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.  

Of family, updates and Poizin wine~~~

Hello Darklings,

I know, I know I have been a naughty girl not posting like I should but I have perfectly good excuse.

I’ve been busy.

See as simple as that I’ve been busy.   O.K. what have I been busy with?   Well working with the trust that was set up by my Great Aunt on the house to maintain the house and working with contractors to do what work needs to be done.

There were wooden parts to be duplicated and replaced, painting (a Major project), gutter replacement,  Thank Goodness we’re fine on the roof, re-leading the stain glass windows and putting a protective glass cover in front of them that doesn’t detract from the house,  and replacing broken glass on the Green House,  (it was an accident Darklings not vandalism),  and the only thing left is replacing and painting the balustrade on the front porch,  the carving has to be duplicated so it’s a lot of work. 

Then I can start to breathe a bit.

Mother’s Day was fun, we were at my brother’s house and he fired up the grill and made homage to the propane gods with burnt offerings,  it was pot luck really everyone bring their special dish,  and non-alcoholic beverages to drink  although it was cool and we were worried about rain we pretty much landed in my Brother’s Man Cave and ate picnic style and had a wonderful time.

I took my niece to see the ballet “Onegin”  the story was a bit sad for her but she understood why the young lady had to send Onegin away, she was completely entranced by the gracefulness of the ballet, it was completely different in story than the Nutcracker and she had a wonderful appreciation for it.   And I confess it was a treat for me as well.

Now my brother and his family are getting their RV ready for Memorial Weekend, they are going to take the long backward route to Scott’s Valley instead of dealing with the dangers of Highway 17, instead they are taking 101 to 129 to Watsonville, back up 1 to Santa Cruz, by taking that long convoluted route it will take them 4 hours at least but they are prepared for that.   I can understand, I’ve driven 17 and it’s a killer.    Then they can enjoy the civil war re-enactments at Felton and the Santa Cruz Beach and board walk, they’re towing their jeep behind them, Christopher and Coralline are looking forward to it, the twins too, they love loud noises.  

Am I going anywhere for memorial weekend?  No.  I’ve seen how insane it can get, no I will finally enjoy a bit of relaxation at home,  My Sister has a Spa date, really two Spa dates planned for us, at a local Spa resort, and it will include everything, mani-pedi’s, facials, massages, everything that is decadent I will not have to move a finger, I’m going to enjoy it!  

Right now we are suffering with a high wind, pollen blowing around leaves scattering here and there,  such a change after a couple of days of heat, which I think will be a precursor to the Summer that’s to come.   And the weather man is saying possible rain tomorrow, well that put’s question marks over my head.

And now Coralline is a bit worried, she is graduating from the 8^th grade into the 9^th grade high school, fortunately her brother will be in the 10^th grade and can give her guidance.  Some school districts have lower or Elementary, then Middle then High school but here Elementary and Middle are combined.   She’s growing up and she’s a bit worried, it’s a good thing she has a few girl friends who will be suffering the same growing pains as her but with Chris to help her, we think she’ll be fine.    Her grades have been excellent, her parents have been very happy for her, of course there is the possible dip in the grades due to adjustment but we think she’ll level out very quickly.  She is quite focused.   And fortunately she can continue the ballet classes as her P.E. alternative, which is good.    And August is going to be busy for her and her parents, Freshman orientation and all that.    In a way I’m glad I’m an Auntie.

I am finally no longer on  the back up list at my former employers, I’m now back on call, they finally hired a couple of permanent staff, I’m glad it has taken a burden off of me and can go back to enjoying retirement again.

There has been some sadness and excitement across the street, the police had been called twice to Crazy Son’s folks house, I heard that the Mother had passed away and also an Uncle, Crazy Son had been taken away in an EMT ambulance for 72 hour observation, what has been happening I’m not sure, but I’m sure eventually the sister will call me and let me know.  So for now it’s like watching a Soap Opera but waiting on pins and needles for the next installment.

