Encyclopedia Gothica
Page 17
WESTGATE GALLERY Website dedicated to the art, literature and culture of Death personified, run by noted necrophile author/artist Leilah Wendell. Originating as a small press in New York City in the 1970s, made famous as the Westgate Museum of Necromancy in New Orleans (a.k.a. “The House of Death”) in the 1990s until its closure in 2005, Wendell’s ongoing Azrael project now lives online where one can find out everything you ever needed to know about Death. (And get your Gothic Tarot cards read while you’re at it.)
WEST MEMPHIS THREE Name given to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. The case has received considerable media attention and was the subject of two documentaries and the book Devil’s Knot, in which supporters of the WM3 argue they were not given a fair trial. Many questions surround the actions of the police, who bungled evidence gathering and targeted Echols, the town misfit, because he was rumoured to be a Satanist. Various “Free the West Memphis Three” campaigns have been spearheaded by activists and artists, with benefit CDs, concerts, art shows and the like helping to fund their legal defense. Whether the three are guilty remains to be convincingly proven or disproven, but the fact that Echols sits on death row awaiting lethal injection primarily for being a strange, depressed kid who wore black, listened to Goth and metal music and read STEPHEN KING books should be of particular concern for anyone who cares that dressing like a FREAK should not be confused for a crime.
WESTWOOD, VIVIENNE British fashion designer (née Vivienne Isabel Swire, b. April 8, 1941) and grand dame of punk rock style. (Also, as of 1992, an actual Dame.) An art school drop-out and former teacher, she met future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in 1965 and together they changed youth counterculture forever with the opening of their clothing shop at 430 King’s Road in London, known under various names over the years but none as infamous as SEX. Westwood combined her anglomania and love of classic tailoring with shocking style ripped from fetish wear to create the torn, tartan bondage look the world has come to associate with U.K. punks. Since then she has used everything from pirates, Blade Runner and Tudors for inspiration, and has been celebrated with an exhibit at the V & A MUSEUM. Despite her associations with ADAM ANT, SIOUXSIE SIOUX and the like, there’s nothing specifically Goth about her designs, with the wild colours and the political slogans. But for her outrageousness and extreme take on fashion, she is definitely a household name and much beloved.
WHITBY GOTHIC WEEKEND U.K. Goth festival held twice annually in the seaside town of Whitby, North Yorkshire (site of DRACULA’s abbey, no coincidence), and sometimes referred to as WGW or simply Whitby. Founded in 1994, and still organized by Jo Hampshire, it boasts top-notch musical acts, DJs, shopping and some more unconventional events, such as a charity soccer match. A more TRAD GOTH experience than, say, WAVE-GOTIK-TREFFEN, its FAQ requests “taste and decency” when it comes to dress code, and participants do tend to sport elaborate VICTORIAN ballgowns. You might want to pack a PARASOL.
WICCA A Neopagan religion of modern witchcraft whose worshippers are often mistaken for Goths (or worse, Satanists), probably because of their fondness for pentagrams, CLOAKS, magic, candles and the like. Some Goths do indeed practice wicca and some wiccans are in fact Goth, but they are not interchangeable.
WIG Abbreviation for “What is Goth?,” truly the philosophical question of our time.
WILLIAMS, ROZZ American musician (né Roger Alan Painter, 1963–1998) and Goth Martyr. In 1979, founded L.A. band CHRISTIAN DEATH, architect of California DEATH ROCK sound; the band’s 1982 debut Only Theatre of Pain remains an underground classic. When he left the band and it continued under the leadership of member VALOR KAND, the battlelines were drawn: Goths are vehemently loyal to one singer or the other. Williams also recorded as performance art project Premature Ejaculation and straight-up Goth act Shadow Project (with wife Eva O.). None of these made him rich, but his legacy was eternally secured on April 1, 1998, when he hung himself in his Hollywood apartment. Ashes rest at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles.
WILSON, TONY The man who brought JOY DIVISION to the world (1950–2007). For a dramatized account of his life as a TV personality and co-founder of FACTORY RECORDS, see the film 24 Hour Party People. Buried at Southern Cemetery, Cholton-cum-Hardy, Lancashire.
