P J Rourke visits the "new" Disney House of the Future and comes away less than impressed.
According to Disney, the shape of things to come can be found at Pottery Barn, with a quick stop in Restoration Hardware for “classic future” touches and a trip to Target to get throw rugs and cheap Japanese paper lanterns. HoF II was designed by the Taylor Morrison company, a home builder specializing in anodyne subdevelopmental housing in the Southwest. The company’s president and CEO told the Associated Press, “The 1950s home didn’t look like anything, anywhere. It was space-age and kind of cold. We didn’t want the home to intimidate the visitors.”
Come back, Frank Lloyd Wright; all is forgiven.
6 comments:
O'Rourke presents another reason not to go to Disneyworld.
Back in 1939 at the World's Fair you could get a button that said "I have seen the future". Now they should offer buttons that say "Run Like Hell!".
It's a shame the future doesn't hold the awe and excitement it once inspired.
There was something solid and comforting about streamlined architecture and fixtures, the future was smooth, quiet, clean, and permanent.
Today, it's like politics and everything else; annoying and based in China.
At least the push for the future back in the 1930s got people interested in washing their hands and cooking utensils.
Neil, imagine I was clever enough to adapt "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" into
"Yes Neil, there is a Future, and it is Glorious."
1/12th the way into the 21st century and it is off to a poor start.
The experimental electric cars have been melted down to make SUVs.
Cheap oil means even if they existed they wouldn't sell.
The problem isn't expensive oil or cheap oil, it's oil.
We have gadgets undreampt of in the 1930s.
(A television movie player in your pocket that's also a radio-telephone!)
But the golden goose/Alladin's lamp (what cliche` am I hunting for?) of the future is limitless energy.
Once we get that, the Future can begin again!
Controlled hydrogen fusion (has cold fusion been proved impossibe yet?) will jump start the transition to the future of our dreams.
(Yes... there are bad dreams also.)
Speaking of how things have progressed (most of which can be attributed directly to that last great futurific program we had; the Moon shot) I'm always astounded at how quickly we take things for granted.
If you can't stream a movie, you cuss the slow connection.
Not long ago I fired up an ancient 286 computer just to see what would happen and while I was waiting for the thing to come on I went off to do something else thinking that it was just another old dead boat anchor.
Came back a little later and there was the C prompt! And mind you, that was with a fully loaded 286x11mhz with a blistering 256K of memory and a 10MB hard drive!
And people bemoan the 30 seconds or so it takes for Vista to come up.
I wish we could realize we have reached "peak government" and see a reduction for that in the future.
We had the option to go for limitless energy back in the 70s with atomic power but decided to regulate and hamstring it to the point of nearly ending the idea altogether.
Fortunately we aren't listening to the nuts as much anymore and the prospect of a nuclear powered future are finally going to be realized. It's just irritating that it isn't already here.
I love the prospect of hydrogen as a storage medium made from atomic fuelled electrolysis, whether at "gas" stations or at home and fed into fuel cells.
Until some hurdles are tackled there's going to be a platinum shortage but with unfettered research (meaning Washington please step out of the way) even that can be overcome.
The future can be bright, but will it ever again be streamlined?
Re comment #2.
"Holy Grail"
Neil...
I just read the text version of 'Chocky'.
He/She agrees with me.
Limitless energy is exactly what is needed.
I hope you weren't getting the impression that I didn't agree about limitless energy, I'm sure I was right there on the page with you. I've been an "energy to burn" proponent for many years.
It's just that right now there's only one way to do it, and that's with good old tried and true fission.
I do however think the biggest limitation is an oppressive government, you know, the kind we have right now.
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