Steampunk Convention Redux

Photos here.

Day One – October 31

Spent the bulk of the evening around drinks with Shweta, Emily*, Jeff, and Ann*. Conversation was mainly of the speculative variety, from loved fiction to their Clarion experiences to politics, though we mostly grazed that latter topic with frustrated fists and let it be. I have not had a “Clarion Experience” myself, but I enjoyed being a fly on the wall for this one. And as long as I didn’t mention my lack of Clarion, I remained unnoticed by Emily and Shweta and their odd desire to see me go to Clarion.

It’s likely to not happen, though I appreciate the sentiment.

I tried to subtly snipe a photo of Nathaniel from Abney Park. Ninja I am not. He cornered me over whiskey and tea and we discussed everything and nothing.

Met a lovely group of people and drank Black Bush. The topic of the day for this and many conversations was how wonderful the steampunk community is. Which, truly, it is. But more on this later.

Met more lovely people who apparently were Platform One. Had a lovely discussion about music and general creativity, and did my best to explain steampunk to someone who demanded more punk and less steam. But our punk comes not from our willingness to destroy but our willingness to create and reclaim that which has been lost. We say no-thank-you to the society that demands we drink and party every night, that rampant and tawdry consumerism is a sign of being confident in one’s self, and that maybe, just maybe, sitting in your room with a soldering iron and a cup of tea is an okay way to spend your Saturday night.

Moreover, unlike regular punk, steampunk owns the fact that the visual aesthetic is a big part of the identity. But this is perhaps an essay topic for later.

Day Two – November 1

It took me a day, but I discovered the game Damnation, demo of which resided in the lobby just by the vittles stand. I spent far too much time here, waxing about this game. I, by history, am a gamer, and this is a good game. I’ll likely make a post exclusively about the game once it’s released. It’s got a steampunk look to it, though I can’t speak to the steampunk feel from the demo. It was standard shooter goodness, with a bit of magic powers, and some acrobatic platform-jumping. If you’re a fan of things like Resident Evil 4, Bioshock, or HalfLife, as far as gameplay goes, you might enjoy this one.

The VanderMeers held a panel, solo (duo?), though I believe they were supposed to have others with them. Which led to them interviewing one another, not having rehearsed the questions beforehand. The highlight of the whole thing was when Ann embarrassed the living hell out of Jeff. She opened the interview session with, and I’m paraphrasing: “Now, Jeff doesn’t know I’m about to say this, but we’ve done this before, asking one another interview questions. But we’ve always done it naked. So this will be the first time we interview one another with clothes on.” I’m not exactly certain, but I think Jeff turned purple at one point.

What I took away from that panel was the five awesome things of steampunk, which Ann claimed to have bogarted from someone else: one, it’s something the genders can share; two, fantastic visual aesthetic; three, it’s goth’s nicer cousin; four, it bridges the subgenre gaps; and five, it goes back to the “promise” of science, of a glorious future-that-could-be. The last could be another essay topic all on its own.

The VonSlatt keynote was wonderful, and I won’t do you the disservice of summarizing it. Instead, I’ll link it. I particularly enjoyed his discussing tinkering with respect to open source projects; I feel too many stare at a computer as a terrifying black box with a shaman inside, and I work to demystify the thing to my friends.

Then came the Party at the Center of the Earth. Mme Cavalaxis had the wonderful and decidedly drunken idea to dance. I followed, as did a few others. I decided our party was too small, and there were questing eyes in the audience, the longing look of, “I want to dance but none of the boys want to dance with me.” I pulled hands and we danced around the room until the floors were flooded.

Abney Park and Platform One put on good sets.

Day Three – November 2

My first event, after getting a Jamba and hiding the fact that my hair was in need of a deep cleansing, I went to a panel on Researching and Writing Steampunk, with Ryan Galiotto*, Gail Carriger, Mike Perschon, and Jeff VanderMeer, moderated by Ann VanderMeer. What I liked about the panel was the opening question, about entry points into steampunk. The answers varied from the clothing (Gail) to having a story idea and being told it’s steampunk (Mike) to comics (Ryan). It really does emphasize the all-inclusive nature of steampunk.

Gail did a very good, detailed writeup for this panel, over here.

So, that’s my redux of the con. Hope you enjoyed reading.

* If you have a link and spot this, let me know, so I can link you properly in the text.

Lad, I don’t know where you’ve been, but I see you’ve won first prize.

Bad Reputation

Gamers have one.

I can understand why. To the outsider, hearing the banter between two gamers heavily engrossed in CounterStrike or Soul Calibur can make us seem like a rather unwholesome lot.

I was tempted to give examples of said banter. But you know, I’ll spare you.

But when it comes down to it, many gamers are good people. In fact, some of the best people I know are hardcore gamers. And it’s not just a local thing.

In July, we posted about Zak Touilii, a disabled Australian teenager whose PS3 and games – donated by the Make A Wish foundation – had been stolen by thieves who broke into his home. Was a bastardly act. One which has in turn generated a very un-bastardly response: we’ve heard a bunch of Kotaku commenters got together, raised some money and presented Zak with a cheque for USD$425. Which should go a long way towards restocking Zak’s games library (Sony Aus having already replaced his PS3)

Things like this make me happy.

