Recently then, the mikiphone – the 1920′s pocket phonograph – went around the aethernet.  The lovely Ms Lev kindly pointed it out over at Streettech, along with some related miniature phonographs of the time.  They’re just absolutely delicious – described as about the size of an oversized pocketwatch or small cheese – the added absurdity of the fact that while the player is pocket sized, the disks most certainly weren’t!  Described as the mp3 player of the time (or perhaps the boombox, if you are so inclined) the mikiphone and others like it (I do love the rich colours of the Gipsy player) seemed to have a very brief window of popularity.  Such a shame, really, as it does appeal greatly.

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Mr Sandorm rescued from his spam-container, information about the Maison d’Ailleurs (The House of Elsewhere) – the Science Fiction Museum in Switzerland.  Now, that would be interesting enough, in my opinion, but apparently they’re in the process of raising the funding for a new and rather indepth Jules Verne exhibition space!  The mockup images look a little plain, but apparently it will contain the Margot collection – just phenomenal in it’s breadth and depth, one could swim forever in a sea of adventures.  Books, autographs, pens, coins, medals, audiotapes, playing cards – so many things devoted to that ancestor of all thing Steampunk, Mr Jules Verne.

From a post on Craftzine, I found a tutorial over at The Sampler on how to make your own simple kite from an umbrella – called the Gentleman’s Kite.  I’m sorely tempted, but I think I shall wait for the next really windy day and salvage the dead-brollies that are too much a feature of bins and hedges on such days.

So this, along with the earlier wishes to have a Air-Kraken kite (as well as an airship kite in anything other than primary colours) has me quite in the kite mood.  Did you know there was an intention to create a ‘Steam-Kite‘ back in 1838 by John H Pennington – a 375ft (114m) long ‘kite’ with steam paddles for propulsion.  I doubt it got off the ground, but what a Steampunk sight that would have been!

(And why not – the first vehicle propelled by kite, and a confusion to tollkeepers who charged ‘by the horse’ in 1827 Bristol).

Today is/was Air-Kraken Day!  To celebrate, Mr Epp ever so kindly created wallpaper sized images of the above ‘historical document’ of an Air-Kraken attack on this day in 1903.  Quite terrifying, but with a majesty that defies civilised logic, I’m sure you’ll agree.  You are too kind, Mr Epp. In fact, I’ve been thinking that Air-Krakens would make excellent shapes for kites – perhaps being flown on Air-Kraken day to scare off other Air-Krakens for the rest of the year.  You can find squid kites (here and here, pricey though they are) but they most certainly lack the subtlety of their larger, airbourne cousins.  I do intend to learn to make my own kites, and perhaps my next post will help.

Thank you to Mr Estee (via Streetech) for pointing out the downright stunning works of French artist, Pierre Scalair!  With works in brass, bronze, copper, tin and all manner of lovely metals, there’s some beautiful Steampunk animals that look like they are only pausing between breaths of steam before clunking and clanking out of frame.  From sculptures of fish that were once ocean liners, to several mechanical ‘kisses’, to several lovely rhinos such as the one above, his work seems often playful and really celebrates the life these metal entities ought to have.  Reminds me somewhat of the ridable metal lioness from a while ago – imagine clunking down the street atop a fullsized, steampowered metal rhino!  That would turn heads, certainly – the only way to travel.  (Except perhaps mechanical spider or airship.)  Seems that BoingBoing pipped me to the post too!

I don’t know who it is who is spreading these scurrelous rumours about my fondness for goggles – but I really do hope they continue!  chuckles  Mr Hudson is a photographer, and intends to do a bit of Steampunk portraiture for his own satisfaction at some point in the future, but found that good Steampunk props were somewhat hard to find.  So, he’s making his own!  (Good on you, sir.)  Above, are the goggles that he has managed to make without the use of advanced powertools or the equivalent, and requires merely purchasing a few things from a DIY shop and perhaps a second hand belt.

He’s written up a very well done tutorial on how you might go about making your own goggles – though he does advise not to do as he did, and cut through his protective cardboard and into the dining tabletop.  Unfortunate.  He’s seeking suggestions for replacement lenses, though, so if you have any ideas, feel free to comment here or perhaps contact Mr Hudson himself.  Lovely work, Mr Hudson – it’s going to be a very interesting photograph when you’re done!

Some of you may be aware of the scourge of the skies – the deadly Air-Kraken.  Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of them (The Horror of the Heights), and the whole ecology supporting these sky based terrors, they seem to have been mostly forgotten about.  Well, with March being the height of their mating season, it’s as good a day as any to look warily to the skies and remember the mighty Air-Kraken.

It is of course, St. Patrick’s Day also, so perhaps you’ll take a glass or two of whatever tickles your fancy, and look to the skies to see if you might by chance spot an Air-Kraken flitting between the clouds – it’s probably the very best time to do so.  Current theories believe them to be either semi-transparent and made from mostly aerogels, or alternately colour-changing like water-based squid and supported aloft by sacs of hydrogen.
Thank you both Mr Rowland and Mr Kiskolou of the Steampunk Forum for educating me in the ways of Air-Kraken.

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Crabfu (yes, he of amazing steambots fame) wrote to point out this lovely little animation from Mr Gavin McCarthy. Seems to be the first major move into Steampunk from what I can see of his online portfolio, but the animation is both lovely and very brief – a tireless tinkerer tries to fix a bike, with seemingly no progress until… Well, you can take a look, it’s only a minute long. Apparently YouTube’s compression has done unfortunate things to the quality, but Mr McCarthy is apparently going to upload a better version some time in the future.

Lovely though – quite enchanting in its brevity! (And what a Steampunk steam vessel!) Thanks, Mr Huang!

Well now, Ms Yayanos is a quite the fan and friend of the music group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and wrote to inform me that they’re on tour at the moment. The above image, as well as this one here, are apparently stills from their recent music video shoot, and they’ve got quite a lovely Victorian visual style working for them in these! However, they seem to do a little of quite a few things, and the review that Ms Yayanos sent me said that they were “equal parts punk, prog rock and opera” – but the few track snippets I listened to on their official site came across to my inexperienced ears as quite unusually tempo’ed industrial.

Not my thing (yes, I’m still looking) but again – music being so subjective, I’m sure some people here will find them quite enchanting!  Thank you, Ms Yayanos – your affection for this distinctive group of musicians is very heartwarming.  grins

Commander Major Alastair Q. Bastidious and First Lieutenant Rutuger G. Phooneybaum, in their aluminium spaceship, plumb the depths of space in their ongoing missions from the Great Mustache for the greater glory of the American nation!  And what moustaches they have – cheer thrice for The Mustache Rangers! An improvised comedy program, with old-style phonograph style music, Steampunk technology, and adventures in the murky regions of space (sponsored by Doc Johnsons’ Olde Tyme Elixer, of course) – there’s been ten episodes so far.  I love the style, and the idea, though I found that the improv-ness of it started to embarrass me a little in the first episode (I mean really – what’s in the envelope!).  It also confuses me somewhat – it’s all about adventuring for the glory of America, and yet they say “Aluminium” and “Zed” (inconsistantly).  I am baffled, but I applaud their efforts nonetheless.  Here’s a link to the first episode of their journey – and it seems they may be sent into the very heart of a star!  Thank you, Mr McKeown!