Steampunk and its growing following

[groomporter]

Just saw this announced on Facebook

January 15th will be the day the new temporary site goes up and you may begin registering for TeslaCon 2! There will be a limit of 650 total tickets, and this will include the Grand Royale memberships.

http://teslacon.org

[Rani Zemirah]

Looks like fun!  Wish I could afford to attend this year... 

[Taffy Saltwater]

Too far, too expensive.  But thanks for posting.

[Rani Zemirah]

Hopefully we'll get to see GP's photos from this year, at least!  I bet it will be spectacular!!! 

[Taffy Saltwater]

I met the organizers at WindyCon in '09 - I believe it was the 1st TeslaCon.  Nice people, great photo setup, and well organized.  I hope they continue to be successful enough to host this event every year.

[groomporter]

Unfortunately I only took a handful of pics at Teslacon this year. They filled the hotel this time and were already looking for a bigger one for next year so I'm figuring there's a good chance it will keep going at least until the SP fad dies down as the "in" subgenre of Sci/fi (unless there's a good movie or TV show appears that makes it more popular in the mainstream). With the interactive mystery story format Teslacon had I assume they won't want it to get as big as other cons, but will want to keep it as intimate as it can be with 500+ people. 

[Rani Zemirah]

I like that it's not one of the huge McMegaCon's.  Makes it more likely that attendees will want to dress and play along, I think.  The website is really neat, and it sounds like it was a great time last year!  I particularly like the Tea Room idea, where guests can go and have High Tea at any time during the weekend, for just a one time fee of $10.  How awesome is THAT???  I bet you could sit there all day and see everyone who was attending pass through the doors!  Just claim a table and hold court all day!  Much easier on granny-boot clad feet than walking around all day, eh?    

Oh... now I REALLY want to go!!!  I can't wait for our Exposition, here, and the chance to spend the whole weekend in garb!  Oh, geez... that's in less than 4 months!!!  Whatever will I wear?!?    

[Taffy Saltwater]

Geez, whatever will you wear, Rani?  Time to put it in gear because these things are stylin'.  There were lots of people at FenCon that I think never left the hospitality suite, just sat there hogging all the seats all the time.  I hope there will be lots of interesting boards for you to attend.

[groomporter]

 I particularly like the Tea Room idea, where guests can go and have High Tea at any time during the weekend, for just a one time fee of $10.  How awesome is THAT???  I bet you could sit there all day and see everyone who was attending pass through the doors!  Just claim a table and hold court all day!  Much easier on granny-boot clad feet than walking around all day, eh?    

Yeah it was nice we could grab a cup of coffee or tea and a cookie or two between teaching games.

We made this offer for next year

My wife and I are very interested in doing something similar next year -possibly with a little more organized program on our part. We don't mind being in the dealers' room at events, but it is much easier to teach games if we have a more intimate space that is away from the noise of a large merchants' room. If there could be a dedicated ship's "casino" room where we could demo (and sell) during the day, we were thinking we could bring another person or two with us and possibly offer to schedule some times for learning some specific games: Say... From 11-12 learn whist...  from 3-4 learn the casino card game Chemin de Fer, -or something along those lines.

We also noticed the three merchants in the "cabana suite" rooms across from the pool, and although we heard there may be a change to a larger hotel, we would be interested in learning if similar suites might be available next year for what I described above. Also, since I like to play a little music, we might also be willing to use the space to host a music jam later in the evening when we are done playing games.

Another option might be to have a dedicated ship's open gaming room, maybe with us against one wall during the day, and several open tables in the rest of the room so people could sit down and play "pick-up" games of other Victorian/steamy games like Gloom.

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, that sounds like FUN!!!  (sigh)  In fact, it ALL sounds like so much fun that now I'm really bummed that I can't afford to go...    We'll be lucky if we manage to make it to all the Faire's we're hoping to attend this year, though... and there's nothing in the budget for hotel stays at all. 

You'll have to try and take more pics this year, please!!! 

[renfairephotog]

Steampunk Store window
Elegant NYC department store Bergdorf Goodman rang in the new year with a set of elaborate, Steampunk-inspired windows.  The gorgeous clothes are framed in dramatic scenes of science fiction-tinged travel fantasies, inventors and exploration

[renfairephotog]

More here http://tinyurl.com/bobbinst

[Rani Zemirah]

WOW!  Soooo much going on there that it's hard to pick out details, but the pics in the Flickrstream album are a bit bigger, and easier for my poor eyes to take in!  Interesting take on the genre, and some really unexpected clothing choices... at least, to my eye.  There are some Victorian influences to a few of the designs, and some obvious nods to SciFi, as well as all the bling you'd expect from a New Years display.  I'm going to have to to look more closely at it all when I'm not quite so dizzy and cross-eyed, though (serious pain meds from this morning's dental surgery...  ), to decide whether or not I like it.  The sets are gorgeous, though, and some of the props are really sweet! 

Nice link, RFP!  Thanks!!! 

[Zardoz]

SP is the theme for this year's AllCon in Dallas; http://www.all-con.org/main.html , coming up on March 18-20 2011. They are having a lot of SP related stuff all weekend, including a Ball Saturday night.

[Tammy]

Ok...for all you leather crafting folk....know a good place to get some stamps of gears or cogs? My bf is beginning to get into the SP style, and he's wanting to try his hand at making a few leather pieces.