Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for February 01, 2022

Whatever it is, I want to go there

The feature not mentioned on the sign: No teenagers.

Oh dear, i might just jaywalk back and forth…

Not a bad idea at all!

There’s probably a vinyl record or CD shop further down that street too.

“Pretechnological” and “back to nature” nostalgia makes me puke. I bet when books were invented, Sumerian parents rallied that their children were being corrupted by the printed tablet destroying the humanity of spoken word.

WOW Nostalgia a phone booth

I enjoy some things, like being able to look up anything, anytime, and being able to see worlds that I will never be able to visit person. I HATE being forced to do it because someone decided that that was the way THEY want to do it. You lose skills when you depend on technology to do everything for you.

I’ll stay this side the street thanks, started off in the street behind the other side. I would even be happy with a smart microchip, instead of a wallet full of cards.

I wish such a place existed

What should we say – “Thank God”?

It’s always the second one.

I wish there was a district like that in my hometown complete with news stands, bookstores, used and new record shops, drive in movies, Radio Shack, shopping malls which are not empty and abandoned, video rental shops and a lot of the other cool things I remember from the ’70s through the early 2000s.

Ooh! A wilderness area! Probably bears about.

Why stop there? How about no phones at all, no videos, no newspapers, no cameras….

I was thinking of creating a venue called, “The Faraday Cage.” Nothing fancy, just a big building inside a grounded wire mesh that prevents all wireless signals from penetrating.

It would surprise me if one does not already exist. If I were CIA headquarters, for example, I’d want one to keep signals from getting OUT.

Looks like a nice place to visit, at a minimum.

The good old days. Our memory all ways looks back fondly. The future will be better and the present sucks.

A coming generation will puzzle at scenes in old movies, where newsboys are out in the street screaming the headlines to hawk their wares. With no knowledge of newspapers the kids will think the news was shouted by people in the streets in pre-internet days.

Can’t I have both please?

Pass.

Video stores were the beginning of the downfall of cinemas and the proliferation of porn.

I LUV the way many people think they have no agency or choice over these things. ONLY YOU can refuse to answer every call on YOUR cell phone. ONLY YOU can decide what to pursue on the internet. ONLY YOU can decide what books/videos/programs/apps you pursue. Good gawd, people, grow some spine.

I don’t miss film, vinyl or videotape!

Whoa!

Yeah, I’m with the kids on this one. I clawed and bought my way out of there and then to get to here and now. I’m not inclined to go back to pagers, VHS tapes(Be kind. Rewind), dial phones and black and white TV.

First thought … reading a tabloid paper on the subway. And the car smelling like a cow barn.

History is made by and passes with each generation. By the 3rd or 4th, the first is only a misty view of something few will remember and even fewer will understand.

Anybody ever see the movie Pleasantville?

It was a great time in our life’s, do miss some of it

I don’t miss the fotomat

It’s the Switzerland of the culture wars.

Anyone here old enough to remember ice boxes? Our family had one when I was a kid.

It lives in my memory. Though the video store makes it rather recent in my context.

Or it could just be a defense mechanism. Never interrupt a defense mechanism. Looks like mild fun, though.

I could dig it for a few hours of “static” news and uninterrupted peace. I could see a theme coffee house inside a Faraday cage. Of course, you’d only have drip coffee, no gluten-free pastries, and milk would only mean “cow milk”.

Cross that street and maybe you’d have to actually talk to someone — Heaven Forbid!!

I just assume that the video place rents out VHS tapes.

Because Culture exists in pockets it will likely never be the thing that bring people together. Differences can be enlightening, even freeing, and choice is freedom. I, for the most part have enjoyed your work, keep it up.

It would be great to pick and chose what we could keep and get rid of. I’d get rid of cell phones because they’ve turned young people into zombies. I’d get rid of cable and the gross reality programs and news stations that make up its content

I would go there.

Just think, today’s babies grow up with facetime, just like post Gutenberg’s press invention babies grew up with books…

I love how everyone goes on “social media” to condemn “social media”.

Sadly I can remember when there were no Fotomats and you had to go to the drug store or dime store. Oh yeah, remember dime stores? I grew up in one.

Take me back. I’d even deal with re-folding roadmaps.

Do do, do do, you have entered the Twilight Zone. Thank you for your patience, Rod Sterling will be along soon.

The signpost ahead says—The Twilight Zone……..

It’s called the 90s

There are many cages to freedom.

wOULD ALL THAT QUIET EVENTUALLY DRIVE YOU CRAZY?

Definitely Fantasy Land.,..

Also: No Covid. No climate desaster. No Trumped GOP.

Who said it’s mutually exclusive?

I see a fotomat, but where is the Automat?

Bring back the (original) Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Had great times there.

Also make Pirate’s Cove next to Zuma once again a nude beach.

I like the Superman Vintage Phone Booth.

The girl who worked in our local fotomat sold drugs in film boxes.

I’m All in

Can we forbid leaf blowers too, please?

That was pre 1984.

Big Brother is alive and going strong on the Internet in the Virtual World that is the true Metaverse. (BTW, he’s not a guy or a girl but a a little of both and a real vicious Bitch).

I remember back in the Dark Ages when I was at Disneyland with my parents. We were in an exhibit by Bell Telephone that had a video phone. Not a cell phone, mind you, but what was supposed to be like a pay phone that had video. Nevertheless, those Were the Good Old Days.

What – you mean The Good Old Days?? They never existed!