Sophie Lancaster: Don't Forget Her

Most people in the United States have no idea who Sophie was.  Let me tell you about her.
Sophie was a young woman, 20 years old who lived in Bacup, Lancashire, England, a suburban town 22 miles North of Manchester.  She was on her bye year from university and intended to study for a degree in English literature.  Her long time boyfriend, Robert Maltby, was an art student at the time.  Today he is a successful painter.  They were both members of the Goth subculture.
While returning home from a night out, Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby were subjected to a "vicious mob attack" from "a large group of people" in the early morning hours on Saturday, 11 August 2007, at the skate park area of Stubbylee Park, Bacup.
The couple were walking home and came across a group of teenagers at the entrance to the park. [6] The group followed them, but there was no trouble until some of them suddenly assaulted Robert Maltby without provocation. When he was knocked unconscious, the gang attacked Sophie Lancaster, who was trying to protect him by cradling him in her arms. A 15-year-old witness told police: "They were running over and just kicking her in the head and jumping up and down on her head.
Witnesses revealed that afterwards, "The killers celebrated their attack on the goths — or "moshers" - by telling friends afterwards that they had "done summat [something] good," and claiming: "There's two moshers nearly dead up Bacup park — you wanna see them — they're a right mess.
Both were hospitalised as a result of the attack, initially at Rochdale Infirmary.  Robert Maltby's injuries left him in a coma with bleeding on the brain.  He gradually recovered, but was left with lasting braindamage.  Sophie was not so lucky.
In a deep coma at Hope Hospital in Salford, it became clear to hospital staff that she would never regain consciousness, and on 24 August 2007 her family agreed to switch off life support .

Murder was something that happened to her, But Who Was This Girl?

© 2011 - 2012 Simon Armitage, Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster

Tarja, my favorite singer!

Tarja – Montañas de Silencio

Finding the Light Through the Darkness

I have struggled with depression most of my life.  At a young age I began to develop a sense of irony, perhaps too, young.  It sometimes expressed itself in the form of sarcasm and cynicism about the world I lived in, the people I met and interactions with them.  Because of some illnesses in childhood I also developed and understanding about death.  I began to see the world through a dark lens.  I was reading Poe in the third grade and loved horror movies which I watched despite my parents best efforts to keep me from “that garbage”.  I quickly learned that such a dark vision was not appreciated in children and began to adapt to the expectations of others.  I became adept at playing happy even when I was miserable.  I believe this to be the root of my depression, constantly trying to be someone that I’m not on many, many levels.  It wasn’t until middle age that I gave up the charade.  I’ve embraced my inner darkness.  I didn’t do the Goth scene in the ‘80s because I was busy trying to prove how normal I was.  Now I am dressing a dark aesthetic, I’m listening to Goth and metal music.  I’m writing a Gothic horror novel and I’ve never been so genuinely happy in my whole life.  To people that think members of the Goth subculture are depressed I offer an observation.  Depressed people don’t spend two hours getting dressed in the morning.  They’re lucky to get out their nighties.  There were a couple television shows that really helped me to accept myself.  One was the HBO series Six Feet Under and the other Showtime’s series Dead Like Me.  The following clip is the final minutes of the final show of the series that sums this all up very nicely.  Voice over by Ellen Muth as Georgia Lass in the MGM TV series.

