Gearing up for Steam Tour: Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls
theSpace on Niddry St (Venue 9)- 18:00
- 1 hour 20 minutes
- Accessibility: —
- Suitability: 16+ (Guideline)
- Group: Another Soup
London, 1859. Holborn’s shameless streets are awash with unsavoury individuals, wiling away their lives practicing the variously sordid Victorian vices of the times. On Fleet Street, Mr Sweeney Todd runs a reputable barbershop, shearing the whiskers of the gentry and clergy of London town. His sweetheart, Mrs Cornelia Lovett, spends her days managing an ailing pie shop, constantly on the brink of bankruptcy and plagued by belligerent bailiffs. What will they do to survive? Original, immersive promenade musical.
Get more info at the Edfringe website.
Gearing up for Steam Tour: The Arthur Conan Doyle Experience
Arthur Conan Doyle Experience is a talk about Edinburgh’s famous son, delivered in a magnificent example of an original Victorian town house which commemorates this great man of literature. Author of Sherlock Holmes – but what else is he famous for?
| Category | Spoken Word |
|---|---|
| Genres | True-life, Historical |
| Group | Arthur Conan Doyle Centre |
| Venue | Arthur Conan Doyle Centre |
| Event Website | www.arthurconandoylecentre.com |
| Date | Aug 12, 14, 19, 21, 26 |
| Time | 14:00 |
| Duration | 1 hour |
| Suitability | 16+ |
| Country of Origin | United Kingdom – Scotland |
Get more info at the Edfringe website.
Steampunk Sourcebook: Doctor Who
If you are a Sci-Fi fan then you must have heard of Doctor Who. But just in case you haven’t, the Doctor is an altruistic alien who can go anywhere in time and space, but seems to have an affinity for jolly old England all the same 🙂
Did you know that there are lots of episodes that could serve for Steampunk inspiration?
The Unquiet Dead (Episode 159, 9th Doctor)
The Doctor and Rose Tyler team up with Charles Dickens to solve a ghost story in 1869.
Tooth and Claw (Episode 169, 10th Doctor)
In 1879 The Doctor lands in Scotland and Queen Victoria is in danger from a werewolf attack.
The Girl in the Fireplace (Episode 171, 10th Doctor)
This episode would probably most accurately be called “clockpunk” because it features space-clockwork and 18th Century France.
The New Doctor (Episode 199 (Christmas Special), 10th Doctor)
The Doctor meets, well, The Doctor, or at least someone who claims to be, at Christmastime in 1851. The cybermen are at it again and together the Doctors must save Christmas.
From Doctorwhoreviews.co.uk
Vincent and the Doctor (Episode 210, 11th Doctor)
The Doctor takes Amy Pond to visit a Vincent Van Gogh exhibit, and they spy something in a painting that doesn’t belong there. So they head to 1890 to find out the origin of the terrible face in the window.
A Christmas Carol (Episode 213 (Christmas Special) 11th Doctor)
The Doctor must take a page out of Dickens’ book and soften the soul of a miser to save Amy and Rory.
The Curse of the Black Spot (Episode 215, 11th Doctor)
When the Doctor stumbles upon a becalmed pirate ship, he discovers a sinister force at work picking off the crew members one by one.
The Doctor’s Wife (Episode 216, 11th Doctor)
Ok, this one isn’t exactly Steampunk but it is my favorite episode and the old-meets-new vibe plus the junkyard in which it takes place appeals to my Steampunk side. Plus, it was written by my all-time favorite author, Neil Gaiman.
A Town Called Mercy (Episode 228, 11th Doctor)
This space-western fusion episode features a cyborg and the Doctor as sheriff of a small town.
The Snowmen (Episode 231, 11th Doctor)
It’s just snow, right? Wrong! In 1892 the snow comes to life and sinister snowmen are on the loose.
The Crimson Horror (Episode 237, 11th Doctor)
The Pasternoster Gang are called upon to investigate a string of mysterious deaths in 1893. When they examine an optogram (ie, the supposed image left on the retina at the moment of death) reveals the Doctor so they bring him into the mix.
Recurring Characters: The Paternoster Gang
In A Good Man Goes to War (Episode 218), the Doctor calls upon compatriots from across time and space to aid him in rescuing Amy Pond from Demon’s Run. Among they are Vastra, a Silurian (reptilian predecessors to the human race asleep in the center of the Earth), her maid/lover/badass Jenny Flint and a Sontaran (whom I call “the Mr. Potato heads of space”) named Commander Strax. In Victorian times they join forces and fight crime, sometimes alongside the Doctor.
In addition to A Good Man Goes to War, they also make appearances in The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror, and The Name of the Doctor (Episode 239).
I haven’t seen any of the original Doctor Who series, so I didn’t include them in this sourcebook. If you are a fan and you want to recommend an episode, please leave me a comment below!
Hustlers, Harlots and Heroes is a Must-Have Resource for any Steampunk Author
As part of my preparation for Steam Tour I picked up a great little reference volume by historian/geek Krista A. Ball. Hustlers, Harlots and Heroes: A Steampunk and Regency Fieldguide tells the story of the untold, the people who populate your Steampunk imaginings but are rarely the focal point. She brings you the inside scoop on the maids, footmen and even your friendly neighborhood knocker-upper (think alarm clock with a stick) to offer readers and writers a window into how the 99% really lived during the Regency and Victorian eras.
Ball’s first reference book, What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank, also sounds like a lot of fun, but so far I have only read Hustlers. Both books include recipes that you will want to make at home (and some like tooth paste made from cuttlefish that you’d never EVER want to try) in addition to some great background information and delicious tidbits to add depth and interest to your own Steampunk projects.
