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Jul 28, 2026
SB 001 | What is Nostalgic Archaeology?
SB 001 | What is Nostalgic Archaeology?
00:00
50:12
Transcript
0:00
Skull Boy is all about how our analog past shapes our digital future. We really look at the '80s, the '90s, and the Y2K- Quote my favorite '90s film, Jurassic Park. Oh, my gosh, what was my...
0:14
Oh, my God, do you know what I think my first DVD was? Just kinda cringe to say now.
0:18
We didn't know it back then, but doing those steps, it was a process, and in our head we were creating these pathways and these connections, and it engaged us in ways that subconsciously we didn't realize until, I think we're realizing it now, where we lose some of that when we are removing some of that friction and some of that process.
0:37
[laughs] Hello, hello, and welcome back to Skull Boy, or if you're new here, hello. I'm Brian. With me as always, or almost always, is the other Brian. Hello, sir. [laughs] Hello. Thank you for having me.
0:54
I am the other Brian, also with a Y. The other, the other Brian with a... I know. S- uh, we're like the Wachowskis, but we're the Brians. [laughs] I like that. That's a g- Sorry... very, yeah, very related.
1:07
Sorry, Wachowskis. [laughs] Oh, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to, uh, kind of like talk about what we do here on Skull Boy and, uh, no better person to do it with than my friend Brian.
1:24
But before we get into all of that, I guess we should probably talk a little bit about us, seeing how this is kind of the, uh, the premiere episode for most people, right? Right? Yeah.
1:35
Um, let's see, my name is Brian, and, uh, I am here doing Skull Boy
1:42
as a new podcast, a new newsletter thing that I am trying because for years and years I had a podcast called Pink Milk that I started with my husband, and, uh, we talked Star Wars queerly, and it was a wonderful time.
1:59
It was so much fun. I think we ran for probably four or five years with a couple breaks in between there, and it was a wild ride. I got to experience some very cool things. I got invited to red carpets.
2:13
I spoke at Star Wars Celebration. Uh, I interviewed celebrities and was in, like, the little casting call things, whatever they're called. I got... Yeah, it was rad.
2:25
It was very, very rad, and I got to meet lots of wonderful people, like my friend Brian here, and I think that was probably, like, four or five years ago now. I cannot believe it's been that long, but- [laughs] Yeah...
2:37
y- every time you say it, it's like it's, [laughs] it's a little bit harder. [laughs] Mm-hmm. But it's been a great four or five years, and I wouldn't trade it. It's, it's been wonderful, and we have seen each other IRL.
2:50
UNO time. [laughs] Yeah. It's been- Uh, at Star Wars Celebration at Disneyland. It was very fun. We met on the old interwebs, um, back when...
3:02
I guess meeting people from the interwebs is something you do now, not like it used to be. That rhymes. That we'll probably talk about at some point. [laughs] But yeah, Pink Milk was... It was a very exciting thing.
3:13
It was great to do with my husband and I. When we first started, one of the things that, um, is, like, a really great memory specific to that is that our family wasn't even all of our family and our,
3:27
our last child, but our middle child, Eli, joined the family, like, after we'd already started the podcast, so that was, it was very, very cool.
3:38
I listen, I listen back and Michael was four or five, and he would do these little introductions, and he's now 12. He's about to enter junior high, and great little memories there.
3:48
Um, but one of the greatest things was meeting lots of people like you, and now you and I get to do our very own thing together. It's gonna be very exciting. Oh.
4:01
[laughs] Uh, yeah, it's, it's really awesome 'cause I th- I remember, you know, I, I, I've been a YouTube... I'm not a YouTuber. I've watched YouTube for so long, from the beginning. Yeah.
4:12
And I've always followed people. I, and I always, like, liked watching people, but the, you, you and the Pink Milk crew were the first, the first people that I actually, like, actually got to talk to.
4:23
And I, I remember 'cause my partner, we would watch... I would have it on. We'd be cooking or just kind of doing something and listening, and he said...
4:30
He told me, like, "Oh, you should just, like, write a message and say how awesome that they are." Aw. And I was like, "That's weird. I've never done that before." [laughs] But I just did it.
4:38
I was like, "Well, it, the, y- you guys met..." It w- I think it would've, uh, you, you helped... You were helping during a hard time, right? Like, it was, you know, you know- Peak COVID... peak COVID.
4:51
And so I just wanted to le- leave a little message to just to sta- say thank you. Aw.
4:54
And just that one little message kind of grew, and I was able to be part of the community that y- you, y'all built and, um, and be able to create really great friendships. Yeah.
5:06
It was a really, it was a really wonderful time. I... It was hard for me to walk away from that because it was really wonderful, but at the end of the day, I think I just realized I think I said what I needed to say.
5:21
And as a creative person, sometimes it's really great to just step away when you know you should step away and leave room for something new, which is what we're doing here.
5:35
[laughs] Um, and I'm very, very excited to get into all of this and do something that I haven't seen done yet, where a lot of, like, nostalgic pods or nostalgic newsletters kind of stop at remember this, and they talk about, "Oh, this tech thing.
