We made friends with Germany pretty soon after WWII, too, largely due to technological and economic reasons, plus the fact that American companies were selling the Germans goods all along. And an American president laid a wreath on the tomb of the unknown German soldier.

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
We are, are we not, prone to what someone (C.S. Lewis?) called "chronological snobbery"...

In Surprised by Joy, he said:

"In the first place he made short work of what I have called my "chronological snobbery," the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also "a period," and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them."

Clever man!

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
Also, last night, after playing very good jazz 'til midnight, seeing some of what passes these days for "music" and "talent" on the bar television depressed me quite a bit; as there seemed to be so many thousands of young people who really thought "Fergie" and "Ludicrous" (or however these are spelled) really were musicians!

Indeed! We had our television tuned to PBS and saw midnight arrive with Great Performances' "Garrison Keillor's New Years Eve Special".

Such a pleasure to watch the new year arrive with intelligence and good music as opposed to "music" written for, as Keiller said, "thirteen year-olds".

quote:

Originally posted by patrask:
"They" always win.

Very thoughtful post, friend patrask.

The music, art, science, architecture, fashion, philosophy, politics, yes even war, these things and much much more, of the sixties came together in a crux never before or after experienced in human history. It was a cusp, a tipping point, unfortunately I believe in a lot of ways that it fell the wrong way. Not as many people of today are united in love, justice, and the saving of our planet. Greed, gluttony, hatred, and war rule many peoples lives.

rocket, I do believe there is nothing new, ever. Same old, same old. Fundamentally, what is new? Some of the things I'd say are new is mass communication on such a large level. Greed, gluttony, etc etc. have always ruled peoples. And it'll rule people until the end of time. And as to fashions falling away, Phooey. They come back one way or another. Earings, nose rings, tatoos were worn for generations by all sorts of people all over the place. Now, they're all back in American culture and world culture, in fact. A simple pair of glasses, frames gone out of style one generation ago, are back because a new generation thinks they are cool and a new discovery. We have retro cars. Retro toasters.

Things from those 1960s:
A Brand New 1963 Corvette Stingray: $4,200.
A volkswagen bug: $1,600
Average US worker's hourly wage: $2.55 hr.
Average house price in 1960: $15,000

1960's: The "indecent" comment made on prime-time television show, The Tonight Show, that shut down regular NBC programming for 15 minutes in most of the country: water-closet.

The first televised use of the same stupid jet pack we all saw at the Rose Parade in Pasadena a few days ago: 1962

Physical slapping, bottom paddling, punching, hitting, by Roman Catholic priests on unruly parochial high school students: allowed all thru 1950's and into mid 1960's.

Ray Bradbury continues to write. 1930's 1940's 1950's [1960's] 1970's 1980's 1990' 2000's.

Yeah, in one of the Reader's Digest Reading Skill Builders we had in school was the story of a kid who got hold of a jet pack. As I recall, it was being used by a repairman to work on telephone poles, rather than the traditional climbing method. The repairman must have left it lying around, the kid put it on and havoc was wreaked before his rescue. Ever since then I've wondered if the things are real, and if so why you never see them. It looks as if they've been deemed of little practical application--even for telephone line repairmen.

dandelion, that RD story of the repairman is hooey. Maybe someone tried a homemade version of something near the cartoon level, but the genuine article has always been a government project and not a private sector one. The very first public viewing of one occured when a fellow with one of these strapped on his back flew over a small gorge and landed in front of then President JF Kennedy and saluted. From what I read, the government has not been that anxious to improve upon the original for some reason, most likely considerd silly funding for a Buck Rogers
dream.

Doug,
You’re right. The Keillor show was a great way to welcome ‘007.

Just got a letter form the co-creator of ~Spider-man~ pertaining to this and that. (Dated January 1st, 2007) Here's a couple excerpts from the letter:

On the comic industry:

• The whole character of the comic industry has been changing and not for the better. Here too, changes with editors, artists, writers wasn't obvious even with the explicit change, examples like "The Death of Superman" a fictional device with increasing after effects for the worse.

Concerning Ray Bradbury's belief system:

• Ray Bradbury as a long time writer and especially in science-fiction, highly imaginative, etc. has to settle into beliefs that can be impossible, even for him, to change. Any long, ongoing activity tends to become unchangeable because it has to affect everything else in his life and living.

I remember seeing the rocket man with that very same basic design at Disneyland in the Tomorrowland area some time between 1955 and the early '60s, can't remember. I think they may have lost a few people, due to flameouts or pilot errors, that might explain why there haven't been more of these around.

patrask: There was also a jet platform, where the pilot stood on a circular platform with a guard rail all around ( about 3 feet diameter) and he tilted one way or another to get the thing going. (try and google: "flying platform", under IMAGES). Great photos there. Several movie clips have been released thru the years, and somewheres I even had a small printed phamplet on the thing. That one flying invention seems to have gone the way of the vanishing breed of such contraptions.

Do any of you rememeber the "serials" that played between "two reelers" at the movie theater? My Aunt Annie would take me and my brother every Friday night to the Zephyr Theatre and we got to see "Rocket Man," "Clyde Beatty" and others. If you do remember these, are they available on DVD? I would love to have a set of them. Anyone?

Biplane,
I remember serials!
This is a site that has some:
http://www.vintagelibrary.com/CliffhangerSerials/index.php
I used to love short subjects, especially Robert Benchley shorts and Pete Smith Specialties!

I just scored bigtime at work today. A friend of mine at work who knows how much I love Bradbury gave me a hardback library edition of F-451. It's a mint condition 1969 Simon & Schuster edition. It has a great picture of Ray on the back jacket. Also in at work which I'm going to get is the 2001 hardback edition of Martian Chronicles never before used for $5.98, not bad.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rocket,