Now that I’ve had a week to recover, it’s time to share some of my thoughts on this year’s Dark Side of the Con. This three-day dark alternative convention took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey, from Friday, March 29, to Sunday, March 31. It was the event’s third year running, and the first year in which I was officially part of the core organizing staff! A couple weeks ago, I posted a preview of the event, highlighting all of the different panels, bands, and events I was looking forward to at the con. Did it live up to my expectations? Read on to find out. Continue reading Dark Side of the Con 2019: A Rundown
Category: Event
Preview of Dark Side of the Con 3
For the third year in a row, it’s time for my favorite goth event: Dark Side of the Con! This event is a 3-day dark alternative convention in New Jersey hosted by the good folks at VampireFreaks. The convention is this weekend, March 29–31, and you can still purchase tickets at the Dark Side website as well as at the door.
There have been some exciting changes since last year’s Dark Side of the Con. First, we have a new venue! The Sheraton Parsippany is a gorgeous hotel built like a medieval castle—complete with crenellated battlements and little pointed towers! It’s also significantly larger than the previous venue, meaning it can fit more attendees and has room for more programming. The other big change is that I’m on staff this year! I’ve been working as the panelist coordinator, which means I’ve been behind the scenes making sure we have plenty of amazing guests ready to lead panels and workshops on a wide variety of topics. Below, I’ve highlighted just a few of the things you can look forward to at this year’s DSotC: Continue reading Preview of Dark Side of the Con 3
Tune In to “In Goth We Trust” this Wednesday Night!
Tune in on Wednesday night to hear my voice on the radio! Chelsea Goodwin has invited me to call in as a guest on her radio show In Goth We Trust. The show runs from 10:00pm to 12:00am (Eastern Time) every Wednesday and Thursday night on WIOX Community Radio in the Catskills. She plays a wide variety of gothic music and interviews folks from throughout the wider goth community.
I’ll be calling in this Wednesday, May 2, at 10:30pm to discuss my work on this blog, the panels I gave at Dark Side of the Con, what I’ve been up to in Green-Wood Cemetery, and whatever else we feel like talking about. If you’re local to the New York City Watershed area, you can tune your radios to 91.3 FM. The show will also be streamed live online. You can listen at WIOXradio.org (scroll down a bit to find the player, you may need to download Adobe Flash) or use a radio app like TuneIn. I’m looking forward to chatting with Chelsea!
New Morbid Anatomy Exhibit at Green-Wood Cemetery
This spring, there’s a new pop-up exhibit at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery—and I’ll be volunteering as a docent! The Morbid Anatomy collection will be installed in Green-Wood’s Fort Hamilton Gatehouse, with an exhibition called “The Power of Images: Life, Death, and Rebirth” on the lower level and a library in the building’s attic, with books on the intersection of art and medicine, death and culture. The exhibit will be open from 12:00-5:00pm on weekends, now through June, and is free and open to the public. So far, I’m scheduled to be there on 4/15, 4/21, and 5/6, and maybe there a few other weekends as well. Come visit me!
What is Morbid Anatomy, you ask? Well, if you’re from the Brooklyn area, you may remember that there used to be a quaint little museum in Gowanus that closed down last year. It housed a varied collection along the lines of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities, as well as an extensive library and an event space for authors, lecturers, and workshops. It closed its doors last year, but it didn’t go away for good! Its collections are curated by Morbid Anatomy’s founder Joanna Ebenstein and head librarian/program director Laetitia Barbier. The current exhibition contains a mix of macabre paintings, strange specimens, and funerary ephemera. I’m so excited to see my favorite death-centered museum brought back to life!
Do you have any questions about the exhibit? Have you visited already, or are you planning to? Let me know in the comments!
Dracula, Performed
Dracula was always meant to be adapted to the stage. At the time that he wrote his most famous novel, Bram Stoker was working as the business manager for the Lyceum Theatre in London, owned by his friend, the renowned actor Henry Irving. Irving’s performances were often dark and dramatic, and he was best known for playing charismatic villains. It’s even been suggested that he partially inspired the appearance and personality of the Count in Stoker’s novel. Thus, it should come as no surprise that when Stoker finished his masterpiece, he envisioned Irving playing the titular character in a stage adaptation. He even drafted a script and ran through a staged reading of Dracula, or The Undead at the Lyceum, afterwards eagerly asking Irving what he thought. Irving’s answer, however, shut down any hopes Stoker had for his stage production: he summed up his opinion in one word: “Dreadful.”
