My friend Jha Goh of Silver Goggles has a great guest posting over at STEAMED!

Steampunk, from the outside, looks like it’s all about Empire, you know? Charles Stross, famous very important science fiction literary figure, had a rant about it, which I think really points to two things: the ignorance of someone who’s not involved deeply in steampunk, and the impression steampunk is giving outsiders. 

The first is easily ignored, or would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that shit like Stross’ rant makes us look bad, no matter how into steampunk we are. Steampunks glorify Empire, and Stross has the clout to spread this impression far and wide. We should be concerned about this. 

We should also be concerned about the fact that this impression is one of the first that strangers and newcomers to steampunk get. Ask any one steampunk to define the genre, what do we get? Very often, the following words are part of the phrase: “19th century,” “Victorian,” “England.”

Read the rest here.

I just finished a project for Jeff VanderMeer's Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities and while I can't show you the sculptures I made (we're saving that for the book's debut) I can tell you that one of the pieces exemplified a new aesthetic for me, sort of an early 20th Century electro-mechanical style which I want to call Electropunk. Unfortunately that moniker is already in use as a variant of Synthpunk, so it remains un-named for now. Anyway, here's a video of a Stowger switchgear phone system. I used components similar to these in the piece I made for Jeff's latest book.

Oh my god isn't she gorgeous! This is the McKeen Motor Car and she's a pretty misfit and I love misfits more than just about anything else in this world.  She was originally gasoline powered but now sports a Caterpillar diesel engine. In fact, I do believe it is the same CAT 3208 motor I run in my school bus RV conversion.  Hmm, now that is giving me ideas . . .

From Carsonpedia:

In the early 1980s the Nevada State Railroad Museum opened up in Carson City, and started rounding up all the old V&T equipment they could get their hands on. #22 was one of the pieces they were interested in, and it took over a decade of negotiation before Al agreed to donate the car to the museum. On April 22, 1996, #22 was torn off its foundations once again and made the move a few blocks south to the railroad museum. Restoration work started almost right away, but a lack of funding made sure that it would be slow-going.

As of February 2009, exterior restoration is nearly complete and finishing touches are being put on the interior.

There's more information in the Railway Preservation News Forum and a bunch more pictures at AroundCarson.com.

[Thanks Dick!]