This is the first time I've had a *seasonal* banner.

I usually have them for holidays, but I wanted to have something more permanent that isn't the usual "silver background with light-pattern." This might also be the first time that the banner's had colored outlines. Not too sure how well it works...What do you think of it?

The "leaves" background, which I spent a couple of days on, does work pretty well. The first version was a mostly-white background with some leaves blowing in a rather neat wind pattern (fig. 1)

Unfortunately, my lettering got lost in the mostly-white negative space. On its own, the above effect is striking, but as part of the banner, it's weak. Time to throw some more leaves in!

It's a mess, right? In this version, there's less negative space, which allows the letters to "pop" a little more while tastefully staying the same color. Trust me--it was either "add in more leaves" or "recolor the letters." The second option wasn't pretty.

The tagline...I had been racking my brain for something for the better part of a week. What you see is a shout-out to the local Chicago station WJYS-62, which used to run season-based station bumpers in between programs. The announcer always said something ridiculous, like "Fall and WJYS...the perfect combination." Now that the station is under new management, these bumpers have gone the way of the dodo.

Not the best picture, I know, but I quite like it.

*ahem* I found this at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in mid-April. 

It was my day off--a Wednesday. I was out looking for some things, with no result, until I realized that I was close to the thrift store. Already I could feel that "ping" I get when something is nearby. (The Millennium Beanie came from that same visit. :) )

The glassware/kitchenware section was full of random odds and ends that people had dropped off. Somewhere, stuck in the third shelf up, was this champagne flute. I thought, "Gee, we use a champagne flute and two martini glasses for New Year's Eve every year...I should really get another champagne flute in there." Granted, it doesn't match the ones we have, but it goes with the theme of the set, and it's a cool find all the same. (There were also a pair of metal champagne flutes, but, since these were tarnished and yucky-looking, I passed on them. Besides, they were a step too far.)

I thought for a long time that Roseland Community Hospital was some hospital out in Michigan or Minnesota or something. Come to find out it's in Chicago, Illinois! Well, how about that? Of course, the logo has changed since 2000, but I'm 99% sure it's the same place. Having said that, I'm not entirely certain about the flute's origins. Was it part of a set sold in the gift shop, or was it a promotion given to employees? Two explanations, each one equally valid...

It's really nicely made--the logo is somehow etched onto the surface of the glass, and the "2000" is set differently from the previous flutes--here, it has more of a "3D" effect. The one other difference is the presence of a rougher "ball" connecting the flute to the stem.

September 29, 1999: Boeing Given Go-Ahead on Spy-Satellite Program

September 29, 2000: CNN’s Laurin Sydney on Barbra Streisand’s final concert

(I’m just really lazy, all right?)

Time for a personal update

Hello, faithful readers! I think I should forgo an Item this week because I just can't think of anything, and I'm a little bit stuck as to October.

This coming Wednesday--September 25th--will mark one month since I had to go in for surgery on a tailbone cyst (the proper name for this is "pilonideal cyst"). I had to miss about three weeks of work while it healed, but now I'm back on the job. During those three weeks I was also housebound, which meant I couldn't go out and do things...this put a crimp in some of my plans for the Museum.

I've been allowed to go back to work, and I have a few long and hard weeks ahead of me, as well as the ChicagoTARDIS 2013 Convention in November to plan for. That shouldn't be too much to do, but the long hours at work will be the kicker. With all of that and other unforeseen things that'll inevitably come up, I'm looking at biweekly posts. It'll probably be two Items every two weeks.

Now, October: Halloween is coming up pretty soon. I had meant to do a feature on Chris Carter's TV series Millennium, but it's kind of hard-to-find...Amazon has it, but each set is $35 used, and with my hospital bills (thank God I got that insurance in April!) and trying to save up for the convention, I am not shelling out that kind of money. At least one library has it (I thought it would be Oak Lawn's), but it seems to be pretty far away, and it would take weeks to get here.

It might be a good idea to save Millennium for next year and focus on The Blair Witch Project this year. While it has no connection to the New Millennium on the surface, there are a few things about it that make it noteworthy, which I'll get into when that post comes up.

I'll also do one on the first Harry Potter book, because, like Blair Witch, it brought with it a renewal of fantasy as a genre. (The accompanying movie series is also noteworthy, but I'll discuss that later).

Oak Lawn Library had a few books about prophecy and the New Millennium, which I'll review as the month progresses. There's a lot of Nostradamus-themed stuff to cover...

