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Meta
Category Archives: General
Nocturnal House: Prince Lestat
Go put on your finest velvet frock coats, antique lace scarves and cuffs, and pour yourself a cup of tea or a glass of your favorite libation, Snarklings. Because it’s time for another visit to the Nocturnal House, and OH! What a visit it will be. Because the Lady of the Manners has finally paused in her gleeful dancing around with her beloved cliches and actually gotten around to writing the review:
Prince Lestat, by Anne Rice. Continue reading
Posted in General, Nocturnal House
Tagged Anne Rice, book reviews, embrace your cliches, Prince Lestat, vampires
12 Comments
Gothic Museum Exhibits! MMA and the British Library
Oh, how the Lady of the Manners wishes she could get to NYC sometime between now and February 1, 2015! The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire looks to be utterly amazing, and the Lady of the Manners would love to spend a few hours examining the details of the gorgeous, funereal artifacts and fashion. Continue reading
Posted in General
6 Comments
Of Goth Fashion: DIY vs. Off-the-Rack
Hello Snarklings! The Lady of the Manners has decided to rise herself from her end-of-summer torpor and resume answering questions. (August is not a good month for the Lady of the Manners, what with the brilliant sunshine, the warm weather, and so on.)
What summoned the Lady of the Manners from her darkened lair in the Gothic Charm School library? A question about the fashion dilemma of DIY vs. buying pre-made goods: Continue reading
Beware the Burning Orb! Or, Summer Goth
Snarklings, it’s July in the Lady of the Manners’ part of the world. In other words, summer, the dreaded season of burning sunlight and high temperatures. Woe! Woe are the goths!
Oh, all right, the Lady of the Manners may be indulging in the tiniest bit of melodramatics about summer. There are many goths who adore this season, and look forward to warmer weather and longer days. The Lady of the Manners doesn’t happen to be one of those types of goths, and judging by questions showing up in the Gothic Charm School mailbox, many of you share her opinions. Which means it’s time for a summer survival guide! Continue reading
Review: Only Lovers Left Alive, from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
Just in case you’ve somehow missed the Lady of the Manners burbling everywhere about it: the Jim Jarmusch movie, Only Lovers Left Alive, is possibly the best vampire movie she’s ever seen. Tilda Swinton! Tom Hiddleston! AS VAMPIRES. It’s a gorgeous, lush opium dream of a movie about immortal love, and you should see it if you’re able to.
The mad geniuses over at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab have created an official line of perfumes for the movie, and they very kindly sent them to the Lady of the Manners! So for the next little while, it’s review time! Starting out with our pair of immortal lovers, with a “bonus track” review of the Lady of the Manners’ favorite scent from the entire collection. Continue reading
Of Fashion Choices and of Feeling Like A Fake
Hello Snarklings! Eventually the Lady of the Manners will get her bewildering array of projects under some sort of control and get back to writing new lessons for Gothic Charm School in a more frequent, regularly-scheduled fashion. Eventually. But let’s not dwell on the months that have passed since the last post, let’s jump into questions from readers! For this installment of Gothic Charm School, the Lady of the Manners decided to feature letters from readers that have questions and qualms about how they present themselves. The first letter is from Mistet Dreamer, with a question about proper attire: Continue reading
Posted in Being Fashionable, General, Growing Pains
22 Comments
Of Dealing With Your Parents
Snarklings, this it. This is the post in which the Lady of the Manners is going to attempt to address THE question that arrives in the Gothic Charm School mailbox the most often. Now, the Lady of the Manners has indeed addressed this question before, in various ways, but this is going to be the comprehensive answer to this dilemma that so many of you young Snarklings are facing.
The dilemma? Parents not approving of or letting you be a Goth.
First things first: if you are attracted to finding beauty in darkness, if you are fascinated by the macabre, the grotesque, and the morbid, if the music, literature, and aesthetics of Goth have wrapped their inky black tendrils around your heart, mind, and soul, then no one can change that or take that away from you. (Unless, of course, your tastes change, as sometimes they do, and that’s fine too.) If you have found a home in the Goth subculture, your parents expressing their disapproval or dismay at what appeals to you isn’t going to change that. No really, it isn’t. You may have to downplay your interest in the culture and its trappings, you may have to wait until you are off at school or have moved out on your own, but Goth isn’t going anywhere. It’s an artistic movement that has been around, in one form or another, for centuries. Continue reading
Posted in General, Growing Pains, Serious Matters
Tagged growing pains, parents, support each other
94 Comments
Of Assorted Questions From Younger Readers
Hello Snarklings! Oh gracious, it’s 2013. The Lady of the Manners apologizes for the break in updates here at Gothic Charm School, and is starting to suspect that perhaps she should just schedule an Official Late Autumn/Early Winter Break -type thing, because she is fairly certain she has had this sort of lapse before.
Anyway! All sorts of things are in the works here at Gothic Charm School — plans for interviews, reviews of music, clothing, cosmetics, books, dolls, and of course, answering reader letters! There are some rather serious topics that are going to be featured in upcoming posts, but the Lady of the Manners decided that the first post of 2013 should be more of a mixed assortment of questions from some of the younger readers of Gothic Charm School. (As always, the Lady of the Manners will do her utmost to not respond to queries from younger readers with coos of “Oh my goodness, you’re adorable!”, because she remembers what it was like to be a youngster with goth tendencies and wanting to be taken seriously.) Continue reading
Of Scary Books and Becoming Who You Want To Be.
Hello Snarklings! The Lady of the Manners hopes that all of you had a delightful Halloween holiday, and that if you went for the post-Halloween clearance sales you were able to stock up on all sorts of goodies. (The Lady of the Manners stocked up on spooky paper napkins and vampire-themed cupcake wrappers.)
This installment of Gothic Charm School is going to focus on some questions from the younger readers, and no, it’s not just going to be the Lady of the Manners exclaiming “Awwww, precious little babybats!” (Though in the interests of honesty and full disclosure, that is the first automatic reaction the Lady of the Manners has when reading letters from the younger Goths. She simply can’t can’t help herself.) Continue reading
Posted in General, Growing Pains
40 Comments
Of Being Compared To Pop Stars, And Of Finding Plus-Size Goth Fashion
Hello oh patient Snarklings! Yes, it’s time for another Gothic Charm School post with reader questions! This time there are two fashion-related questions: where to find plus-sized Goth clothes, and what to do when well-meaning family members have no real frame of reference for your personal style.
Continue reading
Posted in Being Fashionable, General, Growing Pains
38 Comments