(no subject)

[cupcake_goth]

Things what I've been doing:

• Writing! I've got one GCS post almost ready to send to my awesome beta readers, and another in the 2nd draft stage. I'm giving the Stroppy One my brainstorm about Patreon tiers doc today, with the intent of sending it midweek-ish to some other folks for feedback.


• Reading academic papers about gothic. Yes, I joined the International Gothic Association. The Goth Beauty, Style and Sexuality:Neo-Traditional Femininity in Twenty-First-Century Subcultural Magazines paper made me nod in rueful, exasperated recognition. It also made me wish that more of the women in the subculture looked to, say, Anna Varney as style inspiration.


• Sewing! I heavily altered a brocade frock coat: removed the sleeves, completely changed the collar, did a bunch of tailoring. I'm almost done; it's wearable, but I want to add pockets to it. I've also completely dismantled one velvet-with-embossed-brocade-pattern jacket for the fabric, so I can use that to add gores to the matching jacket. (Yes, I bought two with the specific intention of dismantling one of them.)


• Reading! I finished the next book for The Night Library, in its weird, meandering, and kind of confusing glory. I've also started The Spectral City by Leanna Renee Hieber. Leanna is a darling person, and writes delightful gothic "gaslamp" supernatural mysteries. (She's also one of the people who joins in the discussion on Twitter whenever I start burbling/ranting about Penny Dreadful.)


• Um, reading fanfic. Look, a couple of my fave authors have been posting new works, how am I supposed to resist?


• Dealing with insomnia and migraines. It's been only one night of insomnia, but when your natural sleep schedul involves usually falling asleep at 3am, insomnia is really weird. And I'm holding off on scheduling the Botox for the migraines because I go see a neurologist on Thursday, and I figure I should probably have all of my symptoms active when I see them. Bleuuurg.

Hmmm, that list makes it seem like I've been more productive that I felt I've been. Weird.

Oh! I have NOT been getting into fights about The Scene^TM, mostly because I stopped reading the particular FB group that made me roll my eyes and dig out my research books. The 20-30s DJ dudes can whine about their "rules" for scene purity all on their lonesome, thanks.

Comments

[silverusagi]

It looks like being pretty productive! More productive than me, lol.

And reading fanfic totally counts as doing something. Getting through my bookmarks makes me feel productive.

[staxxy]

well done for avoiding the temptation of the drama swirl!

yeah this all sounds pretty productive to me

[propergoffick]

Neat! Glad you're enjoying/getting use out of the IGA material. I should take a look in there and do some more with my membership fees, to be honest.

Scene purity can get stuffed. A Good Decision on your part, one thinks.

[morseren]

You have been very productive and reading fanfic *is* productive. Self care is productive!

I agree with you about the article about beauty and representation in goth media, the one thing I would like to see addressed more fully is the ageism in the media representation of "goth".

There are plenty of over 40, even over 50 people that identify as goth. But almost zero representation. And I don't mean older models dressed up "goth" that we see in high fashion magazines. Rarely do the people in these images consider themselves "goth" or even "punk" for that matter.

The media in general ignores the old and celebrates the young, I know. Diversity in advertising is becoming more common now but old age seems to be anathema unless it is an image of some exceptionally well preserved person. Other than Advanced Style I see very little alternative style representation of 50 plus.

Plus looking like a middle aged or old person should be ok in the gothic subculture.

Old ladies unite! Defy the patriarchy and defy the youth obsessed media! :)

[m_cobweb]

Hear hear!