I made great find while yard sale-ing a few weeks ago with my friends Tinka and Boosha from Second Market Shopping — this beautiful Oleg Cassini blouse! Tinka saw it in one of the thrift stores we visited and showed me, telling me it would retail for around $300.00. It was being sold for $5! “Do you want it?” she asked me. “Absolutely!” I declared, without a moment’s hesitation. I have never seen such beautiful bead work on an article of clothing — the collar and sleeves are literally dripping with stunning black bead work.

I’ve got video of this item too — I’ll try to get it posted at Second Market Shopping soon.

BB,

Vivienne

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Last weekend, my boyfriend introduced me to the most amazing movie musical I’ve seen in a long time. More accurately, it’s an opera — almost entirely sung in rich and powerful goth rock and with powerful themes to match any Greek Tragedy.

Set in a futuristic world (2040 A.D.), where a genetics company has become the most powerful entity on the planet, Repo: the Genetic Opera presents the premise that any necessary organ transplant is possible, cures for many life-threatening diseases are easily available, and even cosmetic surgery is so common that for many it has become an addiction. One character, Blind Mag, has even been given the gift of sight courtesy of Geneco — in exchange for which she has been contracted to a life of virtual slavery, singing each night in the company-sponsored “genetic opera” and serving as their prime spokesperson.

But there is an even worse catch — people unable to make the payments for Geneco’s transplant services are hunted down by “The Repo Man” — played brilliantly by Anthony Head (best known as Giles from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series).

In this world, the owner of Geneco, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino) is the most powerful man in the world, and he has managed to get a law enacted that makes it legal for Geneco to repossess the organs of anyone who defaults on their transplant surgery payments.

This is invariably a cruel, bloody, grisly mess. Victims die in terror as the Repo Man glories in their torture and his own self-loathing for being a licensed serial killer. Scenes of his murders are reminiscent of Sweeney Todd, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables all rolled into one.

This dystopia is brilliantly depicted in a truly beautiful Gothic style. The budget was not high ($8.5 million), but the production values most definitely are, and the artistic direction is superb. From the cemetery where the heroine passes her time in the crypt of her mother, to the tower room where her father keeps her locked away as an invalid, to the sordid back alleys where “The Graverobber” peddles a drug stolen from corpses, the sets are breathtaking in their dark beauty and surreal quality. The costumes are gorgeous, and several Goths of my acquaintance are already planning their own reproductions.

The music is brilliantly written, and surprisingly well sung — I say surprising only because I had no idea that Anthony Head had such a wonderful singing voice, or that Paul Sorvino had such a deep, rich operatic tenor himself.

Other surprises come from the casting. Blind Mag is played hauntingly by Sarah Brightman, her ethereal voice adding an achingly poignant quality to her role. Paris Hilton, of all people, plays the drug and surgery addicted spoiled brat daughter to Paul Sorvino. Not only does she sing well, she acts the part, which is more of a stretch than you might imagine because of the science fiction twists to a character that would otherwise be fairly close to her reality. I can only imagine that she wanted this part to show a certain depth of self-awareness, as well as a self-mocking commentary on the shallowness of her media image. At one point her newly transplanted face falls off — right in the middle of a stage performance being broadcast to millions — revealing the raw and bloody naked muscle beneath. The irony could not be more perfect.

This film, like any good opera, does NOT have a happy ending. The tragic flaws of its many players lead to death for some, and undeserved rewards for others. The heroine is left with grief and loneliness, but also a new life with the mixed blessing of knowing the truths that were hidden from her all her life by her lying, murderous father. Nevertheless, it is clear they love each other to the bitter end.

While this film will not appeal to everyone, it most certainly will appeal to most Goths. Deliberately released only to seven theaters, its makers fully expect its popularity to spread by word of mouth, and it is rapidly becoming a cult classic. People are already engaged in “shadowcasting” (a practice known from reenactments of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) I highly recommend Repo: the Genetic Opera.

It’s home page is found at http://www.repo-opera.com/

BB,

Vivienne

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I just posted about these books to my ile mailing list (an ile is a household in Lucumi (Santeria). The one I belong to meets at my padrino’s (godfather’s) house). They are new additions to the bookstore at Persephone’s Haven.

I just finished the first one, Working for the Devil. The main character, Dante Valentine, is a necromancer who works with Anubis and the Egyptian pantheon. During the course of the novel she travels to Nuevo Rio, where there are many shamans practicing Santeria and Voudon. In one scene, she sees a woman has a drawn a veve (a voudon symbol) in the street. She describes how the chicken that the woman sacrifices keeps twitching after its dead, and as the blood pours onto the veve, Dante feels the rush of power flowing in. A few moments later, she sees someone resembling Baron Samedi (one of the voudon loa (spirits)) coming through the crowd, but she leaves the area after that.

I haven’t yet read the other books in the series, so I don’t know how much these traditions come into her story lines, but I was quite interested with her treatment of them in this book. If anyone else here has read any of them, please let me know what you think.

