Hexotica

Travel: Margaret Mitchell's 'Dump' of a House

2012-01-29T13:00:00.144+11:00

Sorry if ya'll are sick of Gone With the Wind already---but I have an extra bit of GWTW fanfare to show you! While this week's posts were going live, my older sister, my niece, and I visited the Margaret Mitchell house in downtown Atlanta. I didn't think I'd get a chance to see it so it was a keen surprise to be able to go, and my young niece is as huge a fan as I am, so she was ecstatic to come along.

There is not a whole lot to see at the 'house', which is actually just one apartment in what had once been an apartment building ( It is apartment on the lower left-hand side). It is still worth visiting, however, because of the excellent tours and information about the book's time, reception, the life of Margaret Mitchell, and the making of the film. Margaret Mitchell lived there for only a few years, yet it is where she began and wrote most of her famous novel. The building was burned down twice--and very likely by GWTW fanatics--because Margaret herself called it "the dump" and there was nothing of hers that actually remained in it. All the furnishings in it now are "of the time" but none belonged to the author. Still, there is a wealth of information and a fantastic gift shop to boot. We were surprised at learning a number of interesting things:

That Margaret Mitchell had written the novel for fun, and only submitted it to an editor when a lady writer said she could never have anything worth publishing or be a real writer. Pride can be an instigator of great feats!
That there is much of Margaret herself in the character of Scarlett. She was a journalist with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution when few women even held a job.
That the novel was an instant success, making Margaret a millionaire within the first year, and that it was read equally by men as well as by women.

After the apartment tour (in which they wouldn't allow photos), we checked out the film-making museum. It was cool to see clips of the four other actresses rehearsing parts for the movie--it's so hard to imagine any other actress than Vivien Leigh!

The original painting of Scarlett seen in Rhett's bedroom in the film was there--and crazy to learn that it had hung in the lunch room of a public school for nearly 12 years!

My niece and I, GWTW nuts!

Finally, a real piece of Tara was there--the Hollywood set door. Most of the film was made on a Hollywood set indoors--even the big fire scene, where they burned down the wood frame used in King Kong.

As for the Margaret Mitchell house itself, whether you are a fan of the novel or not, it is a great place to visit to learn about Atlanta's legacy with the Gone With the WInd phenomena, as so much of the history of Atlanta itself and of the Old South are alive in the novel.

Ok, so now I am REALLY finished with my Gone With the Wind theme week! I hope all of you who didn't comment enjoyed it anyhow, and for those of you who did, I'm assured that so many of you love GWTW as much as I do, so thank-you!

Travel: Atlanta's Oldest Cemetery

2012-01-28T13:00:00.006+11:00

For my final post for my week on Gone With the Wind, here is the historic cemetery where author Margaret Mitchell lies...

Oakland Cemetery, founded in 1850 to lay 7,000 Civil War dead, now covers 48 acres with over 70,000 graves of former Atlanta residents. In Victorian times it was an example of a highly fashionable Rural Garden Cemetery, distinguished by its magnificent mausoleums, elaborate monuments, and garden-like setting. My younger sister has a morbid fascination for it (and she's not a goth), so when she told me it was also the resting place of Margaret Mitchell, I decided to go along with her to visit it for the first time.

As a little girl, Margaret Mitchell use to ride her pony, Nellie, through Oakland's grounds. Now she's in the grounds, ha.

The Confederate Obelisk, dedicated on the day of General Robert E. Lee's funeral in 1870. Once it was the tallest structure in Atlanta, at 65 feet.

The Lion of Atlanta, erected in 1894 to honor the unknown Confederate dead.

Until 1882, Oakland was the only public park in Atlanta. These granite stairs are the only ones remaining from the days visiting ladies use to use them to alight from their carriages.

Once, Atlanta was just the end of a rail line known as Terminus. When it became a town, and before it became a city, it was named Marthasville to honor 16-year old Martha Lumpkin, who lies here.

The city skyline beyond the graveyard.

"OH, MY GOSH I AM A GOTH CLICHE!", so I was thinking here, and it didn't help that I saw a car serve by, and got a wink from a gal with black hair and black lips, looking at me all knowingly. Ha!

The Historic Oakland Cemetery is more of a place for the living than for the dead these days. It runs many special events from guided tours, a Victorian festival, a Halloween tour, a 5K race, and it hosts private bookings for weddings, tea parties, and other special occasions. In the center there is a Victorian-esque gift shop with all sorts of Southern memorabilia like copies and posters of Gone With the Wind, of course. It is a pleasant and quiet place to visit when visiting Atlanta, and it's only one stop away from Atlanta's funky, counter-cultural area, Little Five Points--where goths will also want to visit---for the shopping. ;)

Travel: The Antebellum Plantation Homes at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia

2012-01-27T13:00:00.002+11:00

For a real taste of the South, whether Gone With the Wind fan or not, tourists must not miss the antebellum plantation and farm grounds at the historic Stone Mountain Park here in Atlanta. Just before Christmas, my family and I went to enjoy the winter lights festival there. We had a picnic, browsed the shops, took the cable car up to top of the big granite rock, rode the Christmas carol sing-a-long train around its base at night, and saw the many historic homes and buildings that have been transplanted to the park from all over the South. Growing up in Atlanta, I visited St. Mountain Park several times every year, for picnics, laser shows, school trips, and special festivals, and the plantations grounds were always my favorite thing to see.

This is the main house of the grounds. Women enter via the righthand stair and the men use the left.

In the summertime the tour guides and caretakers dress in historic costumes a bit more than they do in winter---I will never forget the size of the hoop skirt and straw hat of one of the guides when I first visited as a little girl. Ten little kids could have been hiding under that skirt!

Gentelmen's parlour in the big house.

Ladies parlour in the big house.

Master bedroom of the big house.

Formal Dining Room at the Big House

Around the main house are all of the building a large plantation home would have required: the 'necessary room', the blacksmith, the kitchen, kitchen gardens, the smokehouse, the stables, and the slave quarters.

Stable grounds of the main house.

Old buggys.

Slave Houses

Interior of a slave cottage.

One of the smaller ante-bellum homes

Same house, way back when.

Parlour of the smaller home.

'Antebellum' means 'before the war' in Latin, and refers to the large cotton plantations and neo-colonial homes that were no longer sustainable after the war when slavery was abolished, and the entire way of life of the plantations was truly 'Gone With the Wind.' Stone Mountain park is the best place to see what a real plantation would have looked like back then, save for the fields of cotton.

Has anyone visited Stone Mountain Park before? Did you get a chance to see the plantations? Hope so!

Sage: Live Your Dreams, but Don't Be a Bitch Doing It

2012-01-26T13:00:00.004+11:00

There is a lot of advice out there to help us to live our dreams, but how do we do that without alienating ourselves from those around us, even if they are the ones that do not believe in what we are trying to achieve?

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

While reading Gone With The Wind, my theme this week, this was the central spiritual lesson that I kept thinking about--what Scarlett O'Hara did right and what she did wrong, getting all that she had wanted physically yet losing everything that meant anything to her spiritually.

What Scarlett O'Hara Taught Me---the RIGHT stuff:

Be charming--The very first line of GWTW is, "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm." Much of what Scarlett achieves throughout the novel is because of her charm. Charm is having an active and responsive face, a pleasant and varying, almost musical tone of voice, and a talent in all-important small talk with a good dose of light-hearted humour. People love to be entertained and put a lot of value on charm, especially in groups. Be charming and you'll discover people are much more willing to do what you would like them to do, which is why charm always wins out over anger when things are not going your way. Scarlett had this talent nailed--she snagged three husbands and grew her lumber business with her charm, effectively raising herself out of the poverty she had found herself in after the war.

Be practical--While many of her class floundered in poverty because they could not bring themselves to let go of their genteel, pre-war ideals (like weak-ass Ashley Wilkes), Scarlett evolved with the times and got to work, breaking ground with traditions and focusing on what had to be done. She had to whip her family into submission, sacrifice her reputation, take control of the situation, and do many things herself, no matter how hard or how unlike anything she had ever done before. She was imminently practical, which was her biggest attraction for Rhett, a man who moved with the times no matter what people said about him. We love Scarlett for this more than anything---she knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it, being resourceful, courageous, independent-minded and hard-working. She broke away from the herd and got what she wanted--almost. She had what Margaret Mitchell called gumption--the quality that sets apart the survivors from the rest during hard times.

Clark Gable as Rhett Butler

What Scarlett did WRONG:

Don't be a BITCH. Scarlett was an epic bitch! It is one thing to be an assertive woman. It is another to be a woman without respect for those around you. That's the BITCH element---the superiority complex that allows someone to say nasty things to other people, to be completely insincere, to gossip, to thwart other people's dreams (like when Scarlett steals her own sister's beau for herself), to be publicly critical of others, and to constantly be comparing yourself to others, as Scarlett does with Melanie, wondering how Melanie can command the respect of the town, and why such a "mousy" woman has the luck of being married to Ashley. Deep down Scarlett didn't have what she wanted (Ashley), so was miserable and nasty because of it. Bitches are always unhappy people at heart! Truly happy people treat all people with respect, always, as Melanie does with Scarlett, knowingly ignoring her nastiness all her life.

