In which I attempt to make up for my recent blogging silence by employing dot points

[sharplittleteeth]

Hi! Still alive. Twittering more that LJ/DW'ing. Sorry.

I've been getting some good, detailed feedback on my novel. Most of it boils down to whereever I thought I was being subtle and understated, I was actually being confusing.

Starting Draft 3 next week. Will endeavour to make everything more obvious.

Busy weekend coming up:

• Tonight: MOTH at the Malthouse Theatre
• Tomorrow: The Bedroom Philosopher's High School Assembly at Thornbury Theatre
• Saturday: Record launch from Mountain Static
• Sunday: Pub Lunch at the Northcote Social Club.

We double-booked ourselves to see Circus Oz on Saturday night as well. But thanks to kitling , we were able to sell our tickets to verylisa, and now we're going Saturday week.

Stuff that I should be blogging about but probably won't get around to:

• Emerging Writer's Festival (The best festival in the world! Friendly, thought-provoking, inspiring.)
• Continuum 7 (Special guest Cat Valtente was awesome, even though I've never read any of her books.)
• Melbourne by Dusk (Urban-photography-meets-urban-fantasy site, run by andricongirl and me.
• Vienna: Art &Design exhibition (Saw it last Friday. Amazing Klimt paintings and Schile drawings. Also lots of teapots, which I found less interesting.)

And finally: got into a brief discussion about sexiness in Steampunk on Facebook. As part of it, came across this image of a baby-faced steamgrrl who looks like she's about to blow up a train.

I'm totally writing a story based around that picture.

Comments

[greylock]

Steampunk's dead man.
It turned into Steamo thanks to Panic At The Disco! some time ago.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/02/panic-at-the-disco-goes-steampunk-in-qthe-ballad-of-mona-lisaq

[sharplittleteeth]

And by "dead", you mean "more popular than ever".

I suspect it's in the same place cyberpunk was at the end of the 90s - the first wave of innovators have been and gone, and now it's seeping out into movies, video clips and the circus (like the Circus Oz show linked above). And yes, mainstreaming can mean a loss of vitality for an aesthetic, as people recycle what has come before rather than synthesising something new.

So, to that end, I'm gonna jump on the Scandinavian Minimalist Eco-Friendly Punk movement. It's the way of the future, man.

[greylock]

And by "dead", you mean "more popular than ever".

Pretty much.
Dead inside.

the first wave of innovators have been and gone

I'm not sure there has been much in the way of innovative steampunkishness. From day dot it has largely looked like slapping cogs on this.

Scandinavian Minimalist Eco-Friendly Punk movement

I think that's called Fuck For Forests.

[sharplittleteeth]

I'm no expert on steampunk. But it does seem to offer three really interesting avenues to explore:

1. It encourages DIY
2. It's a fun way to talk about colonialism, class structures and gender roles
3. In an age when technology is mostly invisible or sealed away, it provides a way to celebrate the joy of machines and engineering.

Here: steam-powered record player , playing The Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSiVWkk5zaQ

[greylock]

I don't know much about Steampunk, but it has always seemed a shallow thing.

So, I can dismiss 2.
1 and 3... eh... cosplay. Eh.

[blithespirit]

http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php/blog/article/index/33
I have a crush now.

[blithespirit]

wow, cut and paste fail. I meant to be quoting "a baby-faced steamgrrl who looks like she's about to blow up a train."
:)

[sharplittleteeth]

Cut and Paste is hard.

[blithespirit]

I particularly liked that I got the HTML right but failed the cut & paste. :)

[sharplittleteeth]

Think I've found the original photographer (since the Facebook group doesn't credit where the images come from): Kaeldra on DeviantArt.

http://kaeldra-1.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=Steampunk+fashion

I'll confess I was slightly disappointed with the rest of the lady's outfit. High heels and a lacy skirt aren't ideal blowing-up-trains wear.