SteamKu, is quite simply, “Droll Haiku on the subject of Steampunkery.”

Instead of being buoyed aloft in the Aethers purely by steam, it is ardently hoped that one is also capable of being uplifted by somewhat indecorous humour; fun-pokery, and on occasion, a certain lack of seriousity.

I beg you, Dear Reader, do not take it as a *personal* affront- this skewering of Steampunkery- for indeed, one intended to be as broadly offensive as possible, so as to insult the greatest number, with the least amount of verbiage.

One found refuge in the paradoxical form known as Haiku, which on the one hand, forces all its practioners to adhere uniformly & unfailingly, (come Hell, high water, or tentacles), to 17 syllables, whilst on the other, giving the air of minimal effort, lack of strain, and very little evidence of extended bouts of nail-biting & self-flagelation.

One deems this form of verse to be the perv-ect vehicle with which to leave a few tyre treads over certain inhospitable portions of a sub-culture- for the most part charming- that is threatened, every-once-in-a-great-while, by over-zealous adherents, who may have a tendency to froth over into waves of pomposity, at but the slightest provocation.

The, at times, lurid verbiage & retina-staining full-color illustrations contained in the missive “My Cog Is Bigger Than Your Cog: SteamKu & Other Verbstrocities” by Veronique Chevalier & Walter Sickert, is the maiden voyage of this new artform, which one can only hope, shall serve to defuse efforts by persons of especially steamful inclination, to pass judgement (or gas) upon their fellows & fellettes of aetheric-tendancies.

With great eSTEAM,

MADemoiselle Veronique & Monsieur Walter

* Officious Facebook Fan(g) Page-
http://www.facebook.com/MyCogIsBiggerSteamKuBook

* Twit * Twat * Twot-
http://twitter.com/SteamKu

* Future Aetheric Home-
http://SteamKu.com/

“Westways Magazine” published by The Auto Club of America named Pyrate Daze as one of their “5 Worth The Drive” Events for August, 2011. Add to that the perv-ormance of your very own MADemoiselle Veronique Chevalier at 5pm on both Saturday AND Sunday, August 27th & 28th, and vous have NO reason to stay home!

Also featuring:

Rillian & The Doxie Chicks

Zoe Boekbinder

The Pirates Charles

Moon-Mermaid

Aoha Nui Hula

Cirque Noir & MORE!!!

Here is a photo of page 68 of the August 2011 Issue of “Westways”:

Here is the promo video. (Try not to blink or vous won’t see my picture, jumbled in with other unnamed persons, at the very end. :-/ But, I shall “LIKE” it, since there is no such thing as bad publicity! 🙂

I hope to see my ‘fiends’ & fan(g)s in the Southern Califor Nation there!

.

There seem to be more and more debates floating through the aethers on the subject of “Steampunk Music,” so I wrote this piece from the viewpoint that I have as an artiste. Although I have performed at numerous Steampunk events, and shall continue to do so as long as the invitations keep coming my way, I don’t call myself a “Steampunk” artiste, per say.

I prefer the word “artiste” without any descriptors, because I create to please myself, and I appear at non-Steampunk events (Cabarets/Music Halls/Gay Venues/Burlesque Rooms) as well. I do feel very privileged and honoured that many fine folk in the community appreciate my special brand of ODDitory MADemoiselle-ness.

However, I know that people new to the Steampunk community, as well as long-time adherents, yearn for more musical choices, so that they might have a soundtrack, as it were, to complement the aesthetics and spirit that drew them to the community initially.

In the spirit of inclusiveness, I’d like to share a couple of invaluable resources for Steampunk-ish music. Incidentally, there is no universal agreement about what constitutes “Steampunk” music, since it commenced as a literary and aesthetic movement. However, it does seem to follow that numerous music artistes enjoyed by many Steampunks (and in whose ranks I am honoured to be included) are congregated in the following two websites:

Gilded Age Records
* http://www.gildedagerecords.com*
* https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gilded-Age-Records/122519387775698*

The world’s only artist collective, founded by Joshua A. Pfeiffer of Vernian Process & Evelyn Kriete, focused on musician’s combining old world aesthetics and sounds with current genres of music. Steampunk/Cabaret/Swing/Ragtime/Gypsy-Punk/Darkwave/etc.

