David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Whitman Notebook: From Yourself
To write is not to dream.
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Posts Tagged: nostalgia
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Jill Sobule’s Favorite Spy Cars
I wasn’t into girl stuff, but I loved James Bond!
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Identity Theft
In the past year, the writing process has become, for me, a way to navigate between the present and the past, between what I have access to and what I will never know.
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Here’s Your Beginning: A Conversation with Lynn Freed
Lynn Freed discussions her recent essay collection, The Romance of Elsewhere, the importance of a good first sentence, and the risks involved in writing irony.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: John Linnell’s Sentimental Nimslo
Photos carry our memories, and in their own unique way our cameras do, too.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #114: Chelsea Martin
“I think time is really undervalued by people who come from money because they just have the time.”
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I Am Here to Make Friends
I’m not here to wallow in what feels like our new dystopia, no. Me? I am here, to rest up before the next bout. I am here to watch The Price Is Right and make friends.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #82: Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark: A Symposium
…yet she did what she did, and in the process made the most successful album of her career.
...moreThe Summer of Lana Del Rey
Three summers ago, I did nothing but drive around Middlebury, Vermont, blasting Lana Del Rey and chain-smoking cigarettes. It was—and I will be dramatic, because that is how it felt—an act of survival. That summer I was in an academic program where we were only allowed to speak or be spoken to in French. But […]
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Amy Benson
Our American obsession with the personal and individual has made us the tremendous resource consumers we are in the world.
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Lone Star Cinema
In clinging to a set of memories that fade more every day, maybe I’m also clinging to an idyllic version of my own past.
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The Eternal Hunt for Relevance: Doree Shafrir Discusses Startup
Doree Shafrir discusses her debut novel, Startup, the differences between journalism and fiction, and why she chose to tell this particular story.
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A Certain Frequency: Radio’s Appeal Across 75 Years
Today, radio is bigger than ever—but in vastly different forms. More people listen to the radio than watch TV, according to Nielsen, only now it’s on a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
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The Read Along: Neda Semnani
I picked up The Odyssey because I wanted to read about wanders and refugees. A story about a man who takes a decade to get home and is on a quest for safety seemed like a good place to start.
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My Life with Annie Lennox: Nostalgia
I don’t use the term “lifelong hero” frivolously. There are a lot of people I respect and wish to emulate; Annie Lennox, however, is the only “lifelong hero” I’ll ever have. I need her.
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: An Audience with the Husband
To ask for a truly great love is to ask for death at the same time.
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Sound Takes: Schmilco
For a band wreathed with as many indictments as laurels, as many charges of settling into post-avant-garde “dad-rock” as praise for their artistry, it’s no surprise that Wilco’s always been preoccupied with getting reborn.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #68: David Kukoff
“To read,” wrote E.M. Cioran, “is to let someone else do the work for you.” Indeed, David Kukoff has done extensive footwork collecting an array of varied experiences to give us an idea of what it was to live in LA during what might arguably be one of its most pivotal decades. His new anthology, […]
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The Rumpus Review of La La Land
Fantasy needs reality “because it’s only with the real backdrop that it works at all,” and reality needs fantasy to challenge its façade
...moreSong of the Day: “Paul”
As 2016 draws to a close, it is a time for both endings and beginnings. The electric folk of Big Thief is well-suited to such introspective moments—tinged with sepia-toned nostalgia and a shy sweetness that suggests hope for the future. Their gentle, unhurried song “Paul”—off their critically welcomed record Masterpiece—perfects the dual flavors of sweetness and bitterness […]
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in Rumpus Saturday Fiction, Sherman Alexie’s shares three short stories—”Fixed Income,” “Honor Society,” and “Valediction”—that all offer his trademark whimsy and insight into the human condition. Three different teenagers struggle with poverty, endemic racism, and social exclusion, and must depend upon themselves to make the right choices in difficult moral situations. Then, in the […]
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #55: Donald Ray Pollock
Donald Ray Pollock has been steadily serving up plates of mild horror since his first book of short stories, Knockemstiff, appeared in 2008. Pollock followed the explosion of Knockemstiff with The Devil All the Time, in 2011, his first novel, which also bordered on the genre of mystery, again with generous servings of darkness. His […]
...moreUrban Poetry
In a modern world where hyper-connectivity often results in disconnection from our immediate surroundings, creating the space to explore poetry can make us more reflective and engaged citizens. Over at the Guardian, Rosie Spinks writes about how poetry can both express urban life, and make it more beautiful.
...moreThe Most Depressing Harry Potter Fan Theory
The only thing creepier than a spot-on Harry Potter fan theory is a spot-on Harry Potter fan theory that is … not exactly unconfirmed by J.K. Rowling herself. Harry Potter is a novel series with quite a few depressing moments to get readers all up in their feelings, so it’s certainly something when a fan theory […]
...moreSwimming in Sprinkles
The Museum of Ice Cream promises to tap into childlike memories of summer days and ice cream cones. It combines those dreams with adult spending power: In the gift shop, premium sprinkles are sold for $11, next to $33 cone-shape iPhone cases. Don’t have a ticket to the sold-out Museum of Ice Cream in New […]
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FUNNY WOMEN #141: How to Write about Eastern Europe
Use words like “nostalgia,” “paranoia,” and “amnesia” liberally.
...morePaper Memories
At Medium, Melissa Mesku, founding editor of New Worker Magazine, writes about what it was like to sort through thirty years’ worth of journals, diaries, notes, and scraps of paper: Those handwritten pages contained everything I was — everything I’d ever been, wanted, thought, hoped. They were just sitting there, collecting dust, taking up space. In the slow […]
...moreThe Baby-Sitters of Stoneybrook
J. Courtney Sullivan revisits The Baby-Sitters Club for Lenny Letter to discover its long-lasting popularity, as well as the Stoneybrook girls’ adaptation into the 21st century.
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The X-Files Forever
[I]f there was ever a show that could wrestle with anxiety about aging and mortality in a new way, it’s The X-Files.
...moreFireflies, Tweets, and Jolts of Nostalgia
Over at Slate, writer Elizabeth McCracken muses about what people miss most about home and how reminiscing on Twitter creates a shared experience. She writes: Previously I would have said that nostalgia can never be experienced secondhand, but it turns out Twitter is the perfect delivery system for other people’s nostalgia: each tweet was a […]
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