Steampunk on CBS…

| October 31, 2011

It appears that yesterday morning, on CBS’ Sunday Morning program, a piece on Steampunk was aired.  Based on the associated write up, its seemed fairly basic, essentially a primer for those watching early morning television.  I admit to being a tad disappointed at the organization’s failure to post the video, to see how Mr. Mo Rocca narrates the work, but what I assume is a condensation of the narrative is posted on their site (along with a fellow making disparaging comments from his mother’s basement).  To read the narrative, please turn to: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-20127610/steampunk-yesterdays-tomorrow/#comments

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A Happy Halloween Rez-Day to Breezy!…

| October 31, 2011

In addition to the 31st of October being Halloween, a day to lavish youth with excessive amounts of sugary goods (to vex their parents for with sugar highs for the next few weeks), today is also the rez-day (akin to a birthday in Second Life), of my lovely partner, Miss Breezy Carver-Fabre.  As the long time resident of New Babbage, not only is she the force behind what might very well be Second Life’s most consistently successful social events (the Piermont Balls), but the hard working editrix of Virtually Classic Fashions, a SL blog that focuses on classic Steampunk and Dieselpunk fashions.

Happy 4th rez day, Breezy!

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Steampunk Comics: Deliah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant (and a word of thanks!)

| October 31, 2011

Came across a unique online comic series (via IO9), titled Deliah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, which though it isn’t *exactly* Steampunk (per se), there is a good amount of swashbuckling, a Renascence protagonist, unique takes on transportation, and of course, a bit of tea!  To delve straight away into Deliah Dirk’s escapades, please consider visiting :http://io9.com/5854312/delilah-dirk-and-the-turkish-lieutenant-takes-us-to-1800s-constantinople-in-a-flying-sailboat

