June 11, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Coolest Goth Clubs

1. Bar Sinister - Hollywood, California

This underground alternative night club is located in Hollywood. Their big nights appear to be Saturdays. July 4 features Voltaire; Project Pitchfork plays July 6. The club will celebrate its 12th anniversary on July 31st.

http://www.barsinister.net/

Bar Sinister on MySpace

Bar Sinister on Facebook

Bar Sinister on Twitter

2. Black Cat DC

This Washington, DC based club is especially cool because it's events are "all ages." They do prefer that attendees under age 18 have parental consent or a guardian present. It's open an amazing 7 days per week. Additionally, the club is wheelchair accessible.

While not strictly a goth club (it plays a wide range of alternative music styles), it frequently has goth events such as the one coming up on Friday July 2 - "CRYFEST: The Cure Vs. The Smiths Dance Party." Sounds fun!

http://www.blackcatdc.com/

Black Cat DC on Facebook

Black Cat DC on MySpace

Black Cat DC on Twitter

Black Cat DC on Wikipedia

3. Cabaret Nocturne

I'd love to visit Australia someday soon, and when I do, I hope I can check out Cabaret Nocturne for myself.

http://www.cabaretnocturne.net/

Cabaret Nocturne on Facebook

Cabaret Nocturne on Livejournal

Cabaret Nocturne on MySpace

4. The Castle, in Ybor, Florida

I wish I'd gone to Convergence last year so I could have checked out this cool goth club. The Red Room bar upstairs looks like a really cool place to chat with friends, and the overall decor looks so awesome. There's a Dungeon available for private parties.

Club nights include 80's Mondays, Communion on Fridays (featuring Coffin Classics), No Boundaries on Saturdays, and Burn on Sundays.

http://www.castleybor.com

The Castle, on MySpace

The Castle, on Twitter

5. Club Ascension

A goth night in San Diego, about to celebrate their fourth anniversary. My hometown is San Diego, but I haven't been able to check out this club myself yet. (Darn relatives keep me too busy whenever I go back!) It's every first Saturday of the month.

Club Ascension, on Facebook

Club Ascension, on MySpace

Club Ascension, on Twitter

6. Club Noc Noc

A Seattle club popular with local goths. The actual goth night is Requiem on Wednesdays. I have to confess I don't go to goth clubs much anymore, so I've never been here, but it keeps getting recommended to me.

http://www.clubnocnoc.com/

Club Noc Noc on MySpace

7. Club Sabbat

Another club in my hometown. This one I've been to on more than one occasion, and really enjoyed.

http://www.clubsabbat.net/

Club Sabbat, on Facebook

Club Sabbat, on MySpace

8. Club Walpurgis

This alternative music venue has been running in Tokyo, Japan since 1983. Incredible! Upcoming events are "Blood for Dracula" and several goth/darkwave DJ nights.

http://www.clubwalpurgis.com/

9. Corrosion

A goth night in New Orleans. I missed it last time I visited town as I flew in Thursday and the club night is Wednesdays.

http://www.myspace.com/corrosionwednesdays

Corrosion Nola on Facebook

Corrosion on Twitter

10. Death Guild

Long-running, extremely popular San Francisco goth club. It's held at the DNA Lounge.

http://www.deathguild.com/

Death Guild Facebook Group

Death Guild on MySpace

11. Dominion

A goth/industrial night that's been running in Dublin, Ireland for ten years. Fantastic!

http://dominion.gothic.ie/

Dominion on Facebook

12. The Slimelight

London's long running, most famous goth, darkwave, ebm and industrial music nightclub.

http://www.empires-and-dance.com/info.html

13. Xmortis

A goth club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Last Friday they had an event that looked fun: Xmortis Pirates! Their DJs play goth, industrial, electro, synthpop and more.

http://www.xmortis.com/

Xmortis on Facebook

Xmortis on MySpace

Xmortis on Twitter

Comments:

I obviously can't list every cool goth club in the world in a post entitled "13 Coolest Goth Clubs." Every time I do a post like this, multiple people comment whining "Why didn't you list MY favorite club?" or take the opportunity to spam ads for their goth club in the comments section. Those will be deleted.

