31.12.2009 by Traveler.

On the last day of 2009, the 10th issue of the famed and fabled Gatehouse Gazette is released. A literary firework it is, very fitting for this day.

Sporting an almost Cthulhu-esque, and therefor quite pleasing to my eyes, cover image, this issue is focused on aviation. It features concise biographies of aviation heros Howard Hughes and Amelie Earhart, and quite an exquisite collection of a number of other rather stempunkesque and dieselpunkesque stories concerning aviation.

It does not end there, far from it! You will also find:

- A review of The Bookman which you have probably seen before somewhere…

- A review of the Larklight Triology (well done, Ms Kitten!)

- The by now indespensable collumns The Steampunk Wardrobe and The Liquor Cabinet

And I should be damned if I do not mention this one:

An interview with Kaleena Kiff is also included. Go Riese The Series!

So, put on your goggles, donn your scarf and read the Aviation Issue of the Gatehouse Gazette!

The most excellent cover is by Myke Amend, he has sat in my sidebar for quite a while already.

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30.12.2009 by Traveler.

Since I started this Blog in July 2008 it has developed quite a bit and a few topics I did not think would make an appearance on it have found their way in. One of these topics is politics.

The first political entry on this blog was President Obama’s (then President Elect) acceptance speech in Chicago, this entry. Since that memorable day a few other politically motivated posts have followed, like Steampunks Against Fascism and yesterday’s entry in solidarity of the Green Movement in Iran. Although I think Steampunk in general is apolitical, there is one aspect where it mixes quite well with politics. I know many a steampunk on the ætherweb who prefers a dystopian or post- or pre-apocalyptic setting.

I do not.

I prefer an utopian or pre-utopian setting where steam, labor and weir science are used to make the world a better place, for everybody. There are real-life causes I believe in, things that I think make this world a better place. I may well be wrong about some of them.

Maybe President Obama will turn out to be an epic failure just like George W. Bush (I doubt that).

Maybe the current coalition government in Germany actually means well for all people in Germany and does not pursue lobbyist oriented politics reminiscent of G.W. Bush’s second term (there are now even members of the CDU who doubt that, see this news article, it is in German, however).

But as long as I am convinced of their validity and that there are people I think have the potential to make this world a better place, I will suport them.

I will also support causes like the Green revolution (I sincerely hope that it will not turn into something selfserving and attrocious like the Islamic revolution 30 years ago).

I am also a member of kiva, which is one real easy way to make this world a better place.

So, as a Steampunk it is good and fun to dream about how a Steampunk Utopia would look like, but I am also a citizen of Actual Reality™ and it is my duty to make this world a better place. I hope I can do my part to bring humanity and the biosphere of this planet onto The Golden Path.

And I will lash out against causes, ideas, organisations and individual people which and whom I consider to be harmful to the well-being of humanity as a whole.

My personal vision of Steampunk makes it imperative for me to strife in real life to make this world a better place. Just sitting at home with your head in the clouds, dreaming of better times and places will change nothing. If anything it means wasting your time and life. If you do nothing but dream, you leave nothing behind. If you stand up and at leat try to make your dreams reality, and I am talking about dreams and visions like “Yes we can” and not like the vision Stalinism has, your dreams may survive you. You made a difference, you are not forgotten.

I close this entry with a quote from the Hávamál, which is, as a student of Norse mythology and other knowledgable people will know, attributed to Woden himself:

Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, –
fair fame of one who has earned.

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29.12.2009 by Traveler.

My friend cdk07 made this video. Let it speak for itself:

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27.12.2009 by Traveler.

By Jove,

I was just doing a little image search on the ætherweb, once again in relation to Zeppelins and I came across this old photograph:

These are a number of engineers or in any case crew members of the Teppelin Graf Zeppelin who are walking around on top of the craft while it is in flight.

