The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[Crusherkc]

On the topic of scary things we saw on '70s TV when we were kids, anyone ever see this thing: "Future Shock", a documentary about technology's effect on our psychology or some such shit.  This was re-run occasionally in syndication and the opening minute with the images and futuristic heavy synth music scared the be-jesus out of me. Gave me nightmares.

But if you keep watching you get a neat kitchy Orson Welles performance during his "F For Fake" days ("Waiter, clear this and bring another steak au poivre will you?").  Fantastic little early 70s artifact that fell through the cracks.

Future Shock - Narrated by Orson Welles (1972)

***especially check out the 'eugenics' portion at minute 16:20 "ah in these labratories...we can change Man's color, pretty much like a fish."

[Epic Soundtracks]

I really hope there's a 1/2 hour of power tomorrow night!

[Epic Soundtracks]

That was a weird one, between Wurster's call and Mike's song.

[mike a]

"Old Bridge Militia" - there really is such a thing.  In the 1980s, Old Bridge, NJ (a real place) was home to Metallica's management, as well as a small coterie of metalheads nicknamed the "Metal Militia."  I was two or three towns away, but had no interest in participating and would've gotten the Hammerhead treatment had I tried.  (I did have an REM shirt, come to think of it.)

[Flat1ander]

"Have you seen these things called air quotes?"

[Denim Gremlin]

"Mr. Peanut....You don't find him elegant?"

[fidget]

I liked the Mr. Peanut respect too.  I also think the mascot of anything you end up eating is a bit weird.  Barbeque joints are the main offenders of this and I question why the pig mascots are so happy.

I also enjoyed the eight minute actual baseball talk without jokes.  I kind of wish they would have bantered without jokes and just ended the call without Tom mentioning a thing.

Also the music Tuesday night was great. I'm really diggin TV Colours right now.

[Einstein_Concubine]

The callers on this new Best Show format are pretty gross compared to FMU.

[Patrickin Chicago]

Holy cow, Mike's song.

[erg79]

On the topic of scary things we saw on '70s TV when we were kids, anyone ever see this thing: "Future Shock", a documentary about technology's effect on our psychology or some such shit.  This was re-run occasionally in syndication and the opening minute with the images and futuristic heavy synth music scared the be-jesus out of me. Gave me nightmares.

But if you keep watching you get a neat kitchy Orson Welles performance during his "F For Fake" days ("Waiter, clear this and bring another steak au poivre will you?").  Fantastic little early 70s artifact that fell through the cracks.

Future Shock - Narrated by Orson Welles (1972)

***especially check out the 'eugenics' portion at minute 16:20 "ah in these labratories...we can change Man's color, pretty much like a fish."

Is this based on the Alvin Toffler book?

[Krokodil_Gena]

On the topic of scary things we saw on '70s TV when we were kids, anyone ever see this thing: "Future Shock", a documentary about technology's effect on our psychology or some such shit.  This was re-run occasionally in syndication and the opening minute with the images and futuristic heavy synth music scared the be-jesus out of me. Gave me nightmares.

But if you keep watching you get a neat kitchy Orson Welles performance during his "F For Fake" days ("Waiter, clear this and bring another steak au poivre will you?").  Fantastic little early 70s artifact that fell through the cracks.

Future Shock - Narrated by Orson Welles (1972)

***especially check out the 'eugenics' portion at minute 16:20 "ah in these labratories...we can change Man's color, pretty much like a fish."

Is this based on the Alvin Toffler book?

Yes.

Alvin Toffler’s 1970 best seller Future Shock argued that almost all the social problems of the sixties could be traced back to the increasing pace of technological change. The endless outpouring of scientific breakthroughs transformed the grounds of daily existence, and left Americans without any clear idea of what normal life was. Just consider the family, where not just the Pill, but also the prospect of in vitro fertilization, test tube babies, and sperm and egg donation were about to make the idea of motherhood obsolete.

Humans were not psychologically prepared for the pace of change, Toffler wrote. He coined a term for the phenomenon: “accelerative thrust.” It had begun with the Industrial Revolution, but by roughly 1850, the effect had become unmistakable. Not only was everything around us changing, but most of it—human knowledge, the size of the population, industrial growth, energy use—was changing exponentially. The only solution, Toffler argued, was to begin some kind of control over the process, to create institutions that would assess emerging technologies and their likely effects, to ban technologies likely to be too socially disruptive, and to guide development in the direction of social harmony.

