Thursday, April 2, 2009

Yesterday's Future, Today (Please)


There is a really nice green house within walking distance of my dorm room. Lev and I went there the other day to take pictures. The building is incredibly peaceful. Everywhere you go, within the "jungle room" anyway, there is the sound of running water and slow and soft Japanese violin music, constructing an inescapable audible mist. It's almost like trenching through a small slice of Johnny Quest; without the malaria and spear wielding frog men of course.


This plant, the exotic Euphorbia Obesa (more commonly known as the basketball cactus), struck me as something that could be easily translated into an interesting piece of architecture. For the last few days I have been researching the structures built for the pie eyed, retro future extravaganza that was the 1964 Worlds Fair. A part of me wishes that I grew up during the space age optimism of the post WWII era. It seems to me that today's America is focused more on the little advancements and the big picture. To hell with iPhones and blue tooth. Damn it, I want to ride a monorail through a futuristic underwater bubble neighborhood. We should totally have lunar rovers harvesting hot dog plants on the moon by now.

Speak easy,
Neil

3 comments:

Robin said...

Neil -- Did I ever tell you about our family trip to the '67 World's Fair in Montreal? Dell was little and we camped in some memorable parks. I remember the geodesic dome and ultra-modern monorail! Nice memories ...

Neil Everett said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2r2181fv2w

That's a promotional video for the '67 worlds fair if you are interested. That looks great!

sarah j. said...

i, too, want to ride a monorail through an underwater futuristic bubble neighborhood.