Dance-Dance (or: "How Kelsey was a Steampunk-Kid all along")
For about two years now I've been pretty obsessed with the Steampunk movement. It all started with tithenai's "To Follow the Waves" which is Lesbian Steampunk set in the Middle East. Seriously, if you think you don't care about this movement, listen to this story. It will probably at least make you a die-hard Amal El-Mohtar fan and will hopefully convince you that this is a movement to watch. So many people just think of automatons, steam-powered contraptions, and clockwork with Victorian England garb... This is the other end of the spectrum: it can be so much more than that. Also, if you are on my flist - chances are you are a Doctor Who fan... and hey: Matt Smith? Steampunk.
It helps that my bestie is a Goth-kid who found the movement that way and ushered me in to the clothes and the music.
(( Guys. Professor Elemental has a song about Fighting Trousers and Tea. Steampunk music. Find it. Love it. ))
Yesterday from 10a to 1a I was out of the house at Steamstock down in the Bay Area and it was a BLAST. Okay, so by the end of the night I was so exhausted, I felt nauseous. And I may or may not have gotten really depressed at one point and had to leave the dance floor for a bit. I may have also spent WAAY more money than necessary! (A girl just needs a good pair of goggles and other accessories, okay?) Also - my feet pretty much still hurt and I don't see that going away soon. HOWEVER!
[Goth Kids for the Win (And also how Kelsey is a Baby-Goth)]
GOTH KIDS FOR THE WIN. This event was co-hosted by the Swing Goth group based out of SF - apparently every Thursday they hold a swing/alt-dance night at a local club with lessons and Role-Playing! This would be enough to convince me to move to SF - if only SFSU was partnered with Peace Corps, I'd move tmw! (more on this later)
And by that I mean - The Steampunk crowd is everything you've ever wanted out of a group of people. It's like a Ren-faire, in terms of the creativity, passion, varied interests, multi-generational and multi-cultural interests, but oh so much more. Possibly I prefer the music. Or quite possibly I love the idea of Steampunk more than that of the Ren-faire with all the Guilds and less of the Punk and clockwork and gears and airships... How does one live without the possibility of airship pirates? Also quite possibly I love, love, love how just ADORABLY HAPPY the Goth-kids are. I consider myself a baby-Goth, I feel most at home with the Gothy-Steampunk crowd. SO full of happy and passion and creativity! It's so lovely. Lovelier than lovely. And the most fantastic? Women of all shapes and sizes are treated like QUEENS. There - you are loved for you interest and your unique sense of individual expression. Which is beyond awesome.
It's like being in a room full of people who are JUST LIKE ME. They're weird and awkward, usually socially uncomfortable - put them in a costume and tell them to dance and be expressive without fear of judgement, suddenly people come to life. There is a place for all of us.
Basically what I am telling you, is that I fully fell in love with everyone there. My brother, marypantz's fiance, asked, "Do you want to take all the girls home?" at one point because I couldn't stop falling over myself with glee and love for everything that was happening around me. Especially all the lovely ladies and their costumes.
ESPECIALLY these two little teenage girls who were there the whole day. A blonde and a brunette: the brunette was wearing a brown corset and pants, with knee-high boots. She was armed with several vials and had a wrist-crossbow holster. Her companion, the blonde, was dressed in a more feminine fashion - with no weapons and a tail. A TAIL. I asked Pantz what she thought their story was (which we figured by the end of the night they - or at least the brunette - were friends with Captain Robert's daughter, as they seemed to know everyone... which: AWESOME) and she figured on me asking about the girls-actual. Funny story about me? SO EASY for me to fall into Steampunk - land. I decided that the brunette had obviously captured the blonde somehow and they had decided to travel with each other for a while.
What I'm telling you is - two appx 16yr old girls have my brain buzzing with the endless possibilities of STORY.
(I took a pic of the two of them - from the back so you could see the tail, but not their little faces out of respect and also sneakiness - but my phone destroyed the evidence. Depressing.)
And then all of the adorkable boys and their talent. OMG THE TALENT OF THESE BOYS!
