April 9, 2025 • 48 mins
The battle between Hair Metal and Grunge. The effect of Garfield on my childhood. Some passing fads of the 1960s.
Episode 190 is filled with fun old school nostalgia to help you feel young again, briefly.
It starts with a look at the rise and pop culture relevance of Garfield the cat. From his humble beginnings as a fat, lazy orange cat in a comic strip to television, movies, and gobs of merch, Garfield has been making childhoods, including mine, better since 1978.
We go way back in the day to look at a clash of styles. The battle for supremacy between hair metal and grunge music. One dominated the late 80s with screeching arena rock and unique looks. The other burst onto the scene in the early 90s, unpolished and raw. Which one won?
A brand new Top 5 will showcase some 1960s passing fads. These things were briefly popular and ultimately flamed out. Clothing, hair styles, toys, odd inventions, they're all here, and a few were directly impacted by The Beatles.
There is new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the last time Halley's Comet passed by the Earth.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 00 (00:00):
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 190.
It's wacky, wild, fun, foolish,filled with nostalgia.
(00:23):
That is this week's show.
It's a lot of things that I'vewanted to talk about for a
while, and we're finally gettingto them.
We're going to kick it off witha look back at one of the
staples of my childhood andprobably a lot of yours if you
grew up in the 1980s, and that'sGarfield the Cat, the comics,
and everything that goes withit.
We're going to go way, way backin the day and look at how
(00:46):
grunge music killed heroinThere'll be a brand new top
five.
This is the top five passingfads of the 1960s.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
capsule looking back at the lasttime that Halley's Comet passed
by the Earth.
All of that good stuff iscoming up right now on episode
(01:08):
190 of the In My Footstepspodcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
Maybe this?
Oh, it spilled everywhere.
Hold on.
Oh, man.
All right.
After that cleanup on aisletwo, that was not expected.
(01:32):
That was a little energy drink,low caffeine in it.
But still, well, that's a niceprofessional way to kick off the
podcast.
So how are you all doing outthere?
Leave it to me to put thispodcast off the rails within the
first minute of recording it.
Well, we're going to have a lotof fun this week.
An hour to escape from presentday, looking back at Gen X
(01:57):
nostalgia, the good old days.
Yes, I'm that old that I can dothat now.
I hope wherever you'relistening from, whenever you're
listening to this, that it's thebest day it can possibly be for
you.
I appreciate all of you thattune in, that share any of my
content, really.
As much as I appreciate all ofyou, the ones I appreciate the
(02:20):
most, of course, are my Patreonsubscribers, the ones that
actually put their money wheretheir mouth is to support me, my
content, my dream of being aself-sufficient content creator.
So thank you to Laurie, MaryLou, Ashley, Kevin, Leo,
Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal,Matt, you too can become a
(02:43):
Patreon subscriber for $5 amonth.
It's like one Starbucks coffeeor Dunkin' Large coffee per
month.
And you get access to bonuspodcast episodes, access to the
remastered Without a Map livestreams.
The third one will be going upnext week.
I'm always trying to come upwith new things to put up there
(03:04):
for my Patreon subscribers, andI came up with a pretty good new
idea.
As you know, I've mentioned italready, this is episode 190,
which means in 10 weeks it'll beepisode 200.
I've tried to do special thingsfor the big episodes.
Episode 150 was listener'schoice.
(03:25):
I put out polls for everysegment of the podcast, and
people got to vote on socialmedia what they wanted to hear.
Episode 100 was the supersizedLady of the Dunes retrospective
episode.
It was a four-part podcast thatI stapled together into one
amazing show.
Episode 50 is basically aretrospective of the first 50
(03:48):
episodes.
It's not that special, but I'mnot saying don't go listen to
it.
It's just not some bigover-the-top celebration.
That being said, for episode200, I'm going to do something
similar to episode 150,listener's choice, but it's
going to be strictly forPatreon.
What I'm going to do, though,is I'm going to make it for any
(04:11):
Patreon member, paying or free.
Which means if you go and signup at Patreon to become a free
member, I've got a growing freetier over there of content.
But you'll be able to vote inthe listener's choice for
episode 200.
So there's a little spoiler.
I should have the choices upthere within the next few weeks.
Because I want to have it donein time so that I can do my
(04:33):
research and fudge the numbersif I have to.
No, I'm kidding.
It'll be all legit.
There's plenty more of thehousekeeping type stuff to get
into at the end of the podcast.
But I've waited 190 episodes totalk about Garfield the Cat,
and I can't wait anymore.
So let's start it off right nowwith a look at a huge part of
(04:54):
my childhood, Garfield the Cat.
So in full transparency, kindof of how I put the podcast
together, I do my research.
I have several Word documentsjust of lists of things for
different segments.
And what I do, I've got sometopics still to come that I
can't wait to talk about, but Itry to parcel them out.
(05:16):
I think you can tell that Ihave a passion for this type of
content, nostalgia.
But you can also tell when Italk about something I'm really,
really excited to talk about.
So I try to save those andsprinkle them in.
Because for all I know, I'll bedoing this podcast for another
5, 10, thousand years.
It'll be just my head in a jartalking into the microphone.
(05:40):
One topic that I can't believeI made it this far into the
podcast without talking aboutwas Garfield the cat and the
comic strips, the books, the TVshows, all of that.
To say that the Garfield comicswere a big part of my childhood
would be really selling itshort.
I was pretty obsessed.
(06:00):
I loved everything aboutGarfield.
His laziness, his lasagnafetish, the way he would beat up
Odie the dog or beat up hisowner, John.
Garfield was the first reason Ihad to read a newspaper.
I know, actual paper newspaperin print.
(06:22):
I would read the comics everyday.
But it's not just me.
The fact that Garfield is stillaround now shows his staying
power.
The very first Garfield comicstrip debuted June 19th, 1978.
And since then, Garfield hasbecome one of the most
recognizable and belovedcharacters in pop culture.
(06:45):
Maybe you got into the comicsin the late 70s, early 80s.
Maybe you started followingGarfield through the TV specials
in the late 80s.
Maybe you know Garfield withBill Murray as his voice.
I'm going to guess that there'sa very small percentage of you
listening now that don't knowwho Garfield is.
Garfield the Cat was a creationof Jim Davis, who was an
(07:10):
Indiana-born cartoonist.
And Garfield was conceived as aresponse to the overwhelming
popularity of dog-themed comics,like Snoopy from Peanuts or
Marmaduke.
Was Clifford the Big Red Dog acomic?
I think he was more justchildren's books.
Anyway, there were way too manydogs in comics, and dogs are
great.
(07:30):
I'm more of a cat person, somaybe that's part of it.
Jim Davis designed Garfield tobe a fat, sarcastic, orange cat
with a love of food, mostlylasagna, a distaste for Mondays,
and he was named after JimDavis's grandfather, James
Garfield Davis.
Garfield was originallydeveloped alongside his owner,
(07:54):
John Arbuckle, who is basicallyGarfield's foil.
And the early years of thecomics saw battles between
Garfield and John and John'sstupid dog, Odie.
Besides the funny jokes, thebattles between Garfield and
Odie, there were other reasonswhy the strip became so popular.
(08:16):
Like I said, relatable humor.
Garfield hating Mondays, a lotof us can relate to that.
Loving food, a lot of us canrelate to that.
Preferring sleep over work, boyyou're really speaking my
language.
But yet through all of that,Garfield was definitely more of
the protagonist in the comicstrip.
He wasn't bad, he was just lazyand fat and wanted to sleep.
(08:39):
A big thing, though, thathelped it stand out to me was
the three-panel comic havingvery little dialogue.
It was simple setups for jokesthat kids of my age, I mean, I
was probably eight years oldwhen I first discovered
Garfield.
These were very easy to read.
(09:01):
It would be like a Monday andGarfield would be wrapped up in
his little box bed with hisblanket over his head.
John would just say, time toget up.
And Garfield would have somequip about how terrible Mondays
are, and it was simple likethat.
Another great thing aboutGarfield that made it so popular
was that the strips areevergreen.
(09:22):
They're not centered aroundcurrent events.
It's not like you can look at aGarfield comic from 1978, 88,
98, and immediately know whenthey're from.
Well, the first few years ofGarfield, yes, you can tell.
He's fatter now.
And he's got this differentshaped nose, like he has an oval
shaped nose now.
(09:43):
These are little things that asa Garfield fan, I noticed.
So I guess you could notice thefirst few years of the comic
strip.
But overall, the humor doesn'trely on current events, so it's
timeless.
Another big reason Garfield waspopular was it being
everywhere.
The merchandising and marketingeverywhere.
(10:04):
I know I had a Garfield plushtoy, except he had hard plastic
eyes.
I don't know any of you outthere in the 80s, early 90s, do
you remember that?
A lot of you, if you didn'thave the plush toy, maybe you
had that suction cup one thatyou would put on your window in
your car.
I used to see those everywhere.
And then the irony was when Igot my first car, I didn't buy
(10:25):
one of those.
But I mean, I was 18, 19, so itwas a little bit different.
In 1985, Garfield crossed overinto television with Garfield's
Halloween Adventure, which thatexplains why I remember Garfield
when I was eight years old,because I was eight in 1985.
Then there was Garfield'sThanksgiving, Garfield's
(10:47):
Christmas, and one of myfavorite things, the Saturday
morning cartoon Garfield andFriends.
Ladies and gentlemen, Garfieldand Friends.
It was like if you were a fanof Garfield, you couldn't get
(11:13):
enough.
Although I will say thatGarfield and Friends had that
terrible U.S.
