Just a thread I'd thought of, to talk about an interesting pop culture phenom from this year... I'm grandpa age (at least here where age of parents are pretty low, like 19 - 25 common) and none of my siblings nor friends have young children... but this K-pop Demon Hunters tsunami of a phenom from summer, is defo interesting to watch. Love the movie, love the messages, love the focus on Korean culture, love the music, love the principals (EJAE? OMG what a ballistic trajectory her life's taken into the mainstream, as well with the rest of her HUNTR/X singing and voice-acting cast -- which are mostly Korean, w/ even a female Korean-Canadian director w/ 20 yrs in the business). And love the global response, which has been wild... But since focus is on interviews w/ the Wicked: For Good cast these days... did a bit of fun digging as I always do, into birthdates to see what their Chinese zodiac readings are (I don't make important decisions w/ it, just a hobby, as a lot of celebs do conform to this 5K-yo system. So the two main stars on set (#1 and #2), are Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande as Glinda. Cynthia was born 08 Jan 1987 -- so her birth animal year is the Tiger. However, since she were born literally days before the lunar New Year, which is the Rabbit... she's a cusp baby, a mixture of both (the year supposedly begins to change towards the new year's animal, first day of September). Such Tiger-Rabbits are formidable leaders, since they possess the strength and boldness of the Tiger without its rashness and rancor... and the Rabbit's judiciousness, sensitivity, and sense of balance, w/o its over-arching need for self-preservation. Ari were born a Summer baby, 26 Jun 1993 -- Year of the Rooster. Females born under this sign tend two ways -- the songbird, or the hen. She possesses both traits, along with the Rooster's talons when threatened. But it's safe to say her strength / superpower is in her creative and vocal work... and the protective, concilliatory, nurturing mature side of her had to develop into her 30s to bloom enough to be seen (that's showbiz for you). I really like Ari in her 30s... not as much prior. So we have a songbird and a tiger, in the news cycle again. Which only now, is overtaking K-pop Demon Hunters in the daily zeitgeist... which features rather prominently, a Tiger with a bird (magpie) as its companion. Not a 1:1 match of course -- I wouldn't dare compare Cynthia or Elphaba to Derpy the mystical blue Korean folk-art-inspired, well derpy tiger, nor Glinda to Sussy the sassy Magpie. But it's just weird how both these animals happen, in 2025, to be connected to the hottest pop-culture properties -- historic, really... Again, not attaching more meaning to this than cool coincidence... but delighted yet another set of celebs have interesting readings in the Chinese traditional belief system
Another coincidence... Had been thinking this years now... but the collective's been thinking it too: what the heck's going on with flow of time since covid...? I mean, barring the obvious poseurs and socio- / psychopaths... the collective's got a lot of smart people in it, esp vs. Me. So shouldn't be surprised Reddit has threads talking about such... but what did surprise me justifiably, was the specificity. "Months feel like years..." Yep. I have some theories... this Zoomer generation, witnessing and both creating and perceiving the present pop-culture zeitgeist, may be exp'g what we oldies have known a while now: time seems to flow more slowly as you age. In my time of 20-ism, when there was only the first buds of an internet, pagers were our smartphones, motorcycles had no traction control or ABS but your effing hands and feet, and cars only had one airbag (two if you were bougey)... time probably flowed at the same rate 20-ists now are feeling as decel -- because we weren't raised w/ high-speed internet always being there and people around the world oversharing in your pocket. 2025 in many ways, feels a zenith of some kind... where a lot of the accel from past years seems caught up and bound in creeping anti-brinksmanship. Can't cite specific examples now (between clients) but if any year felt this way since covid, 2025's been its poster child. "Feels like a roller coaster -- super-fast, then super-slow..." Seems just the other day Zoomers were still kids, HS kids -- Millennials were the adults. Now of course they're having families... and sharing exps on s/m. Thing is... what exps prepared Me to be dad-aged, vs. this kid? Are they different? Oh yeah, lots... by not the least which, is the global nature of s/m globally, my generation wasn't foundationally influenced by. The world shrinks when you have snap access to any number of information resources, which then reduces the sensory exp of tediously looking things up, in books or periodicals (I have deep history in periodicals, and most of the stats I can rattle off, came from this time geeking out on