Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture

June 2010 Articles (58)

TERA Weapons of Imperial Japanese Paratroopers

Paratroopers jump with issued weapons, liked or despised. During D-Day U.S. troopers jumped with everything from the full-sized M1 Garand to the M1 Carbine and Thompson SMG. The German Fallschirmjager leaped into combat with K98k rifles, FG42 and MP40.

But what weapons armed the Imperial Japanese paratroopers that jumped into battle over Asia? Like many nations, Japanese small arms designers modified existing weapons to create the TERA series. TERA weapons were a class of… Continue

Added by Jake Holman Jr. on June 30, 2010 at 2:00pm — 3 Comments

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Perfect Husband

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Perfect Husband

Originally broadcast on May 2, 1955

The adventures of master detective Sherlock Holmes as he and his assistant, Dr. Watson, (and somewhat reluctantly, the bumbling Inspector Lestrade) battle criminals in London.

In this episode: A man tells his wife that he is a killer who has murdered his six previous wives, and notifies her that she has one… Continue

Added by Tome Wilson on June 30, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

Two Fisted Tuesdays with Philip Marlowe - Feminine Touch

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.…

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Added by Tome Wilson on June 29, 2010 at 10:02pm — No Comments

Radio City

Not too sure if this will be announced on Radio City, so I just wanted to let you, guys, know that, like every year, I'll be away from my computer and any Internet connection for Summer season. See you in Fall... !

Added by Stefan on June 28, 2010 at 6:28pm — 3 Comments

Miskatonic Mondays - Herbert West: Reanimator (The Horror From the Shadows)

Lights out, everybody.

On Miskatonic Mondays, we celebrate the "weird" fiction of HP Lovecraft and the genre of otherworldly horror that it spawned.

This week, we continue our look into the macabre world of Herbert West, The Reanimator." Written by Lovecraft between Halloween 1921 and June 1922, Herbert West: Reanimator is a six part serial originally published in Home Brew magazine.

Below, I've…

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Added by Tome Wilson on June 28, 2010 at 12:00am — No Comments

Diesel Era Japan

Normally when we think of Japan during the 1920s - 1940s we think of the rise of fascism and their involvement in WWII. But it's much more complicated than that, which I plan to make a topic of my blog soon. In the meantime I thought others would find this interesting. It's a site I learned about on Steampunk forum, which has images from the Taisho Period (1912 - 1926) and the… Continue

Added by Larry on June 25, 2010 at 8:10pm — 2 Comments

Lord K's Garage - #43. American Mini

The Crosley was an automobile manufactured by the Crosley Corporation and later by Crosley Motors Incorporated in the United States from 1939 to 1952.

Industrialist Powel Crosley, Jr., of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, had ambitious plans to build a subcompact car and developed assembly plants at… Continue

Added by lord_k on June 25, 2010 at 9:30am — 2 Comments

Edith Shain Dies. Farewell to an Icon. .

A friend of mine sent this story to me today.. and I felt it definitely deserved a place here.

-Taken from the Chicago Tribune.

It's one of the most iconic images to emerge from World War II.

Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph of an anonymous young sailor in a dark-blue uniform dipping a white-uniformed nurse backward while giving her a long kiss in the…

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Added by Piper Williams on June 24, 2010 at 4:45pm — 3 Comments

We're Just Taking It Back

An illustration for a piece of music produced for Peppermill Records by Terminal 11 : "We're Just Taking It Back". The concept album, titled 2999, imagines what music is, as this third millenium comes to its ending. The artist, Terminal 11, describes this track as follows :

"I imagined by 2999 producers turn to outdated equipment from…

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Added by Stefan on June 24, 2010 at 1:11pm — 2 Comments

From Boston to Battle: The Johnson Rifle & Light Machinegun

Even when prowling the courtrooms of Boston during the late 1930s, Marine Corps Reserve officer Melvin Johnson Jr. had an idea to create a rifle that was easy to manufacture, but more importantly accurate and deadly in the hands of a Marine rifleman.