5:52
Look how cool that was." Like, I wanna be able to talk to you, talk to other people about why it really kinda mattered in the first place, and the memories and things. Mm-hmm.
6:02
I am not someone who believes in nostalgia for n- nostalgia's sake. Like when you listen to toy collectors, like He-Man came out recently, and it's always like just like Saturday morning cartoons, but like
6:16
what is it about that time?
6:18
And those stories for each of us are something very different, and I believe it's very rarely the thing that we are nostalgic for, it's the memory associated to those things, and we can never really get that back.
6:33
But by connecting with other people, I think we can kind of relive it in a new way, give it like a, a, a new era, if you will, which is
6:45
what I'm excited to do here and just have conversations based on those things and see where else we go. Get to kind of get to know people. I think community is something really important to me as a person.
6:55
It's probably important as a queer person because community is so important to us as it is. Um, but to share that on the old interwebs is very exciting.
7:05
It feels very late '90s, early Y2K when the internet was like exciting and you had your AOL chat room, and like the whole world was excited that like they had to open the door.
7:16
Remember the little doors that would go on your AIMs and like, "Look, I'm here." [laughs] Oh, that sound. You knew it was time to party when- Oh... you heard the little... Mm-hmm. Check, check the friends list.
7:27
See who, who came in. [laughs] So, uh, here at Skull Boy, I, um, came up with this little term for myself called nostalgic archeology, which is really all about
7:41
being nostalgic for something and how that nostalgia connects to like the human experience. So that's really what this show is all about is digging past the remember this, remember this, and why do we remember it.
7:56
Like I am really fascinated about the why we are interested. So if you listen to us or read the newsletters, I encourage you to interact, leave comments. Um, neither one of us, Brian's not on social media whatsoever.
8:11
I am like kind of on Instagram and social media- [laughs]... but also not really. Um,
8:20
so our newsletter in the comments here or the comments on the podcast are where we're going to be able to kind of communicate and, and connect with people at the t- for the time being, uh, which I'm really, really excited about because that was something
8:33
when I first did Pink Milk, the community was something I was not expecting, but it's the part of making things for the internet that I'm the most excited about.
8:44
It's like the promise of what the internet was back in those days of meeting people you never would meet in any other way, you know? Mm-hmm. It's very, very- And then- It's very cool.
8:56
And what, what was the term that you, you created for, uh, you just said it. I really like it. Nostalgic archeology. Nostalgic archeology. Yes.
9:05
Because, uh, one thing I love about that word is, uh, and you, you brought up He-Man, um, but the- Mm-hmm...
9:11
the things that are being, um, excavated, uh, for nostalgia, the, the, the ones that are the successful ones are the ones that are able to move past the remember berries. The like, "Remember this?"
9:24
Like you mentioned, it's the ones that are able to take the things that we're nostalgic about, but then also take why it was nos- why, why- Mm-hmm...
9:33
we fell in love with it back then, and then bring it to today's like storytelling and relating to it to, to today and how we can relive what we were thinking, how we...
9:44
Basically the things we thought about back then- Yeah... but now we have to kind of flip it on its head or relearn the lesson in the context of today's world. So I love that word. 100%. Thank you.
9:55
Yeah, I, I try to pretend like I'm bougie every, every once in a while. [laughs] I was an anthropology major in college, so it also fits there. [laughs] Um, but you know, actually, I love that you just mentioned
10:10
He-Man again too because I think you're 100% right. The things that really work are the, the creative expressions that understand the why. Like off the top of my brain, I think of X-Men '97, which is like a
10:27
revisit of one of the most classic '90s things ever, which is the X-Men, [laughs] not only the X-Men comic run as Jim Lee and Chris Claremont in particular, but the animated series as well. And
10:42
I think X-Men '97, maybe we'll do a whole episode on that at some point. But- Oh, yes... like X-Men '97
10:50
from my perspective isn't really interested in just paying homage to it for the sake of like, remember this moment, remember this moment, remember this moment. I feel like it just
11:02
understands the DNA of what that show was and talks... It is talking about very current things just with, wrapped in a '90s bow. But it's, it's like they're not trying to recreate it.
11:18
They're just honoring it and s- and they understood the assignment, I guess. Um, whereas He-Man, the movie, I don't think did, though it was a lot of fun. Hmm. I didn't- It was- I missed watching He-Man, but- Yeah...
11:32
but what I do like about, uh, how you mentioned X-Men '97 is that it really did feel like it was just a passing the baton- Yeah... uh, 20 years later or- Mm-hmm... how long has it been? 30. Uh, it felt like it was...
11:47
There was no, um... It just wanted people to feel like you just picked up, like as if you've had- Mm-hmm...
11:54
been in a coma for that many years and you could pick it right back up with all the different storylines that had- Yep... been in influx or not tied up yet, still going on and unraveling forward.
12:04
Um, but, and it, I think a lot of young people even today that weren't growing up with Uh, that didn't grow up with X-Men '97, they appreciate that, and they can see how it can still be relevant to today.
