NBC lost its' bird.
Fifty years ago we saw the above image although it was for most of us in black and white. Back then you had to wait for the TV to "warm up". It took two to three minutes for the electricity to fire up the tubes and a picture and sound would slowly appear. And if you remember that you're about as old as dirt now. Back then there were no live feeds from Europe. News from that part of the world came from newsreels captured by an army of film reporters covering the globe. All of their footage had to be processed and shipped air mail back here.
And now everything is instantaneous. You can get the latest views from some very obscure places. It's really rather neat to get the experiences of an event as it's unfolding. And we can give our own feedback and comments. But then again there is a drawback to the process. There are those who like nothing better than slap graffiti on the comments page and ruin the experience for the rest of us. Maybe there needs to be a split in comments. One for serious objective dialogue and another for the snarky rants and flaming rhetoric that we know happens. Just need to think of a name for such a place. The rant room? The psycho shack?
It's kind of hard to watch the latest happenings in Egypt. While I feel empathy for what they are going through the continuous images tends to desensitize one to the violence. Much like watching the destruction from a tornado or hurricane after a while there's a loss of feeling. That should not be, because we hope for the same empathy when we are hit with a bad situation.
I've been watching Al Jazeera for a few minutes for a view from the streets but if you want to hear from the people themselves here's a link to a reporter and his friends who are experiencing it first hand:
the arabist
Side note; As ugly and violent as things may appear there are a few good things happening there. This could be a foreshadowing of what could happen here. I hope I'm wrong.
Hey and no stupid comments this time around please. Direct those to the other side where they'd be appreciated. That is until I can set up a rant rumpus room for the children.
12 comments:
Ah, the progress we've made since that primitive era where you had to let the TV warm up, and half the time there was only a test pattern.
We've gone from "only 4 channels and there's nothing on" to "563 channels and there's nothing on."
Funny but I remember our black and white. How soon we forget! Those people are not going to stop. What concerns me is we are there already. I just hope we are smart enough to stay out of it.
One for serious objective dialogue and another for the snarky rants and flaming rhetoric that we know happens. Just need to think of a name for such a place. The rant room? The psycho shack?
Good luck with that, the nuts go everywhere, I hold Leslie up as an example.
So stuff is happening in Egypt, it's not that interesting to me, it's just shit that is happening somewhere else other than on my turf and it seems like it will have little effect on me and my space so fuck it.
I'm so fucking old that the first tv channels I recall were 2-4&6.
Our neighbourhood first had TV in the 50's. One channel CBC. The transmitter was 100 miles away and our neighbours needed a 60' antenna.
By the time we got a TV in the early 60's, there was a re-transmitter 40 miles away and we only needed a 40' antenna. I forget when we got two channels (CBC and CTV) but it was after I left for university I think.
In Colorado when I was young, there was one TV station. Our TV was a huge box with a 10 inch screen. We didn't get color TV until the late 1960s when my dad built one from a Heath Kit kit.
"Stupid comments"?
I resemble that remark sir!
STAND & DELIVER!
Not only do I remember the old televisions and radio's, I can remember when every major supermarket had a tube tester out front by the cash registers.
Nowthere is some trivia for ya.
Hello Demeur!
As far as the Egyptian situation, a real mess, but these folk's been taking alot of crap for year's, and like I posted in a few of my past posting's because of these uprising's for whatever reason ... when you just relentlessly screw people and put their back's against the wall ... the day will come when they will retaliate in some manner, is the way I see it.
Man oh man .... this picture of the Peacock and these comment's from ya'll took me down Memory Ln. I know I must be as old as ya'll! :) (just turned 55) ... but I remember the tube set's ... and even when after solid state circuitry became the big thing, I remember black and white's in the home as a kid, etc I can recall when folk's would call a TV repairman (all I ever seen back then were male gender, lived in New York and Southern California and Nevada as a child mostly) and they would replace thing's like "picture tube's"(?) ... I wonder ... if there are even those TV repair folk's these day's that come to the house? I reckon they have to have some though. To me it's just almost as cheap now to just trash the tele and buy a new one. (I give mine to local's in the neighborhood who make a partial living off recycling stuff). I just have nothing larger than 25" ... my daughter's and step son have them large wall screen type's, I like to go over to their house for big football game's and watch. My 25" was a few year's old, needed a converter box, which I got when they went digital ... but it didnt work good, so I ended up like most folk's ... ordering cable tele again ... which I cancelled a few year's back, because I had one of them movie package's, didnt get around to using it, and had about a couple dozen movie channel's that appeared to play the same stuff each other were showing at different time's though.
Back then you had to wait for the TV to "warm up". It took two to three minutes for the electricity to fire up the tubes and a picture and sound would slowly appear.
Went with my grandparents once back in the early 70's to buy a television. I remember it was like they were buying a car or house with all the discussion between themselves and the salesman. Even more importantly the television was a huge console damn close to the size of a washing machine.
It took two separate weekends for them to finally decided and once it was delivered I remember that crackling static sound as the thing came to life in a quick three minutes. Top it all off, that television was made in America.
Our first TV was struck by lighting.
Sure I remember radio days even.
Good grief remember all the weird ways we would position ourselves as well as the antenna. Now with technology so advance it can help bring down governments. Jim I'm with you, let the people decide.
BUM: ... Damn Bum .... that must have been a long time ago ,,,, being a tele made in America!
TIM: My mom grew up in New York ... and would tell me when I was a kid about "radio" instead of the tele, she said she loved some show called "The Shadow"(?)
I've noticed on this cable tele even, in the middle of the night, at least here in Dallas (I'm assuming nationwide) is this saturation of infomercial's ... seem's like the latgest increase in prime time commercial's would be insurance and pharma companies, and bank's that all want to make our lives more secure for us and our loved one's, look's like alot of those bailout dollar's were a help to, to generate at least sone marketing/ ad business domestically. so it didnt all go to only our largest debt holder's of China, Japan, and UK. :) (just a lil humor Guy)
Post a Comment