The Deco Lounge: A club for dieselpunk aficionados and personas

[MWBailey]

*Brantley enters from behind the cigarette machine in the corner*

What's this I hear about a zeppelin?

[J. Wilhelm]

- "I see" *Della responds staring at the photos*

-"Brantley!!" exclaimed Will, "You're back.  What are you doing here?"
"I thought I saw you a while ago in the joint, but then you were gone"
*He cracks an asymmetric smile and continues*
"We were just talking about the Dohar coast and my plane... versus Sir Lawrence's Zep in Oman.  You know about that expedition right?"

*Nathan stares at Brantley and Will disappointingly*

-"C'mon loosen up, Nathan, it's not that much of a secret. Not in the oil industry anyway."

*The music gets a bit louder, bit by bit*

Tuxedo Junction - Glenn Miller

[MWBailey]

*Brantley answers as he approaches the bar*

I was just passing through earlier, had to get to Purgatory in New Mexico.

*lays a silver dollar on the bar, gestures at the barkeep, and thanks him for the milk stout that is set in front of him, then walks over and looks at the photos*

Yeah, I heard about that bit with Lawrence. It's all the buzz back at the Warehouse. The Intertemporal Committee ain't  too happy about it, seems they think Lawrence shoulda been ridin' a camel when he attacked Beersheba, and it was too late in the century, or so they said. Typical bureaucrat--! Uh.  Er, you didn't hear that from me...

*picks up a picture of a dashing young man and a strikingly gorgeous young woman in uniform*

What're these two doin' there?

[MWBailey]

*A figure in a black trenchcoat and fedora, nondescript save for what appears to be just the tip of a besuckered tentacle hanging below the hem of said trenchcoat, deposits three coins in the jukebox and presses a series of buttons.*

http://youtu.be/GK72A_eV8Lg

[J. Wilhelm]

*Will grins and chuckles*
"That fella is going to give himself away.  He ain't foolin' no one!  I guess he didn't notice the presence of the live band! They might even tell him to skiddale outta here!  Ha, ha!

"That picture," exclaims Will
*Nathan looks over Will's shoulder*
"I see you remember my cousin Matthew.  The dame is Megan Hallford.  You saw her at the corporate New Year's party last year.  She's part of the newly formed US Natural Resources Dept.  They were the ones who got me the connection with the Sultanate Oman and the Iraq Petroleum Co."

Will continues,

"I thought you had heard.  Brantley, the cat's out of the bag. There's definitely more than oil in that green coast of Dhofar.  Sir Lawrence is on expedition and he's not looking for oil, if you get my drift.  We already found all there is.  This is the only green patch in all of Arabia, and they're all over it like flies.  I think they found something important.  Our friend, Nathan, here, thinks it may the lost city of Iram.  Iram of The Pillars in the Rub' al Khali. [1]  I don't know - what do you think?

[1] The City of Iram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iram_of_the_Pillars

[MWBailey]

It's not the oil that I was thinking of, but the causality.

Never mind, my perspective's somewhat... specialized... compared to most. It likely won't make the multiverse any noticeably different. It's just different from what I've come to expect for this milieu; makes me wonder what else is off, if maybe it's a whole new spur to be mapped, or just an aberrant anomaly. But as I said, it's probably no big deal.

Now, as to Iram...

The Cartesian position seems about right, but the coastline's changed a bit, if it's true. There's a sandbar in front of what might've been the ancient river mouth... columns and ruined walls're all very nice, but I'd rather see some inscriptions of some kind to see what kind of public lingo and calligraphy the denizens used, that's usually a good telltale of a city's identity. Be warned, though, so many 'ancient lost cities' keep turning out to be ruined Roman wayforts and forae ...

About the only way to be really sure would be to go and stand there and actuate a time machine to go backwards timewise...

[J. Wilhelm]

"I' knew you'd say something like that.  If you want to travel in time, I'll leave that to you pal"  I'm planning to take the slow way down there." *Will exclaims*  "But I definitely won't join Sir Lawrence. I have to return and fly to the cost, as always. I'd like to see what is down there now. and look at what's got them so rowled up."

