Welcome to another gang roundup! Because of my two weeks without the laptop, I feard this roundup was going to be quite thin. Instead it turned out quite nice, don’t you think?

Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 10: Decopunk

Like Retrofuturism, Decopunk is a prolific subjenre of Dieselpunk, one that rests more firmly on the Art Deco aesthetics. Because it generally leans more on the earlier half of the Diesel Era (particularly the 1920s), it tends to be a little bit less dark than most Dieselpunk, which normally offers very strong noir elements.
This said, many people use Dieselpunk and Decopunk interchangeably.

Noir City 2017 Highlights Heists and Favors Risk Over Genre Purity

And speaking about noir, the Noir City Film Festival has just taken place in Seattle, showcasing noir (and not so noir) film, this year with a particular focus on heist movies.

“You could say that the heist film is the original antihero team endeavor, the supervillain squad combining their unique skills to a common cause—in this case, the impossible robbery. This is one of those times when we root for the bad guys.
Most of the time, anyway.”

Here’s a nice lineup of classics. Have a look!

Mournful Fate of Mata Hari, and 14 Stunning Photos of This Dutch Exotic Dancer, Courtesan and Notorious WWI Spy from 1905-1917

Let’s face it, Mata Hari is probably one of the best known, more mysterious and controversial people of the XX century. She was the first to use truth and lie about her life, to the point that today discerning one from the other is very difficult. It was a dangerous game, whcih ultimately destoyed her. But she remains a romantic figure who still fascinates us after 100 years.

“The trial took place before a military tribunal, in secret. It lasted only two days. According to some accounts, the defense was not allowed to question any of the witnesses. The official French intelligence file on Mata Hari was sealed for 100 years, and won’t be released until 2017. According to some who have claimed to have seen it, there is no hard evidence cited in the dossier to establish that the dancer actually passed any military secrets to the Germans.

Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad on the morning of October 15, 1917.”

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SS-GB

I was nearly done with the roundup today, when I stumbled upon this trailer. Oh my!!!

Base on the book SS-GB by Len Deighton, this is a five-part BBC tv series that looks great. It is set in an alternative Great Britan where the Battle of London had been lost and now the country is dominated by the Nazis. This is certainly not the only story with this premise, but by this trailer seems like the story concentrates on moral choices and taking sides, and I always like this kind of dilemmas. And the setting is just gorgeous. I’ll try to get my hands on this one, and maybe on the book too.

I wonder about the popularity of this theme (The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. dick has also been make into a series recently). I smell the anxiety of our times here…

Tan by David Lawlor

It’s 1914 and Liam Mannion is forced into exile for a crime he didn’t commit. He flees Balbriggan, the only home he has ever known and travels to England, where he enlists and endures the torment of trench warfare in France. Five years later he’s back in England, a changed man, living in the shadow of his battlefield memories. Liam finds work in a Manchester cotton mill but prejudice and illness soon see him destitute. Starving and desperate, he enlists in a new military force heading to Ireland – the Black and Tans – and is posted to the very town he fled as a youth.

I’ve just started reading this and am really enjoying it, so expect to hear of it soon.

 

 

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 Das historische Berlin

My sister sent me this clip from 1920s Berlin. I love vintage futage and this is no exception. I get the impression of a very modern, very busy city, which certainly Berlin was in the 1920s.

Berlin 1920s

This is a presentation od Weimar Berlins 1920s, a section of the univers of Second Life.

Second Life is an online RPG, or I should say, a virtual reality where players can interact and create. Unlike most RPG, Second Life doesn’t have a set goal to reach, there’s no pre-made adventure to be unfold, but rather residents (as the players are called) freely goe around the reality they choose to be in (there are many different once) and create their second life by meeting other residents and creating their own plans.

Weimar Berlin looks pretty fascinating, don’t you think?

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