A trailer for my next serial story!



Enjoy!



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A Video full of Airships!

A wonderful video of  post WWI Airship development, triumphs, and tragedies.
Lots of video from the time.
Enjoy

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A longing for the past.

 “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." –L.P. Hartley

I have a macabre fascination with moving images of the past. All these people going about their lives. Living in a world we can never know.

These old videos are full of ghosts because anything filmed more than 100 years ago contains images of people who are now dead.

This video from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows describes this feeling perfectly.



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Join Madame Saffron Hemlock's Parasol Duelling league!

So what do you do when you have a piece of epic music and a pile of fantastic photos from Parasol Duelling competitions?

You make a video ad that's what!

Here is the latest ad for Madame Saffron Hemlock's Parasol Duelling League on Facebook.



I hope you enjoy it and please pass it along to anyone interested!

As always thanks to the Ladies of Madame Saffron Hemlock’s Parasol Duelling League.

And the great photographers who make us look so good.

Karlo Keet.
Clare Gibson
MetallYZA 
Katie Edwards
Lindsay Dunlop
Phi Vernon

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed, and your water iced.
KJ

Her Majesty's Airship Corp Huzzah!


Lots of images of real and movie airships plus a very catchy tune.
Even though in our Roleplay the Airships are part of the Royal Navy I think Max and his crew would approve of this message!



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A panorama of Ghosts!

This delightful film, taken from the footplate of a tram in 1901, shows the harbourside of Morecambe in the UK.

A look at a typical day with ordinary people of all classes and occupations going about their business on a bright sunny day.

Also a little creepy to me because these are all ghosts, nobody in this film is still alive.




Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A city of ghosts.

Previously I mentioned the odd effect that colorized historical photos had on me.

This delightful film of Berlin in 1900 has been colourized and edited for Facebook by Paul Hardy.

It is a city of ghosts indeed, since every single person shown has passed now.
Seeing black and white photos and the grainy old movies sometimes brings on  a bit of "memento mori" but this film with its muted colours, showing street scenes from a bustling metropolis is moving indeed.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153303691386248&set=vb.769001247&type=1

SOMEWHERE IN TIME 1900.
A HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN YEAR OLD FILM MADE NEW. MAINLY BERLIN & MUNICH, GERMANY.

Over a Million FB viewers have been moved by my film, experiencing a surreal mixture of emotions that few have been able to fully describe.It was coloured about 10 years ago but I've now digitally sharpened it as well as removed dust and grain to give an even better experience.Truly magical, moving footage that I've cut and edited to my favourite piece of classical music. The original film which I took the footage from is very much darker and also depicts a large amount of military segments.I wanted to edit this however to show the positivity and pride of the everyday people in their day to day lives as they embrace all the splendour of that time period on a human level.Clearly, like today, some seem richer than others, yet all of them seem to display a sense of dignified purpous often missing in todays world.

All these forgotten souls are left rotting on old grainy dark films often with sombre depressing music thrown over. It's my belief that they deserve better. Beautiful music and beautiful images presented in the right way can be incredibly emotive and powerful and I felt that this was needed in order to properly transport the viewer back through time and really ''feel'' what it was like.I've worked hard to convey that sense of splendour and make people see and feel that a sunny day then looked just like a sunny day today. These people lived, loved, laughed and cried and had real lives. They did not live in darkness with grey skies and grainy mist as we are often used to seeing on decaying films.

The wonderfully emotive music I've used is the soundtrack from the movie 'Somewhere In Time' and was written by Film Composer John Barry, not to be confused with 'The Eighteenth Variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' which also runs throughout the film.Savour this as you watch it. All these people whose lives were just as important to them in their time era as we think ours our now. I noticed how happy they seem to be going about their business and I tried to study different characters.... who were they?... what was their story? Watch the woman adjusting her hat for example at the end of the film. She seems very concerned about her image as she proudly sports the latest fashion..and notice how happy the kids are playing in the street.The more you study these people the more it will fascinate you. Their lives are less complicated than ours in terms of technology but you can clearly see the overwhelming community spirit here without video games, TV or computers. Somewhere in time, all gone forever..all just ghosts....yet frozen here for you to glance upon as if through some magical time machine window.

Enjoy, The Time Guru.
Posted by Paul Hardy on Thursday, 30 April 2015

A teaser!

Here is a little video Teaser Ad I put together from some of the photos taken at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo where we had 3 demos and the Spring Regional Competition this year.

