I've noticed a few folks have been friending me here, and I just wanted to say "Hi"! Please don't be offended if I don't friend you back. I am using this forum a lot less lately, but I will continue to blog here, so if you want to read my ramblings, you can find them here for now. I really don't read much other than communities here anymore. Just thought I'd mention that, so you know.

Shamus Tinplate, famous bodger needed a few photographs of his lovely weaponry, so we traveled to Georgetown to join in the fun. I got gussied up as an airship captain in a not new but reimagined outfit. As we were walking passed a building to start taking pics, we noticed a group of young men, in depression era garb doing a photoshoot behind the building. My curiosity got the better of me so I went over to investigate. It was a photoshoot for a band who is cutting an album…do they still say that? Anyway, there were seven of them. Very nice, and photogenic guys. I am completely embarrassed to admit that I forgot the name of the band. I think having cute young men flirt with me might have something to do with it.

We did a few more locations around the area and got lots of looks and waved at by the engineers on the trains that went by. As I was coming out of an alleyway onto the sidewalk a group of four people passing by were quite amused. “It was like you walked right out of time!” one said. They thought the whole idea was so wonderful and were quite fascinated. I love the reactions one gets when wearing steam apparel.

We ended the outing with food at Calamity Jane’s. Mmmm, shepherd's pie.

I think we got some great shots. You can see helix90’s photos here .

While I am not one of those who have been breathlessly awaiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, it does peak my curiosity. The fact that they demolished one of my favorite places in the world, The Enchanted Oak to make room for Potterland, didn’t endear me to the project. I just got an email from Universal promoting the new park, and I am even less enthused now. It looks like they are working hard on the themeing, which IOA has never been slack on. Their Jurassic Park area is amazingly true to the movie, if a bit lacking in the fun factor. However, the new area is comprised of 6 shops, a restaurant and three rides. Don’t get excited though. Two of the three rides are just retrofits from the old area, a rollercoaster and a carousel. So, it all rests on one attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. “State-of-the-art” mind you, but still only one new attraction that will have enormous lines for years to come. To their credit, The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman is arguably the best attraction in the world, so I’ll give them a chance. Not sure if I will ever forgive them for bulldozing my beloved Oak though. We’ll see.

I was reading my email recently and I found an events newsletter listing a discussion about the internet and the arts. I went to the Gage Academy website to check it out and found a notice about their Masquerade Ball and Charity Auction coming up on Friday, less than a week away. I found a spot where they might need volunteers and checked in with my husband. Sure enough he was game, so I emailed the event coordinator and said we’d love to help. The fact that it was being held at St Marks Cathedral which is two blocks from our condo, was a bonus. They said they could use help and since we were willing to dress up, we could be greeters. The theme was Commedia dell'arte, and I didn’t have anything really appropriate so I asked around. No luck. Well, some but no time. So I went to my closet and found a lovely red top I hadn’t worn yet and debated the rest. I decided against the tutu or tulle skirts for warmth and being stationed at the door, I’m very glad I did. I did find that I had a red mid calf length skirt that was almost exactly the same shade of red. I already had a plethora of masks to choose from so I was set. It wasn’t very commedia dell’arte or period but it looked very coordinated. I got a ton of compliments on the ensemble. No one believed that I just threw it together out of things from my closet. We got to greet the party goers as they entered. There were some lovely costumes and masks, but less than half the folks participated. Still it was fun to see the ones who did. A lovely evening and it looked like they raised quite a bit of money. We were glad to be a part of it.

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, and since I got my contributor copies today, I thought I’d say something. The January 14th issue of WWDFAST (Women’s Wear Daily) has a small cover blurb: “Steampunk Rises” and a nice little two page spread complete with pictures. Unfortunately you have to have a subscription to read it online. The author, Lara Ewen interviewed me, Libby Bulloff, Captain Robert of Abney Park and Jordan Block of Sepiachord; getting our takes on steampunk, steampunk fashion and how it is affected by notice by the mainstream. The conclusion as voiced by Jordan is “Steampunks are becoming their own media, their own fashion icons, their own culture builders.” Well said.

Just in case you've missed the hullaballoo about the video for a recent trashy "steampunk romance", you can read the article here.

I think I'd be disinclined to buy a book that ignores copyright for it's promotion, even if I didn't already dislike the author's work. People need to fight for their copyrights, or no one will respect them anymore.

Spent the weekend selling my art and drawing at Further Confusion in San Jose. Here’s a quick review.

