strange times

[daveB from Oakland]

Don't tell Tom , but I listen to NPR on the web sometimes. What can I say, I'm getting old.

I took a little screen shot of my current playlist, and I circled three things I would have thought impossible if you told me about them 20 years ago:

   

And also, Arnold Schwarzenegger is my Governor.


So today's topic: what are things happening in today's world that a past version of yourself would never have believed?

Subtopic: Come up with a better name for my topic.

[Turf Out]

The Henry Rollins Show

[cutout]

Literally every single friend who whined ten years ago about the ubiquity of cellphones now owns one and is constantly dicking around on it. SMSs, games, what the fuck are they doing with those things? I use mine for calling but I'm old-fashioned like that.

[cutout]

Also DaveB, I haven't tuned in to NPR in years, but your post prompted me to find one of their stations via iTunes just now. No kidding, within seconds the narrator said, "it's actually very Proustian" and I had to click back over to 'FMU.

[daveB from Oakland]

Also DaveB, I haven't tuned in to NPR in years, but your post prompted me to find one of their stations via iTunes just now. No kidding, within seconds the narrator said, "it's actually very Proustian" and I had to click back over to 'FMU.

Some things change a lot ... and some things don't change at all.

[Jennifer]

Paying for bottled water.

[buffcoat]

REM was, for a not-too-short time, the biggest band in the world.

[Regular Joe]

I can't think of any real modern surprises at the moment, but I suggest you change the title to "Walt Disney Pictures Presents: The Kid" before you get Tom sued.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

[cutout]

[Turf Out]

[Stupornaut]

If you'd've told me in 1998 that Rick Astley would've been one of the single most popular go-to punchlines on the internet, I'd think that it had finally been taken over by a new strain of postmodern surrealists. I would've been right if "postmodern surrealist" is simply fancy-talk for "weird kid with borderline autism".

[Gagneaux]

yeah ... New Kids on the Block reuniting is a doozy. Was there a demand for this at all?

[Julie]

yeah ... New Kids on the Block reuniting is a doozy. Was there a demand for this at all?

i can't believe there was demand for them in the first place, so I believe there is demand for them today.

[Wes]

The New Kid on the right - I forget which one he is, but I remember that he was the Ur-Fatone - he kinda looks like what would happen if the cast of Entourage combined into one guy.