apple_pathways | Hippies, Hipsters, and Steampunk! OMG!

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Hippies, Hipsters, and Steampunk! OMG!

I have created a game! ~~Ish...~~ Take a series of identities/cultural identifiers/nonsense phrases, and list the ways in which you might fall under that category of personage. Sounds like fun, right? (This is the part where you play along...) It's also a good way to get to know each other! Let's play, shall we?

Five Ways In Which I Am:

a Hippie:

I have an organic garden.
I compost.
I make my own laundry detergent.
I have long hair.
I make people uncomfortable at parties when they confess to shopping at Wal-Mart.

a Hipster:

I have black, acrylic-framed glasses.
I own more than one plaid shirt.
My music ~~snobbery~~ interests.
I listen to NPR.
I shop at farmers' markets.

a Yuppie Suburbanite:

I have a Starbucks gold card.
I tell people I'm from Detroit, even though I live in the 'burbs.
I wear yoga pants out of the house for non-yoga purposes.
I spend way too much time bitching about a lack of parking.
I consider the soup and salad lunch combo at Olive Garden to be a 'good deal'.

a Goth:

I own more than three types of black eyeliner.
I like Joy Division.
I was once officially 'initiated' at a Goth club in Detroit by a dude who claimed to be a vampire. (He bit my neck. It was adorable. True story!)
I have an odd fascination with death, and I love cemeteries.
I ♥ Gothic literature. (I took a class in college, though I don't know if that fact makes me more or less Goth...)

I wanted to do 'Nerd', but this entire journal could very easily be considered evidence for how I fit into that category! So let me turn the tables and give you:

Five Ways In Which I Am Not A Nerd:

I'm not into video games.
Never got into Star Trek.
I enjoy talking to strangers at parties.
Also: I will dance. Even if no one else is dancing and the music is really lame. I am going to bust a move.
I have never in my life said: "OMG, you should see X Movie, it's got awesome special effects!" Fuck special effects. AND High-Def. I am more than happy with regular-def.

Now's the part where you play along at home: either in the comments or on your journal, pick a label! Pick one of the ones I used, or make up one of your own. Give me five reasons why you are or are not like that label. The challenge comes when you pick one that doesn't really fit: I am by no means a Goth, but with some creative thinking, I was able to come up with five ways in which I could be.

Basically: help distract me from the fact I'm dying AGAIN! (I know, right: inconvenient!) My throat hurts, my chest feels heavy, and my shoulders and neck are achy. So play with me, please, and we shall make merry! (Also: what are some good labels you might suggest for anyone who wants to play?)

ETA: It's all roh_wyn's fault, but I have signed up for femgenficathon. It does what it says on the tin: gen stories about women from any fandom! (History RPF, too.) YOU SHOULD ALL GO SIGN UP! Let me know if you do. :P

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I couldn't do hipster, because I don't really know what one is.

I'm going to have a think, though. How about, I'm not a cheerleader but ... Is that unlike me enough?

Ah, the archetypal cheerleader! I'm sure you could come up with five...you've just got to be creative! Think about the essence of a cheerleader!

...or something. :P

Five ways in which I'm a cheerleader:

- I have three different coloured lip-glosses in my hand-bag.
- I would probably go down on the captain of the football team. For def, actually.

OK, I could only come up with two. I'll have to think of another one.

Well, you seem to have covered all of the important qualities. ;) If I could back in time to high school, I'd definitely get laid more. So good call! :P

Hmm... I'm going to need to come up with some types you didn't use. Also, I think the strikes against me in the "hipster" category number way more than five, but if I do a list of ways I'm not a hipster, I'm just in denial. (-;

I would like to see you do Steampunk. Mostly because I would like to know what the hell it means! (I mean, I know the Wikipedia definition and all, but people seem to use it in odd and creative ways...)

Hmm... let's see. This is mostly steampunk as design element, rather than steampunk as lifestyle or literary genre.

1) Almost all of the jewelry I have features clock hands or cogs
2) I own goggles and suspenders, and have worn them together; I also stole my date's tophat at prom (which I made him wear as a condition of him taking me) and wore it all night
3) I have a list of buildings in Chicago that I think would make excellent zeppelin docks (I also know which one has a zeppelin dock)
4) I love the way metal/plastic minimalist design looks when juxtaposed with wood, and most of my ideal apartment designs involve this (these are getting kind of tenuous)
5) I'm not sure what to put for this one, but whatever it is would probably reference how The Great Machine is my hero.

