Sunday, August 10, 2008

Odds & Ends, Steampunk Version

In the off-chance you hadn't heard, Steampunk has emerged from its Victorian closet and hit the streets...uh...the fog-ridden, cobblestoned, gaslighted avenues of popular imagination, kinda, sorta, what with such things as a New York Times Fashion & Style article ("Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds") and a humorous piece in McSweeney's ("Mom, Dad, I'm Into Steampunk").

Okaaaay, then.

Nothing against Steampunk as genre; I like that part of it, but its recent incarnation as a lifestyle/fashion statement/subculture throws me a little off-balance. Lolita Fashion? Neo-Victorianism? WTF?

Still, there are some decidedly cool aspects to (forgive the oxymoron) Modern Steampunk, such as this War of the Worlds Martian tripod sculpture in Woking, England:


(see more fantabulous pics here)

And the case modders are having a field day:




(The Steampunk Laptop)


But for me, Steampunk means STEAM and the place to go for steam is Crabfu Steamworks!


2 comments:

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

One of the bigger fuck ups of my life, and there are many, was not beating an artist friend with a hose to continue a summer project of ours in the halcyon days of 1982. Steamrock Johnny and The Edge of Seventeen stories. It was steampunk, dammit. And I had no clue.

Capcom said...

Those are some very fine mechanical contraptions. :-)