Welcome to #SetTheVCR where this week it is murder most howl! We got a woman’s basketball team eliminating the competition, black comics who are killing it, Chris Pratt has gone Terminal, Bond’s stylish watch says it’s No Time To Die and murders in a building. My “body” of work includes many puns. Let’s investigate what’s on TV this week.
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My Summer Lair Chapter #235: How Many Of The Techo Six Can You Name?
Future Shock is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler and Adelaide Farrell. The shortest definition for the term Future Shock is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time.” And that truly describes Detroit. It’s no surprise director Kristian Hill featured the book in his documentary God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines.
In 2008 Marvel Studios released Iron Man. This is how it all started. By 2012 all of Marvel’s cinematic superheroes had assembled in Avengers. The MCU was up and running; having established a formidable pop culture experience.
Similarly Detroit was home to a group of techno DJs…a sonic Avengers: The Techno Six.
Smokey Robinson, J Dilla, Jackie Wilson, White Stripes, Eminem, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, The Supremes I’ll even toss in Stevie Wonder…Detroit has given us so much music. And you know all these musicians; you know all their hits.
But one of Detroit’s greatest musical contributions has been overlooked and undervalued: Techno. The electronic-music phenomenon was created by Detroit DJs in the 1980s…big banged by The Techno Six. That spark transformed dance music internationally and blossomed into the multibillion-dollar industry of EDM today.
And just who were The Techno Six who gifted us all with this incredible techno music? That’s the exploration of Kristian R. Hill’s God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines…screening at Tribeca Film Festival.
Though often techno sounds like the future and sci-fi and space ships God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines lets us look back in the past…like a time machine. So let’s visit Detroit in the late 80s by talking to director Kristian Hill.
God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines trailer:
Recorded: Friday June 17, 2022 at 11am
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This week starts off with revenge and ends with mindfulness and Zen. In between is a multiverse of possibilities. It’s what you’d expect from the Man from Toronto who writes #SetTheVCR.
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My Summer Lair Chapter #234: What Is The YouTube Effect?
The first time the words the “YouTube effect” were used were in an LA Times article in 2006. At the time it was focused on the “phenomenon” of individuals uploading clips. Now it’s shifted as this documentary explores the positive and negative aspects of the popular platform.
You know Alex Winter as the non-Keanu Reeves half of Bill and Ted. While Keanu is busy avenging his dog (mash those guys up!); Alex has mainly been directing documentaries that explore the impact of technology on our society.
Downloaded in 2012 (the impact of filesharing and Napster), 2015’s Deep Web (Silk Road and the politics of the Dark Web), The Panama Papers (leaked documents about tax havens) and Trust Machine (blockchain) both in 2018.
His latest The YouTube Effect is a nuanced look at the utopian and dystopian aspects of the popular platform we all use. You know the negative: misinformation has ruled creating a Bogus Journey for many Lost Boys. The positive is it’s an Excellent journey especially for Showbiz Kids typically ignored by traditional media.
All of this leaves us with a “strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.” feeling.
Just a sample of the themes explored in Alex Winter’s The YouTube Effect documentary now playing at Tribeca Film Festival. (Oddly enough you can see the trailer on YouTube.) The documentary posits we’re currently in a “misinformation apocalypse.” Sounds like we need a John or Sarah Connor.
(Gale Anne Hurd was a producer on The YouTube Effect…she of course produced along with James Cameron the original Terminator Trilogy. Originally Skynet was a cautionary tale then it became a meme; sadly we diluted the danger. We’re not often a wise society.)
The YouTube Effect trailer:
Recorded: Monday June 13, 2022 at 10:30am
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We got miracles and music, high stakes baseball and basketball…so it’s either The Summer I Turned Pretty or the latest #SetTheVCR.
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Netflix Geeks Hustle for stand up-comedy: it’s that type of #SetTheVCR week.
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June 5, 62: #StanLee & #SteveDitko debuted #PeterParker in Amazing Fantasy #15.
5 years later on Sept 9, 67 nerds first heard “#SpiderMan” theme song of the 67 cartoon, composed by Paul Francis Webster & Bob Harris recorded at RCA Studios in #Toronto.
It’s a miracle having been raised on shlock like this…Rocket Robin Hood it didn’t damage my taste.
You punk kids raised on glossy Disney+ TV shows don’t recognize how much work we all put in.
How much cheeze we had to consume that comprised our values to get Spider-Man to 60.
There truly should be a Veterans Day for older nerds who witnessed unspeakable horrors. I paid for “#SpiderMan” 3 where he danced.
There’s no amount of nostalgia or drink that’ll make that Crap Carnival palatable.
His dancing is his Bat-Nipples, his pod-race.
Kids in 1966 picked up “Amazing” #SpiderMan #38 and read how the Webhead battled…Joe Smith.
He’s an angry boxer: “Just A Guy Named Joe!” Seriously?
You hope and pray that’s not somebody’s first issue.
Thankfully Spidey’s quality has offset a lot of the cheeze…Gwen’s death is a seminal;
Amazing Spider-Man #96 hastened the dismantling of the gutless Comics Code Authority. In your face #FredricWertham!
And Kraven’s Last Hunt is stunning; present tense.
It remains The Gold Standard, one of the greatest comics of all time. #SpiderMan has gotten soft in his old age; I doubt we’ll ever see anything that harrowing or dark from him again. Ya gotta think of the children.
Ann Nocenti trapped Parker in Kingpin’s insane asylum. Super dark…I miss those tales.
I wish Marvel would drop one of those Dark Night of the Soul epics every couple of years: snuff out all hope; have darkness consume him whole like a hungry python.
Obviously I haven’t around for all 60 #SpiderMan years but it’s been an incredible run.
I’m thankful I put in the time and the money to help get him to 60. For the most part it made pop culture better.
Leave pop culture in better shape than when you first found it right?
