Letter From The Editor

This week in Metro, we got our dates wrong and thought it was the 1990s again. I’m not even a little ashamed to admit that I am listening to Third Eye Blind as I write this. (OK, their first album is actually really, really good …)

But seriously, this issue is a bit of a throwback, sprinkled with modern tales of technologies that you probably thought got thrown out at your parents’ garage sale in 1999. In this week’s feature story, we look into the world of film photography and find that it’s surprisingly vibrant, thanks in large part locally to treehouse in Kakaako, which is determined to keep film alive and well. See the full story on Page 10.

Plus, our Snapshot photo this week — submitted by Robert Nakama — was shot on film. Check out his work on Page 3.

Roger Bong has details on a DJ whose latest set will be conducted entirely on cassette tapes — yes, tapes. To read more on how this would be possible, check out his column on Page 17.

The trip into the past continues on Page 16, where Rachel Breit highlights a Root Beer Float that they’ve whipped up at Bethel Street Tap Room. It’s just like the ones you used to drink at your birthday parties as a kid — but better because it has whiskey.

Our Shared Space submission on Page 3 also is laden with nostalgia, as writer Mary Lou Sanelli remembers Little Christmases past.

With film photography and cassette tapes seemingly having some sort of revitalization, it makes me think that maybe we’ve reached some sort of tipping point when it comes to technology. Maybe it’s just all too much.

Before we start contemplating locking ourselves up with our VHS collections and dial-up Internet, leave it to tech writer Christa Wittmier to remind us why technological advances are a good thing. In her column on Page 7, she takes us back to a time when smartphone apps weren’t around to save us from doing things like getting on the wrong plane.