Charity Shop Finds

Since I've been paid (with added commission! Woohooo!) I decided that today I would ravage Oxford's charity shops. I was actually sort of on the hunt for a new skirt and possibly a blazer to customise the hell out of, but I ended up finding neither.

I did however end up with a cute oversized jacket...

I say "oversized" because it's a size 20 and it's waaay too big for me, but it's velvet with satin and lace trim with little ruffles down the front so I absolutely had to have it. I might add some corseting or at least a tie or a buckle at the back just to make it fit a little better.

Detachable lace collar! I'm already fighting the temptation to tie this round my wrist.

I also managed to find a blouse that actually does fit me...

It's a light cotton ruffly thing (by Red Herring, of all people) with lace and ribbon accents. Very New Romantic, but slightly less gaudy than some of the other ruffled shirts I have. It's certainly less garish than the bright green one I've got.

Lastly, I finally got my grubby little mitts on one of those chain bellydance belts I've been eyeing for years, but for only a couple of quid.

Oooh shiny! Also, jingly bells!

All in all, not an unsuccessful trip. In semi-related musings, I've noticed a lot of charity shops have started stocking their own brand-new stuff, and not just cards and things. The British Heart Foundation have a nice line in semi-precious stone jewelry, elegant scarves with pendants on (I bought one a few weeks ago and it's gorgeous), gaudy accessories and even hair extensions (they have those stripy raccoon streaks that scene kids are so enamored with and some of those chain-and-feather clips too) and Oxfam have a pretty extensive range of fair-trade chocolates, seasonal decorations and wooden printing blocks with styles modelled on textiles from India. I don't know whether this is really a good thing or not, I mean, part of the joy of thrifting is knowing you're recyling all these lovely vintage goodies, and surely charities are having to buy these things which is lessening their profits. That said some of their stuff is lovely and if a charity establishes a popular range it's likely to do better.

Hmm... ponderous pixie is pondering... See you soon!

Things Involving an Evening of Music

It's gig review time! Last night I left work, leapt onto the bus and made my way up to London and into the sticky-floored rabbit warren of Slimelight once more as the club was hosting a frankly rather eclectic night of music, headlined by the Beauty of Gemina, a band you may remember me raving about catching them at last year's M'era Luna. Unfortunately there are no pictures for this one, I forgot to take my camera and sadly my shiny new purple phone (which has a camera on it, look at me with my future technology witchery! I'm practically a cyborg now!) doesn't have a flash on it so it doesn't like dark spooky nightclubs.

Since M'era Luna I've bought a fair few of their records and quite a few tracks have wheedled their way onto my mp3 player (which is my little badge of approval for any track: if it ends up on my mp3 player, it's awesome. If it ends up on my mp3 player and I tend to replay it twice every time it comes up, it's one of my absolute favourites, and there aren't too many of those.) Annnnnyway, I really them and I was really looking forward to 1) seeing them without the haze of (dark) rain and umbrellas and 2) hearing some stuff from the new album Iscariot Blues which I hadn't gotten around to buying yet. Plus there were three support bands, none of which I had seen before. So whooohooo a chance to find new bands!

Unfortuntely, I missed the first support act, Release the Bats, but I'd heard them before and well let's just say they're not my thing. They're fun and all, but not really to my tastes. I wouldn't have minded catching a couple of songs just for the sake of seeing what they're like live, but I wasn't exactly beating myself up for not sneaking off work early or anything like that. I reached Slimes in time to catch up with some friends between acts, then trot upstairs for a drink and to catch the second band, Last July, who were fabulous: a female fronted dark wave trio with industrial overtones and powerful vocals. Their website has loads of sample tracks to listen to and buy, so check it out.

Next up were Cryogenica who...eh... weren't brilliant. Industrial rock with Siouxsie/Xmal Deutschland style vocals... strange combination and it didn't work for me. I don't know whether Slimes' notoriously awful sound system was partially to blame, but the sound quality was pretty muddy throughout their set. Their singer had pretty groovy hair, though, and I did appreciate their Gary Numan cover.

The Beauty of Gemina also suffered slightly from the horrible sound system, poor Michael Seele's improbably deep vocals were rendered largely unintelligible, which is a shame because lyrically there's some interesting stuff going on in their songs. Still, it was a great set with a good mix of older songs and a few choice cuts from the new album, showing quite how versatile and talented they really are. It was also fantastic to see them in a (non-rainy, non-daylight) intimate setting, I'd say they're better suited to dramatic lighting and small clubs than bigger venues or festivals. They're one of those bands that just needs moody lighting and dry ice. So, yes, their set at M'era Luna may have sounded better, but this set felt better, as pretensious as that sounds. Pretty lights, smoke, being close enough to the band to watch their facial expressions, and actually being able to dance without splashing anyone's gothy festival finery definitely made for a fun evening.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and danced through the entire set (and now my obliques ache, I really need to find some gig-friendly dance moves that don't involve hip-wiggly-chest-slidey-oblique-achey actions. Honestly, it feels like I'd been wearing a corset too tight or something...) And now I have a copy of Iscariot Blues which I'm thoroughly looking forward to listening to (today was largely spent sleeping and playing on the internet, as it was about 4 in the morning by the time I got home).

I might even have to put some more tracks on my mp3 player...

One sleepy pixie, signing off!

Well it's been a while...

So, shortly after my last post I finally got a job (I know, I know, it's about time), and a permanent job at that. Which meant that, hurrah, I finally have income and independence and all that malarkey, but alas it meant less free time. I actually have an excuse for not posting this time, so there!

