Fullsteam » steampunk

July 30th 6pm: The Cabinet of Curiosities Mega-Tour

events — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:59:43 +0000

Join us as we celebrate the release of Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer and World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer’s The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities.

6 pm:

Musical guests The Clockwork Cabaret (the Pittsboro-based Davenport sisters)

7 pm:

Short readings and giveaways from Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, S.J. Chambers, Ekaterina Sedia, Mur Lafferty, Scott Eagle, and Nadine Wilson, as well as Bull Spec #6 contributor Dale Mettam.

8 pm:

Conversations, book signings, and beer!

You don’t need to be a steampunk enthusiast — or even know what it means — the event is open to all. Expect a curiously awesome evening!

4 Minutes Rock-afire Explosion

Sean — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:06:48 +0000

Thanks to Onion Head Monster Paul Friedrich for introducing me to Rock-afire Explosion. Oh, if only we could have an animatronic band at Fullsteam. One can dream.

The Contraption

Sean — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:25:35 +0000

Chris’ four-tap steampunked serving box, complete with blinking lights from the dollar store. It worked, both as a dispenser and as a carny-like attraction. Premiered at the 2008 Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford, Mississippi.

Steampunk workshop

Sean — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:01:34 +0000

This Modern Life is full of efficiencies: high-fructose corn syrup, the bubbly shape of modern cars, 2 GB RAM. In general, efficient markets and efficient products make the world a better place.

Efficiencies can also make life very bland.

Steampunk paradoxically celebrates both technology and inefficiency. Using steam, steel, gears, a DIY ethic and a Victorian-era aesthetic, steampunk is a jolt of creative energy in our modern world of rubber and rapid prototyping; of sameness and ubiquity.

It’s not a movement for Luddites; on the contrary, steampunk embraces technology. It just looks at it through the lens of the 1890s, when technology was about optimism. What could be. What if.

As brewers, we’re inspired by modern steampunk’s re-examination of technology. But for us, beer is the backdrop. We, too, will use steam, steel, gears, and our own DIY ethic. Our “what if?” wonders what beer would be like if the South was America’s heartland for beer. What if Prohibition never happened? If beer was as respected as wine?

Through agriculture, art, science, and physical labor, we will craft a revolution against the industrial sameness that permeates society. A slice of red against cubicle beige.