La · Belle · Fille · Qui · Rêve

"Oxford Street used to actually be in Oxford. It was dug up and moved to London after the West End was demolished in the Blitz"

"In keeping with the capital city's keen sense of history, haggling is standard practice in all of London's museum shops"

"Waterloo station was built on the site of the Battle of Waterloo. The spot where Napoleon was captured is commemorated by a plaque in the Upper Crust near platform ten"

"If you've enjoyed your tube journey, you can tip the driver. To get their attention pull the 'emergency' cord in each carriage"

I can't wait for this tonight - an evening of the macabre and the gothic at one of my favourite little bookshops...

Magical experiences, indeed spirit hauntings, can be induced by a good ghost or horror story. This is a night where you can prove that to yourself again, listening by candle-light to tales by that master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Your necromancers are two engaging reader-performers, Mike David and Dedwydd Jones. They will be performing complete readings of The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Oval Portrait,as well as Annabel Lee, 'Alone', other poems and extracts from Poe's letters. The readings are interwoven with short narrative passages from Jones' novel about Poe, The Raven Man.

Treadwells provides the red wine, moody setting and candle light. Let the horrors be summoned on this night.

January and February were pretty horrid months, so it's only now as we're into March that I'm starting to think of what 2008 will bring.  

Things I'm really looking forward to:-

* Pilgramage to Manchester to kiss the ground of the sites important to the history of The Smiths
* Travelling to Romania and Bulgaria
* Seeing Kate Nash live
* Being in the same room as Emilie Autumn and her Crumpets and dressing up all silly
* Rocky Horror singalong show
* Steampunk shoot with Decline Gothica
* Gore shoot with Deville Photography
* Radiohead live
* REM at Twickenham
* Whitby in Autumn
* Just being around my wonderful family and friends
* Anything involving _tonylee_

I've been thinking for a while now about aiming to complete a Masters at some point.  I do miss the continual learning from my degree and while I am quite happy in my job (and law is challenging), I would like to aim to complete a Masters as a personal ambition of mine.  I don't think it would be something I would be able to do within the next five years or so as I want to get my own place/cat/car first and possibly move away from London.  That way, once I've got those big investments out of the way, I could start a part-time Masters for my own enjoyment.  While I adore literature from all periods, it is the Victorian (1860s through to the fin de siecle) that has always truly captivated me.  When you feel that you know certain books inside out, writing about them is wonderful, and I miss that.  I adored working on my dissertation (going back five years since I was at Uni) for the research side and this is why I feel that a Masters would be a wonderful ambition to aim for.

One slight flaw to this plan - the most appealing Masters programme in Victorian Literature is at the University of Liverpool.  And while studying up north was wonderful, I want to remain in the south close to my family as this is where I intend to be based.  But I haven't yet found what I am looking for here at a University in London or the South East.

Tonight: Metal night at Bar Monsta, Camden
Saturday: Sewing museum trip with pvcdiva and the uk_steampunk community, providing I'm not too hungover :)
Sunday: bibliogoth to discuss Anatole France's The Revolt of the Angels

 

When I first started modelling, there was one ambition which I always wanted to do - be part of Decline Gothica.  I contacted Dave Charsley very early on (when I had very few pictures to my name) and he was incredibly supportive, so it was a real honour in November to be included in the burlesque shoot that would open 2008.   When I received the first pictures back, I was thrilled with the results - I think they are the best pictures I have done so far and filled me with so much confidence in my modelling.  With more shoots planned for this year, I am thrilled and still excited to be a Decline Gothica girl!

I've received some wonderful responses on MySpace regarding these images, so I hope you will all appreciate them too - please let me know what you think.

For spy515

I've made a decision to go to Whitby Gothic Weekend next April.  None of my friends like that kind of music or lifestyle, so with the exception of two friends, who I occasionally go to Inferno / Slimelights with and who I am currently trying to persuade to come, I will probably be heading up there on my own.  Turning up to the Spa and the events on my own is a terrifying thought, but I've decided that since I want to go so badly and experience it for myself, I should go regardless.  Whitby is a beautiful town and to go and meet others who I am beginning to share interests with would be such a fun experience and good for my self-confidence and shyness.

When I was a teenager, my nickname at school was "Goth" but I have never thought of myself as a true Goth, more of a lover of all alternative genres.  I've always loved the gothic style, the literature, the art and anything with elements of the macabre or the dark within, but my music tastes have always been indie-inclined.  I will always adore The Smiths and Radiohead more than anything, and I am proud that while some follow groups and musical trends like a fashion accessory, I love my music simply because it moves me, be it guitar bands to catchy three-minute pop songs.

But recently, I have been really discovering true alternative music and it's making me hungry for more.  Having discovered Emilie Autumn in the summer, who is now proving to be one of my favourite artists, her influence has had me prowling around MySpace music profiles to musicians and bands that are well-known to most of my friends list, particularly those that are Gothic-inclined, but have always passed me by.  At the moment, The Birthday Massacre, RazorbladeKisses, Deine Lakaien and Trauma Pet are all filling me with excitement and a strong urge to go and buy all their albums, but what other bands are there out there that I would like?  Going by my new-found Gothic musical tendencies, who else should I discover?

So in addition to WGW and a trip to Romania with The Dracula Society, I've also decided that I want to make a pilgrimage to Manchester to see the sites important to The Smiths like Salford Lads Club, Strangeways prison etc.  I accompanied my Beatles-obsessed mother on a similar trip to Liverpool, so I feel it is only fair that I should do it for my favourite band.

In between planning these trips and hopefully mass CD buying, I need to sort out some new make-up and dye my hair.  It's a strange shade of ginger at the moment so hopefully this weekend will bring enough time to dye it with a red tint (I'm a little worried about bleaching it first on my own to get a strong red shade so I think, for now, I will just put a red over my dark hair and that should give it a nice tint) and then one evening next week, I shall hit up a Mac counter and splash the cash.  For the girls reading this, I want a kind of strong eye make-up look as the lipsticks I choose now don't seem as brightly coloured as they once were and I need to balance it.  I'm feeling quite inspired by model Ulorin Vex's look and while I don't have her beauty or cheekbones, make-up is remarkable at giving you a whole new look or a bit of fun to play around with.

Off to see Beowulf at the Imax tonight - do I dare admit that as a literature student, I've never read the poem?  I've never had much interest in Old English - of course, perhaps I should make up for that now if I have the spare time to read a poem of 3,138 lines in length...

'I tell you I must go!' I retorted, roused to something like passion.  'Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? - a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You are wrong! - I have as much as soul as you - and full as much heart!  And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.  I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit  that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal - as we are!'
...
'I ask you to pass through life at my side - to be my second self, and best earthly companion.'...'You - you strange,  you almost unearthly thing!  I love you as my own flesh.  You - poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are - I entreat to accept me as a husband.'

I adore this chapter - it still sends shivers along my skin when reading how Jane and Rochester express their feelings for each other.

Due to the works on the underground today, I got to Farringdon half an hour after our reading group meeting had started and I was too embarassed to arrive so late, so apologies to any fellow Bibliogoths for not making it - hope it went well.  Having initially struggled with the chosen book for the meeting, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, I found the story of anarchists, secrets and a corrupt London underground world surprisingly fascinating, and am pretty pleased I read it as I wouldn't have initially chosen to read Conrad.

After a monthly break from modelling, I took part in a shoot at the nuclear bunker in Essex yesterday.  As soon as I get the shots back from the various photographers I worked with, I'll post them up for your opinion, but in the meantime, here is a little teaser courtesy of James Corrin...