New Goth Links for Late August 2011

DARK ART:

Alexsandra Marchoka

Here's the portfolio of a dark erotic illustrator from Poland. Check out her vision of Thumbelina and Persephone with Hades.

http://www.olamarchocka.com/

Dark Forest

Patricio Oliver's exploration of dark character design. Check out the rest of his portfolio here too - amazingly cool dark toys.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/DARK-FOREST/103325

Lex Machina Photography

The gallery of a dark photographer and talented digital artist from Detroit. There are goth fashion, steampunk, and fetish exhibits you can enjoy browsing through here.

http://www.lexmachinaphoto.com/

Lex Machina Photography on Facebook

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DARK BLOGS:

The Burtonesque Dolls

"Where freaky meets fun, cute and funky!" This too-colorful blog won't be to everyone's liking here, but I can't resist its Burton fangirl exuberance. These bloggers do lots of graphic art, papercrafting, scrapbooking, and other creative projects based on imagery and tropes from Tim Burton movies. If you can handle cutesiness, you might enjoy looking through here real quickly.

http://theburtonesquedolls.blogspot.com/

Steamed!

This blog's focus is on writing steampunk fiction. Recent posts have included an introduction to steampunk airship troupes, an article on gun modding, and of course several book reviews.

http://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/

The Vault of Horror

A horror blog written by several talented contributors. Refreshingly, this is full of good content, not just movie reviews, trailer links or news repeated from Dread Central. Lots to read here, you'll want to come back every couple days.

http://thevaultofhorror.blogspot.com/

The Vault of Horror, on Facebook

The Vault of Horror, on Twitter

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DARK MOVIES:

Dracula: The Vampire and the Voivode

This documentary was produced by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. It was shot in Whitby, London, and Transylvania. It tells the story of Bram Stoker and his novel Dracula.

http://draculadocumentary.com/

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DARK MOVIE TRAILERS:

The Woman in Black

A ghost story, set in England and starring Daniel Radcliffe. The trailer showcases a fabulous creepy house with wonderful set design and costuming, so now I'm more excited about this film. I could do without the stereotypical creepy animatronic monkey, though!

The Woman in Black, at Apple.com

The Woman in Black, on IMDB

DARK SHOPS:

Jiveworks

Fabulous mosaic stained glass Day of the Dead skulls are sold here. Some are plaster, decorated with upcycled wine bottle glass. They're lifesized. I can only imagine how many fabulous compliments I'd get if I had one of these displayed proudly in my curio cabinet.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Jiveworks

NatashaBlue

Here's an Etsy shop with lots of cool El Dia de Los Muertos art and goodies. There are prints, sugar skull masks, matchbox Day of the Dead shrines, paintings and a few pieces of jewelry.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NatashaBlue

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GOTH LIFESTYLE:

Butterfly Absinthe

This company produces absinthe based on a Boston-area absinthe produced in the early 1900s. Historians have carefully researched the antique version to help develop the recipe for this modern distillation. The website includes info on the history of absinthe, plus a blog and cocktail recipes.

http://www.butterflyabsinthe.com/

Butterfly Absinthe on Facebook

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--Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net(tm)

Darklinks on Facebook

Darklinks on Twitter

New Goth Links for August 22, 2011

DARK ART:

Aunia Kahn

A figurative artist who creates non-existent places, dreams, illusions, fears and fables. Currently on the website you can tour her following exhibits: Our Human Error, Our Common Silence, Our Forbidden Solitude, Our Intimate Perception, and Our Intrepid Discoveries.

Her work will be exhibited in Canada, Utah, and San Francisco in the month of September.

She's also the co-creator of the stunning, striking Silver Era Tarot deck.

http://www.auniakahn.com/

Aunia Kahn Blog

Aunia Kahn Facebook

Aunia Kahn Twitter

Chet Zar

Chet Zar's gallery of dark, surreal, strange fine art. He's highly influenced by horror movies. (My current favorite is Lilith).

The galleries currently offer his artwork from each year between 2005 and 2010. There's so much to see here; yet I can't wait to see what he's worked on in 2011.

http://www.chetzar.com/

Chet Zar on Facebook

Chet Zar on Twitter

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DARK BLOGS:

Paradise of Horror

A horror blog from an aspiring filmmaker. Recent posts have included a comparison of Children of the Corn and Beware... Children at Play; a review of one of my favorite movies ( Night of the Comet); and comments on The Thing prequel.

http://www.paradiseofhorror.com/

Upon a Midnight Dreary

This blog celebrates Halloween year-round. They're currently blogging about some unusual jewelry, ouija boards, perusing villainous pirate costumes, and sharing some papier mache jack-o-lanterns.