12:17
And so now you've- Mm... the creators have created fans that were not even alive back then. Yeah. Dude, I mean, actually, like, that's the perfect segue ac- you know. I think there is a renaissance in
12:31
analog things right now with Xennials and people that weren't even really alive, or were not old enough to use the technology that they are feeling nostalgic for.
12:45
Um, right now in the year 2026, AI is still very new. It has now reached... You know, a few years ago, it was not in the mainstream zeitgeist yet. Not everyone was using it, not everyone was talking about it.
13:02
But now you can't not hear about it. You can't not really use it [laughs] in a lot of ways. Um, and I am not one who is anti-technology. I'm not even anti-AI necessarily.
13:19
I am very pro-technology, and I can see a very r- real use for AI. I think there's big conversations that we as a society and a culture need to have with how to use AI. Um, but I think there is something
13:40
nice about friction. And that, there's like a whole term starting to come out, right? Talking about friction, and it's everything is so easy that we're craving, like, the complexity of [laughs]
13:57
of, like, things being separate and then figuring out how to use those separate things together. 'Cause now everything is just together and it's overwhelming. It's just very overwhelming.
14:07
And I feel very fortunate to be the age that I am because I'm very good with technology, but I can also walk away from it, like really easily, which is great. Yeah. The, that, that word you just used, friction. Mm-hmm.
14:25
It is the r- I, the more I think about it every day, the more I think is it w- just a little bit of friction is why we fall in love with different things. It's because we have to kind of work for something.
14:37
Like, the things that we have to work for, we end up really, like, doing, uh, or we fall in love with. Um- Mm-hmm...
14:43
I really do think creativity, it, the source, the, the reason why we are creative is because there is friction, and the reason why, uh, there's even creativity to begin with.
14:53
Because there has to be something that is preventing you from figuring out a problem that pushes you to kind of figure out how to solve that problem or how to be creative. Mm-hmm.
15:03
And so I, I do think friction is one thing that is becoming more and more scarce, scarce, um, and it's... The, the m- the, the more that we take it away, the, the less meaning we find in things, in things that we do.
15:19
I was watching a video on YouTube a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, kind of talking about creativity and AI. And to put my anthropology hat back on and to go through some nostalgic archeology,
15:38
I think human beings are problem solvers. We are tinkerers. We are tool makers. We are those things, and we're hitting a point in technology where we are not needing to think
15:52
and problem solve the same way, and I think there is humanity in that friction in a lot of ways. Like, innovation happens
16:06
in friction, [laughs] in things not working the way they were supposed to, and us using our creative superpower brains to figure out a way to make that thing work. Um, I think in some ways I'm excited. Not right now.
16:22
I think AI is in a horrible place right now culturally. Um, but I, as a creative person,
16:32
I'm hoping in the next few years that there is a resurgence and a love for creativity and art and genuine human connection. I think AI is a big part of it right now, and I think after...
16:47
We were talking about COVID earlier [laughs] but I think the, the dawn and the birth and the super growth of streaming and creating content, everything is content now, and franchises, that's two words that you hear all of the time.
17:03
You don't hear about art anymore. We hear about content and franchises and AI. And I think all of these things are exploding,
17:13
and humans are missing a human connection in all of those things, um, which I'm really excited about actually. I think, I think that is where technology can break and create new creativity and a respect for creativity.
17:28
So I hope we're on our way there. Yeah. I'm hopeful. I mean, to quote my favorite '90s film, Jurassic Park, or is it even a quote? But, you know, uh, just because we, we can doesn't mean- Mm-hmm... we should.
17:42
And you bring up a, you bring up such a great point is, like, we are, we're, we, the technology's getting so advanced that we're, we're able to do anything, or seemingly do anything, and we're make things frictionless, and now we're, we're getting to the point now I feel like we have to decide what we don't want to be frictionless, uh, what we have to preserve as humans.
18:04
Like, as human beings, what do we wanna keep? What parts of humanity that we- Mm... do we wanna keep in this new age so that we can stay, so that we can continue to be creative, continue to, um-...
18:16
conserve our attention and, and, and be able, and allow our attention to, um, give it to the things that we want to, and to be able to stay healthy mentally.
18:26
Uh, I think that's, we're in this phase now where we have to really think about that question. Yep, 100%. 100%. Oh, I can't wait to get into all of this stuff on, on deeper levels.
18:38
Um, speaking of creativity, friction, technology, I feel like this is a perfect little way to talk about what you do [laughs]... for a living and how, how what you do is going to bring in a really fun perspective, um,
18:57
in this, because we're all nerds here. I'm sure a lot of people that listen will be nerds, and they are probably video game people. But video games are by definition forward-thinking
19:09
technical devices that I'm sure uses AI a lot and probably has... I mean, honestly, actually question. Even in our old NES games, weren't all of the comp- like, the things AI in a way?
19:24
Yeah Like, all the other things that you're working against? [laughs] I mean, to, to, to really break it down, yeah, like, uh, like, the, what we think of today as AI is really, like, LLMs, large language models, right?