First, I had a bizarre moment in which Pantz and her fiance took pictures with Captain Robert and then walked away... I was filled with all these "OMG-CELEBRITY" and "THAT POOR HUMAN" feelz. And then moments later, the poor dear was standing all alone on the dance floor and so I forced Pantz to stand next to him and then asked him if he was having a good time (because the man was at an event in which he was the headliner and was just standing all alone and I had a weird ~feel about how lonely that must be) - honestly, standing and talking to him was worth more to me than a picture. Because hey: PERSON WHOM I LOVE AND I JUST SAID HELLO HOW ARE YOU.
My view of Abney Park - once I decided to sit on the floor in the back of the crowd, because I was just too exhausted to stand any longer, let alone dance::
And then I completely lost my cool over Good Co., which isn't entirely my fault. First of all, they're cute as buttons. Secondly, they are classified as "Electronic Swing" - which basically means (to me and you) that the lead singer occasionally pulls out his trumpet and starts wailing on it like there's no tomorrow. INSTA-LOVE. Totally cool when I walked in and they were so smiley and cute, and then they performed and after that I was a nervous 12yr old every time one was near me.
Which - BIG HUGE PERK of an event like this: the talent was always on the dance floor, being adorkable fans just like their fans. I stood next to Captain Robert and swayed. I watched the lead singer of Good Co. eye up this (adorable) girl for a few minutes, before asking her to dance (at which point I had to move because the darlings were less than five feet away from me and swing dancers need room) and then saw him find her several times again throughout the night, always just as nervous and sweet.
Here he is, playing back-up to Abney Park (the trumpet player in the background) .... this pic is basically to show you just how close I was to the stage all night!
I also pretty much want to marry the adorable lead singer of Hydrogen Skyline, she was pretty adorable as well. But I am a flighty lover, apparently. The trumpet player won my heart in terms of stage-performer.
All in all - I was in love with everyone. But I think my heart was stolen a little bit by all of the Swing Goths, and this boy in particular:
BEST dancer of the day - boy started out with a full-on outfit: top hat, jacket, vest, shirt-sleeves. By the time he asked me to dance (around 8p), he was just in a fishnet shirt... and so sweaty. Oh, but he was FUN TO DANCE WITH. (psst- that's him dancing with me! Pantz was able to snag a few good shots! She didn't get the dip at the end, but my goggles fell off, so I doubt it would have been easy to get that moment clearly.) Darling man who can dance, who asked lil' ol' me to dance... Heart. Stolen. Plus, when I got too tired at the end of Abney Park, I got a great view of him closing out the night with three of the girls from the group - and he's fracking amazing to watch. He's large, but lean - so his hands close to a petite frame just look masterful (OMG HANDS) ... plus, sexy as all hell.
AND HE ASKED ME TO DANCE! (It was actually pretty adorable - I was standing alone while Pantz and Brother went to get drinkage and had a small chat with a man standing near boy... I heard pieces of Dancer-man asking the TopHat if I was his girlfriend... this conversation went on for far longer than it ought before he actually walked over and asked me to dance. But I love how polite he thought he was being.)
Still reeling ... I was asked to dance twice, which was just lovely. Apparently I look like I know what I'm doing, just by standing and swaying (I didn't really see them ask anyone else who wasn't fully dancing or someone they knew) - which makes me want to take lessons / find my way to the City some long weekend to play, play, play.
My one regret of the evening is not asking him to dance again - or dancing with ANYONE.
Oh... so in conclusion, here is me (me is also in the icon for lack of a better Steampunk icon)::
In the midst of all the Victorian ladies, I was feeling pretty nervous about my outfit... but the thing is: my Persona (which is still in the works and I don't think I'll have a good handle on her until I do a bit of a back-story write-up) isn't frilly at all. Quite as masculine as I can get her. The idea is a bit: Victorian lady grabs her father's vest, ditches the corset, and becomes an airship pirate. But I'm adapting it as I go... currently I'm thinking of running with "Fae who Hunts Demons" as the official idea. I'm taken with it. I also (will have a hard time finding things) but want to go more 19thC Asia than England. So maybe a kimono top eventually, with the leggings? I really want some sort of crossbow to strap to my thigh and a Katana to swing across my back, maybe. And if I go with Fae, then I'll need want some sort of clockwork wings eventually.
