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.

Please help me get back to school!

I can't get a co-signer for a loan that is necessary for my return to theatre design school. It has taken me too long to get to where I am only to have my education potentially taken away from me because of familial and personal financial hardship. My journey to becoming a Purchase College Theatre Design Conservatory student is detailed on the facebook page. Delaying my education is no longer an option.
If you follow this blog, you've seen a few of the projects I have worked on while at school. My mom has put together a fundraiser page on facebook. You can look at it here:
HELP GET ME BACK TO PURCHASE

If you donate, you get stuff in return, kickstarter style:
For $1-10 donations--All who donate automatically receive a postcard designed by me with a personal message of thanks.

For $10-50 donations--You will receive an 8"x10" silk-screened print of one of my illustrations, the actual work has yet to be determined at the time of this posting but it will be awesome.

For donations of $50 or more I will create a one-of-a-kind 8"x10" illustration. You will also receive a $25 dollar gift certificate good towards a purchase of $100 dollars or more at Stereo Discount on the East Side of Providence. If you ask, I'll probably make you a cool monster doll or puppet or make you some cool clothes. These things are all within my power! I'm drawing portraits for some people, I can draw you a comic, design you a tattoo, whatever!

If none of these options float your boat, my mom,Melissa, has offered some hand-knit incentives (and she's a great knitter-I promise no acrylic yarn afghans):
$40 or more. Melissa will knit you a pair of socks.
$30 or more she will knit you a cowl (or neckwarmer for dudes) or a hat.
$20 or more she will knit you a pair of fingerless wrist/hand warmers.
$15 or more she will knit you a buttoned headband (great gift for the ladies in your life guys)

All items to be knit from 75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon yarn or 75% Pima Cotton, 25% Acrylic yarn for those who can't wear wool
CHECK OUT THE GOODS!

The donate button is below. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

GEM BABES-or" 80s Girlie Comix and the Power of Jewel-Manipulation"

Okay, so the title is misleading. I could write an interesting thesis on how preying on girls' love of motifs like jewels,bows, hearts-you know, pretty things***-is hugely successful not only as a marketing scheme but also as a means of defining various aesthetics; however, I am exhausted. I've been working with children all day (teaching them how to make scars and pimples**** using really simple special effects makeup techniques-my job is awesome) and driving around Southern New England in the hot sun (well, as a passenger, but-shut up), and flipping through dusty comic quarter-bins. Therefore, I'm just gonna throw up some cool pictures and ramble about them.

Recently, I've been curious about the short-lived D.C. comic series, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. The idea of girlie aesthetics filtered through a sword and sorcery D.C. lens really appealed to me, so I sought out some issues at the comic book store in East Greenwich (I wish I remembered the name so you could all go, too). Amethyst is an ordinary '80s teen girl who finds out she's the princess of a gem-dimension and unwillingly dons the mantle of defender of Gemworld-pretty standard stuff, with gems! Yeah, that's right, I'm not immune to the draw of gems and crystals, which seem to be hugely popular hipster motifs right now,especially if you're an independent cartoonist. THEY'RE AWESOME, SO SUE ME. Anyway, I bought an early issue based on whichever one had the coolest cover under the assumption that I would get a lot of editor's boxes ("see last ish-ed.") or cheesy expository boxes ("I let down Uncle Ben and then I let a robber go and then he shot Uncle Ben and I ruined my life but hey now I'm Spider Man") that would fill me in. However,I was surprised to find out Amethyst was edited by Karen Berger, who edited more acclaimed "heavy" Vertigo comics like Alan Moore's Saga of Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Berger is tasteful, so I didn't get much back story, but it's a pretty fool-proof story to follow. Plus, I was happy that a series that seems like a marketing ploy to get chicks to buy comics was actually edited by a woman and therefore the intention behind its existence is probably not as cynical as I assumed it would be.

This issue was really, really cool, and I am annoyed at myself for not grabbing more. It's mercifully devoid of obnoxious teenager slang ( although Amethyst gasps "omigosh!" when one of her team members is reduced to rubble before her eyes-couldn't she muster up a little more grief for the guy?) . Amethyst isn't a total bimbo, and she doesn't fall into the I'm spunky-but hey I'm really just bitchy-tough girl stereotype, either. Plus, the villains in this issue were just COOL-silent Horsemen of the Apocalypse type dudes whose faces are vortexes that suck in matter and spit it out into piles of debris. Weird. This comic supplied a lot girlie visual stimulation-pegasus steeds with unicorn horns, glittering crystals, weird 1980s futuristic fashions, flowing hair- while supplying good,substantial fantasy.

