Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[LizzieMaine]

Hmmmm, I think the fact that it doesn't look like the Big bands will ever be back. But.... more and more new releases keep coming out of the old recordings so Im happy about that. But i sure would have liked to see Tommy Dorsey's band in it's heyday

The main reason they'll never be back is that there are no new songs being written for them to play. Swing requires a basis of simple, melodic songs in AABA format, and nobody today knows how to write songs in that style. The "singer-songwriter" paradigm, with its long and mawkish songs won't work for a swing band, movie musicals are dead, and Broadway has given up musical comedy in favor of drippy, pretentious Lloyd-Webberian spectacle.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Being a mother or father bringing kids into this world doesn’t necessarily mean that
all of a sudden you are also endowed with wisdom in how to be a good parent.

Any idiot can plant a seed, but it takes actual skill and effort to cultivate the resulting sprout.

 

[Blackjack]

The main reason they'll never be back is that there are no new songs being written for them to play. Swing requires a basis of simple, melodic songs in AABA format, and nobody today knows how to write songs in that style. The "singer-songwriter" paradigm, with its long and mawkish songs won't work for a swing band, movie musicals are dead, and Broadway has given up musical comedy in favor of drippy, pretentious Lloyd-Webberian spectacle.

Very true Lizzie! Even during the short lived "swing revival" of the 90's nothing new was written to keep the genre going. People started dancing again but the neo-swing bands burnt out like a wet match.

 

[Edward]

Aaah!

Two or three years ago, someone asked me about the meaning of "Sex Pistols". I didn't know and investigate on internet. A couple of minutes later, I comprehend, that "Sex Pistols" comes from "Reproductive (sex) Firearms (pistols)".

Woohoo!

Heh. Talcy Malcy explained it once,in an interview years before his death. "I named them the Sex PIstols. Once, in the sense of them being sexy young assassins, and second, a pistol as, you know, a penis." So your research isn't far off....

I don't necessarily want a "long life" -- making it to 70 will be fine. That gives me another seventeen years to wrap things up and maybe get my spare room cleaned out. But I absolutely *don't* want a long, miserable, lingering death.

I watched my grandparents die that way -- my grandmother, who only made it to 69, was in and out of the hospital constantly with heart issues for the last decade of her life, and experienced absolutely no joy in living thru that period. My grandfather had it even worse -- his last decade was spent sitting on the edge of his bed coughing bits of his lungs up into a slopjar. They might have been biologically alive, but they were in no way living, and however I myself end up dying, it's not going to be like that.

I knew one of my great grandparents. He died when I was eleven, and he was 97. His mind was sharp as a tack right up til the end - but he couldn't see without his glasses (and a huge magnifying glass to read), or hear without his hearing aids, or get to the toilet unaided... He wasn't incontinent, but he needed help physically to get to the bathroom. Death a thousand tikmes over that for me. I'd be perfectly happy to check out in my early fifties, once the mortgage is paid off. If ever I'm likely to turn out permanently incontinent, I'd rather be put down. Irrespective if age. I've amounted to about everything I ever will already, so it wouldn't be a big deal.

Very true Lizzie! Even during the short lived "swing revival" of the 90's nothing new was written to keep the genre going. People started dancing again but the neo-swing bands burnt out like a wet match.

If it's anythingl ike the scene over here, that's just the nature of Lindy Hoppers. There are even people who teach Lindy Hop in the UK as will freely admit they have no interest whatsoever in the music outside of dancing to it. That's never gonig to support a scene - all folks like that need is one album they can use for dancing to, then never another.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Edward

Got you, thanks!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Again, I am thinking about:

The end of "King of Queens" is now 8 years ago. EIGHT years!! Oh, man... Time is running...

KoQ on german Television, these were good times, I tell you. I saw it first in the end of 2002, at that time, the series was broadcasted the first time. Thinking: Oh man, this Carrie is a hottie and the series is really funny, too!! It was the first season broadcasted.

I love the first three seasons!!

 

[gtdean48]

I have a great-grandfather that fought in the Civil War; all others weren't born until after the war (lots of great-great-grandfathers served). At age of 46, he married my great-grandmother, his second wife, who was born during the war & daughter of a soldier he met during the war. My father recalled her getting her Civil War Veteran Widow's pension checks. She died a year after her daughter, my grandmother, passed away.

