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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas wish list for 2009...

We've made a statement to all our family this year that in reality, we can really only afford presents for the kiddos this year. Yet people still ask me what I want. Here it is in all it's glory...

I want my Trade Act paperwork to go through allowing me to go back to school in January officially.

I want my car to not break down again for a VERY long time.

I want to find or get my hands on an embalmers Trocar. Appears you do need a license to purchase those.

But most of all, I would really like a drama-free Christmas this year.

There you have it...

Though, I'll settle for any old 80's toys you happen to have in your attic or closet.

Merry Christmas to one and all this year.

Dr. Raven

Music in my head:

Peace in the Holy Land by Voltaire and Unto Ashes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL2I7RuLUM0

9:00 PM

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http://eganwarmingcenter.com/home.html

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Another year closes... With frostbite.
Current mood:

adventurous
Category: Music

.. .... ..

I'm sitting here in what is quickly becoming my new favorite coffee dive. It currently is as yet un-named but the receipts I get still read Nosh & Wash. It's located on the corner of 13^th and Patterson on the University of Oregon campus right across from Max's tavern. The place is painted (in my rather colorblind perceptions) in mauves and chocolate browns with brick interior. The counter conjures images of a New York bistro while the art photographs give the place a trendy hipster edge. The coffee is decent, I've yet to ave a bad cup of Wandering Goat Coffee anywhere in town. But that's not why I love it here. I love it here because its a WIFI hotspot that I get to use for free with my rather antiquated IBM Thinkpad Laptop. All the other spots on campus (so far as I can tell) require a paid account to use their WIFI. Here, I may sip coffee and type away with ease. Reminding me of simpler times when I was employed and it seemed we all had money to burn.

That dear reader, sets us up for the December update.

I've been volunteering a lot as of late at the Egan Warming Center.

The current volunteer site is held at the already set up Hosea Youth Services drop in shelter.

Www.hoseayouth.org

The benefits we have to offer kids through Egan at the Hosea site are huge. Unlike a lot of the other sites, we have all the amenities of food, showers, laundry, supplies, and dry goods that homeless kids need. The added benefit of being able to provide shelter overnight during the freezing cold along with the fine folks at Looking Glass via their New Roads program is a great boon to the already massive and growing homeless youth (kid) population of Eugene Oregon. In the years I've helped as a volunteer for homeless shelters for kids, I've seen kids as young as eight years running alone and homeless in our tiny patchouli stinking burg. The assumption by the local populace is that the Eugene Mission is there to solve the homeless problem. But when your a fifteen year old girl alone on the streets with no friends, you don't even want to walk the road to the mission let alone sleep there. Years ago we set up Pisteauo (means believe in Greek) for homeless mall rats. Initially largely a weekly breakfast held Saturday Mornings, it grew into Hosea Youth Services. A three day a week drop in shelter providing meals, showers, clothes, and supplies.

Egan Warming Shelter was founded the year before last after a homeless transient died in the cold here in Eugene with no room for him at The Mission (living proof it can't solve the problem by itself). When it opened at the Eugene Armory, sadly hundreds of kids had to be turned away as they'd maxed out their allowance of beds already. This year, the Hosea site is now set up as a full time spot for kids under 20 years old whenever the weather drops below 28 degrees outside.

I do this because I care. I do this because I don't want to see kids hurt or die on the streets of Eugene. And so far, its been a great success in getting as many as 23 kids in a night off the street and someplace warm.

As of Wednesday, I have officially passed the one year mark of unemployment. One year living off of the unemployment, tax refund, severance package, and goodly sum of inheritance I had from my grandfathers passing. I have, in actuality been rather blessed through this rough and horrid time. All my needs be they great or small have been provided for. But indeed some sacrifices I've had to make. I've had to learn how to live on a lot less. I've had to re-learn to budget. I've had to pay my bills a couple days late depending on my unemployment insurance. I however remain undaunted.

Tomorrow I go to new student orientation at Lanc Community College. With the hopes that I am able to still get my training package approved and will be able to get into classes by January. If unable, well the worst I can say is that College is not perhaps the path for me.

