"Last week, “South Park” devoted an entire episode to mocking “those goth kids.” The compliment was perhaps backhanded, but it is a testament to the staying power of a countercultural identity that had its heyday in the mid-1990s. “Goth never truly dies,” said Lauren M.E. Goodlad, a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and an expert on goth culture. “Part of its aesthetic is undeath.” And yet, the goth “look” remains surprisingly difficult to pin down. Contemporary goths put together a collage of styles drawn from a variety of fringe influences. “‘Wear that! Do this!’ That would be a goth’s worst nightmare,” Professor Goodlad said. “And I don’t mean that in a good way.”
Beginning paragraph of an article on the Style Section of the NY Times written by and
10 comments:
My friggin' alma mater pays some loon to be an expert on Goth culture?
How much are the taxpayers of the State of Illinois being fleeced for to pay that loon's bills?
By definition, if there is a professor who is an expert on some purported social manifestation of rebellion, that rebellion no longer exists.
In other words, Goth is dead. The professor is the proof.
Anjelica Houston as Morticia is the absolute best goth ever.
All of Jiva's girlfriends are goth. Three of them in sequence, not all at once. And he looks a bit like Tiny Tim. The last girlfriend has lasted the longest. Marie Vlasic. She's goth. Likes pugs. [marie vlasic denver artist]
The first picture shows a gallery. That is right down the street a few blocks. I walked to that show with my camera but did not take photos because they're all nudes and I thought that would be pervy. But there it is. And if you click, sure enough, that was it. Gigantic larger than life nudes. Brutal nudes. Every flaw. Every detail. Photorealistic. That's the thing about them. And there are pictures of her too.
Goth.
And difficult to please. Very fussy. Persnickety vegetarian and a bit short on humor. I sense she does not care much for my lovable self nonetheless invited me to that opening.
Fine. I have a problem with that odd Morticia silver streak, and the really odd thing is, I think it's authentic.
She's very good at painting.
I hung out briefly with a goth crowd, back in the day. Maybe a dozen parties or so. After hours dance clubs. You know, that sort of thing.
Strangely asexual the lot.
I mean, they'd get completely stoned on God-knows-what and there'd be nearly as many girls as guys and nobody would be doing anything with anybody.
Didn't seem natural.
I said it was a goth crowd.
Maybe more like a bunch of art fags.
These distinctions can get tricky for unsophisticated people like me who didn't study it in college.
I wonder where one draws the academic/stylistic line between Goth and "EMO?"
Siouxsie hated being called goth.
Even thought she was the ice queen, she thought it was all taken to such an absurd degree.
Brutal nudes indeed, Chip.
I was a little kid when the dry look first took hold. No more greasy kid stuff was the ad line, I believe.
My father went from a crew cut to homo hair pretty much overnight which was kind of disorienting. Little kids want consistency.
Anyway, it was perfectly obvious, even to me, that my dad was following our next-door neighbor's happening 1970s look (complete with the tweed sport coat, turtle neck, zodiac pendant -- what kind of man reads Playboy?) because he wanted to bang his wife.
So what's my point? Oh yeah, it's that Charlie don't surf and goth don't blow dry!
Siouxsie hated being called goth.
Robert Smith wasn't a homo.
Robert Smith was a freak.
Even I could figure that one out.
Evi - Love that!
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