William Gibson's "Footage"

William Gibson has an uncanny knack for making things sound cool, whether it's a Buzz Rickson MA-1 bomber jacket, or a Volkswagen Phaeton, or the imaginary "footage" that's at the heart of Pattern Recognition. Unfortunately, when I actually see those things in real life, they're always tremendously disappointing.




Turns out, even the imaginary footage is disappointing.

I can't remember where I first saw the (disturbing) videos you see below. But I definitely didn't think they were worth posting at the time (and I thought there was a third video?). But today Gibson described them "as seriously Footage-y as anything I've seen on YouTube."





They couldn't possibly have been more different than what I envisioned, which was more a romantic, timeless Sky Captain look.