Obscuria has wonderful text to go with their product line. Obscuria describes my favorite mask from their site: “After Lady Synthestruct polishes off her pint of nightly brandy from the steam powered liquor atomizer, she passes through the richly colored sitting room and makes way towards the hangar, where a patchwork hot air balloon awaits for mysterious Victorian adventure. A brass riveted rust colored leather Steampunk mask, with black leather accents. Two brass and mesh cylinders protrude about one inch out of the mask and are curiously decadent. Dual straps with brass buckles finish off the design, with a slightly padded nose bridge inside of the mask for added comfort.” As an added plus, Obscuria manages to have a personal feel while still offering same day shipping on these masks.

I actually saw some of this shoot in one of the recent issues of Marquis magazine in the Big in America section Blue Blood’s Amelia G and Forrest Black put together. I hadn’t realized the whole sets of Vampirabat are now posted in the Blue Blood VIP members area. Vampirabat is a really classic gothic vampire beauty. Worth viewing every shot of her.

All I had to do was mention that many fanboys at the Comic Con were disgustingly sweaty from the extreme heat and that a lot of people showed up in steampunk costumes. That was all I had to do to induce dozens of people to send me emails with a link to Goths in Hot Weather. GothsInHotWeather is one of those ironic sites where they obsess about something while claiming not to really like it or care about it. Sort of like Perez Hilton. In case this was not painfully apparently already, the site addresses the issue of some gothic attire being a poor fit for overly warm weather. Humorous concept and domain, but it sort of states the obvious.

Gothic.net is a site with literary horror fiction and gothic community forums. The site currently features fiction by Thomas S. Roche, Amelia G, Christa Faust, Maria Alexander, Clint Catalyst, and David J. Schow. Gothic.net has a number of features to help similar sites promote. I have signed up for the Gothic.net topsites and the Gothic.net banner exchange.

AltPorn.net has a bunch of new writers since last I kept up. One is Beda Hoydenish who just did an interview with the inspirational Amelia G about her new AmeliaG.com site and the state of altporn.

My favorite part of the interview is where Beda Hoydenish’s question about the origins of the Blue Blood moniker lead to Amelia G explaining some of her manifesto and you have to admire someone who still finds important things to say with breasts in her face: “The name Blue Blood is sort of a play on words with the blood for vampires and gothic spookyness and the blue meaning erotic as in blue movies, but the blue blood phrase overall connoting a certain tastefulness and strength. Especially in 1992, when I founded Blue Blood, it was very common for alt-identified people to feel like they had to accept second class citizen status. So the strength aspect is really important to the core manifesto for me. The most important message I would like readers or members to get from Blue Blood is that purple hair or tattoos or having kinky sex or otherwise living flamboyantly does not mean you are not entitled to the rewards of the larger society.”

Medical students in New Jersey sure know how to treat a girl. Linda Kay is apparently one uber-goth goth stripper. Police came to her house because they got a report that someone there was suicidal. Very gothic even if the suicidal person was apparently out running errands or something and not actually there. While the fuzz checked things out, they discovered a number of skulls and a sloppily dismembered body portion, specifically a severed arm nicknamed Freddy and given to the exotic dancer in question by the sort of med student who comes courting at a strip club. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that. I’ve always preferred the more offbeat ie spelling Freddie when used as a diminutive. Whichever spelling Ms. Kay applies to her mad scientist body parts, her mom is supportive and family is always important in these situations. (via Blue Blood via NJ Star Ledger)

I didn’t even know I wanted this for the holidays and this is the best gift I could possibly have dreamed of. Blue Blood has come to the web in full force. Everything I love about a number of the Blue Blood sites has been packed into one gorgeous package at BlueBlood.com and you will just have to see for yourself. I’m sure I will have even more to say about Blue Blood and the brilliant and inspiring Amelia G and Forrest Black next month, than I have had to say about Daleks and other machine lovers this month. The Blue Blood relaunch is such big news I had to mention it right away. If you are true blue old school and loved Blue Blood magazine as much as I did, you will know what I mean. This is the real deal.