Teslacon II continues to explore  the fantastic world of Lord Bobbins versus Dr. Proctocus  this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. We, the RLGEMS and hundreds of other steampunks will be travelling 20,000 leagues under the aether in the fantastic submarine/airship the HMS Trident! Exotic ports of call, mummie unwrappings, murder, mystery and magic are sure to please the senses.  The RLGEMS had the fortune of being actors in the inaugural con last November. This year, extended members from Chicago will be presenting several panels, events and more! Some of our friends from Michigan and Ohio will be joining us for discussions and merriment.

PLEASE NOTE  our new event listing and calendar! Our panels and events for this weekend have been listed.

FRIDAY NIGHT we will be hosting a Midnight Gala, sampling the finest in fashion, drinks, and music. Please note this event is limited to those of age, so please leave the children with the auto-sitter. Join us at 9:30 in the Leviathan room, 21+.

SILENT FILM with Mr. Perkins, a distant relative of RLGEMS founder Captain Flint will be showing. Join Mr. Perkins in the silent pirate film starring Thee Bluebeard at 8:30 Friday night in the Nemo room. Please view the preview below!

The adventures this weekend have broken the bounds of time and scene, as the AV Club Madison ran a fantastic interview with sci-fi scholar Austin Sirkin and our friend the “Steampunk Chef”, Aaron Egan. Teslacon has posted the entire schedule!

We’ll be bringing our newest fashions, devices, gadgets and music. Please leave us a note below if we will see you there!

Come one, come all to Chicago, for this Saturday June 4, we have an extra-ordinary event! Presenting, the Polyphonic Panorama! A night filled with steampunk and vaudeville music, steampunk fashion, pirate humor, fantastic Steampunk art, jewelry and more!

The Abbey Pub! 8pm!

Come hear the fantastic sounds of Frenchy and the Punk, Helblinki Sextet, Curtis Eller, Eliza Rickman and Duenow!

See the pirate madness what is Thee Bluebeard!

If you were at the World Steam Expo, consider this an encore performance and a kickstart to a Chicago summer of Steampunk!

Read more about the Polyphonic Panorama and see our entire Calendar of events at our events listing!

See you there!

I’ve become a great fan of airship history and lore. As captain and creator of the USAS C.E. Rosendahl, accuracy, plausibility and function are all very important to me when creating my floating gas bag based transport. My research has come from various sources; books, the Internet Archive, hundreds of images, real world ships, and hands on experience. I even took up sailing on tall ships to learn more about ship construction, but that’s a story for another day.

NASA

Of all places, NASA is a gem for research as, well, NASA has researched airships of course.

A thorough tour of the NASA Image Exchange is in order. A search for “airship”, “Macon”, or “Akron” yields excellent results of science in action. Photos include in-flight, R&D, wind tunnels, and large models.

Deviant Art

Lacking ideas? If Airship-builder’s block has set its curse upon you, you can  always look up the latest designs in airship attire, imagery and art at Deviant Art. You’ll find more costumes and cosplay than airship construction, but its still an excellent resource.

Related Blogs and Searches

Over at Airships.net, you can find excellent information on the history, misconceptions and stories of airships. The blog also highlights photos and blueprints.

Fings at Flickr has taken the time to scan in or enhance many Archive.org book illustrations, including an additional full-color German airship poster “To South America in 3 Days”.

Archive.org

The Internet Archive is an outstanding website, full of ephemeral films, music, imagery and texts. Their collection of texts includes many old-timey books free of copyright and absolutely packed with photos, ideas, stories, first-hand flight accounts and more.

Zeppelin; The Story of a Great Achievement is a public-domain book from the 1920s. Perhaps more important than the text in the publication is the pictures. Every other page is a delightful picture or schematic of various Zeppelins. This absolutely fantastic book from 1917 features schematics, photos, plans, drawings and a very robust history of airships.

Another fantistic find at the Archive is this amazing book featuring plans, photos, construction blueprints and more. D’Orcy’s airship manual; an international register of airships with a compendium of the airship’s elementary mechanics

Flying machines: past, present, and future. A popular account of flying machines, dirigible balloons and aeroplane from 1914 is an astounding book, listing many different airships and balloons, and is deliciously full of photos, blueprints and plans. The back of the book even lists a (then) current list of suppliers and resources for all things electrical, gas, construction and airship so you can build your own! Many airships-attached-to-boats are also illustrated, which is the way I’ve done with the Rosendahl.

If you’re working on an airship of your own (real or imagined), please post a link in the comments!

If you are unfamiliar to the band Abney Park, you are either new to the Steampunk sub-culture or have somehow ducked any and all reference to them ubiquitously scattered throughout the aether.
Regardless, I am sure the rest will be simply delighted to know that the newest album from Abney Park – “Aether Shanties” – has been released and I must say, I find it to be a lovely work indeed.

