"I love the night.
I like it spooky.
Werewolves and their bites.
I like it spooky.
Skeletons laughing at your fright.
I like it spooky.
A black witch in green light.
I like it spooky."
-- God Module, "Spooky"

Stupid computers. So I had this entry all finished up and when I went to post it, my browser locked. Then crashed. Lost the whole post.

Here's try number two. With added frustration for flavoring.

So any of you who managed to make it out to Death Guild's Halloween celebration last night (10/31) probably don't need me to tell you how fucking amazing it was. Really, the only point in going into it is to rub salt into the wound for those that were unavailable.

Hand me the salt, please.

Seriously, to those that couldn't make it, you missed an awesome night. The Death Guild DJs tore the place up. And the people were packed in. This latter bit would have been a problem, had it not been so much fun to just stand there and check out the costumes.

For example: dread Cthulhu was in attendance.

This picture does not do Cthulhu justice by a long shot. Suffice to say, that most squamously tendril'd Great Old One was looking very dapper and posed not once, but twice, since my stupid phone doesn't have any storage space and deleted the first image (which looked a hell of a lot better than this one).

Hopefully, he doesn't come from the ocean depths and swallow me in retribution. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

So yeah, the costumes were truly amazing and so was most of the crowd.

After a few hours of dancing (during which, I might add, all of my song requests got played), we got another treat at midnight: a live rope-and-paint bondage-art performance by Tensei Sugahara, Japanese artist/model/designer/etc. (Thanks to the auspices of the folks at Synchro MG, who are organizing Tensei's tour).

As part of Tensei's performance, a number of lovely local models and dancers were fit to be tied (he he) and then splattered with paint (from both brushes and a paint-infused whip), including one of the darlings of the San Francisco scene: Mistress Fushia of the Visceral Vixens.

I did hear some complaints about the bondage not being "bondage-y" enough, but, I'll be honest, I think those folks were expecting a BDSM show and not a Bondage-As-One-Part-of-a-Full-Performance-Art-Piece. And seriously, folks. This is Death Guild. You want to see hardcore bondage? Go to Bondage-A-Go-Go. That's why it exists.

In my opinion (which all of you already know is the only opinion that matters), Tensei's work on stage was glorious, sultry, and sexy (and not just because of his gorgeous models). It had the feel of intensely intimate and beautifully deviant visual kei. And, as my acquaintance Ryan put it: "The ropes create a negative space for the paint. Awesome." Awesome, indeed.

I had planned on buying some of his work before bailing, but, like a goof (a really tired goof, I'll admit), I forgot until I was on the Bay Bridge on my way back to my hole.

The rest of the evening went swimmingly. I actually ran out of business cards for the site, which was a new experience. Met lots of new people, including the very charming DJ Femme Mystique. And hung out with many of other people I've had the pleasure to meet in the past. And I danced until my fucking legs ached and it was wondrous.

My only complaint (I know, I always seem to have at least one): as the wee hours of the morning came and the true goths and the Halloween crowd started to filter out, I started to notice a ring of uber-creepy guys that looked like the preppy detritus from some other club just standing around the edges leering at the women on the dance floor - like medical waste left behind from a rapidly dropping tide. They were really fucking gross and I wish they weren't there. Blech!

But besides that really disgusting display of humanity, the rest of the night was seriously fucking awesome. I stayed right up until the last song, then slipped out and got back to my bed well after 3 a.m.

Later this week, on both Friday and Saturday night (11/4 and 11/5, respectively), I'll be at Ariellah's ShadowDance, which is sounding more and more excellent every time I think about it. And then, the following Saturday (11/12), I'll be at Le Bal des Vampires, also in Oakland.

Hopefully I'll see some of you darklings out there.

-- Mr. M.

"Unable to fight it.
It's pulling tighter on the noose.
Pumping concrete through my veins.
No way to get out of these fucking chains."
-- Imperative Reaction, "Panic Cycle"

I had a busy weekend. Then I kept going out to do more stuff instead of staying in and writing a blog post as I intended.

Oh well. Here it is.

I finally got out to Die Maschinen back on Friday night. It was pretty cool, all-told.

It was a little strange, as I didn't get out to the Cat until after 11. But the place was fairly empty upon my arrival. Yet, by midnight, the numbers jumped about three-fold. Not as packed as, say, Dark Shadows, but still a fairly solid attendance.

My only complaint was, at one point while waiting for the slated performance, the DJ in the back room seemed to be playing some kind of meta-beat and jamming songs into that arrangement - so you couldn't really tell when one song was ending and another beginning... not that any of the pieces were fairly distinguished, themselves. So, as we waited for the coming performance, it just sort of dragged the energy down in the back room with unending beats that didn't even really inspire dancing.

