[Death Proof]

Haven't done a benchmark thread in quite a while... but since I had my 40th birthday a couple of months ago I thought it might be a fun idea to reminisce over the last 40 years and discuss a favorite movie, album, TV show and something pop-culturey from each year.

I hope this is a fun topic, especially for some of my fellow older folks here. And maybe some of the young bucks will get interested in something they weren't familiar with.




And here... we... go...



The year: 1972

Naturally, I wasn't cogniscent of anything around me for my first couple of years. But I've since gone back and discovered things about these first few years that I have come to love.

Film: I'm going to go a little more obscure instead of the painfully inevitable choice of The Godfather and instead go with a sleeper hit (and a favorite of drive-in movie viewers) The Legend of Boggy Creek. Presented in the form of a docudrama, the movie tells the story of a bigfoot-like monster seen in a small area of Arkansas. Several locals appear as themselves, telling the stories of their encounters and re-enacting them. Boggy Creek was the #11 highest grossing film of the year, making $20 million on a $100,000 budget. It's a fun, scary flick, great for watching late at night or with a few friends.

Music: 1972 was an amzing year in music with albums like the Allman Brothers "Eat a Peach", Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick", Neil Young's "Harvest" and The Eagles self-titled debut. But for this entry I'm going with something that must have blown people's mother****ing minds. While we were still coming off the contact high of Woodstock and enjoying the evolution of folk rock, David Bowie stepped up with his androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust and created one of the most influential rock albums ever. With the opening song "Five Years" and its jazz fusion style to the folksy closing song "Rock and Roll Suicide", this is an album crafted during a time when you were meant to listen to the entire record in one sitting. My god, it's beautiful.

Television: rather than go with a U.S. show, I wanted to focus on something that I only got into over the last couple of years. The long-running Are You Being Served debuted in 1972 and continued on until finally giving up the ghost in 1985. Along the way there was a movie and at least two spin-offs, by my count. Sadly, most of the original cast have passed away, some within the last couple of years. It's not the greatest sitcom... I would surely place The Young Ones or Father Ted over it in quality, but the quirky characters, so obsessed with their positions in the department store, plus the perpetually frail (and horny) owner of the store, make it a fun watch.

Pop Culture: The first scientific hand-held calculator (labeled Hewlett-Packard, later designated the HP-35) is introduced, at a price of $795.00. I wonder how much mom paid for her calculator back in the day. Of course now, you can go to a dollar store and get a cheap calculator. Even a good scientific calculator might only run twenty bucks or so. Fortunately I still learned how to do math the hard way so I wouldn't have to rely on electronics to do it for me. And now I rely on electronics to serve my food, wipe my ass and provide hot sex.

[Smalley]

Yay

[Quite-Gone Genie]

Heh, you're old now. Congratulations!

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by Quite-Gone Genie

Heh, you're old now. Congratulations!

No way, man! We're gonna keep rockin' forever!

forever...

forever...

forever...

forever...

[Space for Rent]

Don't forget Derek and The Dominoes. Layla, Bell Bottom blues. Goodfellas wouldn't have been the same.

Ziggy Stardust one of my all time favorite albums.


Also, Pong debuted in 1972, so you were there to watch the beginning of the video game industry.

[paizlea]

Congrats on the 40/40!

And don't listen to QGG, you were old when you turned 30. Now you're just Old+10.

[billtheburger]

Did you start this thread on post number 39999?

I'm quite shocked at the inclusion of Are you being served? It seems a strange export for the UK.

Incidently 1972 is considered the year that the golden age of porn really began. Not only was there Behind the green door and Deep throat, there was also mainstream validation of sex in cinema with films like Last Tango in Paris and Everything you always wanted to know about sex.

[Matt the Hat]

I never really enjoyed Are You Being Served? It seemed to be old fashioned. I much prefer the other sitcoms you mentioned.

Congratulations for hitting the big 4 0.

[Duder]

Originally Posted by Phell

Don't forget Derek and The Dominoes. Layla, Bell Bottom blues. Goodfellas wouldn't have been the same.

Ziggy Stardust one of my all time favorite albums.


Also, Pong debuted in 1972, so you were there to watch the beginning of the video game industry.

And twenty years later he saw the beginning of Pogs. He was there for it all man.

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by Phell

Don't forget Derek and The Dominoes. Layla, Bell Bottom blues. Goodfellas wouldn't have been the same.

Ziggy Stardust one of my all time favorite albums.


Also, Pong debuted in 1972, so you were there to watch the beginning of the video game industry.

I almost went with Pong as my pop culture item, but as I never played it in the arcade (just on the Oddessy game system) I figured I'd wait until a little later when some of my more favorite arcade games came out.

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by billtheburger

Did you start this thread on post number 39999?

I'm quite shocked at the inclusion of Are you being served? It seems a strange export for the UK.

Incidently 1972 is considered the year that the golden age of porn really began. Not only was there Behind the green door and Deep throat, there was also mainstream validation of sex in cinema with films like Last Tango in Paris and Everything you always wanted to know about sex.

