Checking In

Hello, readers, I am home! 

Con reports for Aetherfest, Watch City and World's Fair will soon follow, as soon as I decompress from over a month of traveling and getting angry at bureaucracies for arbitrarily canceling my visa and stupid shit like that. I have many many pictures to show you, and many stories to tell. 

How have you been in the meantime? Who went to Gaslight Gathering and World Steam Expo? Anything interesting?

Thanks, Texas!

Now that Aetherfest is over, I'm on the road with Magpie Killjoy and Pablo Vasquez, and we're hoping to reach Virginia tonight on our way to Watch City Festival. 

Thanks, Texas, for the great weekend =) It was really cool to have my first time attending a con in what's reported to be a pretty neo-conservative area to be surrounded by so many thoughtful people. Thanks for everyone who stuck around when the Mental Illness in Steampunk panel was clearly not going where people thought it was going to go (and hope all ya'll enjoyed it anyway). Thanks to all my fellow panelists throughout the weekend. Thanks Pablo for letting me room with him on Thursday, and Erica "Unwoman" Mulkey for letting me room with her Sunday night, and JoSelle Vanderhooft for rooming with me in between. 

Of course some goodbyes are not so sad, since I'll be seeing the Wandering Legion next weekend at Watch City, and Airship Ambassador Kevin Steil at Steampunk World's Fair. But there are some folks I won't see for quite a while! Like O.M.Grey and the Marquis of Vaudeville (who put on a terrific show on Saturday) and Unwoman and DJ Fact.50 who'll be performing at Clockwork Alchemy, while I'm at WisCon. 

Con report will be forthcoming, with pictures. Here, have a video of the Marquis of Vaudeville performing a cover of David Bowie's "Within You" while you wait. I didn't get the whole song, but I promise the next two songs are in full.

Take care, the rest of you, and send me email whenever you like!

Steampunk POC: Pablo Vasquez aka Mr. Saturday (Black, Panamanian, Afro-Latino)

Pablo Vasquez of San Antonio

It's the first Friday of the month again! This time, we head down south, to Austin, Texas, where we'll find Mr. Saturday, nom-de-plume of Pablo Vasquez, who's also a con committee member for San Antonio's Aetherfest! You can find Pablo performing vaudeville acts with his mime, Sixpence, at various steampunk events.

So when are you Pablo Vazquez and when are you Mr. Saturday?

Well, Mr. Saturday is a fantastically exaggerated version of who I really am, though he's quite the flexible character. In Texas, there are far more people that know me simply as Pablo (even Cedric Whittaker of the Airship Isabella misinterprets my named as "Mr. Saturday Night", which I actually love, haha), but whenever I travel, I always am Mr. Saturday to them unless they're close friends. The lines blur often and I find myself at conventions sometimes never leaving the Mr. Saturday persona. If one were to believe in the Voodoo concept of Cheval, then this could be excused as Baron Samedi himself just "riding" me for the weekend, which fits perfectly in character. So, to answer that, Mr. Saturday is present whenever I want to party and when I'm performing and Pablo regains control when it's time to relax, be intellectual, etc.