Last night was a veritable feast of the eyes for the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. In the beginning VT I was interested that the first person on screen look slightly steampunk and then came the vehicles! Giant mechanical beasts, a ship and a clock with huge working gears. Oh my yes THIS was steampunk.
Even the graphics on screen had gears, steam and cogs. To say I was excited as the spectacle unfolded would be an understatement.
The amazing creations were from an art group known as The Mutoid waste company who started in the 80s and specialise making fantastic sculptures from old cars and influenced by the film Mad Max.
It is always interesting when a subculture ( yes Steampunk is a subculture) is depicted in the mainstream. We have yet to have a full blown representation of Steampunk in the mainstream. Closest we got so far is a few movies with mechanical elements such as Wild Wild West and Stardust to name a few.
The closing ceremony was so original and exciting to watch even though most of it was a Cold Play concert.
Also did anyone else notice the pagan elements? The show it's self was a festival of the flame, (fire festival) Flame throwers were used to scorch a circle with symbols on to the grass.
The spirits of the elements were called (calling of the quarters) and a huge sun mask which looked like a green man burned high above.
Well done Kim Gavin, I was presently surprised and well done to all the amazing athletes, the volunteers and everyone else who made this a summer of sport to remember.
I have been neglecting my blog but not because I don't want to! Life has changed a lot since we got the puppy and because my PC is upstairs I haven't been able to get on it while keeping an eye on him and I need to constantly keep an eye on him as he is a little scamp! He sure is getting big though. So what has been going on? August was a busy time for events, the first one was the Broadstairs Folk week. Now I have lived in Kent all my life and I have never been to this week long event but I will be going again next year. Folk week is a festival showcasing some amazing local bands and is a big gathering for the Morris dancers. I have friends in Morris dancing sides so we set up camp in a school field with them but because of little Keijo we couldn't spend the whole week in Broadstairs so it was a lot of driving back and forth. Hopefully next year we can spend all week there. On the Thursday night there was a rock and roll night so I decided to get dressed in my red Hell Bunny dress and put my hair up in three victory rolls. Any excuse to get dressed up. However I did not realise how much of a stir my look would make and I had a queue of gentlemen wanting to dance with me. I had to turn them down as earlier that day I wore shoes which left me two very painful blisters on my heels which made it hard for me to walk let alone dance. p.s I can't really dance well either. I would love to take jive lessons. No photos of me dressed up on that night as Leon was too drunk to operate his camera. Here are some photos from the week to give you an idea of the event itself.
Next event was a wedding! My dear friends got married on the 25th August and for the happy occasion I wore my Miss Fortune atomic print wiggle dress which I brought for another wedding in April that did not go ahead. I managed to dye by hair the brightest shade of red I have ever managed and my victory rolls were perfect!
Rolls of victory
Dress by Miss Fortune, it was a shame I didn't get a better view from the front
Reddest red my hair has ever been!
Lastly on the August bank holiday Monday it was the Folkstone classic and custom car show. Last year we entered are Smart cars in to it but this year we just went as spectators. The show was even bigger this year and because we took Keijo with us every one (I mean everyone) made a right fuss of him.
A beautiful VW Bus. Matched my handbag!
Any one for ice cream?
Beautiful Desoto
Me and the dawg.
And that about rounds it up. I promise to update more regularly from now on.
