Instant past

I have to say, I think I have created something unbelievable out here on the Internet, a unique site. I mean, where else will you find reviews of a Get Up Kids concert, a diatribe filled with existential angst, and the exchange rate of the Thai Baht all in one place. I don’t know what’s more incredible, the sheer variety of topics that I cover here or the fact that within fifteen minutes of asking for an exchange rate I’m getting quotes for it.

It’s another night without a real topic. I could talk about The Amazing Race, where tonight we finally had the elimination of the team of Jonathan and Victoria. Which is good because when watching reality tv I’m not really hoping to see instances of spousal abuse but this team came way too close. As someone else wrote, this wasn’t interesting television, it was disturbing television. But, I’m probably the only one who watches the show so I should probably switch topics.

On my ever-present topic of instant nostalgia, we do have the case of VH-1 doing “I love the 90’s Part Deux” this week. I’ve only watched a little bit of it. I mean, it’s not like they are going to show it once. It’s VH-1, where they’ve also given up on showing music and will instead show specials on Brittney Spears every hour on the hour. I’ll have the marketing logic of that explained to me one of these days. Until then, it’s instant nostalgia all the time.

We’ve got two problems here. One is that it is really tough to do two hours on the early 90’s without stretching. I’ve already seen bits on Cliffhanger, White Men Can’t Jump, Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop. Now some of those movies were legitimate hits and others had some moments of unintentional comedy but do any of these spring to mind when you think of the early 90’s? I mean, off the top of your head can you even name the year that any of those movies came out? I can’t and we are talking about my late high school/early college time of my life when pop culture was my life. (Well, that and circuit diagrams. Sigh. I’m just going to curl up in a ball on the floor for a few minutes. Excuse me for a moment…)

The other problem is this case of instant nostalgia. I can be nostalgic for 1991. For me, that’s starting college and listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam before anyone knew about them, except for the people in Seattle who had been listening to them for three years. But who is nostalgic for 1998? That’s not the past, that is like last week. A kid in college watching it is going, “Oh yeah, I remember senior year of high school.” You can’t even figure out what has become a cult classic in that time frame. It took Repo Man a lot longer than six years to become a cult classic. Even with a plate of shrimp.

(You know, I have a story about watching that movie at Macalester College that I’m not sure I’ve ever told anyone. And I’m not starting tonight. Just felt like giving Bob Mould’s alma mater a shout out.)

So, please, let’s lay off the instant nostalgia for a little bit. We are rapidly running out of past and have a need to conserve our limited resources of retro.