Caligari A-Go-Go

Do you know what my favouritest film of all time ever is? It's Das Cabinat der Doktor Caligari, the 1919 German expressionist silent movie starring the exquisitely lovely Conrad Veidt (one of my heroes, a thoroughly wonderful man, a wartime humanitarian and a greatly underrated actor, for more about him check out the Conrad Veidt Society) and directed by Robert Weine. It's only 50 minutes long but I love it: I love the look of it, I love the twists in the plot, I love the way Veidt walks, I love the eerie underlying themes of control and insanity. It is, without doubt, a perfect film, and if you haven't seen it, well you're in luck dear reader. One of the lovely things about silent movies is they're almost all out of copyright and thus freely available online. Here's a version with rather melodramatic music dubbed in (remember that back in the day, films would be accompanied by live organ music)...




I'm sure you'll agree that even with the silly music, it's a thing of beauty. If not, get off my blog you fiend!

Anyway, it seems I'm not alone in my obsession. First, in 1962 Robert Bloch (best known for penning Psycho) created a film with a suspiciously similar title, but sadly it wasn't very good. Thankfully in 1979, Bauhaus (aka my favouritest band in the world) put some class back behind the title by using a still of the lovely Mr Veidt for their seminal single Bela Lugosi's Dead. But then a very odd (now cult) movie called Doctor Caligari in 1989 had a go at remaking/messing around with it too, resulting in a lot of weirdness and shoulder pads.

 

Then a Batman comic got in on the act









Then people started doing Caligari-esque music videos...


...like this 'un by that nice Mr Rob Zombie, the chap who makes gory horror movies and industrial-metal records, or this one...



...from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, and whoever directed this one has obviously cottoned onto the fact that Cesare was one sexy somnabulist.

Now (well in 2005, but it's new to me) there's even a shiny new talkie remake:



And ooh look, it's Doug Jones (of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth and that-episode-of-Buffy-with-the-voice-stealing-monsters fame) stepping into Conrad's leggings (not literally, mind you, I daresay the original tights would be a little on the threadbare side by now). Now, I was thinking that a talkie remake would be a bit redundant, but a talkie remake with Dougie Jones in? Count me in. (For the record, I like Doug Jones, not only because he's a fine actor,  but also because he has great taste in shirts, he's a contortionist, and he does really silly things on the red carpet,though to be fair I suppose he has to do the Silver Surfer pose or the Abe Sapien thing or the Pale Man hands-on-forehead thing else people won't know who he is. Either way, he's far too handsome and charming to spend quite that much time hidden under prosthetics.) Anyway seeing how tender, strange and downright fantastic he looks with the black under-eyeshadow on, I think Conrad would be deeply flattered. 

(This post is in no way a complete list of Caligari-related fun, just some of the stuff I could find to link to that's sort of official, and I do apologise if I linked to or used anything I shouldn't've. On the unofficial front, there's pretty art by Jade28 on deviantart and art by my true dear friend aliencatx also on deviantart.)

And now I'm off to find myself a copy of that talkie remake whilst wearing far too much makeup and carrying a very long knife and mouthing German to myself...

More links, more news, more nonsense... less coherent overarching themes

I'm far too lazy to think of some vague theme to tie all these oddments together every day, and far far too lazy to post them all separately since they're all so diddy. Anyways...

Today I reminded myself of why I love getting second hand doodahs by trotting around all the charity shops in town. Aside from the fact that second hand videos are awesome even if they are a little on the wobbly side (I'm currently giggling at a very silly movie called The Monster Squad, with the classic 1967 Doctor Who serial Tomb of the Cybermen up for afters) I found some sewing patterns in a box, each selling for modest sums of mere pennies. I shall have to have a sewing day soon. Plus I found a beautiful little black velvet dress with beaded lace trim and pleats! Pleated velvet looks surprisingly good. Talking of second hand dresses, I wish I was a size 10! Not normally something I would be caught saying, but gosh I wish I could find a dress like that to fit me, it's very Patricia Morrison and it would look smashing with fishnets and big hair. It's pretty hard to find neat vintage things in a size 14, sadly. Maybe all the chic stores didn't make sizes above a 10, I don't know. (That's UK sizes, by the way, folks, I do realise that in US sizes are rather larger.)