Now for the totally castrated version.
While I was looking up Amethyst images, I was reminded of a toy franchise from when I was a kid, Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. I never had the toys, but I watched the cartoon,which came on every morning before Sailor Moon. Even as a child, I wasn't totally sold-the idea of the show appealed to me: I ate up a lot of stuff that involved babes in a battling sister-hood,vague fantasy elements, and of course, jewels. Yet the show's aesthetic was just too ugly. It promised the girl-goods but didn't deliver, like it was trying to sell us on the idea of girlieness alone and have us fill in the visual blanks. "What? Princesses? Jewels? Vague allusions to Arthurian Legend?!" It was gross and cynical. I mean, wouldja just look at this?

EW.
And how bout THIS...wait?Wha...?

HEY!!!
THAT LOOKS LIKE AMETHYST AND HER STEED!


Now, okay, I know a pegasus with a unicorn horn is pretty standard "oooo, pretttty" visual feminine/fantasy hyperbole, and I know " gem princess " sounds like a title any five year old girl might assign herself, but I was interested by the similarities,regardless. One uses feminine motifs in a way that is attractive and,albeit mega-girly, doesn't feel cynical and pandering to the aesthetic tastes of a female readership. One is totally ugly and seems predatorial-hey little girls! mommy's got a pocket book, don't you want these pretty pretty toys?



I found this article on a CRAZY Wonder Woman marketing ploy while looking at Gwenevere images. Once again, we have beautiful girls in a battle-sisterhood with wacky themed outfits. This comic, like Gwenevere, is also cynical and manipulative, but it's cool looking, so hey! Manipulate me! (I collect My Little Ponies-I never said I was immune.) But really, seeing a super hero like Wonder Woman, who has been appropriated by feminists (like myself) and represents justice,truth,and female solidarity, be reduced to a Jem and the Holograms type consumer product is weird. And what is with her sideways pony tail?!

Anyway, check out Amethyst. I was psyched to pick that up today, along with a Thriller-zombie-themed issue of Dazzler, another series of comics that prove that a commercial super heroine series can uphold ruthlesslessly feminine elements (glitter and rainbows!yay!) while offering substantial plots and characters with depth.

(Bill Sienkiewicz cover!)

Hey, lookit, I make girlie crap, too!


***This fondness for such typical feminine motifs arguably may be a product of the introduction of such a high saturation of motifs in media at an early age. I was the type of little girl who loved Mighty Max, Ninja Turtles, monsters and gross outs (especially) in addition to My Little Ponies and Barbie,so sometimes it evens out. Hell, I wanted to crash a Batmobile toy into a wall of sugar wafers as much as any dude.

****And hey, while I'm getting into a half-hearted,sleepy-brained gender-spiel, I would like to add that the most enthusiastic participants in these makeup workshops are always girls-usually aged 9-12-and they tend to produce the most ghastly effects. One girl today surprised me and warmed my cruddy heart with a beautifully executed slit throat wound.

LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

Hey REAL blog, didja miss me?
Yeah, I got sucked into that visually-stimulating impulse-image-whore realm of tumblr (there are so many naked ladies on it) for a while, but HEY, here I AM.
Anyway,
this is a look I am really into right now, probably because I've been working on those songs about Eddie Munster (and having weirdly romantic and sexy Munsters dreams-NO,not with EDDIE). It's the Little Lord Fauntleroy look!


What a skeezy face, but what a great outfit!



Oscar Wilde, doin' a thing.

Klarion the Witch Boy!

Eddie Munster!
In case you think I am a creep, hey look, it works on grown women:
JEAN SHRIMPTON

I think this will be my back-to-school look. Sure, little boys don't have the kind of huge hips/ass package I got, but HEY, I'll make it work! Just gotta churn out some starched collars over here!

DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE

I am working really hard to get my goth e.p. finished. It's a lo-fi mixture of batcave and coldwave (because I said so). Here's the artwork in progress:

If you like sleazy songs dedicated to Eddie Munster, Rudimentary Peni covers, and love songs about Theda Bara, the King in Yellow, and the planet Yuggoth, then you'll LOVE Dreams in the Witch House! If you sign up for MONSTER OF THE MONTH CLUB, you'll get a copy of this, complete with a mini comic and illustrated lyric book. YEAH.

On an unrelated note, here are some comics I drew while at school and in mega-breakup-mode:

DREAM GIRL