ILX POSTERS WHO ARE YOUNG AND AWARE OF CONTEMPORARY SUBCULTURAL MOVEMENTS: WHAT ARE THE WORST CONTEMPORARY SUBCULTURAL MOVEMENTS

you're barely below the surface there mister

http://www.werewolf.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?daysprune=&f=19&s=

Steampunk
Neo-burlesque

Vile

LARPers are awful, yes. Although it reminds me of the best line from Consolevania, viz:

"I've got nae thing against cosplay. Gives fat girls a chance to dress up."

Nu-Dyson performance art.

What is "steampunk" (I may regret asking this, I know)

Obv I am neither young nor aware of contemporary subcult. movements

What is "steampunk" (I may regret asking this, I know)

-- Pashmina, Monday, 9 June 2008 10:49 (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Basically it's dressing up like characters from 19th century science fiction, like in that Smashing Pumpkins video.

It's a harmless idea in concept, but sadly it's populated by the aspie wing of the Bullingdon Club.

Live-action roleplaying has been around for years, as have "Polyamorous pagan nerds who never shave their armpits" I mean I knew ppl who answered this description in the mid-nineteeneighties.

This is the thread where ILXORs complain about those having more fun than them.

Oh yeah, I remember "steam punk" the "literary" genre, like a wellsian take on cyberpunk. i read "The Difference Engine" years ago, it was OK. I didn't realise there was a subculture based around it.

What exactly are you supposed to do when you're dressed up in yr victorian finery, wave a curta mechanical calculator around or domething?

dom are you gonna post hate mail from puppini sisters fans itt or what

There was a bunch of LARP-ers who used to play in Chopwell Wood, which is walking distance away from us, but they were D&D types, I haven't seen them in years. Usually these days you get assholes on mountain bikes who have entitlement issues w/r/t use of the paths there, I think I prefer the LARPers to that.

This is the thread where ILXORs complain about those having more fun than them.

-- Ed, Monday, 9 June 2008 10:58 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

We'll line up these fucking steampunk douches, and then we'll line up me getting buckwild in Lloyds on a Friday night, and I can tell you which one has the higher seratonin levels.

There is quite a lot of activity online where people have taken old typewriters and converted them into rather beautiful computer keyboards and the like. I have a soft spot for the heavy duty craft activity that steampunk seems to inspire.

quality not quantity, Dom.

What exactly are you supposed to do when you're dressed up in yr victorian finery, wave a curta mechanical calculator around or domething?

-- Pashmina, Monday, 9 June 2008 10:59 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

They just drink gin. I mean, I'm all for drinking gin, but I can drink gin in a Threadless t-shirt and some Evisu, y'know?

I suppose I should ask what neo-burlesque is, I'm guessing people in tight corsets fan-dancing like the Lord Chamberlain's office is still in effect? Seems harmless enough if so.

This is the thread where ILXORs complain about those having more fun than them.

Longest thread in ILX history then?

I suppose I should ask what neo-burlesque is, I'm guessing people in tight corsets fan-dancing like the Lord Chamberlain's office is still in effect? Seems harmless enough if so.

-- Pashmina, Monday, 9 June 2008 11:02 (20 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

www.peeptoe.co.uk/

Now, should I click on that or not.

I mean, it's good for a chug or two, but the high esteem that people who are basically sex industry workers hold themselves in is kinda ridic.

Empowerment innit

read the puppini sisters thread instead, pash

the 5th google hit for my name is from when i unwisely participated in a LARP-related assassins' activity, i'm allowed to harbour bitterness

Eh, slightly nsfw, digging bettie page isn't exactly new either, is it.

That's the thing, with steampunk or neo-burlesque, I'm cool with the aesthetic of it. I used to have a broad who was up for that whole pencil skirt/Bettie fringe/sex-doll mouth look as well, I fuck w/it. But the people who engage in it are... repellent.

me getting buckwild in Lloyds on a Friday night

the "casual mentions of dangerous or illicit hobbies" thread's gonna be bulging at the seams here son

nah I think we already got the perfect Passantino zing there, been storing that one up for MONTHS

altho yeah you were obviously being sarcastic, i'll just hold my hand up and say "sorry", thus preventing a 500-post flameout

That's the thing, with steampunk or neo-burlesque, I'm cool with the aesthetic of it. I used to have a broad who was up for that whole pencil skirt/Bettie fringe/sex-doll mouth look as well, I fuck w/it. But the people who engage in it are... repellent.

Word

xxp

Man, I just roll up in Lloyds, peel them bucks off, and the barstaff are all like "You want a double for £1 extra?", and I'm like "Go for it bruv, can I get a bag of Thai Sweet Chilli Sensations as well?". Shrouds don't have pockets, y'know?

in the us there's a sizable subculture of guys who re-enact Civil War battles w/vintage uniforms, cannons etc.

not sure where the legacy of slavery - the reason behind the C.W. - fits in but yeah these dudes are white.

First pick for Youtube "steampunk" search is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3ym3KlJ_BE

??? Er....

steampunk guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZf64SaEnz8&NR=1

I recognise the gearwheels from a Lego technical set I had when I was a kid.

Steampunk as an aesthetic beats nu-rave and LARP hands-down, even if its participants are Doctor Who slashfic writers (and ex-LARPers)

Neo-burlesque is all Nathan Barley types, isn't it? Does it even exist outside London?

"neo burlesque" search brings up this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9dnTYhaAMo

I dunno, it doesn't look like a whole lot of fun to me. Stuff like this probably had some meaning when it was actually pushing boundaries in some way (IE in THE FIFTIES) what does it mean in a world when everyone's seem goatse man and tubgirl? Maybe I'm just unimaginative.

where do KITTEN!!!!! fetishists fit into this

what does it mean in a world when everyone's seem goatse man and tubgirl

I haven't

Neo-burlesque is all Nathan Barley types, isn't it? Does it even exist outside London?

-- Tom D., Monday, 9 June 2008 10:27 (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

I guess that "neo-burlesque" up here would entail the same thing as it's always done, going to see a stripper at a pub. It never did it for me, but w/e, you know.

nearly everyone, then.

How about flashmobbers? They're pretty annoying.

Flash mobbers and their subset, "improv" dudes, are cordially invited to lick the nuts.

I've never had any time for that musical genre, that only seems to exist in London, where blokes dress up in 50s suits and shit and try really hard to sound (and look) like Nick Cave and Tom Waits, those are kinda neo-burlesque people too

so who went out and panic-bought CARROTS????!?!??!?!

x-post Rockabilly types you mean? You get loads of them round Stoke NEwington, where I live. All pork pie hats and tatoos.

i went "mobile clubbing" in brighton once. it was a good few years ago and i'm pretty remorseful now but, y'know, if you insist dom.

A bit like them, but a bit more po-faced (xp)

so who went out and panic-bought CARROTS????!?!??!?!

-- Just got offed, Monday, 9 June 2008 10:34 (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

????

HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHA I just went to Facebook to root out an explanation for Pash, and instead found the following:

8 of your friends are attending PIRATES! Aaarrrrh!.
It's hosted by Captain Bloody Wlliam Kidd. So far 225 people have been invited.
RSVP to this event

I thought flashmobbing was one of those things that got lots of coverage in the "qualities", but noone actually ever did.

I don't think I need to know anything else about this, Louis.

Nah, the pirate thing is probably only tangentially-related, it was just at the top of my newsfeed and pisses me off more than any other "subculture" in existence.

Here's the carrot thing: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7297488951#/group.php?gid=9801981146

ARGH, just last weekend they had a bunch of flash mob kids in the main street dressed up as Ninjas because...Ninjas! LOL! LOL Ninjas! Ninjas LOL!

Parties where people dress up as pirates are always good because dressing up as a pirate = 'buying a plastic eyepatch and sword from local corner shop' rather than putting a load of time and energy into looking like a consumptive Victorian housewife.

Don't know anything about Flashmob, is it Situationist or just young Tories letting their hair down, a la drinking on the tube/ Plane Stupid?

Supposed to be the former, inevitably becomes the latter.

OMG those carrot group admins :(

IF EVERYBODY DOES THIS, WE CAN MAKE THIS GLOBAL SHORTAGE OF CARROTS HAPPEN!

And Gordon Brown can get blamed for it

Basically, a few nights ago, when I was very very drunk, I came up with the idea that everybody should go out and panic buy a certain product on a specific day.

I'm not quite sure what the reason behind this is is, other than the fact that a global shortage of carrots would be quite a laugh.

So, what I'm asking everybody to do, is on the 15th May, 2008 go out and buy a load of carrots. IF EVERYBODY DOES THIS, WE CAN MAKE THIS GLOBAL SHORTAGE OF CARROTS HAPPEN!

Members
This group has 203,260 members.

Come, come, global extinction event.

I wish to call out internet curmudgeons for scorn, oh wait.....

Heh, Ed.

PS not defending the carrot people as these are clearly idiots. (as are the people who think by boycotting esso and BP service stations Exxon and BP's profits would be effected)

LOL world food shortage/ poor people dying of starvation

there's a subtle difference between poshy-poshy spaz-spaz henley types who keep it to themselves, and poshy-poshy spaz-spaz henley types who start insidiously shit facebook groups and inflict their own awfulness on the internet. and that difference is that the latter are FAIR GAME.

Jamie Smith (West Midlands) wrote
at 8:37pm yesterday
oh crap, the carrots i 4got. i think i bought sum broccoli 2 go with my dinner that day tho....not really the same.

well.

Whereas the former post to internet message boards?

xp

Some get elected Mayor of London and (soon) Prime Minister

SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC given current context, but on topic given overall context:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_lifestyle

XPOST to LJ: why exactly are the former not fair game?

cos dey is him?

i kid. LJ is ghetto and Tories don't support charlton.

They probably are fair game, on principle, for our equally tacit dislike, but when it comes to all-out assault I think there has to be a measure of them externalising their terribleness in order for us to have a hook with which to grapple. Fortunately, most poshy-poshy spaz-spaz Henley types are of the more outgoing nature.

Hey, all my life I've infiltrated that cabal without actually being one of 'em. Jim Davidson supports Charlton.

Once I googled my best schoolfriend (yes, creepy, ok), drew a blank, googled her brother because he was more computer-geeky and thus seemed likely to have some kind of web presence (yes, more creepy, but knew him a bit as he was only a year younger) and found: 1. some "erotic fiction" about getting it on with yr sister, where names were changed but the details of her bedroom etc were perfectly transcribed; 2. a small ad saying that he was new to the scene but would like to meet a nice young vampire girl looking for a fresh unbitten neck.

This is why e-stalking is a bad idea.

Good grief.

And before Ed pipes up, I'd probably have him down as one of the least PPSS-positive types at Westminster as well. Lots of them were plenty nice about the fact they were fucking loaded. I suppose they could afford to be.

The original post here reads a bit like the lyrics to Turbonegro's "Hobbit Motherfuckers", which have something to say on this topic...

