Steampunking Our Future: An Embedded ... - cdn.oreilly.com

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A Historian in the South Pacific James H. Carrott (Wellington, New Zealand) Meeting Greg Broadmore was one of the easiest things on earth. I dropped him a line, explaining the Vintage Tomorrows project, and asking him if he might be game to chat ray guys and retro-future over a beer. He kindly agreed and suggested we meet at the Roxy Theater in Miramar. “It’s got a lovely restaurant and has a little Grordbort’s in the mix,” he said. The Roxy isn’t your average theater—Tania Rodger (co-founder of Weta Workshop) and Jamie Selkirk built it with Peter Jackson so they could premiere films at home in style. I arrived early. The place was decked out in Academy Awards finery but eerily quiet. A gala for the awards had just completed and everyone had already left. True to form, I needed to look around. (It’s not every day you get to hang out in Peter Jackson’s cinematic home). As I climbed the stairs to the upper lobby I saw what Greg meant by the place having “a little Grordbort in the mix.” Greg, it became clear, was a master of understatement as well as its blunderbuss-toting inverse. “A little Grordbort in the mix” turned out to be a breathtaking mural—giant robots and rocketeers that covered the entirety of the huge, vaulted ceiling—and a near-full exhibition of character portraits from the Grordbort’s universe displayed on easels in elaborate gilt frames. All that and a full bar. Ah, the benefits of showing up early… Once Greg arrived, we headed a couple storefonts up the street to a Mexican place he likes—the Roxy was shutting down for the night, and we were just getting started. What’s in a Name? WHY SETTLE FOR THE LESSER DEATH RAY? | 11 We sat at the end of the bar and ordered a round of Tuatara, a good local beer. So there we were—two big-bearded geeks waiting for enchiladas. Greg’s beard wins, by the way. “I’ve been thinking,” I said, taking a pull from my pint, “about how things get labeled. You know, how the beats became ‘beatniks’ or how Ken Kesey and Tim Leary became ‘hippies.’ How did your ray guns become ‘steampunk’ and what does that mean to you?” “I kind of fear labels more than anything,” Greg earnestly replied. “When somebody gets labeled—and especially if you’re put in that label too—it becomes something to set another thing against. If you’re a hippie you’re set in opposition to conservatism or whatever, right? As an artist, I always feel like I want as much
12 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMBEDDED HISTORIAN’S NOTEBOOK Understatement of the month: Greg’s ceiling mural at the Roxy, Miramar, New Zealand freedom as possible. You don’t want to back yourself into one sort of stereotype because then you will take all the baggage that goes along with that.” Greg took a sip of his own beer and continued. “I actually went through a period as a teenager when I didn’t feel like that. For instance, punk rock—that became a thing I totally identified with. It was because it was already set against other things
Page 1 and 2: AN EMBEDDED HISTORIAN’S NOTEBOOK
Page 3 and 4: STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMBEDDE
Page 6: Futurehunting and Historyhacking |
Page 9 and 10: 4 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMB
Page 15: Greg Broadmore (photo courtesy of S
Page 19 and 20: 14 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EM
Page 44 and 45: Index A Armadillo (movie), 29 B Bro
Page 46: About the Authors James H. Carrott

Steampunking Our Future: An Embedded ... - cdn.oreilly.com

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?