes, I really want to read the last book in the Dumarest of Terra series, but I won't pay hundreds or even $1000+ for it!


Music-related nostalgia... Just being able to mention The Irish Rovers and have the person I'm talking to know who I'm talking about. Nobody does, anymore. Ditto Stompin' Tom Connors. Unlike the former, I never met Stompin' Tom Connors. But he stayed in the motel my mother was working at, once (the motel was on the highway, not far from the acreage where we were living; this would have been in the late '60s or maybe 1970). I don't remember if he was performing in Red Deer or if he was just stopping over on the way to Edmonton. But she missed an opportunity to meet him, by just a few minutes.

 

[elmurcis]

Riding with simple horse carriage to near shop (~2.5 miles/4 km one way) after bread&other basic stuff and ice-cream (ofcourse! ) was fun as kid. Usually with my *grandpa* (not bio but actual) but here and there alone. Our horse was very smart girl - knew road, slowed down/moved to side of road if car was coming, stopped if bus/bigger track... Only issues could come from coming thunderstorm - didn't like that. Died at age 29 (1,5 yrs as away; last 4-5 yrs was running around with cows for fun and trying to get snacks from me). (1st thing that came in mind after reading "Nostalgia")

 

[Hrothbern]

Nice link between nostalgy and ideology....
something like the Lost Paradise of the past and the Messiah of the future

And expanding on that Nostalgia----Ideology as a Lost Paradise----Messiah for the Future...


I think you can even see that as reflecting most of all our internal processes dealing with growing up from little innocent kid with parents providing shelter, food, protection to an adult having to deal with everything including the fears for what could be in our future and therefore forcing the need of systems to take control and hope as the magic touch
In that way the Tree of Knowledge (of good and evil) is the growth from kid to adult.

 

[H4run]

And expanding on that Nostalgia----Ideology as a Lost Paradise and Ideology----Messiah for the Future...

I really don't get what you mean here, can you elaborate more? what you mean by Lost Paradise here is John Milton's poem?

 

[AdamCrock]

I'm nostalgic, actually for June 12, 2019.

Why that specific date ?

---
@haroon how are You feeling man ? I hope nostalgia is not a symptom of covid j/k
---
I'm feeling nostalgic today too - listening to a bunch of 80's songs now on YT - too many to post, that I like

 

[H4run]

@haroon how are You feeling man ? I hope nostalgia is not a symptom of covid j/k

37.5 something warmish I guess-already drop so much, tomorrow I need to go also to meet people, throat pain already gone-very minor. Just coughing. I stop drinking Mefinal (pain killer?) but everything much more bearable right now. But I really hope this is covid symptom so that's meant I already get through it and no need to worry about it anymore

And 80s song for you:

 

[AdamCrock]

37.5 something warmish I guess-already drop so much, tomorrow I need to go also to meet people, throat pain already gone-very minor. Just coughing. I stop drinking Mefinal (pain killer?) but everything much more bearable right now. But I really hope this is covid symptom so that's meant I already get through it and no need to worry about it anymore

And 80s song for you:

Thank You my man, great song ! ^^ Glad to hear Your symptoms are starting to subside, this means if it's covid You're gonna make it , if it's not You're gonna make it too Be strong , CFC could not handle the loss of such a cool man

 

[Hrothbern]

I really don't get what you mean here, can you elaborate more? what you mean by Lost Paradise here is John Milton's poem?

Milton writes the more traditional explanation of Paradise: the evil Satan, the evil snake, the disobedience of first Eve and then Adam... the punishment of being driven out of Paradise... the extra punishment for all women to be in pain when getting children...etc... BUT... everything is solved again when the Messiah comes.
Milton wrote BTW also Paradise Regained, but that is too much outdated theological, not worth the trouble of reading.
I used Lost Paradise and not Paradise Lost to distinguish without losing the connotation.

Milton in line with Old Testamentic Bible that is addicted to wrath, doom and punishment. Many prophets all the time busy with that.

So let's take the story much more at a simple "matter of fact level"
* There is Paradise
* Adam and Eve are innocent
* There are many fruits that supply ample food and no clothes etc needed: everything is provided
* There is a Tree Of Knowledge (incl Good and Evil)
* Eating fruit of that Tree is forbidden
* After eating that fruit Adam and Eve lose their innocense and are expelled, have to struggle for a living
* But Paradise will come back as a new lasting Paradise or come back as a Kingdom of Heaven when the Messiah comes.

That innocense of your own youth is something you can remember... but at the same time it is lost forever because you know too much... it is a nostalgia to your early past as kid to something you can never reach again.
In Paradise everything was provided like your parents do. And the punishment is being expelled from being provided: you stand on your own and life is a struggle. Like becoming an adult starting your own life and household.
Having now as adult that responsibility of your own household, family, kids you learn to see risks that threaten your struggle in being a good responsible parent. The older you get, the more risks you can see. Your "fear" for the future, for what can go wrong, is now part and parcel of your life.
How to take control of your future and improve, how to avoid doom ?
Ideology gives you a tool for that and Hope as well. Ideology more the rational systemic approach like theology (more for the elite, the intellectuals). Hope more simple, more the romantic or Faith approach (more for the people to busy with practical living).
Whereby I see not much difference in the Hope you get from a romantic Faith approach from a religion or the Flag of your Nation.
Both supply in that respect The Big Protector for the future.

Looking in this way at that classic story it becomes a story of our own life

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Record stores were wonderful. At UNC (college) there was only one real record store in town, The Record Bar. I spent months during 1967 chasing down one particular girl to try and get her to speak to me and maybe even have a conversation. One tactic I used was when I saw her at the Record Bar, was to ask her about new albums and if she had heard them. She ignored me in spite of my persistence. She was very beautiful and this went on for a long time.

Persistence only works if you throw in a degree of stalking. You needed to ask about only the right albums.

 

[AdamCrock]

I use nostalgia to cope with present reality.

It is easy to say that nostalgia can be overdone. Things become less clear and obvious when you ask yourself what the person could do to no longer rely on nostalgia... and then ask yourself why they might not have already done it. You could go the "They're just stupid." route, but it might be worth considering that they rely on nostalgia because the options available in the present are lacking and they're not in the business of dying.

I use video games to cope with mine (reality). I mean my reality is pretty sad and full of that thing, that hits the fan. (and thanks to Aimee we know that You should put fans in a closet and live Your life to to the full ) Nostalgia is a great way but be careful using it, because You may loose it. Just like I loose my cool and on the brink of tears when hearing songs like "The Summer of 69" o.O

Spoiler it was the summer of 'sixty nine :

 

[Gori the Grey]

Why that specific date ?

It's the day Lex started this thread. I didn't post in it when it first ran last summer. Now I'm nostalgic for last summer--i.e. for before the coronavirus, when one could be nostalgic for other things than just life-before-the-coronavirus!

 

[AdamCrock]

It's the day Lex started this thread. I didn't post in it when it first ran last summer. Now I'm nostalgic for last summer--i.e. for before the coronavirus, when one could be nostalgic for other things than just life-before-the-coronavirus!

Yeah I miss the things to do when not being locked down like an animal - work -> home -> repeat , like going out with the guys