Weekend self-care open thread: The Golden Age of Britpop

Ah. I remember it like it was yesterday. Tony Blair had just led "New Labour" to victory after almost twenty years of Tory rule under Maggie "The Wicked Witch of the West" Thatcher and her successor, John "Not So" Major. Sir Tony had declared the beginning of "Cool Britannia", and why not? The UK was the hip, happening place, Blair mirroring the changing of the guard that Bill Clinton had in the US. We were all basking in the afterglow of the ending of the Cold War. Russia was still, while not an ally, not an adversary. China was under a regime which wanted nothing other than to expand the economy, not impose its hegemony. The gas was cheap and the clubs were hopping. I look back upon those days of my youth and sigh at all that we've lost. 

From Cool Britannia, part of the soundtrack of my life back then was Britpop. From Manic Street Preachers to Blur. From James to Placebo. I bought the CDs, because this was a time before not just Spotify, but before all types of streaming. We got our music from Tower Records or Napster. It was a much simpler, much happier time, when we were all thinking of the heights we'd reach now that the conflict between East and West was over, the West had won, and it was the End of History.

I won't belabor the point as to how foolish we were. By 1999 Vladimir Putin was in power and bombing Grozny back to the Stone Age. China was tightening its grip to prevent anything like 1989 ever happening again. Bill Clinton was impeached in revenge for Richard Nixon's fate, laying the groundwork for all that has passed since then.

But we have our memories. And we have our music. It's time to go back into the wayback machine.

Friday night I went into the bowels of the blog and started looking at very old posts, and reading the comments. And I realized how many people we've lost. Granted, some I gave the bum's rush. But others simply left us, either in despair for what this country and world were becoming, or because time is the great leveler, and death is the only certainty. Do not waste your life in what-could-have-beens. We have this one precious life. I certainly don't know what lies on the other side, and as such I'm not bothered by it. Hold on to your memories, and make new ones, so that when you come to the end you know that you've done the best you could, and that's enough.

As always, dear friends, be ever kind, gentle, and joyful with yourselves and those around you.