Currently I've been advised to sit tight with my writing projects as it appears many of my publishers, fellow writers, and fellow musicians are starting to feel the bite more and more of this horrid economy. Many artists are turning to touring more and more to try just to make ends meet turning out band merch at cut rate prices (because no one makes a dime on CD's anymore) just to keep a place to store their stuff and have food to eat. Nobody said the life of a troubadour was easy. It's even less so if you decide Gothic Rock or Industrial Rock is your chosen venue. Fact is, we aren't (currently) marketable to a large record label, to a larger music promotion, or the headlining music fluff stations like MTV. Not since the 90's have we had any major commercial success solely under the title “Gothic”. Sure, Goth-Metal (sic) had a momentary hey day in the limelight. And it quickly faded into obscurity once again.

Perhaps it's for the best in many respects we aren't in the limelight right now. It means many times that surrendering your songs, your art, in many respects your “children” to a larger audience it means you lose something of yourself and your control over your work. Does anyone recall the horror the summer of 1995 and the ENDLESS replays of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden? You couldn't go anywhere, see a movie promotion, sit in a coffee shop, or even take a crap without hearing it somewhere. I'll bet you an eyeball to anyone who lived through the 90's that you still hear that song and shudder.

No no... Underground music has its niche and indeed importance to keep the balance between overblown promotions and stylistic pomp and sleaze.

I say all that with the hope and admonition to say, keep up supporting the acts you love by buying direct. If (and I realize it's a big if) you have that extra money and your trying to find something for the lovely Vamp or Zombie keeping you warm and snuggly this holiday season. Consider spending some extra cash on your (and perhaps their) favorite act. T-shirts, Hoodies, Jewelry, go a long way to keep a band afloat right now. If you buy CD's direct, make sure your supporting the label you want to support. Currently, I still have my hopes for Projekt and Metropolis records as they keep putting out some fine recordings.

Myself, money is tight and I'm making it a firm statement to myself and to my family that I'm only buying for the kiddos this year. Bird, P-Dog, M-Girl, B-boy, and D-boy are all going to get some nice gifts this year because in reality, I feel kids need to have a great Christmas. No child (who comes from a family who celebrates Christmas) should have to wake up in the morning to find nothing under the tree and nothing in their stocking. I know that feeling, its a hollow pit that fills up with bitterness and acid over the years and takes serious effort to empty.

We have presents for Bird and P-Dog, we need to shop for the rest. Am Thinking something loud with lots of lights that makes a lot of noise. Or one with a lot of small parts that are easily lost and found hours later at Three AM while running for a late night pee. Who knows.

What does 2010 hold for Gothic Rock and Industrial? I don't know. I didn't know in 2009 that we'd see Bella Morte make such a huge splash with their song Find Forever Gone. I didn't know (well, had an inkling) that Combichrist would break out with force and fury with their latest CD. 2009 has been a fabulous year for dark seething bitter and glorious music. It seems that MTV and many other promotions are pushing for a 90's revival (as they've done with every decade prior) in 2010. Might make sense given the new Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam releases. If “alternative” rears its ugly and maggot ridden head to haunt the music scene, then perhaps we may just see a Gothic Rock return. Life in the 90's saw a huge plethora of Goth acts being signed and promoted and pushed along side of the Seattle Grunge and L.A. Groove scenes. The Crow release (and ultimately killer soundtrack) brought out more people embracing Gothic Rock than we'd seen in many years. Will we see it again in 2010?

Who Knows....

What I know is that I worked my butt off in 2009 to help promote this scene and 2010 I have no desire to stop. Though I may be in my eighties, I'll still be dancing the Catastrophe Ballet or stomping my boots to the punishing backbeats of by gone days.

For those of us who live this scene... Bela Lugosi is still Undead!

My top picks for 2009.

Death to Analog by Julien-K

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR8lrV9vkGQ

Looking Glass by The Birthday Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctrcpgIo_9I

Follow the line by 9^th house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajEqC073ao4

Vampires Don't Exist by Calabrese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl7eggjivQU

Evil Science by Zombina and the Skeletones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZpJfCOgvxM

The end of our time by The Other (Loved Black Angel off this Album, wish I could find it on youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIXL6fHAy18

Walk on the edge by Rezurex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXNmmkW6d6g

To name just a few.

