78 - Edgar Allen Poor

You are about to be trampled underfoot. So listen. This episode I designated Edgar Allan Poor and there is no one that I'm aware. I'm sure there is a surname Poor, but this is actually Edgar Allan Poe. And Edgar Allan Poe was born in the eighteen eighteen o nine actually and lived all the way until the eighteen forties, around eighteen forty nine, and he was an American writer, editor, and book critic and whatnot. Pope is best known for his poetry and short stories, which I mean a lot of us are

familiar with. What what what comes to mind when you think of Edgar Allan Poe to you, Mark, Oh gosh, so much. I mean the Cast of the Montdillo to begin with, you know, the Pit and the Pendulum. I mean it just so many stories, so many poems, the Raven, the Fall of the House of Usher. I mean, you can

just go on and on and on. Annabelle Lee. But something that I don't know, maybe some fans of the genre know or don't know, is he basically invented the detective story, the detective adventure genre, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle credits him specifically for more or less giving birth to the genre and inspiring Sherlock Holmes. So there's a lot in there, I mean a lot in there for somebody that died as young as he did it had a career basically as short as it was in his forties, like he was something.

I think he was forty years old. Yeah, I think it was four exactly, or they're about yeah, he was aged forty. But how about what images for you folks, all of us, actually, what images come to mind in the head when you think of him and his life. Because I'll just say this, the Edgar Allan Poor title is in reference to something else. But this is kind of like a bouncing board and it's an interesting topic in itself as it is because this guy, I mean, this is

Americana. This is the birth of a genre horror in writing in the specific way he did. I mean, it's but Edgar Allan Poe was broke. Yeah, And so before we get into that, this is where I was actually going with that. Mark people that are renowned for whatever reason in literature, the arts, and all sorts of different things throughout history, but surprisingly, maybe to some we're completely dead, penniless broke skid row. And so that's kind of like where I was going. And then there's a second part

to that. But going back to what thoughts come up as far as Edgar Allen, polls, psyche and all these things, what comes to mind for you Mark, Oh, I've already gone down the list. I mean, he was definitely a troubled soul. I mean, he's his death was attributed to, oh God, probably about a dozen things. I mean I've heard everything from alcohol to you know, cholera, to heart disease, tuberculosis, suicide, but nobody is really sure how he died. That's just been lost

to history. Well, he died penniless and he had I'll read you the specifics here, But there's another for those of you that are There's so many different road twists and turns with what I'm about to share that you might or might not know. And I suspect that some of you might not know. So let's see if we can surprise you or not or at least spark some

curiosity. And I don't know that Mark might know this as well, but we're always surprised with what Mark knows, might not know or might be interested, not interesting we'd never know, and that's the fun of it. But

here's some interesting things to stimulate the noggin. Okay, And before I get to the specific specific, I just wanted to say that Poe I'll read here, and they do say that some people attribute his death to all sorts of things, right, Mark just said, rabies, carbon monoxide even and just all sorts of poisoning. And it just a whole assortment of things. But he did die young. And here's the thing he was. He has become

a legend, an American legend. Poe died on October seventh, eighteen sixty four, and he had only earned checked this out, earned two hundred and seventy four dollars that year up to the time that he passed away, which would be about in today's figures, roughly four thousand and four hundred and eighty one dollars in like two thousand and nineteen. We're in two thousand and twenty.

But you get the gist. So he made less the year before, and all the while he was trying to support his family, you know. So he began a live early on in order to focus solely on writing as a career, to supplement or actually to live and so he's also like, that's a big deal because of that he died poor. Here's the bit that I wanted to add to it. Mark, unless you have something to say, But here's the interesting thing that I was going to throw at you guys

that you've not heard. But if you have something, go ahead, No, no, no, go for it. I'm I'm following your leader. Here's here's the twist not associated. Did you know? And I'm gonna be shocked here? Did you know that Sylvester Stallone when asked who his inspiration artistic inspiration is, he always says Edgar Allan Poe And did you know that?

Since the time that he was a teenager or early adult, Sylvester Stallone has been a screenwriter and he has been working on for the past fifty years a script for a movie on the life of Edgar Allen Pull that he's drafted and redrafted, added, subtracted from. That is known throughout all of Hollywood, and nobody has picked it up to people say it's good. Other people know it's not the right time. Actors, everybody knows and is aware of it. So when is the right time? I mean, you know, he

died in eighteen forty nine. When is the right time? When asked when Sylvester Stallone was asked about this, he said that he would put it in the hands of different, um, you know, companies that do this sort of thing, you know, in the industry, and they would say, yeah, but there's no you know, so where's the action, you know, an adventure, or where's this or that? And he says, well,

this is a writer. And the way he wanted to plant out was that it had two phases, Poe going into a dreamlike state where he envisions the stories and his dreary normal life because you could go and see the house that he lived in, this wooden thing, you know, just you know, raised slightly up off the ground, not small but not big by any means, right, Just so he wanted to bring that and he's been working

on it. A lot of people underestimates Sylvester Stallone because of his speech and sort of like you know that tough you know, Rambo and all that, but he actually wrote, like he wrote Rocky, He wrote a lot. He's written, He's written a lot of screenplays. Yeah, he is an intellectual or an artistic on the artistic side, and whatever else that includes.