DUUUUN...DUUUUN...da-dun-Dun-DUN...

You hear it, right? Quietly approaching from the distance, but getting ever louder…It’s…It’s…THE OLYMPICS THEME!

“No, wait, hold on, that can’t be right! We’ve just had London 2012!”

Ah, but, today we’re looking back at the Olympics from 13 years ago, with this Sydney Olympics 2000 Viewer’s Guide. I got it on eBay for $2.99 and $5 shipping. The first thing I’ll say about it is this: it’s a damn beautiful book. Looking at the front cover, there are three NBC logos: NBC Sports; MSNBC; and CNBC. It seems that this was a mail-in premium.

Here is where things could go south: I really don’t remember anything about that year’s Olympics at all! Barcelona 1992? Vaguely. Atlanta 1996? Yes—in fact, I still have a silver medal that came in a box of Frosted Cheerios when they first came out. Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012? I definitely remember them. But Sydney 2000 eludes me. I think it’s because the Games aired in September, while I was in eighth grade. Usually they’re on during the summer vacation; this was the exception.

"Gee, Nick, what are you going to do about it?"

The same thing I do every week, dear readers...Try to piece it together!

The first part of the book is fairly dull, being a section on the history and geography of Australia. There’s a nice section on the construction of the gigantic Olympic Park, which featured arenas for all of the games. Built over “an industrial wasteland,” the park was constructed over seven years and finished “six months before the Games,” said IOC coordination chairman Dr. Jacques Rogge.

The centerpiece of the park is Stadium Australia, the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, but the true crown jewel is the park’s railway station, built brand-new for the games.

Left: Olympic Stadium. Right: Olympic Railway.

By far, the most thought-provoking section is “A Whole New Look.” The Sydney Olympics were the first Games to ever receive coverage over four outlets: NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and NBCOlympics.com. On regular, broadcast NBC, viewers got a few games and edited highlights (though it would feature the majority of the “storytelling” aspect of the games), but CNBC and MSNBC broadcast games in their entirety as well as more in-depth coverage of teams and athletes alike.  NBCOlympics.com would show “results, detailed and innovative analyses and even contributions from the Olympians themselves.” (I hope they meant the athletes and not the Olympian Gods…)

Keep in mind that the World Wide Web was still having some teething problems, with 56k dial-up connections the norm—mass broadband would be a few years down the line. The Sydney coverage would have been text- and still image-based, with maybe a QuickTime video or two…I think Shockwave and Flash had been invented, but they had yet to show their true potential in YouTube, which came out in 2005 or so.

…Enough about computer technology for now. Let’s move on to Bob Costas’ “Reflections: An Essay,” which I think is one of the most touching sections of the book.

Sydney 2000 marked Costas’ third time hosting the Games for NBC; he debuted at the Barcelona games of 1992. “I think back eight years to Barcelona,” he writes, “when polio-stricken archer Antonio Rebollo dramatically opened the Games by firing a flaming arrow over the Olympic Cauldron.” It’s good that he got such a dramatic moment to open with, just like Jim McKay did before him years ago: “As an aspiring broadcaster, I recall admiring how professionally Jim McKay covered the Munich tragedy on the air.”

Bob talks about why he believes the Olympics appeals to those who participate in it, and those who watch the games: As the athletes strive for their one big moment—for some, a moment that they might only experience once in their lifetimes—there is formed an emotional and personal connection from viewer to athlete, even if that connection only goes one way.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, Bob gives the Games an epic quality with his essay.

The rest of the book is the Viewers’ Guide, a breakdown of the events that unfolded from September 15^th to October 1^st.

Interestingly, the September 30^th entry concerns itself with cycling. It features a profile on a one Lance Armstrong, who by that time had won the Tour de France twice and was looking to win his first Olympic medal. He came in sixth at the 1996 games in Atlanta, “competing unknowingly with testicular cancer.”

Flash forward thirteen years, and the man has gotten himself caught up in a doping scandal. He no longer has his Tour de France medals, and there was no mention of him during this year’s Tour.

At the end of the book, there’s an in-depth, sport-by-sport guide to all of the events. This section reads kind of like an in-flight magazine you might find on an airplane, but the articles within contain some very interesting facts. Before I read the article on shooting, for example, I didn’t know that Olympic shooters train themselves to pay close attention to their heartbeats. See, they fire in-between beats for the highest-precision shot…your heart gives off the slightest vibration with every beat, and just that tiny little thing is enough to throw the shot.

