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Steampunk, Dieselpunk, etc.

Story

I'll Lock Up
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http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/09/gallery_burningman_update

Kinetic Steam Works' Case traction engine Hortense glows on the playa. The art vehicle was named in honor of the artist and mother of Cal Tinkham, the steam enthusiast and railroad engineer who originally restored the engine.

Photo: Lane Hartwell
train.jpg


see also
http://kineticsteamworks.org/page42/page6/page6.html
 

Dr Doran

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Great thread, gorgeous style.

There is a bar with this aesthetic in Krakow, in the Kazimierz district, a bit down from the famous Singer Sewing Machine bar which has antique sewing machine tables with the machines outside for you to drink coffee and beers at. In between the Singer bar and the steampunk-esque bar is another place with a bas-relief (well-actually it's a pretty high relief) on the wall of a life-size man stuck IN the wall.

The steampunk-esque bar has bar stools with gears as the rotating mechanisms. I'll try to see if I have any pictures. It might be called the Giger or something like that.
 

Masonjar

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The Difference Engine (Book)

Readers of this thread might be interested in a book by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling called THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE. I think it totally fits in with the topic, though I'm not sure if the term "steampunk" has been applied to it, but it certainly should. (William Gibson wrote NEUROMANCER, *the* "cyberpunk" novel).

Here's a quick description from Amazon:

A collaborative novel from the premier cyberpunk authors, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine takes us not forward but back, to an imagined 1885: the Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven, cybernetic engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time.

http://www.amazon.com/Difference-En...8435933?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189800654&sr=8-1

It's a fun read, especially if you have a creative imagination! (I love books that make you picture things that you wouldn't normally experience)

-Mason
 

Dr Doran

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The Gibson/Sterling novel is where I thought the term Steampunk originated too. I have not read Difference Engine but I have read Gibson's "classic" Neuromancer, spawning the "cyberpunk" genre and giving it its name, and it is quite good although there are some nihilistic bits I hated (such as the wholehearted admiration of the Japanese assassin). Sterling wrote the Schismatrix tales, collected in a volume called Schismatrix Plus, which I wholeheartedly recommend not for the quality of writing which is pedestrian (compared to real "literature" novels -- not compared to other science fiction, against whose modest standards of writing it holds up just fine) but for the bold images (the protagonist goes inside a woman who has, through gene therapy, become huge enough to house her employees; the very walls breathe pinkly), ideas which are not only marvelously imaginative (the division of the human species between "reShaped" who undergo eugenic genetic engineering vs. the Mechanists who employ mechanical improvements; these two groups have formed political factions, but later the factions predictably lose ideological followers) but have historical insight and also are quite optimistic about our future as a species.
 

Laughing Magpie

One of the Regulars
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I'm just starting to venture out of the Powder Room... this is a great thread! I just came back from DragonCon in Atlanta where my friends and I spent some quality time dressed in Steampunk attire. Many of my vintage acquisitions worked their way into the costume.

If you're keen, I posted an entry on the LJ community 'steamfashion' with some pictures of the Airship Vertigo crew:
http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/113873.html

I like the term 'Dieselpunk' for early-mid 20th century in a similar vein! I call it Rivetpunk myself :), but Dieselpunk makes a bit more sense.

Jen
 

Shaul-Ike Cohen

One Too Many
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Nice webcam (pic links to site), just when I thought about replacing my shaky monitor with one that has a built-in webcam:

........................
 

imoldfashioned

Call Me a Cab
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Shaul-Ike Cohen said:
Nice webcam (pic links to site), just when I thought about replacing my shaky monitor with one that has a built-in webcam:

........................

Oh my gosh, that is geekilicious! Wish it were cheaper though.
 

Shaul-Ike Cohen

One Too Many
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I'm not sure if it is a good thing as a webcam. It seems to come with a monitor clip, but they don't show it in action, and it's also not clear if you can even tilt it or if you have to put your chin to the desk unless you take it in your hands.
 

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