The hilarious part is how I actually didn't have to dress up that much: all of this is pretty standard for me. Which really says a lot about how much I've changed in the past year or so. And also, possibly, why no one really even shrugs when the girl with bright pink hair extensions admits to writing fanfic, I also geek out about being a Steampunk kid, loving video games, and pretty much being a dork in RL all the time.
[Edit]: The reason(s) for posting this are not necessarily to spam you with pictures of myself dressed up in airship gear, or dancing with the Adorable Goth-Swinger, or to convince you to also fall in love with my new boyfriend (the trumpet player from Seattle) ... but mostly as a response to my last RL post, in which we all marveled at a "normie" revealing their interests and fear of loving something too much. It's so lovely to see it in the every day from someone we don't expect... especially in a culture that has been so infected by a Postmodern sense of "ironic hipster"-isms.
There will always be pockets of culture - usually pockets that aren't widely accepted, looked down on, inaccurately portrayed by the media, and otherwise just different. I'm lucky enough to have you - to have this space. But I guess I wanted to share with you my other alternative-space. Another space where story, creativity, and enthusiasm are privileged over an ironic "who would care about that?" sense of Reality. A space where I can ask: "How do you think they met?" and be legitimately asking how the hell a cowboy, a gay steamship crewman, and a 40's Navy crewman all ended up in the same a-capella band (Real World answer: same group performs at Ren Faires... Kelsey's answer: Time Travel. Obvs.).
I love my Goth-kids because they are so unabashedly happy and want everyone to be happy and that happiness is directly correlated to this sense of space: they have a space within which to be completely as they wish to be. To be completely invested in their stories and their creativity and their subculture. Just like we do here. Only with costumes instead of with words.
And now that I've spammed you with my RL-oddities, I have to crash.
If you aren't reading penny_lane_42's kpop-RPF deliciousness, because you think that kpop fandom is out of your price-range, I STRONGLY suggest you trying on her Post-Apocalyptic piece that is in the works - these characters will breathe right into you, it's so easy to get to know them and love them in her capable hands. Also - I'm pretty sure post-Apocalypse fic serves the interests of most peoples on my flist. So go forth! Try something new! You won't regret it!
It helps that my bestie is a Goth-kid who found the movement that way and ushered me in to the clothes and the music.
(( Guys. Professor Elemental has a song about Fighting Trousers and Tea. Steampunk music. Find it. Love it. ))
Yesterday from 10a to 1a I was out of the house at Steamstock down in the Bay Area and it was a BLAST. Okay, so by the end of the night I was so exhausted, I felt nauseous. And I may or may not have gotten really depressed at one point and had to leave the dance floor for a bit. I may have also spent WAAY more money than necessary! (A girl just needs a good pair of goggles and other accessories, okay?) Also - my feet pretty much still hurt and I don't see that going away soon. HOWEVER!
[Goth Kids for the Win (And also how Kelsey is a Baby-Goth)]
GOTH KIDS FOR THE WIN. This event was co-hosted by the Swing Goth group based out of SF - apparently every Thursday they hold a swing/alt-dance night at a local club with lessons and Role-Playing! This would be enough to convince me to move to SF - if only SFSU was partnered with Peace Corps, I'd move tmw! (more on this later)
And by that I mean - The Steampunk crowd is everything you've ever wanted out of a group of people. It's like a Ren-faire, in terms of the creativity, passion, varied interests, multi-generational and multi-cultural interests, but oh so much more. Possibly I prefer the music. Or quite possibly I love the idea of Steampunk more than that of the Ren-faire with all the Guilds and less of the Punk and clockwork and gears and airships... How does one live without the possibility of airship pirates? Also quite possibly I love, love, love how just ADORABLY HAPPY the Goth-kids are. I consider myself a baby-Goth, I feel most at home with the Gothy-Steampunk crowd. SO full of happy and passion and creativity! It's so lovely. Lovelier than lovely. And the most fantastic? Women of all shapes and sizes are treated like QUEENS. There - you are loved for you interest and your unique sense of individual expression. Which is beyond awesome.
