Until January of this year I did local, volunteer radio. This was my second stint doing radio. The original Dark Etiquette ran over the summer of 2002 and was the period where Miss Gothic Manners went from a funny nickname to alter ego. In fact, this blog is as much hers as mine. Perhaps a better way to explain it is she is a vehicle I’ve used to access the parts of me I’m trying to express more directly now.
Anyway, in the wilds of local, volunteer radio, a dying breed to be sure, there is one show that is everything I wanted Dark Etiquette to be, both in the show itself and its influence. That show is The Clockwork Cabaret hosted by Emmett and Klaude Davenport from the bridge of their airship The Calpurnia.
It is also a twice a month ball in their homeport of Raleigh, NC. And that, along with regular podcast versions of the show, is where they achieved what I failed to do. They have taken a dream, a fantasy and made it part of the real world.
The Davenport sisters are living it. Don’t confuse doing it on your own terms with grand things that have celebrity. Hosting a local steampunk ball and making it work are worth a hundred compromised mentions on CNN (something Tim Ferris is missing, IMHO). Seth Godin’s latest book is about linchpins but so far is focused on work. Yet, he talks about art, connection, and inspiration and those go well beyond the world of work.
Which in North Carolina two sisters are doing like clockwork.
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Thank you for the very kind words!