# light studies of old vhs tapes status: underway https://robert-what.itch.io/studies-of-vhs-era-light-in-old-shows ![[minder-the-light-of-existential-depression.jpg|600]] screen capture studies of old vhs-quality light and its existential mood-tones **80s memory** to consider an aesthetic mode comprised of warm fake faded pop culture memories of light in an all american bedroom during what experimental internet theorist-for-hire robert what terms the 'near future retro 80s' **bl stryker** beautiful hell as near future retro 80s florida in the purple-blue tinged night **boredom smulator light in reginald perrin** to consider a study of the light in popular boredom simulator "the fall and rise of reginald perrin"a uk sitcom starring leonard rossiter - based on a series of novels written by david nobbs (bbc1976 to 1979.) the series is vitally important because of the way it strongly hints at the cultural public secret that existence in good ol' britstain (aka endland or ukania) is all but utterly unlivable absurd and thoroughly horrible (even for the middling classes.) an existential nightmare on the cheap full of stiff upper lips in the face of the horror of an impossibly circumscribed and ultra-repressed society. little people in ir little chintz-filled rooms endlessly concerned - endlessly kidding themselves > hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way > ~ pink floyd (dark side of the moon1973) oh the beige tinted boredom of english so-called life! the awful silent slow-strangled agony of such hopeless vague desires and downtrodden mediocre dreams. no wonder that the uk is so full of neurotic oddballs and affected weirdos. (it's not like there's anything else to do on this utterly miserable little backwater island - 'the seaside town they forgot to bomb' indeed.) at least reggie tried. 'sous les pavesla plage!' reginald perrin billberry hall speech > reggie: thank you. thank you very much indeed. thank you mister.. whatever your name is. when my boss said to me "reginald iolanthe perrin you are a senior sales earwig at sunshine desserts and they are holding a seminar on instant puddings at bilberry hall and i want you to talk on 'are we getting our just desserts?' "my first thought was: 'what a pathetic title for a talk!' (cj scowls.) but then i thought again (cj loses ir scowl.) my second thought was: 'what a pathetic title for a talk!' (cj finds ir scowl again). but i come here anyway because i have something very important to say to you all. we are told that we need more growth: 6% per year. more chemicals to cure more pollution caused by more chemicals. more car parks for more tourists who want to get away from more car parks. more food to make us more fat to make us use more slimming aids to make us take more pills to make us ill to make us take more pills to make more profit. more boring speakers making more boring speeches at more boring conferences > dr. hump (mutters to mr. watkins): this is rubbish. (reggie overhears) > reggie: more rubbish that's a very good point thank you hump. but what has all this growth done for me? well i'll tell you. one day i'll die and on my grave it will say: "here lies reginald iolanthe perrin. ey didn't know the names of the trees and the flowers but ey knew the rhubarb crumble sales figures for schleswig holstein." look outside at those trees - beautiful. but soon they will all be cut down to make more underground par carks. but i have got good news for you because half the parking meters in london have got dutch parking meter disease > cj: (to elizabeth) i wish they'd stick to the point! i didn't get where i am today talking about dutch parking meter disease > reggie: in the audience my boss cj. let's have a big hand for cj. (there is scattered applause as cj half-rises in acknowledgement). ok that's enough. ladies and gentlemen. you see we become what we do. you show me a hero who makes fondue tongs and i'll show you a happy man who earns ir living perforating lavatory paper. "but what do you believe in?" i hear you ask. do i hear you ask? well i'll tell you anyway: i know that i don't know. i believe in not believing. you see for every man who believes something there's somebody who believes the opposite. what's the point? how many wars would have been fought how many people would have been tortured if nobody ever believed in anything? have you ever heard of 'the wars of the apathetic'? or 'the persecution of the apathetic by the bone idle'? > dr. hump: (mutters to mr. watkins) i think we've heard enough of this! > reggie: but if we try and complain about it we're told we're standing in the way of 'progress'. progress! there's a word that begs the pardon. i beg your parsnips. i'm sorry it doesn't beg the parsnips it begs the question > dr. hump: i think he's drunk > reggie: that's funny so do i. (doc morrissey stands up and leaves the room.) oh there ey goesdoc morrissey 'the wizard of the aspirin'. off to the bog 'cause ir's frightened of cj's fishing contest. ir's gone to practice ir flies! > dr. hump: get rid of him watkins! > reggie: old 'baldy hump' here. you know why ir's bald don't you? made a right cock-up. put pesticide on ir hair - hair restorer on ir plums. now ir's as bald as a coot. got a garden full of hairy plums! anybody here from canada? anybody here from australia? tarporley? anybody here from tarporley? stand upall those from tarporley and shake hands with the person on your right > cj: come onperrin! i didn't get where i am today shaking hands with the person on my right! > reggie: oh cj. i want to help you! what use has life if it isn't for the people who have to live it? (several people rise to remove reggie from the podium including dr. hump.) oh here ey comesold baldy hump. lecturer in applied manure at the university of steeple bumstead! (reggie is removedand mr. watkins tries to restore order.) get your hands off me! oh god he's got me right in the balls! a great series for highlighting the awfulness of daily uk existence - other than the rampant sexism and characters running around in blackface.. "they don't make em' like that anymore" thank elvis **buck rogers retro tv light** to consider the light in hit sci fi tv series buck rogers in the 25th century > get out your card decks and backgammon boards - lucky buck is back! > ~ buck rogers **creepy space 99** oh those cool 70's sci fi vibes **fred dibhah**  you could sure climb a northern-megastructural brick chimney but you sure could have been nicer to your wives whom you cut of of your will as for being used as a condescending middle class twat's idea of blue-collar craftsmanship and bygone-era bullshit embraced by audiences for his lancastrian charm - a working class heritage patsy / pasty for the cameras - you also did a good job "oh look a little man from the north with dirt under his fingernails how quaint - throw him a few coins will you butler" sharing one's enthusiasm about 'great britain's industrial heritage isn't where it's at dear fred - especially when you systematically fail to mention the untold suffering caused by the incredibly harsh industrial labor and continent-wide exploitation tell you what fred stick that 'member of the order of the british empire' you received from the buck house lizards on top of one of those impressively tall and ugly chimneys so the rest of us underclass morons can look up at it in unthinking celebration forever inwardly striving and aspiring to all it symbolizes and entails forget forever doffing at all the toffs a working class patsy for the ruling class let's try challenging the dehumanizing effects of the industrial revolution and the iron-rigid dogmas of religion so we can together (as one united) build a spiritual utopia flock fred dibnah and his flocking cloth cap he's the sort of asshole who'd choose to be a foreman of a dark satanic mill **ghost light of the civil dead** techno-institutional scale horror **lovejoy light** to consider an authentic study of the light in cult obsolete tv series "lovejoy"set in the rustic antique wilds of east anglia > after all what does england have if not it's past? > ~ lovejoy (ian mcshane) **minder the light of existential depression** oh london how dull and dreary you are how did anyone ever cope with the weary time-worn heaviness of your cold morning light **mundane dr who light** to consider select screens from the tom baker era of classic uk sci fi series dr who in which super mundane colors listlessly pop forth from ancient dimensional tv portal tubes direct from the basement archives; old faded scarves providing a warm yet mildly depressed feeling of half forgotten star travelling nostalgia featuring cosmic acting legend tom 'book tower' baker **psychic devastation in wolfen** in which to consider scenes of urban anxiety & psychic devastation in the movie wolfen (1981) > dewey: you keep in touch? > eddie: with what - the guy next door - my mother - with what? > dewey: with mother nature > eddie: sure.. > ~ scene from wolfen while a generally underwhelming flick wolfen (1981) features remarkable scenes of urban anxiety & utter psychic devastation; new york considered as existential bomb site naturally the twin towers feature in the movie the film's main shocking aspect is violent gap between pale city rich and brown skinned poor in which such images mirror sense of civil war and ruin seen and felt in films like good the bad & the ugly or el topo - which makes them simultaneously western / shallow cinematic experience of the deep western existential void **solo tv series light** oh so very seventies and smoking those hair styles flares and deadly pointed collars that cloying sense of mundane life half lived **the kids in the hall** ah toronto and your mysterious oddball northern existential ways - oh what it must mean to roll with a tight crew **the light of a chinese detective** the light of small town (london) depression and brown cheap suits the very sight of which drain the will and sap all psychic energy needed to reach permanent existential escape velocity // republic of bob