Maybe our friend Nathan can fill us in on the inscrip...  Nathan! ...Nathan !?

*Will looks all around him. Nathan is gone.  So is Della*

"What the... Oh well" *Will says* It looks like it's just you an me now... sit down.  I've had people leave me before, but not when I was being so charming" * Will pushes a chair to  Brantley and takes another gulp of scotch*  "What about your non-human friend over there?  What's the story with him?  I'm assuming it's a him"
*Will stares at the mysterious creature in the black trench coat arguing with the club management."

[MWBailey]

'She,' actually. I didn't bring her here, she followed me; she seems to have a thing for me, no matter how Sally tries to put her off.

*rattles off a string of apparently cthuloid syllables, which causes the being in the trenchcoat to turn toward him and purr coquettishly in a similar fashion.*

Yep, that's her. Chthugha of the fires of heaven, or at least that's as near as I can get in human terms; cousin to Great Cthulhu. Says she wants to mate with me. She can't understand why I persist in keeping a human form, she says. It's a long story, all that bit about the Martian transplants after the Chronojammer travelling device experiment went wrong...

[Atterton]

We've probably all seen the drones you can buy, for indoor or outdoor flying. However I just saw an ad for something different, a small biplane for indoor flying that you can control with a phone. I found that rather cool and I though you might as well. It's called Tobyrich Moskito.

[Miranda.T]

I didn't know this club was here... I wonder if Will, Della, Nathan and Brantley ever made it down to Dohar   ? I hope they took the seaplane; whilst the airship would be the only way to earlier in the century, by the '30s it would have to be the seaplane. Mind you, as I understand it jets on seaplanes are problematic - they really don't like have water spray in them; look at how high the jets were mounted on the 'Caspian Sea Monster'.

I do love the Art Decor style and alongside the Steamy outings we also do a few '40s ones during the year; this thread makes me think I should be slipping a bit of Dieselpunk into those events...

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. for anyone who likes their '40s noir mixed with a bit of Cthulhu fun, I'd recommend the film Cast a deadly Spell, available on YouTube.

[J. Wilhelm]

I didn't know this club was here... I wonder if Will, Della, Nathan and Brantley ever made it down to Dohar   ? I hope they took the seaplane; whilst the airship would be the only way to earlier in the century, by the '30s it would have to be the seaplane. Mind you, as I understand it jets on seaplanes are problematic - they really don't like have water spray in them; look at how high the jets were mounted on the 'Caspian Sea Monster'.

I do love the Art Decor style and alongside the Steamy outings we also do a few '40s ones during the year; this thread makes me think I should be slipping a bit of Dieselpunk into those events...

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. for anyone who likes their '40s noir mixed with a bit of Cthulhu fun, I'd recommend the film Cast a deadly Spell, available on YouTube.

True. But remember the Hindenburg! Hindenburg in 1937, dear Miranda! Rigid airships would be present too in the 30s concurrently with sea planes! But you're right, airships are not a good choice unless you're playing a tourist. They're big, and obvious so they call attention, and the routes would be extremely limited. Sort of like the Concorde of the era.

My own grandmother witnessed the Hindemburg disaster when still a girl when she was living in New York City (the Hindenburg disaster happened in neighbouring New Jersey)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

Yep. turbojets on seaplanes are a bit of a problem. But not impossible: https://www.google.com/search?q=jet+powered+seaplane

~ ~ ~

In the story above, there is an airship expedition mounted by Sir Lawrence, and Nathan Kowalski was thinking of joining the expedition. presumably in search for the ruins of the ancient city of Iram of the Pillars, mentioned in the Q'uran, but Will is telling Nathan he has a better way to get there. In this alternate reality WWII is also about to start, and things are heating up, politically speaking.