My Gardener has been showing me catalogs of dark blooming plants,  some of them very exciting to behold, unfortunately it’s a little too late to buy and plant them but I’ve got them listed for next year,  I am going to have so much fun!   And he’s found a place that will do  skull cement edging, its special order but they look so fantastic,  there is one side of the house that gets very mossy, I can see them there with moss growing over them,  Ooooo I get chills thinking about it.

So I’ve got to get back on track with my Gothicness again, life has been keeping me busy.  I’ve been having fun stocking up on Armida’s Poizin Zinfandel wine I’ve gotten fond of it Let me explain the Technical aspects of it.  As Advertised it is a lush, delicious and "serious" wine but in a fun package! The nose is fruit driven with fresh plum, Bing cherry, spicy peppercorn and zinberry. The mouthfeel is soft with a hint of milk chocolate, sweet oak, and a long vanilla finish. The deep color and firm structure are enhanced by the addition of the Petite Sirah and the firm tannins softened by moderate oak.   As they say it is a “Wine to Die for.”   

I have it along with my Vampire Wine and a friend of mine gave me two bottles of a 2010 Merlot with the label on it that announces it as “Dracula’s Blood” it is imported from Romania through the Vampire Wine site

Another friend has given me again from Vampire Wines’  TRUEBLOOD Carneros Pinot Noir  this is described technically as artisan style pinot noir was made from 100% pinot noir grapes that were carefully picked by hand, sorted by hand and then carefully placed in French oak barrels for 15 months before bottling, resulting in an elegant wine.  Cherry, clove, brown sugar, warm spice, with floral accent aromas with cherry and vanilla flavors lead to a refreshing long finish of mixed berries.

I am still looking for other Gothic brews, perhaps even a cocktail mixture to add some “spice” to one’s summer’s night fest. 

Another friend has given me a CD of a Musical titled “Dracula Das Musical” unfortunately it’s all sung in German but the man who sings Dracula, Thomas Borchet has a wonderful Dramatic voice,  so I’ll be hunting on the internet for information and English translations to this.  Perhaps YouTube. 

Yes My Darklings I do have to get back into my Gothic Mode.  

And now to be more prosaic the timer went off on the crock pot so dinner is served. 

Later Darklings 

Of house maintenance, T.V. Shows and everything else~~~

Hello My Darklings,

I have been busy, I finally got the repairs and painting done to the house and I’ve commissioned someone to redo the lead work on the stain glass windows.

It was hard getting it done, we’d have dry days and then rain and then dry days and more rain but then we got a good break in the weather and I am so happy,  the windows will take a little longer because I have to put removable clear glass panes on hinges to be able to clean them but it will protect the stain glass from the weather.   And it will be worth it.

And my old job is keeping me busy, one of my former co-workers is out for some time it seems, for very aggressive cancer treatments, so I’ve been contracted to come back to work as a free-lance worker.  But it seems like I never left.

I only went in for a half day today, I said I needed a little time off, and I come home and I’m so tired that I can’t even lift my fingers to type.

However I’ve encountered some interesting young people and well I’d almost have to do an entire post on them,  I had never seen skin so pale on these young ladies that it sort of glows, and it puzzled me.  It’s almost as if they are imitating the looks of the actress on iZombie with ‘sparkling vampires’  we’re going to get together for lunch on Sunday, so it should prove to be interesting.

And speaking of interesting I had a chance to see “Blacklist” last night and it was a very emotionally reveling episode, I kept having the feeling that she was a ghost in a way, especially when she called him by name, and there still was a bit of humor when Reddington came in and showed that he had to ‘kill a kite’ that was threatening to murder them.   It was such a departure from their usual episodes which makes me feel the possibility of a few more unusual ones to sort of break out of the mold for the show.

