January 2011 Articles (61)

Of course, Valentine's Day is coming up, which puts me in a romantic mood. Bonnie Annie Laurie, etc...

http://pilsnerspicks.blogspot.com/

The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, H.P. Podcraft for short, is one of the finest Cthulhu Mythos and H.P. Lovecraft related podcast you can find.

The masterminds behind this podcast are Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer, independent filmmakers who also admit to having day-jobs.

A regular on the show is famed Cthulhu Mythos independent film director Andrew Leman, himself being the mastermind behind the 2005 silver screen adaption of…

Underground :

1 - [adj] under the level of the ground;

2 - [ n] a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force;

3 - [adv] in or into hiding or secret operation;

4 - [adj] used of independent armed resistance forces;

5 - [adj] conducted with or…

Welcome to the Killer Serials on Dieselpunks.

Killer Serials is our segment on Dieselpunks for showcasing cliffhangers and serial thrillers from Hollywood's golden age.

In November 1915, the walls of Paris were plastered with street posters that depicted three masked faces with a question mark as a noose, and the questions "who, what, when, where?". The morning newspapers printed the following poem:

Of the moonless nights…

Retrofuturist movie stuff? Not at all!

(by 30mog @ Flickr)

This splendid coach was built by Thomas Harrington & Sons of Hove, East Sussex, in 1950. A decidedly 'prewar' streamline design on a loyal AEC Regal III platform.…

Last week I profiled the M1897 Trench Broom, the American combat shotgun of World War I. In dusting off my war-time shotgun knowledge I happened upon a forgotten "survival" shotgun/rifle hybrid of the Luftwaffe.



The M30 Luftwaffe Drilling (variation on the German 'triple') started out as a game keeper's gun.…

Welcome to Two Fisted Tuesdays, Dieselpunks' weekly beat on the mean streets.

Starring Gerald Mohr and starting with the famous lines, "Get this and get it straight! Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave." The Adventures of Philip Marlowe runs about 25 minutes without commercials. You can listen to this blast from the past in MP3 format for free at the link below.…

Well ladies & gents, the deep freeze is on, and I know you're all looking for some exciting reasons to fire up the Creativity engine.

The Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky was a Soviet eight-engine aircraft, the largest in the 1930s.

The ANT-20 was designed by Andrei Tupolev and constructed between July 4, 1933 and April 3, 1934. It was one of two aircraft of its kind ever built by the Soviets. The aircraft was named after Maxim Gorky…

Well, maybe not the anniversary of dieselpunk per se but it was in 2001 that Lewis Pollak coined the term "dieselpunk" to describe his Role Playing Game "Children of the Sun."

Today, a steam loco that imitated its diesel brethren.

In 1937 West Burlington installed a stainless steel shroud and roller bearings on CB&Q 3002 4-6-4 in order to use it for substitute power on the Zephyrs. It was renumbered 4000 and named Aeolus (Greek God of the Winds).…

Welcome to the Killer Serials on Dieselpunks.

Killer Serials is our segment on Dieselpunks for showcasing cliffhangers and serial thrillers from Hollywood's golden age.

In November 1915, the walls of Paris were plastered with street posters that depicted three masked faces with a question mark as a noose, and the questions "who, what, when, where?". The morning newspapers printed the following poem:

Of the moonless nights…

Edmond Thieffry (1892–1929) was a Belgian First World War air ace and aviation pioneer.

Thieffry was born in Etterbeek, a municipality of Brussels, and went on to study law in Leuven (hence his nickname "The Flying Judge"). After qualifying he was conscripted into the Belgian Army, joining the 10th Regiment in 1913. At the start of the First World War he saw service as a staff attaché to General Leman, but was captured by the Germans. He escaped on a stolen…

Today, the Hispano Friday!

Of course, these noble automobiles have been already featured here. But a true Dieselpunk never can have enough Hispano pictures or Hispano info. So, some photographs to share, as well as an article brought to us by…

Pictured above: Frenchman Roland Garros (6 October 1888 – 5 October 1918), the first flier to score a victory by firing through a propeller, stands above the wire-braced wing of a pre-war Morane-Saulnier monoplane.

Captured once in 1915, Garros escaped, but was later killed in…

When the Winchester M97/17 shotgun arrived in Europe in the hands of 'Doughboys,' the Germans were livid. The Kaiser's military forces found the idea of a 12 gauge shotgun so deplorable in combat, they tried to have it outlawed as inhumane.

But at the end of the day, the Winchester is just a pump action…

Small and harmless devices can be no less exciting than giant war machines.

Today I invite you to have a look at Curvex watches - a masterpiece of design produced by Gruen company. Let's open a page of the excellent Gruen story by Paul Schliesser:

"By the early 1930s, men's wristwatches had overtaken pocket watches in popularity, although wristwatches were not yet considered…

Welcome to Two Fisted Tuesdays, Dieselpunks' weekly beat on the mean streets.

Starring Gerald Mohr and starting with the famous lines, "Get this and get it straight! Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave." The Adventures of Philip Marlowe runs about 25 minutes without commercials. You can listen to this blast from the past in MP3 format for free at the link below.…

Dieselpunks present: the Weimar Republic's largest housing project:

During the critical housing shortage that existed in in Germany following WWI, various co-op housing societies and associations, public housing associations and trades unions housing groups were formed to build economical housing in Berlin. One of the largest of these associations,Gehag (public utility homes, savings and construction company), was founded in 1919 to build housing for its members.…