Bathing Beauties

BathingBeauties_01, originally uploaded by Ashbet.

Gothiness: 6 Sweatiness: 3

Ashbet has come up trumps again with these two Dark Delights defying the Daystar for our benefit. I am, however, concerned for their flagrant disregard for local community legislation by choosing to bathe in what is clearly a municipal fountain. Hopefully they'll blind any passing community support police officers with the reflection from their pasty white skin.

Winona paddles in misery

goth in hot weather, originally uploaded by chelgreen.

Gothiness: 6 Sweatiness: 5
Winona Ryder has been caught on camera again, this time giving us an insight into her preparations for her next role; that of a grumpy sodding gothette, tormented by her hatred of society and anachronistic existence, yet strangely drawn to her neighbour who's got a pool and can borrow the car anytime he likes. He's already offered to be the getaway driver next time she goes for a five finger discount.

Golden Hour Goths

Thanks to Dave LeClair

Gothiness: 10 Sweatiness: 8

Seattle; the epicentre of Goth. This gaggle of Darklings were spotted sneaking out just as the Daystar was on the wane, but not so late as to require the wearing of lace eyepatches (new fashion alert! Lace over the eyes is SO on trend darling!). I notice, too the copious wearing of black sports gear, cleverly subverting the accepted image of track stars and athletes and juxtaposing it with black lipstick and, erm, a drum cymbal. Not sure why she's holding that. Mind you, I was never very good with cymbalism... sorry. Satan Loves You? He's not the only one, baby!

hosting disaster

Hopefully you've found me back here - well done if you have! I seem to have lost my domain url thanks to Blogger's frankly useless hosting service that doesn't tell you it's time to renew, and then doesn't give you any way at all to pay for another year without having a godaddy account number, which was never given in the first place. Now it seems the domain has been bought by another gothlover (or cybersquatting corporate bastard, one of the two). Hopefully I'll have the old site back up soon, in the meantime if anyone knows how to rescue an expired blogger domain name, please let me know!

Over to you Cyril...

Thanks to Jim Lacey

Gothiness: 8 Sweatiness: 9

I'm indebted to a young man from Berlin who writes "Find attached a photo of a guy I saw on the Berlin subway today. It was 36C outside at the time. THIRTY SIX! His coat was ankle length, thick thick leather with thick thick lining. Plus boots. And sunglasses. He was looking very red and sweaty around the face (diminishing his goth credentials) I would've blacked out the dudes eyes to protect his identity, but he probably would've liked that." Congratulations Jim, you've made the hall of fame! I especially admire the finger over the lens, proving you surreptitiously took the shot with your phone. We can all learn a lesson from young Jim, friends - get that covert camera phone action going!

Gothalo spotted

Thanks to Ben Lavery

Gothiness: 7 Sweatiness: 5

Yes it's true - London can have heatwaves too. And when the Daystar is shining, these black'clad darklings do nothing more than don a pair of fishnet gloves. Oh, the temptation of fate! That peddalo won't get you far from the ultraviolet, nor will the Serpentine's swans protect you with their oversized wings. Though come to think of it, that would make a pretty good Goth accessory - a trained Swan to follow you round and act as a gothasol. Any Swan Uppers around fancy taking up the challenge?

p.s. Yes I know it's a bit fuzzy, but frankly I've just applied for a job with Ben's company, so I'm doing all I can to gain favour in his camp :)

Beached Goths

Thanks to Paul Samolyk

Gothiness: 6 Sweatiness: 9
Paul writes "both of these kids had black jeans on.... furthermore they both went swimming fully clothed and then one proceeded to lay directly on 150 degree sand while soaking wet." Well done you two! I thought for one moment that revealing your dodgy-tattoo-stringbean arms was taking too much of a risk, but you've managed to pull it back with the non-removable trouser incident. This is true dedication to the cause!

Weirs Science

Spotted by Kat, lifted from http://poorlydressed.com

Gothiness: 8 Sweatiness: 6
Um. Right. Here goes... Nope. no words. Just no words.

Gratuitous Hot Gothette

Merzbau, originally uploaded by nomad_fh.

To quote comic 'genius' Roy Chubby Brown; If this was my daughter I'd still be bathing her.

Goth family

, originally uploaded by keiforce.

"Yup" smiles young Hans as he poses with with his parents, "my folks are twats and I don't mind."

Wind Beneath My Wings

IMG_6548c, originally uploaded by A Girl Named Ruth ;o).

Well that's one way to keep cool Gothette!

Shot 18

Thanks again to Jenivere Stunt

Gothiness: 9  Sweatiness: 9

Jenivere comes up trumps once again with the extreme FMB / facepaint combo.  Not sure why she's holding a FUCKING GUN but I'm pretty certain the 'why the fuck are you making me do this' look she's giving the camera explains a lot.  Did I mention that she's holding a FUCKING GUN?

Unadulterated self worship

I love fan mail, me. Keep it coming Liisa!

If I had your mailing address I would post you something with sparkly bats in it and a wax seal but this email will have to do. Short note to say how much I love your blog! It was funny the first time, and it's still funny. I visit often. And I am looking forward to the book that will inevitably result.

