Welcome, Friends!
Please allow me to introduce myself. I go by Sol Black, and I shall be your professor. What do I profess? Why, I profess living the steampunk renaissance man lifestyle. It's not enough to learn how to dress up and put on airs, and I am here to help guide you to living the life fantastic! Let me go back a bit, and paint you a background.
I was born to loving, hard working parents in the sunshine state, I am of the United States, and shortly after my younger brother was born, we moved to New England. Following opportunity, our stay in New England lasted for 15 years, and I received my fundamental education there, graduating high school with honors. We considered ourselves conservative Christians, and lived as any middle class, Americans holding those values would.
As a child, I grew on the lardy side. Despite my parents' efforts, they couldn't interest me in sports. All I wanted to do was draw and watch cartoons. In fact, I got pretty good at drawing and inventing my own characters, but that is a skill I have not actively pursued since college, and my abilities have languished a bit. Certainly something I must pick back up. Eventually, my father noticed that my brother and I loved martial arts movies, with the big stars of the 1980s and '90s headlining our dreams. So, in a last ditch effort, we were enrolled in "karate class". Under thorough tutelage my brother and I learned Shaolin Kenpo Karate, and advanced as far as second degree black belt. Also, because of our size and dispositions, we entered the adult class as soon as we were eligible for sparring lessons, and eventually even earned a spot on the demonstration team. In our last year, before I graduated and moved to Michigan, we were given the opportunity to participate in Nanquan, learning forms and traditional Chinese martial arts principles.
After the afore mentioned move to Michigan, I went to a small college, and then a state university, specifically studying exercise science until I received my associate's degree, and completed certification as a personal trainer. Unfortunately for business, I lived in a low opportunity town in the middle of nowhere, and my career as a trainer never had a chance to gain footing. But, I get ahead of myself. During my foray to college, I met a girl whom I would marry. I'd not even dated a girl before, but by the summer of 2002 I knew I'd marry her, and in 2003 I married the lovely Lady Elizabeth, a farmer's daughter and academic, with all the earthy pragmatism and lofty intellect I could ever ask for in another human being. To this day we are still quite happily wed, with a roof over our heads, a little coin in the bank, and a small pride of house cats to keep us company.
While in Michigan, working a menial job and still attending classes (both martial and academic) I stumbled upon the idea of not just training people in fitness and martial arts, but opening a cross training center where people of all disciplines could meet, and share ideas. It is still a dream, and something far more costly than I am able to ante. However, that was not the last incarnation of that dream. No, in 2005 We bought a small place to live in the north of Michigan, and I gained the opportunity to switch my training from Progressive Kenpo (with cross training in wushu, amalgamated Filipino arts, savate, and even some basic grappling and muay thai) to mixed martial arts. I engaged in independent training with local champion wrestlers, boxers, and soldiers trained in military combatives jiujitsu. I jumped all over that chance, and in 2008 I began a year long stint in competitive cage fighting. I won a couple, lost a couple, and had a lot of fun, and grew a lot. I learned where my traditional training failed, and where it excelled. In the winter of 2008, I became the head trainer for our rag tag MMA team, able to put my fitness expertise and martial arts experience to practice in helping others advance, all while training myself. It was a grand time, and in the fall of 2009 it came to and end with a finger through a band saw, and a move across the country.
Allow me to diverge for a moment here. Thank you for your long suffering of this rambling, as I am writing it completely stream-of-consciousness, and have skipped a few important moments for a cohesive picture of the major aspect of my life. Let me interject here that another change happened in and around 2005. My faith, and my religion, began to fail. I was a part time, volunteer preacher for a local church, and my personal studies started to raise more questions than answers. Eventually, it failed all-together when I could find more holes in the bible than a sieve. Without becoming didactic, I stand before you a proud, fighting atheist, with years of dedication to truth under my belt.
In many ways, leaving religion helped my personal evolution advance more fully, and faster. It helped me step outside of the strict political-conservative box I'd been in, and step into the light of true freedom and growth. With my religious studies at an end, I turned quite heavily to politics and open philosophy, and I can proudly say that I stand on my own, as an independent (small "L") libertarian. I belong to no party, and am beholden only to liberty, responsibility, and justice. In total, I am a free and philosophically sovereign individual, almost a libertine, fully libertarian, staunchly atheist, and open to life. Now, back to my story...
2009 brought my wife and I to Arizona. We came out here to ride our motorcycles, enjoy the sun and scenery, and chase opportunities only an urban environment could provide. Since our move here, I've been a volunteer trainer for a Chinese Kenpo school (in exchange for lessons, and it was an extremely short stint), and a private trainer (I "Miyagi" it these days, as I prefer the one-on-one atmosphere, and personable connection.) I the past few months, I began training in Wing Chun, the traditional Ip Man lineage via the Samuel Kwok association, and in my first class, I fell in love. It was like being home. I have my foundation in martial arts and fitness, and I understand the human body well, but wing chun has filled in gaps I didn't know existed. And now I present myself, martial artist and trainer, philosophically educated and ready to discuss "impolite" topics of conversation. I am your professor, you may casually call me Sol.
So...Where's the Steampunk?
Interesting question...I'll get to some of the details in other postings, but let me tell you a short story.
Growing up, I didn't know steampunk existed. It emerged as a sub-genre when I was a child, but I didn't pick it up until I was an adult. In fact, my current love of steampunk goes back to another science fiction sub-genre: post apocalyptic. I always enjoyed watching post-apocalyptic programs, like Steel Dawn and Mad Max. There was something graspable about those worlds. Every bit of tech rigged together from scrap and hard-fought resources. The laws of the land were archaic, and barbaric, and yet somehow romantic. It was like so many of the things my friends and I could build with household scrap for mock battles, and imagination play. There was a simple genius to it. As I grew older, I started to see bygone eras, and fantasy worlds depicted with modern and future technology concepts imposed on the plausible technology of the setting. Sometimes it was western, like "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.", and sometimes it was Victorian, like "The Time Machine", and still there were entirely fictional worlds that hand a bit of it all, depicted well in games like Xenogears and Chrono Trigger (hands down, my two favorite games of all time.) It really wasn't until the early 2000s, when I started seeing steampunk proper depicted in anime, that I developed a true love for the true genre. Steamboy was an excellent story, if a little slow paced, and many of the Studio Ghibli films are charming and endearing, holding to steampunk ideals without being outright steampunk. Pieces of my fancy started to come together in a genre where the sky was the limit (so long as you got there in a zeppelin.) I loved old Victorian men's fashion, and some fancy of the wild west help my eye too. The science fiction aspect, presented in pure anachronism, appealed to my childhood memories of cartoons such as He-Man and Thundercats. The physical culture, carnivals, and accompanying gypsy mysticism ever held my attention, and growing up on looney tunes, there was no shortage of appreciation for snake oil salesmanship. Truly, steampunk amalgamates so many of my interests and hobbies into one cohesive, fantastic, and well-dressed style. However, it is not enough for me to spectate, and mull about convention booths. No, I want to live the life. To that end, in that very pursuit to live the steampunk ideal, not in form, but in function, I assume to help you as well.
Folks, thank you for sitting in on my story, I hope it was enjoyable, and even a bit inspiring. Feel free to make comment, and if you seek personal consultation, or have a private message, please direct all correspondence to BlackSunRenaissance@gmail.com
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