19:34
Yeah. Very different from artificial intelli- the way that, uh, the game development and how game developers use AI is ter- in terms of artificial intelligence [laughs]... which really just means any,
19:45
literally like creating an NPC, NPC that they program to be able to do different functions based upon different, uh, parameters, right? Yeah. So, and like, it's funny because [laughs]
19:57
uh, you know, AI is becoming such a little hot topic or term, and AI is such a, has been here for so long, and we use it, we use it for in games to refer to one thing.
20:10
And now that everyone's like, "Wait, what, you said AI." And we're like, "We don't mean that kind of AI." [laughs] Yeah. Um, but yeah, to explain, yes, I, I, I'm a video game developer. Uh, I'm a sound designer.
20:21
And, uh, yeah, I do sound design for video games. And, um, I've been doing it for about a little over 16 years now, maybe 17. I can't... I lost... You lose track after 10 I feel like. Um, but yeah. Woohoo.
20:35
Uh, I've grown up playing video games my whole life. And at a certain point I realized that it could be a job. [laughs] Um, and so I was able to turn my hobby into, you know, uh, a money maker. [laughs] That's so rad.
20:49
And, and you and I have had conversations, like, personally about finding creative ways to make sure that it main- it re-
21:00
the things we love as creative people that can be that, and are creative professionals, to still make the hobby the hobby even though it's work. Because that can sometimes work can kill a hobby, unfortunately.
21:15
So it is, it's a, it's a, a double-edged sword sometimes, I would imagine, right? It is. It's, it's a, it's a balance that you have to take, I think.
21:25
And I, 'cause I know a lot of people that have been, have not been able to balance it, and they, um, you know, they work too hard, they crunch, um, and then they lose that passion. And, uh- Mm...
21:35
or, or in other words, or sometimes it just becomes a job. Yep. So I feel like as a creative person, it's such a hard balance.
21:42
It's a fine line being able to stay, k- like, fulfill that creative, uh, side of you, that spark that you need to do, but then also maintain this idea of like, I, this is a job and I have to, I have to, um, hit, uh, goals and work with people and, like, make, uh, like, make sure that I can do my job well.
22:05
And, um, so yeah, it's a- Mm-hmm... I think it's a, it's a hard job as a creative to, to be able to balance that. Um, and I'm still trying to- Yeah... I feel like I've s- I've, I work on it every day.
22:14
[laughs] So also, let me just put this out there. If you're listening to this podcast and the audio is not up to par- [laughs]... please know that it was me that did it [laughs] who is not an audio engineer.
22:29
[laughs] I was, I am trying my best to help. Yeah, um, you know, I spent a very v- decades as a creative professional. Um, I am now a, a, a teacher. I teach innovation and design in middle school, which is so rad.
22:46
To be able to, like, share the joy of design with young people is, like, such a gift. I believe in the power of design and technology and innovation so much.
22:57
All of these things I think are so important to finding out who we are and, and celebrating who we are, and it's one of the things I love to share with young people. It's pretty cool.
23:09
Uh, and I get to be very hip on what's new with working in middle school. It's true. I, I feel like- In my school across the parking lot. [laughs] Every time we talk I'm like, "Brian, what are the kids saying now?"
23:22
[laughs] Well- What do they like, what do they-... I don't, I can tell you that, um, they call it the 1900s, which is one of the things we'll be discussing. [laughs] It's so crazy. I'm like, "They're not wrong."
23:34
[laughs] But I'm like, "Oh my God." [laughs] So on this podcast, uh, in the newsletter, Skull Boy is all about how our analog past shapes our digital future.
23:46
So we really look at the '80s, the '90s, and the Y2K timeline, and kind of the last of the analog years where this digital revolution started, and break things down from there.
24:01
I personally feel like an expert as I was in elementary school during the '80s. [laughs] I spent junior high and high school in the '90s, and I graduated college in Y2K times.
24:13
[laughs] So I, like, hit every, every decade at very important, um-... times of life actually. Um- And I wasn't too far behind, so No. [laughs] Nope.
24:25
So yeah, but even that, like I think we're gonna have different perspectives on those things, which is gonna be very exciting, right? You know, like, 'cause when did you graduate high school? '04. '04.
24:39
See, I was almost out of college. [laughs] So, like we were in two, like, it's so crazy.
24:44
Um, my husband and I talk about this 'cause he's nine years older than me, which like now is not that big of a deal that we're older.
24:50
[laughs] But like a college graduate and a high school graduate are two very different- [laughs] Those are two very different people.
24:57
But now that gap is not gapping all that much, but, [laughs] um, I think that kind of perspective is gonna be kind of exciting. You know what I mean? Hmm. So question for you, Brian. Yes. What is your favorite bit
25:16
of pop culture from the 1980s? 1980s. Mm-hmm. Hmm. You were just a little itty bitty. It, it had to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was- Hmm... I wanna say that was my first
25:34
pop culture obsession. Uh- Okay... I had, I remember I had all the toy- you know, as every kid back then did, all the toys, the bedsheets, the lunchboxes. Uh, I was Michelangelo for Halloween multiple times.
25:50
Um- Love it... I watched, I remember, yeah, I remember, um, I specifically remember, I have vivid memory of my mother and I, she took me to go see...
