Embracing our inner Goth

Be warned this is a long post, but a good one. Read some, have a break and go and read the rest. You have been warned.

We love live music. FACT. We love 80’s synth pop. FACT. Violins are a surprisingly good addition to electronic dance music. FACT. We love introspective lyrics and literary references. FACT. So, ergo, we adore The Crüxshadows.

We have been fans of this band since hearing their album Wishfire back in the late 1990s. They are part of the Gothic Darkwave movement (characterised by deep often sorrowful lyrics and lots of sound effects like echo and delay and layers of sound--think The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, The Cocteau Twins or This Mortal Coil).  Their lyrics often tell stories based on Greek or Egyptian mythology. Their songs have a real spiritual/religious flavour and they always thank God in their liner notes.

You would think by how scary they look they would be all Satanist --we’ve certainly known people who only liked them because they thought they had “come over to the dark side” but they only believed in what they saw-- if you dig deeper this band is much on the side of “the Force.”

In an interview from http://www.legendsmagazine.net/134/rogue.htm,  Rogue the lead singer and writer and inspiration behind The Crüxshadows  says :

wouldn't this make a great tattoo?

(The) definition of crux...it is the Latin word for "cross." Our English usage of the word being derived from the idea of the crossing point...anyway, cross plus shadow equals "shadow of the cross." That is its literal meaning...you are familiar with the band's logo? Well, the symbol for our band is a cross (a tribal eastern orthodox cross to be precise) with a field of light on one side and a field of dark on the other.

What is important here is the idea of exclusion...or outsiders...because when all is flooded with light the cross will still render a shadow; a place the light can't reach. Unfortunately it is mankind's tendency towards intolerance to eliminate or dismiss all who are different, or "unworthy."

During the crucifixion of Christ, the people who stood in the shadow of the cross were effectively the most loyal and, in a sense, special of his followers. This is despite the fact that they were outcast from society...they were women, prostitutes, tax collectors, and beggars; quite literally the underclass in Jewish and Roman culture. Yet they were able to succeed in something that the "stronger" more accepted classes failed in. So what does this have to do with us...? Well cruxshadow being a word of my own design, I attached to it the meaning of those "who are made outsiders by society, but who through their actions or ideas, become true insiders." Or more succinctly stated: the subset of the outsider. In mathematical terms a subset is one that is contained within, yet does not contain the larger set as a whole. If you again look at the CXS symbol, you will see two concentric circles which references this idea...that the outsiders are in essence, closer to the center.

Their lyrics are positive and upbeat and give empowerment to the underdog--that sense of find the good in yourself and make the world better and don’t worry if you are different from the rest. No matter how you dark you look, there is light inside you. They are like the Christian band that isn’t labeled as such. The liner notes to their newest CD As The Dark Against My Halo say:

 The soul is a fragment of God, an electron to the atom of deity. God is within us as we are within God….our struggle is a fraction of the higher conflict of Good and Evil, Love and Hate, Order and Entropy. We determine the path and location of the particles within our sphere.

 In their CD Dreamcypher they have the epic journey of the hero through ancient Greek mythology. The hero gets advice from Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom in the song Sophia which says:

Look to find a soul filled with compassion
Look to see a living source of light

Do not injustice to another
Defend the weak and innocent
Let truth and honor always guide you
Let courage find the light within

Stand up when no one else is willing
Act not in hatred or in spite
Be to this world as a perfect knight
Even if it means your life

How Quaker is that? I love all the references to Light. There is also a song called Ariadne which seeks to employ Ariadne to find forgiveness in her heart after Theseus abandoned her after she helped him kill the minotaur and escape the labyrinth. In the original Greek story, she is so overcome with grief she curses him and  the punishment of the Gods is that he forgets to change the sails on the ship from black to white leading his father to believe that he had died (the black sails would mean he had not survived the ordeal with the minotaur) and his father King Aegeus threw himself into the sea and drowned. The Aegean sea is named in his memory.

 

We interrupt this blogpost to say :

This is the point where you might want to have a potty break or grab a cup of tea and a biscuit.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogpost. 

