Retro-futurism and space exploration on Charles G's Blog Space

The Large Hadron Collider - A Simple Explanation

2009-03-03T09:23:00.003-05:00

Hello again! I haven't been here in months, but I finally found something that I had to share and this blog is the best place for it.

You probably have heard about the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Last summer there were wild news stories about the fear of the LHC creating homegrown black holes and devouring the Earth. YouTube users uploaded computer animation of the Earth getting sucked inside-out like a deflating balloon. The LHC black-hole fears were even mentioned on MTV's "The Hills".

Friends asked me how the LHC worked and why were billions of dollars being spent to race charged particles around in circles. I have tried to explain the concepts, but I was still fuzzy on certain details and how to articulate them. Sure, they race energized particles around and smash them together...but where did they get the particles in the first place?

This video on YouTube is the simplest explanation I have seen so far about the workings and goals of the LHC. I find it remarkable that the whole process starts with a simple container of hydrogen gas.

For more pictures of the LHC complex and hardware, check out this story on Dvice.com

The Panic Of War of the Worlds - 70 Years Later

2008-10-31T18:55:00.013-05:00

Photo Source: Wikipedia

This is a monument to a battle that never happened, except in the minds of some very scared radio listeners over seventy years ago. It is located in Grover's Mill, New Jersey, where the first battle of the War of the Worlds took place.

Seventy years ago last night, fear gripped the United States as Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast War Of The Worlds as a radio drama on CBS. The October 30, 1938 broadcast was the Halloween episode.

The drama was too realistic for some listeners who were mesmerized by the sound effects and dramatic script. The broadcast led many to believe that martians were actually stomping their way across New Jersey and towards world domination. According to some studies, 1.7 million thought the story was real.

The aftermath of War of the Worlds was an angry public and a new appreciation for the power of broadcasting.

Here is film of Orson Welles speaking to reporters after the broadcast.

We can chuckle today at how 1938 was a simpler time and how easy it was to fool a radio audience with spooky noises and passionate acting.

Disinformation is alive and well in the 21st century and powered by the Internet. The term truthiness is a recent invention. When was the last time you had a silly rumor forwarded to you by email?

Here are some more links about the War of the Worlds broadcast.

Time magazine features a story on War of the Worlds and how disinformation has changed over the years.
Wired.com features a story on the significance of the War of The Worlds broadcast and the hysteria it generated.
Wikipedia has an entry about the broadcast and the public reaction.
War of the Worlds.org details the history of the H.G. Welles story and versions on radio, film, and TV.
The text of the novel War of the Worlds by H.G. Welles.
YouTube.com has audio of the original broadcast. Part 1 is here.

My favorite part is the last words of the broadcast...

So goodbye everybody, and remember please for the next day or so the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian, it's Halloween.

On that note,my doorbell just rang. It is the local Trick Or Treaters...I hope.

Happy Halloween.

NASA Turns 50 Years Old

2008-07-29T16:00:00.007-05:00

I was looking at Google's home page this morning and saw yet another one of their clever logos celebrating an event. This time it was the 50th anniversary of NASA.

According to a story on the Scientific American website, NASA officially started operating on October 1, 1958, with only 80 staff members. Today, NASA employs more than 17,000 staff.

The last fifty years have seen the triumphs of the moon landings, the launch of the Space Shuttle, and the exploration of Mars with robotic rovers. These accomplishments also came with setbacks and tragedies along the way with the loss of the crew of Apollo 1, and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

Just last Sunday I saw the repeat of the 60 Minutes broadcast on the new plans for a manned moon landing, the first step to sending a mission to Mars.

Watching footage in the story of actual engines and launch systems being tested was inspiring. The hardware has left the drawing board and is getting ready for the day when world will watch as rockets roar skyward for a new generation of space travelers.

The 60 Minutes story also reported on the risks and costs involved. Critics say the idea of going back to the moon is a pricey project the United States cannot afford right now.

