The One Where Matt Realizes his Uncle Ted is a Jedi
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I caught "Silverado" on American Movie Classics (AMC) the other night. From the opening scene on, I was instantly reminded why that movie is a modern classic. That movie is and will always be one of most badass movies ever made. In my humble opinion, "Silverado" belongs right there with "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars" in the discussion of "best of the era." What "Star Wars" did for the "Buck Rogers" serialized shorts and what "Indiana Jones" did for serialized radio dramas, "Silverado" did for the cowboy movies of the 40's and 50's. It completely brought these age old archetypes out, dusted them off, and tapped into some kind of contemporary sensibility.
Whereas "Star Wars" tapped into the collective national high of the Bicentennial and "Indiana Jones" tapped into the need to see Nazi face melting, "Silverado" is totally a bi-product of the damned dirty hippies from the 1960's settling down and starting families. That's why you have these free-wheeling, uber intelligent cowboys fighting racial injustices and becoming sheriffs and putting up with Rosanna Arquette's bad acting. Only a movie town inhabited by damned dirty hippies would have John Cleese as their sheriff.
Watching "Silverado" really triggered a sense of nostalgia for me. The first time I ever saw that movie was when I was about 9 years old and my Uncle Ted let me borrow his taped recording of that movie, which also had a couple of other movies on it.
My Uncle Ted's always been pretty tech savvy. He's probably the first person I know who had a video camera. He's worked for HP for as long as I've been alive (I think). He's also one of those people who always seems to have "bits and pieces" of anything and everything that you'd ever need. He's also one of those people who always seems to have "bits" and "pieces" of knowledge to pass on, as well. I don't talk to him as much as I used to, but every time I do, he seems to pass something substantial on to me.
That's why my brother and I have declared my Uncle Ted the number one person you'd want to have around if the zombies started invading. He'd be the guy that could instruct you on how to build a motorcycle, tell you how to Eagle Scout some water out of the ground, and then give you some kind of life advice as you went on your way. He's kind of the John Locke of our family.
Being as tech savvy as he was (and still is), he was one of the first people I knew who recorded things off the television with his VCR. We now live in an age in which recording anything you want is easier than ever. I can go home right now and set my DVR to record a show that isn't going to air for another 6 months. But for me, it'll never get any better than that first initial era of recording things.
There's something to be said about deliberately planning your day around being home so that you can be there to manually hit the "record" button on your VCR. You have to plan that out. You have to get a copy of the TV Guide weekly booklet, find movies that you're looking for, and then be there to hit record. I love the deliberateness of it all. And because your VHS tapes could only hold so much, it meant that you really only recorded the cream of the crop, the best of the best.
Nowadays, if I see something cool online, with a couple clicks of the mouse and a few keystrokes, I can send it on to any number of people via e-mail, YouTube, and Facebook. But I just really love the deliberateness of the simple act of my Uncle handing me a video tape with a movie on it that he recorded because he thought it was cool.
And if his 1986 self is like my 2010 self, part of the excitement of seeing awesome things comes with the urge to "pass it on." As in, "man, this is awesome. I can't wait to share this with my XYZ." If we're tying in geek culture here, it's more Obi Wan passing on Anakin's sword to Luke than we are talking about Neo uploading a kung fu program from some kind of database.
I held that tape in my hand. It stayed on the countertop during one of our almost monthly family get togethers. I couldn't *wait* to get home and watch that tape. I had to manually adjust the "tracking" on the VCR.
I think what really hit me the most was that my Uncle was hip enough with movies to know that his 9 year old nephew would have loved that movie. I love that geek culture transcends eras and ages. I love that I may one day show my child or my great-grandchildren movies like "The Searchers" or "Star Wars" and "Silverado" or "Sanjuro." What was cool in 1950 is still cool today.
To take this geek analogy further let's throw some more Star Wars into the mix; my dad was my Master and he taught me so much in my life that I'm still learning stuff from him even though he's been gone for 7 years. Well, Uncles are like the other members of the Jedi Council. They can never take the place of your parents, but they can often teach you things that your parents aren't "cool" enough to get.