Currently listening:
The Art of Breaking Apart
By Velvet Acid Christ
Release date: 2009-10-27

9:52 PM

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLGojOIMOxA

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Plastic Jesus on shelf, tell me how can he save himself?

.. .... ..

It's the day before ore Thanksgiving here in the states. It's the time of year where many of us living here aren't really concentrating on what we are “thankful” for. Rather, we are intimately concentrating on what we need to buy and who we need to buy it for next month on December the 25^th. Rather than trying to think about what we should be grateful for that we still have, our lovely corporate society deems we should stress about what we still want and who is going to get it for us.

So in attempt to try and find some solace from this commercial madness, I tend to try and retreat to music stores. Perhaps its ADD, perhaps its another psychosis of mine altogether. But I love how music drives all the bogymen out of my head momentarily and I can relax and focus on the song playing above me. This is usually the case in almost every record and CD store in my slimy green city. However, there are a few that I tend to cringe in sometimes when I enter. Here in is my attempt to come to grips why. I apologize now for the discordant thoughts that may be contained here in.

What I am talking about here are Christian Bookstores. You know the places. Almost every mall has one, almost every city at least a half dozen of them. Now, let me clarify one point here dear reader. You might be asking “Why go into to them if they give you so much grief?” “Aren't all Christians evil?”

I make no bones about the fact that I am a Christian. By and large I don't harp on it in my professional circles because I don't feel I have to. I feel that my faith is mine, as a calling I will share it with others but I feel that while I am in this world, I need to work well with others even if “I am not part of this world” as Protestant Christians would put it. What I am trying to say is that I lovingly respect my Satanist, Wiccan, Muslim, Mormon, Neo-Pagan, Atheist and Agnostic friends and colleagues in the Goth Community by not being forceful with my faith, but just as they shouldn't be ashamed of their faith... Nor should I.

But I digress. Christian bookstores are a rather unique phenomena as far as faith based bookstores go. Having visited Neo-pagan supply stores all over, I find very little in the way of “Goddess Junk” that would relate or compare to the amount of “Jesus Junk” being foisted off on my brothers and sisters in Christ. Muslim bookstores are precisely that, bookstores. They may have some music (depending on how liberal the bookstore is) but nowhere near the amount of Cd's that the Contemporary Christian market produces.

Walking into a Christian bookstores is like walking into a strange microcosmic theme park. Every inch of it festooned with brilliant blues and purples and natural wood trims. Every item stamped with obscure scripture references and witty inside jokes that only Christians get but are intended to get us to share our faith with outsiders. It's a tacky wonderland that takes your senses by storm.

Upon entering, usually you are greeted with a pleasant smile and the wispy sounds the uniquely Christian music phenomena known as Praise and Worship. Largely produced to make people feel a deeper connection to God through high energy vocals, smooth sweeping rhythms and epic acoustic or rock tracks. The books everywhere whether fiction or non-fiction all boast titles and banners stating “This book will change your life!”

In the middle of almost every Christian bookstore is the panoply of products meant to assimilate Christian culture into everyday life. The so called “Jesus Junk”. Some people are familiar with, the commonly stolen WWJD bracelets. Others more obscure, for example the Christian tape dispenser decked out in natural wood with pewter scripture inlay. Or the new line of Christian toys like the Jesus Girls, knock off cheaply made Barbie Dolls with “Modest” clothes and Christian T-shirts. Or the Praise Ponies, a cheaply made My Little Pony with a Scripture Verse added. The myriad of Christianeze lingo bumper stickers and t-shirts made to look like trendy products people use every day. The Jesus is King t-shirt made in the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup font. The Jesus hoodie made with the Hurley font and bad knock off logo. It is uniquely a Christian phenomena to experience.

Now your probably asking... “Well if this place bothers you, why do you go into it?”

Several reasons... But most importantly, its to find a rare gem CD of music hidden in the racks of Cd's that never sell. You see, I love all Goth and Industrial Music and indeed love discovering or finding odd Christian Goth and Christian Industrial albums. I like them. Some of them are every bit as dark and spooky and haunting as any secular Goth act. But largely, its still an unaccepted genre.