With the shuttle program reaching retirement in 2010, it will not be till 2014 till the first Ares I rockets take off from Cape Canaveral.

It will take optimism for NASA and those who love space travel to face the challenges ahead. I think astronaut Gene Cernan says it best in the 60 Minutes story...

"When I came back from the moon in ’72, [I] stood on my soapbox and said, ‘We’re not only going back to the moon, we’re gonna be on our way to Mars by the turn of the century.' I believed it with my whole heart. But my glass has been half empty for the last 30 years. Now, it’s half full."

NASA's Phoenix Spacecraft Survives To Land On The Angry Red Planet

2008-05-26T13:21:00.007-05:00

I watched the touchdown of NASA's Phoenix spacecraft in the northern polar region of Mars. You don't really get to see the lander itself on TV, only the the people in mission control. It was clear that the lander had landed safely when they stood up and cheered.

The first images from the lander brought back memories of the first Viking Missions in the late 70's, or the days in 1997 Pathfinder mission strained dial-up connections downloading images of dusty red rocks.

According to SpaceflightNow.com, only 50 percent of Mars missions have made it safely to the surface. Others missions, like the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, reached the planet, only to be smashed into the rocky surface due to glitches with engines or software.

The description of Mars mission failures sometimes feel the planet itself has something to do with the loss of spacecraft, reaching out to swat away the pesky landers like metal mosquitoes.

The treacherous nature of Mars exploration brings to mind an old science fiction movie: The Angry Red Planet.

This 1960 film was filmed in a process called Cinemagic, which was supposed to make the Martian surface seem alive with animated creatures. The trailer boasts how aliens and hungry plants will reach out to get you...IN CINEMAGIC!

The scene I remember the most is when a giant "space amoeba" chases the crew back to their rocketship, then encases it like fruit in a jello mold.

Considering how many space probes have been lost on Mars, the red planet doesn't need gooey blobs to devour visiting spacecraft. The planet is quite capable of doing that job itself.

What Awaits On Mars - 1957 Versus 2008

2008-05-15T11:05:00.005-05:00

When the first space probes sent back detailed pictures of the Martian Surface, years of fanciful speculation by filmmakers, writers, and artists were replaced with cold facts. Mars resembled the deserts of the Southwest United States, not the exotic plains imagined by science fiction. Mars was more Arizona than Barsoom.

Paleo-Future features a fine example of the 1950's vision martian life: a furry creature with an anteater-like snout. Considering this was the era of cold-war paranoia, with drive-in screens offering a barage of hostile communist-like aliens bent on destroying our cities, this fuzzy Dr. Seuss-esque martian looks harmless and cuddly.

On May 25, 2008, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will touch down on the arctic plains of Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander will use sensors to "sniff" the soil for chemicals and try to determine whether conditions at the site ever have been favorable for microbial life.

Microbes are not as exciting as the ALF-like creature in the 1950s illustration. Any sign of life on Mars would be big news. If a little creature did emerge from the rocks and waved to the camera, it would be the shock of the century...not to mention a chance for toy companies to cash in selling plush dolls.

Star Trek Enterprise - alternate opening credits

2008-02-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

I watched part of the Sci-Fi channel Enterprise marathon tonight, catching a few episodes I never saw or never got to see all the way through.

Enterprise has a mixed reputation with Trekkies. While some younger fans the enjoyed new characters and stories involving the days before the original series, others hated the scripts deviated from Star Trek's historical timeline.

One common gripe about the show was the Enterprise theme song that played over the opening credits. Earlier Trek shows featured the famous theme music by Alexander Courage, or the rousing orchestra score composed by Jerry Goldsmith for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The Enterprise theme song was criticized by its detractors as too pop-rock or folksy for a science fiction TV show and out of sync with the Trek universe.

I did not mind the theme song, but I did love the opening image of the history of human exploration and space travel.

Enterprise debuted shortly after the attacks of 9/11. After being worn down by the violent images of the attacks on the Twin Towers on cable news, I played the opening for Enterprise on my VCR over and over for a quick uplift. Anything that celebrated positive human endeavors was a change from images of destruction.