Acres, like, spin-off comicstrip that Jim Davis did, and he
just shoved one of those inbetween two Garfields to try to
make it popular.
It's like eating your favoritedessert and then having to eat a
piece of raw broccoli to get toyour favorite dessert again.
(11:36):
That's what U.S.
Acres was to me.
Raw broccoli.
It didn't stop there, though.
Once I was in college and Ididn't really read the Garfield
comics daily like I did when Iwas younger, that didn't mean
that Garfield went away.
They had the Garfield show thatwas out from 2009 to 2016.
(11:56):
But in the early 2000s,Garfield went to the movie
theater.
With Garfield the movie in2004, Garfield A Tale of Two
Kitties in 2006.
They didn't get great reviews,but Garfield had two movies.
So, God, I'd love to have thatproblem.
I'll take the problem of badreviews of my movie if it means
(12:20):
that I starred in a movie.
More recently, last year in2024, there was the Garfield
movie that starred Chris Prattas Garfield.
I have not seen that yet.
Maybe I will check it out.
Today, Nickelodeon owns therights to Garfield.
They bought out Jim Davis'sPaws, Inc.
in 2019.
Those of us that grew up in the1980s remember Garfield's
(12:45):
voice, and it was by a man namedLorenzo Musick.
Speaker 02 (12:49):
What could be worse than Monday?
What could be worse thanMonday, Garfield?
Oh, how about Monday withnormal around?
Speaker 00 (12:57):
He was the voice in 12 Garfield specials, including
Here Comes Garfield in 1982,Garfield on the Town in 1983,
and Garfield in the Rough in1984, which were ones that I
forgot about when I was justtalking about his debut into TV.
Back in episode 180, I did asegment about the crash test
(13:19):
dummies.
Lorenzo Music was the voice ofLarry the crash test dummy from
all those commercials in thelate 1980s to the mid-90s.
For some of you that might notrecognize his voice.
If it wasn't on televisionwatching the shows, the Saturday
morning cartoon...
For me, and I still have these,I have a huge collection of
(13:40):
Garfield books.
The smaller rectangle ones thatwere the chronicles of all the
comic strips.
The first one came out in 1980.
It was called Garfield atLarge.
The book was on the New YorkTimes bestseller list for almost
two years.
And it also introducedsomething called the Garfield
style, which is how comic stripcompilation books were put
(14:03):
together.
So that's something that camefrom the Garfield book, The
Rectangular Shape.
There were so many Garfieldbooks from the 1980s that I
loved that I still love thecolorful covers.
Garfield Gains Weight, GarfieldRounds Out, Garfield Loses His
Feet, Garfield Chews the Fat,all the fun titles.
(14:26):
I would either get the newGarfield book through the
Scholastic Book Fair, because itseemed like almost once a year,
or even more frequently thanthat, there was a new Garfield
book put out.
So I'd either get it throughthe Scholastic Book Fair, or my
Uncle John used to manage abookstore in Hyannis, which is
(14:46):
the next town over from me.
You Cape Codders might rememberDwyer's books in the 80s, early
90s.
The rest of you are going tosay, I don't understand.
But that's not the point.
The funny thing is I used toget the Garfield books and my
uncle, I didn't know you coulddo this.
You tear the cover off and yousend it back to get credit like
(15:07):
there was damage done to thebook.
So what I would get, and it wasonly a couple of them, but I
would get Garfield books withoutthe cover because they were
free.
Sorry, Uncle John, for rattingyou out.
I mean, it's been 35 years.
I'm pretty sure it's fine.
I loved Garfield so much that Iwould invite friends over and
we would just read the books.
(15:28):
Like we'd read them out loud toeach other.
I had a friend named Dan.
He was the one.
He would always come over.
We would read alternatingstrips to each other.
I think a big part of whyGarfield is so special to me
still, besides the hugeconnection to my childhood, is
what I said earlier about thecontent being evergreen.
(15:49):
I can go and just throw a dartat a date over the last 47 years
and find a Garfield comic andprobably have a good laugh at
it.
There's no, oh, you had to growup in the 80s to like it, but
oh, so many days, Saturdaymornings, evenings, Garfield was
a big part of my life.
(16:10):
I got to live out my dream,kind of, when we came into
possession of a kitten that wasan orange striped tabby cat.
He was the son of our currentcat at the time in the late
1980s.
I wanted to call him Garfield.
I was voted down.
He was named Tigger, like theWinnie the Pooh character.
He was very much like Garfield.
(16:33):
He wasn't as fat, but he wasdefinitely larger.
He was not the friendliest cat,although he loved me.
He hated most everyone else.
And he was always willing tothrow down with one of our dogs.
He didn't care.
Tigger is definitely a uniquecat, my favorite pet I ever had,
and I'm thinking I may have todo a segment on him because his
(16:55):
story you probably won't believeis real.
Although I said that about mycat Solo back in episode 148.
Maybe I just had a bunch ofspecial cats.
From his humble beginnings,though, as a newspaper comic
strip character to a worldwidephenomenon, Garfield's legacy
proves a grumpy, fat cat with asharp wit and an endless
(17:17):
appetite can endure for decades.
I think maybe tonight I'llwatch me a couple episodes of
Garfield and Friends, knowing Ican fast forward through the
U.S.
Acres ones.
No thanks.
This Week in History, we'regoing back 39 years to April
(17:39):
10th, 1986.
and Halley's Comet making itsclosest pass to Earth.
I can't believe this is almost40 years ago.
When Halley's Comet last passedby Earth, it was more than just
an astronomical event.
It was a moment of globalanticipation, scientific
discovery, and publicfascination.
(18:00):
Halley's Comet is probably themost famous comet in history.
It's considered a short periodcomet, which means it becomes
visible from Earth approximatelyevery 75 to 76 years.
It's the only comet visiblewith the naked eye that can
potentially be seen twice in ahuman lifetime.
(18:20):
And I have no memories ofseeing it the first time, so
I'll have to wait.
The comet was named after SirEdmund Halley, the English
astronomer who, in 1705, figuredout that the comets seen in
1531, 1607, and 1682 wereactually the same object
returning periodically.
(18:41):
He then predicted the cometwould return in 1758, and that
was correct.
When the comet passed by Earthin 1986, it was its 30th
recorded visit.
And oh boy, was there a lot ofhype.
In the years leading up to it,media coverage created a swell
of excitement.
Schools, science museums,observatories planned viewing
(19:04):
events.
Telescopes sold out.
Travel agencies offered cometcruises and trips to the
Southern Hemisphere whereviewing conditions were more
favorable.
That was a big issue up here inthe Northeast, living in the
upper third, maybe, of thenorthern hemisphere meant that
we were on the downside of thebest viewing platforms for
(19:27):
Halley's Comet.
It wasn't just me and my familyon Cape Cod that suffered,
though.
The actual appearance ofHalley's Comet was seen as
underwhelming to the casualobserver.
It was written that the displayin 1910 was brilliant.
This time it was relatively dimdue to the geometry of its
orbit and Earth's position.
(19:48):
It was said that city dwellersoften needed binoculars or a
telescope to get even a glimpsewhen it's supposed to be visible
to the naked eye.
One of the most famous storiesdealing with Halley's Comet also
deals with Mark Twain, theauthor.
He was born in 1835 whenHalley's Comet passed, and he
has quotes saying that he camein with the comet and he would
(20:11):
likely go out with the comet.
And he did.
He died in 1910 when Halley'sComet was passing by the Earth.
For all of you out there thatwere alive and missed Halley's
Comet, or those of you that arelooking forward to it, its next
predicted return is 2061.
So 36 years from now, I will be83 years old.
(20:33):
Hopefully they can wheel me outof my nursing home and have me
look up at the sky to see it.
Knowing my luck, I'll havecataracts or I'll forget my
glasses.
So it'll be the same.
I won't see it the first timeor the second time.
Halley's Comet is anticipatedto be approaching closer to
Earth than it did in 1986,meaning that those of you that
(20:55):
are alive then to see it will beable to actually get a better
view than we did in 1986.
Even though its visit in 1986was dimmer than anticipated,
Halley's Comet continues to holda special place in human
history.
It's a celestial wanderer thatbridges generations, cultures,
and centuries.
And like a familiar traveler ona long orbit, Halley's Comet
(21:20):
will return again.
But Halley's Comet's mostrecent pass by Earth occurred 39
years ago this week in history.
Oh, and it's time for a brandnew time capsule.
We're going to stick with thesame day.
(21:40):
Halley's Comet is passing bythe Earth.
I am not seeing it, or at leastnot remembering seeing it.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was Rock MeAmadeus by Falco.
Boy, what an 80s name that was.
This was off of his 1985 albumFalco III.
(22:04):
It was Falco's only number onehit and only hit period,
although he did write the songDer Kommissar, which you may
know, but it was covered fromGerman to English, so the
English version by After theFire is the one you out there
may remember.
The number one movie was TheMoney Pit, and you could get
(22:25):
into the theater with a ticketcosting $3.71.
This was a comedy starring TomHanks and Shelley Long as a
couple who attempt to renovate ahome they just purchased.
The movie made $55 million on abudget of just over $18
million.
It's 50% fresh on RottenTomatoes and got kind of
(22:47):
middling reviews.
But it's 80s Tom Hanks, so youcan't go wrong checking it out
if you haven't seen it.
The number one TV show was TheCosby Show.
Because as I've said before, ifmy time capsule is from the
late 1980s, The Cosby Show isvery likely number one.
I could probably do it and notresearch it and just put Cosby
(23:08):
Show in and I'd likely be right.
