The Latest Generation

Lucas Birthday Edition - Lucas Portrait

This is just for fun, with no real generational connection except that both Abraham Lincoln and George Lucas are from Prophet generations. (Boom for Lucas, Transcendental for Lincoln.) And, as such, it's not surprising that a similar arrangement works for both of them. If you like Star Wars and Aaron Copland, you may enjoy it. Fun fact: George Lucas' birthday is May 14, 1944, which was the two-year anniversary of the premiere of Lincoln Portrait. Here's where I found the quotations: The first two are from different sections of a look back at The Phantom Menace: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history [https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history]) The "barbarians" quote is from testimony before the Senate in March 1988 - here's the text I used, from Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1988_George_Lucas_testimony_before_United_States_Senate [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1988_George_Lucas_testimony_before_United_States_Senate] It's not clear that Lucas every actually said the thing about the sledgehammer, but it turns out the fourth section in Lincoln Portrait isn't well sourced either. And in both cases, it's certainly something they might have said. I originally found the last bit here: https://www.biography.com/news/george-lucas-star-wars-facts [https://www.biography.com/news/george-lucas-star-wars-facts] But it turns out it was from a New York Times interview of George Lucas while he was FILMING Star Wars in 1976. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/from-american-graffiti-to-outer-space.html [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/from-american-graffiti-to-outer-space.html] It's well worth the read.

Reactivites Redux - 14 09 27 - The Battle of Flowers

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/ [https://battleofflowers.org/events/] The numbering convention is an adaptation of the method used in Defending Your Life [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101698/]. In the movie its a way to refer to specific days in a lifetime while reviewing events that may cover any day within a life. The first number is my age in years on the day this happened, the second is the month number within that year (i.e. the number of months since my previous birthday), and the third is the day within the month. Because I was born at the end of the month, I've simply used the day of that month e.g. for November 11 the month number is 4 and the day number is 11 Although the date is described within the movie as being "Daniels nth year," the actual year used is his age at that point. This means that, for example, 1/1/1 is his first birthday: the first day of the first month when he turned 1., This is noted as a goof on IMDB ( as described, 1/1/1 would be the first day of his first year I.e. the day he was born) but ... having tried to figure it myself, this method turns out to be easier to calculate and more useful to understand about when events are happening. Note that 14 09 27 is NOT "14 years, plus 4 months plus 11 days" but "the 27th day of the 9th month after my 14th birthday." A Twitter thread from a day I was thinking about the Battle of Flowers [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1697115598374002863]. On WIkipedia, you can find what a Sousaphone looks like. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousaphone] Repo Man and Plain Wrap according to IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/trivia/?item=tr0792948] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting] Hang On Sloopy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_On_Sloopy] is not mentioned here and there was no way for me to have included the relevant anecdote in the episode, but I did want to at least have some reference to it. Suffice it to say that it was a song we frequently played at football games.

Reactivities - 25 03 11 - A Kind of Magic

I haven't stayed up to date on Reactivities - just seeing that it's nearly a year since my last one - so going to put this up again just to prime the pump, remind myself of The Plan. ======================================================== 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 character description in Roger Zelazny's This Immortal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Immortal] that includes a situation very like this one. Okay, now that I've re-read the synopsis on Wikipedia, it has SEVERAL situations very like this one, but I'm specifically thinking of the title character remembering one time where a poet was reading his poetry....It's a classic story, check it out. (It's not at all clear what Turning that story happens in, and the poetry reading is some time in its past, but I can imagine that these sorts of events are very Third Turning.) A Kind of Magic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Kind_of_Magic] is an unofficial soundtrack for Highlander [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203/]. Most of the songs from the movie are on there, and most of the songs on the album are from the movie. (But the album does not include Theme from New York, New York [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_from_New_York,_New_York].....) One might note that that this happened the day after the Berlin Wall fell. Maybe I'll do another episode about that... Here's a video of the full show. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkHl0paHbM] This recording is from a few weeks later in the year. (No magic, this time.) We just called it The Queen Show. Yes, it also has Bohemian Rhapsody [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody].

Redux - Gen X Job Seeker - The Last

Five years at my job, five years since I was trying to find work in the middle of a pandemic. This is short and simple but the advice it has isn't half bad, still. Notes from the original: Eventually you have to make it through to the end. This is, as it says, the last Gen X Job Seeker episode, because....the search is over. Going to blame having a job again for not having more to say this month, but working on a more consistent release schedule soon. https://www.realdefen.se [https://www.realdefen.se] https://www.iolo.com [https://www.iolo.com] Good luck to everyone out there still seeking.

Redux - Ukraine, Continued

The continuation is from the previous episode, The Sebastapol Sketches, about the 1850s Crimean War and the Tolstoy stories set there. Because so much has been happening, it's a ramblling look at a lot of possibilities and how the generational model might make sense of it all. As such, there's not a lot here for further investigation besides the previous podcast episodes and a few tweets of mine.... On the other hand, it is an an unusually long episode, so be ready for that. Previously these were in the episode notes, but they aren't linking now. I'll try to delete them if I can't figure out why... https://x.com/generationalize/status/1496006671851986948?s=20 https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496139226659840018?s=21 [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496139226659840018?s=21] https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496016572112158724?s=21 [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496016572112158724?s=21] https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496006671851986948?s=21 [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1496006671851986948?s=21] https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1495223269225484290?s=21 [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1495223269225484290?s=21] https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1492255773237284864?s=21 [https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/1492255773237284864?s=21]