The demise of the Cat-faced Spider

This was a poignant story in my life... When I was a kid my parents caught a spider that looked like this, a "cat faced" spider. They caught it for me because they thought I would like to see it, because it is pretty much the most bad ass spider I have ever seen in my life!

I now, know it was a Araneus gemmoides, commonly known as the Jewel Spider (a name shared with Austracantha minax) and Cat-faced Spider.

So with the coolest spider ever, I went to school to show my friends and my science teacher. The spider was a creature of much wonder, many ooo'ed and awwwed at it. Seems to me I was in my science class and my teacher wanted to talk to me about an unrelated matter, so I went up to her desk. When I returned to my desk, I was presented with the jar the spider was in. Now the poor thing had a gash in it's large abdomen where orange-brownish gook was leaking out... Presumably important stuff for it to remain alive. Apparently a boy that sat next to me thought it was fun to spin the spider around the jar. I was told sorry of course.

I was devastated, I had never intended for that spider to be harmed, it was going to have it's one day adventure going to my school and then I was going to set it free when I got home. I felt so guilty, and rightly so, that creature lost it's life because I took it out of it's home.

Favorite Krampus links

Our favorite Krampus links, this entry is constantly being updated, so there are probably new ones

Phoenix Krampuslauf 2018!!!
https://youtu.be/McTyKg7p4Mc

Who are the Companions St Nicholas Travels With?
http://germangirlinamerica.com/st-nicholass-companions/

Free Online Krampus Advent Calendar.
http://regina.bayern/

Krampus of Los Angeles
http://krampuslosangeles.com/about-us/

Interview with Al Ridenour of LA Krampus regarding the tradition and the founding of LA
Krampus
https://soundcloud.com/margaretcho/motwithal

The Pagan Origins of the Yule Goat
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thewanderingwitch/2018/12/the-pagan-origins-of-the-yule-goat/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=FBCP-PAG&utm_content=thewanderingwitch&fbclid=IwAR2Q3z71IVq_doAyvSmNIuckwQ1zFDIEZyCOHNHgm9uAoqV4yVTBgHfKCrI

The Yule Goat Sneaks Heathen Tradition into Christmas
https://www.rationalheathen.com/2017/12/06/the-yule-goat-sneaks-heathen-tradition-into-christmas/

Christmas in Finland - Joulupukki
https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/finland.shtml

The Mischievous Tomte Spirits of Yule
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/07/the-mischievous-tomte-spirits-of-yule/?fbclid=IwAR0Jvo5znNtFI53M2IryEFwZCFSIjZq34whQ_FK7UZLlUQoZbcnO1F5fjjE

An article from Al Ridenour
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-truth-about-krampus

Al Ridenour’s book “Krampus and The Old Dark Christmas”
https://www.amazon.com/Krampus-Old-Dark-Christmas-Folkloric/dp/1627310347

Hawthorn’s Krampus/Wildermann Pinterest Board
https://www.pinterest.com/hawthornFM/krampus-wilder-mann/

The man behind the Krampus mask
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181206-the-man-behind-the-krampus-mask?ocid=ww.social.link.facebook&fbclid=IwAR05vTSS3C6-HcE_lrW486cFThXN_9yLo5r7UUxfgB3avKxMZfJ4o7C5dWo

The 8 Different ‘Krampus’ Horror Films You Can Watch This Holiday Season
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3473278/8-different-krampus-horror-films-can-watch-holiday-season/

Why monsters haunt Christmas in Europe but not America
https://qz.com/317080/why-america-doesnt-have-christmas-monsters/

What is the Belsnickel? Why is it part of a Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas?
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2018/12/what_is_the_belsnickel_why_is.html?fbclid=IwAR1NuBFf0WlSdLObbvQIw-lKng1hH9PiXckWLuIz7v9HeON5iut3fFG-VYk

Gryla the Christmas Witch
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-icelands-christmas-witch-much-cooler-and-scarier-krampus-180967605/?fbclid=IwAR2SCmEhyrtBaUOvXcSZp4gs5SauXnGI8INbGI8T1wVeohMWefnuJFZQtrA#Q9jhd2JB5p9TzZqG.01