Know What You Are---Scarlett fails to see her own roguish, manipulative nature, only coming to terms with the fact that she is more like her hot-headed father than her much admired, angelic mother later in the novel. Knowing who you are begins with separating your identity from your parents; with seeing them as people and yourself as separate from their preferences and ways. It then is a matter of accepting your faults and letting go of ideals (who you think you should be). Rhett knew Scarlett better than Scarlett knew herself, and Scarlett only realizes that this is why he is right for her until it is too late. Throughout the book Rhett's riveting one-on-one conversations with Scarlett serve as a clear mirror that she refuses to look at; only he can talk to her in her own language and explain back to her her own motivations, often exasperating and confusing Scarlett with his perceptive praise and criticism. Scarlett is also oblivious to how much she needed Melanie until Melanie's death, one of the great tragedies of the novel.

All men should strive

to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
~James Thurber

Alexander Ripley's Sequel to Gone With the Wind: Scarlett

2012-01-25T13:00:00.003+11:00

OH NO SHE DIDN'T.

This is my review for Scarlett posted on Amazon.com:

Like many avid fans of Gone With the Wind, I sincerely wanted to give Alexander Ripley's sequel, Scarlett, a chance, though I was warned it was merely 'fan fiction' and would make me cringe throughout. There were, to be a fair, a few scenes that I enjoyed and that had me hopeful something exciting may happen, especially Scarlett's dramatic exit out of Charleston when Rhett's sister burns her only note. Yet, again and again, pointless scenes, pointless characters, and pointless conversations filled every chapter, until a long stretch of almost ten chapters with Scarlett in Ireland goes along without hardly a page with Rhett in them. So, when the silly finale and its exhausting dramas finally arrive, I honestly wondered if Rhett's sudden return were not Scarlett's delusion---perhaps she was shot in the street or burned in the big house and the whole ending is her being dead and fulfilling her fantasies! That is how ridiculous the ending seems to me. Why, after rejecting Scarlett so completely at every interaction, should readers believe that suddenly Rhett wants Scarlett back in the mist of a battle? That was my biggest disappointment, as it would be for anyone who can ignore the terrible writing in order to enjoy the romance. In the end, this romance writer even mucked up the romance, the only thing this book had going for it.

The Margret Mitchell Society should never have chosen romance writer Alexander Ripley to write the sequel; Gone With the Wind may not have been a masterpiece in writing but it had literary merits in that the characters were evenly formed and had clear motivations; a good writer would have been able to pick up from these to write a decent sequel. Ripley seems to have ignored everything about the original characterization and has us believe in caricatures based on silly recycled lines like, "I'll think about that tomorrow", which Scarlett repeats way too many times, being just utterly annoying.

UGH!

I left my copy of this book in the bin down in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was NOT joining my book collection.

Who has read this unfortunate book? What did you think?

Vivien Leigh Kills it as Scarlett O'Hara

2012-01-24T13:00:00.002+11:00

Vivien Leigh as Southern Vixen, Scarlett O'Hara

Though I may have slipped by without reading the novel while growing up in Atlanta, few Southerners have got away without seeing the epic Hollywood adaptation of Gone With the Wind, and I have seen it countless times. It's the all-time favorite Hollywood classic for me, as it has a mesmerizing visual appeal and a power to bring out both tears of laughter and tears of sadness. The depiction of the south makes me nostalgic for home and respectful of its history. The acting is superb, and the sets and costumes are sumptuous, with strikingly stark contrasts in the wartime and post-war scenes.

Before the 'War of Northern Aggression', Scarlett as a Southern Belle at Tara

It was filmed in 1939, one of the greatest years of Hollywood film making--the year The Wizard of Oz came out among other great classics--yet Gone With the Wind racked up almost every major award that year, from Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography in Color. It's a hands-down must see for a classic film aficionado.

Southern Belles at the Wilkes Plantation BBQ

Scarlett with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and Melanie (Oliva de Havilland).

Scarlett learns that Ashley and his cousin Melanie are engaged.

"But Ashley can't marry Melanie! He loves me!"

Winning actresses Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role as the indefatigable 'Mammy'.

After the war, the most spine-tingling moment of the film is when Scarlett declares, "I will never go hungry again!" This is my favorite scene!

With Scarlett's Husband #1 in the grave, Rhett (Clark Gable) rescues her from the boredom of mourning and onto the dance floor.

The most astonishing up-cycled creation ever-- an impoverished Scarlett yanks down the velvet curtains at Tara and whips up a stunning ensemble in which to plead money from Rhett. Wish I could up-cycle this well!

Later, with Husband #2 in the grave, Rhett takes a leap of faith and asks Scarlett to marry him, hoping she just might come around to love him someday, and forget her wimpy Ashley at last.

And for a couple of years marriage is OK....

...though she still doesn't come around...

...and still longs for her wimpy Ashley.

Until after several tragedies, the distance becomes too great, and Scarlett realizes too late that she really does love Rhett after all. She runs back to the house to tell him, but he's already on his way out when she catches up with him. With those infamous last words, he tells her in the polite, gentlemanly way of the day, to fuck off. Poor, misguided Scarlett! In her large, garish house, all alone, she vows to win him back, "For tomorrow is another day!".

Who hasn't seen Gone With the Wind, ya'll? If not, go see it, honey! If so, what is your favorite scene?

Southern Glamour and Ghosts in Gone With the Wind

2012-01-23T13:00:00.055+11:00

Unless you've living under a rock or far away from the southern U.S. states, you already know that Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is a romance novel set in the days between the start of the civil war, when white southern land owners worked slaves for cotton while they lived luxurious lives in neo-colonial style mansions, and the days of the Reconstruction, when slaves were freed and the former gentry turned upside-down, surviving or succumbing to a poverty they had never known. The heroine is Scarlett O'Hara, daughter of a plantation owner, headstrong, spoiled, and determined to make it out of the poverty she finds herself in after the war. The love interest is the roguish Rhett Butler, who has few admirers during the war for his blockade running, which benefits the war effort yet profits from it as well. The fiery romance between Rhett and Scarlett is one-sided, as Scarlett is forever besotted by the dreamy, and very married Ashley Wilkes, while Rhett recognizes his likeness in Scarlett and ceaselessly attempts to win her over.

One of the early book covers. Image Source

Though the book is set in 1860-70's Georgia, it was written in the 1930's for the fun of it while the author, Margaret Mitchell, was recovering from an auto accident in bed. She had grown up hearing stories about the pre-war South from her elders, many actual veterans of the war. She wanted to capture the essence of a world that no longer existed after the war, yet a world that many after the war could not give up, like living ghosts, trapped in traditions and memories of a world 'gone with the wind'. The title, however, refers not only to the loss of that world, but to an erotic loss as well, as the origin of the line reveals in the poem, Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae, by Ernest Dowson:

Last night, ah, yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine

There fell thy shadow, Cynara! thy breath was shed

Upon my soul between the kisses and the wine;

And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

Yea, I was desolate and bowed my head:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,

Night-long within mine arms in love and sleep she lay;

Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;

But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

When I awoke and found the dawn was gray:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,

Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,

Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;

But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,

Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:

I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,

But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,

Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;

And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,

Yea, hungry for the lips of my desire:

I have been faithful to thee Cynara! in my fashion.

If you have read the book, enjoying Rhett's amorous efforts and wanting, like I did, to slap Scarlett several times throughout the book when she fails to recognize real love, then this beautiful poem makes the romance elements even more poignant, as the metaphor between the loss of the South and the loss of love play out. The poem's narrator makes love to a prostitute while longing to be with his true love, just as Rhett turns to the prostitute Belle Watling when Scarlett turns him away from her bed, intent on never having children again.

When I started the book, I did not expect to find a very literary structure, yet, surprisingly, the events of physical destruction are paralleled with Scarlett's spiritual destruction, almost event for event, as the story draws to a close, though unevenly. I read up later to find the uneven structure was the main criticism of the work. Still, it is a compelling story full of historically accurate descriptions and unforgettable characters, a bildungsroman, where the main character's moment of enlightenment comes tragically too late.

The most bodice-ripping romance styled cover

Celebrated as the novel and the film may be, and celebrated here in Atlanta it definitely is---all our souvenir shops are covered with memorabilia---I can't fail to mention that there IS deep racism in the novel. It was, after all, a book about the end of slavery written by a white southerner in the pre-Civil Rights south. Margaret Mitchell captures the black dialect of the time faithfully, but she also tends to treat blacks like children. I found the pains at which she went to explain the relationships between whites and blacks extremely enlightening: blacks had deep loyalty to their white masters even to the point of despising their Yankee liberators, Mitchell has us believe, especially the 'house niggers' which looked down on both the 'trashy' whites as well as the trashy blacks. In polite circles Yankee women question whites whether they beat their slaves, and the whites are offended by the insinuation. Only blacks that deserved it got beat, apparently. Blacks have to be protected like children, and can't be expected to take up their own personhood like the Yankees prescribe during the Reconstruction. There is no doubt that all of this is pure myth; I personally will never forget reading about a study of extremely violent black men sitting in a North Carolina prison this very moment whose ancestry was traced back to the same plantation owned by one of the meanest slave owners on record at the time. You can't tell me history does not shape the present, no matter that it was over 100 years ago! Though I know Mitchell is carrying on a myth, it intrigues me that this is how whites may have thought about their relationships with blacks at the time. For the truth, we would have to also hear what the blacks said about their relationships with the whites as well...

Original cover

For me personally, references to Jonesboro and the University of Georgia (alumna here!) made me smile, and for anyone who has grown up in the South, the strong regional references to magnolias, neo-colonial architecture, fields of cotton, hot summers, corn bread, and sickeningly sweet, back-stabbing, "southern hospitality" can be lovingly appreciated. No other novel has brought the Old South as alive as this book for me. My other favorite southern writers, William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner, wrote about much later eras.

