Late to the party

It seems as though my odd, eclectic nature has led me, albeit late in the game, to another style and subculture to immerse myself in. It's been going on for some time now, and most websites that reference it also mention how "yesterday" it is, how tired everyone is of it already, and how people just can't seem to stop themselves from liking it anyway.

It's called "steampunk".

I know, I know, you probably already know about it - but on the odd chance you don't, here's what I found out so far.

Basically, there are books, movies, bands, and role play groups that focus around the steampunk style. And what is that, you may ask?

Steampunk is a Victorian/gothic dreamworld featuring flying airships, steam powered anything and everything, and usually features industrial chaos.

Some examples of steampunk ladies' fashion inlcudes:

Goggles, leather headgear, corsets, huge old metal skeleton keys, leather boots with as many straps and buckles as you can lift, and gloves of all sorts. Victorian style fingerless gloves are also "big" in steampunk, especially layered with various army-style colors. There are endless combinations of clothing for the ladies in steampunk style, and it relies heavily on the imagination and creativity of the person creating the wardrobe. Everyone's is different! How wonderful!


For men, steampunk offers many styles as well, including:


Long coats, top hats, aviator hats, goggles, lots of bells and whistles - basically anything with brass pieces, nuts, bolts, and copper wiring - modified weaponry and lanterns, leather bits and bobs, high leather boots, you name it! There are also more "Western style" steampunk guys, again with hats and high-buttoned long coats. The goggles almost always make an appearance, though.

Some brilliant creators have modified existing technology (a major part of the steampunk culture) to fit into the steampunk "era", as it were. These items still function fully, although it's nearly impossible to tell how just by looking. Here are some amazing steampunk creations:

This gorgeous monstrosity actually houses a computer tower. It's too intricate for me to go into every feature here, but if you're interested in seeing more closeups and creator Dana Mattock's notes, CLICK HERE.


A steampunk guitar

A steampunk laptop by Datamancer. The key actually turns it on, and if you don't believe me, you can CLICK HERE for the video.



A steampunk pistol created by an old friend of mine
who goes by the moniker Christian Graves.
If you'd like to see more of his creations, CLICK HERE.

A steampunk wrist watch - not sure if this is actually functional, though - it may be more of an "art as jewelry" piece. Since the clock seems to be missing hands, I'm guessing it's just for looks - but very cool anyway!

There are steampunk books (Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age"), steampunk bands (Abney Park), steampunk movies ("The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"), and steampunk computer games ("Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura") . The examples I've given are absolutely the most generic and easy to find - I'm sure there are more and better samples of this subculture out there, but hey, give me a break, I'm new to this whole thing.

Except the funny thing is, many of the "keys" to this craze are already in my house - old watches, skeleton keys, Victorian clothing, an eclectic mix of oddities from times gone by... I feel almost as if I've discovered that what I've liked all along has been made into a formal style.

Oh, and lest I forget.... steampunk jewelry!!!

How lovely!

Marcheline's All-American Recipe for Disaster

INGREDIENTS:

ground beef patties
sesame seed buns
freezer fries
salt
onions
bacon
cheese
ketchup
A-1
mayo
mustard
relish
chocolate ice cream
milk

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Get all the ingredients together in the kitchen, and call your husband down to participate in the riotous, carnival-like atmosphere of cooking a real All-American traditional dinner.

2. Pre-heat oven to 450. Spread freezer fries on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven.

3. Fry up a couple of slices of bacon in a pan and set them aside for future burger assembly.

4. Have hubby layer chopped onion in a frying pan and begin to cook burger patties on top of the onions, White-Castle style.

5. Take condiments out of the fridge and arrange them in an attractive layout on the coffee table.

6. When burgers are nearly done, have hubby put bacon and cheese on top of burgers and cover frying pan with lid, to allow cheese to melt.

7. Now that everything's almost ready, take chocolate ice cream out of freezer, scoop half of it into the blender. Add milk and start blending.

8. Move freezer fries to bottom rack of oven, insert cookie sheet lined with opened hamburger buns under broiler for toasting.

9. Pointedly ignore husband's comments that the blender doesn't seem to be blending the milkshake properly, and subtly pick up a wooden spoon like you had planned to do it all along. Use wooden spoon (preferably the brand new, expensive wooden spoon you just bought last week) to prod the reluctant ice cream down towards the wicked, spinning silver blades.

10. Recoil with lightning-fast reflexes when the wooden spoon gets caught in the blender blades, just in time to keep your hand and arm from being sucked into the whirling vortex of death. To save face, blame husband for distracting you while you were attempting to tend to the milkshake, making it his fault that the brand new wooden spoon now has a huge chunk missing out of the tip.

11. Realize that in all likelihood, you now have a million splinters churning through your milkshake. Curse loudly and dump milkshake out the kitchen window, ignoring husband's suggestion to sift through the melting contents of the blender to "find the pieces". Assure him that imminent death from splinter infiltration of the stomach lining is worse than wasting half a container of ice cream.