Some YouTube users have re-mixed the opening of Enterprise with new music and new images. With today's digital technology, anyone with a modest computer can remake their favorite TV shows and movies to their liking.

Out of all the Enterprise opening credit remakes I've seen, this one by YouTube user Portland182 is my favorite.

The use of NASA footage and clips from The Right Stuff, along the theme music from the movie Judge Dredd, is powerful, especially as the Enterprise pulls out of spacedock and sheds connecting cables and hoses, similar to the footage of Saturn V rockets leaving for the moon.

I hope the makers of the new Star Trek film are paying attention to all the fine work that Trek fans are sharing online.

Explorer 1 - America's first satellite

2008-02-02T07:36:00.000-05:00

After writing about the loss of Columbia and killer toy robots, I forgot to mention the 50th anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1, America's first satellite.

I love how the announcers for old newsreels read the copy with such dramatic tones. Before 24 hour cable news and the Internet, this is how many average people saw the events of the world.

Along with the news of Explorer 1 on the newsreel is news about Gamal Abdel Nasser and the merger of Egypt and Syria into one nation. Even back in the 1950s, politics and tensions in the Middle East were headline news.

Space Shuttle Columbia...5 years later

2008-02-01T15:26:00.001-05:00

Only 16 minutes from home...

Link to the Official Space Shuttle Columbia Page

Killer robot toys from the 1960s

2008-01-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

Boing Boing features a video of a weird and icky looking robot toy called "Great Garloo". Like something from a drive-in science fiction movie, Great Garloo is shown knocking over bridges and buildings to terrify puny humans.

I can imagine the disapproving stares of 1960s parents when kids asked for this toy. There was probably some mom in horned-rimmed glasses and frosted hair saying "I will NOT let that monstrosity in my house! He'll scuff up my new linoleum kitchen floor! For the LAST TIME...NOOOOO!", then dragging a sobbing kid out of a department store toy department.

While I was looking for the embed code I found this video for Robot Commando, a giant purple robot who fires missiles and attacks tanks. There seemed to be a trend here with kids wanting to drop bombs on peaceful cities and squash their residents. What was it with the kids of the 1960s? Did they harbor the secret wish for a giant robot to show up and stomp all over their hometown? Did the toymakers back then know something about restless suburban tots that the rest of the country did not?

Those wacky kids of the 1960s...what was the world coming too? Can you imagine if those parents had to deal with Grand Theft Auto and Bioshock?

Space paper airplane to soar from space station to Earth

2008-01-18T08:19:00.000-05:00

According to PinkTentacle.com, researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Japan Origami Airplane Association plan to create a paper airplane that can fly from the International Space Station to Earth.

This is not your average paper airplane. This is a plane that has been wind tunnel tested to fly at Mach 7 (8,600 kilometers or 5,300 miles per hour) and made of a special material to withstand the heat, average notebook paper just won't do.

How will they find it when it lands? Most of the Earth is ocean, it could wind up floating in the water.

Homemade Star Wars filmed in glorious Super 8

2008-01-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

The Website @ the End of the Universe features a homemade version of Star Wars shot in glorious Super 8.

Star Wars was inspired by so many sources, from Akria Kurosawa films to old cowboy westerns, it seems fitting that a new generation of filmmakers would pick up a camera and try to re-create it.

What is amazing is the ingenuity of the young filmmakers in re-creating scenes with paper sets and no blue-screens.

Heads up display of the space shuttle Discovery landing

2008-01-03T07:53:00.000-05:00

Spaceships take off and land easily in science fiction films. In the world of fantasy, flying between planets is as easy as flying between two cities on a bargain airline.

Most science fiction filmmakers do not even bother to deal with re-entry in their films. X-Wing fighters and the Millennium Falcon may look pretty on the big screen, but in real life they would burn up in a few seconds of contact with the outer atmosphere.

