Gatehouse Gazette ISSUE 8 SEP ‘09
FORBIDDEN TALES OF FERVOR AND FRIGHT ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09
CONTENTS
Columns Articles Reviews A STEAMPUNK HALLOWEEN MASTER OF THE GENRE IN DEATH THE NEW SOVIET MONSTER The Steampunk Wardrobe .………… 3 H.P. Lovecraft ….………………….…..… 7 You Are Empty ..……………..……...… 11
POISONOUS!! DELIRIOUS STUFF DEMONS IN 1930S JAPAN The Liquor Cabinet …….…...……… 24 Absinthe and steampunk …….…… 10 Devil Summoner 2 ………..…….….… 17
METAL CASTING FOR EVERYONE NEON-NOIR Series Tutorial ………………………….….…… 20 Nightside series .……………….….… 19 THE DEVIL RIDES OUT Hammer Horrors ………….……..……. 6 MEMORABILIA NAZI MADNESS
Holiday cards .….…….…………..…… 27 Wolfenstein …… ………………..……… 26 QUATERMASS II Quatermass ………….………………..…. 9 Fiction Interview CITY OF SECRETS DR. ADDERSON’S LENS DIESELPUNK’S L’ENFANT TERRIBLE Local Steampunk .…………….…..…. 25 By Natania Barron …………..……… 12 Sam Van Olffen …….……….……..…… 4
EDITOR Nick Ottens COLUMNISTS Daniel B. Craig, Hilde Heyvaert COVER ARTIST Myke Amend CONTRIBUTORS Dave Claus, Guy Dampier, Ella Kremper, Christian Matzke ,
FEATURED AUTHOR Natania Barron Sigurjón Njálsson, Marcius Rauchfuß, James Roberts, ‘Trubetskoy’
EDITORIAL The Gatehouse Gazette is an online magazine in publication since July 2008, dedicated to the speculative fiction genres of steampunk Halloween is almost upon us once again thus we celebrate and dieselpu nk. For past issues as well as “Forbidden Tales of Fervor and Fright” this issue behind an further information, please visit : outstanding cover provided by steampunk artists Mr Myke http://www. ottens.co.uk/gatehouse/gazette
Amend of mykeamend.com. NICK OTTENS For discussion about this magazine as well as steampunk and dieselpunk in general, visit: We have for you, besides the familiar columns and reviews, an article about http://www.ottens.co.uk/lounge H.P. Lovecraft, master of the horror genre; a short story by Ms Natania Barron; the third and final installment in Ella’s “Hammer Horrors” series; ©2009 Gatehouse Gazette . All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any “Metal casting for everyone” by Dave Claus; a review of the latest part of it may be reproduced, stored in a Wolfenstein game; and original Halloween holiday cards by Hilde Heyvaert. retrieval system, or transmitted in any form Allow me to express my gratitude hereby to all the fine people , including or by any means, electronic, mechanical, the ones I haven’t mentioned here, who contributed to this issue! photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of th e Much to our delight, dieselpunk artist Mr Sam Van Olffen agreed to be Gatehouse Gazette with the exception of the use of small exc erpts for announcements and interviewed for this issue and allowed us to feature some of his reviews. Published every two months by The outstanding artworks of “ big cities, pollu tion, oppressive atmospheres and Gatehouse . death” along with it! Check it out, on page 4. September 2009 Halloween Edition, released Due to technical difficulties on our part, we have not been able to receive 30 August at www.ottens.co.uk/gatehouse. any messages sent to the [email protected] address that was given as contact information in our las t issue. Please resend your inquiry . For letters and inquiries EMAIL [email protected].
PAGE 2 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09
COLUMN THE STEAMPUNK WARDROBE
A steampunk HILDE HEYVAERT
Halloween
MANY STEAMPUNKS ALL ACROSS however. and the parties thus were a the globe love the spooky holiday American society of the Gilded wonderful exc use for matchmaking. known as Hallowe’en. Therefore it is Age thought it essential to remove And enjoying light hear ted spooky time that we direct some of the any association with witchcraft, the fun and faux séances of course. spotlight onto that celebration of dead, sacrifices and offerings and The high society held costumed dressing up, scary fun and trick-or- concentrated on the more balls and charity parties. Magazines treating, and have a look at entertaining side of things. It was, and newspapers profited as they Halloween during a time that is published articles on how to give so special to so many within the a proper Halloween party, design movement: the Victorian Age. invitations, carve Jack o’ Halloween is, in spite of its Lanterns as well as rec ipes and increasing popularity in Europe, other Halloween features . still mainly an American event. The Americans did much to And it became that when the remove the significant historical industrial revolution hit America. value of the holiday , slowly It made its debut in the upper transforming it into a brand new echelons of American society concept purely for entertainment during the early 1870s. There it which the children c ould claim was interpreted as a quaint and for themselves, resulting in the entertaining English practice. holiday we all know today. The holiday had been Steampunk enthusiasts have introduced to the American picked up on the holiday just like people by European immigrants, ev eryone else who celebrates it. the Irish in particular, who had Some are recreating Victo rian come to the New World in the Halloween costumes from days hope of a better future, escaping past, and some are incorporating the famine and poor living Hallow een in to their steampunk conditions of their home outfits. This produces both countries. They brought with gorgeous historic ally accurate them their own culture, customs Halloween in the late 1800s. replica costumes and modern and holidays, Halloween, or acceptable nonetheless to attempt day outfits with details like Jack o’ Samhain , being one of them. to communicate with the dead for Lanterns and traditional Halloween The media of those times, one’s romantic interests, and this imagery. And yet others choose to books, papers and magazines practise grew i n popularity, be steampunks just for the day, advertised an inaccurate historical especially among young people. getting a taste of our wonderful background to the holiday, which Indeed, generally it was felt that subculture on everyone’s favourite helped its growth considerably Ha lloween was only for the young, costume holiday. ■
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INTERVIEW SAM VAN OLFFEN
Dieselpunk’s NICK OTTENS
l’ enfant terrible
SAM VAN OLFFEN IS A TALENTED what attracted you dieselpunk artist from France to the genres? whose work has been featured at You might be exhibitions throughout the world. surprised but the For this issue, he kindly agreed to first time I heard answer some questions about about steampunk himself, his work and his thoughts was not with regard about the genres his creations are to Jules Verne or associated with. Wells but when I read the comic Please, tell us a bit about yourself. book Steampunk by I live and work in Montpellier, in the Chris Bacchlo. I South of France, where I was born. I have always found have always wanted to create this u niverse universes and characters, tell extremely interesting. What You are right when you think stories. I have always been attracted fascinated me the most was how dieselpunk fits my own style more. by science fiction and fantasy this period merged almost It is darker. Dieselpunk is the worlds, robots and monsters. molecularly with my worki ng psychopathic son of steampunk. I am self-taught, a self made technique. man. I had to stop going to school How w ould you explain for the and I started reading classical Your more recent works seem darker increasing appeal of steampunk? literature such as Virgil, Ovid, and more distinctively dieselpunk. Do I do not believe steampunk took so Gustave Flaubert and Hemingway. I you find this aesthetic fits your own long to become popular. I t came just grew up in a modest family. I never style better? at the right time. missed anything, but that is because You know, I like big cities, pollution, Th e centur y we live in is a all I needed were my comics when I oppressive atmospheres and peculiar one. A large part of was a child, cinema and VHS tapes everythi ng connected with death. I teenagers sink s into depths of when I was a teenager, and time to like architecture and above all I like ignorance while, a nd this is the main work now. Free time to live my history. I let things happen. With all paradox, they have an unrestricted passion is a luxury. these elemen ts combined you get access to absolute knowledge. It is dieselpunk in that respect that steampunk is a How did you first become interested I have learned that art is not a sheer product of our time and could in steampunk and dieselpunk and restricted circle and that with new not have b een created at any other technologies and time. It represents the obsolete “Dieselpunk is the psychopathic a bit of ideas, you values of a bygone era, t he Belle can create Époque , mixed with the son of steampunk.” interesting things. technological aspect of our time. All
PAGE 4 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 this, we can clearly see, provides for Steamboy , we cannot virus that gets projection, dream, fantasy using really say that he inoculated in customs and codes from a romantic gave the best in him… people’s minds and past while keeping a technological three spinning gears quoted authors link with the present. are not eno ugh to happen to belong to Only a misled century like ours build a whole a time when there could give birth to steampunk. As universe. was no remedy far as I know, this attempt to create To me Captain against it. a link, to recycle the past did not Sky was the only one exist in the nineteenth century. to play his game well, Are there any There was no fictional rebirth or but this is another steampunk or industrial royalty at the time of stor y more on the dieselpunk artists or Baudelaire or Verne. It could have dieselpunk side. Let’s authors you admire happened though, as imagination see what the Finish in particular? was flourishing back then. Iron Sky will do. For I have read an now though, film excellent French Do you think it will continue to grow harvest is quite poor. book, La lune seule le sait (“Only the and gather popularity? moon knows” ) by Yoahan Eliot. The That steampunk will gain popularity What would you consider to be the visual impact of this story was is obvious. For example, no main greatest influences on your work? incredible! There were aliens, Jules steampunk feature has been Are there any artists in particular Verne as a secret agent sent to the directed yet. You might object that that you seek to imi tate or do you moon to rescue Louise Michel, and Wild Wild West was one but I would draw from films or novels? Victor Hugo in a castle acting as the not say that such film, or even Giger of course, Gustave Doré, puppet master of the revolution Otomo’s Steamboy does justice to Alfons Mucha, the architect Victor against a robotic Napoleon the the genre such as Blade Runner once Horta, Joseph Poallert who created Third! Sheer genius! (B y a strange did with cyberpunk for instance. this crazy building used as Brussels irony of fate, I made the cover for After Blade Runner , no cyberpunk Court of Justice (obv iously the work the new edition of the same book fiction could avoid the comparison of a mad man). some years later) with Ridley Scott’s masterpiece. I also greatly admire After Wild Wild West , everything architectural deliria by Anton First, And you have done other book covers still needs to be done. As regards François Schuiten and Etienne too, correct? Otomo’s Steamboy , its only merit in Robida among others, many Right, for Ga llimard and Press my opinion is that he took eight others… Pocket, two large French publishing years to direct it, i.e. he anticipated companies, but this is not this type the movement by almost a decade. Have period writers like Victor Hugo, of work that will pay me a b ig house This is common ground with Ridley but also Mary Shelley and Edgar with a swimming pool. Scott: being so early that he was Allan Poe, significantly shaped your totally out of synch with the view of steampunk and your work? Yo ur work has been on display at expectations of his time. Also with Not at all. For me, literature is a several exhibitions throughout the world. Could you tell us about this? Yes, my work was shown in the United States, the Netherlands and France, but I would like to exhibit in England, Japan, Russia, everywhere people are interested. The only boundaries I have met are not territorial but mental. ■
Visit http:// vanolffen.blogspot.com to learn more about the artist.