Wrong, so so so wrong.

xpost to Jagger.

Whywhywhy am I wishing that people who start threads criticizing emerging style tribes would kind of PONY UP with a picture of what they look like, so other contributors might kinda sorta consider the source?

That whole bettypagechologirlburlesquefandancerosietheriveter really doesn't bother me that much (it meant Art Car Boot Fair people playing 'if you wanna be happy' for most of the afternoon when I was slowly sunburning on friend's vintage stall so HOORAY) even though I don't hyperconnect with the people who are into it, possibly due to Cavehate (original sin-obsessed misogynist), jazzhate (brass instruments drive me batty save a few exceptions) and concern about fake porn empowerment stuff (people who have to bang on about how IN CONTROL they are the whole time NEVER ARE). But I was very, very able to flog them my mate's old clothes. Perhaps I spent my '90s being sent every Gallon Drunk promo ever made and thus had my booster shotz.

If people want to be spoddy and wear their interests on their sleeves, fine. It's much better than being interested in absolutely nothing except criticising rather than commenting on the culture that surrounds you and thinking that this faculty makes you somehow superior as a reactor to these actors. I have found that such an approach has diminishing returns: you wind up hating a larger and larger target of things until eventually you're left with the only thing you really hated all along: your lonely self.

Whywhywhy am I wishing that people who start threads criticizing emerging style tribes would kind of PONY UP with a picture of what they look like, so other contributors might kinda sorta consider the source?

-- suzy, Monday, 9 June 2008 12:24 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

If only I had some kind of noted stylistic quirk of clothing that is occasionally mentioned on ILX.

You do have a stylistic quirk, Dom. 2 or three, even.

^REAL TALK

If people want to be spoddy and wear their interests on their sleeves, fine.

Totally agree, but that doesn't then mean that said interests are above criticism.

You shouldn't criticize anybody for how they look. Unless they're fat, like.

Why, Ed, was the niceness all a big horrible front? I'm sure if 2008-model LJ was there atm he'd seen through the exteriors and into the dark heart of the soul, but I was even more naive than I am now once.

Wrong about em being PPSS or whatever, definitely from below median wealth in that environment and with a very different worldview from the bulk of the cohort.

Yes, but what I'm setting out is a difference between criticism that is poor because it sounds like full-bore kvetching and commentary that offers criticism in context. This could be the difference between, you know, some people's aspirations and boring old reality.

It's such a nice day, really.

PPSS, hein?

:( I was identifying with you!!!

I'd probably have him down as one of the least PPSS-positive types at Westminster as well

sorry, I took the wrong end of the stick there.

didn't know the steampunk thing went beyond 'quirky' laptops on gizmodo

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/images/datamancerslaptop.jpg

nice feet there

sheesh! yeah, sorry for the confusion. the second part of that post had been a slight tangent. it's tough trying to get on with every british poster on ILX :D

It's such a nice day, really.

It is a lovely day. Even up here in grotty South Shields, it's cheered me up.

Back to topic.

dom, why are steampunks more worthy of opprobrium than say, car tuners, pigeon fanciers or anyone else with a hobby?

Ricers are a bunch of cunts as well, but at least they listen to decent music.

Although TS: walking around with a large book of Victorian poetry you're never gonna read vs walking around with a copy of Max Power is one for the ages

Because they are peers but not peers? (to Ed)

Perhaps it's just amazing that it's taken this long to come up for a name for the demographic of alternaboffins who like Heath Robinson stuff etc.

Ricers are a bunch of cunts as well, but at least they listen to decent music.

-- The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Monday, 9 June 2008 11:45 (39 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Thus speaks a man who has never been in the NE of england "decent music" = an UNSUPPORTABLE STATEMENT when up here it's STILL 'ardkore with some dipshit mc ranting over the top.

suzy otm - what's wrong with people being into stuff as opposed to hating nearly everything?

If it comes down to BANGING HARDCORE IN THE MIX WITH DJ PIZZY AND DJ HELLKAT versus Some Hoxton Cunt Banging About On A Ukulele As If This Is A Subversive Statement, I'm down with the former xp

This really mostly about Hoxton Cunts

For me it is anyway

http://mystmakers.org/nommie/steampunk.jpg

My mother was a steampunk and I find this thread very offensive

Results 1 - 10 of about 4,590 for hoxton cunts. (0.27 seconds)

I sure do hate those hoxton cunts!!!

Nothing intrinsically wrong with a lot of the stuff the HCs get into, they're the problem. Neo-burleaque is lame tho.

Is being into "steampunk" really a hoxtonite thing? I find that hard to believe.

i'm glad there aren't any hoxton cunts near where i live.

Yeah, there's none round here either, amazingly enough.

I only work there!

I think I was on a bus once, that went through it. Maybe.

I only work there!

-- Tom D., Monday, 9 June 2008 11:58 (45 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

So it's you then! You're the one responsible for (gestures vaguely) all...this.

I think I've confused steampunk with something else, I thought it was something to do with all that Gogol Bordello shite, which is toadly London too

got dragged to favela in hoxton on thursday - fucking hated it. walls covered in "esoteric artefacts" and 3D art. no beers on tap either. sheer hell.

no to mention the DJ spinning ethnically influenced dance music filled with bongos and the like. and then he played the strokes and morrissey.

If it comes down to BANGING HARDCORE IN THE MIX WITH DJ PIZZY AND DJ HELLKAT versus Some Hoxton Cunt Banging About On A Ukulele As If This Is A Subversive Statement, I'm down with the former xp

-- The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Monday, 9 June 2008 11:50 (11 minutes ago)

Disagree. When I'm off to sleep at 2 am or whenever, and some bellend with a radgied up clio drives past at 3am with the bass whoomp blasting it wakes me up and it pisses me the fuck off. A Ukelele doesn't quite have the bass end reach to penetrate the walls of yer house, does it.

Steampunk:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/08PUNK.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/07/style/0508-PUNK_index.html

TBH, I've never seen any in the real world. Burlesque is another matter.

Dude, it didn't twig on me until I was 23, but if you want a decent night's sleep in a working class neighbourhood, get yrself some of thos £2 from Boots foam earplugs. Them shits are INVALUABLE.

xp

I think I've confused steampunk with something else, I thought it was something to do with all that Gogol Bordello shite, which is toadly London too

Gypsy punk? Horrible, yes.

no beers on tap either

I envisioned something entirely different when I read steampunk. I dunno, I am past the hatred. I think I disliked - hate is such a big word and it's wasted energy really - steampunk and whatevs for about three seconds and then suddenly realized: 1 gosh, I'm an old bitch and 2 that's more or less what they expect. I can now enjoy all that shit from afar (in my tower of wrinkles) and hope that one day my daughters will emerge in subcults that I know shit about cause THAT IS WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. W're not s'posed to understand nor copy or whatever. If you do try to emulate or copy or whatever, you look like a sad old freak.

I think those tektonik dudes are DA YUM though. God I like that style of clothing.

What I like best is when some pimply teen passes me by with his ipod at TOP VOLUME and gives me this GLARE as if to say: "Bitch, my toonz rool" It makes me roffle.

ok these guys have definately shown up on ilx before

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/07/style/23011173.JPG

They look like they're about to start an "In Rainbows" poll.

'pologies to any steampunkers out there, I had no idea who or what you were when I described you as "vile"

that woman on the left has hair colour i can only dream off. yes yes i could PAINT it but no effing way am i doing that. too lazy to have touch-ups.

the one on the righth has horrid pants on. whatever the century, those are just NO.

big hoos strikes again

Steampunk Star Wars

I love how you all talk about this stuff as if it is exclusive to the UK.

It isnt.

bonus points for spotting a 'new york times' link

HOOSpunk

their debut on ILX: STEEMPUNK

yeah that

THESE KIDS LOOK LIKE THE KIDS THAT GOT PICKED ON BY THE OTHER DRAMA KIDS

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, May 8, 2008 3:15 PM (1 month ago)

always one step ahead

I love how you all talk about this stuff as if it is exclusive to the UK.

It isnt.

I think the talk is more about how, in the UK, this stuff is exclusive to, errrr, Hoxton basically

Dude, it didn't twig on me until I was 23, but if you want a decent night's sleep in a working class neighbourhood, get yrself some of thos £2 from Boots foam earplugs. Them shits are INVALUABLE.

Nah mate, you want B&Q. £2 for 10!

i am so hard and working class that i have never even heard of or seen any of these people. if i did see them i would just think they were moshers or gay or something.

http://gustavus.edu/+max/max.jpg
http://pbskids.org/sesame/coloring/images/r_ernie.gif

i have never even see a xkcd comic.

- posh people liking dubstep

we always know better, don't we?

Well, yeah.

Neo-burlesque is all Nathan Barley types, isn't it? Does it even exist outside London?

definitely going on in new york, some weimar / cabaret club was the #1 celebrity hotspot for about half a minute

and a bar that opened a few months ago in my brooklyn neighborhood (not w'burg) has a go-go booth with tinsel

I meant in the UK, surely it started in the US?

im sure we did a neo-burlesque burn-book thing like THREE YEARS AGO and it's probably, for people who are 'in the know' w/r/t east london ephemera, been around much longer than that. hell kanye had a burlesque-themed video three years ago! what's painful about this rubbish is how long it sticks around for.

what's the new hotness, so that we can zing it?

ed parody threads

Ed Parrot-y Freds, morelike

im sure we did a neo-burlesque burn-book thing like THREE YEARS AGO and it's probably, for people who are 'in the know' w/r/t east london ephemera, been around much longer than that.

-- banriquit, Monday, 9 June 2008 14:18 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

DVT (Dita Von Teese, not deep vein thrombosis) had her first Playboy cover, what, 1999?

No one under the age of 20 actually partakes in any of these, surely? Except maybe the polyamorous non-shaving pagan thing. I think of all these as the sort of things people get up to when they're in their late 20s and can suddenly see middle age on the horizon.

See also - throwing prohibition era parties, although that's far cooler.

what's the new hotness, so that we can zing it?

-- banriquit, Monday, 9 June 2008 14:18 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Indie moustaches

prohibition era parties

1. invent & publicize a hilariously fake but "nascent" subculture on the internet
2. encourage early adopters by setting up message boards and facebook groups for subculture
3. ???
4. ???
5. zing

6. ???
7. ???
8. NYT trend story

6. Frontpage article in Guardian Guide

Hah, xp

guys we have the opportunity zing an entire new generation, let's get on it

i mean that's how punk started amirite?

internet flashmobbing!

punkpunk

Man, I already said HOOSpunk

Pipecocking.

Indie moustaches--"Burlesque"--cake--knitting

Subculture of On the Buses cosplay.

Ironically getting hammered on Tennant's Super then ironically kicking the shit out of total strangers.

Indie moustaches--"Burlesque"--cake--knitting

This is some weird Old Blue Last -----> How Does It Feel continuum shit isn't it?