Every landing of the space shuttle is a dramatic event, sadly underscored by the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

This video of the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2006 shows viewpoint of the astronauts as they glide tons of spacecraft in for a soft landing.

Watching the features of the Earth emerge and the green glow of the heads up display creates a symphony of nature and machine, similar to what Stanley Kubrick filmed in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Arthrur C. Clarke's 90th birthday video

2008-01-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

This video was released by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke on his 90th birthday.

Clarke's insight and eloquence are still strong after, as he puts it, 90 orbits around the sun. He also expresses a peace with his own mortality and the possibility that this is the last time we may see him.

Arthur C. Clarke has been revered as a writer and a futurist, but this video is very personal: the reflections of one man who has seen a lifetime of scientific and social change. Even for a person as intelligent and learned as Clarke, it must be overwhelming to consider the world he was born into to our present day.

2008 and another great big beautiful tomorrow

2008-01-01T16:10:00.000-05:00

Two years ago I opened an account on Blogger and started this blog. Over the last 24 months I have let this blog sit and gather dust for weeks at a time. But I always come back. 2008 is here and I feel a new enthusiasm for writing posts again.

I originally started this blog as sort of a testing lab for my blogging and graphic skills. It has become more than that. I have made friends that I never would have found otherwise. Technical and creative demons have frustrated me along the way, but I learned to overcome them.

I wished to start this blog off on an optimistic tone. In my first post I quoted the song "A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" from the Disney Ride Carousel of Progress, which dates back to the 1964 Worlds Fair.

Carousel of Progress is representative of the positive view of technology and futurism of the early 1960s, when the space race was on and the moon landing would close out the decade. I was not alive to see it myself, but I still have a soft spot for futurism of the 50s and 60s. I grew up with it in the books and movies that filled my childhood.

I was around for the early days of the 1980s home computer and internet revolution. I saw clunky early computers evolve into the somewhat less-clunky machines that we have grown to depend on as part of everyday life. I have seen the web emerge from blocky graphics and text into search engines, blogs, e-business, and wikis.

I was amused to see Cory Doctrow bring the two together in a recent post on Boing Boing. He writes about the Carousel of Progress and how it has influenced his writing.

He also mentions how the Carousel is sadly in need of an update. The final act of the show features a family using a rather hefty looking computer and playing a virtual reality game with oversize goggles. That was cutting edge stuff in the early 1990s, but now seems as dated as rocket packs and art deco cities filled with flying cars.

While the Carousel's last act looks laughable by 2008 standards, it does echo some current trends with accuracy. The Nintendo Wii features controls that are descendants of the early experiments to mass market virtual reality. The Guitar Hero games also work off a similar idea.
Online shopping and email are so common that it is hard to imagine living without them now.

Visions of the future are warped in much the same way ripples in the atmosphere distort the view of telescopes, the further we try to see the hazier the image.

2008 is here. It is a great big beautiful today.

Carl Sagan remembered 11 years later

2007-12-21T00:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the eleventh anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan, astronomer and host of the TV show Cosmos.

I grew up watching Carl Sagan on Cosmos and spending many frozen winter nights looking at distant stars and planets through a telescope. His pop culture appeal helped bring an appreciation of astronomy to a generation who would grow up with space shuttle launches and images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Sagan is memorialized on the planet Mars, where the landing site of the first Mars rover bears his name. Sadly, Sagan died before the first amazing images from that mission were transmitted back to Earth.

I found this video narrated by Carl Sagan where he talks about Earth as the "Pale Blue Dot" and featuring music by Vangelis.

Blogger Joel Schlosberg has posted a vast number of links about Sagan's life.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait remembers Carl Sagan and what he learned from him.

Epcot at Disney - 25 years old

2007-10-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Disney's Epcot, which opened on October 1, 1982.

1982 was a futuristic year. Schools were offering the first computer classes for kids. Blade Runner and The Road Warrior were two stunning and scary futuristic films destined to become classics. On the same date as the Epcot opening, Sony introduced the first CD player.

