Report from June 7th Steampunk Roundtable in Raleigh
Twelve Carpe Noctum listmembers and friends met at the Hibernian Pub after the Carolina Rollergirls game last night to discuss ideas about planning more steampunk events, since the Clockwork Ball, the only local steampunk event thus far, only happens once every other month.
The big lesson learned about planning these roundtable thingies is not to hold them at a nightclub or pub unless we can get sufficient outdoor seating. The place had the right atmosphere and we had plenty of space inside, but it was heard to involve everyone in the discussion at once because of the noise level in the pub. We did manage to dredge up some decent fodder for further discussion on the Carpe Noctum Yahoo listgroup. Anyway, here, in no particular order, is what we discussed:
COMMUNICATIONS (IN WHICH WE LEARN THAT URSULA IS APPARENTLY GOING BLIND)
We decided to set up a steampunk LiveJournal Community. Normally I'd be inclined to support a list that already exists rather than creating a new one, but while there are other steampunk LJ communities out there, there isn't one in North Carolina.
The community format allows people on the list to contribute in a more lasting format than email, and with tags, it's easier to find posts on a given topic. Related announcements will still be posted on the Carpe Noctum list. Contact me for more information about how an LJ community works.
LJ COMMUNITY NAME
I chose "steampunk_nc" as the account name because it's reasonably generic and more likely to come up in a steampunk search, but I'd still like to open up the group name for vote. The one idea I had was "The League of Extraordinary Generalists", but I'd like to hear some more ideas before setting that in stone. Possible names could include fictitious Victorian-sounding social club, tea room, pub, train station or university names. Let's hear your ideas!
MEET-AND-GREET EVENT
We discussed starting with some kind of low-key lawn party / picnic / tea in the last week of June, or in mid-July or mid-late August. Guests would dress in their best attempt at steampunk attire. We didn't get into particulars regarding refreshments, but I imagine we could do a kind of potluck picnic. This would be mainly a meet-and-greet and planning session for future events. We can talk about personas and roleplaying, cultural research (period dance, ettiquette, pastimes, music, high tea and other social rituals, science, costuming and gadgetry workshops, etc). We can find out what each person is interested in and have them do research and planning so that everyone has a chance to add their knowledge, skill and effort instead of relying on a small core group to drive every activity.
POSSIBLE OUTDOOR VENUES
I'll be contacting UNC Chapel Hill tomorrow about reserving Forest Theatre. I've done it before, but looking at their website, it may be that some of the particulars have changed since the last time. The plusses are that it's a cool-looking site and it's close to a lovely arboretum and the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery; it has some nearby Victorian architecture for photo ops, and it's close to the pedestrian-friendly downtown. Coker Arboretum is another possibility . The thing is....I think that most of the list members are located in the Raleigh area. If anyone has any ideas for other sites, let's hear them!
STEAMPUNK HALLOWEEN PARTY
There was interest in having a steampunk theme Halloween party. Last year there were a ton of Halloween parties over Halloween weekend, so in the interest of avoiding conflict, we're looking at Saturday, 18 October. Kyle is interested in hosting it at his place, which is huge. It was mentioned that Alison and Cody are contemplating having a Halloween party, so we'll be contacting them to check for potential conflicts.
MUSIC
Brian/Talento has his own DJ equipment and is already putting together a playlist for the indoor/evening party and he's taking requests! So what is steampunk music? That one is pretty wide open. Stuff that evokes the Victorian era, the 20's, old timey music halls and a ton of stuff in between. For a great crash course, check out the Clockwork Cabaret podcasts. (Brian, here are some of the ones mentioned on Saturday: Chumba Wumba ("before they did That Song"), Stigmata Soundtrack, Rudy Valley. And here are a few from me: The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper and Yellow Submarine; Tim Curry: "Harlem on My Mind," "Allen" and "The Zucchini Song;" Queen: "A Night at the Opera;" Deathwatch Beetle Repairman: "The Carny of Mr. Dark," "Season of the Dead," "King of the Rooks;"...and Arcade Fire, but I know you've got that one covered.) (OK everyone - it's your turn now.)