Oh and on the job front, I had a little shufty at some of the kids I'm going to be marketing and by the gods they're good. If you live in the Hampshire area, keep an eye out for West Side Story at the King's Theatre in Southsea, because if they're this impressive after just a week and a bit's rehersals they'll be phenomenal by April.

Right...

Links; and how's this for a bedspread? I stumbled across it on the Gothic Shop, a site that has some real lovelies even if it does over stress the "must get search engine hits for the word goth vibe". They do matching purple-on-black cushions too.

Also in gothic pretties, over at Mookychick they're running a competition to win a shiny new Alchemy Gothic necklace. Admittedly when I say "competition" I mean "prize draw" but it's worth entering all the same methinks.

Next, Urban Threads have added a new mask tutorial to their site (otherwise known as "reasons why I want an embroidery sewing machine"). The result has a nice harlequin feel to it, more Mardi Gras than Carnivale di Venizia. If you're crafty and in possession of a machine cleverer than mine, do check out their lace patterns, they do some charming designs.

Lastly and also in crafty things, the new issue of Anticraft is up. It's a bit spartan this time, with only four projects, three recipes and a sort of mat...thing, but having only four projects means it's possible I might even finish all of them before the next one's up.

News to abuse (and a few links plucked at random from the internet)

First of all I want to say hello to new follower person Raivyn, partly just because I've spent the last few hours going through the other blogs she follows and my goshness there's some good stuff there. I think Gothic Tea Society has to be my new favourite blog, it has a lovely mixture of things. And the picture to the left, which is now my desktop. I do so love smiley skeletons.

Other fun things on the 'net today include HBO's awesome (if pricey) True Blood store. You can buy replica aprons, a Fangtasia neon sign and even bottles of "Tru Blood". Let me repeat that in bigger letters YOU CAN BY BOTTLES OF TRU BLOOD! Okay admittedly it's just orange juice but look at that packaging! You wouldn't want to drink it, it's designed to be gawped at with an expression of pure awe, surely. Were it not for the fact that shipping glass bottles from America would destroy my funds...

Anyway, on to the news... as you may have gathered from the post-script last night, I am no longer unemployed, and will be starting my lovely new job as a production assistant with the lovely Groundlings Theatre Company on Monday. This may mean I post less... or I might post more... either way there will probably be some changes to the regularity of entries. It may also mean I start plugging their events (they're the ones that pay my wages after all).

Don't worry, I don't plan to start calling people "dahling", though, it's not that sort of theatre.

Something bugging you?

One more link then I'll stop it with the linking for a while, I swear. Gao Fu Collectables might not sound like the most thrilling of ebay shop names, but this this Hong Kong seller has some amazing products. As well as selling fossils and gemstones, they have a huge range of jewellery, ornaments and ephemera featuring animal and insect specimens set into hard wearing plastics, including some lovely little macrame bracelets with scorpions in. Dirt cheap and really good quality. I have a couple of bracelets and necklaces from there and a cute little bat skeleton and they're some of my favourite ebay purchases ever. It may sound creepy, but there's a certain thrill to having a scorpion tied to your wrist.I have my eye on one of the larger specimens: I think it'd be fun to have one framed to look like an old Victorian curio.


Wearable bugs! It's the next big thing, honest.