I'd love, instead, to hear from people who have been to the aforementioned clubs already. What do you think?

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

June 9, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Fun Dark and Gothic Websites

Once upon a time....

... goths used to enjoy silly Web distractions, such as "adopting" little avatars to put on our awful, tacky Geocities or Angelfire or Tripod pages. We took stupid quizzes to find out if we were goths, or vampires, or which Beetlejuice character we were. (This was long before stupid Facebook quizzes). We didn't have Farmville, so we wasted our time with silly goth paper dolls, or generating fake names for ourselves, or watching animated stick figures die.

1. The Angel Drinking Game

This should have been linked under "Dark TV Shows: Angel" but the "Dark Fun" category existed for years before the Angel category was created, and it never occurred to me to migrate links over. I love this: "Drink... every time Angel's hair is slicked down."

http://www.ringthis.com/tv_drinking_games/angel.php

2. Angry Alien

Hilariously funny 30-second "Bunnies" movies. Such as, Hellraiser, in 30 seconds, Re-Enacted With Bunnies". Sadly, they closed down yesterday.

http://www.angryalien.com/

3. The Charmed Drinking Game

Have a drink... if Piper is cooking something. (Uh oh, prepare to get sloshed!)

http://www.ringthis.com/tv_drinking_games/charmed.php

4. Coaldust's Paper Dolls

Bonus points for being hosted on Goth.net. Sadly, I can't seem to actually dress the paper dolls using Firefox. Oh well!

http://www.goth.net/~coaldust/dolls/

5. Dark Memory Game

Oh my god. I can't believe this hasn't been deleted in all these years!

http://www.forsakenrealms.com/memory.html

6. Devil Dance

I couldn't resist linking to this parody of Hamster Dance. Note the backwards masking-style music. Hahaha.

http://www.devildance.com/

7. Evil Name Generator

You never know when you need to generate an evil name. Playing D&D? Writing a horrible M. Night Shyamalan script?

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=evilnamer

8. Gloomy Bear

I have no idea what the fuck Gloomy Bear is, but for some reason he has a Livejournal community.

http://community.livejournal.com/gloomy_bear/

9. Gloomy Ghoul Kidz

Adopt one of Karla Ruiz's orphans. You'll feel good about yourself.

http://www.karlaruizart.com/images/gloomies/

10. Goth Avatars

Oh my god. This link is so old and useless, it makes me want to delete the entire "Dark Fun" links list. "Goth avatars for use in Cybertown, Icity, 3D Planets My 3D Life." Ever heard of those sites? Me either. Probably circa 1995. Time for Kellyjo to delete her outdated data.

http://www.vrprincesskj.com/avs/goth.html

11. Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator

Really, you can't distinguish poetry generated here from Real Goth Poetry(tm).

http://www.deadlounge.com/poetry/

12. Goth Quote Generator

Don't leave your cave without it.

http://www.brunching.com/gothquotex.html

13. Horror Hangman

Look! It's an antique ASCII timewaster!

http://www.quia.com/hm/19178.html

-Alan Smithee

Dark Side of the Net

June 8, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Fun Fanlistings

Once upon a time...

... when people were bored of webrings, they turned to The Fanlistings to enable fans to join and webmasters to have something cool to organize and caretake. Drama occasionally erupted when non-approved, unofficial "fanlistings" claimed to be official ones, but eventually people dealt with it and the official fanlistings raised in the search engine ranks.

I remember enjoying using fanlistings to find people's webpages I'd never seen before. Great way to research new interesting goth links.

