March 17, 2025 • 26 mins
🚨 Theme songs for your life? Autograph videos? Cybersecurity? Welcome to another wild spin of the MegaWheel! Bunny and Scot dive into everything from picking the perfect life soundtrack to the art of 80s music videos (spoiler: one of them hates “Take on Me” 😲). Plus, they discuss Gen X authenticity and why Norman Fell looked 70 at 50. This episode is packed with nostalgia, offbeat hilarity, and a little unexpected philosophy.
Highlights:
- The perfect theme song for your life
- Cybersecurity is boring but important—don’t ignore it!
- Gen X’s authentic nature vs. ancient philosophy (deep, right?)
- The best and worst 80s music videos
- The ultimate underrated 80s bands you need to rediscover
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Generation X. In general terms, it was born between 1965 and 1980. Lachkinite. Independent.
(00:15):
Existentialism. Modern philosophy focusing on personal experience, human ability and
responsibility in an otherwise meaningless universe. We're the cause. This is the effect.
We're the Gen X existentialists.
(00:39):
Welcome into the Gen X existentialist podcast. My name is Scott. And I'm Bunny. And we are
here to batter your ears with logic, love and a certain degree of Gen X irreverence.
Possibly a truncheon. Possibly a truncheon. It depends. If you get out of hand, the truncheons come out.
Okay. So what we do here, we spin Megadwheel the Magnificent, which I'm going to do right now.
(01:05):
And whatever happens to pop up on the wonderful screen from Meg, that's the question that we will tackle.
And so our first one for the show today, as soon as she quits spinning. Okay. If your life story had an
official theme song, what lyric or title best captures it today and why? So just basically what's your theme song for your life?
(01:30):
We always joke about this because it would be the same theme song if I were a baseball player, you know, they have a walk up song.
Yeah. It's Boat of Car by They Might Be Giants. Really?
Just because it's so stupid. You have to be familiar with the song itself to understand the context behind it.
(01:52):
Sing a little bit of it. Oh, there's not much of it. It starts off doodly doodly doodly doodly doodly.
It's like a boat horn. Yeah. That's pretty much that. That's what I want that to be the walk up song so that people are like,
what the hell is that? So everybody does these like crazy rap songs and stuff. Yeah, I wouldn't go there. Heavy metal songs.
(02:15):
But my life is kind of a weird meandering comedy of sorts. So you bring up They Might Be Giants and my head immediately went to like
Birdhouse in Your Soul would be that would be a great theme song. Yeah. But that's not where I'm going to go. I think I'm going to use
Wow. Suddenly I'm just I'm pondering. It would either be Wasted Years, Iron Maiden, Curl of the Burl by Mastodon
(02:49):
or maybe the main theme from Blade Runner. Okay. Depending on my particular mood or what was going on.
Of course, if you're talking like a pro wrestling walk up theme song, then it would you know, the Imperial March, it would have to be.
It just makes perfect sense. I think it'd be great if I lived a life where I could have a cool theme song,
(03:14):
where I actually warranted a cool theme song like Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice or Skeletal Remains by, you know,
Boron and the Club of Gore, which is a it's a German doom jazz. Yeah, that's outside my some sort of, you know, like mezzanine by Tricky or whoever.
(03:38):
You know, like one of those, you know, some cool jazzy awesome theme song. But my life is a dumb comedy. So that's the way it is.
You can't change your pants. Yeah. But wouldn't it be great to like just, you know, like on your phone, just carry it with you.
And every time you walk into a store, just have a theme song going just because everybody's going to turn around and look and just walk around like you don't even hear it.
(04:06):
Like it just it's just emanating from the heavens as you walk through the door and have it be the most just off kilter weird thing that you possibly could.
I have a further question for you on that. Why why would you why are your choices what they are? Like why do you pick those intros and riffs as far as wasted years and curl the burl as far as the Blade Runner main title just because it's
(04:37):
it's beautiful and yet also a little off putting.
And I love that. Like I love a lot of I'm beautiful but off putting it. I like the contrasts.
And that kind of theme. It's why I love Warren Zevon so much. Happy bouncy music, dark, weird, odd lyrics sometimes. I love that kind of dichotomy between content and theme. So there's a lot of that going on there.
(05:13):
Well see if we still lived in the time of bards and all that you could just have Matt Stewart follow you around and play the beginning of the beginning of wasted years over and over again because that's that's as far as it goes.
Exactly. So we will give Mega Wheel Magnificent another spin. Of course Mega Wheel has her own theme song. It's the clicks and whirrs of the spinning wheel.
(05:34):
Because of course everybody knows Meg is actually digital. Is Meg considered a form of AI? No, no, no. Okay.
Oh my god it's another D&D question. We've had a rash of them. Let's skip that. Sure. Yeah we have keep having these D&D questions on it and I'm thinking of you guys the listeners out there.
(05:56):
If you're not D&D fans it's like speaking a completely foreign language to you and you just don't care. If you'd like to hear more D&D content drop us a line and let us know.
