I certainly could have used something like this over the last few days, having been stricken with a bad case of plantar fasciitis, which makes walking pretty darn painful..

Found over at Smee’s Stuff

“What you get when you mix an 1875 Eastlake Victorian platform rocking chair with a Permobil C300 Power wheelchair and a few trips to an antique store. Toss in screaming digital amped sound system, an event triggered sound processor, oh and a portable smoke machine!”

Well Done, That Man!

Atlas Obscura , a compendium of this age’s wonders, curiosities, and esoterica is holding an International Obscura Day.

“The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you’re looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them.”

“Join us March 20th, 2010 in celebrating wondrous and curious places all over the world. RSVP for expeditions and tours at obscuraday.com.”

Some events already scheduled: (see the website for details)

“In San Francisco we’re descending en masse to the Musee Mecanique and then going to visit the clock and orrerys at the Long Now Foundation. At Stanford University they’re showing us around the pneumatic dispatch system.In Mountain View, CA they’re holding a demonstration of the Difference Engine for us. In New York, there’s a private tour of the Radio guy’s collection of science and tech oddities. In Serbia we’re going to the world’s only Tesla Museum . In Colorado Springs, the Steampunk Cowboys are leading a tour of a Wild West museum.

These events are all filling up fast (and some are booked solid) – but there’s still room in some and there are more events coming online almost everyday.”

It might be of interest that Rudyard Kipling penned a tale called: ” With The Night Mail, A Story of 2000 A.D”  featuring airships..

It can be downloaded in several formats from Project Gutenberg

Billed as   A Three-Day Expedition into Yesterday’s Future! ,   the  “enormous and fantastic creature which is the first Steampunk Festival in the United States!”, will take place on May 14th-16th 2010, at the Radisson of Piscataway, in the lovely state of New Jersey.

“PWF is the first East Coast event to welcome Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Retro-futurists, Gas Lamp Fantasists, and any and all others who consider themselves part of steampunk into a weekend long festival celebrating all things steamy!

An interactive and social event for people of all levels of steampunk know-how (yes, even you sitting in the corner of the internet, not sure you know what steampunk is or if you even like it) to communicate, dance, exchange, and explore. Here, you will find representation of the art, culture, fashion, technology, history, gaming, and music of this fascinating and scintillating subculture and genre.

Say you enjoy the post-enlightenment of the Industrial Revolution, or Victorian Era upper-class sensibilities, or the mutated past merged with modern mentalities and counter-culture ethos. Maybe you like the skewed science of “What if?” and the historical settings, or you simply like to look dapper in your top hat. There is something here at the Steampunk World’s Fair for you!”

As Fred Dibnah would have said “Did yer like that?”, and seeing as you did, ‘ere’s some more..