"Steampunk has jumped."

[randy_byers]

This stuff makes me feel really old. "Jumped the shark" has apparently already been shortened to "jumped." And: "Yeah, buying steampunk stuff seems kinda like buying ripped jeans with anti-corporate patches." Meanwhile, there are 80 members of nw_steampunk, and I know none of them. All these young people are moving around so quickly that they are practically invisible to me. Like that Star Trek episode. Old Trek, you know. Steam Trek.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

"Bomb" is an adjective?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I missed that one. Maybe it's a shortening of "the bomb"?

The language is melting! Steampunk has jumped bomb!

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Get with it. Get over it. Or. Die.

Older than you by a decade and you can't ever catch up. BTW, 30 years ago (almost) at a Moscon we were having a beer in the con hotel/motel bar and you told me that I had just bought you your first legal drink. Blew me away. A few years later the first steampunk book to get national attention would be published.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Wow, I had forgotten completely about that! Idaho still had a drinking age of 18 back then, and I was still 19 (just barely). Yes, it'll be 30 years next year. Thanks for the memory!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Oops, actually it'll be 30 years in 2010. Time isn't *that* fleeting!

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it was in 1980. That is about 30 years give or take 5% :~). When I saw you yesterday drinking beer, a better beer than I bought you in Idaho -- since they didn't have craft beer as I remember, you looked like you are doing well. That is really what it is about. Happy Birthday, soon.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yep, 1980. I still have the badge from that convention. It's the one where I met Sharee, too.

Redhook was founded in 1981, so it was definitely before the craft brewing revolution. (Although Sierra Nevada Brewing was founded in 1980, so it was getting started.)

[wrdnrd]

A standard text message only allows for 160 characters, and a Twitter update only allows 140. Taking out " the shark" frees up 10 characters. That's precious space, man!!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Likewise, taking the "the " out of "the bomb" saves four characters. I'd say you're onto something. [Trufen joke:] Pretty soon everybody will be spelling like Art Widner.

[wrdnrd]

Awww, i fail at fen -- i don't get that one. :( True, shameful story of me upon arriving at SFF-Net. I saw this crazy kid dropping apostrophes out of posts right and left. Drove me insane. Couldn't wait for them to get past their pretension 15-year-old stage. It was Damon Knight. [facepalm]

Interestingly, in the past few weeks i'd been thinking that i was actually getting a little tired of Steampunk (something set in a fantasy-ish 1920s/1930s era would be quite interesting). I'm cutting edge! Accidentally, as always.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Art just turned 91 and has been doing this fanning thing pretty much since the beginning of fandom, although he gafiated for a few decades to raise his family. His fanzine is called YHOS. He often writes in a severely condensed form with many "rationalized" spellings and abbreviations. It drives a lot of people crazy, but perhaps someday will be known as the forerunner of twitterspeak. Unfortunately I can't find any examples online right at the moment.

Great story about Damon Knight, tho! I remember when he tried to interact on rec.arts.sf.written (or maybe it was .fandom) and was chased off by people who didn't know who he was and didn't like his stubborn style and attitude. Knight and Widner were the founders (to their eternal shame) of the N3F in 1941.

The whole Steampunk explosion has happened off-stage from my vantage in the theater, so I can't say I'm tired of it. Perhaps that's an advantage of being So. Out. Of. It. Everything is always new to me!

[alces2.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking about going to the California Steam Punk Convention. Although I'm more interested in devices than clothes. Lots of clothes vendors. I'm curious about the music though. I bet the amplifiers aren't steam-powered.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hm, yes, the calliope as synthesizer.