BB,

Vivienne

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The bibliography of The Science of Vampires had so many fascinating books listed that I’ve started searching for them at Amazon and uploading them according to category. I’ve just added a whole bunch to the “non-fiction: vampires” section.

I can’t vouch for all of these, because I haven’t read most of them, and they look like they come from many different view points. I have read Skal’s Monster Show, and absolutely loved it, so I’m looking forward to reading his treatments of the vampire archetype, Hollywood Gothic and Encounters with the Undead.

I found Liquid Dreams of Vampires quite interesting, and while Vampires Among Us is definitely one to be taken with a grain of salt, when it was first published I don’t think there was anything else like it, and I was happy to get it, and found it fascinating reading.

I would love to hear from anyone who has read some of the others on this list, and get your opinions. I would be happy to post any reviews you might want to write. You can leave comments on this post, or send me an email and I can upload a file.

There are several other non-fiction books from Ramsland’s list that I want to add to the AStore, but they will probably be scattered across categories, so next I will get up some of the fiction; I had more that I’ve been reading recently that I need to add, as well, so I’ll post here when I get some more of those up.

Happy reading!

BB,

Vivienne

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Lady Amethyst of Nephilim United and the Sanford Vampire Meet Up loaned me this book as a resource for the February meet up, which will be discussing vampire Awakening and whether Turning is possible (see my previous post for details).

The Science of Vampires, by Katherine Ramsland, Ph. D. covers a wide range of topics: fictional vampire characteristics, psychological illnesses and serial killers, vampire spirituality, the vampire subculture, the physical basis for bliss and the nature of evil.

Ramsland first discusses fictional vampires and how modern science might explain their abilities, using Dracula as a jumping off point. She points out how tuberculosis and decomposition might have once been mistaken for vampirism, and then goes into the cellular process of aging, and the properties of blood.

She goes next into how literary vampires have evolved in popular culture, discussing the many paradigms and types of vampires and vampire mythology that have blossomed over the last century. From this she leaps to quantum physics, psychology, psychic research, and a description of porphyria (an illness that has many symptoms in common with traditional vampire weaknesses, such as heightened sensitivity to the sun).

Next Ramsland discusses the bliss of a vampiric embrace in terms of certain brain functions, techniques such as hypnosis, meditation and trance, drugs such as DMT and LSD, and brain chemicals like endorphins (”inner morphine.”) In this same section she discusses the possible results of being “embraced,” or how a normal human might be “Turned” into a vampire. She suggests DNA and genetic mutation, viruses, and pathogens.

Next she goes into what I find to be the most disturbing sections of the book — a discussion of Vampire Personality Disorder, Renfield’s Syndrome, and a list of serial killers who may have fit these profiles. She chooses to follow this up with an explanation of how forensics and profiling might solve a “vampire” killing, but she uses as her example fictional vampire qualities. In other words, if Dracula really existed and really had the abilities he had, how might a CSI lab examine the crime scene, analyze the forensics, and profile the killer? I find it unfortunate that she chooses to confuse real life serial killers with an aberrant psychological disorder, with fictional or literary vampires as if they really existed and a CSI lab would be faced with really trying to figure out what was going on. I would have found it much more responsible if she had discussed how these forensic labs and profilers dealt with the actual crimes committed by the real life murderers.

Even worse, Ramsland then chooses to describe vampire hunters, and how to kill a (literary) vampire. I call these portions of the book the most disturbing, because I have no doubt there are confused individuals out there who will be unable to draw the distinction between the “fictional” or literary vampires she discusses, the real-life serial killers she catalogs with legitimate psychological peculiarities, and the modern vampire subculture. Oh, she throws a few lines in each time she begins to discuss the latter, stressing that they are not psychologically disturbed nor serial killers, but there are disturbed individuals out there who consider themselves to be self-appointed “vampire hunters,” and have attacked members of said vampire subculture. I can easily imagine such disturbed individuals taking Ramsland’s discussions of literary vampires and the detection of their “crimes” as “real,” equating them with the real-life serial killers she also discusses in such close proximity, and from there making the leap that members of the vampire subculture, are both “real” literary vampires and serial killers — especially since Ramsland jumps back and forth so frequently and freely between these three types in her explanations of various topics.

I was further disappointed that she chose to follow these sections with a discussion of psychic vampires and vampirism as a spiritual movement, while blending this with a discussion on the nature of evil and an analysis of Dracula as a dark shaman and alchemist. This unfortunately adds further credence to the idea that vampirism as a spiritual path is inextricably linked to the nature of evil.

Ramsland saves her “hook” for last — her discussion of vampires and sex is the next to last chapter of the book. She goes briefly into a discussion of whether vampires can breed with humans when she mentions the dhampir in the vampire hunter section (supposedly the offspring of a vampire and a human), but not until this chapter does she get into the mechanics and hydraulics of sex. She talks about the different vampire paradigms in various novels and explains whether their physiology would render them impotent, sterile, or capable of having sex and reproducing.

