Your Guide to Nostalgia
Olivia Rodrigo, Nardwuar, Francis Ford Coppola, and more, weigh in on nostalgia.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be—except it totally is. In a world of ephemeral content and fleeting trends, our first Guide is a letter of recommendation for the stuff that actually endures, curated from the depths of the Perfectly Imperfect archives. This is a rose-tinted dive into the gloriousness of yesteryear; unhinged reality TV roadside soda fountains and secret high school smoke spots. Because some things are too good to let go.
Illustrations by Rory Hayatgheybi
Tap in on the ask -** what are you nostalgic for**?
☕
I've been frequenting this place for 15 years, and it feels like home. Plus their pasta dishes are excellent!
Nov 14, 2024
🛝
The most fun thing to do is to play with kids, be with a group of kids and just play with them and make up plays or stories. When I was younger I used to be a drama counselor: and I was in charge of about 9 boys, and I would always have so much fun with them, reading to them and doing treasure hunts.
Oct 4, 2024
🧶
I’ve been blown away by rewatching Family Guy Season 4. It’s really impressive, but falls off hard about 10 episodes into Season 5. There’s a subversive and unpredictable quality to these episodes that’s unlike any other show I’ve seen. I had these all recorded on my TiVo as a child and would watch them over and over, so it’s part of a dangerous regressive pattern (see my earlier recommendation of “chilling”), but I think these are some of the most creative episodes of comedy television ever made. They’re bursting with energy and the pacing is mind boggling, joke after joke after joke. I had forgotten how smart the show used to be. In my head it was kind of a dumb show for middle schoolers and adults with tattoos who work at vape shops, but I was wrong, I’ll admit it.
Oct 7, 2024
🤍
If I’m ever at all anxious, I put YouTube on my TV and watch an amazingly comforting series called Intimate Portraits, which focuses on one woman in Hollywood per episode. The subjects are usually from the Golden Age of Hollywood up until about the 80’s or 90’s. The usually English female narrators talk so slowly and precisely about Bacall’s depression or Garland’s divorces, it weirdly makes me feel so relaxed and distracted. My favorite episode is on Lauren Bacall, and once you watch one, you can’t stop!
🎸
If you know me even the tiniest bit you know that I am shamelessly the biggest Coldplay fan. I know people wanna say they're cringe and i get it...but their early stuff..i'm talkin Parachutes, Rush of Blood to the Head, Even Viva La Vida goes so hard. Parachutes was the first CD I rented from the library when I was like 12 or 13 so they are just super nostalgic for me now. I did a cover of Yellow a couple years and recreated their iconic video for it and they tweeted about it! I lost my mind!!
Jan 5, 2024
👕
Burcu’s Angels in Vancouver has an amazing array of used clothing which I wear for many of my interviews! They are all about colour, texture and fabric! Doot doola doot doo… Burcu’s Angels!
🧡
As I get older I get more self aware. I try to understand what I really like and what to make time for. If there’s something you loved and then strayed away from because you made new friends or moved to a new place, find time to pick whatever that is back up. Go dust off the old guitar and look up youtube tutorials and get back into it. Btw this actually leads me into my next rec…
🎵
Last summer I spent a lot of time pining over this boy that I had been on and off with for 2 years. He told me this one story about a long boozy summer lunch he had in Brittany and it wouldn't leave my mind. I so deeply wanted to be there and a part of a world where people have long boozy lunches in Brittany. One thing I love about anything (food, movies, books, music) is if it makes me feel like I'm in a different time and place. I decided to fill my home with music that would transport me to Paris in the era of "Gigi", which is this radio station. It's so wistful and nostalgic of my past life as a sexually empowered courtesan. Also, things did not work out with that guy.
Jun 8, 2021
🥖
This place feels frozen in time in a charming way with a tinge of liminal space aesthetic. The nostalgic candies and toys make it feel familiar to me but only because I remember the stories from my mom and grandma's childhoods. This place carries a ton of specialty drinks and even offers an option of crafting your own soda with tons of syrup flavors to choose from. I'm still working on my perfect soda flavor combination. I'm recommending Galco’s not just for the vibe but for their sandwiches! Being from the east coast (new jersey, philly, new york) ive become a lowkey (hoagie) sandwich snob. The bread is my first priority and the bread here is the perfect texture. I really enjoy the Turkey Blockbuster without mustard and a bag of salt and vinegar chips.
Sep 19, 2024
🗺️🍔🕸️
I’m a big tourist in America and have always been infatuated with American oddities. Roadside America has hands-down the best list of freaky places to see. I have planned countless trips around their lists. Their app also feels very web 1.0 which is fitting to me with all the nostalgic locations that are listed. You really have to put work into finding the treasures on there – so it's just the real heads that end up visiting these places.