Homebrew Wine Hipsters

Avant-DIY

guys, "freegan amish pervert" is the freshness for fall-winter 09

hand-crank eggbeaters retooled into prostate stimulators, etc

Illegal all-night Greyhound racing

Shoreditch yesterday:

http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/life/spring1999/wigs/group-of-judges.jpg

Black and white minstrel revival for '09.

I've heard ironic hysterectomies are blowing up this season

histrionic ironectomies

carrier pigeon social networking

Ironic going round to elderly people's houses and doing the shopping and cleaning for them, and acting really nice but with a hint of a sneer.

gay chubscouts, w/ merit badges etc

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43032

Geek pie haircuts.

I've never heard of this steampunk thing but I kind of like the idea (although I automatically dislike anything that turns into an official subculture with a name). I also find people more interesting when they have other semi-vintage interests, though, like sailing historic ship reconstructions or reading lots of medieval theology.

15 year olds all wearing V for Vendetta masks and protesting against Scientology outside its shop on Tottenham Court Road on Saturday mornings.

That was completely WTF to me.

I am down with people reading lots of medieval theology. However I feel it will catch on less than steempunk because it involves reading lots of medieval theology, as opposed to dressing up like a tit and going on the piss.

is scarf-wearing a subcultural movement yet?

in Palestine

Rachel Ray Nevar Forget ;_;

CONTROL F LAUREL not found

roller derby
women's bike things
"stitch and bitch"

Roller derby is just the worst.

Actually, the worst is men who actively follow roller derby because they're turned on by pictures of women with bruises and broken noses

Yeah, everybody knows you can see that at home.

uhghhh roller derby. to me that matches up with burlesque, populated by girls who are like "i'm bisexual and if you've ogt a problem with that then i've got a problem with you1!!!!!!!!!!!!"

sounds like somebody's jealous

still hurts doesn't it

lol xp

guys, i know i'm guilty of it, but still:

kickball

and also

zombies

cartoon beatnik revival

ladies and ladies, mr burt stanton

girls who smell like cabbage and drink 40s

oh crap, the carrots i 4got. i think i bought sum broccoli 2 go with my dinner that day tho....not really the same.

This has made my day glorious.

CELEBRITY BUZZ – “WuChess” is a hip-hop chess social network created by the Wu-Tang Clan to promote nonviolence. For $48 you can participate in online chess matches against other WuChess users (including members of the WuTang Clan), compete in tournaments for prizes, and talk hip-hop on the message boards.

girls who smell like cabbage and drink 40s

I believe that's 60% of the population of southern Brooklyn. is that really a subculture now?

woah! xp

cavepunk

guitar hero players

didnt neo-burlesque peek with the "lady marmelade" video?

actually can't we date all this stuff to "moulin rouge"

dorky fat girls who try to dress like 15 year old japanese girls. what is that anyway?

Puberty.

I mean, those girls are in their 20s and probably students at NYU

i'm jealous of people that can participate in subculture in the same way i'm jealous of people who believe in god.

pokEMOnes!

lol pokemones, can we fill a shipping container with some o them and freight them to mccarren park?

I find most subcultures tiresome, I'll give you that -- but I don't really see how most subcultural signifiers are any less ridiculous than the ones being discussed here. It's absurd to think that, say, normative hip-hop style (for example) is somehow more real or organic than some posh British dude pretending to be in a H. G. Wells novel. They both look pretty ridiculous from a distance.

I mean, y'all aren't really any different from the suburban couple hating on the WASP kid down the street for wearing baggy pants and shit.

Also, bell_labs OTM with that last comment.

They're all ridiculous out of context, of course; cultural signifiers are signifiers because they don't mean much on their own, only in context, though! But as long as we're nitpicking about subcultures, I think the part that gets me is the "belonging" aspect. I have friends who have actually made their own 17th & 18th century outfits that they occasionally wear to parties, and I think this is awesome, but I would not think someone dressing that way and calling himself a "steampunk" was awesome because that actually makes it about being part of a group as opposed to doing your own thing. I like pure weirdos, not weirdos with their own official ranking system. This may say good or bad things about my own self-image and psychology.

hey everybody grab yr ankles and do the boho dance

hahaha i figured steampunk was some kind of new musical subgenre or something

whoever coined that term is my new favorite person in the world

They're all ridiculous out of context, of course; cultural signifiers are signifiers because they don't mean much on their own, only in context, though!

They're ridiculous out of context, but I'd argue that their inherent ridiculousness is the same too, though. It's all just a mixture of D&D and tribalism.

being part of a group as opposed to doing your own thing. I like pure weirdos, not weirdos with their own official ranking system.

I'm totally in sympathy with you here (hence my OTM to bell_labs), but you've gotta admit that doing your own thing can get pretty lonely. It takes a hell of a lot of effort, for one.

I didn't know what "steampunk" meant before this thread, either! I kind of like that laptop, though I wouldn't really want to own one.

(I do think most flash mob/public improv stuff is a total dick move -- condescending to the "ordinary people" whose lives they seek to somehow enrich. Actor dudes, you're not Calvin on the phone to the pizza guy, and most people want to be left the fuck alone: grant them that.)

That laptop looks like the Shrovis-Bishopthorpe Envision III.

cavepunk

-- latebloomer,

for real tho are there spinoffs? maria mentions 17th & 18th cent outfits which wd be pre-steam, is there like puritanpunk or something?

i move for an immediate suspension of the suffinx "-PUNK" to any new musical genre or subculture hobbyist lifestyle

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/aa/buren/aa_buren_subj_e.jpg

LOL I will ask my friends if they're "puritanpunk" and they'll say something like "no, i RESPECT our cultural traditions!"

Actually, a friend of mine made that laptop. He's one of the most creative guys I know and has been doing this kind of stuff forever.

The whole subculture thing is a bit odd though.

A subculture I can't stand is the "I'm going to start a blog so I can get famous" kiddies who harass you about their blog for a few months then abandon the project when they realize that there are 9999 blogs of the same crap on the internet. Mostly blogs about food and/or their OMG SATC-style lives.

cultural critics

I think a lot of the hostility comes from thinking people are attention whores, yeah. Sometimes that's misleading, though.

There was a guy I knew in college who had a style that to many people seemed ostentatious and look-at-me. A friend of mine was working with him on some computer project, and this guy was looking for a file on some removable medium (probably a Zip disk). The guy had neatly arranged all his files so that windows would open up in geometric patterns, files would have detailed custom icons, etc. Some of these were subfolders three or four levels deep -- not just on the top level where, theoretically, it could be easily seen by passers-by. When my friend asked him why he did it, the guy smiled shyly and said "I don't know, I guess I just like things to look pretty."

Waste of time? Probably, at least to most of us. But my friend said that from that moment on, he saw the guy in a totally different light -- he really was doing most of this stuff for himself, and for his own pleasure.

I don't know why I wd complain about "stitch'n'bitch"ers, I just don't buy their stuff on etsy, or whatever.

Anyway, I learned to knit over the weekend from someone with a spinning wheel in her living room. Everything else can SUCK IT UP.

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/2747050.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=5D63505180F54B9B8D41D0F09A25BD00A55A1E4F32AD3138

girls who smell like cabbage and drink 40s

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, June 9, 2008 12:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

rong, drinking 40s is a completely unassailable trait
dunno abt the cabbage part tho :x

miryam, that computer really is awesome.

http://uktv.co.uk/images/standarditem/EX1/2836.jpg

On a related note, lookee what GIS turns up:

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/images/steampunkdalek.jpg

http://stevejones420.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/steampunk_tardis_by_promus_kaa.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/Deloravius/Doctor%20Who/20071021a.jpg

and more

messageboard/blog culture where people in cities who post on messageboards or write on certain blogs all meet each other at a bar

I just asked a programmer friend if he'd heard of these "steampunks" and says he and another friend (neither of these guys are the ones with the 17th century clothes, btw) have been talking about making steampunk-styled laptops, airships, or "a huge agglomeration of screens in the living room, framed in brass and wood, and connected by tubes and wires, with spinning gears and pneumatics in the background." CONFORMISTS.

and now we are discussing the appropriateness, or lack of such, of the "punk" part. i knew this would come up! i am so entertained.

a little bit ago i was in the history section of a B&N & these two really dorky girls started browsing & one said something to the other like "i dont read about anything after the sixties. now the SIXTEEN-SIXTIES! thats where its at."

it was cute & made me think of this thread

all this is corny but the ilx obsession with hating on shit like steampunk (and like something awful dudes hating on furries) is mad insecure doggy unless its a special case like coyote nate or if we learned burt_stanton wears top hats or some shit who gives a fuck

240 posts and no mention of "fixies" yet?

what are they

Yes please let us involve nuances of biking culture as well on this wonderful wonderful thread

Probably not as bad as all the internet nerd subcultures you guys are talking about, but my cousin from Arizona just let me know about southern California style "Bros" (not noize type obviously), or "flatbillers".
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bro
http://www.flatbiller.com/

I didn't know this was a thing with such well-defined group signifiers.

http://www.velorution.biz/images/Velorution%20-%20Girl%20on%20fixie%20w%20striped%20wrist%20bands.jpg

hahahahha fixies, someone from NYT must have actually spoken to a courier or something...

Is there anything those of you people bitching about steampunk/knitting/rollerderby/etc etc etc DO like? I swear, sometimes some people on ILX seem like NOTHING AT ALL WHATSOEVER impresses them or gives them even a brief grin.

That's a little bit sad, isn't it?

I actually do like steampunk a lot. The dressing up part is a bit much, but I like the design sensibility. As for the hating, I just figure its the narcissism of small differences moving into different areas again.

I can totally understand eye-rolling at real bandwagon-jumpers. And I find it curious that in particular steampunk, rollerderby and burlesque have come up, as these 3 things have come up on the radar over here in the last couple of years as well. I think its the general larger internet/goth/D&D/literary type community at large.

gothin' large

anyways i am all for this neo burlesque thingy

steampunk i am yet to experience 1st hand

Haha yes, my bf just recently said to me "hey do they actually have burlesque shows in Melbourne?WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME LETS GO SEE ONE".

like i said on another thread the basic idea of steampunk once seemed kinda... i dunno... neat if not a model for living. but brass pipe fittings for your flatscreen tv and iphone is just kinda douchey.

well its the 'model for living' issue thats kinda key here i think

id sure hope no one is going to seriously pass judgement on anyone for liking rollerderby/knitting/old fashioned things or whatever

btw trayce's first couple comments seem patently ridiculous to me in that they seem to suppose that a) the vast majority of the pop of this planet is not in sync because they are not 'with' these things & that b) anyone would get into them for cool cred

if they actually powered everything with steam, i would think they were awesome.

any grown adult who's part of any subculture is highly suspect

An ex of mine had a heap of friends who were into burlesque. They seemed annoying, but fairly hot.

cf. truth bomb 1

deez: well don't take what I said as so absolutist, yeesh. It just *feels* like sometimes no matter what the latest thing is, large group of people here shooting it down (often the same ones, too). I'm generalising, I guess.