This is the show about theHoxtables living in Brooklyn and
all of their antics.
It's a sitcom, slight drama attimes.
It was on for eight seasonsbetween 1984 and 1992.
It also spawned the spinoff ADifferent World, which I also
enjoyed.
(23:28):
And if you were around backthen, April 10th, 1986, maybe
you want to spruce up your yardfor the arrival of Halley's
Comet, well, you got to mow yourlawn.
And you're in luck.
You can get yourself aCraftsman Riding Lawn Mower with
a 30-inch blade, 6-speed, 10horsepower.
(23:49):
It weighs 311 pounds, butyou're not going to have to lift
it.
And you could get that all atSears for $1,199.99, meaning
over $1,200.
You like how they trick youwith that?
Ooh, I know all those tricks.
Anyway, if you want yourCraftsman riding lawnmower,
it'll be waiting for you atSears.
(24:11):
When adjusting for inflation,the price of that lawnmower is
almost $3,500.
Now, I'm no expert on ridinglawnmowers, but I've seen ads
where you can get what look likegood lawnmowers, for between
$1,000 and $2,000.
So I don't know if that meansthis one back in 1986 was a
ripoff.
But whether it was or whetherit wasn't, that's going to wrap
(24:35):
up another time capsule, anotherThis Week in History.
If you don't like the 1980sriding lawnmower talk, well, I
got a new top five.
We're going even further back.
As we look at some passing fadsof the 1960s, I hope none of
you partook in any of these.
So I don't consider people whogrew up in the 1960s to be old,
(25:03):
but I will say some of theinformation I got for this top
five was off of a Reddit threadnamed Old People.
And it was specifically aquestion about fads you
remembered growing up in the60s.
Don't be too upset though,because it's not going to be too
long before I'm considered old.
I'm only 70s.
In the past, I've done 1970s,80s, and 90s passing fads.
(25:28):
You can find those episodes inthe archives.
And with me doing more 1960sbased content on the podcast for
2025, it became an obviouschoice to do passing fads of the
60s.
This was a lot harder than Iexpected.
I have really no knowledge ofwhat the passing fads were from
(25:49):
the 60s.
With the 70s, 80s, 90s, andlikely 2000s at some point, I
grew up in those times.
So you out there who grew up inthe 60s listening to this
segment, you'll have to let meknow how accurate my passing
fads top five is.
As with most of these topfives, there are some honorable
mentions.
(26:09):
They are in no particularorder.
And yeah, let's get into them.
So we'll start with thehonorable mentions for passing
fads of the 1960s.
They include inflatablefurniture, which was cheap but
not that durable.
Banana seats, which werespecific for bicycles, the long
(26:31):
seat with the little hooked endon it.
Another honorable mention wasclackers.
The little pair of hard balls.
The pair of balls.
Boy, how do I get out of this?
Attached by a string and youwould whip them up and down and
they would smack together.
It's too late to save that partof the segment.
There were also sea monkeys,which were not monkeys.
(26:56):
They were brine shrimp.
And the last honorable mentionis the beehive hairdo that a lot
of women had in the 1960s.
Don't take offense if you grewup and had a beehive hairdo.
When I was a little boy, I hadthe Dutch boy, paint boy, bowl
cut.
So I'm no different.
But those were the honorablementions, so let's get into the
(27:19):
actual top five.
This starts off with numberone, Super Balls.
God, I put this at number oneafter just a minute ago talking
about the Clackers Balls.
Superballs are still around tothis day, but they're not in the
same way as they were in the60s, where people were obsessed
when they came out.
(27:40):
It's a tightly packed syntheticrubber ball, usually kind of a
pale pink shade.
A chemist named Norman Stingleyinvented the Superball in 1964,
and this was way different thana typical ball you would have
back then.
They would say you could bounceit over a house.
That was one of the sellingpoints of it.
(28:02):
The Super Bowl was so popularin the late 1960s that the
NFL-AFL football championshipgame was named the Super Bowl
after the Super Bowl.
I feel like Super Bowl issomething that it was so popular
that it was going to beimpossible to maintain that.
(28:22):
So even though it's stillaround today, it's just another
toy on the rack you'd see at adollar store.
Number two is smoking bananapeels.
This was something kind of anurban legend that I had
remembered hearing when I wasyoung, 11, 12 years old.
This was a hoax basically setup where there was supposed to
(28:45):
be this fictional compound inthe peel of the banana called
bananadine.
It was supposed to havepsychoactive properties.
So it would be like burning andsmoking a banana peel would be
like dropping acid or doing LSD.
So that was a cheaperalternative, and it was briefly
a thing.
The Berkeley Barb newspaperpublished this story in March
(29:08):
1967, and it led to youngerpeople buying bananas and
burning them, trying to get thebanana dean out of it to get
high.
But yeah, I can remember, eveninto the late 80s, early 90s,
hearing that urban legend on theschool bus that if you...
smoked a certain part of thebanana peel you could get high.
(29:30):
And no, I never tried.
So don't worry about that.
Number three is the ScopatoneVideo Jukebox.
That's a bunch of big words.
It is what it sounds like.
A jukebox that had videos init.
It actually featured 16mm filminside the jukebox that would
(29:53):
play video versions of some ofthe songs.
At its peak in 1966, there wereapproximately 800 of these
Scopatone video jukeboxeslocated in various bars around
the United States.
There were a lot of well-knownacts from the early 1960s to
create these videos for theScopatone.
(30:14):
Neil Sedaka, Procol Harum,Nancy Sinatra, Dionne Warwick...
Their downfall came in 1965when the Beatles started putting
out music videos and theybypassed the Scopatone, choosing
to distribute their videos viatelevision.
So when the biggest band in theworld says, now we're all good,
(30:36):
that was kind of the beginningof the end of the Scopatone
video jukebox.
Number four is surf music.
This refers to a super popularversion of music In the early
1960s especially, the surfculture, the inventor, if you
want to say, of surf music was aguitarist named Dick Dale.
(30:59):
If you look him up on YouTubeand just play one of his songs,
you'll get the gist of what surfmusic was.
Even though Dick Dale is theking of surf guitar, the kings
of the surf music sound had tobe the Beach Boys.
That was practically theiridentity at the beginning of
their careers.
They've got four differentsongs with surfing in the title,
(31:22):
which it just blew my mind whenI saw that.
Yes, the Beach Boys had songsSurfing, Surfing USA, Surfing
Safari, and Little Surfer Girl.
I guess you could say the BeachBoys loved surfing.
Much like they killed theScopatone video jukebox, surf
music was killed by the Beatlesin 1964 when they showed up.
(31:46):
Number five on the list of topfive passing fads of the 1960s
is paper clothing.
This was also destroyed by theBeatles.
No, I'm just kidding.
The paper clothing, paper dresscraze came around with the
creation of cellulose-basedbonded fiber textiles.
(32:07):
So it's not paper per se, butthey're marketed as virtually
the same thing, equivalent topaper.
The Scott Paper Company, not tobe confused with the Michael
Scott Paper Company, createdthese fibers.
And so they made two paperdresses, kind of as a promotion
in 1966.
And this sparked a craze withpeople wanting their own paper
(32:32):
dresses.
At its peak, there was oneAmerican manufacturing company
that was making up to 80,000paper dresses a week.
But you couldn't really washthem properly.
So it's like you buy this dressand what?
Wear it until it's dirty andstinks and is stained?
Or wear it once and throw itout?
This craze was dead and gone bythe end of 1969.
(32:54):
But there you have it.
The top five passing fads ofthe 1960s.
They are of varying degrees ofpopularity and obscurity.
But you could literally do fourof these five passing fads at
the same time.
Smoking your banana peels whilewearing paper clothes,
listening to surf music, andbouncing a Super Bowl.
(33:17):
Look at that.
60s all wrapped up like that.
So I spent much of this Top 5talking about how the arrival of
the Beatles ruined all thesepassing fads.
Let's jump again to anothermusical influence that destroyed
what I would consider a passingfad.
When grunge music killed hairmetal right now.
(33:38):
Ah, yes, I grew up in aninteresting time.
Let me regale you with thestory of the battle for the
ages.
The established music versusthe up-and-coming music.
The setting was the early1990s.
(33:59):
In one corner, you had theestablished hair metal style of
music, and in the other corner,the up-and-coming grunge music
scene.
Who came out on top?
Well, based on how I'vedescribed this segment already,
you know.
But just act surprised.
So in the late 1980s, the musicscene was dominated by the
(34:23):
flashy, high-energy sounds ofwhat's called hair metal.
Mainly because a lot of thebands, they had the huge,
teased-up hair.
Some of them wore eyeliner,makeup, whatever.
There were bands like MotleyCrue, Poison, Warrant,
Cinderella, Skid Row.
These bands and others thatwere part of hair metal, they
(34:47):
had the anthemic choruses,over-the-top guitar solos, like
I said, the interestingcostuming, and of course the
decadent lifestyle, see MotleyCrue again.
With all that flash and glitzand glamour, by the early 90s, a
darker and more introspectivestyle of rock began to take over
(35:07):
called grunge, a.k.a.
the Seattle scene.
It was led by Nirvana, PearlJam, Alice in Chains, and
Soundgarden.
The ultimate battle betweenhair metal and grunge took
place, I would say, in 1991.
Those of you that were aroundat the time, would you agree?
We've got to establish hairmetal's dominance.
(35:30):
So we've got to go back to theearly 1980s.
Hair metal, glam metal, arenarock.
All that kind of stuff makes upthis music, whatever you call
it.
