It’s World Goth Day! At least, it still is, for the next roughly 30 minutes. I had told someone I felt suitably disenfranchised from the world to get in the right headspace for it. I didn’t see the reminder about the holiday until I got onto Instagram after work, while out to eat.
That part of the day was actually pretty nice, even if the restaurant had run out of three different things I had asked for. The server was so nice about all of it, and I reassured her it was okay, not her fault. They had three offerings at All You Can Eat, and were also featuring drinks involving whipped cream. The All You Can Eats came with Coleslaw, which ran out fast, along with the shrimp, I guess. The whipped cream? I don’t think they serve it on their desserts, but maybe the drink specials really took off.
Either way, our server did an AMAZING job taking care of us, and it was WONDERFUL being able to eat without having to make up my tacos after work, after finding out I would need to stay later than I had originally been scheduled. Yes, I could have pushed myself to make the tacos, but this was infinitely more enjoyable, and very much appreciated.
Hopefully, my avocados are still doing okay? I’ll check em in the morning. I can make tacos at my leisure. Day off. WOOHOO!
NOT TO MENTION… someone was kind enough to bring me a burger, fries, and pie for my break at work. I had been expecting drive-thru, but NO!!! Real, sit-down-restaurant-quality burger, complete with BIG pickle, onion, and tomato slices, and lettuce. Plenty of ketchup packets. Fries seasoned just right. And a slice of lemon meringue.
The day was not without its difficulty, but I was well-cared-for, for sure.
My photo but not my art– something gifted to me by a long-distance friend I made on a social networking website that has long since bit the dust. She did a great job, and I really love it. I think it captures my dualistic hippie/goth nature. And the wings are fun, since my last name is “angel” in German. That’s actually the whole reason I kept my married name post-divorce. And I thought it sounded nice with my first name.
Check how that portrait above fits the vibe of me here, albeit sans fishnets (though I do own some).
Photo of a photo, hence the slightly skewed perspective. Had to tilt the phone’s camera to avoid glare from the overhead light, on the reflective photo paper. But that’s me at 19, in a much-beloved kinda boho dress. When I tried it on, “My Michelle” by The Beatles came on. Literally as I was in the fitting room. I took that as a sign.
Also wearing the leather and chains bracelet I bought from an Australian selling jewelry in the London Underground. He was one of only two people I have ever met my whole life who had a condition where they have tears in their retinas, such that it appears their pupils are actually runny, and seem to move like liquid in a lava lamp. It’s quite hypnotic. I first noticed it on him, then again, on someone I met in Chicago, who explained the phenomenon.
This is what I looked like when I met the 24-year-old playboy musician, who I was definitely underprepared for… and who would later refer to my wilder past as “when you were goth.”
Does this look goth? I mean, maybe. I wore more black in those days, and when I came to my movie theater job dressed as a generic Elvira one year, everyone joked that I came as myself. Didn’t need a wig. Hair was already black and had been since I was 16.
BUT today:
Came home and immediately decided it was time to do SOMETHING involving The Undead. BUT, I wanted to first see what Spotify had lined up for me in Daylist. Dark Vampiric Thursday Night! I felt so seen. Covers and originals of songs from both Queen of the Damned and The Lost Boys, among other things.
My photo of something spotted around Halloween, somewhere or other. I can’t buy ALL the things that catch my eye, but I LOVE capturing them and sharing them, just to show all my peeps what I saw and liked.
I sent Goth Day greetings to three people tonight, one of them my kiddo. She told me part of what she loves so much about Sleep Token is that they have a gothy vibe that takes her back to her childhood, when I had the Queen of the Damned soundtrack on repeat– especially Deftones’ “Change (In the House of Flies).” She said that movie and soundtrack, and on the opposite end of the genre spectrum, the song “Malibu” by The Expendables, were both core childhood memories for her.
I was so delighted the first time she told me this and asked me who performed the version of “Malibu” I would play in the car (off my Malibu Mix CD), because there were too damned many songs called “Malibu” on Spotify, and she couldn’t find it.
The Expendables’ song drops one single, casual F-bomb that really blurs into the rest of the lyrics. Most of the words go by at such a fast clip, it’s easy to miss. So I don’t think THAT was so objectionable. But realistically, maybe she was a little young for Queen of the Damned.
That’s one of those movies I always think was only PG-13 (maybe because no nudity? just some occasional gore, and a lot of low-key sexuality), but was actually R.
Lil Snapchat fun, from the year I was the Winter Fairy, for Halloween. The gems I wore on my forehead, and the hints of glitter gel, really worked well with this particular filter. Even if David the vampire might object to any sparkly creatures of the night. I still think it looks pretty!
I have a smidge of 20/20 hindsight critiquing my parenting judgment. In fairness, however, I also went through a BIG span of years where I went from school –mine– working on either of my two degrees, to work, to full-time parenting, without any breaks in between. Either I had kiddo, I was in a classroom, or I was at work. I couldn’t get babysitting arranged for anything more, as I guess it seemed “frivolous.” And somehow even with all that going on, I still got my homework done. Wasn’t valedictorian, but my grades were pretty great. So yeah, I had to indulge in semi-adult-fun where and when I could.
That likely led to me bending standards of propriety about what we watched. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this here, but she and I also watched Sex and the City together, when she was young.
She may not remember that phase. There was an episode where Samantha’s neighbors were angry with her because she was bringing home too many rando men for nighttime escapades. She’d found an apartment in a rent-controlled building and was getting a GREAT deal, but she lived around a lot of nosy, older, judgmental people.
