Dorian's Parlor (courtesy of Draven Kane)

THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE WAS PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION BY THE WRITER IN ORDER TO HELP PUBLICIZE THEIR EVENT:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gil Cnaan          610-306-8858          gil@sparcsummer.org           www.doriansparlor.com

Reinventing the Past in the New Year
Neo-Victorian.  Neo-Vintage.  Retro-glamour. At Dorian’s Parlor.
December 21, 2010 – Philadelphia, PA – If you haven’t had a chance to check out Dorian’s Parlor yet, you should definitely put “Attend January’s Event” at the top of your list of New Year’s Resolutions.  A monthly Steampunk event held at Ormandy Ballroom of the Doubletree in downtown Philadelphia, Dorian’s Parlor embodies the very spirit of the New Year.  It takes the old – fashions, ideas, etiquette, food, games, music – and reinvents them to create something shining-new and daring, bold and enticing.  There is a sense of excitement and nostalgia in the air as patrons come together to dance, sip cocktails, enjoying hors d'oeuvres and partake in a one-of-its-kind lineup of bands, DJs, circus performances and high fashion from the foremost neo-vintage designers.  This is one resolution that you’re sure to enjoy keeping.
            Steampunk is a fast-growing and highly creative genre of science fiction which is set in an anachronistic Victorian society.  Steampunk has seen attention in main stream media through films such as The Golden Compass and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes. Recently Steampunk bands and Steampunk fashion have been on the rise as well.  Dorian’s Parlor co-founder Gil Cnaan explains, “It is growing as a literary, fashion and music movement.”  Dorian’s Parlor is a monthly convergence of Steampunk and neo-vintage enthusiasts in Philadelphia.  The event offers a place for people interested in Steampunk to gather and for local artists and bands to showcase their abilities.
            Since its debut in June 2010, Dorian’s Parlor has been picking up steam, so to speak, with each event surpassing the last. It has been highlighted in media outlets such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Geekadelphia, Culturemob, City Suburban News, Philadelphia Weekly and the Steampunk Tribune. January’s lineup features Steampunk author G.D. Falksen as MC, a performance by the baroque rock/junkyard cabaret band Not Waving But Drowning, Hula Hoop dancer Flow Pixy and a fashion show featuring New York based costume and fashion designer Kristin Costa. Philly’s own DJ Dave Ghoul will spin, The Absinthe Minded Professor will entertain you with violin powered Steampunk storytelling and theater, and Miss Ivy League will entice you with a burlesque performance. And if all that isn’t enough to draw your interest, there will also be a reading of a never-released short story by guest-author CJ Henderson and portrait photography by Hugh Casey to help memorialize your fantastic finery.  All aspects of the event’s production — lighting, sound, stage design and production management — are provided by Philadelphia’s own CircuitSix, LLC (www.circuitsix.biz) as part of their ongoing sponsorship and patronage of Dorian's Parlor.
            The next 21+ event will be held Saturday, January 22nd, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., in the Ormandy Ballroom of the DoubleTree Hotel, on the Avenue of the Arts in downtown Philadelphia. Admission is $25, and includes a drink ticket and hors d’oeuvres.

Interview With Airship Isabella Publishing on Convention Fans Blog Magazine

Interview With Airship Isabella:  Their Past, Present, and Future

Airship Isabella has become quite a sensation as a Steampunk Performance Art Airship in Texas, the surrounding states, and at many conventions throughout the country.  This has happened in an amazingly short amount of time through hard work and consistent effort to perform and spend time with fans at all the conventions.  They also are willing to go to conventions too remote to generally receive a visit from say, “The League of Steam”.  Airship Isabella has built a great fan base and has risen to the point where they can expect to be welcomed as one of the Guest Celebrity Groups at any convention or event they choose to attend in little over a year.  They state on the internet their intention to help others that want to break out of the chains on people’s minds and lives that are imposed by corporations set to make a profit at any cost.  In spite of how well known and popular they have become there are still many questions that remain unanswered about where they came from and where they are headed, so this blogger set about to put before them a rather lengthy list of questions that focus heavily on the character acting aspects of their work. Most groups would simply use such a list as an unusually guest friendly situation where there were enough questions to answer the ones that were most comfortable and ignore the rest, but in their usual fashion, Captain Whittaker and his other half Amelia answered every question put before them quite candidly.  The list is long enough that it will be offered to several Steampunk Magazines as smaller topographical groups of interview questions with answers, but the interview will appear in it’s entirety only on the Convention Fans Blog Magazine website.  

1. What was your first exposure to Steampunk as an actual subculture.  (as opposed to say Steampunk movies or fiction books)

Ikkicon IV, officially. But even then we didn’t necessarily see it as a subculture, but more as an aesthetic movement. Events of that weekend did, however, cement in our minds that there was a definite attitude about steampunk, specifically that it was a snobby, elitist white movement that we wanted nothing to do with. We also realized that weekend that there were many people in the steampunk movement that wanted to see that change. As we started talking to people, we made it our personal mission to change that attitude and belief. A lot of our personal philosophies of what the steampunk subculture is and should be developed out of that convention and grew as we realized there were many other groups with the same ideas.