1. The Angel Fanlisting

"Not Fade Away" has over 2600 fans listed. Great to see it still running and actively updated.

http://www.not-fade-away.org/

2. Beautiful One

The Louis de Pointe du Lac fanlisting. Sometimes you just want to declare your undying love for a character.

http://louisians.beautifulone.net/

3. Beetlejuice

The Beetlejuice movie fanlisting has changed owners and domains more times than I can count. Fortunately someone organized has taken it on lately.

http://fan.bleedinsilence.net/beetle/

4. Being Human

This fanlisting sprang up remarkably fast after the miniseries aired. Declare your fan geek love for the show by adding yourself here.

http://beinghuman.amadora.it/

5. Dark Desires

The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series fanlisting.

http://fans.afanatic.org/abvh/

6. Visionary

The Tim Burton fanlisting. Surely you didn't think I'd create this list and fail to mention this one :)

http://www.ka-tet.de/burton_fl/

7. Dracula: The Book Fanlisting

Over 150 people have felt the need to ratify their appreciation for this classic novel.

http://fan.500ml.org/dracula/

8. Hold Me

The Edward Scissorhands fanlisting, another one that's moved around a bit but is finally in a stable home. Join other Edward Scissorhands fans in proclaiming your love for the film. There's also a fanlisting for the character himself.

http://scissorhands.paperscience.net/

9. Smoke and Mirrors

The fanlisting for the author Neil Gaiman.

http://fan.teaintokyo.org/neil/

10. Nightmare Before Christmas

The fanlisting for my favorite movie.

http://nightmare-fans.org/

11. The Vincent Price Fanlisting

I miss him.

http://www.severed-dreams.net/vincent/

12. The Anne Rice Fanlisting

She may have gone Christian again, and stopped writing about vampires, but she still has legions of goth/horror fans, and almost 3,000 fans on this fanlisting.

http://annerice.marius-deromanus.net/

13. Need to Feed

The True Blood fanlisting. I haven't seen such obsessive fans since the Vampire Chronicles!

http://trueblood.baptism-of-blood.net/fan.php

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

June 7, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Intriguing Fan Fiction Links

1. All About Spike

Closed to new stories since 2006, but still contains over 1000 Spike-themed stories in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe.

http://www.allaboutspike.com/

2. NautiBitz

Naughty "Spuffy" (Spike and Buffy) fan fiction stories, plus many more interesting things to look through here.

http://www.nautibitz.com/

3. Charmed Fan Fiction Community

This LJ community is active, moderated and drama-free. Enjoy the stories of the Sisters Three.

http://community.livejournal.com/charmedff/

4. Charmed: Role Reversal

A well-done multi-episode story set in the Charmed universe.

http://www.charmedrolereversal.com/

5. Edward Scissorhands Fanfiction

A large archive of Edward-themed stories. Fun to read through on a rainy evening.

http://www.fanfiction.net/movie/Edward_Scissorhands/

6. Dark Shadows Fan Fiction

Sylvia Bond's excellent Dark Shadows fanfic stories.

http://sylviabond.com/dark-shadows-fanfiction/

7. Collinwood Fic

A Livejournal community for Dark Shadows fan fiction writers.

http://community.livejournal.com/collinwood_fic/

8. Lost Boys Fanfic

The Lost Cave's fanfic archive hasn't been added to since 2009, but I still really like this site.

http://www.lostcave.net/

9. Lost Boys: One Must Hide

A seventeen-chapter Lost Boys fan fiction story. This is a really impressive effort!

http://www.onemusthide.com/

10. True Blood Fic

An active, well-moderated True Blood fan fiction community on LJ.

http://community.livejournal.com/true_blood_fic/

11. The Gossamer Project

A longstanding, excellent X-Files fan fiction resource. Tons to read here.

http://krycek.gossamer.org/

12. Being Human Fic

A strong, active Livejournal community for authors writing "Being Human" TV show fan fiction stories.

http://community.livejournal.com/beinghuman_fic/

13. Ephemeral

An excellent and up-to-date X-Files fan fiction archive.

http://www.ephemeralfic.org/

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

June 6, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Spookiest Addons for Your Computer

Once upon a time in the 1990s....

.. most of us hoarded interesting desktop wallpapers, installed desktop themes so our fonts and windows would match the background, obsessively collected goth and medieval fonts.. loaded creepy skins onto our RealPlayer or WinAmp, and collected horrific webpage backgrounds to decorate our silly Geocities, Angelfire and Tripod sites with.