I'm always happy to talk nerd with you. I don't mind. My guess is that we have turned so many people on to D&D over the.
Well I don't know about that but I'd like to think that we're enablers of some kind. Yeah.
(06:21):
So for those of you out there that are D&D fans I'm sorry it was Bunny's call to get rid of that question.
Maybe in another episode in the future but I feel like we've been getting a lot of D&D stuff. Okay. Meg's stuck on a rut.
See it's AI. She's heard us say D&D so often she's given us all those questions. You don't realize it. Meg is real. Meg is sentient. She's come to life.
(06:47):
Okay. Actual next question. Why are many people ignoring cyber security? What are your thoughts on this?
Because they don't understand it. I mean why do people ignore most things in life because they can't be bothered with it.
Their brains are too full of other things and they just don't they just don't understand the gravity of cyber security. So that would be my quick answer.
(07:16):
Yeah I think you're right. I would like in cyber security not to keep doing this. Bring it back to like occupational safety. Most people just don't understand the why.
He likes safety. Well I think there's there's a lot to be said for both. Why do people ignore things that are going to keep them secure or safe?
Because they don't understand why and they don't understand gravity equations like probability and severity. It applies to cyber security too. What's the probability that someone can hack your system?
(07:50):
Okay you you grade that. What's the severity if they do? And that's going to bring the gravity way up probably because your financials and all your personal information is there.
So there's really no logical reason to ignore cyber security. And yet everybody does. How many people out there do you know that use the same password or a variant of the same password for everything they do?
(08:14):
Quite a bit. Yeah. Why? Because it's easy. Sure. Is it the right thing to do? No.
Well I mean the reason people ignore safety the same reason they ignore cyber security is they think somebody else will do it for them. Yeah. That's somebody else's job you know to protect me or to safeguard me or to keep me from harm.
(08:36):
Yeah. Surely to God someone's looking out for me right? Right? Guys where are you? Where's my safety brigade? Where's my cyber security brigade? Help! I've been compromised. Compromised. I'll compromise you.
I mean really and you consider this it's almost a daily thing hearing about some sort of cyber breach. Sure. You know data's been lost. I mean sometimes it's our own government or someone that kind of is friends with someone in the government that's just hacking and breaching and just taking all the information.
(09:12):
But yeah I think cyber security it's because people don't understand the gravity of it so it just gets ignored. And with that we will give MegaWheel of Magnificent another spin. That was a strange question. It really was.
I'm used to more lyrical questions. That was just kind of a straight up. It was very pragmatic. Okay. What do you think about shoelaces huh? What do you think? You like the laces or you like the ziplock? Ziplock. Zipzap. Should we go back to the Velcro straps? Velcro straps. That's what it's called. I forgot the name.
(09:48):
Okay. What parallels do you see between a Gen X longing for authenticity and the cynical ideal of living according to nature? Christ did you write this question? No. No. Let me read that again. What parallel parallels? Parallels. So similarities do you see between a Gen X person longing for authenticity and the cynics ideal of living according to nature?
(10:14):
Cynic with a capital like the school of cynics. Oh okay. Like Cynic McGee. Yeah. My old teacher. Not the band cynic but the philosophical school. Well I mean it is just what it is isn't it? That sounds like a dumb. This sounds like a person who doesn't understand the question at all's answer.
(10:39):
Well if you don't understand it I can't explain it to you. That was a very Zen Cohen way of answering. Like it is what it is man. Yeah I mean. Living according to nature, longing for authenticity, they're the same thing man. Well it is. We are cynics at our hearts.
Well authenticity. What is your definition of authenticity? Is that being your true self? Your true self. Okay. So yeah I mean I think Gen Xers for the most part when you cut past this sort of oh I don't care you know kind of attitude that people have sort of thrust on us in a lot of ways.
(11:14):
I think Gen Xers are pretty much living their authentic self. Yeah. I would agree with that and I think the mantle of Gen X as we are seen in public and in publications and on social media.
I think it is very true to form because people have seen us and it is just a running theme of our generation that yeah we will get through it. Yeah we will power through. No you are making way too big a deal out of this. Eye roll. Move on. Just get it done.
(11:49):
Yeah we have been there before, been there, done that. No we didn't have babysitters. We had a house key. We got home from school. We took care of ourselves. And that is just what we do. So I don't really see it as a Gen X longing for authenticity. I think it was thrust upon us. We didn't have any choice but to just be ourselves.
Well I think I am going to give boomers their due on all that on this here. We were raised by people by and large who let us be our authentic selves. You know we didn't have to conform to societal norms or whatever sort of constructed nature that maybe they had to grow up in or even worse yet the generations before them were sort of set into roles.
(12:36):
Now some people call it Peter Pan syndrome or whatever nowadays where it is like oh you know the 50s the new 20 and I still act like a kid. Even though I am in my 60s I still play video games and blah blah blah and a lot of people poop who that is.
