A little off the beaten track - "Warhammer movie? On a steampunk blog? Huh?" - but justified in two ways; firstly, the popularity of the WH40K universe amongst steampunk afficionados, and secondly, the very steam and diesel punk elements which underpin that universe.
A movie has been rumoured for years, with a fan movie produced (and unfortunately blocked by Games Workshop (GW), the owners of Warhammer), and countless mini-movies using elements of the GW computer in-game footage created by frustrated fans in the interim. Now, finally, an official WH40K movie - Ultramarines - is in production.
For those who have read the above with absolutely no understanding, enlightenment may be found over at the Strange Dreamsblog. And guess what? Those who wish to know more may find just what they need over at the Strange Dreams blog as well!
We go around the blogosphere to find blogs that deal with very specific things, and uncover the best and coolest there are to see.
Far be it for us to blow our own trumpet, as immodest as that may be! AOTS Presenters including Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Layla Kayleigh show, on a weekly basis, that
There's the inside track, and then there are those who pave the inside track. Attack of the Show gets you inside, underneath, around, and behind the newest tech, the hottest games, the fastest-breaking news, and the oddest oddities from the fringe.
I'm not sure, but it may be that steampunk is being classed under the last criterium!
Rather marvellously, Dr Fabre's Heliographis also featured, and deservedly so! It goes without saying that Jake Von Slatt's Steampunk Workshopshould also feature large. I must admit, it is humbling to be in such lauded company, to say nothing of raising expectations overnight!
The Show's site may be found here, with the video here, or beneath for your edification!
Today, 21 September, sees what would have been the 143rd birthday of the genius of Herbert George Wells.
Today will see the usual material pulled out, with commentary upon his War of the Worldsand, possibly my favourite, The Time Machine, but I like to try and do something different here. Many will liken Wells to Jules Verne, but I will leave commentary upon that subject to the great HG and Jules themselves:
I do not see the possibility of comparison between his (Wells) work and mine. We do not proceed in the same manner. It occurs to me that his stories do not repose on a very scientific basis. No, there is no rapport between his work and mine. I make use of physics. He invents. I go to the moon in a cannon-ball discharged from a cannon. Here there is no invention. He goes to Mars [sic] in an air-ship, which he constructs of a metal which does away with the law of gravitation. Ca, c'est tres joli, but show me this metal. Let him produce it.
As well as being one of the most influential authors of his, and subsequent, time, Wells was also a great social thinker and activist, being an active Fabian. his reposte to Verne ran:
There's a quality in the worst of my so-called "pseudo-scientific" (imbecile adjective) stuff which differentiates it from Jules Verne, e.g., just as Swift is differentiated from Fantasia—isn't there? There is something other that either story writing or artistic merit which has emerged through the series of my books. Something one might regard as a new system of ideas—"thought."
Wells was about ideas, about how humans interact amongst themselves and with new development. His non-fictional writing is as interesting as his fiction. He was passionate about science, and about the possibilities which it unlocked for human potential - his publications upon war were concerned with minimising the impact which war had upon society, leading to his exploration of more efficient ways of conducting military actions and the use of technology to do so - notoriously the "Land Iron Clads", which he first published in 1903 (you can read it online here). He is also credited with being the inventor of recreational war gaming, and his Little Wars of 1913 may indeed have been the first miniature war game.
His writing on the future, upon the bettering of society but also upon the efficiency of the military war machine and the conduct of war, can be understood when you recognise that Wells was an ardent utopian. His Modern Utopia, The Shape of Things to Come, In the Days of the Comet are all brilliant, and Wells invented the dystopia with When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) and he explores the dark side of human nature in The Island of Doctor Moreau, a well as the fascistic authoritarianism in The Autocracy of Mr Parham and The Holy Terror.
His utopianism is probably most evident in his work on the League of Nations charter, and in his enthusiasm for a world state and, in a way which would be horrifying later in the twentieth century, eugenics. You can read excerpts from his New World Order here. He met world leaders, personally meeting and interviewing Stalin (a transcript is available here) and Roosevelt in 1934, in an attempt to bring about a better world, but ultimately he died a disappointed man, writing that it may be better for humanity to become extinct and replaced, a notion which he had harboured for most of his life (his thoughts on human extinction may be read here).
A brilliant article upon the life and works of Wells may be found here.
A piece on his influence on history may be found here.
If you fancy building yourself a model Land Iron Clad, try this.
Possibly the most faithful (but ultimately commercially unviable) rendition on screen of his War of the Worlds may be found here.
Oh, and if you use Google, and have wondered what all the crop circles and other strange logos have been about for the past month - it has all been leading up to today. The mystery is unravelled here.
Now that the time is fast approaching, an update to my previous post concerning the upcoming Steampunk Convivial in Lincoln on 11-13 September, 2009.
The home of the Annual UK Steampunk Convivial may be found here, and the latest news here and here. This has developed rapidly in the past few months, to the extent that epacks being sent out to ticket holders as I write!
