Cyclists Special

July 22nd, 2009 · 9 comments or link to (permalink)

This film is from 1955. It depicts, or appears to (I have no idea if it’s all a fantasy), a cycling idyll, during a postwar period in England when the bicycle was a working man’s (and woman’s?) transportation, without intended symbolism or activism.

Sport clothing certainly has changed a great deal.

Avid cyclists will also notice the well-executed double paceline, at the start of the second clip. The announcer mentions that a “hard riding” sport cyclist of the time might be expected to cover 100 miles in a day. That figure hasn’t changed much, and I’m not too surprised. Aside from a major reduction in weight, the addition of more gears, and the removal of fenders the bicycles closely resemble modern ones (in fact, I suspect these bicycles might be a bit more comfortable, if heavier, than their modern equivalents). Then as now, a hard-riding cyclist might well cover 100 miles on a weekend club ride. These bicycles would have been all-steel, made relatively locally, in Birmingham rather than China. Many here are three-speeds; all have fenders.

My one hesitation in posting this film is that probably most of its irony is probably going right over my head. I’m sure David can provide some insight into the accents, the places, and other British detail that is, typically, lost on me.

9 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: accents history nostalgia

3rd Avenue El

July 21st, 2009 · 5 comments or link to (permalink)

A short film made in the early 1950s about the elevated rail line that traveled from the base of Manhattan, up the Bowery and 3rd Avenue, to Gun Hill Road in the Bronx.

New Yorkers, how many places do you recognize as they zoom by? What brewery was that on 3rd Avenue?

The characters are an arty type, a drunk, a little girl, a young couple, and the drama or plot, such as it is, revolves around a nickel stuck in the wooden floorboards of the train (also notice the padded seats). The main characters here are really the subway and the city.

(via The Prelinger Archives)

5 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: New York City business history nostalgia society talks

Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, presented by Orson Welles

May 1st, 2009 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

This is an absolute gem and an almost forgotten one – a documentary version of Alvin Toffler’s classic 70s book, Future Shock presented by Orson Welles.

The premise of Future Shock was that the pace of human progress had achieved a level which would create a pathological reaction, a metaphorical motion sickness caused by the fact that nothing seemed permanent.

Unlike most past views of tomorrow, which look hopelessly obsolete (’nothing dates like the future’), the premise of Future Shock can only get stronger since not only progress itself, but the derivative of it, its increasing rate of change, exacerbates the core phenomenon.

Stylistically, however, Future Shock is a definitively dated period piece, an early 70s, Jumbo Fonted, psychedelic trip full of deliciously obsolete technology that conjures up wistful nostalgia where it is intended to do exactly the opposite. Even the poor quality of this video with its wavering audio track and bleached imagery actually adds to the effect.

Future Shock is both a perfect piece of vintage cultural nostalgia and still relevant scientific prophesy. It’s Everything retro-futurism should be.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia smashing telly top 10 documentaries society the smashing list

When the Boat Comes In

February 28th, 2009 · 6 comments or link to (permalink)

Of all of Britain’s accents, Newcastle’s is the most unusual in almost every way, it is said that it is influenced by the cross fertilization of fishermen from the North East coast of England and from Norway, who shared the same waters and occasionally ended up in each others’ ports after storms. This classic fishing song illustrates the point perfectly and is also an obscure but sublime piece of nostalgia for the UK in the mid 70s having been used as the intro for a BBC program of the same name.

6 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia

Cherry Red Records 30th Anniversary

January 12th, 2009 · Comments Off or link to (permalink)

If the words “pay no more than 99p” mean anything to you, then this documentary will make you dewey eyed.

Comments Off tags: music nostalgia

Tony Wilson Interviews The Smiths

September 6th, 2008 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

Tony Wilson’s Factory Records defined the Manchester music scene. All the more amazing because he famously passed up signing Manchester’s biggest band, The Smith’s. Wilson claimed not to have regretted it: “Mr Morrissey had a great talent and was a truly horrible human being who treated others very badly and I’m over the moon that I never had to work with him”.

With the benefit of hindsight, the highlight of this interview is the brief chat with, the man who wrote the tunes rather than the words, Johnny Marr, rather than Morrissey (I wonder if Wilson is deliberately trying to wind him up by calling him Steven). Morrissey comes off as pretentious, but perhaps this was before he decided that Smith’s lyrics were deliberately funny.