While many of the historical trends Toffler describes are accurate, the book appeared when most of these exponential trends halted. It was right around 1970 when the increase in the number of scientific papers published in the world—a figure that had doubled every fifteen years since, roughly, 1685—began leveling off. The same was true of books and patents.

Toffler’s use of acceleration was particularly unfortunate. For most of human history, the top speed at which human beings could travel had been around 25 miles per hour. By 1900 it had increased to 100 miles per hour, and for the next seventy years it did seem to be increasing exponentially. By the time Toffler was writing, in 1970, the record for the fastest speed at which any human had traveled stood at roughly 25,000 mph, achieved by the crew of Apollo 10 in 1969, just one year before. At such an exponential rate, it must have seemed reasonable to assume that within a matter of decades, humanity would be exploring other solar systems.

Since 1970, no further increase has occurred. The record for the fastest a human has ever traveled remains with the crew of Apollo 10. True, the commercial airliner Concorde, which first flew in 1969, reached a maximum speed of 1,400 mph. And the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, which flew first, reached an even faster speed of 1,553 mph. But those speeds not only have failed to increase; they have decreased since the Tupolev Tu-144 was cancelled and the Concorde was abandoned.

None of this stopped Toffler’s own career. He kept retooling his analysis to come up with new spectacular pronouncements. In 1980, he produced The Third Wave, its argument lifted from Ernest Mandel’s “third technological revolution”—except that while Mandel thought these changes would spell the end of capitalism, Toffler assumed capitalism was eternal. By 1990, Toffler was the personal intellectual guru to Republican congressman Newt Gingrich, who claimed that his 1994 “Contract With America” was inspired, in part, by the understanding that the United States needed to move from an antiquated, materialist, industrial mind-set to a new, free-market, information age, Third Wave civilization.

There are all sorts of ironies in this connection. One of Toffler’s greatest achievements was inspiring the government to create an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). One of Gingrich’s first acts on winning control of the House of Representatives in 1995 was defunding the OTA as an example of useless government extravagance. Still, there’s no contradiction here. By this time, Toffler had long since given up on influencing policy by appealing to the general public; he was making a living largely by giving seminars to CEOs and corporate think tanks. His insights had been privatized. 

- David Graeber, "Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit", The Baffler

http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

[noah]

Mike's Song is amazing.  Full Stop.

No quarter for Skreech or Fred Durst.  Because the world needs health care professionals and cooks.  You can't figure out when you've been show the door and continue to demand or orchestrate public attention and clog up the entertainment industry with nostalgia and garbage, you deserve to be ridiculed by your former audience, but never by those who seek to co-op you.  They're human garbage too.

Seinfeld absolutely deserves to be in the top 10.  He's the heat sink of Seinfeld, no one else can be cool w/o him but he uses his status to call shots he can't or shouldn't. 

I'd add James Bond Jr. to the list.  This was an early 90's cartoon with a toy line that posited a world where James Bond had a son, who also grew up to be a spy, that also has to do battle with most of James Bond Sr's defeated enemies, mostly from the 60's.  Odd Job is re-imagined from an Asian butler in a tux, to a Black butler in a track suit.  The reason he was a worst character, James Bond Jr. was a happy spy.  The antithesis of a good James Bond, an anti-hero that is boozy and a murdering sexist.  James Bond Jr. was a gateway toy line for young dudes to wrap their head around the fact that James Bond is a hero.  Appalling piece of animation. 

[Crusherkc]

^
Jerry Seinfeld is a horse-toothed jackass and the Ringo of his namesake show.

Best moment, right after Mike's song: "Get out. Get out of this room."
Worst: some of these "dudes" that have been calling since the relaunch.  I hope we get to hear Jen Kirkman come back as a guest, maybe call some of them out. 

[fonpr]

On the topic of scary things we saw on '70s TV when we were kids, anyone ever see this thing: "Future Shock", a documentary about technology's effect on our psychology or some such shit.  This was re-run occasionally in syndication and the opening minute with the images and futuristic heavy synth music scared the be-jesus out of me. Gave me nightmares.