magazines). But that's all been made obsolete by the smartphone, and dangerous by malicious s/m. So could be this connection to that world, but having to shoulder the universal, organic task of parenthood (or grieving, or sickness / convalescence) that causes this rift in perception. "Things just seem of another timeline or universe..." Welcome to post-AI 'reality'... I've always been pessimistic re: human beings picking hard work to keep the world safe and just for everyone... vs. lazy, cynical kneecapping each other and leaving responsibility for the consequences to those still clinging to integrity... for fun and profit. The interpretation 'another timeline / universe'... assumes the thinker to consider a past time or place the standard... but in truth it's just a vacillation about things that could've been done, that weren't... without any mention of their own part in insuring this outcome. It's not great to embody that pessimistic worldview, as doing that does indeed insure its creation, at least in your life. But it's been a while now the Greatest Generation's finally passed on, the generation which founded many of the best things here and worldwide, we now take for granted. Don't think it's a coincidence, the 25y -- almost 2 generations -- since they began to age out of decision-making, or just influencing younger gens in charge with their stories and votes... have been a shiteshow of corruption, megalomania, and profiteering. Because it's not that the sociopaths have gone away... but our apathy to them, our saccharine acceptance of avoidance as virtuous... that's let them get stronger and stronger. Just wait 30 yrs when I'm gone, to lift (rich billionaire club) civilisation to Mars to escape poisoning and mass famine, please. And mind you, those will be the survivors... and survivors get to write the official versions of history, probably as victims
Since we're in the junkets for Wicked: For Good these days... noticed something else coincidental. Cynthia Erivo is a force of nature. Being raised and schooled in London Black, female, and LGTBQ+ in the era she came of age, provided much of the exps w/ hate and ignorance she mined gorgeously and heartbreakingly, for Elphaba's 'Wicked' introduction. Her 11 May 2016 performance of 'I'm Here' in 'The Color Purple' on Broadway -- her first introduction to me ~2018, as a rising talent -- still brings me to tears, no matter how often I watch it. Connect with Cynthia on several levels, very familiar with the bullying and general repugnance of middle and high schoolers when they sense the low-hanging fruit of blood in the water... esp having lived it in the 1980s (still haven't been to a HS reunion, as there're few I want to hang out with from that time... and those few I do, also refuse to attend. You don't need effing reunions cattle-calling & re-triggering decades-old wounds, to keep in touch with those whom you cared about). But the coincidences: Cynthia's 'I'm Here' was the first song I'd heard her sing. Second, was 'Defying Gravity', and third 'For Good', before seeing 'Wicked' in the cinema. Perhaps unique to me (live on an island, where there are still zero stages in 2025 for off-Broadway theatre, and fewer still for the kind of prices Broadway productions demand), perhaps not. But 'I'm Here Defying Gravity For Good'... seems to describe Cynthia Erivo astonishingly well
There's a cool surprising thing that sometimes happens, though: people who were jerks as middle- or high-schoolers can have turned out all right, and be unexpectedly good company.
It's theoretically possible, I suppose Nah, I know these idiots. Only loss in it for me, and nothing for them either, or they've have tried to contact me. Those mates from HS I wanted to keep in touch with, I'm already in touch with. I'm an ex-mechanic atop being a bodyworker -- force rarely leads to good results. Missed 3 reunions so far, gonna be busy for the 4th too, oops
I'd never have expected it, until I saw it happen. The people who had been been jerks to me back in the day hadn't, over the intervening time, ever tried to contact me and say "hi, we're not jerks anymore." I'm not sure that'd be a realistic expectation. They just turned out to be there when I went for reunion, and turned out, mirabile dictu, not to be jerks. To be pretty good company, even.
They wouldn't frame themselves in that way, 'h i, I'm a jerk that wants to apologise' Ridiculous, thus I'd never expect that. But they would call me to see if I'd be attending... and if they wanted to come clean, it'd happen at the event. My close classmates have my contact info, wouldn't be hard to do as some of them have overlap. So the fact it's been crickets 30 yrs... well actions shout. Admirable that happened for you positively Chappy, zero against it. But my decision not to attend my reunions is mine, as you have no time-in-svc with me to advise on such matters, and even less w/ these people. Thanks for posting your exp and counterpoint.
