I needz your shiny steampunk pictures!

Hey guys,

So I'm working on a project for Steampunk World's Fair, but I need your shiny steampunk pictures! Pictures of you- if you are going to SPWF next May- doing whatever as long as it's steampunk. Send me your best picture, the shinier brassier the better.

Also, don't make it a far-away shot. Close up is best.

Message me at steamfairdevelop at gmail dot com!

Love you lots!

Whisper

AGGREVATION! LOTS OF IT!

Yet again, Steampunk Magazine is being assaulted by the state. Or at least the police. They raided the home of one of the founders of steampunk magazine, accusing them of leading riots and using twitter to tell people where the police were during protests.

They confiscated everything from Steampunk Magazine prints, Toys, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer dvd's.
So, just to recap, if you own Buffy Dvd's, use Twitter, and read steampunk magazine, that is enough to destroy your home and accuse you as enemies of the state.

http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net/2009/10/steampunks-professor-calamity-faces-multiple-felonies-for-twittering/

Go read, and if you can offer aid, please do. Even if all you can do is spread the information! Post wherever you can, or just send out e-mails.
Steampunk Magazine is something I personally endorse. I cannot speak for the dreadfuls, but for myself. I identify with a lot of the goals and ideas in this magazine, and it is solely rsponsible for my ongoing love of the subculture. It's appauling that this could happen, and even more terrible that people like me are being harassed for simply owning these things, and participating in something they are passionate about.

Again, please repost, or e-mail...anything to get the word out. I am at a loss of what else I can do right now, beyond putting word out. Just keep the signal going.

~Cap


EDIT:
Apparently it was already dealt with, and my post came a day too late. Here is the latest information:

http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net/2009/11/all-charges-against-the-pittsburgh-twitterers-have-been-dropped/

~Cap

Promotion! Of a steampunk blog!

http://silver-goggles.blogspot.com/

Here's Jha's latest steampunk blog! It deals "solely with postcolonial theory and steampunk". Totally awesome!

Go give a read, bookmark, friend, whatever you need to do. ^_^

Much love,

Whisper

"I killed all the disciples in a frenzied knife attack."

So, I have to go to the woods now. But I have something I wanted to share a bit of. Some of you may know these guys, and I may have shown you the video before, but I figured I should share the wealth a little more and post it here!

These are the 'Tiger Lilies', and they are singing 'Bully Boys' and 'Snip Snip' off of their album and play 'Shockheaded Peter."
Basically, it is a cabaret inspired thesis on how to kill and torture little children.
Highly recommended!!!

Have fun with it, kiddies!
~Cap

We'z on da interwebz!

Whisper just made us a website on wordpress.com

Penny Dreadfuls Website!!!

You can tune in for hot webcam action...oh, wait...wrong site...
This is awkward...
*Ahem*...
...It's the General's webcam, I swear!!!!

~Captain Jeramiah Homer-Winslow

Steampunk's Reappropriation of Entertainment Media

First, I apologize if this is a TL;DR scenario. I tend to talk when I get going. If you give this a read though, I would love to hear other people's ideas and opinions.

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Someone said recently of the steampunk hype that they don't think something counts as being the latest hype unless you can see it in everyday life.

People like myself and others who are involved with and interested in steampunk (who may even wrap themselves up in it like a protective blanket), see a lot of steampunk because we are on the social networking sites and the forums. We search it out, tracking down books, artists, movies; the latest "they might be steampunk, let's listen to them!" musicians, and articles from emerging thinkers.

We are not the average person, though. It might do us well to remember this.

The question was brought forth of, if we walked away from the internet and didn't actively go hunting it down, would we see a lot of steampunk? Would it seem like the latest bandwagon that everyone is jumping on? Brass Goggles has 8500 members- can 8500+ people on the whole of the internet really be the markings of a bandwagon? Can we estimate how many people are involved with steampunk in some way in their daily or casual living? Out of the 6.7 billion in the world?

I also got to thinking about how people have this problem figuring out what is and what isn't steampunk. In the search to find steampunk creations, there's starting to be backlash. See, when people enthusiastic about finding steampunk in what they love start labeling art, stories, or music as steampunk.... not all the creators appreciate it.

I'm not sure if the reaction is because these artists have given serious thought to their work and see it as something else that does not mesh with steampunk's messages. Or if it is that they don't want to be thrown on this perhaps imaginary bandwagon, nervous that they might not be taken seriously.

Frankly, to those artists, I say STAY! Keep your message there, and revel in being dragged, kicking and screaming, into what you perceive as something fringe mainstream. Here is where you can do the most good, if you just keep true to yourself and your message.

At the same time, I also look to all this labeling we steampunks do.

