Makes You Think All the World's A Sunny Day

As a Gen-X'r (Atari Wave, not Nintendo Wave) I have one foot firmly placed in the nostalgia of my youth: 8mm film, AM and FM radio, land-line phones, broadcast analog television . . . yet I accept and enjoy the technological progress that I have witnessed: DVDs and streaming video, mp3s, smart phones, satellite television, to name just a few. And as much as I've enjoyed those "old-school" things, you won't find me comparing 45 RPM records with streaming audio and trying to convince someone of the merits of, well, historical technology. Despite this, the film slide transparency of Kodachromes and Ektachromes have yet to be surpassed for me. Do I have any delusions that technology won't surpass these images? No. Someday soon they will. But not yet. Years ago, I read a novel by Steven King that he wrote under the pen-name Richard Bachman. The novel, "Rage," recounts a Columbine-esque scenario of a disturbed young man. I recall the story only because of a passing reference in the story of the main character gazing at the image of a relative in a slide image that was being projected. The colors, the luminance, the big-as-life picture hanging there in the dark . . . for a moment, you find yourself back in that place, hearing those sounds, seeing those people . . . it's almost as if you could step into the picture.

How would you be received? What would you say? Could you make them understand? Would it change anything? Would they believe you? Would it matter?