Gothy Links! (with some things involving me thrown in)

First up, on the oh-so-trendy end of the spectrum, where words like "hip" and "chic" do not send readers screaming in abject horror, is Haute Macabre. Although clearly designed for people who know the difference between Gucci and D&G, and actually own the latest issue of Vogue, some really nice things get posted on there once in a while. Whether it's links to cute Etsy shops and lacey things on sale in high street boutiques or scans of impossibly skinny models lounging around in artily lit studios, there's a fair bit of fun to be had: how about this faux pulp shoot, this sleazy party one, this neat piercing, or Dita Von Teese in outfits by Jean Paul Gaultier.

For something a bit less fashionable and far more silly, how about Goths in Hot Weather a daft little blog that does exactly what it says on the tin: pictures of goths in the sun. It's quite cleverly done actually: non-goths can see it as out-and-out ridicule if they so desire, while goths can see it as lampooning the goth stereotype. A lot of the photos are pretty cool, actually, there's a wonderful sense of irony threading through. I'm quite perterbed that Justin Timberlake likes it though. I'm fairly sure the irony is lost on him.

Also on my blogroll at the moment are useful link-blog Dark Side of the Net, slightly rambly but again full of useful things The Illustrated Memoirs of a Gothic Gentleman, and the sadly inactive The Black Veil which is full of free music downloads from all sorts of gothy acts from the popular to the obscure.

Next up is the site no goth can afford to be without, Gothic Charm School, where the lovely Lady of the Manners solves those ettiquette problems caused by wearing black and looking spooky. Witty and very, very useful. Do have a look at her equally lovely book too: Gothic Charm School: An Essential Guide for Goths and Those Who Love Them.

The next link is one I'm going to hate myself for posting because I really disapprove of tumblr as a website (for those unfamiliar with it, it hosts a mixture of photo blogs and twitter-style snippets but seems to be generally populated by people posting other people's photoghraphy with nothing but a link to explain it. To me it seems to sum up the laziness of the internet; quick fixes of images to skim over without any actual content of their own. It's not really a problem with tumblr itself, more the people that use it) but you can't go wrong with pictures of Helena Bonham Carter because she really is very stylish. Unfortunately it mostly seems to be pictures from the Harry Potter movies and suchlike and there are an awful lot of reposts (again, people are lazy: too lazy to flick through a couple more pages of pictures and notice that one's already there. *sighs*) but there you go.

Finally, here's something wonderful from the distant archives of something-or-other, a very fun interview with the Damned from 1977. Okay they're more punk than goth but shut up, there's pictures of Dave Vanian when he was young and wore too much eyeshadow! Yay!

Now, in things involving me: a review of the reissued bauhaus albums In the Flat Field and Mask, and a review of District 9. Also as of a few minutes ago, I have a job. Hurrah!

Get your geek on

You remember those incredibly chic-looking Romulan outfits in the latest Star Trek movie? The ones with the pointy shoulders and the tabi-style boots? Well the kindly designers are now making versions to sell to the general public, on sale here. Only one word can sum that up: want!

Links!

It's link time again. So many interesting things have been happening in the wonderful world of the internet, I decided to dump them all here. Hurrah for irrelevant and unrelated links!

But first, make sure you read my review of Dragon Age: Origins, a game I thoroughly enjoyed despite a few foibles. Clicked on the link? Earned me a penny? Good. On we go!

First up, interesting news about interesting people, headline being that multitalented songstress Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) and awe-inspiring author Neil Gaiman have gotten engaged! Apparently he proposed by drawing on her finger, which is a...novel way to pop the question I suppose. They're the only celebrity couple I could give a monkey's about, there's something really lovely about knowing that two such talented and wonderful people are together. Aw.

Also in interesting people: Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw, the uber-cynic behind Zero Punctuation is writing a novel about videogames. I'm fairly sure it will be awesome. I know this was announced ages ago, but I was having a bit of a ZP kick earlier this week and noticed it.

Lastly, the Poe Toaster didn't turn up this year. How disappointing. I'm trying to convince myself that his (or her) absence adds to the mystery of his (or her) being. It's not working.

