A question for the Blowhards of the world.

[Aqualad]

The Brooklyn Blowhard (and other callers like him) will talk about New York in the 1970's as if it was some magical time and place, like Camelot or Narnia. Weren't crime, drugs and corruption absolutely ridiculous during that time? When you watch Taxi Driver or the more recent Summer of Sam, the movies make 1970's NYC look like Hell.

What's so great about the 70's?

[JerseyRich]

The Brooklyn Blowhard (and other callers like him) will talk about New York in the 1970's as if it was some magical time and place, like Camelot or Narnia. Weren't crime, drugs and corruption absolutely ridiculous during that time? When you watch Taxi Driver or the more recent Summer of Sam, the movies make 1970's NYC look like Hell.

What's so great about the 70's?

I don't think the Blowhard has ever called the 70's a blissful, carefree time. It's just the time that he was a teenager and remembers many things about it...

In fact, he was on a best-of the other day, talking about how horrible his High School was in the 70's...Broke and shitty. Then he talked about how nice the school looks now.


I was lucky enough to be a teenager in the 90's during a time of great prosperity for NY and the country. So I won't bore you with talk about how great the 90's were.

[mendyweiss]

Pimps, Hookers, Trannies, Horse Dealers And Hustlers,
It Made Me Who I Am Today !!

[A.J.]

What's so great about the 70's?

It was about the music, Man.

[Ritalin]

Hey, I have a question about the Blowhard: the other day they were talking about how Lily should hook up with Blowhard - yeah, right - and someone said he was 41 years old.

They were joking, right? There's no way I'm older than the Blowhard.

[Hottub]

It was about the music, Man.

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[EliSnow]

I don't think the Blowhard has ever called the 70's a blissful, carefree time. It's just the time that he was a teenager and remembers many things about it...



You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character.

And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Blowhard!




Wait, sorry what were we talking about?

[King Hippos Bandaid]

all I know was that I wasnt allowed to go to time square at night until Guiliani Disney'ed up the joint

[Freakshow]

I think he meant the 1870's.

[Don Stugots]

You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character.

And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Blowhard!




Wait, sorry what were we talking about?

Nice quote. Too bad I can't vote for Andrew Shepard in November.

[Recyclerz]

The Brooklyn Blowhard (and other callers like him) will talk about New York in the 1970's as if it was some magical time and place, like Camelot or Narnia. Weren't crime, drugs and corruption absolutely ridiculous during that time? When you watch Taxi Driver or the more recent Summer of Sam, the movies make 1970's NYC look like Hell.

What's so great about the 70's?

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/methaqualone/images/methaqualone_summary1.jpg

Other than that I think the vibe of the late '70's was best captured by the opening sentence in a book by Tom Robbins called Still Life with Woodpecker:

In the last quarter of the 20th century, at a time when Western civilization was declining too rapidly for comfort and yet too slowly to be very exciting, much of the world sat on the edge of an increasingly expensive theater seat, waiting - with various combinations of dread, hope, and ennui - for something momentous to occur.

[Marc with a c]

nickel burgers

[jonyrotn]

As a kid growing up on Bainbridge Avenue in The BX durring the '80's there wasn't a day I left the house that I didn't fully expect to be robbed..I would literally prepare for it as I got dressed in the morning..
Every time I hopped the turnstile on the D train at 205th st to go to school I figured I'd have a gun or knife in my face by the time I got to Fordham Road..

The funny part of the whole thing is, almost every person I knew growing up got robbed..Whether it was for their sneakers or their chains or their stupid four finger rings, they all had to "take it like a loss, boss" at one time or another but for what ever reason, it never ever happened to me..I credit my clean living, you know, karma or something..Plus I was the fastest "white kid" in the bronx (that was really a moniker of mine as a teenager), so I always had my sneakers tied even in 1985 when it wasn't too cool..

So here's to never having to give up my shit, including my bright yellow, waterproof Sony Walkman that I just knew was gonna get housed at some point.. :drunk:

[ahhdurr]

Disco baby!

<img src = "http://www.geocities.com/paperbag3/mickeydisco.jpg">

<br>
This was in heavy rotation in my house.
<br>

Macho macho duck...!

[Marc with a c]

So here's to never having to give up my shit, including my bright yellow, waterproof Sony Walkman that I just knew was gonna get housed at some point.. :drunk:

i hope that wasn't in your bag.

[Serpico1103]

Blowhard's problem is that he doesn't realize that when he was young he was naive. Times seemed better because he didn't worry about crime, war, poverty, racism, pollution, etc. These things were all very real problems when he was growing up, but he couldn't see them. Now as an adult when he sees them he blames it on the "changing times" instead of realizing that he was lucky(?) to be shielded from the horrors of reality as a kid.

