Christmas (with pictures from my sister.)

Christmas eh. Ah yes Crimbo. Well after not going to bed until about three in the morning on Xmas Eve I was awoken by one of my sisters coming in to my room to say that we were going to open the presents...about nine o'clock. Exhaust-a-mundo. After being taken away from slumber I had to wait to open the presents until my Nan got to the house...and after a half hour my brother and my Nan came through the front door and the tearing could begin.
Here is one of my presents...

This is chutney with a load of garlic thrown in to it. I had a little and it wasn't half hot (I ate it with some cheese and biscuits at the end of the meal and it tasted divine dude or darling.)
The presents that I interacted throughout the day most with was my new attire, my two new books (M.R James short stories and an early American writer who lived in the late 1700's whose life intrigued me) and chocolate which I only touched with my mouth in order to consume it.
Here is my clothes and top hat that I was given...

Also do you remember in a previous blog that I went home in about early December (a few posts ago) to see my dad play someone in a small little musical from my two sisters old dance group...and that my dad wore a fake beard.........well here is that beard!

We also ate a tasty meal...

...and gave each other head locks in pictures.

Here are some more pictures that some people of my family won't frown about me putting on my blog.

What the tree?

Seasons greeting to all.
Over and Out.
ED

P.S---This is my 50th blog post. Woo hoo yup yup!

Lights.

When I saw this BBC session of Interpol performing their song Lights I couldn't not share it. I am absolutely dedicated to their cause.
Oh yeah and happy Christmas Eve to all.



Over and Out.
ED.

True Blood.

I think by now everybody knows my view on what vampires should be like if you have been reading my blogs or have been (putting up with) listening to my ramblings.
There are many shows depicting vampires nowdays such as; Moonlight, The Vampire Diaries, Being Human (which is probably the best of the lot...and not just because it is a British production) and True Blood. I have only ever watched one episode of Moonlight and that was it with the American shows. I have the first season of Being Human on DVD and I have watched the second series of that show... edgy but sometimes a bit too serious by the way.
I began to feel that I should watch one of the American shows and put my views to the test so to speak. I began with watching a few clips on youtube of True Blood. The humour is good, everyone has nice Mississippi southern accents (everyone knows that they are the best yank accents) and by the looks of it it seemed decent and entertaining enough to intrigue me.
The next thing I did was to go on wikipedia and find out about what is going on with the storyline.

For season one it said;
--- "The main mystery of the first season concerns the murders of women connected to Sookie's brother."
Wow, a death or two is involved, it's the first time in ages that I have heard modern vampires doing what they should be doing and actually killing someone every once in a while.

For season two it said;
---"Season two focuses on two main plots – in the first, the disappearance of the 2,000-year old vampire Sheriff of Area 9, Godric, causes Eric to enlist Sookie and Bill's aid in finding the ancient vampire in Dallas. Their paths cross Jason's as he seeks to discover meaning in his life with the Fellowship of the Sun, a church dedicated to anti-vampire activities."
Wow I thought...this is intriging me. I shall read about the third season forthwith.

This was the pivitol point in my making up my mind of whether I should give this show a try. I began to read about season three. It said about the introduction of lycanthropes into the show...which is fair enough. I was just excited enough to think that this might be a show for me until I read this;
"and Sookie's fairy godmother, Claudine. Sookie's heritage as part fairy is also revealed later in the season, a major plot element from the eighth novel, From Dead to Worse."
Fairies. I mean...fairies. Why do I have to put up with living in a society in which flipping fairies are being continuously associated with vampires. Vampires and fairies do not mix!!! I threw the laptop across the room and swore to the vampires gods to buck their ideas up.

I had such high hopes as well...I still might check it out though if the humour that I saw in the clips carries on throughout the season. I just can't get over fairies...what the hell!

I like the picture below though...sinister yet appealing.

Down to wussy vampires who go completely against their natures (and the point of their existence) by not drinking blood....and sparkle.

Over and Out.
ED

Joyous part 2.