Epcot was something that Walt Disney himself had imagined as an experimental community, where people would live and work. The Epcot of 1982 was far from Walt's grand vision. Epcot was more of a World's Fair, offering a glimpse of an optimistic future and a celebration of world culture.

The Epcot that stands today is different than the one in 1982. The World of Motion, Horizons, and other exhibits have been demolished and or modified. Rides like Mission SPACE and Test Track have replaced them.

Several blogs have sprung up to discuss what Epcot has become and what its future might hold. Some lament that Epcot has become more of a kiddie ride than an expo for learning about the future.

One may argue that Epcot is more of a relic than a park, made obsolete by the rise of the Internet. With tools like blogs and Wikis, the amount of information available on the web makes any information a park exhibit might share old news before it even gets off the drawing board.

But Disney has a legacy of inspiring the future. Aerospace engineer Burt Rutan has said he was motivated to pursue a career in aviation, and eventually spaceflight, after watching Disney's Man In Space shows as a child. Tomorrowland left an impression on me that was enough to start blogging. Who knows how many countless children passed through the gates of Disney parks and left to follow creative lives as they matured.

Epcot's identity crisis is a sign of how predicting the future has changed. I jokingly made the slogan of this blog "Until I get a flying car or a jetpack...this will do". Flying cars, jetpacks, space colonies were practically assured to be reality by the time the 21st century came along. Some of Epcot's demolished or retired exhibits were filled with such lofty visions.

The kids of the 1980s are all grown up now. Raised on computers and science fiction, they now face the very real problems of e-waste, climate change, and preserving a fragile planet. All humans are all forced to become futurists now, not just speculating about futuristic gizmos and techno-wonders, but for our very survival.

Epcot has always faced a daunting challenge. How do you get easily-bored kids and their parents, who are paying for a pricey vacation, to go to a place to have fun and actually learn something? Disney parks have been able (with generous corporate sponsorship...of course) to make it work. I will be watching closely to see what Disney's imagineers will do to help Epcot adapt.

The world of Epcot enters its 25th year facing an uncertain future. So do we all.

LINKS

Epcot Central - A blog about Epcot
Re-Imagineering - A blog written by Disney Imagineers and with several entries about the future of Epcot
The Official Epcot Homepage - The Epcot Page on Disney.com
Walt Disney's Original Plan for Epcot - A film where Walt Disney himself proposes the original idea for Epcot
The CDP-101 - The first CD player by Sony. Introduced on this date.

September 13th and Space 1999 - The day the moon was hurled out of orbit

2007-09-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

It's been years since the date of September 13, 1999 has passed, but the moon still orbits the Earth...and is still unvisited by humans since the Apollo missions.

Between the years of the cancellation of Star Trek and the debut of Star Wars, Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 had its own unique style. From the tight-fitting uniforms to the funky opening music, Space 1999 is classic 1970s science fiction.

One of notable qualities of Space 1999 is humility. The inhabitants of the year 1999 do not have warp drive, light sabers, or a federation of mighty starships to explore the vast reaches of space.

The crew of Space 1999 are trapped on Moonbase Alpha, an outpost on Earth's moon flung into space when a pile of nuclear waste explodes and acts as an accidental rocket motor.

The survivors on Moonbase Alpha are cut off from Earth, forced to conserve their precious resources and dealing with the unknown. While rubbery aliens show up at times, loneliness and vacuum of deep space are bigger foes than Klingons or Stormtroopers.

Space 1999 is not as campy as Star Trek. Martin Landau's Commander Koenig is not the scenery-chewing and alien-maiden-seducing Captain Kirk. Disco-dance-floor worthy title music aside, the music score by Barry Gray echoes the somber string music used by Stanley Kubrick for the Discovery One scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. For a science fiction show, the presentation is amazingly mature...even if the computer terminals are occasionally revealed to be made of paper.