A more recent edition published by Scribner

I highly recommend reading Gone With the Wind to anyone who intends to travel to the southern states, and to fellow Southerners who haven't read it, I say, "What you waitin' fer? Read it, honey!"

If you have read Gone With the Wind, how much did you enjoy it? What criticism or praise do you feel towards it?

Theme for a Week: Gone With the Wind

2012-01-22T13:00:00.006+11:00

I'm ashamed to say it, but I grew up in Atlanta and had never read Gone With the Wind until I left Australia to come back here to Atlanta for my Christmas holiday. Little did I realize what a true page-turner it was going to be, occupying almost every hour of my 14 hour flight to L.A., and the entirety of my 5 hour overnight flight from L.A. to Atlanta (I was the annoying person on the plane who never turned her overhead light off while everyone else slept!). It was so good, and brought so much of the south back to life for me, that I've decided to make it this week's theme. I'm IN Atlanta, after all, and am surrounded by civil war history and only a drive away from where Margret Mitchell wrote her epic novel. I grew up IN Clayton County just near Jonesboro, where the fictional 'Tara' would have been. Places like my daycare center carried the name 'Tara'--in fact, there were so many 'Tara's that I thought it really was a real place when I was a kid. The old Jonesboro railroad station and civil war graveyard are still there, and I grew up driving around it for years, never knowing the significance of all the Georgia rail stations until I studied the civil war in fifth grade. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it--especially if you are Southern!

Monday, I'll review the book and tell you why you are going to love it.

Tuesday, I'll look at the movie, and the glamourous antebellum plantations, gowns with ginormous hoop-skirts, bowed bonnets, and Hollywood stars that featured in it.

Wednesday, I'll review the sequel, Scarlett, which I read just after I finished the original book. Bet you are wondering if it sucks already, well...check back on Wednesday!

Thursday, as a part of my spirituality and self-help series, 'Sage', I'll analyze the spiritual lessons we can learn from the character, 'Scarlett', how to not be a bitch being one of them!

Friday, I'll take you to Stone Mountain park in Atlanta, where you can see what a real antebellum plantation looks like, complete with gardens, stables, and slave quarters.

And Saturday, I'll take you to the grave of Margret Mitchell herself, to the oldest graveyard in Atlanta, Oakland Cemetery, where thousands of Civil War dead were buried, many in unmarked graves. You gothlings are going to love that post. ;)

You can see I've got a lot of time on my hands here, heh heh!

Who has read Gone With the Wind or seen the movie?

Birdseatsbaby - 'The Trouble'

2012-01-21T13:00:00.002+11:00

Happy weekend everyone! About now I will be in the German-styled village, Helen, in north Georgia, in a spa, sipping champagne with my sisters! Hopefully I'm succeeding in getting my younger sister drunk and in taking compromising pictures of her when she's not looking! My family doesn't call me "Mean Christine" for nuthin'!

In my 2012 resolutions I said I was going to start seeking out more dark cabaret and bohemian-gypsy, oompa-oompa bands. Here is a new one I found that I quite like. It's a catchy tune to house-clean to, and would certainly get my broomsticks moving!

Birdeatsbaby are a dark cabaret four-piece band from Brighton, UK.

'The Trouble' was one of their first hits off the album Here She Comes A Tumblin in 2009.

Some lyrics for 'The Trouble':

Incoherence, (my) disappearance Where did my dignity go?

Daytime nightmares, get your fair share?

No, well I didn’t think so

You slip away into slumber I lay and I crumble and pay for the price on your head and I hate to admit that your conscience is clear when you know what you did and you won’t shed a tear

Shaking, Burning, in-the-grave turning

Burden your demons on me

Seething, writhing, raging, caving

See how I split into three

Lead singer Mishkin=hawt! Love her hair!

"Like a more hyper-active Nick Cave meets a slightly depressed Freddie Mercury, Birdeatsbaby have been described as many things, including ‘a distinctly unhinged brand of burlesque freak-pop’, and ‘Twin Peaks on snuff.’

Check out their web-site here.

So, how would you rate this song, 1/10?

Has anyone heard this band before

or seen them perform? Any good live?

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Sage: Please DON'T Just "Be Yourself "

2012-01-19T13:00:00.000+11:00

Performance Artist Stephen Hues

A lot of people urge us to just "be yourself", but I don't think this vague advice is very helpful.

Firstly, I don't want other people to always just be themselves, because too many people are assholes.

I'd rather them not be themselves, and try being someone who is polite, who listens to other people, and who thinks before they talk. A lot of people don't do that.

Secondly, if I don't like things about who I am, then I don't really want to be me.

I'd rather pretend to be someone who everyone is going to like a bit more than the real me, because the real me might be thinking about what an asshole everybody else is.

It is more helpful to tell people, "Be the authentic you," or , "Don't be your ego."

Because the majority of people think that they are their egos, when they are not.

The ego is the bitch part of us that gets offended by things.

That needs to win.

To be right.

To be superior.

That is attached to outcomes and expectations.

That needs recognition.

The authentic self is strong and flexible, allowing life to flow through itself, and happen.

It accepts the shit life occasionally puts on our plate impersonally, knowing that occasionally, shit is going to happen no matter what we may think or do.

It takes responsibility for its character flaws and strives to overcome them--even if it means pretending to be a better person---in order to become one.

"The authentic self is the best part of a human being. It's the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle."

~Andrew Cohen~

"Most people are so stuck in their egos that everything revolves around me, me, and more me. But if you want to be rich in the truest sense of the word, it can’t only be about you. It has to include adding value to other people’s lives."

~T. Harv Eker~

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Sorry I Don't Have Any Outfit Posts--Would You Like to See What's In My Purse Instead?

2012-01-18T07:00:00.002+11:00

I always think of teenage basket case 'Alison' on The Breakfast Club when I see posts where fashion bloggers dump the contents of their purses out for everyone to see. Yet, there is something kinda fascinating about seeing the shit other people carry around in their purses, isn't there? Yea.

I'm in travel mode right now, which means I don't have a whole lot of clothes with me. I travel LIGHT--only two pairs of jeans, one sweater, one summer dress, one winter dress--like really light. I've shown you the winter dress and two pair of jeans before, so I don't have any new outfits to show you until I do some more shopping. After Christmas I was all shopped-out, so I haven't been doing a whole lot. No new outfits to show!

So, to apologize for my complete lack of weekly outfit posts, I dump my purse out for all to see: I give you...

JANUARY'S PURSE CONTENTS:

Here's my purse right now: a lovely studded satchel-style purse with studs and a chain handle. Its been a good travel purse; big enough to slip my laptop in so I can sneakily pass the carry-on luggage weight restrictions, small enough to not be too bulky or too heavy for daily jaunts. Bought it from alternative chain store Dangerfield in Melbourne.

Day of the Dead Wallet, also from Dangerfield, and my iPhone.

Sunnies for the bright Georgia winter sun, and new super-warm, fleece-lined, paisley-print velvet gloves that I received for Christmas. Gloves by Croft and Barrow.

My pen and make-up bag, bought directly from the lady who made it in Luang Prabang, Laos. Tissues, emory board, Almay face powder, and the super-amazing Revlon lip stain, 'Just Bitten', in 'Beloved'. I'm mad about this lip-stain stuff because it lasts and it comes with one end of chap stick. Perfect for winter.

My pocket camera and handy gorilla tripod. I carry my big camera in a separate camera bag. The cool think about this tripod is that it can be wrapped around a post if you want to get an above-angle of you and your mates, minus the reaching-around-arm view.

Travel essentials: anti-bacterial gel, wet-wipes (I use these cheap make-up removal wipes to double up), a healthy snack, and a wine guide.

And lastly, my diary, pens, and a velvet book bag. I carry my diary everywhere with me when I travel; it is the best way to pass hours when I'm stuck in an airport or need to rest in a cafe for a while.

So, that's all I have for now. Me and my few belongings here. I've picked up a few new things and found some pretty awesome thrifted things, but I don't feel I have enough yet to make a complete outfit worth blogging about. Lots of time to write stuff, though..... :P

Flights of Fancy: Who Would You Want to Model For?

2012-01-16T08:02:00.022+11:00

Let' say you looked like this photogenic gal in the purple wig.

And you had your choice of working with any photographer that you wished, anywhere in the world.

Who would you want to pose for and in what style? What would you wear?

Here are some of my favorite photographers and digital photography artists:

Viona Art

Viona-Art studios is based in Aalter, East Flanders, Belgium. All the costumes are designed for the shoots, which take on mythical and fairy-tale themes in decadent, maximalist detail. There is so much to drool over in just a single photo; the hair, the make-up, the lavish settings, and the masterly digital artistry that makes a dream come alive. Stunning!

666 Photography

This studio, located in Austin Texas, creates high-concept photo-shoots with retro and vintage styles with pop-surrealist themes. They create their own sets and costumes with eye-popping color and whimsical props and digital imagery.

Someday, when I am ready to take a road trip across America and visit the awesome university town of Austin, I'd like to have a shoot booked with this studio. Hopefully before I get too old. o_0

Natalie Shau

Hands down my favorite living artist, who I've been fortunate enough to receive a beautiful work from for a commission for branding Hexotica (see the little blue pic in my top left side bar), is Lithuanian artist Natalie Shau. A master digital artist and photographer, she captures innocence and darkness, femininity and strength, all at once in pop-surrealist and high-fashion images with vivid, ethereal color and polish.