I am currently reading the official sequal to Dracula, written by a direct descendant of Bram Stoker himself, Dacre Stoker. I wish to make a quote of Chapter 23 which sums up my entire view on bloodsuckers,

"For centuries, Bathory had been confused by the notion that God had created man in his own image. If it were so, then God was weak....Bathory had discovered the truth that even the lowly beasts had known for millennia: Man was easy prey, and his blood was like a fine vintage. She had wondered if the beasts that had tasted man's flesh felt the same satisfaction she did. The only human for whom Bathory held any respect was Charles Darwin. Survival of the fittest. Bathory was humanity perfected. Her powers of sight, hearing, smell and taste were tenfold those of a human, as was her strength. She was blessed with an even more powerful sixth sense, that of the mind. For centuries, man had marvelled at magicians who could manipulate objects, read and control minds. For Bathory, it involved no trick or illusion: She could enter a human's consciousness and force their mind's eye to see her as a wolf, gargoyle, rat or mist. Her powers had grown to the point that which she could enter a person's mind even from hundreds of miles away and have them see what she wished. She had the ability to move at incredible speeds. She could even levitate and move through the skies, soaring on the winds. Man needed a machine to fly. Bathory was indeed the fittest, the next level of human evolution."

UBERMENSCH.

Two posts in a day!

Over and Out.
ED.

Gothic Literature is Dead...Like Rock and Roll.

Look at the title. These are two things that I love but where the hell have they gone in this modern age? They say that rock and roll died and we are only seeing parodies of the golden age of rock. I believe (sadly) that this is true for gothic literature also.
I typed in 'Modern Gothic Literature' into google and came across a thread for people that were arguing whether the pure gothic existed nowdays. I agreed with what they all said...it was gone, we are only seeing copies of true gothic literature. Here is a comment.

Person: "No, there really is no real modern Gothic literature in the true sense; although I have written in that genre, I've also discovered there is no market for writing Gothic fiction in the tradition of say, Poe, or Ambrose Bierce. No one wants that anymore, they want Poppy Z. Brite or Anne Rice (who isn't really "Gothic" per se)."

Instead of the pure gothic a lot of writers that enjoy the genre have to adapt to the demands of the public. Creatures that have been used in gothic literature have been adopted by other people and have even crossed genres. The so called dark side has expanded and can now be explored not only in books and the theatre but in music and film.
But even though the pure gothic is gone, it still holds it's undying influence on popular culture and will never go away. Small blog post but this is what I'm up to at the moment.

Over and Out.
ED.

Joyous.

I was looking on youtube, looking at Anti- Twilight videos and I came across one that made me jump for joy.
People that read my blog know that I love the band Interpol. Well there was a video, an Anti- Twilight public service announcement. I looked at the user to see who posted the video and it read thusly...Username: Interpolnyc.
Interpol, I adore you even more. The person with the Interpolnyc account hates Twilight!...and likes a good band.
It also surprised me that most of the Anti- Twilight rants were made by girls. I'm glad there are chicks out there that share my passion for Twilight hatred and haven't been sucked in to the mediocrity. One girl even began quoting gothic literature and vampire folklore...amazing beyond belief. I genuinely think that modern society would be so much better without the Twilight franchise. I may be creating a new blog for people that are strictly Anti-Twilight. It is through looking at these videos on the Internet that a glimpse of hope has entered me. I dream of the day when this fad will have gone, but until then all I can do is try to hurry its demise
Here is the video I was talking about (Also please read my previous blog posts...obviously.)

The aesthetic of gothic literature.

"We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight."
H.P Lovecraft.

"The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination."
H.P Lovecraft.


"Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly."
Ambrose Bierce.


Now I am personally not a dark, unhappy person but I do love gothic literature and weird fiction; Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, John Polidori and so on. This sort of fiction presents things to the public that no other form of literature can, a part of the human psyche that not everybody likes to visit.
In these stories are creatures that were spawned from the most primal, animalistic part of us that have been used as archetypes for our fears and secret desires. In the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraft are wide varieties of creatures and gods; such as the Outer Gods Azathoth, Yog-sothoth and their messager Nyarlathotep...and of course the High Priest of the Old Ones, the terrible Cthulhu himself. All of these beings were used in order to make a reader feel that humanity is small and insignificant in the great scheme of the universe and that there are forces out there that are beyond our wildest imaginings, that we cannot hope to stand against and survive...Lovecraft loved to take away human vanity. The ideas that Lovecraft were trying to put across in his writing were not very comforting...but that was the whole point. It made you feel something powerful, greater than most other types of fiction.
I think that Frankenstein is incredibly interesting. In the book Frankenstein’s monster is a terrible creature, a being who kills, who causes suffering on mankind...why should anyone like this monster? Well think again, casual observer. The reason that Frankenstein’s monster was evil was because humanity and his creator rejected him and showed him no love; it is why he turned to horrible acts on mankind. There is then the obvious question...Who is the real monster of the story? Is it mankind whose rejection of the creature turned it to commit bad acts or is it the monster?



