Articles I love: January

• Katie Halper - For black americans, US is about as dangerous as Rwanda
• Sean Faye - Fashion Victims: In the fitting rooms with trans femmes
• Tayo Gesinde and Rita Okonoboh - What's in a lady's bag? The contents, the contentions
• Jo-Ann Furniss - Domesticity Deranged: The Interior World of Rick Owens

I've been reading some really good articles recently, interspersed with slaving over ethics applications and reminding myself how great Sandman is. Since coming home from the blessed tv and newspaper-free environment of my flat, conventional news platforms have been somewhat... jarring to return to, so I've been mostly looking off-grid for new perspectives as opposed to current events. Anyone who's been keeping track of my style and queer-culture interests know that I'm fascinated by femme identity, and it's probably even less surprising that I've been reading about Rick Owens like he's my teenage heartthrob. There's also some sobering statistics there too, so stay #woke.

Thus far the new year has started as a productive success, even with dissertation wobblers and the gradual realization that a month of merriment hasn't been quite so kind to my fitness levels. After some outside advice I've realized that, though not entirely my own fault, I need to be more aware of my own limitations as a researcher, and also get a move on. Deadlines wait for no one, bitch.

Has anyone else been reading anything interesting lately? How have your new years been going? Let me know below!



Fiona C.

Christmas Reading: Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture

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An early present for you readers - no sales, no fashion; a book.

We've just had the solstice, and Christmas is (somehow) tomorrow. For me anyway, winter feels like a time when everything sleeps; trees are bare, everything closes up for the season, and I hibernate. But like a cell's interphase, it's also a period of preparation, and development for the future - plenty of rest is needed, and maybe also some time to catch up on reading material.

Given the obvious pagan roots of Christmas, for those also planning on devouring some words one of my favourite queer feminist texts springs to mind; Arthur Evans' seminal 1978 text Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. Looking at the intersection of queer culture, witchcraft, feminism, and oppression through the centuries, Evans' work - though flawed, and now somewhat dated in its language - has had a massive impact on academic discourse regarding these areas, and yet is almost impossible to find. Luckily for you, some kind soul uploaded the entire text online for free, and it can be found in PDF form here.

Particularly with regards to the recent occult revival, I feel like this is an important book for anyone to read - pagan, queer, feminist, or historian alike. It's contains the history of the oppressed, so often ignored or smothered, and analyses the very prejudices and assumptions of its own contemporaries in anthropology and history. It's also extremely readable, and avoids the jargon and impenetrability of academia - and, most importantly, produces the kind of excitement you only get from learning to see the world with new eyes.

This year's holly piece.  

Merry Christmas, readers! Hope you're all nurturing your brains.






Fiona C

The Curious Professor's Homework Assignment: Inspiring Songs

First off, apologies for not having this up on time. I could talk about how I was seeing Fringe shows at the weekend, packing for university and working during for the week, but excuses aren't usually of interest to the reader and the reality is that the events of Ferguson really did a number on me. Anyway. Onto business.

Surprisingly, this was a really hard challenge for me. Despite being a great music enthusiast, I must admit something I'm very embarrassed about; I haven't listened to any new music in a long time. And I do mean a very long time.

New music is a very difficult thing for me; I take a long time to warm up to anything I haven't heard before, even if I eventually grow to love it. Added to that the overwhelming labyrinthian network of bands that's out there (which I'm apparently expected to know?), and it's just too much to do.

I find the term 'inspiring' very non-specific; inspiring for what? Swing dance? Swooping about in black lace? Joining an anarchist collective and shouting about the inequality in society? Different music affects so many different facets of my life, in many different ways. However, there are certain songs which affect me in ways others can't, and make me feel like something more, an escape from reality; this was one of the things that so enamoured me about post punk when I first began listening to it. Some of these are very typical hits, but hits are hits for a reason.

Track List
Bauhaus - She's in Parties
Kuuntele Ääniä - Kuudes TuntiJoy Division - 24 Hours
Sisters of mercy - Poison Door
Sex Beat - Sex Beat
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Into the Light
Joy Division - Disorder
The Damned - Smash it up


In reality, I could write an essay on each of these selections (maybe I will sometime?), and why they are so significant, but I'll let the songs speak for themselves. The chemistry of these songs really do inspire my appearance, mindset and mood. Within them, I can find a certain synergy within myself that I can't find solely through other means. My aspiration for next year is to have added more music to this list.

I hope that this selection awakens the same feelings in you - maybe not, because of the individuality of music, but these songs represent a large part of my psyche (sorry if that sounds pretentious). I may check the order later, but I'm tired currently and may have to wait until the morning. Good night, all!