Why am I telling you all this? Because we saw them live last night in a club called the Purple Turtle in Camden town!!!

We went early so we could have a bite to eat at Leon—this healthy fast food place. We had a lovely curry with sweet potato and cauliflower and coconut milk over brown rice with a refreshing fruit drink (I had lemon, lime and ginger with a mint leaf and Spiderman had white tea with peach) all for about £13. Then we slowly strolled to Camden Town and played spot the Goth (who did we think was going to the concert). When we arrived at the club it was clear we weren’t the normal clientele. I think we were the only people there not dressed in all black with skulls all over our clothes and kicker boots or hair the colour of a slush puppy. But it didn’t matter. We got a booth at the back with some of the older rockers and sat through two opening bands who were a bit loud. But then about 9:30 The Crüxshadows came out and Spiderman stayed back in the booth to tap his foot vigorously and I rushed up to the dance floor so I could see better and so I could dance. I nabbed a great spot at the back right behind the exit door because no one could stand in front of me because they would block the door.

It started with the band on stage and Rogue wandered in from the back through the crowd—right next to me!!!! Then they sang the most amazing songs from their new CD As The Dark Against My Halo (there is even a song on their new CD about Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Match Girl!!! How cool is that???)and Rogue moved around quite a bit—he had to pass by me several times. At one point he walked by me, went up the stairs and climbed over the railing and sang, then he climbed onto of the woodwork over the exit door and sang some more before he jumped down and walked through the crowd back to the stage. Then later after singing on the stage for a bit he came back to where I was and got a stool and carried it carefully into the crowd and stood on it and sang. At one point he was up front standing on the giant speaker singing. In a small club it gave lots of people a good chance to see him better, particularly if you were short. When he was singing on the speaker the song was Indivisible which quoted from the 23^rd Psalm! Seriously!  

At the point when Rogue had come to get the stool, I moved to get out of the way, after he passed I swooned a bit and an older Goth who looked just like Vivian Westwood said to me, “I know just what you mean, darling.”

 They also sang a few favourites from Dreamcypher –the songs Sophia (see above) and Birthday (see below)

Look at your life, who do you want to be before you die?
Look at your life, what do you want to do?
Look at your life, who do you want to be before you die?
Look at your life, you haven't got forever
And tell me what really matters
Is it the money and the fame?
Or how many people might eventually know your name?
But maybe you touch one life
And the world becomes a better place to be
Maybe you give their dreams another day
Another chance to be free

 It ended with a rousing sing-a-long version of Marilyn, My Bitterness from Telemetry of a Fallen Angel. But the best bit for me was where I was standing I could see the feet of his little girl on the stairs to the left of the stage. They had on pink sparkly shoes with light up bit as the heels (just like daddy’s costume) and her little feet were just tapping away to the music. When they came offstage I saw a pair of tiny arms shoot up in the “pick me up!” pose and I saw him bend down and scoop her up. I only hope she was wearing those protective earphones as it was really loud. The picture below is so sweet I couldn't resist putting it in.

At the end of the show Rogue came into the crowd to meet fans. Spiderman just said something like “Great show, we really enjoyed it!” and Rogue hugged him!!!!! So I said, “Thank you so much—awesome show!” and he hugged me too!!!! We were hugged by (sweaty) Rogue!!!! Spiderman would like it noted that being hugged by a rogue is very different from being hugged by Rogue. But that’s the beauty of small club venues. I think our tickets were £14 each.

All in all it was a fantastic evening—we ended up buying several CDs that we didn’t have. The money went straight to the band and not a morally bankrupt company who doesn’t pay their taxes like Amazon.

It was an excellent evening and I can’t stop dancing and Spiderman can’t stop tapping his foot. So that must mean we’re still embracing our inner Goths.