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SERIES HAMMER HORRORS
The Devil ELLA KREMPER Rides Out
CHRISTOPHER LEE’S NAME Richelieu and Rex come automatically puts images of across some rather vampires, fangs, tall dark strangers interesting characters and the act of just generally being indeed, waiting for a evil into your mind. In fact, he is celestial event to occur often seen as synonymous with the wher e the number of rather malevolent villain in film and people present at the television. That is not to say that it’s party is of direct Film poster by Tom Chantrell, courtesy of EMI Films. a bad thing because Mr Lee does it importance. One (Sarah Lawson and P aul Eddington). so well. However, the mark of a particular person, the charismatic However, Mocata’ s powers are far good actor is to be able to slip into Mocata (played by Charles Gray of stronger than anticipated, and they whatever character the script calls James Bond fame) strikes Richelieu are forced to pool all their resources for, and Christopher Lee does this as having some sort of hold over for their survival to defeat him and with admirable élan. Simon, which makes him suspicious. the ghastly Angel of Death he has Yet for a Hammer production, it Rex also ta kes a liking to a young summoned. would be strange to see Lee cast in a woman at the party, who refers to In comparison to more well - role outside that of ‘general nasty herself as Tanith (Nike Arrighi), but known Hammer films as the Count person’, for he had become near- is also concerned by her confused Dracula and Frankenstein series, The synonymous with Count Dracula. behavior . When Richelieu and Rex Devil Rides Out is fairly tight. Gone is Nevertheless in The Devil Rides Out are asked to leave by Simon, they the cliché, camp and predictable (1968), we see him take on the role twig that Something is Not Quite plotline and here we have of the hero. Ri ght. They return later to Simon’s something that is more coherent, The Devil Rides Out is based on house, where upstairs, they find a with classic cars, black magic and the 1934 book of the same name by Satanic ritual circle. Inadvertently, all-round adventure. Granted, the Dennis Wheatley. Set during the they summon a demon, but special effects leave much to be 1930s, the Duc de Richelieu Richelieu is able to banish it by desired ( the forest orgy scene) but (Christopher Lee) and his friend, throwing his crucifix at it. this is the Seventies. Christopher Rex van Ryn (Leon Greene) meet Determined to get to the Lee plays wonderfully against type after a while apart.. Another friend, bottom of the situation and to as the heroic Duc de Richelieu, well Simon Aron (Patrick Mower), fails to prevent Simon and Tanith from supported by Leon Greene, and make their meeting at Richelieu’s losing their souls to Satan, Richelieu, Charles Gray is deliciously evil as house, so the duo makes a trip to who luckily has knowledge in the the charismatic Mocata. Simon’s home to see what the occult, seeks to hide Simon and This does not feel like a typical problem is. Tanith from Mocata by taking them Hammer film, which is why The Simon seems to be having his to the house of his cousin Marie Devil Rides Out is often cited as one own ideas about holding a party, for Eaton and her husband, Richard of its more acclaimed productions. ■
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ARTICLE H.P. LOVECRAFT
Master of the MARCIUS RAUCHFUß
genre in death
HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT present in his fiction. During this probably of kidney cancer. His aunt was born into a rather wealthy New time he started his career as a Annie Gamwell inherited the rights England family and enjoyed a writer. He first published as a to his works which she later passed comparably happy childhood. columnist in the Pawtuxet Valley on to August Derleth. Comparably, because he was a sickly Gleaner , a local newspaper, in 1906. Howard Phillips Lovecraft is child, his health remained frail all His first published Cthulhu Mythos buried at the Swan Point Cemetery his life, and because his father died related story was Dagon, featured in in Providence, Rhode Island. when he was five years old. the magazine Vagrant in 1919. Lovecraft was also a prodigious Never learning a trade, The Cthulhu Mythos child, capable of reciting short Lovecraft supported himself mostly Most of Lovecraft ’s literary work poems by two and able to read by by ghostwriting stories for others. concerns stories revolving around a three years of age. Among his clients was Harry pantheon of ancient, malevolent and This early ability to read later Houdini fo r whom he penned extremely powerful aliens called the helped him to study on his own Imprisoned with the Pharaohs Great Old Ones. They in turn are when illness prevented him from (1924) . His own work was servants, to a greater or lesser attending school for any length of published too sporadically to grant degree anyway, to the so -called time. His favorite book and main any sort of regular income. He was Outer Gods. The Outer Gods are inspiration during his childhood married once, from 1924 to 1926, to fa irly obscure and for a mere human was Arabian Nights , from which he Sonia Greene, a fellow amateur there is little difference in the power would eventually draw the writer. During the time of their between Great Old Ones and Outer inspiration for one of his most marriage the c ouple lived in New Gods. The line dividing and defining famous characters: The mad Arab York, a city Lovecraft despised. After Outer Gods and Great Old Ones is Abdul Alhazred, author of the separating from his wife, he also blurry, which is partly due to dreaded Necronomicon . returned to Providence, where he some inconsistencies in the use of In 1904, when Lovecraft was stayed with his aunts. He led the life the term s by Lovecraft himself and fourteen years old, the wealth of his of an eccentric, sometimes not his literary heirs. For example , family had dwindled and they had to sleeping for days and eating nothing Shub-Niggurath is described as an move out of their estate, into a small but chocolate for weeks. Love craft Outer Goddess, if something like apartment in Providence, Rhode was afraid to sleep, fearful of gender can be applied at all, but she Island. This experience affected recurring nightmares. In those he is also the mate of Hastur. H e is the Lovecraft severely and, as his would be dragged away by the Night father of her children, the Dark biographer DeCamp notes, he Ghaunts, beings which later Young of S hub-Niggurath, and a contemplated suicide for a while. In featured in his novel The Dream Great Old One. He is said to be th e retrospect, the loss of his father and Quest to Unknown Kadath , to be brother or cousin of Cthulhu, but his home may well have had an dropped from high altitude. sources differ concerning the nature influence on the nihilistic worldview Lovecraft died in 1937, of their relationship.
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The Cthulhu Mythos also in The Thing on the Doorstep . His as the twentieth century’s greatest encompasses an almost complete characters find themselves practiti oner of the classic horror alternate history of Earth (in which confronted with forces they can tale.” life is created more or less by hardly begin to comprehend. Also, Terry Pratchett and Neil accident by the Elder Things) in an no story of Lovecraft ’s has a happy Gaiman have both borrowed from alternate dimension called The ending. The protagonists either die, the Mythos, but in a rather tongue - Dreamlands into which a dreamer go insane, transform into the very in-cheek way. N ow you can find the can pass over, and a host of things they fight or become dreaded Necrotelecomnicon (the intelligent races which have visited corrupted in some other way. All in Phonebook of the Dead) in the high - Earth or stayed here, like Cthulhu all, the world of the Cthulhu Mythos security area for dangerous books in and his kin and the Mi-Go, or those is dark and ultimately hopeless. the Unseen Universi ty of the which emerged on the world long Ancient cosmic horrors and secrets Discworld. Lovecraft’ s was also one before mankind, like the serpent better left undiscovered lurk just of the first literary works to be people. outside the boundaries of everyday adapted as a role-playing game, Call Even though Lovecraft was a life and will destroy everyone who of Cthulhu by Chaosium (1981), little known author in his lifetime, dares to cross over. which very likely helped spread its he managed to make his influence popularity further. felt. One of the most prominent The meme spreads further Starting in the 1960s, authors of the pulp era, Robert E. The ideas on which the Cthulhu Lovecraft’ s work was used as Howard, creator of Conan the Mythos rests have proven to be inspiration for or directly adapted Barbarian, took many motifs from quite contagious: they have become to television and cinema, with Lovecraft and incorporated them a meme and inspired modern varying degrees of faithfulness into his own work. Indeed, among masters of the genre like Ramsey towards the original material. A the elements of the Cthulhu Mythos Campbell and Stephen K ing. King number of his short stories have found in the stories about Conan himself once said about Lovecraft: even been adapted into comic and Kull the Conqueror are the “I think it is beyond doubt that books, and elements of Lovecraft ’s Serpent People, Valusia (the H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed stories have seeped into quite a mythical homeland of the Serpent People) and even Cthulhu himself. Lovecraft’s literature did not find popular acclaim until the late 1950s when August Derleth published it in an anthology titled The Outsider and others .
