The Man Cave Continuum

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Idle thoughts...

I went to a synth history event last year, and one thing that was noticeable was that the people who'd brought along synths to exhibit were mostly "of a sort": middle aged bloke, kinda lower middle class, cropped hair, bit of a beer gut, cargo shorts.

This set off a bit of a train of thought - twenty or thirty years ago you'd have said that mucking around with analogue synths was a relatively trendy young person's game, but these days it's arguably becoming part of the spectrum of "middle aged man tinkering in the garage / loft" activities, like lovingly maintaining an old car or motorbike, running an elaborate homebrew setup, "doing woodwork" etc.

Questions to the floor:
What else is this going to happen to, as 80s and 90s kids hit middle age and take their hobbies and interests with them? I can imagine some bits of computing going this way - Raspberry Pi-based DIY home automation, say, or hacking around with old home computers and arcade machines. From the older geeks I know I can see Warhammer Dads becoming a thing, too.
And does anyone on here have any Dad Hobbies, or are you all languid urban aesthetes who wouldn't know a sander from an impact driver? I homebrew enough to have Opinions about BSP pipe fittings and I'm worried that I'm starting to think that cargo shorts seem like they'd be comfortable, practical and hard-wearing.
 

william kent

Well-known member
it's already happened to skate boarding i think, plenty of skate dad's around.

It's still something of a young person's game due to the physical component, mind you. You don't get many older guys chucking themselves down stairs the way they used to.
 

woops

is not like other people
It's still something of a young person's game due to the physical component, mind you. You don't get many older guys chucking themselves down stairs the way they used to.
good point. they're presumably training their skate kids not to do this either
 

catalog

Well-known member
This was the closest I got to my own man cav, 2020 art studio

U6qRrCd.jpg
 

Murphy

cat malogen
Had a room which was slowly subsumed by life to a shelf, so I built a shed

Now the shed has slowly been subsumed by toys, bikes, a paddling pool, bats, balls etc

There is no man cave any more
 

wg-

Well-known member
I'm sure there are, or will be, dads with pristine N64s, PlayStations and the like and a library of classic games.

I have a japanese dreamcast which i have modded to contain a gdemu (sd card-based contraption that replaces CD reader so you can play games "digitally"), plus a PSU stepdown converter so it runs off UK plugs

In the same vein I have a soft-modded Playstation classic with almost the whole library on it (the retail had something like 25)

I also have a Raspberry Pi running Retroarch with everything upto and including the dreamcast on it, with impeccably maintained libraries ec

Having set up all of these things and spent hours and hours curating the perfect set-ups, i never use any of them
 

wg-

Well-known member
My cave doubles as an office for when I manage to work from home, but it is basically just a box room with a desk/pc and CDJs set up in the corner, which i do use

Looking out into my neighbour's garden (not the diddy-woman side) there is a huge big fuck off modular unit man cave that takes up about a 3rd of the back garden, he's got table football in there, various workbenches etc

Never goes in there. Must have cost a fortune
 

catalog

Well-known member
People who are into bikes always need a few don't they. I've got 3 mates well into cycling and they've each got at least 3. You need one road, one mountain, one hybrid. That's the very basics if yoh are into it. I think one of em spent something like 2 grand on his latest.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Had to bin my bike when I moved house, no room for it. It sat outside under tarp for ages, never used it. Too steep round here. Too much rain.
 

jenks

thread death
People who are into bikes always need a few don't they. I've got 3 mates well into cycling and they've each got at least 3. You need one road, one mountain, one hybrid. That's the very basics if yoh are into it. I think one of em spent something like 2 grand on his latest.
Three? Try six - winter bike, summer bike, fixed, CX, MTB, TT, and two grand nowadays won’t get you much. The cost of an indoor trainer (not a Peloton!) will probably make most wince. A coke habit is probably cheaper.
 

william kent

Well-known member
Some guys get really into audio equipment or collecting films. There are subreddits full of people's photos of their eye-wateringly expensive turntable set up or room containing the entire Criterion Collection.


 

catalog

Well-known member
I didn't take a photo but my cousin in Baltimore, he's got a cellar, or basement as they say, I think he even calls it the den, anyway, he's got a projector screen down there, giant bean bag, then set of weights including thed really big one, plus an exercise bike. He would go down toff an hour every morning I was there, just took a coffee and banana down, then do his sets, have brekkie after.

He kept saying come down, you can go on the bike while I lift, we can watch videos, but it literally smelt like being inside his underpants down there, so I stayed in the daylight upstairs on my phone.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Some guys get really into audio equipment or collecting films. There are subreddits full of people's photos of their eye-wateringly expensive turntable set up or room containing the entire Criterion Collection.



So jealous
 
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