I would fill my entire house with her artwork if I did not live with a man, but men do need to be reminded of their manliness with man-power images (cars, motorcycles, etc.) and might not enjoy being surrounded by all Shau's beautiful little girls and seductive women 24-7! Hhmph.

Phantom Orchid

Based in Barcelona, this female photographer works with corsetry designer Bibian Blue to create most of the most stunning images I have found on the web. She is also a master of digital re-touching, and all of her photos pop with color and polished perfection. This model in particular I find very enchanting, probably because she reminds me of Anais Nin.

What photography studios would you like to model for?

I'd love to discover more decadent studios like these!

Travel: St. Petersburg, Florida

2012-01-14T17:03:00.007+11:00

I couldn't possibly end a weekly theme on nomadism and travel without actually showing you where I have travelled to recently, now could I? ;)

Here it is, beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida, where I spent the last two weeks over New Years visiting one of my best friends from high-school. As this was the second time I've visited St. Pete, it was more about spending time with my friend than sight-seeing, although there is a lot to do in and around St. Petersburg.

Historic Don Cesar Resort Hotel, St. Petersburg Beach

I've had a lot of time to study photography with a book I purchased here, so while I was in St. Pete I took a lot of experimental photos. No opportunity was better than the breathtaking sunset we saw on New Years Day. It had been warm enough to wear a sundress and we had enjoyed the whole afternoon relaxing day on the beach, so seeing this brilliant sunset was the perfect ending to the day.

Phillip's partner, Dan, had the most talkative, beautiful cat I had ever seen. Her name was Bebe, after drag queen Bebe Zahara Benet. She had the most stunning jade green eyes I've ever seen on a cat. Her breed is Oriental Blue.

Late night ice-cream at a roadside kiosk. So Florida!

The day after New Years the temperature dropped dramatically, and I enjoyed the first fire I've had on my trip---in Florida!

Photo by Bluelucy

Phillip is a pop-artist with his ex-partner, Chad, and together they own Bluelucy, an art services business.

They moved down to St. Pete from Boston about 8 years ago and have been loving it since. Besides being a lot warmer, St. Pete does a lot to support its artists. For News Years Eve, the city set up art 'pods' for artists to display their work as part of the fireworks festivities.

Photo by Bluelucy

Bluelucy's pod rocked in black light and neon and was my favorite by far.

A beautiful bungalow we passed on our walk back to Dan's house after the fireworks.

Lifelong friends. I miss him already. :(

Things to do in St. Petersburg, Florida:

Visit the Salvador Dali Museum

Stroll down the Pier, which juts into the Tampa Bay and hosts a five-level marketplace with shops and restaurants overlooking the water.

Enjoy the exotic tropical flora of the Sunken Gardens, a hundred-year old botanical gardens featuring cascading waterfalls and over 50,000 species of plants and flowers.

Visit the Museum of Fine Arts, which has a fair collection of French Impressionists worth seeing.

My favorite thing to do in St. Pete is antique and local arts boutique shopping. Check out Phillip's friend's new shop Art Pool, where a fantastic vintage clothing collection is matched with a fantastic local arts collection. The ArtPool hosts monthly "I Love St. Pete" art exhibition parties. Wish I could be there!

Has anybody been to St. Petersburg? What did you think?

Snow Birds, Travelling Kids, Cowboys, and Other American Nomads

2012-01-13T13:07:00.116+11:00

Across America, millions of people actively choose a life of roaming. Some of them are pursuing dreams, others escaping nightmares. This documentary, American Nomads, covers who they are and where they roam, and looks into the reasons why they would choose a life on the road.

Narrated by British writer Richard Grant and beautifully filmed, it starts off slowly as the narrater comes upon some dubious characters, then onto various kinds of nomadic groups across the south west and up into the north. He picks up hitchhikers, enters a nomadic 'city', observes wild horses and herds of bison, and finally, climbs breathtaking, snow-covered mountains in a forest of giant sequoias to interview a nomadic man who lives alone in the peaks. It's a fascinating, 1.5 hour documentary in which you'll learn about:

Snow Birds--the 3 million over 55-year old, affluent retirees who sold their homes to live and travel in luxurious RV's.

Travelling Kids--the runaway teenagers hitch-hiking and jumping trains without direction across the continent.

Slab City-- a 'city' of staunchly anti-establishment nomads who converge to live on an abandoned Marine base in the Mojave desert every winter, known as a 'TAZ': a Temporary Autonomous Zone of contested, un-policed land near a military artillery range.

Rodeo Cowboys--the very handsome but painfully dumb young men who roam from one rodeo to the next, intoxicated by the danger and rootlessness of their profession. Women will love this bit!

Working Nomads--Truckers, carpenters, seasonal produce pickers, and laborers living freely on the road.

Richard Grant was a former train-hopping nomad himself, so he interviews the array of characters he meets with compassion and understanding, caution and concern. His narrating eloquence is matched by surprising intelligence and articulation in the most unlikely nomads.

Well worth the time if you find modern nomadism as fascinating as I do. Enjoy!

.

Sage: Don't Wait to Travel, Do it Now!

2012-01-12T17:00:00.004+11:00

Don't wait, don't wait, don't wait.

Don't wait for a girlfriend to join you, don't wait for your boyfriend to join you, don't wait to build a huge savings, don't wait for the economy to get better or for the perfect job to open up for you overseas.

Do it NOW, while you are single, while you are not a mother, while you can get student and youth discounts all over the planet, while you can get work visas (over 30 you are too old), while you will fit into a youth hostel and will want to party or travel on with the other young folks you meet there, while you can work in a chalet in Canada, a bar in Tokyo, a kibbutz in Israel, pick grapes in Australia, au pair in France, learn Spanish in Guatemala, and just generally do the work that you can to continue your journey.

Travel is life's greatest teacher and you should learn to do it on your own as it will teach you about yourself and make you a more open-minded, resourceful person.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, undying life will rush in.” – D. H. Lawrence

Flights of Fancy: What Jobs Would You Take to be a World-Traveling Gypsy?

2012-01-09T19:01:00.033+11:00

Yesterday I wrote about all the cities I have lived in and all the odd jobs I took to work my way around the world, hopefully inspiring some of you who haven't caught the travel bug to start dreaming of where you would want to go or what you would want to do to live like a gypsy, especially if you are young and single.

There are two ways to travel: Fast, in one to three week spurts, or slow, taking a month or longer to really live in some part of the world and get to know the culture. I've always preferred the second method, but it has always presented the problem:

"How do I pay for it?!?"

Well, darlings, I am here to re-assure you that travel does NOT have to be expensive. In fact, the slower you travel, the less expensive it is. And the best way to travel slowly is to work your way around the world. You don't need a degree or special skills to get work all over the world. You don't even need to get a work visa for many jobs available! There are so many things that you can do---that all you really need is the GUTS to do it!

Here are some ideas to get you into a day-dreaming frenzy:

Au Pair

If you don't think little kids are assholes like Maiki and I do (we started calling them that after seeing Owen Wilson's character exclaim it in the movie The Darjeerling Limited when he sees little kids playing in a dangerous river in India, "Look at these assholes!"), you can become an international nanny and work any place in the world where little kids live. I knew an au pair who worked in Jakarta, Indonesia, and partied on Indonesian beaches for six years and developed a cocaine habit while there but--er, I digress...

The pay is not fantastic but you will live and eat with the host family, so it is one of the best ways to get to know a culture and practice new language skills. With travel jobs, its not about the pay, it's about being able to live and work there and make enough to get to the next destination. Poor in the pocket, rich in life! Contact an au pair agency to get started--pedophiles need not apply.

Kitzbuhel, Austria

Ice Chalets

Like the snow and cold-weather sports? Working in a ski resort might be for you! Many ski resorts in Canada, the U.S., Switzerland and Austria among other places take backpackers for hospitality positions. Imagine living and working in a beautiful chalet, skiing and snowboarding on your days off, and perhaps cuddling by a big fire each night with some rich handsome gentleman you met on the slopes! Contact an international youth work agency to get started--they can arrange your work visas and liaison with the resort staff.

Carnival Cruise Lines

Cruise Ships

If the sun and sand is more your thing, island hop around the world on a luxury cruise ship! These huge ships are like cities on the sea, and they need hundreds of staff members to accommodate all those blue-haired ladies and gentlemen. Hospitality, spa, massage, entertainment work and more is available to hard workers in exchange for berth, meals, and your ticket to countless destinations around the world. Short-term work is also available on private yachts and charters. I worked as a cocktail waitress on private yachts around Perth when I first arrived in Australia. Contact a cruise company to apply.

Winery in the Bordeaux, southern France

Produce Picker

All around the world farmers need an army of workers to pick their produce, and in many countries backpackers are the ideal candidates. In youth hostels all over Australia you will find the billboards covered with ads for workers for wineries, for example, though many other types of produce-picking jobs are available depending upon what time of year it is. Some are easier or more pleasant than others; I heard from one couple who picked all over Australia that picking cabbages can be a little back-breaking. The money, however, can be quite good if you work fast. I picked grapes on my uncle's family winery south of Perth and loved it, despite the sun, sweat, and insects. There is definitely a romantic appeal to working on bucolic farmlands, and I have heard many backpackers say they really enjoyed the work despite the strenuousness. One guy worked all over France picking grapes among real gypsies, enjoying evenings around bonfires drinking wine and playing guitar. Best of all, you can find work as a picker without having a work visa or having to go through agencies. Just check out the billboards at local youth hostels to find farmers' ads. Often farmers will pick up backpackers directly from the hostel and take you back when the days work is done.

