Trailing edge of a generation

Second-halfer of an unasked-for cultural revolution

No, I’m not going to talk about being a baby boomer. Though I am one, or perhaps one of those that were called Generation Jones or the Cusp generation. Found that out looking for the “official dates” of the baby boomer generation. Also found out that those who were born in China in my generational parenthesis were subject to cultural revolution and birth restrictions. The State subsidized the saying of no to unwanted pregnancies while we had to fight for such. Now they are trying to convince their people to have kids while the offspring of my fellow boomers are almost being forced to do so. Funny how that is, isn’t it?

But well, for those who do not know me from previous contact, I’m revel arroway, I was born in 1959, on the 4th of July. I’m an American who left the States back at the end of the ‘80s and has lived in Spain since then. If you’re curious, I’ve explained my first four decades on my podcast, you’re listening to radio revel, here’s where you can find a playlist of those episodes that are autobiographical.

Well, that out of the way, I’ve started this Substack mainly because I want a separate place to leave these thoughts of mine. The podcast I have run for the past five years is more creative, I like to do radio-type drama, tell stories, talk about movies and TV. Yet, from time to time I feel that I’ve got something to say about the current events that carry on around us. And while the first of the baby boomers are just closing in on their 80s and a lot of them are off to greener pastures, I’m still here and think I should participate in carrying the flag of our generation’s collective memory while subsequent generations move the dial in their own way.

So, filtering here, bringing the social and political content over here to Substack in an attempt to compartmentalize stuff, I think that’s what I’m doing. I like writing my scripts on this type of platform, I’ve got the podcast scripts on a WordPress blog; I’ve started up a publication on Medium where I talk about my podcast journey, yet that’s where things began to bleed out, that journey necessarily included realizations about how what I was creating in the fictional realm was closely tied to the real-world realm I watch from the peanut gallery.

First posts here will actually be stuff I import from both you’re listening to radio revel and other platforms, like Medium and YouTube. I don’t mind repeating stuff across the Internet, something Google tried to punish us for about a decade ago, I do believe there are people who read Substacks who never open YouTube or listen to podcasts. I’m honestly not just trying to put my work into appropriate niches but also trying to find more audience without using the so-called “social media” (which is, for me, far from social, what’s social in slinging shit? I ask. Or maybe I should be asking the chimps?), just getting my stuff here and there and maybe running into others who find my stuff interesting.

Thanks for checking out this post. There’s a video version. There’s a podcast episode with the audio version. You’ve already seen the written version here.

Hope you decide to join me regularly.

Cheers,

revel.