Is it that time again already?  I feel as though I left Steam-Con I just yesterday, with its large music shows and tea-time and crazy people thinking they are vampires at 3am on a Saturday.  But truly, that’s without regard as this time I – The Lord Baron – return to Steam-Con not just as a guest, but as a panelist!

This Steam-Con has decided to go “Weird Weird West”, an interesting choice and an interesting turn as Steam-Con has been arguably the most traditional of the steampunk cons I have been to. It will be interesting to see what kind of themes they drum up each year going forward with such momentum.

That aside though, conventions mean things such as special guests, and their guests are no strangers to the Steampunk community.  Their literary guest being James Blaylock (whom I had the pleasure to co-panel with at last years Windy-Con here in Chicago) and their artist guest being none other than Jake Von Slatt of The Steampunk Workshop.

Music-wise (and we do admit, we are very music oriented here at Steampunk Chicago), the weekend features Sepiachord‘s “Mr. Bodewell’s Cabaret” with live acts and music from a wide array of steampunk musicians including many artists we have mentioned ourselves here such The Gypsy Nomads, Eliza Rickman and Curtis Eller.  Then there is the “Outlaw Night Concert” with a return performance from Abney Park as well as other performances by Texas hellbilly band Ghoultown and Chicago turned Seattle group Bakelite 78.

Definitely looking forward to this.

Other events at the con include the “Airship Awards” banquet, “Wild Lily’s Saturday and Sunday Tea and Fashion show.” Not only that but I, the Lord Baron himself, will be a PANELIST!  That’s right, you get to be subjected to my unfettered, and arguably, un-expert opinion on such things as quantum mechanics (“What We Don’t Understand about Physics” – Saturday, noon, Orcas A&B at the Hilton), event production (“Steampunk Events”, Friday, 3pm, Emerald B, Hilton), Ghost Hunting (“Steampunk Ghost Hunting”, Saturday, 6pm, Crystal A, Hilton), MORE Ghost Hunting (“RL&GEMS pres. The Steampunk Ghost Hunting Kit”, Saturday, 11am, Seattle, Marriot).

AND you even get to hear me read selections from my novel “The Mechanist”, that is Sunday at 10am at the Suite by the Pool at the Marriott.

Steam-Con II is THIS weekend at the Sea-Tac Marriott and Hilton hotels in Seattle Washington.  For more information check it out at SteamCon.Org!

She Best Not...

But, Lord Baron, What If I Cannot Make it to Seattle?

Then join the Airship O’Reilly for their very first event!

This Champaign, Illinois based steampunk group has come together to put on an event that hopes to give central Illinois something to talk about.

The event features Chicago DJ JanderVK and DJ duo Provoctiv Reality playing beats and sounds to keep you in the “steampunk mood”.  There will also be waltzing lessons by O’Reilly’s Captain and a “Steampunk 101″ class by none-other than our good friends at Highwind Steamworks.

It’s highly suggested you dress in your finest for this event – though everyone is invited (even street urchins and engine boys).

The event starts at 6pm and goes until 2am.  Entry is free, and it’s 19+ to get in.

So do go out and support our local and national scene!

Best!

-The Lord Baron

As many of you may or may not already know the much heralded World Steam Expo is set to launch a week from today and we here at Steampunk Chicago and esteemed members of the Royal Ladies’ & Gentle-mens’ Experimental Madness Society could not be more excited.

“But why, good people, are you so excited” you ask?

For a variety of reasons.  But tantamount to them all is a multifarious array of our members being panelists and participants at the con!  If you happen to make it do check out as many of the events and panels as you can, but should you wish to see your good authors/party promoters/mad scientists in person check out the following.

Steampunk in Popular Culture
Airships
Steampunking the Home
Steampunk Events

AND (of course)

One of our ghost hunting devices - The Electro-Aether-Voice-Phenomenon Recorder

The RL&GEMS Showcases their ghost hunting equipment.  At that panel we will be showing and demonstrating our inventions as well as showing pictures, film clips and evidence from hunts we’ve done at such places as The Roff Home in Watskea, Illinois (do check back on Monday for an article on it!)

But that is just the tip of the iceberg!  The grand event also features a mad science fair, a Tiny Top Hat Workshop, a masquerade ball and a live performance by none other than Abney Park.  If you have not seen them live, do not miss the spectacle!

Tickets are still available – so do get them now if you wish to go!

And with that said I will leave you wonder and dream about what things await us in the grand duchy of Dearborn, Michigan.  We do hope to see you there!

Best!
The Lord Baron

My, My, look at All the Steampunkery!

Yes!  It does look as though things are taking off in the Midwest!  Why with the soon to be coming SECOND edition of Clockwork Vaudeville, a Steampunk book spread at Quimby’s, and the World Steam Expo – just to name a few – things are  really getting off to a rollicking start!

On top of that, this past weekend we had the Steamposium in St. Louis, Steam Century’s event at Midway Village and a lovely tea and salon at the good abode of the Dezomas!  I was fortunately to make the latter two, but who cares to read my meanderings.  Let us dive right in!

April 17th – Clockwork Vaudeville

Our first was a HUGE success – if you did not see the Timeout photo spread – do click and see it now.  This time around we feature the White City Rippers along with Feral Minette and guest DJ W. Groves!  As with last time it is free to get in, goes until late and features $3 gin and rum so you lesser ones can still get your “groove” on with the help of such.

This time around we are also featuring a $150 gift certificate to Anastasia Chatzka or $20 to Odd Obsession Movies!

To view the full invite simply go HERE for Facebook users or HERE on Yelp for everyone else!

