I was talking to my son a few hours ago and asked if he watched Ken Burn's Vietnam. He said he hadn't because he doesn't have cable in his apartment. I told him it watched it and it was very good. Then he asked me a very interesting question. He asked me how it felt to watch a documentary about a time that I lived through. I wasn't quite sure that I knew how to answer him. On the one hand I was able to step back and look at it with a sense of detachment, on the other hand I felt like I was right in the middle of the times again. The documentary brought back a lot of memories, some good, some not so good.

What do you think? How do you feel when you watch a documentary about a time, years ago, but a time that you lived through?

 

I don't know about documentaries but this sure makes me feel like I'm getting too old.

There’s a fascinating study from New York University that says AM/FM radio faces a grim future and a lot of it has to do with the technology coming into cars. It says that radio broadcasters have failed to connect with Generation Z, people born after 1995, who will account for 40% of all consumers by 2020. Teenagers and college students are turning away from radio and depending on YouTube, Spotify and Pandora to listen to new music. The study says that young people would have abandoned radio even sooner except for one thing: the average car today is more than 11 years old and they don’t have USB ports or internet connection. However, by the year 2020, 75% of all new cars will have digital connections. According to the BillBoard Hot 100 chart, streaming is now playing an important role in determining what music is played on the radio, rather than the other way around. The report says that AM/FM radio must adapt to a new digital world because, “If it doesn’t, radio risks becoming a thing of the past, like the wax cylinder or 78 RPM record – fondly remembered but no longer relevant to an audience that has moved on.”

 

Rob, there is a documentary called When Stand Up Stood Out. It is about stand up comedy in Boston during the 70s and 80s. I went to all the venues and saw almost every act in the movie and certainly all the stars. I considered doing open mike night at the Ding Ho restaurant but never worked up the guts to do it. I loved the fact that I had seen all the stars back in the day in the small venues they featured in the movie. Of course, those were pretty much all good times for me, so you can't really compare it to a movie about Viet Nam.

 

Rob,

It could have been worse! Back in 1968 when I worked after school at an IGA store in Kew Gardens, NYC. The owner was recounting a night sitting home watching a documentary on TV with his then young son. His son turned to him and asked: "Dad, did they have TV when you were alive?"

 

Between documentaries on the early space program/moon landings and on JFK, seems like I've already seen quite a few that remind me that much of my lifetime is now considered "History". Same with a lot of the 30 for 30 looks back on ESPN.

 

Bill, I can see you going up right after Steven Wright.

 

We watch a lot of documentaries on Smithsonian Channel, the History Channel and especially PBS (none is better than a Ken Burns documentary). Jim and I are from two eras, so each one brings interest for different reasons to us both. He clearly remembers WW2 and of course, the VietNam War is more memorable to me. I totally agree with Rob's observations but I also think if we do not look back and have more understanding of why our country did what it did, we cannot avoid making errors in the future. Vietnam is difficult for me since I lost my first love in that war. The scars have remained for all these years. I've stood at the VietNam memorial in Washington DC countless times tracing my fingers over his name and wondering "what if". We cannot erase the past but we can learn from the past. I certainly felt very present and SO many memories washed over me as if they only happened yesterday. I was so young then - we all were. I don't know if I can express how I feel watching this. Maybe I feel a little sad, maybe I'm glad it is over. I just don't know.

 

Val,

I totally agree with you. Like you most of my TV time is spent watching history and documentaries (and the news). I too think that we have to learn from history.

The problem is we almost never learn from history and almost always repeat the same mistakes. I don't want this thread to end up in politics so I won't go into details, but if we did learn from history we probably wouldn't be involved in the wars we are involved in and maybe the outcome of some of our elections would've been different.

I think if we saw anything at all in the first episode of Ken Burn's Vietnam it is how the same mistakes and missteps keep getting made over and over again.

 

The song that all of us Vietnam vets regarded as the song that spoke for us:

And, yes, I drove one of those Huey’s.

 

Hard to believe that what took place in episode 3 took place over 50 years ago. I remember all of those events as if they happened yesterday. I don't remember getting older, when did all those years go by?