17 | Part One: We, for one, welcome our Robot Overlords

While trying not to jump any metaphorical sharks themselves (see below), the guys return for the second part of their investigation into this irritating cultural phenomenon. Along the way they identify the one popular movie franchise that jumped the shark, didn't like what it found lurking on the far side, and had the balls to turn around and jump back a full four decades later. Better late than never, we say, sort of like this episode. A few bonus movie reviews are tacked on at the end because, why not?

According to Wikipedia: "The idiom 'jumping the shark' is a pejorative used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an over-exaggeration of, its original purpose." The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein to describe what Henry Winkler had done, given that the stunt was his idea.

Music and image credits:
Shark jockey by Three-shots from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

After a long and largely unplanned summer vacation, the guys are back with an apex predator of a two-parter.

On September 20, 1977, something momentous happened. On that last day of the third summer of disco and the second summer of the Son of Sam, Happy Days actor and former water skiing instructor Henry Winkler, AKA "Fonzie" and/or "The Fonz," made history when his character (ostensibly a motorcycle hoodlum from Milwaukee) jumped over a shark while on water skis in Los Angeles. The Fonz did this in response to a challenge to his bravery.

According to Wikipedia: "The idiom 'jumping the shark' is a pejorative used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an over-exaggeration of, its original purpose." The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein to describe what Henry Winkler had done, given that the stunt was his idea.

This week and next, take a long, leisurely look at just some of the shark jumpers that came to mind as Richard and Dave stared at each across the table in the (now virtual) Semi-Retired studio.

Music and image credits:
Frenzied shark by Pascal Le Lay from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

With the recent release of Apple’s technologically astounding and eye-wateringly expensive Vision Pro virtual reality headset and the threatened release of its far cheaper competitor, Facebook’s Oculus Quest 3, VR may have finally reached early adulthood.

Distant progeny of the mid-20th century red plastic View-Master personal stereo viewer, through which children could stare at tiny 3-D images of the Great Pyramid or scenes from The Beverly Hillbillies, today’s VR headsets take advantage of the latest technologies to further free or tether us, depending on your point of view.

And while they could be a boon for virtual tourists, gamers, and porn aficionados, the idea of adding another ‘device’ to the household gear manifest with the attendant software updates, battery charging needs, and periodic hardware upgrades, could leave some feeling this could be a bridge too far.

What about family time together? The Brady Bunch would’ve needed nine VR headsets (if they wanted to include Alice) just to watch the latest Disney epic unfold around them as a magnificently immersive virtual experience.

Listen in as the guys strap on their brain caps for a look at what VR has become in 2023 and where it could go in the years ahead.

Music and image credits:
Cyclist with VR headset by Pexels from Pixabay 
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Q: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A: That depends on which measurement system he/she prefers.

Measurements, i.e. specified quantities of a wide variety of 'somethings', are so ingrained in the way we think about the world, that we barely notice their existence. If you've ever rushed out of your underpaid 9-5 job at 5:30PM, got a $75 fine for breaking the 100KMH speed limit on the way home, thereby making you 45 minutes late to pick up the kids from after-school class where they've melted into howling bloblets in the 92° Fahrenheit, Humidex 38 heat, you'll see what we mean.

Over the past several millennia, deep thinkers around the world came up with numerous systems of measurement designed to standardize our understanding of quantities. You can thank them for sentences like the one above as you decide whether or not to spend the next 32 minutes and 8 seconds listening to this podcast while trying to shed a few unwanted pounds working out. Or, if you're like us, you'll shell out twenty bucks for a pizza, dial up an old episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and call it a day.

Music and image credits:
Hoagie and calipers by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
Excerpt from Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie Wonder
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Our parents said our eyes would turn square. We feared the mundanity of household chores would interrupt the magic of the moment. By Richard's own admission, his eyesight was weak and blurred as he crept upstairs and into the light like a stunned mole after each Saturday morning of sustained cartoon absorption. We were in such danger all the time. And loving it.

Although we occasionally hyperlink forward to more contemporary animated classics like Watership Down, the Simpsons, Johnny Bravo, Beavis and Butt-head, and Cow and Chicken (while unforgivably overlooking the enlightened genius of SpongeBob SquarePants), this episode is all about the Golden Age of Saturday morning cartoon characters like:

Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Barney and Betty Rubble, George and Jane Jetson, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Foghorn Leghorn, Rocket Robin Hood, the Mighty Hercules (and Newton), George of the Jungle, Roger Ramjet, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Sherman and Peabody, Tennessee Tuxedo, Johnny Quest, Woody Woodpecker, Felix (not Fritz) the Cat, Space Ghost, Cool McCool, and the list goes on and on.

