22.1.2010 by Traveler.

Here are two images of my favourite and most steampunk of all webseries: Riese.

I can hardly wait until chapter two starts, especially after viewing the very exciting trailer a few days ago. But for now, here is one image each of Herrick and Fenrir:

The evil, scary and fascinating Herrick:

 And the loyal and ferocious Fenrir (doesn’t he look just marvelous in that shot? Well done, Adam Blasberg!)

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22.1.2010 by Traveler.

The Battle of Isandlwana

Today is one of those days when I look back at history and wonder: Why did something like this not happen more often? Why did not more native populations resist effectively and on a massive scale? Why were Europeans allowed to spread their culture and toxic memes all over the world?

Anyways: Today we commemorate the great victory of King Cetshwayo’s Zulus over the British under Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Insandlwana. Both were the overall commanders and not actually present at the battle.

The victory was, alas, shortlived and the British actually managed to subdue the Zulu. Too bad. There should have been more victories against colonialists like this… Eventually, there would be moreresistance, but it would need the long-term effects of the Second World War to end global dominance by the “civilized west”.

Yes, I am quite cynical about the culture of my hemisphere.

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21.1.2010 by Traveler.

The headline is actually a bit missleading. It could be interpreted to imply that Steampunk is in itself not connected to beauty. As we know, this is not tru. Steampunk has very refined æthetics, from fashion, to design to manners, everything revolves around and develops along inherent values of æthetics and beauty.

Tribal belly dance is just another aspect but one, I consider especially noteworthy, because it started from an entirely different direction and somehow managed to find its way into steampunk.

Former Abney Park members Magdalene Veen and Finn von Claret amongst others have performed belly dance on stage during concerts, you can find performances on almost every con and some troupes are customers of Steampunk Couture by Kato:

Tribal Belly dance is one more beautiful aspect of our subculture that also comes in avariety of shades. I leave you with a video of a performance by the mesmerizing Rachel Brice. Please also note the outfit of the band:

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20.1.2010 by Traveler.

The famed crew of the famed crew of HPLHS Motion Pictures strikes again. This time it is an adaption of The Whisperer in Darkness. I can’t wait until it is released but for now I have to content myself with the trailer.

Looks eldridgely promising, doesn’t it? (oppinions indicating the contrary will be answered by lucid dreams of strange cities and nightly visitations, don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

Judging from the quality of HPLHS Motion Pictures’ previous The Call of Cthulhu (a copy of which is one of my most treasured posessions) I am really looking forward to this one.

Plus: Kindly note the magnificent zeppelin flying through at the very beginning of the trailer… Pulp and Dieselpunk, a match made in heaven (or R’lyeh, as the case may be…)

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19.1.2010 by Traveler.

Hello my dear comment-spammers. I would like to make one thing absolutely clear:

Apart from being a blogger and having published in the sectors of Steampunk/Dieselpunk and the Cthulhu Mythos, I also happen to have a day job. I work in online marketing and my job title is Online Marketing Manger (SEO). I am versed in a range of  online marketing techniques including SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and I know about backlink-blog-spam.

So do us all a favor and cut it out. Each and every comment on this blog gets moderated and I know blog spam when I see it. Don’t waste your time and mine, trying to spam here.

Thanks!

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19.1.2010 by Traveler.

To my delight I just discovered the trailer for chapter two of Riese the Series on Youtube this morning. It looks like a lot of action and a host of new characters are in, too. The plot thickens. My beloved arch-villain Herrick features prominently. I would really hate it, if he would not see the end of the series and pass on before. It would be far greater if he would retire and open a resort for wolf puppies… No…

OK, I guess I need to take my medication, and while I do, please enjoy the trailer:

I can’t wait to see the first part of chapter two… Excitement!

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18.1.2010 by Traveler.

Aaaah! The wonders of modern technology, coupled with the style of a more civilized age:

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18.1.2010 by Traveler.

One image is worth a thousand words:

The first unified German nation-state since the Peace of Westphalia.

The good: Up to late 1888 there was very little tension with neighbouring states as Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm, Kaiser Friedrich III (whose reign was far to short anyway) and Chancellor Bismarck did not pursue aggressive foreign policies after unification. The unification of Germany also lead to massive industrialisation and modernisation and gave us the Zeppelin.

The bad: Only one good, effective Emperor, his liberal son… I am repeating myself.

The ugly: We all know (we do, don’t we?) what happened in 1914.

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17.1.2010 by Traveler.

Modern department stores seldom contain items a steampunk could use, not at reasonable prices anyway. Yesterday I thought I pop into town and check out what Kaufhof (a chain of department stores here in Germany) and Hirmer had on offer. Karstadt had absolutely nothing I could use or at least nothing that would fit my style, I was looking for smart, dark blue trousers, as I want to assemble a zeppelin’s captain uniform.

So, I went on to visit Hirmer, the leading supplier of good-quality men’s fashion in Munich. I encountered two obstacles: The stuff I would have considered suitable (good quality, good looking, machine washable, durable) was in the range of 80€ or more (around 110$) and the stuff they had on sale (up to 50% off) was simply not my size… Oh well… I guess I shall have to check out Oxfam and similar shops and hunt for something suitable there.

On the plus side: I got myself a more powerful soldering iron and can now procede to create a R’lyeh Squadron tie-clip. All the individual parts are assembled, all I need to do now is to solder them together.

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16.1.2010 by Traveler.

Two days ago, I checked out the site 4th Reich The Movie. An upcoming horror movie fearuring Nazi Zombies.

Sounds like mindless fun, doesn’t it?

Check it out for yourself, but be warned , it is Castle Wolfenstein-style gory!

Also, there is more info available at Dreadcentral. Just click on the movie poster.

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