In a couple of days you will find that no comments can be posted to the blog… Don’t worry…! This is so we can then pack all the furniture into the van … Then the blog and the forum will be transported to our new home and unpacked… This may take up to 3 days (including tea breaks and gremlin stomping…) The DNS config will be updated (I’ll let the experts deal with this while I decide where to put the potted plants..) This happens as fast as the Internet provider wants it to but with mass finger-crossing all will be well… errr…? That’s it… Don’t dally, don’t dilly just follow the van with your old cock linnet…”

O.S.M.

I have reassuring news regarding the return of the Brass Goggles Forum…

Processes are now being put in to effect that should see the forum re-openned in the very near future (which is good news for me as my stick wielding arm is getting very sore…)

So, if I could ask everybody to keep their fingers crossed/pray/dance-round-ancient-stones/perform-what-ever-unusual-rituals-you-think-might-help over the next few days I’m convinced there will be a satisfactory outcome…

I have to have a little lie down now as I’m becoming unreasonably excited…

O.S.M.

Probably a little late for this….!

Steam Powered:- The California Steampunk Convention 2008…

http://www.steampunkconvention.com/

Running from Friday 31st to Sunday the 2nd of November…

All the ususal suspects Jake Von Slatt, Abney Park etc…

I just wish I could find a bigger copy of the logo…

Here is one umbrella that should grace every steampunk lady adventurer or aristocrat out to face the elements. Apparently, it was in rather sad shape when its creator found it, “tucked away in a corner in an antique shop.” As she relates in a post at her livejournal, she repaired the fabric and decorated it with over seventeen yards of a mixture of gold and black braids and trims. Now, it makes for a lovely piece of accessory, and if you’ve fallen truly in love with it, you can buy it online!

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A little while ago, the talented artists over at Conceptart.org organized another one of their “Environment of the Week” challenges, this one with as theme, “Sky Train Express”. The participants were told to consider that in the “not-too-distant future”, a “fuel crisis has culminated in the crash of the airline industry. A new form of intercontinental travel has been invented,” which uses no fossil fuel and has transformed the face of the Earth, “as the tracks criss-cross the continent.”

Most of the artworks submitted were rather more futuristic than steampunk, yet all are definitely worth a peek. Be sure to check the Thread in question, after having watched our selection of favorites.

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Mike Mignola’s Hellboy stories have always had healthy doses of Steampunk. With Iron Prometheus, the first Lobster Johnson collection, the Hellboy world has taken another stride into the world of wonderfully clunky mad science which we all love.

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Though we are mostly interested in the “lighter side” of steampunk here, a little detour into the possibilities that the darker side of the genre offers might be of interest still, specifically where steampunk meets the macabre, the fantastic, the supernatural, and the bizarre.

First and perhaps foremost, there is of course the “cryptozoological scientific art” of Alex CF. His work is well-known among us, though Mr Alex himself is rather averse to his work being labeled “steampunk”; indeed, his creations might better fit the macabre and whimsical, but they are obviously of interest, no matter how one wishes to call them.

There are, however, many more artists and steampunk enthusiasts alike who mix steampunk and the macabre in ways quite fascinating. We shall introduce you to a few of those, specifically Mr Mike Amend, Mr Timothy Lantz, Miss Lisa Black, as well as Professor Delphinius J.C. Tucker.

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An airship flight must be everyone’s idea of a good time. An airship flight over Venus, however, now that’s something else. “Venus By Air” promises the interplanetary traveler an extraordinary voyage by dirigible over the surface of the planet that is apparently inhabited by tailed humanoid creatures!

All kinds of wonders are lurking about the corners of our solar system, on the wonderful interplanetary travel posters of a Mr Steve Thomas. From a flight by “Europa Air” to Jupiter is just a day to a midnight express past the rings of Saturn, these retro-futuristic posters promise you the stars!

Never mind their remark about getting tired of the steampunk genre, as the awsomer (known from notalwaysright dot com) has put these dollish steampunk robots up, bringing to my attention the etsy gallery of the builders studio, where you can get little steampunk gizmos for prices as low as $10!

“Third Eye” is a piece by machinist/artist Wayne Martin Belger. It’s a pinhole camara that incorporates the 150 year old skull of an 13 year old girl child…

Now, what ever the moral conundrums of using bits of dead people for “art” maybe, one has to admit it takes a splendid picture…

Should one be considering constructing such an item I feel that it might be well to obtain the permission of the skulls owner to be immortalised in such a fashion…

(You may also wish to wait until they have shuffled off this mortal coil before proceeding…)

OSM