They are Steampunk music at its finest, and Abney Park has a new album called Under The Floor, Over The Wall which goes on sale today. The first track is Your Escape, the second is No Way Out, both from the new album.
Want to convert something into Bronze? The Lost-Wax Technique really does date back to the Bronze Age, or as close as makes no difference from my perspective. This great little animation from Renana Aldor & Kobi Vogman was made for the Hadrian Exhibition at the Israel Museum, and it gives you the entire process step by step. Of course, there are some details you will have to learn with research or by trial and error, but everything you need to get started is included. I like it as much for the excellent use of simple animation techniques to create the educational presentation (2D animation and stop motion photography, both tools first developed in the 1880s) as for the information contained within it. Whether you are looking to cast bronze or create educational videos, this is worth watching.
Hadrian / Bronze Casting Using The Lost-Wax Technique from Renana Aldor & Kobi Vogman on Vimeo.
Fate Gear seems to be a Steampunk Heavy Metal girl group from Japan, a concept that may take a bit of getting used to, for me at least. The first track is named the same as the band, Fate Gear, the second is Romancer. Mina plays guitar and writes the Music & Lyrics. She used to be with the band Destrose who also released the second track, and now is separate, at first just partnered with a great vocalist, but then they picked up a quality drummer to round out the group. While the songs presented here came out in the summer of 2015, they have a lot going on this year as well.
When we were at Steampunk unLimited earlier this year we took a lot of photos, and I am sure everyone will be shocked and surprised to learn many of them were taken on, in, or around steam powered locomotives. I took a few of those images and processed them through an art program, Corel Painter Essentials 5, which is the stripped down successor of their earlier package Paint It!. I wanted to share a few of those results, this time using the Colored Pencil Tool.
Movies has American Ultra, a wonderfully twisted little spy thriller comedy that everyone should watch at least once. I don’t know anything about Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow beyond the fact that it is a family friendly fantasy film made for TV and aired on the Lifetime network. But as someone who likes all things Muppet, I am looking forward to checking it out. And since I missed seeing the Shaun the Sheep Movie in the theater I am also anticipating that one.
Anime has Durarara!! x 2, and the second season is every bit as strange and wonderful as the first. Dragonar Academy: The Complete Series is obviously about a school where you learn to command Dragons, but our hot tempered protagonist ends up being paired with a dragon who will do whatever it takes to be the one in command. DRAMAtical Murder is about a sleepy town who’s main passion is an online environment where people battle to the virtual death. Z/X Ignition: Complete Series takes place on an Earth where portals to other worlds have opened up, and the aliens who come storming out of those ports are fighting each other for survival. Being caught in the middle isn’t doing the Earth much good, so it must join the combat.
A rare classic story is being re-released this week: Night on the Galactic Railroad was a fantasy novel written by Kenji Miyazawa around 1927 and was turned into an anime in 1985. It mostly takes place on a steam locomotive that travels between the stars, so may be one of the earliest examples of Steampunk, at least that I am aware of. We also get two more entries in the S.A.V.E. format with EUREKA SEVEN Ao: The Complete Series and Good Luck Girl! – The Complete Series, both worth picking up at their newly reduced price.
Several days ago Disney released its first look at Tim Burton’s Alice Through The Looking Glass, the sequel to his Alice in Wonderland from several years ago. It definitely looks like it needs to be seen on the big screen, just like the first one did, and you will be able to do so next May 27th, provided it doesn’t get delayed.