Taking a Zeppelin is definitely not what Will Dunn wants to do. Will is trying to convince Nathan that an association between them would be more fruitful, as Will knows the area, and has a faster, more covert way to get around to Dhofar, basically beat Lawrence's expedition by taking his sea plane. Nathan Kowalski and Will Dunn are more "Indiana Jones" characters - so the idea is and to figure out what is that the expedition fellas are so interested in.

Brantley, on the other hand is more of a Dr. Who type of character, travelling with his "female" alien friend, "Sally,"  and probably will get there in the same fashion as Dr. Who, through some sort of inter-dimensional transportation mechanism...

[Miranda.T]

(snip)

Nathan Kowalski and Will Dunn are more "Indiana Jones" characters - so the idea is and to figure out what is that the expedition fellas are so interested in.

Brantley, on the other hand is more of a Dr. Who type of character, travelling with his "female" alien friend, "Sally,"  and probably will get there in the same fashion as Dr. Who, through some sort of inter-dimensional transportation mechanism...

Indiana Jones meets Doctor Who... I'm suprised Mr Spielberg hasn't given this a go 

Yours,
Miranda.

[MWBailey]

Hmmm...

[Miranda.T]

A piccy from our time-travels to the 40s (or at least a 40s event we attended today) - unfortunately the focus is a bit out (I think our compact camera is dying - it didn't manage a properly focused image all afternoon) and even more unfortunately the lovely vintage caravan is not ours!



I've still plans for at least one Decopunk accessory straight out of the Saturday morning cinema serials, but unfortunately I'm still looking for the bits to pull it together. Oh well, there's always next year, and I may put the idea into a Steampunk context before then.

Yours,
Miranda.

[MWBailey]

Brantley, on the other hand is more of a Dr. Who type of character, travelling with his "female" alien friend, "Sally,"  and probably will get there in the same fashion as Dr. Who, through some sort of inter-dimensional transportation mechanism...

Welll... Broadly correct, I suppose. Brantley is in fact a genetic reassignment experiment gone wrong; a half-chthuloid, half-human attempt to create a progenitor of a timetravelling humanoid race (through involuntary forced surgical  alteration effected after his capture by Cthuloid Martians and their human cultist allies.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Also the first human to successfully build a time-travelling device - the Chronojammer- that incorporates an integral computer of the Von Neumann ENIAC variety - which goes wildly wrong (all subsequent builds of Chrono jammer machines similarly go haywire, resulting in their being banned by The Committee), and Embeds him in the wall of the cultists' hideout, thus necessitating surgery to save his life... etc., etc. ad nauseum). The experimental process of surgical genetic augmentation and re-assignment both did, and did not, take; he is neither dominantly human nor dominantly Chthuloid, is able to step through walls if he "holds his mouth right," so to speak, but has trouble travelling between dimensions without the Farnsworth-like "Brick" travelling device that are A.U.N.T.S.A.L.L.Y. (the intratemporal anti-contraband customs policing entity that Brantley works for - which is in turn controlled and asdministered by The InterTemporal Committee, a governing body that controls the far-off future universe from whence A.U.N.T.S.A.L.L.Y. and Sally Kemmermann, Brantley's wife and boss, both originate) standard issue. He also uses a room-sized travelling device, a "failsafed" rebuild of one of the original Chronojammer devices (known as a "Chronojumper"), located aboard and integrally patched into the systems of the Beau Rosin, an armed, diesel-electric-powered blimp. that uses a sailing cargo scow as it's living quarters, engine room and control bridge.

[J. Wilhelm]

A piccy from our time-travels to the 40s (or at least a 40s event we attended today) - unfortunately the focus is a bit out (I think our compact camera is dying - it didn't manage a properly focused image all afternoon) and even more unfortunately the lovely vintage caravan is not ours!



I've still plans for at least one Decopunk accessory straight out of the Saturday morning cinema serials, but unfortunately I'm still looking for the bits to pull it together. Oh well, there's always next year, and I may put the idea into a Steampunk context before then.

Yours,
Miranda.

