Definitely! Jake von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop covered the Yankee Steam-Up that takes place each year in East Greenwich. It may only have been 1% punk, but it is 100% steam :-)

http://steampunkworkshop.com/steamup07.shtml 

Here's a wrap-up of the Steampunk events at Maker Faire (lots of pix):

http://blog.makezine.com/archi...

"As James Howard Kunstler has observed, there's no small irony in how when this country was less prosperous before WWII, the homes and public buildings were far more durable and aesthetically pleasing than those made following the boom years."

It's not ironic at all... increased post-War success meant that the price of labor increased and soon it was not affordable to create monumental architecture as the price of raw materials is increased along with the price of contruction. Crappy building is the direct result of our success.

Making products cheaper to manufacture in order to increase margin is the situation we're stuck with ('value engineering'). Sure it's soulless, but then again you are buying the same product as 10 million other people.

My hope is that Steampunk remains a DIY phenomenon. People who have more time/interest/artistic sensibility love modding their toys, whether it's making a Steampunk laptop, jailbreaking an iPhone, or rebuilding robots in their garage.

When bottom-line manufacturers start mass-producing soulless Steampunk-inspired goods the movement will die unless, of course, they actually Do It Right, in which case the goods will cost so much more that only a small slice of the market will be able to afford them.

I'm not sure I want to lug around an iron and brass laptop, no matter how cool it looks... .