Next on the agenda: entertain thyself! Bioshock 2 is coming out on 9th February and I for one am very excited. As though the first game didn't offer enough Orwellian art deco stylings, the new one allows you to play as one of those Big Daddies (complete, it appears, with a drill on your arm, bliss!) and plod through the ocean outside dystopian Rapture. Plus it has a multiplayer mode, and although I'm not normally one for multiplayer it does look fun.

In gothier news, Clan of Xymox are playing a date in London (along with a bunch of bands I admit I'm not familiar with) to promote their new album (look even hmv have it!) I might have to go to that, you know.

In unrelated gothy news, I discovered this earlier this week. Love the Siouxsie-eye smiley logo. Through that site, I also found these 80s podcast/mix thingies (when did Grace Jones cover Joy Division? How bizarre), and these mixes.


But you can also entertain thyself for free! Creature Feature have a new song you can download for free (or for a donation if you're feeling generous), not quite as much fun as their album but not a bad track. There's also a new issue of deiselpunk rag Gatehouse Gazette up for downloads, plus Jonathon Ian Mathers of Ill Will Press has been a busy, there's two new toons and a comic up since last time I checked (not quite sure what he plans to do with the comic about the talking tofu but there you are. Foamy and 4Y are still hilarious... and worryingly astute).

Last of all, a bit of shopping as I've found a gorgeous Etsy shop selling pretty upcylced lace things like this dress. Something to pine for, I suppose.

More stuff soon, which may or may not be more coherent... possibly...

Rant: I like vampires, am I a cliche?

So having spent a charming day trying not to catch a cold and buying copious numbers of pairs of socks, I can return to one of my pet favourite topics. Yes it's time to talk vampires once more. Why? Well last week's Radio Times contained a somewhat peculiar article extolling the virtues of the second series of the BBC's Being Human, which is certainly not a bad thing in itself: I loved the first series even if it didn't have quite the same quirky humour as the pilot. The article bothered me for it's vicious attack on the rest of the vampire genre (strange too since the series focuses as much on ghosts and werewolves as it does on the vamps, more of a supernatural fantasy in general than a straight vampire show) though mainly focusing on Twilight, or the bane of serious vampire fiction as I sometimes call it. It bothers me that people uninterested in a genre as a whole tend to point one example and assume this is the core of it, and the article did just that, saying explicitly that most, if not all, vampire fans are screaming fourteen-year-old girls (or at least women who act like them) who, to put it crudely, aren't getting any (the phrasing, if I remember correctly, was "why are women so interested in vampires? We're not if we're having sex"). Now, while I'll admit that the matter of sexuality often features heavily in the genre, there's certainly a lot more to it than pure eye-candy. Even if we don't count the many examples of vampire fictions which do not directly deal with sex (Salem's Lot to Perfect Creature are two that spring to mind), those stories that do will usually do so in an unconventional way: Stoker's Dracula shocked audiences with its hinted homosexuality, and anyone saying that the vampire character Eli in Let the Right One In was a sex object clearly needs their head examining. Even the much maligned Twilight series (I refuse to call it a saga, it has nothing to do with Norse poetry!) deals with sexuality from an unusual abstinence-only direction.

I can understand people claiming that Twilight fans are embracing their inner fourteen year old, but the vampire genre as a whole? Are Stephen King, Kim Newman, Brian Lumley, Richard Matheson and John Lindqvist screaming teenaged girls? No. Were their novels aimed at screaming teenaged girls? No. They were aimed at serious adult readers, admittedly adult readers with a love of gory horror, but adults nonetheless. There is far more to modern vampire fiction (and slightly less modern vampire fiction) than "paranormal romance".