There were bands like VanHalen, early Bon Jovi, Def
Leppard.
They're not hair metal per se,but they kind of represent that
larger-than-life persona.
(35:51):
Definitely big hair and bigsound.
Even though...
Van Halen, Bon Jovi, DefLeppard, Guns N' Roses.
They're not seen as thestereotypical hair metal, which
is almost seen as kind of aninsult to your musical talent.
But those other bands I named,they led the way for a lighter,
(36:13):
shinier, glitzier version ofmetal music.
So this new kind of offshoot ofmetal that was hair metal, glam
metal, glam rock, whatever youwant to call it, It had its peak
in the late 80s.
Motley Crue had the huge albumDr.
Feelgood in 1989.
Poison had their album Open Upand Say Ah in 1988, which had
(36:37):
Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
You had Warrant with theiralbum Dirty, Rotten, Filthy,
Stinking Rich in 1989 that hadthe song Heaven.
You had Whitesnake with Here IGo Again on My Own.
or Skid Row with 18 and Life toGo, or all these arena rock
(36:59):
power ballad songs thatdominated MTV.
The problem was, as you startedto see success with Motley
Crue, Poison, Warren, etc., youhad a lot of imitators that were
not as good.
And for those of you that thinkthe bands I just named weren't
good, imagine the ones that werelike bootlegs of those.
Now, if you go online and youtype in worst hair metal bands,
(37:23):
you'll get kind of a list thatwill span probably every one
that's considered hair metal.
But some of the lesser knowns,you know, that felt like they
diluted the product.
That's what led to the endbecause it felt formulaic,
oversaturated.
If you've heard one hair metalsong, you've heard them all.
So it was time for a new kid onthe block to knock the old one
(37:45):
off the roof of pop culture,whatever that means.
In September 1991, everythingchanged with the grunge
revolution led by Nirvana'smassive single Smells Like Teen
Spirit.
It was that song that usheredin Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice
in Chains.
I mean, they'd all been thereto varying degrees, but hearing
(38:09):
that one riff from Smells LikeTeen Spirit got me looking for
what else is out there in theworld of grunge music.
I felt at 13, 14 that I hadfound my identity.
It's like up until that point,I couldn't tell you who I was,
what I was, what I wanted to be.
Well, besides a writer, thatI've wanted since I was eight.
(38:30):
But my first identity really inlife came with grunge music in
1991.
It wasn't just me.
In early 1992, Nirvana'sNevermind album knocked Michael
Jackson's Dangerous album off ofthe number one spot on the
Billboard charts.
This was really when itcemented grunge as the new big
(38:54):
thing, kind of put the nail inthe coffin of hair metal.
For me, I didn't mind a lot ofhair metal, but when you hear
Smells Like Teen Spirit, orPearl Jam's Jeremy, or Evenflo,
or Soundgarden's Rusty Cage, orAlice in Chains' Man in the Box,
or Rooster, these are all songsthat were out in 1991-92.
(39:17):
For me, once I heard that rawsound, I was like, I don't need
hair metal anymore.
I like the dirty, theunpolished.
There were big differencesbetween grunge and hair metal.
The lifestyle was different.
Grunge people were into theirdrugs.
But it's nothing like what youhear about in the hair metal
(39:39):
days.
It was all written about intheir songs, too.
Hair metal, the hedonism.
Whereas grunge bands, becausethey spoke to me, they spoke
about depression, socialalienation, and personal
struggles.
Which, come on, that's morereal.
There's a better chance of youhaving a battle with depression
than riding 20 deep in a stretchlimo, surrounded by drugs and
(40:03):
alcohol.
Grunge and hair metal, they hadtheir own styles, but
honestly...
If you were growing up then,would you rather go to school
looking like Vince Neil fromMotley Crue or Eddie Vedder?
T-shirt with a flannel over it,kind of long cargo shorts you
could have, some kind of casualshoe, vans, airwalks.
(40:26):
That was the grunge look.
You can see the divergence inculture from hair metal to
grunge based on yearbook photos.
Pictures from yearbooks in thelate 80s with people with the
huge teased up hair.
I don't know, leather jackets,maybe skin tight pants.
Then you get into the early 90sand there's so many kids with
(40:50):
longer, kind of stringier hair,flannel shirts, ripped jeans.
I know I saw it everywhere inhigh school, the grunge
influence.
So grunge surged in popularity.
Hair metal didn't just go away.
They kept trying these bands torecapture the glory days of
like two years prior.
(41:10):
But there were a lot offailures by some former big-time
people from hair metal.
Warrant's Dog Eat Dog, 1992.
It was darker than theirbeloved Cherry Pie.
Poison's 93 album, NativeTongue, with a more bluesy sound
and new guitarist.
Perhaps the king of all hairmetal fails was Motley Crue's 94
(41:35):
self-titled album, where VinceNeil wasn't even in the band as
the singer.
It was John Carabi.
I mean, even though I said theyweren't really considered hair
metal, Guns N' Roses even in theearly 90s, think about it.
They had User Illusion 1 and 2in 1991, and then they had that
weird spaghetti incident, coversof 1950 songs album, and then
(42:00):
the band was basically dormantfor 20 years.
By the mid-1990s, hair metalwas gone.
Some of those types of acts,like Def Leppard or Bon Jovi,
they continued to have success.
They just adapted and becameless hair metal and more just
regular rock.
Much like hair metal, though,grunge didn't have a large time
(42:21):
in the spotlight.
The death of Kurt Cobain in1994, 31 years ago this week,
started the beginning of the endof grunge.
So it was a reign of threeyears, maybe four at most, if
you want to count some of thebands still around in 95.
Grunge was highly impactful.
Hair metal was highlyimpactful.
(42:43):
What's interesting, so hairmetal was killed by grunge.
What do you think out there waswhat replaced grunge as the big
next music trend?
Late 90s?
Is it boy bands?
I kind of feel like that's whatit was.
that it was Backstreet Boys,NSYNC, 98 Degrees.
It's an interesting thing tosee how tastes in pop culture
(43:07):
and music change over a periodof a few years.
For me, I can find somethinggood in any kind of musical
style.
I think it's I appreciate theability to be a musician or a
singer-songwriter or even a boyband where you can dance
choreography like that.
I was someone that I thoughtfor a while that I could become
(43:31):
a singer-songwriter.
It just turned out that Iwasn't good at guitar.
I was kind of tone-deaf.
So I was never going to beNirvana.
I was never going to be BonJovi.
I wasn't even going to be WhiteLion.
But I still got to immersemyself in the grunge culture.
In fact, I still even have myred flannel shirt that I wore in
(43:52):
my senior year high schoolphoto in 1996.
And yes, it still fits, whichis good being almost 30 years
out from high school.
But before I run to my closetjust to make sure that that
flannel shirt still fits, that'sgoing to wrap up episode 190 of
the podcast.
Thank you so much for tuningin, for making it to the end,
(44:16):
for getting your weekly dose ofGen X nostalgia.
I do my best to stay on thelookout for interesting topics
that those watching that grew upin the 60s through the early
2000s enjoy, want to reminisceabout.
Next week is episode 191, andwe're going to have a classic
educational short film review.
(44:37):
This is one I remember stillbeing in heavy rotation as I was
a kid in the 1980s, and thatwas Donald Duck in Math Magic
Land.
I remember seeing this inelementary school.
So that'll be part of nextweek's show.
And like I said, episode 200,I'm going to be doing a
listener's choice, but it'sgoing to be Patreon members
(44:59):
only.
But like I said, I'll make itfor the free tier.
Maybe episode 300, I'll do itjust for the paid tier.
Be on the lookout coming upthis week on my YouTube channel,
the video of me and my friend,producer Frank Durant, and our
friend Brian Mazzilli hiking outto Race Point Lighthouse.
It was the first time both ofthem had been out there.
(45:21):
And for Frank, it was thecompletion of the Henry David
Thoreau hike, which started downat Coast Guard Beach in East
Ham all the way up to RacePoint.
So we have a fun old timewalking the four or so miles
round trip to get out there.
Also, for those interested inmy wacky, foolish sense of
humor, go to my YouTube channel,subscribe, and then go to my
(45:45):
shorts page and look at mylatest ending of my Halloween
pumpkin video.
It definitely has a dark senseof humor to it.
It's only two minutes long, socome on.
Go over there when the podcastis done and watch.
You can find me on socialmedia, on Instagram.
I have a Facebook fan page forthe podcast.
(46:06):
I write blogs every week.
Initial Impressions 2.0, thelook at my weekly random life
podcast.
For a long time, Cape Codders,I recently wrote an article
about the legendary John Morganand his Puffer Bellies nightclub
in Hyannis.
So you can go find that on myblog.
The link's in the descriptionof the podcast.
Some of you may have heard, Iam now looking for voice acting
(46:32):
work.
I have joined a site,Voices.com, that has voiceover
work that you can do.
In addition to my first movierole with the film coming out, I
think in June.
I'm looking to add voiceoverstuff.
I'm trying to be as well-versedand well-rounded in all kinds
of content creation.
If I can be an author,podcaster, video creator on
(46:56):
YouTube, blogger, actor,voiceover actor.
Oh man, I just pulled myshoulder patting myself on the
back.
I'm sorry.
But I digress.
As I said at the beginning, Ihope wherever you are listening
from, whenever you're listeningto this show, that it's the best
day, the best week it couldpossibly be.
God knows we need it.
(47:16):
It's a big reason why I do thispodcast.
I feel like there are a lot ofyou that listen that just want
to escape for a little while.
I always feel better when I dothese podcasts.