OUTSIDE EVENTS
Another thing we discussed was attending local functions that are already up our alley and already out there:
Raleigh Little Theatre: "Radio Gals"
Playing now through 22 June 2008
"Restless Souls: A Modern Victorian Seance"
Fri-Sat, 24-25 Oct 2008 9 PM
Theatrical event with visits from ghosts of local historical crimes.
Limited seating available for three shows. $40 ticket.
Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill, NC
TRAINS / MURDER MYSTERIES
People also talked about trying out one of those murder mystery / dinner theatre train rides. The Spencer Train Museum in Salisbury, NC was mentioned, but I haven't found a promising website. If anyone can find a good one, (or even a non-train-related dinner theatre/murder mystery, let us know. We're also interested in planning a murder mystery, by the way. The Halloween thing, the picnic / tea and the workshops should give us plenty to do, but it would never be too soon to get any interested parties together to plot a murder (whee!) in the meantime.
OTHER PASTIMES
Skittles, croquet. charletan séances, magic shows and puppet shows were mentioned.
WORKSHOPS
As mentioned before, we'd like to organize some workshops on things like costuming, period dance, social rituals, gadgetry, ettiquette, etc. Pipe up if you're interested in organizing one or doing some research or if there are workshops that you would be interested in seeing.
WHAT'S OUR SCOPE?
We also discussed our scope. What I mean by that is, how far do we want to broadcast invitations to our activities. We're not an exclusive club or anything, but when you're hosting a party at your house or at some public venue, you have to give it some thought. What do you do if some nut job shows up at your house or at the venue you've painstakingly reserved and goes berserk? We kind of left that question at the "Hmmmm" stage. Maybe we pass out invitations at other steampunk things. Maybe rely on the Carpe Noctum list and Livejournal to drive the first few events and revisit the question after that.
LOOKING FOR SOME STEAMPUNK ICONS
I slapped together a lame icon for the LiveJournal thingie, but if you can come up with something better, that would be very cool, as I've just about used up my goofing off online time for the week. :-D It just needs to be 100 x 100 pixels.
OK...NOW IT'S YOUR TURN...
This is where you put your two cents in. Let's hear some noise....
The big lesson learned about planning these roundtable thingies is not to hold them at a nightclub or pub unless we can get sufficient outdoor seating. The place had the right atmosphere and we had plenty of space inside, but it was heard to involve everyone in the discussion at once because of the noise level in the pub. We did manage to dredge up some decent fodder for further discussion on the Carpe Noctum Yahoo listgroup. Anyway, here, in no particular order, is what we discussed:
COMMUNICATIONS (IN WHICH WE LEARN THAT URSULA IS APPARENTLY GOING BLIND)
We decided to set up a steampunk LiveJournal Community. Normally I'd be inclined to support a list that already exists rather than creating a new one, but while there are other steampunk LJ communities out there, there isn't one in North Carolina.
The community format allows people on the list to contribute in a more lasting format than email, and with tags, it's easier to find posts on a given topic. Related announcements will still be posted on the Carpe Noctum list. Contact me for more information about how an LJ community works.
LJ COMMUNITY NAME
I chose "steampunk_nc" as the account name because it's reasonably generic and more likely to come up in a steampunk search, but I'd still like to open up the group name for vote. The one idea I had was "The League of Extraordinary Generalists", but I'd like to hear some more ideas before setting that in stone. Possible names could include fictitious Victorian-sounding social club, tea room, pub, train station or university names. Let's hear your ideas!
MEET-AND-GREET EVENT
We discussed starting with some kind of low-key lawn party / picnic / tea in the last week of June, or in mid-July or mid-late August. Guests would dress in their best attempt at steampunk attire. We didn't get into particulars regarding refreshments, but I imagine we could do a kind of potluck picnic. This would be mainly a meet-and-greet and planning session for future events. We can talk about personas and roleplaying, cultural research (period dance, ettiquette, pastimes, music, high tea and other social rituals, science, costuming and gadgetry workshops, etc). We can find out what each person is interested in and have them do research and planning so that everyone has a chance to add their knowledge, skill and effort instead of relying on a small core group to drive every activity.
