Invisible Times: Xmas, 1984

A Christmas Message from MRS REGN

Radio Times Programme — Thoughtful Man kept mementos of all the things we went to see together. 137 fell out of the programme as soon as I opened it

I’d like to start by addressing this missive to Hugo. Merry Christmas. This message was brought to you after listening to Medium is the Massage… again *rolls eyes*

If anybody wants to understand synchronicity, they could spend 42 minutes (including ad that will probably be skipped over) out of this year’s Christmas celebrations to listen the audio extra that accompanies Marshall McLuhan & Quentin Fiore’s 1967 book…

Hugo, like me, you are not employed by anybody presently. Like me, you’re not sure what you want to do now you’re no longer in paid employment. You jumped first; I followed not long after.

Perhaps we’re like frogs that realised the water in the pan was starting to get a wee bit too hot 😉

I’ve really enjoyed our film discussions on MEROVEE over the last couple of years. The first one I remember you posting about was ‘The Terminal’. I replied to you directly about it, but I made a shambles of it, hear.

Then we briefly compared two Tom Cruise movies: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and ‘Vanilla Sky’. Again, a I made a shambolic reply.

This led to the big breakthrough for us with ‘Memento’ and ‘The Matrix’: what if Mr Anderson had taken the Blue Pill from Morpheus and woken up the next morning in his bed (just like Morpheus said), not at NEO but as LEO, who can’t remember anything and can only function by writing things down…

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A digression – The Boys have returned from watching ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ at the cinema with their school chums. They were dropped back on the doorstep by Thoughtful Man (who’s work; it’s Friday night), bearing branded offerings and a major spoiler…

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So I should get on with it and tell you about my time in Xmas 1984. One of the times I really enjoyed working.

I was placed in the Radio & TV Dept at John Lewis, Oxford Street in August of that year. As a YTS ‘O’ Level trainee, I’d spent the Christmas before, on the ground floor, in the Needlework & Knitting Wools dept before spending the next six months in the women’s fashion department, called ‘Trend’. I was 17. I hate working in fashion and was so looking forward to moving on to somewhere else.

I was one of only a couple of women working in this prestigious department on the 3rd floor. Otherwise, IT WAS STAFFED ENTIRELY BY MEN!! Sharp-suited men – both young and older gents. AND MOST OF THE CUSTOMERS WERE MEN, TOO!!

I was in my element. I learnt to sell TVs, radios, Walkmans, stereos, wogboxes (Apols! Ghetto Blasters) and video recorders (VHS mainly, Betamax was already on the way out). There was even the introduction of a teeny-tiny, portable TV. I sold one to Jess Conrad.

Additional things I learnt in my time there were a) how to safely wire up an electrical plug, b) how to string a box and c) how to flirt with the opposite sex. I went to an all girls school before – I really hadn’t had much practice 😉

As a newb I wasn’t allowed to sell the high end hi-fi equipment (like Bang & Olly-Bolly) – those were sold by Experts and where shut away in glass-fronted, sound-proofed rooms. However, there was also one other section within the department for a new up-and-coming product… Computers.

So I spent Xmas 1984 in Radio & TV Dept. ‘Computers’, at that time, wasn’t formally named; it was invisible, and I wasn’t allowed to try to sell them either. Goo goo g’joob, too – to me those stupid little boxes and bulky screens looked pants 😉

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Another one. Digression that is. This time Maccy :D. This is usually a late night Friday/early morning Saturday treat, some folks nose about. Tonight it is a tad earlier.

I’ll be back on the morrow, without any sorrow, with a music post inspired by Thoughtful Man. Can anyone suggest any sort of music he’s never heard before?

Come on Joe Public. I nose ur out there… Give us a Song 😉

I’m off to watch 5 episodes of The Big Bang Theory and rolls some fags.

CYL *blows kiss*

“There’s a moose loose about your hoose?”

What’s that you’ve got there, Click?

*I wrote that to Hugo last year. Actually it was ‘Queen of the Field Mice‘, Clicky, the role that I played…*

*Click, the conversations we’re having on Merovee at the moment about the media and the State of the Whirled are quite… liberating…*

*Deep dreaming and deep thought, my friend… Hey Clicky, mice! …/slaps forehead*

Mice are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings who, unbeknownst to the human race, are the most intelligent species on the planet Earth. They spent a lot of their time in laboratories running complex experiments on humans. They paid Magrathea for the planet and will now collaborate to create a new one due to the interruption of Vogons,

At the outset, they were so fed up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life which used to interrupt their favorite game, Brockian Ultra Cricket, that they decided to sit down and solve their problems once and for all.

They were the creators of Deep Thought, a stupendous super computer the size of a small city, to tell them the Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything. When seven and a half million years later it was realized they didn’t know the question to the answer they’d been given, a second computer, of such infinite and subtle complexity that life itself would form part of its operational matrix, was created to work out the Ultimate Question. That computer was known as theEarth.

Some notable mice in the series are Frankie and Benjy

*Excellent! Clicky the dolphin mouse… I must go tell Hugo, perhaps it will give him some forty-two’d… /titters*

*Oh pooh to you! You’re just jealous somebody came up with that pun before you. Look, Dumey may pop over later. If I’m still out…*

*Oh my, you found a dolphin mouse, how sweet. Yes, show it to Dumey, it’ll very likely bring him out in hives… Don’t wait up!*

Banana* and Bull**… Oh Bugger, not a Drunken Shambles?!

*It’s 1834h Clicky, two quick shots in. How many will it take..? Not too many I hope, don’t want to make a complete fool of myself… /rolls eyes*…

OMG Hugo is back! This is huge. I hadn’t fully realised how much I missed him until I saw him standing there…

Hugo introduced me to Marshall McLuhan…

*50 Years, Clicky! That 2027, he reckoned we’d discover the real effect in 12 years time. I hope I live that long, that would make me 70…*

To cut an infinite long story short, listen to this. Just turn off the rest of the world and spend a measly 42 mins of your finite life and go ‘old school’. Just listen…