The Latest Generation

Summer of Trinity is a look at the summer of 1945, between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Halfway between those dates, on July 16, was the Trinity atomic weapon test - but a lot was happening all around the world, during the 6 weeks before and after Trinity.  That's what this series will be about.

14 09 27 -- The Battle of Flowers parade was my second parade ever. It was April 27, 1979, in San Antonio, Texas, part of "Fiesta," an annual series of events in San Antonio.  I was there with my high school band, on a trip we'd been looking forward to all year. https://battleofflowers.org/events/   The numbering convention is an adaptation of the method used in  Defending Your Life . In the movie...

Three months later and it's not as bad as it seemed. But it's not really getting better, either.  It's been a Redux-heavy month, so planning to do some new episodes of various sorts in April. =========================================================== Lucy Hires a Maid Verna Felton aka Mrs. Porter WarGames at IMDB   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/ Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy   Professo...

When describing how Turnings come about, the Midlife cohort can seem less important than the young adults' exuberant energy or the Elders' wisdom and values. The Nomads (like GenX) are identified as rather uninteresting managers of the Crisis/4th Turning, not much else to do in their role. Perhaps, though, the people in midlife are the key to it all, the real impetus, the ones who push the Crisis...

This is one of two episodes referenced in "Waiting for the Worms," with respect to the idea that Awakenings (2nd Turnings) are more amenable to authoritarianism than Crisis (2th Turnings). In recent days, we're speed-running towards confirming that is true or...not so much. Planning to repost the other older referenced one as well: Midlife in the Crisis. ======================================== Ta...

Prompt the first: You Get what you give https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Get_What_You_Give_(song) The song was released in November 1998 - Clinton had turned 52 a few months earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Alexander (b. 1970) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Brisebois . (b. 1969) 4:38YouTube • NewRadicalsVEVONew Radicals - You Get What You Give (Official Music Video)     Prompt...

Looking back at Solo: A Star Wars Story because someone reminded me of it.    A post on Bluesky said in part "Please give me control of the Star Wars franchise. My concept is to just remake old war and samurai movies, but Star Wars. The Dirty Dozen but Star Wars. The Great Escape but Star Wars. Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman but Star Wars." https://bsky.app/profile/revan.social/post/3lggkreqghs2m I...

  Prompt the First: The Authoritarian Fourth Turning I've asserted multiple times that the Fourth Turning isn't when autocracy happens: It's the 2nd.   And here in the United States, we're about to see if that's really the case. But why do I think that in the first place? https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/ — From August 1941 "Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It a...

Some thoughts on how Nomad aka Reactive generations end up being the grumpiest old people ever. And also on how knowing about the past doesn't mean you understand the future.  =========================================================== Lucy Hires a Maid Verna Felton aka Mrs. Porter WarGames at IMDB   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/ Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy   Professor Falken explain...

Between the general sense of disgust with about 50% of my fellow Americans, and unhappiness that the Fourth Turning is, in fact, not yet over, I haven't been in much of a way to do a new episode.  So here's a redux from a few years back,    Wherein a random tweet brings up a quote from Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice, a romantic comedy about dealing with the dangers and temptations of a Crisis...

1984 was a surprisingly good year, and a significant one for Generation X and generational analysis.  This mostly ends up being about music....I may have to come back to more. Morning in America https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/09/how-ric-ocasek-met-paulina-porizkova-and-the-80s-videos My previous notes on when dystopias seem to end up https://crisis.generationalize.com/2013/01/tyrell.html  ...

A look at Midnight Cowboy and how an off-the-cuff assessment brought up similarities to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas .   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Leo_Herlihy Born 1927 - Silent generation (which starts in 1926) Midnight Cowboy at IMDB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_L...

Last week was the anniversary of September 11, which inspired this episode's 9/11 theme.    Prompt the First; The Rising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_(album) Released July 2002 - not quite a year after the attacks   Prompt the Second: Humor and 9/11 I have a note to myself from soon after the attacks:"Steven Spielberg, around September 12, said that there should be no art about Septemb...