FWIW I'm not being defensive of any of these things, as I'm 100% disinterested in any of them.

any grown adult who's part of any subculture is highly suspect

I tend to judge whether or not people are "suspect" based on how they treat other people, their ethics, intellect, etc., not on what they're into -- let alone thinking they're suspect based on the fact that they're into something at all. Give me someone who's passionate about something, even if it's something that sucks, any day over some anhedonic fucker who sits in the corner sneering. That shit got old when we were eighteen.

http://www.velorution.biz/images/Velorution%20-%20Girl%20on%20fixie%20w%20striped%20wrist%20bands.jpg

^^that's a nice frame btw.

..Swear I'm not into fixies tho.

uh

shit.

never heard of the kickball subcult until elmo's posts, in fact i hadn't thought about kickball since 6th grade. and then last night I saw an entire adult kickball team in snazzy uniforms walking down Broadway in NYC.

thanks for keeping an old guy UP TO SPEED on what teh young folks are "into" these days.

I tend to judge whether or not people are "suspect" based on how they treat other people, their ethics, intellect, etc., not on what they're into -- let alone thinking they're suspect based on the fact that they're into something at all. Give me someone who's passionate about something, even if it's something that sucks, any day over some anhedonic fucker who sits in the corner sneering. That shit got old when we were eighteen.

-- Charlie Rose Nylund, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 06:54 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

u mad doggie

Is Steampunk tied into bars and club nights like this: http://www.lostsociety.co.uk/index2.htm
http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/

Where everyone walks around dressed up as and looking like Robert Browning's reanimated corpse?

tbh im not YOUNG or AWARE OF CONTEMPORARY SUBCULTURAL MOVEMENTS: is this steampunk thing even a thing?

it's gottabe pretty niche, and it doesn't seem to be very fashionable.

www.whitemischief.info

^^^steampunk festival. Name does fuck-all to dispel the feeling than there's some creepy neo-colonialist fetishist shit going on here.

i hope the writers of 'peep show' are lurking -- this would be an excellent thing for mark to get overenthused about.

Charlie is right actually.

i had to google 'anhedonic'

You know what's really cool? People who subliminate all their failings, anxieties, and mental healthy conditions into an obsession with some irrelevant subculture or piece of pop culture. You know who's lame? People who actually get the fuck on with their lives in a normal and constructive manner.

It's not actually as black/white as that though, Dom? I mean it's not like there's all these people who act just like this and all these other completely different people who act just like that.

People who subliminate all their failings, anxieties, and mental healthy conditions into an obsession with some irrelevant subculture or piece of pop culture

you, this thread

A lot of "normal" people do this

Whingy internet hacks, subculture or symptoms of the times in which we live?

Who the fuck gets to decide what is normal? What is not constructive about designing and building a victorian style computer case?

Whingy internet hacks, subculture or symptoms of the times in which we live?

kettles: black enough 4 u?

Do what you like, just don't walk around like your arse is a perfume factory because you're well into the 15th century Flemish peasant look, dung and all, and the normos over there aren't

I think you're all being cocks too but thinking up a witty way of saying it would be an unnecessary and unwanted distraction from my constructive and normal life.

Who the fuck gets to decide what is normal? What is not constructive about designing and building a victorian style computer case?

-- Ed, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:39 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Ed's right, fetishising the cultural artefacts of colonial times, especially when said fetishists are to a man the white middle classes, has no remotely creepy overtones whatsoever. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and make a James Somersett bottle-opener.

Do what you like, just don't walk around like your arse is a perfume factory because you're well into the 15th century Flemish peasant look, dung and all, and the normos over there aren't

-- Tom D., Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:42 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Basically this. The Breakfast Club and Heathers are good movies. Juno isn't. There's a message here.

Ed's right, fetishising the cultural artefacts of colonial times, especially when said fetishists are to a man the white middle classes, has no remotely creepy overtones whatsoever. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and make a James Somersett bottle-opener.

This is a disingenuous generalisation and you know it.

Not really, no. Steampunk doesn't exist in a vaccuum, and there has to be a reason its come to prominence at the time both the US and UK have veered politically to the right.

I mean, Spain's shifted to the left, and I ain't seeing no Microsoft Zunes with brass tubing in Cadiz.

Ed's right, fetishising the cultural artefacts of colonial times, especially when said fetishists are to a man the white middle classes, has no remotely creepy overtones whatsoever. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and make a James Somersett bottle-opener.

When did you pick this habit up? I've seen you do this a bit recently - "(poster) is right, (a bunch of stuff that poster never actually said or implied)" Dom, it isn't fooling ANYBODY, stop it, it's making you look like a complete ass.

Pash, are you saying that Ed is saying that there is something wrong with steampunk?

I still don't believe 'Steampunk' actually exists but I haven't got out much lately, what with most of my time being taken up with writing my time-travelling Buffy spin-off novella set in Capetown in 1932.

spanish steampunk: http://alrededordelmundo.wordpress.com/

Custos-esque logistical breakdown:

I say that steampunk is bad
Ed says it isn't
I say it is, list some reasons why, use structural concept of irony to make argument
You come along, arguing with opening part of sentence where I say that steampunk is bad, say that Ed has never said the opposite.

xxp

No Dom, I'm saying that you are putting words into Ed's mouth, so to speak, and that it is not an effective "debating" technique.

(x-post you just did it again!)

spanish steampunk: http://alrededordelmundo.wordpress.com/

-- ledge, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:51 (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Cultural hegemonic assault from the US. Y'all gotta read your Naomi Woolf.

http://www.dedeporte.es/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/luis-aragones.jpg

I'll have none of that racist steampunk in my squad, got that mate?

this discussion of something i know nothing about, it moves too fast for me.

but it does look pretty lame.

No Dom, I'm saying that you are putting words into Ed's mouth, so to speak, and that it is not an effective "debating" technique.

(x-post you just did it again!)

-- Pashmina, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:51 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

I'm not putting words into his mouth, I'm expanding the debate. This isn't two dogs running around a stick post.

Which is ironic, because as the big dog of these parts, this is my yard.

This latest exchange is making me read your latest login name as

The strawman from the "hilarious" Dom P

Do you understand what strawman actually means aldo? It means setting up a deliberately ridiculous third-party to attack as a means of validating your argument.

Not going "Hey, white people harking back to the cultural remnants of a time when white people used to kill and enslave black dudes, then calling a club night White Mischief, there's some weird shit going on there I ain't comfortable with it"

What you're basically saying is:

why is darkie toothpaste reminiscent of oppression? dude is just chillin in a top hat amirite
-- and what, Thursday, 22 March 2007 20:31 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Isn't that what Pash is sort of saying? (setting up a deliberately ridiculous third-party to attack as a means of validating your argument, that is)

That's because steampunk is only a big thing in this ridiculous fantasy world where there are no racists in Spain.

it's funny because dom isn't white or black

Harry Lime ARL (5:04:43 PM): passantino can be pretty funny, when he's not being a cunt
thom jesus west (5:05:08 PM): yeah, i mean, he's a twat, but he's getting pretty good at working with it. he's like our miccio ethan
-- butts lmao (adelangsto...), January 27th, 2006.

Ah yes, one club is indicative of an entire subculture.

Do you think using the Bullingdon Club as shorthand for what a Tory government will be like is acceptable Ed?

You're doing it again!

I don't buy the "steampunk = nostalgia for colonialism" thing. Victorian era wasn't the only time when "half the globe was pink" by a long way, plus given that it's some kind of dumb games workshop fantasy version of victoriana, basically cyberpunk sci-fi with a load of wood and inlaid brass from what I see, I doubt anyone who's into it even thinks about it that deeply. It's like some indie girl dresses as a flapper, it doesn't mean she digs "the birth of a nation" amirite?

I think the things that kind of put me off this are a/I'm kind of into form-follows-function for objects like CD players, laptops etc and I'd be annoyed if I had to use some of the items I've seen, especially that CD player in the youtube I found b/I don't dig the victorian visual aesthetic much, beyond a couple of painters and some of the nice typefaces, the architecture and the industrial desicgn was pretty plain and ugh to me and (mainly) c/the real victorian era was really interesting, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to live then, but it's fascinating to read about. Far more so that some LARP-ish decal job?

I dunno, I think it goes beyond "The Nazis had good tailoring/Stalin had some good poster designers", tbh.

Not particularly but there will actually be members of the bullingdon club in the tory cabinet, one of them elected as leader plus both you an I both know of their antics.

Now I don't think you have taken the trouble to even google white mischief and find out what they were actually doing, and oh look, Ebony bones headlining, a band lead by three very talented black girls who have some pretty strongly anti-racist material (No blacks, no irish no dogs - top song).

I'm not saying there aren't racist steam punks yearning for an era of bayonetting the fuzzywuzzies, I have no idea if there are or not but, deciding to write of an entire group of people based on the name of one club night just exposes the level of your idiocy.

It's like some indie girl dresses as a flapper, it doesn't mean she digs "the birth of a nation" amirite?

this is what makes these people (i think ur getting it a bit off here holmes: TBOAN came out in the middle of the war, but yeah) EVEN WORSE, is lack of sense. i'm thinking of something totally different now, there is some kind of 'flapper' thing to do with vile 1920s bright young people and the dressing-up-as thereof. but the point stands.

^^^ obviously the BYTs were 'into black music' at the time, but also racists who ended up supporing hitler.

Or, effectively, why is it OK for cute young girls in short skirts to go "EVERYTHING WAS BETTER IN THE OLDEN DAYS", and not for straight-talking man of the people Jon "Gaunty" Gaunt to do so?

^Sub calum at best

Can you at least argue with my points Ed, rather than shooting off ad hominem sub-zings? You're better than Blount and you know it.

(i think ur getting it a bit off here holmes: TBOAN came out in the middle of the war, but yeah)

True, but if I'd put "Synthetic Sin" or "an Eddie Cantor movie" nobody would have known what the fuck I was on abt.

I don't get the premise of that. Co-opting a aesthetic != the old days were better, it is playing dress up.

xpost and insert rogue 'n'

True, but if I'd put "Synthetic Sin" or "an Eddie Cantor movie" nobody would have known what the fuck I was on abt.

-- Pashmina, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:21 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Quitney's a film buff, I played a lot of hookie back in the day and watched hella Channel 4 matinees, you'd have been fine.

I don't get the premise of that. Co-opting a aesthetic != the old days were better, it is playing dress up.

-- Ed, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:22 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Belonging to a sub culture != going to a fancy dress party

For many, it means exactly that.

Surely it's "the old days were better" in the sense of the music was better or the clothes were better

the clothes probably WERE better

xxp

Do you honestly believe that? Because I went to a fancy dress party as Guy Burgess last year, and after the party had finished I felt no desire to start blogging about Guy Burgess for three years afterwards

anyway since when did "cute young girls in short skirts" not get away with whatever the hell they wanted

Clothes generally were better!

Lol at this whole thread of not so young ILX posters...

