Tag Archives: Dieselpunks.org

The Link Foundry for January 10, 2013

Posted on January 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

A new year, a new set of numbers to remember.  Hope I don’t relapse into what happened at the beginning of last year:  I kept putting “19″ in front of the year.  I got over it, but dating work papers 1912 was a little disconcerting. Here are a few more disconcerting and delightful things.

Artist Remy Hoff has quite a few lovely pieces at his Deviant Art site entitled Industrial Forest.  My favorite?  On page 2 of his gallery, the piece titled Steampunk Ship: Brassheart.

I’m mostly an A-to-B guy as far as cars go.  If it gets me from point A to point B without breaking down or something important or critical falling off, I’m happy.  But this article from Dieselpunks.org’s Lord K about the Delage is amazing.  Hard to pick a favorite.

Lamps are becoming a popular way to add a bit of steampunk whimsey to your room.  Consider this fellow.  One problem though:  only eats metal flies.  From Instructables.

Love this wooden clock found at The Steampunk Empire.  One question:  if you need a glass of wine, do you lose the chime?

Finally, I just can’t help myself.  It seemed that the holiday season went by too quickly this year.  So, yes, here’s a Christmas embroidery design from Urban Threads via Doctor Monocle.  That’s not so bad, is it?

Well, 2013 is upon us, so I should actually go do something worthwhile.  Until the next Link Foundry, that is.

Until then, however, read…write…repeat.

 

 

 

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The Link Foundry for December 18, 2012

Posted on December 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

As we pitch headlong toward the end of the year (or the end of the world, whichever you prefer), we take stock of the past year and look at the things we wish to change and the things we need not mess with.  For those who read these posts, this is one of the things I’ll be keeping.  It may look a little different, but it’s staying.

Anyone a fan of those capsule-shaped racing vehicles from the 30s?  Here’s some interesting material about Alfa Romeos from dieselpunks.org.

From shortly after the turn of the century (not the last century, but the one before) comes this short video regarding a lost jewel of the New York subway system:  The City Hall Subway Station.  Amazing what we just leave behind when we move on to the next shiny thing.  From Transit Transit via Dark Roasted Blend.

I’m all for mashups, combinations of unusual ingredients.  One such mashup I’ll be looking up over my time off in the next couple of weeks will be “Dirigible Days”, a web series mixing Cthulhu and steampunk.  Sounds yummy.  See the review here from The Gatehouse.

As time goes on, technology only gets small and faster, doesn’t it?  Bookshelves of books become e-readers and this beauty became…a lawn tractor?  From Doctor Monocle.

And finally, I leave you with a lovely horse to ride through the holidays.  From Doctor Monocle.

Be well, be kind, and don’t forget…read…write…repeat.  Thanks!

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The Link Foundry for December 11, 2012

Posted on December 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

As we move closer to the holiday season, two phrases occur to me…Christmas is two weeks away?  And the new year is three weeks away?  Can’t be.  This must be some sort of holiday horror story.  I have 2013 goals to set, processes to finish, 2012 goals to examine, a blog to rework, photos to take, a Facebook account to re-engage…no, no, we have to re-set the year and give ourselves a little more time.  We can’t?  Oh, bother.  Fine, then.  I say grasp your lengthy task list with both hands and…set it over there for a few minutes.  I’m gonna.

I truly do get the idea that government and utility buildings should have some sense of authority to them.  (I have this sneaking suspicion that it’s the Montgomery Burns coming out in the leaders of these enterprises, but that’s just me.)  Still, when I saw this article on water towers from Dark Roasted Blend, it occurs to me that some of them belong at Peter Jackson’s Minas Tirith instead of at the corner of, let’s say, First and Main over by the Piggly Wiggly.

Sorry to miss the Midwinter Fair in the Netherlands last weekend, but some of the pictures are truly spectacular.  (Note to self:  if I ever build a small car based the Verne-ian submarine Nautilus, it needs a roof.  To keep the water out, ya know.  Every submarine car needs one.)  From The Gatehouse.

And speaking of automobiles, we have this article on the Maybach Zepplin from Dieselpunks.org, an unparallelled example of between-wars German automotive design.  It’s like an art deco painting come to life.  Goosebumps…I got goosebumps.

Speaking of lovely machines, here’s a steampunk orrery (model of our solar system, natch) that appeared for sale on Ebay.  Very pretty.