Suck on that, Jack Thompson.

Hitler Banned

Link

An oldie but a goodie.

Druid Boy

Druid Boy – Crank Dat

This will really only be funny if you’re a World of Warcraft veteran.

Look at his spell bar!

World of Wifecraft

I know many who would chuckle at this video.

Not sure how many visit this page though.

But you can’t buy Thunderfury.

Powerglove

Powerglove

In particular, check out their cover of Mortal Kombat. Not too shabby. Their Tetris is pretty driving, too.

(I’m trying to avoid folks like the Minibosses because, really, it’s kind of cheating. Those guys are so big as far as game music goes, they don’t really need my help.)

(But I guess I just linked them anyway, didn’t I?)

At Least He Didn’t Ask if it Was on the XBox

Shopping at Fry’s is a singular experience, and for those who have yet to live through it, consider yourselves blessed.

I have had many a poor encounter with its denizens, and far too few good ones to counterbalance.

Today’s encounter left my little gamer heart irritated.

I searched the aisles for three games which I still need to get: Zelda, Metroid, and Okami. I, as the little Nintendo nut that I am, have been derelict in my fannish duties. You’ll have to forgive me. I spent last year graduating university, leaving one shitty job to another shitty job, then leaving that shitty job for a great, but stressful, job. Let this one slide.

Also I play far too much World of Warcraft.

Zelda and Okami were both at full price, so I was curious to see what Metroid was marked at. Unable to find it, I approached the man in charge of the games department at Fry’s.

Man: Can I help you?

MD: I’m looking for a game. Metroid.

Man: Meh-troy-duh. Let me look it up.

I am, at this point, concerned by his slow pronunciation of the name. I understand it’s not “Halo” but still, Metroid is one of those games. Those games where if you know a sodding thing about gaming, you know the name. (Sure, people think Metroid is the name of the player in the suit — it’s not, she’s Samus Aran — and yes, she’s a she — but at the very least they know the name.)

Man: And how do you spell that?

Are you kidding me?

MD: M-E-T-R-O-I-D.

Man: What system is that for?

Are you frakin’ kidding me?

MD: It’s for the Wii.

Man: [typing] Wee Metroid

MD: Um.. It’s spelled W-I-I.

Man: Oh. Right.

MD: You know what? I’ll just go find it myself. Thanks.

And then he went on to tell my friend that the RGBHV cable would work for the A/V input. Yes, just plug one of the inputs to the video input. Pick a color. It’ll work.

Right.

Bladiator – Chopinesque Kirby

I like Chopin. I think it’s part of being Polish.

Chopinesque Kirby

I’d say it’s got too much bounce in its step to be Chopin-esque. Don’t get me wrong, Chopin isn’t a dour Slav, but his music has a bit more weight than what this remix gives. Also, I’m not saying this is a bad remix; actually, I love it, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting it. It brought back fond memories for me. I was a child vastly deprived of video games (my parents were assured it would rot my brain out of my ears — to be fair, they were right). I clung desperately to my GameBoy as my only source of gaming, beating Super Mario Land, Kirby’s Dreamland, Yoshi, and Dr Mario all into fine powders.

An excellent remix, though not quite what I think of when I think of Chopin.

(Can I tell you that finding a decent recording of Chopin’s “Revolutionary Etude” was a pain? Either people were driving the tempo into the ground or the errors sang out so boldly that I cringed. This was the best I could do.)

On the site, they point out Gershwin as a sound. I’m inclined to agree.

More on Silent Hill: Homecoming

Hooray for Kotaku.

Although there’s one thing that sets my teeth on edge in that article.

When the demo starts, you found yourself on a gurney and being pushed by a masked fiend through a dirty hospital. As you look from side to side, all sorts of terrifying, shadowed scenes pass you by. Silhouetted depictions of horrible things being done to patients by un-seeable evil forces. Eventually you are left in a room alone, strapped to the gurney and here your adventure begins.

I know Silent Hill takes inspiration from the film Jacob’s Ladder, but isn’t this just getting a little excessive?

Still, they sounded pleased with the game, and I’m eagerly looking forward to September.

Protricity – KRool Intentions

I spelled the name right this time. I checked.

Protricity – KRool Intentions

Way back in the winter of … I’m tempted to say 2004 … I made this mix CD. Maybe it was 2003. Yes. 2003. Maybe.

At any rate, I was proud of this CD, for not only did I compile what I thought to be some of the hottest game remixes off OCR — all perfect for driving down the Ortega highway at speeds of reckless abandon — but I drew on it. Little MD is no artist, but I managed to get down some very accurate likenesses. Link, Donkey Kong, and Captain Falcon were among the cast members featured on this disk. I think I even put Samus on there. (I drew her on a mug, too. I should show that off sometime.)

I’m not a music-analyzer. I’ve never had a formal education in music-ology and have only picked up terms as far as other people have thrown them at me and they stuck. This remix has a great driving build, starting mellow with the strings and then quickly swinging in with a strong beat. And then it doesn’t stop. It will kick your tail in.

Plus, it’s Donkey Kong. Can you really go wrong?