Yesterday I had an odd adventure. In Kingseat, which is a suburb in the outer south of Auckland, there's an old mental hospital that got shut down a bunch of years back for, from what I understand, being a bit of a hell-hole. It was built in the thirties and is this massive sprawling complex. Spookers runs out of the old nurses' quarters but that's ( Read more... )

I ran my first ever theatreform larp on Friday, as the flagship larp of Battlecry 2009. When I say "first theatreform larp ever" what I of course mean is first theatreform larp that I've actually written. It was a 40 player gothic melodrama called "Masquerade on Fleet Street" - inspired by Sweeney Todd, it was set in London 1900, at a masquerade ( Read more... )

Just saw Sweeney Todd. Been looking forward to it for months. OMG.

I loved it. It was horrible and macabre and dreadful in all the perfect ways. It looked absolutely stunning, and it was so delightfully macabre. I'm not sure quite how to describe it - horrible, but in the absolute best way.

Yesterday there wasn't a lot for me to do at work, other than man the phones and run misc errands, so I spent most of the morning twiddling my thumbs at reception and surfing the web in search of Christmas gifts. In the afternoon, I loaded up WikiSource and read Lovecraft. Today at work there was so much to do that I was running around and busy all ( Read more... )

mirabrito, theirreverent, Tigger and I just went to see The Mystery of Irma Vep which was chock full of gothic hilarity. Mira and I cracked up at odd moments, when we managed to catch a particularly obscure reference. The best part was easily the fact that the eight character play was acted entirely by two actors, Michael Hurst and Oliver Driver. I thought Oliver Driver ( Read more... )

I rested for the night and most of the day before finding the courage to enter the second sub-basement. I'll make no secret of the fact I was terrified. What made this dungeon even more fiendish than the last was this was Theory and the Gothic where anything and everything could either be real or a projection of my fevered and crazy mind. Lines of ( Read more... )

The Gothic: A Cautionary Guide
Brought to you by the collective silliness of mirabrito and allovaA short list on how to keep yourself safe from gothic malignity, as expressed by our Theory and the Gothic class ( Read more... )

I have built a raft and am paddling away from the Island of Doctor Moreau as fast as humanly (harhar) possible.

Trying to remind myself that at least it's done and tomorrow, I have fun things to look forward to, like the Ravenholme Sewing Bee and 2014: The Corner of the Earth.

One test and four exams to go.

I know I must've been working on this essay too long - I'm actually getting to like Freud. His essays are a darn sight easier to read than Lacan's and he's less of a poncey git. I kind of get the feeling he must've been interesting to talk to, while Lacan was pretentiously complicated. I admire anyone who admits in an academic essay that they don't ( Read more... )

Today in a nutshell:

1. 2000 words is so not enough for everything I have to say about The Island of Doctor Moreau. I haven't written a draft yet (ARGH) but my vague outline alone is 500 words. Eep. I even have enough material to write a total seperate essay on IoDM as a horrific Garden of Eden allegory ( Read more... )