POSSIBLE OUTDOOR VENUES
I'll be contacting UNC Chapel Hill tomorrow about reserving Forest Theatre. I've done it before, but looking at their website, it may be that some of the particulars have changed since the last time. The plusses are that it's a cool-looking site and it's close to a lovely arboretum and the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery; it has some nearby Victorian architecture for photo ops, and it's close to the pedestrian-friendly downtown. Coker Arboretum is another possibility . The thing is....I think that most of the list members are located in the Raleigh area. If anyone has any ideas for other sites, let's hear them!
STEAMPUNK HALLOWEEN PARTY
There was interest in having a steampunk theme Halloween party. Last year there were a ton of Halloween parties over Halloween weekend, so in the interest of avoiding conflict, we're looking at Saturday, 18 October. Kyle is interested in hosting it at his place, which is huge. It was mentioned that Alison and Cody are contemplating having a Halloween party, so we'll be contacting them to check for potential conflicts.
MUSIC
Brian/Talento has his own DJ equipment and is already putting together a playlist for the indoor/evening party and he's taking requests! So what is steampunk music? That one is pretty wide open. Stuff that evokes the Victorian era, the 20's, old timey music halls and a ton of stuff in between. For a great crash course, check out the Clockwork Cabaret podcasts. (Brian, here are some of the ones mentioned on Saturday: Chumba Wumba ("before they did That Song"), Stigmata Soundtrack, Rudy Valley. And here are a few from me: The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper and Yellow Submarine; Tim Curry: "Harlem on My Mind," "Allen" and "The Zucchini Song;" Queen: "A Night at the Opera;" Deathwatch Beetle Repairman: "The Carny of Mr. Dark," "Season of the Dead," "King of the Rooks;"...and Arcade Fire, but I know you've got that one covered.) (OK everyone - it's your turn now.)
OUTSIDE EVENTS
Another thing we discussed was attending local functions that are already up our alley and already out there:
Raleigh Little Theatre: "Radio Gals"
Playing now through 22 June 2008
"Restless Souls: A Modern Victorian Seance"
Fri-Sat, 24-25 Oct 2008 9 PM
Theatrical event with visits from ghosts of local historical crimes.
Limited seating available for three shows. $40 ticket.
Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill, NC
TRAINS / MURDER MYSTERIES
People also talked about trying out one of those murder mystery / dinner theatre train rides. The Spencer Train Museum in Salisbury, NC was mentioned, but I haven't found a promising website. If anyone can find a good one, (or even a non-train-related dinner theatre/murder mystery, let us know. We're also interested in planning a murder mystery, by the way. The Halloween thing, the picnic / tea and the workshops should give us plenty to do, but it would never be too soon to get any interested parties together to plot a murder (whee!) in the meantime.
OTHER PASTIMES
Skittles, croquet. charletan séances, magic shows and puppet shows were mentioned.
WORKSHOPS
As mentioned before, we'd like to organize some workshops on things like costuming, period dance, social rituals, gadgetry, ettiquette, etc. Pipe up if you're interested in organizing one or doing some research or if there are workshops that you would be interested in seeing.
WHAT'S OUR SCOPE?
We also discussed our scope. What I mean by that is, how far do we want to broadcast invitations to our activities. We're not an exclusive club or anything, but when you're hosting a party at your house or at some public venue, you have to give it some thought. What do you do if some nut job shows up at your house or at the venue you've painstakingly reserved and goes berserk? We kind of left that question at the "Hmmmm" stage. Maybe we pass out invitations at other steampunk things. Maybe rely on the Carpe Noctum list and Livejournal to drive the first few events and revisit the question after that.
LOOKING FOR SOME STEAMPUNK ICONS
I slapped together a lame icon for the LiveJournal thingie, but if you can come up with something better, that would be very cool, as I've just about used up my goofing off online time for the week. :-D It just needs to be 100 x 100 pixels.
OK...NOW IT'S YOUR TURN...
This is where you put your two cents in. Let's hear some noise....