There’s a B.C. connection to the oddball interview that Elon Musk gave to Joe Rogan last week, and it’s not that the Tesla CEO is rumoured to be dating Vancouver-born musician Grimes.
Musk takes a puff off a joint at about the 2:10:00 mark in the wide-ranging interview for Rogan’s podcast, which was streamed to YouTube. More specifically, the joint is a European-style cigarette that has a mix of tobacco and weed in it.
No less than four minutes later, as he’s in the middle of being asked a question about his role in the world, he’s transfixed by a clock on Rogan’s desk.
This Nixie clock made by Kyle Miller of TGT Studios is similar to the one he made for Joe Rogan. (via TGT)“I like weird things like this,” he says as Rogan realizes they’ve moved on from the original question “My study is filled with weird devices.”
Rogan responds “You want one? I’ll get you one” then shouts out the maker of the clock: B.C.-based TGT Studios.
You may remember TGT. It’s the working name of Vancouver’s Kyle Miller, who we told you made a custom steampunk desk for T-Pain not that long ago. His studio is on Vancouver Island now.
He tells us that less than a minute after Rogan promised he’d get one for Musk someone sent him a message on Instagram about it. Then the mention “basically caused my entire website to explode.”
He’s now got a pile of orders he needs to fulfill, and continues to watch them roll in as more people watch and listen to the interview (it currently has 8.6 million views on YouTube).
The clocks themselves are cool, even if you’re not high.
As Kyle describes them, they’re “a reimagining and repurposing of an outdated and obsolete display technology called ‘nixie tubes.’ The tubes are little sealed glass cylinders with bent cathodes inside that display the time via glowing numbers. Great for reading across a dark factory floor. They’re technically an American invention, first used in the mid-50’s, but they fell out of fashion in favour of cheaper alternatives after about 15 years. They stayed in use in the Soviet Union however up until the late 70’s and possibly early 80’s.”
More than a hundred nixie clocks have gone out the door of Kyle’s studio in the past four years that he’s been making them. Rogan got his in one of the first runs of pre-orders and it’s been sitting on his desk ever since. Watch for it if you ever check out his interviews.
And have a look at the TGT website HERE.
– Bob Kronbauer, Vancouver is Awesome