To play on that theme I saw a meme a couple weeks ago. It was a picture from the Breakfast Club but the meme what it said was Gen X the only generation that was 30 at 15 and 30 at 50. And that felt so right.
(13:10):
Yeah that is spot on man. That is what I mean. I think nowadays there is not so much longing for an authentic self. It is just I think most people are their authentic selves. You have got people in their 60s playing video games and still playing in bands and goofing off.
You know still weight lifting and surf boarding and what have you and that is something that you didn't really see in your grandparents generation that much. Or even maybe your parents generation that much. There is sort of a role that you fell into.
(13:42):
I go well look at the Ropers. I am going to go off on a weird tangent here. Norman fell during his time in the Ropers. Yeah he was like 50. And he looked to us he looks like he was in his 60s or 70s.
Oh absolutely with the sweaters and just the way he acted. Now I know part of that is of course character but other part of it is damn he just looked old for his age. I look at 50 year olds now like I look at my wife and she doesn't look any older than maybe mid 30s.
(14:18):
And she is older than me. So you know I mean it is like and that is the way it is for a lot of Gen Xers and generations under. I think in general we don't look our age at all. Because I think we are kind of in tune with our authentic selves.
Yeah. And I don't know maybe you can speak on the cynics job with nature or whatever. Maybe you are more the philosopher than I am on that. So maybe you can speak to that. The question is asking about parallels and I think parallels are very obvious.
(14:49):
The longing for authenticity I think like I said Gen X it was just kind of born unto us that authenticity is us. We weren't trying to live up to any other models. And I think a lot of that came from we grew up in dual income households.
(15:11):
Like it wasn't just the father out there making ends meet. It was mom and dad. Everybody had a job. If you grew up in a single parent household obviously that same kind of thing.
Parents are out and we were left to our own devices a lot. And that is not a bad thing. Because we did grow up fast. We knew about things from an earlier age and we were allowed to be ourselves because we didn't have any other choice.
(15:35):
There weren't so many expectations that were thrust upon us. And the idea of living according to nature is basically that. Instincts. A lot of what we've done is instinctual. I think it's why we are so adaptable.
Because we've seen such growth in technology and in literature and art. It also helps that we grew up in a time of relative peace too. We didn't have wars thrust upon us the way that younger generations had Vietnam.
(16:09):
Older generations had Vietnam. Younger generations had the Middle East conflicts. We kind of got lucky and we had a nice 20 year run there of not much going on in our sphere.
Coming out from a United States point of view. Midwest United States perspective of course. Not speaking to you people in Sarajevo and stuff.
(16:38):
Yeah. And I think it made us ripe for knives to be stuck in. For the creation of divisiveness. Because we didn't have the scars and the look about us. We didn't have the instinct to worry about predators as much.
If that makes sense from an internal perspective. Because we did grow up in peaceful times. I mean they made up bogeymen for us to worry about. Communists. People trying to poison aspirins.
(17:10):
People are going to kidnap you at the department store and cut your head off. And you're going to end up in a well and all this other stuff. I don't know. Just goofy stuff like that. It was stranger danger and the vague threats of nuclear war. And Russia is going to bomb you. We're going to bomb Russia and all that jazz.
There was a lot more bogeymen when we were growing up. We grew up with the fabrication of enemies and we kind of had calluses toward that. You told me last week the communists were going to come get us. And now there's no communist nation except China. What are we supposed to do now?
(17:48):
USA. USA. I am a real American. Oh man. Yeah bringing out the Hulk Hogan. Where's Hulk Hogan when you need him? You know one of my, I'm going to give Megaheel another spin here. But one of my favorite things is on any of the pro wrestling forums they'll put up these pictures of like four wrestlers.
(18:10):
You have to eradicate one of these, one of these guys from the, from wrestling forever. Which one is it? And inevitably Hulk Hogan is one of those pictures. And my answer no matter who else is pictured is always Hulk Hogan because I hate him.
You put, you put four wrestlers up and one of them is Hogan and one of them is the Honky Tonk man who I hate too. I'm getting rid of Hogan.
(18:33):
Honky Tonk man is the greatest intercontinental champion of all time. He was awful, awful, wretched.
Okay next question. Ready? What is your favorite room in your house and why?
It's probably my, my little TV sanctuary room. My white room as I call it. Yeah.
(18:58):
That's where it is. How about you? It's either right where we're at right now in the studio or the bedroom.
Because the bedroom is kind of sanctuary. That's, that's the rest. Where you get down to your dirty deeds. And that too. Yeah absolutely.
But other than that like for a room for activity would be where we're sitting right here in the studio. Alright. Because this is where the magic happens baby.
(19:23):
So if you're out there listening let us know what your favorite room in your house is. Yeah.
And if you're in prison let us know what your favorite corner your room is.
My favorite spot is on top of the top bunk because nothing can get me there.
We'll give Megaheel another spin and this one probably, probably should take us to the end of the show but we'll see what kind of topic we get here.