It's horrifically hot over here in Toronto this weekend. Sadly, all the Goths are in hiding it seems. If I ever snap a great one, it's all yours! I so wish I had turned the camera on the couple I spotted in Egypt once -- middle of the afternoon at Karnak Temple -- New Rock boots, velvet cloaks, the full deal. I only hoped they were on their way to a photo shoot. But even Andrew Eldritch wore white for the desert....

Anyway, keep on keeping on!

In obscurum,
Liisa

Thanks to Ryan Martin

Gothiness: 8  Sweatiness: 7
oh for a coconut to quell the dark waters of my soul!  This gothette is obviously living out her Lost fantasy by pretending to have washed up on a deserted shore with nothing but a Gothasol  and a coconut stand between her and the Dayster.  Oh the torment!

Desert shady

Thanks to Madi

Gothiness: 5  Sweatiness: 8
well done for standing in the middle of the daylight heat, Madi, but several minus points for using a broken umbrella instead of a gothasol. Poor show!

House-trained Goth

Thanks to Steve Dey

Gothiness: -3 Sweatiness: 4

Remember friends; you're never too Goth to help your mum out around the house :)

Race for Gothiness

Thanks again to Simon Lamrock

Gothiness: 10 Sweatiness: 10
Simon Lamrock writes "It's been a whole year since I spotted a goth in hot weather, then today I catch a whole tribe of them!" Well done Simon, glad to see the home team being spotted so well. And special congratulations to the gorgeous darklings of London Gothic for entering a charity race dressed in all that taffeta! The brightly coloured runner's numbers really set off the maroon and black, girls. Extra points too for the gothasol carriers, but hang on, what's that? White trainers? Disqualified!

Sidenote: the London Gothic girls did a great thing here - sponsor them at http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/londongothic

Big Mac and Lies

Thanks to 'a reader'

Gothiness: 8 Sweatiness: 6
Whilst sitting in the upper food court at Epsom's sparkling Ashley Centre (spiritual home to all suicidalists), one quick-witted reader spotted this: a full death metal / jugalo / Kiss wannabe Gothrocker enjoying a cold one whilst contemplating the finer symbolism of Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu' as juxtaposed with the lyrics to Closer by NiN between Bacon Double Suffering burgers. Note the standard reaction of most norm's - turn your back and pretend he's not there (which is how he likes it), with the exception of one young innocent child, formulating the question in her head "Daddy, why is that man dressed all funny? He's spooky." We'll never know, little girl, we'll never know.

sidenote: Submitted by 'a reader' - with a secret to hide, perhaps? Maybe a militant vegan with a secret yearning for recovered meat products. Are you a vegetarian who secretly yearns for meat? Or a vegan desperate for a ham and cheese omelette? The Jeremy Kyle team want to hear from you!

the Goths on the bus go down down down

Thanks to Jaimz Asmundson

Goths! On The Bus! from Jaimz Asmundson on Vimeo.

Gothiness: 6 Sweatiness: 8

Jaimz here has channelled Bela Lugosi to great effect - a simple tale of two DoucheGoths on their way to the mall (or 'shops' as I like to call them), but the subtext! Oh the subtext! Pain, suffering, eternal damnation wrapped in velvety angst. I am Goth; Hear me Roar.

Karen O is a Goth

As if you needed convincing, feast your eyes on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Skeletons' - they came up with the idea for this video while they were checking out GiHW, trust me :)

ITV needs you!

stolen from a frankly superb looking wedding in Russia

Gothiness: 9 Sweatiness: 8 (under the collar)

I've had had a request from ITV which gives me the excuse to finally post one of these great images of full-on Gothy nuptials action. Hard working Nina Clement is looking for a Goth couple who are getting married to shoot for their Living TV show, Four Weddings. I'm guessing it has something to do with weddings. She wants couples who are getting married in Feb / March this year (don't blame Nina for the short notice, production cycles are getting worse and worse, in my day we had 6 years to research and we didn't have no internet, plus we shot on real video not that mini DV crap, kids these days etc etc). If you fit the bill, let me know and I'll pass you along to Nina. Hey, at least your wedding video should be in focus.

p.s. Frankly, Nina doesn't seem too bothered whether you're Goth or not. she just needs someone getting married! soon! help!

Emo Wellies

Thanks to Marc McAndrews

Gothiness: 7 Sweatiness: 9 (around the toes)
No, madam, no. You're on a beautiful Caribbean beach, sitting on the trunk of a palm tree pretending to be Robinson Crusoe. You do not need wellies. What do you think this is? A fucking festival? Dissapointing behaviour, Gothette.

Marc Bolan and T Goth

thanks to Sociopathic Kitty

Gothiness: 5 Sweatiness: 6
All right guys, joke's over. Who told them they look good dressed like this? It must have been one of you.

New for 2010

Gothiness: 9 Sweatiness: 6
So, the festive cheer of the non-demononational holiday period has been and gone, and the burning question on your lips is this: what is the Goth-about-town wearing this season? Fear not, darkling, I can confidently predict the demise of the Gothasol (though as you can see, some tradgoth diehards are clinging on to yesteryear's look). Goths and Gothettes, I give you.. THE GOTHWING. Or fan as some might call it. The Impressive Clergyman calls it a gothwing, and who are we to doubt the word of a trend forecaster such as he? The contextual usage, he tells me, should be thus; " I was up that Camden Market recently and spotted Lauren Laverne fanning her face with a rather fetching Victorian lace Gothwing." Get in touch with your local Gothic outfitter now!