Years like 1999 and 2001 used to conjure up visions of a world much different than our own. Commentators and pop culture observers often flog the dead horse of how we do not have jetpacks or flying cars. While we don't have moonbases and Eagle Transporters, today's cellphones are slimmer than the comlink devices featured as one of Space 1999's futuristic tech gadgets.

The interior of Moonbase Alpha is spare and clean, reflecting the look of the 1970s, which has seen a recent resurgence in the appreciation of the fashions and design of that era.

The Eagle Transporters, the workhorse spacecraft of Space 1999, are surprisingly realistic. They are the great grandchildren of the lunar modules of the late 1960s, all grown up and sporting bigger engines. I doubt they could fly through the atmosphere of a planet like they do on the show, but hey...it's a TV show. And they make a great toy for any kid.

Here's the opening credits of Space 1999. Rock on in the 21st century to that theme music!

LINKS

Space1999.net
Space 1999 on Wikipedia
Space 1999 Catacombs - Resource guide
Martin Bower's Model World - Space 1999 spaceship models
Space 1999 tech section - Displaying the stun gun and comlink

TNT's 100% Weird promo

2007-08-30T08:39:00.000-05:00

Back before I could get my favorite old Sci-Fi films by the truckload on DVD, I used to catch them on a show on TNT called 100% Weird.

I found the old promo on YouTube. The music and jingle remind me of old corporate films and ads that sold cars and kitchen products.

I love the part where the TNT logo is wheeled into the psychopathic department on a gurney. What company today would be brave enough to suggest their logo needed to be put into a padded cell and sedated?

The new world of "internet" back in 1993

2007-08-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

I found this video of a newscast talking about the "new computer network called Internet".

How long has it been since I've heard an old phone modem make that buzzing sound?

The Space Shuttle Endevour and sunrise

2007-08-06T10:02:00.000-05:00

An incredible photo from the NASA site as the Shuttle Endevour is stands ready for liftoff. To get a really close-up look, check out the high-res version.

More photos of the Space Shuttle roll-out on the NASA Space Shuttle gallery.

Extinct Disney World attractions live on through YouTube

2007-08-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

During the same trip to Walt Disney World I visited the Sci-Fi Dine-In, I also took a trip to the Magic Kingdom. While most of the park was as I remembered it as a kid, there were some rides that were gone or replaced.

One of them was the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride, where visitors could ride a replica of Captain Nemo's Nautilus and come face to face with a giant squid. It was a cheesy ride by modern standards, but still great fun.

It was gone when I visited the park this time. The lagoon was still there there and still filled with water...but Nautilus was closed for good.

Time does not stand still, and neither do theme parks. The ride would eventually be replaced with some new attraction. Like anything you love as a kid, you feel a twinge of loss when it is lost, even if it was a little worn-out.

A couple years later I was looking through YouTube and found that home movies of the old 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride had been uploaded by users. There were was the Nautilus again! Watching the video put me back to my first Disney trip with my parents so long ago.

I found that YouTube had become an archives of old Disney rides. From Epcot's The World of Motion to videos of the original Tomorrowland, YouTube had stored the home movies and memories of countless vacations and images of long extinct attractions.

The video sometimes is shaky and the sound a little muddy, but something has been salvaged that captures the experience more than pictures and words.

For generations who never got a chance to see these attractions while they were around, this will be as close as they get. Perhaps virtual reality or Second Life will mature enough not just to bring back old Disney rides, but the exhibits of the 1964 Worlds Fair and other fanciful places that have met with the wrecking ball.

Until then, some streaming video and mono sound will have to do, but that is enough to bring back memories.

The Sci-Fi Dine-In at Disney-MGM Studios and the worlds of old science fiction

2007-08-04T10:14:00.001-05:00

Over five years ago I took a trip to Walt Disney World. A decade had passed since I visited the park and I was curious to see what had changed.

One of the places I was determined to visit was the Sci-Fi Dine-In at Disney-MGM Studios theme park. I had seen the entrance on my last visit, but I didn't have time to stay and have dinner.