But he is a disciplined individual by by far, and Edgar Allan Pole is his idol when it comes to the inspiration because of that darkness that I didn't know. Oh it's an insane twist. And last bit about this I remember the subject today is um famous people historically famous, but we're dead broke. But Poe alone has branched like the seven degrees of or is it how many

degrees of separation? Six degrees of separation? Yeah? Yeah, So Sylvester Sloane wanted to play Edgar Allan Pole in his movie early on, and then eventually realized the role wasn't good enough, and he would even play joke. He would even um sort of like demean himself in public, saying well, could you imagine could you imagine me as Edgar Allan Pole? Yo, you know, and the crowd would laugh and he would sort of self deprecat you

know. But the point is that this guy's a brilliant guy, Rocky Balboa, let's say. And his connection to that was the inspiration. The way he found Edgar Allan Poe. He ran into a library in New York and he was directed at the archives and at the bottom level or whatever, and he went down there to get away from the rain or something, and he sat down to study, and he found Poe, and he said he fell

in love with him all that time. But Poe was a broke individual that affected the lives of culture beyond his possibly even imagining wow, that, you see, I would have never I would have never even have made those connections. I would never even have thought of that, you know. It's just it's strange where people get inspiration from. It's strange where people draw their muse from, you know. But to think that, Wow, I don't know, that's just kind of it blows me away, is what it does.

It's a mind blowing story. I will see if I can find for you, guys. There's a documentary on Sylvester Stallone and his timeline with him speaking and the narrator narrating what the story is. If you're interested in that. It is pretty interesting for people of a creative you know, slant, because it shows Sylvester Stallone a different light, and it talks about Edgar Adam Poe and it unites those two figures from different decades century, let's say, or

yeah, well, two different centuries. One after the other. But and so it's, um, it's a very interesting thing. So yeah, I just I wanted to say that, but our subject is is poor and I have a list of them. But any thoughts on that whole bit? Oh well, that you mean wrapping up the discussion about Poe himself and then Stallone with it. I know, you know a lot of people put they they think a Stallone, they think of Rocky and maybe they'll think of Rambo and

things like that. What they're forgetting was that was not Sylvester Stallone. Those were characters that he was playing in portraying, and he would kind of put on that slow, duller dish kind of bewildered, you know, persona as a part of his act. I mean, that's not the real man, so by far, Yeah, yeah, I had no idea he went that

far into pol though. That just kind of wow. It is an amazing journey and that particular video, and we're not talking about he has clips that you can find spread throughout the internet where he takes and he films or live broadcasts. Well, this is my script that I've been working for the past fifty years, and as you can see, this is my passion and he keeps working it and reworking it for fifty it's an obsession. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well it's a very interesting thing. Actually, Well, I'm

just wondering why the delay. I mean, because you can work on something too much. I mean, I know he said that it's just not the right time. Where people have said it's not the right time, but when is well, I mean, well see that whole bit. It's kind of like, you know, there's a there's a a sort of ocean of people out there that have these talents and all these good, good ease to share with humanity that could inspire. And I've always run up so look, I'm

gonna I hate I'll just I'm gonna say this to you. I have always been of the mind that you put it out there, you create, and you put it and sometimes you're like, well maybe I shouldn't this, but you know, and then you work it out and you put something and it's not your best work and it's not your best this, but you're putting it out there, and you're putting it out there and you're creating and you're doing.

And I've always been of that mind where you're creating, and there was a time originally where I would like create, and then I'd say, well, eventually, eventually, and there's a place for that, but but to share and maybe touch another person, not because of anything other than you open up a gate a doorway in your specific way for that person to say, oh my goodness, look at that. Okay, and that's valuable in itself, you know, right, Okay, like fifty years he's been working on

this fifty years. How much better is it really going to be? Oh, here's the fifty years. You're right, you're right. Here's the second part to that. I have recently, if you noticed, I haven't done a lot of woodworking, making videos. I've gotten to a point where you have to also believe, and I've got to a point where right now I'm interested in documentary and this is that right now. And I could either be not selfish and do what I've always done, but for who am I doing

it? I gotta do things because I enjoy them, and so I do. So I've come to the conclusion that I do things for but certain things I won't put out. So you go through what stallone could be trapped in that wartux of he doesn't want to let it go, that's got to be it. That's got to be it, because that's the only thing I can think of. I mean, yes, more information comes up about him. I don't know how regularly, but I mean more information comes up about everybody.

