
Vintage photos arenāt the only things vintage I love. I also love vintage music.
Lately, Iāve been revisiting the soundtrack of my youth. The 70s, 80s, and early 90s live on in my mind, thanks to some timeless classics.
If I Could Turn Back Timeāperformed by Cher and penned by hitmaker Diane Warrenāstands out as one of my favorites. Ironically, I didnāt like it much when it first came out. As a teenager, I couldnāt grasp why a 50-something woman performāin a thongāfor a battleship full of sailors. Now, as a 50-something gay man, I totally get it.
(For the record, Cher was in her early 40s when the song dropped in 1989.)
Long story short, the song now makes me think about the things I might have done differently, had I known then what I know now.
IF I COULD TURN BACK TIMEā¦
I WOULDāVE WRITTEN MORE CONSISTENTLY.
I WOULDāVE TRIED HARDER TO GET TO KNOW MY PARENTS.
I WOULDāVE SPENT MORE ON MENTAL HEALTH THAN SELF-HELP.
I WOULDāVE HAVE CHANGED THE CHANNEL ON ALL āREALITYā TV.
I WOULDāVE STOPPED USING SOCIAL MEDIA WHEN I LEFT LIVEJOURNAL.
āMAKE THE MOST OF YOUR REGRETS; NEVER SMOTHER YOUR SORROW, BUT TEND AND CHERISH IT TILL IT COMES TO HAVE A SEPARATE AND INTEGRAL INTEREST. TO REGRET DEEPLY IS TO LIVE AFRESH.ā
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
There are a few personal and professional relationships I wouldāve worked harder on too, but in the end, I do my best not to have regrets. Everything I did shaped the man Iāve become. For better and/or worse.
While Iām very much human, a couple of things on my list arenāt: āRealityā TV and āSocialā Media. Both are in quotes for a reasonāthey're neither reality nor social.
āREALITYā TV WAS NEVER REALITY
Once upon a time, I thought ārealityā tv was just a guilty pleasure. No harm, no foul. But ārealityā TV has warped our collective view of what ārealā life is.
Having worked (briefly) on a couple of ārealityā shows years ago, I saw firsthand how dangerous they could be.
Itās not just that the shows were and are far from reality. They set unhealthy standards for success, beauty, and conflict. Everything always has to be bigger, louder, and more outrageous.
If you stare into a funhouse mirror long enough, youāll start to believe the distorted realities and ridiculous standards reflected back at you.
If I could turn back time, I wouldāve changed the channel and focused more on my own reality instead.
āSOCIALā MEDIA WAS NEVER SOCIAL
Circa 2001-2005, I used LiveJournal to blog. While not exactly āsocial mediaā by todayās standards, like a lot of gay men of a certain age, I became more socialāboth online and in real lifeāthanks to the blogging platform. Those were good times.
Iām not sure exactly what changed, but I stopped blogging and left LiveJournal.
Over the years, I tried OG social platforms Friendster and MySpace and eventually joined Facebook. With each new platform, I saw āsocialā media becoming less about connecting with friends and more about chasing likes, followers, and algorithms.
Social media became less about community and more about echo chambers created and curated by each platformās algorithms and engagement metrics.
While I abandoned my personal social media accounts a few years ago, I was posting on my "professional" Instagram and Threads accounts until about a month ago.
Meta had become just too metastatic for me.
If I could turn back time, I wouldāve stopped a lot sooner.
Instead of curating an online persona, I couldāve spent less time scrolling and more time creating. Less time consuming, more time living.
That said, my two primary platformsāSubstack and YouTubeāboth have social media functionality built-in. And while I play the game to help support my creative habits, I bristle at the constant need to feed the algorithms and react to notifications.
Iām more than happy to respond to fellow human beings, but I do my best to ignore the engagement demands of Algo and his little bot friends.
TIME, TIME, TIMEā¦SEE WHATāS BECOME OF ME
Time moves forward, and so do we. Mostly. And while itās tempting to dwell on the ācouldāve beensā and āshouldāve beens,ā Iām choosing to take what Iāve learned and apply it now. Turning back time isnāt possible, but moving forward with intention is.
The vintage music, the rearview-mirror memories, the priceless lessonsātheyāre all still here, alive and well in my mind. They remind me to focus on what really matters: connection, creativity, and authenticity. And maybe even the occasional Cher anthem.
So hereās to living life with fewer regrets and more wisdom.
Thanks for reading and subscribing,
Clint
ON THIS DAY = SEPTEMBER 28
BIRTHDAYS
1901 ā Ed Sullivan = American television host
1934 = Brigitte Bardot = French actor
1938 = Ben E. King = American singer-songwriter and producer
1946 = Jeffrey Jones = American actor'
1964 = Janeane Garofalo = American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1972 = Dita Von Teese = American model and dancer
EVENTS
1292 = In Ghent, Belgium, John, a knifemaker, is sentenced to be burned at the stake for having sex with another man. This is the first documented execution for sodomy in Western Europe.
1877 = The first lesbian marriage takes place in Nevada when Sarah Maud Pollard, as Samuel M. Pollard, married Marancy Hughes in Tuscarora, Elko County, Nevada Territory.
1945 = Mildred Pierce, starring Joan Crawford, opens at Strand Theatre in NYC.
1968 = The Beatles' single Hey Jude hits #1 and stays at #1 for 9 weeks.
1987 = Star Trek: The Next Generation premieres in first-run syndication.
FOUND EPHEMERA OF THE DAY
NEW + FEATURED
MONDAY = WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ART + BUBBLES
TUESDAY = 1K STRONG = CHOOSING LOVE + KINDNESS
WEDNESDAY = CHOOSING SAM ELLIOTT (AGAIN)
THURSDAY = FINDING THE "RIGHT" BALANCE
FRIDAY = FOOL ME ONCE? SHAME ON AI!
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