WINKLE PICKERS Shoe or boot with smooth, flat heel and an extremely, illogically pointed toe, sometimes referred to as “pikes.” First seen on male rock ’n’ rollers in the 1950s, developed into a stiletto heel for ladies in the 1960s and popularized by Goths of both genders in the 1980s with the addition of straps and buckles often featuring skulls or BATs. A TRAD GOTH wardrobe staple, despite the difficulty posed in climbing steps while wearing them. This term is primarily used in the U.K. See also: Buckle boots
WORLD GOTH DAY May 22, 2010, was declared a day for an organized celebration of Gothdom spearheaded by NIGHTBREED RADIO in the U.K. Proposed activities included requesting Goth songs on the radio, hosting special events, baking evil cupcakes, etc. In 2011, added World Goth Day Awards, an online vote honouring best musicians, clubs, shops, and more.
WUMPSKATE Goth/INDUSTRIAL roller skating night, open to all ages and held monthly in Los Angeles. Yes, that says roller skating. Name is a pun on the GERMANY electro/industrial band :wumpscut:.
X-TRA-X German retailer of clothing and lifestyle accessories, since 1981. With four massive retail outlets throughout the country that stock Trad, Cyber, Lolita and other styles, host fashion shows, band autograph signings and more, plus their extensive online store, probably the biggest pusher of Gothic apparel in Europe. The original HOT TOPIC, ÜBER-sized.
YARBRO, CHELSEA QUINN American author of historical horror (b. September 15, 1942), best known as creator of the Count Saint-Germain series. Starting with 1978’s Hôtel Transylvania, her more than two dozen novels re-imagine Saint-Germain (an actual shadowy occult figure from the past) as a VAMPIRE, then follow him around the world and through time, pitting him against everyone from the Incas to Ivan the Terrible. Along with ANNE RICE, Yarbro was one of the first to present vampires as heroic, sympathetic, romantic. Anyone can name-drop the Vampire LESTAT; for real GOTH POINTS, you read Yarbro.
YARNHEAD A person, usually CYBERGOTH, sporting a huge head of synthetic hair extensions, whether or not they are actually made from yarn. Derogatory.
ZILLO German magazine for Goth/electro/industrial/metal scene, launched in 1988 as a small zine (named for a club of the same name), now a glossy affair packed with the usual interviews and reviews with German and international acts and packaged with free sampler CDs. The comic strip “Dead,” by Markus Zysk and Nicole Scheriau, has become a popular brand of merch. The magazine has also organized its own open air music festival most summers, heavy on the Goth bands.
ZOLA JESUS American singer (née Nika Roza Danilova, b. April 11, 1989), new on the scene but already leader of the newest wave of twenty-first century Goths — and not just because she’s favourably compared to SIOUXSIE SIOUX and JOY DIVISION. A formally trained opera singer with killer vocal prowess, she composes atmospheric pop music with a sinister lyrical edge, enhanced by the use of stark, lo-fi, bedroom-quality production. So what if she’s sometimes blonde? Her 2009 debut album, The Spoils, is a must-listen for those Goths still up for musical discovery.
ZOMBIE, ROB American singer and filmmaker (né Robert Bartlen Cummings, b. January 12, 1965), a rock ’n’ roll star obsessed with horror movie monsters, who has given the world some groovy INDUSTRIAL metal riffs with his band White Zombie and on occasion some rather gothy homages. His biggest hit, “DRAGULA,” is an ode to THE MUNSTERS; his “Living Dead Girl” is your best choice for a Goth stripper song out there, with a video based on the silent classic spookshow The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Zombie may not be Goth himself (no beard that untamed allowed!) but he’s definitely your boogieman, ye-eeeaaaaaaah.
ZOMBIES Flesh-eating undead creatures of voodoo lore and modern horror movies w
ho have crawled out of the earth and taken over from VAMPIRES as the creatures everyone loves most. Public zombie walks, and even zombie car washes, popped up all around the world in the 2000s, a place for people to paint the town fake blood red. Well, dare I say, no matter how much we love the idea of a ghoulish uprising, there is nothing Goth about dirty finger nails and bad table manners. Can we all go back to dressing up in CLOAKS and FANGS, please?