Yeah, little by little, in spurts and dribbles here and there. But I still think that fifty years, I mean, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of blood, sweat and tears in that literally and figuratively. At what point do you stick a fork in it to see if it's done? He was asked exactly, but he was in one interview, so he's not Here's another thing. He's not not aware of that angle that

we are talking about that you're mentioning right now. So he's completely Here's another problem with human beings is that they could be in total awareness of these issues that prevent them from but and they're intellect they can see intellectually, but they're stuck with it because of whatever. I mean, it's that taking that step he would well, let me just say this, he mentioned when asked about the rewriting, he said, listen, you know how many times are you

going to redo it? And he said, listen, I have noticed throughout time that when you're Novice writing Novice, and that it's the first time you sit to write that particular story, that those first instincts were the truest, that sounded the most authentic, even with its their errors, it's actually portraying the spirit of the things. So he's aware of that. Okay, So he still hasn't made the movie though, right, And that's the thing.

Well, it's getting to because he's not a young man now, you know, not wishing any ill will on anybody, but one of two things is going to have to happen fairly so or take that back, one of two things is going to happen fairly soon. He's either going to make the movie or he's going to hold on to it and hold on to it and hold on to it, and somebody else is going to make the movie after he's gone and he won't have any input other than the script or the story.

He won't be able to see his creation come to life. So it's it's getting to it's getting to those looks. Something's going to happen here shortly, Which do you want it be? See see that that you said, there's

a twist into that. Maybe see Edgar Allen Poole's life was, depending on how you look at it, Edgar Allen Poole's life was Eggar Ellen's poles life from his vantage point, and he could have seen people walking along in the eighteen hundreds with better circumstances than he, and he could have figured maybe someday, and he just kept trucking along. So it wasn't that severe, except

for it was that severe because he was below the poverty poverty line. But maybe stallone with that in mind, because he knows his life is to some degree content with never making it and knowing, okay, fine, then quit shopping it around and knowing that it will be made because yeah, you know, what I'm saying could be. I don't know if that's true or now. Yeah, yeah, that's I guess that's possible. Anything's possible. So he doesn't want to do it himself, let somebody else do. But then

you never see the fruit of your labors. I don't know. I've been of the opinion forever that an unused talent is a useless talent. So I mean, you can be the absolute best artist in the world, but if you're the only one that knows it. What does it matter? So you've created this masterpiece, but you're the only one that knows it, So what does it matter? I mean, See, that's the whole thing about this, this whole discussion, that there's people that in their lifetime didn't in that

context, well didn't matter. But the difference is Poe sold his works, Poe had his works published. He didn't make a lot of money on them. That's that's absolutely true. And they weren't seen as literally a value like that. They weren't seen as important in a literary sense during his lifetime. And that has happened to a lot of folks, I mean, the great masters, most of the great masters didn't sell many of their paintings at all

during their lifetime. I mean stories, stories are told about cases like that all the time. Actors weren't recognized for their brilliance until after they were gone, or you know, James Dean being an example, or authors not really seen for what they really were during their lifetime. Case in point, Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein. You know when that book was released, When that book was first published, you know how many copies it sold? No?

Five hundred? And that's it. That five hundred copies, that's all it sold. But what made it jump was somebody looked at the story and said that would make an excellent play, and they adapted it to a play and performed it in theaters. That's what gave it the jump start, years after it had been published. Years after it had been published, but it was a major flop as a book until theater sparked the interest in it. I mean, that's see and like I'll just hit you with so on that same

vibe. Vincent van Gogh died broke. Yeah. Um. He he did sell some paintings, but he in his life, um, you could basically stamp him with not success. He would stamp himself with not successful, you know, because he simply didn't have the renown that he we all now attribute and and it's historical. He didn't know it. He never knew it. Bella La Goosie super famous. On another extreme, he died broke yeah, yeah, and ended up being like second and third, you know, bit

players in some of the best of the B movies. You know, did some movies for ed Wood and things like that that just you know, this guy was a serious, serious actor, but just died broke. Oscar Wilde broke, but people knew of him. But the point is broke, um Tesla Tesla revolutionary in in you know, electricity and broke. Yeah. Um, I mean Judy Garland is lest here. Charlie Parker four million dollars in

unpaid debt. Judy Garland owed four million dollars when she died. So it's like, but so, you know, losing it or being brokeer struggling. But so that's one thing. But then there's the issue of people creating works and never being successful with in their lifetime right, but then becoming this phenomenon

um. You know. I don't know if you've heard it directly, but the saying more or less kind of sort of is that, oh wait, wait till the painter croaks, and then the paintings will be worth something. Then it'll be worth some money. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. It's like a really screwed up trade off. Yeah. I mean. Nicky Rooney, one of the biggest stars of the thirties and forties, had eighteen

thousand dollars to his name when he died. You know, I mean, God, just Marvin Gay he died just well serious drug addiction wiped out his bank account. When he died, he died just penniless, broke, you know, Gary Coleman, what you're talking about with us. Yeah, his parents stole his money and he ended up suing his parents and agents and a

whole bunch of different lawyers from mismanaging his money and what have you. Um, he was awarded well over a million bucks something like that, but he made a bunch of mistakes, and I mean he ended up being a mall cop, you know. I mean, that's that's a really harsh when you see people that have had this amount of popularity, let's say, and with it comes this financial compensation through the marketing aspects and all these things, and

