happy here

i have noticed a deep sense of nostalgia in loads of people lately. i think i can understand it because it seems to be the thing right now to be interested in old music and dress like people used to, but i'm not sure i can really relate. i honestly think that the 'olden days' were quite cool but i don't want to get stuck in my head in an imaginary past i never quite understood. that might not make sense, but i mean that living today, even if someone doesn't watch the news, you're always at least vaguely aware of what is going on around you and in the world; what you can have access to; what it really feels like to be living on the earth at this current moment. there were so many problems in the past and i don't quite know what they are, but i wonder if many other people do. they might look back at a certain decade and think of the fashion or the music or the films, and they want to go back to that time, but maybe they would have struggled in that society and not have been able to be as self expressive as we can be today.

tavi's pretty doodle: twiggy. woodstock, the beatles, breakfast at tiffany's, hippies and other lovely jubby stuff

tavi gevinson really is a queen in my eyes, and i found this post she wrote about the 21st century not being so bad to be really enriching. points 11 - 13 are no doubt my favourites. this video is also really thought provoking, i especially love what this youtuber says about lana del rey. ;-) i'm happy to be here in 2013 because there is such a wide range of music around me and i can listen to older stuff if i want to and appreciate those artists. there is rookie magazine that teaches me so much about feminism, the world and current issues. it inspires me to be creative too. google and youtube and social networking and just the internet in general can all be really helpful and without them i bet it would be so strange and much harder to find things out. there are some films and t.v programmes that i think show some problems about times in the past:

• 1910s/20s: downton abbey - i absolutely love period dramas and downton abbey is one of my favourites. maggie smith completely tops it off, but it also teaches you a lot about how society was back then. for example, when lady sybil - a rich girl, my favourite - was looked down upon for wanting to be a nurse, marrying the chauffer and getting involved in politics.
• 1960s: ginger & rosa - i really want to see this film. it's got elle fanning in it. it's about two teenage best friends living in london who get involved in protests and talk about religion and politics and all this very important stuff, but they also have lots of rebellious fun together.  there are other issues and it's probably a coming of age film. there's a great summary of it here.
• 1990s: my so-called life - i recently finished watching this american programme starring claire danes and jared leto. in the later episodes, we find out that one of the characters, ricky, is homeless and it's really emotional to watch what he goes through and how hard it is for people to understand it. ricky is also homosexual and back in 1994 that wasn't easy to be open about. another character, rayanne (my fave), almost overdoses on drugs and has an issue with alcohol. she's only 15 and in the 90s i think quite a few american teens experienced that kind of thing. i first read about it in ballads of suburbia by stephanie kuehnert who writes for rookie and it really shocked me.

of course good things happened back then and bad things still happen now, but it's so much easier to be who you are nowadays and i think (hope) the world is moving forward. :-)

"i wish people would learn the difference between "OMG i want to live in the 50s!! i was born in the wrong era" and "i appreciate the vintage aesthetic and wish it was easy and commonplace to adopt that kind of style in today's world ." because as much as i love pompadours and winged eyeliner, i also love having rights." - how relevant. i found this on hollie's blog.