The great poet Eddie Vedder said it best, "If he only knew now what he knew then."

And I heard his comments on the "watering down" of baseball talent. That is idiotic. Athletes are groomed in such a way now that there is plenty of talent to go around.

[IamFogHat]

http://z.about.com/d/animatedtv/1/0/4/m/simp2006_Marge_f.jpg
"Well of course if you only remember the pimps and the chuds."

[zildjian361]

if you didn't grow up in the late 60s early 70s you missed it especially in Brooklyn.NYC:wink:

[Don Stugots]

if you didn't grow up in the late 60s early 70s you missed it especially in Brooklyn.NYC:wink:

hell yeah.

[jlehane3]

fairy tales about the imaginary past is escapist/utopian...like a song I ghostwrote for Soul Asylum called Homesick(for the home I never had)....like imaginary friends.The problem with school is they are always looking backwards,emphasizing ancient history in a modern age...so it's counterproductive.We can't go back to plows and stone tools. Religion is even worse like THAT times a thousand.Throwbacks.:drunk:

[silas]

I think that to some extent, even NYC, (and tho i spent an 80's summer in Weehawkin(sp?)i suppose i'm mainly refering to manhattan), is part of the increasing any-big-city-in-North-america sameness that Ron often refers to.

I grew up in Montreal that had the underground dance scene, food and fashion-fwd, but was years behind in the punk scene etc etc...

Now, any even mid-sized city has the endless row of haute-money stores (and malls), kids anywhere have access to , and are knowledgable ~all music, trend-setting resto's are everywhere, international museums, financial centers, theater etc..etc...

I still look fwd to my next visit, but i think its generally acknowledged that the uniqueness of NY, and probably most any City in 1st and devoloping worlds is increasingly closing.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

I think that to some extent, even NYC, (and tho i spent an 80's summer in Weehawkin(sp?)i suppose i'm mainly refering to manhattan), is part of the increasing any-big-city-in-North-america sameness that Ron often refers to.

I grew up in Montreal that had the underground dance scene, food and fashion-fwd, but was years behind in the punk scene etc etc...

Now, any even mid-sized city has the endless row of haute-money stores (and malls), kids anywhere have access to , and are knowledgable ~all music, trend-setting resto's are everywhere, international museums, financial centers, theater etc..etc...

I still look fwd to my next visit, but i think its generally acknowledged that the uniqueness of NY, and probably most any City in 1st and devoloping worlds is increasingly closing.

Go to Salt Lake City and then tell me NYC is just like it.

[epo]

Ahhh, the big lug is just a romantic.

[Gunner S]

A. Everyone did drugs. Cops even did them. Far less busting
B. Music
C. Drugs
D. werent the Beatles still alive?
E. Drugs
F. Gas = Cheap, Food = cheap. and dont say that the money and the mininum wage was less back then. Cheeseburgers taste much better for a nickel at the minimum wage of 5.25 than they do for a dollar at 7.25
G. we could have had a Governmental Revolution, but stupid fucking hippies dont believe in violence

[PD]

A. Everyone did drugs. Cops even did them. Far less busting
B. Music
C. Drugs
D. werent the Beatles still alive?
E. Drugs
F. Gas = Cheap, Food = cheap. and dont say that the money and the mininum wage was less back then. Cheeseburgers taste much better for a nickel at the minimum wage of 5.25 than they do for a dollar at 7.25
G. we could have had a Governmental Revolution, but stupid fucking hippies dont believe in violence

I'm old enough to remember the 70's (well, mid to late 70s at least).
It's funny how you put gas was cheap, and it todays terms it was, but the 70's had the first gas crisis, where availability was worse than today- gas lines, odd/even buying days etc.

Music had highs and lows. You had Led Zeppelin & Floyd, but you also had disco.
While disco music sucked, the time of Studio 54 meant easy sex in pre-AIDS times; coke and pot were considered benign, a were luudes.

NYC had a red-light district and graffiti, but you had real clubs like CBGB's and no one really worried about riding the subways. It was definitely more "real" than the Epcot that it is today. You also didn't have the "everyone is a victim" attitude.

I like Blowhard, but I think he's become a character. It was different back then - but not necessarily better.

[hedges]

I saw my first porno in Times Square in one of those big movie houses, in the mid-80s. There were bums in there sleeping and I remember Ron Jeremy was in the movie. The place was a dump. The guy selling tickets didn't care how old I was. Ah, memories.