Scene from 24-Eyes

English Teacher

By far the most widely available work around the world is teaching English. Native English speakers are extremely fortunate to speak the language our modern world requires most, and for travelers it means work opportunities around the world. I taught English on a rural island in Japan that was famous for being the setting for a movie about a teacher, 24 Eyes, with the movie village still there for tourists to visit. Teaching English is a great job for Japan-lovers like myself, and it can be an excellent way to save money for travel and get to know the culture--so long as you don't live in the big cities, where there are too many ways to spend money and too many other foreigners to prevent you from having an authentic Japanese cultural experience. I loved that I was among only 3 other foreigners on an island of 30,000. It was great for my Japanese language skills, whereas many foreigners I met in larger cities tended to hang out with other foreigners or Japanese who wanted to practice English---great if you have no interest in learning the language, but frustrating if you really want to stop teaching when you're not working!

You don't always need a degree to teach at the smaller schools and agencies in Japan and elsewhere; native fluency in English and good communication skills are all you need some places, though CELTA certification may be required in some countries. I also taught ESL in Boston and New York for GEOS, one of the big English language companies in Japan. They have branches all over the world--even in Melbourne. I taught high-school French and Portuguese students for summer programs, and got paid to take my students to beaches, museums, historical spots, or even just out to play soccer. Teaching can be extremely rewarding but requires patience and people skills, as it can get extremely boring in basic level classes repeating, "This is a pen. What is it? It is a pen!"

So then, what if you don't want to work while you travel slowly?

I have two solutions:

Travel to cheaper parts of the world. Many people in developing countries have no idea just how cheaply you can travel in some parts of the world. I travelled for three whole months around south east asia for a mere $3,500---and I wasn't roughing it! I had private rooms, three nice meals, lots of beer, and plenty of tours and souvenir-shopping. The thing was that in some countries, as in Laos or Thailand, for example, you can get basic rooms for as little as $4 a night! Even nice 'luxury' rooms with en suites and meals on the beach in Ko Samui cost a mere $8 a night. I love seeing eyes pop when I tell people that I averaged only $25 a day for five weeks throughout Thailand! After seeing what hotel rooms cost with direct booking, I advise travellers to be super cautious with packaged tours--often booking the same flights and the same hotels yourself can save you hundreds!

Ko Samui beach huts, Thailand

Plan your trip as far ahead as possible and split the cost three ways. This has been my method for almost every single trip I have ever taken:

Purchase and pay for the airfare first, as far ahead as possible, getting the lowest fare available, with the most connections if it means saving more. Booking the ticket is the single most important step in making a trip real and possible, as you will spend the whole year in anticipation and you'll be motivated to save. Pay the ticket off first, then...
Save the spending money, bit by bit over the year, then more aggressively as the weeks draw near your departure date. Ask for money for your trip for your birthday and for Christmas, or put all of your tax-return into savings. I have a mantra when I save: "This could be a cup of coffee in (place somewhere exotic)" that prevents me from frivoling my money away.
Have credit cleared on your credit card or extend your credit before you leave. That way, you'll have back-up in case of emergencies, or extra spending money that you can pay back after the trip. Though I'm a big believer in paying for cash for everything and in living within your means, I also think that you should make the most of your travel experiences and be prepared for the unexpected costs of travel--like landing in Tokyo in the middle of the night due to flight delays and having to book the only hotel available, even if it's 5 times over the nightly hotel budget--happened to me after a long flight, and there was no way I was going to just sleep in the airport!

Finally, get yourself a copy of the modern nomad's bible: Work Your Way Around the World by James Penrith. I owned four different editions of this book and have given every copy away to wide-eyed and travel-hungry friends. It helped me get started on a two-year journey and will one day help me on another epic journey when I am ready to set off again.

What have you done or would do to work your way around the world?

Would You Want to be a Modern Nomad?

2012-01-08T23:38:00.004+11:00

Do you want to live and work in other countries? Other cities?

Would you want to have an income that did not depend on your showing up at one spot at anytime?

A job you could work at anywhere in the world?

I do--I always have. I spent most of my early twenties telling people I wanted to design my life around travel, wanted to live in as many different countries and cities as possible, and wanted to lead an exotic life.

So, I did live in other countries and cities--for about three years; I lived pretty much out of a suitcase. I lived on a small island in Japan, then in Boston, then in New York, then in Perth, Australia, then in Melbourne, then back to Japan to live in Tokyo, then back to Melbourne. I worked as an ESL teacher, a waitress, bartender, hostess, retail assistant, wholesale assembler, receptionist, dispatcher at an animal shelter, cocktail waitress, and coffee maker. It was great, but my income was erratic and I hated having to get a new job everywhere I went, and I hated having to quit jobs I really enjoyed, in order to keep moving. I also hated leaving broken hearts behind and not having a support network of friends close to me. So, after returning to Melbourne from Japan, I settled down and held onto my friends. I continued to travel, but only for pleasure, and not for work.

The thing with travel is it gets tiresome and lonely. I now prefer to travel no longer than eight weeks at the most, because I have found that more than eight weeks dulls my senses to what I am experiencing, no matter how interesting, or how many lovely people I may meet along the way. It is also very hard to leave anyone behind who might be waiting for your return, be it a partner or a pet. One traveller I met put it very well, "When someone is waiting for you to return, you can't really be 100% where you are."

Yet, the upside is a tremendous sense of freedom and personal strength, and an unforgettable education and experience. I never look back and wish I'd done less moving around--I only wish I'd done a lot more.

How can I be a modern gypsy?

This is the question I want to explore this week. How can I satisfy the gypsy in me, and still not go into debt, lose my job or my livelihood, the love of my partner, friends, and pets?

Who is living like a modern nomad right now, and how?

What kind of advice do seasoned nomads have for those who want to become gypsies?

I will share more of my own experiences, resources, and advice on what you can do, depending upon what country you are in and how old you are.

My goal is to travel eight weeks overseas every year. One week, two week, and even three week holidays just don't cut it for me; I have to have long sabbaticals from my normal life to feel the freedom I crave in travelling without an itinerary.

Who has the travel bug permanently on their back like I do?

Where do you want to live or travel to, and for how long?

The Victim's Ball: Hand of Glory Video

2012-01-07T08:40:00.008+11:00

Last October I had the pleasure of playing a courtesan in a video for dark cabaret band, The Victim's Ball. I posted costume and action pictures from the day of shooting in this post, and am now pleased to present the finished video:

I think they did a brilliant job at evoking the macabre, what do you think?

Sage: Resolve to do What You 'Would' instead of 'Should'

2012-01-05T08:27:00.005+11:00

Cynics who say the process of making resolutions is a waste of time should add, "for stupid people," because smart people are pretty good at making and keeping resolutions.

Smart people understand that to make and keep a resolution you need to set goals to back it up, and that those goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and results-focused, and Time-bound.

Take all the capitol letters there and you will spell SMART, see? Ah, ha, ha...

What really makes people smart about keeping their resolutions is that they understand what they want from life in the first place, because real intelligence in succeeding in life is emotional intelligence, the degree to which a person understands what they are feeling and can control and act upon those feelings to really make shit happen.

Without self-understanding and a real assessment of what you value and what motivates and influences you, you'll slip into the problem of leading your days with "should" instead of "would".

You think you "should" do something because it is valued by your ego, your family, your teachers, your boss, society.

"Should" thinking won't get you anywhere because you haven't attached any underpinning values of your own to make you want to do the thing.

Example: The government values your health because they can't afford to have you in the hospital when you should be contributing to the economy. So they educate you on how bad it is for you, and you know that it is bad, but you haven't attached much value to your own health, or to the concerns of your family, or to the state of your finances, so you won't quit.

"Would" thinking is based on what you value, what will motivate you from the deepest part of your authentic self.

Know thyself.

Underpin all your resolutions with your own values and you will want to keep them, year-round.

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."

~Oscar Wilde

“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. ”

― Anaïs Nin

Desiring Machines: What Do You Desire in 2012?

2012-01-02T09:32:00.009+11:00

Besides the world not ending, what are your hopes for 2012?

Mine are:

To travel to

INDIA

Image

India has been at the top of my list for travel destinations for a few years now. I have met travellers who have been to nearly 100 countries and they all say India is their favorite. I cannot wait to see the temples, taste the food, meet the people, see traditional dances and festivals, and most of all---buy lots of jewelry and saris.

Sydney

For the Under the Blue Moon Festival in October--if it is on this year--and if not, just to have cocktails by the beautiful harbour and for a different shopping experience. Or, for New Years Eve, 2013!

Indonesia

Indonesia is to Australia like Mexico is to America--cheap to fly there, and right next door.

Every Australian has been to Bali-- a few times. I haven't---so this year I'd like to finally hop up there and see it, not for the beaches as much as for Borobudur.

Borobudur is one of the three largest ancient temple complexes in south-east asia, along with
the Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Dhammayangyi Pahto temple in Bagan, Burma. Visiting the Angkor Wat temples was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am a temple addict when I travel, and I cannot wait to see Borobudur.

To Listen

Melbourne gypsy band Rapskallion

To a lot more dark cabaret music around the world, and to share what I find here on my blog.

