You know you are getting old when:

[tonyb]

Yep, that's the place. There has still been an issue of homelessness in the vicinity, despite the improvements and tourist draw.

When I moved there, in '68, it was far from gentrified, although galleries and such were setting up shop in the district. My grandfather, who had lived in the district for a few months when he was a kid (he was raised by his itinerant meat cutter "uncles," so he lived for short periods in many places), would hang out under the Pioneer Square pergola when he came out to Seattle for visits. He enjoyed "the bums," as he called them. I suspect that his affinity for our scruffier brethren had a lot to do with his knowing that if not for a good turn here and there along the way, he way well have been one of them.

As to the apparently homeless people still found there ...

There are shelters nearby (St. Martin de Porres, Union Gospel Mission, etc.), so that might account for some of it. And then, panhandling might be more lucrative where there are crowds of people with a bit of extra money in their pockets. Tens of thousands of people making their way to and from a sporting event would be a magnet, I would think.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cassidy performed here for the Maine Lobster Festival about five years ago, and was quite a bit worse for the wear. Show business is a savage racket.

My cousin was a big fan of his, but I always preferred Bonaduce.

 

[KY Gentleman]

when people from TV series die.....so many of them...that you liked and followed......like I don't know...David Cassidy? from "The Partridge Family" dies??????????????? what the heck......what's this

I’m right there with you.
I hate to see my childhood “friends” go.

 

[Fading Fast]

Cassidy performed here for the Maine Lobster Festival about five years ago, and was quite a bit worse for the wear. Show business is a savage racket.

My cousin was a big fan of his, but I always preferred Bonaduce.

Some deep '90s "where are they now" memory says I saw an episode on MTV (or some similar channel) that Cassidy had hit rock bottom in the late '70s / '80s from drugs (and, of course, lost all the millions that he had earned from "The Partridge Family" and music concerts). I also vaguely remember (that '90s "where are they now" show I saw is about 25 years old now - hence, my poor memory) that he looked okay then for all he had gone through, but he had gone through a lot which eventually takes its tolls on ones looks.

The other thing that "hurts" our impression of an older Cassidy is that he didn't "grow old" with us on TV / in movies. Instead, he was a star in the early '70s - the embodiment of youth and (eh) beauty - and, then, disappeared so, no matter how good he aged (which you're saying he didn't), it will be a shock to see him again for the first time when he is, say, 60.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Cassidy performed here for the Maine Lobster Festival about five years ago, and was quite a bit worse for the wear. Show business is a savage racket.

My cousin was a big fan of his, but I always preferred Bonaduce.

I remember driving kid sister to one of his concerts. Afterward, she remarked about how the screeching teenyboppers had given her a headache. And I told her that she needed to grow up and develop an appreciation for some real rock: the Rolling Stones. Fun times, those 70's.

 

[Zombie_61]

While there is a niche fan-base of millennials for classic movies, the general population - I think - is no longer familiar with movies prior to the '70s the way it was even into the '90s. You might still be able to toss out "Casablanca" or "Cary Grant" as a reference in a conversation without getting rebuked (even if few today have ever seen "Casablanca" or a Cary Grant movie, they at least know "what" they are), but move a degree of separation away from those icons and you'll get blank stares from most...

I think part of the problem is that there is a rather sizable segment of society that refuses to watch any movie (or television show, for that matter) that was filmed in black and white. I've even spoken to people who were approximately my age (the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation) who felt the same way. Regardless of age, whenever I've asked why the response was almost always the same: "Because color is so much better!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've never understood that mentality. That's the same pinhead mindset that led to awful, smeary four-color printing in daily newspapers, and look where they ended up.

Fortunately, the young people of my acquaintance don't seem to share that attitude -- they'll watch anything, color or black and white, talkie or silent, so long as I tell them it's good. When I show them two-color Technicolor they don't bat an eye.

Those who really think "color = better" should be forced to watch an endless loop of "redrawn in color in a Korean sweatshop in 1967 by Fred Ladd" Porky Pig cartoons, especially the ones where a fly gets squashed under the camera platen and they leave it in.

 

[Zombie_61]

I've never understood that mentality. That's the same pinhead mindset that led to awful, smeary four-color printing in daily newspapers, and look where they ended up...

Not to mention "colorization".

 

[redlinerobert]

I think part of the problem is that there is a rather sizable segment of society that refuses to watch any movie (or television show, for that matter) that was filmed in black and white. I've even spoken to people who were approximately my age (the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation) who felt the same way. Regardless of age, whenever I've asked why the response was almost always the same: "Because color is so much better!"

