Montecore vs. Osama
TRICK OR TREATING/HALLOWEEN FOR CHILDREN - The traditions we grew up with, of children dressing up going door to door to their neighbors homes and neighboring neighbors’ homes has steadily eroded since the 80’s, with adults opting for children’s parties at homes, schools and communitiy organizations. Moreover in many communities, children don’t even venture out on October 31st anymore; there are designated “trick or treat” hours the evening before, before it gets dark. More money is spent for adult entertainment than for children. Also, fewer blatant acts of Halloween-related minor vandalism are tolerated anymore without legal repurcussions.
KISSING BOOTHS - Once a widespread staple of fairs and a prime (OK, fun) source of teenaged fundraising, changing social mores have severely hampered this once popular activity.
EXOTIC PET OWNERSHIP - During the 60s, it wasn’t hard to own a monkey or alligator; my mother once owned a pet spider monkey, my godparents owned an alligator. Many more laws have been passed and enforced prohibiting the sale and ownership of wildlife.
OK, why in the hell do people keep alligators for pets?
Sorry for the hijack, but any pet that has a mindless urge to bite off my leg seems more than “exotic” if you ask me…try “masochistic”.
My sister and parents went to Bombay last February and she swears that she saw Victrolas there (outdated here). I lambasted her for not bringing one back but my parents pretty much morph into strange horrible creatures whenever we go back to India (lots of family bullshit on both sides) so apparently when she wanted to buy one for them he screamed at the top of his lungs about a wasteful child she was and how were they supposed to bring it back to the States blah blah blah and stalked back to my aunt’s flat. As soon as they came back and I told him how much it would be worth he was automatically like “why didn’t we buy one?” :rolleyes: Whenever I go back for my trousseau trip (god, I can’t believe I’m going to take a trousseau trip, another outdated form of entertainment), I plan on bringing one back.
Oh, anyway, victrolas.
I’d say that a few select types of movies are (for the most part) obsolete, or at least out of fashion.
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Full-fledged, live-action musicals. There have only been a few in the past ten years, and I don’t recall any huge hits out of any of them.
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Esther Williams-type “swim” movies and Sonja Henie-type “ice skater” movies.
Ummm… “sadistic” is more accurate. My godfather had no compunctions about keeping dangerous dogs (raised pit bulls as a hobby – ones he would enrage by hitting them on the nose with a blood soaked rope suspended from a tree limb. The dogs would attack the rope and clamp down on the knot on the end and be suspended three feet off the ground for hours) and he used to throw live chickens in the alligator pit before the county sheriff (a fishing buddy) made him quit it.
If he was still alive, he’d probably call Steve Irwin a punk.
Um…Chicago? Moulin Rouge?
Combination theme park/arcades.
I remember many a fun-filled evening spent hitting 18 holes on the miniature golf course…taking swings at the batting cage…tearing down the water slide…laughing as I tried to steer an electric-powered boat down a waterway…and then, there were the video games. Lots of them. Two floors’ worth. And 40 tokens for five bucks.
It was a sad day for a lot of people when that place closed down.
Re. drive-in theaters: Definitely on their way out, if they’re not already. The last drive-in I know of closed down over two years ago. Kinda wished I’d gone to it at least one time before it did.
Re. Playboy: Yeah. It’s almost reached the point where you have to read it for the articles. (Hey, for what an issue costs…)
Actually, I think it’s the dedicated arcades that are on the outs. The combination arcade/putt-putt/go-kart/batting cages places are still doing fine – there’s even one just a half-mile from my home here.
But the places you go to play nothing but stand-up arcade video games? Pffffft. Even Namco can’t make them work nowadays, it seems.
Dude, read The Tipping Point already–the fact that you haven’t been exposed to “real” rock & roll doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I’ve been to shows at clubs where the musicians (who are well known in the indie world) have music stands with sheet music and handwritten lyrics with them on stage because they’re still working on the songs. Good music is alive and well; you just have to know where to look for it.
For starters, I’ll link to KEXP yet again.
As best I can tell, they’re saving money by combining the position with the leadership post.