To Learn

How to cast metal and resin to make beautiful findings for jewelry projects.

To Buy

A punching bag

Since my old one fell apart, I haven't had a punching bag to work out on. I've used Maiki a few times, but he punches back. :]

These Pleaser boots:

Black Victorian boots: Check!

Red Victorian Boots: Nope!

It's time to buy red boots.

This Dark Muse Corsetry gusseted corset and matching bustle:

drool...

And:

To eat a mostly raw vegan diet.

To have my fruits and veggies delivered direct to my house from Australian growers.

To sew more costumes--especially a pirate costume for Talk Like a Pirate Day September 16. Arrgh!

And finally,

To MAKE LOTS OF MONEY!!
oh, I'm sorry. Were you expecting me to say 'world peace' or 'joy for all'? Ok, that too.

What are your 2012 plans?

In the Land of McMansions: Thoughts on America vs Australia

2011-12-22T06:46:00.001+11:00

When you have been an expatriate from your home country as long as I have, coming back is always a bit of a culture shock. After living in Australia for nearly 12 years now, I feel like more of a foreigner in the U.S. than an American. There are some things here that, growing up, I never knew were particular to American culture--in fact, I even thought there was no culture here, because of how young the country is compared to older countries that have a thousand years of tradition behind them, such as Japan or China.

I could not have been more wrong. Travel gives you a pair of new eyes, and nothing ever looks the same again. I can see the American culture very clearly now, as I do the Australian culture.

My experience at the moment is limited to being in American suburbia, the Disneyfied American dream land of large homes, shopping meccas, t.v., cars and highways, and corporate chain stores and restaurants spiralling outward from the city center, the geography of Nowhere. I am achingly sentimental about some things that I have missed about the U.S. and have forgotten the vehemence that I had for other things. Some of the things that may be mundane for American readers may strike some of my Australian readers and friends as uniquely American, such as....

McMANSIONS

My mother's neighborhood is sharply divided between new and old homes. The new homes all look similar in build, stand close together on plots of land cleared of large trees, and have massive proportions---large entry ways, large garages, large basements, large attics, large windows. My brother and his family live in a house in a neighborhood very much like this one...

All around Atlanta it's more of the same. Huge homes with neatly trimmed yards and pretty mailboxes, decorated with Christmas lights, the atmosphere hauntingly serene except for the movement of cars. In Australia, many of the homes have fences around the front yard, and there are not a whole lot of neighborhoods that have exposed front yards like here. These neighborhoods here remind me of Hollywood movies.

Pedestrians are a suspicious thing around these wide empty streets, especially when they carry a camera! At least I had my sister's dog with me as an excuse...

Just look at the backside of that gray one on the left...four stories of house. SO much room to fill with all the things that can be bought for so little in this country. Since the 1960's family size has shrunk while houses have expanded. Some of these homes may only have four people living in them. Mamma and Daddy get their own sinks and their own walk-in wardrobes, while little Jane and John get their own rooms and their own playrooms to boot. It's a wonderful amount of space; and it's total luxury in my eyes, as I'm so use to my inner-city home with limited space. There are definitely large homes like these in Australia, but not near as many as here. The population of Australia is 22, 328, 800 while in Georgia alone it is 8, 186, 453! Australia is also one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world. There is seemingly only city and country in most parts of Australia, though there is a rising trend toward American-style suburban sprawl, especially around Melbourne.

The entries to these neighborhoods have pretty signs in brick or gateways, with manicured lawns and flowerbeds like these...

My mother's new home. With the recession my mother lost her job, left to live in Australia for a year, then returned to the U.S., 'strategically' defaulted on her old house and bought this house--with cash. It cost less than some people spend on a new car. Many homes around Atlanta are sitting empty or selling at unbelievably low prices.

My younger sister's neighborhood.

CHRISTMAS

There is nothing like the American Christmas season. From the day after Thanksgiving when the shopping craze begins, it is 24-7 Christmas. Christmas lights, trees in every shop and restaurant, workplace and home, Christmas sales, and Christmas music on the radio, all day long. I'll admit I hated it all when I lived here. Hated the commercialization of it all; the pressure to buy; the charade of it being a religious holiday when religion meant nothing to most people celebrating (my family). How much I've missed it now!

Christmas decorations in overdrive at an antique shop.

Of course you get a bit jaded when you grow up with something. But coming back to it, I find it all so glitteringly beautiful and charming--the pretty lights, the lavishly trimmed trees, the specialty foods, the music still the same as in my childhood, the middle aged mammas wearing santa hats and bells in their ears...it's nice to visit and have an American Christmas....once in a while.

It took me a few years to get use to the Aussie Christmas--sun, swimming, BBQ's, cold salads, seafood, and way more moderate levels of decorating and shopping. I missed coming in from the icy cold to the snapping fires, the hot chocolates, and the red and emerald velvet of winter clothes and Christmas bows. But when there are so many other things on---music festivals, pool parties, outdoor events, who has time to spend all that time decorating and shopping? Christmas is a quiet affair in Australia. Especially around the actual holidays, as shops actually close up and people actually get a lot of holiday time off work. I feel sorry for Americans having only two paid holidays a year; it's four weeks paid in Australia. That makes for a whole lot more time to travel or sit by the pool with a beer...

mmm....

At a local bakery...

At Provino's, an Italian restaurant chain...

SHOPPING

Whoe, mamma, if there is one thing you gotta love about the States it is the shopping. Here in the land of the consumer, there is no limit to what you can buy, and so much choice and so much luxury...it's a little overwhelming. I have been swept around in and out of Kohls, Target, T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, Macys, malls, Barnes and Noble, Ross, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Peir-1, and so many other big mega-American chain retailers that my eyes are still wobbling in their sockets with all the stuff I've seen.

Stuff like this. WTF? Moose hand soap dispenser, anyone?

And these adorable 'Dr. Suess' style trees...

And the velvety red poinsettia displays at Kroger or Publix, which are shops that seem lavish enough even without the Christmas products.

I have shopped more in two weeks than I normally do in six months. It's not that offerings or brands are significantly different from Australia, it's just the scale. There is a grand scale of choice in everything, and in many things the prices are much lower, especially in books. Mac lipstick costs about $36 in Melbourne; here it's $14.50. America is a hands-down shopping mecca. Right now retailers are so desperate for money that it is even cheaper than it use to be; they are giving vouchers and coupons by the truckload. My mother is a coupon expert, and helped me buy all of this drugstore make-up for under $30:

Store sales + store vouchers + coupons = some products for $1! The eyeshadow compacts alone cost around $20 in Australia; I bought them for $1.50 here. Americans, you are crazy if you are not utilizing the coupon frenzy here. Half of what my mother has in her kitchen pantry was FREE after she used her coupon savvy to stock-pile what she always needs.

So, has anyone ever experienced culture shock in their own country like I have? What stood out for you and what country did you compare it with?

Travel: Athens, Georgia

2011-12-20T10:37:00.001+11:00

Hey ya'll! I'm writing from the Deep South now--Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. My home. It's good to be back!

I was born in Clayton County in the suburb of Rex, just ten minutes away from Jonesboro--the very heart of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, an epic historical novel about the Civil War and the torrid romance between fictional characters Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Though Tara is a fictional place, I grew up around many places named Tara, among dogwood and pine trees, dark magnolias, neo-colonial mansions and land formerly used for cotton plantations.

People who travel to the U.S. often have no idea how regional this country is, with vastly different cultures, foods, accents, and ideologies between one corner and the next. In the movie Sweet Home Alabama, Reece Witherspoon's character exclaims in exasperation while on the field of a Civil-War reenactment, "You need a passport to come down here!", and it's almost the cotton-pickin' truth. It ain't like the rest of the U.S.!

Scattered throughout the south are the beautiful white mansions of times past, with white columns, tall shuttered windows, and rocking chairs on the porch. In one of my favorite little towns in all the world, my university town of Athens, Georgia, the historical district of Milledge Avenue displays a lengthy history of southern architecture. Here, the University of Georgia was established in 1785 (and is even mentioned in Gone with the Wind!). Every time I return home I love to take the hour and a half drive up to Athens from Atlanta and visit this town, so charmingly southern and counter-cultural at once.

Most of the largest mansions on Milledge Avenue are the fraternity and sorority homes for UGA students. The fraternity houses are merely skeletons with trashy insides, but the sorority homes have been restored and preserved within. At one frat party in one of these homes, I remember there being a rabbit's warren of lofts and cubby holes where students slept. I also remember drinking a shot of tequila off of a giant wall of ice---a guy had to climb a ladder to get to the top and pour down the tequila, and 3-4 of us stood with our mouths open next to carved-in pathways for the rivulets!

This is one of the houses I lived in for a while, during an unhappy relationship. It had a bazillion giant, flying roaches, one of the bains of existence in the south. Yea, I know. Gross. You know you are in the south when you can hear the roaches walking at night. I don't miss them!

The center town of Athens is a student hang-out of cheap cafes, coffee-shops, and funky boutiques. It is an underground music mecca and a great place to stop for a weekend if you ever do a road trip down south. R.E.M., B-52's, Matthew Sweet and heaps of other bands all made their names starting in Athens. Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck still live here. I use to see Michael Stipe at a neighboring table at my favorite coffee joint, back when I spent half a day devouring literature with countless mugs of free-refill joe.

My beautiful older sister, Laura, also a UGA graduate.

