Early Baby Boomers Are the Original Steampunk
Suitably old, but mysteriously advanced.
Steampunk Watch with modern workings.
Do you know about the Steampunk movement? It’s been around for a couple decades, so I’m not too far behind, am I? Steampunk is a spin off of cyberpunk or more correctly an antonym of cyberpunk. Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and Thomas Edison.
It’s the world we would be living in if computers had not taken over in the late 1980’s. Well to Steampunker’s fantasy beliefs it’s the world without computers. Everything is run by steam.
Steampunk is more than just brass and watchparts. It’s finding a way to combine the past and the future in an aesthetic pleasing yet still punkish way. It’s living a life that looks old-fashioned, yet speaks to the future. It’s taking the detritus of our modern technological society and remaking it into useful things. Join me as I search for items for my house that combine the scientific romanticism of the Victorians with our real present and imagined future.
Suitably old, but mysteriously advanced.
Boy if that doesn’t describe we late boomers, nothing does. I think I’ll start working on a Steampunk theme for here.
Suitably old, but mysteriously advanced.
I really like the way that sounds.
Oh Lord, that shit is stylish. Puts you in mind of Doc Brown from the “Back to the Future” movies. When my kids grow old enough to refrain from destroying everything in my home (should I live that long), I’m so going with Steampunk decor.
@Gretchen: Old Doc Brown was on the tv tonight! When we win the lottery, one of my houses will be very, very modern. But to have a Steampunk billard room would be wild.
I’ve often visualized having a different “theme” in each room of the house. Our ideas: a kitsch room (statues of the Virgin Mary, paintings of kids with huge eyes or dogs playing poker); a Googi room (boomerang coffee tables, etc.); a Southwestern room (because I do sort of like earth tones and cacti); and a Colonial/Shaker/New England bedroom (rag rugs, Hudson’s Bay point blankets, etc.).
Right now our decor is a lot like a Fisher-Price factory exploded in a college dorm room, with red wine stain accents.
@Gretchen: I think you have a meme idea: Sixty things you would put in your kitsch room.
Googi? What is that? Two Googles? I’ll Google it.
Our decor is pee where you please, exploded dog toy and fiberfill factory.
@Gretchen: OK, Googie is like the Jetsons. I’ll pass, I lived during that phase.
That is so cool, it reminds me of that PC computer game called Bioshock. It’s a first person shooter that takes place in an undersea Metropolis called Rapture. It’s a huge throwback to past technologies and the cult-like perfectionism of 1950’s suburban American culture.