Relation with Pulp Lovecraft's tales were published in pulp magazines as Tales of Magic and Mystery , to begin with, but his writings are far from the mainstream pulp material of the 1920s and ‘30s. Fantasy pulp was dominated by characters like Conan the Barbarian: masculine figures who conquered by force, got all the women and always emerged victorious in the end. Lovecraft’s protagonists, in contrast, are everyday men while women are conspicuously absent other than in the role of witch and antagonist as
PAGE 8 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 number of otherwise unrelated his Satanic Bible an d connects the spread of the Mythos than any graphic novels, including Grant Shubb -Niggurath (as “The Black other medium . The Lovecraft Morrison’s Arkham Asylum (1989). Goat ,” one of her titles) with Community has found its place on And last but certainly not least, Baphomet. Som e even regard the World Wide Web, encompassing H.P. Lovecraft has had more Lovecraft as some kind of prophet amateur writers, l ike Lovecraft was influence on the lives of dabblers while those who adhere to Chaos himself, role -playing enthusiasts into the occult than any other Magic see no wrong in worshipping and even film makers. A simple author who had no intentions of Cthulhu. So, after more than seventy search on YouTube will produce doing so. Despite his numerous years, Cthulhu has acquired a real tons of videos. There is also at least allusions to ancient and evil gods, as cult. Lovecraft would be amused. one Cthulhu -themed MMORPG and a well as the occult tomes and powers Besides, the darker shades of host of other computer games either in his work, Lovecraft himself was music ( heavy metal and various directly related to the Mythos or an atheist if not a nihilist, convinced musical styles re lated to the Goth inspired by it. There should be no that life had no higher meaning. He scene) have been inspired by doubt that few modern authors can had no interest in the occult at all. Lovecraft’s work, including “The claim to hold so much influence on Thing that should not be ” by the work of others. Legacy Metallica, “Forseen” by God Module Here is a strange and rather Lovecraft’s most famous fictional and basically everything performed fitting analogy between Lovecraft book, the dreaded Necronomicon , is by The Darkest of the Hillside and Cthulhu: Both are dead, but as available in many different editions, Thickets . The list goes on. Cthulhu does in fiction, so does most having nothing but the name With the arrival of the Internet Lovecraft in real life: Their dreams in common yet all claim to be the it did not take long for the Cthulhu still influence the world a round original. Czandor LaVey, founder of Mythos to took root there, too. The them, the dreamer is dead, yet the the Church of Satan, gets confused in Internet has probably done more for dream continues. ■
SERIES QUATERMASS
Quatermass II GUY DAMPIER
PROFESSOR QUATERMASS IS IN Writer Nigel Kneale takes white make a script that blends despair. His carefully laid plans lie Quatermass onto another extra- science fiction, horror and blackened, scorched and radioactive ordinary adventure. There are few conspiracy together into an exotic on the Australian sands. His rocket other places where brainwashing, melting pot. For the dieselpunk fan ship is faulty, an Australian launch trade unionism and suspiciously there is a lot on display. Fr om the resulting in a nuclear explosion. The large amounts of ammonia mix. visual starkness of the ‘Zombies’ second rocket, there in England, Here though they do so superbly. with their Tommy G uns and bears the same mistakes. Any Like most of the franchise, this is a gas masks to the industrial attempt to launch it will prompt six -part, black and white wonder, nightmare of the secret government detonation of the nuclear motor. made for almost nothing with only facility and one of the first televisual The Space Program is finished. Then the crudest special effects and a cast scenes set in space. If you enjoy when his daughter’s boyfriend, of superb actors. Only the BBC could good drama, if you ha ve ever Captain Steve Dillon turns up with create a show where a man can wanted a 1950s British e quivalent an odd meteorite Quatermass finds overthrow brainwashing by being to The X-Files or just want a hero himself stumbling into a hideous told to pull himself togethe r. whose first reacti on isn’t to shoot conspiracy from beyond the Earth. Good acting and lush black and from the hip then this is for you. ■
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ARTICLE ABSINTHE AND STEAMPUNK
Delirious stuff CHRISTIAN MATZKE
“WHATEVER ABSINTHE MEANS, IT IS NOT A BEAKER features a see-saw beneath the pinhole opening of the full of the warm south. It is an industr ial product, as reservoir. As the drops hit the see -saw they are synthetic as Dr. Jekyll’s potion, and whatever meto - dispersed across the surface of the drink to maximize nymies are in play are not from the rural landscape but the release of the flavorful oils. from urban culture. Aestheticism, decadence, and It should come as no surprise that absinthe is Bohemianism are well to the fore, along with the idea of encountered throughout steampunk fiction. In The nineteenth-century Paris and 1890s London.” Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Thus wrote Phil Baker in The Book of Absinthe: A (1990) we are treated to our first ab sinthe reference. Cultural History (2003). While perhaps he stresses the Toward the end of the book when the action shifts to urban connection too strongly for a drink th at Paris we are told the Clackers (the period equivalent of originated in the Jura, there is no doubt that when one cyberpunk’s Hackers) drink Pernod Fils , while our thinks of absinthe, one thinks of nineteenth century heroine can only stomach “scavenger’s absinthe”, that urban nightlife. From the Green Hour to the Moulin is, absinthe mixed with red wine. Pernod Fils was the Rouge, absinthe will forever be linked to premiere brand of absinthe at the time . the artists and writers of that period. Because of its price and quality , the But that is only half of the story. Clackers drinking it imbues them with a Absinthe was consumed on a daily basis certain elitist snobbery. Scavenger’s for decades by millions of people from all absinthe on the other hand was much walks of life. It was the drink of soldiers looked down upon. As the name suggests, and farmers, lawyers and chimney there is a coarseness to the practice, with sweeps . It granted neither artistic the implication that one has simply visions nor hallucinations, but its high mixed together t he remnants of someone proof and intriguing flavor offered a else’s drinks. As our heroine is a much-needed diversion from daily life. prostitute, this befits her social standing. From the French Quarter in New Orleans Jay Lake’s “The God -Clown is Near” to French Indo-China, absinthe went (2008) takes place in a far more fantastic everywhere the empire did. In fact, the world than The Difference Engine , and so French military issued it to their troops it is appropriate that the effect of to purify their water during campaigns. drinking absinthe is heightened as well. What sets absinthe apart from other The main character drinks to forget the drinks is the ritual of its preparation, and the unique awful job he has been hired to do, but instead suffers accoutrements required. The slow dripping of cold terrible absinthe induced nightmares. A nice touch by water turns the translucent green absinthe into a milky the author is the fact that anise bread is ser ved in the white, a process the French named the Louche (literally bar along with the drink; anise being one of the “clouding”). This aspect of preparation evokes the dominant flavors in absinthe. elixirs of Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll or Wells’ Invisible Man. Also drinking to forget is an Edwardian man in That a desired ratio must be met for a satisfying drink Mark Romanek’s video for “The Perfect Drug” by Nine heightens this aura of deviant home chemistry. To Inch Nails (1997) . We are treated to images of the achieve this one c an always use a simple carafe of water absinthe ritual just as the video enters its most and a slotted spoon, but over the decades a number of kinetic—and steampunk—phase when the man is elaborate options were invented, from fountains and illuminated only by the flashes of a gigantic Tesla coil- Brouilleur drippers to the most steampunk item of all, like device. While the plot may be as cloudy as a glass of the Cusenier Auto Verseur . This marvelous device absinthe, the video clearly evokes the genre spirit. ■
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REVIEW YOU ARE EMPTY
The new TRUBETSKOY
Soviet monster
YOU ARE EMPTY , CREATED BY the game makes ex emplary use of defunct Ukrainian developer Digital its setting. The levels are a whistle - Spray, is not a good video game. stop tour of mid -century Soviet life, The graphics are out of date, relying moving from collective farm to on shopworn polygons and flat factory to workers’ tenements to the textures more common to games metropolis itself, with its great from the beginning of the decade bridges, monuments, cinemas, rather than anything on the shelves theaters, and subway. The game today. The gameplay sticks solidly to bl ends high Stalinism and the the tenets of first-person- apocalypse perfectly, with every shooterdom, with nothing in the locale adorned with mass -produced way of innovative new mechanics. posters, faded banners, severed From the outset, the player is power lines, broken trucks and intended to play the game running trams, and scratchy radios burbling on a narrow track, with most out endless ly repeated warning attempts at exploration resulting in bulletins. The enemies themselv es punishment. The player moves are given a similarly Soviet bent, through the world at a crawl, and with the player being beset by over - can easily be trapped by the muscled welders, scarecrow scenery. The enemies do little more kolkhoz workers, insectoid than charge mindlessly, and most of You Are Empty is set in an electricians, and half -dead soldiers them are more ridiculous than unnamed Soviet megapolis in Civil War -era uniforms. The terrifying. So little is revealed about sometime in the e arly 1950s, during weapons available to the player the game’s storyline that it almost the final years of Stalin’s reign. The continue this theme, mixing WW2- appears as though the story were player assumes the role of an era weapons (Mosin -Nagant rifle, simply dropped during the game’s unnamed militiaman, one of the Shpagin machine pistol, Molotov translation to English. Finally, the city’s faceless thousands, whose cocktails) and scavenged factory area around the player appears to average day is brought to a halt by a equipment (pipe wrench, nail gun, have been curiously foreshortened, traffic accident. Regaining and a sort of electricity thrower). making basic melee and grenade consciousness some weeks later in a However, the real horror in the attacks a hit-and-miss proposition. wrecked and abandoned sanitarium, game comes not from the fight ing, So, why talk about You Are and haunted by dreams of a massive but from the envir onment. For much Empty ? Why talk about a fly-under- tower topped by a great red star, the of the game, the player will be the-radar game that was panned by player must escape the sanitarium, wandering through an urban core every North American reviewer journey to the dead city, and designed as monument of Stalinist when it was released back in 2007? discover the cause of the disaster. gothic. Every street and plaza is In a word: atmosphere. While the plot is bog-standard, surrounded by great pseudo -