to see it all go in a certain direction. I mean, these are things that we can't we The variables are so are so extreme we can't put our finger on you know what it is. But some people just go from the top of most the popham most straight to the gutter. Some people even go into the gutter and back up. Other people never go anywhere. There's such a wide variety of circumstances. But I'm quite fascinated with the angle of people that do focus on this type of certain work, and then they bite

the big one. And then through history, somebody picks up, you know, the work and it ends up in a gallery. Let's say for a painter, they research the name, the value starts going up. Well, let's find out about his life story, his or her life story, and then boom it becomes and the person he was struggling to get oil paints. Yeah, you know, on off the corner market they were probably saying, oh, here comes old Vincent Bang go again. He's such an annoying you

know, what's he gonna try to trade for paint this time? Yeah, you believe this guy, he's coming down. And where if he were alive today without it, you know, with all the knowledge that people, he'd be like renowned. It's just the irony of history. I mentioned Mickey Rooney a couple of seconds ago as a brief diversion. Here, Katie Dotson says, wasn't Mickey Rooney one of the Little Rascals? Mickey Rooney, as far as I know, was not one of the Little Rascals, but the little

rascal that played Mickey. The guy that played Mickey and the Little Rascals was Robert Blake, I would play Baretta and a bunch of other stuff. Yeah, he was Mickey and the Little Rascals. I don't think Mickey Rooney was one of the Little Rascals. So very interesting. I'll tell you what I am doing right this second, and I've I'm gonna take and this is for the listeners, and that Sylvester Stallone Edgar Allen Poe documentary which lasts about a

good half an hour. I'm gonna go ahead and put it in our because we have a Facebook page and it's called Trampled Underfoot Podcast on Facebook, and we do add a lot of our you know, our conversations and the videos or art or write ups about what we talk about. So I'm gonna go ahead and post that there. You guys can go over there and check that out. And we do also have a website, yeah, Mark, oh, yes, we have the Trampled Underfoot podcast dot com. That's where we

post all of our current episodes. It's where we have and store all of our past episodes. You get that link right up in the middle marked way back Machine. You click on that link and it starts with the current episode and goes all the way back to episode one before our you know, when our hair was a correct color before it started turning gray, and all this round here was green fields and wide open spaces, and we were young bucks who didn't know what we were doing, much like today, just younger.

So head on over Trampled Underfoot podcast dot Com. And we also have our spreaker page. But like Mark said, you can check out our episodes right from there, or we could go to the spreaker page, but we do have that wayback machine button which will take us through those past episodes. So, and we're also sponsored or in association I don't know how Steve likes to

with Harneial Media. We sponsored okay, well, I don't know because last time there was, or maybe in my hallucinations, I don't know how how well. We're not sponsored by the Maker's Media network. We're each individually members of the Maker's Media Network. But Trampled Underfoot Podcast dot Com is sponsored by Harnail Media for all your website needs, that's right, they will um set up a personalized website. Uh, it's it's a very easy way to go

about it. And um, yeah you could. You'd be better off going there than the big name brands. Which are very uh, it'd be hard pressed to find help. Well, this is a very personalized, community oriented uh company, so trampled under Harni Media Harnailmedia dot com. That's right. So, Um. Another angle to this whole thing mark is that there's people that by hook or Kruk, become this world renowned figure because of something that that occurred, occurred, or that they were involved in or did that all

of a sudden becomes this this huge deal. And um, I'll give you a few of and this is what I was tying in. I'll give you some names. A virtually unknown person that basically has become a household name known would be let's say, Rosa Parks wouldn't give up her seat, she put

her foot down. Let's say, Um, she was probably just completely tired of the whole thing, and she decided to go for broke and through no imagination, possibly in her mind, that that act, that simple act of that human spirit, would create a a history and a future where she is named. Basically sparked a revolution. You know, it was long overdue. But just as one person standing up and saying no, well, or sitting down and saying no, I've had enough I mean, yeah, who could

imagine that? And I know, you know, she didn't imagine that, and she knew the repercussion, she knew what was most likely going to happen. Yeah, but she was making a statement and that statement was heard around the world. Just an amazing thing. Yeah, oh, I have a few. Let me see a few others. Let's see here. How about the guy that stood in front of the tanks in Tianamen Square. Yeah, I don't know that I ever heard anything about him other than he was promptly

arrested. It that's all I've ever heard about him. Yeah, don't know the man's name, don't know anything about his family, don't know anything about him. Which, but that was an iconic photograph and it was weird and wild to watch it happen live on television. I mean, it's like that human being, flesh and blood, standing in front of this huge machine of crushing power was well, he created a situation and a photo was snapped.

And we don't know who he is. I'm sure that we could find out, but there is video out there because I mean, the tank stopped and then it started to move, but it didn't matter where that which direction that tank started to move to go around him. He would step in front of it and follow it and stay right in the middle, right in front of it, and until some people came out, grabbed him and pulled him off,

drug him off to the side. But wow. Yeah, So you know the theme that I wanted to to sort of explore is well, obviously what we've explored is that you know, through the passage of time, people whatever their work or you know, efforts, are at whatever level you may be creating things that to your mind are just your normal day to day or with the intent of it being a successful thing or it already being a successful thing. Well you are not. You know, the doors are not open

for you or any of us to what the future will be. So we don't know what impact certain things that you do will be in the greater scheme of things in the future near future, for either down the line or whatever.