The Sci-Fi Dine-In is a 1950s drive-in movie theater re-created indoors. It fits into theme of the Disney-MGM Studios park's appeal to baby boomer nostalgia for Hollywood's past and retro design.

Visitors to the Sci-Fi Dine-In sit in booths shaped like small cars. The walls are decorated with stars and a nighttime landscape. On the menu are drive-in favorites: burgers, fries, shakes. Clips and trailers from old black-and-white science fiction films play on the screen up front. Even the drinks play up the sci-fi theme, with electric glowing ice cubes.

While I am part of the generation that grew up with Star Wars rather than The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1950s and 60s science fiction was part of my childhood. I saw most of those films on Saturday afternoons on TV. The special effects (and often the plots) were tacky, but the filmmakers and artists who made those films often pulled off amazing visions with no CGI or lavish budgets.

Visiting the Sci-Fi Dine-In made me reflect on how much of my childhood was influenced by design and culture created long before I was born.

I realize the 1950s were not the idealized time that some believe them to be. Read some history and you will know it was not Leave It To Beaver or Ozzie and Harriet. However, the 1950s were marked by an excitement about the future (especially space travel) that is missing from our more cynical times. The events of the last fifty years have insured we will never go back to a state of innocence, yet the music, movies, architecture, and graphic design of that time period have endured.

The films and TV shows of the 1950s are part of my past and continue to inspire me. The Sci-Fi Dine-In is a tribute to the era of tin-pie-plate flying saucers and rubber monsters, and entertaining no matter what era you live in or what age you are.

To see more of the Sci-Fi Dine-In, here are some links....

YouTube videos are here, here, and here.

Photos on Flickr are here.

Here is the official entry on the Sci-Fi Dine-In on the Disney World Home Page.

Design for Dreaming - The freeway fantasies of the 1950s

2007-08-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

I first saw Design for Dreaming on a laserdisc of 1950s short films over a decade ago. I was more bemused than impressed. What the heck was this weird promotion film for GM Cars with a pixie-ish woman being whisked off to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel by a masked stranger?

This was my first introduction to the charm of retro-culture. This film is silly, and somewhat sexist to boot, but it clearly captures the optimism of the 1950s. The cars are classics, especially the Corvette. The stainless steel kitchen with the bubble-domed oven echoes the sleek futurism that lives on in today's modern designs.

The girl and her magical guide ride off in a rocket car (sporting a tail-fin that belongs on the back of a shark) down a glitter-dusted freeway of the space age. The future highways are devoid of traffic jams and happy drivers smile from behind the wheels of atomic-powered luxury cars. After experiencing the depression and World War II, highways must have seemed like futuristic blessings to the adults of the 1950s.

Design for Dreaming is remarkable for the 1950s for centering a vision of the future on a woman's dreams and desires. While she is still expected to toil in the kitchen, she also wants her own sports car.

The giddiness of Design for Dreaming is unforgettable. I still hear that Toooooooooomorrrrrrowwwwwwwwwww song in the back of my mind when I see designs for future electric cars.

I doubt those new cars will have fins.

I dedicate this post to my wife as we celebrate five years of marriage.

July 24, 1959 - The Nixon/Khrushchev Kitchen Debate

2007-07-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

I find the "Kitchen Debate" fascinating because the weighty issues of world peace and atomic destruction were discussed within the placid setting of an American kitchen.

The newsreel footage mentions that the event is being recorded on COLOR videotape, a futuristic technology for the time period, now a standard feature on cellphones and laptop computers.

I love the architecture of the building for the American Exposition. The dome reminds me of the 1964 World Fair and Disney's Tomorrowland.

Who would have thought that washing machines and blenders would provoke such a reaction?

Maybe those color schemes of the 1950s shocked Khrushchev's senses.

Wikipedia has more detail about the Kitchen Debate.

Stars and planets to scale

2007-07-21T13:06:00.001-05:00

You can't help but feel small after looking at this.