Auction Catalog Released

Our Event Programme and Semi-Silent Auction Catalogue has been released!

The Semi-Silent Auction will proceed in three phases throughout the evening. Please come prepared with cash, check, or money card to bid on auction items. We believe you will find these items Unusual and Curious, and well worth the Cost. As with your ticket price, winning bids in the auction are donation that will directly support these fine technical organizations.

View or download it here:  Event Programme, Auction Catalogue, &cetera

About the Event

Join us for a spectacular & historic evening of unusual proportions. A costume benefit featuring an elegant three-course dinner, a semi-silent auction of most unusual items, stimulating music, and an exhibition boxing bout between Nikola Tesla and Tom Edison.  A benefit for tech collectives Riseup and UBEW.

Saturday December 11th, 2010
SIX PM TO TEN PM
PACIFIC CULTURAL CENTER
1307 SEABRIGHT AVE, SANTA CRUZ

Historic Eveningwear (late 19th Century Formal Wear and SteamPunk) strongly suggested.

You are invited. It will, we believe, be quite an extraordinary affair.

Statements from Mr. Tesla and Mr. Edison

Nikola Tesla

Engineer, Visionary, Pugilist, Mixed-Martial Artist

Weight: 150 pounds
Hight 5'10"
More than 800 U.S. Patents in his name

Nikola Tesla invented the radio, radar, and remote controls, discovered quarks, was awarded over 800 patents, and developed alternating current and the technology to use it.

The humble gentleman-pugilist will be enclosed in the boxing ring with his arch-nemesis, one-time employer, and rival inventor, one Thomas Edison. While Thomas Edison was testing his electric chair on puppies and ponies, Nikola Tesla dabbled in the eastern fighting arts, a kind of Oriental boxing.

About Mr. Edison, Mr. Tesla said, "He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene. His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of the labour. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense."


"This Saturday, 11th of December of the year two thousand and ten, we will brawl not to establish the superiority of our rival electrical systems, but instead to put on display for the viewing public, the megalomania, sadism, and dastardly under-handedness of Thomas Edison, capitalist."

Thomas Edison

Engineer, Businessman, Pugilist

Weight: 152 pounds
Hight 5'8"
More than 800 U.S. Patents in his name

More coming soon...

A Word on Fashionable Dress

Imaginative Historic Evening Wear Highly Suggested

Certainly a memorable evening will begin with careful preparation. As such, The Organizers of this event firmly suggest that attendees put Thought and Imagination into their evening wear at this Unusual Event.

If we may, let us suggest historically-inspired costumery, including 19th Century and Victorian evening wear, daywear, or sporting attire, SteamPunk and its Many Derivatives.
Here are some resources that might be helpful:

What is Steampunk?

• The User's Guide to Steampunk by author Bruce Sterling
• "What Then, Is Steampunk? colonizing the past so that we can dream the future" from Steampunk Magazine (a PDF)
• Steampunk 101

Handbills, Posters, and Ephemera Available

The Organizers of this Event have made available to you a full set of Handbills, Posters, and other ephemera. They are available here in our section for the ladies and gentlemen of the press.

This is the latest in the collection of ephemera.

A Peek at the Silent Auction

Semi-Silent Auction of Unusual and Curious Items

A silent auction is a variant of an English auction where bids are written on a sheet of paper. At the predetermined end of the auction the highest listed bidder wins the item. This auction is often used in charity events, with many items auctioned simultaneously with a common finish time.

Our Semi-Silent auction will occur in three phases, with the most Interesting, Intriguing, and Valuable items in the third and final phase. It is “Semi-Silent” in that there is no auctioneer, but the names of winning bidders in Phases Two and Three will be announced to the Thrill of All.

Many excellent people and organizations have donated fine and interesting items to our auction.

The User's Guide to Steampunk

By Bruce Sterling
July 11, 2008

People like steampunk for two good reasons. First, it's a great opportunity to dress up in a cool, weird way that baffles the straights. Second, steampunk set design looks great. The Industrial Revolution has grown old. So machines that Romantics considered satanic now look romantic.

If you like to play dress-up, good for you. You're probably young, and, being young, you have some identity issues. So while pretending to be a fireman, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or whatever your parents want you to be, you should be sure to try on a few identities that are totally impossible. Steampunk will help you, because you cannot, ever, be an authentic denizen of the 19th century. You will meet interesting people your own age who share your vague discontent with today's status quo. Clutch them to your velvet-frilled bosom, because you will learn more from them than you ever will from your teachers.

Steampunk’s key lessons are not about the past. They are about the instability and obsolescence of our own times.

Stretching your self-definition will help you when, in later life, you are forced to become something your parents could not even imagine. This is a likely fate for you. Your parents were born in the 20th century. Soon their 20th century world will seem even deader, weirder and more remote than the 19th. The 19th-century world was crude, limited and clanky, but the 20th-century world is calamitously unsustainable. I would advise you to get used to thinking of all your tools, toys and possessions as weird oddities destined for the recycle bin. Imagine starting all over with radically different material surroundings. Get used to that idea.

An Elegant Three-Course Dinner

An Historic Elegant Dinner will be served in Three Courses. The vegetarian meal will feature fresh seasonal produce from local farms and orchards.

The Menu is a work-in-progress, but the Chefs have allowed us to give you a peek at the menu:

• Leafy Green Winter Salad with Persimmon
• Roasty Grilly Brussels Sprouts with Fancy Oil and Garlic
• Savory Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding

Purchasing Admittance to the Event

Due to the size of the space, tickets are limited, so act with haste and purchase admittance now.  We offer a sliding scale admittance to support those who have the means to donate more to these projects.

• Buy $45 Tickets Online
• Buy $35 Tickets Online
• Buy $30 Tickets Online
• Buy $25 Tickets Online
• Buy $20 Tickets Online

We offer you the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event through WePay. A small online handling charge will apply. Confirmation will be mailed to you promptly through the Aether Nets, and your tickets will be available at Will Call.

Direct Donation

You are also welcome to make a direct donation to support the project.  Your contribution helps UBEW create a more cooperative, compassionate, and knowledgeable world.  Donations of any size will be greatly appreciated.

Make a direct donation

Tickets will also be available at the event: 

$25 - $45 at the door

A Look at the Electrical Engineering Heavyweights

THRILL
to the Exhibition Prizefighting Match between
Electrical Engineering Heavyweights

“Master of Lightning”
Nikola Tesla
and
“Wizard of Menlo Park”
Tom Edison