Gothic BC

What's changed is that there are a lot of us now that are no longer teenagers or college kids. We still like the clubs, were still artists, musicians, and creative people, but being older we're more capapble and willing to stand up for ourselves. Likewise, also because we are older, we have invested significant amount of time in getting past mistaken conceptions in order to be who we are. What I have personally achieved in my life I have done on my own merits. I really don't need the mistaken ideas of tabloid reporters undermining the relationships I've built up with the people I work with just because my suit is black and I happen to run a website where I showcase pictures the nightclubs where I get the inspiration for my art.

For people like Valerian and myself, like Isaac, like Nick and Sandi, Aaron, Bruce, Kim, Casper, Sean and numerous others that have put countless hours into building a community, gettting past the misconceptions of club owners (who are only now starting to realise that "the freaky people" don't start fights in the clubs and have money to spend) so that we can have the venue to dance to the music we enjoy and to bring in the live acts we want to see. By building community and acceptance we have built numbers that make the live shows possible - it's only in the very recent past that promoters like Isaac, Graeme, Kim and others have begun to even break even on the shows they have put on.

Certainly we are not the mainstream, nor do we want to be. But I, for one, am tired of getting beat-up for being the weird kid. What I put up with when I was 17 doesn't fly now that I'm 37. Now imagine if something you had spent years building being waved around on the 6 o'clock news as the reason, or at the very least a catalyst, for someone's death! That is a pretty reasonably cause for outrage in itself.

But there is more. I didn't know either of these people. Pretty much the only reason this site got dragged in was someone mentioned the word "goth" and subsequently someone found a picture of Mark here that has been uploaded a few weeks ago. The police and press were then dismissing Mark and Rachel as a couple of "freaks", suitable for playing up to sell papers because they were somehow less than human. Everything about who they really were was being thrown out to play the "Columbine" card. This was a source of outrage for thier friends. Not only were they being reduced to this one small aspect of who where were, but that aspect was being misrepresented in the worst possible light. In that regard it isn't just the "goths" speaking out. It was never "Well respected psychology student goes missing", so you see articles like this one.  There is no doubt in my mind how anyone who knew either of them would be anything but outraged at this.

Now, in many cases, both sources of outrage have touched the same people.

There comes a point when you just have to say, "enough."

I've been following this issue a little the last couple of days. Being a "Goth" myself, I guess it struck a chord, despite my being new to the Vancouver scene. (not new to the "goth" scene.

I use quotes because, like many of you out there in the real world, I don't consider myself a "goth". I have gothic tastes, but others have given my the lable. I'm as tired of it as the rest of you. However, please excuse me for a second while I vent a little, as it may come off as being rather insensitive. Please understand that is in no way my intent.

I'm surprised at how outraged some people are by this issue. I agree that the media has treated this case unfairly. I agree they haven't done their research. I agree that "goths" have been given a bad reputation that is unjustified and unfair.

However, I would think that by now some of us would be used to this kind of reaction.

I've been labelled a "goth" since high school. Even by some of my closest friends. More people who don't understand, and don't seem to want to. I've accepted that there are parts of society that just aren't going to see things the way this community does. The media is one of those elements of society. Frankly, I tend to ignore the news altogether. Because I excpect the media to exemplify a lack of understanding and a ton of bias opinions. That's what the media does; it's what they've always done.

I became a "goth" BECAUSE I recognized the ignorance of others. [Well okay, and the music and clothes are cool too! :-) ]

I think we're missing something though. This issue arose in reponse to the deaths of two people whom were friends to many of the community, I'm sure. (I never had the pleasure of meeting them). We can bitch and complain about the unfair treatment of our little community all we want, but that's not going to get us anywhere in the long run. And it doesn't do the departed any justice to focus on the negative treatment of the community. Maybe instead we should be focusing on the two lives that have been lost, and celebrate those lives instead.

That's just my two cents. Please understand, I'm not trying to anger anyone. Just voicing an opinion. Flame me if you must.

The article, as it turned out, was another disaster. They contacted me again,  a different reporter wanting to do an article on "goth" all by itself. What she got from me was:

I'm sorry, I'm back at work after a vacation and rather busy with a backlog of projects. Not to mention I'm not pleased with Mark's [the reporter I spoke to yesterday] article concerning Rachel Adams and Mark Rempel and the continued linking this one aspect of their musical and fashion tastes with their deaths. It's no more relevant than their interest in psy-trance and the rave subculture that is associated with that musical genre. It's no more relevant that what radio station they may have last listened to. It's no more relevant than their academic pursuits. It's no more relevant than what they had for breakfast last Friday.

I suggest you read this article from yesterday's Toronto Star ( http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thes... ) as a starting point. The repeated and continued characterization of the subculture as "death obessesed" is false. The Toronto Star article more correctly -- but still incompletely -- characterizes it as "an open-minded community", "which is centred on dark fashions, emotive music, creativity and introspection."

As an open-minded community there is crossover with other communities that are not generally accepted in a more main-stream milieu, and these crossovers make "goth" on a whole difficult, if not impossible, to characterize and make it altogether too easy to make false assumptions. Getting a good handle on what "goth" is, is not something that can be picked up in a day. Many of us that found ourselves labelled as "goth" because of interconnected ranges of intrests and have an involvement the subculture, be it through academia, arts, night-life, or other areas find the term impossible to define even after years or even decades of wearing the label. In fact, thanks to the superficial and sensational characterizations typically made by the media[, many of us] are growing tired of wearing the label at all.  It's an undefinable and almost meaningless term worthy of the attention of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who ended "Tractatus" with the conclusion, "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Regardless, if you must speak to someone, Isaac Terpstra, has agreed to talk to you...

I just had a call from the Globe and Mail, and set out some concerns with the sensationalising of the story and passed the reporter on to Isaac, who has been talking to CanWest Global, CTV, CBC, and others already. I trust Isaac to keep things sane as this goes national in tomorrow's Globe and Mail.

Global Television appropriated an image from the gallery for the sake of the "goth freak" spin they are putting on the disappearance of Mark Rempel and Rachel Adams. The gallery is there to support a scene that, compared with the usual club scene, still has vestiges of beauty and intelligence to it. Right now the attention is harming what's left of what I support, so the gallery is turned off for a while.