Color is so much not better. I can't think of too many movies that hold a match to the black and white movies of the 30's and 40's.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

One name: James Wong Howe.

 

[GHT]

Aaah, "skid row", now I got the meaning!

Not to be confused with "skid marks."

 

[Fading Fast]

I think part of the problem is that there is a rather sizable segment of society that refuses to watch any movie (or television show, for that matter) that was filmed in black and white. I've even spoken to people who were approximately my age (the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation) who felt the same way. Regardless of age, whenever I've asked why the response was almost always the same: "Because color is so much better!"

I've never understood that mentality. That's the same pinhead mindset that led to awful, smeary four-color printing in daily newspapers, and look where they ended up.

Fortunately, the young people of my acquaintance don't seem to share that attitude -- they'll watch anything, color or black and white, talkie or silent, so long as I tell them it's good. When I show them two-color Technicolor they don't bat an eye.

Those who really think "color = better" should be forced to watch an endless loop of "redrawn in color in a Korean sweatshop in 1967 by Fred Ladd" Porky Pig cartoons, especially the ones where a fly gets squashed under the camera platen and they leave it in.

Sadly, I, too, have encountered the "black-and-white movies are so boring" attitude. It's hard to push through that. And great point on the newspapers. IMHO, color just doesn't work in newspapers - with color, they seem less serious, less professional, but I accept that might be a how-I-grew-up bias and not a serious argument.

As to the frustrating "Because color is so much better," I offer "Sweet Smell of Success" as a film that needed B&W to deliver the mood necessary even when color was widely available / but to show open-mindedness, the first Bond films used color brilliantly and wouldn't be the same - or as good / or as groundbreaking - without color.

Considering how sensitive our millennials are to any hint of prejudice anywhere in any small corner of the universe, maybe we should call an aversion to old films, flimism, and see if we can guilt them into watching old / B&W films so as to make the world a better, fairer place.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are certain films where color *is* better. When Douglas Fairbanks chose to make "The Black Pirate" in Technicolor in 1926, he did so with a very specific look in mind. Colors were carefully chosen to create an effect reminiscent of the illustrations of N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. When the picture is seen today, on a big screen, the effect is spectactular.

A black and white version of the film also exists, but it's like eating pretzels with all the salt scraped off.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

There used to be separate Oscars for B&W and color cinematography. B&W was an art unto itself, with light and shadow being practically characters in the film. Also, B&W could make a low-budget film stylish, the film noir being the greatest example. Many noirs were low budget - they could not afford the sets and location shooting of the higher-budget movies, but you could do a lot with light and shadow and they were almost free.

 

[Harp]

B&W was an art unto itself, with light and shadow being practically characters in the film..

John Ford's film production of The Grapes of Wrath with its shadow cast against the dry cracked earth spoke eloquently.

 

[Haversack]

I think 'chronocentrism' covers it. I first ran into the aversion against black & white movies back in 2006 when we hosted a late-night firequake dinner and viewing of the 1936 movie, San Francisco before heading downtown at 3:30 AM for the 5:12 AM centennial festivities. The husband of a friend of ours complained through the whole movie about the lack of color, (and the clothes, the music, the singing, usw.). His wife is the same age but loves older movies. The difference is that she grew up without cable TV so often watched old movies on the local independent broadcast stations. He grew up with cable so there were more alternatives.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The first thing I did when I got cable in 1979 was stay up until 2:30 am to see a screening of "Pennies From Heaven" (1936) with Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong on Channel 38 out of Boston. In black and white, yet.

 

[3fingers]

I think 'chronocentrism' covers it. I first ran into the aversion against black & white movies back in 2006 when we hosted a late-night firequake dinner and viewing of the 1936 movie, San Francisco before heading downtown at 3:30 AM for the 5:12 AM centennial festivities. The husband of a friend of ours complained through the whole movie about the lack of color, (and the clothes, the music, the singing, usw.). His wife is the same age but loves older movies. The difference is that she grew up without cable TV so often watched old movies on the local independent broadcast stations. He grew up with cable so there were more alternatives.

I salute you sir for being far more patient than I am. It sounds like you spent the evening with a middle aged child who needed a swat.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

A friend of mine's son, when he was little, thought the world was in black and white when his parents were growing up because all the TV shows he'd seen from that time were in black and white.

 

[HadleyH1]

Am I getting old because I love so much a particular song from the 1930s? lke this one
when I love some of these tunes with so much intensity? is that normal

am I getting old because I can not stop hearing these songs?

I want to know