Park Hall, on the UGA campus--the literature studies building. Next to it is the languages building, where I once had an inexplicable feeling of being watched in the downstairs girls bathroom. I ran out in shivers, and learned---that very morning, about ten minutes after--that the reason the hall was boarded up next to my Japanese class, was because the building had formally been a dormitory and a guy had hung himself--in the room directly above the girls bathroom!!!

Random things that make the south the South:

Everyone still uses "sir" and "ma'am".

Real, brewed sweet tea with a slice of lemon is served everywhere.

If you ask for coke, you get asked "what kind?"

Hot-roasted or boiled peanuts sold by the side of the road.

The Civil War referred to as "the war of Northern aggression."

No matter how old they are, southerners call their parents "mama" and "daddy".

The word "fix" is used as a verb, as in "I'm fixin' to go shopping."

You get called "honey" by total strangers.

So who has been to the south or lives here now? What do you think makes the south the South?

Let's Start Talking!

2011-12-18T08:23:00.000+11:00

Love to comment on blogs but hate having to re-visit old posts to check for replies? I do! I admire bloggers who reply to all their comments, but I'll have to admit, I rarely go back to read if any replies were left for me except on my few favorite blogs. *hangs head in shame* I'm just too busy!

If you've commented on my blog lately you'll notice a whole new commenting system, Disqus, which allows you to see ALL the comments you make on ALL the blogs that have installed the Disqus widget--on one page! It's super-bad-ass and I HIGHLY recommend it to all of you fabulous, hard-working bloggers out there, because the more of you that install that widget the easier it will be for all of us to read your replies to our comments. Disqus can also tie in your other social networks, including Twitter. Depending upon just how social you want to be you can cram everything into it, and know everything everybody is commenting upon--everywhere. Cool beans, huh?

Install the Disqus widget now, honey!

Travel: Fiji, Day 2: Sipping Cocktails by the Pool All Day...oh yea!

2011-12-17T07:24:00.001+11:00

So, for my second day in Fiji, I took my fully-charged ipod, a few good books, and, I am ashamed to say it, my nail kit, and I gave myself the break that every hard-working, semi-self-employed, super social, health-conscious gal rightfully deserves at least once a year--poolside butt time, with cocktails!

The Raffles Gateway Hotel has two pools, one by the alfresco dining area in an inner-court and this bigger one with a giant slide. Later in the day when lots more people were out at the pool, it was fun watching the adults get stuck on the slide halfway down.

Cocktail numero uno: A Blue Raj (though it was GREEN. why?)

My Fiji souvenir earrings from Nadi.

Another cocktail: the Sota Tale. I think I had two of these, in between a strawberry margarita...

Feeling pretty happy by then.... =)

Me and my gloriously gothic pallor.

View outside my room at sunrise...

If you ever want to come to Australia and would like to break up the long flight with a country in between, Fiji is a great stop, if even for a night or two. The airport is in the little town of Nadi, the jumping-off point for all the island tours to Fiji's 300+ islands. Directly across from the airport is The Raffles Gateway Hotel, a six minute walk away, and a perfect place to stay the night before an early morning flight. I like to book my accommodation through discount web-sites like lastminute.com, which often offers rooms at half the usual price--less than a private room at a backpackers!

Bathing suit: by Pin-Up Couture, with rhinestone brooches attached

Travel: Fiji, Day 1: Nadi and Denarau

2011-12-15T10:38:00.000+11:00

Bula! I've been absent from the blogosphere because I've journeyed across the world from Melbourne, Australia to Fiji to L.A. and then finally to my home town of Atlanta, where I'm now staying with my mother in a suburban wonderland. The three weeks leading up to my departure were monkey-nut-ball-crazy busy so I had NO time for le blog, but now I've got more time on my hands than I know what to do with so here's the start of what I've been up to in my absence:

Fiji, Day 1: Nadi and Denarau

After a four hour delay for a four hour flight, I arrived in Nadi, the little airport town of Viti Levu, the mainland of Fiji. Upon arrival humid and hot air hit me, as did a string quartet serenade and everywhere the friendly Fijian "bula!" for "hello". I had booked a nice hotel within walking distance from the airport, the Raffles Gateway Hotel, which was such a beautiful site for my sleepy-tired eyes!

The Raffles Gateway Hotel, Nadi, Fiji

My air-conditioned oasis.

Colorful Fijian dollers, roughly .67 to every Aussie dollar. Fiji is not as cheap as south-east Asia, but much, much cheaper than Tahiti.

After checking in and having a shower and a change of clothes from jeans and cardigan to a cotton sundress and sandals, I had lunch at the exquisite hotel restaurant. The restaurant served the authentic Fijian dish, kokoda, cubed raw fish marinated in lime juice and lolo (coconut cream) with chili and raw onions. I also had a house salad with pineapple and lime dressing. A meal fit for a queen, it was so awesome.

After lunch, I took the local bus to the town of Nadi. The 'bus' was actually just a mini-van and was packed with locals. It was awesome. I feel most alive when I'm as much out of my own element as possible!

Nadi is not a remarkable little town, but it was a great place to see how real Fijians eat and shop. It was full of souvenir shops selling cannibal cutlery and shell jewelry; beachy stuff, and lots of pushy touts trying to herd you into their shops, but I didn't mind. The Fijians were all very friendly, and everywhere I went they greeted me with "bula!".

I went into an everyday grocery store (one of the things I always love to do in a foreign country), and into a few of the sparkling Fiji-Indian sari and jewelry shops.

An open-air handicrafts market, Nadi.

As always when I travel, costume jewelry is my souvenir. I bought these two pairs of chandelier earrings, one navy blue, one magenta. And I drank lots of bottled water--my favorite brand!

After a few hours in Nadi I took another local bus to the resort town of Denarau. In stark contrast to Nadi, Denarau is a town of manicured golf courses, resorts and upmarket shopping and eating. There is a Hard Rock Cafe among all the harbour-view bars and restaurants. In the center of the shopping district, I caught a traditional dance event.

I then enjoyed a few Fiji beers and rest time with my diary at one of the waterside bars, and once again got serenaded by a string quartet. They were everywhere in Fiji!

At sunset I headed back to Nadi for another cold shower, happily tipsy and nearly falling asleep on the bus with exhaustion, as I'd hardly had an hour of sleep in two days!

This is the cute cotton dress I'd worn for the day, another colorful-floral-on-black number like the skirt in my last post. I have an addiction!

Outfit details: My dress is originally from Target, though I bought it new off a friend at a one of the gothic garage sales last year for $5.

Sandals from Novo.

Day Two in Fiji to come next--sitting pretty by the pool all day, sipping cocktails! Have I made you all envious yet?? If not, my next post certainly will! :P

Weekly Outfit: Flowery Cotton Casualness

2011-11-21T10:30:00.001+11:00

What an amazing weekend I had! An all-night Friday boogie to dark dubstep at the gothic club Cabaret Nocturne (fell in love with dubstep for the first time!), lots of episodes of True Blood while Maiki and I nursed our hang-overs on Saturday, then on Sunday shopping, lunching at the local raw food cafe with a close friend, and beer garden beers among the crowds at the busy Spanish Festival. Here is what I wore on Sunday:

A gorgeous black cotton skirt with a pink, lavender, and red floral design. I think I have an obsession with all things colorful on a black background--my shoes, too, are black satin with a colorful floral design!

I bought this skirt to wear to work, where I am LOVING being able to wear my own clothes again. I'm pulling out all my jewelry, matching things up and mixing new with old in new ways. It's been such fun--how I've missed being able to wear whatever I want, rather than just the clothes I have to sell!

The other great thing about my new job is the jewelry, of course! I have started a small collection already, including these large 'Peacock' earrings. They have crystal rhinestones in addition to the black faceted stones.

I think this skirt would look better with a more fitted colored top, but the weather has been too warm for anything but cotton lately, so I wore it with this white camisole and took the short black cardigan in case the weather turned (as it does here, and did Sunday, right around sunset).

Is anyone else into dubstep? I had no love for it until Friday night. I haven't boogied that hard in a very long time!

Outfit Details:

Cardigan: Chocolatte

Camisole: Thrifted

Skirt: CKM, my favorite super cheap brand sold around Melbourne

Shoes: K-Mart

Bracelet: Diva

Earrings: from work!!! lovelovelove!

Ravishing Ruffles Corsage Cuff Bracelet

2011-11-11T11:00:00.000+11:00

Listening to Amanda Palmer tonight, feeling tremendously inspired by all the new techniques in jewelry design that I'l be able to indulge in next year now that I am working full-time! Full-time employment frees me from having to make many of the 'bread and butter' products; best-sellers that are beautiful, yet lack the depth of creative expression I long for in my designs. This is such a beauty; the accompanying design to my Ravishing Ruffles choker:

Ravishing Ruffles - Gothic Burlesque Black Satin and Lace Corsage Bracelet

And to show you the matching choker, here is a stunning picture from a lovely customer, Victorian Kitty, from the exquisite gothic fashion blog Sophisticate Noir:

Victorian Kitty wearing the Ravishing Ruffles Choker

If you haven't yet discovered Sophisticate Noir and you are into gothic fashion, I think you will will go nuts for her beautiful, very professionally-executed blog. It features monthly theme posts for the gothic blogging community that anyone can participate in. These pictures were from her 'Fascinators' theme day; this month's theme was 'Armwarmers'. Readers join in and make a blog post of their own to match the theme; it's fabulous!

Ravishing Ruffles is available in the Hexotica web-store, on Etsy and on Ebay. The matching choker is also available in each store. Custom color requests for this design are welcomed!