You rose to the challenge mightily! (And came much closer to the definition that I would have.)

And now: which building in Chicago has a Zeppelin dock? I'm pretty sure you're required to tell me under the Mutual Exchange of Information clause of the Detroit/Chicago Zombie!pocalypse Mutual Defense Act...

You're only allowed to know this on the condition that you come rescue us in dirigibles: it's the gold dome on the InterContinental Hotel.

It's important to keep all your options. I may not have access to an airship at the moment, but believe me: I will be on the lookout for one! (Especially now that I know I can dock it atop that gorgeous hotel! I stayed at an InterContinental in New Orleans, but it wasn't that pretty!)

1. I own three pair of altered goggles to be steampunk... green, brass, and silver plated and could wear a different steampunk outfit for every day of the week.

2. I fill one whole shelf on my bookshelf with actual novels that have the genre label steampunk... one is actually signed by the author.

3. My Halloween costume for this year was actually advertised as steampunk mad scientist and I wore it to go trick-or-treating with my son.

4. My car has a bumper sticker that says my other vehicle is an airship.

5. I have customized jewelry to be specifically steampunk.

Edited 2011-06-01 03:01 (UTC)

I knew you'd come through for me, my Steampunk Goddess! (p.s. - I seem to understand steampunk accessories, but is there a steampunk 'attitude'?)

I have discovered the website Regretsy, where a woman posts and comments on ridiculous items she finds up for sale on Etsy. She has a tag for "Not Remotely Steampunk". It's quite amusing what kind of crap people will throw the Steampunk label on to be considered 'edgy'. :P

Honestly, It's all quite convoluted and a bevy of firestorm hate if you aren't pure about your eras and what not, but really it started at least for me in the fantasist theories that allowed me to combine my love of Victorian dress and living with a philosophical bent of industrial modernization.

There's all kinds of philosophies to explore but again, I like the odd anachronistic mixture of modern with victorian and the fantasy element you can bring to nearly any story that's steampunk. Plus I love the clockwork designs.

So really if pushed I'd say it's more of a philosophy built of an aesthetic need to combine modern industrial interworking with the fairyesque naivete of the Victorian era.

There's all kinds of philosophies to explore but again, I like the odd anachronistic mixture of modern with victorian and the fantasy element you can bring to nearly any story that's steampunk. Plus I love the clockwork designs.

I heartily concur with all of this! Now, off to buy goggles...

I really love pocketwatches, but I don't know where I'd wear one. I would like to find a cute, appropriately Victorian-esque watch necklace, though...

(Oh, and thank you! Best explanation for Steampunk I've ever come across.)

You're Welcome. :D

Also, I have two pocket watches and I wear them on long chains around my neck. Very modern and chic but at the same time very Regency-like since the women would tease the men by wearing keys and such on ribbons and tuck it in between their breasts and push up their cleavage so the men's eyes would follow the ribbon and not know what was on the end of it until they pulled it out and played with the bits and bobs while bored during soirees.

Edited 2011-06-01 03:28 (UTC)

...which is funny only because I'm actually not. At all.

1. I own six pairs of designer sunglasses. All much too big for my face.
2. I own several pairs of shoes with obscenely indecent pricetags.
3. I wear scarves. Even when I don't need to.
4. I wear makeup just so I can look like I'm not wearing makeup.
5. Er...I can't think of #5.

Yay, thanks for playing! I love your list--I could definitely make one along the same theme. I'm pretty sure I could beat you in a "Who's The Least Fashionable?" competition! (Which...is a strange thing to brag about, I'll admit!)

Oh, I SO hear you on #4! Ain't that a bitch? :P

"Who's The Least Fashionable?"

I will win. Going away. :D

But do you routinely dress as if you were a fourteen year-old boy? Complete with baggy pants and filthy sneakers?

*sigh* I suppose we can share the title!

1) I have a leather jacket.
2) I have the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop & the Stooges, and the Clash all on my iPod. (Though owning an iPod is probably a strike against me...)
3) I've dyed my hair blue before.
4) I own safety pin earrings.
5) ...I always listen to my music really loud? I can't think of a fifth reason, damn.

