What A Slacker!

Steampunk Art Tunnels Into New York

Add comment May 30th, 2008

The Telectroscope is an art project on a transatlantic scale. This huge interactive piece will be up in New York and London now through June 15th. Shame that it will only be available for such a short time, something this amazing should be in place all year long.

The artist’s site tells us that “more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.”

For more information check out artist Paul St. George’s Telectroscope website.

Steampunk Star Wars Figures

Add comment May 11th, 2008

I have always been a fan of the folks who can make custom action figures especially when they are such high quality as those over at Sillof’s Workshop.

But these are no ordinary custom figures. What do I mean by ordinary? I guess to clarify; I would say in this case ordinary means creating figures of existing characters not already in action figure form.

So why are Sillof’s figures so extraordinary? Well these figures are of existing figures and/or characters but they are totally re-imagined. Below you will see what I mean with the steampunk Star Wars figures, which are just stunning in design and workmanship. But don’t just take my word for it head to Sillof.com to see more detailed pictures and to read a little about the inspiration behind each figure. While you are there be sure to take a look at the Victorian Avengers and Gaslight Justice League figures they’re amazing.

SteamPunk Makes Headlines

Add comment May 9th, 2008

I have been on a bit of a Steampunk kick of late and in had manifested itself in one of my recent posts about a way cool Victorian home turned museum in Texas. Prior to that my interest had been merely in stumbling on some really cool sites of people who are really into Steampunk and some of the sub genres like dieselpunk.

Over the course of the next few weeks I tend to feature some of the best of these Steampunk aficionados. Until that time NY Times has beat me to it with this article…

Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds
New York Times 5/8/08 By RUTH LA FERLA

…It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines. First appearing in the late 1980s and early ’90s, steampunk has picked up momentum in recent months, making a transition from what used to be mainly a literary taste to a Web-propagated way of life.

To some, “steampunk” is a catchall term, a concept in search of a visual identity. “To me, it’s essentially the intersection of technology and romance,” said Jake von Slatt, a designer in Boston and the proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), where he exhibits such curiosities as a computer furnished with a brass-frame monitor and vintage typewriter keys.

That definition is loose enough to accommodate a stew of influences, including the streamlined retro-futurism of Flash Gordon and Japanese animation with its goggle-wearing hackers, the postapocalyptic scavenger style of “Mad Max,” and vaudeville, burlesque and the structured gentility of the Victorian age. In aggregate, steampunk is a trend that is rapidly outgrowing niche status…

Read the entire steampunk article.

Indiana Jones Lego Sets Keep On Coming

Add comment May 7th, 2008

May 1st brought a slew more Indian Jones LEGO sets.  We already had the The Temple Escape ($60),  Race for the Stolen Treasure ($30),  The Lost Tomb($20) and the Motorcycle Chase ($10).  the only one of those three I still need to get is the Race for the Stolen Treasure set and I might have to put that one off for a little while as these new sets have me all excited!

The Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Lego sets available as of May 1, 2008 are: Jungle Duel ($10), River Chase ($20), Jungle Cutter($40), and The Temple of the Crystal Skull ($70). So far the only one I have picked up is the cheapest one The Jungle Duel set. Fun little set that includes three minifigs. You get Indy, Mutt and Spalko. The cloth tent is pretty cool. I could see a whole bunch of these set up as a military camp or boyscott troop. I can definitely see the steampunk and diselpunk lego fans making some fun stuff from all these Indy sets that’s for sure.

I really hope LEGO keeps pushing out the Indiana Jones sets for us adult fans as well as the kids. So far these are available at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. Target hasn’t jumped on the band wagon yet as they only have the first four Lego sets none of the new ones and none of the action figures either. If you are looking to pick these up I don’t recommend TRU as their prices are $2-10 more than any where else including LEGO.com and EntertainmentEarth.com.

Steampunk House That Is A Must See

1 comment April 30th, 2008

Texas is a big state with lots of things to do. I am not sure one visit would be enough. I luckily have friends who live in different areas of the state so I should be able to plan several trips to get the most out of the state especially when it comes to making plans to visit my friends in Houston.

I just came across this beautiful historic site, W.H. Stark House that I have to fit into one of the trips even if it is on the wrong side of the state, but thank goodness for those friends in Houston. It is a huge Victorian home turned into a museum located in the City of Orange about 120 miles east of Houston. I absolutely love the Victorian time period. Not that I would have wanted to be a female back in those days as I am certainly not into wearing all the dresses and lace, but I can appreciate the beauty of it all.

Lately I have been really getting into the whole steampunk scene too and this place fits that bill to a tee. Just seeing the outside of this place makes me want to go. It is huge and gorgeous! The folks that built it, William Henry Stark and Miriam Melissa Lutcher Stark, were avid collectors. And we all know collecting is an obsession and not just a hobby. You have got to see the stuff they have online and that is only a small portion of the entire collection on view at the W.H. Stark House.

They even have a bronze death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte. This is right up my morbid little alley. Besides that there is other artwork, beautiful vintage household items (that only the rich then and now could ever hope to own) and not to be missed is the wonderfully steampunk 1909 Hupmobile Roadster. What an amazing looking automobile. What H. G. Wells or Jules Verne fan wouldn’t want to have that vehicle?

While the online images of this place are beyond amazing I truly do suggest that anyone near this place goes there.