12. In a flash of illumination, remember that you left the buns under the broiler to toast. Imagine that they are now burned to a crisp, and then tell yourself not to be pessimistic - you couldn't possibly have left them in there that long.

13. Open the oven and survey the landscape of blackened, smoking hamburger buns. Curse like a sailor, and vocally question your desire to ever try to do anything right when obviously it is cosmically and in all ways impossible. Throw the charred mess out the kitchen window.

14. Assign husband the task of toasting the four remaining buns in the package, adding dark admonitions not to attempt humor or any other sort of distraction while Operation Milkshake (Part Deux) is under way. This reinforces the impression that the whole wooden spoon thing was actually his fault, while giving him something constructive to do. Something which he is now terrified to do wrong because it will add to your already sunny mood.

15. Rinse the blender, and fill with the rest of the ice cream, and some milk. Use various 1980's dance moves to shake the ice cream down into the business end of the blender since the whole wooden spoon thing was such a FAIL.

16. Rub your eyes in disbelief when you look into the frying pan and see that the cheese has not only melted over the burgers, but has completely evaporated, leaving greasy-looking bacon strips forlornly perched on the beef patties. Open some more cheese and re-apply, because you're damned if you're going to let this fun, light-hearted All-American meal get the better of you.

17. Load all of the food onto plates, dump the milkshake into frosted glasses, fling yourself down on the couch, and start cramming your face before anything else can go wrong.

It's Mah Moobie! Premiering tomorrow in Texas! ROCK ON!!!

Splinterheads Trailer from Atlantic Pictures on Vimeo.

The latest junco

I didn't take the above photo, but it's a perfect representation of two of the little visitors I spied in my back yard today, braving the 16-0r-so inches of snow to get some of the birdseed from the feeder.

Got up early this morning with Bear, even though I was off today, to have coffee together and go out and shovel snow. We carved paths through the parking area, and uncovered ours and our tenants' vehicles. The downstairs tenants came out to help, and it was actually sort of fun, all of us out there battling the elements. The only thing that prevented a snowball fight was the fact that the snow was just so many drifts of powdered sugar. Nothing that would have held together.

After everyone left for work, I cleaned up the kitchen from last night's shrimp and snow pea scampi and rice dinner, cleaned out the cat box, took out the garbage and the recyclables, and bundled up to go do some errands. It was around 11am by this time, and I figured the roads would be clear enough to get where I needed to go. The snow had also stopped momentarily, and I figured I better take advantage of the lull before the next round of flurries started.

I went out and paid some bills, deposited my rent checks, and even drove up to return a late video rental.... only to find a sign on the door saying "May open late due to weather". I'm hoping they don't charge me for the late video, as the only reason I didn't return it on time Sunday night was that it was pouring the snow and I was afraid to drive in it. We'll see if customer service prevails...

Once I got home again, I felt vindicated in throwing on my sweats, popping some popcorn, curling up with the fuzzy throw and the cats on the sofa, and watching old movies on TCM. Saw a great movie I'd never seen before: "The Foreign Correspondent". I had entertained some thoughts of possibly dropping off to catch some extra z's during the movie, but no dice. This movie had the perfect blend of action, romance, music, and suspense - kept me glued the whole time.

Just now, as I was looking up the title on IMDB, I found out that it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie! No wonder I was on the edge of my seat! I must have missed Robert Osborne's intro, as he surely would have mentioned it was a Hitchcock film.

After that, I got up and went halfway up the stairs and sat down to watch the birds out of the back window. My fat, fuzzy tan kitty followed along and sat companionably alongside me, following the flights from shrub to feeder with her bright amber eyes. The two juncos were joined by a few mourning doves and a bevy of sparrows, all fighting and tumbling for a shot at the prize. Some of the wiser ones remained on the snow below the feeder, catching the food being spilled during the melee.

Later I did some computer stuff, and after a while meandered back downstairs and caught another great movie I'd never seen before: "Five Star Final", starring Edward G. Robinson and a very young, very creepy Boris Karloff. It was a picture about the newspaper business, and how people's lives can be lost for the sake of creating a sensational story to sell papers.

Edward G. Robinson plays the city editor for the Gazette, and comes up with the idea of resurrecting a story of a woman who killed her husband twenty years ago. What he doesn't know is that the woman paid her dues, has remarried, and is about to celebrate the marriage of her daughter. The daughter doesn't know her mother's history, and neither does the daughter's fiance. Needless to say, the breaking of this story will ruin many lives no matter how many papers are sold.

Boris Karloff plays a reporter who poses as a minister in order to gain access to the woman and her family. He is just as creepy playing a straight role as he was in any of his horror films. There's something about his deep, unctuous voice and his kohl-rimmed eyes that are deliciously eerie.