Sweet, sweet Steampunk, Roar!

After talking with a wonderful friend who brought up liking a movie "Mutant Chronicles", about how she liked the styles and looks of the movie, I realized she was referring to steampunk. I encouraged her to look at costumes/styles- now and then you'd see someone wear a bit of steampunk, but people might misunderstand it for goth, Victorian or post-modern (40's). So, hey...I'll find steampunk movies so you can get an idea (and collect 'em if you want!). :)
Oh...before I go on....WHAT is

steampunk???



To put it short and simple, it means retro-futuristic class of fiction/fantasy/sci-fic all mixed together, with bizarre inventions and anachronistic technology.
For example, a robot in steampunk theme would look like this:

http://gadgetsin.com/steampunk-robot-dog-with-an-old-camera-eye.htm








Steampunk movies

Golden Compass
Hellboy
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Prestige
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The City Of Lost Children
Wild Wild West
Rocketeer
Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow
9
Tin Man (Syfy)
Alice (Syfy)
Metropolis
Van Helsing
Mutant Chronicles
Sherlock Holmes
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
Sanctuary
20,000 leagues under the sea
Around the world in 80 days
From Hell
Jonah Hex
The Brothers Grimm
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Sleepy Hollow
The Time Machine
The Illusionist
Mirror Mask
Young Einstein
Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events
Vidocq
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Perfect Creature
Time After Time

Now I'm not going to add year of publication. I will put in sources, so if you're curious about those movies, you can look 'em up yourself. :) I only gave the list that I'm familiar with...there's more steampunk movies out there that I hadn't seen, thro I intend to!



http://www.squidoo.com/steampunk-movies#module12743205

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13126.0

http://etheremporium.pbworks.com/w/page/10454249/Steampunk%20Essentials

http://www.ranker.com/list/steampunk-movies-and-films/reference?page=2&format=GRID&sortby=&sortdir=

Steampunk lady: http://www.robotvsbadger.com/images/steampunk-girls-2-fashion-photography/

Ah, Midsummer Night's Dream....Jules' spirit enmeshed.

That Shakespeare play has always been my favorite of all his plays....

Bottom: "Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will
do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,
that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
let him roar again.'



Fairy: Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

Helena: Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well: perforce I must confess
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O, that a lady, of one man refused.
Should of another therefore be abused!




Puck: I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

Titania: My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.






Theseus: More strange than true: I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!



Pyramus: "O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!


and my favorite quotes from the play itself...



Puck: If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.






Bless his heart, that Shakespeare had seen into the Otherworld and attempted to show us the world...and methinks..he did it well. Bravo, the poet of comedy and love, the writer of drama and sorrow, the sorcerer of grace and magick, Shakespeare!

Samhain

In two days, I will be able to celebrate Samhain, which in Celtic holidays, is a new year for us pagans. It is the most important holiday. That is when the gates between the world and the otherworld is weaker, and so we will have spirits, fey creatures and sprites coming out. This is when we put out dishes of food to respect the ancestors, to remember who had died and to find joy in honoring who we loved and will always love, hence trick-or-tricking originated from this practice.
"The pagan Samhain is not, and never was, associated with evil or negativity. It has always been a time to reaffirm our belief in the oneness of all spirits, and in our firm resolution that physical death is not the final act of existence. Though death is very much a part of Samhain's symbolism, this Sabbat also celebrates the triumph of life over death."
Jack o' lanterns came from when the ancient celts carved out turnips and so and put in lights, to put in 'new lights' to celebrate a new year and to keep 'evil' away.
Around this time, there would be pagans cooking wondrous feasts of pork, squashes, apples, pumpkins, nuts, all that of the late harvest.
Actually, Halloween is an American holiday developed around the time of Irish immigrants coming to the United States, fleeing the potato famine (the first wave in 1847.)
For people who are not sure or have misunderstanding about Halloween or Samhain:
FACTS:
1. There is no such as "Lord Samhain." That is from a movie. (gotta love Hollywood...not)
2. Male witches are called witches, not warlocks. Warlocks are traitors, betrayers, outcast out of covens.
3. Pagans do not kill black cats (or in other colors) or children. Heck, we have a lot of animals that we rescue or help raise to release back into wildlife.
4. We do not worship Satan; which is a Christian belief. For us to believe in that, we would have to be Christians. Think on that. We do love satin sheets, thro!
5. Whatever one may think of the movie, "Craft", nothing out of it is true except for that what one may cause, will experience it threefold back, according to the Wiccan way. (In other words, don't do evil or you'll have evil bite your ass off.) If one want to get hair color changed, get a hair dye. Different eye colors, get lenses.
6. Even thro that the Catholic Church tried to repress this Celtic holiday, it wasn't successful. They 'renamed' it Eve of All-Saints Day, to make the 'heathens' happy. It is one of the holiest days for Catholic Christians. 'Day of the Dead" as in Mexico is another example.

