1: At the Circus

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A Knight of the Realm pauses a moment to talk with a friend, CC, 2010.

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Yesterday and Today Himself: Saturday: He did a yeoman’s job pushing me all day. He’s my hero, but he says next year it’s a power chair. Sunday: Up late, played with photos, ate two meals plus snacks and off to a meeting. Herself: Friday afternoon we rented a chair from Howards Mobility for the whole of Saturday, I had a ball for the first time in years thanks to the Geezer, and next year we will do a power chair. Not only did Reese’s Pieces slow me down later in the day, but I carried with me a growing sense of guilt…of inadequacy, of sadness that I couldn’t do the circus without a chair. Sunday: Ditto G. But on the plus side, I got 6 Gig of images and some of them weren’t bad at all. Gratitude: The Geezer.

It’s a lot like Disneyland. The colors, drama, confusions, crowds, and most importantly, the thought processes behind it all. We were on the second trolley in to the convention center, and the halls were still quiet at that early hour. Only the automated messages echoed through the downstairs Exhibitor hall and a few voices to be heard upstairs at the early Panels. The peace didn’t last long.



At first I just documented what we did in my images. Trolley, getting the badge, into the empty hall sort of thing. Soon the throngs pushed by us, and my focus became moving forward as much as I could by myself without ramming the folks in front of me.





Soon I became more adept at shooting costumes while moving, and later I turned my focus to the Steampunk Movement while trying to catch as many of the varied beautiful and detailed costumes as I could while attempting to catch some of the dramatic shapes.



Wikipedia says about the Steampunk Movement that, “Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.”






I need to do more research on the Trauma costumes…the blood and doctors and gore, but the little girls in princess or toy costumes were pretty self explanatory. Sex sold well too. We enjoyed two of the panels, the yearly battles of the Knights in the Society for Creative Anacronism, and delighted in the acres of marketing on the main floor.

“We have to go in costume next year,” G says.

I replied, “Steampunk for me.”

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More Wednesday:

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Steampunk Links: Just some of the millions of online links to be found.

Steampunk Wikipedia

San
Diego Steampunk.org

Steampunk.org

Steamppunk Home at Blogspot

Steam Fashion at Live Journal

Bradley’s Military Surplus