October 2011 Articles (63)

At least I can guarantee that the November Picks won't rot your teeth... but the first one might make you want to boogie, man!

http://pilsnerspicks.blogspot.com/

Duesenberg ceased production in 1937 after Cord's financial empire collapsed. However, between 1937 and 1940, one automobile put the final touch to this historical marque. It it took three years to complete both the tailor-made interior and futuristic body. By command of the owner, it was to be painted in a two-tone grey paint scheme so it would look like a ghost in the…

No huge locos and mighty diesels today. Just some trams from Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.

Commissioned in 1933 by Walter Luff, the controller of the network, in a bid to modernise the tramway's fleet, the Balloons were intended to replace the Dreadnought cars that had been in service since the opening of the tramway. They were built by English Electric during 1934 and 1935,…

Wilkommen, Bienvenue, and Welcome, im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret, mein freunds!

  And today we are in beautiful Berlin Germany, center of culture for the newborn Republic of Germany! Yes, the Kaiser is gone, and though tensions run deep and pockets run empty, there's no doubt that the nation is thriving scientifically and culturally with a music, dance, and film scene that leaves even Paris in the dust!…

On Saturday Matinee, we showcase full-length films from or about the diesel era.

We end our horrifying walk through the Halloween movie crypt with 1935's big budget monster classic, The Bride of Frankenstein.

What you need to know

Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed. Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experiment business, but when a mad…

A rather unorthodox Swedish aircraft started its life as a piston-engine fighter to become a jet-propelled attacker.

Here it is, the SAAB J21, together with the Model 92 compact car, another SAAB product. The picture was taken in 1948, when the jet version was already airborne.

In 1941 Svenska Aeroplan AB started the initial project work on a new fighter…

Although the alto saxophone has never been the popular solo instrument that the tenor has, it has created a few jazz giants. The great ones from the Dieselpunk Era include Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charley Parker and Cannonball Adderley. This article will introduce you to Johnny Hodges whose friends and fans called, “Rabbit.” He was the artist that took an…

I haven't added anything to the old Musical Morgue in over a year, since it's already just about my whole inventory of spooky and spooky/silly music, so there's nothing more to add. However, for those of you innocent souls who've never descended into this stygian, eldritch crypt of unspeakable horror (and similar Lovecraft-type locutions), here you go:…

Rolling sculpture. Art Deco on wheels. Pure decodence.

Meet 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition Court Figoni et Falaschi Coupe.

One of the 135's biggest assets was the relatively low-slung chassis, which made it a popular choice for custom coachbuilders, but naturally also increased the car's handling characteristics*. Although not quite under-slung, the use of independent front suspension and arched frame members at the rear contributed to the car's…

Volumes are written on the Lafayette Escadrille, a French fighter unit composed largely of American volunteers.

There is a lot of valuable sources, books and movies telling the story of the Escadrille organized by Dr. Edmund L. Gros, director of the American Ambulance Service, and Norman…

As Germany collapsed upon itself in the closing months of World War II, Allied units raced forward, each nation jockeying the first to cross the Rhine. To do this with rapidity, it sometimes meant that forces were ahead of their support, both logistically and martially. Bad weather grounding close air support, or lagging artillery meant that infantry and mechanized units were…

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.…

One of the keynotes of our Dieselpunk subculture would be the visit to the auto factories of Detroit by the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Rivera arrived in Detroit, where, at the behest of Henry Ford, he began a tribute to the American worker on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts.…

Lights out, everybody.

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

Released back in 1997, Mimic was a somewhat bitter induction into Hollywood filmmaking for director Guillermo del Toro. After the creative freedom of his low-budget, Mexican-language debut, Cronos, the…

This will be a short one - more a query than an entry.

The locomotive pictured above is featured on Skyrocket.de (an excellent basic source of data on steam streamliners). It is designated as PO³ / 3800, one of the class of six built in 1936 for Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch…

Boas-vindas, and All Aboard for a first class luxury flight to that grandest and most glamourous tropical hot spots, Rio de Janeiro!  And the Cap'n has definitely outdone himself today, because he loves you.

 Yes, sun, sand, and some of the world's most beautiful women await in this great aviation and maritime crossroads! Catch the Clipper, catch a Zeppelin, catch some rays, catch a local…

On Saturday Matinee, we showcase full-length films from or about the diesel era.

Now you see him, now you don't.  1933's The Invisible Man is our next entry in our gallery of Halloween rogues.

What you need to know

The plot is simple; a scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.

Why this film is important

Number one, this is a 1930s take on the classic 1897 story by…

Meet the world's first cantilever wing four-engine heavy bomber - the Tupolev ANT-6 aka TB-3.

In 1925, the Soviet Air Force approached TsAGI with a requirement for a heavy bomber with total engine output of 2,000 PS (1,970 hp) and either wheeled or float landing gear. Tupolev OKB started design work in 1926 with the government operational requirements finalized in…

Once upon a time there was a tramway & carriage operator in Bristol unhappy with the performance of horseless omnibuses...

So this operator, already experienced in the tramway production, started to build its own buses. Since 1908, Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company Ltd. (which gave birth to the famous Bristol Aeroplane Company) was a part of the British automotive industry. Let's see some:…

The history of armor development has been plagued by the simultaneous development of armor-piercing projectiles. When I was eleven years old my family visited the American Museum of Natural History(the Met) in New York City. The most impressive exhibit was a 1700 pound pull crossbow that had a winch to draw the cable back and had to be fired from the prone position. It was from the year 1200 and was the predecessor of the ballista. Its bolt would skewer four armored horses…