The longer I am on this planet, the more it becomes apparent that I’ve crossed the threshold between the past and the future as I imagined it in my youth. Every generation experiences this to some degree, but the planet is becoming more populated by people who know little of a life devoid of Moore’s law and I don’t seem to mind it. In some cases.

My friend JR is fortunate enough to be playing drums for CSS right now, so a couple of months back I photographed their show at the Glasshouse in Pomona. Almost immediately after the show started, a glowing ocean of phones clasped in the hands of screaming teenagers began to form in front of me, so for a minute I stood back and had a reflective moment. At shows I attended as a teenager, a sea of lighters would typically form when the moment was just right. At one point glowing LCD screens showed up to the game, and here they were now the only thing besides people being raised into the air.

The sea of lighters would give me a chill when I saw it. It represented a mutual understanding between all of us who participated, that what was emanating from the stage deserved our approval. Is the inter-connectedness a sea of tiny flames induces becoming relegated to nostalgic status? Possibly, as smartphones have now proved to have infected that particular experience from now on into the foreseeable future.

The problem with nostalgia though, is that it causes those who have it to not want to let it go so that it can either die, or spawn new experiences as the sea of cell phones is now doing. Lighters can’t upload a video of the show to Youtube so that everyone else can experience it on that level. I think that’s worth letting some things go.