For the last post of the year, I’m enjoying a post-holiday recoup and a some good steampunky links. Featuring some oldies but goodies, great vids, the launch of SteamCast in Brazil, and pretty steampunk art after the jump.
The Reads
In October, Tor.com ran their Steampunk Fortnight; we’re revisiting the event to highlight the multicultural and transnational articles.
The Ao Dai and I: A Personal Essay on Cultural Identity and Steampunk
The Weird Weird West by Diana Vick
Valkyria Chronicles: A Spectacular Period Mashup in Tactical, Turn-Based Form by David Pucik
Stupid Things We Say by Nisi Shawl
Do Goggles Block the Sun?: Steampunk in Africa by Clay and Susan Griffith
Open up the Steamer’s Trunk by Jeni Hellum
Towards a Steampunk Without Steam by Amal El-Mohtar
From Brazil with Steam by Fabio Fernandes
So Much Steampunk, They Had to Say it Twice: Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded Review
Review: Steampunk: Historias de um Passado Extraordinario by Fabio Fernandes
Steampunk Abstractions: The Inevitability of Imperialism by Jaymee Goh
Review: Vaporpunk: Relatos Steampunk Publicados Sob As Ordens De Suas Majestades by Fabio Fernandes
In Africa, tinkers are building their own airplanes out of scrap machine parts. That is junkpunk at its best!
On a related note, in Vietnam, two farmers built their own helicopter a few years ago (but the government wouldn’t give them permission to fly it).
BBC recently ran an article that talks about how the discovery of a 15th-century Chinese coin in Kenya could shed light on African-Chinese trade relations.
On Racialicious, Denis Farr analyzes the character Grace Halloway’s nuanced portrayal in Bioshock 2.
Jaymee Goh talks about the background work behind writing her steampunk Southeast Asia story “Between Islands.”
Jess Nevins takes a look at the possibilities of “Hindplotation” in pulp media.
On another pulp note, Lavie Tidhar talks about Jewish speculative fiction and HebrewPunk.
The Videos
Bruno Accioly brought me the latest news from the Brazilian steampunks: introducing SteamCast, the bi-lingual webcast in English & in Portuguese (on Vimeo)
And the Brazilian steampunk continues on with this video feature of the local steampunks celebrating Carnival
Happalonia Elizabeth Green suggested this anime short about dueling steampunk machines that attack during a local village carnival.
Robot Carnival: A Tale of Two Robots
The Interviews
Yakoub Islam is interviewed about Muslim steampunk over at islamscifi.com..
Amal El-Mohtar interviews Saladin Ahmed about Islamic & Arab science fiction over at Black Gate.
And Karin Lowachee, author of THE GASLIGHT DOGS, and Native steampunk Monique Poirier are featured as part of Doc Fantastique’s Ladies of Steampunk Interview Tour.
The Sites
The Chimurenga News Room is fictional blog with an interesting premise: “a speculative newspaper that travels back in time to re-imagine the present.” An art project produced by Chimurenga Magazine in collaboration with two of Africa’s leading independent publishers, Kenya’s Kwani and Nigeria’s Cassava Republic, the Chimurenga News Room is set during May 11-18 2008, and seeks to readdress coverage of the “so-called xenophobic violence” that occurred then. In doing so, the contributors bring perspectives of this event from multiple angles outside of mainstream coverage at the time.
New Zealand Steampunks have their own site!
Speaking of new sites, the San Antonio Neo-Victorian Association recently launched The Lovelace Reader, “The Retrofuturist’s Companion to the Modern Steampunk.”
And have you checked out Alt His Magazine yet?
The Pics
This Nautilus-inspired train runs to Hong Kong.
Ria Campbell contacted me about a series of international steampunk portraits she did.
Arctic Canadian hunteress
Egyptian tour guide
Singapore food hawker
Beyond Victoriana 
Happy holidays and thanks for the round-up. I’m excited to see where BV goes in 2011. jv
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