Ever notice how supermarket fronts never have windows...? Nor clocks on the wall inside -- this is supposedly to make you lose track of time, so you can be marketed to more effectively. Fewer distractions and more shelf space windows would make impractical, the more time you'll take inside, and the more money you'll potentially spend. Related... when the inside of your coffee mug is orange, people will drink more coffee specifically in it. Know this for a fact, as worked for an indie coffee shop in Phx for years, late '90s (ah, my 20s... that kid could accomplish things on a whim I can't even think about trying now ). The owner were a former high-level executive for AMEX in UK, so when retired decided to put his energies into managing one coffee shop in one of his favourite surrogate homes. He'd noticed not a lot of our logo mugs were moving... so asked the ranking staff their opinions on a new design, then made a decision and brought in finished stock, literally in a week (sure is nice to be filthy-effing rich with biz connections globally)... He'd listened to exactly none of our input... debuted a tapered black logo mug, textured on the outside like a kiln-fired vase, but bright orange on the inside. He'd personally come behind the counter to entice the line of customers out the door for a week of mornings, to purchase a mug at a (fairly ridiculous) discount, w/ brew. He'd also made this new mug the only choice for serving 16oz brewed or espresso drinks, when being served in-store. All of us thought, 'what's this old Brit dude up to?' Couldn't figure out his angle. Suddenly, bags of whole and ground beans were moving. Espresso machines too -- we sold only Rancilio commercial machines back in '97, so that was significant money. Grinders, pour-overs... all this stuff was moving fast enough we'd backordered tonnes (remember this is a decade pre-Amazon). My friend and supe had to do the books for the boss... and was like, how is even possible? The colour orange inside a coffee mug, makes the flavour of coffee seem tastier. When customers tried their coffee in this mug, suddenly they wanted more -- and felt making it at home after the initial investment, would save time, effort and money (in reality it doesn't, since there's a lot of collateral market maintaining a home espresso machine to make primo espresso, if you can't afford a mechanic to do it for you [my job in later years in Phx]. But the customer didn't need to know that ). Wily old guy... not his first marketing rodeo, I reckon... Guess that's why he'd been where he'd been, and had what he had*... and I was sweeping floors & going to moto tech school In all my life hearing about covert marketing, this was the only example I saw with my own eyes, actually bring in loads of cash. Supposedly the red mesh bag on oranges in the supermarket serves much the same purpose... but don't have any personal exp with provenance there * a blue Mercedes-Benz 500E -- the first V8-powered E-class, which M-B contracted Porsche to build -- very fast for the era -- whilst they prepped the 400E for debut a year later. Have to admit, not the flashiest way to say you had money... but back in my day, aside from Hollywood / adjacents in L.A.... if you had an S-Class, it was because it denoted your actual social status... not used ones slammed to ground as aspirational for corner drug dealers. This guy was loaded, homes all over the world... but drove an $80K subdued non-top-of-line 4D sedan in Phx Metro, where $100K+ Ferraris, 911 Turbos, and V8 / V12 S-Classes were nearly as common as Acuras (Scottsdale / Paradise Valley).
Went to my first reunion, think it might have been 30 yr high school, couldn't believe over 30% of those in my yr were dead, mostly drug related, a number of suicides and a number of motor vehicle accidents before they even reached their 20's ..... 400 males out of 1200 in an all boys govt school. Those that made it, many had made it big time, their employers flew them home from various places around the world and paid for the accommodation etc ..... simply because they didn't want to lose them as employees, I reckon you must be good at what you do to have an employer look after you like that, so clearly a public school education didn't hold them back. As usual, those that were jerks and bullies at school turned out to be just trying to cover for their own insecurities and being let lose on the big wide world either educated them in how to not be a jerk and there is always someone ready to smack you down if you tried the bully antics ..... it was a high percentage of the 400 who didn't make it to the 30 yrs after high school were those that couldn't adjust ...... Now I'm past my 70th birthday, it would be interesting to see how many of them are still alive, I'd be surprised if more than 30% of the original starters are still alive and kicking, the last 70 yrs have seen a massive amount of changes to every day life, not everyone coped, a few did well and a few struggled on the fringes and may still be struggling there now T1 Terry
TRIGGER WARNING: s***ide discussion In some parts of the US (which is all I can realistically vouch for, lived all over), not at all surprised at those stats by year 30, if its someplace like L.A., Houston, Philly, Baltimore, Chicago, or NYC esp. The Deep South is also a pretty dangerous place to be a HS-graduate fledgling, esp since the rise of meth, then fentanyl... and of course the post-covid debris field can really grind its shattered glass into your soul. I'm a survivor of two attempts to end my life: once in teens and once in 20s... so can relate to young people arriving at that choice. Post-ETS mental issues for vets continue to be ignored by the VA, as whilst focus is rightly now on combat vets and PTSD research and treatment... those who supported combat MOSes in fields like logistics and commo as I did, still often have trouble adjusting to the relative chaos of civvie life (the latter of those attempts, was in the first city I'd settled in after ETS). We're not as prioritised as combat vets, which I support... but shouldn't mean those like me should be ignored or lost in the bramble of healthcare funding either. There's a list somewhere, a spreadsheet with all 300+ of our year plus statuses, updated annually. Haven't looked since the Y2Ks so no idea who's no longer with us... but a fair number had passed on, maybe in the high single digits or pre-teens? -- oddly more due to accidents and health problems than s***ide or violent ends. In a very common cause of death is diabetes mellitus... which tends to hit in the 30s and 40s in the ethnicities in my comm'y, in my era. I myself nearly died of pancreatitis ~10y ago... easy to do when you're used to eating for four season weather, but move to a tropical climate, with plantation-labourer genes keeping fat in your blood, vs. storing it. As above... some of those who passed by the time I'd looked at that list, were those who made HS hellish for me and others... don't regret their passings at all, karmic imo. Some I really regretted not picking the phone or writing, to reconnect. Most I really didn't know; that was the kind of class we had; most of us were just figuring out what our paths would be, and knew HS wasn't this golden halcyon time to look back on. Those, mixed feelings at best... but you can't have strong, authentic feelings, about someone you don't know.
