80s

Originally uploaded by duchamp blinks.

And here's another level Marie Antoinette works on - and I guess mainly the movie, but in a way, the real Antoinette too -

It's like a giant replay of the 80s. And heaven knows I loved the 80s. Why? Because it was just fun. So much of everything we do IS NOT fun anymore.

I was teen in the 80s, so that right there made them a lot more fun for me than they probably were for a lot of other people. And mainly, I remember all the best parts about the 80s - it's not as if there weren't bad parts. But it was kind of weird innocent time in a way. The music was sort of all fluff and nonesense, but there was that punky edge everywhere to everything. My mom used to always wax nostalgic about the 50s and how they had so much fun and it was such a relaxed and fun time. I think in some ways the 80s were like that too - of course my mom didn't see that during the 80s, but there are similarities. We felt like we were a long ways away from things like War - oh, yeah, there was the cold war, but I think a lot of us kids thought that was our parents fears exaggerated - I don't think we really hated Russia the way our parents seemed to - we sort of figured out that Mikhail Barishnikov was from Russia and so...well, they couldn't be all that bad could they? So war seemed sort of ...well, really UNLIKELY and at the end of the day, we just wanted some fun music and some good shoes and to be able to dance.

It's sad to me that my kids are growing up in an era of what seems to be endless war and conflict. These are not new things - these kinds of things have happened all throughout history, but I was born during during the war in Vietnam and by the time I was old enough to understand what that was it seemed like a long, long ways off in the past. I honestly never imagined a future where my kids would live with the images of war on a daily basis. It's like they really don't get to have that luxury of not knowing. I liked not really knowing.

Marie Antoinette liked not really knowing. But then again, look what happened to her.

Punk was a movement meant to upset the balance of things, but what really upset the balance of things were ideas like "trickle down economics". Poor people became MUCH more poor during the 80s. Rich people started getting A LOT richer. Things began in the 80s which continue today, with the wealthiest people trying to hold on to a lifestyle which excludes more and more people every day.

I relate to those poor people - but if I'm being honest, I have to admit I'm hanging on to my wealth in the same way - I just don't have as much of it as the people I criticize the most.

But money has really become an abstract concept to me...over time. But that's probably a blog for another day.

But I did so love the 80s.

How great is it that Sofia Coppola put a pair of Converse in the background in Marie Antoinette?