(19:51):
Okay. Were there any 80s music videos that stirred up controversy on MTV and what did you think at the time?
Wait was this a child writing this? Yeah I don't know. So let's, let's shift that a little bit.
Grandpa what was it like when you were in the 80s and you were old?
80s music videos, did you find any of them controversial? Not really. Did you have any that you really liked? Oh man of course.
(20:20):
Okay. I mean Wild Boys by Duran Duran. Oh yeah.
Most of the Duran Duran. Any Duran Duran video. Yeah.
Yeah the Union of the Snake. Rio. Rio. Hungry Like Wolves. Interesting.
Yeah I don't know Rio is more on the boat. It didn't really do much for us.
I'm coming at it from like the softcore porn perspective. Oh sure. Of course.
(20:44):
Yeah I mean music videos were such a cool thing back in the day. Like the majority of them are really cool little stories so.
Yeah. A lot of it stood out to me. I could still sit and watch videos for hours. Yeah.
Even bands I don't like you know just because it's fun to watch what they were doing.
And I'm talking about 70s, 80s, 90s videos. I'm not talking about new stuff that's out. I don't.
(21:09):
I think there was that period of maybe seven or eight years where videos were the thing. They were the promotional tool. Oh yeah.
For bands. They were artistic. There was a lot of money pumped into doing them.
And like you said they came out with really good little stories.
(21:30):
And you would sit there and we didn't have cable for much of that time.
I would see MTV at like your house and friends houses and stuff like that.
It was very short periods of time where we had it.
But I would sit there and watch and sit through three or four just awful videos just to get to one that I liked.
(21:51):
I have a follow up on this. Yeah. Since this is a weird question.
Your what's one video that you just can't stand either because of saturation or because you just didn't like the way it was shot or whatever.
And then what is one guilty pleasure video that's so cheesy and bad that you just love to watch it every time it comes out.
Let's see one that I just hated.
(22:16):
This is you're going to think this is sacrilegious but that Aha song with Oh yeah.
Take on me the cartoon in the comic book. I hate that video.
OK. I just I just you are allowed to hate that video is it because it's you don't like the style or is it saturation saturation because it was all the time.
(22:38):
OK. Guilty pleasure video.
Any any Madonna video. Yeah.
Really. Yeah. Just because. And my thing with Madonna is I'm not a fan of all the songs but the production and the different things that they did and the videos too.
It was always not necessarily even cutting edge but there was always stuff that you wouldn't expect.
(23:01):
Sure. And I enjoy that. I enjoy that especially from a pop artist.
Cindy Lauper is the same way. Great production taking chances.
Great songs great vocals and just those little things that that made them a step above some of the other artists that were doing the same kind of thing.
Nice. So yeah. And amongst my metal videos like if a Madonna video came on I was going to watch it and enjoy it.
(23:28):
So good stuff there. What about you.
So our video that I can't stand anymore is that Dire Straits one with the computer graphics.
Yes. Absolutely. I can't even remember the name of the song.
I just I can remember the lyrics but not the name of the song.
I blocked it out of my mind.
Got to move those microwave ovens and TVs etc etc. That ain't working. That's the way you do it.
(23:51):
Anything Dire Straits. Oh it's Money for Nothing. Money for Nothing. That's it. I just had to sing it the whole time.
Guilty Pleasure video is a video an obscure video by Autograph of all bands. Turn up the radio.
Send Her to Me. I don't even remember that song. Have you seen that video? You need to see this video. It's frigging great.
They're doing their stuff on stage and the whole time they're singing the song Send Her to Me blah blah blah blah.
(24:17):
And there's this fat character actor guy who works in a like a some sort of factory with all these mannequin parts.
And he's putting these female mannequin parts into boxes and he's sending these guys their perfect girls. Right.
So when the boxes show up they burst open in these each band member gets their perfect girl.
(24:38):
So you kind of get to see like what they're all into. But the drummer gets a girl who's like half robot half girl.
Totally up my alley. And probably looked like their album cover. It probably did.
And it was hilarious. He's just having fun. It's goofy. It's misogynistic by today's standards I'm sure.
But it's totally encapsulates the joy of the hair metal days back then. It wasn't gross and crass. It was just goofy fun.
(25:09):
So I highly recommend that video if you've not seen it. Take a look. It's a hoot.
And from that type of metal that style, autograph way underrated as was Honeymoon Suite.
And they're kind of in that same level of stuff. But if you like that kind of super melodic hard rock.
Autograph is one of those bands that I never sought out. But I don't think you can go wrong if you pick up one of their albums.
(25:34):
There's always something on it that's worth listening to. But they just don't really stand out as far as they're not a motley crew.
They're not a big giant band. I'll throw Y&T in there too.
Y&T, Honeymoon Suite and Autograph are all kind of in that same kind of realm. Love the harmonies.
And great songs, great playing, but they never kind of got that superstar status.
(25:58):
But if you buy an album by them or a Greatest Hits, you're going to dig everything that's on it. Just good stuff.
