Word-watching:
I saw the word "steampunk" twice in the past couple days. I never heard it before that. First, I saw it on Vagabond Opera's website. This great Portland band is looking for a female singer: "Be willing to dress up in cabaret/vintage/steampunk costumes."
In Eugene Weekly's annual "Best Of" guide, the "Best Crafter" of 2008, Mitra Chester, says that lately she's making "steampunk-themed stuff, including aviator hats made from recycled sweaters and leather jackets, rings made out of watch parts and aviator goggles made from old plumbing pieces." (EW is my town's free entertainment weekly, and "Best Of" is decided by city-wide balloting. Mitra also owns "Deluxe," which won in the "Best Boutique/Clothing" category. It says something about Eugene that Deluxe Boutique—which carries mostly second-hand clothes—won. This city even recycles when it comes to fashion.)
Steampunk. It must be a play off "steamer trunks," used to cross the seas 100 years ago.
When I look around a Eugene bar in the up-and-coming Whiteaker neighborhood, I'm struck by how many people are drawing fashion inspiration not from just one past decade, but from many. Since early high-school (1990 or so), when I started noticing how people dress, hippie-wear, jeans, flower power and bell-bottoms have all been around, adding dimension to more mainstream and preppy looks. But these days many people draw inspiration from further back. Vintage, cabaret, lace, garters and art-deco represent the late 1800's into the 1940's. Short Jackie O-style jackets with over-size buttons are worn by women, and purposefully nerdy black glasses by men, representing the 50's. (It seems in mainstream culture, the 80's are hot, with American Apparel leading the charge back to spandex and "Flashdance" style legwarmers and dance clothes. But at the Whiteaker bar Sam Bond's Garage, most people are not conforming to the mainstream look.) Around Burning Man time and on cold winter nights, creative types are reaching way back in time and across cultures. The caveman/tribal look is hot: fur collars, fur boots, brown suede and leather. (Photo: Steampunk on Stilts at Oregon Country Fair, 2008. Photo by me, SZ.)
On TV last night I came across Road Warrior, the second "Mad Max" movie with Mel Gibson. This 1981 movie looks just like images from Burning Man, 2008. (Not that I've been yet, but many friends have.) I'm curious how movies and books—especially sci-fi books--shape our aesthetics and society in general. Artistic prophecies of the far future are often self-fulfilling. The multi-cultural world of Star Trek was a great example.
Did you know the musical "Rent" drew largely on themes from 1896's "La Bohème"? Two nights ago I went to a nearby high school's production of Rent. There's a high school version that's tamer than the movie and Broadway musical. Of the three couples in love, one is a gay male couple, one couple is lesbian, and only one is heterosexual. The majority of Californians just passed Proposition 8, banning gay marriage. But there is no doubt that just as the generation who watched Star Trek and the Cosby Show helped elect Barack Obama, future generations are going to accept gay marriage. It is inevitable that people who watch compassionate depictions of gay people in Rent, Angels in America, the Laramie Project, and so on are going to turn the tide against discrimination. It's no wonder it's sometimes called the "Culture Wars." Art matters. Art changes the world.
Of course artists needs brave truth-tellers like Martin Luther King and yes, I'll even pay her a huge compliment by putting her in the same sentence as MLK, Ellen DeGeneres to inspire us. (Madonna and Britney Spears can have a separate sentence next to the previous one!)
Activism, Art: Change.
Hallelujah!
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