13 Goth Places to See Before You Die
(or Afterwards)
13. Camden Market (London, U.K.)
Whether you’re Trad Goth, Cybergoth or Goth Loli, best hold on tight to your credit cards at this alternative shopping mecca. You’ll want to head straight to the zone called Stables Market, a former railway stables and horse hospital now lined with the most gothy of retailers ready to sell you the outfit of your dreams. Corsets at FairyGothmother. Poet shirts from Elizium. Neon alien-shaped dresses from Cyberdog. Elegant Victorian frocks from Sai Sai. And every kind of shoe or boot that ever stomped a dance floor. Sundays are the big day (the Electric Ballroom nightclub even opens an afternoon market), attracting tens of thousands, so even if you can’t afford to buy much, there is plenty of eye candy. Hit it now before it’s overrun with chain stores.
12. Whitby Gothic Weekend (Whitby, U.K.)
Now that you’ve purchased that long-dreamed-of, full-on Victorian ensemble at Camden Market, you need a place to wear it besides dark nightclubs with sticky floors. This Goth festival, located in a picturesque (read: touristy) town by the seaside five hours’ drive north from London, offers live performances from top-name bands but also downright quaint daytime activities, from falconry displays to Gothic sandcastle building. A fine place for Steampunk role play too.
11. Bat Bridge (Austin, U.S.)
The city of Austin, Texas, is home to the largest urban bat colony in America. At sunset each night from March to November, as many as 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats come streaming out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge and fly off into the night in search of food. And if you stand on the bridge, or under it, or near it, you can marvel as wave after wave of our favourite nocturnal creatures swoop overhead. For free. You don’t need to be a wildlife enthusiast or a cheapskate to know that’s one of the coolest things ever.
10. Bone Church (Kutná Hora, Czech Republic)
So you like skulls and bones, do you? Might even have a real specimen in your home, purchased from some legitimate medical science supplier or stolen from a grave at night? The gothiest übergoth in all of Gothdom has nothing on the men who, in the 1800s, decorated the Sedlec Ossuary, a.k.a. the Bone Church. About an hour outside of Prague in the town of Kutná Hora, beneath a Gothic church and surrounded by a cemetery lies a tiny chapel adorned with the remains of up to 70,000 dead — their exhumed bones arranged to form chandeliers, coats of arms and other such décor. Sadly, they don’t offer sleepovers.
9. St. Mark’s Place (New York City, U.S.)
With all the Big Apple has to offer, why can I not resist coming to the same street in the East Village on every trip? Because this small strip (actually 8th Avenue between Third Avenue and Avenue A) is where you’ll find the two-level shop Trash and Vaudeville, beacon of Goth and punk clothing. And while many of the other historic shops have long gone (Manic Panic, America’s first punk boutique, for one), replaced by Japanese bubble tea shops and outdoor sunglass stalls, there remains a high freak factor, a concentration of alternative culture so rarely found, even in urban centres. And Yaffa Café still rocks the kitschy décor and vegetarian yums 24/7.
8. Torture Garden (Various)
The fetish party to end all fetish parties, headquartered in London where it hosts its famed monthly events, but also spreading its latex-sheathed wings to other cities such as Tokyo, New York, Toronto and beyond. The most creative outfits, the most outrageous performance art and the most diverse crowd of beautiful pervs you’ll find anywhere. Halloween and New Year’s Eve have never been so shiny.
7. Highgate Cemetery (London, U.K.)
Any cemetery is worth a gander, a detour, a stroll through, of course. And one could argue that Paris’s Père Lachaise would be the most Goth-worthy. But this graveyard in North London is the only one with its own vampire. If you believe the local lore, in the 1970s vampire ghosts were seen haunting this place. And even if you don’t, it is the spot in Bram Stoker’s Dracula where Lucy Westenra rises from the dead, plus it was used as a filming spot for the Hammer horror picture Taste the Blood of Dracula. With all this connection to bloodsuckers, visitors may wish to keep their necks covered up. Or not!
6. Slimelight (London, U.K.)
Only Goths need apply at this famous warehouse nightclub. Seriously: it’s a members-only club that at one time had an application form questionnaire testing your Goth knowledge. And since the 1980s, it’s been spinning Goth, industrial and every subgenre derivation thereof every Saturday evening to Sunday morning. If you like to dance — or even just to stand and argue about whether the Trad Goth floor DJ is playing Trad enough Goth music — you simply must pop by. Dress up and make friends with a member heading inside who can sign you in.
