neonvincent

I'm getting ready to shut down this computer and set up the new one, so I'm copying my notes from my current file of NoteTab Light (remind myself to see if I can download it on my new CPU) and pasting them here. I'm also including a link from a tab to ask about in a future Magic Monday. Wish me luck!

Throwback Thursday/Flashback Friday Twitter threads

2/4/21

For today's #ThrowbackThursday thread, I'm sharing my links about #GameStop beginning with today's post, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, and Legal Eagle have more funny things to say about GameStop, a tale of the #stock market and Retail Apocalypse./1
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2021/02/samantha-bee-trevor-noah-and-legal.html

Working backwards, CNBC, The Economist, CBS This Morning, and Retail Archaeology explain #GameStop, a serious tale of the #stock market and Retail Apocalypse./2 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2021/01/cnbc-economist-cbs-this-morning-and.html

Continuing in reverse, Noah, Colbert, Kimmel, and Corden explain #GameStop, a funny tale of the #stock market and Retail Apocalypse./3 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2021/01/noah-colbert-kimmel-and-corden-explain.html

I mentioned #GameStop in Many stores closing for good even as economy reopens, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse and COVID-19 pandemic./4 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2020/05/many-stores-closing-for-good-even-as.html

I put #GameStop on bankruptcy watch in Neiman Marcus and J. Crew declare bankruptcy, tales of the #Retail Apocalypse./5 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2020/05/neiman-marcus-and-j-crew-declare.html

I listed #GameStop among the chains closing stores at the end of 2019 in Ten of the companies that went out of business this decade and 9,300+ stores closed this year, two tales of the #Retail Apocalypse./6 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2019/12/ten-of-companies-that-went-out-of.html

I focused on the chain in two #ThrowbackThursday links from 2019, beginning with #GameStop losing money and closing stores, a tale of the #Retail Apocalypse./7 #ThrowbackThursday
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2019/09/gamestop-losing-money-and-closing.html

I conclude today's #ThrowbackThursday thread with Company Man on #GameStop, a tale of the #Retail Apocalypse, the oldest post on the subject./end
https://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2019/06/company-man-on-gamestop-tale-of-retail.html

Saved comments during the first part of February 2021

My comment on Video of the day -- tantrums vs achievement.

I'm proud to say that Henry Waxman was my mom's representative in Congress for at least a decade. That's why I recognized him immediately.

My comment on The Last Years of Progress.

Your mentions of Tomorrowland brings to mind a few items about that land within multiple Disney theme parks as well as EPCOT, a permanent world's fair in Walt Disney World. The first is "the Tomorrowland problem," which is that the future always arrives, so the attractions in Tomorrowland inevitably become obsolete if they actually try to predict the future. If they actually succeed, they become passé, just like the Autopia or Tomorrowland Speedway has; internal propulsion vehicles and an interstate highway system are a future that arrived 60 years ago. While they make a good kiddie ride, they also elicit calls from Disney theme park fans for Disney to pursue a sponsorship with Tesla to replace the gas- and diesel-powered cars with electric vehicles. That runs into practical considerations of how long an electric vehicle can go around a track and how long it takes to recharge the cars. If they fall out of fashion or fail, that's worse; they become laughable. Disney's solution is to go for futures that have perennial appeal but will never actually come true, such as the Jules Verne future in Disneyland Paris or Star Wars in other parks. In other words, convert the future into a myth, something that never happened but is always true.

While the Disney parks can't give up on Tomorrowland in the various Magic Kingdoms across the globe, as the signs over the entrance tell visitors "here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy," they have given up on Future World in EPCOT. The park has given up on that theming and in the process of renovating that part of the park, breaking it into World Discovery, World Celebration, and World Nature, theming the lands as educational areas about the science of today as much or more than tomorrow. World Showcase will remain intact.

Speaking of world's fairs, I return to Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom in Florida to discuss the plight of the Carousel of Progress, which Walt himself worked on for the 1964-1965 World's Fair in New York. That's suffering from Theodore Roszak’s prediction about the future looking like a world's fair in its final days. Not only has the last scene not been updated in decades, making it a museum piece of the progress of the 20th Century instead of a prediction of the technology of the future, but the animatronics regularly malfunction. The Disney theme park fans routinely laugh at that, making it a running joke in the community, but the ride's plight doesn't stop the ones with podcasts about the parks from unironically wishing their listeners "a great big beautiful tomorrow," echoing the theme song for the attraction.

JMG's response: Vince, fascinating! I’ll have to go digging for images of the Carousel of Progress. That sounds as though it will make a great starting point for an essay.

Conspirituality Podcast.