You went to a fancy dress party as Guy Burgess? How does one dress as Guy Burgess?

I like Jazz-era-early '30's women's fashions a lot. Big difference between the teens films I have and the twenties ones, the women dressed loads better.

I like Jazz-era-early '30's women's fashions a lot

Not sure they'd suit you, Pash

You went to a fancy dress party as Guy Burgess? How does one dress as Guy Burgess?

-- Pashmina, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:32 (16 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Charity shop old man's suit, cravatte, bowler hat, bottle of vodka in back pocket, carried around a "Traveller's Guide to the Kremlin" with some gay porn hidden inside.

The depressing thing about this is the reductivist view of all human culture - "you have an enormous interest in Victorian history, literature and culture" becomes de facto "you are nostalgic for a time when we shot all the black bastards and stuck the poor ones up chimneys" or "you listen to hip-hop, you must like black people shooting each other in the face!" It's moronic.

kind of cheating there dom

"you listen to hip-hop, you must like black people shooting each other in the face!" It's moronic.

-- Matt DC, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:33 (44 seconds ago) Bookmark

I just like it when the girls drop it low like a pro, then bring it back cuz that's what's up.

Dom I'm fairly sure they weren't too keen on black dudes in 1960s Italy either, should I call you out for your YouTube pop videos yesterday?

I like Jazz-era-early '30's women's fashions a lot

Not sure they'd suit you, Pash

-- Tom D., Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:32 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

boom tish etc

Was gonna say: maybe dumb peasantino is projecting his own conflicted emotions onto others. Nobody else on this thread uses terms like 'ricers' in day to day life so maybe be careful with the thatsracist.gif mmmmmmkay?

You could do, but Adriano Celentano, who was the first guy I went to, is famous as Italy's most left-wing entertainer and the only guy who is allowed to go on television and actively criticise Berlusconi, such is his star. He's also a big fan of dudes like Ray Charles and brought them out onto Italian TV in the 60s when people had never even heard of blacks in Italy. And that "Figli Di Pitagora" shouts out legendary Italian comedian Toto as one of the all-time cultural greats, the same Toto who was best friends with Pier Paolo Pasolini. And if you're gonna try and pin right-wing viewpoints on Pasolini, yr gonna struggle.

What I'm saying is these steampunks never dress up as William Wilberforce, do they?

xxp

What I'm saying is these steampunks never dress up as William Wilberforce, do they?

How can you tell?

Nobody else on this thread uses terms like 'ricers' in day to day life so maybe be careful with the thatsracist.gif mmmmmmkay?

-- suzy, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:36 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

If they came from a culture where ricing was common, they probably would. Anyway, the term "ricer" comes from the use of rice alcohol in early custom cars (some of which, yes, were made in Japan), there's absolutely nothing racist about it.

I've never heard of it before

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,180,000 for ricer . (0.27 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 541,000 for ricer cars. (0.22 seconds)

I don't think they dress as anyone in particular. But the age of colonialism was also the age of Bazalgette, John Snow, Darwin, Marx, Brunel, the birth of trade unionism, Pasteur, Nightingale, Lincoln. So your steampunk = lol racist argument doesn't really hold water.

You Might Be A Ricer If…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have more exhaust decibels than your engine has horsepower.
You have aftermarket FRONT wheels for racing but stock rear wheels.
Your engine makes twice as much horsepower as torque.
17" rims up front, 13" out back on your FWD.
You ever painted your wheels to match the same color of your car.
You put your automatic car in neutral at every stoplight in order to roll it back and try to fool other people into thinking you have a manual transmission
DuPont gave up trying to figure out the shade you were asking for.
Your mod list includes stereo equipment, shifter handle, MOMO steering wheel, PIA driving lights, exhaust tip, but no REAL engine parts.
A chameleon lizard undergoes fewer shade changes than your custom paint scheme.
Your rims and tires are so large, that you have to install the tire / wheel from underneath the car because it simply won't fit in the wheel well going in from the side.
The dealer laughs when you bring your car back in for service under warranty, and you've only had it 6 months...
Your tires / rims stick out from the lip of your car by more than 1."
Your paint job is from the WRONG end of the color spectrum.
You installed spacers on your STOCK wheels and tires to get them to stick out past the fender.
You see cars like yours in a Shriner's Parade for Children and clowns are driving them.
You bring an empty Maxwell House coffee can with you to compare size when you shop for an aftermarket exhaust system.
Your Eclipse GS-T hardtop has a "SPYDER" emblem on the rear...
Your sum knowledge of suspension is: "the more negative camber, the better the handling."
You push your car through the staging lanes. That way, maybe you can break into the 16s by keeping the motor cool between runs.
You add a super tall rear wing, and a hundred pounds of aftermarket ground effects, neon and stereo yet you gut the interior and yank out the rear seat for weight savings.
Your rear wing AND your rear window have a third mount brake light...
The back lighting in the gauges in your A-pillar gauge pod work long before the actual gauges are hooked up.
You cut 4 coil springs and scrape the chassis on the ground. Sparks are cool when you corner at normal traffic speeds!
You have to find a way to drive AROUND speed bumps in a parking lot.
You install clear corner and brake lights.
You install colored bulbs in your aftermarket clear lenses.
You ever put neon on the bottom of your car, and then busted it on the first speed bump you went over.
You painted the UNDERBODY of your car to match
If your rear spoiler is taller then you are.
if you can fit fist fuck your exhaust tip
You have more stereo WATTS than engine TORQUE!
If your tailpipe extension is the most expensive mod you’ve done to your engine yet.
Your tailpipe extension fell off during a quarter mile race and you went three tenths of a second faster due to weight savings.
EVERY car in your class has a turbo pushing double digits worth of boost.
You spent $5,000 on the engine and you can not out run a stock Camaro, Firebird, or Mustang
You want the 'wastegate' sound, but don't want to install a turbocharger system.
You think Nitrous Oxide on your Hyundai Sonata puts you in the same performance league as the Chevy Corvette.
The automatic version of your car runs 2 seconds slower in the 1/4mile.
If the 1970 Plymouth Daytona Superbird has a smaller spoiler than your car does.
You think the Del Sol is a sports car...
A torque converter does NOTHING for your car.
You think a deep farty noise = the sound of high performance
If you think that horsepower is far more important than torque
If you have ever claimed that switching to a cone filter has given you more than 5 HP.
If you have ever considered installing more than one set of fog / driving lights.
If you claim that the aftermarket cold air intake system you just installed doubled your horsepower or took 2 or more seconds off of your E/T.
Your baseball cap is always on backwards when you drive (the first sign of mental retardation, wearing your clothes backwards... BE).
You spent all night on the Internet trying to find a company that makes a turbocharger system for your Hyundai...
If you removed your side view mirrors and put them at the TOP of the door / window frame.
If you think the Fugees are 'speed' music.
MOMO is 'absolutely required' to go fast.
Your four cylinder has a dual exhaust system installed.
Your four cylinder has four exhaust pipes ("Hey, one for each cylinder!")
The color of your interior upholstery hurts the cones and rods in other people's eyes.
If you cannot drive your car in snow as the ground effects create a plow effect.
If you have installed driving lights to compensate for headlight blackouts / tape.
If you think that 180 horsepower and 185 lb/ft of torque are impressive for a ‘mildly’ modified engine.
If you have stickers on your car for parts that you could not point out if asked where those parts are installed.
You think pushrods are a bad thing…
Your car has more decals than you do the quarter in seconds.
Every Honda you EVER owned, all the way back to your 1978 Accord was either a V-Tec or a TYPE-R.
You took your rear seat out and gutted your interior for weight savings but you installed 400 pounds of electronics, neon, DVD, Sony, etc.
If you gutted the interior to save weight on a car that you will never take to the track…
You lean your seat so far back when you are driving, that every time you hit a bump, its your back and not your butt that hurts.
You have hydraulics and sixteen switches on a car you claim runs low 10s on the street and corners better than a Porsche.
If you can estimate that your car makes more than 250 HP without ever running it at the track or getting a dyno reading.
You claim that you can get a titanium block for your engine.
If you have ever thought Hyundai and "performance" went hand in hand
If you've ever gone to a parts shop or speed warehouse and asked for a 1" to 6" exhaust adapter...
If you've ever contemplated adding "TYPE-R" stickers to your Sonata…
If you've removed more than 1/2 of the coils from your springs by cutting them yourself ...
If you have more neon lights on your car than a strip club...
You put Kanji on your Ford ZX2, Ford Probe, or Mercury Cougar ...
You own a "TYPE-R" Hyundai or Mazda.
You couldn't afford headlight masking, so you just painted them with flat black Krylon and it's peeling. Badly.
You claim that polishing your intake gave you 5hp.
You own a V-TEC Hyundai or Mazda (especially a V-TEC rotary engined Mazda RX-7)
You have neon INSIDE your car or in your ENGINE compartment
You ever claimed that high gas mileage made your car superior in performance to V8s.
If it takes you 8000rpm to reach 30mph from a dead stop at WOT.
You think yellow plastic interior trim makes your car cool
You spend $500 for a giant hand welded tube for a muffler with the weld marks extremely visible
If you paint your drum brakes to simulate Hi-po calipers
If you install fake hi-po caliper / disc simulators
You have a front wing.
If you lower your car and add ground effects but retain the stock 14inch wheels with disc style wheel covers
If you equate the sound of performance with the sound of a Weed Eater™
If you think bolting a fake muffler to one side to simulate dual exhaust is cool
If you think colored head lights work better
Clear tail lights and turn signals. They’re colored for a REASON!
If you take mom's 4 door Honda accord and do any kind of mod to it
You drive a Ford Escort station wagon with Kanji, wide tires, and Limp Bizkit stickers on the rear hatch
You claim you lost the race because you had a passenger in the car.
You claim how if you went from a roll you would have beat him.
You claim you lost because you missed a shift... and your car is an automatic.
You claim you lost because he must have been on the juice..
Flying past the person who is 10 car lengths in front of you after they have put on their brakes.. and claim a victory.
after losing you flip your opponent off... rev your motor and fail to break the wheels loose even around a corner.
Tell everyone about how you lost the cop because of your "driving skills."
you are a white kid driving an import.. wear baggy pants/hat turned around, walk with a fake limp and end every sentence with "yew know wha I'm sayin? Relate."
Your idea of aiming a handgun is raising your arm over your head, pointing the gun away from you, and then just letting your wrist fall to the side to where the gun is almost sideways ...
drive around in a $20,000 import with $10,000 in mods.. and still live with your parents.
You can relate to every line of the song "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" by the Offspring
you take offense when I say.. "your sister is like your car.. small, tight and hard to get into."
You are a skinny, backwards hat wearing, dog chain wallet, 2 ft wide pants leg, Limp Bizkit looking white boy fag with a badly applied peroxide hair color treatment and temporary rub-on tattoos!