Very nice! Now if you ever come to America and get a hold of a 1940-50's trailer (caravan), you can travel from the US to Central Mexico the way people did back in the 1940s and 50s.

Take Road 57 from Laredo, Texas through the Mexican northern desert through the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains and then about halfway along the way between the Texas border and Mexico City, there is a small town called Matehuala in the desert, where you will find a "motel" called "Las Palmas - Midway Inn."  So called because back then it was the only resting point for travellers after a long day of driving in the desert, about half of the distance to Mexico City.

I've been in that place many times in the 1970s and 80s as I travelled on caravan every year with my grandparents from Mexico City to San Antonio and Austin to visit family as a child... The place is still standing and in full swing apparently.

In a scene that looks like it came right out of an old James Bond movie, the motel in the middle of the desert is comprised of "bungalows" with room service, which weer built back to the 1940s. The whole area next to the road is surrounded by the desert vegetation mostly composed of "Joshua Trees" and all manner cacti and Aloe-looking plants.

At the centre of the complex they have a carefully manicured green grass and shrub garden, peppered with palm trees, and a picture-windowed building housing the hotel lobby, registration and facilities, all furnished with immaculately preserved period furniture, with elegant marble floors and a granite check-in desk - all in impeccable 1950s decor.

There is a large dining room attached to the lobby with white linen on the tables. The waiters are formally dressed with tail coats and will serve you an elegant dinner, while you watch the beautiful people swimming during the day, or strolling along in the carefully manicured garden at night. But if you prefer you can dial the operator and have the waiters bring your dinner to your bungalow.

http://laspalmasmidwayinn.com/en/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g499417-d153678-Reviews-Las_Palmas_Midway_Inn-Matehuala_Central_Mexico_and_Gulf_Coast.html#photos;geo=499417&detail=153678&albumViewMode=images&aggregationId=104&albumid=104&cnt=50&offset=0&filter=7

1960s Motel Las Palmas Post Card

Much better than Motel 6, far more panache than "La Quinta" motor Inn, and beats the hell out of K.O.A. (Kampgrounds of America RV resorts)

If you're going to travel, travel in style. I wonder if there are any Dieselpunks recreating routes in the Americas - most likely in the U? Like the famed "Route 66" I imagine. Though Mexico I'd say is far better for that, on account of being more exotic and having more original period venues.

Cheers,

JW

[Miranda.T]

Brantley, on the other hand is more of a Dr. Who type of character, travelling with his "female" alien friend, "Sally,"  and probably will get there in the same fashion as Dr. Who, through some sort of inter-dimensional transportation mechanism...

Welll... Broadly correct, I suppose. Brantley is in fact a genetic reassignment experiment gone wrong; a half-chthuloid, half-human attempt to create a progenitor of a timetravelling humanoid race (through involuntary forced surgical  alteration effected after his capture by Cthuloid Martians and their human cultist allies.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Also the first human to successfully build a time-travelling device - the Chronojammer- that incorporates an integral computer of the Von Neumann ENIAC variety - which goes wildly wrong (all subsequent builds of Chrono jammer machines similarly go haywire, resulting in their being banned by The Committee), and Embeds him in the wall of the cultists' hideout, thus necessitating surgery to save his life... etc., etc. ad nauseum). The experimental process of surgical genetic augmentation and re-assignment both did, and did not, take; he is neither dominantly human nor dominantly Chthuloid, is able to step through walls if he "holds his mouth right," so to speak, but has trouble travelling between dimensions without the Farnsworth-like "Brick" travelling device that are A.U.N.T.S.A.L.L.Y. (the intratemporal anti-contraband customs policing entity that Brantley works for - which is in turn controlled and asdministered by The InterTemporal Committee, a governing body that controls the far-off future universe from whence A.U.N.T.S.A.L.L.Y. and Sally Kemmermann, Brantley's wife and boss, both originate) standard issue. He also uses a room-sized travelling device, a "failsafed" rebuild of one of the original Chronojammer devices (known as a "Chronojumper"), located aboard and integrally patched into the systems of the Beau Rosin, an armed, diesel-electric-powered blimp. that uses a sailing cargo scow as it's living quarters, engine room and control bridge.

