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Events
The Adventures of Drake and McTrowell

Steampunk Picnic

May 09, 2013
On the list of San Diego coolness is the Poway Midland Railroad in Old Poway Park. It’s like honey for steampunk bees. So on a warm, sunny weekend day, we put on our finery and headed east for a choo choo train ride! Who’s still five years old, huh?

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Picnicking is Hard Work!

For a steamy stroll in the park, click here.


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Krypton Radio

May 09, 2013

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If you’ve been following us on Facebook or attending any of our panels at conventions lately, you know that we’ve been talking about Krypton Radio for a few months now. Well, folks, this is the big announcement!

We’ll be interviewed on Event Horizon, Krypton’s on-air science fiction, fantasy and technology discussion panel on Saturday, May 18th at 5:00 PM PDT (8:00 PM EDT). The show repeats that same night at 9:00 PM PDT (midnight EDT) immediately following DJ Willow Leafstorm’s Steam Powered Cabaret, and again on Sunday, May 19th at 4:00 PM PDT (7:00 PM EDT).

But wait, there’s more! The Drake & McTrowell radio show premieres on Monday, May 20th at 3:00 AM PDT (6:00 AM EDT)! This means that our friends across the pond will hear it first (we’re talking to you Ickenham and Linköping). For those of you who keep more civilized hours, tune in at 11:00 AM PDT (2:00 PM EDT) that same day or 5:00 PM PDT (8:00 EDT) on Thursday, May 23rd. Coolest birthday present I ever got…except from Drake who purveys birthday gifts like no one else.

A new show will run in these same time slots for nine weeks until we’ve covered all of “London, Where it All Began.”

Perhaps you’re asking yourself, “Self, why should I tune in?” It will be egoboo for some local San Diego steampunks who lent their voice talents to our little enterprise (and a certain professor from Brunel). But mostly you should listen because it sounds like this!

Click the controls below to listen to the five and a half minute teaser:


For details on Krypton Radio shows and air times, see their table of show times.


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Steampunk Saturday

February 25, 2013
There was a perfect storm of steampunk-ness in San Diego last Saturday (not to be confused with the Saturday before). First, there was the Friends of Villa Montezuma Victorian Valentine Tea at the Westgate Hotel. All the most fashionable steampunks were there including Lady Amethyst and Her Mysterious Gentleman Admirer, although they were in disguise as proper Victorians.

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Lady Amethyst and Her Mysterious Gentleman Admirer (sans Mask)

To get the scoop on all the day’s happenings, click here.

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Me and My Baby

February 24, 2013
…love Saturday night. Surely you didn’t think I could go this long without an SPG post! Notice how this picture looks like we’re way in the back? Not so. We had pretty good seats. The show sold out with 800 attendees, and by the show of hands, about half of them had never seen Steam Powered Giraffe in concert before. In addition to enjoying the fabulous show they put on, we really love that they sold out this bigger venue. We’re looking forward to being able to say, “We knew them when…”

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Steam Powered Giraffe at the Four Points Sheraton


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SPG Cavalcadium Safari Day

December 28, 2012
Last summer when they had their ever-single-day-in-the-blazing-hot-sun gig at the San Diego Zoo, Steam Powered Giraffe held their Cavalcadium Safari Day for their fans: picnic, crazed photo scavenger hunt through the zoo, watch the band perform a few sets. Let me be completely upfront about our performance. It would not have been possible without our third teammate, Natalie Brodie.

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Knowledgeable Natalie


To cavort through the cavalcadium with us, click here.

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San Diego Automotive Museum

December 25, 2012
The local San Diego steampunk community acquitted itself with valor by providing the curation and content for the marvelous Steampunk Exhibition at the San Diego Automotive Museum. And, to get it off to a rousing start, the community had a picnic for the grand opening! I think Drake looked particularly dashing in his picknicky best.

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Drake Dines Al Fresco


To see some of the actual exhibit, click here.

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LoS Season Two Wrap Picnic

December 24, 2012
As you may recall, we had the honor and delight of serving as extras in the League of S.T.E.A.M. season two episode, “Curses!” In addition to earning ourselves IMDb credits, we also got an invitation to their wrap picnic at the Old Zoo at Griffith Park.

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Eat, Drink, and Be Merry


To see if you can spot other familiar faces and places, click here.

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Short Hiatus

December 18, 2012
As you can tell from our last post, we have finally finished our third story. It was our longest and most ambitious to date.

We’ll be taking a short break from now until the end of January 2013 to catch up on other D&McT business including getting our Facebook page in order, posting all the bloops about 2012 events, and recording a demo for Krypton Radio. In case you haven’t seen it on their web page, Krypton Radio approached us about a radio series (link is here). We are very excited and are in the planning stages of recording voice, music, and background sound effects. Wish us well! This is a real-life adventure!

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Folkestone

November 30, 2012
Because our trip to London coincided with my birthday, Drake planned an excellent adventure. We took the British Pullman from London Victoria Station to Folkestone. This train is the UK branch of the Orient Express and it’s appropriately posh.

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Fine China and Mimosas


To join our adventure to the English seaside, click here.

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Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum

November 10, 2012
Okay, a Civil War re-enactment isn’t exactly a Steampunk event, but the word went out to the Steampunk community because it was held at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, which had been on our “must visit” list for quite some time.

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We Did Our Best to Look a Bit More American

To read further about our visit to the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum, click here.