And finally, I prefer stills, but this video of a wine-pouring apparatus is amazing.  So amazing, in fact, that I might buy wine just to work this contraption.  The idea that utterly charms me?  Uncorking the bottle with the crank winds the mechanism to pour the glass.  Bravo a thousand times, Mr. Higgs.  And a thousand more.  Via Doctor Monocle.

Thus fortified, I take up my End Of Year To Do List again.  Oh, but look.  Time for lunch.  Farewell for now, EOYTDL.  Procrasti-what now?

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget…read…write…repeat.

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The Link Foundry for December 4, 2012

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Here we are in December, for Pete’s sake.  It occurred to me yesterday that 2012 will actually end four weeks from yesterday.  Whew!  I might just make it.  In the mean time, a short break to look at some cool stuff.

I’ll bet you’re not done shopping yet.  I know I’m not.  So, for those last few gifts, try this assortment of steampunk-y stuff from The Steampunk Tribune.

Grr.  I love Christmas music, but the latest chart-topping ingenue remaking a perfectly good classic is not my cup of anything.  So, I went looking for a few unusual Christmas carols and found these from the Pilsner Panther via dieselpunks.org.

A few good dieselpunk pictures never hurt, and you’ll find a lot of them at this Tumblr site.

Real-life Rosie the riveter pics here and…they’re in color!  From CBS News via dieselpunks.org.

For those of you who believe that the world will end later this month, we have the Four Steampunks of the Apocalypse.  From The Steampunk Tribune.

And a bonus for all of you who have that great steampunk idea that you’re dying to see on paper…a resource link page!  From CommuniCATE.

Thanks for reading!  Back next week.

 

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The Link Foundry for October 9, 2012

Posted on October 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

It is, of course, Patch Tuesday, the day when Microsoft Corporation actively reminds us 1) that too much complexity in any system will ultimately lead to that system’s failure, and 2) trying to please everyone usually results in universal hatred.  Although this month’s chore was much lighter than most, I still have to update much of the software I use regularly.  Grr.  I feel as if I need a stiff drink….

And here’s where I get one.  Authentication is a lovely thing, and SteamDrunks: 101 Steampunk Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Chris-Rachael Oseland and Vicktoria Riley gets you the buzz (heh) on 19th century (legal) intoxicants.  Up the Republic!

This always happens when I’ve had a few too many.  I start gettin’ all Dr. Frankenstein with the spare parts cabinet.  Just like in this Dark Roasted Blend collection of Robot Art and Ray Guns.  Hey, what’s it to ya, pal?  Yeah, now that you mention it, I DO have a permit for that.  Besides, robots with ray guns don’t kill people; people who program robots to use ray guns to kill people kill people.  Or somethin’.

So you’ve got this 1930s character and you don’t know what kind of heat they should be packing.  Easy as pie.  Just go to Hello Quizzy and take the quiz The 39 Steps to Choosing a Weapon for 1930s Characters found via Dieselpunks.org.  And there you go.  Or just give them a ray gun.  Which can also work.

Maybe your 1930s character should be packing this for heat.  Well, okay, nobody’s packing this anywhere, but still, this Abandoned Gun Emplacement (with optional Killer Seagull Henchmen) from Midway Atoll (via Urban Ghosts) begs the questions:  “Feel lucky?  Well, do ya?  Punk?”

Ughh, I wish I could go back in time before I started this post.  Here’s just the way to do it, a steampunk time machine as imagined by Dimitriy Filippov on CGHub.com.

Oh, hey, my software updates are over.  Back to work…yay!  Thanks for reading!

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The Link Foundry for October 2, 2012

Posted on October 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

Uh-oh.  I’m listing here at the Link Foundry.  Oh, it’s not because of a surfeit of adult carbonated beverages (though I felt quite entitled – story for another time).  No, I found a couple of lists of steampunk things and some other things.  So sit back and tick them off, if it doesn’t tick you off to read them.

Oh, look at that.  The Steampunk Scholar has put out a list of Must-Have Primary Texts for the Steampunk Scholar.  And the reading list goes boom!

Music is not something I cover much here.  If the tenets of steampunk fiction are up for endless, wearying debate, well, steampunk music is that much more so. For instance, this list of the Houston Press’s choices of Top 10 steampunk songs puts a Nicki Minaj song at number 10.  I’m channeling Sheldon from BBT here:  “Apologize.”  Better choice?  Wow, you could almost swing a pair of goggles and hit a more appropriate song:  “Mission” by Beats Antique or “Herr Drosselmyers Doll” by Abney Park come to my mind first.  I’d welcome your suggestions in the comments.