26:00
It was, uh, maybe it was, it was a, it was a se- it was a sequel, which that might have been in, in the '90s though. But I remember- But yeah...
26:07
that was like, you know, way after I was already in love with it, but we would watch it and then [laughs] she was like, "Can you, you just wanna just wait till the next time, and so we could just watch it again?"
26:16
I was like, "Yes." Yes. And so we just stayed in- Secret of the Ooze. Yes. We just stayed in the theater and just waited until the next showtime, and then just started again. [laughs] And we watched it again.
26:25
But first, your mom went back out and paid for another ticket, right? Oh, yeah. Uh, sure. [laughs] Of course. While I, I stayed there by myself. She, she was doing the responsible adult thing.
26:36
[laughs] You know, I love that you were Michelangelo multiple times, 'cause like you're a pretty serious guy, and to like, a serious guy loving Michelangelo is pretty great. I love that. [laughs] It's kind of cool.
26:49
Like, I think as I grew up, I was more like, "Oh man, Raphael is actually really cool." Um, but for some reason when I was a kid, I just, I was, I fell in love with Michelangelo. I guess- Ah... opposites attract.
27:01
Love it. Like, I just loved his energy, his, he was so funny. Uh- Yeah... so. I grew up loving Raphael because he was like cool to be rude, but, which was not me.
27:14
Like, I'm a pretty [laughs] rule-following, straight-laced person. As I've gotten older though, I will say Mikey's my favorite. Hmm. Like, that's who I, the most, like I identify with Michelangelo the most.
27:27
Um, funny story, back in the '80s, there was no internet. Shocking.
27:32
And I don't really know how, I must have found an address on the back of a box or a phone number or something, 'cause I was also a massive Ninj- Ninja Turtles fan, and had a lot of the toys.
27:47
Um, because I was charming, there was a local Target down the street from us, and I would go ride my bike and, and back then you could get a Star, a, a, a Ninja Turtles toy with tax for $4.25, so I'd always have $4.25.
28:02
[laughs] And I made friends with the people that worked there, and this one lady, used to, I would tell her the characters I wanted on the back, and she would pull them for me, and then she would...
28:12
You could not do this now. She had my phone number. I was probably like 10 or 11, and she's taking phone numbers from a little kid. [laughs] She would...
28:20
But she would call my house and say, "Hey, I have Wingnut and Screwloose," and she would hold them for me, and I'd go pick them up. [laughs] Oh my gosh. Like, this person, isn't that great? Yeah. But I remember
28:32
feeling that there should've been all of these toys that they weren't making, so I wrote a letter to Playmates with this long, like talking about how much I loved Ninja Turtles, and how these are the characters that they need to make as toys.
28:48
[laughs] And they actually wrote me back and sent me like all of these little, um... I think they were like shell points or something like that in the back of the boxes. You get these little things for mailaways.
28:59
[laughs] But they wrote me back. It was the greatest, like it was so cool. And then years later when like Krang, the android body came out, that was because of me.
29:07
When the transforming April O'Neil turned into a cat from that one episode- Uh-huh... I was like, "Oh, that was our letter." [laughs] You know, that's awes- You know, I, I feel like that just wouldn't happen today.
29:18
Like- Mm-mm... a little kid sending a letter to a, a giant corporation and them sending like a, a, a personalized let- letter back would- Isn't that cool? That is so cool. Mm-hmm. Like s- like amazing. Amazing.
29:32
Like that is, yeah, I agree. I don't know if it'd happen today. Mm-hmm. I don't know if it's because like the population is also just way bigger. I don't know. Lots of things.
29:42
Social media's changed that kind of stuff, I guess, 'cause now you wouldn't write a letter anyways. You would just like tweet at somebody. You'd just tweet it. Yeah.
29:49
Or make a comment on Playmates, which I, Playmates lost the, lost, lost the own- the, um, the rights to produce toys. It's going to Hasbro. It's crazy. Oh, really? Um, yeah.
30:02
But like you would just leave a comment on the YouTube video now, right? I don't know. Um, okay. Yeah, sometimes they will respond, but I guess it just mattered more that you wrote a letter. There was a whole process.
30:12
There was friction- Yeah, it was so cool... like we just mentioned. Yeah. And it took time. It took time. [laughs] And on their end too. And I was a little kid.
30:18
I'm sure, I'm sure I completely forgot that I ever wrote them a letter and like this l- 'Cause you know, we, when we're little, we don't remember things for very long. [laughs] And then- Came back, yeah. It was rad.
30:30
I want to say for me, the '80s were all about Star Wars, but seeing how I had a whole podcast on Star Wars, I'm gonna move that over for a minute because Star Wars is, like, the greatest thing of all time.
30:41
[laughs] Uh, but I'm gonna go with G.I. Joe. I love G.I. Joe so much, and I guarantee you I will have lots of conversations about
30:56
animated cartoons from the '80s and '90s, and this... more specifically, the syndicated cartoons. I know way more than I should about syndicated cartoons and how they worked.
31:13
I'm very fascinated by the entire thing, and I think one of the things that I love back then, I mean, you talked about Ninja Turtles, which were teenagers. Yeah. But, like, you don't see this...
