Speculations on why socially observable time has stopped

[brainpanhandler]

[FourthBase]

Not enough cars visible but the small one tells me it could be as early as guessed so far or as late as the early 1980s. 1985 would not surprise me. The outfits and car models only tell you earliest time, not latest. Especially not the outfits, you still see people dressed like that. Which to me is sort of of the point. Changes keep coming but with all past eras also present and constant retros and an increasingly unified media-perceptual system where everyone knows the same bullshit at the same time, it has acquired the feel of one continuous now.

No way that's the early 80's.

1977 is a good guess, mine too.

Cars had a bit of character back then. For a while now, save for some specialty models, cars have had no character. The ones most people drive, I mean. A popular sedan from 15-20 years ago looks pretty much like the same today, a little sleeker, that's about it. Blandly aerodynamic. Efficient. Dead.

Clothing's the same, too, save for hipsters and certain socialites. Bland. Efficient. Dead. Cheap. Mass-produced. Sleek. Flattering, in an algorithmic way. I don't mind, actually. I just wear black, brown, and grey anyway. No logos. That's my fashion statement, lol.

I'll have to read this whole thread from the beginning.
But my gut says the thesis is pretty much right.

But shit, at least the 80's are over. 1985-1990 or so made almost everyone look like an undignified buffoon, regardless of age or race. Bird hair. Clashing colors. Fluorescent. Gross patterns. Logos, not even subtle. I guess it was suitable fashion for children, so I lucked out in that sense. Every subculture's fashion sense was generally destroyed. Almost every musical legend of the 70's turned into pleasant MIDI crap overnight in, like, 1981 -- even if they were still in their prime! (Edit: Likewise, totally suitable for a child, however. An average 9-year-old can't get into Traffic or proggy Genesis, but the schmaltzy twinkling of mid-80's Steve Winwood or Phil Collins is sublime to juvenile ears.) Just generally, the 80's: Lame. Ghey, and not at all in the awesome same-sex-love sense. With very few exceptions. Still pretty fun, though!

[82_28]

I just checked the data on the photo. 1975 is what I logged it in as. So 1975.

[FourthBase]

1975...a good year for socially observable time.

One last thing about the 80's: The ways clothes fit. Pleated, puffy pant waists. Big shoulders. Small everything else. It was almost like clothes were being designed to be as unflattering as possible. Best example of this is the fit of popular women's bikini bottoms. Perfectly designed to accentuate precisely the wrong places, and obscure the best. A line that couldn't have ruined the beauty of the female butt any more if it tried. "Let's make women's asses look as flat as possible, let's deemphasize all visual cues of where the ass ends and the hips and legs begin, let's try to make the crack look like one long straight line." Done!

In fact, if the last 20 years of character-less non-time were one big long counter-reaction to the sickeningly-naive, colorblind, insipid awfulness of the 80's, then I could sympathize with that. In 1000 years, humans could be living in domes on Mars and dressed in nano-silver capes, and if you showed any of them a random photo of a hair metal dude or valley girl or vacationing grandma from the 80's, it would still elicit revulsion and laughter. /overstatement

[Col. Quisp]

Remember when crossings said DON'T WALK and not some goofy red hand, and WALK instead of a chunky-ass stick figure? And post office boxes were two tones. A symbol of dumbing down. Off topic rant. Sorry

[82_28]

Remember when crossings said DON'T WALK and not some goofy red hand, and WALK instead of a chunky-ass stick figure? And post office boxes were two tones. A symbol of dumbing down. Off topic rant. Sorry

You know though, that could have been a result of rather liberal lobbying efforts back when children were allowed to walk around alone and hadn't perhaps learned to read yet and or non English speakers. Sure even though it would be a pretty good way to begin learning how to read, so overall, a dumbing down. Does anyone remember the "Helping Hand House"? Every neighborhood had a Helping Hand House. It was indicated as the house with in the window a simple black and white placard of a hand. I had to use it once in kindergarden when some asshole was throwing rocks at me as I walked home from school. It was just an old lady who let me hang out until she shooed him off and then she walked me home.

Can you imagine Helping Hand Houses today, let alone that kids don't, especially 6 year olds, walk to and from school anymore? You would immediately be the neighborhood creep, even though all you wanted to do was be the Helping Hand House.

[FourthBase]

Remember when crossings said DON'T WALK and not some goofy red hand, and WALK instead of a chunky-ass stick figure? And post office boxes were two tones. A symbol of dumbing down. Off topic rant. Sorry

You know though, that could have been a result of rather liberal lobbying efforts back when children were allowed to walk around alone and hadn't perhaps learned to read yet and or non English speakers. Sure even though it would be a pretty good way to begin learning how to read, so overall, a dumbing down. Does anyone remember the "Helping Hand House"? Every neighborhood had a Helping Hand House. It was indicated as the house with in the window a simple black and white placard of a hand. I had to use it once in kindergarden when some asshole was throwing rocks at me as I walked home from school. It was just an old lady who let me hang out until she shooed him off and then she walked me home.

Can you imagine Helping Hand Houses today, let alone that kids don't, especially 6 year olds, walk to and from school anymore? You would immediately be the neighborhood creep, even though all you wanted to do was be the Helping Hand House.

