Goth Fashion

What's the first retail store you think of when you hear "goth fashion"? I'll give you a hint, look to your left. Hot Topic, right? Well, believe it or not, most goths hate Hot Topic these days. If you take a look even in their online stores, you won't find too many things that smack of gothic-wear there. O.K. they still have the traditional, old school shirts and other merchandise that has things like Invader Zim and other old Nickelodean cartoons, those are cool. But more often than not, the main interest is going to be on Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga and Twilight. *Insert gagging noises here at the mention of all three.* More often than not, goths hate these things for the sheer reason that they are annoying and way too over-hyped as well as unoriginal. Don't get me wrong, you can still find some decent stuff at Hot Topic, but their good stuff pretty much went out once the "skinny jean" fad started taking over.
So at this point you might be asking yourself, "If I can't find good gothic clothes at Hot Topic, then where can I go?" Not to worry, there are still plenty of places you can go, and a lot of them are pretty affordable. If you're looking specifically looking for Tripp pants (Tripp is actually the brand name) short of doing a search on ebay for them, I'd recommend the online store provided by Vampirefreaks. You're a lot more likely to find the good old-fashioned goth-wear from the 90's here. For those who have a problem with cursing, I warn you ahead of time about the name of the store, but please don't let that deter you from all the great stuff they have.
If you don't mind paying a little extra for clothes that are going to last you forever, go on over to an online store called Dracinabox. This is a store based in the UK, thus why everything shows up in Euros instead of dollars. The clothing here is a bit more elegantly based, but they still have your basic shirts and pants to order.
To be honest, you can find gothic clothing almost anywhere you go. Want to know why? There's really no rules about how to dress gothic. I mean yeah, black and red and purple are pretty much essential colors in a goth's wardrobe, but whatever you like to wear, wear it. I've found stuff in shops like Charlotte Russe that I like to wear, the instances may be few and far between but it nonetheless still happens. Goths are interesting in wearing clothes that they are comfortable in and that last a long time. Thus explains the Tripp pants since they offer plenty of room or your legs and last for years. Whether they're the latest fad or the oldest and most outdated thing you've ever seen, if we like it we'll wear it.

Black Swan

Don't let the name of this movie fool you, this is the creepiest non-horror movie ever. This being so, I feel obliged to dedicate a blog to it and give a standing ovation to Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (the voice of Meg Griffin from Family Guy). I just saw this for the second time on Thursday night and it was just as good the second time around. This "drama" film has more cringe-inducing moments than the vast majority of horror films that have come out recently.
Essentially the idea of the movie is a rising ballerina, Nina (Portman) is anxious to have her career progress. Her opportunity comes when her director decides to redo Swan Lake. The biggest challenge he can present to all the ballerinas is a double-role. Whoever is chosen for the lead role must be able to embody the pure and fragile White Swan as well as her evil and lustful twin the Black Swan. When Nina is chosen to portray both she is ecstatic, easily able to portray the virginal White Swan. But the pressure starts to build when she has trouble channeling the Black Swan and another ballerina, Lily (Kunis), catches the director's eye for the role of the Black Swan. Between her overbearing mother and the need to step out of her comfort zone, Nina's mind begins to collapse.
Trust me, see it once and you'll never forget it, partially because of a hot little scene between Nina and Lily, but I'm not going to give away the details. You'll just have to wait and see for yourself.

Gothic Barbie Dolls

I was alerted to these toys thanks to Kaylie. Back in the blog about the Vamplets and Skelanimals, she commented on finding these dolls called The Monster High Dolls, which were "the thing to have" over the Christmas season, and even have their own site dedicated to them. This caused me to dig around a little bit further and to my surprise I actually not only found the Monster High Dolls (top right) but when I did a search for "goth Barbie" I actually found gothic Barbie dolls. The punk-rocker Barbie that you see below is part of the Barbie Gold Label Collection, which is selling for anywhere between $70.00-$80.00. Digging even more, I found other "Goth" Barbie dolls. Just by doing a simple image search on google, you come up with dolls that are downright scary. Now, I have to admit, the punk-rocker-Hard-Rock-Cafe Barbie does look pretty cool, but I honestly don't know how to react to these things. I mean, yeah it's a great step forward that things that are well-known in the mainstream are reaching beyond normals borders and picking up on things that used to be strictly left in the underground. But at the same time I have to ask myself "Is this necessarily the best way to go about it?" I mean, the punk-rock Barbie is only available to a limited few (a.k.a. people who have money to throw away on dolls) and isn't really targeted towards kids at all. It's meant to stay perfectly packaged up and on a shelf. Not that I ever understood the concept of having dolls you can't play with in the first place anyway. But even with the Monster High Dolls, it still gives a skewed perception of the goth world. Goths don't go around every day dressing like that and most definitely aren't going to wear super-low-cut shirts and skimpy shorts and skirts. Maybe I'm just not savvy enough about the toy-industry today, but that's not exactly the image I would personally want portrayed about a lifestyle I've lived for almost half my life. But it's like I said, it's one of those instances where you have to say, "I appreciate the effort and all, but this isn't the best way to go about it. Could you go back to the drawing board and come up with something a little more realistic?" What do you guys think?