31:23
and you know, I was just thinking about this the other day. Like, I loved G.I. Joe, Transformers, Jem and the Holograms. They're all, like, adults, and they were things that, like, we looked up to being.
31:36
And now, like, I think about all the cartoons that my kids... I mean, they're getting... [clears throat] They're outgrowing cartoons a little bit now, but they were all other kids.
31:45
Like, kids watch shows about kids their age. And it's just, it's a very different... one's not better than the other, but it's just a very different time. But one of the things I loved about G.I.
31:57
Joe was no one had superpowers. They just had cool gadgets. Um, I still, I wa- I go to bed with that show- [laughs]... almost every night. Everyone, if you're listening to this,
32:10
I'm sure you already know, but everyone should, uh, li- watch Tubi. It's, like, all the gems. All the gems from the '80s and '90s. It's great. Really? I didn't know that. And it's all free. Oh, yes. Tubi. Okay.
32:21
Go to Tubi, and it's free. I always see ads for it, I'm like, "Ugh, I... another one of those?" Ah, no. I, I just thought it was not anything- No, it's so good. Okay. It's so good.
32:30
And there's a lot of good queer movies too. Really? Okay. All right. For... Yes. Yes. I'll have to check it out. All right, '90s. Favorite pop culture moment. Moment? Fr- or thing. Oh, okay.
32:43
I, I mean, I mentioned it already. Okay, favor- But- Okay... but it was, it was Jurassic Park. It was- Jurassic Park. I think that was my... I like to call it my awakening. [laughs] Mm.
32:53
My creative awakening, I feel like. It was w- I think it's... those... it's a core memory of me walking out of that theater and going, uh, I d- having the feeling of I can... anything can be made now. If we just...
33:10
they just created dinosaurs on screen. And I just thought in my mi- I think in my mind I was like, "Anything's possible now." Uh- Yeah. Not only did they make dinosaurs, but we had... and I, like...
33:28
dinosaurs had never moved the way they moved in that movie. Mm-hmm. Like, I, I'm a sixth grade teacher. I was... it came out the summer between sixth grade and seventh grade, uh, for me. And I, yes,
33:43
super like, "Oh my God, I've never seen anything like this before." If memory serves correctly, it came out around the same time as Lion King. Yes? I'm hoping. I think the same year or the same close to it.
33:56
Was it the same summer maybe? I don't know. I'd, I would have to look. Mm. But I remember Lion King was another one that just, like, young me who wanted to be a filmmaker,
34:05
the fact that they flashed Lion King at the beginning of the film and then again at the end, like, blew my mind- Mm... of like, "Oh my God, the circle of life is real."
34:14
And I just remember how, like, those things were like, yes, like creative, a creative opening. It was great. Um, again, I could say the prequels 'cause I love Star Wars, but I'm not going to.
34:27
Let's save- Save years of that. Yeah, The Matrix was my favorite thing from the '90s. It is a- Catching it right at the end. [laughs] Oh my... yeah, very, very '90s
34:46
film, but also so much of what they had to say. The Wach- the Wachowskis that were at the beginning of this episode, now here they are again. [laughs] But like,
34:57
um, so much of what The Matrix had to say I feel is happening. [laughs] It's, like, happening right now. Like- Oh. Like- Absolutely... m- yeah, it is like, um,
35:08
I have done a rewatch of all of them in the last, over the last year and was like, "Man, yeah, this is crazy." [laughs] It's really- It's definitely... I need to rewatch that one again today 'cause it, I- Mm-hmm...
35:23
I feel like, I feel like my mind keeps going back to it, like you're saying, constantly. Mm-hmm. You know what? We will do a Matrix deep dive. That'll be one of the first episodes. We'll break it down into three acts.
35:35
Yes. We'll do three episodes. We'll do three, the three acts of the first Matrix movie. I love that. Okay. Well, that's a great idea. That would be cool. Yeah. That'd be really rad.
35:43
Um- Oh, one, one fun fact about the, about The Matrix. It was... Matrix, it was my first DVD that I've ever watched. Seriously? [laughs] Yeah. Oh my gosh, what was my...
35:56
Oh my God, do you know what I think my first DVD was? It's kinda cringe to say now. Uh-oh. Knowing where, [laughs] knowing where things went, I think American Beauty was my first DVD that I ever bought. Oh, really?
36:09
I've never saw that. I think so. [laughs] Maybe it's a good one. Why, why I had to make American Beauty the first one I ever bought? [laughs] But I think that was the first DVD I bought, 'cause I was like, "D- DVDs?
36:24
What?" You're just like, "Let me just pick whatever-" What? "... what's, what's the first in the alphabet on the, on the stand?" [laughs] Yeah.
36:31
I, I need the Xennials to fall in love with VHS In a way that they're not yet, so that companies start to make a new VCR. Because yes, you see them occasionally at the Goodwills,
36:50
but I would not trust a 40-year-old machine with a device that once- [laughs]... it gets eaten up, it will never be able to be played again. [laughs] But I love, I love VHS. Hm.