Sepiachord
* http://sepiachord.com*
* https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_208390005860341*

Founded by Jordan Bodewell, “Sepiachord is the “genre that doesn’t exist”. It is to music what “Steampunk” is to literature and cinema: something that looks back to the past to comment on the present while looking sideways at the future. A cubist aural experience. As goth & glam are the bastards of David Bowie, Sepiachord is the made from the genetic material sown by Tom Waits.

Sepiachord is assembled like a clockwork orchestra, from such elements of music Sinister Circus, Cabaret Macabre, Chamber Pop, Organic Goth, Celtic/Gypsy Punk, Mutant Americana, Ghost Town Country It is the music our grandparents or great-grandparents would have listened to, if they were as off-set as we are.”

“A Sepiachord Passport” released under the Projekt Records imprint, is a compilation with a generous selection of 20 tracks by as many artistes, and is an excellent way to dip one’s toe into the Steampunk Music pool. It may be ordered from the Projekt website:

Greetings Dear ‘Fiends’ & Fan(g)s!

New excitement has been added to the froth that’s already being generated around The Steampunk Bizarre! Behold the Official Press Release:

Internet Dating with a Comedic Twist, Weird Val Croons a New ‘Toon!

The new animated comedy music video by Veronique Chevalier (aka Weird Val) is a lively lampoon of contemporary courtship. Part social satire, and part homage to her Dark Cabaret & Steampunk roots, her original song “Internet Date” is a cleverly packaged tour of the netherworld that is “Cyberian” (online) dating.

Los Angeles, CA – July 3, 2010 — Veronique Chevalier, the quirky, aristocratic French-American cabaret artist whose Halloween record “Polka Haunt Us” was an Official Entry on the 51st Annual Grammy Ballot, is at it again this time with a new, animated cartoon music video, created for her humorous original song “Internet Date.” With online dating already a well-entrenched method of modern courtship, Ms. Chevalier’s cheeky wit serves her well, as she skewers the practice.

The narrative commences as a lament, and ends with one woman’s triumphant solution to her earlier dating travails. Chevalier openly acknowledges the video is also an homage to the song “Coin-Operated Boy” by one of her favorite Dark Cabaret musical duos, Dresden Dolls.

“Internet Date” features the cartoon artistry of director Kyle A. Carrozza (a storyboard revisionist on Nickelodeon’s “Fan Boy and Chum Chum”), whom she initially met online, via TheMadMusicArchive.com. It was their mutual love of demented music (not of each other) that brought them together.

Animator on the project was John Berry, who co-creates “Frog Raccoon Strawberry” strips with Carrozza for DummComics.com. ARIA (Australian Grammy) nominee, Jann Castor, who was chief recording engineer, sound designer and producer for “Polka Haunt Us,” contributed foley and sound design for “Internet Date” as well. Castor and Chevalier also met online, via an ad she placed on Craigslist, seeking music collaborators.

The “Internet Date” video will premiere on Sunday, July 11th, 2010, at The Second Annual Steampunk Bizarre, at ArtSpace in Hartford, Connecticut, and will be available on YouTube one week after the live premiere. The Steampunk Bizarre, curated by Joey Marsocci, and presented by DrGrymmLaboratories.net, is a week-long exhibition, running July 9th – 16th, exploring various aspects of Steampunk, which is a term that has been coined for “The Scholar’s Science Fiction.”

Born from the imaginations of H.G. Welles, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla and others, Steampunk offers a melding of late 1800’s aesthetic with scientific discovery and other-worldly technology. Though Steampunk reached a tipping point recently, it is not just a current trend. The Steampunk aesthetic has been woven through our media and consciousness for more than a century in books, film, music, fashion, and art. Today, the Steampunk movement is alive with artistic creation and ideas to bring “a world that never happened” into reality.

The Steampunk Bizarre Exhibit will be alive with sights and sounds of ingenious and strange contraptions set in a themed atmosphere. Dr. Grymm’s EXPERIMENT is to bring together 23 international artists, some from the Steampunk community, some professional artists trying their hand at Steampunk for the first time.

Chevalier, who also found Marsocci online, is the only performance artist who has been invited to participate in The Steampunk Bizarre, and in addition to screening the “Internet Date” video, she has written two song new parodies and a spoken word piece entitled “I Am Steampunk” that she will perform live.