As a bonus, or perhaps not depending on your taste, Dave rants about the recently inflated price of his favourite tourtière.

Music and image credits:
Kids watching the boob tube by National Library of Medicine on Unsplash
Bugs Bunny Overture (This Is It!) by Mack David and Jerry Livingston
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Richard (now re-christened a Templar-esque 'Ranchard de Valois') and Dave (still just Dave) reveal what kept them from publishing an episode last week before seguing into this week's topic: musical genres they love and musical genres they love less.

Under the dual-microscope are the mother ship--rock and roll itself, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, new wave, jazz, so-called protest music, and rap. Brief mentions of 80s hair bands, glam, reggae, and bebop round out the program, punctuated as always by random hyperlinking to anecdotes with varying degrees of relationship to the subject matter at-hand.

Music and image credits:
Grey haired guy (who looks like Nick Lowe) by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay     
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

It was Canada's 100th birthday year.

In January, Timothy Leary told the world's youth that it was time to "tune in, turn on, and drop out." Across the Atlantic in Swinging London, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In San Francisco, people from all across the nation came to the Haight Ashbury district to wear some flowers in their hair and celebrate the Summer of Love. Many would head down the coast to attend the Monterey International Pop Festival where artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and The Who first broke big. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, The Doors had already broken on through to whatever was waiting on the other side. And on a more somber note, US helicopter gunships, Phantom jets, and B-52 bombers rained death and destruction on the innocent people of Vietnam.

Up north in Montreal, the same week that Sgt. Pepper's acid-seasoned soundscape began enlightening the airwaves, Expo67 opened its doors to the world. By the time it closed them in October,  more than 50 million people, including numerous international dignitaries and celebrities, had visited the 65 national pavilions that dotted the Expo67 site which, against all odds, had been built on man-made islands huddled in the St. Lawrence River along the south coast of the island of Montreal.

So put your feet up (unless you're driving), and take a trip back to the astonishing cultural event that put Canada on the map, a magical time when the whole world came to Montreal.

Music and image credits:
Cheerleader image from the Library and Archives of Canada & Expo67     
The Centennial Song  was written by Bobby Gimby and performed by the Young Canada Singers
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Dear Semi-Retired listeners,
My humblest apologies for not being here for you last week. Dave was so emotionally fragile over the nightmare surrounding his Crave TV account scrub, that he couldn't hold himself together long enough to record a new episode. Things are better now.
Yours, Richard

This week, the guys look back at all the cameras they've loved before. From Richard's 2 1/4-inch honeymoon dream, to Dave's high school sweetheart rangefinder, from TLR to SLR, from roll film to CMOS sensor, and everything in-between, Gearheads: it's time to buckle up. And remember to keep your hands and feet inside the automobile at all times during the podcast.

Music and image credits:
Yashica Mat 124 Image by Michael Gaida from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

In our humble opinion, popular culture often gives actual culture a bad name. Certain oeuvres and oeuvrists ooze onto the cultural landscape and proceed to suck up an ungodly amount amount of praise and attention that we feel is richly undeserved. There's a veritable mountain range of material to choose from, so we took a nice, thick first cut and proudly serve it up here, expertly seasoned, for your listening pleasure.

As added value, Dave rants at length about a horrifying (as yet unresolved) customer experience with Canadian streaming service Crave TV.

Music and image credits:
Aqualung doppelgänger by Daniel Páscoa on Unsplash 
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Codes, passwords, PINs, logins, credentials, two-factor authentication, encryption and decryption, keychains and resets, are among the more irritating features of modern life. Who would have thought that it all started with the concealment of sensitive information by shaving a servant's head? Or that it might end with quantum computing. (That last part's uncertain, but so is quantum mechanics. Or so they say.) This week, Richard and Dave bisect, trisect, and dissect the realm of information hidden, and not so hidden, and the many ways resourceful humans have tried to hide it.

Semi-Retired trivia note: The battered combination lock used for this week's episode graphic is Richard's actual high school locker lock, the unforgettable 41-15-54. What tales it could tell, if only combination locks could tell tales.

Music and image credits:
Combination lock and notebook image by Richard
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock