#youth subculture

[bitter69uk]

“The bats have left the bell tower / The victims have been bled / Red velvet lines the black box …” 

Yes! Grab the black liquid eyeliner, hair crimpers and can of AquaNet! Last Sunday afternoon we visited the Museum of Youth Culture’s exhibit commemorating The Batcave, the weekly club night at 69 Dean Street which became the epicentre of the Goth subculture between 1982 - 1985. Make no mistake: the exhibit is tiny but crammed with memorabilia and gritty portraits of the cadaverous clubbers via Mick Mercer and Derek Ridgers. Reading that The Batcave’s habitués included the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Marc Almond, Nick Cave, Foetus, Danielle Dax, Lydia Lunch and Nina Hagen made me yearn for a time machine. And it reminded me that I interviewed Alien Sex Fiend (one of The Batcave’s resident bands) for my university paper back in the late eighties when they performed in Ottawa, Ontario. I still have the article in my archives and should post it online. (Alien Sex Fiends’ 1986 anthem “I Walk the Line” was a staple at the weekly “alternative night” at Oliver’s pub at Carleton University!). The exhibit was meant to close 29 March but apparently it’s been extended until 4 April. And recognise this moody coffin cutie?  It’s a young pre-fame Liz Hurley (yes, THAT Liz Hurley) photographed at The Batcave by Derek Ridgers.

[fawnl3t]

🐞🐞🐞Ladybug boy 🐞🐞🐞🐞

🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞

[jstor]

Very Mod anti-smoking poster from 1966! Love the Mary Wells record on the lower left corner! This image, prepared for London's Ministry of Health by the Central Office of Information, is available in the Science Museum Group collection on JSTOR, which features nearly 50K open access images.

[rivertigo]

yearning for the life I never had (the isolation brought on by a combo of helicopter parents, the criminalization of youth cultures, the technology age, etc has left me feeling lonely to my core, I have friends that I see often but my entire childhood I felt like there was something missing. The closest I got to that feeling was having two friends who lived on my street so I could walk to their houses alone. The world is so spread out for young adults and connection is so much effort, especially for someone who is depressed. Staying at home all day in a bad household has left me forever changed in ways I wish I could’ve avoided. Looking back at history it seems so easy to escape the nuclear family but I’ve been left here and i’m bitter about it.)

[steelycunt]

ten books 2 know me!

thank for you the tag @pancakehouse @fruity-individual @serethereal @rollercoasterwords !

-> skulduggery pleasant, derek landy.

starting with this one because this WAS my childhood i was. i never read percy jackson never read twilight read [redacted] and it wasnt even good but my dad thought id like these so he bought me the first skulduggery pleasant one day...oh man oh boy...these were. i was eight queuing up outside a whsmith with a schoolbag full of books for the author's booksigning...also he was so nice ta derek x

-> giovanni's room, james baldwin.

cannot get into this too much before i start wailing and biting and stuff but well. giovanni's room is my favourite book of all time i read most of it. last year in june laying on brighton beach while the sun was going down and i have never recovered from and will you bring me home again / yes. i'll bring you home again since and fear i never will. also! first james baldwin book i read who has come to be an author whose writing style i adore and carry in my mind whenever i try to write something myself.

-> young mungo, douglas stuart.

not the first book i ever cried at but. first book i ever experienced disgusting full body sobs while reading and fierce competitor also for. my favourite book. had to reread so much of those final pages because i couldnt concentrate with all the crying and after that i am so excited to never have to experience the physical chest-aching worry that i did for the duration of reading this. also i think the very quiet way love is written here through. very trivial small things is something i loved very much and that has stayed with me!

-> wuthering heights, emily bronte.

read this when i was about eleven, and then again a few weeks ago with my mum (whose favourite book it is) and it was still so. absolutely sickening i just think its excellent xx and without it we wouldn't have kate bush's 1978 single wuthering heights so xx think on that xx

-> the autobiography of malcom x, alex haley.

when i was a child my younger sister joined a sunday league football team and my dad used to give her a tenner every time she scored a goal. to even things out since i refused to get up at the arsecrack of dawn to contract hypothermia on a frozen football pitch, he started giving me books exclusively on malcolm x to read and would give me a tenner every time i finished one. this one was the first i read and was indeed the first book that ever made me cry at the end xx

-> my brilliant friend, elena ferrante.

so many of these are recent reads because it was only jan 2022 that i made a genuine effort to get back into reading for leisure and mbf is no different but well. the way friendship is written here is just unhinged and incredible and the series in general so far has been. there is nothing like it i fear

-> the raven boys, maggie steifvater.

gansey unfortunately.

-> macbeth, william shakespeare.

okay i know i know but. when you are studying it in englit class for your gcse it might as well be a book innit. anyway of all the texts i did for english both at gcse + a level macbeth is still my favourite and probably the most effort i ever put into an english essay. special shoutout to frankenstein which i can enjoy in hindsight but unfortunately it fucked me on the exam so out of bitterness it doesnt get a place here x

-> the secret history, donna tartt.

i did inhale this book but also it gets a place purely for being my first exposure to donna tartt's writing and style in general which is so very distinctive and has. undoubtedly had an effect on me for better or for worse we shall one day see but for now. who can say!

-> foster, claire keegan.

it is a little pamphlet of a book at eighty six pages but. i read it just over a month ago and havent properly stopped thinking about it since it was just everything quiet + mundane + understated that makes my brain start sparking and whirring and. im bringing it on holiday in the summer so i can read it again in the appropriate season xx

tagging. but no pressure. @gaewaren @dykefever @emerqldv @fastasyoucan1999 @forlorngarden @writteninverses @boyjoan !!

[tiredfoxtf]

I miss when we had punks, goths, emos, hippies and other freaks wondering streets of both internet and real life.

[brbgensokyo]

you know its real interesting for the virtual idol megafranchises to commodify subcultures that would usually be poison for a traditional tent pole idol megagroup

[introspect-la]

FROM THE LONDON YOUTH PORTRAIT BY DEREK RIDGERS (2014)

[first4halos]

Does anyone know where I can access all of Pete Wentz’ old livejournal posts? Specifically ones relating to Mikey Way or 2005 warped tour? I need them for an academic paper I’m writing /gen

[hobnob-moth]

Get booned idiot and suffer from having a body you’re not fully in control of because cult.

-

A lower ranked Janus drawing. This would be before his boon fully came in, but after he started getting extremely insecure about it (so around rank 4 in the Six). He was really upset once he could no longer wear it in a John Koviak inspired way. There was an attempt to continue a goth hairstyle still (as seen here), but in order to hide the growing mass on the back of his head he gave up rather quickly. He also realized that he can’t use hairspray because when he did, it would get in his developing eyes. Thankfully his hair, like the rest of the Clot, grows quicker than before they joined. Someone in Maata’s crew is assigned to be only a barber in order to take care of everyone. (Side note Carmen has to get her hair trimmed short weekly.)

[lesbiansurge]

the mustache

[hauntingbutch]

listening to music for a grade again. winning at college probably

[seoafin]

there's a lot of great anime this season and my friend said that mahou shoujo magical destroyers looked interesting but upon checking out the summary on mal im side eyeing it

[spilladabalia]

Photos by & © Aiyush Pachnanda, documenting the drum'n'bass scene in Cardiff, Wales. From his book "Rave To The Grave", 2020 © - part 2

[goodwilltemptation]

Kindred of the Kibbo Kift