Last call, last call! There’s only 24 hours left to book for the illustrious Queen’s Birthday Eve Dinner Voyage! We’ve got a complement of dashing proportions already on board, but there are still a few seats available. We know in these harder economic and wintry times that it’s a stretch for some, but we refuse to be bowed! Come join us in a most memorable and exclusive event: the opportunity to ride with such a well dressed and distinguished company as we will be entertaining is rare indeed.

Ticket page is here!

Title: Sydney Tweed Ride [NSW]
Location: Start from the Sydney Town Hall, 483 George St, Sydney
Link out: Click here
Description: Sydney Tweed Ride

Queen\’s Birthday Long Weekend, Sunday 7th June

Dapper or Ladylike Tweed Attire to be Worn.

Meet Sydney Town Hall 8am for 9am Start. Prizes for Best Dressed Male, Female and Child (under 12).

This is an unsupported ride, all riders accept responsibility for themselves and their bikes, all Road Rules apply.
Start Time: 8:00
Date: 2009-06-07
End Time: 12:00

Title: Prometheus Bound [QLD]
Location: Club 320 Corner Leichhardt & Boundary Sts, Spring Hill, Brisbane
Link out: Click here
Description: Prometheus Bound, presented by Black Productions, developed out of our limitless passion for the Steampunk culture and its diverse manifestations of creativity.

We perceived a growing need for a Steampunk community locus in Brisbane and created Prometheus Bound to showcase local, interstate and international entertainers and artists.

We recognise that people attracted to the Steampunk aesthetic come from a diverse range of backgrounds and we aim to cater for a variety of tastes. In addition to hosting performances, artists and live music we have resident DJs who will be spinning a selection of emergent steampunk inspired music as well as established alternative favourites.
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2009-07-25

For those of you not already aware (though how you could not be, given we had flyers at Euchronia and have been cheerfully waving the flag since we were aware of the event, we have no earthly idea), Continuum 5: Galaxies by Gaslight is happening later this year and is wonderfully steampunk themed! But for those of you who either aren’t yet sure about going along (I mean - who ARE those people?) or who perhaps already do plan on going but are champing at the bit for some Continuum-related interaction Right Jolly Well Now, we have good news! A Trivia Night is to be held in just under 2 weeks on Saturday 30th May, and we highly recommend you head over for the event! Cholmondeley and I will be there with bells on, if you need any encouragement. Flyer is below, and I believe you are required to email to RSVP (or use that FriendFace thingy.)

Trivia!

Egads! We’ve been informed by the Powers That Be that we must finalise our ticket sales 14 days in advance of the Tram Voyage, not 48 hours as we’d previous been advised! This means there are only 10 days til the cutoff date, and for those of you waiting til the last minute hoping tickets might still be available (as is not at all uncommon in our subcultural milieu!) - we are terribly sorry but we will not be able to indulge that potential for this event.  2/3 of tickets have been fully booked & confirmed, but we still have a few seats available that haven’t been reserved (and reserved tickets which have not been paid for may be re-allocated if necessary), so if you’ve been dragging your delicately (or handsomely) booted feet, hop to it and purchase tickets either online or @ The Lockworks asap! We’ll post one more reminder 24 hours before ticket sales end, but this is your penultimate warning duly given!

Not the newest of news, but something I’d been meaning to mention for some time is the announcement from Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin of their leap from making fine mechanical watches) and nautical precision instruments since 1846, to the modern technology of mobile telephony.

Initial reports from Gizmag and Treehugger were light on details, but I’ve managed to discover a bit more about this ingenious hybrid device.  It is called The Chairman, and is a smart phone developed with the fusion of traditional precision clockwork mechanism and best of breed cell phone technology. It’s a fascinating combination of old and new.

From the UN website:

Similar to an automatic watch that receives power from the force of a rotor, the Chairman does the same: charging a built-in battery using the kinetic energy of the moving rotor to supply supplemental power to the Chairman.

Technical details are as follows:

Milled from the finest materials, the Chairman hybrid smart phone features the newest in digital technology and incorporates a specialized fingerprint recognition security feature, a high-resolution digital camera and digital video recorder, a 2.8” user-interface with touch-screen and oversized numeric buttons for quick reference and seamless typing.

* 2.8″ multi-touch screen
* Fingerprint reader for owner identification and phone lock
* Numeric keys with high quality tactile response
* E-mail and Internet application
* 5 megapixel camera
* Wi-Fi for network connection
* Sapphire Glass
* Kinetic rotor system

The Chairman is currently in production and pre-orders can be placed on the Chairman website, where can be found several animations of the phone in action, different models available, and much more. While I find the anchor icon a tad - well, nautical - the rest of the phone looks rather swish. I look forward to reading more as the Chairman is released, which surely can’t be too far away.

Ahem. In a most delightfully macabre segue (and completely unrelated in origin from our previous post), making a Google search for the terms “cut throat razor” and “Steampunk” netted as the top result this gem of a thread on mess+noise, a well known Antipodean music discussion forum. Major props for the giggles, lads. Do read to the end of the comments. I dare say I’m somewhat scandalized, but still just a touch impressed, that the term “Steampunk pussy” is being bandied about at all.

Melbourne’s The Age today reports that local biomedical scientist Geoff Crawford is currently hunting the bones of an ex-pat Londoner named Frederick Deeming, executed in Old Melbourne Gaol in 1892 for the murder of his wife, because he believes DNA evidence will show that Deeming was the Jack the Ripper. Unsuccessfully defended by Alfred Deakin—who went on to become Australia’s second Prime Minister—serial killer Deeming was originally dismissed as a Ripper suspect, but has been re-implicated recently. It may not be a particularly desirable claim to fame, but it’s certain to draw the world’s attention to our Victorian capital city if it turns out to be true.

Sydney author Richard Harland’s Dickensian Steampunk novel “Worldshaker” (reviewed here), due locally next month from Allen and Unwin, has been resold to an unnamed US publisher. The Australian edition is illustrated by “Jasper Morello” director Anthony Lucas, and the story features a steam-powered, mobile city.