Dorian Gray: The Musical, a NYMF Production
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray took on new life this summer in a musical adaptation as part of the New York Musical Festival. NYMF is a three-week annual festival that seeks to shine the spotlight on new works, many of which go on to perform Off-Broadway, and some even make it to the Great White Way! Dorian Gray: The Musical began as a graduate thesis project for playwright Christopher Dayett, with music arranged by Kevin Mucchetti. Last week, the beta musical appeared in three showings at the Acorn Theater. Director Christen Mandracchia invited me to attend a performance and share my opinion on the show.
Continue reading Dorian Gray: The Musical, a NYMF Production
Steampunk World’s Fair 2017: Where Goth and Steampunk Meet
Last weekend, I went to one of the largest steampunk events in the world, Jeff Mach’s Steampunk World’s Fair. For those who are unfamiliar, steampunk is an alternative fashion/music/literature scene, which can essentially be summed up as Victorian futurism—imagine a world where, on the cusp of the industrial revolution, technology advanced through steam power and gears instead of electricity and computers. The fashion blends corsets and top hats with brass and goggles, while the literature tends to feature dirigibles, automatons, and mad scientists. And the first weekend in May is when hundreds of steampunks from around the country take over two hotels in the middle of Piscataway, New Jersey. I’ve been attending Steampunk World’s Fair for many years, and two weeks ago I gave you a preview of what I was looking forward to at this year’s convention in particular. Read on to see how last weekend lived up to my expectations. Continue reading Steampunk World’s Fair 2017: Where Goth and Steampunk Meet
Preview of Steampunk World’s Fair 2017
The biggest steampunk event of the year is just around the corner! Steampunk World’s Fair is one of Jeff Mach’s most popular events and the largest steampunk convention in the world. Earlier this year, I attended and wrote about my experience at two of Jeff Mach’s brand new conventions: the fairy-themed Glimmerdark and the three-day goth party that was Dark Side of the Con. Now it’s time to return to one of my old favorites. I have been attending Steampunk World’s Fair for about five years, and it never fails to impress. The convention takes over two hotels in Piscataway, New Jersey, and will be taking place next weekend, May 5–7.
Dark Side of the Con 2017: A Rundown of America’s First Goth Convention
Last weekend I went over to the Dark Side, at Jeff Mach and VampireFreaks’s newest convention, a three-day event designed specifically for goths. Dark Side of the Con came right on the heels of another brand new convention, Glimmerdark, which I attended and posted a rundown of last month. In my overview, I noted that Glimmerdark hit a few snags trying to figure out what kind of convention it was and what audience it wanted to cater to. Dark Side of the Con, I felt, had no such problem. The convention was geared toward a very specific audience—goths—and with VampireFreaks helping to run the show, it was an audience that the organizers knew well. A few weeks ago, I posted a preview of which aspects of the con I was looking forward to most. Overall, my expectations fared pretty well against reality, despite the fact that a poorly timed sore throat and headache prevented me from getting as much out of the weekend as I wanted to. Read on for some highlights of the convention.
Continue reading Dark Side of the Con 2017: A Rundown of America’s First Goth Convention
Preview of Dark Side of the Con: Finally a Local Goth Convention!
Want to spend a weekend just letting your goth flag fly in a hotel full of other creatures of the night? This St. Patrick’s Day weekend, you can dodge the garish green and seclude yourself among like-minded admirers of a monochrome wardrobe at Dark Side of the Con. Last month I gave you all a sneak peek and then overview of a brand new faerie festival called Glimmerdark. Now I’ve been invited back to attend another inaugural Jeff Mach Event and report back with my thoughts. Dark Side of the Con, happening in Piscataway, NJ, on March 17–19, is a new goth convention co-hosted by Jeff Mach and Vampire Freaks—the creators of a thriving online goth community and purveyors of excellent gothic goods. I’ll give you the low-down after the con, but in the meantime, here’s what’s got me excited, so far:
Continue reading Preview of Dark Side of the Con: Finally a Local Goth Convention!