The thought alone gives me a sense of vertigo. I know, it is completely unreasonable. I have no difficulty looking down from a plane, a skyscraper or a tower, no problem there at all. But the thought of walking about on the outside of an aircraft while it is in flight gives me a strange tingling sensation in my legs which I asociate with vertigo. These men are real steampunk daredevils, as far as I am concerned, anyway, and deserve our respect.

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26.12.2009 by Traveler.

Well, where shall I start. This is going to be a rather nasty, unapologetic entry but I have to say one thing:

I am sick and tired of finding Germans and Germany as the default evil guys/evil nation on certain RPG and fan fiction sites in connection with the Steampunk/Dieselpunk/Pulp settings.

To make one thing absolutely clear: I am not talking about portrayals like in the very exciting, fun Hollow Earth RPG by Exile Games, which borrows heavily from the Nazi clichée of the Indiana Jones movies. I am fine with that. I actually enjoy that. What I am talking about are settings like Steam Punk 1920, in which World War I ends after a few months with the humiliating defeat of Germany at the hands of the British and Germany is broken up afterwards and descends into obscurity. I do not mind being the loser here. What I do mind is the portrayal as being a walk over, an upstart, petty nation without any real fighting prowess, easily swept away by one other power alone.

May I ask all those who write this kind of one-sided, quasi-revanchist fiction to take a closer look at history? Germany very nearly won both World Wars and in each case it was only the intervention of the US which prevented German victory (although I think a Nazi Empire would have yielded to internal turmoil soon anyway). So please, read up on what the historical situation when it comes to technology etc. really was before writing something about “easy victories” and other cheap, selfserving revanchist tripe like that. What are you aiming at? Pointing to other nations failures in an attempt to cover up the misdeeds of your own country in the last 10 years in the Near East? Yes, I know this is a mean question but I am sick and tired of finding stuff rubbed into my face that is already almost 100 years old.

In the same settings, World War I is regarded as inevitable, because Germany would always start a war anyway. As if the mere presence of Germany makes war inevitable. Historically absolutely false.

If you ask around these days for someone who goes to war no matter what, I guess these initials will pop up: GWB, DC and DR.

Before you depict other nations as evil, ask the opinion of a Native American, OK? Yes, this mainly goes out to US citizens, but I have yet to find similar uninformed, one-sided and self-serving alternate history fiction being done by amateur authors of any other nation.

Well, I guess you will find them in right-wing forums of any nation, but I do not frequent these places.

And before I hear the old and lame argument that I am propably a revanchist Nazi myself:

Please take a closer look at the guest-author on this blog and that if any non-German person would stick up for their country, you would not even suspect nationalism.

Thanks and good night.

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24.12.2009 by Traveler.

There is a certain chance that I will not update this blog as often in the foreseeable future as I did the last few weeks. I have decided to turn the First Expedition of LZ-X1 Württemberg into a short story, maybe even a novella. I can not say, how much progress I have made, because I do not know how long the tale will be in the end. Could be anywhere between 30 and 200 pages I guess.

This is my biggest steampunk related project yet. Let us see what becomes of it.
Here is a tiny sneak-peek, Captain von Kober’s first impression of the LZ-X1 Württemberg (this passage may have changed by the time I turn it into a PDF for free download):

She was beautiful. The hull, more than 130 meters long, gleamed and sparkled silvery in the morning sun. She was of a sleeker design than other Zeppelins of comparable size, giving her a more streamlined look. The gondola, too, appeared far less bulky and almost fragile. The whole craft conveyed an impression of graceful speed given shape.

There was something else I wanted to say…

Ah yes: Happy Yithmas everybody!

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22.12.2009 by Traveler.

The Traveler’s Steampunk Blog has joined the Steampunk-Dieselpunk Blog carnival and may very likely host one of the future editions?

Would you like to know more? Participate or host? Find out more!

And here’s another Zeppelin image, so this post is not so empty:

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21.12.2009 by Traveler.

Right, to pick up where I was yesterday: Steampunk music is rather obviously a rather ecclectic mixture of various stiles. I am still, however, at a complete loss to explain how Vanessa Mae made it into the steampunk list.