That was kind of hard! Like you, I can think of five ways I'm a nerd without even trying, so I had to put a bit of effort into coming up with these. Ooh, that ficathon sounds interesting! It's been so long since I've written fic my fic-brain has probably atrophied from lack of use. Have you decided what fandom you're going to write for?

Good list! And very punk rock. :P (Also: love, love, LOVE the icon!)

YOU SHOULD SIGN UP FOR THE FICATHON! I love having people to commisserate with when I'm writing for a fest. :P

I have not absolutely decided which fandom I'm going to write for, but I've been itching to start writing for Firefly! My first thought was that I wanted to write a Kaylee story (because I ♥ her), I think the quote I was given fits her nicely:

Life is full of surprises, I try to capture these precious moments with wide eyes. -- Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532-1625), Italian painter of the Renaissance.

Of course, all of that is subject to the condition I come up with a story I want to tell about her! If I get another idea, I may write for another fandom entirely. (I have the whole summer, so that's good!)

(He bit my neck. It was adorable. True story!)
Please write this down as a story. Fictionalized/heavily embellished is totally fine. But I NEED TO KNOW.

...honestly, as far as labels go, I think the only one that suits me is "CONFUSED."

omg, bb, I hope you feel better!! D: ♥!

I really should embellish the story, because it's just not that interesting, otherwise! Here goes:

There's a 'Goth' club in Detroit called City Club, and I've been a few times. It's supposed to be all CRAZY and intense and whatnot: hardcore scenesters hang out there, and there's nudity. (Never anyone I've particularly wanted to see naked, but I digress!) A lot of people there put a whole lot of effort into their outfits, which is really fun. (There's this one 'couple' who come dressed head-to-toe in black latex: covering their faces and everything. It's rather eerie, but cool. According to some regulars I know who go there, they're kinda snobby, though, and will only talk to their own crowd.)

Anyway. My friend's roommate belongs to a Detroit Gothic Network, and they were hosting a special event night at the club. She asked my friend and I if we wanted to go, and we said sure. She kept trying to 'prepare' us for what it was going to be like, despite the fact we'd both been there before.

Anyway, she introduced us to a lot of her friends who were there that night. One of them was this really shy, kinda awkward-seeming guy dressed in all black. While talking to him, he'd asked if I'd been 'initiated'--it was really adorable, because he asked in this really shy, coy way. I told him I hadn't, and he asked if I wanted to be. I said 'sure'. And he leaned in and ever-so-gently bit my neck. It was just really cute! :P

Edited 2011-06-01 18:16 (UTC)

omg, that is TOTALLY ADORABLE.

See, if Twilight was this story, the world would be in much, MUCH better shape right now. As would the future of feminism. And my soul.

D'aww. :D

I've never been well-versed in labels and their associations, but I must try!

5 Reasons I am Country/Southern

1. I don't generally consider chicken edible unless it's fried.
2. There has been a rusted old dead car in my backyard for many, many moons (this might be more redneck, but... I already thought way too hard about how "country" and "Southern" aren't the same thing, so oh well).
3. Um, I worship at the alter of hush puppies.
4. There is a squirrel in my freezer. That sounds like some horrifying euphemism, but ... literally, there's a squirrel in my freezer.
5. There's a farm across from our street, and one night a goat had wandered over and just stood around on our front porch.

It would have been much easier to list the ways in which I'm a bad southerner (featuring my inability to drink sweet tea and my inability to remember which kind of meat constitutes "Carolina" barbecue).

You have done an EXCELLENT job! (Oh God, I could totally do "Five Ways in Which I Am A Redneck", starting with my habit of walking out to get the mail (the box is across the street) barefoot, in my PJs, and sans brassiere. :P)

I've eaten squirrel! Squirrel that was shot by my brother, who was about 13 at the time. (Yep, there's another of them 'redneck' qualities...)

You should turn that rusted out car into an herb garden. Then you could Hippie to your list traits!

Is it the meat that makes it "Carolina" BBQ? I thought it was just the sauce. (I know there's a lot of debate about mustard vs. tomato-based sauces; sweet vs. spicy; amount of smokiness; etc. I just know that I find it all delicious!)

