music storage and movie moments

[jrtom]

I'm listening to "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel right now. Those people who saw the 1980s movie "Say Anything" may recall the scene in which John Cusack's character is standing outside his girlfriend's window, holding a boom box above his head which is playing this song.

It just occurred to me how incomprehensible this scene is going to be to my children, technologically speaking. I mean, the _tape_ in the boom box is about the size of the larger iPods today, and it holds about a thousandth as much music (of much lower fidelity). As for the speakers, while I don't know if there is current R&D on making good speakers the size of quarters (turning the scene into one in which the character is holding his apparently empty hands up outside his girlfriend's window), I can easily imagine that playing music for one's friends will be done by wireless broadcast to personal headphones, i.e., a mobile version of what iTunes/Airport does now.

*ponder*

Comments

[zuchini-head2.livejournal.com]

True true but it's still a really good movie.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is. One of my favorite parts is where he's telling his girlfriend's father what he _doesn't_ want to do for a living. :)

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

Well, being media impaired, I don't know the music or the movie. But I know the sentiment.

I was reading a book, Spy: The Funny Years" (http://www.amazon.com/Spy-Funny-Years-Kurt-Andersen/dp/1401352391/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0473043-3595344?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181266727&sr=1-1) which reproduces articles from the snarky late-80s magazine. There was a very astute story on "yuppie porn" and its purveyors (e.g. Sharper Image), which still applies today. Then I turned the page and they showed example products, and suddenly it was Time Warp time! The clunky laptops and cell phones... oh my.