((Steampunk's in the New York Times. So the "death of steampunk"
must be near. Hey wait, can the postmodern appropriation of something already "dead" actually *die*? That's like asking if people are gonna get impatient with the 10,000 year perspective of Long Now Foundation.)))
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/08/style/08punk.ph
Link: Steampunk moves between 2 worlds - International Herald Tribune.
(...)
"The lead singer of a neovaudevillian performance troupe called the James Gang, James has assembled his universe from oddly assorted props and castoffs: a gramophone with a crank and velvet turntable, an old wooden icebox and a wardrobe rack made from brass pipes that were ballet bars in a previous incarnation.
"Yes, he owns a flat-screen television, but he has modified it with a burlap frame. He uses an iPhone, but it is encased in burnished brass. Even his clothing — an unlikely fusion of current and neo-Edwardian pieces (polo shirt, gentleman's waistcoat, paisley bow tie), not unlike those he plans to sell this summer at his own New York haberdashery — is an expression of his keenly romantic worldview.
"It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines. First appearing in the late 1980s and early '90s, steampunk has picked up momentum in recent months, making a transition from what used to be mainly a literary taste to a Web-propagated way of life. (((Like there's still a big difference.)))
"To some, "steampunk" is a catchall term, a concept in search of a visual identity. "To me, it's essentially the intersection of technology and romance," said Jake von Slatt, a designer in Boston and the proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), where he exhibits such curiosities as a computer furnished with a brass-frame monitor and vintage typewriter keys...."