It's funny how you get into certain things. I just stumbled across Are You Being Served on PBS one day a few years ago and I was hooked.

Good point about the porn industry, although I've never been a fan of Green Door or Deep Throat. I'll probably give Debbie Does Dallas a shoutout, though, when we get to the appropriate year for it.

[doughboy]

Happy Birthday(ish) and happy >8000 posts per year. I was born in 1970, so I guess I'm winning (oh wait...).

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by Duder

And twenty years later he saw the beginning of Pogs. He was there for it all man.

Remember Alf? He's back... in POG form!

[Awesometastic]

Congrats. You're still one of the best posters here.

[billtheburger]

Did you have a crush on Wendy Richards, then?

I've never watched Green Door or Deep Throat or Debbie Does Dallas. I'm more of a theoretical historian of porn's golden age. Maybe I should get around to it.

[Wooley]

Originally Posted by Death Proof

The year: 1972

Music: 1972 was an amzing year in music with albums like the Allman Brothers "Eat a Peach", Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick", Neil Young's "Harvest" and The Eagles self-titled debut. But for this entry I'm going with something that must have blown people's mother****ing minds. While we were still coming off the contact high of Woodstock and enjoying the evolution of folk rock, David Bowie stepped up with his androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust and created one of the most influential rock albums ever. With the opening song "Five Years" and its jazz fusion style to the folksy closing song "Rock and Roll Suicide", this is an album crafted during a time when you were meant to listen to the entire record in one sitting. My god, it's beautiful...

Good call.

Of all the great albums to come out that year, I think The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is the masterpiece of masterpieces.

Cheers.

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by Awesometastic

Congrats. You're still one of the best posters here.

Too kind. When you coming to Philly?

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by billtheburger

Did you have a crush on Wendy Richards, then?

I've never watched Green Door or Deep Throat or Debbie Does Dallas. I'm more of a theoretical historian of porn's golden age. Maybe I should get around to it.

She was certainly cute back in the day, yes.

I have an affinity for 70's porn. More natural back then.

[Awesometastic]

Originally Posted by Death Proof

Too kind. When you coming to Philly?

No hard dates, but I always go a few times in the summer. And it's almost summer.

[Freddie Quell]

Congrats.

Also, Roxy Music's self titled debut is another good one from 72. Can't forget Exile On Main Street either.

[Rock]

Congrats!

I will be reading.

[Death Proof]

Thanks, kids... post a couple entries as soon as I get home.

[zpt4x]

I like this format you are going with

[Space for Rent]

Originally Posted by Death Proof

Thanks, kids... post a couple entries as soon as I get home.

We're the same age, actually. We joined RT the same time as well.

Are you sure we're not each other?

[Death Proof]

The year: 1973


Still too young to remember anything happening around me.


Film: Hell of a year for movies. Enter the Dragon, Live and Let Die, The Exorcist... but gotta go with The Sting. Amazing set decoration, cast, script, soundtrack, everything. Infinitely rewatchable. Just can't say enough good things about it. Ya folla?


Music: Dark Side of the Moon. Maybe the best album ever made? No. That would be hyperbole. But so ****ing brilliant anyway... got to see Roger Waters perform it in its entirety a few years ago, which remains one of the best concerts I've ever seen. The only thing that pisses me off about the album is that my parents weren't hip enough to own it. They were around the right age - 26 and 27 - but their taste in music was god-awful. When I should have been being introduced to Floyd, Bob Seger, Led Zeppelin and Peter Frampton, instead I was surrounded by Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow and The Captain and Tenneille. Okay... Kenny Rogers is pretty cool.


Television: Schoolhouse Rock, baby. I'm just a Bill and I'm sittin' on Capital Hill... it ran for 13 years and taught the kids of my generation about how the government works, the wonders of numerology, and how to dangle a participle. It was glorious.


Pop Culture: Roe vs. Wade makes abortion a constitutional right, and continues to be a shitstorm almost 40 years later. My mom was a midwife and always very pro-women's rights, which meant I got fed all that stuff growing up. My opinion? I ****ing hate kids so the less there are the better.

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by Phell

We're the same age, actually. We joined RT the same time as well.

Are you sure we're not each other?

You could be the smarter, more talented portion of my brain that I have no control over.

No wonder I keep blacking out several times a day... here I thought it was all the heroin.

[Death Proof]

Originally Posted by zpt4x

I like this format you are going with

Oh yeah? Well... I like... your face.

[dreiser]

Originally Posted by Death Proof

My opinion? I ****ing hate kids so the less there are the better.

[Philip J. Fry]

lol Barry Manilow.

Congrats bro.

[Space for Rent]

Originally Posted by Death Proof

You could be the smarter, more talented portion of my brain that I have no control over.

No wonder I keep blacking out several times a day... here I thought it was all the heroin.

I'm more like the portion of your brain responsible for fascination with shiny objects, and navel probing. I have wondered recently if I might be drinking for two.