Gothic Lolita

This is probably something that even most under-grounders haven't heard of. Reason being because it originates in Japan. Yeah, who would've thought that something like the underground world would have even spread across the world all the way to a place like Japan? Essentially the whole aim of the lolita style is to look like something close to a porcelain doll. This is definitely not easy to accomplish. I've dressed in gothic lolita style before and its a pain. But the outcome, if you do it right, is so worth it. Lolita involves a lot of ribbons and bows and fluffy skirts. If you're going gothic with it, just change the colors from things like pink and yellow to red, purple, white, and black. You also can add in some radical looking shoes as well as a corset if you so wish. And cute stuffed toys are always a must, especially gloomy bears. For my own gothic lolita outfit I chose to wear the corset and a little hat that clipped into my hair with a veil. Another essential to gothic lolita especially, is the make-up. I found a site that has great tips for making your skin look porcelain-doll smooth and flawless as well as hair and make-up pointers. (The skin tips are good even if you aren't doing lolita and just want to have a great complexion) For some great dresses, gothic or otherwise, a good site to go to is Milanoo. They have all kinds of different styles and the prices are pretty affordable in comparison with most other costumes and similar designs. They even give you the option of custom-sizing so that way the dress you pick forms to your shape the best. Just be warned that their processing time can take up to a month, so give yourself plenty of time before the event you want to wear it to.

Band Spotlight: The Crüxshadows

Another band that is completely addicting once you start listening to them. The Crüxshadows are definitely not metal but are definitely alternative. I guess they could technically be considered techno, but there's so much going on with their music it's impossible to pin them down with a single label. They were first formed down in Florida in 1992 with help from their singer Rogue (pale guy with the awesome dreads). Since then they have released ten full albums and almost as many EP's and singles. Their list of band members over the years is longer than my arm so you can go here for the full view. Possibly one of the coolest things about their music are the lyrics. Rogue is very easy to understand when he sings and has such a unique voice it gives you the chills at certain points, like when he does a reading of "Annabel Lee" on the final track of Paradox Addendum. The lyrics focus a lot on Egyptian and Greek mythology and even the ones that don't are pretty much unforgettable.
Another awesome aspect of this band is seeing them in concert. I've seen the play before a couple years ago when Pegasus was still open, and it was amazing. For those who don't know, Pegasus was a small club before it closed, and if you get to see The Crüxshadows in any setting, I would recommend a club or a similar setting. The reason? The band actually goes out into the crowd as they play, and not just Rogue, even their violinist got up onto the bar table and played from there. Rogue started out the performance by wading through the crowd and even danced with the fans while singing. Not to mention they're all really nice and super cool people. Here's a little link to their site for merchandise and more. For now, sample some of their music below.

Nightmare Before Christmas

This is the one movie that no under-grounder can do without. Even though the movie was first released in theaters back when I was around the age of five or six, it still gains attention to this day. New releases or enhanced releases come out every couple years, and there's always an upsurge in Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise around Christmas and Halloween. Why is the movie still so popular among the alternative world today? I honestly have no clue.
For those who've never seen this movie, or haven't watched it in so long they forgot about it, it's a story of the holidays gone wrong. In Tim Burton's world, each holiday has their own different world to live in and celebrate their holidays. Jack, the Pumpkin King of the Halloween-world, is getting tired of the same thing year after year and starts looking for a way to switch things up. Unfortunately for Santa Claus, Jack chooses Christmas to experiment with. From there, the holiday gets turned upside down and it's up to Jack to rescue Santa and his long-time admirer, the adorable rag-doll Sally, from the insidious Oogey Boogeyman.
Possibly one of the best qualities of this film is that it shows how boring a "normal" life can be. While the holiday worlds are depicted as fun and exciting, the Human world is relatively dull until Jack starts bringing his own bit of holiday cheer to all the good little boys and girls. Although his attempts are good-natured, they are ultimately misunderstood by the "normal" world as well as the holidays worlds, even his own. Jack is the perfect example of the typical under-grounder. He thinks outside the box and sees the world differently than others, but he has a hard time explaining himself to those around him and winds up being seen as something negative when he meant no harm. The combination of that and the subtle love-story between Jack and Sally, the ultimate goth romance, keeps bringing the underground world back to Tim Burton's vision.

Horror Flicks

Horror movies are one of the favorite pastimes of the underground world. Now the normal reactions we have to horror movies (at least the good ones) aren't like most other peoples' reactions. We tend to laugh hysterically when the villain or monster shreds someone. I'm not exception to this. I find blood, guts, and gore in film awesome and entertaining. But in order to have a good film, you can't just have the gore-factor, which is all most modern horror movies have. That and a lot of unneeded sex scenes. O.K. a sex scene here and there can be entertaining and sometimes funny, especially when the monster decides to appear right at that moment and mutilate the unsuspecting lovers. But honestly, sex scenes are boring when placed next to a great villain, such as Jason, Michael Myers, and Mr. Freddy Kreuger here (my favorite villain of all time). That the overly-used gore factor in the new horror movies just doesn't cut it for the horror-lovers anymore. You have to add in suspense and thrill and a good plot-line. If there's no good plot-line, you can kiss your ratings and ticket sales goodbye. Horror directors these days need to go back to the basics, like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. This is going to be weird to say, but I find horror flicks from the 80's and before freakier than horror movies today, partially because of how the guts and gore were designed. There's just something about how gritty and disgusting they made everything instead of these sleek gore scenes they have today. An exception to this rash of bad horror movies is Silent Hill. Based on the video game series, this movie has some of the coolest and creepiest creatures you're likely to see as well as a pretty decent plot. Another exception is the remake of Halloween, directed by Rob Zombie. Hard to believe isn't it? That a remake of an originally kick-ass horror flick can actually be good. But it's true.