And don’t get me going about “Lucifer”!!!   I Love the whole premise of this show and the ‘tongue in cheek’ humor with it, the last episode where Lucifer says “What is this about goats!  I don’t even like their cheese!”   And Tom Ellis!  Well I don’t know if he’s everyone’s type but if I was 30 years younger I’d rip off his clothes, throw him on my bed, tie him to my bedposts and have my wicked way with him!!  Heck I’d do it now!

But don’t tell Doyle.

My niece and nephews were happy to have a Spring Break and Easter dinner was a very nice and relaxed affair, but it seems that both Coralline and Christopher are doing extra assignments for their respective classes and the twins have discovered soccer.  And it seems that both my brother and sister in law are a lot happier with it as oppose to (I have to say it) American Football, at least as a semi-contact sport for the twins, in a way I can understand my sister in laws concern especially with head trauma, so hopefully this will work out much better.

And Coralline is concerned she is going to be a freshman in high school next school year, the 9^th grade, she feels she may need to put away childish things and I told her not everything, I feel sorry for her growing up is hard for her, it’s like 3 steps forward and 2 back but she has a few friends and she’s enjoying her ballet exercise classes, already I can see her moving far more gracefully,  I informed her that I’m getting tickets to see the San Francisco’s ballet production of “Onegin” I think I want her to see something besides the “Nutcracker”. 

Am I doing anything new to the garden? Well I’ve been having fun finding very dark plants and blubs with tulips and Irises but the heavy rains did pretty much drown most of the garden, so my gardener has been doing yeoman duty to get it ship shape, but we can’t do much with the plantings close to the house, because of the work being done on the house.   But my gardener suggested that we plant a climbing Jasmine at the back of the garden behind the pet cemetery, and have the scent drift through the yard especially at night.

And we’ve had a sad event happen,  Crazy’s son’s Mother passed away from lymphatic cancer, she was 81, poor thing.  But now Crazy goes to the hospital where she died and goes to the business office claiming that the hospital killed him mother, they put a restraining order on him.  So now he goes to the corner when the “fit” it upon him and yells to everyone to not go to “such and such hospital” because they kill you there,  his family have called the police to have them come and talk to him and then try to get him to take his meds.   I was very sad for the family Crazy’s sister came over to talk to me about what is happening to him, and now we don’t know what he’ll do, I suggested grinding up his medication and putting it into chocolate pudding like those pudding cups she said she’ll try tapioca because of those tapioca beads, easier to disguise I guess.   I hope it works for them.

And I can’t even keep up with all the strangeness that’s been happening here in the Bay Area, it’s been too much 4/20 with pot smoking, Chyna and Prince and Doris Rodgers passing away and now Earth Day.  I’m beginning to wonder what is normal or what passes for normal now a days.

My sister thinks we need a spa weekend, and she’s booking one at the Claremont Resort, yes a bit pricey but we are going to spend 4 days and 3 nights there, and just relax.   And I’m looking forward to it.   I’m hoping that at my old job they will bring in someone else to pick up part of the load, that way I won’t feel so tired.

I and my sister did have fun this last weekend at the Friends of the Library Book Sale, I found a number of music CD’s that I’ve been happy to get, and some really good murder mysteries, and an odd book titled “Spook: Science Tackles the After Life”  by Mary Roach, it’s a perfect companion to “Stiff: the curious life of human cadavers” and in perfect condition too.  Oddly enough over in the Fantasy section was a lot of Vampire Romances,  I picked up a few just to see what they are all about one is titled “Nocturne” and another is about the journals of Minna Harker, telling the Dracula story from her point of view. 

Sis of course found some interesting historical works including a book about Social etiquette circa 1900 which should be interesting for the both of us to read,  Doyle was having fun finding westerns.   Then afterwards we picked up dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  My brother and sister in law were going to take the children on Saturday instead of Preview night avoid the frenzy says my brother, he just doesn’t know the art of the hunt for a good book find. 

And now the timer has gone off on the crock pot, dinner is ready, I just have to cook up the rice,  and we will relax Doyle and I with a bottle of wind called “Poizon”  I’ll let you know what I think of it. 

Later Darklings.  

