All I want for Christmas...

...is a steampunk iPod skin and a tetanus shot. Three Breuget balance spring studs and a yow, y'all.

H/T Boing Boing.

Ada Lovelace fanfic ahoy

When did steampunk come back around? Even for those of us too lazy or self-conscious to join the dressing up, or to whom the idea of trying to make a DIY steampunk computer set-up is terrifying, the eye candy is sah-weet. I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more of this look once "The Golden Compass" comes out. The steampunk vibe is more organic than pure goth and more interesting than strict Victorian reproductions, but it has a smart brooding edge that pings my inner adolescent. Personally, I covet the Steampunk Workshop's trilobite with cog-laden innards but would not say no to a raygun or even a lapidary pick guard.

In the game of who-influenced-what, steampunk comes across as a concatenation of "Serenity" (which was a little less brass-gears-and-goggles and a bit more cowboy chic), "Stardust" and its flying ship, and "Pirates of the Caribbean," with of course heavy Captain Nemo references, maybe a little Deadwood-meets-Mad Max touch, and the corset/fetish vibe familiar from the goth scene. Eating My Words has a better description of the various fashion phyla that have so far arisen from basic Victorian fashion (if "basic" is the word for it; the Vickies believed in the upholstery school of clothing), including a spot-on note about how quickly certain conventions of pose and costume gel even (especially?) in alternative subcultures.

Unfortunately, given how sexycool I find the whole steampunk ethos, The Difference Engine remains on my No Go list. It would be much more fun to buy some boots.

ETA: Steampunk flux capacitor! Un. Glau. Bich. Even better than the version 2 laptop.

No more Thomas Hardy!

Pride getteth in the way of taking the easy joke about the Beatles and my relief at finishing Jude the Obscure, so insert your own comments and take them as read. The plot, once it finally rambled into view, involved more angst: Jude and Sue wander around failing to get married, Jude's Pearl-esque spaceboy son from his previous marriage shows up and haunts them with his aged mien, hassles ensue regarding their growing family, freaky son kills himself and the other children "because we are too menny," Sue gets religion and goes back to the husband whose touch makes her flesh for to creep and makes a huge deal about how now she's a submitted wife and will actually have sex with him, Jude reunites with his scheming boozy wife Arabella, he never recovers his strength and dies while she's out gallivanting with the lecherous doctor, and the readers live happily ever after, amen, knowing that Hardy never wrote another novel.

I did, as promised, cleanse my brain with Making Money and a 1960 SF collection of short stories that I bought from a street vendor in New York on the strength of the cover art and the inclusion of Cordwainer Smith's brilliant "The Game of Rat and Dragon." I wasn't overly impressed by the Isaac Asimov "Ideas Die Hard," but I liked "Dead Ringer" for its pacing and "Volpla" just because. Someday I will find the poem that begins, "The owl and the pussycat went into space/ In a modified Jupiter C..."; it must be collected somewhere.

In other news, oh, what to wear to Oktoberfest? Die Ausgebürgerte offers a tip to da laydies. When I see "Die Dirndl-Trends 2007," I expect to see some Nordic futurewearz, but it turns out that the savvy Dirndl-trundler will not be plumping for PVC and chrome and quilted space fabrics this year. This year it's all about slumping around the walls of the pub and looking hopeful (or drunk). Next year? Who knows! Die clubben might be in.