And so I just find the whole concept fascinating. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, for all, you know, just one thing, I mean, look at the road what is it the on PBS, the road show, Antiques road Show. Yeah, they bring in stuff all the time, and oh, your grandfather was so and so, and he made this tapestry because old lady Matilda down the way and there's a whole history of the family. Oh my good. It's just a beautiful thing to think of

the possibilities of what will happen. There are three stories that I like, and you're talking about one of my favorite shows. There are three types of stories that I like on Antiques Road Show. The person who comes in who is so full of herself and gets told that you know, there are three hundred thousand dollars object is a fake and worth about fifty bucks. I love

those because I like to see the pompous get knocked down to size. And the other one is the person who has something in the family, whether they were related to whoever made it or not, but they didn't know the whole story about it. They were maybe we're told a few things here and there, but then get totally blown away by what this actually is. Whether it's the value is there or not. They just get blown away by what it actually is. Yeah. And then the other story I like is like this

one particular guy who bought a chair that morning he brought it in. Instead of what he was gonna bring, he bought a charity yard sale that morning. He paid two bucks for it. And it was like a federal chair from the seventeen hundreds, worth about fifteen grand, amazing, and he paid two bucks for it that day. You know, I love stories like that. Somebody bought this at a thrift shop and it's worth two thousand dollars. I mean, I love story of stories like that. Yeah, And sometimes

they come in with like a snotty handkerchief from the eighteen hundreds. Look this trusty thing and they look at it and they say, oh, this is from that soldier up in you know, New England, and this and that. So keep this snoughty rag because it's yeah. Well, there was this one lady and I think it's probably my favorite appraisal that came in on Antiques

Road Show. It was a lady who brought in certain pieces. Her father was a missionary over in China, and while he was excuse me, her grandfather was a missionary in China, and while he was over there, he would buy these artifacts, these jade pieces, and he displayed them and everything.

And when it was time for him to come home, he brought him home and she brought in a selection of a few pieces and there were like five or six pieces that she brought in, and the guy started going down the list and just telling her, well, this marking, this is this, and this marking that was done by this guy, and this is an

Imperial marking and we can trace it directly back to this. Those five pieces were worth well over a million dollars, and he starts pointing out, you know, well that one there's got a value of about two hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and she just what, no, She kind of she gave him a weird look, like what you know. He says, so, just these pieces right here, and you have more. She says, oh

yeah, we have forty five or fifty more back at the house. And he says, well, these pieces right here are worth a little over a million dollars, and she just kind of sat there silent for a good five six seconds and went damn, just like that, damn, so will you be keeping this in? And it was just absolutely she was just stunned,

shocked. That's all she could say was damn. Yeah, you know that person, you know they're they're calculating, They're like, oh yeah, it was her and her brother were had had owned this collection so you know that what they ever did with it after that, I don't know, but it's like, damn that. That damn that, that's an indication they're like, holy smokes, we're gonna let's go ahead and buy a car or some you

know. I looked. I looked it up on PBS um because they they flashed a little graphic more on PBS and they had a little after the show was over interview with her, and she was still stunned. She's just like I when he started rattling off numbers, I had no idea what he was talking about. He couldn't be talking about this stuff, no way. Yeah. But well, I mean there's things that exactly that, like you'll look at and you're like, this is total hogwash. Yeah, I'm gonna toss

this, you know. And see that's there's a danger in that, Yeah, because if you are aware of the value possible value of things that might appear like junk, you could fall into the trap of hoarding. Oh yeah, and if you do right, oh yeah, And that would be an easy thing to do because people equate age with value and it's just not the case. And I didn't mean to de rail off into this but just because something is old doesn't mean it's valuable. And I was telling you the few

days back about like the Singer treadle sewing machine. Everybody either has a Singer treadle sewing machine, or if not, there's one in the family, or if they don't have one in the family, they know somebody who has at least one in their family. Because so many millions of those things were made. And you can buy an absolutely pristine, one hundred percent complete singer treadle sewing machine in perfect running condition, you can pick and choose for two hundred

dollars. Antique shops don't want them. They turn away more treadle sewing machines per year than they know what to do with. There's just no value to them because they made so many of them. Yeah, if it's something that's just everywhere, Yeah, then it loses it's because you can It's like, you know, it loses its value. You can get it anywhere. What's simple supply and demand. I mean that well, first of all, it was patented in eighteen fifty one and went into production not long after that,

and they opened a factory. They opened one factory in Scotland, and that factory by itself at its peak employed sixteen thousand people and from eighteen eighty two when it opened in nineteen forty eight when it's shut down, that factory alone shipped thirty six million sewing machines. And they had a factory. They had one in the US, they had the one in Scotland, they had two more in Europe, they had three or four in Africa, and five or