Years ago, men like Keith Green and Glen Kaiser and Michael Sweet took up the mantle of taking Christian music out of the Hymnal and out of the pews and into everyday society. The result was initially an embrace of Christian artists making a unique stamp on the music scene. The backlash was total ostracizement from the church. Undaunted, they kept up the mantle and people began to accept the new music and fold it into their regular services. Then the secular labels got wise to the untapped market. And Christian music rather than staying artistic and unique became a mass market media appealing to a single (but wealthy) Christian market.

Rock, Metal, Punk, Rap, all became acceptable forms of media so long as they were sung or spoken by wholesome boys who could bring Little Johnny out of the brink and back to God.

And so the designer imposter's marketing franchise began. If you like Guns & Roses you love Bride. If you like Motley Crue, you'll love the NEW sound of Stryper. As Christian Goth acts started out, they took a different road. Rather than jumping on the designer imposter's market, they created something unique yet still grounded in their faith. Largely to this day still mistrusted by Christian producers.

So here is where I try to express my point... Walking into a Christian bookstore as a Goth looking for Christian Goth or Industrial Music is something like a Roman Slave walking into the gladiatorial arena where the lions wait. You are intimately familiar with Christian Culture yet find the plastique nature of Jesus Junk detritus to be an anathema. You are greeted with a smile at first and wary glances next. Often times, people stop to try to “Minister” to you in an attempt to ensure you become a good and “proper” Christian. And you wonder were people get this idea that all this makes up the whole and abundance of what is a “Relationship with Christ”. It's flat, flaccid, facetious, and shallow. And lately I'm finding it more and more alien.

You see, I find the concept of Christian culture with our own slang and lingo to be very two faced. I find the commercialization of faith with our fifty to a hundred dollar bibles with gold fill-agree and top quality parchment to be disturbing. I find the products we are expected to use and expected to wear to be truly tear jerking. And partly why I find the holidays so depressing is that my faith is slipping sadly more and more into a commercialized product frenzy wrapped behind a shiny veneer of brotherly love.

For the record, I didn't find that elusive CD this time... It seems that EMO is much more easily accepted yet again than Goth in a Christian bookstore. When asked “What are you looking for?” and I inform them, usually I get one of two replies. “Is that anything like Emo?” “Is that anything like Metal?” ..

For all of the fake plastic cheap knock off designer imposter's garbage that keeps getting foisted on us. All of the Christianeze lingo that gets thrown at us and expected for us to know. I know that there are others who are patently tired of it. Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Maybe it's time I stop shopping there and buy my music direct from the people I support and love.

This little rant has been brought to you by the letter D.

Music in my Head:

Plastic Jesus by Rackets & Drapes

For the record, I would say this song is every bit as bombastic and catchy as any Skinny Puppy, My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult, or Electric Hellfire Club hit. I support those acts completely as well.

6:30 PM

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnbj8jI6xdk

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Jacking in and turning on.

.. .... ..

I'm taking a moment to pause and reflect on the monumental amount of social networking sites I've subscribed to in attempt to get my name and word out while attempting to promote the community I belong to. I realize now after spending about six hours cleaning up my e-mail inboxs (A joke in and of itself) that I have a wealth and plethora of sites I'm attempting to use to shout out amongst thousands trying to do the same thing.

Years ago, I relied on Blogspot and Livejournal to help spread the world. In the early days of social networking and blogging, it was easy to direct others to your site because few people were actually engaged in the art and past time of “Blogging”. Now, social network sites are the norm for the internet community. Trying to scream and shout loud enough to promote your interests in a see of others shouting and promoting their own tends to make for a lot of noise.

I have a twitter account now that updates my myspace status and my facebook status simultaneously. I have a livejournal that I hardly use because few if any still want to wade through their outdated system. I have two blogspot blogs with nothing on them because when I felt they were needed, myspace was increasingly unreliable and faltering regularly. Oh it still falters, but not as bad as it did. I should count myself lucky, I've not (knock on errant wood) had my myspace page deleted as yet., Still, it proves to be a problem.

