Grimly Fiendish

In case you are sitting on lots of holiday cash and don't know what to do, I wanted to point out that Dave Vanian of seminal (huh huh) punk band The Damned has co-founded a high-end goffic makeup line called Illamasqua. Who better to do it than Dave? He's been blending clown white and smudging black liner since Billy Joe Armstrong's parents argued over whether the condom would hold. Anyway, Dave's makeup line is is the culmination of my dreams in many ways.


Awesome things about Dave:

1. He is married to Patricia Morrison, formerly the bassist of Sisters of Mercy, and together they are the gothest couple ever. Everyone else should give up.

2. He once threatened to beat the tar out of Bauhaus' Peter Murphy, for copying his "Vampire schtick", not realizing that there was enough of it to go around for the UK, Germany, and the States for many years to come.

3. I have been in love with him, body and soul, since I was fifteen years old. All five foot six of him.

4. Screw you, Patricia Morrison!

Postscript: Illamasqua has started shipping to the States! They can now ship worldwide for seven pounds, which I think is eleventy hundred dollars. Hooray!

Everything that Rises Must Go To Convergence

DJ's Retrograde and Retrovirus have received their DJ slots for Gothic Convergence 13:

Thursday, May 24th: The Fez: 8-9
Monday, May 28th: The Fez: 8-9

There are a lot of good things about playing the opening slots on weeknights. You get to deal with any technical difficulties with the setup yourself. You don't have to stay up too late. You don't have to worry about overcrowding on the dance floor. You can be sure that no-one else has played the "I'm Dead, I'm Dead" song. On the other hand, getting in a car with a face fulla clown white in the cruel, truthful sunlight is always a time for soul-searching and remorse.

I hope any spooky early birds will come visit us at the Fez, opening and closing the convention! We'll be serving up a delicious selection of little-heard deathrock, post-punk, and new-wave songs to nostalgically transport listeners to a time before they were born. See the whole event schedule here.

Postscript: It was a ton of fun, by which I mean it was a most dark and magickal time nestling in the bosom of my velvet-clad mistress, and I'll have the playlist up later.

New Rotic - A Slight Return

The spooky, velvet-caped Powers That Be have blacklit DJ's Retrograde and Retrovirus for a DJ slot at the Convergence, in sinister Portland, over the weekend of May 25-27. We will be dusting off the black vinyl, and the records too. Keep your glassy, web-worn orbs here for details on when you can catch a set of time-tested D-rock and forgotten goffic dance hits. Please feel free to send requests, as long as it's not the "I'm Dead, I'm Dead" song. (Actual request from actual patron.) We'd love to see you there. Or, your presence might bring a wry smile to play on these world-weary lips. Or something.

Goth Nite

Over the long weekend, we took the opportunity to take in a spooky, sinister evening at Hive at Lola's room, and we dressed appropriately as a sad, chubby French Maid doll and a transvestite military man. Walking up to the bar, I wondered- Aren't I getting a little old for this shit? If the reader has an opinion, I would kindly ask them to keep it to themselves.