All in all, I'm glad I got this book. I wonder if anything like it was made for subsequent Games...

September 11th and the End of the Millennium Era

In the course of recent human history, we've seen quite a few “were you there?” moments, moments that forever affect both our own personal narratives and the overall global narrative. The beginning of the 21^st Century had two of these moments with only a year's distance between them. The first, of course, was the changeover from 1999 to 2000; the second was an event that overshadowed the Millennium and, in my opinion, signaled the end of what I refer to as the “Millennium Era,” or the space of time between 1996 and 2001.

That event was September 11^th, 2001. Twelve years later, I can still remember it, clear as daylight. I was getting ready for school—I had just started as a freshman at Evergreen Park Community High School—and we had WGN Morning News (Channel 9) on, same as any other morning. It was an ordinary day up until about 8:11 our time; the anchors broke their usual witty banter to announce that a commercial airplane had hit the World Trade Center.

Although it didn’t quite register at the time, something definitely changed within the space of that day. 

When I first opened the Millennium Museum on December 22^nd, 2012, my original concept was to point out how silly the 2012 predictions were by bringing up the old Y2K Bug and reminding everyone that we survived that. As time wore on, my intent changed. As I explored the recurring motifs on the items I posted on the blog—connectedness; international unity; a new vision for the world—a single unifying theme gradually revealed itself: lost innocence. Aha…my new mission became clear: I had to figure out what changed within thirteen years. Granted, the answer was obvious as soon as I asked the question: What changed was September 11^th, 2001.

After the 9/11 attacks, we all lost some of our innocence…Many of us lost the Millennium Dream of financial security and wealth in the fall of Enron and Arthur Andersen, which happened shortly before and after 9/11. Remember in the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” feature that the ABC run of the show ended in 2002—with the news that so many people had lost their life savings, I think all of us as viewers lost interest in watching people compete for wealth in a glitzy, oversaturated quiz show. The image of wealth tasted not of champagne and filet mignon, but of wormwood. 

Devastatingly, I feel that the events of that fateful day destroyed the dream of a world more in touch with itself. Instead of growing more connected, we became more distant and more fearful than we were before. International travel became a frustration thanks to the Department of Homeland Security and the Travel Safety Administration’s efforts to keep us safe; as a consequence, many of us gave up a chance to broaden our horizons and develop a better, more global worldview. The constant, 24-hour broadcasts of certain cable news outlets, which shall remain nameless, helped us distrust our friends, relatives, and neighbors by reminding us that no place is safe and everyone is suspicious. Worst of all, instead of trying to build trust and create world peace, the world found itself embroiled in yet another violent war.

I remember that the turn of the millennium was seen as a time to shed the bad habits of old and turn to a new, healthier way of living. Case in point: the late, lamented broadcaster Peter Jennings, who had given up smoking around 2000 or so, revealed that he had started smoking again following the 9/11 attacks and coverage. Cancer claimed his life not long after that.

The anger and cynicism that marked the 1990s had come home to roost once more.

Even so, all is not lost. The Millennium Dream lives on in another form. The initial loss of innocence ushered in a newfound awareness of how we must live our lives. The social media boom has rekindled that spirit of connection from so long ago, and instant communication through smartphones and the Internet have exposed scenes of corruption and injustice that we might not have seen on the evening news. The demise of “easy wealth” through game shows, stock-market investments, and other means have proven to us that we must invest our money a little more wisely, and that we must not all follow one investment fad (viz. the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the downfall of Enron) no matter who tells us it’s going to be a splash.

The hope, the wonder, and the idealism of the Millennium Dream are still very much alive. It’s up to us, the Millennium Generation, to reclaim the dream.

The Back to School Special, Part Two

Hi again! Last week I announced that I had too much stuff for one Back to School Special. With that said, welcome to part two.

NOW ON TO THE STORY

This atlas, published in the lead-up to the Millennium celebrations, is unique from other atlases in that it simultaneously deals in geography and history. That is to say, it goes from country to country and continent to continent, but also features a timeline of events unique to each group of countries and continents. Again we see the theme of preserving history, but this volume ups the ante by fitting bits of history into a larger global context. It’s an ambitious work, too, because it traces everything from humanity’s beginnings up to the year 2000…This may prove a little unsettling and definitely sobering for some readers.

