Today is the Future. Yes indeed: we have finally got there. 21 October 2015, the far off future as envisaged by Spielberg and the Doc and Marty McFly all those years ago in 1985.
Yes, I know, half the world may also be celebrating this fictional episode, but why can’t we do that at the Eye of the Fish as well? After all, if you’re going to do Time Travel, as the Doc said, “Why not do it in Style?” But, just like the De Lorean, I’ve got to do it fast as the batteries on my laptop are running out, and I can’t yet refuel from used banana skins.
1985 – heady days of old, indeed. Looking back to then, the “now” we’re in seemed so far away. Half of our readers weren’t even born yet. Cars looked ordinary, not like De Loreans. Architecture’s future appeared to lie with this wonderful new movement called Post Modernism (we were already so far in the future that just being Modern wasn’t enough – we were post all that).
And while Marty McFly’s hoverboard was pretty cool and far off, everyday youths just got around on skateboards with plastic wheels. In the future, apparently, roads would not be necessary.
Of course, we could go further. In 1985, the invading imperialist troops were at war in Afghanistan – and in 2015, they are still there – but now American instead of Russian. In 1985 we had creaky old politicians like Reagan and Thatcher and Muldoon around, all of whom seemed ancient back then. But at least the Russians had just got Gorbachev – things were changing. And today? The same? Or worse?
Although, no one, apparently, thought that the future of America would be a black President. Oh no, that would be going too far. Or a woman – ha! clearly a ridiculous notion.
But more pertinently, architecture in Wellington – how has it changed over the years? Or has it stayed the same? I’m going to have to do some research over the day and find out if Wellington has really got into the future yet…
As predicted, media everywhere is getting into the whole Back to the Future thing. Quite a good review of the actual films themselves in the DomPost today:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/73176368/back-to-the-future-part-iis-troubled-past
And of course an excellent A-Z of all things futuristicly predicted, in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/jan/02/what-back-to-the-future-part-ii-got-right-and-wrong-about-2015-an-a-z
They’re even celebrating Back to the Future day on the Hutt Riverbank http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=82921
And it’s even sold out …
but Lindsay, that’s easy to explain. Its only in the Hutt where all three time zones are running concurrently – the past, the present, and, if you squint a little, the future! I always get the feeling that the Hutt is permanently frozen at some point in the past, so its always 1955 or 1985 for me there.
I thought Hamilton was The City of the Futureâ„¢?
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hamiltron_(City_of_the_Future)
Seamonkey – you’re right, Hamil is the Tron. But it is definitely the Hutt to me that is stuck in a time warp…. NaeNae even more so. Every time I go to NaeNae (admittedly, not often), I get reminded of Ernst Plischke’s passionate proposal – and I’m confronted with the reality of what it is not….