… followed by a link to the webcomic page, at: http://www.delilahdirk.com/

~~~~~~~~~~


Also, I’d like to pass a word of gratitude to all the visitors over the past four plus years, who have stopped by this blog in its many incarnations (The Voyages of a Steampunk Physician / The Heliograph / The Steampunk Tribune).  The blog superseded the one million page views earlier this afternoon, and I’m honored that so many people have taken time out of their day to pass an eye on the Tribune… so I’d like to convey my thanks!

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Steampunk Halloween suggestions and ideas from Steampunk Costume!

| October 29, 2011

Some outstanding Steampunk Pumpkins… 

If by chance, you have been  a bit behind the curve on your Steampunk Halloween preparations, I would highly suggest a jaunt over the the wonderful Steampunk Costume website, where a plethora of ingenious and creative ideas for one’s costume reside!  Mind you, not every idea will be attainable, as many ensembles take weeks or even months to attain, but one can still spend quite a bit of time researching ideas and inspirations from Steampunk Costume… and being that its Saturday Morning (as of this entry), you’ll have a full weekend to work (or tweak) your attire!  To obtain a bit more inspiration for this coming Monday evening, please visit: http://steampunkcostume.com/

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We Interrupt Very Srs Blog Bsnz To Bring You Story Ideas

| October 29, 2011

So tonight in #steampunkchat, we were talking about queer steampunk, and author Nisi Shawl said, “Sex and war move technological progress. Sex includes queer sex, right?” 

And something just PINGED in me, you know, as in, “OMG! A setting where sex drives the technology, not war!! ALL KINDS OF SEX!”
And I hear this whole “conflict drives technological innovation!” meme so much, it’s really fucking tiresome. Technology adapts to our needs at the time, which doesn’t have to depend on conflict. Assuming that conflict is the only way to drive forward technological innovation is a kind of tired old trope that just has us falling back on war as a setting and doesn’t paint us as very imaginative creatures who can dare dream about progress without ridiculous notions of bravery and nobility through slaughtering each other.
So NaNoWriMo is right around the corner and if you were looking for a challenging setting to work with, here’s my challenge, write a steampunk world where technology is inspired by, not conflict, but sexual activity. ANY KIND OF SEXUAL ACTIVITY! As Nisi continued to say, “yes, the vibrators and milking machines belong in queer steampunk.” Hell, vibrators and milking machines belong in ALL STEAMPUNK! 
So maybe it’s my being single and not getting laid for just about two fucking years now, but I really want to see this happen! Like, Chester 5000 XYV, except society-wide! 
BRING ON ALL THE SEX!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled srs blog bsnz.

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Call for the Steampunk Tribune’s Facebook update!

| October 29, 2011

Its about time that I put down the scotch and update the Steampunk Tribune’s Steampunk Facebook Listings!  I have a few requests to add at this point, but if you have a Facebook site which isn’t listed, or know of a site which isn’t listed and would like to see it added, please do drop a line at TheSteampunkTribune [at] yahoo [dot] com, and I’ll endeavor to have an updated listing of Steampunk Facebook listings before we fall back an hour next weekend (yes, it is next weekend)!

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Fall 2011 Giveaway Summary

| October 28, 2011

Many thanks to everyone for entering our Fall 2011 giveaway contests! Here’s a recap of the books we’re giving away and their contest deadlines.

 

Ghosts of War by George Mann – October 30

Hearts of Smoke and Steam and The Falling Machine by Andrew P. Mayer – October 30

The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick – November 4

The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers – November 4

The Rift Walker and The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffith – November 11

 

Best of luck to everyone!

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Fall 2011 Giveaway — Books 1 and 2 of the Vampire Empire series by Clay and Susan Griffith

| October 28, 2011

We finish the Fall 2011 Giveaway with three – three! – chances to win the first two books of the Vampire Empire series by Clay and Susan Griffith!

 Rift-Walker

Greyfriar
 

 

We gave away a copy of Book One: The Greyfriar last year (see our review here) and the Griffiths were extremely good sports about seeing a puppet complain about vampire literature. Fortunately, no one has listened to our curmudgeonly puppet, and the Vampire Empire series is doing extremely well; James Marsters (aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is the narrator for the audio books! Now Book Two: The Rift Walker is out, and continues the story. Princess Adele and the Greyfriar are reunited, albeit in dangerous circumstances, and while the vampire kingdoms and human alliances fight each other, Adele discovers more information about her power to channel energy via ley lines. These are not sparkly vampires, nor are these one-dimensional humans; there’s a lot going on behind each scene, and many characters have conflicting motives. In short, it’s a great second book in a trilogy, and even our puppet representative has grudgingly admitted to admiring the steampunked, futuristic world of the Vampire Empire, where swords are charged with heat energy, Alexandria is the capital of the Equatorial (human) kingdom, and the occult coexists with scientific fact.

 

More information on the authors is available at their website, and the Vampire Empire has its very own Facebook page, too, so fans can discuss the books!

 

We have two copies of The Rift Walker to give away (one advance reader copy, one as-published copy) and also an advance reader copy of The Greyfriar! In order to enter the contest, post a comment below and tell us your ideal steampunk weapon for vampire hunting. Any vampire genre will do for this one, we won’t limit it to the denizens of the Vampire Empire.  (A Gatling gun which fires wooden stakes, maybe?) The deadline for the contest is Friday, November 11th. Good luck!

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Steampunk Reviews – Episode # 31: "Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark" & "Blackwood’s Guide To Dangerous Fairies"

| October 27, 2011

Miss Yankee999 is ever diligent (as always) with her endeavor – her newest Steampunk Reviews focuses on “Don’t be afraid of the Dark“, a excellent Guillermo del Toro production, and “Blackwood’s Guide to Dangerous Fairies”, a companion book (of sorts) to the production – please do enjoy!

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Scheduled Maintenence

| October 27, 2011

I regret to inform our readers that the Steampunk News web site may be intermittently offline over the coming weekend (28 – 30 October) as our web hosting server is scheduled to have it’s babbage engine overhauled.  We will try to keep any outages to a minimum.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

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A Culture, Not a Costume

| October 26, 2011

Oh hey, it IS about close to Halloween, right? I know it is because I’ve been seeing more anxiety about people dressing up as racist stereotypes than usual. I mean, I have this anxiety all the time! I do steampunk! Non-white steampunk, even. 

But all this stuff I do in steampunk? It’s just a continuation of stuff that happens outside of steampunk. Dressing up as something from a different culture? Happens every year on a pretty mass scale!
So here are two related but separate links about cultural appropriation during Halloween which I think are extremely pertinent for steampunk:
At Native Appropriations, Adrienne K writes about how she wants to reason with white people into NOT wearing the hypersexualised Indian princess costumes (PocaHotties) or warrior outfits, only to realize that words like those would be wasted anyway. Who the hell wants to be told that what they’re doing is wrong?Who wants to be told that their having fun is racist and based on a system of power that allows them to get away with this kind of shit, while ignoring the wishes of  the people of colour who says, “don’t do it, it hurts”?
I kind of have this conversation all the time with folks, hell, there’s a conversation like this happening right now in some other comment thread. These people want to be reasoned with, they want to have a deeply intelligent conversation with rigorous debate before they will be satisfied. As if these things were logical and we’re dealing with the pragmatics of material, not with things like empathy and power. 
So when people asked me, “why weren’t you at [SteamCon III's] Multicultural Brunch?” I said, I don’t want to run the risk of raising my blood pressure in seeing [colour]face. It’s not worth it. I don’t want to hear about the research people have done about their costumes, the history of a suit, the changes it has undergone–not the day after I’ve been called a racist for simply looking for people like me who are, with or without costume, different from default. 
I’m sorry I don’t appear to give a shit about what you’ve done with pieces of cloth when I’m more concerned with what people do to other people. It’s not that I don’t appreciate these efforts of yours, because I do, and if you’re studying the history of my people to create that, perhaps you will also come across the history of my people as people, and come to understand why we are the way we are today through your studies. 
p.s. I use the “theory” tag for this type of entry, but really, it’s not theory so much as it is real-life. Unfortunately, there’s no other way to express such kinds of abstractions that have so much direct impact…


Read more...

Read the full post... (550 words, 1 image)

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Fall 2011 Giveaway Contest — The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers (redux)

| October 26, 2011

The Fall 2011 Giveaway rolls onward!

 Hornsofruin

 Remember The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers? We reviewed and gave away a copy last year; check out the review, and also take a look at Tim Akers’s website. In going through our stack of books, we discovered an advance reader copy hiding amidst the newer books, and so we’re giving this away now as well! We’ll make this one easy – just post a comment below, about anything at all, and you’ll be entered in the drawing. The deadline is Friday, November 4. Good luck!

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