Of larger issue I run into is that there seems to be a genuine lack of a good search engine to help me find the bands I want to. When you type in “Goth” in the myspace search field, you often get anything but. Yet when I type in band names into a google search, I find them regularly. When I search google for Goth Bands, I get the usual cast of pioneer characters. Bauhaus, Christian Death, Fields of the Nephellim, and so on. Rarely when searching am I able to pull up such admitted acts like The Last Dance or Voltaire without some effort to hunt and wade through the mess.

That having been said, I'm questioning now how best to consolidate my efforts into one easy to find website where everyone can see my updates and I can find others. Sure, I can get a Vampirefreaks account and easilly find almost every Goth and Industrial act out there. But per VF policy, I have been “voted off” on a couple of occasions because I'm not “sexy” enough. I support what they do for the Goth scene but I don't have to agree with how they run their site.

So where do I go from here? I'll be re-evaluating that in the next few days. Maybe one blog in the mass and I'll just repost links on everything? Maybe just one blog and my twitter... Who knows.

What I know is I have no desire to give up supporting the Goth and Industrial scene any time soon. I may experience connection issues from time to time. But I am still a ghost in this machine.

Music in my head:

Digital Warriors by The Dope Stars

If you want it. My twitter is here:

http://twitter.com/DoctorRaven

My facebook is here:

www.facebook.com/doctor.raven

My live journal is here:

http://doc-raven.livejournal.com/

6:42 PM

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

I am thankfull for....

It's time for my monthly update on myspace and it seems that I keep getting pushed further and further back as I attempt to keep up.

Here's where things stand...

I've turned in my paperwork for trade act assistance. If approved before December 15th, I go back to school with the tab going to the federal government along with up to two years unemployment paid for by the state.

Upside, I go back to school and its paid for.

Downside is that my unemployment claim expires on December the 5th. Meaning I may lose my claim if this isn't paid for.

Forward into the breach I press.

I regret that due to my financial situation, I havn't been concentrating on my writing nearly as much as I should. This is old news.

The new news is that sadly due to a very long and painfully overly dramatic story, my entire proffessional portfolio has been regretfully deleted into the ethosphere. My collected works spanning over eight years has been shattered and shot to hell.

In an attempt to try to start from scratch, I purchased a used laptop that appears to give me yet still more grief than I need. So it goes back tommorrow to the computer recycling center with the hope that it can be fixed. So far all it can properly do (when I can keep the mouse and cursor from jumping random locations) is watch heroes online. Thank heaven for small victories.

It's going to take me a VERY long time to get back on my feet. Some things I can never recover.

That having been said. I am gratefull for these things.

My daughters smile.

My future stepsons smile.

My pretty ladies smile and dulcet kiss.

That I have a roof over my head still.

That I have friends who care deeply for me.

That I have food to eat.

That I have coffee to drink.

That I have a running car still.

That I have an income for now still.

That despite all the woes I experience, My God in heaven provides all my needs.

And many more things to mention.

If and when I get a laptop to work properly (typing this measley blog took me an hour thanks to this things random cursor mess), I'll get back to writing. Till then, the doc is experiencing major technical difficulties.

Music in my head.

Caustic Disco by Velvet Acid Christ.

(You'll have to youtube it yourselves today kids)

(update) So again thank heaven for small blessings. While it appears that my former laptop purchase was a wash, the guarantee they had on it provided me with a very nice IBM thinkpad with nowhere near the issues the used Dell had. So from here, I start the arduous process of restarting writing from scratch. I'll be contacting my old editors and see if may be still able to contribute. I'll never recover my old work but at least I might be able to make much better work as I go.

I continue to be thankful for all things provided.

3:42 AM

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Monday, October 05, 2009

It's the most wonderful time.... Of the year.
Current mood:

weird
Category: Life

It’s the most wonderful time… Of the year.

At last the time comes around to the frosty grounds, the falling leaves, and the blustery rainy days of Oregon. The days where mildew creeps up your walls like spiders and algae infests and infects every nook and cranny of the sidewalk. I LOVE fall in Oregon!!

