Steampunk guitars are just ‘right’ somehow – the combination of modern instrument with old styling is an obvious blend that just screams Steampunk – even more so when weilded by a cravat wearing musician who also plays the electric violin. So it seems that over the last few months, Abney Park have been polishing (or should that be patina-ing) their tools of the trade – started with the beautiful keyboard, now seen through copper and verdigris lenses, and lately the Steampunk transmutation of the above cogtastic guitar (Ibanez 7 String) and even more recently the contstruction of a suitably retrotastic microphone!

It seems that their lead singer, Mr Robert, is the creator of these beautiful conversions. Magnificiently done, sir. Thanks to Mr Von Slatt and Mr C Jones for pointing these out!

Now – I’m not sure where this first exploded on to the wonderous aethernet today, but it has and oh – they are lovely.  The Maschinenleuchten, by Herr Buchwald, is a collection of ornamental lights that are very much retrospectively styled, but with a very heavy engineering influence.  Wonderous creations of valves, tubes, light horns and grids – that are hard to categorise but run the gamut from thouroughly Steampunk, to delightfully pulp!

I must thank Mr Pfeifer, Mr Lemieux and Mr Hildebrandt for pointing this gentleman’s work out to me.

Good morning, everyone. Sorry to say I’ve somehow exceeded my bandwidth for the place I keep my images, so that’s why there’s nothing but broken image icons. I hope to fix this within the day (if all goes well) and Brass Goggles will be as picturesque as normal quite soon. Came as quite a surprise, I might add. chuckles Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime.

Good afternoon!  The bandwidth problem should be fixed, and I’m hosting my images in a different location now, so all should be well.  Greetings to those who may have found Brass Goggles via Wired Magazine. :*:

Mr Stephen P. was quick off the mark to point out that BoingBoing posted about The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer (Amazon.co.uk), by Neal Stephenson, is going to be made into a six hour miniseries by the Sci-Fi Channel. I’ve not yet read The Diamond Age, but from what I hear, it follows the adventures of the young daughter of a well to do Neo-Victorian in a future where nanotechnology can do amazing things. I believe the premise is that there are various cultures across the planet, and one of these is a futuristic Steampunk equivalent, with ridgid social structures and gender expectations – but a father wants the best for his daughter, and commissions the creation of a very important book that will teach her all she needs and wants to know.

Apparently there isn’t that much known about the miniseries creation yet, barring that the author, Mr Stephenson will write the miniseries, and that both George Cloony (executive producer) and Grant Heslov are involved. I’m cautiously looking forward to this – it could be great.

Over at the Steampunk2 Yahoo group, there was a post about Mr R Bennett’s page for the Cornerstone Festival in 2004. It’s an excellent resource for in depth reviews of films in the Fireside Science Fiction genre (a delightful alternative name for Steampunk). From the first purposely retrospective film (ie not made with the current era in mind), Mysterious Island in 1929 to The Great Race in 1965, these are very well looked into reviews. Alas, it now also reads like my shopping list, but I suppose that was to be expected. Thank you, Cory, for posting that!

Mr Von Slatt found a most interesting page, most of which details the fictional adventures and before-their-time inventions of Ernest Glitch. However, of far more interest to me at this time, was the book The Young Man’s Book of Amusement. This was a book released in 1854 (from the image), and detailed interesting knowledge and experiments for any young man of science of the time. Dangerous experiments. Very dangerous. Indeed, part of the fun reading these now, is understanding just how amazingly dangerous so many of them are, and that they were seen as perfectly suited for a young gentleman of the time.

For example, there’s how to give people inconceivable shocks (with people passing out, sounds very dangerous), how to use ants to clean a perfect small animal skeleton, sounds through hydrogen, and many others. It seems the owner of this book has taken to selling the full scans of it in CD form (though intermittantly), but there are quite a few samples at the page above. Please, I entreat you, don’t try these without knowing exactly what you are doing, and how to stay safe – I cannot be held responsible for the science of the 19th Century. Really best just read for amusement, or for sources of appropriate science for any Steampunk gentleman scientist characters you may portray.

Mr S Porta pointed out this game from the early 90’s – Transarctica (also known as Arctic Baron) which came out on the Amiga, Atari, PC and Macintosh. Set in the future, a terrible new ice age sweeps the planet and the world is forever coated in clouds – wolves hunt in packs, elephants have spontaneously become somewhat hairy (ahem, mammoths) and mankind is for the most part relegated to small outposts in the cold wasteland, linked by long and harrowing train lines and oppressed by the huge Viking Union.

You play as the captain of a recently ‘liberated’ magnificient armoured steam train, and you must trade and fight, manage and build your way to not only keep your coal burning, but to further your quest to find the sun that once bathed the planet.

So, a strange combination of sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and Steampunk, with trading simulations, RTS, building and RPG elements. I’ve had a go of Transarctica, and it was initially bewildering, but I did manage to take a cargo of salt from one outpost to another. I imagine it could get very tense for those looking for more story depth to their trading simulations, with occasional fights breaking out and bridges to rebuild. I do like how some of the older games from the Amiga/Atari era just thumb their noses at being categorised. *chuckles*

Have a very happy Hogmanay (or new year), may 2007 bring us lots of delightful Steampunk things to tickle our fancy, and best wishes to you and yours.

A brief note to apologise for the intermittent posting as of this week – my home phone line is mysteriously broken and I have been posting from other locations, every other day.  Hopefully this will be fixed very soon, and I’ll be able to satisfy my daily Steampunk posting needs.  My sincerest apologies in the meantime.

Reader Meghann Ahern sent word of a pen and paper roleplaying game called Full Light, Full Steam, released at this years GenCon SoCal. (Such a fondness for abbreviations, these convention naming types). From the description:

“Portray vibrant characters in a fantastic world of daring heroics, tasteful British culture, and incredible steam engineering in Full Light, Full Steam.”

Once again, the British Empire extends its reach out into space in this Steampunk roleplaying game, and the above image shows some of those hard working sailors taking time out to have a nice cup of tea. Any comments about the tea not staying in the cups in microgravity or free fall will be looked apon dimly – teacup based forcefields would have been one of the first things required! Available as hardback or pdf, it looks to be like lighthearted fun, with previews to download and wallpapers such as the image above.