The New York Times Magazine asked Garrison Keillor to predict the future in 1996. Matt Novak's excellent Paleotuture blog explains:

Some of the stuff hits the mark, particularly about the rise of celebrity culture and the fragmentation of the media, but that was a rather safe bet in 1996. He says people won't be nostalgic for the horrible age of 1996, which turned out to be wrong; every generation gets nostalgic for the world they saw as children, filtered through their own gauzy recollections of happiness and sugary cereal and cartoons and long summer evenings. I'm nostalgic for 1968, for heaven's sake. Kids today are busy remixing their childhood and getting verklempt about Pikachu. Adults look back to the mid-90s as a happy time - Cold War's over, history has concluded, it's all internet and commerce binding the world ever tighter, and so on. We are still permitted to be nostalgic for the 90s, although that will change eventually. He concludes:

"Modernism" didn't suddenly die, and "modernism" was different than the commercial vernacular of the 50s. Modernism was severe; the Googie drive-in style and its watered-down variants were fun, playful, optimistic and far more futuristic than modernism - which, after all, had its roots in joyless pre-war German theorists designing blank-faced machines for living. Modernism as a commercial style yielded to kitschy-gitchy-coo crap with big fake mansard roofs or gimmicky shapes, and its skyscraper styles ended up as the Boring Glass Box that did nothing but reflect all the other boring glass boxes. Whether he thinks it was a bad thing that the past got preserved left and right, I can't tell. Old streetlamps were popular because people liked them better than the modern versions - once they were asked, that is.

Agreed! The demolition of Summit Avenue begins tomorrow. Surely we can find some European architects willing to fill its length with witty, provocative new future-proof buildings that will speak to people in 100 years just as the mansions of Summit speak to us today.

The entire article is here.

By the way, the little title card above is for "Just Imagine," a bizarre sci-fi movie from the early talkie years. It had the most astonishing special effects anyone had ever seen - outside of Metropolis, that is. It's almost an American remake of Metropolis without the class warfare, and with musical numbers. In other words, the American version of Metropolis. Speaking of which:

Maria the Killer Robot gets a refreshing juice drink between scenes.

One of the Behind-the-Scenes shots assembled at this site. Also included: Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," and "Alien." Fun for any film fan. Sorry - cinema aficionado.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE Violent video games: a big concern. Are they warping our children's morals? It's a relevant question. It's also thirty years old:

The quote comes from this excellent Verge history of arcades, a subject that will probably loom as large in the pantheon of American nostalgia as the Drive-In - albeit darker and smellier. The aroma of musty carpet always pervaded those places, along with overdrive teen hormones and spoiled spilled soda.

But think of that quote: intense experiences, soaking into your body and soul.He's talking about Missile Command.