Ask Your Parents Permission Before Going Online // Diptych #21
edutainment at it's finest
On Form and Format…
This week, there’s no real theme to the tapes I have for you. During the last week of December, I was very lucky to get over to AmVet’s Thrift Store in Alcoa, Tennessee to dig through their media area. This isn’t a spot I regularly frequent, so maybe that’s why I often have such good luck there, but as always I found a ton of stuff I’ve been looking for (as well as some welcome surprises).
I think soon I’d like to document a good find like this while I’m at the store. I’ve gotten a few questions from readers asking what I look for / how I’ve found places with large media shelves, and while I’ve responded to their questions in as much detail as I could, I’d love to write a little article for others who may be interested in this hobby but have no real idea how to get into it.
This weeks tape selection is a little more adolescent focused than what I’ve found in the past. Two tapes in particular are labeled specifically for young kids, but I still found them very entertaining. The Lightning tape looks like something I would have watched in my earth science class in high school, and the Germany tape, while not geared towards being educational, is still very informative and fun.
In my last post, I talked about how I liked archiving three tapes per post, however, lately that hasn’t seemed entirely possible. Last week, due to Youtube’s strict copyright policies, I had to move one tape over to Archive.org. Which is fine with me, but it makes it less easy for my readers to access. In order to make up for this, I uploaded an extra tape that week to Youtube. This week is much the same. Because of the majority of these tapes being aimed at children, I wanted to make sure there was still enough interesting material here for my readers / watchers, and I’ve uploaded four tapes again. I hope you enjoy!
BIG Buildings: Demolition and Reconstruction
1999
Hey kids! Your daydreams have come true! This is the video you've been waiting for! This video is awesome! You're about to see an incredible display of fireworks and explosions, as we TEAR DOWN the old to make room for the new! Huge buildings will vanish right before your eyes! Colorful fiery explosions will light up the sky! Powerful, roaring blasts of TNT and dynamite will explode, and YOU are there! You've never seen anything like this, kids! You'll love seeing the power and hearing the thunderous roar of these incredible explosions, over and over again!
Nova Presents: Lightning!
1995
Lightning! takes you on a high voltage trip into the most electrically charged weather in the world -- culmination in a dazzling lightning show set to music that rivals the most extraordinary fireworks display. The program also visits with some of lightning's tragic victims who thought they were out of harm's way.
Lightning's fleeting rivers of electricity strike Earth 6,000 times a minute; jolt every commercial airplane one to two times a year; wipe out power to entire cities; hit 1,000 people annually; and account for more deaths than hurricanes and tornadoes put together. Join scientists as they tempt nature by creating the world's tallest lightning rod, a wire leading thousands of feet into storm clouds, which triggers awe-inspiring thunderbolts a few hundred feet from the observer -- and creates a chunk of "petrified" lightning. "I think lightning fascinates everyone" says "stormchaser" Dan Davis. "It's a personification of the intensity, the chaos and the unpredictability of nature."
Discovering Germany by The Reader's Digest Association
1991
Journey to united Germany, a nation physically and culturally at the crossroads of history. See quaint medieval villages, beautifully restored cities and unequaled cultural wonders. Visit the cradle of German civilization, Lake Constance, Lose yourself in the Black Forest, a fairytale land of cuckoo clocks and half-timbered, thatched-roofed houses. Admire imaginatively painted house fronts in quaint Bavarian villages nestled among alpine peaks. Gaze at the soaring spires of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in Speyer, Bamberg, and Freiberg. Immerse yourself in the baroque splendor of Wurzburg Castle or the rococo intricacies of the Wieskirche. Be dazzles by medieval splendor. Walk the gardens of Fredrick the Great's Sanssouci Palace.
Join the boisterous celebration of Oktoberfest in Munich, the metropolis with a heard. You can almost taste the ginger cakes, marzipan, sausages, and beer. Relive the fall of the Berlin Wall, walk through the Brandenburg Gate and explore the treasures of Germany's capital. Sojourn alon the wild and lonely Baltic coast. Trace the footsteps of Goethe and Schiller in Weimar and Martin Luther in Wittenberg. Visit medieval Waitburg Castle, lively Erfurt marketplace, and the rugged Saxonian Switzerland. Relish delicate Meissen porcelain. Marvel at the splendors of restored Dresden, Germany's "Florence on the Elbe."
"WOW! What a Truck!" The Big Rig Video for Kids
1994
Get ready, "good buddy", as we enter the world of BIG TRUCKS! Check out all the action as giant 18-wheelers loaded with cargo cruise across the country. Watch as they travel to truck stops, loading docks and the truck garage. Take a ride inside the cab and learn truck talk. WOW WHAT A TRUCK! is fun and educational. Driving a big rig, it's a special way of life. "Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up!"
If you’d like to check out my other archival work, please check out my Youtube playlists for video and audio archives.
Thanks so much for checking out this week’s edition of Diptych. As always, if you have any questions or comments you can get at me here or here or leave a comment below this post. If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet (it’s free) please think about doing so.
See you soon.
—Forrest
!!!!!