They make me feel less anxious about a situation. It doesn’t have to be my plan, I don’t have to be the one to execute it, and it certainly doesn’t have to be perfect – but having some kind of plan in place does much to stabilize my comfort levels.
Of course, even the best of plans become fouled up and vexed at times. Which has happened more times in my life than I care to count.
Last weekend, however, I found myself exactly where I wanted to be, at just the right time in my life and in the company of the very people with whom I would want to share the experience. This was a plan that had taken 12+ years to come together, but I would not have wanted it any other way.
The Decemberists at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, April 10, 2015
When I first found out about The Decemberists, I was 27 years old and at a strange place in my life. I’ve written about it before and there’s no need to go into it again, but it was a state of crisis that would last for nearly ten years. I think I had always loved music before that point, but it was during this time that I actively began to seek refuge in it. One of my favorite things to do – and remains to this day – became finding new musicians to love and to share with others. In 2003ish, through my very favorite webcomic artist John Allison, I stumbled upon The Decemberists.
I believe they make his “best of” lists every year, and lordy, if he doesn’t describe them perfectly:
2004
20052006
It’s hard for me to articulate just why I became so enamored with their music; I’m not certain if it actually touches me on an emotional level, but I think that what is does do is speak to the dreamer in me. This is the dusty, dreamy band of musicians I would have created in my head: they conjure such an absurd, rag-tag world full of somber fables, melancholy allegories, and bizarre historical dreamscapes. Such snazzy wordplay, too; intricate hyperliterate lyrics, theatrical and clever.
I can’t imagine someone not familiar with The Decemberists, but then again – what do I know of what other people listen to? I still don’t know who Ed Sheeran is, to tell you the truth, and I can barely name one song on the radio right now. I suppose we all have our obsessions and the tunnel-visioned blinders that block out most everything else as part of that. However, if you’ve not listened to them before, peep in at this Tiny Desk Concert over at NPR that they did a few years ago. It’s a nice, clear sound, and though it’s not exactly the freaky balladry that they are known for, I do think it provides a lovely introduction for the uninitiated.
But listening to someone go on about their favorite band is not always very interesting (unless they happen to be your favorite band, of course) so I’ll not draw this out unnecessarily. Suffice it to say that the opportunity to see them live last weekend was not a chance that I could lightly pass on…even though the performance was to take place seven hours north of where I lived.
10 years ago I don’t think I could have imagined myself able to make such a trip, and I certainly didn’t imagine it with these people – but what fun we had! Even when we were being mean and awful:
My boyfriend and my sister’s husband are talking and laughing with the couple behind us, as if they are all old friends. She and I look back and then glance at each other in abject horror.
Her: I wish strangers who talk to me would just stop talking to me
Me: I wish they’d just drop dead.
We grasp each other’s hands and cackle like the mad harpies that we are.
At that moment, I had an out of body experience. It sounds strange, but that’s exactly what happened. I was myself one moment holding my sister’s hand, and the next I was outside myself. I stood next to myself and felt a great sense of peace and happiness – a sort of state of being that I imagine you only feel a few times in your life, if at all.
And I realize that for all my plans, all of the plans in the world…well, good luck with that. Even if you think you know where you are going, sometimes you just end up somewhere else. Sometimes it’s on a different path in a different place and it’s full of hundreds of screaming hipster dads and you’re trancing out like a weirdo, and things could not possibly be more okay.
21 Dresses, a story of the discovery of an an exquisite cache of dresses from atelier “Callot Soeurs”. Though barely remembered now, the fashion house was one of the great names in Belle Époque fashion. h/t OTB
Marina Bychkova, of Enchanted Doll, had a 2015 birthday contest, in which the participants are requested to design a tattoo for an Enchanted Doll!
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“Somethin creepy goin down at da crib called 124,” indeed! I wish Thug Notes had been around when I was in 11th grade AP English. I have a sense that Beloved was a book I might have loved…had I understood it better. Thanks for breaking it down, Thug Notes. h/t Jack
For fans of creepy dolls, trulyrealro is the most magnificent instagram account you can hope to find.
In Episode 7 of Under The Knife, Dr Lindsey Fitzharris discusses how a pot of pee used to be a crucial diagnostic tool in the past. Learn all about piss prophets and medieval urine wheels!
Exercise music for the cold of heart and the sluggish of blood.*
Image: Image: Oltretomba Colore #73
Track List:
Zombie ,Natalia Kills | Shallow Grave, The Birthday Massacre | Phantasmo, Asmodeus | Run For Your Life, The Creepshow | Coffin Rocket, Dead Vampires | Tonight, There Will Be No Survivors, Zombina and the Skeletones | Maneater, The Koffin Kats | Tomb Of The Zombie Queen, Sasha & The Shamrocks | Blind, DANCE WITH THE DEAD
I am having a difficult time putting together a workout playlist because I pretty much can’t stand the artists and lyrical content of most music that’s good for making the blood pump faster. Ideally I want music that *sounds* (beatwise, I guess?) like Ke$ha, or Lady Gaga or Rhianna, but they should be singing about hexes and mummies and changelings and poison gardens and grave robbing. Why does this not exist? Not everybody wants to hear songs about being all up in the club, or whatever.