Bad form, that.

Eventually Demodulate played in the back. Very danceable, which was good. Got some serious work out on the floor thanks to them, alongside my new acquaintances from DG last week: Collin, Amelia, and Pythos. On the other hand, I was under the impression that we were there for a Down Machine Down CD release party... Maybe a last moment cancellation?

So, I finally got back out to Solace on Saturday, after all these months of fate fucking with my time-table. So imagine my disappointment when I heard that Solace is going on a couple-month hiatus while Persephone and Darkmoon find a new venue. Turns out they've been having some problems with the Vagabond's new pricing scale which seems to fail to take into account the fact that the Ballroom is fairly small (ruling out large crowds entirely) and in a fairly questionable part of Oakland (further depressing attendance). Needless to say, very small events like Solace and fellow Ballroom events the Cell and (recently) Club Nocturne can't really afford a price-jack based on unreasonable expectations from the VB's commune-inhabitant/caretakers.

It's a shame, because the Vagabond is a very awesome space. But the fact is that they're basically pricing themselves out of the small venue market. And the event promoters talk with each other, so when one of those promoters finds another suitable venue for a better price, the VB crew are like to lose the majority of their events in one fell swoop.

Regardless, Solace was awesome, if a bit morose from the announcement of the expected and necessary changes. Persephone and Dark Moon sound like they're shooting for a January reboot. So let's keep our black-nailed little fingers crossed, shall we?

As to Death Guild... Well, it's fucking Death Guild. It was awesome, as always. I can't usually afford to go to DG as often as I'd like. Not because of expense, mind you. I just hate going to work the next morning feeling more undead than usual.

So for me to hit DG two weeks in a row was a bit unusual. Last week I was able to take Tuesday off to escape the issue of getting up and being functional. This week, though, I got a last minute birthday party summons (BTW: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIE!! Also, Happy B-Day to Tawny and all those other folks that were celebrating birthdays that night as well... Seriously, there were fucking birthdays everywhere on Monday), so I managed to swing a deal with my boss to show up to work really late so that I could actually get some sleep and a shower before being expected to actually work on Tuesday.

Anyway... A busy but awesome week, all told. A week that's continuing right into this coming weekend - I'll be checking out the Vespertine Circus on Friday night for their first show of the season (missing Dark Shadows this month, unfortunately) and the second instance of DJ Burning Skies' Club Nocturne on Saturday (Reverence is just a bit too far for me this week - in distance and expense - but I hope they have an AWESOME HALLOWEEN PARTY despite my absence), both at the Vagabond Ballroom (I know, first I complain, then I go to the very venue I'm bitching about).

It's going to be a very Oakland weekend.

-- Mr. M.

"Confusion in her eyes that says it all.
She's lost control."
-- Joy Division, "She's Lost Control"

So I had an excellent time at Death Guild last night. So awesome that I had to take drugs to stop the body ache from dancing and slept in until noon today (boy am I glad that I took the day off - because wouldn't that have been a bit awkward?).

I got to spend some time chatting with the very lovely Ariellah about her upcoming ShadowDance event (more on that in a second) and got to make the acquaintance of some other extrmely awesome folks as well. A small shout-out and thanks to each them: Jenny, Collin, and Amelia and Pythos - the latter pair were kind enough to invite me to Die Maschinen on Friday to watch Down Machine Down perform (which I'm hoping to take them up on).

With that said, I wanted to focus a little on some amazing upcoming events of a non-club nature that have caught my attention and fancy:

SHEVIL Dead (Oct. 15th, 21st, 28th, & 29th) -
All the cheap gimmicky gore and goofy humor of Evil Dead, only without a fourth wall to protect you from the blood-spatter. Oh, and an all-female cast. All brought to you by the Primitive Screwheads.
Promised to be a conglomeration of both of the first two Evil Dead films and Army of Darkness, it sounds like we're not getting Evil Dead: the Musical... which is a shame, because the songs from that are wicked fun.
Either way, though, it promises to be a radical mess and, just like the films, in very poor taste.
Doors open at Cell Space at 7pm and the shows start at 8.

Beetlejuice LIVE! (Oct. 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 28th, 29th, & 30th) -
I only found out about this last night at DG. Some folks were handing out flyers for an "underground theater performance". Well, I'm taking them public in order to provide a little support (I'm a jerk like that).
Based on Tim Burton's infamous (and everyone's favorite) bio-exorcist ghost with the most, I can only imagine the potential heighth and/or depth this performance can attain to.
But it looks like good (and likely very goofy) fun.
Friday and Saturday shows start at 10pm. Sunday shows at 3pm. The horrors will be happening at the Dark Room Theater.

