The Latest Generation

A look at Midnight Cowboy and how an off-the-cuff assessment brought up similarities to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Leo_Herlihy

Born 1927 - Silent generation (which starts in 1926)

Midnight Cowboy at IMDB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas

Just because it’s come up while researching, the Robotic Edition of Huck Finn seemed worth including here.

https://www.themarysue.com/huckleberry-finn-robotic-edition/

https://www.dianianddevine.com/store/p/huck

Last week was the anniversary of September 11, which inspired this episode's 9/11 theme. 

Prompt the First; The Rising

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_(album)

Released July 2002 - not quite a year after the attacks

Prompt the Second: Humor and 9/11

I have a note to myself from soon after the attacks:”Steven Spielberg, around September 12, said that there should be no art about September 11 -- it was too terrible for art. ”

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12814898/pop-culture-response-to-9-11

Schindler’s List - 1993

1941 - 1979

I would like to note that I re-watched 1941 a few years ago, at a point where I had been working in an office building on Hollywood Boulevard. The special effects are impressive, to the point that I couldn't tell for sure if it was only miniatures (as I presume it was) or done via actually flying over that area - an area which (because of the view where I worked) I was very familiar with.

The Onion 9/11 issue

Here's an image of the front page

https://theonion.com/issue-37-34-the-september-11th-issue-1828969352/

That doesn't link to anything, but you can find the articles on the site - like this one

https://theonion.com/talking-to-your-child-about-the-wtc-attack-1819566164/

An Oral History of th 9/11 issue of The Onion

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/onion-911-issue-oral-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats_(film)

“Gottfried began his performance with a joke in which he claimed to have to catch a late flight out of town but was worried because his flight "had a connection at the Empire State Building." The joke, a reference to 9/11, was poorly received by the audience, who showered Gottfried with boos and cries of "too soon.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor_based_on_the_September_11_attacks

Pay it Forward - 2000

Prompt the Third: Was that the Fourth Turning?

Neil Howe talks about Gen X and the attacks

That's from CNN but it's shared by Lifecourse - and on there as well we can see this one, from 1997, in which the prediction is made that the 4th Turning will start "in about 10 years" and continue on to the late 2020s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYW3accapOk

Which matches better with the 2008 starting point. 

Re-reduxing this one, because it is again the time of year for football games and field shows, and post-game parties, and (back in the day, anyway) rewatches of Highlander and The Lost Boys.

And because The Lost Boys showed up, all unbidden, in a separate project I was working on today, and immediately started pulling my mind down memory lane. 

And a little bit because Highlander showed up last month in the first episode of Reactivities, A Kind of Magic. 

And also because it's been five years, already, since the initial events that had me thinking about immortality in the first place. 

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Considering whether Gen X views of life, death, and immortality were shaped by two mid-80s films: Highlander (1986) and The Lost Boys (1987)

Yes yes yes, I said Stewart Copeland at about 9:12 and realized soon after that I completely meant Douglas Coupland, who wrote Generation X: Tales For an Accelerated Culture in 1991

https://www.coupland.com/books/generation-x-tales-for-an-accelerated-culture

And my point there is that in 1987 the Lost Boys was certainly depicting Gen X characters with Gen X actors, but nobody called them Gen X at the time.

Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview_with_the_Vampire

Its sequel, The Vampire Lestat, was 1985

The Mystery of Dracula’s Castle - a scooby doo mystery in all but name, with inspiration from Christopher Lee’s Dracula over and over.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068985/

The Hunger 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085701/

The Lost Boys - straight to the tagline

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093437/taglines

Highlander

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203/

Cocoon

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/

Siskel and Ebert - Lost Boys starts at 9:44 - 

https://siskelebert.org/?p=2948

Highlander is the first one here, about 1:30 - they both disliked it rather a lot

https://siskelebert.org/?p=1496

First chapter of The Golden Bough - Frazer calls the King a “murderer” rather than a “killer” so I’ll randomly note that A) in the 1536 battler in Highlander, the Macleods are fighting the Frasers and B) “Matador” is literally “killer” in Spanish