The "Dark Computer Goodies" links pages (dcomp.html, dcomp2.html, dcomp3.html and dcomp4.html) were the most popular, most visited pages on Dark Side of the Net after the Dark Art pages. Tons and tons of traffic, and the type of links that died often and quickly. It was embarrassing to know that literally tens of thousands of people were visiting those pages every day and finding dead links because Ezskins had changed the way their filenames ended, or AAAThemes had reorganized, or entire sites had gone missing. Darklinks.com got blacklisted from some of the anti-virus security sites because one link out of thousands (long since removed) supposedly had a virus on it.

I'm tending to think I'll delete all the links out of these pages now that they are so out-of-date and most people don't need to go collecting dark computer goodies anymore... I'll keep an archival copy, but I'd not really be interested in going out to find new screensavers links or maintain thousands of links that have to be checked by hand...

Meanwhile, onto today's "Best of the Dark Side" feature: Dark Computer Goodies.

1. Interview with a Vampire Theme

Want your desktop to look circa 1996? Download the IVWTV theme and have at it!

2. Seven Deadly Sims

Aah, I spent many happy hours here leeching dark goodies for my Sims game. Objects, floors, and skins with an alternative flair. I don't have time to play The Sims anymore, but I'm glad to see this site is still going - updated in September 2009.

http://www.7deadlysims.com/

3. Dreary Land

Creepy, sinister MySpace layouts you can use if you don't want to make your own. They're free. Other goodies here include background generators, plus MySpace tweaks and codes.

http://www.drearyland.com/

4. Astigmatic One-Eye Fonts

I was always so grateful for this freeware font repository. They had cool spooky fonts, and even some skull wingdings!

http://www.astigmatic.com/freeware.html

5. Fontennium

Fontennium offers historical, sci-fi, Magick, artistic, Celtic and Art Nouveau fonts. For free. Awesome! Thank you guys so much! My favorite is Golden Script.

http://www.moorstation.org/fontennium/fontennium.htm

6. UrbanFonts

This site offers 11 pages of fantastic fonts for Halloween or horror pages. Many of them look a little 1996 and silly right now, but it's still a kick to visit here and leech a few things.

http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/scary-fonts.htm

7. The Crow: Salvation Screensaver

We don't use screensavers much in this modern Internet age. Our computers can figure it out for themselves, and I rarely see anybody I know using one. For old times' sake, here's The Crow: Salvation, an executable file (Don't install without checking first with your anti-virus software. I haven't tested this link recently).

8. Bella's Dark Graphics

An archive of nice or cutesey goth layouts for MySpace. Twilight layouts, Dark Pinup girls, fairy layouts, and scary layouts.

http://www.belladonnasdarkgraphics.com/

9. X-Files Wallpapers

Decorate your desktop with nostalgic, dreamy X-files wallpapers.

http://www.lerefuge.ca/wallpapers.htm

10. Underworld Wallpapers

Several different choices of professionally designed desktop wallpapers featuring Kate Beckinsale.

http://www.mooviees.com/346/wallpapers

11. Bride of Frankenstein Wallpapers

Nostalgic black-and-white "Bride of Frankenstein" wallpaper, perfect for the month of October.

http://www.mooviees.com/4238/wallpapers

12. Buffy and Spike

Buffy was such a huge trend in the 1990s, I could hardly keep up with my Buffy links. Here's an archive of Buffy and Spike fan art. Not big enough to be desktop backgrounds, but a lot of people used these to decorate their webpages, etc.

http://public.fotki.com/petitevanou/buffy_and_spike/

13. Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas Wallpapers

http://www.disneywallpaper.net/k-nightmare-49.htm

Comments?

If you were active on the net pre-2000, what do you remember about your screensavers, desktop backgrounds, fonts and other computer goodies you used? What was your desktop background at the time? Did you change it often? What screensaver did you use?

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

June 5, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Worthwhile Goth Events

1. Bat's Day in the Fun Park

Every year, hundreds of goths gather to enjoy a day at Disneyland together. This year was the twelfth annual event. I'm so glad it's still going, though I've never managed to make my schedule work to attend. This year's event took place April 30 to May 2, so I think you could call it Bat's Weekend.

