Aging in the Express Lane

We have plenty of “famous” visitors to my place of employment … and I have no clue who a great many of them are.

I’ve done escorts with some I know. These names will indicate the era I am aware of, John Bon Jovi, Harrison Ford, Cal Ripken Jr.

Lots of newer celebs are around and I am mostly clueless.

I’m happy that I’m clueless about pop-culture these days. It is sooOOoo off my radar any ways.

These days it all seems to amount to contrived drama of zero significance.

 If I may ask, what is your line of work?

Women still buy them because women probably still do most of the grocery shopping.  The publications know that and capitalize on it.  If other women are anything like my wife they will buy anything with a pretty picture, a luscious looking meal or dessert, or their favorite public figure on it.  Mine is such a sucker for marketing that it annoys me.  Probably because I don't like being manipulated either consciously or subconsciously.  That's the reason I don't like the news media but that's another thread.  If something comes in a cobalt blue bottle she will buy it because she wants the bottle even if it were to contain hemlock or strychnine.  If I could get her to stay home and just let me do the shopping I could probably save $50 every single week and most certainly do it in half the time or less.

It is largely because media is so fragmented. We have our own bubbles and someone can be super famous in one bubble but unheard of in another. We're often at the mercy of an algorithm.

I'm guessing most here don't know about Ninja or Mr. Beast... but they're some of the most "famous" people alive today. 30-40 years ago, you couldn't help but know who Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson or Arnold Schwarzenegger were, because they were going to be on virtually every medium. Even if it was someone you absolutely hated and didn't want to see, you still saw them. Most people knew who Urkel was, even if they wanted to punch his lights out.

How about a reaction video to a reaction video?

I'm imagining the reaction videos on VCR being delivered to someone and, wait for it...a video of them being unboxed!   

The things that make people famous ain't what it used to be.

Today's society values some strange things. Also, smart phones and the Internet have turned us into a spectator society. It's gotten so bad that people are entertained by watching others be entertained. Strange people to idealize, but I've decided we are witnessing the first generation to be less productive that the previous one.

About all I read in line is the salt content of the bag of beef jerky hanging above the conveyor belt. Perhaps I should make a reaction video.

Country music's main audience is suburbanites in their 20s-30s, and mostly women.

It's not music for rural workin' folk anymore, it just pretends to be.

The pursuit of "influencer" seems to be kind of a bizarre quest for pseudo fame. I imagine the metrics of clicks and views drives that. I mean, an old toilet discarded on the side of the road may get a million views by passing motorists, but that doesn't make it famous. Weird times we live in.

The true test of age: if you can remember the late night test pattern on your black and white TV screen ... 

My grandparents were young when they first experienced indoor plumbing. When they passed, email was a common thing. They were born not long after Orville and Wilbur “flew” for the first time at Kitty Hawk. They watched on that new invention, Television, when man landed on the moon.

WWII began with man flying in the biplane era and ended with jets and rockets.

I could go on. Tremendous changes since the beginning of the last century. In my mind it puts all this other stuff in perspective. And you can see the birthing of this present era.