There you go. Music videos and music in general.
And on that note, we will bid you adieu for this episode of the Gen X Essentialists. Until next time, my name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny. Send me a robot girl while you're at it.
Oh, I hope somebody does.
(26:23):
We'll do a whole show dedicated to that.
Send your robots, Kara, the Gen X Essentialists. We'll catch you next time. Bye.
Generation X. In general terms, it was born between 1965 and 1980. Lachkinite. Independent.
(00:15):
Existentialism. Modern philosophy focusing on personal experience, human ability and
responsibility in an otherwise meaningless universe. We're the cause. This is the effect.
We're the Gen X existentialists.
(00:39):
Welcome into the Gen X existentialist podcast. My name is Scott. And I'm Bunny. And we are
here to batter your ears with logic, love and a certain degree of Gen X irreverence.
Possibly a truncheon. Possibly a truncheon. It depends. If you get out of hand, the truncheons come out.
Okay. So what we do here, we spin Megadwheel the Magnificent, which I'm going to do right now.
(01:05):
And whatever happens to pop up on the wonderful screen from Meg, that's the question that we will tackle.
And so our first one for the show today, as soon as she quits spinning. Okay. If your life story had an
official theme song, what lyric or title best captures it today and why? So just basically what's your theme song for your life?
(01:30):
We always joke about this because it would be the same theme song if I were a baseball player, you know, they have a walk up song.
Yeah. It's Boat of Car by They Might Be Giants. Really?
Just because it's so stupid. You have to be familiar with the song itself to understand the context behind it.
(01:52):
Sing a little bit of it. Oh, there's not much of it. It starts off doodly doodly doodly doodly doodly.
It's like a boat horn. Yeah. That's pretty much that. That's what I want that to be the walk up song so that people are like,
what the hell is that? So everybody does these like crazy rap songs and stuff. Yeah, I wouldn't go there. Heavy metal songs.
(02:15):
But my life is kind of a weird meandering comedy of sorts. So you bring up They Might Be Giants and my head immediately went to like
Birdhouse in Your Soul would be that would be a great theme song. Yeah. But that's not where I'm going to go. I think I'm going to use
Wow. Suddenly I'm just I'm pondering. It would either be Wasted Years, Iron Maiden, Curl of the Burl by Mastodon
(02:49):
or maybe the main theme from Blade Runner. Okay. Depending on my particular mood or what was going on.
Of course, if you're talking like a pro wrestling walk up theme song, then it would you know, the Imperial March, it would have to be.
It just makes perfect sense. I think it'd be great if I lived a life where I could have a cool theme song,
(03:14):
where I actually warranted a cool theme song like Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice or Skeletal Remains by, you know,
Boron and the Club of Gore, which is a it's a German doom jazz. Yeah, that's outside my some sort of, you know, like mezzanine by Tricky or whoever.
(03:38):
You know, like one of those, you know, some cool jazzy awesome theme song. But my life is a dumb comedy. So that's the way it is.
You can't change your pants. Yeah. But wouldn't it be great to like just, you know, like on your phone, just carry it with you.
And every time you walk into a store, just have a theme song going just because everybody's going to turn around and look and just walk around like you don't even hear it.
(04:06):
Like it just it's just emanating from the heavens as you walk through the door and have it be the most just off kilter weird thing that you possibly could.
I have a further question for you on that. Why why would you why are your choices what they are? Like why do you pick those intros and riffs as far as wasted years and curl the burl as far as the Blade Runner main title just because it's
(04:37):
it's beautiful and yet also a little off putting.
And I love that. Like I love a lot of I'm beautiful but off putting it. I like the contrasts.
And that kind of theme. It's why I love Warren Zevon so much. Happy bouncy music, dark, weird, odd lyrics sometimes. I love that kind of dichotomy between content and theme. So there's a lot of that going on there.
(05:13):
Well see if we still lived in the time of bards and all that you could just have Matt Stewart follow you around and play the beginning of the beginning of wasted years over and over again because that's that's as far as it goes.
Exactly. So we will give Mega Wheel Magnificent another spin. Of course Mega Wheel has her own theme song. It's the clicks and whirrs of the spinning wheel.
(05:34):
Because of course everybody knows Meg is actually digital. Is Meg considered a form of AI? No, no, no. Okay.
Oh my god it's another D&D question. We've had a rash of them. Let's skip that. Sure. Yeah we have keep having these D&D questions on it and I'm thinking of you guys the listeners out there.
(05:56):
If you're not D&D fans it's like speaking a completely foreign language to you and you just don't care. If you'd like to hear more D&D content drop us a line and let us know.
I'm always happy to talk nerd with you. I don't mind. My guess is that we have turned so many people on to D&D over the.
Well I don't know about that but I'd like to think that we're enablers of some kind. Yeah.
(06:21):
So for those of you out there that are D&D fans I'm sorry it was Bunny's call to get rid of that question.