PAGE 11 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 classical buildings, bloated with the transformed populace, and the ideas and theories of the biological concrete, that glare down at the dead silence of a mausoleum city, perfectibility of man that were street from every direction. It is a where there is no one left but you. common in both the Soviet Union type of architecture common in the Just to keep the tension ratcheted, and the West in the early twentieth great urban spaces of Russia, and it the game occasionally provides century. Overall, with the game now has the effect of making the cutscene s animated in a stark, at clearance -sale prices, You Are pedestrian either aspire to godhood expressionist sty le that fits perfectly Empty is worth an evening or two of or feel crushed into insignificance. with this world of shadowy cruel monster-bl asting and Soviet It is an effect that You Are Empty figures and overbearing machinery. sightseeing. Despite the many captures perfectly. The haunted While the mystery is never design flaws , it can still conjure ambience is further enhanced by the quite unraveled , the game makes unsettling visions of a world that game’s sound, which balances some attempts at explaining it self. never was. between a smooth techno-industrial Veterans of BioShock will probably Oh, and after playing this game, soundtrack, the grunts, masked find the outcome of You Are Empty you will never look at firefighters snuffles, and nasal Slavic moans of familiar, as both games draw on the same way again. ■
SHORT STORY
Dr. Adderson’s NATANIA BARRON
Lens
THE DAY I LEARNED ABOUT THE tried to off himself, for instance, to curdled milk. However, Birds began with all the mundanity I since even then he talked about it considering that Anton had been had come to expect as Dr. far too often —and I rushed to the dead for the last year, his Adderson’s laboratory aid. I was door toward the source of the appearance did not surpr ise me. He working at his home laboratory, sound, a brass candlestick in hand, had succumbed to an infection the toiling through one his more just in case. year before, brought on by acute nebulous equation exercises—the However, my fear was gangrene to the genitalia —acquired, series assigned to quell my unfounded, for it was not Dr. no doubt, during one of his forays to propensity toward hysterics, as he Adderson at all, but my brother the brothels of the Market District. claimed—when I heard something Anton. The singular fact that he was fall with a hollow thunk in the “You shouldn’t…” he said, his now here, at least marginally entryway. I sat up from my work, voice ragged and full, as if he were animate d and speaking, raised a moving the green glass lamp to see a speaking through a mouth of glass series of uncomfortable questions in little better, but nothing looked out beads. my mind, not the least of which was of the orinary. He was only a few paces from how I was going to remove the gray - “Doctor Adderson?” the heavy brass -enforced front door, green fluid he had leaked on the There was no answer, just a curled up like a wood shaving. His front carpet. low, mournful moan. Thinking it face was waxy and wan, his lips With a quick look about me, I was the doctor himself, and that he chapped and white, the flesh at his deduced that Anton had entered the had done something irreversible— neck bearing a striking resemblance top level from the basement, for the
PAGE 12 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 door was open. He’d had access to effect of his being a moving corpse. expected to see a plume of smoke the laundry room as well, for he was Anton shuddered and a clear rising to the east of the city, where also clothed haphazardly in liquid began oozing from one of his the Library was. There had been garments belonging both to the cobweb colored eyes. more than a half-dozen occasions Doctor and myself. The blue striped “Library… big Library…” during my apprenticeship where an bloomers were a particularly nice Then he fell still. urgent message was followed by a touch, I thought distantly. And while I waited, and stared at his clear indication of the Doctor’s I had heard of some people falling grotesque form and face, doing as predicament, whether it be smoke, into a death-like sleep for a few best I could to absorb the situation, fog, hail, fire, or, on one sunny day months due to illness, drink, or still bothered that I wasn’t happier last spring, a gaping chasm in them drug, I was certain that the Anton I to have a chance to speak to Anton middle of Euphrastus Street knew had truly died, and by all again. I couldn’t recall having Cemetery across the street. rational means, should still be in thought of him much since his death, I had just decided upon my that state. save an occasional wistful route—going through the cemetery “Don’t… touch….” he said. recollection of our childhood. I had rather than around it, for fear of “I assure you, I had no not cried when he died; I did not running into any unsavory intention,” I replied. think I missed him. individuals in the Market District— “The Doctor… needs you….” I remembered asking my when I heard a wet belch from As he thrashed his head in an mother, when I was scarcely six, if I behind me. apparent seizure, I noticed for the had to love Anton, and she told me It was Anton, again. He had first time an odd device secured that I did already, and just didn’t taken one of Doctor Adderson’s about his neck. It was of a similar realize it; she insisted that someday spare cloaks, a moldy old thing he design I’d seen Doctor Adderson I’d grow up and understand that you used for gardening, and slung it employ to control his dogs; made of loved your family no matter what. backwards so it fell down to his surprisingly rudimentary copper But even then I knew she was quite knees in front. Paired with the and iron, it was set with magnetic mistaken. bloomers, I realized for the first fittings that, when engaged Regardless of my philosophies, time just how much he’d favored properly, caused the creature the Doctor was waiting and I had our mother’s looks. wearing it a great deal of pain. been called for. I knew the routine. He also wore a boot on his Or perhaps, caused enough of Though I was used to the Doctor’s head, and a hat on his hand. an electromagnetic charge to more common methods of message “Anton?” he said, apparently animate them. That seemed the only delivery, like the peasant post or his quite recovered. likely explanation as to the trained rat-couriers, his decision “That’s right,” I said. I pointed increasingly peculiar situation. Dr. today was not up for debate. Clearly to him. “Anton. I suppose.” Adderson often completed his it was important or he wouldn’t “Anton come?” inventions without my knowing, and have wasted a perfectly good He looked at me with a pitiful it did not surprise me that he had corpse. kind of expression, something I had discovered unspoken capabilities of Anton did not move again, and never seen him do during his first such a collar. rather than touch him, I simply life. His hairless eyebrows rose ever I was just beginning to feel walked over him and opened the so slightly and his gray teeth irritated at the Doctor, for leaving front door. He smelled of emerged from behind his chapped me to puzzle out his equations while formaldehyde, and something more lips. I think it was a pleading smile, he animated corpses, when I was hit nefarious I couldn’t place. Rather and it was almost endearing. with the sad realization that, in spite than linger on that thought, I “All right,” I said. “But let me fix of Anton’s unexpected appearance, I retrieved my umbrella, hat, cloak, this for you.” was not in the least happy to see and purse from the rack by the side I righted his clothing and found him. of the door, and continued out of the the other boot a few paces behind. “So, the Doctor needs me. laboratory into the alleyway, over With the cloak righted and the wide- Where is he?” I asked, speaking the familiarly cobbled stones, and brimmed hat now on his head, he slowly, as if he were hard of hearing. out in the street. looked like a passable living being, Which I imagined might be a side Though it was dark, I half albeit slightly crooked about the
PAGE 13 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 middle, and even more pungent to included nearly one hundred toward the Celestial Collections, the than the typical specimen. elements before his death from works assembled, meager though “See Doctor?” asked Anton. exposure to a variety of harmful they were, by none other than “Yes, we’re about to go see compounds, the resulting structure Waverly Nicholson himself during Doctor Henrick Adderson. Now if made most use of more common his short, and somewhat scandalous you wouldn’t mind, please stop elements like copper, silver, gold, tin run as mayor of Elusia City. gnawing the daisies. We have an and the like, in the way of triangular Though I could not fathom how appointment to keep.” tiles on the roof. It is rumored that the corpse of my brother noticed the It occurred to me that perhaps the basement held coffers filled with light before I did, I nodded in Anton was not so different as he had more unusual and dangerous agreement. He was right. been in his first life. elements, stored away from the We continued across the public eye but still present in the threshold, between two lead and The walk through the cemetery was structure. ivory columns, and into the Celestial uneventful; but for the rhythmic I never did understand art, I Collection room. There, to our left, toiling of the gravediggers, it was suppose. sat Doctor Adderson, bent over a utterly silent. Occasionally Anton Anton lumbered and I walked pile of metal-bound books, his shuffled particularly clumsily or past the main gate to the side monocle shoved up before his eye, wheezed. I was not in a mood to entrance, to which I had a key. and one of his own lamps—powered keep up conversation with him, and Doctor Adderson, as one of the by the portable briefcase-sized doubted that he would have libraries most esteemed patrons, boiler he carried with him at all anything of import to add to the had been granted full access to the times—emitting a pale yellow glow. current situation, but I could not collections at any time of day he He had not lit any of the other oil deny that Anton’s presence made deemed necessary. lamps. me feel a bit safer as we walked We walked down the narrow “Dellacarta, dear. I’m quite glad through the verdant darkness of the hall and past the boiler room, where you’re here.” Euphrastus Street Cemetery. the familiar ticks and whirs I was so “Good evening, Doctor The Sir Waverly Nicholson accustomed to accompanied the Adderson,” I said. Library—the “big Library” that humid air. Anton neither asked any He did not look up at me, but Anton had indicated—was three city questions, nor paused to look at held up a hand and beckoned me blocks from the Euphrastus Street anything unusual. He had never forward. Cemetery, in the shell of a former been here, to my knowledge—but I I inhaled briefly, trying to temple dedicated to the war was not certain that his reanimated prepare myself for the next few goddess A’ra. It was common by brain held any of his previous moments. These were always the architectural standards, the familiar memories. He certainly hadn’t hardest. hexagonal design seen in temples recognized me as his sister. “I was right, you know, the from the Eastern Sweep down to the I was not certain which part of Doctor said. Terribly right. And I’m borders of Valira, in small towns as the library the Doctor would be in, sorry for that.” well as capital cities. But here in the so I looked for the telltale light and “For?” I asked. Elusian province, we had decided on sound that would issue forth from “Birdies,” said Anton. a significantly more eccentric anyone reading at night. There was The Doctor continued. “There approach to the outside no indication he was in the Religion was a problem. There is a problem, I ornamentation than the typical section though that was not should say. You see, they don’t know sandstone-and-silver so surprising, but it was the same with I can see them. Yet. Though I characteristic of civil buildings and Literature, Art, and Music. He often imagine it won’t take long. They are temples. The chief restorer had spent his time in the Literature remarkably smart! Adaptive! Which decided that incorporating as many section, particularly among the is more than I can say for our pure elements as possible in the ballads, for reasons I had yet to species.” renovation would be representative discern at the time. He still did not look up at me, of the growth of science and “Light?” and instead flipped one of the pages learning since the fall of the Old It was Anton. He was pointing he was reading, and then slid the Religion. Although he was rumored ahead, one crooked finger arcing glass magnifier over it to both weigh