I will leave you with the motto of The Crüxshadows:

Live

Love

Be

Believe

   

Roman Dirge vs. Neil Gaiman

We recently acquired a print drawn by one of favourite comic book artists Roman Dirge (no, really that‘s his name) and were lucky enough to have it signed by Roman himself. If you think I am a tattooed circus freak, I ain’t got nuttin’ on Roman.

from tattoo.girlpower.it

 

He does this weirdly funny, rather subversive comic book of Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl.

from nnm.me



 

The print features one of our other favourite authors Neil Gaiman (whom we’ve seen twice recently to talk about his new book The Ocean at the End of the Lane) who has written another favourite graphic novel The Sandman series as well as Neverwhere about “London below” mentioned in the post about Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who. 

from wikipedia

 

Basically our hero in black (because good guys can wear all black and that’s all Neil ever wears) gives a bouquet of flowers to Lenore the little dead girl. She is delighted until a bee comes out and stings her on the nose and in true Lenore fashion, the last panel reveals the gravestone of poor Neil. Like Mr Gosh her undeterred suitor whom she ran over with a lawn mower bunches of times after she set him on fire and buried him alive…maybe he’ll come back to try once again to win her affections.

from tumblr.com

Or maybe not.

 

But we loved the joining up of the two favourite characters (and Neil you are a character) so we brought it along to one of the book signings where we recently were hanging out with Neil and got it signed as well. So now it sports the signatures or both Roman Dirge and Neil Gaiman! Just to let you know--they are actually friends and collaborating on something which was the impetus for the drawing--lest you think that Roman has a death wish on Neil. Which would be quite funny because Neil’s character of Death from the Sandman is our favourite.

from hairinmysoup.io

 

But how do we display such a masterpiece? We thought long and hard and finally decided to spray paint a plain wooden frame with that stone effect spray to make it look like a grave stone and I would make two little skulls out of polymer clay like the barrettes Lenore has worn since issue 3 of Noogies (the other two volumes are called Wedgies and Cooties respectively.)

 

So here’s the frame. Click on the photo to make it bigger and really see the detail on this absurdly funny cartoon. You probably can’t see it, sadly, but the bee is smiling as it stings her.  Also you can't see the skulls too well as there was a bit of a camera glare issue, but rest assured they are cool.

 

Here is a close up of the signatures--you can see Neil’s grave quietly clearly. We like that Neil’s fountain pen did a bit of blob at the end like a spatter of blood. We are so easily amused.

click to enlarge

 

Now Spiderman just needs to hang it so I am putting on my patient face to  hurry up and wait.

 

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Yes there is! The new Doctor has been announced and so our new wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey friend is going to be….(drumroll please)…….Peter Capaldi!

We are *thrilled* with this choice. It is an interesting one as at age 55 Capaldi is as old as Doctor number one William Hartnell who was old and white headed and grumpy. 55 is much younger these days!

 

We have long been fans of Capaldi through his performances in:

Lair of the White Worm—our favourite camp horror film. It is based (loosely) on a  weird and wonderful story written by Bram Stoker as he was going made from Bright’s Disease. It is about a young archaeologist named Angus Flint and his battle with a modern day Lamia who has been around for centuries after he digs up a large skull of a serpent and features scenes like this:

Look out Angus!

 

We also have loved him as poor, frightened drag queen Vera Reynolds in the Helen Mirren crime drama Prime Suspect 3. The story is about the murder of some rent boys (young male prostitutes) and is Vera involved or in danger? Watch it and find out.

Vera doing her Marilyn Monroe routine

 

We also adore him in his silky/sinister portrayal of the Angel Islington in Neil Gaimen’s Neverwhere all about a life in “London below.” Another must see if you have not.  

Creepy Angel!

 

 

He is also in the most terrible position in Torchwood: Children of Earth where as a worker for the government he is told he will sacrifice his children to the aliens as an example to make others follow suit.

I'm afraid it's bad news

 

 

He’s already been a Doctor Who episode playing someone who was at Pompeii in one of Donna Noble’s best episodes. Check out the Fires of Pompeii if you don’t believe me.

Volcano day

How could we forget him as Tristan Campbell whom the Vicar of Dibley adores in the episode where they are on Songs of Praise? As she says, “We’re perfect for each other. He’s a religious broadcaster and I’m a vicar. He’s Scottish and I love McVitties biscuits!”