It's like being in a room full of people who are JUST LIKE ME. They're weird and awkward, usually socially uncomfortable - put them in a costume and tell them to dance and be expressive without fear of judgement, suddenly people come to life. There is a place for all of us.
Basically what I am telling you, is that I fully fell in love with everyone there. My brother, marypantz's fiance, asked, "Do you want to take all the girls home?" at one point because I couldn't stop falling over myself with glee and love for everything that was happening around me. Especially all the lovely ladies and their costumes.
ESPECIALLY these two little teenage girls who were there the whole day. A blonde and a brunette: the brunette was wearing a brown corset and pants, with knee-high boots. She was armed with several vials and had a wrist-crossbow holster. Her companion, the blonde, was dressed in a more feminine fashion - with no weapons and a tail. A TAIL. I asked Pantz what she thought their story was (which we figured by the end of the night they - or at least the brunette - were friends with Captain Robert's daughter, as they seemed to know everyone... which: AWESOME) and she figured on me asking about the girls-actual. Funny story about me? SO EASY for me to fall into Steampunk - land. I decided that the brunette had obviously captured the blonde somehow and they had decided to travel with each other for a while.
What I'm telling you is - two appx 16yr old girls have my brain buzzing with the endless possibilities of STORY.
(I took a pic of the two of them - from the back so you could see the tail, but not their little faces out of respect and also sneakiness - but my phone destroyed the evidence. Depressing.)
And then all of the adorkable boys and their talent. OMG THE TALENT OF THESE BOYS!
First, I had a bizarre moment in which Pantz and her fiance took pictures with Captain Robert and then walked away... I was filled with all these "OMG-CELEBRITY" and "THAT POOR HUMAN" feelz. And then moments later, the poor dear was standing all alone on the dance floor and so I forced Pantz to stand next to him and then asked him if he was having a good time (because the man was at an event in which he was the headliner and was just standing all alone and I had a weird ~feel about how lonely that must be) - honestly, standing and talking to him was worth more to me than a picture. Because hey: PERSON WHOM I LOVE AND I JUST SAID HELLO HOW ARE YOU.
My view of Abney Park - once I decided to sit on the floor in the back of the crowd, because I was just too exhausted to stand any longer, let alone dance::
And then I completely lost my cool over Good Co., which isn't entirely my fault. First of all, they're cute as buttons. Secondly, they are classified as "Electronic Swing" - which basically means (to me and you) that the lead singer occasionally pulls out his trumpet and starts wailing on it like there's no tomorrow. INSTA-LOVE. Totally cool when I walked in and they were so smiley and cute, and then they performed and after that I was a nervous 12yr old every time one was near me.
Which - BIG HUGE PERK of an event like this: the talent was always on the dance floor, being adorkable fans just like their fans. I stood next to Captain Robert and swayed. I watched the lead singer of Good Co. eye up this (adorable) girl for a few minutes, before asking her to dance (at which point I had to move because the darlings were less than five feet away from me and swing dancers need room) and then saw him find her several times again throughout the night, always just as nervous and sweet.
Here he is, playing back-up to Abney Park (the trumpet player in the background) .... this pic is basically to show you just how close I was to the stage all night!
I also pretty much want to marry the adorable lead singer of Hydrogen Skyline, she was pretty adorable as well. But I am a flighty lover, apparently. The trumpet player won my heart in terms of stage-performer.
All in all - I was in love with everyone. But I think my heart was stolen a little bit by all of the Swing Goths, and this boy in particular:
BEST dancer of the day - boy started out with a full-on outfit: top hat, jacket, vest, shirt-sleeves. By the time he asked me to dance (around 8p), he was just in a fishnet shirt... and so sweaty. Oh, but he was FUN TO DANCE WITH. (psst- that's him dancing with me! Pantz was able to snag a few good shots! She didn't get the dip at the end, but my goggles fell off, so I doubt it would have been easy to get that moment clearly.) Darling man who can dance, who asked lil' ol' me to dance... Heart. Stolen. Plus, when I got too tired at the end of Abney Park, I got a great view of him closing out the night with three of the girls from the group - and he's fracking amazing to watch. He's large, but lean - so his hands close to a petite frame just look masterful (OMG HANDS) ... plus, sexy as all hell.