 2. When did you first encounter people in steampunk attire that was distinctive enough to really draw attention and what effect did it have on you?

In the Summer of 2008, we had a friend who called us and said “I found your people!” She told us to look up steampunk on the internet, and we were immediately enthralled. I had been wearing the Victorian “goth” style since the 80’s and hadn’t really given it up. Steampunk was a natural evolution and was beautiful. We were members of the Burning Flipside community at the time, and decided to do a steampunk-based theme camp, specifically, we decided to build a two story “airship” dance camp. It eventually wound up in my front yard as a 50’ X 20’ two story structure that appeared at Flipside 2009, and we called it Airship Isabella.

3. When did you first decide to develop a fictional Steampunk Character Personae, and what do you think motivated you to do so.

We first decided to build characters after Flipside 2009. Originally, it was just and extension of the inspiration that the steampunk aesthetic had infused within us. Then it developed into who we would be within the crew, and grew from there.

4. What prompted your choices in development of your personal character?

We based most of our characters on the people portraying them. It’s always easier to act as someone you truly understand. So most of the characters are bigger than life versions of ourselves. We have our vampires and a clockwork doll, but mostly it’s just us on steroids.

5.  In what ways is your character like you, and how are they different?

Like I said in the last question, mostly our characters are just like us only exaggerated, so I will concentrate on how they are different.  Most people have things about themselves that they wish they could change or wish they had made different choices. We encourage our members to write those things into their stories and give them a chance to do things differently. What’s funny is that most of us have come to realize through story development that there are no “better” decisions, only different ones.

13.  What training, formal, informal, or recreational (such as fantasy role playing games) do you think has helped you to learn to "get into character" sufficiently to believably portray your Steampunk Personae?

Amelia worked as a theater instructor for junior high school students while her children were really small, and Nyxie is a senior theater major. Everyone on the crew has experience with cosplay or larps that pre-date ASI.

14.  Do any of your fellow crew members currently or have plans to do any singing or dancing related to their Steampunk character or storyline at Steampunk or related events?

Ugg….yes and no. We were asked to do steampunk karaoke for Oni-con and were really hesitant, but agreed. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun. And we found that we have a bunch of amazing singers on the crew. Jonas is actually a member of a band outside of ASI. So, we will probably bring back the steampunk karaoke, but we just don’t have time to go into the professional music business.

16.  Have you made significant changes regarding your level of involvement in character acting recently, and if so, what prompted this.  What are your plans for this in the future?

Yes. We have been asked to do a lot more skits recently, so it’s been a challenge and a lot of fun. Though I think putting Javert in a jar has been my favorite! As far as future plans, I have an old saying… “I build my roads today because the future is too uncertain for plans.”

17.  What sort of public performance art, classes, or other activities have you not done so far, but that you would like to try in the future?

We want to get involved in actual prop building and working with other costumers. Another big project at the moment is writing penny dreadful novels based on the misadventures of the Isabella.

18. How much difficulty do you face getting event organizers to understand the needs of performers for adequate compensation for time, travel, lodgings, and wardrobe costs?

It depends on the event. It also goes back to the bad reputation steampunk has had in the convention world. If you act like all mighty demanding children that expect you to kiss their feet, then convention organizers tend to be difficult. It’s amazing what happens when you treat them with respect and as employers. Honesty and no-nonsense business ethics go a long way. So, mostly, no, we haven’t had any problems. The only problems we’ve had are with conventions that have had bad experiences with other groups in the past.

The above are excerpts from the interview.  The full interview can be found at:

http://conventionfansblog.com/

Ramon Fagan, LCSW (aka “Admiral” Ramon Leon del Mar) writes articles and reviews for Convention Fans Blog Magazine and for 6 different online Steampunk magazines as well as for his own personal blog at http://artofsteampunk.blogspot.com 

  

He also writes fiction, songs, short comedic plays, and educational books and articles about world religion and cultures for other outlets.  “Admiral” Ramon is also the leader of “Kali’s Hourglass”, a nautical oriented Steampunk/Clockpunk performance art troupe, organizer for the DFW Clockpunks and Renpunks Group , co-administrator for the North Texas Steampunks Facebook Website, , and an alternate administrator for the Steampunk Illumination Society website.