Let me know if you have any ideas for other reference books I should read before Steam Tour starts in August! I finally got a reliable internet connect here in Greece so I hope to go back to posting more often and letting you know all the amazing Steampunkery that is to come.
My Latest Haul From the Bookstore
Hubby and I were on our way home from getting fingerprinted (part of the Bulgarian visa application) and I spotted a Half Price Books on the map. I had barely said the word “books” before we were turning into the parking lot and turning a totally boring errand into a nice afternoon out.
I told my companion to go frolic in the Ancient History section while I perused the art books and I found one that I can’t wait to explore! It is called A Practical Step-By-Step Guide to Making Pop-Ups and Novelty Cards: A Masterclass in Paper Engineering, which is a term that I had never heard before. I have been struggling to find a way to describe the work I do with paper, and I think that is a fitting descriptor. I am really looking forward to finding new ways to make things pop out of my shadow boxes, and the book is full of pictures so it is easy to follow.
Next, I hit the Sci-Fi section and pulled up my Steampunk Books page to help me comb the shelves for new books. I am happy to report that I got a hold of my first Phillipa (Pip) Ballantine novel, Phoenix Rising, the first in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series.
Sometimes when I go to a bookstore I search alphabetically through my book list, but after the B’s I put down my phone and drifted through the titles, touching the spines. I ended up with two more books to add to my growing list, Devices and Desires, by K. J. Parker and Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters
(Has anyone else noticed that authors don’t seem to have first names anymore?)
Devices and Desires is the first in a speculative fiction series called “The Engineer Trilogy.” From what I gather from other reviewers, it takes place in a dystopic land where deviating from the established blueprints can bring a death sentence. At over 700 pages and with warnings of its density echoing in my ears I think I will set this one aside until after I have done my Steam Tour reading.
Whitechapel Gods caught my attention of course because of Jack the Ripper. I have started to look into which tours and sites I want to do in order to write my Ripper article for Steam Tour so the neighborhood was on my mind. In S. M. Peters’ novel, Whitechapel has become a walled-off, steam-driven hell for its residents, and chronicles the story of the new resistance.
When hubby and I reconvened at the cheap DVDs (The Brothers Grimm for $6 :)) he had a wonderful reference book in hand. Lighter Than Air: An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships. It has wonderful chapter titles like “Clouds in a Bag” and “The Fabulous Silver Fishes” and tons of images of different kinds of flying machines. I am designing a flying machine for my novel right now so this book will be perfect for figuring out how I want it to work.
What’s your newest treasure from the bookstore?
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) is Whimsical Fun
Poster for the Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
Thanks to Josh Stanton and Andrew Knighton both for recommending this movie! This is my third French movie in the Steampunk ouevre, and before I started my quest to watch and review any movie that anyone has called Steampunk I wouldn’t have guessed there was going to be a lot to find in French. I absolutely loved all three, Lost Portals: The Chronicles of Vidoqc (dark, gritty, adult), City of Lost Children (clever, strange and entertaining) and now The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec.
By Jacques Tardi
Adele is a comic book hero who was created in the 1970s by Jacque Tardi. She started out as a foil for a different female lead character, but Tardi decided he liked writing Adele better and made her the star instead. The most recent graphic novel was released in 2007, and a film directed by Luc Besson followed in 2010. I know Besson best for his part in penning my personal gateway into Sci-Fi, The Fifth Element, but he has created characters like Nikita (La Femme Nikita) and has been a part of the Transporter series of films. Originally, Besson said there would be at least three Adele films, but so far no sequels have been announced.
The books were recently re-released in hardcover form and are available in English as well as the original French. The film draws heavily from volume 1, Pterror over Paris, (for the pterodactyl, get it?) which you can get on Amazon.com.
And now on to the movie. We first meet Adele on an expedition to Egypt. Her male compatriots try to ditch her but she soon proves she is the most capable one there and leads them deep into the mummy’s tomb. But Adele is not on a search for riches, she has her heart set on a certain mummy who she hopes can be revived and called upon to save the life of Adele’s catatonic sister. I know, it doesn’t sound like the most practical of plans, but Adele knows a man who has been honing his psychic abilities for just such an occasion.
While Professor Espérandieu is flexing his psychic muscles back in Paris he inadvertently connects to the dormant life inside a dinosaur egg and suddenly a baby pterodactyl is set loose into the skies above the City of Lights. The professor is accused of the “crimes” that result and he is put on death row when no one believes his ramblings about the dinosaur. Louise Bourgoin makes an absolutely charming Adele and her many attempts to free him are hilarious. Thwarted at every turn, she appeals to the President of France, but his hopes all rest on a bumbling big game hunter to bring the beastie down. The professor is still psychically linked to the pterodactyl so if it dies so does the professor, as well as all of Adele’s hopes for her saving her sister.
I totally loved this movie and I highly recommend it if you need something to put a smile on your face. Bourgoin sometimes talks a mile a minute so I am sure it would have been even funnier if I could have watched it dubbed in English instead of reading the subtitles, but I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, action and story. Ancient stuff was all the rage at the turn of the 20th century, especially ancient Egyptian stuff, so even the anachronisms felt like they were just an extension of the period, and I liked the whimsical brush used to paint even the direst of events in the plot.
Do you know of any other foreign-language movies that could be considered Steampunk? I’d love to see them!
Tangled Web Shadowbox
I am really happy with my newest experiment! What do you think?
“Tangled Web” Shadowbox
For Whom the Gear Turns 