It's yesterday once more

I have some theories why days in the past seem often so attractive and "better". I don't have exclusive rights to all of these, but no matter. Just let me entertain you (a Queen quote, not by Robbie Williams).

One of my oldest observations is about the movies. Yes, if a film describes a certain year in the past, there are old cars in the pictures. To be exact, they are all of that precise vintage: if you have a "backflash" in a movie from e.g. 1955, every goddamn character has a new car from that year. And they are always pretty clean and waxed, all the time. Hell, if I looked out the window (if I had one with such a view), I'd see quite few car models of 2009. And the standard of living has risen since the 50's. Take a look at film footage from 1955, there's a lot of cars from the 30's in it. Probably the actual owner of the car, who has lent his/her pride and joy to the movie production, wouldn't have allowed them to be smutched, not to mention scratched. That's a fake picture of the past, and of course more beautiful than in reality.

The same goes for cellular phones for example. It's pretty rare to see a brand new phone in use immediately after its release, unless it's a company phone. Well, in The Dark Knight movie Batman used a Nokia model which hadn't even been released yet. But that is fiction and Tube isn't actually state-of-the-art tech anymore. In one episode of X-files there was a tongue-in-cheek flashback, with Mulder carrying a huge mobile phone with him. Old technology means fun sometimes, especially with phones. I had my first cellular in 2001, because I was strongly against it for years. I had to have it because of my work. It didn't fit in my philosophy then; now I can hardly live without it. Things change.

Also TV's fall into the same cathegory. Right now, I don't possess an HD-TV, and it was not until late 70's when we had our first colour TV. Naturally without a remote control, although they were already in constant use in the US by then. Even in some Finnish series they like to "remember" everyone having a colour TV in the 60's. Hell, there wasn't even that much production in available in colour. In the mid-70's, all the TV presentations were still in black-and-white.

Maybe the worst generalizer of all is the TV series Cold Case which I otherwise dig. Basically everything is vintage about the year in question. For instance, I didn't listen to the hits of the day at home in 1998. I don't even know what the hits were then. I was so concentrated on my own music that I couldn't care less about others'. And the music in Cold Case etc. filming plays in stereo, sometimes even in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 (how far can they go with the speaker system? 1000000.1? LOL!). Mono players were very popular still in the 60's. There are no scratches in the records, remember vinyls and 78s? (shellac, savikiekko, stenkaka) I bet that the next time they set up a sixties scene in a movie, they will use the fresh out of print re-mastered versions of The Beatles songs in it. Why not? Authenticity is for the freaks like me (another good title: freaks like me. LMAO!).

About the beauty of the past. When we take a look at old photos or video shots, it's usually sunny and beautiful. Well, those days photography was heavily dependent on light and shooting in the rain was out of the question. We usually smile for the camera, rather than cry. All of this moulds our minds later when we browse old pictures. Even in the movie industry they need light and sunshine to film outside the studios. Rain has often been arranged with artificial showers.

Naturally our own personal memories are alike. When we were young and healthy, without worries of adult age, everything may easily seem to have been lovely in the past. It affects whether we like it or not. People tend to remember only the good things in the past, leaving the bad stuff under the carpet. That may be wise for humans to survive (this one's for Darwin). Looking at old pictures may bring back bad memories as well, but mostly people skip those pictures, or move on quickly to the next picture with more pleasurable memories.

Like a legendary Finn, Matti Nykänen, has once said: "Elämä on ihmisen parasta aikaa" (Life is the best time for man). He should know. Carpe diem, seize the day, and remember that we're living now those wonderful memories of the future! Smile :)