Now I turn to the most popular monster of stage, film and book...the vampire. We are currently in an age in which this creature has been toned down so much that they may as well be called human. Popular culture has moulded it into an unimpressive, non passionate fairy. There are no more vampires out there that have the fearsomeness that I loved...they are not even the beasts of the devil that they should be. Old legends and myths of the vampire that have been around for thousands of years have been made all 'Hollywood' and feeble.
I think that the best revival of the old vampires has it's origins in the comic book industry with the publication of thirty days of night written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Here is a quote from the man who Steve Niles pitched too,
"Steve gave me the pitch: a small town above the Arctic Circle in Alaska experiences 30 days of complete darkness each year, but this year something new happens. The vampires come out and very, very bad things happen to the inhabitants of this town called Barrow.
The pitch grabbed me and when I finally opened the portfolio and saw the art from the then unknown Ben Templesmith, I was blown away. These weren't the vampires I remembered from books and films. These creatures were nasty, rabid things that were the product of nightmares, not the debonair creatures of the night I was used to."
I have read the comic graphic novel and think that this is the way that vampires should be. If vampires existed in real life I would imagine them to be the vamps of 30 days of night; blood lusting, emotionally indifferent to their prey, fast and scary looking. It was made into a film which was equally good.
Below is a picture of one of the vampires of the film...and yes I would like to see Edward Cullen have a fighting match with him...because it is obvious to me who would actually win.


I like to think that gothic literature is a parody of humanity, it strips away delusions of grandeur, it is used as a commentary on society and to me I find it strangely alluring. Anything that people fear, try to repress or don't want to know about are things that I want to read and watch.



Over and Out.
ED

Hermann Hesse.

I am going to be annoyingly philosophical in this post so be warned. I was looking on the Internet and I happened, for whatever reason, to come upon quotes by a man named Hermann Hesse. He was a Swiss, German born poet, novelist and painter. He lived through the First and Second World War and saw things like the rise of Nazism in Germany first hand.
I began to read quotes that he made during his lifetime. I read them and agreed wholeheartedly. Wow, I thought. He seemed like a great man. Here are quotes that I thought really rang true for me.

“I am fond of music I think because it is so amoral. Everything else is moral and I am after something that isn't. I have always found moralizing intolerable.”
Hermann Hesse.

“The Truth is lived, not taught.”
Herman Hesse.

“People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.”
Hermann Hesse.

“You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.”
Herman Hesse.

“You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, single power, a single salvation... and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else”
Herman Hesse.

“Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.”
Herman Hesse.


Does anybody see truth in any of these quotes also? It's interesting stuff anyway. I'm off to get my mind blown by other quotes on the Internet. T.T.F.N.



Over and Out.
ED

I see my dad at the theatre with my silver tipped cane, wearing a fake beard.

I travelled home this weekend in order to see my dad do some singing and acting. When my sisters were younger they went to a dance school called Starlight Theatre School. Every year this theatre school would put on a production that they had been rehearsing over the year. There were times when a man was needed (of a certain age) to play a part...and so they asked my dad. When sister twin and little sister left he continued to be offered parts. So I travelled back to Leicester to see him play an old man in an interpretation of Mary Poppins.
As some people may know, I have been taking part in storytelling at my university. I decided some time ago that I wished to be a gypsy storyteller so the next step was to look the part. I compiled certain items of clothing; a hat, a white shirt, a waistcoat and a silver tipped cane. My dad took the cane for the musical...I distinctly remember him waving it about in a waving action at the end when everybody was bowing. I was wondering whether he could have nearly hit a child...but he didn't. He was wearing a big, bushy beard throughout the whole thing (he played the part of the old man who died laughing after hearing a joke...and they they flew a kite...not my dad because he was dead, but everyone else did anyway).
The tale ends here. A good weekend. The earth continues to spin...to Christmas time.

Over and Out.
ED