Jul 19, 2024
🤘🏻🖤
I watched an obscene amount of early-to-mid 2000s reality TV during quarantine, including this delightful MTV series starring Travis Barker and his then-wife, model/actress Shanna Moakler. Viewers can tell the couple is keeping it totally real in front of the cameras: Travis was at the height of his Blink-182 fame while becoming a father for the first time, and watching the Barkers balance their hard-partying rock star lives with starting a family is endearing.
Sep 9, 2021
🎵
Vampire Weekend is the best band of all time. I exclusively listen to Edith Piaf, the Newsies Soundtrack, and Vampire Weekend. But mostly Vampire Weekend. I play that shit on repeat all day long. I wake up and listen to “Horchata” for about an hour, then I move on to the song “Step” and then for the rest of the day, walking around New York, I listen to their album “Father of the Bride.” I fell in love for the first time to the sounds of Vampire Weekend, and so I just don’t see the point in listening to anything else. I’ve never had sex to Vampire Weekend but my next boyfriend will love doing that, I just know it. VW’s music lifts me up and shoves me down and makes me nostalgic for things I have and haven’t had. Their music works well in every country. I feel like life is big and beautiful and that I’m absolutely unstoppable when “I Stand Corrected” is blasting. People like to say I have terrible taste in music but I disagree. Also, there is nothing ironic about my praise here. I love Vampire Weekend. I hope one day I become semi-famous so that they will have no choice but to play at my wedding.
Sep 21, 2021
🏞️
Don’t get me wrong, I love going to the beach in the summer but something about swimming holes hits different. There’s a sense of real nostalgia and joy that captures the true essence of summer. I grew up in Minnesota also known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, so maybe this is a way to connect with my roots. There are lots of swimming holes to choose from even as close as New Jersey. One of my favorites is more-so a lake but it’s surrounded by mountains and has a hot dog stand. It’s called Bellayre Beach and it will make you feel like a kid again.
📹
I’ve been rewatching old seasons of The Real World and the new spin-off seasons where they reunite the cast to re-argue old conflicts in the same house they lived in decades ago. The combination is a heady mix of nostalgia and horror. Flashback: I’m fourteen and pacing around my childhood home. Everyone is asleep and I’m watching Ruthie black out on The Real World: Hawaii, nervous about transferring to public school, listening to the locusts buzz. Today: I’m thirty-five and pacing around my house in LA. Some fifty year old is getting his ribs broken in gladiator combat on The Challenge. Fame is a trap. All these TikTok kids are fucked.
Jun 14, 2022
🧙♂️
This is a semi-secluded place in Prospect Park. Kind of like a secret garden energy. Very special place. I used to go here in high school with friends who lived in the area mostly to smoke weed. A lot of weed-smoking in the city has to do with trying to access some kind of pastoral fantasy in this wacky town. This is exactly that embodied. It’s like a pond overgrown with various plants, and then a strange little lawn adjacent to it, where a lot of dubious characters sort of skitter around in and out of view; it makes it all the more trippy. Still go here when I need a minute. I don’t smoke that much weed any more.
Aug 11, 2022
🍦
The block where DeKooning, Rothko & Kerouac made their names in the 1950’s features this decades-old Chinese ice cream parlor. A sugar cone with 2 scoops of their Orange Creamy ice cream will destroy any notions of comfort you ever had. Violently mellow flavors in a heavenly room.- Matt
Oct 9, 2024
📚
Night Walk is one of my favorite photography books of the last decade. It’s an incredible document of the tumultuous Lower East Side in the 1980’s. Described as a “narrative of lost youth,” it incapsulates a raw energy in a specific moment in time. Rarely do I see still images so expressive, so intentionally chaotic but with an artistic authority. This book is a force, and it doesn’t have a lot of text which I love. Just purely moving imagery. The photos of the art scene resonate with me. It’s a reworking of the original book, Invisible City, which came out in 1988.
Nov 15, 2022
🏩🗒️🖊️
i’m getting old by m. night shyamalan because i’m collecting stuff like notepads from hotels now. but they really are a lovely little memento, and in this time-collapsed era it’s nice to look at stationery and think “oh right, i stayed at the ace hotel when my heater broke last winter.”
Jan 31, 2023
🎀
my friend Petra gifted me a custom Blythe doll inspired by the music video we did for “bad idea, right?” I’ve always been obsessed with dolls and miniature things and this little object brings me so much joy. I recently went to Japan and found a store full of them and became even more obsessed.
Oct 28, 2024
🗯️
It’s good to let your mind wander sometimes. See where it takes you and see what you think of. You might be surprised by the things you come up with!
Mar 21, 2023
