June 17, 2009

Why "Old School Nick":

I thought I’d make this very public statement as to why oldschoolnick is so important to me since I haven’t posted anything on the site in a couple of days:

On the one hand, the site serves the purpose of nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. The feeling is comforting. I feel at ease with images that represent a time in my life when I didn’t know or understand the complexities of the world and when my greatest concern was immediate gratification (read: fun). The shows portrayed unrealistic, yet hopeful ideas about the future, my possible future.

More importantly though, the majority of the characters were junior high age or in high school, at least with the live action shows. The characters were often weird, goofy, quirky, and comfortable enough with themselves to not change those things that made them so recognizably weird, goofy and quirky.

Many times, the other characters on the shows embraced the quirkiness of the main characters. They didn’t question the main characters’ need to accept themselves or try to maneuver through the world with their heads held high.

Basically, the characters were normal, relatively average. They weren’t pop stars in training. They were real people with real concerns and quirks and that was something to get excited about (and something to still feel nostalgia for).

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