There’s a lot to complain about Hackers and the accuracy of hacking, but where they diss rollerblades, clothes and handles, I have to disagree. The handles seem very plausible. In the 1990’s and...
There’s a lot to complain about Hackers and the accuracy of hacking, but where they diss rollerblades, clothes and handles, I have to disagree.
The handles seem very plausible.
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s I knew a lot of hackers (in the oldkool meaning of the word, but some did pen and crack for fun) who rollerbladed everywhere (one still does).
The raver and industrial style in that era was not too different, and at least in Europe there was some overlap between the raver and hacker subcultures. In fact, I know a few people who still look like Cereal Killer – oddly enough, most seem to be German, and several are queer and/or trans.
Also, let’s be honest, Dade’s look is still/again popular – see this promo image.
P.S. I still hold on to my collection of Pogs (just like some still hang on to their Bitcoins) XD
This reminds me of a bit from a New Yorker article, concerning writers from Silicon Valley meeting with Astro Teller:
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s I knew a lot of hackers (in the oldkool meaning of the word, but some did pen and crack for fun) who rollerbladed everywhere (one still does).
This reminds me of a bit from a New Yorker article, concerning writers from Silicon Valley meeting with Astro Teller:
During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conference room with Astro Teller, the head of GoogleX, who wore a midi ring and kept his long hair in a ponytail. [...]
“He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred many times to specific things that had happened on the show,” Kemper said. “His message was, ‘We don’t do stupid things here. We do things that actually are going to change the world, whether you choose to make fun of that or not.’” [...]
Teller ended the meeting by standing up in a huff, but his attempt at a dramatic exit was marred by the fact that he was wearing Rollerblades. He wobbled to the door in silence. “Then there was this awkward moment of him fumbling with his I.D. badge, trying to get the door to open,” Kemper said. “It felt like it lasted an hour. We were all trying not to laugh. Even while it was happening, I knew we were all thinking the same thing: Can we use this?” In the end, the joke was deemed “too hacky to use on the show.”
Them being plausible doesn't make their criticism of their ridiculousness any less valid :P And I say that as someone who used to wear phat pants all throughout highschool and went to raves almost...
Them being plausible doesn't make their criticism of their ridiculousness any less valid :P
And I say that as someone who used to wear phat pants all throughout highschool and went to raves almost every weekend during that period in the mid-late 90s. In retrospect we did look pretty silly, which is largely what they were commenting on. ;)
That’s true. But if you look at any era’s fashion trend taken to max in hindsight it looks stupid. I’d be willing to bet that if you look at any school group photo two or three decades later, the...
That’s true.
But if you look at any era’s fashion trend taken to max in hindsight it looks stupid. I’d be willing to bet that if you look at any school group photo two or three decades later, the kids you thought were the most “dope” back then, now just look like a dope ;)
The upside is that fashion repeats itself, which is why there was a comeback of the jeans shirt (and the regrettable German Badelatchen with socks), so humanity is given more opportunity to repeat our fashion mistakes over and over again :)
Hello. As someone who's SO works in the fashion industry. Fashion, like almost everything, works in a 20 year cycle. So what was cool 20 years ago is cool now. Want to be ahead of the curve? Start...
Hello. As someone who's SO works in the fashion industry. Fashion, like almost everything, works in a 20 year cycle. So what was cool 20 years ago is cool now. Want to be ahead of the curve? Start wearing stuff that was popular 18 years ago. When she pointed that out to me, it was like a penny dropped. I work in animation, and guess what? Exactly the same concept. It really has everything to do with nostalgia, and the goldilocks zone is 18-20 years ago.
To add another layer; it's almost like reincarnation - so not only could you look to say, 2001 right now for style choices, but the echoes too - 1982, 1963, etc... all those times where looking to...
To add another layer; it's almost like reincarnation - so not only could you look to say, 2001 right now for style choices, but the echoes too - 1982, 1963, etc... all those times where looking to their cycles. It's why boot cut and flares are also being seen again on the savvier hipsters out there (I might be one of them sorry).
I was very young in the 90s but how did popular culture treat "geeks" back then? Wasnt this before the reversal where it became cool to identify as a geek or nerd? I'm wondering whether this movie...
I was very young in the 90s but how did popular culture treat "geeks" back then? Wasnt this before the reversal where it became cool to identify as a geek or nerd? I'm wondering whether this movie was particularly bucking any trends in how cool they wanted to make techy people.