 By looking at humanity as part of a larger whole, it will become clear that we still have a long way to go if we want to make the Millennium Dream a reality, even if we have come a long way since we first walked this earth.

 If you had a computer in 2000, chances are you ran Windows Millennium Edition. Unless you ran Windows 98, in which case you may safely ignore this section...but I digress.

The For Dummies series began in 1991 with DOS For Dummies. The series didn’t really take off into the popular culture until around the turn of the millennium, at which point the range expanded to cover just about every topic imaginable. Unfortunately, this bit of trivia is one of only two Millennium connections; the other is that Windows released ME in 1999 or so.

This particular volume answers just about every question you might have about Windows Millennium Edition. At the moment, I’m typing this week’s entry on Microsoft Word 2007, and my computer runs Windows 7. It is without a doubt the most user-friendly iteration of Windows to date—previous versions were only slightly less so.

From 2007 to 2008, I got to live my childhood dream of owning a Compaq Presario, which I had once seen on a sweepstakes ad during Fox Kids’ “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?” (That was the animated series, not PBS’ game show.) My little Presario ran Windows ME, and while I took to it very well, I can understand how daunting its blocky and disorganized layout might have seemed to the less computer-literate among us.

I only really had it for a short time before I found that it would not upgrade at all, no matter what I did. In 2008, I traded it in for an HP Media Center. That was a sad day, but it had to be done.

The American Heritage Dictionary is one of the premier dictionaries out there, along with Webster’s and the Oxford English Dictionary. While not strictly a Millennium edition, this volume nevertheless contains new words that had been coined up to 1998/1999. At the beginning, there are a series of incredibly dense introductions about word usage, pronunciation, etc. by top linguists and professors.

I suppose the main connection here is that it makes room for new words while allowing the old words to remain in place. Though the change from 1000 to 2000 was a time of pride, it was also a time of humility as the old guard made way for the new. This dictionary is a perfect example of that because it demonstrates the malleability of the English language, and how the public lexicon evolves and changes over time.  

As far as I can gather, it fits in with the “time capsule” aspect of the Millennium celebrations. This is the mother of all history books, almost like the Oxford Atlas of World History, but times ten. It starts with the beginnings of humanity and goes forward through history up to the 1998. Because of its size and density, you would be unlikely to find it anywhere but in your public library’s reference section. It comprised of four books:

1: The Ancient and Medieval World, prehistory-AD 1491 2: The Expanding World, 1492-1775 3: The Changing World, 1776-1900 4: The Modern World, 1901-1998. Regrettably, I didn’t have much time to take a closer look at it. My mission that day was to look at and catalog whatever Millennium stuff Oak Lawn had, and I learned that they have more than I thought they did…a lot more! (Forgive the weird formatting. The list of four books does something very strange indeed...) Uniquely, Volumes 2 and 4 are the thickest. I think they're organized and spaced by historical activity...Volume 2 covers the Age of Discovery from Columbus up until the American Revolution, and Volume Four concerns the 20th Century, in which we saw World War I; the Great Depression and World War II; the Space Race; the Cold War... Although the history lesson ends at 1998, these books were published in 2000, which therefore makes this set a Millennium Artifact. I have still more to show, but I would like to go back to the Oak Lawn Library and take a closer look at what I've taken pictures of. Maybe I'll save the rest of it for a "Winter Break Ends" special in January or February... SEPTEMBER 8, 1999: National Perspective: Clinton Set to Allow China Entry Into WTO SEPTEMBER 8, 2000: Findings Mixed On Gulf War Hazards

Welcome back, my friends, for Series Three of the Millennium Museum!

It’s a bittersweet beginning, though: Series 3 begins and Summer Vacation ends. In fact, if I’ve got my dates right, you should be reading this sometime around…Labor Day.

…And you know what the end of Summer Vacation means: It’s time to go “Back To School!” I have to admit, I feel your pain. Another year of the same old story from last year. More books, more homework, more projects…more, more, more.

That’s why I, Mr. Millennium, took the liberty of making sure you’re prepared this year. These books should get you through your studies nicely:

As its name implies, this book selects 1,000 pivotal figures from 1000 CE to 2000. Notable names include Lady Murasaki Shibiku, writer of The Tale of Genji, which is considered the world's first long-form novel; civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (history note: 2013 marks the 50^th Anniversary of the March on Washington, at which Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech); “test-tube baby” Louise Brown; and scientist Albert Einstein, among many, many others.