Other events included in the weekend's festivities were The Nightmare before Bats Day, Bats Day Ghoulish Gala, and Bats Day Dark Park.

http://www.batsday.net/

http://www.batsdaystore.com/

Bat's Day in the Fun Park, at Wikipedia

Bat's Day on MySpace

Bat's Day in the Fun Park on Facebook

Bat's Day on LiveJournal

Bat's Day on Twitter

2. Blackfield Festival

June 12-13, 2010 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. This year's bands include Front 242, Girls Under Glass, and Zeromancer.

http://www.blackfield-festival.com/

Blackfield Festival on Facebook

Blackfield Festival, on MySpace

3. Castle Party

July 29-August 1, 2010 at Bolkow Castle in Poland. Bands include Clan of Xymax, QNTAL, Faith and the Muse, The Cassandra Complex, and Kirlian Camera. DJ William Faith will spin a set.

http://www.castleparty.com/

Castle Party Facebook Group

Castle Party Radio, on Facebook

Castle Party, on MySpace

4. Convergence

The alt.gothic yearly party for net.goths and their friends. It moves from city to city. Last year I enjoyed partying with my goth friends on the Queen Mary!

This year's party takes place in Park City, Utah, August 13-16, 2010.

http://www.altgothic.com/

Convergence on LiveJournal

5. Dark Arts Festival

A very important (and from what I hear, fabulously fun) festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year it takes place June 11-13, and it's their tenth anniversary! Voltaire will perform.

http://www.darkartsfestival.com/

Dark Arts Festival Group, on Facebook

6. Dracula's Ball

The legendary Philly event. Every goth should go to this at least once in their lifetime. The next event takes place July 31st, 2010.

http://www.draculasball.com/

7. ProjektFest

If you're only going to one US music festival this year, I highly recommend prioritizing ProjektFest. Held July 30 and 31 in Philly, in conjunction with Dracula's Ball this year.

http://www.projekt.com/festival/

Projectfest Event on Facebook

Projektfest on Facebook

Projektfest on MySpace

Projekt Records on Twitter

8. Edwardian Ball

It took place in January in San Francisco. There were artists, bands, ballroom dancing, vendors, and of course a ball.

http://www.edwardianball.com/

9. Festival of the Dead

Halloweentime events in Salem, Massachusetts, including the Witches Ball.

http://www.festivalofthedead.com/

Festival of the Dead, on MySpace

Festival of the Dead on Facebook

10. GothCruise

Departing December 5, 2010 from San Juan, Puerto Rico. This always sounds so fun, I have got to get my act together and go one of these years.

http://www.gothcruise.com/

GothCruise on Facebook

GothCruise on Livejournal

GothCruise on Twitter

GothCruise on Wikipedia

11. Whitby Gothic Weekend

The legendary UK gothfest. Held in April and in October each year.

http://wgw.topmum.co.uk/

Whitby Gothic Weekend, on Facebook

Whitby Gothic Weekend Group, on Facebook

Whitby Gothic Weekend, on Flickr

Whitby, at Livejournal

Whitby Gothic Weekend, on MySpace

WGW on Twitter

Whitby at Wikipedia

12. Wave Gotik Treffen

June 10-13 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. Probably the most important UK goth event in history. Thousands of goths and gruftis attend and show off their fashions.

http://www.wave-gotik-treffen.de/

WGT on Livejournal

Leipzig on Wikipedia

M'era Luna

August 7-8, 2010 in Hildesheim, Germany.

http://www.fkpscorpio.com/meraluna/

M'era Luna Festival on Facebook

M'era Luna on Twitter

M'era Luna, at Wikipedia

June 4, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Most Useful Goth Communities

1. BatLady

Goth homemaking, similar to FlyLady but with a darker touch. Going strong for eight years now, I'm proud of her! Daily tasks and reminders to keep your house in order. Not really a "community" since it's one-way postings and you can't post back, but a useful resource nonetheless.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BatLady/

2. Boo Advertising

An LJ community where you're encouraged to advertise (but not spam) dark artists.

http://community.livejournal.com/boo_advertising/

3. Dark Flea Market

A great place to find cool stuff for sale whether it's on Etsy, eBay or directly from the person. I wish all the people spamming every goth community with their off-topic ads would just post their goth for-sale items here instead!