This is where Morrissey and Wilson are fascinatingly similar. Both had grand ideas that were quite often pretentious but like natural showmen, both were clever enough to adapt to how what they did was perceived. Wilson was cocky enough to name a small record label in an industrial town, after the world’s most famous art studio. Today, Wilson’s Factory is as famous as Warhol’s.

As an example of Morrissey’s showman-like adaptability, I can’t help but think that his lyrics were originally intended to be serious, but when the DJ who launched them to fame (John Peel), assumed that they were witty and ironic, Morrissey played along rather than lose face. Whether this is true or not, almost doesn’t matter, since perhaps creativity is just knowing how to edit accidents. In the end, the wit and irony became real, even if the style had originated as accidental camp.

Popular songs will never be all bland after a line like: I was only joking when I said by rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed.

Thanks Tom

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: music nostalgia

Eames Lounge Chair Debut in 1956 on NBC

September 3rd, 2008 · 3 comments or link to (permalink)

Charles and Ray appear on a very dated TV show presented by a creature with a very dated accent to launch a chair which looks as modern today as it did then.

In two parts, second part here.

3 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: architecture nostalgia

New Romantics

August 13th, 2008 · 4 comments or link to (permalink)

Given the current predilection for hanging fringes in Indie bands, perhaps this tribal profile should be called ‘Old New Romantics’.

4 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia

Savile Row

July 19th, 2008 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

Part 1 of a 3 part documentary about Savile Row, the street in London, where the worlds leading bespoke tailors have made suits for the rich and famous for several centuries. Where Churchill bought his pinstripe and Fred Astaire, his tails. The filming coincides with the arrival of an undesirable element on the street, Abercrombie and Fitch.

Like the $5,000 – $30,000 suits themselves, the subject of this film may not seem worth it at first, but it a quiet, unrushed, dignified and won’t go out of fashion.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia world

Dean Martin Celebrity Roast With Frank Sinatra

June 28th, 2008 · 4 comments or link to (permalink)

From a Vegas that no longer exists, this is the real Ocean’s Eleven. Or more accurately, this is the authentic but worn Ocean’s Eleven, made in 1977, the celebrity roast was the last gasp of the Dean Martin show, as the Rat Pack lifestyle excess begins to take its toll. Nevertheless, its an iconic piece of American television. An unbelievable array of celebs attend and a smoking Dean Martin hosts – as in actually smoking.

98 mins.

4 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia

Eurovision Song Contest 1973

June 16th, 2008 · 9 comments or link to (permalink)

In order to persuade anyone that any kind of institutionalized event is a bad idea, all one needs to do is say “imagine x run by the DMV”. The Eurovision song contest is what it would be like if the music industry were run by the DMV.

To commemorate Eurovision’s biggest winners, the Irish, who have just blown the European Union treaty and the last time oil buggered up the global economy, here is the 1973 Eurovision song contest, held in Luxembourg – which is a bit like a country run by the DMV.

Following the terrorist attack against Israel at the Munich Olympics, and Israel’s debut in the competition, the floor manager strongly advised people in the audience to remain seated while clapping, to avoid being shot by security forces.

Belgium’s entry at 8:15 is pretty special, and if you have a history of hallucinogenic flashbacks, I’ve no idea what’s going on at 1:05, but you might not want to watch it. Beyond satire.

9 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: comedy music nostalgia world

The Story of Abba – in Swedish

June 16th, 2008 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

The fact that this is in Swedish (a language which I cannot understand) makes this absolutely perfect. Its like having the Muppet chef narrate it, I can make up all sorts of inappropriate things that I can imagine him saying. For the world’s most impossibly white band they were unbelievably good.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: music nostalgia

Documentary on the series Brideshead Revisited

April 16th, 2008 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

The celebrated film critic, Leslie Halliwell awarded the TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited 5 stars. Supposedly, it was the only TV program he ever gave 5 stars to. Here is a passable documentary about it.
This is the first of five parts.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia

Composer of the Classic Electronic Track, Popcorn, Playing it 40 years later, on a Grand Piano

March 29th, 2008 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

Popcorn was the classic electronic piece from the 60’s used countless times as backing music to represent modernity. Here, its composer, Gershon Kingsley, plays it today, on a concert grand. I love this. Below is the original for comparison.

