Featured A Rank Sentimentalist

There's a great scene (amongst many great scenes) in Casablanca where Claude Raines calls Bogart a rank sentimentalist after he did something uncharacteristically nice.

Today we went to the thrift shop where I bought the large waif couple and a small waif boy, back from the 60s. Today they had the sister of the boy, except she has a hole and a bit of staining in the corner. But, how can you leave a painting that was partnered with another for at almost 60 years?
Reunited and it feels so good.

 

although painted years ago, when you see them both together (in todays eyes)

its a little bit (unintentionally) gender transformatory

 

It's because the 60s is when men started to wear their hair long, and androgyny first started to take hold.

In 2025 it's hard to imagine that in 1964 this was outrageous and these guys were long haired freaks.

 

what a picture mate !

 

Now the bowl cuts and ties look like they're going to Prom!

 

That would actually be considered clean cut now.

I am an old fashioned punk rocker. I always found punk girls attractive. I look at both girls and boys coming of age (mid teens to early 20s) and I'm just thankful I'm old. There is no style, it's just a mess.

 

Takes every kind of people , to make the world go round....... R.Palmer

 

In the late 60s early 70s I had hair down to my ass (unwashed. It was disgusting). I was between 9 - 15 years old, and at flea markets (yes, I've been going all my life) when I'd ask a price, the seller would say "that's a quarter young lady" and I'd respond "I'm a boy" and they'd say "Cut your hair, freak". This is something I heard quite a few times. That's old man syndrome. Things were better when they were growing up. Now, it's all gone to shit. I'd like to say they were wrong. But, they weren't. I was a freak. I love the life I've lived. But, to an extend, I look back in horror at my appearance. Because I WAS an absolute FREAK. I still am.

My issue with the youth of today is, what do they have to enjoy and want them to make a better tomorrow? In the 60s - 80s there was an entertainment revolution. The studios had been disbanded, and films like Carnival of Souls, The Blob, and Night of the Living Dead were showing what independent cinema could do. Rock and Roll, Heavy Metal, Glam, Punk were showing the originality of musicians. Art has always been at the forefront of society.

What does this generation bring? Autotuned vocals? Movies that can't even compete with silent films for storytelling? Every person with a cell phone has the equipment in their pocket to make a movie that looks better than early cinema. Why isn't it being done?

Old man syndrom is real. But, at this point in existence, it's actually viable. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love to hear how this moment in time is the BEST or at least VIABLE to what's come before it. I see nothing that competes to what's come before. That's just all around sad.

30 years from now, what has been revolutionized in the past 15 years that people will hail as brilliant? Perhaps some internet thing. But, that's not beneficial to the heart or mind. If you get sentimental or heavy hearted because you're downloading at 1 gig per minute instead of 50 mb per minute, you haven't lived.

 

i don't know if new talent doesn't exist anymore, i think we just might be too swamped to see or want to see anything

think the last good film i saw was no country for old men (and thats going back far too long)

theres so much for me to watch now (oh theres a list) and i just think i can't be bothered to commit to any of it

the only new music i discover is old music that is new to me

something new and interesting will spark in music (in some form), and everyone will go oh thats what we should be doing

it only takes one great new band to start something like that

but what......god only knows

 

o and squid game as well........if you haven't seen...thought (especially the first season) superb, and super fresh

 

Popularity of long hair for men has been with us for hundreds, even thousands of years . . . just go to any history museum for evidence. Some popular 17th century styles.

 

so has distain for long hair............ for one prejudice or another...!

 

Every person is an individual. So what I like, you might hate. Taste is subjective.

My first concert was Led Zeppelin in 77. My last show was a few months back, a new (older) artist Samantha Crain. In the old days, ads, radio, and friends were the way to find new bands. I found punk rock at a flea market in the 70s. I paid a quarter for promo copies of The New York Dolls and Iggy Pop's Raw Power. Plus a bunch of others. Those type of marketing are gone.

I'll look at who is playing the local Philly clubs and check out their music on youtube. 99.9% of it SUCKS. Every song you hear now on the radio that's new, the vocals are autotuned. Did you ever wonder why many singers sound the same? It's because their voices are being tuned. Once you tune the voice, you change the notes. Those little tweeks you hear, are because they're so flat that when the note is fixed, it adds a computerized tweek to it. WillIAm of The Black Eyed Peas is one of the most noticeable examples. He has no issue with telling interviewers he can't sing. What does that say about the state of the music industry when singers can't hit the notes? That's why you find old music that's listenable. Musicians played and sang on it.

The future of all media is AI. AI music is already finding it's place on social media. There are accounts made for fictionous artists with audio and photos with thousands of subscribers and likes. All AI does is steal from real musicians. A large lawsuit has been brought by Universal Music against the biggest AI music software. Because it's been trained on copyrighted material. All AI is trained on human made material from all the arts. Don't hold your breath for new musical genres, music as all the arts are on life support.

I hope you're not saying that the Beatles weren't considered long haired freaks in the 60s. Because they were.

Of course long hair on men was fashionable, centuries ago. But, in the western world by the turn into the 20th century, men's hair was neater (though really weird on many when styled) and shorter. By WW2 it was your basic brillcreme combed back look. It changed with the Beatles. Elvis and James Dean had pompadours. But, the Beatles broke the door open to men having long hair.

 

I'll bet in the shower, Elvis had longer hair than Ringo...!!

 

I'm betting the real art is out there; it's just being drowned out by the AI drek. I think it's a big reason Vinyl has made a comeback, and cassettes are collectible. In addition to the old format and cover art, it's what's recorded.

The reason those singing champion TV shows use older tunes is that you actually had to sing them. If you listen, very few of the songs were written in the Autotune era, and some are 50 years old. You'll not hear Taylor Swift covered. For an artist making the kind of money she does, that's very strange. No Blackpink, no BTS, no Bieber. Nada.