Dickens on the Strand 2010

This article was also given some increased material and different photos and published on Convention Fans Blog Magazine.  All future convention reviews or convention celebrity interviews will publish only there with a link from my personal blog as per my agreement with them to that effect.

http://conventionfansblog.com/2011/01/12/steampunks-change-the-face-of-galveston-at-dickens-on-the-strand/

Yulecon 2010 - a Review

This article was adjusted a bit, mostly in that it give insider information about plans for next year at the end of the article and posted on Convention Fans Blog Magazine.

http://conventionfansblog.com/2011/01/10/yulecon-2010-%E2%80%93-anime-in-arlington/

All Convention Reviews Now Posting on Convention Fans Blog Magazine

I have been accepted as the on site reporter for South Central US Anime and Steampunk Conventions by Convention Fans Blog Magazine on the condition that I meet their strict writing guidelines which include giving them exclusive access to the articles they publish.  In order to meet that condition, I will simply publish my reviews of conventions and some similar events on their site, as well as some convention celebrity interviews, and link to the article from my blog here.

http://conventionfansblog.com/

Drystone106.9 Fm interviews Steam Punk members Bradford's Playhouse Yorkshire UK

Drystone106.9 Fm interviews Steam Punk members Bradford's Playhouse Yorkshire UK.


This is a lovely interview on British Radio about Steampunk in a local on stage thatre that sounds absolutely wonderful!  It actually sounds so interesting, i am going to try to interview the players myself with some pretty specific questions about their play and other acting projects they are in as well as any future plans to blend Steampunk art and culture with public theater.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/238263-drystone106-9-fm-interviews-steam-punk-members-bradford-s-playhouse-yorkshire-uk?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

A Clockwork Wonderland - Marquis of Vaudville Promotional Video

We had great fun performing in this.  You can make out Radha clearly, dancing with Larry (from Airship La Marianne) but my helmet covers my face so much, all I can say is "I'm the guard with the flowers on his helmet."  I and Greg (Airship Nocturne) chase Alice all through Wonderland.  Everyone in the video, except Alice, including the director, are members of the DFW/Denton area Steampunk community.  It was great doing a video like this surrounded by such supportive friends.  I had a terrible cold on the day of the shoot, and didn't realize the part had so much running in it, but my friends kept checking on me and bringing me tea and water.  It is rare and precious indeed, to have such a supportive community of friends.

One item of interest is that the director, Time Stevens, has worked miracles getting this put together, filmed, and on you tube in less than 2 weeks total using mostly untrained actors, yet with such excellent quality.  the only problem we really ran into was that there was no actual choreographing plan or rehearsal for the guards even though we had real weapons (not sharpened, but still very pointed and very much steel polearms!) and were moving fast on very dangerous and irregular terrain.   I discussed safety aspects of this with the director and, he agreed to warn the cast to move well out of our path and that we should work on safe ways to handle the issue.  I am somewhat familiar with polearms, but have never actually used one before in anything.  As such, I felt Tim Stevens showed great confidence in me by telling us what he wanted, basically that we move as synchronized and "quirky" as the guards in the cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland.  He did demonstrate the type of movements he wanted portrayed when commanded into action and in the chase.

I then went to the side for about 30 minutes with the other guard and we choreographed our own moves, our own commands to attempt to make our movements synchronized (with some limited success), and to make it as funny and quirky as he wanted without endangering any of the cast or extras in the process.  The only person that actually came close to getting impaled was the director when we rounded a camera at full tilt, but were asked to try taking both of us around it to the same side and almost failed the turning maneuver.  After that we insisted on going back to splitting around the camera like he had us do before, which was far more manageable as turning while running in a crouch and lifting your knees ridiculously high is actually a bit difficult.

I also balked at the idea of following in spear readied position behind the other guard in one area where the terrain was too narrow for us to travel side by side.  Instead I experimented with realistic ways a halberd could be used to attack that would have the weapon head trailing rather than leading and then purposely kept a safe distance behind my partner regardless as there were tree roots and a hole in our path near the end of the chase.  To cover up why I was trailing behind the other guard so far I tried to look like I was panting and running out of breath, which would sort of make sense since the lead guard would typically be the oldest one, but it just seemed to add to the quirky, campy, comedy of the scene, so it seemed to come out well.  The only scene that was cut that I wished had been left in was one where we slowed down and doubled over panting and breathing as though we were too winded to keep up in full armor with a young frightened Alice, and was intended to show why she got far enough ahead to be able to hide before we caught up again.  I thought that was really well planned and should be added back into the video if possible.  (Just so you know, after multiple takes chasing her at each step of the long chase, it wasn't very hard to pretend we were too tired to keep up the chase!!!  LOL)

After this experience, and our own problems setting up choreographed fencing for the Ugly Gun Skit, I and Radha both attended an excellent professional level (in my opinion anyway) class on staging fights in a safe, but realistic manner that was taught by Chris Ayres, (a professional actor and stage fight director) under the title Mock Combat in a 5 to 6 hour class broken into two parts over two days at Ikkicon anime festival in Austin, Texas.  While we never actually caught Alice and the class did not (for liability reasons among others) cover use of weapons other than to discourage it, the choreographing and rehearsing method would have been very helpful, and I will use it in the future.

The link to watch the video is below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5vmF08CAaY