Tomorrow is the Yankee Steam-Up!  From the New England Wireless and Steam Museum website:

The Original Yankee Steam-Up
For model makers, Machinists, Engineers & Historians
Saturday October 4, 2008
9:00AM-4:00PM
1300 Frenchtown Road, East Greenwich, RI 02818
Steam & Compressed Air for Models.
Licensed Boilers & Licensed Engineers.
New Englands Largest Steam-Up Boiler.
Giant Working Steam Engines & Hot Air & IC.
Admission, $15.00         Children under 12 $5.00
All Steam-Up Proceeds go to Upkeep of the Museum
Free Parking         Food on Grounds

I'll be heading down in the morning, click through for pictures from my visit last year . . .

Last year I had the privilege of taping a segment for WIRED Science with Chris Hardwick.  As far as I know the piece never aired ("not sciencey enough" I heard through the grapevine!  ;-) ) but it's finally turned up on the WIRED Science website.

There is a larger version of the video on the WIRED Science website here.

You'll recall I posted a picture of my recumbent bike last week and that one of things I wondered aloud was how one would go about steampunkifying a bike?  Well Eric and Alan - a.k.a. Steuben's Wheelmen - sent me a whole passel of new photos that show exactly how one would go about this process!

Don't miss the video!

. . .

Wandering through the industrial neighborhood of West Oakland, You'll find more than a few warehouse art studios, each one filled to the brim with all manner of projects; from giant robots to huge metal art - and of course steam machines.

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited into the studio of one of the artists that reside there; a fine chap by the name of Tom Sepe. After sending out a call for willing subjects (aka, interview-ees), Tom contacted me and, with but a few words, lured me into his studio. Those words were simply: "Want to come see my electric-steam hybrid motorcycle?". He calls it the Whirlygig Emoto.

I'm very happy to have the opportunity to introduce you to Meredith Scheff who will be doing a series of articles for The Steampunk Workshop where she will "go exploring in the jungles of maker workshops; and share the images with you, the hopefully regular reader."

Meredith describes herself as "a cartoonist, maker, geek, and general silly person. She avoids everyone's advice and continues to live happily in San Francisco, no matter how tired of Top Ramen she may get. She is in her thesis semester for illustration/sculpture at California College of the Arts. Her website, until she builds a better one, is satiredun.deviantart.com."

In addition to her series Meredith has agreed to develop a regular cartoon feature for the Steampunk Workshop and I've asked her to do a bit of lampooning of all of us Steampunks - if you are as curious as I am as to what the result will be get thee to the front page and sign-up for the mailing list or grab the feed! - Jake von Slatt