Thursday, October 30, 2008

Happy Halloweenies


I hope everybody's Halloween is fun-filled and candy-coated. :)

While I'll be in my home dishing out candy to the neighborhood, a few lucky people "will be taking part in a historic event: the first commercial Zeppelin flight in the USA in over 70 years. Before anyone says "Hey, what about the Goodyear Blimp?" - the blimps are not Zeppelins. A Zeppelin has a rigid structure inside, while a blimp is for all intents and purposes a helium filled gas bag.

And, not only is Airship Ventures inaugurating touring airship flights, but they'll be doing it with one of my favorite bands: Abney Park. They're a steampunk band based out of the northwest. Their sound is very similar to a Cirque du Soleil soundtrack, blending modern elements (synthesizers and rock guitars) with traditional and world instruments (violin, darbuka) and both male and female vocals. Lyrically, they're somewhere between steampunk and goth, with plenty of references to airships, Nikola Tesla, automatons, and other steampunk staples. Their stage "persona" is that of a crew of airship pirates, so they've got the goggles and style to match.


I would have loved to have gone that flight, considering that:
  1. I'm a big fan of steampunk. My NaNoWriMo novel is steampunk-inspired.
  2. I'm a big fan of airships, The NaNoWriMo novel also heavily involves airships.
  3. Abney Park's members are all very cool and down to Earth. I met them at Dragon*Con a couple months ago and they were simply awesome.
But hey, I'll be doing it one better. My wife and I will be celebrating Halloween in our own home for the first time ever. And it feels great.

Here's a vid of the Zeppelin NT in Germany, before it made its trip over here:



If anybody's interested in some "off the beaten path" music, check out the Abney Park vids below. They were definitely a bit of an acquired taste at first, but I ended up becoming a big fan of their music.

"Airship Pirates" at Dragon*Con 2008


"Sleep Isabella"

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