But wait, dear reader, there's more. The writer of this cruelly generalised article is none other than outspoken writer Julie Burchill, who was behind the hit teen novel and two-season series Sugar Rush. Quite why she feels qualified to write about vampires I don't know, it seems that she was hired simply because both Sugar Rush and Being Human star Lenora Crichlow. Whatever the reason, Burchill finished her article suggesting that the popularity of vampire fiction somehow hampers LGBT issues. I'm not sure if this was some sort of strange veiled joke but it really has me beat. Evidently she hadn't noticed that every other vampire story in existence from the genre's inception deals in their own way with gender and sexual orientation. I already mentioned Count Dracula and his hold over Jonathon Harker, and most will be familiar with the more explicitly lesbian antics in Le Fanu's Carmilla, both using homosexuality as indications of the vampires' supposed deviance, but of course modern fiction is far more progressive. Whether it's the red-hot homoeroticism of Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls (Poppy herself is famously gender queer, referring to herself as a "non-operative transsexual") or the less attention-grabbing, but beautifully formed cast of supporting characters from True Blood (and of course originally from Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels), with a quick shout for The Hunger, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Lair and to the enormous number of "vampire-as-AIDS-metaphor" works out there too. In many cases the vampire is an allegory for progressive sexuality, seen as dangerous by ordinary society; some may be mere stereotypes, but as a whole they're not really getting in the way of the cause, are they?

I assume that what Ms Burchill means is that the popularity of Twilight is hampering the LGBT material aimed at the same (young adult) audience, and that's fair enough, but let's face it, Julie, not all kids are going to be drawn to such material. Children who read a lot will read a lot and happening to read a few vampires novels isn't going to get in the way of their social education. Kids who don't read all that much but have sort out Twilight, with its rather weak female lead and right-wing tack, sadly aren't the sorts of children you can sway to progressive thinking with a couple of cheery stories about teenage lesbians.

Oh and one final little irony, the very things for which Burchill praised Being Human (unromantic views on death, the boredom of immortality etc etc, all the usual twists on the conventional appeal of the undead) are, in fact, so common a variation on the genre they even appear in the object of attack, Twilight. Nice going there. Maybe some research would be an idea next time?

In short, I do wish the media would stop saying "vampires" when they mean "Twilight". Well, actually I wish the media would say what they mean in general, to be honest, careless use of words can cost dearly, but that's a rant for another day and is stretching the focus of this little rantling a little too far, methinks. This one's far too long as it is.

Post-snow update

Well the cold snap has finally cleared to be replaced by a real pea-souper of a fog, or rather it has this evening at least, rendering a tree outside rather sinister so that when I glance out at it it resembles a very tall fellow in a Sauron helmet. But fog or not, at least we're able to leave the house now. In fact, so able to leave the house I spent several days away from home in the oh-so exotic locales of London and Oxford visiting friends, watching films, playing videogames and generally making a nuisance of myself.

Still now that I have finished galavanting and the rains have wiped away the last of the ice, normal service shall resume with some fine new rants, links and rambles for you to peruse. In the mean time, have a gander at my review of current superhit Avatar, which I actually enjoyed even if it was a bit unimaginative in the story department for my tastes.

Something very Strange

Way back in 2002, the fledgling pixie became quite obsessed with a television series called "Strange". A sort of cross between the X-Files and Buffy, it featured the adventures of a defrocked priest (played by Coupling's Richard Coyle) and a nurse (Samantha Janus) against a plethora of nasty demons. It also featured the late, great Ian Richardson as a sinister Canon and a very young Andrew Lee-Potts (whom lovers of bad sci-fi will know from Primeval, which is one of my guilty pleasures I must say. Oh and I do have to name-drop here and say I've met him at a horror movie convetion and he's a thoroughly nice guy). Sadly scheduling cock-ups (including not re-showing the pilot so that new viewers were utterly baffled by the continuing plot) and typically awful BBC CGI meant its viewing figures were shockingly low and the BBC axed it after one seven-episode season and although it's been shipped off to other channels overseas, it's never been reshown or released on dvd. It's a shame, since there was some really promising things there: interesting characters with murky backstoies, cameos from fabulous people like Anna Massey and Tom Baker, and some really great expressionistic pictures supposedly from ancient texts, images that remained seared on my teenaged mind at the time.

