Of progress on the World Goth Week, birthdays and Roger Moore~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well my little weeklong World Goth party is doing very well, better than expected.

I sent out invites and said pot luck, choose what days to come and nearly everyone has or is coming everyday--Saturday and Sunday completely filled up.

I had thought that a number of my friends and some family members would be gone over Memorial Weekend but it seems that I have provided a relatively inexpensive alternative,  it is keeping me busy but I do have some help.  

Monday evening was still a bit warmish so we set up the plasma screen outside to watch our opening offerings, but Tuesday things were getting very cool so it was moved to the main parlor with folks sitting on the floor or stretched out with black and white picnic cloths set all over the rugs, for the rest of the week it will be indoors because of the turn in the weather to chilly.  The food spread will still be buffet style with pot luck in the dinning room. And the movie watching will be indoors.

At last night's gathering we took a moment to say a prayer for those who lost their lives at the Manchester bombing, one of my friends who has connections in England is going to find out if there is a fund to help the victims and will announce it at the Sunday gathering. 

A dear friend of mine who is a marvelous baker has designed the birthday cake, chocolate with raspberry filling, the frosting will be black with red designs to resemble blood and white skulls, to say Happy Birthday Peter, Chris and Vince.

But for Sunday, I've been asked by a number of people to add one more film to the line up and this is in memory of the late Sir Roger Moore,  007 from 1973 to 1985 in 7 James Bond movies, one quote of his goes like this:

Teach love, generosity, good manners and some of that will drift from the classroom to the home and who knows, the children will be educating the parents.   

In a way there are parents that also need to learn that to be good examples to their children.  Roger Moore as Bond and as Simon Templar (The Saint 1963-69) and as Beau Maverick (the English Cousin to Bart and Brett) showed that in all his performances, he even spoofed himself in one of the last "Pink Panther" movies when the bandages were removed to show his face. He was considered one of "Nature's true gentlemen'.   His passing was a shock to both Sis and myself, I considered him a more romantic James Bond, compared to Sean Connery's killer James Bond.

So the James Bond movie that I will be adding will be "The Man With the Golden Gun" with Christopher Lee, we will lead off with that.  

Then on the following Monday evening as  Doyle, Sis and I relax from the fun of our Goth week we will watch "A View To A Kill" with Christopher Walken showing all the views of San Francisco as well as Dunsmuir House that was featured in "Burnt Offerings".

It is a lovely way to have a kick off to Summer.

Later Darklings

Of World Goth Day~~~~

Hello Dear Darklings,

Well with Coralline able to get around a bit with her walking boot and my brother finally buying a computer for the family to get everyone started, things are starting to begin to move to what passes for normal, but it will take time,  my brother still has to get a few more electronic things.

I was concerned that Coralline was unhappy that a couple of her Monster High Dolls were stolen that day but she is being philosophical about it, saying that they were one's she bought with her allowance and not one's given to her and she can replace them, especially her favorite "Draculaura",   the costume jewellery was another matter because they broke her jewellery box that was given by my mother before she died.   I took the box to a craftsman that I know and he beautifully repaired it so that you couldn't tell it was damaged, so I'm going to surprise her with it this coming weekend.  

Well I want to give all of you a “Heads Up!”   Next Monday is Goth Day aka World Goth Day on May 22, so time to start getting your Goth on.

Oh for some of you who ask what is “World Goth Day” well let me quote from the Days Of The Year website……

“History of Goth Day

(”It was so close to October that Halloween was knocking at his heart.”

~Barry Eysman, Candles for November)

The history of Goth Day stretches back in odd and meandering paths to history. Musically it can be traced back to 1967 when someone referred to the music of the Doors as “Gothic Rock.” This term was soon being bandied about, used to describe music like Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties”, and Siouxsie and the Banshee’s described as one of “Goth Rocks Architects”.

But why “Gothic”? It’s an odd term considering that it originally referred to the Visigoths whose claim to fame was sacking Rome. So how did Goths become Goths? Well, we can trace the term back a bit further to 1764, where Horace Walpole wrote a story called “The Castle of Otranto”, granted the subtitled “A Gothic Story” during its second printing. So what is Gothic in this context? It describes a “pleasing sort of horror”, and was seen to be a natural extension of Romantic literature. This, of course, implies a sort of romance with the darker side of life, something that can be said to describe the little blossoms of gloom described at the beginning. 