AND HE ASKED ME TO DANCE! (It was actually pretty adorable - I was standing alone while Pantz and Brother went to get drinkage and had a small chat with a man standing near boy... I heard pieces of Dancer-man asking the TopHat if I was his girlfriend... this conversation went on for far longer than it ought before he actually walked over and asked me to dance. But I love how polite he thought he was being.)
Still reeling ... I was asked to dance twice, which was just lovely. Apparently I look like I know what I'm doing, just by standing and swaying (I didn't really see them ask anyone else who wasn't fully dancing or someone they knew) - which makes me want to take lessons / find my way to the City some long weekend to play, play, play.
My one regret of the evening is not asking him to dance again - or dancing with ANYONE.
Oh... so in conclusion, here is me (me is also in the icon for lack of a better Steampunk icon)::
In the midst of all the Victorian ladies, I was feeling pretty nervous about my outfit... but the thing is: my Persona (which is still in the works and I don't think I'll have a good handle on her until I do a bit of a back-story write-up) isn't frilly at all. Quite as masculine as I can get her. The idea is a bit: Victorian lady grabs her father's vest, ditches the corset, and becomes an airship pirate. But I'm adapting it as I go... currently I'm thinking of running with "Fae who Hunts Demons" as the official idea. I'm taken with it. I also (will have a hard time finding things) but want to go more 19thC Asia than England. So maybe a kimono top eventually, with the leggings? I really want some sort of crossbow to strap to my thigh and a Katana to swing across my back, maybe. And if I go with Fae, then I'll need want some sort of clockwork wings eventually.
The hilarious part is how I actually didn't have to dress up that much: all of this is pretty standard for me. Which really says a lot about how much I've changed in the past year or so. And also, possibly, why no one really even shrugs when the girl with bright pink hair extensions admits to writing fanfic, I also geek out about being a Steampunk kid, loving video games, and pretty much being a dork in RL all the time.
[Edit]: The reason(s) for posting this are not necessarily to spam you with pictures of myself dressed up in airship gear, or dancing with the Adorable Goth-Swinger, or to convince you to also fall in love with my new boyfriend (the trumpet player from Seattle) ... but mostly as a response to my last RL post, in which we all marveled at a "normie" revealing their interests and fear of loving something too much. It's so lovely to see it in the every day from someone we don't expect... especially in a culture that has been so infected by a Postmodern sense of "ironic hipster"-isms.
There will always be pockets of culture - usually pockets that aren't widely accepted, looked down on, inaccurately portrayed by the media, and otherwise just different. I'm lucky enough to have you - to have this space. But I guess I wanted to share with you my other alternative-space. Another space where story, creativity, and enthusiasm are privileged over an ironic "who would care about that?" sense of Reality. A space where I can ask: "How do you think they met?" and be legitimately asking how the hell a cowboy, a gay steamship crewman, and a 40's Navy crewman all ended up in the same a-capella band (Real World answer: same group performs at Ren Faires... Kelsey's answer: Time Travel. Obvs.).
I love my Goth-kids because they are so unabashedly happy and want everyone to be happy and that happiness is directly correlated to this sense of space: they have a space within which to be completely as they wish to be. To be completely invested in their stories and their creativity and their subculture. Just like we do here. Only with costumes instead of with words.
And now that I've spammed you with my RL-oddities, I have to crash.
If you aren't reading penny_lane_42's kpop-RPF deliciousness, because you think that kpop fandom is out of your price-range, I STRONGLY suggest you trying on her Post-Apocalyptic piece that is in the works - these characters will breathe right into you, it's so easy to get to know them and love them in her capable hands. Also - I'm pretty sure post-Apocalypse fic serves the interests of most peoples on my flist. So go forth! Try something new! You won't regret it!