On friday I woke up by being poked in the shoulder - I turned around, and in my bed was Qugoria, one of my best friends from Sweden! I couldn't fucking believe it, haha. I had talked to her the night before, and wondered why she was up so late, but she was really getting ready to drive all the way here. She and Simen had planned this in secret for a while! Simen had bought in some extra good food and been cleaning more last week, but I had NO idea. This is stuff that happens in movies!
That day we just chilled at home, since she was obviously pretty tired from driving across Norway plus half of Sweden. Saturday we got ready to go out, but it was raining, so we decided to stay in instead. We watched The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1973) with the Gothy Discord, and then went out to Hulen for a couple of drinks. I was really surprised to hear a Drab Majesty song there! Then we went home and ended up staying up talking until 6 AM, haha.
Our patchouli bottles - Mine is the small one, obviously lol
She makes me look so tan, hahah - This is me at my palest!
Atmospheric photo at Hulen - Love her DIY backpack!
Sunday the weather was pretty okay, so I took her sightseeing in my city. We started with my favorite cemetery, since we're so stereotypically goth, haha. As we're walking in the city centre, suddenly a woman comes VERY close to Qugoria's face and says something that can be translated to ''You look fucking stupid''. She walks on, but Qugoria turned around and said ''You should try being nice instead!'' The woman stopped and just started yelling swearwords. This came as a COMPLETE shock to us, cause we have NEVER experienced something like it before. And what's weird is that she was only talking to her, not me. Neither of us had make-up on, she was dressed pretty simply (see photo below), and I was wearing a patched blazer, a crop top, red plaid skirt, red fishnets with huge holes and docs. Our theory is that she must have been a junkie or something like that, cause this is definitely not normal behavior in Scandinavia! You just don't talk to strangers (at least in sober condition).
#Necrotourism
Anyway, we continued on walking through the city, and I showed her Torgallmenningen, Bryggen, Bergenhus Fortress, and some other stuff. I also bought her a proper Bergen cinnamon bun, which she thought had too little cinnamon, haha. She also thought other foods tasted weird / wrong the day before - Fucking swede, coming here judging our food, hahaha. She IS right in Sweden having the best meatballs though. After walking a lot, we went home and ate dinner. Later we played Gother Than Thou for the first time! I got it on ebay for only £0.99 a while back, but haven't played it, cause at least then I barely knew any goths here (you have to be 3-5 players). Now I do though! I'm actually arranging a goth café meetup tomorrow! So hopefully there will be a proper scene here soon.
Anyway, we had to play a round first to familiarize ourselves with the rules, cause there are goth points, sickness points and money / debt to keep track of - which does affect the game. To win you need to have 20 goth points at the end of your turn. Honestly the game was a little underwhelming, I feel like it's been hyped up a lot by the few people on the internet who know about it. The cards are funny, but you get over it quickly. It's a little annoying to keep track of everything, and playing a round doesn't take very long. But I guess it's just one of those collector's items!
On monday morning she drove home. A little sad, but still so amazed that she bothered to come all this way just for me. I was also pretty tired, from being social so much (#introvert) and the lack of sleep. She's probably gonna read this, so: THANK YOU SO MUCH, I LOVE YOU! <3 I hope we get to see each other again soon. We've only met once before, at Subkult last year. She hasn't been to WGT yet, so she definitely needs to get her ass there! There's also my wedding - but we don't have a date for that yet.
If I can snap some pics tomorrow (and get permission to post them) at the café meetup, I'll write a post about it! I'm also working on a post about Frankenstein for Obscura Undead. See you soon!
This is a new tag started by The House Of Wyvern and other people I know through the Gothy Discord. If you wanna join, feel free! Let's spread the love of goth music!
The Mission
Also known as The Mission UK, is a goth rock band that was formed in 1986 by Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams after they left The Sisters Of Mercy. They recruited Simon Hinkler and Mick Brown. Originally they called themselves The Sisterhood, but Andrew Eldritch put a stop to that. They have also performed under the name Blood Brothers, and even done glam rock covers under the name The Metal Gurus.
While the current line-up is 75% of the original members, the members have switched out quite a bit over the years, with Hussey being the only consistent member. The band has also been on hiatus a couple of times. Actually, they kind of are on one right now, since besides supporting Alice Cooper in november 2017, they haven't played a show since I saw them at Wave Gotik Treffen 2017. Wayne Hussey has been very active since then though, doing a lot of solo shows and work - including an autobiography, which I am very excited about!