                                    Oh he looks so Cute!!!    The dog is cute too.

Of Easter and Families and other things~~~

Hello My Darklings,

Well I'm finally posting on my blog again.

I have to admit it has been a hectic crazy period, and I'm finally coming up for air.

Poor Coralline she didn't do too well with her wisdom teeth being removed, the first weekend to remove the lower ones wasn't too bad.  

But the next week to remove her uppers was just awful,  she was out of school not only for the weekend but for a few days after as well.   And it appears that she has an enzyme problem, she lacks enough of a particular enzyme to throw off depressants efficiently.   They had a hard time waking her up.

So while she was recovering we periodically had to shake her awake to make sure she would be o.k. 

My sister suggested that she be tested and it was confirmed that she has this deficiency, so now she has to wear a medic alert bracelet and its on her medical records.  And she missed a few school days so she has to use her Spring break to make up her assignments.

Needless to say it was rough on her, she doing fine now, she just grumbles a bit about the home work.

I've been busy too, because of the holidays and at my old place of employment they are short staffed, so I've been called in alot to cover "holes in the schedule"  I don't mind really, but when the BART trains started short circuiting and we had to take bus bridges, well I had to take the Bus to work, not easy really, but if I had to work late Doyle could pick me up. 

And while the sun shines I've been having repair work done on the house to replace some important filigree work and such, but the painting is going to have to wait until we have a very clear window of sun.

Easter dinner will be at my brother's house, but it's a bit of pot luck, everyone bringing something to the table, in a way it reminds me of the story of "Stone Soup", a lovely fun tale about how everyone can work together to not go hungry.

I am looking forward to it.  

I've not had much chance to see any new and delightful Gothic things but I have to admit I'm hooked on "Lucifer"  and Tom Ellis well I wouldn't mind seeing him striped to his tidy whities,  but don't tell Doyle.   But I think the latest episode "A priest walks into a bar..." did give some thought on spirituality and faith,  and the fallen angel burning his wings?   I do hope the series gets renewed.

I'm still having fun with "Sleepy Hollow" and all the Revolutionary War references and Crane still getting use to the 21st century, Tom Mison does a wonderful job as the 18th century man in a 21st century world and the entire cast works wonderfully together.

Believe it or not my Darklings I'm finally catching up to "American Horror Story" and I started with the first season, yes I had to buy it, no I do not down load HULU or NET Flicks, I'm still an "old-fashioned girl" but the writers do not leave you bored that you almost have to deliberately tear yourself away from putting another disc in to see the next chapter, otherwise you'll never get to sleep.

Will I be going on my wine tour come this Fall?  I'm not sure, with so much work to do on the house I don't think so, but then we'll see.

There has been some bizarre things happening of late in the Bay Area, long dead bodies or skulls turning up here and there as well as body parts in the marshes at the southern end of the bay, I think El Nino rains have been uncovering that which has been hidden too long.

And I'm afraid that the shifting to Daylight Savings time has not translated well to Belladonna and Wiener Dog,  their time schedule is all mixed up because I think they really go by the sun so they think we are in bed too long,  and we really can't argue with them, especially if we don't want accidents in the house.

Christopher my nephew has told me that there are a couple of boys in his class, who want to do the all dress in black and do the "Goth thing" during the Summer months, in a way he likes them because they are excellent creative writers and get good grades, they are not anti-social but he's puzzled by this wanting to "try out" the "Goth Thing"  he thinks they haven't a clue what it's all about, when he told me I just sighed and said "baby bats" he said he like to bring them around to my house when I'm home just to talk about literature and such, oh if they only knew what they are in for.

So I said if their parents don't mind and Chris's parents don't mind fine, we'll set up a time.  Well I'm curious anyway as to what these young minds think is Goth, and most likely do not have a clue.

Well need to go, my sister is here and is going to treat me to dinner, Doyle says he'll stay home with the dogs, he senses that it's a girls night out anyway. 

Later Darklings