http://community.livejournal.com/darkfleamarket/

4. FogeyGoff

Originally an eldergoth hangout, this isn't really a "community," as nobody is chatting or participating here. It's devolved into a place to post ads for goth music, concerts, books, etc. It doesn't seem full of spammy Etsy or clothing ads. Instead, I'm finding it a good place to keep up with recent goth events and trends.

http://community.livejournal.com/fogeygoff/

5. Dark Victoria

Fabulous resource for fans of the Victorian era. Not just all ads for clothing, either!

http://community.livejournal.com/darkvictoria/

6. Goth DJs

Rather than a networking resource for goths, this mostly is a bunch of ads for various shows and concerts. That's still pretty useful info though, so check it out if you like goth music.

http://community.livejournal.com/goth_djs/

7. Goth/Industrial at Yahoo!

A Yahoo! group with lots of active members, news and updates on goth music and events.

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Goth-Industrial/

8. Gothic Babes

One of the oldest communities out there. Still going strong years later, and still fun to look through.

http://community.livejournal.com/gothic_babes/

9. Gothic Decor

Heaven preserve us, here's finally a community with lots of on-topic discussions, no ads, and people asking and answering questions for each other. Goth home decor.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothicdecor/

10. Kawaii Noir

A well-moderated community (they delete spam!) focusing on the appreciation of all things sinister and "dreamy cute."

http://community.livejournal.com/kawaii_noir/

11. Living Dead Dolls

A very active community for collectors of Living Dead Dolls

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/livingdeaddolls/

12. Crafty Goths

Clever goth crafters show off their cool creations here, usually without a "buy this!' plea.

http://community.livejournal.com/craftygoths/

13. SteamGoth

An LJ community for goths who enjoy steampunk.

http://community.livejournal.com/steamgoth/


As I created this "Best of" list today, it struck me how communities have evolved (and frequently changed) on the net. Goths used to communicate primarily through regional mailing lists and alt.gothic.. then through Yahoo Groups (which now is overrun by spammers), then Tribe.net and Livejournal...

Most of the Livejournal communities I looked over in my links list today are dead, rarely posted to, have missing moderators, and are full of spam.

Where are people talking *about* goth, sharing and communicating (not just advertising) today. Is everything now on Twitter? Facebook? Elsewhere?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

June 3, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Coolest Dark Comics

1. Comic Monsters

This is a huge blog and news site for monster-themed comic books. There's a community area, reviews, info on horror comic toys, features on various artists, and some free horror comics.

http://www.comicmonsters.com/

Comic Monsters on Facebook

2. Everyday Decay

A webcomic about zombies. It's really well done! Recommended. He hasn't posted any new comics in a while, but you'll enjoy what's already there.

http://www.everydaydecay.com/

3. Lovecraft is Missing

An online webcomic about H.P. Lovecraft, updated once a week. There will be 144 pages total before the story is finished.

http://lovecraftismissing.com

Lovecraft is Missing, on Facebook

4. Spookyland - Lenore

I doubt I need to tell you anything more about the ubercool little dead girl.

http://spookyland.com/lenore.html

5. Making Fiends

Two series worth of online webisodes, starring Vendetta (who makes fiends) and Charlotte (who makes friends). Very fun to watch!

http://www.makingfiends.com/

6. Precious Miseries

Precious Miseries Plush Doll, on Amazon

This comic follows the lives of orphans living in Precious Miseries Manor. The orphans themselves are punks, goths and Lolitas. Click here to read the online comic. There's a silly sprites adoptions page if you like that sort of thing. (I sort of do!)

http://preciousmiseries.com/

Precious Miseries on Facebook

Precious Miseries on Twitter

7. Dead in Dreamland

A manga-style comic. A departure from what I usually link to, but I find it refreshing.

http://www.myumyu.se/DiD/

8. Kindergoth

A comic by Bloodfire Studios.

http://kindergoth.com/

Kindergoth, on Facebook

Kindergoth, on Twitter

9. Nemi

Check this out really quickly - it's a Norwegian black-metal (meaning not goth) comic strip featured in a UK newspaper.