six in Asia. So they were shipping these things worldwide. They literally sold billions of those things. There's just no value to them. Well, in keeping with what you're talking about now, which it all works if you think about it, you could connect anything with anything in the way I see things. To me, everything is connected, honestly, the way I look at life and in a broader sense, everything is fricking connected, man. And so the way I see this connected is through value, the age, passage

of time, you know, production, just all that. So I see it connected with what we started with. But um last week, at some point, not on the podcast, we did have a discussion round about involving a couple of things within the same genre, and that was TVs and the price drop in TV sets. Oh yeah, nowadays and we talked a little bit about that, and you mentioned something about M and M's as well, and which I found super interesting. But before, you know, if you

want to share that, I think it's interesting. But I just say that I did watch a documentary after the fact about TV TVs and it's funny. I never typed in anything about TVs, but they heard us, the Google the Google systems heard us, and they started to YouTube started to offer TV style documentaries and electro onyx stuff and all sorts of stuff. So that's another thing that we're involved with or hit with in this current day and age.

And guess what, sometimes they're successful, like they were in the case of me seeing that documentary about TVs, and they just briefly they say that the prices have dropped dramatically, which we did talk about. The other day. I went to Walmart and saw like a quadrillion you know, inch TV for like two hundred bucks. Yeah. Yeah, And they were bringing out from the storehouse even more, rolling them out in carts and they were sitting sitting

all down the aisles and it was just crazy. You know. Well, what I wanted to say is that the documentary explains one way or one reason that TVs have dropped the way they have, And I'll get to that, but why don't you share? All I was just gonna say, was you know why they were haul those TVs out by in such huge volume because this week is the biggest TV sales week of the year, especially large screens, because it's the week before the Super Bowl, right, so they bring out

all of the big stuff. But you're absolutely right. I can remember my parents paying five hundred dollars for their first color television set. Now that was in nineteen seventy six, and five hundred dollars was a lot of money in nineteen seventy six. It was huge money. But now we're thinking about getting a larger TV for the living room, and I said, well, you know, maybe we can afford a two hundred and fifty dollars price tag. Let's look and see how Let's see how big of a TV we can get.

We can pick and choose amongst brands up to fifty inch, yeah, for two hundred and fifty bucks, yeah, or less. Be careful, you know, yeah, oh yeah. There were some in there for two forty, some in there for two thirty. You know, we're gonna be in trouble. You know, it's just crazy. The prices have dropped. You know, you know when we're gonna be in trouble that society because and

it's coming. It's around the bend. Is when you take a stroll in some you know, large city across the America or the world for that matter, and you'll see these shopping carts, the homeless with the shopping carts and like the rags and stuff like you see on in the movies with a connect the shopping cart with a huge fifty inch TV set perched on top of it, so they have the TV they can watch all the but they're all the

essentials are like non existent because of the imbalance of things. Um, I expect I expect it because you know it's it's it's a case of um that they're so ding dung cheap and try to give one away. I mean, we've got two cathode ray tube the old CRT televisions, still in perfect working order. They work great, colored TVs. We don't use them, and we tried to give them away, tried to give them to my grandkids. They don't want them. Why because we've already got flat screens. Yeah,

nobody wants them. Yeah, I mean Goodwill won't take them, the thrift shops won't take them. Strike that brand name there, they don't want them. They just no, we can't get rid of them. I mean, so you've got all this electronics that nobody wants and it still works perfectly. Well yeah, well, well here's the bit, at least in the documentary.

One of the reasons that they said that the prices have dropped dramatically, not barring all the other possibilities, but they show one particular is that now you will notice that the majority of the TVs that are being pushed, the way they're making money is that these TVs are smart TVs, right, and they all include tracking software that will send signals back to manufacturers with data.

Now they do mention they don't collect particular data but in bulk, but using IPS if they really if someone really wanted to find out specifically, they could trace back to the person, you know, and you know, let the wah wah seventies music playing in the videos start. So the the they're they're they're sort of like balancing their their earnings, using that to sell for advertisers,

and collections of that data and whatnot. So that's the tradeoff. So they mentioned that whole sort of right thing, But then they also didn't mention the fact that people are now putting VPNs on their routers, that are, they're plugging their smart TVs into which gives a fake IP address. So all of that data is just for not you know, they're not collecting it anymore.

I mean, I start a good point. It started with VPNs on computers, and then they came out with apps to put a VPN on your you know, I'm running a VPN through I got let's see, we've got we've each got a tablet, we've each got a phone, we've each got a laptop, and we have three PCs all on VPN. And you know, so long as you're running that VPN, you're running through that VPN,

it's not tracking a thing. But but if you had to guess the popular at large, yeah, they would not have most folks aren't, right, right, So that's where that but people is getting more popular. Yeah, so that's the way to protect Yeah, and some of the streaming services like Netflix, they recognize certain VPNs and rejective. You can't connect to Netflix with some VPNs. Others have found a work around that's incorporated in the software.

