what am I listening to..?
Wayne Shorter - "Algeria"
waiting for our dinner guest to arrive...
*insert ego fluffing commentary here...*
our dinner guest tonight is the starting center for the Philadelphia Sixers, Sam Dalembert... Sam has been one of our "sons" for many years. He is a wonderful person and has been making quite a name for himself these days. One hell of a b-ball player. He moves like a gazelle. He's also a pisser to hang with...
That being said...
I've been reading the trials and tribulations of living the goth lifestyle by Sweet and Sour Goth. She's got me to thinking lately about this whole "goth" thing... just what the hell is goth, anyway? Beats the fuck out of me... I guess, categorically, you can define it in many ways; let's see... there's street goth, perky goth, techno-goth, fetish goth, neo-goth, classic goth... then there's the "niners", the posers... shit, talk about sub-sub-sub cultures...
Maybe I should tell you a little about me and where I fit into all of this. Let's start with the blog title "Sad Old Goth...". I guess that on first read that might conjure up a picture of some depressed old Edgar Allen Poe sort of character, sitting and brooding by the fire, drinking sherry and lamenting a lost love. Well, no. It actually came from the Sisters of Mercy, one of the original bands of the goth music movement, describing their older fans... read "Sad" as pathetic. Nothing like a thirty year old still clinging to the fashion and style of their youth. Well, friends, fuck me... here comes the ego inflating moment... I was goth before there was goth, except that everyone just called me "that fucking freaky kid with the long hair and the black clothes...". Nice, huh? Well, I've gotta tell you, it's nothing to do with fashion, although I definitely envy the younger devotees these days; there was nothing like todays "dark" styles thirty some odd years ago...
Yeah, guess what? I'm staring down the dark, scary maw of fifty one years old. (so I guess the "Old" part works, huh).
There's an old saying, "clothes make the man/woman/boy/girl/dude/chick", pick what ever one you want, and, like all sub-cultures (geez, I hate that term... makes me think of some mold growing under your bathroom sink...), the necessity of a badge sometimes overtakes the sincerity behind the necessity. It's not what you look like, it's what and who you are. Now, I'm not saying that making a fashion statement is a wrong thing, maybe one of these days I'll post a picture of me on here all done up for a dark night on the town, but it's deeper than that. To expand; I know some people who are more apt to dress in jeans and polo shirts that are more into the goth lifestyle than some of the fishnet and black lipstick clad folks that I also keep company with. It's all "up here" *pointing at head*. I think that the whole attitude is one of appreciation for the bright, cheery, happy things about life in this mortal coil, whilst keeping perspective of the flip side - there's also a dark, somber and depressing side of life as well. Those who can see both and maintain a balance are those who I personally think of as "goth". Personally, I can't look at something beautiful without seeing something bleak behind it, or appreciate the beauty of a nice summer's day without knowing that a dark, scary night will follow. Shit, Mona Lisa probably has that coy little grin on her face because she has something on someone... the bitch.
I mean, let's face it, this particular life style is quite the example of the way a memepool functions. It all started with one person who stood out because his/her style of clothing, his/her love of a certain type of music, his/her outlook on life was "different". Then, like a virus, it spread. The individual became a model for more "individuals" and thus, a style was born.
Hey, gotta stop right here for now, Sam has arrived and there is much food and wine to be enjoyed! I shall be back later to pick this up, probably with a good bag on. So, for now, my children of the night, I bid thee fair 'eve.
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