The Top Hat and Goggles Crowd

So several years ago when I was first introduced to Steampunk I thought it was just delightful.  I love reinterpretations of days long past, and I have a little soft spot for the Victorian and Edwardian eras.  It was just a fun geek-driven fashion movement then, not the fumbling almost sub-culture it is today.  Better yet, not long after having discovered Steampunk, I moved to the greater Seattle area, which teemed with it like a bubbling crucible in a mad scientist's workshop.  I dove in head first - bought my goggles (off of Etsy, cobbled from leather and steel and glass, no plastic reworked nonsense here), went to my first Abney Park concert, and invested in a less clubby more traditional corset.  I had lists of plans, things I wanted to do, possibilities I wanted to pursue.  I liked the military look in Steampunk, and wanted to combine it with something more delicate and feminine to craft a new creature all together.

My initial stumbling block was money.  Unless you're a seamstress and crafter, Steampunk is expensive.  I am  neither of those things, and while they're skills I more or less possess I really don't have the time to apply them nor the tools (not anymore at least).  Eventually money was saved, but by that time my enthusiasm had started to wane considerably.  I still really liked Abney Park, but I couldn't get into other bands in the genre - I really don't care for Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society as every time I've seen them it feels like they're just trying to be Abney Park with a female frontman.  Finally, I began to encounter the snobbery.  I wasn't Victorian enough.  My ensemble wasn't elaborate enough (though it seemed I could have gotten around elaborate by being thinner and tramping it up).  Even all this wasn't that big of a deal, though - sure it affected my enthusiasm but I still deeply enjoyed the aesthetic of Steampunk. 

I suspect what finally brought me to the point where I am now is the fact that Steampunk seems to have, well, run out of steam.  Locally at least.  I volunteered at SteamCon this past fall.  It was fun, I'll do it again this fall.  However, while at the con, it seemed very apparent to me that people had found their one look for Steampunk, and were done.  The utter lack of variety floored me.  I worked in the hospitality and green rooms - I met a lot of people.  I also lost track of how many people were wearing different combinations of the same clothes.

No one is thinking outside the box anymore.  Granted, it doesn't help that the head cheese of SteamCon seems to have a very narrow idea of what "Twue Steampunk" is, but this phenomena goes beyond the convention.  It seems, in Seattle at least, that Steampunk is Victorian with goggles and a painted nerf gun, and that's it.  More creativity needs to be fostered, but at this point I no longer have the enthusiasm to do it.

Professional Jealousy

Oh, look, a blog!  And I do believe it's mine!  Excuse me while I knock the five inches of dust off my soap box here.

 So then.  I suppose I should have something update-ish on here about what I've been doing with my life, etc, but I don't feel like it.  Not today, at least.  We've entered into the time of year in Washington where the weather starts to get to me, and relief isn't due to present itself until April.  As such, I'm a trifle crabby.  So today I'm going to vent about something.

It seems that a number of my friends and associates in the past four to six months have been blessed with opportunities to work on various projects.  This is good.  My issue, is that I have been trying to work on projects of similar nature to these people, with no success.  I'll give you an example of what I mean.

A friend of mine and I have been working on a comic for a while now.  We have 20+ scripts written out, several already drawn and inked, and I've got the website more than half finished.  We need more finished comics before the website launches if we hope to maintain any consistency.  Fine and good, I'm not in a rush, it'll happen.  Where the twitching comes in is that this same friend is drawing another comic, which she started on far more recently that the one she and I have collaborated on, and it's already online.  With several regular updates at that.

Now this is due almost entirely to the fact that I moved and the other author still lives in the same town as my friend and  can harass her to work on things, etc.  Plus, it's easier to have energy for projects if the people you're working with are around to encourage you.  Knowing this does not stop me from being a trifle angsty on the subject.

The other situations are all of a similar ilk.  I'm happy for my friends, I'm glad they have success, I'm just a little envious of it.  Why can't I have success?  Why can't any of these things I've put time and energy and my soul into work for me?  Why is it just being at the right place at the right time counts for so much more than effort ever will?

And I think that's enough crabbiness for right now.  I will go scuttle sideways into the kitchen and make some tea.  Tea improves all things.