Chances are that we will see a renewed interest in Chicago history with the 2013 cinematic release of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City with Leonardo DiCaprio as the murderous H.H. Holmes. After all, it should combine the grandeur of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with the grand guignol of Holmes.

If you have not read the book (which we advise) or don’t have the time for it in the next year, try the Devil & the White City Tour guided by Weird Chicago. My recent trip featured stops at the Congress Hotel where Holmes fished for victims, the Union Stockyards and the corner where once stood the infamous pharmacy and “murder castle.”

Weird Chicago can lead you down the twisted path of Chicago murderers, gangsters, ghosts and even the tawdry red light districts. Tours tend to run on Fridays and Saturdays. They are $30 per person ($20 for 12 and under, although the sexy tour is $40 and only for the 18+).

Reservations and availability can be found at www.weirdchicago.com.

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!

It goes without saying that steampunk has a unique relationship with history, both re-imagining it,  appreciating it and disseminating it.  Thusly, it should come as no surprise that those who play a part in keeping various aspects of history alive also find themselves attracted to the steampunk movement.

Thus it was that Pleasant Home found us.  You may already know about our summer series we’ve been holding at this fine estate, what you may not know is some of the further details.

Pleasant Home is a landmark, early Prairie Style mansion that was designed by architect George Maher, a man who designed well over 40 buildings throughout Chicagoland, many of which are now registered as historic.  But it was millionaire banker, John W. Farson, who built it.  The original estate boasted gardens, coach houses and a fountain.  The house itself also had a ballroom, game rooms and even an outdoor stage… on the roof.

It was quite the party place, but, unfortunately, Mr. Farson died in 1910, heralding an end to the local revelries.

What’s funny about this, is that was when it got interesting.  in 1911 Herbert Mills, of Mill’s Novelty Company, purchased the mansion and spread throughout it his whimsical and marvelous inventions, most of which were coin operated amusement machines that, for a nickel or a dime, would play music (on real instruments) or offer any number of games.  To add an additional bit of “steampunkery” to it all, it was shortly after the Worlds’ Columbian Exposition of 1893 that young Mills built the first coin-operated automatic slot machine that would eventually lead to Mills’s penny arcades becoming institutions of turn of the century America.

 In 1939, ten years after Herbert’s death, the family sold the house to the Oak Park Park District, who still owns and operates it today.  Today you can attend a variety of events and shows here as well as get tours of the home.  Not only that but you can also join us for Watch Chains & Lace, our monthly summer event, which just happens to be happening this Sunday, August 28th.

For more information check out Pleasant Home’s webpage, and while you’re there, feel free to donate, and support.

So it was that yesterday, (Sunday if you happen to be reading this on say, not a Monday), myself, the charming KL Kenzie, the good Rev. Cpt. Sam Flint and the lovely Lady Lisa all went to view what we were sure was the new fan-boy wank fest “Sucker Punch“.

Flint, already having read reviews from people who have the time to see movies on opening day, promised us that though the film would be very very pretty to look at it – it would also be completely bereft of anything involving either plot or substance.  Having watched the trailer a good 14,028,215 times I came to the conclusion that this was okay – and that we had to see it Sunday so we could have an article up on Steampunk Chicago by Monday.

So to begin, I’m going to start by saying, yes, I know this movie is “dieselpunk” not “steampunk” according to a number of people who have the time to take barely established counter cultures and differentiate them into further sub-genres.  That aside, if you’re looking for a film that evokes the kind of timeless visual imagery of such works as City of Lost Children, Dark City or even Fight Club, this movie is for you.  This brings me to my first laud to Mr. Snyder.

Snyder has deftly taken the style of post World War 2 America for the film, but cleverly and smoothly throws in a number of anachronistic hints that make classifying the movie to any specific time period impossible.  This is hands down, one of the greatest stylistic strengths of the film, and adds an immediate dream-like feeling to its world.

An interesting promo image for the film.

As for the plot,  I’m going to come forward and say that I think all the ill talk of it is un-founded.  I found the plot to be engaging.  I can imagine the biggest issue the casual viewer might have being that it is anything but traditional in the western world sense of plotting, where one starts at point A and goes from point to point until it neatly ends.  Yet plenty of succesful films have avoided that for the better.  Where Sucker Punch is different is that it also defies the more post-modern conceit of the beginning being the end, the “it was all a dream” or even the “it was all in her head” motif.  It’s never made clear just where the movie is really taking place, and it uses this to its own strength.

Without giving too much away, the film is essentially a story within a story within a story, and though – at first – where they begin and end seems evident, after watching the movie in its entirety you’re left not being so sure.  While I enjoyed this aspect, I can see it intensely alienating a majority of viewers.  I think Sucker Punch is a significantly more clever, and intelligent film than one might expect.

Perhaps that is really the “sucker punch” here (yes, pun intended).  The chain gun toting samurai robot-demons and the steampunk Nazi clockwork robot zombies and the bomb train guarded by androids going for the super city are all really really really awesome, but a movie together, they do not make.  Where the film really lies is the plot of five women trying to escape from… well, it’s not clear.  One might say this is a problem, but I don’t think it is here.  This is a film that’s as much about a Buddhist-esque escape from the self as it is about escape from some kind of physical prison, and the nebulous quality of precisely what the prison is really is the center of the story.  It lends itself up to intense speculation and interpretation, and in a culture where we’re increasingly told what to think or how things are, it’s refreshing to not be told what was right, how it was done, or where it came from.

Is Sucker Punch perfect?  No. Is it entertaining?  Yes.  It’s also intensely disturbing and extremely dark.  The fantasy scenes, of which virtually all the hype is being given, are not so much essential to any key plot points, but are essential to your not losing your own mind at how absolutely destitute the lives of the protagonists increasingly become.  So perhaps that’s what we’re left with.  A sucker punch; we come expecting only extraordinary eye candy and yet leave with our minds in a knot.

Evidently there was a “Done in 60 Seconds” film contest and evidently one Mr. Wolfgang Matzl did this short, funny and arguably pretty damn steampunk variant of Christopher Nolan’s seminal movie “Inception.” Thanks to The Steampunk Tribune and I09 for the heads up on this great short.