Discography
God's Own Medicine (1986)
Children (1988)
Carved In Sand (1990)
Grains Of Sand (1990)
Masque (1992)
Neverland (1995)
Blue (1996)
Aura (2001)
God Is A Bullet (2007)
The Brightest Light (2013)
Another Fall From Grace (2016)
As much as I love facts and lists, let's go over to some talk about my experiences with the band! I most likely found them through a compilation album, which is how I discovered a lot of goth bands outside the big obvious ones. So I definitely recommend getting those if you're new to goth and want to discover more bands!
The first song I heard by them was obviously Wasteland - a specific version though, not the album version - I don't think it's the extended one either. Then I probably listened to them a lot on Spotify, cause I didn't get any of their CDs until WGT 2017. They quickly became one of my favorite (goth) bands - I actually like them more than Sisters Of Mercy! I also like Love & Rockets and Tones On Tail better than Bauhaus, and Southern Death Cult and Death Cult better than The Cult, so there. The Mission is truly a goth ROCK band, it's not as dancy as a lot of goth / post-punk / wave bands are - not that that's a bad thing, I love that too! Wayne Hussey also has a great and unique voice as far as goth goes, and his guitarwork is amazing!
I got to see them live on the first row at Wave Gotik Treffen in 2017. I consider it the greatest concert I've ever been to, as no other band has made me weep tears of joy. I KNEW I would cry when I heard Butterfly On A Wheel, and I did! Then they hit me in the face with Marian, and I continued crying until the next / last song Deliverance. It was AMAZING! SO glad I got to see them.
Before I get into sharing some songs, if you want some further reading, I have reviewed God's Own Medicine and Another Fall From Grace here on my blog, so check those out for my thoughts on those!
Hope you enjoyed that! While technically The Mission is a pretty well-known classic goth band, I don't see people talking about them much. I might be biased though, haha! This was really fun, I could do more posts like this! I want to post more about music, but nowadays I really want my posts to be of good quality, and sadly people aren't very interested. So let me know what kind of music posts you'd like to see!
A couple is on honeymoon in Germany, and they meet an american. They visit castle Nuremberg, and on the way there they see a cat playing with its kitten at the bottom of the wall they're on. The american throws a stone, aiming for it to land next to them, but he hits the kitten and kills it. The mother is furious, but can't get to them. The american says the cat reminds him of an Apache woman he used to know, whose child was killed by a soldier - she tracked him for years and eventually killed him before the american could save him. She looked very happy, and he killed her.
The cat continues to follow them towards the castle, but the american just laughs. They go to see the torture instruments in the castle, the most famous of them the iron maiden. For some reason the american wants to be tied up and go inside, and bribes the custodian to let him do it. The custodian hold a rope so that the door slowly closes, and that's when they notice the cat has followed them. The american laughs. The cat attacks the custodian so he lets go of the rope, and the american is killed instantly. The husband opens the door, and his body falls out. The wife faints, and he carries her to a bench outside. When he comes back, the cat is sitting on the american's head licking his blood. He then takes an executioner's sword and kills it.
Ehhh... wtf just happened? Haha. First off, I find it a little weird that this newlywed couple wants another guy to join them on their honeymoon. Second, he's really annoying and obnoxious! Reading of the kitten's death is heartbreaking, and the guy just laughs about it! So I'm really glad the story he told foreshadowed his own death. The iron maiden wasn't a real medieval torture instrument though, I don't know if Bram Stoker knew that. But it doesn't matter, the american got what he deserved. Shame that the cat was killed though. The wife in this story is just completely useless, I don't even know why she was included in the story. But I have a suspicion Bram Stoker was pretty sexist - he was racist as well, so...
Anyway, it's a pretty decent story! If you want to read something else by Bram Stoker, I say give it a go. You can find it for free online, or usually in a physical copy that includes Dracula's Guest And Other Stories.
Just saw this! I knew this was coming, and it's finally coming on october 11 this year (in the US, at least). I have to say I'm a little skeptic. Now, I DID grow up with the 90's movies, but as an adult I haven't even watched them, I prefer the 60's TV series. This movie seems to be based on the original comic though, but it still looks a little weird translated into a ''3D'' movie. I will definitely watch it, though! So what do you think? What are your expectations for this movie?