It's because they're uncles. I was just an uncle once. They get the fun job of shaking up their sibling's kids and handing them back to their parents when their fizziness is going to explode all over the carpet.
My siblings and I have to be some of the luckiest nieces and nephews around.
Matthew
Whereas "Star Wars" tapped into the collective national high of the Bicentennial and "Indiana Jones" tapped into the need to see Nazi face melting, "Silverado" is totally a bi-product of the damned dirty hippies from the 1960's settling down and starting families. That's why you have these free-wheeling, uber intelligent cowboys fighting racial injustices and becoming sheriffs and putting up with Rosanna Arquette's bad acting. Only a movie town inhabited by damned dirty hippies would have John Cleese as their sheriff.
Watching "Silverado" really triggered a sense of nostalgia for me. The first time I ever saw that movie was when I was about 9 years old and my Uncle Ted let me borrow his taped recording of that movie, which also had a couple of other movies on it.
My Uncle Ted's always been pretty tech savvy. He's probably the first person I know who had a video camera. He's worked for HP for as long as I've been alive (I think). He's also one of those people who always seems to have "bits and pieces" of anything and everything that you'd ever need. He's also one of those people who always seems to have "bits" and "pieces" of knowledge to pass on, as well. I don't talk to him as much as I used to, but every time I do, he seems to pass something substantial on to me.
That's why my brother and I have declared my Uncle Ted the number one person you'd want to have around if the zombies started invading. He'd be the guy that could instruct you on how to build a motorcycle, tell you how to Eagle Scout some water out of the ground, and then give you some kind of life advice as you went on your way. He's kind of the John Locke of our family.
Being as tech savvy as he was (and still is), he was one of the first people I knew who recorded things off the television with his VCR. We now live in an age in which recording anything you want is easier than ever. I can go home right now and set my DVR to record a show that isn't going to air for another 6 months. But for me, it'll never get any better than that first initial era of recording things.
There's something to be said about deliberately planning your day around being home so that you can be there to manually hit the "record" button on your VCR. You have to plan that out. You have to get a copy of the TV Guide weekly booklet, find movies that you're looking for, and then be there to hit record. I love the deliberateness of it all. And because your VHS tapes could only hold so much, it meant that you really only recorded the cream of the crop, the best of the best.
Nowadays, if I see something cool online, with a couple clicks of the mouse and a few keystrokes, I can send it on to any number of people via e-mail, YouTube, and Facebook. But I just really love the deliberateness of the simple act of my Uncle handing me a video tape with a movie on it that he recorded because he thought it was cool.
And if his 1986 self is like my 2010 self, part of the excitement of seeing awesome things comes with the urge to "pass it on." As in, "man, this is awesome. I can't wait to share this with my XYZ." If we're tying in geek culture here, it's more Obi Wan passing on Anakin's sword to Luke than we are talking about Neo uploading a kung fu program from some kind of database.
I held that tape in my hand. It stayed on the countertop during one of our almost monthly family get togethers. I couldn't *wait* to get home and watch that tape. I had to manually adjust the "tracking" on the VCR.
I think what really hit me the most was that my Uncle was hip enough with movies to know that his 9 year old nephew would have loved that movie. I love that geek culture transcends eras and ages. I love that I may one day show my child or my great-grandchildren movies like "The Searchers" or "Star Wars" and "Silverado" or "Sanjuro." What was cool in 1950 is still cool today.
To take this geek analogy further let's throw some more Star Wars into the mix; my dad was my Master and he taught me so much in my life that I'm still learning stuff from him even though he's been gone for 7 years. Well, Uncles are like the other members of the Jedi Council. They can never take the place of your parents, but they can often teach you things that your parents aren't "cool" enough to get.
It's because they're uncles. I was just an uncle once. They get the fun job of shaking up their sibling's kids and handing them back to their parents when their fizziness is going to explode all over the carpet.
My siblings and I have to be some of the luckiest nieces and nephews around.
Matthew
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