Returning to the Traveler Approved™ list of steampunk artist, as I said before, they draw heavily from a goth and also (something I omited yesterday) metal background, some of them (like Rasputina, Vernian Process, Indica, Abney Park and others) play with the aesthetics, others do not. Vernian Process and Abney Park are active in the Steampunk scene, I bet The Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society is, too, again, other bands are propably not.

I have also heard people calling Tom Waits steampunk (he deserves a honorary mention anyway, for taking the part of Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Emilie Autumn also is a, to me, obvious choice.

So what we have now is quite a huge range of alternative styles which are liked/prefered by people “in the scene™“.

And what does that mean? Well, I guess it means that there are some bands around which are definitely Steampunk, whose members are active in the scene and there are even more bands which steampunks like. So I am pretty confident in making the following statement: As a steampunk you can listen to whatever the hell you like, you are an individual, not a member of a hivemind, by Jove!

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20.12.2009 by Traveler.

(This is an interrupted entry)

Yesterday night we had our office christmas party and I was lucky enough to win a 25€ iTunes voucher during “Wichteln” (apparently a Bavarian christmas tradition, I have not encountered comparable behaviour anywhere else).

So, armed with the voucher I started music shopping this morning, thinking “Let me get myself one or two nice steampunk music albums.”

And that was the point where ther trouble started. There is one problem when it comes to steampunk music:
What exactly is steampunk music?

When you think of steampunk music, there are certain name which pop into your head:

Abney Park

Vernian Process

Dr. Steel

Rasputina

To name a few. If you take a look at the musical tyle of aforementioned bands, they cover quite a range of styles all somewhere within the “goth” section.

To confuse things, I checked out the Steampunk-Tag radio on Last FM. The bands and artists featured in the Steampunk  include amongst others:

(The following toy with retro-looks and/or styles in one way or the others)

Life’s Decay

Shivaree

The Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society

Voltaire

Indica (one of my current favorites, actually)

But there are also other artists (obvioulsy) on the list, whose connection to steampunk is… dubious. The most drastic example is Vanessa Mae. As far as I am concerned, she has nothing to do with steampunk at all. So, the list on Last FM is not really that reliable but then, how should it be? There is no real standard which defines steampunk music, other than maybe retro elements in musical style and outfits/costumes.

And I have to quit this article for now, since our guests have just arrived.

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19.12.2009 by Traveler.

Current situation: -8°C outside and I need to go out.

So, what choice of apparel do I have that is both warm and steampunk?

Let’s start with the outermost shell:

A classic trenchcoat is a rather obvious choice, but any other greatcoat, leathercoat etc. works just as well, provided the colours are not too eye-cancer inducing (I would like to provide you with a picture at this point but I also rather not have some retailer clamping me down for some stupid copyright violation).

Next, I will be wearing a brown-ish pullover, which my wonderful wife has knitted for me an which was actually designed to be compatible with the steampunk look (I am so blessed…).

Underneath that comes a navy blue shirt and trousers to match(I’m going for the Prussian Steampunk look again)

For footwear I choose one of my many military boots. So far (with the possible exception of the trenchcoat), the ensemble does not look really steampunk, but there is one accessory which tilts the whole look towards the military steampunk look:

Spats, or, to use the German term of the accessory I chose: Wickelgamsche.

A Wickelgamasche looks like this when in use (no copyright infringemen intended):

I should mention that the soldier in this picture is Jakob Neeb who was one of the many victims of the hell that was Verdun. He is presumed killed in action 23.06.1916.

Wickelgamaschen are quite easy to get since the Swiss army has a large stockpile they obviously no longer need. They are sold by army surplus shops everywhere.

So in combination I have got an outfi which looks smart, steampunk and is really warm.

Oh, and it also goes very nice with a pilot’s cap and goggles if you want to take the steampunk look to the limit where you get looks from people in the street…

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