5. French Quarter (New Orleans, U.S.)
Well, Anne Rice and Trent Reznor don’t live there anymore, so you can’t stalk their mansions. And Hurricane Katrina did do some major damage to the city. But no Goth will be bored wandering the French Quarter of New Orleans. Rather, you will no doubt run out of time to take in all the ghost tours, cemetery walks, voodoo shops, absinthe bars and the like. In 2010, local DJs launched the Southern Gothic festival, the first of its kind in NOLA. Don’t forget to tip the buskers; mimes gotta eat!
4. Bats Day at Disneyland (Anaheim, U.S.)
If you’ve always dreamed of going to Disneyland but the thought of spending the day in the hot California sun fills you with dread, why not go with people who will feel your pain — and not laugh at your parasol. At the annual Bats Day gathering, you’ll join a few thousand Goths who take over the amusement park with glee. You might still have to wait in line for hours to enter the Haunted Mansion ride, but at least there will be someone to lend you some SPF 50 if you run out.
3. Transylvania (Romania)
Hungry for a taste of “the real Dracula”? Romania’s tourism industry is banking you’ll want to visit the country’s historical sites connected to Vlad the Impaler, the Wallachian prince/warrior who allegedly inspired Bram Stoker’s vampire count. Indeed there are castles aplenty throughout the region’s Carpathian Mountains: the off-the-beaten track ruins of Poenari (“Dracula’s Castle”), the medieval fortress Castle Bran (“Dracula’s Castle”) and the Snagov monastery (“Dracula’s Tomb”). You can even rest your head at Dracula’s Castle Hotel. For the most fang for your buck, sign up with Dracula Tours’ Halloween weekend adventure.
2. Wave-Gotik-Treffen (Leipzig, Germany)
The world’s greatest gathering of Goths of all stripes. A horde of pasty-faced girls and boys from all over Europe and the world descend upon this city two hours drive south of Berlin each summer to eat, drink, dance and be merry watching hundreds of band performances, shopping and creating, if only for a few days, a kind of All-Goth State. They quite literally terraform the place with velvet and PVC and clove smokes. Picture Mardi Gras and then in place of jazz and drunken girls flashing their boobs insert EBM and boys wearing fishnets and deathhawks. From the most über to Babybats and recovering Elder Goths in jeans, everyone is welcome.
1. Catacombs (Paris, France)
Above the stone portal entrance, a warning: “Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort.” (“Stop, here lies the empire of death.”) What more of an invitation do you need? This subterranean ossuary beneath the streets of Paris is a dizzying maze of corridors pilled high with row upon row of skulls and bones. If being underground in a claustrophobic, dark space surrounded by human remains is on your bucket list, you won’t find a better spot.
LYRICS PERMISSIONS
BLACK PLANET
Words
and music by Andrew Eldritch and Wayne Hussey
Copyright © 1985 ELDRITCH BOULEVARD LTD. and UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING MGB LTD.
All rights for ELDRITCH BOULEVARD LTD. in the United States and Canada controlled and administered by UNIVERSAL – POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING, INC.
All rights for UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING MGB LTD. in the United States and Canada controlled and administered by UNIVERSAL MUSIC – MGB SONGS
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation
GOTH GIRLS IN THE CALIFORNIA SUN
Words and music by David Haskins
Copyright © 2002 Urbane Music
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Reprinted by permission of David Haskins
LIISA LADOUCEUR is a music and unpopular culture journalist, a poet, and a Goth. A former Goth zine publisher, she has examined the subculture for various newspapers and magazines and been called upon as a recognized expert on radio and television including MuchMusic, Newsworld, CTV and TVO. Her arts reporting has been published in Eye Weekly, National Post, THIS Magazine, BUST and Alternative Press and she has appeared regularly on MuchMoreMusic and CBC Radio. She is currently known as the Blood Spattered Guide music columnist for Rue Morgue, the world’s leading publication for horror in art and culture. Liisa lives in Toronto, Ontario, and still owns a hair crimper.
GARY PULLIN is the art director for Rue Morgue magazine, and his work can be seen at www.ghoulishgary.com. He lives in Toronto, ON.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the support of many colleagues and friends, and the writing on Goth that came before it.