http://www.metro.co.uk/games/nemi/

Nemi, at Wikipedia

10. Putrid Pal

A cute webcomic about an undead little French boy. A vinyl toy has been made of the main character.

http://www.putridpal.com

11. The Zombie Hunters

http://www.thezombiehunters.com/

The Zombie Hunters, on Facebook

12. We Kill Monsters

Two brothers discover that monsters are real and have begun to infest the world. Not a web comic - I usually only link to comics you can read online. But just this once.. because this is cool!

http://www.wekillmonsters.com/

We Kill Monsters, on Facebook

We Kill Monsters, on Twitter

13. Biff the Vampire

A silly comic. I love that they aren't afraid to be goofy. The main character is Biff Strigoi Morti.

http://www.sillyvamp.com/

Biff the Vampire on Facebook

June 2, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Most Mournful Cemetery, Funeral and Death Links

1. Death and Dementia

A well-curated collection of death-related links. I like how it's clean, well organized, not too ad-spammy, kept up to date, and the text links are brief and yet descriptive. I also like that unlike so many other directory sites, this one never stole links from my own site - they did their own research and found tons of useful links I never took the time to find. Great resource for death and dying studies courses, too.

http://www.deathndementia.com/

2. Rotten.com

One of the very first links I added, back in 1996 when Dark Side of the Net was new. Also the one link I got the most hate-mail for adding, over the years. Content warning: violence and disturbing images. Everything gruesome, disturbing and sick is archived here.

http://www.rotten.com/

3. Dead or Alive Info

A very useful site when you're trying to remember if a particular celebrity is dead or alive, and you're too lazy to Google it, check IMDB or run over to Wikipedia. There's a handy summary of the celebrities who have died in the past few days and what industry they were famous in.

http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com

4. The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

An extremely valuable Internet resource, albeit too chock-full of Google ads. Everything from abortion to the Black Death to rigor mortis and voodoo.

http://www.deathreference.com/

5. Immortelle.Net

A beautiful photography gallery of New Orleans cemeteries. Pictorials include St. Louis 1, 2 and 3; St. Roch 1 and 2; Metairie; Lafayette I; Cypress Grove; Odd Fellows Rest; Carrollton; St. Vincent and more. There's also a section for virtual views of a few of the cemeteries.

http://www.immortelle.net

6. Sedlec Ossuary

A fabulous gallery of fairly high-res photographs of the Bone Church in Kutna Hora. Excellent photographs and there are many of them. I hope to visit the Bone Church someday; for now I just have to make do with these excellent photographs.

7. The Association for Gravestone Studies

A serious, scholarly organization, devoted to fostering "appreciation of the cultural significance of gravestones and burial grounds through their study and preservation." Info on upcoming scholarly conferences, publications, and a research library.

http://www.gravestonestudies.org/

8. Victorian Grief

A Livejournal community for sharing memento mori, cemetery pictures, info on Victorian mourning jewelry, and similar topics. Not quite as active as I'd prefer for a "best of" list, but it has potential, and I have a sweet spot for LJ communities.

http://community.livejournal.com/victorian_grief/

9. Find A Grave

An extremely valuable website for research on celebrity deaths. One of my oldest links, too. Glad to see it's still going strong. You can also search through non-famous people's grave records - currently 46 million records are searchable.

http://www.findagrave.com/

10. Professional Car.Org

A well maintained resource site for owners of classic hearses, ambulances and related cars. Gallery, events calendar, and active forums.

http://www.professionalcar.org/

11. The Bone Church

The official site of the church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. Not just photographs, it covers the history of the ossuary.

http://www.kostnice.cz/

12. Save Our Cemeteries

An organization dedicated to preserving and restoring New Orleans' historic cemeteries.

http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/

13. Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum & Library

I used to have quite a collection of serial-killer and murderer links as part of my Cemeteries, Funerals & Death links page, but those links slowly died off. (Har, har). I have a bit of a fascination with Lizzie Borden since one of my friends grew up in her home in the 1980s. Here's a website devoted to research and resources about the infamous murders.

http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

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