6 posts tagged “music”
Quick, check out Woot's shirt of the day today. It's only available today and is steampunky in nature! (Their summary -- "Wear this shirt: when you’re feeling a little steampunk, but not in the sort of way that would result in you dressing all goofy.")
The countdown for the Raygun Gothic Rocketship is at two days. If anyone is at Burning Man, take many photos and videos and report on what happens!
In other news, the eighth issue of Gatehouse Gazette is now out for perusal and appreciation!
We are pretty good about keeping on top of publications here at Steampunk Librarian HQ, but we are a dismal failure at keeping au courant with steampunk music. Fortunately, Sepiachord has that aspect of the culture covered, and we happily direct you there!
The x planes tumblr site features all sorts of aircraft, often historical, always interesting.
And finally, the New York Times has an article on the ultimate steampunk loft. Located in DUMBO (Brooklyn), it is part of a working clocktower. It's gorgeous and mechanical and vintage and modern all in one.
Steampunks! Get yourselves to the Great Wunderkammer Giveaway! It ends on the 21st, so get there soon.
Also on the horizon: the Steampunk Exhibition at Oxford University! You could spend quite a lot of time just looking at all the artists' websites on this page.
Has anyone taken the zeppelin-flying class offered by Airship Ventures yet? (More info on the company via this Gawker post, which suggests nefarious connections between Airship Ventures and Google and geneticists and futurists and all sorts of things.) RiverOtterWidget has a trophy all set for when the airship races eventually begin!
Musician extraordinaire David Byrne has constructed a mindboggling contraption that allows you to "play the building." Nice!
Writer Cherie Priest tackles the big question of what steampunk actually is. One of the best lines: "It is lots of fun. If it isn’t lots of fun, you’re doing it wrong."
Steampunk also apparently encompasses the animal kingdom these days as well, with elephants and monkeys getting in on the trend.
And lastly, for those of us who look beyond the Victorian age for stories of computations and gears: a new theory on the Antikythera mechanism opens up all sorts of ideas.
Due to various real-life issues and a large amount of links to share, today's entry will be in bulleted, fragmented sentence format. Enjoy!
- Datamancer now has a blog!
- Warehouse 13, a new show on the sci-fi channel now called SyFy, is heavy on the steampunk.
- a 40-minute bio on H.G. Wells is online.
- Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre!
- Beats Antique, a band for the 21st century.
- How to make your own spats.
- Ice: A Victorian Romance. (Ice usually wins.)
- NYPL looks at Victorian fashion.
- Everyone was on opium and cocaine back in the good old days!
- The New York Tribune pages from 1909 onward.
- Mark your calendars now for the PanKinetic Exposition in April 2010!
The amazing, incredible people of Royal de Lux are at it again. A giant diver appeared in Nantes last weekend, walking the streets and looking for his niece, who was on the Titanic. Yes, really. There are additional photos on many French websites, including this nice compilation, and there's even video.
We can't travel through time like the marionettes of Royal de Lux do (and someone really needs to get working on that, by the way), but we can look back via gorgeous photos, like the Field Museum's set on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, or by reading papers from a hundred years ago, as the New York Times is doing with its Times Traveler section. Today's is especially fun, not only for the bishop ranting against the "new woman [as] a freak" (talking about suffragettes) but for the story about Cincinnati fruit dealers getting shaken down by a gang. One shop, Cianciolo's, is still on Main Street downtown! (Another unfortunate dealer died "after eating a banana given to him by a stranger." Those gangs were sneaky.)
Fortunately there is an increasingly steampunkish appreciation of the past. Arcattack presents popular music performed by Tesla coils! Slouching Toward Bedlam is a text-based game (no grues, however) set in 1885 London! There are specific tutorials for steampunking a photograph now, and best of all, the people who brought you the Steampunk Treehouse at Burning Man are now hard at work on the Raygun Gothic Rocketship.
Jules Verne's birthday was last Sunday (February 8). In honor of the occasion, Vernian Process put out a free EP. See what you think!
The Chap is new to me, but not new to the printing world. An upcoming issue is going to be on those weirdo steampunks. Also, the Cincinnati steampunk group was interviewed last week by Hell in a Handbasket for their next issue. We are everywhere. Muhahahaha.
More steampunk entertainment: design your own steampunky Cylon for a contest (deadline is March 16), send death rays to your archenemies, or just enjoy the beautiful machinations of a cold-drip coffeemaker, depending on your mood and alignment.
In the extremely near future, I'm going to be venturing under Brooklyn to explore its abandoned tunnels! I'll report back when I return.
And finally, on a futurist note: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was born last week. Let's hope it brings good to the world.
Today's steampunk entry is mostly about the visual oohs and ahhs. If you'd like something with a little more density, however, sink your teeth into the history of science fiction between 1900 and 1910 - great material for research and inspiration! (Swiped from Matt's weblog.)
And now, on to fantastic robots that clank, a synthesizer that steams, a weblog full of artistic wonders that tick, and a game of clones and Cherry Chronoberry pies.
And look, a steampunk podcast! Huzzah!