The Spirit of Christmas, which spawned South Park, references Highlander’s repeated line “There Can Be Only One”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122264/

When talking about Reactives and the Awakening, probably worth looking at this previous entry on my blog

https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/01/reactiveness.html

Unrelated but it’s a photo series called Lost Boys - millennials back at home after college or high school or whatever they decided they could do.

https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-calvi-lost-boys-photo-project-2014-9#calvi-started-with-her-good-group-of-guy-friends-but-eventually-branched-out-to-look-for-more-subjects-in-town-nolan-pictured-here-is-currently-studying-graphics-in-college-and-he-lives-with-his-parents-for-the-summer-2

Here’s the archive she set up

https://seulementdanslereve.tumblr.com/archive

And her home page

https://www.lizcalvi.com/commissions

“Vampire of the Mists” (1991) was a few years later, so probably influenced by Anne Rice and The Lost Boys and everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_of_the_Mists

Wikipedia sayeth that Peter Pan first appeared in a novel in 1902, while the play first appeared in 1904. He’s very much of the Nomad archetype.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan

Completely unrelated, except insofar as Aiken Drum (the character) is much like Peter Pan and has other Nomad / Reactive archetype indicators

https://manycolored.fandom.com/wiki/Many-Colored_Wiki

Pogonip club house

http://deepbluemoon.com/misc/pogonip/

Other locations - the interiors were on a set at Warner Brothers

https://www.visitcalifornia.com/attraction/lost-boys-santa-cruz-tour

Gregory Widen, screenwriter for Highlander. Born in 1958, he’s a late Boomer. He also wrote Backdraft.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927074/

Russel Mulcahy - his director credits here include the music videos - which included Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles, which unfortunately I can't find, so here are some others.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0611683

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU

Max has mission style outdoor lamps - not too common at the time. (Although it was becoming popular again)

https://casetext.com/case/l-jg-stickley-inc-v-canal-dover-furn

Grandpas house is here (interiors were a set at Warner Bros.) - a very 1900s house 

http://www.mobileranger.com/santacruz/pogonip-the-cowell-family-polo-and-a-poltergeist/

CSUN Queen show, 1989 - there will be another episode one day about why this matters….but I didn’t even have a chance to get into, here, how I and Angela and 150 of our closest friends did a field show with two songs from Highlander, plus Bohemian Rhapsody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkHl0paHbM

There's reasons for why this one makes sense to look at again, but mostly I thought it was pretty good....Plus No Hard Feelings is going the rounds on streaming (currently on Netflix, as it has been for a little while.)

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A look at perceptions of modern parenting, specifically how Generation X is seen to be parenting the Homeland generation and young Millennials in the Fourth Turning.

No Hard Feelings at IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15671028

Jennifer Lawrence

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2225369

Matthew Broderick, Ferris Beuller, and Wargames

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000111

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567

Andrew Barth Feldman

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10574081/

Free-Range Kids

And on twitter at: https://twitter.com/FreeRangeKids

This was one of the first episodes I put out here, and I'm a little surprised I haven't redone it yet. 

The Star Trek (Original Series) episode The Way to Eden is REALLY the one with the space hippies. It's one of the most generally disliked episodes, because of how over-the-top it goes in an attempt to be up-to-date and hip and with-it.  But on reviewing from a generational perspective ( and about 50 years after broadcast) it isn't as horrible as it might have looked. 

I originally called it "Synthococcus Novae" after a fictional bacterium that's a sub-plot in the episod, and I started thinking of it while watching the recent increase in COVID during the summer, and hearing people talk about how they were affected (and how their kids were affected) by COVID in the year 2020 and 2021

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A look at how the GI generation (born 1901-1924) viewed the Boomers (born 1943-1960) as shown in the Star Trek Original Series episode "The Way to Eden" - also known as "The One with the Space Hippies."  By extension, this suggests how Hero generations, including Millennials (born 1982-~2005) along with the GIs, view Prophet generations (like the Boomers).