What do you find makes a song personally affect you? Any song suggestions for a musical stagnate? Please do let me know!




Fee

Design: Zoetica Ebb and Alien Botany

Hortus Scarf.

I wouldn't normally re-share content I first saw on another blog, but I'm such distress that I simply have to. Haute Macabre recently published an article on Zoetica Ebb's (formerly of Coilhouse and many other beautiful projects) new foray into design, Alien Botany. And readers, these items are the most beautiful items of clothing I've ever seen.

Desiderium Leggings.

The exquisite agony I'm experiencing is only heightened by the fact that they're USA (not checked shipping) and my need to wait before buying anything new. And whilst I love the colour scheme she's chosen (combined with the subject matter, I can definitely get behind these pastels), I'm not certain how well it would fit into my all black wardrobe. Oh, and I can't own all of them.

Ah well. Beauty before sense, I suppose.




Fee



Art:Tangled Up in You

In a collaboration between sculptors Beth Cavener Stitcher and Alessandro Gallo, the exquisite balance of the predator/prey cycle is explored in the work Tangled Up In You. The fluid grace of the intertwined hare and snake, with their anthropomorphic eyes, is offset with the physicality and tension between them. Cavener Stitcher's work looks in depth at not only this sensuous violence, but the balance between humanity and the innate animal instinct within all of us. Nastia Voynovskaya described the work up as 'visceral', and I think it's the only word which could possibly sum up all of the feelings and emotions this piece provokes.

I've always struggled with the moral and ideological arguments for eating meat and animal products; my father consoled me as a child that the native Americans said a prayer of thanks for the animal they killed and used all parts of it (I suspect this is a massive over-generalisation of the different spiritualties practiced by varied tribes, but I love him all the same for trying to comfort me), and it's only now that I've accepted that as a viable option and come to terms with it.

Whilst I do support the vegan/vegetarian movement at large in its efforts to bring the treatment of animals to our attention (though organised veganism can be hellish and hypocritical in practice) I no longer feel that it is the way to go. The production and importation of meat substitutes isn't always better for the environment than locally produced meat, and veganism is intrinsically at odds with the natural cycle of birth and death, which I feel the interplay of sexuality and brutality in Cavener and Gallo's sculpture represents; things must die for others to survive, and that's going to happen whether there's chicken in my salad or not.


You can see more of Cavener Stitcher's work on her website here (I personally favour "The Adoration (from Van Eyck)"), and more photos of the production of this sculpture on High Fructose. If you're in Milwaukee, you can see Tangled Up in You on show in the Milwaukee Museum of Art.






Fee



All images in this post were sourced from High Fructose. I do not own the rights to any of the above images.

Design: Alien Facehugger Corset

As you can probably tell, I have a lot of love for geeky things. Though I love my sci fi, super heroes and science, I don't tend to adorn myself or my surroundings with them - partially because they often look rather incongruous when combined with my regular style, and also because they often look so... tacky. Memorabilia is often plastic and cheap looking, and are just replications of the motifs or characters designed to shout 'look at me and my pop culture tastes!'. I tend to like less obvious indicators of interests, such as the whisky glasses from Blade Runner, or items from a universe which is very design led (also pretty applicable to Blade Runner) as opposed to the standard merchandise.

Source.

When the symbols are used by someone who really appreciates design, however, that's another thing entirely. Well made, subtle (or, indeed, not so subtle) nods to our favourite cinema and books in luxurious materials and interpreted through the lens of a style or aesthetic.

Source.

So for that reason I decided to post the Alien Facehugger corset (made by Rage Custom Creations) so we could all sigh over it once again, and long for the perfect marriage of sexualised fashion and sexualised deadly xenomorphs.





Fee

Event: The Goblin King's Masquerade Ball

 

Property of Bonnie Makes Pictures.

The Date: Friday, 2nd May.

The Location: Bunker 51, London.

I've never been a fan of the Victorian tradition of the fairy; I was raised on old Scottish folk tales, where faeries might be strange and beautiful, but they would also steal children and if you spent too long in their hollows a hundred years might go by in the outside world. For that reason I'm more drawn to darker and less glittery adaptations of the little people, such as Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's The Spiderwick Chronicles or the 1980s film Labyrinth - and it is the latter which The Goblin King's Masquerade Ball is based upon.



Martin Soulstealer.

The Goblin King's Masquerade Ball is an annual event which has been running since 2010, where the beautiful and the grotesque come together for one night of masked debauchery. Naturally, the dress code leans towards the fey, and the guests truly do go all out, with prostheses, elaborate elven armour and artisan costuming all featuring.