The Steampunk Convivial will be taking place in the "Steampunk Quarter", beneath Lincoln Castle's walls. The entertainment looks quite mind-blowing, and is spread over three days. Friday night's entertainment includes a BBQ and Beer Festival (yay!); Saturday includes a host of events, from creative writing and DIY workshops to a treatise on Time Travel, with a steamfair and ending with the Empire Ball in the evening. The highlight of the day will be and audience with Robert Rankin and booksigning with phenomenal author Toby Frost (who also happens to be a denizen of the Gatehouse's Smoking Lounge!). Sunday will be more relaxed, with picnics and exploration. The Bazaar Eclectica will be running on Saturday, with traders and a 'bring and buy' sale. Live music will include the fantastic Vernian Process and Ghostfire, amongst others.
For those who are steampunk virgins (as it were), information and guidance on etiquette and dress may be found here.
This really is an event not to be missed. Full pricing information and tickets can be found here, and extremely reasonable they are too!
Heartfelt wishes and congratulations to the organisers for this momentous occasion!
Huge congratulations to the British Steam Car Challenge team, who, on Tuesday 25 August 2009, smashed the land speed record for a steam-powered car, reaching a top speed of 151.085mph.
The team consisted of members of the previous ThrustSSC Project, and initally hoped to reach speeds of 200mph, although the final design may be capable of 'just' 170mph. The average speed over two runs was 139.843mph, finally toppling the previous remarkable record of 127mph by Fred Marriott way back in 1906!
Speaking from Edward's AirForce Base, California, principal driver Charles Burnett III, from Lymington, Hampshire, (who drove both runs) commented:
"It was absolutely fantastic I enjoyed every moment of it. We reached nearly 140mph on the first run. All systems worked perfectly, it was a really good run. The second run went even better and we clocked a speed in excess of 150 mph. The car really did handle beautifully. The team has worked extremely hard over the last 10 years and overcome numerous problems. It is a privilege to be involved with such a talented crew, what we have achieved today is a true testament to British engineering, good teamwork and perseverance”
At 40 bars of pressure, with 400°C steam flowing through 3km of tubing at 40 litres a minute, Mr Burnett is a brave man indeed to drive such a machine. This is a major, and well deserved, achievement, and hearty congratulations go to the whole Team, who have proved yet again the power of steam in the modern age, with the pioneers of the Steam Age still at the frontier of steam technology!
Videos of the runs may be found here, with the BBC report and footage here. More details of the project may be found at their website here.
A refreshing perspective on the modern age of communication from John Freeman, editor of Granta magazine, in an extract from his forthcoming book The Tyranny of E-Mail.
Steampunks love their technology, but, essentially, always with a backward glance - you have only to see the fantastic contraptions of Jake Von Slatt, and even the new Steampunk Tales application for the iPhone for immediate gratification of this. The Victorians believed in progress, and believed in their new technologies as a means to achieve this, bringing with it education, sanitation, transport, social housing and amenities along with the pollution and massive material and human waste which Industrialisation brought.
Things have changed. Essentially, those in the so-called 'advanced' countries, Freeman argues, have become enslaved by the new technology. Citing an example of a colleague's friend,
"He tells me he is now detained, night and day, in downloading every album he ever owned, lost, desired, or was casually intrigued by; he has now stopped even listening to them, and spends his time sleeplessly monitoring a progress bar. . . . He says it's like all my birthdays have come at once, by which I can see he means, precisely, that he feels he is going to die."
Speed does not equate to efficiency, and the connection between technology and progress is a complicated one. Freeman calls for a Manifesto, a new approach, one in which the "technology is to be used for the betterment of human life", used more sensibly and coherently, and in a more controlled manner.
This notion has been lost, but is recognised in the Steampunk world. The recently re-ignited interest in De Profundis within the genre is only the most recent recognition of this phenomenon. The bleeding of steampunk ideals into the wider world continues!
Please, take a visit over to Mr Freeman's article, before it is too late!
Today, 16 July, sees the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Saturn V rocket which took Apollo 11 to the lunar surface. Regular readers and compatriots will know my love of space exporation, retrofuture, and steampunk, and you can check out some of my other posts here or here.
The ensuing months will see a myriad of posts around the aether about the moon, about the mission, and about the verbal slip of Armstrong's on such a momentous occasion - although, to be honest, concentrating on not slipping down the ladder in order to make the first human impression upon an extra-terrestrial body with your foot rather than your backside is probably a good thing, overall.
The reinvigorated space missions, starting with GW Bush's statement of purpose in September 2004, promised to herald a new step in human space exploration, with robots and humans venturing into the solar system.
However, a main foundation of this new adventure - that of a permanent lunar base - is reportedly under threat. Detailed plans for a lunar base were developed in the 1980s , which would have seen semi-permanent bases established there between 2005-6. As per usual, however, other life events intervened.
Man is scheduled to return to the moon in 2020, and from there, push into the wider system, including Mars. Now, however, it appears that NASA is, due to the new financial climate, scaling back on its plans. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies of the House Committee on Appropriations heard in April that the moon may now be bypassed, with the concentration now on pushing out straight away. This will depend upon the 2010 budget. There are draft plans to delete the lunar base completely, and use manned asteroids instead.
That said, two new missions to the moon (LRO and LCROSS) are continuing, one objective being to determine the nature of any water on the moon. As we all know, water is vital for any exploration mission - it's crucial for survival, yet is bulky, heavy, and does not dehydrate! The more sources of water we can find in the solar system, the better the chances of humanity pushing out from this lonely and precarious ball of rock we call home.
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