I feel like I'm sharingsomething positive out there.
People my age, a little older,a little younger.
And don't worry, I'll keepgoing with the content.
I mean, this was episode 190.
(47:37):
I feel pretty safe saying thatunless something catastrophic
happens, I'll be back here forepisode 300, maybe 400.
Now at episode 299, my head'sgoing to explode like scanners
just so I can't fulfill mypromise.
So let's wrap this up as Ialways say.
Remember, in this life, don'twalk in anyone else's footsteps.
(48:00):
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 190.
It's wacky, wild, fun, foolish,filled with nostalgia.
(00:23):
That is this week's show.
It's a lot of things that I'vewanted to talk about for a
while, and we're finally gettingto them.
We're going to kick it off witha look back at one of the
staples of my childhood andprobably a lot of yours if you
grew up in the 1980s, and that'sGarfield the Cat, the comics,
and everything that goes withit.
We're going to go way, way backin the day and look at how
(00:46):
grunge music killed heroinThere'll be a brand new top
five.
This is the top five passingfads of the 1960s.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
capsule looking back at the lasttime that Halley's Comet passed
by the Earth.
All of that good stuff iscoming up right now on episode
(01:08):
190 of the In My Footstepspodcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
Maybe this?
Oh, it spilled everywhere.
Hold on.
Oh, man.
All right.
After that cleanup on aisletwo, that was not expected.
(01:32):
That was a little energy drink,low caffeine in it.
But still, well, that's a niceprofessional way to kick off the
podcast.
So how are you all doing outthere?
Leave it to me to put thispodcast off the rails within the
first minute of recording it.
Well, we're going to have a lotof fun this week.
An hour to escape from presentday, looking back at Gen X
(01:57):
nostalgia, the good old days.
Yes, I'm that old that I can dothat now.
I hope wherever you'relistening from, whenever you're
listening to this, that it's thebest day it can possibly be for
you.
I appreciate all of you thattune in, that share any of my
content, really.
As much as I appreciate all ofyou, the ones I appreciate the
(02:20):
most, of course, are my Patreonsubscribers, the ones that
actually put their money wheretheir mouth is to support me, my
content, my dream of being aself-sufficient content creator.
So thank you to Laurie, MaryLou, Ashley, Kevin, Leo,
Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal,Matt, you too can become a
(02:43):
Patreon subscriber for $5 amonth.
It's like one Starbucks coffeeor Dunkin' Large coffee per
month.
And you get access to bonuspodcast episodes, access to the
remastered Without a Map livestreams.
The third one will be going upnext week.
I'm always trying to come upwith new things to put up there
(03:04):
for my Patreon subscribers, andI came up with a pretty good new
idea.
As you know, I've mentioned italready, this is episode 190,
which means in 10 weeks it'll beepisode 200.
I've tried to do special thingsfor the big episodes.
Episode 150 was listener'schoice.
(03:25):
I put out polls for everysegment of the podcast, and
people got to vote on socialmedia what they wanted to hear.
Episode 100 was the supersizedLady of the Dunes retrospective
episode.
It was a four-part podcast thatI stapled together into one
amazing show.
Episode 50 is basically aretrospective of the first 50
(03:48):
episodes.
It's not that special, but I'mnot saying don't go listen to
it.
It's just not some bigover-the-top celebration.
That being said, for episode200, I'm going to do something
similar to episode 150,listener's choice, but it's
going to be strictly forPatreon.
What I'm going to do, though,is I'm going to make it for any
(04:11):
Patreon member, paying or free.
Which means if you go and signup at Patreon to become a free
member, I've got a growing freetier over there of content.
But you'll be able to vote inthe listener's choice for
episode 200.
So there's a little spoiler.
I should have the choices upthere within the next few weeks.
Because I want to have it donein time so that I can do my
(04:33):
research and fudge the numbersif I have to.
No, I'm kidding.
It'll be all legit.
There's plenty more of thehousekeeping type stuff to get
into at the end of the podcast.
But I've waited 190 episodes totalk about Garfield the Cat,
and I can't wait anymore.
So let's start it off right nowwith a look at a huge part of
(04:54):
my childhood, Garfield the Cat.
So in full transparency, kindof of how I put the podcast
together, I do my research.
I have several Word documentsjust of lists of things for
different segments.
And what I do, I've got sometopics still to come that I
can't wait to talk about, but Itry to parcel them out.
(05:16):
I think you can tell that Ihave a passion for this type of
content, nostalgia.
But you can also tell when Italk about something I'm really,
really excited to talk about.
So I try to save those andsprinkle them in.
Because for all I know, I'll bedoing this podcast for another
5, 10, thousand years.
It'll be just my head in a jartalking into the microphone.
(05:40):
One topic that I can't believeI made it this far into the
podcast without talking aboutwas Garfield the cat and the
comic strips, the books, the TVshows, all of that.
To say that the Garfield comicswere a big part of my childhood
would be really selling itshort.
I was pretty obsessed.
(06:00):
I loved everything aboutGarfield.
His laziness, his lasagnafetish, the way he would beat up
Odie the dog or beat up hisowner, John.
Garfield was the first reason Ihad to read a newspaper.
I know, actual paper newspaperin print.
(06:22):
I would read the comics everyday.
But it's not just me.
The fact that Garfield is stillaround now shows his staying
power.
The very first Garfield comicstrip debuted June 19th, 1978.
And since then, Garfield hasbecome one of the most
recognizable and belovedcharacters in pop culture.
(06:45):
Maybe you got into the comicsin the late 70s, early 80s.
Maybe you started followingGarfield through the TV specials
in the late 80s.
Maybe you know Garfield withBill Murray as his voice.
I'm going to guess that there'sa very small percentage of you
listening now that don't knowwho Garfield is.
Garfield the Cat was a creationof Jim Davis, who was an
(07:10):
Indiana-born cartoonist.
And Garfield was conceived as aresponse to the overwhelming
popularity of dog-themed comics,like Snoopy from Peanuts or
Marmaduke.
Was Clifford the Big Red Dog acomic?
I think he was more justchildren's books.
Anyway, there were way too manydogs in comics, and dogs are
great.
(07:30):
I'm more of a cat person, somaybe that's part of it.
Jim Davis designed Garfield tobe a fat, sarcastic, orange cat
with a love of food, mostlylasagna, a distaste for Mondays,
and he was named after JimDavis's grandfather, James
Garfield Davis.
Garfield was originallydeveloped alongside his owner,
(07:54):
John Arbuckle, who is basicallyGarfield's foil.
And the early years of thecomics saw battles between
Garfield and John and John'sstupid dog, Odie.
Besides the funny jokes, thebattles between Garfield and
Odie, there were other reasonswhy the strip became so popular.
(08:16):
Like I said, relatable humor.
Garfield hating Mondays, a lotof us can relate to that.
Loving food, a lot of us canrelate to that.
Preferring sleep over work, boyyou're really speaking my
language.
But yet through all of that,Garfield was definitely more of
the protagonist in the comicstrip.
He wasn't bad, he was just lazyand fat and wanted to sleep.
(08:39):
A big thing, though, thathelped it stand out to me was
the three-panel comic havingvery little dialogue.
It was simple setups for jokesthat kids of my age, I mean, I
was probably eight years oldwhen I first discovered
Garfield.
These were very easy to read.
(09:01):
It would be like a Monday andGarfield would be wrapped up in
his little box bed with hisblanket over his head.
John would just say, time toget up.
And Garfield would have somequip about how terrible Mondays
are, and it was simple likethat.
Another great thing aboutGarfield that made it so popular
was that the strips areevergreen.
(09:22):
They're not centered aroundcurrent events.
It's not like you can look at aGarfield comic from 1978, 88,
98, and immediately know whenthey're from.
Well, the first few years ofGarfield, yes, you can tell.
He's fatter now.
And he's got this differentshaped nose, like he has an oval
shaped nose now.
(09:43):
These are little things that asa Garfield fan, I noticed.
So I guess you could notice thefirst few years of the comic
strip.
But overall, the humor doesn'trely on current events, so it's
timeless.
Another big reason Garfield waspopular was it being
everywhere.
The merchandising and marketingeverywhere.
(10:04):
I know I had a Garfield plushtoy, except he had hard plastic
eyes.
I don't know any of you outthere in the 80s, early 90s, do
you remember that?
A lot of you, if you didn'thave the plush toy, maybe you
had that suction cup one thatyou would put on your window in
your car.
I used to see those everywhere.
And then the irony was when Igot my first car, I didn't buy
(10:25):
one of those.
But I mean, I was 18, 19, so itwas a little bit different.
In 1985, Garfield crossed overinto television with Garfield's
Halloween Adventure, which thatexplains why I remember Garfield
when I was eight years old,because I was eight in 1985.
Then there was Garfield'sThanksgiving, Garfield's
(10:47):
Christmas, and one of myfavorite things, the Saturday
morning cartoon Garfield andFriends.
Ladies and gentlemen, Garfieldand Friends.
It was like if you were a fanof Garfield, you couldn't get
(11:13):
enough.
Although I will say thatGarfield and Friends had that
terrible U.S.
Acres, like, spin-off comicstrip that Jim Davis did, and he
just shoved one of those inbetween two Garfields to try to
make it popular.
It's like eating your favoritedessert and then having to eat a
piece of raw broccoli to get toyour favorite dessert again.
(11:36):
That's what U.S.
Acres was to me.
Raw broccoli.
It didn't stop there, though.
Once I was in college and Ididn't really read the Garfield
comics daily like I did when Iwas younger, that didn't mean
that Garfield went away.
