nostalgia

The Future of Nostalgia
$18.95
"How to begin again? How to be happy, to invent ourselves, shedding the inertia of the past? How to experience life & life alone, "that dark, driving, insatiable power that lusts after itself?" These were the questions that bothered the moderns. Happiness, and not merely a longing for it, meant forgetfulness & a new perception of time." "The modern opposition between tradition & revolution is treacherous......" So opens the second chapter of Svetlana Boym's "The Future Of Nostalgia" after she has traced the roots of the concept from being identified as a DISEASE of Swiss exiles into a recognition of the problem of all mankind at the start of the 21st century. I hope I'm not wrong in saying that I think that this book may be an important new cornerstone in art, poli-sci & philosophy. I like this book THAT MUCH.... Ms. Boym's book fell into my hands quite serendipitously as I was researching material for my own novel; I was doing a search on "hypochondria" for a character I was trying to delineate with a certain kind of homesickness, and up popped the heading "Hypochondria Of The Heart" for an interview with Ms. Boym in a newspaper from Harvard University where she is a professor of Slavic Literature. The premise for her book deeply intrigued me since she elucidated some similar points that I had been trying to frame in my own work. I hurriedly ordered her book from our local library, anticipating something groundbreaking. I wasn't disappointed. This book traces a link between poetry, philosophy & politics in the modern age which is rooted in nostalgia, the longing for home & the feeling of loss due to a disctinctly modern concept of time. However, this is no futile deconstructionist tract, nor is it a conservative tome yammering on about the pervasive influences of the enemy in a "See? We told you so!" smug-but-ineffective posturing. What Ms. Boym does is show both healthy & unhealthy effects of nostalgia on history & memory. The first part of the book lays out what the modern conception of time has done to modernity, popular culture, conspiracies & collective memory, et. al. This clarifies the reality of the problem of modern life not as meaningless, but a somatization of symptoms attributed to to fractured parts of humanity, cultural & individual. She doesn't stop there, however. Boym is savvy enough to show examples of her position in parts two & three of the book. Part two shows the impact of longing for return on Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin & Europe in general. This cements evidence for the concept of modern time on TRADITION, by showing
what particular post-Communist cities do to reinstill history after years of trying to synthesize it. Part three cleverly goes to the other side for a balance by showing the longings of exiles like Nabakov,Brodsky & Kabakov.
In this mode, the idea of nostalgia affecting historical tradition is expanded to included the revolutionary INDIVIDUAL going against the grain & what they expected their hopes to gain them apart from their homelands. All of this could be very boring however, except that Ms. Boym exhibits a clear & rich style, making this book a terrific read. I found myself wanting to read it again, not because of confusion, but because of the wealth of insights that flow forth from her. This is the first book I've read to give any useful & pragmatic perspective on our seemingly fracturing globe these days, not because it points out what is going on, but because it takes the idea of "home is where the heart is" and shows what might have happened to the heart. I feel that this book is universally useful to all political stripes and many different fields of the humanities. I'll wager that this may turn out to be one of the first most important books of the 21st century. Why? Because I feel a wiser & more articulate human being from reading it.

Phantasy Star 0
$34.99
I will put it nice and simple. Phantasy Star 0 is the true spiritual successor to the original Phantasy Star Online (hereafter known as PSO) that debuted on the Dreamcast and later ported over to the Gamecube, Xbox consoles and the PC version Blue Burst. If you were a fan of PSO, this game will draw you back into those wonderful memories of grinding away hours upon hours of leveling up, finding loot and having fun with your friends. While PS0 does take the battle/beat system of PSO, they have gone and improved on it as well by including PSU's Photo Art system.

While the game is rather fun, especially with the limitations with the DS, even this game has its flaws. Such flaws include not having a quick swap panel system, but is remedied by an alternative method, having only a Level 100 cap like in the original PSO, opposed to ver 2 and Episode I & II editions where the cap was level 200. And most importantly, while it's not Sega's fault; Nintendo's online WFC system. Because of how its handled, you can only match-make with either random people or join up with your friends, (after swapping your friend-codes with them.) And lastly, I'm sure this must be due to the limitations with the DS, but the character creation system isn't as robust as to PSO or even PSU for that matter. There are very few options to choose from when creating your character so expect to see clones running around during online play. :(

If you were a fan of the days of PSO and want to relieve those memories with this new installment, I highly suggest picking this up. While it has its flaws, it's easily overlooked as this game will once again suck your life away as you burn the midnight oil trying to find those red rare items. :)

Hopefully if this game sells well, Sega will make a sequel, and improve on it. (Hint: Sega, increase the level cap to 200!)

Nostalgia CFF-990 Stainless-Steel 3-Tier Chocolate Fondue Fountain
$59.99

I loved this fountain was a sucess in my dauther's 15 birthday. i recomend that. works perfect if you folLow the instructtions.Easy to clean, the plastics parts can go in dish washer and will be ready to use again. I am realy happy with that and i still laugh when i remenber a litle boy at the end of the party....CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN I'LL MISSED YOU SO MUCH...BYE!! Was realy fun!

Nostalgia Official Strategy Guide
$17.99
BradyGames¡Ç Nostalgia Official Strategy Guide includes the following: A complete walkthrough of every area including places like London, New York, Cairo, Africa, and Russia. AREA MAPS: In-depth area maps of each location, pinpointing the position of items and side-quests CUSTOMIZATION HANDBOOK: Everything needed for airship customization ? weapons, armor, and special skill attacks are all covered BESTIARY: Detailed bestiary with stats on every monster in the game Game secrets revealed! Platform: Nintendo DSGenre: Role-Playing Game