I don't think they dress as anyone in particular. But the age of colonialism was also the age of Bazalgette, John Snow, Darwin, Marx, Brunel, the birth of trade unionism, Pasteur, Nightingale, Lincoln. So your steampunk = lol racist argument doesn't really hold water.

-- Ed, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:42 (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

But the aesthetic of steampunk is specifically the "explorer" side of the Victorian era, yes? The balloonists, the early cruise liner takers, the travllers.

You know who's lame? People who actually get the fuck on with their lives in a normal and constructive manner.
You know who's lame? People who actually get the fuck on with their lives in a normal and constructive manner.
You know who's lame? People who actually get the fuck on with their lives in a normal and constructive manner.
You know who's lame? People who actually get the fuck on with their lives in a normal and constructive manner.

Strictly speaking, they (steam punk people) don't dress as people from the (or an) age of imperialism at all really, do they? They dress up as people out of science fiction.

Looks more like the victorian inventor thing to me, Dom, a la the dude from H G Wells' "The Time Machine", maybe.

Are we having a discussion here or are we flinging faecal matter at each other in a vain attempt to get props? Calm down Beavis.

xp

I'm presuming that at this point nobody really gives much of a rat's ass about steampunkers, and we're just idling away the hours at work, yes?

These people who dress up like Victorian inventors, do they get hot girls?

Morlocks do:

http://wordsandwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/eloimorlocks-02.jpg

Looks more like the victorian inventor thing to me, Dom, a la the dude from H G Wells' "The Time Machine", maybe.

-- Pashmina, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:46 (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Inventor I think is reductionist. I mean there was a definite tie in Victorian populist literature between the idea of "new things" (items) and "new worlds" (space, the bottom of the sea, Africa), yes?

Don't think so at all, certainly that seems to be an aspect. I think it starts at HG Wells, (and particularly with the disney interpretation of same) and works outwards.But them you have to make the gravely incorrect assumption that all victorian explorers were racist. ( A lot actively were, a lot weren't, a lot were just products of their time (a good compare an contrast would be to read some Francis Younghusband and Sven Hedin and then you'd realise that it isn't clear cut even within one person).

Ironically, there can be said to be big similarities between dudes like HG Wells and ricers, far more than there is between HG Wells and so-called "steampunkers"

I dunno Matt, it depends on what you think of as "hott":

http://images.google.co.uk/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&hl=en&q=sarah%20bernhardt&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Ironically, there can be said to be big similarities between dudes like HG Wells and ricers, far more than there is between HG Wells and so-called "steampunkers"

Expand on this, please.

My balloon's got a blue fluorescent tube under the basket.

Well, it's about taking the ordinary that you have and using the cheap technological advancements of the time to turn it into something magical.
xp

I'll agree with that but I think that the steampunks, LARPers, PC case modders, cosplayers are all doing the same thing. Or possibly we could just say that having a hobby = making the mundane life a little more magical.

HG Wells and ricers were both using the cultural minutae of the time though, not their grandparents time.`

Grandparents time = any time between the war and the 1960s, surely this is the most ludicrously over-romanticised and over-revived period in mainstream culture?

And that's plebs and poshos alike there really.

DOM PASSANSOCRATIC METHOD!

Apart from that post-war consensus thing, that was alright.

1945-54 period is rarely revived

Grandparents time = any time between the war and the 1960s, surely this is the most ludicrously over-romanticised and over-revived period in mainstream culture?

-- Matt DC, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:03 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Har, those of you calling the steampunkers "young"! My grandparents time was actually the 20's and the '30's. My grandmother's favourite film was "Gold Diggers of 1933", which she saw when it came out!

What is not constructive about designing and building a victorian style computer case?

post of the year

you have low standards

Burning question: are flashmobbers racist?

Fascinating, I didn't know anyone actually used the term "ricers" outside of that Tokyo Drift movie.

any grown adult who's part of any subculture is highly suspect

I tend to judge whether or not people are "suspect" based on how they treat other people, their ethics, intellect, etc., not on what they're into -- let alone thinking they're suspect based on the fact that they're into something at all. Give me someone who's passionate about something, even if it's something that sucks, any day over some anhedonic fucker who sits in the corner sneering. That shit got old when we were eighteen.

-- Charlie Rose Nylund, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 6:54 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

You're creating a false dichotomy where only 2 categories exist for consideration: adults who are involved subcultures and the boring 'anhedonic' adults who sneer at them. What it fails to take into account is that there might be adults who are both well-adjusted enough not to belong to a geek subculture and that they can be fun (and not sneer at geeks obsessed with gluing brass tubes onto everything). You also assume anybody not into a subculture is not involved in it because they're "sneering" "anhedonic" types, which is a beyond false assumption.

i personally hate the funists... those who aren't bored troglodytes and are having fun doing things that aren't preordained by consumer society.

also, those called students.... who still have a chance a non-dull future in corporate cubicles sacrificing for the overall financial well-being of their family. they communicate via facebook and know how to text message better than type on a querty.

also... the gorgers... that subculture of younger people that can still eat crappy food all day and not get indigestion and whose metabolism is such that they won't need new pants after months of grease.

also... trust fund millionaires... assholes.

and "people with functioning air conditioning in their car because it was bought by their parents"... what a well-odored, insufferable bunch!

while i'm at it... how about "the fit"... who can play basketball for more than 15 minutes before collapsing. butthead youngsters.

ah yes... and lastly, the "unmarried"... having all that sex. on the prowl. nobody waiting for you to clean the bathroom. nobody throwing out your stuff "accidentally" or telling you that you can't smoke weed anymore because you're a father now and child services is hovering outside our windows dreaming of a reason to steal our children away and turning them into fit gorger students who are funists on the weekend guaranteed to toilet paper our yard which your spouse is waiting for you to mow with her super expensive sewing scissors so she has the excuse to let your neighbor fuck her up the butt like you never get to do.

yeah. up next, "people who walk on my lawn".

you don't give kids balls back when they fly over your garden fence do you?

fyi "people who walk on my lawn" = backyardigans.

fyi "people who walk on my lawn" = backyardigans.

-- msp, Tuesday, 10 June 2008 14:18 (6 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.geraldpeary.com/essays/jkl/lancaster_burt_swimmer.jpg

x-post ...kids are good workers in my pornographic yard gnome factory.

people who own lawns -- appropriating all that natural grass n turf for yuppie status -- really piss me off

plus my dad used to make me cut the grass when I was hungover & shit

are we seriously ignoring that suzy called dom "dumb peasantino"

She's pulled dumber shit than that in the past, but it's like getting a dog to stop licking its balls.

I forget where the "members of the underclasses are like that because they're less intelligent" rant she hit me with was

xxxpost

burt, by the same token you've got a false dichotomy of "geeks" vs. "well-adjusted" going there

but i think we can safely draw a distinction between the people who actually originate the subculture (eg. the stock-car engine-hacker ricer dude under the hood, the actual geeks who sew their own clothes and create their own artifacts preceding and outside of any particular exsiting subcultural community), and the people who buy idolize, imitate, and otherwise ape that culture -- without actually having any such skills.

they're all dorkwads to me. what's wrong with getting shitfaced at happy hour after work and then sleeping it off the rest of the day? huhh??

another way to look at it is that originators are con-artists and imitators are suckers.

Who are the originators conning? The imitators? Or the public at large?

sometimes I just think it has a lot to do with talented people just hustlin' and selling whatever they can; the 'trend' -- the fact that other people are buying what you're selling -- is itself a marketing technique

the fact IDEA that other people are buying what you're selling

never mind what's been selling, it's what you're buying

i'm just trying to illuminate the fact that the diversification of subcultures is really market driven -- and I know I'm not blowing anybody's mind when I say this -- but why try to deduce their nature and origins in abstract terms of influence or psychology when they're so strongly shaped by market forces?

http://saturn5.com/darwin/beef/images/48-peace_sells.jpg

steampunk would not exist -- or would not have grown nearly so much -- without websites like etsy

originators and imitators... that's the cynical take of culture at large, isn't it?

i for one welcome the overloards who are just having fun doing weird shit. they make life a lot more amusing. even if i wouldn't ever bother... example: assless chaps = GREAT!

etsy rules. diy ain't new, but viva la revvy-lotion.

"orginators vs. imitators" is admittedly a very reductionist take on it, i'll grant you, but i don't think it's cynical.

Where's Momus when you need him?

i mean, you can't have fun doing weird shit all the time unless you're making some money out of it

or else you're a trust-fund kid, who are categorically the most trend-prone suckers

i don't see the big deal about etsy but maybe i am just looking at the wrong crap. lots of $40 necklaces made out of paperclips and shit.

but if paperclip necklaces were attached to an "officepunk" subculture then the person selling could probably charge more than that

Results 1 - 10 of about 39 for officepunk.

;_;

A/R 4 Lyfe

but i think we can safely draw a distinction between the people who actually originate the subculture (eg. the stock-car engine-hacker ricer dude under the hood, the actual geeks who sew their own clothes and create their own artifacts preceding and outside of any particular exsiting subcultural community), and the people who buy idolize, imitate, and otherwise ape that culture -- without actually having any such skills.

I don't think you can make that distinction unless you believe in the intelligent design of sub-cultures.

Dunno if I should feed this one but re: the Steampunk thing, I know a couple of people into it and it's also very closely tied to the Cthulhu fetishism that's around these days-- and most of the stories I heard involved SMASHING the Victorian system not so much loving it. Like conspiracies where automatons fueled by evil were running London and shit like that. Like the theme I get from people is not "boy I miss having slaves and elitist culture" so much as "I appreciate this aesthetic more than clichéd-out Cyberpunk but it is basically the same thing." Then again by now the Steampunk thing would surely be cliché as well, but who knows. Anyway I suppose some people are just more intersted in a dystopian fantasy past thna a dystopian fantasy future.

i <3 the cthulhu fetishism even though it's getting a little out of hand. but i don't think it's so much a subculture as vaguely subcultural, like owls or deer antlers and other things that kind of intersect with accessibility as design motifs.

i really want these slippers tbh
http://www.mentalfloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/435_CthuluSlippers2.jpg

Cthulhu: the original PokEMOne

You're creating a false dichotomy where only 2 categories exist for consideration: adults who are involved subcultures and the boring 'anhedonic' adults who sneer at them.

You've missed the whole point of my post: if I had to choose between those two extremes (note the bold there!), I'd choose the first. Better a geek than a dick, basically.

What it fails to take into account is that there might be adults who are both well-adjusted enough not to belong to a geek subculture and that they can be fun (and not sneer at geeks obsessed with gluing brass tubes onto everything).

Earlier in the post I mentioned that I myself don't identify with any of these subcultures, so I'd like to think I'm one of those people -- though I'll readily admit there's plenty of shit I can't stand ("filk" comes to mind).

Also, who said anything about it having to be a "geek" subculture? Like I said above, in terms of its subculture-ness and the potential absurdity of its signifiers, I don't think hip-hop is significantly different from steampunk, really. Like I said, it's all just D&D and tribalism, really.