37:04
I still, I still to this day miss the flicker on a camera, like when there's like a burn hole in- [laughs] Yeah... in like the screen. There's something to, for me that...
37:22
The clearer a picture, like Netflix, I don't have Netflix all the time. I'm a, a binger, a... What do they call them? Like, well, we subscribe to all the services for like a little bit- For like a month or-...
37:34
and then we drop them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and then we drop and we rotate, right? I'm not a huge fan of the look of Netflix because it's like too clean and too perfect. Too well-lit? Yeah.
37:47
Yeah, it's just like, I don't know. Is it technically probably better? Probably. But there's something, like I get pulled into a movie more when it looks like a movie. I don't know if that makes any sense.
38:01
Like- Oh, yeah. Makes total sense... I don't know, I don't know why. That'd be an interesting dive. Like why- Why does it?... why are we more connected to those things?
38:09
'Cause there's gotta be some sort of scientific explanation. Is it nostalgia? I don't know. Maybe. Um, all right, 2000s is h- I think it's more difficult for me because
38:22
I was ending college in, during the Y2K times and getting ready to start like a career like 2000, 2004? Mm-hmm. Maybe 2005? Uh, yeah, I would say t- around 2005.
38:39
Maybe s- yeah, 2000, 2005, 2006. Well, this is very timely. If we can say that Y2K stretches into 2005, which I'm not sure if the zeitgeist does, but I'm going to say
38:57
Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor is my favorite moment of the early 2000s. Favorite moment? This... Oh my God. Okay. Everything. Everything. I saw that concert two times. Ooh, okay. I love that album.
39:13
That album is celebrating 20 years, 21 I guess. I don't know. Confessions Two has come, came out this year. That album is incredible. Uh, but Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor
39:32
brings me back to that time- [laughs]... so, like, okay, a lot of people, 2000s, they're gonna go to Britney and Justin in the denim outfit at the VMAs. [laughs] Actually, you know what? TRL.
39:45
TRL is also a very Y2K thing. It is. But Madonna's Confessions brings, brings me back to that time very much 'cause in all honesty, like I hated the music. I hated music during the early Y2K times.
40:00
Here, that was when I, I was w- way into Euro pop and Euro dance music. Mm. Uh, lots of imports. I spent lots of money on import CDs. Back then, used to be able to fly- Import CDs. Oh my gosh...
40:14
to, oh my God, Virgin Records, $34.99 for a CD- [laughs]... when, ugh, I didn't have $34.99 to spend back then, but that's what I did. Uh, I used to be able to fly to like Europe. I love Amsterdam.
40:29
Amsterdam's one of my favorite countries, and you could get there like relatively inexpensive.
40:34
So I used to fly on like winter breaks during, to Amsterdam during, in college, and I would hit up all of their record stores [laughs] and buy so many CDs because they were cheap there.
40:48
And like Kylie Minogue before Kylie Minogue was here. Sugar Babes is one of my favorite bands ever, and that's just a whole hot mess of a thing. [laughs] But oh, oh, yes.
40:59
Let's- Oh my God, do you know what else came out in 2005? Oh my God. I didn't hear it till 2007. But Robyn. Robyn is my favorite singer- Oh... of all singers. You've topped it. She is the greatest. You've topped it.
41:10
And her album came out in 2005. Just took me till- Rocking up here... 2000, no, 2006. Napster. Napster showed me Robyn 'cause it was not released here in this country at the time. Mm. All right. Y2K for you.
41:24
What is Y2K all about? So the, so we're, if we're on the topic of music, I would, I, the first thing that came to my head was, uh, Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory. Oh, okay. That was... I, my, I have these vivid memories of,
41:39
uh, driving to and from school or from, you know, marching band practice, and I would just crank- Mm-hmm... Hybrid Theory, pull that, with the windows down, and just like shout and scream and sing with it.
41:53
And, uh, I don't know. It felt like it was just the music of the moment for me that I needed. And- I love that. Yeah. That, that, uh, album in particular, just one of my top five albums of all time. Um- Seriously? Yeah.
42:07
Oh, I love that. All right. As we wrap things up here, what is one thing
42:18
circulating around some of the stuff we've talked about today from the analog past that you hope shapes our digital future? I hope- I'm throwing this on Brian, everyone... throw it onto me.
42:32
[laughs] All over me right now. Uh, I think one, the, one of the things that we talked about was this idea of friction, this idea of- Uh, having to work or to, like, investigate or to,
42:48
um, actively use our minds to engage something and f- and, and also makes-- and, uh, be-- sometimes hit a wall. Mm. And we- and, and, like, it piques our curiosity to keep picking at it.
43:03
Uh, that was a lot of the stuff that we-- like the technology that we used back then, like, uh, well, you-- do we wanna watch this movie, uh, this VHS? Well, we gotta make sure we re-re-rewind it when we're done.