Well thankfully some kindly souls have uploaded the entire series to youtube, which is why I'm up at two in the morning. It stands the test of time reasonably well, although the special effects are still pretty awful and some of the fashions have changed, although I was thrilled to see that Samantha Janus wears the same watch I used to have. If like me you remember it airing and would like to see it again, check out this youtube playlist that has the whole series lined up for you. It really is a lot of fun.

Snowed In: now with pretty pictures

Well the snow still hasn't melted yet and more is forecast in the next few days. The snow that's already there is now frozen, compacted and treacherous. Fun fun fun!

I did actually manage to get out today, into the weird winter wonderland that has descended across Portsmouth. It's eerie seeing the dustbins outside Tesco half-buried, and even stranger seeing people trying to push shopping trolleys through the slush.

Anyway, enough chatter; as promised I have a few snappy-snaps for you to marvel at, or not.

Here's the view I had yesterday morning when I peered out of the back door















And here's the view I had this morning
Yes that's a foot-and-a-bit long icicle. It's been steadily growing all day, and is now glittering ominously at me every time I enter the kitchen. I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it; it looks just like a glass Christmas tree decoration.



















When I looked down, I noticed that some cunning kitty (probably not ours, she refuses to go anywhere near snow) had worked out that walking in footprints meant their little paws didn't sink as far.

And here's a slightly prettier view from my window. It's hard to see at this size quite how deep the snow is, but if you squint hard enough at the table at the far end, you'll notice there's a duvet-like layer lying on top of it. The side of the of the table top is about two and a half inches in depth. Now compare that little dark-green bar with the thick white bar of snow. See what I mean?






And here's a picture that, although unrelated to the snow, carries a cute story. This little fella is one of my mum's many wooden cat ornaments,; a recent addition to the collection that she was given for Christmas. My cat believes that it is a real-life kitty cat that's spying on her: she noticed it yesterday and tried to climb up the cabinet, mewing pitifully and stretching out to it. Even when she was picked up and shown that no, it's not a real cat, it's made of wood, she still gaped at it in horror and amazement.

My cat is not very bright.

Or maybe she is? Here she is enjoying a nice fire, far away from all that nasty cold white stuff. Sensible kitty.

On the Big Freeze... and some updates

My appologies for being late with the updates again; the Christmas period was dizzyingly busy for me, fraught with trials, tribulations and large amounts of chocolate. Thankfully most of these problems have melted away, much like the chocolate, and now with the decorations packed away for another year I was prepared to settle back into my normal lack of routine.

I wasn't counting on the weather.

Anyone living in the UK will know we're currently suffering under the worst cold snap in nearly thirty years. I live in the South of England, an area not usually known for extreme weather, but I woke up to four or five inches of snow and something of a blizzard. My mother (who is a secondary school teacher,) had to stay at home because her school has shut and my father (I honestly don't really know what he does, but I know it involves computers) had to abandon his motorbike the night before because he was stuck on the way home. Lucky he wasn't on the A3: nearly a thousand hapless motorists had to chose between walking home or sitting in their cars for twelve hours. I have never ever seen weather like this. There's no more snow forecast for tonight, but icy cold weather will probably freeze to a solid, slippery floor, so I doubt I'll be going out much in the next few days (which is a pain as I had quite a lot planned, but never mind I'll just have to keep playing Dragon Age Origins instead).

Hopefully I'll be able to post a few piccies of it all, it's really quite extraordinary. A chap in Fareham, just up the road from me, even decided that hovercrafting was the best way to get around.

In other news, my cat doesn't like the snow. Poor thing was watching it with utter bemusement, although having said that, she watched everything today with utter bemusement.

And in "Things involving me" do check out a couple of new film reviews I've posted, one of Nine (the musical not the animation with the similar, nay identical, name) and the other looking at Sherlock Holmes

So for now I'm going. I may be some time!