PAGE 14 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 it down and make it easier for him “Birdies,” said Anton, and sledgehammer to it. to read. coughed up something red and wet. “I wrote down all the sounds I Now I could see what he was “My point exactly .” collected over the years with the looking at: a book on optics. And Doctor Adderson was now Silver Ear and mapped them, then there, too, was a scattering of lenses, quite close to me, and I am ashamed connected them. Patterns emerged. peppered over books and the to admit, but I felt a touch of desire Strange spirals, points of surface of the desk itself, like for him as he stared intently at me, concentration—well, of course pocket-watch sized raindrops. adjusting his monocle. He was tall you’d know. You’ve been working “You see, of course, I was right and weathered, his white hair tinged on the equations for six years! Well, in my thinking as, you know, I most with yellow and streaks of darker here we are then. One two three four always am,” he said. gray, and he smelled of smoke and five six .” He did look up now, and his camphor, so I assure you, looks It took me a moment to register gaze slipped quickly from me to were not the primary reason. It was he had indeed counted to six, and I Anton who said: the way he looked at me, as if I were hesitated to look through the lens. “Birdies.” important; that was where the “Birdies,” Anton said, gently, “I half expected his head to desire lay. We had our moments almost encouragingly. have imploded by now, said the together, but his mind was I took the monocle, pointed Doctor, but I see he’s holding up elsewhere that day. toward the Doctor, and did not rather well. Splendid! The last time He began speaking frantically, shriek. However, it was not for I tried to use the collar on Mrs. “This is the grand experiment, of trying. Inside my head I knew the Brovick, the remainder of her gray course! Up until now I’ve been the exact timbre and tone I would use to matter splattered all over the only one to notice, and it’s only been convey my absolute horror and basement. And I’d only gotten her to through looking at the janitor, and surprise at what I saw—I just stand.” the occasional glimpse at passers by. seemed to have lost the capacity to It was no wonder the last I admit to having shrieked like a do it. Nor could I move the monocle cleaners had fled the house in belfry gypsy the first time I noticed from my face—I was frozen as still terror. them, but well, one gets used as the wax statues at City Hall. “I’m still not quite following anything after a time, I suppose. Of course, we all know what you, Doctor,” I said. Here: you stand there, and I’ll walk they look like now, the Birds. And “Haven’t been doing your over to the lamp. Then, on the count the Doctor was right, you did get equations I see,” he replied. of six, if you’d please take a glance used to them after a time; or at least, “Dutifully, I have.” through—” eventually I did. But the first time “Well, I suppose I’ll have to He walked back toward the for me, never having seen a drawing show you. Would you like to see?” lamp, still monologuing to himself. done as you likely have, never Doctor Adderson stood then, For my part, I was beginning to having been prepared, had me removing the monocle from his eye think he had finally descended into a believe that I had completely lost and blinking exactly six times, a state of dementia. He was quite old, my mind, and was, in fact, about to habit he did from the first day I even then. journey into the very pits of the encountered him. But I noticed the “You recall my work, about ten Underland. And I suppose there is monocle was unusually wrought, years ago, was centered primarily an irony there, considering how with silver filigree, not the usual on the strange sound waves— things turned out. brass model he wore on most wavelengths—that I was able to You know, I’m sure, all too well excursions. detect with that remarkable device the form and function of the Birds— “I needed a quiet place to work, you broke.” their featherless bodies slick with he continued. A place where I The device he spoke of was oil, their empty black eyes and open wouldn’t be interrupted. And I had unceremoniously called The Silver bony beaks, fanged and dripping imagined that this evening might be Ear, on account of it being silver and with phosphorescent mucous, momentous, which is why I decided much like a large version of the hovering just behind their Claimed. to risk the use of Anton. I am rather human ear. I had broken it on my And the way their bodies seem to happy he works so well. I think he’s first day at the lab, under his flicker in and out of existence, so part of this whole mystery.” instructions, by taking a dark the night seems bright...
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“Anton,” said the Doctor. Anton, as you’ve observed, is simply gaining during my studies, and if Anton leaned over and moved reanimated. It scares the flight right they’ve continued at the same rate, my hand away from my face. With out of them, for some reason, and it then, there are presently at least the monocle lowered, I could no has to do with the wavelengths three Birds for every human living longer see the Bird hovering over emitted by that collar you’ve seen on the sphere now. I imagine if you the Doctor, blue and green tendrils on Anton; it amplifies his death were to take this monocle out with of energy coursing from its mouth, sound. That sound not only scares you now you’d see three, four, even fire kindling about it in the air. It them, but is also extremely useful five Birds hovering behind our was just Doctor Adderson, looking when combined with low fellow men and women.” placidly at me, hands folded. electromagnetic charges in the ways “Can we stop them?” I asked. “Well?” of reanimation.” “We can try. Doubt it’ll do us I wanted to burst into tears, but I had too many questions, and I much good so long as we’re up here it had been so long since I wept, felt as if my brain’s own workings where they can get to us! We’ve even in my utter terror, I could not had come to a rusty halt. I was been blaming premature deaths on summon the emotion. Instead, I felt breathing heavily, and my corset Doctor Villison’s theories of micro- numb and trembled. was not affording me much in the beings infesting our blood. But it’s “It’s taking something from you, way of air. So I sat down across from more, much more. Something no I said. Flowing from you—” where Doctor Adderson had been tincture, poultice, or essence can “I call it the aetherspore . I when I entered the Celestial cure.” noticed it flowing from the others as Collections room, and buried my I stared at the metal-bound well—what color was mine?” head in my hands and waited until I books, occultist looking and curious, “Blue and... green.” could speak again. strewn about the desk. Had I not “Oh that’s rather excellent; I “So, what are they?” I asked, at seen what I just did, I would have quite like those colors.” last. blamed them on Doctor Adderson’s I wheeled around, putting up “As Anton has said, they’re the madness. Perhaps there was no the monocle, daring the creature Birds. They’re old. Very, very old. blame, but there was a gun, holding behind me to show its face, but I I’m certain your mother told you open one the pages of Lenses and saw nothing. Then the form of Anton stories of the Birdmen when you the Otherworld. appeared in my vision, and this time were young?” “You brought a gun? I don’t I did shriek. “Of course... but those are expect you can shoot these Birds,” I I saw a form very like a man, stories—and they were always said. but merely in shape. The eyes were noble!” I said, remembering well. “No, no, that was for me. Just in empty black holes, the skin a “Even the most outlandish case you couldn’t see them. I luminescent white. He was much myths often are planted with seeds resigned myself to the idea that like a photograph reversed, but with of truth. By my calculations, they are offing oneself is a much better fate less relief, less definition. He was likely the first inhabitants of our than losing one’s mind to strange almost beautiful, through the lens, pretty little green sphere. At least, hallucinations and fits of dementia. far from the monstrosity I saw with the first sentient ones. We were Would you mind bringing Anton a my natural eye, a bright angel. likely scarcely more than quivering little closer? I’d feel better knowing But strangely, there was no clumps of cells at the height of their that Bird is off my back.” Bird at his back. culture.” “What do we do now?” I asked. “She’s a smart girl, I always “But what are they doing here “We do what we always have. said,” muttered the Doctor. now?” Keep one step ahead. You’ll be in “Birdies,” said Anton, as I “Slowly killing us all, of course,” charge of finding fresh bodies to removed the monocle again and Dr. Adderson said, vaguely. “Well, build our sentries, and I’ll alert the handed it back to Doctor Adderson sucking the life right out of us— Senate, I suppose.” with trembling fingers. that’s where the aetherspore comes “You do not have one in. I believe it is our own life forces You’ll know what happened next, of presently,” he continued, “because from which they feed. And the Birds course. The mass-hysteria, the they stay away from dead things. are multiplying, too. Or have been. political upheaval, the undead army. No, not you my dear! Your brother . Their frequency was constantly In the end we could find the Birds,
PAGE 16 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 and we could stop them for a time I do wonder, sometimes, what remained Above. He hoped to find with our undead brothers and the Library must look like now, answers, but we have heard nothing. sisters, but we could not rid clouds of hungry Birds encircling it With the strange plague last ourselves of them. We retreated like vultures... year that took out so many of our from the cities, and built shelters I came to understand the sentries, I can only imagine what underground where we could pulse Doctor’s research, and worked on in must have happened to him. Though long, droning wavelengths and post his stead. I employed his previous I have no doubt he took matters into our undead sentries. Every family inventions to make life Below more his own hands, should the need have got their own Anton, and Doctor tolerable, charted out the new cities, arisen. He always did want the Adderson made a fortune at first. and the like. I do not deny that I chance to off himself, I think. Though was a savior, we never did have been useful, but truly some What never ceases to haunt me, return to our lives as we knew them praise I get is unwarranted. I would though, in spite of our present again. And I think he felt himself a have been able to do nothing were it peace, are the words Dr. Adderson bit of a failure for it. not for Dr. Adderson. left me with. The day before he left As the years passed by and no But I am still cautious. It has for Above, he placed the original definitive way to destroy the Birds been years since we heard from silvered monocle in my hands, and became apparent, and the Doctor Doctor Adderson —he planned to pressed my fingers down, wrapping became more withdrawn, even from take small undead guard with him, against the cold metal. me. He did try; for years he tried. five or six perhaps, and live Above “We must give credit where But to see something, to understand to see for himself what the Birds credit is due, dear Dellacarta,” he it, yet not be able to hurt it in spite were up to now that they had such said. “And in all truth, the Birds were of the fact it is killing you—why, that limited Claimed. So few people here first.” ■ is madness.