They continue in the same vein they began with “Lost Horizons”, thematically keeping with such Steampunk ideas as derelict airships (Aether Shanty – the single that I had posted above), clockworks (The Clockyard), DIY machine building (Building Steam). In such terms it is an entertaining album that sets the steampunk mood perfectly.

Sonically it has a number of points where it deviates from Lost Horizons, though those who have listened to their work prior to LH should find this to be of no surprise.  Abney Park is a band that seemingly lives to re-invent themselves as much as they do to perform, and in this situation it suits them.

Gone away is their hard, gothy EBM style that made up roughly half of the last album.  And while there is, of course, still a lot of heavy guitar vamping and bold piratey stuff, there are a number of other tracks that do an interesting, though not always convincing, play on fusing the antique with the new.

That was “Until The Day You Die”, one of the strongest and most interesting numbers on the album, their use without over-use of rag-time samples gives the song a fun, goofy and yet darkly diabolical nature.

“My Life” does a fun job at mixing a gypsy-klezmer style into the mix, though it didn’t feel entirely natural to mine-self, and I almost felt that I would rather leave the gypsy punk to the gypsies. That is not to say it isn’t a good track, but I am not so sure it fits here with what the band is doing.

I find the same with “Victoria”, though I am divided on this one. I love piano, and the piano work on this track is deep, melancholy and beautiful… but then they must add a drum machine as though they are not confident enough in the piano compositions ability to move on its own.  When the good Captain breaks in with a genuinely sad soliloquy and the drum machine falls away you are immediately brought back in, but then as soon as it is gone, the infernal thing returns, much to my frustration.

Perhaps I am reaching. So with that I’ll finish by saying that, regardless of its faults, it is a deliriously beautiful album. It is refreshing to see that they’re growing as musicians, producers and song writers. The album sounds, for the most part, the least electronic of any of their work to date, and this is where the real strengths in it lie.

I do suggest going to their website AbneyPark.com and buying the album straight from them, it is available for digital download or as an actual, physical “compact disc.” All in all, I am willing to say, I would be surprised if you found it to disappoint.

Best,
-The Lord Baron

Joining us on this day would be myself, The Lord Baron

And of course Mr. Auto-Technical – who did not dress up and thus I am henceforth going to refer to him as “The random mundane who decided to tag along”*

*To Auto-Technical’s credit, he does oft dress up quite fantastically.

First was an early brunch at Blueline a nice little joint with far and away the best brunch for your dollar in the city.  The good Rev. Cpt and myself showed up to find the lovely Mason’s seated and waiting for us.  We had not yet met in person and let me say, the good Mr. Mason’s taste in fashion, sensibility and general knowledge of those things strange were quite impressive.  The lovely Mrs. Mason was also a manager at one of our favourite locales for procuring the printed word – so needless to say – were all fast friends.

A half a gallon of coffee/participant and two $3 mimosa’s later we headed out.

Of course – since the Masons had never been to Bonnie & Clydes before we had to stop there.  We waited and conversed with the likes of Alex, Cue and Pasqel while waiting for Mr. Auto-Technical to join us.  Roughly fifteen minutes later we witnessed him wandering aimlessly down Division street – he was dressed like some kind of lower-class sewage repossesion man and smelled of cheap perfume and gin.  Immediately we understood… he had “after partied.”

“Mr. Auto-Technical” I called out as he starred blankly at a pay-for-parking machine.  He blinked, looked around, blinked again and this coughed up a piece of his internal organs.  “Shall we be going?”

“Oh, yes, of course… to the… fair?”

“Yes – to the fair.”

We left B&C for the DIY market – which I am sure you find to be a relief as the entire beginning of this article is most likely of no bearing what-so-ever to you.

We arrived at the Pulaski Field House on Blackhawk Street.  It is quite a place.

These crafty folk take glass bottles, might they have once held soda-water or a fine wine – and cut the tops off – then decorate the sides – to create purposeful, beautiful and one of a kind glassware.  Quite, quite nice indeed.

Next was one of the most original of the all the crafts at the fair…

Owly Shadow Puppets

This is one of the few printing houses left that does ACTUAL printing, with presses and type-sets and the like – much like my good friend out in Debque – Peter Fraterdeus.  They are having a soiree December 5th – check out their aether-site and try to attend – it should be a rousing time indeed!

Lastly – there was our good friend Natalie’s shoppe Cloudlover Yarn & Fibres

Once we had our fill of good old fashion trespassing we ventured outside into the land of the living.  The sun was shining and we had an afternoon to do away with.  Mr. Auto-Technical decided that he had to retire to his abode to sew clockwork gears onto his jacket in lieu of actual buttons.

The rest of us decided to retire to the good Rev. Cpt’s porch with a jug of scotch and wax nostalgic on days gone by.  Mr. Auto-Technical decided to join us and thus we watched the sun go down, clinking glasses to a day well spent.