You can still watch the streaming services Netflix just being one, right, So I mean, but some of them come with things like Roku and what have you. So I mean, we touch on see I don't even fear going in this, but I will mention it out loud. We've touched on this, but I don't I have not watched a proper through TV network TV programming in over a year. I mean the last time, I don't know if it was that, my internet went went down, and so I said,

okay, well let's try the regular TV. And they had some sort of cooking channel or some other thing, and I watched that. But the idea of having to watch what's given to you is so limiting, even that they used to say back in the day, even you know, back in the in the nineties and before you know. Nowadays, in our modern time, we have our choices from one hundred and something channels. And this is even that is so antiquated from what we have today, which is on demand,

what your brain decides to think that you're interested in. At the touch of a mouse, you can go down that that rabbit hole. Sure, and there's just no competing with that. As far as programmed you know television, absolutely none. I mean nobody has time for appointment television anymore. I mean you and I were brought up on it, We were raised on it. If you wanted to watch, oh, I don't know, pick a show.

If you wanted to watch Home Improvement, you watched one episode and when that was done, you waited, and then the next one was on next week, right, And if you had a particular favorite episode tough, if you planned ahead, maybe you could catch it in reruns later on, because they would make like twenty six episodes and then have play them back for the following year and then the new season would come out. But now they're putting up whole seasons of shows on the same day just to try to keep people

there to watch them. Because people don't want to wait a week to watch Deadliest Catch. They want to see the whole season now, and they'll probably record it to watch it later, or using the streaming services, they'll just put them in a playlist and watch them at they're convenience when they want to

watch them. Here's here's a and I don't know if I'll be able to say it right, but here's a brain buster, like breaking down those doors into into into where we're placed in time and space, okay, generationally. Okay. The other day, and I'm sure you've seen something similar to this. The other day, I was surfing the web on YouTube and I came across this old music video and mind you, old means like four or five years ago, so it was like two thousand and five or two thousand whatever.

And I watched it. It was like a big hit back then. Bye by the views, you know, you could tell. Yeah, and I was. I watched the video. I said, oh, look at this, okay on just simply on a visual and music and I said, let me read through the comments. Yeah, I starting reader comments and I ran across the comment that said I was thirteen years old when I saw this. I'm now, you know whatever age, And he's like but and then another comment, I was so and so years old when I saw this,

and now they're adults. Yeah. Yeah, And they're talking about a video that to me is like, sure, it's it's it's a few years in the past, but it's not you know, two or Van Halen. Yeah, and they're talking about it like hey, look and that's their reference point. Yeah, And I was like, holy smoked, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean it's it's weird. I mean, I I fell down that rabbit hole myself just for some reason. The other day. I got a wild hair. See what I did there, rabbit hole hair?

Okay, and said, I haven't listened to Peter Frampton. Do you feel like we do? From the Frampton Comes Along? Comes a live album in a long time? Frampton Comes Along? Okay, Yeah, that was the sequel that didn't sell very well anyway. Um So I, you know, brought it up on YouTube and I started listening to it and I'd just like you. I started scrolling through the comments and it's like, man, I remember when this came out. Man, well this is cool. I've

never heard of this guy and this. You know, they ran the gamut from all this, that and the other. And I sat back and I thought, you know, this is one of the albums when I was in high school you had to own. If you didn't own that album Frampton Comes Alive, you were nobody. You were just out of it. I mean, you weren't gonna have any friends. And the minute they found out about it and be like, oh, you don't have that. Well, okay,

you know that kind of thing. It's it's an amazing uh think I think you know that generationally, but but I am kind of encouraged to see some young people discovering that kind of music. It's just like, whoa, man, this is cool. Yeah, you think that's cool. Listen to the whole album. You know, I don't know that. I don't know how to. I can honestly tell you that I'm completely in the dark about what things mean currently in reference to music, because I personally being of that

time when you had to keep the record, you had no choice. Once you opened it. In fact, once you opened a record, it was yours, it was yours. You couldn't really, you know, because they knew that you could dub it and all that unless there was a defect. If there was a defect, then they would take it back, right,

so you could, you know, go around that. But typically, well at least myself, I never returned an album like they put it out there so much that you know if once it's broken, the plastic's broken or this or that, so um and sometimes you take a knife and try to sort of rig it and this and that just in case, but to no avail, at least in my case. But I don't know nowadays me myself, being of that time where you had to keep the record, I can't nowadays

sit through an extended period of just one musical like a recording. I could, but I'm more prone to doing what people do nowadays, and it's really ruined for me. But I have no I have a choice, but I don't want to. So I do what the internet, you know, I click on through, I go to the next thing. I bounced from here to the Tibetan like monks chanting, or like I don't know, underwater scuba

diving, and to whatever. And I don't know that where I don't know what kids how it's going to work out where the consumption of one full piece of music one takes it in and it's it's a work in itself. And that sort of challenges you or makes you opine on you know what it means, And it's just all that. So it's more like a disposable type of environment that we're living in. It's push button music again. We're back to the radio in the car. Song comes on, you don't like, push

the button, change the channel, let's find something we do. Yeah, you know, mass consumption, quick instant gratification. Here the song, move on, here's the next one. You know. Now you can load up a playlist with all your favorite tunes on it, and now let's mix this up a little bit, put it on shuffle and off you go. You got it all playing. You know you're not putting on Dark Side of the Moon then flipping it over to hereside too, you know. I mean it's

strange. Yeah, but you know, I'm sitting here talking about all this stuff, and I'm not telling anybody out there anything they don't already know. I mean, I'm sitting here talking about how people watch TV. You know, how you watch TV. You don't need me to tell you that. Yeah, I don't. I'm just you know it just still. I mean, because I can remember as an adult. We've got a TV in our bedroom as an example, that is about fifteen years old. It's a big

