PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE HALLOWEEN?

So, I haven't updated this blog in a while. Tumblr stole my soul. It blows. But tumblr is not a useful deposit for cumulative image research/ideas, so here we go.

My submission to the Name of the Moon Sailor Moon fanzine. There are still five days before the submission deadline,so try to submit! It's gonna rule!

So,it seems I haven't updated since Christmas. That's just nuts. No, I'm not dead-I was sucked into a tumblr vortex. BUT HERE I AM. MoCCA was a great success, met a lot of awesome people, including Austin English and kickass Lale Westvind. You can read about me and Lale in this review by aforementioned English: read it here And here is some more MoCCA press,which also mentions my best bud Olivia's work: and read this here. BY THE WAY- my zine is "Taking it to the Bone Zone," and I'm accepting pre-orders. will put a paypal button up when I'm not rushed. SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT, SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. FILL YOU DUDES IN LATER. <3 <3 <3 <3 P.S. here is a preview page from current project, a comic about lesbian catholic school werewolves in the early 1960s!

GOTH CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Hey guys, guess it's been a while. WHATEVS, IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE! And here is an exciting assortment of goth Christmas music for when you just wanna feel all spooky and wintry and ghostly. Let's get Dickensian for a moment and explore the darker side of Christmas!


I had actually never heard this before. It's pretty amazing. Siouxsie and Budgie actually have a few ties to Christmas. For instance, The Banshees' version of the French Christmas Carol,"Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant." The video features a teeny-tiny Robert Smith playing cymbals that look bigger than him!

And of course, there's the Christmas Party scene in Batman Returns where the Banshees song "Face to Face" plays:
click here, they disabled embedding.

But enough of Siouxsie. What about Alien Sex Fiend?!

"Enjoy this Christmas....IT MIGHT BE YOUR LAST!"

There's always the Cocteau Twins versions of "Frosty the Snowman " and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," which are just weird if you ask me (did they pick such cheesy songs because it would be too obvious for them to do some sort of traditional Christmas carol?) . However, I always look at "Lorelei," off the album Treasure as a Christmas song. Hard not to, what with all the synthesized bell chimes.


This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, courtesy of one of my heroes, Kate Bush.
My favorite version of this was taken off the internet, so you should look for it-it's got jingle bells and spooky choir voices in the background. The video featured her snuggled up in a chair and throwing confetti snow in the air like a crazy person making those intense "cat-about-to-pounce" eyes.



Technically,this one isn't a Christmas song, but he references Christmas and December, it makes ME feel Christmassy, and that's enough.


So there you have it. I will probably think of more eventually. In the meantime, send me your suggestions! And have a very spooky Christmas!

ELDRITCH 60s-70s DUDE FASHION

Okay, so I am completely incapable of androgyny (unless I pad the crap out of my waist and look like a total chub), which sucks. Here I am, humongo hips and all:

HOWEVER, if I was capable of the illusion,here are some of my dream looks. Oh, if only! If only to be a creepy man of questionable morals and questionable involvement in the black arts . If only I could be seen through a yellowy, grainy film lens or through crappy,low budget BBC video production quality, spattered with the lurid red tempera paint blood of Hammer Studios. Well, it's not gonna happen, but maybe you can pull off what I cannot.
The main elements are really wide, often curved lapels; olive green/deep brown tweed, cravats,burgundy velvet, smoking jackets, Inverness capes, poet shirts,canes,pocket watches,tie pins. Details that hint at some Oxfordian/Cambridge past are good. And how about some Sebastian Shaw sideburns?


A smoldering glance doesn't hurt, and maybe some blood trickles. Patches of fur here and there would accentuate any look for that lycanthropic touch. The ladies can't resist! Anyway, here are some image examples. I'll come up with more soon.


Oliver Reed. This might be from Curse of the Werewolf?

This is definitely from Curse of the Werewolf. Billowing poet sleeves are always a good choice!




Christopher Lee, as Dracula (obviously)


The Third Doctor






Dean Stockwell as Wilbur Whately in The Dunwich Horror



Udo Kier in an awesome quilted smoking jacket and a beaaauuuttiful monkey fur coat, both from Blood for Dracula via FuckyeahUdoKier


Phantom of the Paradise


The weird uncle dudes in Shiver of the Vampires

Peter Cushing in some awesome fur lapels.










INVERNESS CAPE
(follow the above link for a lot of cool historical overcoat information)
This aesthetic has been on my mind a lot more than usual, because my friend Patrick and I are collaborating on a 70s-style horror comic, replete with pseudo-Victoriana,telekenetics, Lovecraftian creatures, crumbling mansions, etc etc. It'll be great! I mention it because now that it is out there, we have to finish it. So there you go. UPDATE/// Night Gardens is totally a thing, still drawing it. The script is great! Also, this is me trying to pull off the Eldritch 60s-70s dude style,circa last October:

QUEER ANTHEMS FOR WEIRDOS

Are you a total queerboner but are sick of the same old disco songs? Well, no, you're probably not sick of all that disco-or at least, I'm not. But maybe you ARE a weirdo creep like me who might have difficulty relating to all of that Logo TV blando overproduced crap; maybe you don't prescribe to the commodified idea of being "gay," and maybe you don't even adhere to the current aesthetics popular with alterna-queers these days.
Well, whatever you may be, I know I'M a creep and these songs strike a particular chord with me.