So… Down to Octobers updates with Doctor Raven.

I’ve now synced my Myspace Status Updates, My Facebook Status Updates, and all other related and sundry material to my Twitter. So if something seems out of place and my status changes often… It’s because I’m sitting somewhere on my Crackberry posting away.

I’ve got a couple projects in the works that I plan on researching.

#1). I am contacting (or rather hunting down) Christian Goth acts who are interested in possibly putting together a compilation worship CD. But unlike other prior worship CD’s previously released, the catch here in is that we would be performing, covering, or deconstructing classic Hymns. I have a couple acts interested and working on Industrial remakes of The Old Rugged Cross to experiment with. What I need to put this together:

A). A series of Christian Goth (Or Secular Goth acts fronted by Christians) who are interested in creating or deconstructing their vision of a classic hymn. If your out there and reading this, drop me a line back. I’m out there making contact with everyone I know.

B). A label interested in producing and distributing said product. This week, I’ll be dropping some e-mails around to various labels to see if one out there is interested in carrying such a project. Will keep you posted.

#2). I’m going to start helping to market Genesis Church (on my top friends list) to the Eugene Oregon area and in particular the University of Oregon campus. Might mean flyers, might mean invites. Most likely will involves cookies and coffee because we like doing that. Maybe something strange cooky and wacky since well… It is a 34 year old Goth making the preparations.

#3). With the Trade Act in place, it appears I will be heading back to school with all luck in Winter Term. Due to paperwork finally being filed by my former employer, I can now take advantage of a $20k in training funds at a local community college as well as unemployment benefits. Now… I just need to decide what I want to be when I grow up. With this in mind, I can get back to starting to write up and profile the best in Gothic Rock, Industrial, Psychobilly, EBM, and Darkwave that you’ve come to know love and crave.

Halloween is quickly approaching. I need to figure out my costume (almost always a last minute adventure) and get things put together for it. What I absolutely ADORE is the smell of cheap mask plastic, candy corn, and popcorn balls that heralds the mark of one of my all time favorite holidays. I love the creepy feel of things lurking and bobbing in the shadows and I adore the feel of cheap props and fun toys that always come out this time of year. It’s my paradise! Where others might find gloom and doom this time of year, I find life. It’s Christmas that brings me down and lays me low. But that dear friends, is another story.

Keep checking my twitter feeds for updates and what’s new.

Till then… Trick or treat the nights away!

Music in my Head:

Every Day is Halloween by Ministry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIMfdlVGmqM

9:02 PM

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Load cannons and fire with cutlass and grap shot!!

(X-Posted to my personal myspace page)

So comes one of my favorite international holidays. Ye old international "Talk like a Pirate Day". Typically, I would celebrate in costume and participate in the contests that my former employers would put on for "Best Dressed Pirate", "Best Pirate Walk", "Best Pirate Talk" and so on.

Since however I am no longer among the monetary earning elite of Lane County, sadly I miss out. I do miss the challenge of coming up with a better costume than some of the others around the office. Many of them gave me a good run for me booty.. As it were.

Instead, today was spent with Kiddos watching Aliens in the Attic at the cheap seat theater where its really hard to turn down movies running at a dollar and seventy five cents for each run. That's better than Netflix or any Blockbuster rental deal you can find. Mondays, even better still for parties three or more at fifty cents each. Well worth it even despite the low rent feel of the seats now a days.

Then it was off to Roaring Rapids for pizza and Merry-go-rounds with the kiddos. It used to be an old Pietro's Pizza place many years ago but sadly was bought out when the corporation fell apart. Now, the renovations on the inside give you a summer camp feel but gone is the campy twenties feel of classic joy. Ah well.

To keep many questioning out there up to date and in the loop, yes today was supposed to mark the day Kitty Galore and I were to tie the knot on board the McPherson ship the HMS Headhunter. We had planned back shortly after my proposal that we would set September 19th as the date of our marriage. We'd also planned on carving wax to hand cast our own rings, have all the costuming done by now, and be having a rip roaring event on Commodore Morgans property in Veneta.

Then we both were layed off from our prior employers....

