Saturday, January 3, 2009

Welcome! To the World of TOMORROW!

In the lead-up to xmas, I could see the fever of avarice burning like a cinder behind my spawn's eyes, alongside the twin spark of Christmas Magic. On the one hand, this was a season of joy and love, and decorations, and angels, and Baby Jesus, etc. On the other hand, PRESENTS! I WANT MORE PRESENTS! WILL WE HAVE MORE PRESENTS TOMORROW DADDY? It was this promise of Christmas Magic, brought to you by the good people at Toys "r" Us, that put me in mind of all the promises-of-a-brighter-tomorrow that we've been fed over the years. Or maybe it was too much listening to Obama.

Retro-futurism has always sort of fascinated me. Well, to the extent that I pretend to be fascinated by any one thing, for purposes of blogging. It's 2009. We're living in the fucking future right now. So why is everyone still waiting for their flying cars? Their personal robot maids? Their jet-powered roller blades?

What nostalgia-for-futures-lost powers this endless undercurrent of proto-optimism? I can remember that beautiful hover-car like it was yesterday. Or tomorrow. Or something. The sleek lines, all that gleaming chrome. The promise of a brighter, antimatter-powered future. It seemed to stand in for all the things that I hoped and dreamed of for myself, my family, and humankind in general (as much as I loathe humankind).

I didn't really want to blog about this, but then there was that other blog post, and I can't go and delete it, because it's, you know... out there now, and that would be editorially inconsistent or something. So here, by way of retroactive cancellation of my previous crowing, is the anti-announcement: That whole pregnancy thing... didn't really work out.

And that's all I really want to say about that.