I can’t speak for the US, but in Europe it wasn’t as bad as the Hollywood movies portrayed it. The subculture was quite alive, but as all subcultures, not for everyone. Where I’m from, being a...
I can’t speak for the US, but in Europe it wasn’t as bad as the Hollywood movies portrayed it.
The subculture was quite alive, but as all subcultures, not for everyone.
Where I’m from, being a geek/hacker was not something cool, but you weren’t mocked for it either. For comparison, being a skater in the 90’s was cool. Having a C64 or SNES or an Internet modem was also cool. Hacking it, not that much per se.
Also, the people who dressed like in the movie Hackers were a small minority. Mostly they just wore whatever was comfortable or what other subculture they associated with. The geeks/hackers that I remember from that era were everything from skaters, goths, metalheads, punks, ravers …you name it, we had it. Some were scouts, some were volunteer firemen, some boxers, some climbers – it was rarely the only hobby. And amongst the best, most were not studying IT either.
IMHO a similarly flawed trip down the memory lane as the movie Hackers is also the C-Base hackerspace. Kinda stuck in an era that only half-way existed.
There’s a lot to complain about Hackers and the accuracy of hacking, but where they diss rollerblades, clothes and handles, I have to disagree.
The handles seem very plausible.
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s I knew a lot of hackers (in the oldkool meaning of the word, but some did pen and crack for fun) who rollerbladed everywhere (one still does).
The raver and industrial style in that era was not too different, and at least in Europe there was some overlap between the raver and hacker subcultures. In fact, I know a few people who still look like Cereal Killer – oddly enough, most seem to be German, and several are queer and/or trans.
Also, let’s be honest, Dade’s look is still/again popular – see this promo image.
P.S. I still hold on to my collection of Pogs (just like some still hang on to their Bitcoins) XD
This reminds me of a bit from a New Yorker article, concerning writers from Silicon Valley meeting with Astro Teller:
Them being plausible doesn't make their criticism of their ridiculousness any less valid :P
And I say that as someone who used to wear phat pants all throughout highschool and went to raves almost every weekend during that period in the mid-late 90s. In retrospect we did look pretty silly, which is largely what they were commenting on. ;)
That’s true.
But if you look at any era’s fashion trend taken to max in hindsight it looks stupid. I’d be willing to bet that if you look at any school group photo two or three decades later, the kids you thought were the most “dope” back then, now just look like a dope ;)
The upside is that fashion repeats itself, which is why there was a comeback of the jeans shirt (and the regrettable German Badelatchen with socks), so humanity is given more opportunity to repeat our fashion mistakes over and over again :)
Hello. As someone who's SO works in the fashion industry. Fashion, like almost everything, works in a 20 year cycle. So what was cool 20 years ago is cool now. Want to be ahead of the curve? Start wearing stuff that was popular 18 years ago. When she pointed that out to me, it was like a penny dropped. I work in animation, and guess what? Exactly the same concept. It really has everything to do with nostalgia, and the goldilocks zone is 18-20 years ago.
Yup, exactly that :)
To add another layer; it's almost like reincarnation - so not only could you look to say, 2001 right now for style choices, but the echoes too - 1982, 1963, etc... all those times where looking to their cycles. It's why boot cut and flares are also being seen again on the savvier hipsters out there (I might be one of them sorry).
I was very young in the 90s but how did popular culture treat "geeks" back then? Wasnt this before the reversal where it became cool to identify as a geek or nerd? I'm wondering whether this movie was particularly bucking any trends in how cool they wanted to make techy people.
I can’t speak for the US, but in Europe it wasn’t as bad as the Hollywood movies portrayed it.
The subculture was quite alive, but as all subcultures, not for everyone.
Where I’m from, being a geek/hacker was not something cool, but you weren’t mocked for it either. For comparison, being a skater in the 90’s was cool. Having a C64 or SNES or an Internet modem was also cool. Hacking it, not that much per se.
Also, the people who dressed like in the movie Hackers were a small minority. Mostly they just wore whatever was comfortable or what other subculture they associated with. The geeks/hackers that I remember from that era were everything from skaters, goths, metalheads, punks, ravers …you name it, we had it. Some were scouts, some were volunteer firemen, some boxers, some climbers – it was rarely the only hobby. And amongst the best, most were not studying IT either.
IMHO a similarly flawed trip down the memory lane as the movie Hackers is also the C-Base hackerspace. Kinda stuck in an era that only half-way existed.
"I'm pretty sure Bitcoins are Pogs" ... That was a remarkably insightful and IMO surprisingly accurate comparison by Macaulay Culkin.