From the mind of flying wing designer Boris Cheranovsky comes these gems, via Dieselpunks.org. Some wild design here.

From Neatorama, want to build a runway out of nothing on which to land your Cheranovsky Flying Wing?  Grab some burlap and get to rolling, like the Army Air Corps did here.

Not about flying today?  How about a horsey ride?  How about a steampunk horsey ride?  How about a steampunk war horsey ride?  From jeroenpaint at deviantart.com via Doctor Monocle.

And now I ride off into the sunset, expanding my play- and reading lists as I go.  Thanks for reading!

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The Link Foundry for September 4, 2012.

Posted on September 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Did I lose my calendar?  Nope.  I’ve kind of been on an administrative kick lately.  Not much writing output, but I’m working on schedules and some “collateral writing” projects.  Those are things that aren’t writing but need to be done for the writing to be generally successful, you know.  Cover designs, signing up for sites such as GoodReads (which has an author program, by the way), those such things.  And, of course, a few links with pretty pictures.  Those don’t hurt, either.

While this post from Recycle Reuse Renew Mother Earth Projects is written from a recycling perspective, the example photos for what to do with broken machinery and all the delightful things you can turn it into are just jaw-dropping.  Makes me wanna start breaking stuff around here so that I can turn it into cooler stuff.

Like your crustaceans gear-driven?  This is a fabulous locket from Cosmic Firefly via Etsy.

Like your clocks with turning hands instead of flashing pixels?  I do too, but I much prefer turning numbers instead of hands or pixels.  Check out these great Jaeger clocks from the ’30s and ’40s from Dieselpunks.org.

Let’s see…where is it…?  How odd.  Don’t you just hate it when things end up in the wrong place?  I had $25,000 in my pocket to buy a new watch (with turning numbers, you know) and now I can’t find it.  I’ll have to check my other pants, but here’s the watch I want (from Devon via Bornrich.com, no less) if I find that much unattached money lying around.

Woo-hoo!  After I had feared it was all over, issue #22 of The Gatehouse Gazette is out.  Download and enjoy.  I plan to.  Thanks for the heads-up, Steampunk Empire!

I’m going to download and read that now.  Thanks for reading!

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The Link Foundry for July 24th (Two days late)

Posted on July 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that the power was out here at stately Hager Manor on Tuesday night and I haven’t got the steam, diesel or wind-up generators going yet.  Power came back later on, but not soon enough to publish (no time on Wednesday either with working both full-time and part-time jobs).  As a mea culpa for another sucky Tuesday night, I’m including ten items this time.

Dieselpunk

When viewing this set of beautiful images from Stefan as posted on Dieselpunks.org?  Do yourself a favor:  view it in slideshow view.  I’ll just wait for you to thank me.  Hmm-mm-mm.  What?  Oh, you’re welcome.

 
I’ve got a nice Pinterest board here.  Check out the bottom of the board for dieselpunk airships.

Steampunk

How about this article from the San Diego Union Tribune about a steampunk exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum?

Lots of cool imagery from Pinterest here.  The general interest seems to be that goth and steampunk, insofar as clothing is concerned, kind of run parallel.  I don’t agree, but that’s just me.

This version of Sherlock Holmes (from the same people who brought us “Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus”) seems right up my alley, terrible or no.  I’ll be looking for this one soon. (Besides, the first thing I thought of when I heard of MSvsGO was “I need to buy some really good beer for this one.”)

In this forum entry from Dieselpunks.org, more discussion about what steampunk is versus dieselpunk versus clockpunk.  The author of the post offers the term “speculative fiction”.  Well, nice try, but doesn’t every piece of fiction ever written kinda fall into that category?  Shameless Self-Promotion:  watch for an upcoming post here called “Maybe It’s Not a Cigar” on tagging and the identity of your work.

Okay, I know my geek is showing, but this Los Angeles lighting store?  This is cool. Be sure to go all the way down the page to get the full geek-effect.

Some nice images on this Indulgy site.  A couple of reruns, but go through to the end.

A couple of nice jewelry entries from Etsy, both from the same shop called Victorian Curiosities.  Both the winged compass and the winged clockworks are reasonably priced and beautiful.

And number ten is:  Gonna be in Salt Lake City on the last weekend in July?  Check out the first annual Salt City Steam Fest at the Red Lion Hotel there.  You go…Salt Lakers? Saltlacians? Salt People?  Huh.  Sounds like a forum topic.  The festival site is here.

Thanks for stopping in!

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