Steampunk has a very strange relationship with its media. Mostly because steampunk came before it had legit media to spread it, I would think. I know personally I was not influenced by any media to explore steampunk, despite that I had enjoyed several books considered steampunk, movies, and so forth. Others might have come to steampunk through this same media-less portal. And once they get here, they go, "I love this aesthetic, this idea for a sound I have in my head, this memory of emotional response from this sort of story. How can I immerse myself in this, so that I can form my own opinions on what this steampunk is all about?"

And what you get is a lot of retro-fitting of the title steampunk onto all sorts of media.

Even a year ago, steampunks didn't have a lot of bands to look at that were calling themselves steampunk. (And some that did still had a lot of Cruxshadows-envy floating in their musical veins.) If I looked to Tiger Lillies and Dresden Dolls and Gogol Bordello and put them in the "sepiachord" file on my ipod, is this wrong? They don't call themselves steampunk, but their styles are something that puts me in the right headspace.

These are bands and artists that I listen to that put me right back to that original steampunk mind. I'm listing all of them, so you can see the gamut they run:

Professor Elemental; Dr. Steel; Gogol Bordello; Jason Webley; The Tiger Lillies; HUMANWINE; The Dresden Dolls; Amanda Palmer; Tom Waits; Rasputina; Juke Baritone; Joe Black; Pretty Balanced; Jeffery Straker; Two-Man Gentleman Band; Voltaire; Creature Feature; Circus Contraption; The Decemberists; World Inferno/Friendship Society; Luminescent Orchestrii; The Scarring Party; Vermillion Lies; That 1 Guy; Hellblinki Sextet; Harlequin Jones; Reverend Glass Eye; Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band;

and yes, even Abney Park, because fact is: they were in my starter steampunk kit.

Now, not all of those bands are steampunk or should necessarily be called steampunk- and some of them, like Voltaire and The Decemberists, not all of their songs. But they are each of them something I would stand behind as what steampunk music feels like for me.

Then, too, a lot of people like to label literature as being steampunk; including things which have until recently simply been classic science-fiction lit. Stories which were alternate-realities in the time they were written, or looks to the future, are now being called steampunk: Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and the like are being considered the grand-daddies of steampunk.

ARE they steampunk? Is there enough of the punk (in the sense of "something that annoys or causes discomfort", especially "one who does not conform, pointing out the monotony of conformity for those who do") in these books to warrant them being progenitors of the genre? Is it worth mentioning as even proto-steampunk, a place that is "a good start"? Or should we move to the 80's and 90's lit, which STILL didn't necessarily call itself steampunk, for the first place to go for steampunk reading?

That brings up something else: the punk in steampunk. In the beginning, not much thought was put into what the punk meant. It was a joke at how cyberpunk was around and now this stuff was steampunk, har har, very funny. But can't we get comfortable saying, yes, though it didn't originally mean something but with newer people and ideas coming to the field, the punk DOES mean something now? There are the gaslamp fantasists and neo-vics who neither need nor want the punk, but there are people for who steampunk can be something harsher, louder, and doesn't take "because" as an answer.

If the punk is not important to someone, maybe the person should look harder at themselves and ask why it doesn't matter to them yet they continue to use it. Because, for me, ignoring the punk part says that as a subculture and small community, we introduce ourselves with a name that was and still is simply about... what? About making fun of another subculture? That... really doesn't throw the right message out there, guys. And cannot possibly be all that punk has to offer.

But moving back to the topic at hand...

There are movies, film, television, and anime too that have been adopted by steampunk. Wild Wild West, Back to the Future Part III, The Rocketeer and City of Lost Children to name only a few that I loved before I had steampunk to put them together on a mental shelf; I even put Waterworld in there, being like a post-apocalyptic steampunk world where everyone is making their own inventions and goods out of whatever they have left. But these were not greenlit going, "Hey, you know what's a cool style? Steampunk. Let's make one of those movies." They knew the style they wanted, and put it forward, and it just happens to look awesome.

It's like steampunk aesthetics, imagery, and media... was sitting around, knowing its style was something interesting and quirky that not everyone would like, and waiting for someone to go, "You. You are steampunk. Come, join us even if you already have other friends. You are welcome here."

What the problem becomes is this: some people are in the camp that the only things which are steampunk are those endeavors set forth by the creator as steampunk projects. They feel that it is the creator who has final say on what something is or isn't; and they may decide it is not steampunk, even if you say it is.

I can understand that this covers a lot of people's asses, so that they don't look too "hip and with it" on something that is only really big online and creeping into fancy fashion and movies; or on things that they feel have a different, not-steampunk-friendly message that is getting twisted or misinterpreted.

One issue with this is that, once your art leaves you, you sort of don't have any right to it anymore minus copyright and so forth. If I write a story, and publish it, those are no longer MY characters. They are your characters, because it is your time to spend with them now. Likewise, if you enjoy a piece of art, it is yours now to enjoy. And therefor, if steampunks like something for being steampunk that the creator did not make with that intention... it sort of becomes something that is steampunk-acceptable. Ba-goosh, after all, means "steampunk approved!" in Dreadspeak.