Hilights:

• Got to see some folks I only see occasionally.
• Got to meet some wonderful new folks.
• Got to talk steampunk and Steamcon to lots of people.
• Acquired a signed copy of “The Adventures of Langdon St Ives” by James Blaylock!
• Had an excellent dinner and good conversation on Friday night
• French Bakery in the hotel courtyard (Dangerous!)
• Had a wonderfully surreal evening watching little girls dance with giant animate stuffed animals.

Lowlights:
• Getting my luggage searched and scanned three times at airport security. Magnets scan strangely apparently. “It is my art and it is dangerous!”
• Flight delays due to really strange weather in SF. Thunderstorms, hail and…a tornado warning? It only made us about 20 minutes late, but the uncertainty was quite vexing.
• Our rental car, an Altima, was the most uncomfortable car I’ve ever ridden in. The seat is really low and I couldn’t find a way to adjust it.
• No clock in the hotel room. It was a very nice hotel, so that seemed odd. I also really hate duvet covers, and down pillows, but that’s par for the course.
• Didn’t make as much as I was hoping to. It seemed a bit slow, and I suspect the economy is affecting us.

Art finished, supplies packed, now to grab a shuttle and head to San Jose. I'm hoping the travel portion of this goes smoothly. Then it's art on demand for three days and home again. Think creative and lucrative thoughts!

Last night on Fringe, the title of the episode was “Johari Window”. This intrigued me, and I vaguely remembered participating in one years ago, so I looked it up.

“The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.”

Mine is still active. If you would like to go add to mine it’s here.

Just before Xmas break, I was rummaging through a whole bunch of art looking for a specific piece. I didn’t find the piece I wanted, but I did run across a few old pieces I never finished. At the time, I had no place to put them since they depict Miss Piggy, and she’s under copyright. Now that I can put fan art in my My Deviantart gallery , I figured I’d finish them up and post them. Coincidentally the divine Miss P was on two talk shows the day I finished up the inking, so I had inspiration at hand. I posted one above and you can go and check out the rest here.

As a long time science fiction fan, movie fan and James Cameron fan, I am eagerly awaiting Avatar. All new effects and techniques aside, the man is a consummate story teller. His movies are usually amazing but none of that matters if there isn't a solid story to be told. Terminator is still one of my favorite movies and that's because it's a gripping, personal, well told tale. I hope that somehow Hollywood will hear this. You can animate all the penguins, create space battles or blow up cities, none of it works for me unless you have a story to tell. Cameron has made fun new tools, that will make some fabulous things possible, implausible things plausible, but please ... have a story first.

A while ago, I had noticed some steampunk sneaking into Neopets of all places. Just a bit at first. One of the games called the Haunted Shooting Gallery had the look.
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A few clothes, like bowlers and a flight helmet.

So I kitted out my pets with whatever I could find to get a steamy look.
Now they have an entire section called Moltara City with lots more steampunk things being added all the time.

They are doing a pretty good job of the designs, while maintaining the whimsy. Quite fun.

To renew my paid LJ account or not? Quite the conundrum. I use this less and less lately and I'm working on getting a real website that will likely have a blog on it. Must ponder.

There's a Disney outlet store at Northgate (underneath Target) currently. Not a lot, but a few cool things. I found a fabulous xmas prezzie for Martin there!

Having trouble finding the perfect thing for that steampunk enthusiast in your life. Here are some practical and not so practical suggestions.



1. Hot Air Balloon Lamp
2. Old World Globe Bar
3. Gear Bookends
4. Old World Map Trunk Coffee Table
5. Hat Boxes
6. Brass Sextant
7. Brass Compass in Gift Box
8. Steamcon Merchandise!

I finished my new holiday card. You can find it in my Zazzle shop. And you can still save 50% when you buy ten or more until Sunday night. Just enter the code 12DEALSCARDS.

“Tis the season to send out cards and save on them! I have lots of different designs on Zazzle and right now you can save 50% when you buy ten or more. Just enter the code 12DEALSCARDS. I’m busy working on more designs, so watch for them soon.

For those of you who missed it, steampunk was featured in NCIS: LA. Abby, our favorite goth on TV, went to a club called ”Steampunk”, which is a really stupid name for a club. The people in the bar, despite the casting call for steampunk enthusiasts, are mostly goth or tame steampunk. The filming was done at a place called “Bar Sinister”, which I’ve been to and has a fabulous name. If you want a little further insight into the episode there is an interview with a casting director here.

At Orycon last weekend, three of the winning entries were steampunk. I apologize for not having the names of the others, but the child’s winner was very cute


and the winning entry in the group category is part of the crew of the Andoria.
I am quite proud to say that I was the grand prize winner with Widget the automaton.

You can see a few other photos that my husband took here.

Orycon was fun. We took a few pics. Go and see the rest of helix90’s photos of the weekend.