They had the Garfield show thatwas out from 2009 to 2016.
(11:56):
But in the early 2000s,Garfield went to the movie
theater.
With Garfield the movie in2004, Garfield A Tale of Two
Kitties in 2006.
They didn't get great reviews,but Garfield had two movies.
So, God, I'd love to have thatproblem.
I'll take the problem of badreviews of my movie if it means
(12:20):
that I starred in a movie.
More recently, last year in2024, there was the Garfield
movie that starred Chris Prattas Garfield.
I have not seen that yet.
Maybe I will check it out.
Today, Nickelodeon owns therights to Garfield.
They bought out Jim Davis'sPaws, Inc.
in 2019.
Those of us that grew up in the1980s remember Garfield's
(12:45):
voice, and it was by a man namedLorenzo Musick.
Speaker 02 (12:49):
What could be worse than Monday?
What could be worse thanMonday, Garfield?
Oh, how about Monday withnormal around?
Speaker 00 (12:57):
He was the voice in 12 Garfield specials, including
Here Comes Garfield in 1982,Garfield on the Town in 1983,
and Garfield in the Rough in1984, which were ones that I
forgot about when I was justtalking about his debut into TV.
Back in episode 180, I did asegment about the crash test
(13:19):
dummies.
Lorenzo Music was the voice ofLarry the crash test dummy from
all those commercials in thelate 1980s to the mid-90s.
For some of you that might notrecognize his voice.
If it wasn't on televisionwatching the shows, the Saturday
morning cartoon...
For me, and I still have these,I have a huge collection of
(13:40):
Garfield books.
The smaller rectangle ones thatwere the chronicles of all the
comic strips.
The first one came out in 1980.
It was called Garfield atLarge.
The book was on the New YorkTimes bestseller list for almost
two years.
And it also introducedsomething called the Garfield
style, which is how comic stripcompilation books were put
(14:03):
together.
So that's something that camefrom the Garfield book, The
Rectangular Shape.
There were so many Garfieldbooks from the 1980s that I
loved that I still love thecolorful covers.
Garfield Gains Weight, GarfieldRounds Out, Garfield Loses His
Feet, Garfield Chews the Fat,all the fun titles.
(14:26):
I would either get the newGarfield book through the
Scholastic Book Fair, because itseemed like almost once a year,
or even more frequently thanthat, there was a new Garfield
book put out.
So I'd either get it throughthe Scholastic Book Fair, or my
Uncle John used to manage abookstore in Hyannis, which is
(14:46):
the next town over from me.
You Cape Codders might rememberDwyer's books in the 80s, early
90s.
The rest of you are going tosay, I don't understand.
But that's not the point.
The funny thing is I used toget the Garfield books and my
uncle, I didn't know you coulddo this.
You tear the cover off and yousend it back to get credit like
(15:07):
there was damage done to thebook.
So what I would get, and it wasonly a couple of them, but I
would get Garfield books withoutthe cover because they were
free.
Sorry, Uncle John, for rattingyou out.
I mean, it's been 35 years.
I'm pretty sure it's fine.
I loved Garfield so much that Iwould invite friends over and
we would just read the books.
(15:28):
Like we'd read them out loud toeach other.
I had a friend named Dan.
He was the one.
He would always come over.
We would read alternatingstrips to each other.
I think a big part of whyGarfield is so special to me
still, besides the hugeconnection to my childhood, is
what I said earlier about thecontent being evergreen.
(15:49):
I can go and just throw a dartat a date over the last 47 years
and find a Garfield comic andprobably have a good laugh at
it.
There's no, oh, you had to growup in the 80s to like it, but
oh, so many days, Saturdaymornings, evenings, Garfield was
a big part of my life.
(16:10):
I got to live out my dream,kind of, when we came into
possession of a kitten that wasan orange striped tabby cat.
He was the son of our currentcat at the time in the late
1980s.
I wanted to call him Garfield.
I was voted down.
He was named Tigger, like theWinnie the Pooh character.
He was very much like Garfield.
(16:33):
He wasn't as fat, but he wasdefinitely larger.
He was not the friendliest cat,although he loved me.
He hated most everyone else.
And he was always willing tothrow down with one of our dogs.
He didn't care.
Tigger is definitely a uniquecat, my favorite pet I ever had,
and I'm thinking I may have todo a segment on him because his
(16:55):
story you probably won't believeis real.
Although I said that about mycat Solo back in episode 148.
Maybe I just had a bunch ofspecial cats.
From his humble beginnings,though, as a newspaper comic
strip character to a worldwidephenomenon, Garfield's legacy
proves a grumpy, fat cat with asharp wit and an endless
(17:17):
appetite can endure for decades.
I think maybe tonight I'llwatch me a couple episodes of
Garfield and Friends, knowing Ican fast forward through the
U.S.
Acres ones.
No thanks.
This Week in History, we'regoing back 39 years to April
(17:39):
10th, 1986.
and Halley's Comet making itsclosest pass to Earth.
I can't believe this is almost40 years ago.
When Halley's Comet last passedby Earth, it was more than just
an astronomical event.
It was a moment of globalanticipation, scientific
discovery, and publicfascination.
(18:00):
Halley's Comet is probably themost famous comet in history.
It's considered a short periodcomet, which means it becomes
visible from Earth approximatelyevery 75 to 76 years.
It's the only comet visiblewith the naked eye that can
potentially be seen twice in ahuman lifetime.
(18:20):
And I have no memories ofseeing it the first time, so
I'll have to wait.
The comet was named after SirEdmund Halley, the English
astronomer who, in 1705, figuredout that the comets seen in
1531, 1607, and 1682 wereactually the same object
returning periodically.
(18:41):
He then predicted the cometwould return in 1758, and that
was correct.
When the comet passed by Earthin 1986, it was its 30th
recorded visit.
And oh boy, was there a lot ofhype.
In the years leading up to it,media coverage created a swell
of excitement.
Schools, science museums,observatories planned viewing
(19:04):
events.
Telescopes sold out.
Travel agencies offered cometcruises and trips to the
Southern Hemisphere whereviewing conditions were more
favorable.
That was a big issue up here inthe Northeast, living in the
upper third, maybe, of thenorthern hemisphere meant that
we were on the downside of thebest viewing platforms for
(19:27):
Halley's Comet.
It wasn't just me and my familyon Cape Cod that suffered,
though.
The actual appearance ofHalley's Comet was seen as
underwhelming to the casualobserver.
It was written that the displayin 1910 was brilliant.
This time it was relatively dimdue to the geometry of its
orbit and Earth's position.
(19:48):
It was said that city dwellersoften needed binoculars or a
telescope to get even a glimpsewhen it's supposed to be visible
to the naked eye.
One of the most famous storiesdealing with Halley's Comet also
deals with Mark Twain, theauthor.
He was born in 1835 whenHalley's Comet passed, and he
has quotes saying that he camein with the comet and he would
(20:11):
likely go out with the comet.
And he did.
He died in 1910 when Halley'sComet was passing by the Earth.
For all of you out there thatwere alive and missed Halley's
Comet, or those of you that arelooking forward to it, its next
predicted return is 2061.
So 36 years from now, I will be83 years old.
(20:33):
Hopefully they can wheel me outof my nursing home and have me
look up at the sky to see it.
Knowing my luck, I'll havecataracts or I'll forget my
glasses.
So it'll be the same.
I won't see it the first timeor the second time.
Halley's Comet is anticipatedto be approaching closer to
Earth than it did in 1986,meaning that those of you that
(20:55):
are alive then to see it will beable to actually get a better
view than we did in 1986.
Even though its visit in 1986was dimmer than anticipated,
Halley's Comet continues to holda special place in human
history.
It's a celestial wanderer thatbridges generations, cultures,
and centuries.
And like a familiar traveler ona long orbit, Halley's Comet
(21:20):
will return again.
But Halley's Comet's mostrecent pass by Earth occurred 39
years ago this week in history.
Oh, and it's time for a brandnew time capsule.
We're going to stick with thesame day.
(21:40):
Halley's Comet is passing bythe Earth.
I am not seeing it, or at leastnot remembering seeing it.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was Rock MeAmadeus by Falco.
Boy, what an 80s name that was.
This was off of his 1985 albumFalco III.
(22:04):
It was Falco's only number onehit and only hit period,
although he did write the songDer Kommissar, which you may
know, but it was covered fromGerman to English, so the
English version by After theFire is the one you out there
may remember.
The number one movie was TheMoney Pit, and you could get
(22:25):
into the theater with a ticketcosting $3.71.
This was a comedy starring TomHanks and Shelley Long as a
couple who attempt to renovate ahome they just purchased.
The movie made $55 million on abudget of just over $18
million.
It's 50% fresh on RottenTomatoes and got kind of
(22:47):
middling reviews.
But it's 80s Tom Hanks, so youcan't go wrong checking it out
if you haven't seen it.
The number one TV show was TheCosby Show.
Because as I've said before, ifmy time capsule is from the
late 1980s, The Cosby Show isvery likely number one.
I could probably do it and notresearch it and just put Cosby
(23:08):
Show in and I'd likely be right.
This is the show about theHoxtables living in Brooklyn and
all of their antics.
It's a sitcom, slight drama attimes.
It was on for eight seasonsbetween 1984 and 1992.
It also spawned the spinoff ADifferent World, which I also
enjoyed.
(23:28):
And if you were around backthen, April 10th, 1986, maybe
you want to spruce up your yardfor the arrival of Halley's
Comet, well, you got to mow yourlawn.
And you're in luck.