43:15
[laughs] You know? Uh- Mm-hmm... when we were, uh, just other things, like if you wanna record it. Like, the, the things that we wanted to do, there were steps involved. And
43:27
we didn't know it back then, but doing those steps, it was a process, and in our head, we were creating these pathways and these connections and, uh, it engaged us in ways that
43:41
subconsciously we didn't realize until I think we're realizing it now where we lose some of that with all, with when we are removing some of that friction and some of that process. Mm. So
43:53
one of the things I want us to realize is, like, how do we add some of that--
43:57
not adding in, like, steps or making things harder to use, but how do we add a little bit of that friction, the right kind of friction that lets us fall in love with things like we did back then? A button. Mm-hmm.
44:11
Tactile. We need, we need buttons, yes. [laughs] We need buttons. Ah. Um, you know, I think for today at least, where I am right now in this moment
44:25
in the internet, because, like, I think the internet is the coolest thing ever. Like, I wouldn't know you without the internet. Mm. I wouldn't be able to do this without the internet.
44:38
We wouldn't be able to be talking in this way without the internet. And I still have hopes that social media can be something really wonderful.
44:53
But I wish-- I think one thing, and I guess it's not really analog. Well, you know what? It was analog 'cause we needed a phone wire. [laughs] But I wish from back then, like, there was the-- there was excitement to
45:10
meet new people, to see new experiences, to go search the internet intentionally for something you hadn't seen before, when the internet was curious and not combative. Mm. And I think
45:29
things would be so much better [laughs] if we were curious, just in general. Um, maybe that's the science person in me, maybe that's the educator in me of, but keeping our curiosity.
45:46
One of my favorite quotes I have, uh, I have it on the outside of my classroom, Albert Einstein, it's, "The more I learn, the more I know the-- what I don't know," and that is not the quote.
45:58
[laughs] But that's the intention. That's h-how-- I've learned that quote that way when I was probably in middle school. But, like, the more I learn, the more I know what I don't know kind of thing, you know what I mean?
46:11
Mm-hmm. Um, like I-- curiosity is just this amazing thing, and the internet and social media I wish was this, "I don't know a lot, and I can't wait to go know more." Yeah.
46:24
Unfortunately, at this moment it's, "I already know everything because I'm on the internet." Right. There's- And it creates, it creates the friction that we don't want. Exact- yeah, exactly.
46:36
[laughs] Like you mentioned, like the-- you, you, you coined the term nostalgic archeology.
46:41
You know, archeology is all about exploring and uncovering things, and that was one of the cool things about the internet when it first was-- became the internet. It was- Mm-hmm... it was like in the Wild West.
46:53
It was undiscovered territory, and it was just full of people that were, like, archeologists or explorers that were just- Mm-hmm... "Oh my gosh, what can we find? What if I typed in something something.com?
47:05
What's gonna happen? We don't know." You know? Mm-hmm. Uh, and- Yep... there was something about that that was really special, and that-- and w-we'll never be able to have that experience again. Mm-hmm.
47:15
But I think what you mentioned is, like, that, that idea of curiosity. We had curiosity back then. How do we-- just like how we are trying to [laughs]
47:24
do all these reboots and remakes, and we talked about which ones are the six- the successful ones and which ones- Mm-hmm...
47:30
it's like how do we take that idea of, that essence of what the internet was back then and kind of bring it back to today? Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Uh, we're gonna get there.
47:41
AI looks like it's gonna kill it for us. It'll kill it first. But I feel confident that AI is going to bring that back. I hope. Oh, interesting. This is a, this is a hopeful podcast. We're not doom and gloom podcast.
47:56
We're a hopeful podcast. All right. Well, everyone, thank you for listening. I do have a- [laughs]
48:01
I have a YouTube channel where I, all I do is just I post, uh, reels of my work, and I also, uh, will post, uh, I lo- I love to create videos and of videos of ambiances of different parts of the world.
48:16
I like to create or record sounds, and I like to pair that with video in a way that is cool and hopefully is relaxing and kinda will help people kinda take a pause in their, in their day.
48:27
Um, but I, I'll get to it when I get to it. It's one of those self projects that I don't r- I try to find t-time for. I love that. This is not a podcast where it's monetized. We will never be monetized. Um,
48:42
I won't even commit to you will hear us every Wednesday at such and such time. Uh, we're really embracing the creative energy, the old internet of, like, going to look for things and not be spoon-fed those things.
48:57
Um, I think that's where both of us are at at this moment in time is, like, less of the algorithm feeding me what I want, and I want to go search for the things that I want.
49:09
Um, so hopefully we will find those listeners that are interested in the same thing. Check out the, the we- uh, the newsletter at, uh, www.schoolboi.com.
49:21
That's boi with an O-I because I am gay from the '90s, and every young twink had, uh, [laughs] their handle, their A, their AIM chatroom was-- mine was Toriboi from Tori Amos. Doesn't get much '90, more '90s than that.
49:38
T-O-R-I B-O-I, Toriboi [laughs] was my AOL chatroom name from 1997 to '98 probably. [laughs] Just one year? Oh. Yeah, but probably longer than that. Oh, boy.
49:55
Uh, so anyways, until next time, thank you for listening, and make sure you go subscribe to the newsletter, www.schoolboi.com. Until next time, talk to you later. Keep in touch. Bye-bye. Bye.
Skullboi
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