Red Square Photography.

Previously held in the atmospheric Old Vic Tunnels, evening entertainments include immersive theatre, "promenade theatre, music, interactive creatures, puppetry, art installations, goblin markets and many other surprises", though nothing for this year has yet been announced. Previous features have included screenings of the cult film Troll Hunter, circus acts, cabaret and live music from Lovecraftian folk vaudeville bands (yes, that is correct). Tickets are on sale from the website, and the organisers have arranged for free transport from North Greenwich Station.



Martin Soulstealer.

Whilst I love living in Scotland and wouldn't trade it for the world, whenever I see events like this I feel a twinge of regret that I don't live closer to the UK's capital.





Fee

Music: Only Lovers Left Alive

Source.

Several weeks late, I finally went to see the Jim Jarmusch vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive this week; contrary to the mostly horror/paranormal foundations of the majority of vampire films, Jarmusch's film (starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston) ignores all tropes and is a quietly paced love story at heart. A love story like no other, as the many-thousand years old vampire couple Adam and Eve go through their life, showing us a brief snippet of their ageless existence.

I won't talk about the themes or the ingenuity of the film and aesthetics (the commentary on humanity's fragility, the stark contrast between how Eve and Adam relate to the human race - shown in their clothing and interiors - and how this shapes their attitudes), or the characterisation, or even how it deconstructs the genre, because that's been talked about many times before me. I will, however, talk about the music; I would probably love the film anyway because of the dream team combination of Swinton and Hiddleston, but it's the soundtrack that makes it for me.

Only Lovers Left Alive is, at heart, a film by a depressive music nerd for depressive music nerds. Music features prominently through the film, with a slowed down version of the dizzying Wanda Jackson's Funnel of Love starting the film off, and the two vampires dancing and listening to both snatches of 20th century and underground rock as well as classical and the Lebanese artist Yasmine Hamdan. Jim Jarmusch also includes music from his own band SQURL, which is full of heavy, intense noise walls and broken guitars. The gamer (who went to see the film with me) hates it, calling it terrible, new wave rubbish, but it's my catnip - the perfect soundtrack for an immortal brooding vampire couple.

You can buy the soundtrack here - also available on vinyl, which I desperately want - or listen to it on YouTube first here (I would recommend buying it and supporting independent cinema and artists, but the album doesn't feature all songs, and try before you buy is never a bad thing).




Fee

Cyberpunk Camoflage Make Up: CV Dazzle




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"CV Dazzle explores how fashion can be used as camouflage from face-detection technology, the first step in automated face recognition."

- CV Dazzle



One of my favourite things about cyberpunk is how the aesthetic and the practicalities of it intersect. CV Dazzle is a thesis project by Adam Harvey looking at just that, and how hair and make up styling can be used to evade facial detection cameras. It examines the impact of future facial detection software and information use, and describes the concept on its website, saying, 'CV Dazzle uses avant-garde hairstyling and makeup designs to break apart the continuity of a face. Since facial-recognition algorithms rely on the identification and spatial relationship of key facial features, like symmetry and tonal contours, one can block detection by creating an “anti-face”.'




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I first saw this project a year or two ago on tumblr, and it's fascinating how 'five minutes into the future' the whole thing feels, and how relevant it may become. The project is still ongoing, and since its creation in 2010 Harvey has done several collaborations with Wired, the New York Times and DIS Magazine to demonstrate the application of his work. For me, this is the heart of cyberpunk; how our life will change in the not so far away sci-fi future in a potential big brother world.


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 The project's website features advice for stylists wanting to create their own privacy retaining looks, and more information on the process of developing these looks and the software it was tested on.

Fee

Music: Kuudes Tunti

I really need to listen to more Scandanavian Post Punk. This is currently my favourite song, as it has so much energy and just makes you want to get up and go; I plan on pursuing the rest of Kuudes Tunti's album (and more Finnish goth!) to see if it's just as good.





Fee

Humors and Demeanors: Problem Glyphs by Eliza Gauger

"BOG WITCH / BOG BLESSING"

Some of you are probably familiar with the work of Eliza Gauger, or 3liza on tumblr, but if not she's an Oakland illustrator and fine artist of magnificent skill, known for her love of monsters and geek/alternative friendly art.

"TOADSTONE"

Gauger's current project Problem Glyphs (WARNING: some NSFW content, and potential triggers), based on her tumblr account, involves her designing individual glyphs in response to the problems sent in by her followers, ranging from someone finding it difficult to concentrate to people struggling with mental health issues and life decisions.

"TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR LIFE AFTER DEATH"

Gauger has declined describing the process by which she comes up with her glyphs, stating, "its a) boring and b) may hijack the personal interpretations of the other people who are using the glyphs". Based in both her knowledge of mythology and her own personal feelings and associations with both problem and imagery, she compares the method of the glyphs to tarot, but also points out the human aspect of the project -

"The other half of magic, and medicine, and witchcraft, is just knowing somebody is paying attention to your problem, and gives enough of a shit to try and help you with it."

A parallel project to provide every glyph with an accompanying poem is also being undertaken by Elias I. K. B., and the glyphs are categorized according to their humors (blood, milk, brine, honey and ink) and demeanours (febrile, fulsome, lucent, warlike and peregrine). Gauger refuses to turn down any request she receives, though at the time of publishing was unable to accept anymore due to a ginormous backlog - when requests are again open, however, she can be contacted at her personal tumblr.




Fee





All images property of Eliza Gauger, sourced from the Problem Glyphs Tumblr.
UPDATE - Gauger has recently put the Problem Glyphs project up on Patreon. Go check it out, and support if you can afford it!

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing: A Very Steampunk Christmas EP

Tired of generic sugar Christmas carols? Like dark humour, steampunk and snark? The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing's punky A Very Steampunk Christmas EP is right up your cobbled alleyway then, guv.

Though it was released in 2010, I finally got around to buying it and it didn't disappoint. Ebenezer's Carol should appeal to the cynics amongst you, and their rendition of Silent Night is anything but calm and bright. It can be found on iTunes, Soundcloud and Amazon.

I will warn you that it is very short (the EP is only four songs, one of which is thirty seconds), and if you're left wanting more I suggest you check out The Everyday Goth's Alternative Christmas Compilation here.

Have a great Christmas Eve, folks!


Fee

Music: Bauhaus 'Boys'

'Boys' is the lesser known B side of Bauhaus' first and most famous single 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'. I love it for two reasons - one, it's actually quite good, and two, as the top voted comment on the youtube video points out, it really shows how heavily they were influenced by Bowie, which is amusingly ironic considering the lyrics.

Fee

P.S. I may be feeling it, but I'm not dead. I didn't have the energy to get together a post about my dorm room for today, as my health has been poor, but I'll resurface from my cocoon like a butterfly, sticky, confused and suffering total amnesia, next posting day.
 

Music: I'm the Wild One

Don't mind me; I've just been listening to a lot of Suzi Quatro recently. ;)

The importance of Quatro in rock music cannot be overstated - she was the first female bass player to become a popular artist, and she opened the door to many more like her, including Joan Jett (who was heavily inspired by Quatro), Chrissie Hynde and many more. She is the spiritual grandmother of the Riot Grrl movement, and I could not love her more.

Fee



Punk's not dead - it just smells a bit: The Damned, Glasgow 2013

WARNING - This post features bad outfit photos and even worse camera phone stage photos, and goes into minute detail about and features some major fangasming over a fairly short gig by some aging punk rockers who now all have grey hair and beer bellies. Proceed at your own risk. ;)

Oh my god, you guys. Whilst most of you won't be aware of this, given most of my warbling was on facebook, but I went to see the Damned at the 02 ABC last night, and it was amaaaaaaazinggggg.

This is a slight deviation from my posting schedule, but I will probably start annoying people if I post anymore about it on the book of faces or gabble about it to my family, so where else to sigh about it than my blog?

West End Festival: Pick of the Month

The West End Festival has recently arrived in Glasgow, and I'm really looking forward to it! The Mardi Gras Parade (details in a previous post) was excellent, and there's a lot of other interesting events to come. I'd have posted about this sooner, but my internet's been doolally recently. Here's my pick of the month -

Literature, Art and Drama

• Hairy MacLairy & Friends (Thursday 13th June)
• Bard in the Park: Othello (various dates)
• Glasgow & The Clyde (various dates)

Culture

• Introduction to Buddhism and Meditation (Friday 14th June)
•  The 13th Japanese Matsuri (Saturday 15th June)
• Japan Fair! (Sunday 23rd June)
• Al-Furquan Mosque Open weekends (various dates)

Music

• Peter Murphy (Saturday 15th June)
• David Bowie Night (Saturday 15th June)
• The Shiverin' Sheikh's & The New Piccadillys (Thursday 27th June)
• The Retrospex (Sunday 30th June)

Other

• Waulking the Tweed
• Vintage Bus Service

I'd give a wee explanation as to why I chose each of them, but I'm running late and the West End Festival event pages for each of them will undoubtedly do so better than me. Ta ta for now!




Fee