The Steampunk Librarian

orbs and apocalypses

2008-03-18T18:06:37Z

We may get up to five inches of rain before tomorrow night. Where's Captain Nemo when you need him?

If you're tired of scouring eBay looking for steampunky bits, worry no more - Buy Steampunk will come to your aid! (I continue to be amazed at just how much stuff you can buy these days. Back in ye olden times before steampunk got so popular, we made things ourselves. Hey! You urchins! Get off my lawn!)

Via the always fantastic Brass Goggles: the unconventional Orbital 2008, aka Eastercon, will include the Beyond Cyberdome event, and the tinkerers are prepared for the 2008 competition. Here is just one example of what spectators might see. Gorgeous, isn't it? I don't believe it says "exterminate!" but then again, who knows what might happen...

The people who put together Steampunk Magazine have also put out an ebook titled The Steampunk Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse. Huzzah! The book is a hefty 7 MB PDF file, but a short excerpt and a little more info is available for perusing.

A tangential place to explore is MOMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit, which is not only original and informative but also vast and amazingly full of ideas, ranging from the ancient to the futuristic.

And finally, if you can't dress like it's 1880 every day, perhaps you can wear a t-shirt evoking those days. Well, sort of. What's the Victorian equivalent of "In Your Eyes," anyway? (Threadless is having a clearance sale this week, and nearly all of their shirts are awesome.)

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acquisitions and forests and scavengers

2008-03-11T17:57:49Z

If you're in the Chicagoland area this weekend, there's going to be a steampunk scavenger hunt at the Field Museum! I wish I could go!

If you're going to be homebound, however, there are still lots of things to see and do. LibraryThing has a steampunk section these days, so you can catch up on your reading! There are more and more websites to explore, like Velvet Mechanism's shop and The Secret Society of Odd Acquisition (which looks new, but promising!).

Did anyone ever watch Around the World in 79 Days, a cartoon that aired 1969-1971? I saw it for the first time last night! Another, more current homage to Jules Verne is going on above us right now via the spacebound automated transfer vehicle (ATV) which launched a few days ago.

And finally, because steampunk is futuristic as well as old-fashioned: a look at ideas for the cities of the future. I like the idea of a forested Atlanta.

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a quick swarm of links

2008-03-04T19:04:55Z

The steampunk link of the week is, of course, the beautiful Mac Mini that was customized as a wedding gift. It's beautiful, and the "lid" design is one of my favorite parts! Apple should look into that as a retro logo.

I had read bits and pieces of a pneumatic travel system in the 19th century, but the wonderful Damn Interesting has consolidated the parts into a fantastic article on New York City's pneumatic transit system of the 1870s. I envy the people who had the chance to try it out!

Mounted trophies from hunting expeditions are very Victorian. So it would make sense that neo-Victorians would have robotic trophies, wouldn't it? Much more technologically advanced, and much more humane!

And finally, for the true tinkerers: the Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator!

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