Goth Day celebrates all these souls, and the part of them that celebrates the darkness within us all through music, art, and media.

How To Celebrate Goth Day

Goth Day is a great time to explore the question that plagues those who do not understand the Goth sub-culture. Who are they and what beauty do they find in the dark? Take some time to explore it on your own, research the history of Goth Culture and the songs, music, movies, and literature that are its hallmarks. You won’t be disappointed, and maybe the next time you see these dark souls, you’ll understand just a little of what they see.

We’ve all seen them, those strange characters that wander our city streets dressed as though they’re on their way to a funeral, or a punk rock show… Or quite possibly both. Their very presence exudes a sort of darkness, steeped in the love of all things morbid, and a seeming love affair with death. Their anthems come from the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Type O Negative, and Bauhaus, bands who seem to be able to perfectly encompass all the things strange. Goth Day encourages us to celebrate these fine fellows, and maybe take a dip into their world ourselves, after all, while the light is lovely, can it not also be blinding?”

The whole idea of being an elder Goth such as myself who is up there in years, is to understand and accept the macabre, to know that there is strangeness out there and that death is just a short dance away.

But it does not mean that we condone abuse, bullying, violence and those things that are morally and spiritually degrading or harmful to oneself, but to be able to balance both the light and the dark, to understand why people are the way they are, to look beyond the surface and know that within the depths of life there are things that are vicious in a way that elder goths like myself learned as a child what to watch for and protect ourselves from.

One of the most gothic lines I’ve ever read or heard came from the mouth of a seemly sweet old lady “It’s dangerous to believe what a person says.  I haven’t for years”  I’m quoting Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple, and this character although fiction, is one of the most gothic and yet operates in the light, yet she knows the darkness.  My parents taught that phrase to my brothers, Sis and me years ago.   And over the years it has proven true time and time again.

But World Goth Day also leads into the 3 major Birthdays of 3 of our Titans of Horror Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

Peter Cushing’s Birthday is May 26 and Vincent Price and Christopher Lee’s Birthdays  are May 27, and to honor those stalwarts of Horror and their Older companions Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr.  

I talked it over with family and friends and we've decided to celebrate by having a film fest, showing movies and having food and drink for a one week period, then on Saturday evening singing Happy Birthday with a black frosted cake made with chocolate and raspberry filling.

So we'll start the horror  film fest on Monday night Starting with Lugosi’s Dracula and the Cushing and Lee version of Dracula.

 Then on Tuesday night it will be Bela and Boris in The Black Cat and A Comedy of Terror with Boris, Vincent, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone.

 Wednesday It will be The Oblong Box with Vincent and Christopher and Scream and Scream again with Vincent, Christopher and Peter. 

Thursday it will be the Mummy with Boris and the Mummy with Christopher.

Friday is going to be an odd mixed bag starting with Mark of the Vampire, and the Return of the Vampire with Bela Lugosi, then to Dracula, Prince of Darkness (love that title) with Christopher Lee, and Frankenstein with Peter and Christopher.

 Saturday is going to be an all-day fest with The Invisible Ray, Frankenstein (Boris) Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein.

On Sunday to lighten the mood we will start with Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Raven(1963) with Boris and Vincent, The House of Long Shadows and completely out of bounds finishing with Young Frankenstein.

It will be having a sort of open house for my family and friends to bring food and drink and it will start early to accommodate the length of the films and on Saturday and Sunday we’ll start it at 12 noon going well into the evening since it does lead into Memorial Weekend.

The whole idea is to comment on the films, the style, the performances, and also about our own inner darkness, although I know with the children who will come on the weekend it will be to watch movies and have fun.

Other folks might want to do it on the weekend with music by those groups mentioned above or do readings of Poe or other macabre authors.  Or do readings of articles that attempt to analyze the Goth sub-culture. 

In a way it would be a fun kick-off to the summer, a chance to do one last time to explore the darkness, before we plunge ourselves to the light of summer of beach parties and picnics,  of water slides and water balloon fights, of skimpy clothing and sun burn.    But in the night it can be of campfires and ghost stories about the Wendigo or the Ghost with one black eye and other things that go bump in the night.   In a way it’s like celebrating Halloween twice a year, or all year round.

