The Steampunk Librarian

castles and light and guidestones and more

You know, I may ditch this whole steampunk idea and embrace hobo-tech instead. Heh.

However, the Cincinnati League of Steampunks is going to be out in force in a few weeks on the grounds of the Loveland Castle. If you're in town, stop by and say hello!

Some artists doing beautiful work which may inspire steampunk types include Nemo Gould and Douglas Walker. In the world of fashion, Skingraft Designs continues to come out with jaw-droppingly gorgeous stuff.

The Steampunk Workshop has made some lovely lightswitch plates, and even showed you how they did it.

And finally, the Georgia Guidestones are not really steampunk at all, but they're mysterious and ancient-looking (although modern) and faintly post-apocalyptic. I think a road trip is necessary for further examination and investigation!

a smattering

Issue 5 of Steampunk Magazine is out!

 

From Danny: the Legway. Also, from an earlier comment, the lichtharp (light harp), which is all kinds of cool.

 

From Bunny: how biology can inspire our future defense policies. Marmots, squirrels and penguins are all mentioned, hooray!

 

And in other animal news, Andrew Chase has made a mechanical giraffe which is gorgeous.

 

Did you know that our ears make sounds? They do, and scientists are looking at ways to use those sounds for encrypting purposes. Imagine a steampunked ear trumpet!

 

The good people at Pink Raygun are in a contest for their web comic Intergalactic Law. For promotion, they're giving away a Manmelter Mini from WETA! No self-respecting steampunk fan can resist a WETA product!

a princess and an aviator in a biplane...

If it's Tuesday, that means it must be Steampunk Librarian day. Today we have a lot of links sent in by others, for which I am (as always) eternally grateful. Thanks, everyone!

From Dan: Warren Ellis's new work Ignition City will most likely appeal to the steampunk crowd. I know it appeals to me, at least.

From the Desert Librarian: Girl Genius, one of the shining pillars of steampunk, is something I've never gotten around to reading, even though I always hear wonderful things about it (I know, I suck). I do mean to remedy that soon!

From Bunny: you can buy actual remnants of the Gemini space mission from an auction. How amazing is that?

The historical photos from the Library of Congress always have wonderful material for inspiration. Look at this photo of "Russian Princess Schaikowski and Aviator Abramowitsch," read the comments about how this may have been Abramowitsch's last flight, and see if you aren't tempted to write a story or draw a picture or something.

If you haven't seen the London Particulars shop on Etsy yet, you definitely should - it's beautiful stuff.

Everyone likes to argue about movies, right? Here's a list of movies considered steampunk. Agree? Disagree?

And finally, a wonderful interview with Patrick Gyger discusses "the history of the future," which is what steampunk is all about, at its core.

don't leave us alone around clocks

An addendum to yesterday's post comes to me via Jen, who accuses me of being One of Those People. Well...

a varied assortment

We have a follow-up report from last month's post about Legend! Danny has seen several episodes and says they're worth watching. (Thanks!)

 

Also, from last week's comments, Dan sends in this great link about a British team looking to break the steam car world record. Oooo.

 

Swiped from Ookee: this 1934 BMW motorcycle is gorgeous and steamy and futuristic-looking all at once.

 

Compressed-air gramophones are new to me, but were apparently all the rage at one time. There's a giant page full of images and details for anyone interested in the Auxetophone and its ilk.

 

Artist Christian Hammer is working on a super-secret project, but can share some steampunk cards in the meantime. They look fantastic.

 

Two resources that are always worth checking out: The ongoing steampunk category page at Dark Roasted Blend and the Etsy Steam Team weblog, which includes Twitter updates.

 

And finally, because in my world steampunk and transhumanism are alike: what's the value of mind uploading, anyway? Quite a lot, some think.

 

(Also, when we colonize the moon, we really need this currency up there, because really, we have to have Jules Verne honored in some fashion.)