I have also made a Wist of various versions of Popcorn, here »

2 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: music nostalgia

Day to Day Communications at CERN in 1974

February 14th, 2008 · 3 comments or link to (permalink)

Day to Day communications at CERN in 1974, what a wonderfully prescient title for a short film about a place that would permanently change global, day to day communications, a decade and a half later, when the Web was invented there.

I love this film. it perfectly represents a time and place. The opening sequence with Cat Stevens and time bleached, aerial footage of Geneva makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

3 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia science society

Made in Huddersfield

January 18th, 2008 · 4 comments or link to (permalink)

Before the Sex Pistols came the US in 1977, marking the end of Punk in many people’s eyes, they played a gig in the North of England where Punk was still thriving in Huddersfield in 1981, when this film was made. This prompts the newscaster introducing the piece to remark:
“What now seems a peculiarly old fashioned cult, Punk Rock”.

Gawd bless whoever saved this 10 minute gem about Punk Rockers in Huddersfield, from obscurity. My favorite bit is the Punk girl serving tea in a retirement home. Which proves the point that theatrical manner doesn’t dictate reality – Frank Sinatra was always closer to real violence than most safety-pinned, gobbing Punks.

Someone should slap this in a titanium can marked ‘of anthropological interest’ and bury it under 6 feet of concrete for 1000 years. It sums up a time and place. That place being Geriatric’s Tea Serving Punk Land, not just Huddersfield.
Link

4 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia society

Factory – From Joy Division To Happy Mondays.

November 18th, 2007 · 5 comments or link to (permalink)

A friend who was familiar with the post apocalyptic urban areas of the US, such as downtown Detroit, could not believe how bad Manchester looked, when he visited (for a NASA conference, of all things). He also could not believe it when I told him that some of the richest areas in Britain surrounded it, that it had some of the best examples of uniquely British architecture and that it did not have the kind of reputation for decay, these days, that Detroit does. Manchester is a complicated and important place.

What he did buy, was the fact that Manchester, like Detroit, is one of the world’s most important cities, musically and therefore artistically. A documentary about Factory Records, in memory of the late, great Tony Wilson is therefore a must see.

BBC Television
1 hr 29 min 27 sec Oct 13, 2007

Link

5 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: history music nostalgia

Luis Buñuel

November 6th, 2007 · Comments Off or link to (permalink)

What’s most interesting about this documentary is not just the subject, but how representative it is of a particular 60s French style. In other words a very 60s French documentary about a Spaniard who worked in France and made timeless movies. The interviewees include Max Ernst.
Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise 37 min 25 sec Dec 30, 2006

Link

Comments Off tags: biography interviews nostalgia

Crumpet – A Very British Sex Symbol

September 27th, 2007 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

58 min 10 sec Sep 22, 2007

popperslist.blogspot.com

Link

Tony Livesey is a former UK tabloid editor. Here he takes a look at sexy women in retro British popular culture, suggesting the slang term for cute, ‘crumpet’ embraces something fun and Vaudeville that we no longer have (I’d beg to differ – we still have it in spades).

In case you think this is too specific or too sexist, he also did a show called beefcake, about guys. And if you want to tap into the particular tabloid style that many successful weblogs are adopting, this UK tabloid, tits and arse meets fox news style is a better precedent than anything in the US. I have never had a problem with the booby and ass bit, its fun, but the tabloid political stance is repulsive. This show is about the former and is smashing telly.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia society

Pulp – No Sleep Till Sheffield

September 6th, 2007 · 4 comments or link to (permalink)

BBC
35 min 25 sec – Sep 1, 2007

Link

Something odd happened in the early nineties in Britain. Jarvis Cocker summed it up as: ’suddenly it was cool to be poor’. Goodbye to wannabe Sloanes (or Preppies as their US counterparts were called) with their stand up collars, brogues, cords and jobs at stuffy banks; hello football, guitar bands and looking forward instead of back. At the time I was living in an abandoned warehouse, in London’s, now gentrified, Shoreditch, and it was a splendid time to be alive. Nobody summed up the mood of the mini renaissance better than Pulp.Hearing ‘Common People’ almost brings me to tears.

4 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: music nostalgia