Speaking of Odd Obsession, have you ever wanted to wrap your eyes around a “Steampunk” movie but did not know where to look?  Well for the next week, Odd Obsession, in conjunction with us at SteampunkChicago.com, will have a “Steampunk Movie Shelf” show-casing some of the best movies that have been influenced by or influenced the Steampunk movement!

Pray Tell Good Baron, What WERE You Up To This Weekend?

photos by Gunnar Soderlind

I am glad you hypothetically asked!  First and foremost I attended Steam Century’s “Divided We Fall or The Virtues of Planned Obsolescence in Biomechanical Automata”.  Long names aside, it was a most exciting and well done event.  Upon arrival in Midway Village (expecting, of course, simply a lovely concert and some fine conversation) all the lights went out.  The town was set into a panic and we were ushered into the church.

It was a very intense situation.

There things began to look grim.  As it turned out other small towns had seemed to suffer from similar situations as of late; except in the morning the inhabitants of said towns were found dead… thus it was up to all of us to get the generator back online or… well, I would rather not think of what might have happened.

Many strange puzzles involving artifacts, killer automatons and the dead seemingly risen from the grave later – the mystery had been solved and we were saved!  We were then treated to a rousing performance by one Mr. Eli August which was subsequently interrupted by a Zeppelin’s landing, a security force storming the church where we had gathered and taking the captured zombie away.  To truly understand you simply have to go to the next one.  It’s in July.  For more information visit the Steam Century aether-web site (to your right there) or Midway Village.

Yes, looking for zombies in barns was part of it.

The next day I was honored to attend (though rather late for the tea unfortunately) the lovely abode of the Dr. and Dr. Dezoma in the hamlet of Homewood, IL.  There amongst the esteemed guests, we had wine and port, spoke of many lovely things and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  I had missed instructional lectures on how to etch and work metal with simple things found in your kitchen, though I was assured the next tea would have a similar speaker.  I will certainly be attending the next one!

All in all it was QUITE a weekend I must say!

And I got to shoot guns.

Lastly!  Are you tired of going to Steampunk Chicago.com EVERY day only to find that it’s STILL Steampunk Chicago.com?  Well then you should check out STEAMED, especially as they have been doing “Steamapalooza” for the last week and there is a plethora of fantastic articles – including one about a certain collective of people by a certain good friend of ours (P.S. it’s HERE – thank you kindly Ms. Darville!)

Do go and check it out.  We would be honored if you did so!

Other Up-Coming Such As and So Forth-ness!

You did read the above correctly!  On Monday April 19th Lifeline Theatre is holding a benefit event where you, intrepid reader, can immerse yourself in the Floating Market of Neil Gaimen’s seminal work “Neverwhere”.  The benefit promises to have performances, vendors and event a body guard contest.  What is more?  The lovely Lisa Marie Ogle will be photographing the event and a number of other Steampunk Chicago members will be PLAYERS!  Yes, it promises to be a delightful time!  Simply visit The Lifeline Theatre’s aether-web page for more information!

On top of that, we are already looking into some extraordinary acts for our May and June Clockwork Vaudeville’s — they will only be getting bigger.  On top of that, a few members of the RL&GEMS are to be panelists at World Steam Expo in May.  And keep an eye on Quimby’s Books in Wicker Park.  It looks like we may be working with them to do a Steampunk literature spread for a month!

That should wrap it up for now!

Best,

The Lord Baron

When in an inventive mood of tinkering and, well, inventing, the good Rev. Cpt. and I have found that one of the great conundrums of creating a proper invention is the details, and sometimes said details can seem to be beyond one’s means.

A great example of this is the problem of wiring. When creating a device, such as say, an EMF Reader that has a separate battery pack, or an EVP Recorder that has internal wiring, what does one do (and how does one subtly promote their own inventions in a blog post?)

There are two solutions to this problem. The first, oft used by reenactors, steampunk inventors and people who just want their wiring to not look cheap, is to buy a thick shoe-lace or laundry cord and simply run the real wire through it (sometimes, as in the laundry cord, you have to take an inner cotton stuffing out.)

An example of this is the RL&GEMS EMF Reader and EVP recorders. We used this technique in each. For the EMF Reader, we had to figure out how to get the wires that connected (via alligator clips) the battery to the machine to look appropriate.  We solved this by running an actual, already plastic insulated, wire through some cloth cord.

We did the same thing with plug for the EVP Reader that is used to connect to the recording device itself to the speaker/microphone as you can see in this picture.

The problem with this technique is two fold though.  It is bulky, one, and thus only works for large wires, usually the kind you would have externally.  It is not good for small scale internal wiring.  The second is that it is a long, cumbersome, and arduous process, as will be expanded upon later.

So while wrapping wiring is a great DIY way to do things, it isn’t your only option. Sundial Wire is a great place to go for fairly inexpensive cotton and rayon coated wire. On top of that they offer a variety of gauges, colors and types. I used some of them for the wiring that connects the battery pack to the internal terminals to power the “Frequency Flux” device in the EVP Recorder.

And while it is not AS DIY to have someone else cover your wire in cloth for you, it looks better and is easier to use I find. As I mentioned earlier, wrapping your own can take up to an hour for less than a foot and is an arduous process, at least from my experiences it is.

There are other companies that offer wrapped cords. Cordinated Cables offers great looking guitar and audio cables already wrapped in stylish cloth.

And for those on the other side of the proverbial “pond” there AES offers braided cables, though it seems they are more geared toward vintage car restoration.

If anyone else happens to have a suggestion, by all means add it to the comments. Otherwise happy fabricating!

Best,
-The Lord Baron

You can see the pictures HERE.

Best,
The Variable Dr.