The gorgeous and enchanting Bran Castle in Bran, Romania has long been associated with Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is no evidence to support any association with the novel and the castle has no real connection to Vlad Tepes, either, the historical Wallachian ruler that Stoker used as inspiration. But the connections have persisted because Bran Castle just looks like it should be Drac's crib (and it's fabulous for tourism).
Given my own penchant in the 1980s for black clothing, black eyeliner, and Bauhaus, I was delighted by Dan Adams's TED-Ed video "A brief history of goths."
And if you find yourself in that delightfully dark place, please enjoy these classics:
The Sisters of Mercy's classic 1987 beast of gothic bombast, Floodland, will be reissued next month as a 4-LP vinyl box from Rhino records featuring the original album along with three 12-inches from the time. Floodland was the second full-length released under the Sisters name, and at that point the band consisted of founder Andrew Eldritch, new bassist Patricia Morrison of Gun Club fame, and the thunderous drum machine known as Doctor Avalanche. Meat Loaf producer Jim Steinman brought his orchestral magic to a couple Floodland tracks, including "This Corrosion," above, one of the greatest goth dance songs ever produced.
[Video Link at Vimeo]
Boing Boing pal Richard Metzger produced a series of live artist showcases at SXSW 2012. One of the artists who was new to me from these sessions is Chelsea Wolfe. Richard describes her work:
Los Angeles-based Chelsea Wolfe's intense, artful folk dirges bring to mind a slightly morbid young Joni Mitchell had she grown up listening to Black Metal bands instead of the Carter Family (Still, when asked about her influences Wolfe simply replied “Hank Williams”).
Just stunning. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LastFM. Material in the video above is from her 2011 release, Apokalypsis. Can't wait to catch one of her live shows.
The team of hollywood SFX modeller Kevin McTurk is currently working on the next X-Men film. On the side, however, they do amazingly realistic puppetry. Embedded above is a promo for The Narrative of Victor Karloch, a non-profit traveling stage show benefiting childrens' charity The Art of Elysium. [Submitterated by Jennifer]
UPDATE: There's now a Facebook fan page for the show. Read the rest