This book fits in with the “preserving history” remit of most Millennium Artifacts. When I first took a look at this one in the Oak Lawn Public Library, it was the first thing to get me noticing the overall theme. It was in the children’s reference section, which means that each person listed gets a highly sanitized “potted biography” of a few paragraphs. Not surprisingly, it’s also geared heavily toward Western culture.

A condensed encyclopedia, this volume looks to the issues that the new century might bring. It covers a wide range of topics, including law, the environment, technology, medicine, communication, politics, education, and countless other things that will come to light in the near future...and the implications those advances might have on society.

I personally count this as a Millennium Item because it deals with the 21st Century's seemingly infinite potential (well, as of 1998). The horizon out there looked to be wide, open, and clear; the possibilities unlimited, for good or bad. Macmillan saw fit to condense its earlier, two-volume Encyclopedia of the Future into a single “instruction manual” for the road ahead. It's both a way to prepare the future's children for whatever lies ahead, and a means to spark imagination and discussion.

“Children” is a recurring theme in a lot of 2000 marketing, come to think of it...It makes sense, really, because a child's innocence is in this context symbolic of the adult's desire to finally “get it right” this time around.

Before we talk about this one in any detail, let me apologize for its shocking physical state. I don’t remember the details, but I think it sustained damage in shipping. Long story short, we got it like that, and we bought it brand new.

Anyway: This is a multi-disc set comprising every single issue of National Geographic from its inception in 1888 to December 2000. It’s dated now, but should still be useful for school projects. I myself never used it, because reading the magazine on a computer screen just isn’t “right” for me. When I had to do research papers for school, I made a point of printing out the stuff I had collected from databases. It was more convenient than reading on a screen, looking at passages, and typing up quotes…I could look at the printed copy, find a passage, go “Ooh, that sounds good,” and highlight/circle/write in the margins. The same sentiment applies here: I feel that it’s better to actually have the magazine in your hands, because you can just rifle through it and find inspiration.

Earlier this year, I had another National Geographic issue from December 1998, entitled “Making Sense of the Millennium.” In fact, I think the National Geographic Foundation stamped each of the magazine’s issues from 1998 to 2000 with a special stamp.

The Foundation was one of a few very big organizations with a significant stake in the Millennium Celebrations, as its mission is to preserve not only the beautiful natural world around us, but also the history and culture behind it. Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the ever-looming specter of “Westernization” was on everyone’s mind, and National Geographic served as a check against that threat by showing us that yes, other cultures were not only alive, but thriving. Personally, I hope that, as an amateur historian, this is still the case…

When I initially started writing the entry for this book, I was about to brush it aside as a “shameless reprint” of the original 1996 edition. Fortunately, a second trip to Oak Lawn’s library and a closer, objective look at the book proved me very wrong. It is far more than just a reprint, for it contains a lot of new content. The most significant update is a breathtakingly beautiful 48-page introduction displaying all the latest developments in science and technology. The International Space Station, the Internet, genetics, and environmental science are but a few of the entries. I took a picture of the table of contents section so you can see what’s inside it.

The big question is this: What makes this a Millennium Item, besides the “2000 Edition” label? The new section, obviously, is the biggest indicator, but the brand new introduction serves to give readers a tantalizing glimpse into the 21^st Century…and wonder what might be in store in the decades to come.

Hmm...That's actually a horrible picture. Silver paper is a nightmare to photograph.

Also, the outer dust cover is in silver; the previous edition’s was white. As I mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records Millennium Edition and Millennium Quartet entries, the color silver is something of a running theme in Millennium merchandise.

For once, I have no idea why silver was associated with the 2000 celebrations, but I can think of a few possible reasons. First and most obviously, silver is a “futuristic” color. In classic depictions of the future, people are often depicted wearing silver clothing, and spaceships were often finished off in silver. Indeed, that Madame Alexander Millennium Doll from a few weeks ago perfectly illustrates this.

Less obviously, silver is an elegant color that denotes high class, which ties in well with Monopoly 2000 Edition…in fact, the deluxe collector’s edition of that one came in a silver box with a vacuum-formed lid. (One day, I shall have it!) I myself believe that silver is an elegant color because just about every other color seems to look good alongside it.

 My trip to the Oak Lawn Public Library, from which most of this week’s material comes from, proved so fruitful that I have too much material for one week!

With that in mind, I’m going to end this Back to School Special here and create Part 2 next week. It’ll be like when Elton John made “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” into a double album: there was too much stuff for just one record.