Originally started from how people view cleanliness today and how it is likely similar to how people saw it during World War II. It all ties together.

Attributes of the Prophet and Hero archetypes come from Generations (1991), the Peer Personalities chart on p. 365. I use them in my Stories blog (stories.generationalize.com) where I've found them an effective way to identify different generations/archetypes.

Did you know that Skip Homeier, the actor who played Dr. Sevrin,  also played Melakon, the villain in the episode "Patterns of Force" (aka "The One With the Nazis")? 

Shout-out to Memory Alpha, which had additional useful information about the timing of when the episode was written: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Way_to_Eden_(episode)

Our first tale from interesting times could've happened in other times - there's nothing specific about that time it happened, except that everyone there was Generation X, and it was just at a point where the mystic allure of the Awakening was giving way to the freedom of the Unraveling.

But don't want to spoil it for you, so just listen.

Not referenced or mentioned or anything here, but there's a character description in Roger Zelazny's This Immortal that includes a situation very like this one.

Okay, now that I've re-read the synopsis on Wikipedia, it has SEVERAL situations very like this one, but I'm specifically thinking of the title character remembering one time where a poet was reading his poetry....It's a classic story, check it out. 

(It's not at all clear what Turning that story happens in, and the poetry reading is some time in its past, but I can imagine that these sorts of events are very Third Turning.)

A Kind of Magic is an unofficial soundtrack for Highlander. Most of the songs from the movie are on there, and most of the songs on the album are from the movie. (But the album does not include Theme from New York, New York.)

One might note that that this happened the day after the Berlin Wall fell. Maybe I'll do another episode about that...

Here's a  video of the full show. This recording is from a few weeks later in the year. (No magic, this time.) We just called it The Queen Show.  Yes, it also has Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Introduction to a new series on this podcast - one I've been intending to do for a while. 

It's called Reactivities: Tales from Interesting Times. 

Strauss & Howe originally called the cohort born between 1961 and 1981 the Thirteenth Generation, but the Coupland's "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" soon made it the preferred moniker. In Strauss & Howe's cyclical view, every fourth generation would have similar attributes, making Generation X similar (for example) to the Lost Generation born at the end of the 19th century. 

These generations, which were seen as responding to the changes of the Awakening,  were originally called "Reactive."  (Later, archetypal representations were used instead, and Gen X became a Nomad generation - although, still, I think we should be either Schemers or Scoundrels, instead.)

This will be about the interesting times that such generations - and especially Generation X - lived through. 

Re-duxing to honor Bob Newhart on the occasion of his recent passing.

I had forgotten that some of this - from 6 years ago - inadvertently sounded like Newhart had already passed. 

This is done in the style of one of his routines, which were almost always as one side of a conversation - often as if he was on a phone call, sometimes with other gimmicks (a submarine captain's announcement to his men, a driving instructor talking to an unheard driver). In this case, it's Newhart himself in the part of Hamlet, talking to JFK as an unheard Ghost. 

I'm a big fan of his routines and his style, and have written up (but not (yet) recorded) one other: My version of The Aristocrats, done similarly as the agent side of the discussion. Maybe someday....In my head I sound just like him, but this is certainly a poor imitation, so I strongly recommend everyone finding his original recordings. 

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Looking at Hamlet’s reaction to his father’s ghost by considering some comparable people in the 20th century, Bob Newhart and John F. Kennedy.  

This is a way I’ve considered Prince Hamlet for a while, but I was reminded of it by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who mentioned Bob Newhart a couple of times.  And by Kylo Ren, who often seems to be playing Hamlet himself.

Celebrity voices impersonated…

In this construction, Bob Newhart is Hamlet, although at 33 he’s a bit old for the part. How old is a long-standing debate - the Prince’s situation indicates that he is in his late teens, but one of the gravediggers suggests that he is 30. 