What’s funny is that a very young kiddo asked me why everyone was so mad at her. “Because they think she has too many boyfriends.” Without missing a beat, she answered, “I think she should get to have as many boyfriends as she wants.”
When I quoted this back to her as an adult, she said roughly, “Yeah, and I still think that, as long as everyone consents.”
Fun open-use image I found on Pexels, continuing the spooky vibes.
BUT she rebelled from the aspects of her upbringing where I gave her dating advice and became far more generous and much more loyal than I tend to be. I’m fiercely dedicated to my friends, and sometimes select romantic partners. It just takes a lot to get me there. Then again, the relationships that I stuck with the longest might have been the most unhealthy, so I’m not sure I can even gauge any of that accurately.
All I know is that for the time being, I am generally cool with flying solo. Kiddo teases that I am picky AF and terrible at compromising. Which is all true. Multiple therapists have backed me up, however, saying that if I don’t want to compromise just to become part of a couple, I really don’t have to. Which is pretty liberating.
Yes, I have moments of considering someone or other. There may even be situations where I suffer a disappointment and momentarily lose my sense of loving independence. But I bounce back relatively quickly.
Sometimes, I get bored and miss the thrill of an intense infatuation. I’ve questioned if I still have that kind of emotional range left in me, older and “wiser.” Then again, I do still fixate pantingly on fictional characters. Mine and other writers.’ Is it cocky to say you find your own characters intensely attractive? I hope not. Makes writing them MUCH more enjoyable.
Love me some Rock is Undead characters. Really, they’re ALL pretty delectable. Even my coworker, who has only heard generalized recaps of it in progress, has become attached to Dorian.
Maybe I’ll have to try my hand at rendering Kiefer Sutherland’s David. It would be fun to have my own reference for Dorian, that I could share, apart from maybe my photo of the poster I bought off Amazon, which may have been one of a kind? That, or it was almost sold out, when I found it. There was just one on there, when I added it to a wishlist, and I haven’t seen another like it anywhere online. Not even with reverse image searching.
WELL… as of having hit this point of the entry, World Goth Day has come to a close. So unless you’re somewhere behind my time zone, this will reach you late. Or maybe the following day, in any case, regardless.
Speaking of days, I double-checked my calculations on how many days left until Halloween. Google AI was WRONG!!! GASP! Imagine it!
Just a touch under 160 days, my time (the site I just checked also figures in hours and minutes, not just the date).
That one, I found on Pexels, but I did a more casual Mad Hatter costume, for one of the days of Halloween weekend, when I had to work (though I had the day of, off, because I’ve been requesting it for some time now).
I had an officially-licensed Mad Hatter hat, from the Depp version of the character, which I also wore when I worked at a video store, and we were doing pre-orders for the DVD. I ALSO took home a Mad Hatter standee, from that job. Not sure what became of him, but he lived with us for a bit. Now, it’s just me and Elvira. And the cat.
Not a super flattering angle, but I wanted to show a close-up of what I did with my eye makeup. I bought some cording, and strung three very busy scrunchies from it, from a multipack, to be like the ribbons on his shirt, and also got a variety of thread spools complete with thread, and strung them onto that rainbow-y ribbon you see.
Here’s the full ‘fit.
Some research… I noticed I shared it here before. But here it is again, in case you haven’t been following along for quite that long.
I still have that tie-dye shirt you see there. I think that Halloween, I wore it inside out, so the graphic of the Fender guitar wouldn’t show. It isn’t quite a crop top on me anymore since I’ve lost so much weight, but it does still fit– just differently.
The vest started its life as a jacket that had become too small. I cut the sleeves off and gave it one last chance at immortality. Figured it looked nice with the hat.
I’ve been self-conscious of my arms for awhile, and also was feeling the version of the Mad Hatter you see in those Tom Petty videos. That aesthetic. So, with some careful snipping, I turned a pair of “one size fits most” Halloween tights into sleeves.
That was the year I did three full costumes out and about, though I suppose the day of Halloween, I didn’t get out as much. That day turned out pretty chill. But I was a werewolf, and the Mad Hatter, at work, back-to-back days.
Did my own makeup with some help from a YouTube tutorial on an easy werewolf look, with some cosmetics I ordered from online, and some I had from past Halloweens. My white mascara from the Winter Fairy look definitely came in handy, for highlights in my facial “fur.”
Doesn’t look like I showed off my werewolf look here yet!!!
Whenever this finds you, I hope your “Goth-o-Ween” was uh-mazing.
If you let it pass you by, there’s always time left yet to play some Bauhaus and light some incense, smudge some eyeliner around your eyes, and such. Maybe burn a candle. Black or blood red. I suppose purple would do nicely, too.
I think there was some Bauhaus mixed in with everything else I listened to tonight?
Right now, it’s “Burnt Flowers Fallen” from Type O Negative. RIP Peter Steele.
I just remembered I also made a playlist that’s either entirely Bauhaus or darn close to it, called Meeting Some Other Kind of Madness. But I started with the Daylist tracks, then moved to my Dark Artistry list, after adding some of the new Daylist stuff to it.
Wow, I just opened it to have a look (the Bauhaus playlist… which is largely but not all Bauhaus), and there was a bunch of stuff from one of their best-of sort of studio session collections that I had on CD long ago… that was no longer available to play! I was able to find alternate versions of all of that.
Well, if you need a little Bauhaus in your life to set things right, here is an undeniable CLASSIC.
Bela Lugosi is still dead and undead.
There are even some loving references to this song in Lost Souls…
…which I think I’m gonna go read. Good way to cap off the night.
All the Bright and Sparkly Things 
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