Weekly Outfit: Almost Normal

2011-11-09T22:08:00.000+11:00

So, I'm not looking very alternative here, I know, but I like this outfit that I bought last summer from my old job in wholesale fashion. I wore it to a birthday bar-b-que on Saturday, the first truly warm day to arrive in what has been a rather cold and wet last few weeks.

The black sateen hipster pants have nickel zippered seams to the knees and are just the right length for in-between weather days. The top is long, comfy, and sleek, with a wide stretch band at the bottom which hugs and flatters my hips. It's perfect for events where I don't particularly care about coming off very alternative, goth, or artistic; there are some days looking 'normal' is quite fun in itself!

I wore simple black metal leaf earrings and straightened my hair. I still had my alternative-ness in my shaved side, a black stud bracelet, and bright orange eye-shadow. ;)

Outfit Details:

Top & Pants: Miss Me, the 'young and trendy' label I sold in wholesale fashion

Sandals: Novo, a chain shoe store in Australia

Earrings: Diva, a chain costume jewelry store in Australia

Do you have some outfits that make you feel almost 'normal'?

Evening Outfit for a 1960's Las Vegas Surprise 40th Party!

2011-11-07T22:31:00.000+11:00

I had a rad time at a friend's surprise 40th recently--1960's Las Vegas style! Luckily, I had an entire '60's vintage formal outfit for the occasion.

I've had this gorgeous vintage swing coat for years. It has an interesting swirly pattern in the fabric, similar to wood grain. I think the only thing missing from this outfit is a pair of long vintage gloves to suit the style of the coat.

I did a 60's mini-bee-hive thing with my hair, completed with a wide satin ribbon.

And the dress is a cute triple velvet mini with rhinestone details on a mandarin-style collar. When I found this dress at a thrift shop nearly 15 years ago the only imperfection was that one of the rhinestone chains had broken. I fixed it in five minutes and it has stayed fixed ever since. SCORE!

I always wear this dress with these vintage clip-on, Spanish flamenco style earrings, also thrifted.

But the real treasure of this ensemble is this pair of gold rhinestone mary janes. I only wear them on special occasions, and almost always with this same dress. After so many years, they are still in excellent condition.

And this is poor George, the very overwhelmed birthday boy! His lovely gal Danni arranged everything with his sister. It was held at the Kitten Club, a chic double level bar with a plush-red 'love room', giant heart and all.

Posing in front of the red room with some sexy ladies!

Maiki in Vegas casino mode

George gets edgy; it's all just too much for an old dude!

The wall of George.

Ladies behaving themselves...

"Did you steal my drink??"

Ladies not behaving themselves, or, "trashbags in the making"! (Man, was there a hang over after this night!) :P

Outfit Details:

Everything is vintage and was bought at thrift shops around Atlanta years and years and years ago, long before the vintage craze came about, before it became a lot harder to find great old stuff for so little money!

Principessa Agata--Chain and Rosette Sequin Necklace

2011-11-04T11:00:00.002+11:00

In the beautiful harbour of Cinque Terre, Italy, a princess in a blue satin gown and white fur stole dances in the evening by the glittering sea and colored street lights, the multi-tiered chains and sequins of her necklace sparkling on her neck...

Principessa Agata--Chain and Rosette Sequin Necklace

Principessa Agata, you might remember from my archived blog, is the necklace I designed to match this gorgeous bird fascinator and satin top. I'm keeping the original, of course, but I thought the design was too pretty not to share, and I might be making another, similar one, in a different color sometime in the future!

And this is Cinque Terre, by the way:

It is on my list of "must-see-before-I-die" places. How beautiful are those colors?!! The contrast of sky, harbour water and sea water, so, so stunning! This photo took my breath away. Has anybody been lucky enough to have visited there?

Weekly Outfit for Melbourne Cup day at Possum Manor

2011-11-02T11:00:00.005+11:00

Melbourne Cup holiday fell on a cloudy and cool Tuesday this year, but that didn't stop a group of friends and I from having an afternoon bar-b-que and wearing fancy headpieces of our own!

I wore my red evil hipster jeans. All hipsters are evil and I hate them, but I have a bazillion pairs thanks to working in wholesale fashion and having to wear them to sell them.

Well, I don't work there anymore, now I work in wholesale accessories (thunderous applause and hurrahs!), so I'm wearing all the jeans to my new workplace in my style and in new ways! Pairing them with a long stripy tank, short cardigan, rocker belt and patent docs makes for a fun and colorful combination.

And this is my Melbourne Cup homage for the day, a striped satin teardrop fascinator with star sequins on black and white rosettes and soft tulle. I really should get around to making these for Hexotica!

The stripy top with hipsters does kinda make my belly look bigger and rounder, but that's what sucking it in is good for when taking photos! hehheh.

Mic, Jason, and Maiki sporting their own 'fashions on the field' competition! Jason: "Do I look pretty with this flower? Better take a picture of myself and check!"

And this is my friend Tarley's ancient bohemian house where we had the bar-b-que. I call it 'Possum Manor' because there are a lot of possums currently scampering in the attic. All the little boxes are for the possums, who will soon get a nasty night-time eviction! The boxes will be hung in the trees for them. How considerate is that? Maiki suggested painting all of them and Tarley loved the idea, so she's wondering what styles to do them in now. I suggested one of them should be in an Indian style, like the buses and taxi cabs in India. Does anyone else have any suggestions? Porn palace? Retro? Victorian cottage?:D

Outfit details from what I can remember off the top of my head:

Fascinator: Made by me!

Necklace: me again!

Spike earrings: Diva (Aussie chain store)

Lipstick: Mac - Russian Red (Dita Von Teese's favorite!)

Cardigan and tank top: Chocolatte (el-cheapo store)

Jeans: Since Jane (brand I use to sell)

Boots: Doc Marten patent 14-ups (best ever boots!!)

Shooting A Music Video for The Victim's Ball

2011-10-31T11:00:00.031+11:00

One of the more interesting things that I got up to earlier this month was participating in the making of a music video for The Victim's Ball. Dressed in 17th century finery, both Maiki and I spent an entire day on and off a green screen set, posing with Venetian masks, antique guns, knives, and wine goblets, along with our friends in various other character costumes.

Maiki playing the hurdy gurdy.

Soloist singer, Roby, as Death

Jason working hard on filming everything.

Jo, the most beautifully dressed mother-to-be I've ever seen!

Roby's set of evil Polish marionettes.

Maiki losing his soul in a deal with Death.

How do you like my new nose? ;)

The Victim's Ball is dark cabaret-styled music with a theatrical, tongue-and-cheek exploration into the darker events of human history. The premise of the name is based on actual 'Victim's balls' in revolutionary France:

"It is said that 'Les bals des victimes', or 'The victims’ balls', were soirees put on by dancing societies after the period known as the 'Reign of Terror' during the French Revolution. A period marked by intense violence and mass executions of those considered to be enemies of the Revolution.
Following the death of Robespierre, one of the architects of the Terror, 'Les bals des victimes' emerged as a trend of youths whose relatives had been sent to the guillotine. Twisted by their experience, they established aristocratic, decadent balls open to themselves alone. These soirees were outlandish events, in which the participants wore lavish and 'à la mode' finery, as an act of mockery and defiance to the dominant regime. The costumes of those who attended these balls incorporated crepe armbands signifying mourning. Women dressed 'à la toilette du condamne', usually signified by a red ribbon tied around their necks at the point of a guillotine blade’s impact and hair cut, or worn, high up off the neck. Described as scandalous, 'Les bals des victimes' morbid fascination with the horror of the guillotine, often shocked the chattering classes..."

Roby's former musical band was The Tenth Stage, which had this stunning animated video to one of their best and darkest songs, the tale of Francois Martin:

WELCOME TO HEXOTICA 2011 VERSION 2.0, LIVE!

2011-10-28T21:00:00.000+11:00

Hey all, I told you there were going to be some big changes, well, here they are, at last! While I've been working on the new Hexotica web-site and blog layout I also changed jobs from a part-time one to a full-time (temporary) one, hence my retreat from the blogosphere for the last couple of weeks. Add to this mix the Melbourne Spring Racing rush for fascinators and the coming Christmas season, and I have been one chicken without a head! When I finally caught up with orders, more on-call work and more orders snowed me right under again, so blogging has been, sadly, pretty low on my priority list. But! Everything is coming up Millhouse now and I am on top of that snow, ready to whip a ride on a nice winter sleigh right on into early December, when I will be jet-setting across the planet back to my home in Atlanta, and spend a (hopefully) white Christmas holiday for two whole months with my family and old friends. Stress? Out the bazookas--but now that technical things are in place for Hexotica and the basics (like passports and connecting flights) are all go, I am in the pleasant stage of anticipation and future planning (and tree-hunting and hot chocolate-by-the-fire-dreaming!).

It's officially Phase 2 of Hexotica, a long way yet toward reaching my dream of an international empire of gothic-burlesque glory, but big steps never the less. Wise man say, "Take one step at a time to climb mountain", right? ;)

This beautiful image is by the pop-surrealist artist Natalie Shau, and was commissioned by me for Hexotica. All rights reserved.

Now, go check out my new web-site! *happy dance!*

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HEXOTICA - ARCHIVED POSTS

2011-10-28T08:51:00.005+11:00

Previous HEXOTICA posts can be found at the archive Blog located here: HEXOTICA / Archive

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