I hope you enjoyed learning something today. I am off to drum and drink some honey
mead!

(Artwork by Charles Vess)

Silent Rituals

I learned of silent rituals while attending Emunimon(please correct me, I am suspecting I’m misspelling it) a Maryland Pagan expo/workshops in 1998 or 1999. It was nice enough of the expo to provide ASL interpreters when I asked! I looked through the schedule of workshops and I thought ‘Silent Ritual’ sounded intriguing. I attended the workshop and I immediately knew it was ideal for deaf pagans! This activity includes mime, gesturing, facial expressions and body language. It can be used anywhere, from the private home to public hotels and no one would be the wiser! The ritual does not require any tools but your own imagination.

How does it work? Pagans would know the opening ritual in which one set up a circle. Now, do it without ANY tools. Visualize the tools in your hands, imagine they are in your hands or at your feet. You can visualize the circle developing as you draw it. Elements can be ‘shaped’ with your imagination as you call upon them. I use the sign “Fire” in a musical style for the element fire; gesture crumbles of dirt breaking down and falling from my hands referring to Earth; move as if the wind was dancing with me for Air and visual Water as waves blowing upon me, all as like I am writing a poem in motion. That’s the intention of silent ritual. I know how often pagans could run forth and back trying to find specific candles, certain cauldrons, right herbs, etc for rituals they may have in mind. It can be an headache, especially if you do not have tools right now or that you’re at a place that you feel you couldn’t practice your religion in public. Gods know there are people that get frightened seeing a dagger next to a cauldron and wonder, ‘what is all this for??!” The ritual reduces the potential over-reaction of anyone who may come upon the activity. Don't have to collect this candle, this bowl, that knife, that jewelry...it's just all the body and imagination that is needed for the silent ritual.

I would love to do a video to give examples what silent rituals could look like but I don’t’ know anyone who has a camcorder. Sorry!

Magic, that's your name.

"Each of us, no matter how cynical or jaded has, at one time or another, had an encounter with magic. I am not talking about when they saw a lady in half or pull a rabbit out of a hat or make a silver pocketwatch disappear. When, after the loss of a lover or partner or friend, the seemingly unstopping pain suddenly fades, that is magic. When, the tenacious roar of a tenor saxophone works its way up from below ground by way of a sidewalk grating and your foot starts tapping, that is magic. When a young woman, for no apparent reason, turns on the street and smiles right at you, that's not only magic, that's as good a reason as any to get out of the bed in the morning. And while it's true that there's no trick to sawing a lady in half-- if all you want to do is saw a lady in half-- we can not only encounter magic, we can be part of it. Each of us has that choice. We can ignore the pain and splendor and suffering and joy of the world around us, OR we can dive right in, getting both shoes muddy and help." That saying was in "Witching Hour" a DC graphic novel. When I saw the saying, I immediately knew the author understood that's the true nature of magic. It is neither wrinkling your nose, nor to float with some friends' fingers under your body, nor waving a wand to conjure something up. It just is. No more, no less.

Snow on the trees.

When I see the trees covered by snow, I get to think, "now that's magic." When people think of magic, they think rabbits out of hats, ribbons out of air, a woman changing into a tiger. Now that's not magic. That is illusion. You'll see that in Las Vegas, Disneyworld, and dusty bars at the corners. Magic is a baby laugh with you, a dog licking you on the cheek, an elderly couple dancing the waltz, trees blooming for the first time, the heartbeat of the world beneath your feet, the breath of the breeze through the oaks, and the moonlight dancing on the leaves. I was exposed to that when I was a teenager. I was this close (first fingerand thumb showing almost no space betwen them) before giving up on life. Everything had been hard on me; verbal, physical, emotional abuse, neglect, you name it, I experienced. I was the invisible one in the family unless they got in the mood to lash out on someone, or if I dared to get in trouble, even if it was a 'C' in grade, or talking back to an teacher. One day, I went to a store to read comic books, to get away from the world, and a cover jumped out. It showed a group of elves suffering, crossing the desert, desperation and resignation on their faces, yet the leader carrying a wounded elf in his arms, had determination on his face despite exhaustion. I felt something stirring in my stomach. I opened that comic book, and more pages I turned, more I felt that spark growing from an ember to a fire. In two weeks, I got Elfquest book two and book three, and let me tell you.. the elves suffered, they fought for their right to exist in the world, they embraced what life threw at them, and to "make lemonade of what they got," and the lemonade was good. I learned that I can choose my battles, that I have the right to live, and that I need to stand up for myself. I started to pick battles with the family, and in the end, a parent and I went to the hospital for severe injuries. But that fight showed them that I wouldnt' take crap from them anymore, and they left me alone. I started to bloom. I learned to laugh. I started to develop an identity, and I will tell you one thing- I started to see magic in everything. Nature is beautiful, and people can be beautiful, as long as they do not have intentions to harm. It's a miracle for a woman to grow pregnant, and for a man to build a treehouse in the oak tree. Magic between friends while they talk over coffee. Magic when a person hold out a hand for help and for someone else to take that hand to give help without asking for a price. From my experiences, I learned that hardship might be necessary to make you resilient, but it is not necessary to be hard or cruel. Magic is when you choose to discard your upbringing and stop the cycle of violence, by starting to help people to cut their own cycles of violence and starting with yourself.

