Friday night, I went out with some friends to a Dutch King’s Day* party. It was lots of fun…we wore orange, painted our faces and danced the night away. All these activities of course made us hungry so we went to Mel’s to grab a bite. Waiting for our food, the conversation was fluid and we were talking about everything and nothing. Somewhere there, one of my friends said: “I’ll stab myself if they don’t stop playing 60s music!” I thought it was a funny comment since it was Mel’s, a diner, after all and said:”then you may wanna find a sharp knife (smiling)”.

• Friend: why?
• I: It’s a diner and this is what they play in diners. I like it though!
• Friend: why?
• I: maybe because it reminds of simpler days. when people didn’t have to be so angry and mistrustful, when being cool didn’t necessary mean lots of drama and anger

Where did that come from?!!

A couple of weeks ago, one of my friend’s daughter made a fake suicide video and posted on-line. When my friend found out and questioned her, she answered: “I was trying to be cool!!” She’s a fortunate and happy girl. Her parents are divorced but she gets lots of love from both, goes to a private school, nice trips. Both parents make sure they spend quality time with her but of course this life style lacks drama, something that apparently makes people cool these days. Her life is simply happy and boring.

A few weeks ago, I was in the mood for classic TV shows and spent my whole Saturday watching some from the 50s through 90s. Interestingly, in many of them there was one or two fashion show scenes. In the 50s, models actually had some facial expression and their body language was friendly and approachable. As we get to the 80s, the facial expression starts fading away, and their bodies look like they’re partially frozen. From 2000 on, forget any expression, they look serious if anything and some even angry like they are going to slap me any minute. Maybe it’s an indication that a poker face is the icon of our modern days and everyone needs one.

Now, I’m thinking about SiFi movie characters.

* Koningsdag (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkoːnɪŋzdɑx]) or King’s Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April (the 26th if the 27th falls on a Sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander.^[1]