In this chapter she also discusses the attraction the vampire archetype has for the homosexual community, another so-called “deviant” or “outsider” community supposedly drawn to the similar status of vampires, who are seen as sexually uninhibited and similarly unbound by society’s sexual mores. She follows this up with a discussion of AIDs (a very real problem for sanguine vampires) and the cross over of the vampire subculture with the S&M/bondage subculture, including the shared attraction for dominance and submission role playing.

Ramsland closes by equating the dark allure of the mystery of the vampire, and its ever shifting and elusive nature, to the dark matter of the Universe that scientists are still struggling to explain. A bit of a stretch, but I like her poetic turn of mind when she makes such comparisons throughout the book, and her ability to think outside the box.

All in all, The Science of Vampires is extremely well researched. Ramsland does a pretty good job of keeping a wide variety of seemingly unrelated topics well organized, and she has a lot of fascinating information that should appeal both to fans of vampire fiction and to members of the vampire subculture alike. I do believe she tried to be responsible in her presentation of real vampires amongst discussions of evil, serial killers, and literary vampires. If you can overlook the dangerous potential that certain unbalanced individuals might get them all confused, you should find a lot of very useful information, as well as many resources for further research in her well-cited text and extensive bibliography.

If any of you have read this book I would be very interested in hearing your take on it, and whether your opinions jive with mine. Please do leave comments on this post and let me know what you think.

BB,

Vivienne

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Hey everybody! I’m leaving tomorrow (Friday Oct. 24) for a week’s vacation (yay!!!!) without internet access (booo!!!!) so I will be out of touch for a while (I’ll be back Sunday night, Nov. 2).

To make up for that, I’ve posted three new articles this week at Article Base:

The Truth About Modern Day Vampires (an excerpt of the article I wrote for the Instant Magick October newsletter):

5 Things You Can Do to Change the Country and the World and

The History of Halloween – or – What is Samhain?
These are in addition to the other two articles I had up:

Sarah Palin’s Black Magic connections and How to Use Magick Spells to Positively Affect the Presidential Election – and Why You Should, for a grand total of 5 articles at Article Base!

Hopefully these will hold you til I get back, and make for enjoyable Halloween and pre-election reading.

Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween, everyone! I’ll talk to you when I get back.

BB,

Vivienne

P.S., don’t forget, the free bonus material being offered at www.careandfeedingofspirits.com is going to expire soon, and I won’t be here to give you another reminder. The “Subtle Samhain Celebration” article and “The Patriot’s Spell Book” will both be removed by Nov. 5 at the latest, so order On the Care and Feeding of Spirits now and don’t miss out! I think you will find this book very useful and enjoyable reading for Samhain/Halloween.

P.P.S. DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!

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Through my other company, Persephone’s Haven, I have recently been able to set up my On the Care and Feeding of Spirits book as an ebook through Click Bank, and the account was just approved yesterday! Check out the home page at www.careandfeedingofspirits.com - it’s got a brief excerpt and some personal accounts that might interest everyone.

I especially wanted to make sure everyone was aware of certain offers I’m making that click bank would not allow me to include because of their policy regarding event tickets. Everyone who buys the book is eligible to participate in a FREE 2 hour teleconference on the subject; I’m limiting the conference to 20 people, but if I fill one up fast I will set up another one for the overflow. I can record these through Talk Shoe, so I will also be able to make the podcast available for free for anyone who couldn’t attend by phone, but the podcast archive will only be available to people who have purchased the book.

The second offer they wouldn’t let me post was that at the end of the teleconference I will be holding a drawing from the names of the attendees. First prize will be a FREE 10 minute tarot reading over the phone, and second prize will be a FREE On the Care and Feeding of Spirits magnet.

Buying the book will take you a download page where the book and the free bonus material (a limited time offer only available through 10/31 and 11/4) can be downloaded instantly, and there is a form there to fill out to sign up for the free enewsletter that will be used to send out the schedule for the teleconference (or to mail out the bound copies of the book for the people who want one). I also hope to use the enewsletter to post some of the stories and questions that come up during the teleconference to create an additional resource.

So, lots of new free topical stuff for Halloween/Samhain, everyone. Have a Happy Halloween, and a Blessed Samhain!

BB,

Vivienne

I was invited to write an article about vampirism for the Instant Magic newsletter. It’s published in their October issue, right hand column, “The Truth About Vampires.” The publisher mentioned that several members of the local Pagan and Wiccan meet up groups have been asking a lot of questions about vampires lately, and making a lot of comments, some positive and some negative, so he asked me to write an article that would answer some of those questions and hopefully dispel some of the negativity. Please tell me what you think of the article. Also, the original version of the article that I created to post at the meet up groups themselves, is posted at the Sanford Vampire and Shadowlore meet up in the files section. I plan on turning this into an Article Base article soon, as well.

Please take a look at the articles and comment here to let me know what you think, how I can improve further articles on the subject, or if there is anything about the subject that you would like to know more about in another article.

Enjoy!

BB,

Vivienne

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