Dear December 12, 2112,
Greetings from December 12, 2012. It may be a little weird reading this letter from 100 years in the past. We imagine it's sort of like the end of Back to the Future, when Doc Brown gets sent back to 1885 and sends a letter to Marty McFly 70 years later. We realize you probably don't watch our old movies in 2112. Or at least you have 100 more years of movies, and so would not have had time to watch it. (But if you get a chance, check it out.)
We're writing this while the 12-12-12 Concert is happening, as music's greatest musicians perform in Madison Square Garden to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy recovery. Sandy destroyed and flooded most of the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut coast. Everyone is talking about the concert on a social networking site called Twitter.
Although 2112 history may not know them, the men and women on stage tonight are some of the biggest names in rock and roll history — Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. They were gods in their time who created some of the greatest music of the 20th century. And they came together tonight, sharing their incredible music, creating one of the greatest rock shows in history.
Also, Kanye West sang.
It's amazing how much music has changed in the last 40 years, and many of the musicians from the 12-12-12 Concert had a hand in shaping that.
And then the 21st century happened, and in retaliation for the War of 1812, Canada launched Justin Bieber at us, which signaled the beginning of the end of good music. Happily, he is not playing the 12-12-12 Concert tonight. When a group of people have been battered by Mother Nature, you don't subject them to Justin Bieber. Never kick a nation when she's down.
We wish we could see 2112 right now. There are so many things we would like to know how they turned out, just as 1912 probably wanted to know about today.
In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state, the Titanic sank, and Fenway Park opened in Boston. In 2012, Puerto Rico wants to become our 51st state, we just re-elected our first black president, Barack Obama, and Fenway Park is still around. Did they expect any of that in 1912?
In our time, the life expectancy is in the mid-70s, people still smoke and eat fried foods, and electric and hybrid cars are becoming more popular. They barely had cars in 1912, and we have cars that can run on electricity.
We're hoping that one day we'll invent a car that can run strictly on solar energy, or even water. That seems like such a pipe dream to us, but we're sure you'll have solved that problem by the time you read this.
It's funny to look back at the culture from 1912 and see how much we still know and remember, and yet how much is lost and forgotten. Many of the songs from back then are now little children's songs today. The movies from 1912 are silent and in black and white, and people don't watch them because in 2012, we have 3-D movies and surround sound, so we feel like we're in the movies.
Of course, Hollywood couldn't come up with a new idea if you held a gun to their heads. So they remade Les Miserablés, which was first made in 1912. This is the 18th remake. We're also seeing remakes of movies that were made as recently as 10 – 20 years ago. We hope Hollywood has changed by the time you read this, although there are some limits to what people can do in a century.
We dream of what 2112 going to be like, and how far you will have grown beyond us here at the dawn of the 21st century. Will you have cured cancer, solved world hunger, and even found world peace? Is space travel possible? Have you eliminated the world's social ills, or are we still a society where erectile dysfunction medicine is still one of the most profitable pharmaceuticals?
We're sorry for what we left for you, and we hope you have the ability and foresight to fix what we created and caused. We go into our tomorrow hoping yours is even better.
All the best, December 12, 2012.
P.S. We sincerely apologize for Kim Kardashian.
The second edition of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself
(affiliate link), is now available. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy.
My other book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing is also out.
You can get both of them from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million in October, or for the Kindle or Nook.
---
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Greetings from December 12, 2012. It may be a little weird reading this letter from 100 years in the past. We imagine it's sort of like the end of Back to the Future, when Doc Brown gets sent back to 1885 and sends a letter to Marty McFly 70 years later. We realize you probably don't watch our old movies in 2112. Or at least you have 100 more years of movies, and so would not have had time to watch it. (But if you get a chance, check it out.)
We're writing this while the 12-12-12 Concert is happening, as music's greatest musicians perform in Madison Square Garden to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy recovery. Sandy destroyed and flooded most of the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut coast. Everyone is talking about the concert on a social networking site called Twitter.
Although 2112 history may not know them, the men and women on stage tonight are some of the biggest names in rock and roll history — Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. They were gods in their time who created some of the greatest music of the 20th century. And they came together tonight, sharing their incredible music, creating one of the greatest rock shows in history.
Also, Kanye West sang.
It's amazing how much music has changed in the last 40 years, and many of the musicians from the 12-12-12 Concert had a hand in shaping that.
And then the 21st century happened, and in retaliation for the War of 1812, Canada launched Justin Bieber at us, which signaled the beginning of the end of good music. Happily, he is not playing the 12-12-12 Concert tonight. When a group of people have been battered by Mother Nature, you don't subject them to Justin Bieber. Never kick a nation when she's down.
We wish we could see 2112 right now. There are so many things we would like to know how they turned out, just as 1912 probably wanted to know about today.
In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state, the Titanic sank, and Fenway Park opened in Boston. In 2012, Puerto Rico wants to become our 51st state, we just re-elected our first black president, Barack Obama, and Fenway Park is still around. Did they expect any of that in 1912?
In our time, the life expectancy is in the mid-70s, people still smoke and eat fried foods, and electric and hybrid cars are becoming more popular. They barely had cars in 1912, and we have cars that can run on electricity.
We're hoping that one day we'll invent a car that can run strictly on solar energy, or even water. That seems like such a pipe dream to us, but we're sure you'll have solved that problem by the time you read this.
It's funny to look back at the culture from 1912 and see how much we still know and remember, and yet how much is lost and forgotten. Many of the songs from back then are now little children's songs today. The movies from 1912 are silent and in black and white, and people don't watch them because in 2012, we have 3-D movies and surround sound, so we feel like we're in the movies.
Of course, Hollywood couldn't come up with a new idea if you held a gun to their heads. So they remade Les Miserablés, which was first made in 1912. This is the 18th remake. We're also seeing remakes of movies that were made as recently as 10 – 20 years ago. We hope Hollywood has changed by the time you read this, although there are some limits to what people can do in a century.
We dream of what 2112 going to be like, and how far you will have grown beyond us here at the dawn of the 21st century. Will you have cured cancer, solved world hunger, and even found world peace? Is space travel possible? Have you eliminated the world's social ills, or are we still a society where erectile dysfunction medicine is still one of the most profitable pharmaceuticals?
We're sorry for what we left for you, and we hope you have the ability and foresight to fix what we created and caused. We go into our tomorrow hoping yours is even better.
All the best, December 12, 2012.
P.S. We sincerely apologize for Kim Kardashian.
The second edition of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself
(affiliate link), is now available. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy.My other book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing is also out.
You can get both of them from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million in October, or for the Kindle or Nook.
---
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