King Cnut could not hold back the tide, and I cannot hold back society's full-throttle descent into dystopia. All I can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines, and nod my head sagely when others hold a mirror up to the madness.
I was reading an interview with the directors Anthony and Joseph Russo, the men responsible for some of the most successful Marvel movies in recent years, including the last two Avengers movies. They were asked why they thought Marvel had taken a bit of a kicking at the box office recently, was it so-called "super-hero fatigue"? Apparently not. Instead, the Russo Brothers put it down to what they call a "generational divide".
There’s a big generational divide about how you consume
media. There’s a generation that’s used to appointment viewing and going to a
theatre on a certain date to see something, but it’s ageing out. Meanwhile the
new generation are ‘I want it now, I want to process it now’, then moving onto
the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same
time.
I think it's a reflection of the current state of everything. It's difficult right now, it's an interesting time. I think we're in a transitional period and people don't know quite yet how they're going to receive stories moving forward, or what kinds of stories they're going to want.
When I read this, I wanted to cry. (You'll have noticed: I want to cry a lot these days.) But Mr. Russo wasn't quite done...
We have never collectively, globally, processed our
conversation so intimately and quickly as we do now. I think that creates
problems, where we over-process and don't care about context anymore. We
communicate through memes and headlines, with nobody reading past two
sentences, so everything's 100 characters or less – or 10-second videos on
social media you swipe through. I think that the two-hour format, the structure
that goes into making a movie, it’s over a century old now and everything
always transitions. So, there is something happening again and that form is
repetitive. But it's hard to reinvent that form and I think this next
generation is looking for ways to tell their own stories that service their own
sort of collective ADHD.
It almost sounds to me like he's given up. Like he's saying, "I'm an old guy," (well, he's a year older than me) "I'm ready to accept that youngsters are doing things differently these days and the only stories we'll have in the future will be 10 second video chunks or 100-letter tweets. Stick a fork in me, I'm done."
Thankfully, not everyone appears so ready to be put out to pasture. About the only sensible idea I've heard in the run up to Election Day is the proposal that the next government are considering banning smartphones for all under 16s. Of course, it won't happen... and it'd be impossible to police even if it did. And maybe it's too late to shut the barn door, that horse has already bolted. But still... old man shakes his fist at the sky.
What I like about this feature is that on a good week, you do all my work for me. Charity Chic even suggested this week's artist-related image - and a fine suggestion it is too. If you've never heard any Buck 65, I suggest you start with this.
There weren't many titular 65s out there... although I did discover a hitherto-unknown collaboration between Kurt Wagner & Josh Rouse called simply 65... which would have been a great fit if I'd discovered it in my own record collection, but I didn't. So I'm going to have to hunt that down now.
I was very tempted by Brian's suggestion of 65 Love Affair by Paul Davis... but sadly I don't even own a copy of that. I'll have to borrow Brian's limited edition gold vinyl copy sometime.
And finally - STOP THE PRESS! - a late entry from Deano in Australia (it takes a while for the pigeon to deliver his comments, and the poor bird has very tired wings)...
Sadly I can't listen to that as I'm editing this on a computer with no sounds just moments before the post goes live... but it's Louis Jordan, so I'm sure it's ace, even though Dean tells us it's "quite different to the jump blues he was normally known for. Towards the latter end of his career he quite of genre hopped trying to latch onto the latest trends." I'll give it a spin when I get home tonight, I promise.
All of which left me only lyrical 65s to choose from this week. Luckily, you offered some fine examples...
In the year 6565 Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife. You'll pick your sons, pick your daughters too From the bottom of a long glass tube.
That could well happen long before 6565... some might argue we're already there.
Oh, and if you have a spare week, I highly recommend you go and have a go at Martin's pop crossword. But not until you've left a 64 suggestion for next week.
I don't know how old I was But it was a '65 pickup
The Swedethen dug out his old Richard Hell & The Voidoids records and suggested... Liars Beware.
You were sixty-five when you wiggled out,
Your mind all twisted and your mom all shout, all shout, all shout
If you're 65 and your mum is still shouting at you, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.
Lynchie then came very close to winning this week's prize with two damned fine suggestions. Firstly, The Boston Rag by Steely Dan...
Back in nineteen sixty-five I was singing this song When Lonnie came alive
(I was rather tempted to buy a ticket to that new Steely Dan tour... even though it's only really Donald Fagen now... until I realised I'd have to take out a second mortgage to do so.)
Three hun-dred SIXTY FIVE de-grees Burning down the house!
Finally, C resorted to the excellent tactic of "if all else fails, try Bowie" with 1984...
I'm looking for the treason that I knew in '65...
All great suggestions, but I have to give this week's prize to Rigid Digit for choosing my favourite song by (possibly - it's looking increasingly likely) my artist of the decade, someone who persuaded me (despite serious lack of funds) to buy my first gig ticket of the year last week...
So go ahead and love me while it's still a crime And don't forget you could be laughing 65% more of the time You could be laughing 63% more of the time You could be laughing 25% more of the time
RD says, "I love the fact he goes into exponential regression at the end. Plus it gives me two more lyrical entries for future submissions."
And believe me, I love this song so much... it could well crop up again.
Next week: the $64,000 question will be... do I have to go Ringo? Or can I dodge that aging bullet? You may be able to help...
