Wild Wild West Steampunk Conference merges old and new worlds



Wild Wild West Steampunk Conference 2013

Apparently I am into Steampunk, but I had no idea until this weekend that I was. In fact, I didn’t even know that much about Steampunk except for the glimmers that you see on shows like “Castle” or in the new “Oz, the Great and Powerful” movie.

So how do I know I’m into it? I attended the Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention yesterday and totally loved it.

MORE STEAMPUNK PHOTOS

Finally, I was with a group of people who knew what Doctor Who and Torchwood were and could actually talk about it in-depth instead of trying to fake the conversation. Yes, there are more people than me out there that watch the BBC on purpose and get excited when they hear the Doctor Who theme song.

NOTE: I actually do the Craig Ferguson Doctor Who dance.  Watch it here so you can dance with me!

Wild Wild West Steampunk Conference

I also really loved that Steampunkers love tea. And they take their tea with biscuits very seriously. They even do tea duels. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this is. I had to ask too as I was a Steampunk virgin and had no idea what any of their traditions were.

It seems a tea duel is between two people who sit down for tea. They choose their weapon of choice (their biscuit/cookie) and then they have to dunk their biscuit in the tea for set amount of time – the longer the dunking time; the harder the duel. The person who can successfully dunk and eat their biscuit without it breaking, crumbling or falling on their clothes wins the duel.

Being raised on tea and arrowroot cookies, I think I may have been training for this duel all my life. I wonder if they do something with toast and marmalade. That would be perfection!



While I admit I wasn’t really into really into the “western” part of it, having the conference at Old Tucson was a brilliant choice. The old movie set made perfect backdrop for the costumes.

Wild Wild West Steampunk Conference

Would I go again? Definitely.   There is so much more to learn – like why did some of the people have little creatures perched on their shoulders like stuffed octopuses, frogs and winged furry things?  Also, everyone there comes in character -- some of the characters they make up and others are famous from the Steampunk culture. Very cool.  Just being there stimulated some ideas for future writing projects and I am into the gadgets and speculative fiction. 

Plus, next time I'm going to wear an outfit (that's the best part).

But I think I may be more Steampunk UK or Canada than Steampunk USA (or maybe because this was the Wild Wild West Convention so that's why the Western theme was so big).  The cool thing with Steampunk is that it can be anywhere from traditional Victorian or Wild West -- to more sci-fi to more Goth meets Old World. In other words, think more of the dark gadgety side of Sherlock Holmes, The Dresden Files, Doctor Who, Warehouse 13 and Jack the Ripper. 

If you’ve ever wanted to experience a world of fantasy that exists within our world, I highly recommend it.

Here are some Steampunk groups I found in case you were interested in checking it out:

• Steampunk  Arizona/Phoenix
• Steampunk UK
• Steampunk Canada