REVIEW DEVIL SUMMONER: RAIDOU KUZUNOHA VS. KING ABADDON
Demons in SIGURJÓN NJÁLSSON
1930s Japan
WHEN ONE SAYS THAT ATLUS’ foreshadowed Japan’s involvement fit in a specific genre. Considering Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner in World War II?” For better or the darker nature of the occult 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King worse, this is not the case. The story aspect of the game mixed with the Abaddon is set in an alternate is, instead, highly reminiscent of detective story and the fact that it is history Japan where the Taisho era detective novels of that era, such as placed in the rather large capital (1912 to 1926) has continued on the Kindaichi series written by city, a film noir feel would seem into the 1930s, one might expect Seishi Yokomizo, but with the obvious, but this aesthetic is largely this alternate history setting to play addition of the standard theme of all mi ssing. Overall, visuals in the heavily into the plot of the game. Shin Megami Tensei games: demons, ‘normal’ world are bright and warm, “How would Japan be different if the devils, and dark magic. an d sometimes even comical. That is Taisho era had not given way to the The resulting world is curiously not to say that you won’t be strong militarism of the 1930s that fascinating, and somewhat hard to inv estigating gambling rings with
PAGE 17 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 greasy mob bosses, but that even another. During negotiation, the two the weak point of your enemy is these characters often exist as demons you currently have out can highly characteristic of Shin Megami caricatures. The dungeons, however, help by flirting, debating, flattering, Tensei games, and adds an element exist in the ‘dark realm’, which is and so forth, all depending on their of strategy. Frailty can quickly swing sometimes an entirely new map, but special negotiation skill. Each the tides of battle, and players oftentimes a macabre, demon- demon your recruit will build up would be foolish not to quickly infested version of locations already Lo yalty the more you use it, which master the strategy. All of this visited in the normal world. Instead helps you improve your skills as a makes a combat system that is fun of the open navigation of the human summoner and will inspire them to and engaging, and often left me world, where areas can be accessed give you presents, used in poised at the edge of my seat. Of by various streets and alleyways as improving your sword. course, demons have uses outside of in any city, certain paths are blocked As for battle itself, it generally battle too. They possess one or two in the dark realm, snaking you runs in a typical action RPG style. skills to use in investigations, such through the entirety of the city While a menu can be brought up fo r as mindreading, disguise, and locale until you confront the boss at dismissing and scouting. This the end. This parallel light/dark summoning means that a world is nothing new to video demons, issuing well rounded games, but where it may lack in new commands, and party is not innovation, their handling of the two so forth, much of simply one worlds is well executed. the combat is with a good Combat, on the other hand, controlled through battle plan, shows off Atlus’ skill at combining real time action. but one with tried and true formulas in creative Raidou can shoot some useful new ways. The only human you his revolver, attack negotiation control is Raidou Kuzunoha, a with his sword, and investi- student, detective, and first-class perform special gation skills Devil Summoner who is entrusted to attacks, guard, as well. protect the capital city from evil. In evade, and help his In spite of essence, the rest of your party is demons to avoid the rather composed of the summoned atta cks. Demons act small scale demons. So how do you acquire new by repeating a move release of Shin demons? By negotiating with them of your choosing unless commanded Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: on the battlefield, of course! Amid otherwise. In addition to the Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon , the normal battle commands, standard RPG tendency for the game is certainly worth seeking Raidou has the option to Negotiate, elemental strengths and out, and likely soon before its rarity in which you may cease battle and weaknesses, Devil Summoner 2 also causes prices to skyrocket, as attempt talking to one of the enemy adds Frailness. While the damage happened with its predecessor. The demons. Each type of demon will increase is comparable to a normal game provides Shin Megami Tensei ’s have a different personality, ranging weak ness, when demons are hit usual blend o f humor and macabre from cocky teenager to humble old with attacks they are frail to, they in a very 1920s and ‘30 s world of man all the way to raving lunatic. In are also temporarily stunned. By detectives, mad scientists, and all each case, you need to feel out the physically attacking stunned other sorts of pulp fictiony appropriate responses so they will demons, MAG is recovered. MAG is goodness. For fans of good game work with you. For example, essentially MP, the points expended play, witty writing, and a touch of bragging about your skills may when using special attacks or magic. the occult, it’s a hard game to pass impress one demon but anger This extreme emphasis on utilizing up. ■
“To be generous, the dieselpunk DIY scene is, well, nascent.” The Flying Fortress (flyingfortress.wordpress.com )
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REVIEW NIGHTSIDE SERIES
Neon-noir HILDE HEYVAERT
HIDDEN WITHIN THE SQUARE city gent, impeccably dressed and mile of Central London lies the sick, everyone always does his bidding , dark heart of the City, a vibrating for he has the Voice of Authority. It dangerous place filled with is whispered that once he made a supernatural beings and agents of corpse sit up to answer him. both Heaven and Hell who try to use It is around these principal the humanity of the area for their cha racters that the stories unfold: own (often corrupted) agendas. film noir type tales of missing This place is the Nightside, persons and objects , intrigue, love where 3 AM, the hour of the wolf, and lust. Rather than normal human never ends and the neon has never antagonists the evil doers in these been darker and bright at the same tales are fuelled with supernatural time. Where dreams and more often abilities ever so imaginative. Each nightmares come true whether you character has its own back story and want them or not, and your soul the author never fails to st artle. might be ripped away the second Green has to this point written you don’t pay attention. nine instalments in this brilliant It is in this place we find our series and it i s easy to see why unlikely hero, private investigator people love it so much. Nightside John Taylor. He looks human, but he books grip their reader and don’t let isn’t, quite. For four books long the are friends and fellow -monsters (as go until the story is complete. The reader is left to wonder just what he calls them) to either come to his stories action -packed and the pace his other half on Mother’s side is, aid or hunt him down. There is so steady that you are likely to lose and I shan’t spoil it for you here. Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the track of time while reading. After Taylor is a man of honour: he has Straight Razor, who cannot die and each novel you simply cannot help his own code of morality and the gift has godlike powers, trailing the but wonder what he’ ll come up with of finding whoever or whatever he streets to do good, whether Good next in the extraordinary lives of wants to, just because he can. That wants him as an agent or not ; John Taylo r and his friends and foes. doesn’t make him your typical good Suzie Shooter, AKA Shotgun The great thing about these guy though. He will happily do acts Suzie, the Nightside’s infamous books is that you don’t have to rea d considered bad or even evil by some bounty hunter who never misses them in chronological order. Every to save either himself, his friends, unless she chooses to and the bo ok very briefly covers what came the day in general or simply to finish reference made at hearing her name before so that the reader who has a job to a good ending. He is of “oh shit it’s her, run ” is well started at a later point never has to stubborn, persistent, and more than deserved; wonder what happened previously, often chased by a motley crew of Alex Moressey, the barkeeper of yet is left curious enough to wa nt to villains of all ilk, often types you Strangefellows, the oldest drinking find out for himself. Also with each don’t see pop up in other types of hole in the world and last book, you discover more and more horror or detective literature. And descendent of Merlin Satanspawn; about that dark heart of London, the even if you recognize them, you And last but not least: Walker, Nightside itself, which gives a certainly wouldn’t expect the author th e man who preserves the status fabulous background to the entire to have turned them in what he has. quo between the Powers T hat Be. story as it focuses on the place as When his gift fails him, there Walker is every inch the London er much as the characters. ■
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TUTORIAL
Metal casting DAVE CLAUS
for everyone
WOULD YOU LIKE TO FABRICATE money. are known as “Cerro” alloys, and small parts for your project? Are First and foremost is safety. We each has a name such as Cerrobase you looking for a way to make need to remember this, at all times, or Cerrobend. They are all silver in jewelry or buttons for your and I will give reminders at color and don’ t tarnish. I won’t bore steampunk wardrobe? Read on and appropriate points in the project. you with a full technical write -up on learn some basic skills and methods The recommended metals are of these metals , but will show a small to do so easily and cheaply. extremely low toxicity and fairly low chart with the names, component The modern age has changed melting point, below the metals, and the approximate melting people, they have become temperature of ignition for w ood temperatures. Their main appeal for increasingly out-of-touch with basic and paper. However, you can still this project is that the varied alloys technologies that were once receive serious burns if careless. can melt at slightly above body common knowledge. We have Safety goggles that completely temperature (rare and expensive) gotten used to a ‘buy, use, and surround the eyes are necessary, a on up to over 300°F. The down side discard’ frame of mind. In days past, full -face safety shield would be even is that most but not all of these we were more apt to make what we better. You will need leather gloves alloys contain a percentage of lead. needed. Purchased items would that fit sufficiently well to allow you The lead-free alloys offer low have been repaired or modified for to pick up small objects easily and toxicity with only slight increase in reuse rather than discarded. All without clumsiness. I wi ll outline cost and are my suggestion for people needed to possess skills of other safety matters as we continue, beginning with met al casting. The materials and methods that have but it is important to completely alloy that I recommend for this type been all but forgotten today. read this entire article, more than of project is “Cerrocast” and is very Everyone needed a fair amount of once if it helps you understand low in toxicity because there is no practical technical knowledge and something better. lead or cadmium in the makeup. skill just for simple daily tasks that Please understand that even This alloy melts between 218°F we take for granted. though this process has been made and 338°F and doesn’t discolor Today, a small segment of the as safe and simple as possible, there when heated or cast. Most “Low - population tries to keep this are still possible hazards involved. If Melt ” type alloys are generally sold information and these skills alive. you choose to try these Steampunks are a part of that group methods, it is your personal and very enthusiastic part. In this responsibility to determine short article, I will show that small whether or not to accept th e scale metal casting is within the risks. means of almost everyone, even Now, let’s get started. For those with minimal to modest skill this article, I’ ll stick to what and facilities. The methods outlined are known as “Low Melt” or will allow you to safely cast small “Low Melting Temperature” metal items without spending much alloys. For the most part, these