SO this is what I have got so far, but it’s not even close to what I want, and I would love suggestions. Also, I’m sure people are going to mention bands like The Cramps, and they’re great, but I mostly try to keep my playlists current to artists within the last 10 years or so.
You’ll notice that I have included a fair amount of psychobilly/horror punk (I guess you could call it), but I am not overly attached to that genre; it’s just that these folks are the only ones singing about the things I want to hear.
Criteria: must be fairly recent (last 10 years or so), must have a driving beat that would make someone want to propel themselves forward, must have a macabre/monstrous/witchy vibe.
A new playlist inspired by Daniel Mills’ Revenants.
Tracklist:
Church, Dead Soldiers | Sick Today, Jim Strange with The Proud and The Damned | The Dark Pines, Heathen Apostles | Bridge Of Branches, O’Death and Friends | Cold Wind Suddenly, The Robber Barons | Ghosts In The River, by Jep and Dep | Battered Bones, Big John Bates | Raise It To The Ground, Jb Nelson | The Fear In Your Brain, Lasse Krog Andersen | Lost, Weak And Alone, Saint Christopher | Lead Me Home, Jamie N Commons | Parlour Lights, The Whiskey Charmers | The Devil Is In My Bones, Sasha Boole | Black Dress, O’Death
A gorgeous SXSW poster for Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here, designed by Erik Buckham and Jesse Vital. Take a peek at the teaser trailer over at Broke Horror Fan.
From Morbid Anatomy Presents: The Phantasmagoria shows of the early 1800s were our ancestor’s equivalent of the modern horror film or spook show. Magic Lantern historian Mervyn Heard takes us through brief history of the Phantasmagories and our cultural need to be terrified through ghosts, demons, skeletons and more… (h/t Ben)
For people “who think entirely too deeply about the absurd things they watch”:Splatstick and the Specters of the Past – insight from the inimitable Tenebrous Kate on Tommy Wirkola’s Nazi Zombies and Killer Witches.
Inspired by The Sea Priestess, a novel by Dion Fortune.
Tracklist:
Leafy Sea Dragon Nursery, The Parlour Trick | Sea Chanty, White Magic | On to the Shore, Arborea | Black Tide, Dirty Three | Under the Water, Pantaleimon | Castles By The Sea, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation | Sea Of Bubbles, Rena Jones | Moon 4, Kenseth Thibideau | Sea of Cruelty, Shadowhouse | Valley Of Quartz, Saåad | Oath, FVNERALS | As if one were sinking into sand, The Caretaker | The Black Sea MMXIV, thisquietarmy | Deep Underwater, Halgrath
Inspired by Laird Barron’s short story “The Carrion Gods in Their Heavens” in the collection The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All.
Tracklist:
Strange Moon Rising, Smoke Fairies | Locksång På Orgel, Daniel Olsén | Nocturnal, Orion Rigel Dommisse | A Retinue Of Moons/ The Infidel Is Me, Rasputina | Feral Love, CHELSEA WOLFE | Heavenly Creatures, Wolf Alice | Well Of Tuhala, Fursaxa | The Heart Full Of Eyes I Am, Current 93 | No Dog, Esben And The Witch | Black Eyed Dog, Swans | How The Gods, Kill Owl Service | I Am The Wolf, Mark Lanegan | Umingmak, Tanya Tagaq | Werewolf The Path Ost, | White Fanged Foreverness, Mariee Sioux |
Over the span of a month, Adam Savage designed and built an accurate replica of the hedge maze architectural model from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. (h/t Yvan)
MA textile student Zsanett Szirmay’s project “Soundweaving” combines the borderlands of folk art, design and music by way of Hungarian and Transylvanian embroidery designs set to music. (h/t Lisa)
Ajuma – a grieving widow – is desperate to stop her recurring nightmares. In an effort to end them once and for all, she explores a forgotten fairytale remedy that leads her to unexpected discoveries. To Catch A Dream is The NEST Collective’s second fashion film project in collaboration with Chico Leco.
Fashion Week Fall 2015! Giles Deacon (top row) and dramatic dark lord Gareth Pugh (bottom row) are my current favorites. I am pretending Gareth Pugh was inspired by Garth Ennis’ CROSSED series. Heh.
Time for a trip to Tokyo! First on the agenda: the Tokyo Ghost Bar. Then we shall stay the night at the Godzilla hotel. Good times! すごい!
And the meek shall inherit Pawnee. I’ve not watched Parks and Rec for a while, but this article made me a little teary. I’m going to make it a point to binge on the last two seasons sometime soon. The meek and the farty, indeed.
For your weekend listening: A new playlist partially inspired by Daphne Du Maurier’s Novelette ‘The Birds’. Also, because I have somehow collected a lot of songs about birds.
Track list:
Red Bird, Arborea | A Common Bird, Jess Hill | Bird in the Snow, Haruko | Blue Bird, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions | Bird of Prey, Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys | The Birds They Circle, Karen Elson | Bird in My Window, Roadkill Ghost Choir | sparrow falls, Woven Hand | Mockingbirds, Mark Lanegan | Flightless Bird, American Mouth Iron and Wine | Two Birds, Regina Spektor | The Arctic Tern, John Zainea and the Mania