So... Like true pirates undaunted in our endeavors, we set a new course for a year out from this current (and indeed rainy imperfect) day to find new employment, make plans, take more time to invest and prepare in our wedding plans and continue to ensure that our wedding is the most amazing experience we both will remember in starting our lives together.

We are indeed rock solid in every sense. Kitty is an amazing woman who I indeed look forward to spending every day with from now till the final trumpet blows or the crack of doom sounds. Whichever happens first. I love her dearly, and we both are committed to each other and to doing this wedding properly.

One thing is for certain, it may not be on Sept 19th. Weather is indeed a factor when planning a wedding outdoors on a pirate vessel. While indeed we live in Oregon, we still want to ensure than rain is not a factor when we tie the bowlines forever. So, we may be planning for earlier in the summer. We'll keep you all posted.

With that in mind, I hope the rest of you are having a rip roaring time pounding back flaggons of mighty ales or piping tunes to keep your clogs stepping hardy. Raise a glass for sailors lost, raise a flaggon for the captain, raise a bottle for the Lord above, and spit a shot to the devil below.

I leave you with this parting bit. I found this song while listening to the genious of Johnny Indovina on you tube clips while searching for information on one of my other favorite bands, Deadbolt. (A strange combination I know) In my search, I stumbled across Kitty's myspace profile, found her banner for Genesis Church and let her know we had mutual friends on all accounts. She was a fan of Deadbolt too, as was I. We had mutual friends at her church. And we both had some similar music interests. Thus began our friendship, our romance, and later our engagement. While reading her profile information, I had this playing and I still think of Kitty every time I hear it.

Music in my Head:

There is only you by Human Drama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iizDHGLiAw

Lyrics are as follows..

"In the loneliness of midnight
In the cool light of morning
Through the empty fields of midland
There is only you

When I am so weak I can't stand
When I move mountains
When I doubt all that I understand
There is only you

Close as I come to suicide
On the days I spend as king
There's no doubt, both are fantasy
There is only you

The evil art of deception
The endearing heart of one love
The escape that we are human
There is only you

God in me
He teaches me as I go
But the devil in me
He urges me to forget
And I forget"

I had this posted on my cubicle at work along with her picture.

6:33 AM

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Friday, September 04, 2009

Where is my mind?

While you can indeed still follow my regular updates on Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/DoctorRaven

And my Facebook updates here (as they are fed from my tweets):

www.facebook.com/doctor.raven

I recognize now that I’ve been neglecting my updates here which I am sure people read more than my “Tweets”.

So.. Let’s get to where The Doc has been for the last month of August.

Some stories to share;

I finally landed a job interview at a respectable cancer research institute. As per usual, I ran out and trimmed and redyed my hair (You can’t show your grey at an interview), polished my wing tip loafers, pressed my ties, my slacks, my button down Oxford shirts, and showed up fifteen minutes early decked out in my spot on “Hire Me” suit. Sadly only to find as I went in to the interview that the Manager had “No Intention of Hiring me” because apparently I was “Too overqualified” for the position based on my resume. Apparently, she was required to interview ten people for the position and she just wanted “Verify my Resume was correct”. I could have done this from home…

I received a letter informing me that our industrious imperial leader had approved additional college funding for people out of work. So in a mad dash, I ran down to the local community college admission office to beg for a chance to be admitted. Only to find that because I made too much money last year working for my former employer, I don’t qualify for financial aid. I’m “too rich” they say.

Let’s sum up…. I’m “overqualified” to get entry level office work and “too rich” to go back to school. Make no never mind of the fact that I’ve been out of work for nine months and have been applying for every position listed on every employment site county wide. There are times I love living in Oregon and there are times when my patience is truly tried to the breaking point.

Kitty and I have been volunteering more and more with Hosea Youth Services:

http://www.hoseayouth.org/

It’s a fun place to lend some time and ensure that homeless and at risk kids are receiving essential items they need, Food, clothes, showers, laundry facilities, and fresh new items to help them get off the streets and into better locations.