High five on the "inability to drink sweet tea"! I can't stand sugar in my tea. I'm pretty sure I came *this close* to losing my life when I requested un-sweetened iced tea in a South Carolina BBQ joint. :P

I NEED TO PLAY THIS. But later, in the morning, when I am more 'witty' and less 'think I'm witty'. ::ponders stereotypes::

ALSO, don't die. I would be sad if you died. The family remedy for feeling like that is Stone's Ginger Wine (pretty sure you can't get that in the States but this is only theory so never mind), warmed to blood temperature with an equal measure of lemonade (as in the kind that has never been near a lemon and is fizzy), also warm. Inhale the fumes, drink the liquid, feel better.

The step they forget to mention is drinking the rest of the bottle of Ginger Wine (which is delicious cold with lemonade, and as a substitute for Ginger Beer in a Vodka Mule. Y'know, if it needs a higher alcohol content. Only in Australia would you add more alcohol to what is essentially half a pint of vodka.)

Son of Also: If there is such a thing as a 'true' hipster, you would be one. I mean, as opposed to the steretype which is full of people subscribing to a philosophy they couldn't explain to save their lives. Maybe Indie is a better term with less baggage (not that I want to shove you in a neatly labelled box, mind, except that if the world was full of neatly-labelled boxes it would be an easier place to live).

YAY DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK AND PLAY! *ahem* That is: if you still want to. :P

I am trying very hard not to die. I've decided it's most likely allergies/change in weather that's bothering me, and my mother reminded me that this is what I have an inhaler for! (I tend to forget.)

I like the sound of your home remedy! Much better than a similar remedy of my grandfather's that involved a cheap blackberry brandy. (I think the theory was not nothing, including half of a body's living cells, could survive a dose of the stuff!)

I really need to get my hands on a bottle of this 'lemonade', because you've brought it up before. I'm pretty sure that, if it's not a direct import, we don't have anything like that in the states!

I am flattered in a half-embarrassed sort of way to find you think I'm a hipster! I've never been anything other than a massive dork my entire life, so 'hipster' is a major upgrade! (You know me and categorization! Though it rarely works very with people, I am on a constant quest to put everything into a neat little box!)

1. I have been drunk and emotional in a cemetary unrelated to the funeral of a person I knew more times than I can count.

2. I have a genuine and completely non-ironic love of She Sells Sanctuary by the Cult.

3. Wearing colours other than black and white makes me nervous.

4. I have pervious with pithy dingy nightclub one-liners. Example:

Random Stranger: I'm doing a survey. Why do men have nipples?
Me: For biting to keep them in-line.

5. I want to be Pauley Perrette when I grow up.

The tortuous thing about LJ is that I keep meeting all of these people I wanna hang out with, but they live on completely different continents from me! Just know: if the chance should ever arise, I want to visit both a cemetery, a nightclub, and a fancy dress/costume party with you! (I also have a talent for making caustic remarks to drunken strangers! *high five*)

This Pauley Perrette person is really very attractive in real life, but her character on NCIS bugs the crap out of me! (Truthfully, every character on that show bugs the crap out of me, though. :P)

1) I wear sneakers whenever I can possibly get away with them, and often to work when I can't.

2) I own the sportsy-running pants with my alma mater's logo.

3) I, er, own an obsence number of things with alma mater's logo? (Including a purse. Yeah... I tell my mom to just be thankful I got around to ~~BUYING~~ being bought a purse.)

4) I pack away obscene amounts of pizza.

5) I, er, occasionally do athletic stuff, out of my own free will, despite the fact that P.E. teachers aren't around to compel me? Like, sometimes as much as one a week? C'mon, this one has so totally got to count!

So my list is sucks, but it took me a while to find "five ways" for... any type. (Even non-challenging ones like nerd also came up one short. GAH. Now I'm off with feelings of failure.)

This is a very fun thread to read, though. :)

Hey, each participant is a winner! :P

Really, I'm glad to find people aren't as easily categorizable as high school dramas have taught me they are! I think unless you actively subscribe to a particular social identity and try to cultivate the qualities associated with it, you're not going to fit neatly into any category!

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Hippies, Hipsters, and Steampunk! OMG!

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Five Ways in Which I am Steampunk

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Five ways I am and will always be a goth

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Five Ways In Which I Am So Totally a Jock, Yes, Yes I am, Why Would You Question This?

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