In my neighborhood in Southie, there was no program or placard, but there was just such an old lady, "Mother [Italian Surname]", called that not only because she was the matriarch of a large family, but a mother to everyone in the neighborhood. I escaped to there from bullies a couple times myself. Until recently, Southie was still one of the last urban places you could probably find kids walking to and from school, because the community was figuratively tight-knit, people looked out for each other's well-being (even as some of them knocked you around for being a geek or a "fag", lol, ugh), and literally tight-knit, with dense blocks of barely-separated homes. Haven't spent much time there the last 10-15 years, left with everyone else when the yuppies started invading, but by all reports the community spirit is eroding more every year. Personally, I'd rather deal with some brutish assholes who throw chestnuts at misfits and call minorities bad names, than a horde of affluent assholes who don't say "good morning" to passersby and who don't keep a protective eye on schoolchildren and who turn generationally-owned triple-deckers into three obscenely-priced condos.

But yes, I can imagine such houses today, as long as it's always only ever an old lady.

[justdrew]

so 1975 makes sense, taken just before the transit scheme was renamed.

one of you seatlites ought to take a picture there today the lamp post at least may still be there, maybe mailbox too.

[Luther Blissett]

Remember when crossings said DON'T WALK and not some goofy red hand, and WALK instead of a chunky-ass stick figure? And post office boxes were two tones. A symbol of dumbing down. Off topic rant. Sorry

You know though, that could have been a result of rather liberal lobbying efforts back when children were allowed to walk around alone and hadn't perhaps learned to read yet and or non English speakers. Sure even though it would be a pretty good way to begin learning how to read, so overall, a dumbing down. Does anyone remember the "Helping Hand House"? Every neighborhood had a Helping Hand House. It was indicated as the house with in the window a simple black and white placard of a hand. I had to use it once in kindergarden when some asshole was throwing rocks at me as I walked home from school. It was just an old lady who let me hang out until she shooed him off and then she walked me home.

Can you imagine Helping Hand Houses today, let alone that kids don't, especially 6 year olds, walk to and from school anymore? You would immediately be the neighborhood creep, even though all you wanted to do was be the Helping Hand House.

In my neighborhood in Southie, there was no program or placard, but there was just such an old lady, "Mother [Italian Surname]", called that not only because she was the matriarch of a large family, but a mother to everyone in the neighborhood. I escaped to there from bullies a couple times myself. Until recently, Southie was still one of the last urban places you could probably find kids walking to and from school, because the community was figuratively tight-knit, people looked out for each other's well-being (even as some of them knocked you around for being a geek or a "fag", lol, ugh), and literally tight-knit, with dense blocks of barely-separated homes. Haven't spent much time there the last 10-15 years, left with everyone else when the yuppies started invading, but by all reports the community spirit is eroding more every year. Personally, I'd rather deal with some brutish assholes who throw chestnuts at misfits and call minorities bad names, than a horde of affluent assholes who don't say "good morning" to passersby and who don't keep a protective eye on schoolchildren and who turn generationally-owned triple-deckers into three obscenely-priced condos.

But yes, I can imagine such houses today, as long as it's always only ever an old lady.

All the kids in my neighborhood walk to school alone or in groups. I think it's more common in urban centers now than when violent crime peaked in the 90's and before the fear that came with that dissipated.

[82_28]

so 1975 makes sense, taken just before the transit scheme was renamed.

one of you seatlites ought to take a picture there today the lamp post at least may still be there, maybe mailbox too.

I was thinking earlier of doing just that. Getting a photo from that exact vantage point on a day off. As for the mailboxes downtown, I very highly doubt any of them have been extant in at least the last 15 years. I could be wrong though. But this area downtown itself? We'll just have to see. BTW, I have very little in the way of specimens yet, but I've taken to photographing old payphone mounts. You don't think about those, but you can find them everywhere if you look close.

[8bitagent]

I was born Februrary 1978. Allegedly it's 2013. 35 years. Still poor, still never really got to date, still no success. But I am relatively happy...give or take. Time stopped a long time ago for me.

[JackRiddler]

I was born Februrary 1978. Allegedly it's 2013. 35 years. Still poor, still never really got to date, still no success. But I am relatively happy...give or take. Time stopped a long time ago for me.

You're a pretty attractive fellow. If it's that you're not conventional, that's the world's problem, I say.

[82_28]

I was born Februrary 1978. Allegedly it's 2013. 35 years. Still poor, still never really got to date, still no success. But I am relatively happy...give or take. Time stopped a long time ago for me.

Happy belated birthday, my friend. If you were up here or I down there, we'd go out on the town and hit it up with the ladies -- yeah right. Perhaps we should do that soon.

[Burnt Hill]

I was born Februrary 1978. Allegedly it's 2013. 35 years. Still poor, still never really got to date, still no success. But I am relatively happy...give or take. Time stopped a long time ago for me.

You're a pretty attractive fellow. If it's that you're not conventional, that's the world's problem, I say.

I dont know if you are referring to it, but the avatar is David Byrne isnt it?

[Belligerent Savant]

I was born Februrary 1978. Allegedly it's 2013. 35 years. Still poor, still never really got to date, still no success. But I am relatively happy...give or take. Time stopped a long time ago for me.

You're a pretty attractive fellow. If it's that you're not conventional, that's the world's problem, I say.

I dont know if you are referring to it, but the avatar is David Byrne isnt it?

It is indeed the Talking Head himself.