For more fun concerning Hamlet’s age and motivations, check out “Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country” by Steve Roth.

Here’s a good article about Bob Newhart’s early career.

https://music.avclub.com/the-surprisingly-subversive-album-that-changed-stand-up-1798238091

As noted there, the “Lincoln” bit was “Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue,” where marketing experts are trying to help the 16th President of the United States work on his message, such as doing focus group testing for the Gettysburg address.

Bob Newhart mentioned that he campaigned for JFK because they were both Catholic:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/31/entertainment/la-et-mn-clint-eastwood-bob-newhart-rnc

And if you really want to push it, this one references Hamlet as well as JFK

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/10/28/hello-this-is-bob/3de12b83-dc7e-40d5-bb3b-e49b23cbb6ce/?utm_term=.1ce6496e7045

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com

Prompt the First: Trump Shooting

• The Dead Zone - 1983 movie, 1979 book eventually a 2002 TV Series
• Bob Roberts - 1992, written and directed by Tim Robbins

Here's the third one - I didn’t bring it up because it’s impossible to do so in this context without sounding completely silly.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow_Bob_Roberts - Simpsons episode 1994

Prompt the Second: Economic Structures

We’re in the same saeculum as the Berlin Wall falling and how that impact economic structures.

Houston Lighting and Power:

https://x.com/josephltrahan/status/1811865686119235724?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA

If you have enough food to pass it out to people without a lot of organization to decide WHO should get it, it appears that it can be more efficient (VERY broadly speaking) than the marketplace

https://x.com/fpwellman/status/1812131616300372106?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA

(Yes, I mean VERY broadly: The kids aren't getting food they necessarily want, or that their parents might want. There are plenty of inefficiencies in other ways -  some food will almost certainily be wasted, for example.  But if your goal is to reduce food insecurity and ensure kids aren't getting distracted from their own education by hunger, it's adequate.)

A notice on arbitration, which is a different way from the courts to handle disagreements - another different sort of organization.

https://x.com/kathryntewson/status/1812021083912233105?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA

Prompt the Third - Art Today

Looking for art that’s “not just more decline”

https://x.com/HariSel57511397/status/1811602054403510739

The rest of the thread should guide you to items related to what I referenced.

1. Jaws

Post on Facebook on June 29th mentioned the Quint speech from Jaws, which, for all it’s wonderful, has the wrong date

"So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway, we delivered the bomb."

https://www.history.navy.mil/.../after-action-report-of... BUT...the date is completely wrong. It was July 30, 1945 - just after midnight, local time, right about 2 weeks after Trinity, a week before Hiroshima.

http://www.ussunderhill.org/html/sorryno.htm About a week before Indianapolis was sunk, a destroyer escort USS Underhill, was attacked in the same area. An article about the attack, "Sorry, No Ice Cream," was written by one Nathaniel Benchley....father of Peter Benchley, author.

Some later posts wished Robert Shaw a happy birthday. It's not June 29th, or even July 30 - it's August 9. Born in 1927, he turned 18 the day Nagasaki was bombed, so wasn't actually GI generation nor able to be in the war. (But also he was British, not American, and so was dealing with the war in Britain for all of his teenage years.)

Quint says he saw the first shark 30 minutes after they went in the water - but that would have been between midnight and 1AM. However, the moon was up (it had risen at 10:28PM) and was just past full, so (to the extent the exact details matter in this speech) there probably would have been enough light to see by.

2. Brats and and the start of Gen x politics

Heathers - I was off by a year, it was released in 1988, not 1989.

Writer was Daniel Waters, born 1962.

Highlander  - got the release year right, but according to IMDB screenwriter Gregory Widen was born in 1958, making him a later Boom generation.  

Steven Soderbergh is solidly X, born 1963. He wrote and directed Sex Lies and Videotape, which was released in 1989.

3. On the state of the election

On inflation, government efforts, and the end of the Fourth Turning.