Steampunk Assimilation in USA Today!

So has Steampunk gone the way of the Borg where it is simply assumed that "you will be assimilated... resistance is futile!" ???  No.  Don't worry.  We don't even want to assimilate everyone.  If they don't have a sense of humor and adventure, some trace of creative longings, at least a modest appreciation for original art, drama, or music, or can't at least have fun with it, we aren't even trying to invite them to the party.  Just the same, it is becoming pretty widely noticed and heavily sought after by commercial interests now.

OK, so ignore the Justin Beiber part of the title of this article and read it any way.  Besides Justin is supposed to be for young kids, so why get all worked up about him being kiddish anyway?  If you aren't his age, why should you be worrying about what he puts in his videos?

Besides Sugarland already beat him to it in terms of making a video where the steampunk was blatantly just randomly tossed in to try to steam up something lame for purely commercial purposes.  Just so you know, the Steampunk community is not really opposed to steampunking a music video if some effort is made to make the video actually focus on steampunk concepts rather than simply a mindless decoration of the set and a poor attempt at costuming while doing totally irrelevant, (and rather boring) music.  Boring and Steampunk just don't mix well.  Sorry.

The point of this fine article by USA Today is that Steampunk is infiltrating pretty much everything now!  Some people like that and some don't, but few are still fully in denial about it.  In true steampunk fashion though, if they don't like some aspect of a thing that has good parts in it, the steampunk inventors and crafters simply take it apart and rebuild it.  It seems they even did this with young Master Bieber's steampunk music video.  Your path to this world where we really can change whatever annoys us and turn it into amusing art in the process awaits below:

Justin Bieber, Hollywood drawn to steampunk movement

Steampunk Fashion Walk In Australia! Repost via Doc Fantastique

Steampunk Strides Fashionwalk (Bris, QLD, Aus) (via http://doctorfantastiques.com)

The Steampunk Strides Fashionwalk is an initiative of Alternate Empire Events and will be the Paris fashion week of the Steampunk Community! A night of well-mannered frivolity, where the Steam World and Modern day society meet! Come in your finest Steam-inspired dress and be entertained by a dynamic…

Planned Undersea Hotel in Dubai!

OK, so is this futuristic or what?  Cyberpunk Heaven!!!  Dubai has really outdone themselves this time with fantasy hotels that look like UFO spacepads with under sea guest rooms!

Planned Undersea Hotel

Dark Beauty Magazine - Steampunk Edition

This very interesting Goth magazine about beauty, art, and fashion has an annual Steampunk edition that just came out.  This is definitely worth a look!

Dark Beauty Magazine -Steampunk edition

My Strange Slow Slide into One Eyed Doll-dom!

I met One Eyed Doll at Yulecon 2010 It was love at first... well... not sight exactly, though that was pretty nice and truly interesting too. How does one describe the experience of meeting someone rather like a Sesame Street character that suddenly turns into Rob Zombie doing thrash metal and back again at the touch of a switch operated by some insane, but very fun deity or some such somewhere??? I didn't see them perform again for quite a while until the tour 2012 with Orgy.

One Eyed Doll is based in Austin, Texas, but frequently tours with other bands through local cities, like Dallas, and all the way up the east Coast, West Coast, and pretty much all the in between as well.  In fact, they have toured twice this year and have a third one coming up soon.  They have actually played here in Dallas about every other month, and I try to make every show!

A good friend of mine on the East Coast was mentioning that one of her "wishlist" things to do when she came to visit Texas was to see One Eyed Doll. I told her how much I had enjoyed it as well, and that I would look up their next show. A couple of days later, I won two tickets at our local Goth Club to see Orgy just down the street. As it was on the same night as Panoptikon, when they play the really cool darkwave dance music, we didn't go until right before the show, but were amazed to find Kim screaming on stage as we walked in. I wanted to kick myself for not arriving sooner, as we missed most of their show, but to my amazement, she made even the merchandise purchasing experience almost more entertaining than the show!

Kim was in rare form that night and would hold a finger up in front of her, say "touch my finger!" then go catatonic. At least until you followed directions. When you touched her finger, she lit up like a Yule Tree, smiled really big and gave a warm enthusiastic hug. She then promptly sunk her teeth into whatever you wanted autographed. Literally! I actually went through the line twice, buying a lot more stuff the second time. That also gave me time to talk to Junior for a while, which is always a pleasure. We talked about music of course, and their new album coming out soon.

For the tour with Peelander Z, we came early and got right in front of the stage, but forgot our earplugs. A few days later, when my hearing returned (lol) my wife and I agreed that it seemed an even wilder show than at trees! Well they are coming back again for the third time (with Butcher Babies) in just a few months, so I offered to help promote them via internet, etc. which I do routinely for bands I really like. Somehow I found myself signing up for the street team this time. Life just keeps getting stranger, but I like it that way!

Repost of Crackdown on Punks In Indonesia via the Christian Science Monitor

Crackdown on punks in Indonesia (via The Christian Science Monitor)

In his canary yellow t-shirt and skinny jeans Banu Prasdana looks like an ordinary Indonesian kid. But last year when he sported more than a dozen piercings and a Mohawk and wandered Banda Aceh's streets playing rock ballads on his guitar he had a canny ability to unnerve the local police, who considered…

Deiselpunk VS Steampunk Part 2 via Dieselpunk blog

Here is the conclusion of this excellent 2 part article comparing Dieselpunk and Steampunk from the mind and insights of Larry Amyett, author and Dieselpunk scholar.

Dieselpunk VS Steampunk a Comparison part 2