Have you ever thought how your life would be like if you had been born in a different decade? All the recent events in my life (aka work) seem to take me back to the Silver Sixties and, as I find out more and more about that era , I can't help but thinking how my day to day would be if instead of 2011 we were, say, in 1965.So, let's say I wake up and find myself in a 60's bed, with a 60's duvet and 60's sheets (probably printed with psychedelic-inspired pink flowers). Now, as of 2011, the first thing I do as I wake up is, quite naturally, reach for my iPhone. My 1965 me would, though, reach for 3 or 4 flasks of pills and probably a bottle of syrup as well. What they are for, I don't know; probably vitamins of different kinds and "energy" pills (the ones that used to be made out of amphetamines and that got the Beatles going when they had to give 5 performances a night in Hamburg). As she gets up from bed, my 1965 me would then light a cigarette, which feels so fresh and aromatic (2011 me knows, of course, that smoking is pretty much like poisoning yourself so she doesn't... 2011 me is also a bit of a stereotypical product of an era, I'm afraid).
But now comes the best. As 2011 Marta tries to find some cool music amongst Spotify's latest hits (what will it be: Britney, Shakira or ... Myley Cyrus????) and gets progressively depressed, energized, multi-vitamined 1965 Marta carelessly dances to the Beatles' Help, the Stones, the Everly Brothers... She also probably does some Swedish excercises in her underwear.She picks a lovely A-shaped minidress and proceeds to spend the next hour and a half making her eyes up (to think that it would actually take me even more time to get made up in the morning if I lived in the 60's), but it doesn't matter since the best songs in rock & roll history are all playing in the radio, one after one after one. But eventually the liner and fake lashes will be ready.
Next, 1965 me has to get her hair ready, which will also take a considerable amount of time since volume is in this season. But it's no problem either: 60's hair dryers come in a plastic suitcase and inside a sort of bonnet, and all you have to do is put the bonnet over your head and your hands are free so you can actually pick up the phone and get the lowdown on the latest gossip while your hair does itself. This is 2011 Marta's dream, but those hairdryers just don't exist anymore.
After three or four hours getting ready, 1965 me is almost ready to get out of the house! (2011 me has probably been working for a while and is pretty bored by now) All she has to do is find her shoes, which miraculously... have only 3 cm-high heels! (instead of the 13 or 14 cm-heeled torture instruments 2011 me suffers constantly) And you know the best? They still look incredibly cool.
The day is naturally spent frolicking around and getting some work done. Modernity is the most, space age is here. The avant-garde designers are Cardin, Courrèges and Rabanne. Ain't life grand. Girls look atomic, and the men... well, they are men (instead of just boys with beards)! It's a nice change.
2011 me might be under the stress of deadlines, competition, an overdose of information, career choices, recession, the unstable political climate... But 1965 me is floating in a psychedelic world like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Everybody seems to be; even Vogue.
And, as she gets back home and turns on one of the 2 TV channels, JFK makes clever and reassuring speeches about the situation of the space race and the good old Cold War; whilst in 2011 we head towards the unknown (well, I mean, of course we do,what?)
I'm starting to be rather jealous of my 1965 me. She might not have Internet, but she gets all the fun (maybe because Facebook doesn't exist yet).
Of course I'm only fantasizing, I have no idea how my life would have really been if I was born in a previous generation (as a matter of fact, chances are not quite so cool, since my country used to be a dictature back then) and I think that, as challenging and difficult as this new decade seems, it's also really quite exciting. But sometimes, when our era seems too politically correct and aseptic and philistine, it's fun to use your own imagination... and be jealous of what it can create.
Of course I'm only fantasizing, I have no idea how my life would have really been if I was born in a previous generation (as a matter of fact, chances are not quite so cool, since my country used to be a dictature back then) and I think that, as challenging and difficult as this new decade seems, it's also really quite exciting. But sometimes, when our era seems too politically correct and aseptic and philistine, it's fun to use your own imagination... and be jealous of what it can create.
