Three days. Three locations. One Gulf Coast city with more Victorian ironwork per square foot than any place has a right to. The 4th Annual Galveston Steampunk Festival wrapped June 5th–7th, and if you weren’t there, the Doctor has a few words for you: what, EXACTLY, were you doing that was more important than watching steam-powered teapots race?

The Galveston festival is genuinely one of the good ones. Pub crawl on the Strand Friday night, full festival at Moody Gardens Saturday (noon to 9pm, bring your brass), then a Sunday mansion experience at the League Kempner estate, complete with a Victorian ghost tour, a Model-T driving tour, and an escape room. This is the full SteamPunk experience, not some ren-faire-with-goggles situation. (Not that there is anything wrong with ren-faires, but you know what I mean.)

The city earns it: Galveston was literally built by Victorian industrialists who drove new machines and fabrication methods straight into the Gulf Coast economy. The bones of the place are SteamPunk. The Omega7Red Formulae didn’t even have to work that hard.

Mark your 2027 calendar now. Teapot racing awaits, and old age and betrayal won’t wait for you to get your goggles sorted.

Via: Galveston Steampunk Festival

Right now, as you read this, the fine citizens of Port Townsend, Washington are three days deep into the Brass Screw Consortium Steampunk Festival (June 12–14), a “chronologically discontiguous” weekend where Pirates, Aetherists, Outcasts, and Bodgers settle their differences via games of skill, wit, and an alarming amount of brass.

This year’s plot: a stray Plague Rat has caused a power vacuum in Consortium leadership, and attendees are invited to weigh in on the new regime. Naturally, nature abhors a vacuum, but the Aetherists love one; it gives them something to aetherify. Honestly, “power vacuum caused by a rat” is the most accurate description of several real governments I could name, but the Doctor doesn’t do American politics, so moving on.

The real highlight is the Bodgers’ Grande Exhibition, a maker showcase that is, in essence, a county fair for people who build steam-powered nonsense in their garages and then bring it to a seaport to show off. This is, and I cannot stress this enough, the single most respectable use of a garage in human history. Forget the lawnmower. Build a brass octopus that dispenses tea.

If you’re anywhere near the Olympic Peninsula this weekend, go pay your respects to the rat. Tell them the Doctor sent you, and that the rat has my full endorsement; unlike most candidates, it has never once promised me anything and then failed to deliver.

Via: Brass Screw Consortium

And call it Steampunk…

Via: Reginald Pikedevant

They tried to kill me. They blew up the entire friggin planet on March 14, 2015, at 9:26:53am, just like me and Einstein predicted they would. And then, we all forgot, just like in that Doctor Who episode. It took me nearly seven years to get myself back online. So why don’t any of you remember it? Simulation Theory. That’s right. The Earth wasn’t real, to begin with. Well, not this Earth. There is that Earth that this Earth is in, but we’re not in that Earth, we’re in this Earth. Anyways, doesn’t matter, because I’m too awesome to kill. Planet exploded, got rebuilt as they do in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and here we are all living out our coppertop lives in whatever Matrix this is.

Why me and not you? I took the Steampunk Formulae that I created, “Omega7Red,” apparently similar to the red pill and it protected me from the changes in the data stream. You should have taken it too, but you didn’t, and now here we are. Even though you can’t recall, I’ll tell you one thing I learned: survival is revenge…

Where do we go from here? I’ve reactivated my Steampunk blog. The domain name omega7red.com is parked somewhere and the thieves want over $3,000 for it. Go eat a [expletive deleted] you bastards! I got the domain name back for next to nothing. That’s right, once the brokers realized it was completely worthless, they gave it up without a fight. Anyways, I may post something from time to time. It might be Steampunk, or something else cool. I mean, it’s always cool, just not always Steampunk.

Other technical issues are age-related. Back in the day, I used Flash, Shockwave, and such. Now, that tech is dead. Further, many of the websites I linked to are also dead. Also, YouTube has gotten greedy and won’t allow thumbnails for some videos, but they will play. So, there are holes, but just a few. You probably won’t even notice.

