What ever happened to “smart drugs”?
Did they ever actually work, anyway?
Springsteen’s arrangements might not be very Dylanesque, but his lyrics and singing style certain are, especially with his earlier stuff. Listen to this stripped-down version of Blinded By the Light, for instance.
Wouldn’t videophones and SKYPE count?
In the early virtual reality was supposed to be huge, and I seem to recall even Nintendo came out with some sort of VR system.
Rolamite - Most folks outside the science/engineering trades probably won’t have heard of this, but Rolamite came screaming onto the scene making a huge blast. Speculation was that it would be used for everything and the world as we know it would be changed forever.
Reality: Rolamite turned out to be the second-best way to do things and never really caught on. It pops up in some functions now and then but never living up to its hype in the engineering community.
In The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, Paul Florman mentions Corfam and Fluidics among Next Big Things that didn’t happen. I remember fluidics – there was an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science on it for a long time, and I stumbled on a book on the topic a few years ago. I can’t see how anyone could seriously think that using slow-moving, evaporating or freezing liquids would give electronics a run for the money, but a lot of people got very excited about it.
On a more pop front, there was The Paper Dress.
Coincidentally, Donovan had exactly the same number of Top 40 singles as Dylan (12), starting with the very Dylanesque “Catch the Wind.” He even hit #1 with “Sunshine Superman,” an achievement Dylan never quite matched.
(Dylan, of course, continues to sell well to this day as an album artist and a major concert attraction, while Donovan, who last charted in the mid-'70s, pops up every couple of years with a lot of hype in the press about a big comeback, which never quite seems to go anywhere.)
I’d say they do but the concept hasn’t taken off in the ubiquitous way predicted in lots of speculative fiction, for both practical and societal reasons.
In the early 1980s when CDs came out, some people were disappointed they couldn’t record. The promised solution: DAT Digital Audio Tape.
Mid 1980s the group “Lone Justice” Song by Tom Petty, Open for U2, female singer is sister of Bryan MacLean of Love, big video for “Ways to be wicked”’ Sold poorly
1974 the film “Great Gatsby” with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Is it on DVD? Ever see it on TV?
I suppose John Lindsay had success: he was elected twice as mayor of New York City. But he was suppose to inspire the youth. If the “Batman” TV series ever comes out on DVD, lots of people are going to wonder who “Mayor Linseed” refers to.
Susan Anton in the late 197s, thanks to Fred Silverman
My father used to say that in the 1930s it was expected that in 30 years helicopters would be as common as automobiles.
I remember my second grade teacher telling us we would probably be working a 4 day 32 hour week when we graduated college.
Going back to 1946 Clint Hartung of the New York baseball Giants was supposed to be a combination Ted Williams/Bob Feller. He lasted a few years but was mediocre at both hitting and pitching. In the late 1970s Sports Illustrated promoted Clint Hurdle as the next star.
The Kaiser automobile.
The Hub (used to be Discovery Kids) has been rerunning the old Batman series for the last couple of months. I knew who they were talking about, but it was mostly because I’ve read “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.” Lindsay was a longshot candidate that year. There’s probably not much other reason to remember him if you’re not from the New York area.
That’s the best joke ever.
I remember watching 2001, and seeing the Business Dude making a picturephone call, and thinking “Wow, guess we’ll be combing our hair to answer the phone. Probably by next year. Too bad.”
Come to think of it, I thought “how cool that they’re using real companies in this film. Maybe this IS what the future’ll be like.” Well, where are PanAm and Bell telephone now?
But these basically DO exist now. It’s just that they (smartphones) do a bazillion other things, too.
The Apple Newton (the pre-PDA, not the cookie).
Comet Kohoutek
Whip Inflation Now
Car alarms
Universal remotes
NeXt computers
The Eagle nameplate from Chrysler
TR-7 (the shape of things to come)
Bricklin
gasohol
Another band that I recall getting a lot of “Next-Beatles” type buzz was Fountains of Wayne.
After a couple of catchy hits in 2003, they released a collection of B-sides and an original album to critical and popular indifference. Though apparently still together, they have released nothing in the last 4 years, with an alleged new album sitting on the shelf due to a lack of any interested distributers.
“Beat up Martin.”
“Eat up Martha.”
/throws Newton
The technology for some form of videophones/picturephones has been around for decades. But, voice-only is good enough for most communication. Remember that before the telephone, government and commerce and all long-distance social communication were based on letters and telegrams; we know how to get things done with just words. Furthermore, as David Szondy remarks:
Timothy Hutton won an Oscar for Ordinary People when he was quite young, and he was predicted to have a major career. Instead he largely disappeared.
Cuba Gooding Jr. also comes to mind.
Using your numbers, MLB has 173% of the NHL’s fans attending games. How is that “very close”?
Not to mention for 81 games per season vs. 41. Weird math.