2001.03.28
I was watching Wild Wild West on some movie channel the other day. You know, that wasn't as bad a flick as people seem to think, at least for being a summer blockbuster. Visually it was beautifully shot, and a lot of the "retrofuture" stuff, the giant machinery of war, was really neat. When I finished "The Difference Engine", a more down to earth piece that asked "what would 19th century England have been like had Babbage's mechanical computers worked", I was trying to think of other examples of "steampunk", a nickname for the genre. (The term combines 'cyberpunk', a dystopic scifi genre of the 80s and 90s, with the idea of engines powered by steam.) Anyway, Wild Wild West was it, albeit in a goofy summer blockbuster kind of way.
Quote of the Moment
"What? You're back again again already?"
"Hey, be nice to me. I've just been through a near-death experience."
"Really? When did this happen?"
"Well, it was kind of spread out over the last 15 years or so..."