NOSTALGIA & OMEGLE

        Very recently I grew paranoid about this nostalgic feeling of mine. I would wonder if I am the only one who is so attached to the past. So I decided to take a survey with reference to deal with this issue and what better way than OMEGLE. I chose omegle because it got people from all over the world  who probably would be truthful with their viewpoints as a stranger , unbiased.

Omegle-Talk To Strangers!

       My question was:

IF GIVEN A CHANCE TO BE BORN IN THE PAST WHEN AND WHERE WOULD YOU BE BORN SO THAT IN YOUR LIFETIME YOU GET TO DO ALL THE THINGS AND ATTEND ALL THE EVENTS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO…???

8 out of 10 times , it was classic era of 50s and 60s , very similar to what  I have always thought.

Born in  the 50s , post-World War , where nations are trying to revive their economies.

A time which would mould the future in every field.

Le Corbusier-"A House is a Machine to live in"

Le Corbusier's Usine Verte [Apartments still look the same these days]

Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin[Early Urban Planning involving Skyskrapers]

Precise, planned ,minimalistic , machine-age fast and  economic housing introduced by Le Corbusier , Mies Van der Rohe etc. which are seen in todays’ apartments, sky scrapers and  planned cities.

Mies Van Der Rohe -"Less is More"

Skin & Bone Structure i.e. Glass & Steel exhibited in Mies' New National Gallery

Lakeshore Drive Apts. [Giving way to today's Sky Scraper]

USA and The Allied Forces CAPITALIST economy and Russia’s SOCIALIST economy , the resulting COLD WAR and India’s adoption of MIXED economy.

First Crush: Marilyn Monroe, often considered the most popular blonde of all times, she defined class, glamour and sophistication. Blondes are either dumb for real or are smart enough to make others think they are dumb and Marilyn makes me believe it is the later.

Marilyn Monroe 's skirt getting blown up from air from the subway [in the movie The Seven Year Itch]

Marilyn Monroe's Quotes:

"A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing."

"Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one."

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

"I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else."

"It's all make believe, isn't it?"

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

"I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

"I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing."

"I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot."

"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything."

 

"A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left."

 "I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time."

"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Sexual Revolution initiated by the likes of Betty Page.

Betty Page

Bettie Page's Quotes

"I was never the girl next door."

"I don't know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn't do that as a secretary."

"[Jerry Tibbs was] the one who got me wearing bangs. For years I had my hair parted down the middle in a ponytail, tucked down around the sides. But he said to me, 'Bettie, you've got a very high forehead. I think you'd look good if you cut some bangs to cover it.' Well, I went and cut the bangs, and I've been wearing them ever since. They say it's my trademark."

Gletchen Mol as Bettie Page in the 2006 Biography Movie 'The Notorious Bettie page'

"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn`t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn`t think of myself as liberated, and I don`t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn`t know any other way to be, or any other way to live."

"No, I don`t think my fans want to see me old and fat. I`ve got to get another 20-25 lbs. off somehow - remember me as I looked when I was younger. I get sad when I see my favorite movie stars when they`re old. Who wants to see Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau now as the The Odd Couple (1968)? Jack Lemmon is a fan of mine."

Imagine you are at this club, Cadillacs with tailfins ,Supercharged Auburns parked outside. Men in their finest suits, Fedora hats , Ducktails, Cigar in one hand , Martini in the other; women in gowns, hair in pompadours , huge sunglasses ,sipping on champagne and long cigarette holder on that dark red lips; an elevated stage, jazz  being played in the background, trumpets and saxophones; cabaret dance……

Frank Sinatra with Fedora Hat

Al Capone

James Bond and Martini: Inseparable bond

John Travolta with Ducktail hairstyle

Audrey Hepburn,Pompadour & Cigarette Holder

Claudia Cardinale w/ Huge Sunglasses

Faye Dunaway

Supercharged Auburn

Tail Fins of a Cadillac

Liza Minnelli in the 1972 movie Cabaret

GOOSEBUMPS anyone?

NOSTALGIA , MTV & HIP HOP

— n

 a yearning for the return of past ,often in idealised form

        These days I 'm having a strong sense of nostalgia creep up my mind ,so much so that it came out as my first blog post. Since my days of turning 18 , I have got this sense of adulthood and on the flipside missing them good old childhood days.

     It all started with music. Like every 13 yr old kid ,I would shamelessly watch pop princesses ,boy bands and the likes of Eminem, 50 cent on MTV endlessly. Eminem ,my then idol, would inspire me so I would go on to rap. Yeah, I was enthralled by their ‘rags to riches’ stories, ’Money,power,respect’ as LOX put it.

Eminem

      But soon, very soon I would realise 99.5% of artists on MTV are nothing but commercial gimmicks, mere puppets in the hands of their production houses. No wonder Immortal Technique in his song Industrial Revolution says "here's a quotable for every single record exec, get your fucking hands out my pocket nigga like Malcolm X" .It is the prostitution of art in the hands of production houses who get richer and richer  while the artist  has to do what the audience and inevitably producers want to and not the other way round. I   don’t need to even spew up a conspiracy theory to say MTV killed music. MUSIC IS DEAD.

Immortal Technique

Malcolm X

           Starting with hip hop genre, lets take the example of the most famous music producer Dr. Dre. He was the one who, since his album, THE CHRONIC , popularised the verse-chorus-verse-course structure.eg .Nuthin but a G thang .This led artists to strive for more and more catchy choruses so that kids , chics can sing-along. Eminem [whom I respected for the straight forward and raw person he was] was rendered a hip pop artsist by Dre.

Dr. Dre's The Chronic

By the way, Dre is the same guy to have creative differences with RAKIM , [your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper, who popularised multi-syllabic in-rhymes] and not just the simple a-b-a-b rhyme scheme.
eg. Microphone Fiend

Eric B. & Rakim[Hip Hop's Best Duo]

         I went deeper and deeper[by which I mean older and older] ,listened to underground rappers from those days who spoke of socio-politics, science, history ,current affairs ,in short, everything. I  bet, a single rapper from that time could defeat today's hundred rappers, who have fallen,enough to use auto-tune like lil wayne.

Big Daddy Kane

KRS-One[Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone]

Chuck D of Public Enemy

Kool G Rap

Biz Markie

RUN-DMC

           Rakim Allah, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One,Chuck D ,Biz Markie, Kool G Rap belonged to the golden age of hip hop ,between the 80s and 90s. This was  the time when it had grown all complex ,much evolved from  simple rhymes thrown by Afrocentric DJs when they came to the Bronx and Queens.This implies that Dr. Dre got us to where it all started from.

DJ Herc

Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five was the 1st rapper to call himself a MC

          No one can appreciate hip hop  for what it is today,  and I don’t even blame them. Artists haven’t given heed to the saying ”Rap to express,not impress ” and that is why as NAS put  “HIP HOP IS DEAD”