After a long and awkward battle, Steampunk now has me fully in it's brassy clutches.

For those of you who don't know what that is, Steampunk is a retro-futuristic aesthetic/subculture. It combines a futuristic technological prevalence with neo-victorian aesthetics. Steampunk would re-imagine the Transformers as giant steam-powered, cog and gear filled, rivet-covered robots made of brass and iron. It was exactly this over-the-top example which turned me off steampunk in my earliest encounters. It's better to reference, WarCraft Gnomish Engineers, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Steamboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, zepplins, and goggles; with all that you more or less have the idea. This newly-announced movie is also pretty steampunk.

The first things that started to reel me in were the Steampunk keyboard and LCD monitor by Jake Von Slaat. Soon I was poking through fan sites. By the time I found MikeST's homemade brass goggles, I was fully hooked. Why, just check out these amazing outfits.

So I think I have an idea of my next project for this coming Halloween. I know, know... you're shaking your heads and filing this in your "crazy, crazy Jesse". What can I say? Once a geek, always a geek. :-)