http://uponamidnightdreary.com/

The Zed Word

A zombie blog specializing in "the sexy and sleazy side of zombies." Currently participating in a "sexy zombie" photo contest, discussing the 1965 film Orgy of the Dead, and reviewing the Lollipop Chainsaw game.

http://www.zedwordblog.com/

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DARK LITERATURE:

Shelley's Ghost

This exhibition is a collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries and the New York Public Library. In the online exhibition, you can peek at the draft of Frankenstein, see a photograph of Mary Shelley's dressing case, listen to podcasts, read letters by the Shelleys, and read biographies of the Shelleys.

http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

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DARK MUSIC:

Nox Arcana

Though they may at times appeal to goth metal audiences, this band creates gothic, dark fantasy, medieval, horror and Halloween music. Last year they released the Theater of Illusion CD. You can listen to a few of the tracks here.

http://www.noxarcana.com/

Nox Arcana on Facebook

Nox Arcana on Twitter

Nox Arcana on YouTube

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DARK SHOPS:

Atelier Minyon

This New York-based jeweler creates very interesting designs. While not goth, I thought some of you might like to see their jeweled ink, spiders and webs, and skulls collections.

I personally don't care for the gold used on so many pieces here instead of silver or platinum, but these are still lovely. I'm very impressed with how original this jewelry as. As a jewelry buyer for a gift store, I see so much of the same boring crap all the time. This is refreshingly unique.

Also check out their dagger jewelry and unusual bridal collection.

http://www.atelierminyon.com/

Mystic Crypt

A California-based goth shop specializing in plus-sized goth clothes. They also sell some horror toys, goth jewelry, a few Living Dead Dolls, and Bastet2329's creepy horror dolls. A few goth decor items are also available, such as coffin-shaped boxes.

http://www.mysticcrypt.com/

Sigh Co. Graphics

I feel like it's time to revisit one of my all-time favorite shop links. Sigh Co Graphics has been making amazingly cool designs for so many years now. Their store sells gothic, punk, industrial, steampunk, horror, zombie, Lovecraftian, and fetish fashion. Plus there's a whole section devoted to Edgar Allan Poe!

Check out their Zombie vodka t-shirt and steampunk Jolly Roger shirt.

http://stores.ebay.com/Sigh-Co-Graphics

Violent Delights

This eBay store sells goth, cyber and steampunk clothing and accessories. Brands they carry include Lip Service, Hell Bunny Black, Living Dead Souls, Iron Fist, and Tripp NYC.

My favorite item here is this lovely black brocade dress.

http://stores.ebay.com/VIOLENT-DELIGHTS

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DARK ZINES:

Deadman's Tome

Deadman's Tome is an online horror magazine intended for fans of the macabre, horror, short stories and dark fantasy. You can download the PDF of the August 2011 edition to read the latest short stories. There's also a podcast you can listen to.

http://www.deadmanstome.com/

The Horror Zine

Horror fiction, poetry, and art. This month they have a special guest, Ramsey Campbell. Read his contribution to the zine here.

http://www.thehorrorzine.com/

Reflections of Darkness

This dark music webzine offers concert reviews, CD reviews, and interviews. A lot of the music here is black metal, but you'll also be able to find a few things of interest on dark electronica and industrial.

http://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/

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GOTH COMMUNITIES:

The Niceboots Marketplace

A Livejournal community for UK-based sales and trades of goth fashion and accessories. A great way to find bargains or unload some lovely goth items you can't use anymore.

http://niceboots.livejournal.com/

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Copyright 2011 Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

Dark Side of the News for Sunday, August 14

DARK SIDE OF THE NEWS:

• The Dark Shadows Festival takes place next weekend, Friday August 19, in Brooklyn, NY.

• The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival takes place twice in September 2011: September 16-17 in Los Angeles and September 30/October 1 in Portland, Oregon.

• The Walking Dead season 2 premieres on AMC on Sunday, October 16.

• This trailer for a Chinese zombie movie, Zombie 108 is very extremely NSFW (not safe for work).

• I'm now updating Goth Almanac again, though I don't have an interesting news entry for every single day. You can also follow it on Twitter and now on Facebook as well.

• The Monster Mania convention takes place August 19-21 in Cherry Hill, NJ. Sam Trammel from True Blood will attend.

• Another Monster Mania will occur near Baltimore, in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The dates are September 16-18, 2011.

• Final Destination 5 is in theaters. Here's the Filmforce review, the official site, the Wikipedia entry, and the Rotten Tomatoes entry.

• The third season True Blood soundtrack is out, featuring Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees, plus songs by Nick Cave and Neko Case.

• The trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which comes out August 26. It stars Katie Holmes. The screenplay was written by Guillermo del Toro.

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net