A new item I am going to try my hand at is to try to recruit some of the great acts I’ve reviewed over the last few years and see if I can get them to come to my town of Eugene to play. Yep, Doc is going to dig a little deeper into music promotions. As it turns out, the music market in Eugene is huge but clubs are folding. Largely in Eugene because many club owners make the classic error “If I turn it into a Sports Bar, the fans will come”. Yes they’ll come, break your stuff, and trash your club. Instead of being a unique and fun place to catch live venues, it becomes one of hundreds of sports bars. The current state of the U of O team right now says our team probably isn’t going to go well this year anyway.

http://www.kval.com/news/57163947.html

Eugene also currently is one of the last markets in the Northwest that isn’t pay to play. Currently in Portland, Salem, and Seattle, most clubs have adopted a pay to play strategy where all bands are required to pay the club a fee for tickets and then are charged with selling their own show. If they make money back, great they break even. If they don’t sell enough tickets, the band folds from lack of funding. No one wants to go broke for their art.

So… I’m going to network with the best live clubs in Eugene and refer the bands planning Northwest tours in order to bring more of the best in Dark Rock to the Patchouli stinking town of Eugene. Currently, one of the last best live venues in Eugene is still Diablo’s Downtown Lounge. I’m convinced after catching several live shows there that they have a better set up than other live clubs in town. Better seating, better atmosphere, and they actually want the attention that live music offers.

With that in mind if you’re a Goth, Industrial, Psychobilly, Horror Rock, or just strange act wanting to plan a tour through Oregon, drop me a line and I’ll connect you to the best venues in our town.

Now.. It’s back to projects as usual as I continue to write up information on your and my favorite acts.

Just as soon as I find my mind…

Music in my head:

Where is my mind by The Pixies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zP1IjgSO_E

3:00 PM

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Friday, August 07, 2009

You never know who your going to effect...

Till you look back....

Found this link to a forum dedicated to the article I wrote a few years back listed in Morbid Outlook.

http://www.mygoth.com/Spiritual-Goth-f20/Blacklisted-Goth-Subcul-t3662.html

For those not in the know, the entire article can be found here:

http://www.morbidoutlook.com/lifestyle/spirituality/2006_10_xtiangoth.html

I felt pretty moved by the outpouring of support in this little forum that I felt I needed to repost it and post my reply here:

Greetings!

My name is Doctor Raven and I wrote the above article featured in Morbid Outlook. I wanted to drop in and let everyone know that I appreciate thier positive words and say Thank You for letting the world know how this article affected you. I'm looking at possibly updating the article sometime soon perhaps with some more sound bytes from some of your (and my) favorite Goth Artists out there regarding the subject. Sadly, I gathered a cubic goatstack of quotes from the likes of Voltaire, Andy from Bella Morte, Jeff from The Last Dance, Groovy Man from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and a host of others and sadly... Not all of them could make it into the final cut. That having been said, I may turn this into a book release some day.. Who knows. Time will yet tell.

Regardless, Thank you for supporting my work and supporting the article. Feel free to drop me a friend request on Myspace at:

www.myspace.com/Doctor_Raven

or Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/doctor.raven

and let me know what you think.

Currently, I'm expanding my work to the secular Goth arena as the "Christian Goth" scene seems still too much a taboo subject for most Christian Publications to want to cover. So, check out some of my latest CD reviews at www.fangoria.com/musick or in the latest issues of Deathrock Magazine. Both fine publications.

With that in mind, Keep reading and keep supporting the Goth scene. It is people like you and I who love our community (perhaps literally TO DEATH) who wish to see it grow, thrive, and prosper.

Dza Devlesa

Dr. Raven

With that in mind.. If this old article had an impact on you, I would love to hear it and your story. Feel free to post a comment. I would like to update this article and make it a little more relevant to today's Goth scene. Perhaps make a book deal out of it...

A Gothic Faith? Blacklisted from my Church? Who knows..

So long as it contains Written By: Doctor Raven... You know I'm there.

Music in my head.

Once Beautiful by The Last Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDywDR3pnCk

I do have to give Rick Joyce special props for lending his bit to this article. I really feel that lending his insight to my article has kick started my career in writing in the Goth scene. No one doubts Rick's devotion to the scene at large. I hope no one ever doubts my dedication to the Goth scene either.

7:34 AM

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