“I couldn't live a week without a private library
- indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor
before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.” ― H.P. Lovecraft

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Ok, status report time.

Gothcoming fucking ROCKED. The first two sets of pictures are up HERE and I believe more will follow. Well, more than the ones taken by Mistress Victoria's personal photographer (some of which I'm in) which I know are coming.

As I mentioned before, Gothcoming was a Steampunk event this year. I tried explaining steampunk to my Mom. It was kinda like trying to teach calculus to a circus monkey, but without all the shit-chucking. Mom just heard the word 'Goth' in the title and went off on an “I didn't raise you that way” speech. Then later I explained to her that the proceeds went to autism research and she dialed it back a little (VERY little) but she's still convinced that the whole thing was a Satanic, homo, sex-orgy, which is patently ridiculous.

Everyone knows the Satanic, homo, sex-orgy is on Halloween night so as to better contact Satan.

God, I mean, you think someone knows you...

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, here's how Wikipedia defines steampunk:

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality. FULL ENTRY

Picture space vampires in the old west and you have a pretty good idea of the look.

I didn't do a full costume, but now I wish I had, because the costumes kicked ass. I'll put up some of my favorites when I get Victoria's pictures. I did score a really sweet pair of antique driving goggles to which I added a pair of jeweler's lenses. The overall effect was very steampunk and I got lots of compliments on them, so I'm going to do a complete costume around them for Halloween. (On a side note I'm also working on more pieces for my sister's Ghostbusters costume so that she can have enough stuff to take two friends with her this year.)



Aren't those sweet? Got them dirt cheap too (thank you eBay). Had to clean them real good and straighten them out here and there, but nothing too major. The only real downside to them is that when I'm wearing them I quite obviously can't wear my prescription glasses. That wasn't too terrible as my eyes aren't that bad, but it did make it kinda hard to see the details in some of the costumes and in one instance as I was coming down the stairs I saw one stair but, due to the slight difference in my depth perception, there were actually two. This led to me falling backwards, but I caught myself before hitting the floor by straining the hell out of my left ankle, calf, hip and shoulder. I probably would have been better off just hitting the floor. All in all though I didn't hurt myself nearly as bad as I thought I did.

Apart from the glasses the only special thing I wore was my new 'SECURITY' shirt. For those of you that have never had the occasion to wear one, the security shirt is great. People get the fuck out of your way when you're wearing it. They also have a tendency to ask you where the bathroom is, which is a little bit less awesome, but overall the shirt delivers a great feeling of power and I highly recommend it.

Side effects may include the overwhelming desire to watch Road House, sleeping with Kelly Lynch (which, though still an appealing prospect, is becoming less and less so all the time) and randomly head-butting people.

Anyways, I'll post more when I have more pictures. The only other thing I need to mention is the musical guest at Gothcoming was Voltaire who, unbeknownst to me at the time was the voice of the brain-eating, meteor creature from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and the author of my new theme song, seen here respectively:





That last one is dedicated to my Mom.

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