Maybe in another episode in the future but I feel like we've been getting a lot of D&D stuff. Okay. Meg's stuck on a rut.
See it's AI. She's heard us say D&D so often she's given us all those questions. You don't realize it. Meg is real. Meg is sentient. She's come to life.
(06:47):
Okay. Actual next question. Why are many people ignoring cyber security? What are your thoughts on this?
Because they don't understand it. I mean why do people ignore most things in life because they can't be bothered with it.
Their brains are too full of other things and they just don't they just don't understand the gravity of cyber security. So that would be my quick answer.
(07:16):
Yeah I think you're right. I would like in cyber security not to keep doing this. Bring it back to like occupational safety. Most people just don't understand the why.
He likes safety. Well I think there's there's a lot to be said for both. Why do people ignore things that are going to keep them secure or safe?
Because they don't understand why and they don't understand gravity equations like probability and severity. It applies to cyber security too. What's the probability that someone can hack your system?
(07:50):
Okay you you grade that. What's the severity if they do? And that's going to bring the gravity way up probably because your financials and all your personal information is there.
So there's really no logical reason to ignore cyber security. And yet everybody does. How many people out there do you know that use the same password or a variant of the same password for everything they do?
(08:14):
Quite a bit. Yeah. Why? Because it's easy. Sure. Is it the right thing to do? No.
Well I mean the reason people ignore safety the same reason they ignore cyber security is they think somebody else will do it for them. Yeah. That's somebody else's job you know to protect me or to safeguard me or to keep me from harm.
(08:36):
Yeah. Surely to God someone's looking out for me right? Right? Guys where are you? Where's my safety brigade? Where's my cyber security brigade? Help! I've been compromised. Compromised. I'll compromise you.
I mean really and you consider this it's almost a daily thing hearing about some sort of cyber breach. Sure. You know data's been lost. I mean sometimes it's our own government or someone that kind of is friends with someone in the government that's just hacking and breaching and just taking all the information.
(09:12):
But yeah I think cyber security it's because people don't understand the gravity of it so it just gets ignored. And with that we will give MegaWheel of Magnificent another spin. That was a strange question. It really was.
I'm used to more lyrical questions. That was just kind of a straight up. It was very pragmatic. Okay. What do you think about shoelaces huh? What do you think? You like the laces or you like the ziplock? Ziplock. Zipzap. Should we go back to the Velcro straps? Velcro straps. That's what it's called. I forgot the name.
(09:48):
Okay. What parallels do you see between a Gen X longing for authenticity and the cynical ideal of living according to nature? Christ did you write this question? No. No. Let me read that again. What parallel parallels? Parallels. So similarities do you see between a Gen X person longing for authenticity and the cynics ideal of living according to nature?
(10:14):
Cynic with a capital like the school of cynics. Oh okay. Like Cynic McGee. Yeah. My old teacher. Not the band cynic but the philosophical school. Well I mean it is just what it is isn't it? That sounds like a dumb. This sounds like a person who doesn't understand the question at all's answer.
(10:39):
Well if you don't understand it I can't explain it to you. That was a very Zen Cohen way of answering. Like it is what it is man. Yeah I mean. Living according to nature, longing for authenticity, they're the same thing man. Well it is. We are cynics at our hearts.
Well authenticity. What is your definition of authenticity? Is that being your true self? Your true self. Okay. So yeah I mean I think Gen Xers for the most part when you cut past this sort of oh I don't care you know kind of attitude that people have sort of thrust on us in a lot of ways.
(11:14):
I think Gen Xers are pretty much living their authentic self. Yeah. I would agree with that and I think the mantle of Gen X as we are seen in public and in publications and on social media.
I think it is very true to form because people have seen us and it is just a running theme of our generation that yeah we will get through it. Yeah we will power through. No you are making way too big a deal out of this. Eye roll. Move on. Just get it done.
(11:49):
Yeah we have been there before, been there, done that. No we didn't have babysitters. We had a house key. We got home from school. We took care of ourselves. And that is just what we do. So I don't really see it as a Gen X longing for authenticity. I think it was thrust upon us. We didn't have any choice but to just be ourselves.
Well I think I am going to give boomers their due on all that on this here. We were raised by people by and large who let us be our authentic selves. You know we didn't have to conform to societal norms or whatever sort of constructed nature that maybe they had to grow up in or even worse yet the generations before them were sort of set into roles.
(12:36):
Now some people call it Peter Pan syndrome or whatever nowadays where it is like oh you know the 50s the new 20 and I still act like a kid. Even though I am in my 60s I still play video games and blah blah blah and a lot of people poop who that is.
To play on that theme I saw a meme a couple weeks ago. It was a picture from the Breakfast Club but the meme what it said was Gen X the only generation that was 30 at 15 and 30 at 50. And that felt so right.
(13:10):
Yeah that is spot on man. That is what I mean. I think nowadays there is not so much longing for an authentic self. It is just I think most people are their authentic selves. You have got people in their 60s playing video games and still playing in bands and goofing off.
