Well, THIS makes me feel old...
- Thread starter the G-man
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I think it was mentioned up thread. While the 1960s was a time of achievement in art, we are in a post-modern society where the definition of art has been redefined to the point that finger painting and singing in the shower can qualify as art now. And we have the equipment to record these efforts (Instgram, Youtube, cellphones, etc). So culture has gone to the masses and they often imitate what they can. So we are left to re-tread on what has already come before us. So the 1990s were about the 1960s (remember the tie-dye craze?), the 2000s were about latino culture and the 1970s (That 70s show?). The 2010s have been about re-imagining the 1980s. From music like Lady Gaga and Rihanna re-defines new age. Our movies focus around great-american heroes like Superman, Batman, and geek, computer culture.
What happens when someone re-imagines the 1990s in 10 years? It will be the 1960s all over again! See what I am saying?
We have had many advancements in cultural achievements from women in the workplace (late 1970s-1990s), end of segregation (1960s and 1970s) and when things like this come along, it usually comes with a lot of art.
What have we done in the past 20 years? Terrorism where we welcome a police state and mistrust our government (conspiracy theories) and gay rights. That's about it. We started to talk about a latino America, but that hasn't materialized in mainstream America, past some window-dressing. Art is constantly under attack by what is "obscene" and re-defining right and wrong. Therefore, we rely on what's acceptable, causing us to re-hash the old days. How many more years of superhero movies can we really have? Nobody does anything new anymore and it doesn't resonate with an audience when they do.
Clothes can't get any tighter without looking like strippers. Something functionally "green" should replace our appliances and how we use power, how we drive cars. And that will cause us to redefine what is acceptable in art. But until that day comes, we will look back with nostalgia about what came before us, including things like the future flying cars and so on.
Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble, but I think the point has come across--we are in a time-loop of nostalgia and until we have someone change our way of life (war, famine, economic collapse, increased rights in the workplace, etc) we will be stuck here. We have to open our minds beyond what we went to as children.
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Oh yeah. I'm 60, but in my head, I don't feel nearly that old until something like this reminds me how much I've lived.
Remember when a comic book and a fudgesicle was ten cents? Enjoy the ride.
A
Amaris
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I think part of it is the speed at which technology and communication evolves. I am only 33, but the mindset between myself and someone who is only 23 is like the difference between standing on Earth and standing on the Moon. I'm a tech geek, so I stay on top of technology as best as I can, but the way that people a decade younger than myself use it is just fascinating. The bond between technology and this coming generation is almost inseparable, and the technology has only been around a scant few years.
In another ten years the same thing will be happening to them. Then, we'll let you on the porch to tell the younguns to get off the lawn.
Ten-cent comics were slightly before my time. I remember them being twelve cents, then fifteen.
And, yeah, it's the rapid changes in technology that sometimes leave me feeling like a dinosaur.I learned to type on a manual typewriter and the only computer education I received in school involved cutting out punchcards with scissors.
Heck, when if first started out in publishing, back in the late eighties,all the editors and assistants still used typewriters, and editing was still done with a red pencil and post-its. And manuscripts arrived in the mail, not over the internet . . . .
(I have to admit that I don't miss White-out and correction tape.)
My college life would have been so much more pleasant if I'd had a computer to work on for all those papers. On the other hand, I had a manual typewriter from my sister that was the same model George Reeves used in 'The Adventures of Superman'
Odd choices to prove the point.
Growing up I was always out of the loop, not interested in current music, fashion and trends. So while turning 35 in July I do not feel any older or different. I was never really part of my generation anyways. I was always like an observer of culture and technology, which I am never up to date on.
Though with geeky movies finally become mainstream and the younger generation becoming more liberal, I seem to have more in common with younger Facebook friends than people I went to High School with.
Oh and I had been thinking of starting a thread on this but this is a perfect place for it. By appearance more and more people thin I am 10 years younger than I am. Which is a great compliment but can be weird sometimes.
It used to be coworkers who were much older than me thinking I was much younger than I am. I could get that. Its can be hard for me to tell the differences in ages of teens sometimes. But now its also happening with people much younger than me thinking we are the same age.
Just this last week I had this happen with do different guys. One is 19 the other is 24. We are doing remodel work at a store. I had to clean a floor and I found a way of attaching a scrub pad to a mop handle so as not to hurt my back or knees. I have always hated that since I was a kid. SO one of the guys asked me how old I was to be worried about my back. I figured he meant I would be worried because I was so old. But he meant I was too young to need to worry yet. THought I was 26.
24 old said he did not know how to read a clock with hands. Which I thought was odd. I told him I had clocks like that in school. He said we must be the same age, all he had was digital clocks. Was surprised to hear I was much older than him.
Though with geeky movies finally become mainstream and the younger generation becoming more liberal, I seem to have more in common with younger Facebook friends than people I went to High School with.
Oh and I had been thinking of starting a thread on this but this is a perfect place for it. By appearance more and more people thin I am 10 years younger than I am. Which is a great compliment but can be weird sometimes.
It used to be coworkers who were much older than me thinking I was much younger than I am. I could get that. Its can be hard for me to tell the differences in ages of teens sometimes. But now its also happening with people much younger than me thinking we are the same age.
Just this last week I had this happen with do different guys. One is 19 the other is 24. We are doing remodel work at a store. I had to clean a floor and I found a way of attaching a scrub pad to a mop handle so as not to hurt my back or knees. I have always hated that since I was a kid. SO one of the guys asked me how old I was to be worried about my back. I figured he meant I would be worried because I was so old. But he meant I was too young to need to worry yet. THought I was 26.
24 old said he did not know how to read a clock with hands. Which I thought was odd. I told him I had clocks like that in school. He said we must be the same age, all he had was digital clocks. Was surprised to hear I was much older than him.
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I've heard of young people who don't know how to tell time by a traditional clock, but I always thought it was an urban myth. Really, aren't kids taught that in kindergarten anymore? "The little hand points to the hour, the big hand points to the minute." How hard is that to learn?
I wouldn't put that down to youth, so much as godawful stupidity.
As a teen I made a movie with Arnold, Stallone, and Chuck Norris doing a commando raid together by copying and splicing scenes from their movies using two VCRs and then dubbing over the audio with a Casio keyboard that could make samples a few seconds long. It was actually pretty cool for what it was but I wonder what I would've made with today's tech and youthful exuberance. Or if I had today's computers instead of a Commodore 64.
He looks older than the middle-aged version of himself in Back to the Future, Part II.
'90s -- Good economy, Clinton, pagers, Web 1.0, grunge & gangsta rap.
'00s -- War on terror, Bush, cell phones, Web 2.0, post-grunge & crunk.
'10s -- Terrible economy, Obama, mini-computers that happen to have phone capability, grandparents on Facebook, indie rock & electro-pop.
43 Things that will make you feel Old...
I was too old for Spongebob and Blue's Clues. I was in middle school. Class of 95? In 5 years, there will be adults that can buy cigarettes that DO NOT REMEMBER the 20th CENTURY!
I was too old for Spongebob and Blue's Clues. I was in middle school. Class of 95? In 5 years, there will be adults that can buy cigarettes that DO NOT REMEMBER the 20th CENTURY!
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