PAGE 20 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 in one-pound increments with a number of suppliers of two -part excess. The talc allows a discounts when ordering higher silicone in either a pour -able type or microscopic path for air to escape quantities. I’ll give a list of possible knead -able putty. For this project, I when the metal is poured, without suppliers, but I recommend used the putty with very good it, air bubbles will show up in the shopping on-line for the best price results. The brand, Amazing Mold surface of the finished casting. Sit with shipping for your location. Putty by Alumilite Corporat ion was the mold level in the pie pan or Remember, shipping will be almost purchased at a local hobby and craft cookie sheet, and prepare the alloy the same for one pound as for five store and isn’t noted as being metal for melting. Work outside if pounds. silicone, but probably is. After possible or near an o pen window These temperatures don’t reading the instruction sheet, it for good ventilation warrant a real crucible, so a small shows that the material is capable of To avoid food contamination, I steel or aluminum can, with an withstanding 400°F, which is fairly suggest not using your stove -top to added handle, will be sufficient. For typical of most silicones. The melt metal. A small electric hot -plate simplicity, a set of cheap stainless original to be reproduced is or a camp stove will work very well steel measuring cups can be attached to a polyethylene container but shouldn’t be used for food purchased which will allow a choice lid with two -sided foam tape, then afterward. Choose a melting of sizes and have smooth inside coated with a mold release agent so container. Small aluminum or steel surfaces and a handle. For pouring the silicone will not stick to it. There cans will work if yo u attach a handle small amounts more precisely, a are a variety of release agents such with screws or pop -rivets. For stainless steel tea spoon works well. as Mold Release and Conditioner by simplicity, I prefer a stainless steel For this article, I’ll stay with Castin Craft ( also purchased at the measuring cup with a handle. The silicone rubber molds. You can hobby and craft store), or Liquid cup should be large enough to get purchase finished silicone molds for Wrench Dry Lubricant with Teflon. the end of an alloy ingot in. Equal parts of the Use safety glasses or shield silicone putty are from this point on! kneaded Larger ingots can be broken together, rolled into smaller pieces by propping over into a smooth two blocks of wood and cracking in ball, and pressed the middle with a hammer. Put the over the coated pieces in the cup and put on the hot item. Press the plate set at a medium to medium - putty evenly high heat. You’ll have to experiment around the with your own he ating system. The original trying to metal will melt shortly, slowly at get all trapped air first, then more rapidly. Carefully out. Finish the and gently, stir the metal with the mold by pressing wood Popsicle stick or tongue a flat item onto depressor to make sure the metal is the putty so the completely molten and not slushy. If #1 Silicone mold putty finished mold will the heat is too high, the su rface of #2 Stainless steel measuring cups with handles sit flat. This #3 Mold release spray (Castin Craft brand) #4 Trilobite fossil mounted to polyethylene lid and finished silicone putty sets mold up in only #5 Medallion mounted on brass plate and finished silicone mold twenty #6 Double sided foam tape (3M brand) minutes and #7 Purchased silicone candy mold with sea shell impressions is ready to various crafts such as candies, remove the original. If the soaps, and jewelry. You can also mold doesn’t have any bubbles easily make your own molds from or defects, it’s rea dy to use. two-part RTV silicone rubber using Sprinkle the inside of the mold an original item as a form. There are with talc and blow out the
PAGE 21 ISSUE 8 Gatehouse Gazette SEP ‘09 the alloy will start to get a blue fairly shiny, as it cools it will get a shimmering film of oxide that will frosty or crystalline finish as it gets need to be skimmed off and the heat slushy until entirely frozen. Wait turned down slightly. five minutes or more to touch the The wood stirrer is also for surface with the spoon or wood skimming as well as being your stick, if frozen, the cast piece c an be temperature indicator. The wood removed from the mold. The metal should just start to brown slowly if is still hot enough to burn you, so the temperature is use care. in the proper List of materials and supplies: Generally, the range, smoking mold can be The two ends of the wire will s till be Safety glasses or safety face s hield; and charring Leather gloves; turned over with parallel and are stuck into the means that it is Long sleeves and long pants ; gloves and silicone mold with a short length of too hot and needs Closed-toe shoes; flexed to remove the loop sticking above the mold. to be turned down. the piece. If the When the button is cast, the end of Use the stirrer to Cerrocast metal ingot (one pound or piece is the loop will protrude from the back stroke the surface more); satisfactory, set of the button if the process is Camp stove or electric hot plate ; of the molten Metal pie pan or cookie sheet with a lip it aside to cool successful. alloy, dragging the all the way around it; before finishing. oxides and Stainless steel measuring cup ; If it’s flawed, put contaminants to Stainless steel tea spoon; it back into the one side where Pliers or tongs; cup to re-melt. Wood Pop sicle sticks or tongue they can be depressors; You may have to scooped out and Discarded polyethylene container lids ; repeat this put aside to cool Two-part RTV silicone rubber putty or process a on the metal pan pour-able compound; number of times before discarding. Mold release agent; to get The clean molten Double-sided foam tape (can be used comfortable to hold an origina l item to the plastic lid alloy is now ready while making the mold) ; doing it and to to pour. Small Talc; get a decent amounts of oxides (If making buttons) Brass wire, 24 ga. or result. Don’t feel If the button doesn’t tu rn out as won’t cause thicker, I suggest 20 ga. ; bad, the metal expected, just put it back in the pot problems. You can Flush-cutting side-cutters or nail can be re-used to re-melt. The wire will float on the either pour clippers; each time, so surface and can be skimmed off with (If using) Purchased silicone molds ; directly from the 90% Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning there isn’t any the oxides and contaminants. If the measuring cup original items and molds. waste. There’s a button looks good, cut the into the mold, or lot of trial and protruding wire ends with the flush - you can be more precise by using a error i nvolved so don’t be afraid to cuts, and with a very fine file, l ightly stainless steel tea spoon. It needs to experiment a bit. Just work safely. file even with the surface. The ends be heated to the temperature of the Small cast items can be used to should be almost invisible. All the molten metal by stirring the metal make clothing buttons with an cast items can be filed or sanded to until it no longer freezes on the additional step in the casting remove excess material and dress spoon. Hold the handle of the process. A loop to sew the button on the edges to a desired shape. An measuring cup with a leather glove, the garment can be made by casting alternate method of making a button and spoon the metal into the mold the item around a wire l oop which would be to drill small holes for to the desired level. A couple of light will protrude from the rear. The thr eads in the cast piece. taps on the mold with the spoon will easiest method that I’ve found for The finished casting can be help level the metal and work out doing this is to make a short “U” used as is, or it can be lightly any air. Return the cup to the hot piece of wire, and give it a single polished to bring up the high points. plate and allow the mold to cool. 180° twist in the middle to keep the You can use any metal polish for a When molten, the metal will appear wire from pulling out of the button. shine, or Scotch -Brite for a brushed
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pins or brooches by alloy itself will solder if you use fastening a pin-back soldering flux on the joint. mechanism to the back side. An easy I hope that you’ll find this procedure method would be to useful and fun. Even if you purchase use epoxy, or it could all the items at once, you shouldn’t be held in place with even need to spend $100 (or the wires and the molten equivalent). As mentioned, a list of alloy metal cast suggested suppliers is provided The finished items with the original medallion and trilobite to the around it. Since below. Once you’ve cast a few items, right of the cast pieces. Above them are the two seashell buttons. these alloys melt at you’ll probably want to try more look. As for the trilobite and such low temperatures, soldering is ambitious projects. The skies are the medallion, they could be made into dif ficult but not impossible. The limit. ■
Low Melting Temperature Alloys Sources for Materials and Supplies Materials and melting properties: These are just a few suppliers, there are many more worldwide.
Material Composition Notes Low-Melt Cerro Alloys:
255°F Cerrobase 55.5% Bismuth, 44.5% Lead Cerro Metal Products Company 158°F Cerrobend 50% Bismuth, 26.7% Lead, www.cerrometal.com/lowmelt.html 13.3% Tin, 10% Cadmium McMaster-Carr Supply Company 218°F – 338°F Cerrocast 40% Bismuth, 60% Tin www.mcmaster.com Search under Foundry Metals 117°F Cerrolow-117 44.7% Bismuth, 22.6% Lead, HiTech Alloys 8.3% Tin, 5.3% Cadmium, 19.1% www.hitechalloys.c om/hitechalloys.htm Indium Hallmark Metals Corporation 134°F – 149°F Cerrolow-136 49% Bismuth, 18% Lead, 12% www.hallmarkmetals.net/?src=overture Tin, 21% Indium 134°F – 139°F Cerrolow-140 47.5% Bismuth, 25.4% Lead, Two-part RTV silicone: 12.6% Tin, 9.5%
147°F – 149°F Cerrolow-147 48% Bismuth, 25.6% Lead, Amazing Mold Putty by Alumalite Corporation, Kalamazoo, Michigan 12.8% Tin, 9.6% Cadmium, 4% www.moldputty.com Indium C R Resins 174°F Cerrolow –174 57% Bismuth, 17% Tin, 26% www.crresins.com Indium Environmental Technology Inc. 162°F Woods Metal 50% Bismuth, 25% Lead, 12% www.eti-usa.com Tin, 12.5% Cadmium
218°F – 440°F Cerromatrix 48% Bismuth, 28.5% Lead, 14.5% Tin, 9% Antimony Mold Release Agents 160°F – 190°F Cerrosafe 42.5% Bismuth, 37.7% Lead, 11.3% Tin, 8.5% Cadmium Environmental Technology Inc. 240°F – 260°F Cerroseal 50% Tin, 50% Indium www.eti-usa.com 240°F – 260°F Cerroseal-35 50% Tin, 5 0% Indium Liquid Wrench Dry Lubricant with Cerflon (Teflon) 203°F Cerroshield 52.5% Bismuth, 32% Lead, www.gunk.com 15.5% Tin 281°F Cerrotru 58% Bismuth, 42% Tin Flush-Cut Side Cutters 449°F Tin 100% Tin 621°F Lead 100% Lead www.budgetgadgets.com E-Bay store: budgetgadgets_com Cha rt information from: Part No. TU-21 or TU-22 McMaster-Carr Supply Company None of the companies listed here are in any way affiliated with this magazine.