You know still weight lifting and surf boarding and what have you and that is something that you didn't really see in your grandparents generation that much. Or even maybe your parents generation that much. There is sort of a role that you fell into.
(13:42):
I go well look at the Ropers. I am going to go off on a weird tangent here. Norman fell during his time in the Ropers. Yeah he was like 50. And he looked to us he looks like he was in his 60s or 70s.
Oh absolutely with the sweaters and just the way he acted. Now I know part of that is of course character but other part of it is damn he just looked old for his age. I look at 50 year olds now like I look at my wife and she doesn't look any older than maybe mid 30s.
(14:18):
And she is older than me. So you know I mean it is like and that is the way it is for a lot of Gen Xers and generations under. I think in general we don't look our age at all. Because I think we are kind of in tune with our authentic selves.
Yeah. And I don't know maybe you can speak on the cynics job with nature or whatever. Maybe you are more the philosopher than I am on that. So maybe you can speak to that. The question is asking about parallels and I think parallels are very obvious.
(14:49):
The longing for authenticity I think like I said Gen X it was just kind of born unto us that authenticity is us. We weren't trying to live up to any other models. And I think a lot of that came from we grew up in dual income households.
(15:11):
Like it wasn't just the father out there making ends meet. It was mom and dad. Everybody had a job. If you grew up in a single parent household obviously that same kind of thing.
Parents are out and we were left to our own devices a lot. And that is not a bad thing. Because we did grow up fast. We knew about things from an earlier age and we were allowed to be ourselves because we didn't have any other choice.
(15:35):
There weren't so many expectations that were thrust upon us. And the idea of living according to nature is basically that. Instincts. A lot of what we've done is instinctual. I think it's why we are so adaptable.
Because we've seen such growth in technology and in literature and art. It also helps that we grew up in a time of relative peace too. We didn't have wars thrust upon us the way that younger generations had Vietnam.
(16:09):
Older generations had Vietnam. Younger generations had the Middle East conflicts. We kind of got lucky and we had a nice 20 year run there of not much going on in our sphere.
Coming out from a United States point of view. Midwest United States perspective of course. Not speaking to you people in Sarajevo and stuff.
(16:38):
Yeah. And I think it made us ripe for knives to be stuck in. For the creation of divisiveness. Because we didn't have the scars and the look about us. We didn't have the instinct to worry about predators as much.
If that makes sense from an internal perspective. Because we did grow up in peaceful times. I mean they made up bogeymen for us to worry about. Communists. People trying to poison aspirins.
(17:10):
People are going to kidnap you at the department store and cut your head off. And you're going to end up in a well and all this other stuff. I don't know. Just goofy stuff like that. It was stranger danger and the vague threats of nuclear war. And Russia is going to bomb you. We're going to bomb Russia and all that jazz.
There was a lot more bogeymen when we were growing up. We grew up with the fabrication of enemies and we kind of had calluses toward that. You told me last week the communists were going to come get us. And now there's no communist nation except China. What are we supposed to do now?
(17:48):
USA. USA. I am a real American. Oh man. Yeah bringing out the Hulk Hogan. Where's Hulk Hogan when you need him? You know one of my, I'm going to give Megaheel another spin here. But one of my favorite things is on any of the pro wrestling forums they'll put up these pictures of like four wrestlers.
(18:10):
You have to eradicate one of these, one of these guys from the, from wrestling forever. Which one is it? And inevitably Hulk Hogan is one of those pictures. And my answer no matter who else is pictured is always Hulk Hogan because I hate him.
You put, you put four wrestlers up and one of them is Hogan and one of them is the Honky Tonk man who I hate too. I'm getting rid of Hogan.
(18:33):
Honky Tonk man is the greatest intercontinental champion of all time. He was awful, awful, wretched.
Okay next question. Ready? What is your favorite room in your house and why?
It's probably my, my little TV sanctuary room. My white room as I call it. Yeah.
(18:58):
That's where it is. How about you? It's either right where we're at right now in the studio or the bedroom.
Because the bedroom is kind of sanctuary. That's, that's the rest. Where you get down to your dirty deeds. And that too. Yeah absolutely.
But other than that like for a room for activity would be where we're sitting right here in the studio. Alright. Because this is where the magic happens baby.
(19:23):
So if you're out there listening let us know what your favorite room in your house is. Yeah.
And if you're in prison let us know what your favorite corner your room is.
My favorite spot is on top of the top bunk because nothing can get me there.
We'll give Megaheel another spin and this one probably, probably should take us to the end of the show but we'll see what kind of topic we get here.
(19:51):
Okay. Were there any 80s music videos that stirred up controversy on MTV and what did you think at the time?
Wait was this a child writing this? Yeah I don't know. So let's, let's shift that a little bit.
Grandpa what was it like when you were in the 80s and you were old?
80s music videos, did you find any of them controversial? Not really. Did you have any that you really liked? Oh man of course.