If one looks one can find Gothic elements all around us, such as exploring cemeteries or old Ghost Towns,  photographing abandon buildings in black and white, the possibilities are endless you just have to use your imagination to explore that creative darkness.

So I will leave you dear darklings to your own planning.

Later Darklings

Of How about World Goth Week, our famous trio of terror~~~

Hello  Darklings,

Well my brother and his family are now south in the Santa Cruz area enjoying their Memorial weekend vacation, one of many that they are planning to take.   In a way I’m a little jealous, it would be nice to have a Gypsy Wagon to travel here and there, but we also have to be realistic.   But we know they arrived safely Thursday evening after taking the long route there to avoid the steep climb of Highway 17 which has destroyed more than one vehicle’s transmission.

I swear I think May should be World Goth Month or have at least World Goth Week from May 22 (which is World Goth Day) through the traditional Memorial Day May 31,  that way we can also encompass the three birthdays of our Three Gentlemen of Terror Peter Cushing, Vincent Prince and Christopher Lee as well as the date when “Dracula” was published for the first time and saw the ‘light of day’ in print.

It seems to make sense to me to do that.

I mean look at it May 22 World Goth Day

                         May 26 Peter Cushing’s Birthday

                            

 May 26  Dracula published 1897

                             

May 27  Vincent Price’s Birthday

                           

May 27  Christopher Lee’s Birthday

Followed by Memorial Day in the United States to remember those who fought for Freedom.

Of course Dracula by Stoker was not the first Vampire novel, that goes to John Polidori who wrote “The Vampyre”  based upon notes by Lord Byron although it was Polidori who introduced the concept of charm being deadly,  this was followed in the 1850’s by “Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood”  then in 1871 by Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”. but it was Stoker’s Dracula who  defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film, and television interpretations.

            This is the 1899 American edition of Dracula.

The novel ends 7 years later with Jonathan and Mina’s son listening to them recounting their adventures but a small section was removed from the original final chapter, in which Dracula's castle falls apart as he dies, hiding the fact that vampires were ever there.

It went as follows:

    “As we looked there came a terrible convulsion of the earth so that we seemed to rock to and fro and fell to our knees. At the same moment with a roar which seemed to shake the very heavens the whole castle and the rock and even the hill on which it stood seemed to rise into the air and scatter in fragments while a mighty cloud of black and yellow smoke volume on volume in rolling grandeur was shot upwards with inconceivable rapidity.

    Then there was a stillness in nature as the echoes of that thunderous report seemed to come as with the hollow boom of a thunder-clap - the long reverberating roll which seems as though the floors of heaven shook. Then down in a mighty ruin falling whence they rose came the fragments that had been tossed skywards in the cataclysm.

 

  From where we stood it seemed as though the one fierce volcano burst had satisfied the need of nature and that the castle and the structure of the hill had sunk again into the void. We were so appalled with the suddenness and the grandeur that we forgot to think of ourselves.”

    — Deleted excerpt from the original Dracula manuscript

Stoker was even considering giving the title of his manuscript “The Undead” but instead changed it to the name of his anti-hero.

                         Original manuscript by Stoker with original title.

 A nephew of Stoker did write a sequel to the original story, but it was not well received.    So it is fitting that the last full week of May at least should be considered at least World Goth Week and have some sort of celebration,  after all the First of May is kicked off with Walpurgis Night which is the 30^th of April or May Eve and that is when Witches and Evil things wander the land.

Sis, Doyle, Brian and I did our mini-celebration watching films that featured our favorite trio of Terror, and we are finishing it tonight with 3 movies tonight, Horror of Dracula, Madhouse and that sendup “House of the Long Shadows” which also includes John Carradine who also played Dracula at least twice.   Although this film was considered a disappointment by critics, it doesn’t matter to us, we are in it for the enjoyment and on this very warm evening we are going to watch it outside on the screen enclosed back porch while we are having ice cream for dessert.   But I also have on hand extra ice cream as well as soft drinks because I know our other neighbors are going to be peeking over the fence and want to join us and why not, the more the merrier I always say.

 

But next year I am going to carefully mark that week on my next Calendar perhaps even plan on doing a “Black Feast” for it and invited a few friends to dress up in their vampire or Goth best.   It is something worth planning for.  

And now I must go,  I have to make sure that Doyle and Brian place the T.V. screen in the right place.

Later Darklings 

       But I must confess Darklings my Heart belongs to Christopher Lee.