CRT. I bought the wide screen model because I saw the handwriting all the wall. Everything was going to wide screen instead of the old four to three aspect ratiow so, and at first my wife did not like that wide screen. She liked the square screen that everybody grew up with, right and and I know, you watch, everything's gonna go widescreen. Everything's gonna go widescreen. And we were buying that. The salesman was telling us, you're crazy

for buying something that's CRT. I said, I can trust this technology. Plasma screens. I don't even know that LED screens were out yet, but I said, plasma screens, you're already on the third generation and they've been out for less than three years. They burn out, people are having problems with them, and they're expensive. I mean the TV we got was it's a thirty inch screen CRT and we paid six hundred dollars for it. Back then, at that time, the plasma screen that was a thirty inch was

two thousand dollars. I'm like, I'm not paying two grand for something that you think is gonna last half as long as this TV sets gonna you know, you know. And the only reason we bought one is because ours broke so we didn't have one, you know. I Mean, that's why it's just kills me at how cheap they are now, because I can get almost double the size for half the price. So yeah, you know, what

can you say, But it's funny. Cars have quadrupled him price. You know, you can't find three year financing anymore like it used to be. Now it's out five, six, seven years. That's how they can. People can afford to drive an eighty thousand dollars truck. There's like eighty thousand dollars. Geez, that's two thirds of what I paid for the house I'm sitting in right now. To me, to me, all that, honestly,

it's all ridiculous. And to me, people have to drive, and people have to live, and people have to But to me, that whole thing about you know, indebted here, indebted there, indebted here, it's just you know everything. No, I'd rather um open the door the passenger door stretch and that can be fixed. So and we've talked about this, but yeah, the examples there, you know, live within you know. To me, that's my personal you know, and it's not shining and a

glorious type thing. But at least you don't have the the you know, pressure of long extended you know. Yep, I'm driving a twenty three year old Saturn and my total debt other than my monthly utilities is like three hundred bucks. I don't have huge credit card bills. I don't own nobody nothing except the mortgage on my house, my monthly utilities. Yeah that's it. Yeah, I mean screw that. I mean honestly, it's like, it's like, why number one, you know, I'm not out to impress anybody.

Yeah, um and at all, you know, and you know, the whole keeping up with the Joneses. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't excite me at all, to be honest with you. And there's a lot of people like that. Yep, there's a lot of people out there like that. But there's more people, at least apparently ye that are the other

way. Well. See, that's why what I'm gonna do is this week, I'm keeping my eyes on the Crass List electronics section because somebody's going to bring home a sixty inch Plasmas Green and want to get rid of their forty inch ancient It'll say, It'll say, very old twenty nineteen model. It doesn't have that extra speed button where it shuffles your playlists in less than half a second, So we're gonna let it go for like fifty cent. Okay,

that'll work. We keep going the way it's going right now. They're gonna have TV's up on the front counter at the store where they have a penny, take up penny, Yeah, bucket, have a TV. Take a TV. No, you'll have you know, you'll have a little cubicle where they have the chewing gum, and right next to it like a big box with TVs. Yeah, it'll be like nineteen inch TVs in there because they can't sell them. They got to give them away his change, you

know, So, folks, I hope you I think we're good. Yeah, I think I think we're more than good. We kind of went all over the place, but what the heck we usually do well. I mean, you know, at the end we did switch up a little bit,

but it was all I see it as all glued together. Frankly, you know, we could talk about all sorts of stuff and I see it all connected, you know, Okay, all right, if you say so, well, I mean, I mean, I don't know how you connect Edgarrell and Poe to a plasma screen, but I mean unless you're watching U follow the House of Us sure on TV here, well, I mean it connects through our conversation going back through the past hour and you'll see where we did

the switch off because it connects actually through um you know what, we have to sit and listen back, but I'm sure it connects somehow. I'm just wanting to think about when you're write up the description. Yeah, so folks check us out. Each Tuesday, we record live on YouTube at nine thirty Eastern time, and that would be six thirty Pacific coast time. And we

also have our Facebook page. I have already put in which is called Trampled Underfoot Podcast on Facebook, and I've already put in that link which you might I think you find pretty interesting with Sylvester Stallone and the whole angle with the eggrel It's very well done that documentary. And we also have we do the Facebook. We talked about the YouTube, we didn't talk about Spreaker. If you head over to spreaker spr e a K E R like speaker, but

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