 

[rue]

You are right, there was a time when you could always tell a married man from a single man. The married man has photos in his wallet where his money used to be.

So, did you remember to bring a note from your mother explaining your absence?

Hi GHT

No, sorry, but I'll get right on it

 

[gtdean48]

I watched Blade Runner again this weekend. Released in 1982, it shows the future of 2019...no way we get there in just over 3 years!

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I'm not so sure,the way things are heading we might get there in 2.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I think, if someone is developing such replicants/androids at the moment, this would be happen in absolutely secured areas, into military organizations. I don't believe, that things like this would happen, out of top-secret national-institutes.

 

[Trenchfriend]

About seed-planting:

In Germany, in the near future, there will be only bankrupt families and on the other side none-bankrupt SINK-people and DINK-couples, I think.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I watched Blade Runner again this weekend. Released in 1982, it shows the future of 2019...no way we get there in just over 3 years!

The date 2019 was chosen arbitrarily. It wasn't in the book. At the time the film was made, 37 years seemed a reasonable time for all those changes to happen. Now, all you have to do is change a single digit in the opening credits and make it 2039 and you're right back in probable territory. In fact, the L.A. setting is entirely arbitrary as well, it cold as easily be the Atlanta- Boston Sprawl of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy. The only recognizable L.A. landmark was the Bradbury building.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And so nice:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...9c2b85d1a3167f83181d2ba9640b5595o0&ajaxhist=0

 

[Zombie_61]

...I knew one of my great grandparents. He died when I was eleven, and he was 97. His mind was sharp as a tack right up til the end - but he couldn't see without his glasses (and a huge magnifying glass to read), or hear without his hearing aids, or get to the toilet unaided... He wasn't incontinent, but he needed help physically to get to the bathroom. Death a thousand times over that for me...

I agree. I wouldn't mind living to a "ripe old age" if it were possible to avoid the illnesses and infirmities that almost certainly come with that. Seeing as how the breakdown of the human body over time is inevitable, I'd rather drop dead suddenly at 70.

The date 2019 was chosen arbitrarily. It wasn't in the book. At the time the film was made, 37 years seemed a reasonable time for all those changes to happen...

The same could be said of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. When it was released in 1968 there was every expectation that the space program in the U.S. would continue and progress to the point where space travel (at least to Earth's moon) could become commonplace by the year 2001. *sigh*

 

[GHT]

I agree. I wouldn't mind living to a "ripe old age" if it were possible to avoid the illnesses and infirmities that almost certainly come with that. Seeing as how the breakdown of the human body over time is inevitable, I'd rather drop dead suddenly at 70.

With all the talk of an early knock from the grim reaper, it's worth noting that there's plenty of life in most of us.

And as they say, save the best 'til last:

 

[Edward]

If I'm that alert at that age, I'll be happy to carry on!

 

[Fading Fast]

I agree. I wouldn't mind living to a "ripe old age" if it were possible to avoid the illnesses and infirmities that almost certainly come with that. Seeing as how the breakdown of the human body over time is inevitable, I'd rather drop dead suddenly at 70....

Based on my mom and my girlfriend's parents, if no major illness hits, I'd say the 70s can be still quite healthy and enjoyable. I have noticed that all three of them took a turn down in energy right around 80. They are still going in their early to mid-80s, but there was a noticeable shift down in energy and speed of conversation, etc. Two of the three are still doing well mentally, but even they have had a marked slowdown in how fast they can converse and absorb conversation, how fast they move and get things done, the amount and type of things they want to do - their worlds have all gotten smaller in a way. A sample of three is not meaningful, but anecdotally, it wasn't the 70s, but definitely the 80s when I saw a marked change.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I tell you, since the 90's, our german pensioners are getting fitter and fitter, year by year and they are getting older and older and older.

Same way, our youth is getting more fragile and fragile and fatter and fatter and fatter. Like this: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=monchichi&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=monchichi&sc=8-9&sp=-1&sk=

If things will going further, this way, many of our older will probably outlive some of our middle-aged, then.

 

[Zombie_61]

Based on my mom and my girlfriend's parents, if no major illness hits, I'd say the 70s can be still quite healthy and enjoyable...A sample of three is not meaningful, but anecdotally, it wasn't the 70s, but definitely the 80s when I saw a marked change.

Yeah, that's why I chose 70 for my post above--duck out early, leave a good looking corpse.