The next apocalypse is scheduled for March 14, 2015, 9:26:53am. This event is known as “The Pi Apocalypse” because the date aligns to the value of Pi perfectly, 3.141592653. On that day, our planet will explode and we will all DIE, as represented by the Pi equation and predicted by Albert Einstein.

“Pi Day” (3/14) is celebrated every year by the Cult of Pi. However, the upcoming Pi Day in 2015 is mathematically accurate to 10 to the 13th digits as calculated by a super-computer algorithm in 2011. Albert Einstein’s birthday is also on 3/14 (Pi Day), and he predicted this terminal event in his “quantized atomic vibrations” theory. Einstein never directly said it, but he hinted that harmonic oscillations between atoms are continuously creating sympathetic vibrations that generate molecular heat at an exponential rate (which explains Global Warming). As the heat grows, the Earth will contain the increasing pressure until it pops like a balloon. Knowing the rate of heat growth, and how much pressure the Earth can hold, precise mathematics produces a result of the given date.

Others have argued that the Earth will not blow up like the Death Star.  Rather, they expect that molten lava and heavy volcanic activity will cover most landmasses and that ash will block out the sun, except Antarctica.   Personally, I think this is just wishful thinking to give people hope that they could survive the apocalypse as a mere extinction-level event.

There will also be a pie-eating contest.

Doktor A built his Thing for an Addams Family-themed exhibition at the Wootini Gallery in Carrboro North Carolina.  Personally, I’d like to see the whole house done this way.  Can you imagine?

Our favorite Steampunk Tease Kato seems to have something fun planned for our entertainment.  I wish I knew exactly what SteamGirl was, but from what I can see it involves rocket packs, ray guns, and strong Steampunk overtones.

I’ve got a little more to show you…

Read more »

Why?  Because it has airships in it.  And the Nazis ruined airships for us.  So I’m going to watch it when this movie comes out, just so I can see Nazis get their ass kicked.  Iron Sky tells a story of how the Nazis sent some backup Nazis to the moon to hold out and build up forces so that they could one day come back and win World War II.

Whatever.  It’s some kind of goofy Mars Attacks take on Nazis in some kind of post-war Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow style.  I doubt I’ll see it in the theaters unless they change up the trailers, or if I’m really bored.  Although, just looking at the poster makes us wonder exactly what will happen.

The trailer reveals Airships (oooooh), gears (aaaaaah), space stations, space battles, A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthogs, hot blonde Nazi cheerleaders, a token black guy, they blow up the Statue of Liberty and make fun of Sarah Palin.

UPDATE: I watched it. Totally worth it. ΩΩΩΩ½ – Four and one-half Omegas.

Via: iWatchStuff

PBS Arts brings us this lovely short exploring the facets of Steampunk and the different ways people use it to express themselves.

Steampunk art evokes an alternate reality where steam is the primary source of power. Technology, though highly advanced, has taken on a very different look and feel, and fashion is heavily influenced by Victorian styles. In this episode, we explore the Steampunk aesthetic and art movement. We speak with a Steampunk artist, a composer who created an entire piece of music inspired by Steampunk, and a performing arts collective whose work falls naturally into this intriguing world.

Via: PBS Arts

You can thank “batman-n-bananas” (or just Tasha) on Deviant Art for this one.  We really like it when people use that imagination to make things that poke holes in science, and just imagine all the science we’ll get out of this baby.  At least one or two good train wrecks, and a falling airship.  That’s not a tragedy, that’s science – with holes.  Good job Tasha, high-5!

“Alright this next test may involve trace amounts of time travel. So word of advice: if you meet yourself on the testing track don’t make eye contact. Lab boys tell me that’ll wipe out time – entirely. Forward and backward. So do both of yourselves a favor and let that handsome devil go about his business.”

 As usual, click on the image and then zoom in to see detail.