You also assume anybody not into a subculture is not involved in it because they're "sneering" "anhedonic" types, which is a beyond false assumption.

No, just that some of the dicks in this thread are. You yourself called them a bunch of "dorkwads", so I feel comfortable calling that a sneer; as for anhedonia, well, that's between you and your shrink.

I mean, basically, why should anyone give a fuck about what we think of their pastime/hobby/whatever, as long as it's harmless and gives them pleasure? The fact that it's a subculture is irrelevant, and if we're accusing people of being escapist and not dealing with real life, I think the people whose nights consist of getting shitfaced at the pub and/or watching six hours of TV are far more "suspect" than people who like to put brass tubing on laptops, or record shitty parody sci-fi acoustic guitar songs.

Seriously. Our delightfully overdeveloped cultures give us plenty of time to do dumb shit that doesn't help anyone. They make guitars out of Lego Technic and we spend hours discussing how they are racists.

haha!

We can still go after online Ron Paul fan clubs, right?

steampaul

Oh God don't give them ideas

cleveland pauler

I mean, basically, why should anyone give a fuck about what we think
I mean, basically, why should anyone give a fuck about what we think
I mean, basically, why should anyone give a fuck about what we think

Bruce Fletcher: That kind of backhanded humor really came out in the reading
[excerpts from The Difference Engine [8]] last night.

WG: Well, there's kind of two levels to that thing. Actually, the world we're
depicting there is infinitely grimmer than the world of Neuromancer, and it
needs that humor. I mean, when you get to the third section of the book, you
realize that they've invented the art of making people disappear. And they're
doing this with death squads (chuckles). There are death squads working in
London to take these Luddites out, or anyone who interferes with the system.
They just arrest you and take you to Highgate and hang you in the middle of
the night, and drop your body into a pit of quicklime, and that's it. One of
the viewpoint characters is this tortured British spook diplomat named
Laurence Oliphant--he was a real historical figure--he was Queen Victoria's
personal spook: "Oliphant of the Tokyo legation." He was a hero; he was in
this crazed samurai uprising, in Tokyo. Anyway, Oliphaunt's manservant was an
avid lepidopterist. In the middle of one night, these black-clothed barefoot
ninjas with samurai swords were sneaking toward Oliphant's bedroom and they
stepped on this fucker's pinned butterflies which he'd put into the tatami.

(laughter)

WG: That's true, that's a true story. Oliphant got his wrist slashed, and one
of the lines in the book, which is actually lifted from a recorded
conversation with Oliphaunt, is, "Strange how a Japanese"--and this scar is
right on his wrist, so when he shakes hands you can see it--"Strange how a
Japanese sword when you're concerned is quite adequate carte de visite."
(laughs)

TM: Oh Jesus Christ (laughs).

WG: In our book, Oliphant is the man who dreams up disappearing people; he
believes in the All-Seeing Eye. He just dreams it up to solve one terrible
problem that they have, and then it takes over. And so he's sort of tortured
by knowing he's the guy that discovered the principle of this, because he
knows it's wrong. It's gonna be a crazy book; I hope we can finish it. We've
got the whole plot together; it's really twisted.

Thanks a bunch, Bill!

steampunk artifacts: C

steampunk lifestyle: D

What even is their lifestyle besides wearing clothes and making/owning 'steampunk' type objects and maybe writing or drawing things along that theme?

Do they only cook on potbelly stoves? Do they go around in custom steam-engine paddleboats? To what churches do they belong? Kids: y/n? etc etc etc

What kind of music do they like?

Will they buy me a meal and/or drinks?

Cholera?

Oh my gosh if they're behind the anti-vaccination movement I will drive into them one large, fanciful human-sized drill, bedecked with brass flourishes and unneeded gears. Otherwise, I am still cool with them.

Maybe they force people to spoonfeed them clear broths on their canopy beds, so they can pretend they have the dropsy?

abbott somehow you are making this sound way too attractive

Manifest Destiny?

In the course of working here for 3-4 years, I was already many steam engines and ever operated a small steam-powered cider mill(usually whilst explaining the workings to the various punters who wandered thru the mill.

And hey, lookee that; you really can find everything on flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/7373925@N08/427235411/

http://flickr.com/photos/jusjulia/2526705274/

that should be "around", not "already"

Most people who like steampunk just think it looks cool, they're not racists.

Has anyone listened to these steampunk bands as recommended by Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abney_Park_%28band%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernian_Process

Hahah they are NOT on the anti-vaccination bandwagon as a whole; perhaps individual people are but not in any degree of correlation afaik. Although I love how this thread keeps on making shit up to hate thme for but really they're just nerds who like gears more than they like anime or ninjas or robots or some shit.

i have never ever seen anyone dressed even remotely steampunk btw
have we confirmed this exists outside lol britain

have we confirmed this exists outside lol britain

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/08PUNK.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

"they do it because they think it looks cool" is legitimate if shallow answer -- i'd like to know why they think it's cool, and what their definition of "cool" entails.

i mean, we're not talking about motorcycle rebels here -- we're talking about innocuous nerdy types with a taste for science fiction

have we confirmed this exists outside lol britain

-- sleep, Wednesday, 11 June 2008 15:27 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I thought it was an americaner thing, and the fact that we over here are only just discussing it now would be LOL backwards if yer from the st8s?

just annoyed that people so willingly accept the myth that subculture is a means of self-determined identity construction

obv next step is for britishers to invent a Oregon Trail-styled DIY-chopper bike culture

how about YOU invent that and move to Cardiff

BLAM

You read it here first, folks (xxp)

Peter Risdale RIP

No, the equivalent here is stoner hippy crusties 20 years older than you who are into the lore of what they call "red Indians" still (wince).

WWW.Wagons-east.co.uk

I mean people who are white who like dreamcatchers are tedious in the extreme but when they are British white people OMG barf x1000000.

wasn't victorian england pretty widely enthused about the mythology of the "wild west", tho?

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/06/theme-bikes-brilliance-rides-fixed-gear.html

http://fixedgeargallery.com/2008/june/1/SebastianGeorgallides-1.jpg
http://fixedgeargallery.com/2008/june/1/SebastianGeorgallides-3.jpg

oh nasty

Wait how are we defining "subculture" here? Because most people I know into Steampunk (in canada btw, not just england i guess) are NOT full-timers ie. walking around with a gold pocket-watch and monocle and gear-filled suitcase wirring fo no apparent reason. It's like a hobby, they dress up sometimes, drink tea and gin, draw a bunch of big steam robots. Kinda like LARPers or whatever. It's not full-time like being "punk" or whathaveyou. ITs a hobby.

xpost a lot of steampunk nerds love wild west steampunk shit too... like if the remake of wild wild west wasn't garbage they'd LOVE it

so most people who are into punk are full time punks? i don't buy that

their moms won't let them

do they do flash-mobs via telegraph?

Somebody ought to write a song. xp

like if the remake of wild wild west wasn't garbage they'd LOVE it

fuck these people then that movie is awesome

Wikki-wa

I saw a "punk" outside my house last night and thought about how the media idea of the punk subculture has changed from being authentic to inauthentic since the 1980s.

My parents were 18 when they saw the Ramones and the Dictators at CBGBs in 77. They're old now.

http://z.about.com/d/animatedtv/1/0/_/8/wildwildwest.jpg

wiki-wa

The more I read this thread, the more I am liking this "steampunk" idea. Or thinking these are people I would get along with, at least. So this thread totally fails.

I do like lots of the fiction, adult and YA, that comes from it. It's fertile ground for that still, altho maybe on the wane now.

Are Mythbusters Steampunk?

Whatever, I'm with ya Maria. My Trad. New England boatbuilder pals are steampunks, I think.
(Also, can you provide a link about the boat you're working on? I think I read about it somewhere; also, I want to read about it. Thanks!)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/66/5e/078c224128a0b2c2bacab010._AA240_.L.jpg

^ i like this book

I'm not working on a boat right now, just kind of hanging out with people who work on boats, so I'm not sure what you mean...? (Also, want to introduce me to some of your trad. New England boat builder steampunk pals?)

trad New England boatbuiling is, imho, a WAY cooler scene than steampunk bullshit

Anyway the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels started coming out in 1999, I just checked. Was that one of the seminal influences on steempunk? That was a while ago.

i mean, you make waterborne vehicles by hand, who can argue with that?

i want to make new england boat building pals as well pls

I think this fits the bill too:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F5Re-S5bL._SS500_.jpg

This thread is making me want to play the Bitmap Bros game Chaos Engine, the first time I heard of steampunk and still my main reference point for it until a month or two ago when someone linked me to a few pictures on boingboing/neatorama/wherever and then I saw Wired had "ten totally sweet steampunk gadget mods" or something on its cover and I thought "oh, this is a thing, huh?"

FWIW I am all for book-SF nerds and a good old friend (not in contact now but he wasn't one for affiliation with specific subcultures then) was the waistcoat, pocketwatch and tweed jacket type a decade ago, so if someone wants to combine both that's fine by me. Unless they're having more fun than me or being called cool by the opposite sex on the internet, in which case I hate them all terribly and why won't they be my friends.

Maria, I guess I mean the boat in the picture in the WDYLL thread.

Yes, get thee to Martha's Vineyard (although I don't live there anymore), and some awesome ilxors will introduce you to many trad. N.E. B.B.'s.

I think I just created a subculture!

Well yeah, Lloyd Alexander did some Victorian-y "made-up European Alpine country" novels with a plucky (orphaned?) Victorian heroine named Vesper back in the 80s, I think? So I guess any of the re-envisioning of Victorian England with historical alterations and hot air balloons is sort of a precursor.

My uncle is building a dingy and it looks a lot harder than ikea stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age 1995

the diamond age (i just re-read that) kinda has the Victorian technology thing backwards from steampunk, but i hear you

chaos engine otm

I'd forgotten about "The Diamond Age". I loved that book when I read it.

pash, it definitely has its flaws but it's really quite inventive, somewhat insightful, and definitely stands up to multiple readings

Are Mythbusters Steampunk?

I was kind of laughing about this recently when they built something that despite having no brass filigree or elaborate wooden boxes was actually powered by steam.

I like those guys. I'm jealous of what they do for a living.
(Have fun every day.)

Trad. N.E. B.B.'s don't always have fun every day, but they go sailing a lot. With rum. So it's similar.

http://ui29.gamespot.com/156/mythwalrus_2.jpg

I do love Jamie.

didn't that dude stick a spoon into his peehole?

no, he did not, burt

looked like him then

if it wasn't him,then who?

Maria, I guess I mean the boat in the picture in the WDYLL thread.

Oh, I was just visiting (though now I want to learn Swedish, go to grad school, and work there!), but it's the Vasa in Stockholm. Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

Yes, get thee to Martha's Vineyard (although I don't live there anymore), and some awesome ilxors will introduce you to many trad. N.E. B.B.'s.

I would love for that to happen! Have actually been worrying for the last week about the lack of boatbuilding in my life.

