The NBC Peacock is losing its colors and turning gray…
Posted on January 19, 2010 | By Christian | 1 Comment
If you are looking for a different slant on the NBC battlefront I recommend you check out this blog posting by Daniel at Nightly.net entitled “The Baby Boomers Vs. Generation X in the Late Night War”. Daniel discusses the late night feud, much like 90% of all blogs lately (now including ours), and its relation to Baby Boomers (the Jay Leno camp) vs. Generation X (Conan O’Brien). A great point Daniel makes is that NBC looks to be siding more with the Baby Boomer generation as a target audience and is almost dismissing the Gen Xers.
Obviously there is a large population of Baby Boomers and it makes some fiscal sense for NBC to choose them as a target audience. However, I have to wonder a couple of things:
- Will the boomer population be willing to stay up that late on a consistent basis? It seems to me the younger crowd rules the night.
- Perhaps the Generation X viewers will feel snubbed by this move and view NBC as their parents station thereby turning even deeper to cable and online video?
- Will the ultimate winner be David Letterman? Not exactly a GenXer himself.
- Will Conan land at Comedy Central with a sweet new job (and time slot) and a much bigger following? That’s my bet.
Anyway, check it out. ~cg.
Gen X and retirement
Posted on January 8, 2010 | By Christian | 1 Comment
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran a mini-series of articles about Generation X and Retirement written by Maria Panaritis. I know what you are thinking, we are still way too young to really worry about retirement. So many things can happen that are out of our control between now and retirement, there isn’t much sense sweating it too much. Well, if you haven’t been thinking about retirement, its time to start. Now, I don’t want to bring you down but… reading this may.
Between making less overall than our parents did (accounting for inflation etc), the housing market just plain sucks, Baby Boomers taking forever to retire and eating up social security and basically sucking the life out of the economy, and don’t forget the cost of health care; Maria points out we are pretty much SOL. And lets not forget about the melting polar ice caps, but that’s for another bitch session.
Maybe it is time to just roll over and accept the fact that we are screwed on so many levels? Never! If Generation X knows anything, its that we can expect the worst and there isn’t much we can do about any of it. But don’t give up hope, somehow we always persevere. ~cg
Gen X- Small But Mighty
Posted on January 5, 2010 | By Christian | 1 Comment
If you are like me, you don’t really feel the love at work. Treated as a commodity with the ever present threat of corporate layoffs which seem to hit people by lottery since the “dead wood” has already been culled through the previous 5 layoff rounds. It gets old. I would like to reassure you that there is hope! Many of us forget that a large part of today’s workforce are Baby Boomers, and guess what… they aren’t getting any younger. Take a minute to read this article from October by Kelly Sharp called Gen X- Small But Mighty which talks about the Baby Boomer workforce of today.
What I especially like is the point Kelly makes about the number of Baby Boomer employees in the workforce today who are planning on retiring in the next 10 years, but the number of Gen-X employee which will back-fill them is fewer than the number retiring. Now, this is no panacea but its at least a glimmer of hope. One point Kelly does miss is the fact that many Boomer employees are working further into their 60’s than their parents generation, which certainly doesn’t help the Gen-X workers waiting for promotions.
Well, I could stand a little more appreciation at work – even if it is only through attrition. ~cg
P.S. I just ran across this blog on Roberts Virtual Soap Box called Why we (non-boomers) hate our jobs. You should definitely check it out. And while you are there check out his list of people he would like to see die in 2010 in his Top 10 Wingnuts Whose Deaths I’d Celebrate, 2010 Edition. He has Glenn Beck as #1 and I couldn’t agree more!
The World Has Officially Ended…
Posted on January 1, 2010 | By Robert LaFrance | 2 Comments
Clear Channel, the radio conglomerate and sworn enemy of music lovers everywhere, announce new format entitled, “Generation X Radio.” God help us!
From the press release:
The station will feature music from the 80’s and 90’s and will cross musical genres by featuring Grunge, Hip Hop, Hair Bands, Boy Bands and others.
Proof of the aforementioned apocalypse:
#1: Clear Channel and Generation X are mentioned in the same sentence
#2: “We believe every song played on KTGX-FM will generate fans, not just listeners” Right, because a “rock block” featuring Poison, ‘N Sync, Wil Smith, and Nirvana’s “Rape Me” back to back is sure to “generate fans.”
I’m sure this will serve as fodder for a future rant so stay tuned to The Slacker Factor.
Read the official press release here.
On Slacking, A Meandering Rant from TSF4
Posted on January 1, 2010 | By Patty Pino | 1 Comment
I am honored that you are even listening to me, listening to us, at this moment. Alright – maybe “honored” is a little thick. I’m more like surprised and impressed – in a good way. Hey – I know what it took for you to get here. Booting up things, clicking around places, having to pay attention, downloading stuff, maybe. All of that is work. Really, and I know you have better choices than anything that even resembles work. You could be half-passed-out on the living room couch right now, test-tasting the snacky things that your kid dropped between the cushions, drooling a little. That would be easier; but instead, you’re here. Well, maybe you’re both. Anyway, if you are here, then you, my friend, qualify as a slacker. THAT is why I am honored. Thank you, fellow Slacker, for listening.
Slackers, like me and Chris(tian) and Rob and you, are not incapable of doing stuff. We are actually really capable, and we actually do stuff. It is just that, when given the choice, most times we’d rather not. Well, that isn’t totally true – we like to do the stuff we like to do, just not the stuff we’re supposed to do, or stuff we have to do, or stuff that sucks.
I find myself in total, almost constant, conflict. Do I do the laundry, or surf the web for strange pets-in-costume photos? It is important that I visit my parents and help them take out the their garbage, but just one more episode of Anthony Bourdain’s snarky world-travel show can’t hurt, and then, I’m out the door – I promise. Believe me, besides you, I am the least-disciplined person you know.
The place where my slacker-factor has the most negative impact is in the area of EXERCISE. Can you relate, you couch-loving snack-forager? Even the word sucks – ex-er-size. It sounds like an awkward and uncomfortable way to cancel out the beautiful size of me. I suppose that that is the point, but does it have to sound so dorky? “I’m going to exercise.” Sure…some people call it “working out”, but that involves WORK, and I’m not into that.
I suppose if you could exercise an actually look cool, which you can’t, or maybe if you could hang out with Henry Rollins or Iggy Pop at the gym, which you can’t, maybe it would be appealing. But Rollins and Iggy are like the anti-slackers, and that would bring up so much additional guilt…forget it.
So, how does a slacker survive in this responsibility-filled, money-oriented, you-gotta-work society? Often, in a bitter, and begrudging way. Really, we seek out other slackers who can bring things to the table to assist our lazy-asses. Who wants to reinvent the wheel, when some other guy is into sharing his wheels with his friends? The network of slackers is huge, and we’ll bring it to you, when we’re motivated. We wanna help you, friend, enjoy the moments of your life, with minimal effort. Let’s use this networking and technology crap to ease the pains of your intended efforts and relieve you from the toils of your existence.
~pp
<Hear this amazing rant, as well as other nonsense, on the podcast TSF4: Mary’s Gone Slackers, is NOW ONLINE!>