Note, too, if an artist doesn't mean for their work to be on the same wavelength as steampunk, but their message is getting misinterpreted, perhaps it is time to consider alternate ways of telling this message. Something is lost in the translation, and it can't ALL be the audience.

But, really, steampunk is adrift in an ocean of media mostly NOT "made for steampunk". So would it be fair to discount things that have passed long before steampunk hit this stride, and not consider them steampunk? A lot of bands and movies see a resurgence of interest in them, if they are discovered by someone to have a feel they equate with their own style of steampunk- is that such a bad thing?

Must something be made with the clear intent of being steampunk or can we retroactively give a personal category to these things?

What, really, is the problem with steampunk re-appropriating their entertainment?

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Perhaps some other time I will talk about trying to find steampunk art that speaks to the Industrial heart of my steampunk in a sea of Victorian steampunk art. But that is a conversation for another night!

Much love,

Whisper

ps: Holy cow! I hadn't realized Lucretia had been the one to come up with the title "The Indifference Engine", but she did! And that is going to be the name of Professor Elemental's brand new album! Huzzah! Congrats, Lucretia!

Tor.com Interview

A friend from the steampunk ning, Jha Goh, is blogging this month on Tor.com. She asked if I would be willing to give an interview, and I was more than happy!

You can read the article here.

I talked about living on the road, steampunk, and of course Steampunk World's Fair. ^_^

Enjoy! And be sure to read Jha's other articles- she has some really great ones that are not the typical stuff that gets talked about when steampunk is brought up.

Much love,

Whisper

So THAT'S what a waist coat is!!!

I just found a site that is specifically about New England History, Fashion, and Daily life. It goes all the way back to the 1700's, and has a lot of nifty features.
But most impressive to me is the layer by later 'Dress Up' feature, which also explains what each article of clothing was, how it was worn, and why it was worn.

I highly recommend it as a great way to start looking into period clothing and 'Steampunk' styles. Mostly because steampunk even rebels against the common styles of the period, so it is rather good to know what WAS commonplace and how to use it. Just so you can alter it later!

Hope you enjoy it!
~Cap

EDIT: I am a moron, and forgot to post the link. WHY DID NOBODY SAY ANYTHING?!!?
here it is!

http://www.memorialhall.mass.edu/home.html

The issue with Steampunk

This post is going to be me voicing some thoughts I have been having for a while.
If you've talked to me for any length of time on the subject of steampunk, you have heard me talk about the 'That's not Steampunk' issue.
If you haven't I am about to talk your ear off.

I discovered Steampunk as a movement over a year ago. I was excited by the prospect of it. Not just the look, it went beyond aesthetic. It is interesting to look at, but what I loved was what it stood for. Or at least what I saw in it.
It was a place for people to go if they had an appreciation of our (somewhat) recent past. Maybe even more than the past. They had a desire to know how things worked, how to be independent of corporate and industrial confines, and how to admire things you might not fully understand.
For example:
I am not a science person. I excel in philosophy and fantasy. I love a good story just as much as I love a fascinating fact. Maybe more. Sometimes those things coincide, sometimes they don't. But either way, I am not an engineer, a scientist, or a master craftsman. So I am a bit of an outcast in any circles that revolve around these things. Facts and science. Even if I admire a machine, or the act of building it, or the person building it...I am not part of it. I am merely someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
In Steampunk I found a way to "Love the machine and hate the factory". I could admire these things in my own comfort zone, outside of science, and in my personal headspace. Not only that, I found a group of people who shared that view. People who liked to make things, simply to say they made them. Regardless of their craftsmanship or ability...they simply make things to make them. I dubbed these people 'Steampunks'. That might have been premature.

Now I wonder if those people I found are separate from Steampunk as a whole. Maybe those people simply turned to Steampunk as a method of expressing themselves, and they really aren't 'Steampunk'. They simply are that way, and they gravitated towards this strange subculture for a time. (and face it folks, it IS a subculture.)

What I find most disheartening about this movement, subculture, fandom....whatever you wish to call it, is the amount of FUN that is simply being choked out of it.

I have run into many people in the past year who have this burning need to have things be historically accurate, aesthetically appropriate, and downright generic... It has simply been a year, and steampunk has become complacent and bland to me already!
I recall seeing a picture from dragon con...it had hundreds of Steampunks on a flight of stairs, and they were posing for a picture. It was so indestinguishable, and so...I can't find words for it! It was a sea of khakis and creams, nerf guns and gears... Everyone looked the same. I only thought 'When everyone is special, nobody is'.