We should get back to the part where we discuss how to create, propogate, promote and ultimately invent a new, ridiculous subculture.

it is important that there are any people on facebook/myspace sporting our "fashion"

right obviously we need to work our subculture into the "general interests" box on as many social networking profiles as possible

eventually we can make a social networking site that caters exclusively to our subculture

i suggest a non-obvious spinoff of X-PUNK

like noun + some kind of fashionable synonym for punk

HEDGEFUNDPUNK

grimewave

gnostic lolita

ethnogoth

Cuntpunk.

coz-b boyz

http://myhero.com/images/guest/g11439/hero11949/g11439_u8836_cosby3.jpg

OMG "grimewave" so great and hooky! Except...too much overlap w "dirtbag"?

Cospunk could work. Like Kanye dressing up as a white guy, but for white guys.

TOO META

'grimewave' = nu-grunge/derelicte?

easily best name submission so far

i think its worth a swing + id be all over it

if it wasn't him,then who?

Maybe that S&M/body-mod guy who died of cystic fibrosis? (too lazy to Google it)

omg mentioning derelicte reminds me of a hilarious subculture that the "kids" are into-- freeganism. we could take ideas for grimewave from that but a step further-- making clothes out of shit found like discarded turkey bones and paper bags.

all music is made on found objects in this culture also

i kinda see grimewave as crustpunk + gabba + nu-rave

somewhere in there

Freeganism is sort of different because it's got a specific political subtext; I find it hard to be too down on kids who are trying to save a few bucks and do something, however small, about the colossal amount of waste we put out.

(Doesn't mean I want to eat something fished out of a dumpster, though.)

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,550 for grimewave.

well, shit

hey, i wasn't knocking them at all! before freeganism was a "thing" i wrote my OA english paper as a piece of fiction about three roommates who, i guess, would be called "freegans" now (except they took it to the next level by one fucking the landlord for free rent, one stealing food from the grocer he works at and one getting free media-everything by working for a broadband conglomerate).

the freegans are ok by me anyway.

memepunk

daang

but prob most of those refer to grime as in the music right?

i want grimewave

xp TOO META

oh wahtever, under 10k hits, we didn't have to say it FIRST all we had to do is say it LOUDEST. if in 12 months that is up to 100,000 then we have won. xp

mostof them appear to be parked domains, and cheeky wiley-related headlines anyway, nothing "CLAIMING" the word, as it were

oh wait http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grime_Wave

beddyboys

listen to sleepy ambient
wear slippers & footy pajamas

rocking out to my bedside white noise machine

regressive like ravers but with opiates instead of speedy club drugs

BEDPUNK

??? y/n?

cutty's stars of the lid pjs

the obvious "Bedrock" joke is what i want to make

yea but it's not v punk?

i just took beddyboy as a riff on teddyboy but it works i think ("beddybye")

"nap culture"

neither are steam engines dude

i think bedpunk has potential

instead of raves they have rêves!!!!!

massive warehouse sleep-overs

all the kids popping melatonin & ambien & chugging robitussin, huffing vick vap-o-rub

god damn it this is awesome

"GOODNIGHT MOON IS THE FUCKING JAM, BRO"

music of choice = ?

ambient techno amirite?

great call on the robitussin thing because it is a pretty relevant "drug" among youths today, or so the tv tells me, and yet there's no "culture" attached to it yet, like weed got or E got or whatnot

oh wow i would join that subculture

some sort of "ambient garage" will need to be invented, preferably by its proponents aka us

goodnight moon is the fucking jam tbh

"lullabye ambient"

I LOVE GOODNIGHT MOON.

The really hardcore followers will pursue a way to be permanently JUST on the verge of falling asleep without quite actually sleeping.

song material is full of lazily reconstructed dream imagery

possibly another part of this culture would involve carrying around a "sleepover knapsack" with a toothbrush, sleeping bag, and pillow in it so you can nap anywhere (because you're on a bunch of codeine and tussed up).

haha, another funny alternate name: napsters

lol

ok so whos gonna start this ball rolling & how

i srsly think this has potential

how about this: which ilxor has most FB friends divided by which ilxor has most ilx friends?

ilxor w/ most FB friends adds ilxor w/ most ilx friends & joins group; all ilxors who are friends w/ ilxor w/ most ilx friends join group

?

i think fake myspace profiles might be a good start

"snorecore"

!!!

dayum we are onto something here for sure

maybe first we should start an ILM thread to gather relevant music influences?

yeah! bedpunk/lullabye ambient/snorecore thread?

u wanna spark it or shall i?

Don't forget to bring a slanket.

have at it -- i, uh, actually have work to do for the next hour :\

http://www.theslanket.com/

omg slanket

slankets are our people

should i link ilm to this thread? i trust them.

make them make some "ambient garage," they have some musicans right?!

bedpunks don't wear slankets, that's some napster sellout shit

great call on the robitussin thing because it is a pretty relevant "drug" among youths today, or so the tv tells me, and yet there's no "culture" attached to it yet, like weed got or E got or whatnot

-- Will M., Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:42 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Nation of Ulysses was into cough syrup. Also pretending to be vampires.

did they have a sizeable, global (or at least continental) subculture around them though? because, like, i bet non-hippie bands were into weed before weed was a hippie thing, know what i mean?

lots of indie punks were into Robo back in the 90's

bedpunx drink robo for nostalgic reasons

yeah 90s is old enough to be retro now

like we could do 'slanket & enchanted' prom night

Well I guess I'm gonna have to choose sides here. Unfortunately, it's time for my nap.

Slanket Proposal
My boyfriend and I have been talking about getting Slankets for weeks, but hadn't yet bought them. I came home on Saturday, and he said he got us early Valentine's Day presents- Slankets! He had his on, and gave me mine. Turns out, he had had his mother sew pockets into mine, and inside the pocket was an engagement ring... He asked, and I said yes! Proposal via Slanket... what could be better?!
Jessica
Boston

haha no i mean beddyboys drink tussin because of its regressive childhood association

The scene band:

Sonambulous

when we register AIM names I want to be zZzBABYzBEARzZz

HAHAH YES the zZz is perfect!

lol

FAPS are going to be challenging.

lol

-- sleep, Wednesday, June 11, 2008

^^^ the original

im sayin
zZz just shows you're newschool, i was bedpunk before it was even a "thing"

i was nodding off to ambient back when you kids were still etc etc

lolzzzzZzzzzZzzzz

You guise this is so awesome.

and it was never all about the drugs back then, we could go to sleep totally sober and have a great time

lucid dreaming vs restful sleep scene-drama

yes yes but wait what about the peace and quiet we associate with restful sleep - I'm worried that the somnostalgia for the bygone days/colonial meme will render this one somehow not altogether inclusive...

colonial meme?

uh joeks, if the Britishes get hold of it there will be a boarding skool mutation.

oh... i didn't get it because i am from stupid canada, colonial to me means trading furs or something

trading slankets

bygone daze?

multiple-day music events could legitimately be called a snoozefests

a

warm milk, night-lights, and sleep masks

finally, a scene that justifies the "Bedhead" hairstyle

FAP - fancy a pillow.

I remember Select magazine trying to push the "Disco Mod" scene back in the late 90s. Something to do with disco-house and uh... mods.

Google just brings up some stuff about Land Rover modifications, anyone know what the fuck I'm talking about?

Nope. Sorry. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

I would go for a dark brown one reminiscent of a monk robe and I would refer to myself and friends as Couchies. I would get a huge matching popcorn bucket. I'd get a kneelength one for going out and about and then I'd wear fashionable fuzzy slippers. I'd listen to a band called the Sleepy Seeds and would play only lullabyes on my radio show (which I'd host remotely from the couch).

There is actually a last.fm group my bf is in called "People who listen to music while they're sleeping, especially at times when they shouldn't be asleep but are too tired to stay awake".

And he's a big fan of falling asleep at sit-down ambient gigs...

"People who listen to music while they're sleeping, especially at times when they shouldn't be asleep but are too tired to stay awake".

story of my life

I just took a sceney-as-fuck photo of myself wearing pyjamas and a backpack. image coming soon. this subcult is starting for real. i talked to a bunch of people and was like "it's like a rave only everyone brings a pillow and sleeping bag and we listen to sony dream machine white noise" and they were like "i will being 100 people and i know someone with a arehouse."

ILX. This subculture is going to take off and we are to blame. NEVER SHOW PEOPLE THIS THREAD until it's already fallen apart and been sold at hot topic so we can prove that we actually are the illuminati.

DJ Olive

No slanket - no credibility.

But I will try to NEVER SHOW PEOPLE THIS THREAD. it might be difficult...I am often asked to show threads to people...

can we have an opposum or some sleepy animal as our group daemon?

I want to come to your arehouse.

There will be a story on CNN about a cult raid - all those people sleeping together.

I will start the Melbourne chapter, I'll buy some beanbags and we will sell hot chocolate drinx and valerian tablets.

Guys - we just got three enormous foam memory beanbags for our den that fit 2-3 people each. They're amazing. I think the group needs them.

That's the start, the first 9. The Slanket 9.

memory foam beanbags! Thats the best thing I ever heard of.

So "bean" is metaphorical here?

enbb are they expanded polystyrene foam or 'styro'foam?

They're so great. Instead of a couch for the den we got three of these and now have the most amazign tv/game/music room ever:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c287/expatrica/bags.jpg

looks like expandend polystyrene foam to me.

So "bean" is metaphorical here?

Yep!

Um DN - I don't know what kind of foam exactly but I imagine the first? They're made out of the same thing that memory foam mattresses are, I think.

that memory foam would remember my butt a little too much

now for the love of god someone please photoshop someone in a slanket on a memory foam beanbag

lol! You just roll them and kind of fluff them a bit and they go back to the original shape.

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/26/022_002-5F~Goodnight-Moon-Posters.jpg

^^ need this on a tshirt pronto

Re: ENBB's memory foam bean bag chairs.
Roll them up?
That's assuming you could get OUT of them. In a slanket. Or just generally.

Awesome for giving up and sleeping types like myself.

Yes! I am an avid napper and have napped more than ever since these babies arrived. Also they come compressed and you cut them out of the packaging and then watch them expand over 24-48 hour period which is pretty neat.

I like EA's shirt idea.

i think this scene can work because shit, who hates on sleep?

has there ever been a yoof movement to dress like asian trading floor brokers

because I just watched Rogue Trader and I have come to two conclusions

1. the brits are kind of on to something with their consistent addiction to poker-faced voiceovers by the protagonist. I think all of the star wars prequels would've been much better this way in fact

2. those barings jackets are goddamn priceless

They called the memory foam "Praxis"? That's as bad as calling a bottled water "Moland." A1: It is a crisp and brittle-sounding word, and it's fucking FOAM. B2: The first associatons I get in my mind are "ancient Greek," "lol college," and "Bill Laswell," none of which are a thing I'd want to get all snuggly with.

lol gettin snuggly with bill laswell
A+ compilation title

somebody make that muxtape