But anyway, time to get back into the swing of things. As promised the exciting new posts about things you might actually want to read will be coming soon, including more Bloody Gorgeous and that long-delayed "Exercise for Goths" post, but for now, let's talk about shopping! Having a job means I have slightly more money and having money means I can spend it on shiny and exciting things, and naturally I treated myself to a few gothy goodies over the last few months, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the results.

First up, Kate's Clothing. If you're darkly inclined and spend any amount of time on Google or Facebook, you've probably seen adverts for Kate's Clothing dotted around. They've got a reasonable range of familiar alternative brands (Demonia, Necessary Evil, Spin Doctor, Lipservice, TUK, Alchemy etc etc) generally for fairly reasonable prices (even offering to match prices found elsewhere) and UK shipping is free for orders over 30 quid. Not bad, especially considering they shipped my order within an hour of me placing it and it arrived two days later. I bought a skirt by Spin Doctor from them, and although I was very impressed with their service I wasn't quite as impressed by the skirt, I have to say. I have a few tops by Spin Doctor and they're stunning, but this skirt was a little disappointing: nice design, slightly cheap feeling fabric which creases really easily. Plus it runs up a bit short on me. Still, I'll definitely be buying more trinkets from Kate's again.

Next, Timeless Tends corsets, an American company that makes, unsurprisingly, corsets. Unlike most corset makers, they only make a handful of shapes but they make up for it in the sheer range of fabrics: silks, cottons, velvets, even denim and sequin designs. Their overbust designs feature adjustable lacing at the hips, which is a cute feature, and the fabrics are lovely. I went for this underbust. It's fairly well made for an off-the-rack job: waist tape, a good few layers of fabric, soft lining and well fitted boning. The ribbon lacing is a little slippery but it does make it easier to lace it yourself as it's easier to adjust. The colours are a little more... vibrant than in the picture, there's a lot more golds and reds than the muted blues and purples shown, but it's a very attractive brocade. It seems to be a little larger than my other corsets (which are supposedly to the same waist size) which is fine in that I can lace it completely shut but it wouldn't leave a lot of room for weight changes or tightlacing, so bear that in mind if you're looking to waist train. All in all, very reasonable for an off-the-shelf job; it's not a perfect fit but it's comfortable and the brocade is probably one of the prettiest fabrics I've ever had in my possession.

As for service, I can't fault it. Despite being shipped from the States, it arrived in just under a week and even came with a free calendar! I'll probably look to them next time I'm after a reasonably-priced corset... and I do like the look of their range of iridescent ones...

That's it for now (I'm feeling lazy...for a change). More is coming soon. Honest!

Halloweenies!

Blessed Samhain everyone! Just a quick one today, because I'm lazy and I don't really have much to say, but I can't let my favourite day of the year pass without a post now can I? Well, here's a couple of video links to keep yourself topped up.

In keeping with this joyous occasion, I'm pleased to report that my favourite kids' TV show, Young Dracula, is finally back. It took them three years and a lot of fan petitions, but the first episode of the shiny third series aired today. The budget is bigger, which kind of loses some of the charm, the child cast has aged noticeably (always the trouble with kids' shows) and it's getting darker but it's still a lot of fun. Keith Lee Castle is quite hilarious. Next episode is on tomorrow, so look out for it on iPlayer.

If you're after something spooky this Samhain, though, here's a youtube channel that will definitely give you the galloping heebee jeebies if you're into the supernatural. It's a collection of various episodes from various tv paranormal shows, like Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Challenge, and (my favourite) Fact or Faked. As is usually the case with this stuff, it's over hyped stuff done by very enthusiastic Americans, but there are definitely some creepy stories lurking in there. Enjoy!

Things involving me gawping at Peter Murphy

So... let's get the proper blog posts back underway, shall we?

Way back in the Dark Ages that was the 12th of October (seriously, I planned to write this up the next day, that didn't happen) I sneaked into London on a last-minute whim to catch my all-time favourite singer (and long-suffering object of my attraction) Peter Murphy at the Garage in Islington. The Garage is a nice venue, incidentally; small enough to be intimate but large enough to feel important. The Murph himself has been touring his new album Ninth (read my review here if you're so inclined) and the "Secret Bees" EP that goes with it (Peter now has a habit of releasing B-sides on separate EPs since no-one seems to buy singles anymore). I hadn't seen him live for three years (missed the last tour because... actually I don't know why, I suppose I was just being a hermit again) so it was nice to see some of my old friends from the days of "let's stalk Bauhaus across the country because we can".

 Zack and Dashangel, two very good friends of mine who run the Bauhaus Archive on facebook.

With no support, it was a surprisingly long set, close to two hours. The set-list was completely bonkers: he opened with the first three tracks of Ninth before going onto a set that was two-parts old stuff to one part Bauhaus.

I don't have many pictures of Peter, unfortunately. Well, I do, but they're terrible

 

I mean, look at this. How can my photography be so bad it makes Peter Murphy look like that? Deary me...

Anyway, as always, Peter's voice was lovely. His band weren't as tight as they could be and there were a lot of fuck ups, to the point that Peter actually got pretty pissed off by the half-way point. He kept having them stop and restart songs and rather scowlingly changed "Cuts You Up" to "Fucks You Up". I've honestly never seen him in such an odd mood. He didn't even bother singing the last line of Ziggy Stardust. Oh and he did his brilliant "Goth stand-up" banter again. Some of the same jokes as last time, but I did quite like his American-accented take on advertising for Bauhaus: "Four men, eight feet, one band".

 Typical. This was the clearest photo I took, and he's looking at the sodding guitar. *sighs*

Apparently the rest of the tour was less...fragmented. But, yes, I did spend the whole night gawping at Pete again. He really is very pretty.

I can't really say a lot more, because I've largely forgotten it (sorry), so here's a video some website did of me awkwardly talking about the gig directly after it.





I had no idea what to say.