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!
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!
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.
World-Shaking
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.
Adelaide is Steaming
Costuming Adelaide, the South Australian branch of the Australian Costumer’s Guild, has two Steampunk-oriented events forthcoming in 2009: “The Maiden Flight of the Olympia” on the 13th of June, and “Steve’s Steampunk Extravaganza” on the 13th of September. Both events will include Live Action Role Playing elements, as well as authentic period garb. The first event will take place at the North Adelaide Community Centre, with the second location yet to be announced.
Printing in Brass
Ted Chiang’s superb “Exhalation” is the deeply philosophical and moving story of a pneumatic robot who dissects his own brain to discover the secrets of the universe. Night Shade Books, who published Eclipse 2 (ed. Jonathan Strahan) in which “Exhalation” first appeared, have just posted a copy of the Hugo Award-nominated story to their website (PDF).
Have just discovered that Antipodean moviemaker Anthony Lucas’ justifiably famous (and Academy Award-nominated) “The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello” has been available legally, gratis, on YouTube, since October last year. It’s available as a single 26-minute High Quality video, which thankfully sidesteps the traditional graininess of YT’s offerings. (Sadly, Lucas’ impressive “Holding Your Breath” seems to have been taken down.) I continue to await eagerly the promised sequels “Jasper Morello and the Secret of Alto Meas” and “Jasper Morello and the Ebenezer of Gothia”.