Hot on the heels of its coverage of Anonymous and its commentary on Suicide Girls, Fox News goes where only mainstream news outlets the Boston Globe and Newsweek have gone before – coverage what they call the “SteamPunk Underground.” This morning, Fox made associations between steampunk and Columbine, describing the burgeoning movement as a “trenchcoat mafia for adults.” Concerns were raised by a team of “analysts” about the disturbing elements of steampunk fashion (rayguns, gas masks) and Steampunk Magazine’s unpatriotic attack on the TSA. Watch the clip below:

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Left: the original Lil Soap by Jess Fink. Right: the Hot Topic rip-off.

Jess Fink, troche an illustrator and creator of dirty comics published by Fantagraphics, created the shirt design on the left, dubbed Lil Soap, and sold it through her Threadless.com shop. Hot Topic distributed the shirt on the right soon after. Jess wrote to the company that made the eerily-similar shirt for Hot Topic, and the presidents of the company (which is named New Breed Girl) responded with the following:

“It is my poiicy (sic) to encourage freelancers to use the free Getty photo images as reference points & we also use sketches from the Japanese free clip art books, which have inanimate objects with cute faces & legs etc. which are also very similar to the soap.”

Hmmm. Jess plans to take up the matter in court. In the meantime, friends have banded together to show their support by making parody images which include some hot soap-on-soap slash. It was way too early in the morning for me to behold this Harry Potter image (NWS?).

Friends of Jess have shown their solidarity by making images such as this.

• Original Shirt on Threadless
• Hot Topic Ripoff
• Gallery of Parody Images

WEST YORKSHIRE, England – Tasha wears a collar with a leash that her fiance Dani holds when they are out walking together. For this reason, a bus driver has denied them service, saying “no dogs allowed” – and allegedly pushed them off the bus.

It’s ironic that same land that gave us Siouxsie and Fat Bob is now one of the most dangerous, discriminatory European places for goths to inhabit. Last year, 20-year-old goth girl Sophie Lancaster was beaten to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong clothes. A goth guy collecting charity while dressed as Nosferatu was violently beaten by a group of up to seven, his prosthetic ears ripped off. These attacks, perpetuated by yobs and/or chavs, are one thing, but this kind of treatment by a public servant is something else entirely.

The story was covered by The Daily Mail, England’s more conservative, right-wing newspaper. Some of the reader comments are rather hilarious. Here are my top 3 favorites, for various reasons:

He looks like a work-shy scrounger to me, get a job and pay your way.
– Harry Basset, Whitby

Never mind walking the dog – with a figure like Tasha’s she’ll soon be on the catwalk.
– Sarah, Belgium

If he was a gentleman goth, he would loan her his coat.
– John, United Kingdom

Though I’m 100% with them, the couple gets points taken off for giving stupid quotes to the media. Don’t say “I am a pet” to a reporter for a mainstream news outlet. Just don’t. (Thanks, Catwalk Ghost!)

Hey guys, it’s the future! Motorola uses the image above to announce their new RAZR2 phone, partying like it’s cybergoth circa 1999 and brandishing a phone that looks it doubles as a light saber dildo. There’s a kind of sadness to this campaign, an aching desperation to make you feel the cutting edge of what’s basically just another souped-up fliphone, aged forever by the likes of OpenMoko and the iPhone.

Apparently, in Motorola’s perfect future, ladies will have disproportionate mutant man-hands. Or maybe it’s just an old trick for making cell phones in pictures appear more sleek and thin. In the future, the clothes get shinier, the cheap tactics stay the same.

“Before you know it, some weak-chinned chippy in a stovepipe hat and goggles will turn up on Martha Stewart’s Living to show everyone at home how to hot-glue clock gears onto their toaster oven/tea kettle/labial folds.”

Thus Meredith poignantly described the slow demise of the Steampunk aesthetic in this thread. Pictured above, an eerie and all too real display of how true her words ring, but in an industrial tone [I think?]. Below, the same concept executed well, for contrast.

[makeup: Cynthia Bachman, hair: Michael Hall, photo: glitterguru, model: Allison O]

Hear me, and hear me well – we love you, but the first person to glue cogs/clock arms/vintage keys/etc. to their face gets a raygunnin’ straight to HELL.

Mammoth Crocs, originally uploaded by sabor.tijuana.

Finally! UGGs and Crocs weren’t sufficiently powerful on their own, so there is now this delicious blend of both!

Sloppy and sweaty! mmfft.

The herds of peroxide-silicone-fried chicken-flesh types [velour leisure suits proudly stuffed into UGGs or flopping around lost duckling-style in micro-shorts and Crocs] now have another option for comfort and Hawt Glamour Fashion! Rejoice. Rejoice while you can…

God hates goths