That is one hell of a backstory... Of course, one very nice thing about time-travelling, dimension-hopping characters is you can put them where ever you want - Steampunk setting, Dieselpunk setting, whatever. And as an author there's lots of fun bringing knowing anchronisms and lashings of dramatic irony in, too.

Very nice! Now if you ever come to America and get a hold of a 1940-50's trailer (caravan), you can travel from the US to Central Mexico the way people did back in the 1940s and 50s.

Take Road 57 from Laredo, Texas through the Mexican northern desert through the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains and then about halfway along the way between the Texas border and Mexico City, there is a small town called Matehuala in the desert, where you will find a "motel" called "Las Palmas - Midway Inn."  So called because back then it was the only resting point for travellers after a long day of driving in the desert, about half of the distance to Mexico City.

I've been in that place many times in the 1970s and 80s as I travelled on caravan every year with my grandparents from Mexico City to San Antonio and Austin to visit family as a child... The place is still standing and in full swing apparently.

In a scene that looks like it came right out of an old James Bond movie, the motel in the middle of the desert is comprised of "bungalows" with room service, which weer built back to the 1940s. The whole area next to the road is surrounded by the desert vegetation mostly composed of "Joshua Trees" and all manner cacti and Aloe-looking plants.

At the centre of the complex they have a carefully manicured green grass and shrub garden, peppered with palm trees, and a picture-windowed building housing the hotel lobby, registration and facilities, all furnished with immaculately preserved period furniture, with elegant marble floors and a granite check-in desk - all in impeccable 1950s decor.

There is a large dining room attached to the lobby with white linen on the tables. The waiters are formally dressed with tail coats and will serve you an elegant dinner, while you watch the beautiful people swimming during the day, or strolling along in the carefully manicured garden at night. But if you prefer you can dial the operator and have the waiters bring your dinner to your bungalow.

http://laspalmasmidwayinn.com/en/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g499417-d153678-Reviews-Las_Palmas_Midway_Inn-Matehuala_Central_Mexico_and_Gulf_Coast.html#photos;geo=499417&detail=153678&albumViewMode=images&aggregationId=104&albumid=104&cnt=50&offset=0&filter=7

1960s Motel Las Palmas Post Card

Much better than Motel 6, far more panache than "La Quinta" motor Inn, and beats the hell out of K.O.A. (Kampgrounds of America RV resorts)

If you're going to travel, travel in style. I wonder if there are any Dieselpunks recreating routes in the Americas - most likely in the U? Like the famed "Route 66" I imagine. Though Mexico I'd say is far better for that, on account of being more exotic and having more original period venues.

Cheers,

JW

Ooo - a road tour in a classic 50s Airstream caravan would be sooo nice! I have to say the 50s is another era for which I love the style and fashion, a bit Atompunk there I guess, and I did rather devour those 'Golden Age' science fiction stories from Asimov et.al. back in my youth...

Yours,
Miranda.

[J. Wilhelm]

*snip*

JW

Ooo - a road tour in a classic 50s Airstream caravan would be sooo nice! I have to say the 50s is another era for which I love the style and fashion, a bit Atompunk there I guess, and I did rather devour those 'Golden Age' science fiction stories from Asimov et.al. back in my youth...

Yours,
Miranda.

You can take the trailer, and I'll take the Astrovan  

JW

[Miranda.T]

The latest WMSA visit was to the RAF Cosford aerospace museum. As this feelt to me a little further on from Steampunk timewise I decided to dabble a little with Dieselpunk. Not having any time to do anything fancy with clothing (so the '40s aparrel would have to do) I decided to put together some accessories.

Firstly some earings and hairclips:



The earrings show a 40s style spaceplane with part of the RAF's motto. The German's postulated such a design (Saenger) but in my alternative timeline I'm imagining that the UK government didn't ignore Whittle, followed up his designs and put one into production.