(20:20):
Okay. I mean Wild Boys by Duran Duran. Oh yeah.
Most of the Duran Duran. Any Duran Duran video. Yeah.
Yeah the Union of the Snake. Rio. Rio. Hungry Like Wolves. Interesting.
Yeah I don't know Rio is more on the boat. It didn't really do much for us.
I'm coming at it from like the softcore porn perspective. Oh sure. Of course.
(20:44):
Yeah I mean music videos were such a cool thing back in the day. Like the majority of them are really cool little stories so.
Yeah. A lot of it stood out to me. I could still sit and watch videos for hours. Yeah.
Even bands I don't like you know just because it's fun to watch what they were doing.
And I'm talking about 70s, 80s, 90s videos. I'm not talking about new stuff that's out. I don't.
(21:09):
I think there was that period of maybe seven or eight years where videos were the thing. They were the promotional tool. Oh yeah.
For bands. They were artistic. There was a lot of money pumped into doing them.
And like you said they came out with really good little stories.
(21:30):
And you would sit there and we didn't have cable for much of that time.
I would see MTV at like your house and friends houses and stuff like that.
It was very short periods of time where we had it.
But I would sit there and watch and sit through three or four just awful videos just to get to one that I liked.
(21:51):
I have a follow up on this. Yeah. Since this is a weird question.
Your what's one video that you just can't stand either because of saturation or because you just didn't like the way it was shot or whatever.
And then what is one guilty pleasure video that's so cheesy and bad that you just love to watch it every time it comes out.
Let's see one that I just hated.
(22:16):
This is you're going to think this is sacrilegious but that Aha song with Oh yeah.
Take on me the cartoon in the comic book. I hate that video.
OK. I just I just you are allowed to hate that video is it because it's you don't like the style or is it saturation saturation because it was all the time.
(22:38):
OK. Guilty pleasure video.
Any any Madonna video. Yeah.
Really. Yeah. Just because. And my thing with Madonna is I'm not a fan of all the songs but the production and the different things that they did and the videos too.
It was always not necessarily even cutting edge but there was always stuff that you wouldn't expect.
(23:01):
Sure. And I enjoy that. I enjoy that especially from a pop artist.
Cindy Lauper is the same way. Great production taking chances.
Great songs great vocals and just those little things that that made them a step above some of the other artists that were doing the same kind of thing.
Nice. So yeah. And amongst my metal videos like if a Madonna video came on I was going to watch it and enjoy it.
(23:28):
So good stuff there. What about you.
So our video that I can't stand anymore is that Dire Straits one with the computer graphics.
Yes. Absolutely. I can't even remember the name of the song.
I just I can remember the lyrics but not the name of the song.
I blocked it out of my mind.
Got to move those microwave ovens and TVs etc etc. That ain't working. That's the way you do it.
(23:51):
Anything Dire Straits. Oh it's Money for Nothing. Money for Nothing. That's it. I just had to sing it the whole time.
Guilty Pleasure video is a video an obscure video by Autograph of all bands. Turn up the radio.
Send Her to Me. I don't even remember that song. Have you seen that video? You need to see this video. It's frigging great.
They're doing their stuff on stage and the whole time they're singing the song Send Her to Me blah blah blah blah.
(24:17):
And there's this fat character actor guy who works in a like a some sort of factory with all these mannequin parts.
And he's putting these female mannequin parts into boxes and he's sending these guys their perfect girls. Right.
So when the boxes show up they burst open in these each band member gets their perfect girl.
(24:38):
So you kind of get to see like what they're all into. But the drummer gets a girl who's like half robot half girl.
Totally up my alley. And probably looked like their album cover. It probably did.
And it was hilarious. He's just having fun. It's goofy. It's misogynistic by today's standards I'm sure.
But it's totally encapsulates the joy of the hair metal days back then. It wasn't gross and crass. It was just goofy fun.
(25:09):
So I highly recommend that video if you've not seen it. Take a look. It's a hoot.
And from that type of metal that style, autograph way underrated as was Honeymoon Suite.
And they're kind of in that same level of stuff. But if you like that kind of super melodic hard rock.
Autograph is one of those bands that I never sought out. But I don't think you can go wrong if you pick up one of their albums.
(25:34):
There's always something on it that's worth listening to. But they just don't really stand out as far as they're not a motley crew.
They're not a big giant band. I'll throw Y&T in there too.
Y&T, Honeymoon Suite and Autograph are all kind of in that same kind of realm. Love the harmonies.
And great songs, great playing, but they never kind of got that superstar status.
(25:58):
But if you buy an album by them or a Greatest Hits, you're going to dig everything that's on it. Just good stuff.
There you go. Music videos and music in general.
And on that note, we will bid you adieu for this episode of the Gen X Essentialists. Until next time, my name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny. Send me a robot girl while you're at it.
Oh, I hope somebody does.
(26:23):
We'll do a whole show dedicated to that.
Send your robots, Kara, the Gen X Essentialists. We'll catch you next time. Bye.
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