Johnson scrapped together pieces of other firearms to create the first prototypes of the Johnson rifle system. In a day when a rifle was purpose built, Johnson cobbled together a patented idea that created not only a… Continue

Added by Jake Holman Jr. on June 23, 2010 at 2:00pm — 1 Comment

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Baker Street Nursemaids

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Baker Street Nursemaids

Originally broadcast on April 25, 1955

The adventures of master detective Sherlock Holmes as he and his assistant, Dr. Watson, (and somewhat reluctantly, the bumbling Inspector Lestrade) battle criminals in London.

In this episode: A baby is left on Holmes' and Watson's doorstep and turns out to be the son of a missing French scientist.… Continue

Added by Tome Wilson on June 23, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

Two Fisted Tuesdays with Philip Marlowe - Lady in Mink

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Added by Tome Wilson on June 22, 2010 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

1936

A whole story is attached to this picture. I will gladly share it with anyone who can afford to waste five minutes.

A loooooong time ago, one night sometime in the seventies, when Disco era was at its peak and dancing all night long at Le Palace, the Parisian equivalent of the Studio 54 in NYC, was the thing to do, I had left the party shortly before dawn,…

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Added by Stefan on June 21, 2010 at 6:30pm — 4 Comments

Miskatonic Mondays - Herbert West: Reanimator (The Scream of the Dead)

Lights out, everybody.

On Miskatonic Mondays, we celebrate the "weird" fiction of HP Lovecraft and the genre of otherworldly horror that it spawned.

Below, I've…

Continue

Added by Tome Wilson on June 21, 2010 at 12:00am — No Comments

Past Future

... or, like we say in French, futur antérieur. Meaning "coming first, before, prior to..." Don't you like this idea... the future set before the past ?? Well, you also call it future perfect, don't you ? I like the idea of some ideal future, too, I must…

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Added by Stefan on June 20, 2010 at 12:45pm — 9 Comments

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship from Burning Man 2009 is now on tour

We covered this a while ago while the spaceship was still in production for Burning Man 2009.

Now that it's complete, we have more details and an actual video of The Raygun Gothic Rocketship!

According to their website "The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is a rococo retro-futurist future-rustic vernacular between yesterday’s tomorrow and the future that never was, a critical kitsch somewhere between The Moons of Mongo &… Continue

Added by Tome Wilson on June 20, 2010 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

Every Day is Father's Day with Baby (1934)

Happy Father's Day to all you manly… Continue

Added by Tome Wilson on June 20, 2010 at 9:00am — 2 Comments

A Science of Music (Investigation of Memory Theory and Practice in a Performance Context)

Re: documentation & specifications of rpm orchestra's two-part performance held on consecutive nights.

Purpose: To inspire and/or increase access to memory (conscious, subconscious, and/or genetic) in the audience by use of light and sound.

Performance Notes:

16 Jan 2010. "1:2. persistence of vision"

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a… Continue

Added by RPM Orchestra on June 20, 2010 at 4:00am — 1 Comment

Job Interview, Dieselpunk Style! My true account of how a DP attitude got me the job.

The late morning air clung to me like a hot, wet blanket. A bastard of a late May even by Virginia standards, the humid, poisonous air clawed its way harshly down the nasal passages. The line stretched around the block. A thousand people, queued up in the bastard sun, sweating beneath layers of black or dark grey wool blend, awaited a chance to work for the Marine Corps at Quantico, VA. It was the first gauntlet on an arduous hiring process of the type only the government can…

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Added by Cap'n Tony on June 18, 2010 at 11:12pm — 6 Comments

Lord K's Garage - #42. Hispano Suiza

Hispano-Suiza was a Spanish luxury automotive and engineering firm, best known for their cars, engines and weapons designs.

After World War I Hispano-Suiza returned to automobile engine design and, in 1919, introduced the H6, earning them a reputation even greater than that of Rolls-Royce in England. Indeed, Rolls-Royce featured many Hispano-Suiza patented features, under licence. Most notably, Rolls-Royce used for many years the famed… Continue

Added by lord_k on June 18, 2010 at 10:00am — 10 Comments