STEAMPUNK

CoCo really loves steampunk. Most of her favorite movies and books include trains, clocks, antiques, art nouveau, zeppelins, automata and some elements of sci fi or fantasy. Almost all of these stories include action and adventure. Most of them include a mystery of some kind.

We can see that some of you still have mystified and glazed expressions. You might be wondering, “what is this steampunk you speak of? I don’t get it.”



Steampunk is a little tricky to describe. Around the turn of the century, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote stories about time machines and aliens, high tech submarines and electric pulses that turned a man invisible. Their idea of futuristic technology included a romantic aesthetic we don’t see in science fiction today (i.e. The Matrix or Mission Impossible).



Watch a movie like Metropolis, Sherlock Holmes, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or The Golden Compass. These movies show mannerly ladies and gentlemen, cowboys and villains. The settings include shiny copper and steel, gears and clockwork within Victorian style backdrops, with hints of the old Wild West. Or play a video game such as Bioshock or Fallout; they are fully designed in the genre of steampunk.

Everything in steampunk story is organic and exposed. It is beautiful and fascinating to watch how a clock functions, to be able to see and understand the process of steam power or electricity. The printing press, the Tesla machine, even a simple bicycle… everyone stops to gaze at the inner-workings of complicated machines. We are entranced by the rotating gears and the moving pistons.

The culture of steampunk is highly civilized. People have all the positive aspects of old fashioned propriety (niceties, manners, racial integration) but without the restrictions or oppressions of dystopias (fanatical religion, dictatorship, monarchy). Even the villains, twirling their mustaches and monologue-ing about taking over the kingdom or the moon or whatever, still say please and thank you. They are well-groomed and fancy. Even rustic dirty cowboys might show with a vest and bowtie, all perty-like and dignified.



So that’s about it. If you enjoy robots and goggles and mad scientists, steampunk is for you. It also means you love Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Ben Franklin, Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi. Now you at least know about steampunk, and maybe you’ll get into a story or two.

Books to check out: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, The Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, and Worldshaker by Richard Harland.

Smoking Season

And we do!

Greetings all you beautiful people out there, today you get a special salmony, savory, smoky dose of Alaska. Peachy spent all weekend long brining, smoking and packaging Red Salmon and she documented the ENTIRE thing just for you! 

First step is to catch the salmon, and be grateful. These reds were caught this past summer from the Copper River.

Now you must dry out the fillets of salmon for at least 30 min.  Peach has about 10 LBS of salmon here and they are drying out on wax paper. This step helps the salmon soak up ore brine and that means more yummy-ness for you! 

The next step is mixing the brine.  Make sure you have at least 10 hours for the brining step.  A 5 gallon bucket is perfect for this part. Fill the bucket with about 6 inches of warm water then add 1 cup of kosher salt and 1.5 cups of brown sugar. I got my bucket at home-depot, but that is a whole different adventure.

Make sure your pets stay away, unless you are Walter and are the Master Predator of caught Salmons.

 

Pull the little fishies out of the brine and give them a nice rinse in the water. Once again, let them sit and dry off for about 1 hour. Be sure to remove all bones.

Now it’s time to smoke ‘em!  Hickory chips are the best to use for salmon, but it is all preference. Before putting salmon on racks be sure to coat the racks with non-stick spray. I also do either a honey or maple glaze on top of the fish, it really seals in the flavor.  Depending on the smoker it should take anywhere from 5 hours to 12 hours.

Now doesn't that look good. 

All packaged and ready to go! Lucky you.

If you don’t like smoked salmon straight up, here is a nice Alaskan salmon dip recipe. Please enjoy.

Love Peach.

Mix all of these things together.

16 ounces cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon Worcestershire 

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon pepper

1 -2 cup Alaskan Smoked Salmon

Small red onion minced   
Capers

Add cat, but only if you must

Reading is Sexy

The secret’s out.  Studious library girls have been spotted in the lingerie shop looking at…. Sexy girlie things! We are not the bespectacled turtlenecked mousy librarians you imagine, smelling of mothballs and sadness.  We are hip young ladies who wear glitter on our eyes and bangles on our wrists; we dance to hip hop, reference Family Guy, have tattoos and shop for lacy lingerie to look like fertile goddesses of Egyptian Myth or Kama Sutra.  Peach wants to defy the Vatican for being so outdated in its male exclusivity and CoCo is basically atheist.

Really, in this day and age, why are we still getting outrageous looks when we claim our occupation?  “You?  With your color-streaked hair and dangly earrings and shiny lip gloss?  But you’re so bubbly and nice!  I can’t picture you shushing or shelving… or reading literature!”  Hex yeah, these girls do ALL of that.  Though instead of shushing, it’s more like we holler across the room for kids to “quiet down over there ya jamokes!” And, we are all about our man, Billiam Shake-a-speare! 

So hang on to your hats, boys and girls!  The modern day keeper of information is here, and she is totally down.  We are navigating the technologies, the internets and reference databases.  We are also looking at the future of libraries and librarians.  These places are not just musty shelves of outdated molding books.  These are the headquarters of information navigators. 

Think of anything in the universe… anything at all.  We know how to find it.  We can teach YOU how to find it! You don’t need to scroll through Google for three hours. We will sashay in our pointy high heels down the hall and seductively allure the correct information from its designated location and give it to you - and give it you until we learn your brains out! Like the dominator, Nancy Pearl says, “saving the world from misinformation, one day at a time!” 

CoCo likes to say, “The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the smarter you sound as you dexterously prove your argument beyond a shadow of a doubt.”  And that’s sexy.

P.S.        Make sure to turn your library books in on time or else… we may have to PUNISH you!

HEEE YAAAA!!!

OOOOHHHHH Give me a team and a good lead dog and a sled that’s built so fine…… sing with us now! Hobo Jim performed the annual Iditarod anthem the night before the ceremonial start in Anchorage last Saturday.  Peach was in attendance and starry eyed for days afterward. These world-famous dog mushers, who spend so much time alone and training with their fifty or more racers, tend to be either extremely shy or extremely happy to be in human contact and chatter excitedly and passionately about the career they’ve chosen. 



This dog is ready to race


 

It’s a harsh road to Nome – what are you saying, CoCo? There isn’t a road!  It’s frozen tundra! Nothing and no one but harsh winter climate for one THOUSAND, one hundred fifty miles.  They spend all year training.  It’s dirty and smelly and rough and the love of their lives.  The dogs always come first, above the mushers own life.  That Disney movie, Iron Will, was not far off the mark with its dramatic swelling music, fierce bond between musher and dog storyline and epic physical battle to the finish.  The Last Great Race has barely changed in forty years. 

This is no glamorous runway, no billion dollar contract, no Rolls Royce blinged out on main street, no supermodels in diamond dresses serving thousand dollar glasses of champaign, no A or B-list celebrities making scenes in the media… These are down home people with not a ton of money, racing on really dangerous terrain, winning just enough to cover the cost it takes to even get into the race.  This is a tough and time-consuming sport.



Dallas out on the trail



And it is SO ridiculously Alaskan.  That’s why Peach and CoCo love it.  They took a whole van full of tourists to see the official restart on Sunday.  Crowds of spectators stood on top of the frozen Big Lake in Willow, Alaska, squinting in the blinding sun that reflected off the snow.  They kept their guests warm with chili and hot chocolate and pointed out who to root for.  Martin Boozer, Dallas Seavey and Dee Dee Jonrowe.  The girls know these big stars personally – no big deal – and support them all the way.