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Milestones

August 16, 2012
A major milestone has been reached! Yesterday’s post was our 100th D&McT episode. Well, 100th “actual text” post, not counting the Airship Regatta Broadsheet, or any of our bloops on art or conventions, or announcements of new logbook entries. This has gone well past the “hey, let’s write an on-line story!” and into the “wait-a-minute, how many pages is this entire thing now?” We want to thank all of you readers that have given us feedback (interestingly, much more in face-to-face conversation than in our comment sections), and we also want to thank those of you who wait to receive our upcoming episodes with bated breath. Yeah, you know who you are.

But much like watching the odometer in your airship roll over to an interesting number, it’s a passing transition, a temporary fascination with digit-related repetition. We must continue on, telling the tales that must be told. Perils, in this case, in a postulated past.

How long, you might ask yourself, does it take to write 100 episodes? Well, we normally write an episode a week. By “normally” we mean that sometimes we just don’t always quite make it. Those pesky day jobs that pay the bills seem to get in the way periodically. So, the answer is that it took us 2 years, 1 month, 1 week, and 2 days. We started on July 5th, 2010 and finished yesterday. But that didn’t stop us from celebrating at the 2-year mark. Thanks to all our fan-friends who came out to help us celebrate by eating chocolate…yeah, we know, it’s a rough gig being our fans.


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D&McT + Fan-friends + Eclipse Chocolat!


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Steam Man Band

June 12, 2012
I know it seems like I’m covering a lot of SPG these days, but what can I say? I’m a fan girl.

Just like last year, Steam Powered Giraffe is going to be performing four sets plus a meet & greet photo op daily at the San Diego Zoo starting June 23rd and running through September 3rd. We only managed to catch one of their performances last Summer, but we stuck around and got this epic pic.

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D&McT + SPG

We’re hoping to make it out for a few more this Summer, including the day of our Second Anniversary Party.

By the way, check out SPG’s new video, “Automatonic Electronic Harmonics.” The production quality is fantastic. Look for hats/glasses/goggles changes. And even more than usual, the robots are really cranking out their robotic movements!

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Our Second Anniversary

June 11, 2012
I can’t help it. All those steampunk shades of brown make me think of chocolate!

It’s been two years since we started writing Drake & McTrowell, July 5th to be precise. That sounds like as good an excuse for a party as I can think of (and I can think of lots of reasons to have parties). Drake and I are hosting a chocolate party for the San Diego steampunks and any other SoCal steampunks who feel like making the trip.

On Thursday, July 5th, we’re going to catch Steam Powered Giraffe’s last performance of the evening at the San Diego Zoo at 7:30 PM. We’re members of the San Diego Zoo and huge SPG fans, so what better way to start the evening. Please feel free to join us there if you’re so inclined. Please note: you’ll need to be members of the zoo or pay for daily admission to attend this part of the event.

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We will thence decamp to Eclipse Chocolat at 8:30 PM. Our anniversary falls during their annual cupcake extravaganza, so Drake and I will be buying cupcakes and non-alcoholic drinks for all steampunks. Alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase as well as a multitude of amazing chocolate goodies.

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Eclipse Chocolat
2121 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92104
Ph.# 619.578.2984


Here’s the really important bit: RSVP to sparky@drakeandmctrowell.com so Eclipse can be certain to have enough fresh cupcakes on hand.

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First Anniversary

May 09, 2012
When our buddy, John (who is the inspiration for the various, doomed incarnations of John Redshirt), “bet” us that we would only write about half a dozen episodes of D&McT before giving up, the gauntlet was thrown! We missed a couple of weeks that first year. Okay, we’ve missed a couple of episodes this year too, but who’s counting? But when we got to July 5th, 2011, we had 50 posts and miscellaneous other material on our website, and that sounded like as good a reason for a party as any.

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Mad Fondant Skills


To read further about our first anniversary, click here.

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Curses!: in Which Our Authors (Nearly) Achieve International Fame

April 20, 2012
Surely all of our readers are familiar with League of S.T.E.A.M. We’ve been following them since McTrowell got to wind up the Crackitus Potts’ plunger launcher at Steamcon II. So when the League of S.T.E.A.M. put out a call for local-ish steampunks to work as extras in a webisode for season two, we jumped at the chance! We packed the Dr. Sparky-mobile full of costume bits and headed up to South Pasadena early one Saturday morning. They provided coffee and bagels, and we provided our photogenic selves.

Hanging in the Alley


To read further about our being extras for “Curses!”, click here.

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Steampunk Croquet

April 13, 2012
Way up at the top of our list of people to party with is The League of Gentlemen Adventurers. Last year we participated in their Second Annual League of Gentlemen Adventurers International Invitational Croquet Tournament & Symposium. (Okay, so that was way back in May of 2011 and we’re obviously running a little behind on our non-story posts.) These guys sure know how to cater an adventure! Here we are, defending the honor of D&McT and acquitting ourselves with valor.

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Photo credit to The League of Gentleman Adventurers - May 2011

Inexplicably, we didn’t win. I think the fix was in. However, my wounded pride was considerably assuaged by the scrumptious repast and the perfectly executed kir royale. Oh yeah, I also got a story idea out of the whole affair. The tournament was the inspiration for an episode of D&McT, Pall Mall.

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Tour of London

November 27, 2012
Back in May, we had the good fortune to find ourselves in London on business. We took the opportunity to visit most of the sites in London where we staged many of our episodes. They don’t look quite like they did in 1851, but most of the buildings have been there since then and many of them a lot longer. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has been there since 1666!

Tour of London

Thanks to Google Maps for Making this Bloop Possible


To read further about our London tour, click here.

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