Tag: Steampunk

Updates & A Foodie’s Guide to Fan Expo Vancouver

A Foodies Guide to Fan Expo Vancouver

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Updated for 2022

Residents far and wide will soon be descending upon Fan Expo Vancouver (Nov 10-12, 2017) in British Columbia. Now into its sixth year, they are having a Steampunk exhibition where folks can learn about this subculture and their Artist’s Alley looks bigger than the retail/exhibitor’s space! In the television world, The CW is being very well represented. The big three — Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow — is the spotlight. The list is long and on the week of, adjustments have been made: Maisie Richardson-Seller has been added, and due to work commitments, Stephen Amell, Caity Lotz and Michael Shanks are unable to appear.

This media side will have fans who are not residents of Vancouver get to meet these performers without having to go stalking around in an active film set and herded away by production assistants. People are allowed to watch, as long as they are not in the view of the camera.

I’m always anxious to return to this show to revisit a few places to dine in! After attending this event for five years now and visiting almost all of the inexpensive diners around the Coal Harbour area, I feel I can finally offer my picks. This list will also be updated should I discover a new establishment worth mentioning. By clicking on the operation’s name, you will get to see the original review of these operations:

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A Historical Analysis & Review into The Empire of Corpses

The_Empire_of_Corpses

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

*Screened at the 2016 Victoria Film Festival
*Spoiler Alert

The idea of having zombies shambling about in a steampunk world as slaves is a great concept to play with in the Japanese animated movie The Empire of Corpses. When technology made advanced leaps thanks to the success of Charles Babbage (the grandfather of computing) building the analytical engine, Victor Frankenstein reanimating a mix of dead body parts (he’s a real figure in this fictional world) and Duncan MacDougall discovering the deceased loses “21 grams” of mass (their soul) upon death, science fiction author Satoshi Itō (伊藤 聡) aka Project Itoh crafted a dystopian Victorian world-embracing death instead of fearing it.

In our historical understanding of this past, the preoccupation with the dead was because mortality rates were high; many loved ones passed before their time or in wars from afar. Séances were common because many people from around the British Commonwealth wanted to communicate with the deceased for many a reason. To talk to them again offered closure. These details might have been addressed on a deeper level in the novel but in the animated film, a fair bit of this age’s spiritualist practices are not as deeply explored. What’s exhumed is surface level.

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