Unlived Nostalgia

Born in the 90s, been dope ever since. I don't even know why I wrote that, it just sounds cool (in my head).

I wanted to write about this topic in my last post, especially as it's inspired by Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris. As someone born in the 90s, I was very fortunate to experience some amazing things:


- music, 1999 brought me Sisqo's Thong Song at an age where I barely understood what was so intriguing about a thong that it required a song dedicated to it,
- movies: The Matrix & American Pie, both watched for the first time at ages where I was at least five years to young to be watching 
 television: Eastenders in it's glory days with storylines such as Who Shot Phil? Okay, I could have, and should have, given a better example.

Despite all of this, I can't help but constantly feel envious of those who were old enough to enjoy the things that were before my time, or before the time I was old enough to fully enjoy them:

- Old School garage and the warehouse raves that facilitated them
- Bobby Brown and all the other dope music from the 80s. The cool dances, the fly attire.
- The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince, Diff'rent Strokes
- Michael Jordan.
- Michael Jackson concerts.

I could go on with this list. In Midnight in Paris, the central character has an obsession with the past (specifically the 1920s) and desire to have lived in this era, believing it to have been the best era in history. Given the opportunity to experience this period through time-travel and being surrounded by the people he idolised, he finds that these people he idolised look back on a previous era - namely, the 1890s - in the same way he does.

It's an ongoing cycle. Could we be so foolish as to dwell on a past that we never experienced that we are unable to appreciate the greatness we're living in? Will our kids be jealous of us that we had Drake in his prime, that we saw Avatar 3D, experience the Watch The Throne tour in person, that we watched football during an era where a player of Cristiano Ronaldo's talent was overshadowed, that we once had a TV channel mostly dedicated to great black comedies like My Wife & Kids?

I think most of us fall prey to the beast that is unlived nostalgia. They do say you never know what you've got 'til it's gone so perhaps we're part of a natural process that we can't get out of...

Anyway, I'll conclude this post by trying to make a change. An appreciation for something I've been fortunate enough to live and experience.

 The greatest rapper to ever touch a mic: Jay-Z (I would advise reading Decoded if you're unconvinced; I was convinced before reading it in any case).

Currently listening to: Jay-Z - Encore

N.B. no idea why there's a picture of that random dude above. For anybody who is unfamiliar with Jay-Z, that is not him.