It is my first attempt at such a thing so a bit rough around the edges.

The photos are by Phi Vernon and Lindsay Dunlop of Third Eye Arts.
As always they make us look good so check out their work.

The music is from the Album "Nemesis" by Two Steps From Hell a track called 'Hunter's Moon".
Their website has the subtitle "Music makes you braver" and these wonderful tracks do just that!
If you like epic music check them out!

Enjoy



Keep you sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced!
KJ

Lay on!

Here is a video, taken by Alex Norrington, of the Parasol Duelling demonstration we did at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this year in Calgary.

The Demo covers all the basics of Parasol Duelling.

Enjoy

 



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed, and your water iced.
KJ

To find out more about this great sport go to:
Madame Saffron Hemlock’s Parasol Duelling League for Steampunk Ladies

Click here for information on the history and development of Parasol Duelling 
or click the Parasol Duelling tag.

The Rules for Parasol Duelling are here.

Steampark March!

A wonderful group from England.

Definitely worth checking out.

COPPERFIELD ENSEMBLE

Here is a taste.

Enjoy




Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Wonderful!

A delightful short film by Laurent Witz.

This short won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2013.

 Check out the trailer:



If you get a chance to see this I highly recommend it.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A true gem.

From the creator of  "Just Glue Some Gears On It and Call It Steampunk" the unofficial Steampunk Anthem.



Enjoy

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Parasol Duelling in action!

Parasol Duelling continues to gather more interest across the country and around the world!

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this year asked us to do three Parasol Duelling Demos.
We ended up doing two, an outside demo on the Friday and an indoor Panel/Demo on Saturday afternoon.
Inclement weather prevented us from doing another outside demo after the indoor one that afternoon.
Both received a lot of attention from the crowd of  97,000 attendees!

Special thanks to the lovely duelists:
Sarafina Kain, Monica Willard, Josanna Justine, Cali Kyhn and Raven Hawthorne.

The indoor demo was unfortunately in a fairly small room, maybe 100 people, and the Expo had to turn away as many again.

Since the Expo I have heard that the Steampunk Worlds Fair will be having a Parasol Duelling workshop this year and there will be several Parasol Duelling demos in various groups as well.

Plans are afoot for a formal competition in Calgary this year too!

UPDATE: The first World Championships of Parasol Duelling was held on September 13, 2014 at Beakerhead in Calgary!

You can see a report from the World Championships here.

If you are on Facebook keep up with the latest news through:
Madame Saffron Hemlock's Parasol Duelling League for Steampunk Ladies 


Follow all the Parasol Duelling posts here by clicking on the Parasol Duelling label.


Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Amazing find from the archives!

It appears from this clip that at least one Parasol Duelling School lasted into the 1930s, in far off Japan of all places.

Perhaps this is not surprising as Japan has a long history of honouring martial arts. It is likely that Parasol Duelling was introduced soon after Japan was opened up to Western ideas during the mid 19th c.

Odd to think that when the Mikado was first being performed in London, and anything Japanese was considered exotic and wonderful, that Japanese ladies were having Parasol Duels.
 
The video clip shows the parade of the last school members through the streets of Ginza sometime in the 1930s. Most likely on their way to a formal competition.
 
More research into this last known remnant of Parasol Duelling is warranted!



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced!
KJ

Adventure!

This is a fantastic little Steampunk film.

Enjoy!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

This is going to be fantastic!

Update Nov 20, 2013!
This is fantastic!
First episode is out.



Enjoy!



This series starts shortly so keep an eye out.
Details here:
The World of Steam

Ignore the stupid cover photo it should look like this:

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Adventure!

Found this at Steampunk Canada

The Ruffus Steampunk Adventure is a new web series that is raising funds through IndieGoGo. It's an epic tale about the quest for a mysterious mechanical book that is the key to global domination for a nefarious Robber Baron and it falls to our heroes to save the world.

YOU can help make the adventure happen by visiting: http://igg.me/at/steampunkruffus - Find out more! Contribute if you can! Share the news! Save the world!

Or at least help us save the world from the excessive use of exclamation marks.

Thank you.

Looks like it will be fun!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Wonderful


A fabulous little short film from 2010.
This grim and gritty tale has some excellent "Frontier Steampunk" looks in it.
Enjoy.



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Steampunk!

I so want to see this when completed.



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A fun short film!

The trials of being an inventor.



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