Highlights of the exhibition will be filmed for a documentary by Neurotic Films, tentatively entitled “I Am Steampunk: The Making Of A Bizarre World,” which will premiere in the Fall of 2010.

When asked if any of the narrative in “Internet Date” is based on her personal experiences, Chevalier will only say that she prefers to focus on how effective a tool the Internet has been for locating people with whom to work in a professional capacity.

“Internet Date”producer/writer/singer Veronique Chevalier is known as The “Weird Val” of Cabaret, for her hilarious parodies and side-splitting covers. (Imagine if Jim Morrison and Elvira had a twisted, Edith Piaf-like love child). She is the recipient of The Unanimous Choice Award for Best Independent Cabaret Artist by the Los Angeles Music Awards for her benefit recording Cabaret4Choice. Deemed “too extreme for Simon” she was gonged off the first season of America’s Got Talent, after only 20 seconds, proving that her gifts are wasted on the masses.

WEBSITE
http://www.veroniquechevalier.com

YouTube (The video will be uploaded to YouTube on July 16th)
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeroniqueChevalier

PHOTOS
Veronique Chevalier Red Velvet Curtains Photo by Justice Howard
http://veroniquechevalier.com/PR/VeroRedVelvetNOcrosses.jpg

Veronique Chevalier as “Hell-ga The Devil’s Beer Maid” Photo by Justice Howard
http://veroniquechevalier.com/PR/BeerMaidinHell-final.jpg

###

What: Steampunk immersion experience for all ages, July 9-16th
Veronique’s Appearance: Sunday, July 11th (Steampunk Meet Up)
Time: 5 to 9 pm
Venue: Hartford ArtSpace
Address: 555 Asylum Avenue, Hartford CT, 06103
Telephony: 860 – 548 – 9975
Event URL: http://www.drgrymmlaboratories.net/Steampunk-Bizarre.html

* Time: September 18, 2009 from 7pm to 11pm
* Location: Queen Bee’s (formerly the 8teen Center)
* Street: 3925 Ohio Street
* City/Town: San Diego, CA 92104
* Website: http://ChrononautClub.com
* Event Type: all ages, public entertainment & music
* Organized By: Professor J. S. Greyshade

Ladies, Gentlemen, Harlots, and Scoundrels,

The Machina Fatalis Steampunk Social Club presents an evening’s entertainment unlike any the fair city of San Diego has seen. Chrononaut: a night for temporal adventurers of all ages.

Your host, Prof. J. S. Greyshade, selects sounds from eclectic destinations throughout the space-time continuum such as steampunk, alternative folk, gypsy punk, dark cabaret, gothic, middle eastern, circus punk, and extremely mutated hip-hop.

There shall also be visions of monochromatic beauty from the amazing cinematagraph and a variety of special guests and entertainments.

Steampunk, neo-Victorian, dark cabaret and anachronistic dress is most warmly welcomed.

Friday, September 18th, 2double-ought9:
* Veronique Chevalier & Seth Bedford
* Eli August
Doors open at 7:00. Club closes at 11:00
(one block east of 30th Street and 1/2 block north of University Avenue)

Here is the write-up from the Chrononaut website (http://www.mindspring.com/~eandic/chrononaut/parties.htm):

Veronique Chevalier accompanied by Seth Bedford: In a class of her own, MADemoiselle Chevalier is a madly eccentric chanteuse known as the “Weird VAL” of Dark Cabaret, and has been described by some as a campy incarnation of Edith Piaf from a parallel universe.

A cross-section of her repertoire reveals such gems as her parody of “La Vie En Rose” re-imagined as “Escargots”, bemoaning her challenged relationship with the tiny French mollusks. Her unforgettable cover of Jim Morrison’s “People Are Strange” does solemn honor to a man who, “had the good taste to die and be buried in Paris.” She has also co-written and performs a number of originals with Seth.

Seth Bedford is a New York-based composer, arranger, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and visual artist Seth blends the musical idioms of Weimar kabarett, American jazz, Tin Pan Alley, French chanson, tango, New Wave and a variety of other musical sources to create a sound that defies categorization. As a composer, he’s written music for cabaret, theater, film and the symphonic concert hall, and he is also the artistic director and vocalist for Huxley Vertical Cabaret Nouveau, an 8-piece acoustic cabaret orchestra performing primarily in New York’s Greenwich and East Village