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COLUMN THE LIQUOR CABINET
Poisonous!! THE NEFARIOUS DOKTOR HARMON
LIKE MOST SPECIALIST IN ETHICALLY-QUESTIONABLE For those whose controversial research tends more fringe scientific research, I regularly entertain guests so toward the biological, cocktails that resemble as to maintain the social ties that will be necessary for specimens are achievable. Most people are sufficiently effective governance when I ultimately establish my used to r ed beverages that they just don’ t cut it when it complete dominion over this planet. When hobnobbing comes to blood, but that’ s fine; any dense red syrup with a genius such as myself, the se guests tend to have (grenadine works, but the color is better and the flavor certain expectations with regards to the refreshments, less commonplace if you use raspberry syrup instead) and I make an effort not to disappoint them. can be poured through a cocktail to form a layer on the Unfortunately, serving random ch emicals from around bottom that resembles a bloodstain. This takes a little the lab isn’t really the best way to care for your future practice, and works best if you pour it from a significant minions’ survival and p otential usefulness, so I tend to height. Personally, I suggest adding a splash of serve more conventional beverages, with a bit more raspberry liqueur on the bottom of a White Russian effort put into appearances. (equal parts Kahlua, vodka, and cream). You could also The simplest approach, though only an inexpensive try mixing something with a purer white color to make one for those of us with extensive laboratories, is the blood ef fect more dramatic, such as equal parts glassware. Test tubes large enough to ho ld two ounces white rum, white crème de cacao, and cream, with of fluid make the perfect shot glasses, while beakers and raspberry on the bottom. Erlenmeyer flasks of various sizes can double as Then there are always special effects. Flaming tumblers and highball glasses. Equally simple is serving cocktails have a venerable history; in fac t, what might brightly-colored drinks that resemble your more exotic just be the world’ s first piece of flairtending was a reagents. The most widely-used ingredient for this is nineteenth century dr ink called the blue blazer. You wi ll blue Curaçao, a liqueur flavored with bitter oranges that need two mugs, one with two and a half ounces of rye comes in a lovely indigo color and can readily be used in whiskey in it and the other with two and a half ounces place of triple sec in almost any cocktail to turn it bright of boiling water. Light the whiskey on fire, pour it into blue. Midori melon liqueur, which is a loud gree n color, the water, and pour the mix back and forth from one can be used to produce drinks the color of stereotypical cup to the other until the flames go out, then add a radioactive waste. (In fact, as all real gentlemen of teaspoon of sugar and a piece of lemon peel. A simpler science know, the real thing is far less aesthetically but no less dramatic option is the flaming Dr. Pepper. To appealing—and far less delicious.) One typical use for make it, fill a shot glass three quarters of the way with Midori is the Japanese sli pper, a shot consisting of equal amaretto and by float a bit of high -proof liquor such as parts Midori, triple sec, and lemon juice. Everclear on top. Light it on fire, then drop it into a pint Another ingredient deserving special mention is of your favorite ale. tonic water, which glows brilliantly under ultraviolet For those not interested in playing with fire (but light. For something more colorful than just a gin and honestly, what gentleman of science does not play with tonic, consider a high ball glass (or a 400 mL beaker) full fire on occasion?) the familiar look of many of our more of ice with a shot of rum, a shot of blue Curaçao, and sinister experiments can be replicated by making a enough tonic water to fill it, for something bright blue drink traditionally served on the rocks, but straining it and fluorescent. When made with ordinary triple sec onto a few small pieces of dry ice. It will produce a instead of the blue Curaçao, this is known as a delightful fog while simultaneously keeping the cocktail Penguino. chilled. ■
What gentleman of science does not play with fire on occasion?
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SERIES LOCAL STEAMPUNK
City of secrets HILDE HEYVAERT
members of the Gazette team have often invaded it for drinks and photoshoots. Only a few meters from Bar Louis, on the crossing point between Kortestraat and the Old Market we have the l ovely store known as Louvanist. It is specialised in vintage, selling everything from adorable little cards to perfume, to wines, furniture and period- inspired costume (mostly dieselpunk styles) . The proprietors are fine people and always ready for a conversation or helping out their customers (and allowing the Gazette to take pictures in their store, for whic h we cannot thank them enough). I f you love steampunk,
or vintage, chances are that you will find LOUVAIN IS PROBABLY THE LARGEST STUDENT CITY something you like here. Bring enough money though, of Belgium , or perhaps better said: the city with the as you know these things can be a bit on the pricey s ide. largest concentration of students. And therefore , it is a Another café of interest is The Wiering in the lively, busy and largely youthful place. This however, Wieringstraat. Filled to the b rim with antiques , you can does not mean that we cannot find steampunk there. see a collection of accordions, vintage photos, pipes, and On first sight, it doesn’t look like much of a steamy many other things from days past here. place at all, but when we go down to the city park we On Saturday s there is a market around the find a wonderful sort of pagoda, in Regency style, which Brusselse and Mechelse streets. Many traditional and offers a nice view on the park and shelter from bad vintage items can always be found here. Also worth a weathers—or simply a nifty place to hang out. peek is the attached Following that path, we come across the beautiful flea market where Chinese globe statue, on the square outside of the people have great Chinese I nstitute, almost hidden away from the busier things like antique traffic of the Na amsestraat by nothing but a small gramophones and covered gateway. This makes for a lovely little area that telephones for sale. explorers and aristocrats alike will approve off no Louvain is one doubt. Actually it might require a bit of a search to find of those places that it, so you could make it your own little inner city is more than meets expedition or quest to uncover it. the eye. Things that Going onto the Great Market there is the café known might not look very as Bar Louis (pretty much opposite the Renaissance City steamy at first Hall and a few doors down from St. Peter’s Church) with glance turn out to its steamy and art deco decor. Besides the atmosphere be magnificent upon there are golden and comfortable sofas, ornaments and closer scrutiny. And above all the fireplace converted to bookshelf with if you have the novels and magazines available for clients to read at opportunity to their leisure. Reading material ranges from desi gn to investigate the city, architecture to politics and entertainment. The Belgian it is well worth it. ■
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REVIEW WOLFENSTEIN
Nazi madness JAMES ROBERTS
THE WOLFENSTEIN SERIES HAS hospita l. Of particular genre - been around since 1981 for the interest: one of the last levels takes Apple II computer. Things have place onboard a giant Zeppelin much changed since then though which can be seen floating over the and the games have seen many town in earlier parts of the game. incarnations across numerous The only floor with game play is platforms with ever different plots. the seemingly linear mission set up. The latest is for the Playstation 3 The two factions which one must and fits in with the more modern report to for missions ; the plotline of Wolfenstein’s canon resistance and a society of occult (which builds on the 1990s game scholars, just hand out objectives Wolfenstein 3D and the later sequel and tell you where to go. There is an Return to Castle Wolfenstein ) and illusion of free play, like that in Far like them is a first person shooter. Cry 2 , but much, much weaker. In The player takes on the role of fact, the ‘free -roaming areas’ of William ‘B.J.’ Blazkowicz; a special Isenstadt are small and quickly allied agent in the Second World bec ome tedious as you must War, in his fight against General to slow down his enemies or create traverse them regularly between the Zetta and General Wilhelm a shield of energy about him . These faction safe houses and mission ‘Deathshead’ Strauss of the SS powers are nothing new to gamers areas. This doesn’t make it any less Paranormal Division. These sinister and merely provide other before - of a good game however, yet it antagonists are responsible for a see n abilities. The weapons would have been nice if these ideas plethora of evil experiments and available are plenti ful and each one had been further developed. research into potentially war- can be upgraded with many features The multiplayer options are winning weapons, which B.J. must such as scopes, larger caliber boring unremarkable with few match types confound throughout the games. and silencers which give you more and map s compared to say, Call of The latest installment surrounds the of an edge as you advance through Duty: World At War , let alone Far mysterious ‘veil’; a shadowy the different missions. The Cry 2 . This means that Wolfenstein dimension parallel to our own mechanics of the game are pleasant misses out on what makes a game which possesses in its dark halls a as are the graphics which, although successful, among such competition. power source (known as Black Sun not top -draw, are good. The variety The plotline and science fiction energy) which the Nazis are hoping of enemies is also challenging. B.J. details are admirable as a true to harness into a war-winning must battle with normal Heer benchmark of this ‘Weird War’ weapon. As the game progresses, Infantry, sinister extra -dimensional genre, but the game itself is lacking more is learned of this mysterious beings, and much more in between. in explorative g ame play and online world beneath a black sun (which The levels are well designed , set options. It would be great to see gives the powerful energy its name), about the town of Isenstadt where more games like Wolfenstein —the and the ancient race known as the the Paranormal Division are imagination that went into level Thule, who tampered with that dark conducting their research. The design and characters is fantastic— dimension. player gets to fight through many but more game play options and The Veil’s properties can be such levels like the streets of the expansive mission levels could have harnessed by B.J. to allow the player town, an SS headquarters, and a made this a real class A game. ■
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“As far as dieselpunk goes, I think that Ayn Rand is to diesel punk what Jules Verne is to steampunk.” Thorvald Barrett on dieselpunks.org
EXTRA HOLIDAY CARDS
Memorabilia HILDE HEYVAERT
SEPTEMBER HAS TALK LIKE AN AIR PIRATE DAY (THE other way around, this is a portrait style invite) and steampunk and dieselpunk version of International Talk glue the blank sides together et voil a, an invite ready to Like a Pirate Day of course!) on 19 September an d in be mailed out. ■ October, of course, comes everyone’s favorite spooky holiday: Hallowe’en! So for these happy occasion the Gatehouse Gazette presents you with these printables put together by Yours Truly. You can print them on any colour of paper you choose. On the next pages is the Hallowe’en greet ing card. Fold in the middle and then again in the other direction, giving you a postcard sized greeting card that wishes you a ‘punktacular Hallowe’en when you fold it open. Glue the blank sides together for the best result. The Talk Like an Air Pirate Day greeting card works similar: fold double in the middle and glue the blank sides together. This way you get a nice landscape style postcard. And we have not forgo tten the party planners among our readers. For you we have the Hallowe’en soi ree invitation with dainty clockwork doll and the gear Jack ‘o Lantern. Just fold it like you’ve folded the Talk Like an Airship Pirate Day greeting card (only the
IN OUR NEXT ISSUE HOW TO REACH US
We will take a look at the warmer side of dieselpunk Do you want to be published in the Gatehouse with fashion by Hilde Heyvaert, an article about Gazette ? Comment upon one of our stories or submit genre icon Howard Hughes, a review of Polystom by one of your own! Please include your name (or Trubetskoy and another short story. nickname) as well as your location. Letters may be edited for purposes of space and clarity. We are still open to submissions so aspiring authors should not hesitate to contact us! E-MAIL …….………….…………....…..…… [email protected]
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