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Age is a funny thing. We’re aware of religious and racial discrimination, but people have impressions of how people should behave and what they’re capable of, by knowing someone’s age. I’m not saying age is as abused as the former two, but there is an effect.
I was buying breakfast today at the local milk bar, if you can call it that these days, wondering what I’d be able to get for free or
cheap. While the woman behind the counter cooked my breakfast, the discussion then went something like this:
Woman: You meet my daughter?
I should mention for no discriminatory reason whatsoever, that she had has an Asian accent, which immediately gives some clarity to her question.
RBF: Umm… no I haven’t. How is she?
Woman: She 21 months old. She studying Uni.
RBF: Oh, your daughter’s 21 months old? And she’s studying at Uni? Why isn’t she cooking my breakfast then?
Woman: She no like the shop. She work in Mes.. Westfield, in jewelry shop.
RBF: Oh. She’s 21 years old yeah?
Woman: She come in here every so often, but not enjoy it.
RBF: Well next time she comes in, you point her out to me OK?
Woman: You studying Uni?
RBF: [laugh] No, I’m a bit past that now. How old do you think I am?
Woman: Ooh, twenty, twenty one or so. You people hard to tell.
RBF: OK. [laugh] I’ll tell you a secret. [whispering] I’m 38.
Well suddenly she was quiet, started concentrating on the cooking, and never looked back at me again.
So what’s with being 38? Maybe that put me at her age, and changed her whole status equation, having to re-evaluate how to behave, feeling that she’s exposed her family perhaps, to someone only 21 is OK, but now a thinking and experienced adult?
Or maybe it has opened up other perceived contact points for her, that make her uncomfortable. Social comfort levels tend to be based upon how many or few contact points people have with others, such as friendly, personal, knowing something private, or for the Freudian’s amongst us, sexual tension. If you consider that sexual tension is now a (completely unlikely) option, and she was talking about meeting her daughter, if I were 21, would I still be a personal threat to her? Or am I only a threat now that I’m 38? Oh isn’t the subconscious an amazing thing.
And what’s with her wanting me to meet her daughter? And why can’t a 38 year old have a relationship, meaningful or otherwise, with a 21 year old? Not that I’ve ever met her of course. But then it was all probably small talk anyway.
I’m not going to brag that I look really young, but I get it a lot, getting to know people quite well, and then have them completely shocked when they find out how old I am. Usually the friendship cancels out any age problems, but some people do change when they find out, treating me
differently.
But as we know, it’s what is inside that is important. I only feel about 28, and for about 15 years I felt 24, so who cares if I’m 15 or 65?
In the past, age played a big role in the difference between social groups, specifically from 1950s to 1980s, when science, technology, pop culture and politics were uniquely generational. However we are now returning to a time pre-20th century, when those differences aren’t as significant. Many of my friends are in their early to mid 20s, as they probably would have been in previous centuries, so I’m thinking the 20th century was a unique exception to age as a devisive trait amongst social
groups. Interesting.
Steve tears the church a new one, over pay offs for sex scandals.
I played around with video again on the weekend, and the result is vog #2, Singleton Lets Loose, about our Synop mascot, Singleton the kangaroo/wallaby. I was determined to make something that could only work in the medium, and I think I’ve succeeded. It is also pretty crap, but at least I got to play.
I wanted to play with Final Cut Pro, and this is the result of a few hours of mucking around. I tried to use FCP for my previous vog post, but I’d forgotten how to use it, so I stuck with iMovie.
Anyway, I shot a few minutes of footage at work, without thinking I’d actually use it for anything, and then when I downloaded it I realised the sound was recorded by the built in camera mic. At least it allowed me to play with the FCP EQ and pass filters, but the result is still pretty bad. The scenes with Victor, Cordo and the shredder/printer are the only ones with original audio, the rest is dubbed by one of my dodgey voices, the one I usually use for little kid, and some additional music.
After recording the voice, I had to match the original room’s reverb (see Sound — the most experiential fingerprint of a 3 dimensional space for more on how sound affects recordings) with the reverb in FCP, to limited success. The controller in FCP (v3 at least) is fairly restrictive, and assuming it isn’t just my rushed mixing, you can hear how the dubbed voice doesn’t exactly match that of the real actors.
Finally, add a couple video fades and transitions, opening and closing titles, and a few other audio tweeks, and it’s done.
So assuming the cast of Singleton, Victor and Cordo approve, and haven’t made me remove it, grab it from the enclosure, and tell me what you think.