From bobrankin@MHV.NET Wed Sep 10 23:01:17 1997 Date: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 23:54:39 -0400 From: Bob Rankin Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: TOURBUS - 02 Sep 1997 - Boomer Madness _________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _ / | / | | / | \ | Boys and Girls 11 - 16 Wanted for Phone Focus Group / | \ |__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \ / /______|----\ | Help the American Medical Association re-design |//////| | their adolescent health website. You will be |//////| | | paid $25 for a 90-minute phone discussion with a |//////| | | university professor. Parental permission required. |//////| | | Details at |//////| | \________________________________________________________|______|____| / \ / \ / \ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: Boomer Madness It was a humid afternoon and Bob had been driving the Tourbus for a few hours, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a now-sodden rag. He pulled in at his usual stops to pick up 'net passengers when I skulked on board. I paid my fare in pennies, a sure sign of trouble that Bob should have seen, and then, no more than five minutes later, I'd HIJACKED the bus, insisting we visit web sites *I* wanted to visit. Fortunately, the sites I wanted to visit turned out to be interesting to Bob and he let me slip this in as a special hijack edition of the Tourbus. I hope you like it too... ------ BOOMER MADNESS ------- If you've read "The Hunt for Red October" you probably think that a boomer is another nuclear submarine. Well, I guess it is, but really what I'm talking about is telling you my age. Yep, I was born in 1962, just barely squeezing into the baby boomer generation, and us boomers have quite a bit of fun stuff online. That's what this tourbus is all about. No subs included. THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! http://superm.bart.nl/indexx.html My first stop was a chance to remember one of my favorite TV shows from childhood. A crazy, camp, and very kitsch marionette show called "Thunderbirds". Filmed in SuperMarionation, it ended up having ten different series and two feature films. All focused on a couple of puppets who were part of various useful democratic organizations (the series was created in the UK), and the best - in my view - focused on the Tracy family, who ran an Earth defense organization called the World Intelligence Organization (and later the World Space Patrol) that seemed remarkably like an early, optimistic NATO. This site itself is more focused on production teams and less on photos and biographies of the characters, but if you dig around, you can find lots of great stuff here, including blueprints of their rocketships. It's a great starting point to bring back all those great memories of just how delightful a series can be built around a bunch of marionettes! TINTIN, BOY REPORTER http://www.tintin.be/ More popular today than when I was a kid, Tintin, the likeable comic book boy reporter created by Herge', has a terrific web site developed by the Herge' Foundation in Belgium, original home of the creator. Tintin had a wide variety of adventures, some of which were written during the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II - putting Herge' quite at risk during the time - and they reflect the values, questions and anxieties of Western Europe for many decades. The Tintin universe is populated with a wonderful variety of different colorful characters, including his ubiquitious dog Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and Thompson and Thomson, twin detectives from Scotland Yard (and a later inspiration for for the Thompson Twins musical group, speaking of trivia). Whether you remember these wonderful Tintin stories or are encountering it anew, you'll find this web site wonderful and a great way to learn more about this wonderful creation. And the Tintin posters, toys and the entire series of books on my shelf are just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. A VISIT TO YESTERLAND http://www.mcs.net/~werner/yester.html Growing up in Southern California, I spent quite a bit of time at Disneyland. In fact, any time anyone would visit us from out of town I was the desgnated tourguide, so I probably went to Disneyland fifteen times between the ages of 10 and 17. There are, of course, a stack of Disney-related sites, including the expensive productions from the Disney organization, but none of them talk about all the great rides that used to be at Disneyland and have been replaced. Except Yesterland. Created by Werner Weiss, the site highlights the many great - and now obsolete - rides that used to be at the park. It's great fun. The rides that I most remember that are no longer part of the park are the Rocket to the Moon, Voyage through Inner Space (with the huge eyeball looking through the microscope at ME), the entire Frontierland and, my favorite ride as a kid (which says a lot about how exciting my childhood was) the Peoplemover. DO THE HUSTLE? http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~ryburnp/discoweb.html Speaking of things I should never have admitted while specifying where the bus should travel... I admit, when I was in my late teens my pal Mitchell and I cruised the Discotheques, and, horror, I actually *liked* disco music back then. Ah, how time can cure all wounds and weaknesses. If you can handle it, Paul Ryburn of the University of Memphis has a pretty funny, if crude, web site that brings back all the fun and naive optimism of the Disco craze in the United States. Gadzooks, I can even remember owning a copy of the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and thinking it was Very Good Music. MEET THE BEATLES http://www.liv.ac.uk/ipm/beatles/ Once I got over the disco phase, I moved along a bit in the realm of music and started to really like the Beatles. Of course, I missed out the real obsessive interest that people had with the Fab Four, but I can still tell you most of the hidden messages on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! This web site, hosted on a computer in Liverpool, England, home of the original mop heads, is absolutely excellent. A beautiful site, the more you know about the Beatles, the more you'll appreciate how they've designed and presented the information here. Don't forget to find the spot on the cover album that lets you see the "flip side". There's also a fun trivia game that you will find quite challenging, even if you are a boomer. My helpful tip: Paul McCartney was the one everyone thought was dead... GI JOE http://www.netaxis.com/~petebuilt/gijoe/ Like lots of boys of that generation I played with dolls when I was a youngster. Of course, they were dolls of violence and warfare - predictably - and I remember slamming through our yard with my various GI Joe dolls. In fact, I played with them prior to realizing that they represented the brash, annoying American soldier who was such a mixed blessing overseas during the many conflicts of this century. This web site is well done and my favorite part is the kidnapping and interrogation of a Ken doll by the GI Joe gang. This makes the entire web site worth visiting! MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE BUS I'd become complacent driving the bus and gotten a bit sleepy. Next thing I knew, Bob had wrested back control of the tourbus, relegated me to the Main Street bus station, and zoomed off on his merry way, leaving me in a cloud of dust. Next time, however, I have another plan, a plan that involves, well, I can't really say here... that'd spoil everything. ---- Hope you enjoyed today's guest driver! Dave is one of the few cyberfriends I've actually met in person, and he's done a lot to make the Internet more useful for many people. You can find some background on Dave Taylor in my July 1995 interview with him, here: http://www.boardwatch.com/mag/95/jul/bwm45.htm If you want to get in touch, mail him at taylor@intuitive.com or visit his web site: http://www.intuitive.com/taylor -- Bob P.S. - The sponsor message in today's "bus logo" (see the top of this message) is not a scam. CyberPulse is a long-time Tourbus sponsor and a legitimate research firm working on behalf of the AMA in this project. =====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]=================== The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238 Copyright 1995-97, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM =====================================================================