Dream of Magic

I have found this writing I had done in 1993, and I feel that it is still true..
"Have you ever felt thousands of sensations tearing through you like ice, images running through shards of your mind, and thoughts skipping like a rock skipping on a lake, upon your spirit? I feel as if I am not here. What folks understand of the world they reside in, I feel as a stranger. I can see strongly within powerful music swirling in the air, leaves ripping with the breeze, and children running through the stream. I could sense the determination, the bloodlust, anger, spirit battle, the self survival first, yet there is the other dish offered, of submission,security, conqured of the body and soul. I find both dishes tempting, yet I know that I can only take one dish. Ironic enough, I'm not hungry for either... It's harder to stay netural, when falling for either side is more easier; I know someday I will have to make a choice.
I never had felt a connection to the world; it is like an awareness that I don't belong here. Even at college ten years ago, I felt like a disguised alien among humans, perhaps a changeling left behind by faeries. I always have found myself attracted to myth of faery, especially the era of Tuatha de Dannans. They had suffered under Firbolgs, but in the end, they won the country of Ireland. Humans had conquered the country after Tuatha de Dannans, and the question is.. where are the Sidhe? I like to think that they are still around, but not for us to see them. They keep themselves aloof, to stay in their boundaries of what they understand and let us fall over our own feet, making mistakes that harm the world. It is much as seeing an line of ants, and know they are working together, in their own world, yet when a human foot steps on some of them, it's much a bomb hitting some of them. They continue despite that.. that's the Sidhe as well. They are in their own world, and do not flick an eyelash if a human intervene himself into their world either accidently or intentionally. Back to what I have felt, I have always felt a part of me have been missing for years, and it is already gone, claimed by the magic out there. I would do anything to return to what I belong, of where I feel comfortable in. This reality has no room for the likes of me. You know, there is a good friend, Curtis, who had greatly puzzled me. He seemed to know of what I go through, yet he is of the reality and in his own reality that does not make sense in the flow of life that Earth offers. He is not egoistic, but he does seem to think that the world goes around him, and that if something happens, he feels comfortable seeing it as an influence on him, even if it's a thousand miles away or five feet away. He would fantasize "what if's", yet he never attempted to accept the reality as it is. That's interesting because I'm more comfortable in the reality, yet feeling alienated from it, compared to him; he changes the reality to his own conformation, and intepreted any unwanted situation or chaos, either unexpected or expected, as an attack upon him alone. Makes you wonder who is more sane here.
Of the reality, I can see layers (dimensions) of different "realities" out there; I call them the Unspoken lands- you would never see anyone talking about them, but would have the courage to demonstrate in books, graphic novels, or music, but to accept their presence, never. Most see it as just a dream, either pleasant or horrible, to wake up from. It can be either good or evil, or even both at same time. It is the dark forest, the sunshine peering through leaves of the tall trees above, trying to expose the dark bushes that you can see the steady and deep eyes looking out at you from the security of the bushes. The whispers on the wind, taunting of dangers of secrets, it is where I feel more at home despite the fact is that it is on the edge of darkness, the danger itself. I always could see the antlered man, the dark deeper than shadows eyes, the naked faeries, the gentle redhead woman with answers in her eyes if you have the courage to ask. They would welcome me into their dimension, but I, for reasons unknown to me, cannot. There is something on Earth, that is holding me, chaining me, denying me freedom to choose. All I can do at this time, is to hold my aching heart and making a promise that I will come one day. One day I will stop dying, and that's when I will enter the darkness of the forest."