Then jet engines as jewellery, to be put into my victory rolls to stop them falling flat by the end of the day:



Finally, a piccys with them being worn at Cosford yesterday:



Yours,
Miranda.

[J. Wilhelm]

The latest WMSA visit was to the RAF Cosford aerospace museum. As this feelt to me a little further on from Steampunk timewise I decided to dabble a little with Dieselpunk. Not having any time to do anything fancy with clothing (so the '40s aparrel would have to do) I decided to put together some accessories.

Firstly some earings and hairclips:



The earrings show a 40s style spaceplane with part of the RAF's motto. The German's postulated such a design (Saenger) but in my alternative timeline I'm imagining that the UK government didn't ignore Whittle, followed up his designs and put one into production.

Then jet engines as jewellery, to be put into my victory rolls to stop them falling flat by the end of the day:



Finally, a piccys with them being worn at Cosford yesterday:



Yours,
Miranda.

Oooh! Very nice dear Miranda! The jewelry is looking very "20s"

[Miranda.T]

Oooh! Very nice dear Miranda! The jewelry is looking very "20s"

Thank you  . I had planned to go more 20s/30s and I thought I had the ideal figure hugging frock which hadn't been worn for many a long year, but when I retrieved it from storage bag in which it was languishing I discovered I now have too much figure for it to hug...

Yours,
Miranda.

[Cora Courcelle]

It never fails to amaze me how often things shrink when left in storage   

[J. Wilhelm]

It never fails to amaze me how often things shrink when left in storage  

I know. in a few days I'm going to find out how bad wearing the corseted Airship Angel costume will feel   I can make it work but it ain't gonna be easy! I know I'm not in good shape. Too much bread on my sandwiches. Too much pasta and meatballs/sausage in my dinner - to the point I've felt somehat ill this year (my stomach is reacting to either). I've taken emergency steps to see if I can adjust myself by Xmas by switching to chicken/turkey as protein and from bread/pasta to strictly corn tortillas (I found passable tortillas at my local super). Carbs and fat should go down dramatically.

[Miranda.T]

It never fails to amaze me how often things shrink when left in storage  

It's so often that happens - I expect the contraction of space and time around clothes in storage may eventually balance out the universe's accelerating expansion due to dark energy...

I know. in a few days I'm going to find out how bad wearing the corseted Airship Angel costume will feel   I can make it work but it ain't gonna be easy! I know I'm not in good shape. Too much bread on my sandwiches. Too much pasta and meatballs/sausage in my dinner - to the point I've felt somehat ill this year (my stomach is reacting to either). I've taken emergency steps to see if I can adjust myself by Xmas by switching to chicken/turkey as protein and from bread/pasta to strictly corn tortillas (I found passable tortillas at my local super). Carbs and fat should go down dramatically.

More seriously, I do think the materials that are used for corsets do shrink if they are not regularly worn so it might be an idea to wear the item a for a night or two before the event to stretch it back to a more comfortable fit.

Yours,
Miranda.

[J. Wilhelm]

It never fails to amaze me how often things shrink when left in storage   

It's so often that happens - I expect the contraction of space and time around clothes in storage may eventually balance out the universe's accelerating expansion due to dark energy...

I know. in a few days I'm going to find out how bad wearing the corseted Airship Angel costume will feel  I can make it work but it ain't gonna be easy! I know I'm not in good shape. Too much bread on my sandwiches. Too much pasta and meatballs/sausage in my dinner - to the point I've felt somehat ill this year (my stomach is reacting to either). I've taken emergency steps to see if I can adjust myself by Xmas by switching to chicken/turkey as protein and from bread/pasta to strictly corn tortillas (I found passable tortillas at my local super). Carbs and fat should go down dramatically.

More seriously, I do think the materials that are used for corsets do shrink if they are not regularly worn so it might be an idea to wear the item a for a night or too before the event to stretch it back to a more comfortable fit.

Yours,
Miranda.

Good point!