Dead Like Me S02 E15 Final 2 minutes

© MGM TV 2004 - 2012

Carmilla

If you know me you know I'm wild about vampire stories.  I'm wild enough about them that I'm writing a novel of my own.  Most people think Dracula was the first big vampire story.  I don't dispute the magnitude of Bram Stoker's accomplishment  The novel Dracula is a wonderfully written  I really like his use of letters and journal entries to develop characters and get inside their heads without using a narration from the writer.  More so than in film adaptations you get to know Lucy intimately and feel sadness in her demise.  But the fact is much of what he used was premiered 25 years earlier in 1872 by an Irish writer, J. Sheridan LeFanu in the novella Carmilla.  The modern beautiful, charming vampires of Interview With the Vampire and True Blood owe much more to LeFanu's story than Dracula.  The story is still in print and can be downloaded for free or in a paper book as part of the anthology, In a Glass Darkly.  Carmilla is much depicted in art, usually as a dark, sinister creature with blood on her mouth and dressed like a modern day Goth or as the picture in my previous post, wearing nothing at all.  The character as described in the book is not at all like that.  She has a languid beauty and looks very much like an aristocratic young woman of the time which she was when she was alive.  That is what made her so dangerous.  The picture below is the truest I've found to the authors original vision.  The book was written at the height of the Victorian era yet seethes with lesbian eroticism between Carmilla and Laura, the narrator of the story.  Strangely, there has never been a good film rendition of the story.

© 2007 - 2012 Mithgariel http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=9&q=carmilla&offset=96#/d17clb5  

Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever". ("Carmilla", Chapter 4).

Just for fun, Italian rockers Theatre des Vampires did a song and music video titled Carmilla.  Unfortunately to comply with MTV's standards and practices, blood and murder were not allowed.

Maeve and Patricia; Of Vampires and Humans

Patricia opened the lid of her coffin.  Maeve was there to greet her.  Maeve gave her a knowing smile, “So you had fun with a human boy last night?  How was it?”

©David Zahir,  http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=David+Zahir# 

“ It was wonderful!  It was so good to feel a man inside me again.  What is between you and I is special of course...:”
Maeve stopped her, “ My dear Patricia, you need not explain anything to me.  I gather Philippe is a very nice man.”
“Indeed he is.  His story is incredible, and he’s a generous lover, too.”
”You know there is no future in that relationship.  Even if you were alive he could not marry you.  He is trothed to another and has been since he was a child.  Another aristocrat of comparable rank.”
“Of course, Maeve.  I liked him.  He was sweet and kind but I’m not in love with him.”
“That’s good.  I think we should talk about falling in love with the living.  It is wise to avoid doing it.  You will meet some men and women out there who will make your heart dance.  But there are obstacles that we cannot overcome.”
“For example?”
“Life and death.  Philippe is alive.  He can walk the day or night as he chooses.  He can eat the abundance of the land and he can have children.  We are excluded from all of those things.  There are only a few ways such relationships with humans can end and none of them is good.  
You can keep him or her close which means they will know your secrets including where you lie during the day.  This makes you vulnerable.  How many people do you think can remain faithful to someone who lives by drinking the blood of other humans?  A creature that often drains them to their death then disposes of their bodies in the most convenient way possible? A being that  has done so countless times in the past and will continue to so for eternity?  We may look like humans.  We are beautiful, seductive and powerful and can be quite charming but in fact we are monsters!  Finally, if you should you find a human that is worthy of your trust then you shall have the pleasure of watching them whither and die.
Your other choice is to bring him or her over.  Make them one of us.  Do you think they will still love you once they realize the enormity of what has been done to them?  That they are condemned to wander the Earth drinking life from others for eternity? 
 Why did I bring you over?  The reasons are many but  you were at the end of your life as a human.  Your choice was to become a vampire or be truly dead.  It was a choice you made.  I know you miss the comforts of your husband and your child but at least you’re not mouldering in a grave.  You can, if you wish, observe the progress of their lives even though you cannot be a part of it.”

Sisters of Mercy

Vision Thing

Back by Popular Demand

Good Goddess!  I am such a slug, It's nearly the middle of July and I'm just getting around to my first post of the month!  What have I been doing?  The bad part is I've been suffering through changes in my neuro-psychiatric meds.  I'm not REAL crazy, just kinda crazy.  Like major depressive disorder which usually isn't that difficult to treat but when you also have epilepsy, shit gets complicated.  Anyway, the good part is I'm able to stay awake again, so here I am!

If a person can have a theme song, I think this one is mine.  The title is Unbreakable and it's by a Swedish band called The Murder of My Sweet.  The title describes my life in the last 2 years.

By the way, lots of eye candy for everyone in this band!