The worst amongst the steampunks are those who only see one thing. "THIS is steampunk, THAT is not. Victorian Era London had it right, Damnit!" People who put more effort into telling you "You are not steampunk, you are more clockpunk, oh wait, that's made of aluminium... they didn't use aluminium in steampunk eras. Airship pirates never existed, so I don't know where this fantasy came from. I am NEO VICTORIAN!" I've heard people argue that they are Neo-Vic and that steampunk has nothing to do with that...or that steampunk is ONLY neo-vic.

Those groups of people are ass-hats... in my humble opinion.

As a side note, not all Neo-Vics are douchebags...but I am noticing a trend that most douchebags align themselves with Neo-Victorianism.

I came to steampunk with a sense of wonder, awe, and excitement. I have spent the last year of my life fighting to have fun with Steampunk. I think I am losing.
Yet isn't that a novel idea? HAVE FUN!
Not be bogged down by what is or isn't...what's historical and what's fantasy...who is 'more steamier!'...who is a legitimate part of 'the scene'...who is a 'scholar' or 'writer' or 'journalist' for steampunk...
I don't give a rats ass what you are and what you call it! Simply let me have fun for christ sake!

If the sampling of people I have seen in the past year are the representatives of the anomilie that is Steampunk, then I don't think I could have fun with it.
I just remeber when I use to exchange ideas with people about something I wanted to do or work on in the realm of steampunk, and people were excited and would exchange thoughts and ideas with me. Most steampunks don't anymore. That's quickly being exchanged with pointless posturing and bitchy remarks.
I can't say anything like 'back in the good ole days of steampunk', because there weren't any of those. It is still too young a group.
And it is going through one HELL of a puberty.

I am putting all this out there in the hopes that someone will keep the sense of fun and optimism alive in steampunk. I shouldn't have to fight to have fun, and nobody else should either. But it isn't as simple as screaming "GET OUT OF MY SUBCULTURE!" as most people do.

Steampunk, at it's core, should be a mix of fantasy, science, art, and culture. It should be enjoyable to get all dappered up and show off the things you've made, and even find out new ways to make them.
Steampunk served as an exchange of information, enjoyment, and appreciation for me. It helped me discover that I enjoy what I can create, and appreciate the things I use to create it. It allowed me to look at someones clothing, tools, furniture, and technology, and really appreciate the fact that we are capable of making these amazing things. I was allowed to take aspects of the past I enjoyed, and put them in a blender, and make myself a completely innacurate and delightful smoothie.

This is why I am a part of the Steampunk World's Fair. I am hoping that there are still people out there that will love the things I love. If I can make World's Fair FUN and keep the elitist bullshit out of it, maybe I will find that group of people where I can speak freely without being chastised or ridiculed for simply enjoying something.

If you agree with any of this, please, enjoy it. Don't let people ruin it for you. I do that far too often.

Keep it light folks.
~Cap

Cons! So many cons!

http://www.otakufestboston.com/

Our buddy Matt, from the L33tStr33t Boys, has asked us to help out with Otakufest 2 Boston! So the Penny Dreadfuls will be making an appearance there!

It is in Salem, MA on Salem State campus March 7, 2010. One day only- don't miss it!

O2B is a "50/50 deal" according to the site: half anime con, half concert event! Kaiju Big Battel, L33tStr33t Boys, geek comedian Uncle Yo, and us. How is this a bad plan? ^_^ Oh and Marz! We love Marz! He is awesome, and apparently for the second year in a row Marz will be their MC. XD Epic!

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We're closing in on Baku-time! Halloween weekend! Colchester, VT. Who's gonna be there? ^_^

Then after that, it looks like we won't be able to make it to New England Fan Experience which is a real downer- I was looking forward to trying to find John de Lancie and be a fan-girl-from-afar. I've been showing Cap ST:TNG, lately, and yeah. Woulda been a good time, but we cannot afford to go to the con since the Woods didn't hire me back for anything this year. We had an offer of someone paying for us and we'd pay back later, but that was hinging on us getting a table there... which the time for that seems to have passed. Lamesauce. :(

But then! Then! We finish the year out with Another Anime Con. I love Nashua, NH and hope to some day live there again if I settle into a stationary life for any period of time. But AAC is going to be a blast! And Lucretia will be gracing the halls with her presence as Miss Trap 2008. Who will be Miss Trap 2009?! Come find out! We only regret that our buddy, The Internet, will be down in Virginia that weekend for Anime USA. And that he is also taking the General along with him. Ha! Sorry for you, Virginia!

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After the break, we're starting the year with TempleCon- one of our other favorite cons. It's in Warwick, RI and a steampunk-flavored gaming con! If you're any kind of gaming geek- and I mean ANY- you have to come to this!

Then we have Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire! I am getting really excited for this one, and look forward to decorating the hell out of the venue!

All right, it's almost midnight. I don't want to be online at midnight so I will talk to you later, guys! COME TO THE CONS!

Much love,

Whisper