You can get yourself aCraftsman Riding Lawn Mower with
a 30-inch blade, 6-speed, 10horsepower.
(23:49):
It weighs 311 pounds, butyou're not going to have to lift
it.
And you could get that all atSears for $1,199.99, meaning
over $1,200.
You like how they trick youwith that?
Ooh, I know all those tricks.
Anyway, if you want yourCraftsman riding lawnmower,
it'll be waiting for you atSears.
(24:11):
When adjusting for inflation,the price of that lawnmower is
almost $3,500.
Now, I'm no expert on ridinglawnmowers, but I've seen ads
where you can get what look likegood lawnmowers, for between
$1,000 and $2,000.
So I don't know if that meansthis one back in 1986 was a
ripoff.
But whether it was or whetherit wasn't, that's going to wrap
(24:35):
up another time capsule, anotherThis Week in History.
If you don't like the 1980sriding lawnmower talk, well, I
got a new top five.
We're going even further back.
As we look at some passing fadsof the 1960s, I hope none of
you partook in any of these.
So I don't consider people whogrew up in the 1960s to be old,
(25:03):
but I will say some of theinformation I got for this top
five was off of a Reddit threadnamed Old People.
And it was specifically aquestion about fads you
remembered growing up in the60s.
Don't be too upset though,because it's not going to be too
long before I'm considered old.
I'm only 70s.
In the past, I've done 1970s,80s, and 90s passing fads.
(25:28):
You can find those episodes inthe archives.
And with me doing more 1960sbased content on the podcast for
2025, it became an obviouschoice to do passing fads of the
60s.
This was a lot harder than Iexpected.
I have really no knowledge ofwhat the passing fads were from
(25:49):
the 60s.
With the 70s, 80s, 90s, andlikely 2000s at some point, I
grew up in those times.
So you out there who grew up inthe 60s listening to this
segment, you'll have to let meknow how accurate my passing
fads top five is.
As with most of these topfives, there are some honorable
mentions.
(26:09):
They are in no particularorder.
And yeah, let's get into them.
So we'll start with thehonorable mentions for passing
fads of the 1960s.
They include inflatablefurniture, which was cheap but
not that durable.
Banana seats, which werespecific for bicycles, the long
(26:31):
seat with the little hooked endon it.
Another honorable mention wasclackers.
The little pair of hard balls.
The pair of balls.
Boy, how do I get out of this?
Attached by a string and youwould whip them up and down and
they would smack together.
It's too late to save that partof the segment.
There were also sea monkeys,which were not monkeys.
(26:56):
They were brine shrimp.
And the last honorable mentionis the beehive hairdo that a lot
of women had in the 1960s.
Don't take offense if you grewup and had a beehive hairdo.
When I was a little boy, I hadthe Dutch boy, paint boy, bowl
cut.
So I'm no different.
But those were the honorablementions, so let's get into the
(27:19):
actual top five.
This starts off with numberone, Super Balls.
God, I put this at number oneafter just a minute ago talking
about the Clackers Balls.
Superballs are still around tothis day, but they're not in the
same way as they were in the60s, where people were obsessed
when they came out.
(27:40):
It's a tightly packed syntheticrubber ball, usually kind of a
pale pink shade.
A chemist named Norman Stingleyinvented the Superball in 1964,
and this was way different thana typical ball you would have
back then.
They would say you could bounceit over a house.
That was one of the sellingpoints of it.
(28:02):
The Super Bowl was so popularin the late 1960s that the
NFL-AFL football championshipgame was named the Super Bowl
after the Super Bowl.
I feel like Super Bowl issomething that it was so popular
that it was going to beimpossible to maintain that.
(28:22):
So even though it's stillaround today, it's just another
toy on the rack you'd see at adollar store.
Number two is smoking bananapeels.
This was something kind of anurban legend that I had
remembered hearing when I wasyoung, 11, 12 years old.
This was a hoax basically setup where there was supposed to
(28:45):
be this fictional compound inthe peel of the banana called
bananadine.
It was supposed to havepsychoactive properties.
So it would be like burning andsmoking a banana peel would be
like dropping acid or doing LSD.
So that was a cheaperalternative, and it was briefly
a thing.
The Berkeley Barb newspaperpublished this story in March
(29:08):
1967, and it led to youngerpeople buying bananas and
burning them, trying to get thebanana dean out of it to get
high.
But yeah, I can remember, eveninto the late 80s, early 90s,
hearing that urban legend on theschool bus that if you...
smoked a certain part of thebanana peel you could get high.
(29:30):
And no, I never tried.
So don't worry about that.
Number three is the ScopatoneVideo Jukebox.
That's a bunch of big words.
It is what it sounds like.
A jukebox that had videos init.
It actually featured 16mm filminside the jukebox that would
(29:53):
play video versions of some ofthe songs.
At its peak in 1966, there wereapproximately 800 of these
Scopatone video jukeboxeslocated in various bars around
the United States.
There were a lot of well-knownacts from the early 1960s to
create these videos for theScopatone.
(30:14):
Neil Sedaka, Procol Harum,Nancy Sinatra, Dionne Warwick...
Their downfall came in 1965when the Beatles started putting
out music videos and theybypassed the Scopatone, choosing
to distribute their videos viatelevision.
So when the biggest band in theworld says, now we're all good,
(30:36):
that was kind of the beginningof the end of the Scopatone
video jukebox.
Number four is surf music.
This refers to a super popularversion of music In the early
1960s especially, the surfculture, the inventor, if you
want to say, of surf music was aguitarist named Dick Dale.
(30:59):
If you look him up on YouTubeand just play one of his songs,
you'll get the gist of what surfmusic was.
Even though Dick Dale is theking of surf guitar, the kings
of the surf music sound had tobe the Beach Boys.
That was practically theiridentity at the beginning of
their careers.
They've got four differentsongs with surfing in the title,
(31:22):
which it just blew my mind whenI saw that.
Yes, the Beach Boys had songsSurfing, Surfing USA, Surfing
Safari, and Little Surfer Girl.
I guess you could say the BeachBoys loved surfing.
Much like they killed theScopatone video jukebox, surf
music was killed by the Beatlesin 1964 when they showed up.
(31:46):
Number five on the list of topfive passing fads of the 1960s
is paper clothing.
This was also destroyed by theBeatles.
No, I'm just kidding.
The paper clothing, paper dresscraze came around with the
creation of cellulose-basedbonded fiber textiles.
(32:07):
So it's not paper per se, butthey're marketed as virtually
the same thing, equivalent topaper.
The Scott Paper Company, not tobe confused with the Michael
Scott Paper Company, createdthese fibers.
And so they made two paperdresses, kind of as a promotion
in 1966.
And this sparked a craze withpeople wanting their own paper
(32:32):
dresses.
At its peak, there was oneAmerican manufacturing company
that was making up to 80,000paper dresses a week.
But you couldn't really washthem properly.
So it's like you buy this dressand what?
Wear it until it's dirty andstinks and is stained?
Or wear it once and throw itout?
This craze was dead and gone bythe end of 1969.
(32:54):
But there you have it.
The top five passing fads ofthe 1960s.
They are of varying degrees ofpopularity and obscurity.
But you could literally do fourof these five passing fads at
the same time.
Smoking your banana peels whilewearing paper clothes,
listening to surf music, andbouncing a Super Bowl.
(33:17):
Look at that.
60s all wrapped up like that.
So I spent much of this Top 5talking about how the arrival of
the Beatles ruined all thesepassing fads.
Let's jump again to anothermusical influence that destroyed
what I would consider a passingfad.
When grunge music killed hairmetal right now.
(33:38):
Ah, yes, I grew up in aninteresting time.
Let me regale you with thestory of the battle for the
ages.
The established music versusthe up-and-coming music.
The setting was the early1990s.
(33:59):
In one corner, you had theestablished hair metal style of
music, and in the other corner,the up-and-coming grunge music
scene.
Who came out on top?
Well, based on how I'vedescribed this segment already,
you know.
But just act surprised.
So in the late 1980s, the musicscene was dominated by the
(34:23):
flashy, high-energy sounds ofwhat's called hair metal.
Mainly because a lot of thebands, they had the huge,
teased-up hair.
Some of them wore eyeliner,makeup, whatever.
There were bands like MotleyCrue, Poison, Warrant,
Cinderella, Skid Row.
These bands and others thatwere part of hair metal, they
(34:47):
had the anthemic choruses,over-the-top guitar solos, like
I said, the interestingcostuming, and of course the
decadent lifestyle, see MotleyCrue again.
With all that flash and glitzand glamour, by the early 90s, a
darker and more introspectivestyle of rock began to take over
(35:07):
called grunge, a.k.a.
the Seattle scene.
It was led by Nirvana, PearlJam, Alice in Chains, and
Soundgarden.
The ultimate battle betweenhair metal and grunge took
place, I would say, in 1991.
Those of you that were aroundat the time, would you agree?
We've got to establish hairmetal's dominance.
(35:30):
So we've got to go back to theearly 1980s.
Hair metal, glam metal, arenarock.
All that kind of stuff makes upthis music, whatever you call
it.
There were bands like VanHalen, early Bon Jovi, Def
Leppard.
They're not hair metal per se,but they kind of represent that
larger-than-life persona.
(35:51):
Definitely big hair and bigsound.
Even though...
Van Halen, Bon Jovi, DefLeppard, Guns N' Roses.
They're not seen as thestereotypical hair metal, which
is almost seen as kind of aninsult to your musical talent.
But those other bands I named,they led the way for a lighter,
(36:13):
shinier, glitzier version ofmetal music.
