Awright mates! Thee Bluebeard here to give you the bitter end of the recap for Gearbox Fantastique II. It was a rainy night in April at Reggies Rock Club in Chicago. The year was 2012. I brought my hat. I looked amazing mates! V for Villain was there and they were so damn pumped with bad guy energy, loud music and sinister fanciness I thought I would melt with jealousy! They even wear masks! Who DOES that?!! Check them out mates. You’ll be glad. Then you’ll understand.

So we also had Hellblinki. How does one describe this trio of ‘dear-gods-what-is-that?!’ as they perform their signature tunes? I will say bouncy and light while driving a sad funeral march mosh pit sound into your day. Listen to them. You’ll understand and you’re welcome.

Now then mates we had freaks. Not the fellas at the wharf talking to themselves about wales in the middle of the night but really funky looking folks with some physical anomolies and talents. Let’s just START with The Squidling Brothers Circus Side Show. They have a sword swallowing hottie called Betty Bloomerz who also eats fire and smiles like a beautiful broken toy. Matters Squidling himself puts mouse traps on his tongue and plays the trombone while the Illustrated penguin(you have to see him…) hung weights from his head. Their performance was hosted by Jellyboy The Clown who loved the joy of dance and the ease of surgical tubing passing through orifices. AND THAT WASN’T ALL! The show leaves you crying for . . . well probably just crying.

And a fella goes by the name Sir Pinkerton Xyloma brought out his band o’ misfits and musicians all the way from Milwaukee. A strongman aptly named Titano. He was a mountain of a man with a bit of ink done TO HIS FACE! A half man that did things that defy gravity and my understanding of upper body strength. Sir Pinkerton himself had one of the most gorgeous mustaches I’ve ever had the pleasure to put my own mustache next to! It was not epic, it was not boss, it was not amazing, it was Xylomic. Yes, I said it.

But now you think to yourself, “I missed that?! Damn my shift at Starbucks! I should have quit to go see that show!” And I answer you a loud resounding YES! You really should have if you did not. The Lord Barron Vourteque, mast head of Steampunk Chicago and looking fantastique (even though he has no mustache), Jellyboy and myself, Thee Bluebeard, all had a wonderful time introducing the acts to the beautiful chaos that was Gearbox Fantastique II. If you missed it you are not to despair but rather wait . . . patiently. There is more to come.

Did you see the video?! The girlie with the camera, Daria Melnikova, who filmed it just gave you a visual made of shooting stars and awesome! What the hedge-row are you reading this for?!! WATCH!!

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