I'm so dishy

He is mostly known over here as sweary spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.

Shut the f up you miserable c

So you see? He can do serious, comedy, sinister, conflicted, innocent, guilty, handsome and ugly. He’ll be perfect!

 I am really looking forward to seeing him in action. Plus, we’ve already got his autograph.

Welcome to the show Doctor number 12! Now we can complete our clock! Seriously, wouldn't that be awesome? I smell a project on its way.

Helen Keller—the Avant-Garde Experience

This post is based on a dream I had earlier in the week. I am not responsible for what sort of weird stuff spews from my head whilst I am asleep.

I received a phone call from a producer in London who was putting together a Fringe show (think off Broadway) that was to be staged in a warehouse. It was a show about Helen Keller and he had heard about my star turn in the play The Miracle Worker when I was a senior in high school and they really wanted me to reprise my role as Helen.

Note: because this was dream it didn’t seem weird at all that some English bloke would have seen me in a play in Louisiana in 1987. Just go with it.

So I took the train to London and met with the director and it was clear he had seen me in the  play and I recall feeling really elated that he wanted me in his new production. He assured me if it was well received we might transfer to the West End. I asked for a script but he put me off saying, “What do you need a script for? Helen doesn’t have any lines?”

This should have been my first clue that all was not well.

I was taking a tour of the warehouse when I met some fellow actors. This was the conversation that ensued:

Her: Hi, I’m Jenna. Are you in the play? Who are you playing?

Me: I’m playing Helen Keller. Who are you playing?

Her: I’m playing Mina Harker.

Me: What??????

Her: You know in the scene where Helen meets Dracula.

Me: What the hell kind of production is this?

This should have been my second clue that all was not as it seemed.

I ran into one of the set building guys who proudly showed me what he was building. It was a bathroom. This was the conversation:

Him: it’s for the bathroom scene—you know—the one where Helen takes a dump on stage.

Me: What????

Him: Look, it’s going to be fully plumbed so you can actually flush. That’s because the sound guy is blind and he won’t be able to see you pretending to flush so he won’t know when to do the sound cue.

Me: What????

Just then the director came along and said:

Him: I thought if you took a laxative about an hour before the show you could do an actual poo on stage and we could have microphone hooked up to the toilet to catch the sounds.

Me: What???????

Right about now Spiderman interrupted my story and said:

Spiderman: So this is a “let’s rearrange the furniture so Helen can’t find her way around the room” sort of show?

Me: Yes! That’s exactly it.

The other thing that seemed a bit hinky was the fact that there was no proper rehearsal schedule. We had to share the warehouse with a folk dancing class and a troop of Boy Scouts and so you never knew when rehearsal was. You just waited for a phone call that told you to come right now and you went.

Despite the fact that the show sounded too weird for words, in the dream I was excited by the prospect of doing it. Spiderman and I went out to a restaurant to celebrate my success. When we got home there were lots of angry messages on our ansaphone from the director saying I missed an important rehearsal and I needed to meet with him first thing in the morning.

The next morning I was waiting outside the director’s office (which was the broom cupboard) when I spotted Winona Ryder leafing through a magazine.

Me: Oh my stars you’re Winona Ryder!

Her: Yeah, so?

Me: What are you doing here?

Her: I’ve been asked to play Helen Keller in this play.

Me: What????

 And so it was. I had been replaced by Winona Ryder in the Helen Keller Avant-Garde Experience.

Then I woke up.

I can tell where lots of this came from—weird ideas lurking in my subconscious that meet up with other weird ideas and get it on and make dreams like this one. We’ve been watching episodes of South Park and I know my favourite one is coming up-- where they do Helen Keller the Musical directed by and starring the guy from Les Miserable as Helen who sings her inner monologue in his Jean Valjean voice. Spiderman and I also were recently looking at the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where really old Allan Quatermain has sex with younger Mina Harker who always wears that scarf to hide the profusion of bite marks on her neck. I suppose Winona Ryder appeared there because she played Mina Harker in that film version of Dracula.

All I can say is:

What????