So this new kind of offshoot ofmetal that was hair metal, glam
metal, glam rock, whatever youwant to call it, It had its peak
in the late 80s.
Motley Crue had the huge albumDr.
Feelgood in 1989.
Poison had their album Open Upand Say Ah in 1988, which had
(36:37):
Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
You had Warrant with theiralbum Dirty, Rotten, Filthy,
Stinking Rich in 1989 that hadthe song Heaven.
You had Whitesnake with Here IGo Again on My Own.
or Skid Row with 18 and Life toGo, or all these arena rock
(36:59):
power ballad songs thatdominated MTV.
The problem was, as you startedto see success with Motley
Crue, Poison, Warren, etc., youhad a lot of imitators that were
not as good.
And for those of you that thinkthe bands I just named weren't
good, imagine the ones that werelike bootlegs of those.
Now, if you go online and youtype in worst hair metal bands,
(37:23):
you'll get kind of a list thatwill span probably every one
that's considered hair metal.
But some of the lesser knowns,you know, that felt like they
diluted the product.
That's what led to the endbecause it felt formulaic,
oversaturated.
If you've heard one hair metalsong, you've heard them all.
So it was time for a new kid onthe block to knock the old one
(37:45):
off the roof of pop culture,whatever that means.
In September 1991, everythingchanged with the grunge
revolution led by Nirvana'smassive single Smells Like Teen
Spirit.
It was that song that usheredin Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice
in Chains.
I mean, they'd all been thereto varying degrees, but hearing
(38:09):
that one riff from Smells LikeTeen Spirit got me looking for
what else is out there in theworld of grunge music.
I felt at 13, 14 that I hadfound my identity.
It's like up until that point,I couldn't tell you who I was,
what I was, what I wanted to be.
Well, besides a writer, thatI've wanted since I was eight.
(38:30):
But my first identity really inlife came with grunge music in
1991.
It wasn't just me.
In early 1992, Nirvana'sNevermind album knocked Michael
Jackson's Dangerous album off ofthe number one spot on the
Billboard charts.
This was really when itcemented grunge as the new big
(38:54):
thing, kind of put the nail inthe coffin of hair metal.
For me, I didn't mind a lot ofhair metal, but when you hear
Smells Like Teen Spirit, orPearl Jam's Jeremy, or Evenflo,
or Soundgarden's Rusty Cage, orAlice in Chains' Man in the Box,
or Rooster, these are all songsthat were out in 1991-92.
(39:17):
For me, once I heard that rawsound, I was like, I don't need
hair metal anymore.
I like the dirty, theunpolished.
There were big differencesbetween grunge and hair metal.
The lifestyle was different.
Grunge people were into theirdrugs.
But it's nothing like what youhear about in the hair metal
(39:39):
days.
It was all written about intheir songs, too.
Hair metal, the hedonism.
Whereas grunge bands, becausethey spoke to me, they spoke
about depression, socialalienation, and personal
struggles.
Which, come on, that's morereal.
There's a better chance of youhaving a battle with depression
than riding 20 deep in a stretchlimo, surrounded by drugs and
(40:03):
alcohol.
Grunge and hair metal, they hadtheir own styles, but
honestly...
If you were growing up then,would you rather go to school
looking like Vince Neil fromMotley Crue or Eddie Vedder?
T-shirt with a flannel over it,kind of long cargo shorts you
could have, some kind of casualshoe, vans, airwalks.
(40:26):
That was the grunge look.
You can see the divergence inculture from hair metal to
grunge based on yearbook photos.
Pictures from yearbooks in thelate 80s with people with the
huge teased up hair.
I don't know, leather jackets,maybe skin tight pants.
Then you get into the early 90sand there's so many kids with
(40:50):
longer, kind of stringier hair,flannel shirts, ripped jeans.
I know I saw it everywhere inhigh school, the grunge
influence.
So grunge surged in popularity.
Hair metal didn't just go away.
They kept trying these bands torecapture the glory days of
like two years prior.
(41:10):
But there were a lot offailures by some former big-time
people from hair metal.
Warrant's Dog Eat Dog, 1992.
It was darker than theirbeloved Cherry Pie.
Poison's 93 album, NativeTongue, with a more bluesy sound
and new guitarist.
Perhaps the king of all hairmetal fails was Motley Crue's 94
(41:35):
self-titled album, where VinceNeil wasn't even in the band as
the singer.
It was John Carabi.
I mean, even though I said theyweren't really considered hair
metal, Guns N' Roses even in theearly 90s, think about it.
They had User Illusion 1 and 2in 1991, and then they had that
weird spaghetti incident, coversof 1950 songs album, and then
(42:00):
the band was basically dormantfor 20 years.
By the mid-1990s, hair metalwas gone.
Some of those types of acts,like Def Leppard or Bon Jovi,
they continued to have success.
They just adapted and becameless hair metal and more just
regular rock.
Much like hair metal, though,grunge didn't have a large time
(42:21):
in the spotlight.
The death of Kurt Cobain in1994, 31 years ago this week,
started the beginning of the endof grunge.
So it was a reign of threeyears, maybe four at most, if
you want to count some of thebands still around in 95.
Grunge was highly impactful.
Hair metal was highlyimpactful.
(42:43):
What's interesting, so hairmetal was killed by grunge.
What do you think out there waswhat replaced grunge as the big
next music trend?
Late 90s?
Is it boy bands?
I kind of feel like that's whatit was.
that it was Backstreet Boys,NSYNC, 98 Degrees.
It's an interesting thing tosee how tastes in pop culture
(43:07):
and music change over a periodof a few years.
For me, I can find somethinggood in any kind of musical
style.
I think it's I appreciate theability to be a musician or a
singer-songwriter or even a boyband where you can dance
choreography like that.
I was someone that I thoughtfor a while that I could become
(43:31):
a singer-songwriter.
It just turned out that Iwasn't good at guitar.
I was kind of tone-deaf.
So I was never going to beNirvana.
I was never going to be BonJovi.
I wasn't even going to be WhiteLion.
But I still got to immersemyself in the grunge culture.
In fact, I still even have myred flannel shirt that I wore in
(43:52):
my senior year high schoolphoto in 1996.
And yes, it still fits, whichis good being almost 30 years
out from high school.
But before I run to my closetjust to make sure that that
flannel shirt still fits, that'sgoing to wrap up episode 190 of
the podcast.
Thank you so much for tuningin, for making it to the end,
(44:16):
for getting your weekly dose ofGen X nostalgia.
I do my best to stay on thelookout for interesting topics
that those watching that grew upin the 60s through the early
2000s enjoy, want to reminisceabout.
Next week is episode 191, andwe're going to have a classic
educational short film review.
(44:37):
This is one I remember stillbeing in heavy rotation as I was
a kid in the 1980s, and thatwas Donald Duck in Math Magic
Land.
I remember seeing this inelementary school.
So that'll be part of nextweek's show.
And like I said, episode 200,I'm going to be doing a
listener's choice, but it'sgoing to be Patreon members
(44:59):
only.
But like I said, I'll make itfor the free tier.
Maybe episode 300, I'll do itjust for the paid tier.
Be on the lookout coming upthis week on my YouTube channel,
the video of me and my friend,producer Frank Durant, and our
friend Brian Mazzilli hiking outto Race Point Lighthouse.
It was the first time both ofthem had been out there.
(45:21):
And for Frank, it was thecompletion of the Henry David
Thoreau hike, which started downat Coast Guard Beach in East
Ham all the way up to RacePoint.
So we have a fun old timewalking the four or so miles
round trip to get out there.
Also, for those interested inmy wacky, foolish sense of
humor, go to my YouTube channel,subscribe, and then go to my
(45:45):
shorts page and look at mylatest ending of my Halloween
pumpkin video.
It definitely has a dark senseof humor to it.
It's only two minutes long, socome on.
Go over there when the podcastis done and watch.
You can find me on socialmedia, on Instagram.
I have a Facebook fan page forthe podcast.
(46:06):
I write blogs every week.
Initial Impressions 2.0, thelook at my weekly random life
podcast.
For a long time, Cape Codders,I recently wrote an article
about the legendary John Morganand his Puffer Bellies nightclub
in Hyannis.
So you can go find that on myblog.
The link's in the descriptionof the podcast.
Some of you may have heard, Iam now looking for voice acting
(46:32):
work.
I have joined a site,Voices.com, that has voiceover
work that you can do.
In addition to my first movierole with the film coming out, I
think in June.
I'm looking to add voiceoverstuff.
I'm trying to be as well-versedand well-rounded in all kinds
of content creation.
If I can be an author,podcaster, video creator on
(46:56):
YouTube, blogger, actor,voiceover actor.
Oh man, I just pulled myshoulder patting myself on the
back.
I'm sorry.
But I digress.
As I said at the beginning, Ihope wherever you are listening
from, whenever you're listeningto this show, that it's the best
day, the best week it couldpossibly be.
God knows we need it.
(47:16):
It's a big reason why I do thispodcast.
I feel like there are a lot ofyou that listen that just want
to escape for a little while.
I always feel better when I dothese podcasts.
I feel like I'm sharingsomething positive out there.
People my age, a little older,a little younger.
And don't worry, I'll keepgoing with the content.
I mean, this was episode 190.
(47:37):
I feel pretty safe saying thatunless something catastrophic
happens, I'll be back here forepisode 300, maybe 400.
Now at episode 299, my head'sgoing to explode like scanners
just so I can't fulfill mypromise.
So let's wrap this up as Ialways say.
Remember, in this life, don'twalk in anyone else's footsteps.
(48:00):
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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