Re-reduxing this one, because it is again the time of year for football games and field shows, and post-game parties, and (back in the day, anyway) rewatches of Highlander and The Lost Boys. And because The Lost Boys showed up, all unbidden, in a separate project I was working on today, and immediately started pulling my mind down memory lane.  And a little bit because Highlander showed up last mo...

There's reasons for why this one makes sense to look at again, but mostly I thought it was pretty good....Plus No Hard Feelings is going the rounds on streaming (currently on Netflix, as it has been for a little while.) ========================================= A look at perceptions of modern parenting, specifically how Generation X is seen to be parenting the Homeland generation and young Millenn...

This was one of the first episodes I put out here, and I'm a little surprised I haven't redone it yet.  The Star Trek (Original Series) episode  The Way to Eden is REALLY the one with the space hippies. It's one of the most generally disliked episodes, because of how over-the-top it goes in an attempt to be up-to-date and hip and with-it.  But on reviewing from a generational perspective ( and abo...

Our first tale from interesting times could've happened in other times - there's nothing specific about that time it happened, except that everyone there was Generation X, and it was just at a point where the mystic allure of the Awakening was giving way to the freedom of the Unraveling. But don't want to spoil it for you, so just listen. Not referenced or mentioned or anything here, but there's a...

Introduction to a new series on this podcast - one I've been intending to do for a while.  It's called Reactivities: Tales from Interesting Times.  Strauss & Howe originally called the cohort born between 1961 and 1981 the Thirteenth Generation, but the Coupland's " Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture " soon made it the preferred moniker. In Strauss & Howe's cyclical view, every fourth...

Re-duxing to honor Bob Newhart on the occasion of his recent passing. I had forgotten that some of this - from 6 years ago - inadvertently sounded like Newhart had already passed.  This is done in the style of one of his routines, which were almost always as one side of a conversation - often as if he was on a phone call, sometimes with other gimmicks (a submarine captain's announcement to his men...

  Prompt the First: Trump Shooting The Dead Zone - 1983 movie , 1979 book eventually a 2002 TV Series Bob Roberts - 1992, written and directed by Tim Robbins Here's the third one - I didn't bring it up because it's impossible to do so in this context without sounding completely silly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow_Bob_Roberts - Simpsons episode 1994   Prompt the Second: Economic Structure...

1. Jaws Post on Facebook on June 29th mentioned the Quint speech from Jaws, which, for all it's wonderful, has the wrong date "So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb." https://www.history.navy.mil/.../after-action-report-of... BUT...the date is completely wrong. It was July 30, 1945 - just after mid...

Prompt the First: Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Brick_in_the_Wall   Prompt the Second: Disney Cycles The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel, Jenny Nicholson's magnum opus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4 On that pylon thing - this suggests that the original idea was to have a central performance viewable by everyone at every table. https:...

  For a quickly done episode, this turned out pretty well.  Prompt the first: The First Turning in Set Direction   The article on Variety: https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/loki-production-design-blade-runner-1235019744/ The Loki series playlist on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxaFrzRPFngWR4Odhwc8BXfJUNjDCPSVf A Boy and His Dog - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/ Hello T...

I'm trying to replace the Lucas Portrait file with one that isn't twice as long as it needs to be. That may result in this episode getting re-published, in which case, enjoy an episode that will be redone in a month again, but at least will be four minutes long instead of eight.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Been on my mind for a bit, for two...

Going deep into the archives for a not-previously-reduxed discussion with my wife on a matter important to any generation: What's funny, what's not, and why?  We are Gen X-ers who think Quick Change is brilliant and funny. My mother-in-law thought Where's Poppa was brilliant and funny. You'll have to make up your own mind on which of us was right.   As mentioned, it's one of the first recordings I...