ShadowDance (Nov. 4th & 5th) -
Ariellah's two-night-long love song to dark-themed performance art is set to occur at the beginning of November. The first evening will take place at the Vagabond Ballroom and the second at the Oakland Metro Opera House. At both venues, doors open at 8pm and the art begins around 9.
It promises to be an amazing, intense, and unforgettable event, populated as it is with a myriad of musicians, puppetteers, DJs, performance artists, and positive scads of beautiful dancers.
Follow the link for tickets and a list of the performers and vendors to be in attendance (as the list is far to impressive to go into here).

Le Bal des Vampires (Nov. 12th) -
Brought to us by PEERS, the Annual Bal des Vampires is set to take place in mid-November at the Alameda Elks Lodge and runs from 6:30 to Midnight.
Dress in your favorite anachronisms or as your favorite goth or vampire-related icon. Ballroom dancing upstairs and general "club" dancing downstairs. the Ball will feature musical performance by chamber ensemble Bangers & Mash in the ballroom and DJing downstairs by DarkMoon, and a half-time show provided by Le Theatre des Vampires.
Tickest MUST be purchased in advance. No sales at the door.

And that about sums it up for today, my darklings.

I'll probably be at Die Maschinen on Friday and, hopefully, Solace on Saturday, for those that care about such things and want to have a chat or buy me a drink.

-- Mr. M.

So, hopefully, the site will soon be up and running and people will be seeing this first blogpost before too much time elapses.

Hooray!

Some of you (especially the cybers) are probably asking: "Weebly? Really, dude?" Yeah. But it was easy, fast, fairly functional, and, most importantly at this juncture, free. If I manage to keep this up for any length of time, maybe I'll move on to a "real" webserver. But for now, Weebly will be the home of SFGothic.net. And you little gothlings will learn to like it.

Now, onto old news... specifically the news that made me want to start this site in the first place.

About a month ago, Death Guild, San Francisco's oldest goth night (at the ever-saucy DNA Lounge, no less) had it's 18th birthday (Awww... How sweet? Now she's old enough to date without going to jail!). Now, I missed the first night of celebrations unfortunately. And I couldn't make it to the club on Monday night either.

But on Tuesday night, March the 15th. Holy hell. On Tuesday night, I made time.

So, first up that evening was Panic Lift. Never heard their name before, but these boys from Jersey might be something to look out for in the future. Good energy, awesome performance, solid beat. My only complaint might be their front-man's over-reliance on voice distortion. I went ahead and picked up their album, Witness to Our Collapse, anyway. All around, they seem to hit all the Industrial notes solidly. They're not blazing any trails yet, but they're still a good listen.

Next up was the real reason I was there. You see, that same week was my 12th anniversary with my fiance. And she loves herself some Ayria (I'm rather fond of her myself). To say that the illustrious Ms. Parkin was awesome that evening would be an understatement of nigh epic proportion. She was beautiful. She was fashionable. She was high energy. She gave lots of love to the crowd.

And the most awesome part? Even though I shot her an email less than 36 hours before the show, she still managed to dedicate a song to my girl at my request (Blue Alice, in case you're wondering... Yes, we're weird). And to top it off? She totally let us go fan-monkey on her - she signed our copy of her Hearts For Bullets album, let us take lame phone-photos with her, and even wished us a happy 12th.

Now that's a lady with some class and love for her fans. I hope to see a lot more of her out on this side of the world in the future. If you read this, Ms. Parkin, thank you yet again for making that night super special!

Down at the bottom are some pics from her performance. See how awesome they look in their ridiculous blurriness? Now, imagine how cool it looked in real life!!!

You can't, huh? Well, I'm pretty sure that lack of imagination is a failing of you as a human being, evidenced by you not having been there in the first place. We'll have to discuss that another time, though.

Finally, to close the night out, we got hit with Imperative Reaction.

Now, I'd heard these guys a couple times on DigitalGunfire.com and liked what I'd heard. But, I'll be honest; when a bunch of pretty-faced goth-bois (Yes, I hate men that are prettier than me. No, I don't feel the need to explain why.) got on the stage, I was expecting the rest of the night to be a buzzkill.

Holy fuck was I wrong.

Despite their almost too pretty look, these gents played hard, heavy, and intense. With their guitar-heavy electro-industrial sound and some solid showmanship skills, they kept the energy in the DNA Lounge burning hot. If I hadn't already been so impressed by Ayria (and still slightly starstruck by her sheer coolness), I'd have been completely blown away by their performance. That said, I bought a couple of their albums on the spot and have added the remainder of their catalog to my wishlist for future acquisition.

Hard to argue against that sort of endorsement, really.

-- Mr. M.