Vampires, vampires everywhere but not a drop of blood

I just came across this little web gem of an article on boston.com: Vampire rumors spur alert at Boston Latin School.

"The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected," said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.

While the episode sounds like something out of "Twilight," last year's hit film about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, it may be closer to the movie "Mean Girls."

Two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the incident said a group of girls at the school had been bullying at least one other student who likes to dress in Goth-style, a vampirish look popularized by musician Marilyn Manson. The officials said the girls began spreading a rumor that the student was a vampire who had cut someone's neck and sucked the blood.

As a Goth—and oft mistaken or asked if I’m a vampire—I’d like to assure everyone that this is actually a rare event. I haven’t met any vampires in the supernatural sense, even if I do write about them; but I have met sanginarians. It’s a fetish where couples drink each other’s blood. Certainly this girl could have been exploring being a sanguinarian, but I find it highly doubtful.

High school, like most other venues, is full of blatant stupid. There are multiple power struggles and total disconnects happening within the student body itself and even moreso the rift between the students and the faculty. High schools are a sociologist’s nightmare. We’ve become a society of overactive cowards who don’t spend a moment to examine the hysteria over high-damage, extremely-low occurrence events.

OMG vampires! So much less likely than Oh My Goth.

So cheers to all us black-clads out there, don’t forget to smile in the rain. I hope the girl in question bears her reputation as the vampire-rumor-center as a blood red badge of courage.

Sanguis est vim!

JamesRandiFoundation YouTUBE Account Suspended

I don’t know how to respond to this – primarily because I have no clue why it happened – but all I can say right now is that this is stupid on the face of it. James Randi is an amazing illusionist (it’s right there in his stage name) and he’s also an excellent resource for looking into the false claims of psychics, scam artists, con artists, and televangelists who claim faith healing and other unproven and grossly bogus activities.

And now his channel has been suspended by YouTUBE. It is not uncommon for people like the above to run false flagging campaigns, to misuse the DMCA, and to otherwise abuse the law and other resources to attack venues like YouTUBE in order to suspend their detractors. And YouTUBE, following the DMCA law and their own policy in a fashion bereft of actual wisdom—suspend on whim.

Mill Avenue Nights Saturday, March 28th 2009

Art Fair always has a weird calming effect on the crowds that visit the Ave, but it also reconstructs the pathways that people can carry themselves along the bricks—primarily so that they can get out into the road, and twirl and stand in the middle of intersections. A rare event.

Papa Soul set up in his usual spot, this time hidden by the tent of a food vendor and an ATM machine. Still, the sound of his music dominated the near-empty intersection even with the tents standing in the way. Blues echoing through the crossways and byways.

Amanda, Heather, and her steampunk-dressed crew made it out to the Ave again. Rolling like a gang of extremely well dressed visitors. Which amused me greatly. I am especially in favor of anything that increases the overall Victorian steampunk, or gothic aesthetic of the Avenue—especially since the loss of Rocky Horror Picture show caused a casual decrease in such things.

There was a physical assault incident involving one of the buskers on the Ave who has been around for about a month. A member of the Mill Avenue Resistance had a sign reading, “BUTTSEX 4 JESUS” which was torn in half by the busker and he struck her across the face with it. I didn’t get a chance to interview him about the event because other members of the Mill Avenue Resistance decided that they wanted to confront him about it—namely Kazz wanted to.

Little He-Man, Ben, came out as well to see everyone wearing his kilt and white-eye contacts. We spent a little with discussing events while various people wandered around the Ave. The crowds were far less thick than they were Friday evening, but still present, music played loudly from different venues.

I didn’t get as much of a chance to see much of anything, especially friends, due to an extreme headache.

The long silence, coming to an end

I apologize for the long, strange quiet. I have been rather busy with several things going on between my continued work on editing the first book of Black Hat Magick, finding a Canadian publisher/distributor for Mill Avenue Vexations, and getting my hands sunburnt...

Yes, yes, I know. I should carry a parasol when I’m in the sun or something. Either that or I'm just going to have to wear gloves when I intend to spend such a long time out during daylight hours. At least I don't bloody sparkle like some vampires I know (no, I am not a vampire.)

The experience with Brother Jed on ASU campus was nothing short of sublime. We had a visitation by Normal Bob Smith—who even dressed up in the contemporary image of the Christian mythological deity Satan. Then got to talk to many lovely people, found at least two who are now fast fans of Vexations. Good start. Jed has always been excellent for that. I also had a chance to read through a review of his book—with variously unfortunate results: Who Will Rise Up by George Smock, a review.

It'll take me some time to get a lot of my work down for Mill Avenue anthropology and my ready readers. Also there’s lots of things going on in the fiction department as many may guess. Volume 12 is preparing for release next month—and I’m still trying to get Volume 11 out on the web ASAP.

Much to come.

Something Funny Happened at Matsuri

Mill Avenue Vexations Something Funny Happened at Matsuri by Kyt Dotson is available online for everyone to enjoy!

Vex Harrow takes a day off to visit the Arizona Matsuri festival with her friend Megan. However, a weird Japanophile and otaku, decides to crash her party by summoning a tentacled monstrosity to help him steal some artifacts from ancient Japan.

Things continue to go wrong from there. Follow Vex's adventure from festival onwards to reclaim the day.

There are four pages of Japanese manga in this work, the first two and the last two; so if you buy this you will receive some graphic art not displayed on the cover (although you can also read it all online.) It was a bit more expensive to make these than the usual publication, but it was certainly worth it. I hope that everyone who receives one enjoys it thoroughly.

It's also available for people to purchase from the online store.