This song is very important to me. Even if it's not intentionally queer (and I think it just may be) it's easily appropriated by queers like me. The lyrics of the song express overcoming misfit feelings and embracing your weirdness, but unlike some Lady Gaga crap, Mama Cass isn't sugar-coating how much it can suck to be different. Life is always going to be rough, but accepting your differences and making the most of them is the message here, which I suppose is one of the reasons why I didn't feel pandered to by this song when I was a little kid. This song shows up in the context of the H.R. Pufnstuf movie during a witch convention,an aspect of the film that deserves a page of analysis unto itself. The witches appear to be a group of lesbians, drag queens, and proud virgins. In this scene, they dance in female witch solidarity a'la lesbian Helen Reddy's "I am Woman" (only without the witch part).


This is a song from the low budget musical, Strangers in Paradise . Strangers in Paradise is about a Weimar-Germany mesmerist who cryogenically freezes himself to escape Nazis and is thawed out by future suburban fascists who use him to brainwash punk bands, homosexuals, and other such weirdos (you'll see this in action at the end of the video). I like this song a lot, and I like that the lesbian in it straddles the butch/femme line. I get sick of lesbians in fiction being depicted in masculine/feminine extremes.ANYWAY, SHE'S JUST A BABE.


This song isn't that esoteric, but it's so damn good. When I was a Buzzcocks-obsessed punk teen and saw this video for the first time, it blew my mind. I had no idea Pete Shelley was queer. The song was banned by the BBC for the lyric "homo superior in my interior," which was interpreted as an explicit reference to anal sex.
You can watch an interview with Pete Shelley in which he discusses queerness here.


This song isn't explicitly about being queer,although it's a great "stick it to the man/fuck the norm" song from a queer perspective. Dean Johnson's gender presentation is really unique and he's really fun to watch. Here is another great song by his other band, Velvet Mafia.


THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS.EVER. I play it at every dance party I DJ. I just can't resist. A lot of people are unfamiliar with Divine's disco career (although it seems like that is beginning to change). Divine was produced by Bobby O, who is responsible for disco groups like The Flirts and The Village People.
Anyhow,this is an amazing song for when you feel like shit. My favorite lyric is "I'm so beautiful, and everybody's welcome to this point of view." Additionally, I personally respond to both "I'm So Beautiful" and Mama Cass's "Different" because both videos demonstrate some awesome body positivity (and some awesome draggy makeup).


Okay, everyone knows this song. However, when I learned a few years ago that Lesley Gore was an out lesbian,this feminist anthem took on new significance for me. This is a particularly good performance of "You Don't Own Me." If you watch other videos of her songs like "She's a Fool" and "That's the Way Boys Are," Lesley seems to sing them with kittenish irony. Also, I guess I am biased because I have a total crush on her.

So this concludes the "Queer Anthems for Weirdos" post. Please submit your suggestions in this vein, and if I get enough, I can dedicate a whole episode of Ampersand Theater to this theme!

Shadow Over Innsmouth

Doing pretty well on the raising money for school front. In the meantime, here's a song I have been working on for my DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE e.p.; this is a kind of bare-bones version, and it gets gawky, but I would appreciate feedback (like, "hey! you have no business trying to music! get back to those drawings of naked witch chicks gulping blood already!") . Sorry, I can only offer a download in the meantime:
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The song is based on my favorite H.P. Lovecraft story of the same title.
Here are the lyrics:

It started
as a ramble
as a tour of New England architecture
riding a rickety bus
with an evil-eyed driver of peculiar disposition
we rode beside the seaside
a strange jagged reef caught my eye
briefly but was forgotten

and
Oh
those lethal spires
and
Oh
those crumbling gables
missing shingles of roofs
missing sounds of horses hooves
no carriages
streets deserted, whispering walks
the empty looming warehouses with broken windows like
jagged teeth
and staring eyes
and Oh
those staring
eyes

glistening lips spread in abstract smiles
creeping through abandoned churchyards
climbing over rotted stiles
an ichthyian stench surrounding
intensifying

Oh what I would learn
as I gazed upon the tiered tiara
of white green gold
the hideous truths of my ancestry
marine truths unfold
it's enough to drive a man insane
to madness

Oh save me,from the shadow
from the shadow over Innsmouth
the water here is too shallow, too shallow
take me to Innsmouth
I dream of diving unfathomable fathoms
an undersea palace of rotting coral
and eerie phosphorescence
from Devil Reef we will make our dark descent.