In other movie / TV news, What We Do In The Shadows the series has just started airing. I haven't watched it myself yet, but it looks promising! They seem to be re-using some of the gags from the movie, probably because they're aiming for a larger audience with the series. There's also Wellington Paranormal, which also is a TV spinoff. I haven't seen or heard much about it, but I also want to check that out. But we'll see when they will be available to stream for me here in Norway. Even the movie isn't, so I have to go buy a DVD of it! If you've seen the shows so far, let me know what you think in the comments!
I guess a lot of people know already that Simen and I are now engaged! I proposed on our anniversary, so I thought I'd share the story of how I did it.
Originally we had agreed that he would propose since I ''made all the moves'' at the start of our relationship. But on new year's eve while we were at separate parties we kinda joked about it, and then I thought; Hey, why shouldn't I do it? It IS very me / us, after all. We're not really romantic people though - especially not me!
So after freaking out a bit (AM I REALLY DOING THIS? HOW DOES ONE DO THIS?!) and talking to people, I went on Etsy, and I found a Star Wars fidget spinner ring. He likes Star Wars (though I had never watched any of it), and he fidgets a lot, so I thought it was pretty good! I asked my friend Benedikt JOKINGLY if there was a romantic moment in Star Wars. He showed me this:
I thought it was hilarious and ridiculous. Then I thought; OMG, that might actually work! And I didn't come up with anything better, so I went with it. I decided to do it on our anniversary (march 21st), since any other day might make him suspicious.
I ordered a ring size kit and measured him in his sleep, then ordered the ring. I also borrowed Empire Strikes Back on DVD, but didn't tell him that until a few days before our anniversary. In advance I had said we didn't need to do anything special, we could just stay at home and watch a movie. But to distract him, I offered to make dinner, since he usually makes the food, cause I absolutely hate cooking. It worked! No suspicions at all, not even when I brought home the DVD, just ''You wanna start in the middle?'' - I just said I heard this one was the best and where ''all the good stuff happens''.
Here's how it actually went down! I made dinner, and after we ate we put on the movie. The whole movie he was trying to tell me backstory and stuff, and I barely understood anything, hahah. I had watched the scenes leading up to THE scene shortly before, so I knew when it was coming. He said ''Coming up is a really famous scene, and the line wasn't in the script'' - Me: ''Oh really?''. When we actually got there, I paused the movie, and I said ''I love you'' - we laughed when he refused to say ''I know''. I said ''Seriously though'' - and my mind went blank. I hadn't prepared anything to say, cause I KNEW I would get so nervous that I couldn't stick to it. So when I realized I wasn't going to be able to say anything lovey-dovey, and he was confused cause the movie was still paused, I said ''I guess what I'm trying to say is...'', knelt down and pulled the ring box out of my purse, ''...will you marry me?'' -''Is this real?'' - ''YES.'', and there was a lot of laughing, and he said yes. I was SO relieved! There wasn't really any doubt he would say no, but I'm just not good at being romantic. But I'm still proud of myself for coming up with this plan.
So there you have it! Thought it would be fun to share not your typical proposal story. I read that only 5% of women propose, which is WAY too low. Plus proposing with help from Star Wars is SO not normal! Also I want to thank Infinite Jewelry CA for their impeccable and quick service! Their shipping was super fast (even to Norway), and when we discovered the ring was half a size too small, they shipped out a new one the next day! They are super nice, so I definitely recommend them for unique, masculine and geeky rings.
Lastly I also want to thank everyone who might be reading this who has been bearing with me in the time before the proposal. I am SO impatient, and it was SO hard to hide things and even lie to Simen. I also didn't tell my mom, cause she would probably have spoiled it, hahaha. Her reaction to the news when we called was priceless! We've gotten to much love from people, and it's really nice to know that people are excited for us. Don't know how much of the planning I'll post about here though. I think I'll be too busy hanging out on Offbeat Bride, haha! I definitely recommend that site for inspiration and advice for weddings for us who aren't... ''normal''. Also sorry for not having blogged for a month, but as you probably can tell, I've had other stuff on my mind! Hopefully I'll be back on here soon, if not on Obscura Undead! But I'm mainly active on Instagram nowadays. I've also been posting more on my Facebook page, so follow me there for updates and other fun stuff I share!