But if you keep watching you get a neat kitchy Orson Welles performance during his "F For Fake" days ("Waiter, clear this and bring another steak au poivre will you?").  Fantastic little early 70s artifact that fell through the cracks.

Future Shock - Narrated by Orson Welles (1972)

***especially check out the 'eugenics' portion at minute 16:20 "ah in these labratories...we can change Man's color, pretty much like a fish."

Is this based on the Alvin Toffler book?

Yes.

Alvin Toffler’s 1970 best seller Future Shock argued that almost all the social problems of the sixties could be traced back to the increasing pace of technological change. The endless outpouring of scientific breakthroughs transformed the grounds of daily existence, and left Americans without any clear idea of what normal life was. Just consider the family, where not just the Pill, but also the prospect of in vitro fertilization, test tube babies, and sperm and egg donation were about to make the idea of motherhood obsolete.

Humans were not psychologically prepared for the pace of change, Toffler wrote. He coined a term for the phenomenon: “accelerative thrust.” It had begun with the Industrial Revolution, but by roughly 1850, the effect had become unmistakable. Not only was everything around us changing, but most of it—human knowledge, the size of the population, industrial growth, energy use—was changing exponentially. The only solution, Toffler argued, was to begin some kind of control over the process, to create institutions that would assess emerging technologies and their likely effects, to ban technologies likely to be too socially disruptive, and to guide development in the direction of social harmony.

While many of the historical trends Toffler describes are accurate, the book appeared when most of these exponential trends halted. It was right around 1970 when the increase in the number of scientific papers published in the world—a figure that had doubled every fifteen years since, roughly, 1685—began leveling off. The same was true of books and patents.

Toffler’s use of acceleration was particularly unfortunate. For most of human history, the top speed at which human beings could travel had been around 25 miles per hour. By 1900 it had increased to 100 miles per hour, and for the next seventy years it did seem to be increasing exponentially. By the time Toffler was writing, in 1970, the record for the fastest speed at which any human had traveled stood at roughly 25,000 mph, achieved by the crew of Apollo 10 in 1969, just one year before. At such an exponential rate, it must have seemed reasonable to assume that within a matter of decades, humanity would be exploring other solar systems.

Since 1970, no further increase has occurred. The record for the fastest a human has ever traveled remains with the crew of Apollo 10. True, the commercial airliner Concorde, which first flew in 1969, reached a maximum speed of 1,400 mph. And the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, which flew first, reached an even faster speed of 1,553 mph. But those speeds not only have failed to increase; they have decreased since the Tupolev Tu-144 was cancelled and the Concorde was abandoned.

None of this stopped Toffler’s own career. He kept retooling his analysis to come up with new spectacular pronouncements. In 1980, he produced The Third Wave, its argument lifted from Ernest Mandel’s “third technological revolution”—except that while Mandel thought these changes would spell the end of capitalism, Toffler assumed capitalism was eternal. By 1990, Toffler was the personal intellectual guru to Republican congressman Newt Gingrich, who claimed that his 1994 “Contract With America” was inspired, in part, by the understanding that the United States needed to move from an antiquated, materialist, industrial mind-set to a new, free-market, information age, Third Wave civilization.

There are all sorts of ironies in this connection. One of Toffler’s greatest achievements was inspiring the government to create an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). One of Gingrich’s first acts on winning control of the House of Representatives in 1995 was defunding the OTA as an example of useless government extravagance. Still, there’s no contradiction here. By this time, Toffler had long since given up on influencing policy by appealing to the general public; he was making a living largely by giving seminars to CEOs and corporate think tanks. His insights had been privatized. 

- David Graeber, "Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit", The Baffler

http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

I recently finished reading this book: http://www.rushkoff.com/present-shock/   It takes Toffler's ideas and examines them from a present day perspective. He also coins terms like fractalnoia and digiphrenia to describe the effects technology has on human psychology. A very interesting book.

[Epic Soundtracks]

I'm listening to the show from the beginning again, and am wondering if Omar or someone ever did synopses of each episode? Thanks!