Abso-hell-lutely wrong-o.
Next comic: Te Fahn is woken up during the night by a tapping on her window. She opens it to see Selkie standing on the lawn outside her bedroom. Selkie is holding a boombox over her head. It starts to rain. "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel begins to play.
You’re talking about a 30 year old movie. Even Todd would barely get that reference, never mind Selkie.
C’mon, Dean, you didn’t see The Black Bird when it first came out. –At least it is unlikely you are that old– People watch all sorts of movies on demand, and the AFI Top Twenty Films (in a list of 50 best of all time films) is a good place to start.
Todd, being an architect, must have studied ancient and Classical styles, in his schooling. Maybe he’s a closeted History buff… Even I’ve seen Metropolis and Blue Angel. And they were made back before cell phones, back before AOL and even before acoustic modems. They’re old!
Hell to be honest, that movie even predates me. I only know the scene through the barrage of parodic references it’s spawned.
39-year-old here, reasonably well-read and pop-culture-savy for my age bracket.
Reference 100% missed. Referrings in comments TO said reference also missed. Dots connected = 0.00
No, you don’t have to explain it to me. I’m just providing support to the position that this reference (whatever or wherever it is) is not an obvious one.
Meanwhile, I’m 26, and I thought this image was unavoidable. I’ve definitely never seen the original movie, but it’s so ingrained in culture that *mop ads* use it.
Yeah, 24 year old here who thought it was obvious despite never seeing the original movie.
Hinoron: it’s from the movie “Say Anything…” (1989) – IMDb
Directed by Cameron Crowe. With John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor. A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college. “Href=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098258/” IMDb
Hinoron: the Black Bird refers to a statue of a falcon; cast in 18 karat gold, encrusted with jewels, but covered with black paint to disguise it’s value: the eponymous Maltese Falcon. Book by Raymond Chandler, Movie with Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall. Very famous for the misquoted line, “play it again, Sam.” Parodies galore.
Dave, this made me laugh. This was so good, after the heartbreak of Te’ Fahn snubbing Selkie. (Which took some courage, if Te’ thinks Selkie is a powerful Echo). Just struck the right balance between sad, sad and pathetic, and wishing for a hole to climb inta. I’m glad Todd is such a good dad.
There is some accuracy though. People are unlikely to consume media from prior to their birth year. Film and song, particularly the highly regarded ones, are made with the era’s cultural zeitgeist in mind. Later generations will have trouble finding a similar degree of enjoyment since the themes of the film are either archaic or outright foreign. Film making technique can also utilize dated elements that later generations dislike. One of my favorite films that is much older than I am is Lawrence of Arabia even though it contains full segments if people staring out at nothing for lengthy periods of time in silence. I’m aware this is a means of drama, but it’s not effective today. It may be on the AFI list, but it’s important to recognize the average age of the people who made that list us 30 greater than the American median. 30 years from now, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a substantial number of them fell off.
It’s pretty rare for a film or song to reach lofty heights without maintaining reliance on having lived in the period in which it was filmed. And, as time goes on, more media is created, making it that much less likely someone will watch a classic since its competing with an ever greater volume of options.
I disagree, consider the ongoing popularity of the Beatles, Queen, Star Trek and Star Wars for example. Michael Jackson is so well known even my Japanese junior high students who were born after the year 2000 know who he is. Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, these movies and references to them are so deep in the cultural zeitgeist that they remain well known to this day, and people still enjoy watching them.
Meanwhile I don’t know how typical or atypical I am, but I grew up on media from well before my time, thanks to the magic that was re-runs. Now, with on-demand media, shows from the past are as accesible as shows made today. You can just as easily binge watch Friends as you can Game of Thrones. If anything the barriers to consuming media from earlier eras is lower than its ever been and as a result people are more likely to consume it. Yes, some media becomes dated as time goes on, but others, be it music, movies, or TV, are timeless. They can be as funny or poignant today as they were originally. Psycho is still a great movie. So is Raiders of the Lost Arc. So is Jurrasic Park. Want to watch amazing TV? You can’t go wrong with M*A*S*H. Absent shows/movies/tv that relied HEAVILY on what was relevant at the time, media can be a lot more relevant than i think you give it credit for.
Yeah, while certainly you consume *less* of stuff made before you were born, it’s not the least uncommon to consume media made before you were born. Not only is classical art, music, sculpture, and architecture still a thing (that is, art created before any living person was born), I can think of several ways this happens with more modern media:
1. Family members who grew up with cool things want you to see them too. E.g. the way I’ve been introducing my niephlings to Tremors, Enemy Mine, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Disney’s Recess, and Willow.
2. Family may have bought their favorite things, and throw them on to babysit you — the reason that my niephlings (born 1998-ish or later) know The Land Before Time, which came out when I was 9.
3. Sequels, remakes, and follow-ups call attention to the originals. There’s an upswing in sales of old music whenever something comes out on Rock Band. Heck, when I started playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I was familiar with fewer than three songs on each game’s playlist, yet now I have a much wider awareness of not only the specific songs chosen for those games, but other songs by the same artists.
Same for all the live-action Disney remakes, and new games in old franchises, and popular characters having product-placement tastes for goodies whose sales have been flagging.
4. Media that capitalizes on retro style similarly draws attention to some of the old gems.
I introduced my nephew (now 15) to NES and SNES emulation, and had to pick back up my Super Metroid skills to teach him the basics — and now he’s not only better at it than I am, but he’s learned how to mod the game and can speed run it. And if I didn’t worry about copyright strikes on my YouTube channel, I’d have us try to record a full run of Super Mario Bros. 3, because that was quite fun and now we have actual controllers to hook up to our computer.
5. People exploring genres related to their favorite material can run back through related material, trying to find the roots that led to the creation of the things they love.
6. Classes in media appreciation — I had fun with Greek & Roman Literature in college, and my art professor ran some class on era-specific art that I never had time to take. I also took a Film Appreciation class, which is the only reason I’m familiar with Citizen Kane.
Oh, and my favorite film? 12 Angry Men. Black-and-white era, released when my mom was *three*. It’s been my favorite film for decades now, and I can’t see anything replacing it; there are new layers to appreciate every time I watch it.
Now that’s how a parent should handle a situation like this.
This isn’t just a parenting skill, this is a life skill; knowing when to be stern, when to listen, and above all, giving someone the confidence that they are still capable of doing the right thing.
At this point Todd knows that any punishment he gives Selkie is just going to be icing on the cake compared to the punishment she just gave herself. Whatever he does is gonna be guided towards understanding and growth instead of just making her feel bad for being naive.
Well said. (Nods)
Do I sense some impending self-awareness? Perish the thought.