Heh. To all that think I’m not aware of indie music scenes, etc., please understand that I was being hyperbolic. Heck, I’m in an indie rock band as my frequently disappearing (WTF is up with that?) sig line…
Tilting, or as some know it, jousting.
I don’t mean the exhibitions you see at a Ren-Faire or Medievil Times but the real thing. 2 guys on horseback settling their differences by trying to un-horse the other with armor and lance, wow.
And I’m in the SCA so I’d think I’d have heard about it by now.
This thread reminds me of a Shoe comic strip I saw a few years ago. The perfessor bird is talking to the pilot bird at the diner, and says “Yeah, I remember the good old days, when I used to cut a rug and danced the Boogaloo with the ladies. But I guess I’m dating myself.”
The pilot bird replies, “Yeah, that’s who I’ve been dating too.”
Couldn’t believe that one got by.
Video Arcade: Killed by steady advances in PC gaming and home video game systems, these small businesses erupted all over the country around 1980, and were quite profitable, although some communities expressed concern over places where teenagers gathered without direct adult supervision. As PC and home video game technology improved, though, many kids preferred to remain home, rather than pump quarters into coin-operated games, and the standup arcade game was soon relegated to a secondary role in bars and pizza parlors, as opposed to being a headliner in its own line of work; by the turn of the century, the Video Arcade was all but extinct, except as a sideline to an existing business, usually a pizza restaurant, theme park or amusement center.
Askia makes an excellent point, re: kissing booths and trick-or-treating, and I can’t think of much to add there. I would argue that the keeping of exotic pets was never all THAT widespread, though…
Very difficult to argue with Evil Death, re: jesters. 
As to jousting… well… actual medieval tournaments went out of style actual centuries ago. Yes, you could call it an extinct art form, in that the guys at Renfaire aren’t actually trying to beat holy hell out of each other. On the other hand, I refuse to believe that anyone here can actually remember medieval tournaments, and gets nostalgic for them on occasion.
Even Cecil.
Although a few still survive in shopping malls.
Three forms of entertainment, all related to writing:
• serial novels – wherein a novel was produced in installments, usually each ended with a cliffhanger until the reader got to the final installment.
• short stories – the venues for publishing short works are disappearing like dodo birds
• fiction in magazines – with the price of space in print publications these days, it’s no wonder writers can’t get short stories and novel chapters published in magazines first, before finding a book publisher. There are very few literary or fiction-only magazines any more.
It seems that only Stephen King can be successfully published in any of the above formats and even his success has been marginal at best. I believe these writing venues are all being killed by television and the fact that a serial novel will be priced about the same as a full-length novel. People just need instant gratification and cannot be bothered to wait a month for the next installment.
Or MOVIE SERIALS, for that matter.
Sometimes you can still rent the old Republic serials, in episodic form (as opposed to having been strung together into a feature). “The Purple Monster” is a particular favorite of mine from back when Blockbuster had a “Cult Classics” section.
And as long as we’re on the subject of obsolete entertainments:
THE “CULT CLASSICS” SECTION OF BLOCKBUSTER
as well as
SPINNING YOUR LPs BACKWARDS UNDER THE NEEDLE TO SEARCH FOR HIDDEN SATANIC MESSAGES
The Broadway revue, in which various composers, lyricists, and librettists would contribute material.
According to www.ibdb.com , there have been only 19 revues with 100 or more productions since 1980, compared to 79 in the 1920’s.
Well then, here’s one I do remember, although it’s kinda subtle, here goes:
When I was a youngster, late 1960’2-early 1970’s, I would read the TV guide and get a thrill whenever my favorite monster/horror movie was due to show on one of our late night monster-movie shows. It was with a keen anticipation that the days dragged by until I could take my paper route money (another thing of the past) and buy some crunchy snack and soda-pop and stay up late with giant ants or robots and death rays. Bliss.
Now, with cable, VCR’s DVD’s and such, there’s no reason to ever wait for a “special” movie night.
Same thing applies to Saturday morning cartoons. You don’t have to wait until Saturday morning, anytime you want, just plop in th DVD of the best of Bugs Bunny.
I sound like an old man.