The Monstrous Visitors from the Mountains of Japan (the Perchten of Central Europe)
https://www.namahage.co.jp/namahagekan/english/namahage.php

Surreal Pictures Show Bulgaria’s Masked Dancers Warding Off Evil Spirits
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/bulgaria/kukeri-survakari-unesco-intangible-cultural-heritage-photos/?fbclid=IwAR1KAiYO3G7zFXtvQdUyLnBsEVj5VIbP98vky-PGnDr3Whes6m1TCgKk0Ag

Horned Headband DIY
http://www.wholesalehalloweencostumes.com/blog/diy-horn-headband/

Krampus hooves DIY
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hooves-from-Comfy-Shoes-No-high-heels/

This Ancient Pagan Celebration In Macedonia Looks Truly Bizarre
http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-pagan-celebration-in-macedonia-2014-1

Zvoncari The Pagan Slavic Carnival In Croatia
https://www.slavorum.org/zvoncari-the-pagan-slavic-carnival-in-croatia/

The Most Disturbing Images Of ?Krampus, Santa's Child-Eating Counterpart
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-disturbing-images-of-krampus-santas-child-ea-1681356117

I Told You This Village Was Under My Protection
https://io9.gizmodo.com/i-told-you-this-village-was-under-my-protection-1676987889

Pan-Celtic Hoofbeats: Horses of the Dark time (Yes I know not Krampus but interesting)
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2018/10/horses-of-the-dark-time/?fbclid=IwAR1X2Prck2JL3Js4NETy68krovuaqOHyUO7cXXshOmLloVKxDFCnezltRmw

Ded Moroz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ded_Moroz

Wren Day in Ireland
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/the-excitement-of-the-ancient-tradition-of-hunting-the-wren-on-st-stephens-day-237165371-237793621

He Sees You When You’re Sleeping, and Gives You Nightmares
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/world/europe/krampus-he-sees-you-when-youre-sleeping-and-gives-you-nightmares.html

Letters: Nothing cute or funny about Krampusnacht
http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-nothing-cute-or-funny-about-krampusnacht

Santa’s Horned Helper: The Fearsome Legend of Krampus, Christmas Punisher
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/santa-s-horned-helper-fearsome-legend-krampus-christmas-punisher-004799

Austrian Villagers to Refugees: Please Don’t Fear Krampus
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/austrian-villager-refugees-please-dont-fear-krampus-n471906?cid=sm_fb

The Mystical Origins of the Kukeri: Bulgaria’s Strangest Folk Festival
http://www.thebohemianblog.com/2016/01/the-mystical-origins-of-the-kukeri-bulgarias-strangest-folk-festival.html

Stunning images of pagan costumes worn at winter celebrations around the world
http://thewildchild.co.za/stunning-images-of-pagan-costumes-worn-at-winter-celebrations-around-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR2buhUQoR5wgKtZ5MKPrRPj1xY_ok6Ampz9w9ovsBvfs1jb8Brt0wlKeJ0

Oh by the Way...
http://ohbythewayblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/carnevale-in-sardinia.html

Mamuthones and Issohadores
https://www.thecrowdedplanet.com/mamuthones/

NSFW: SpookyDan’s Slay Belles Features an Anatomically Correct Krampus
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/109977/nsfw-spookydans-slay-belles-features-an-anatomically-correct-krampus/

Petaluma says hello to Krampus (This one contains the character, "the crapper")
https://www.petaluma360.com/news/8998567-181/petaluma-says-hello-to-krampus?sba=AAS

Folk icon Krampus to return to Denton for a downtown romp
https://www.dentonrc.com/entertainment/folk-icon-krampus-to-return-to-denton-for-a-downtown/article_56ae48cb-a1e7-5097-86d2-bca7d844e25f.html

Add Milwaukee Krampusnacht to your holiday traditions
https://onmilwaukee.com/seasonal/holidays/articles/krampusnacht-krampus-parade-2018.html

The Living and the Dead at the Time of the Winter Solstice
http://www.folklore.ee/~liisa/too/RY2015/articles/RY2015_51_Pocs.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0-7OhLrB35RWzZXjX8aldf_LaGgKSdTu2u8tK2NmyO62hTsWOwR3npdFw
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6 to 8 Black Men by David Sedaris
https://youtu.be/UCUHTDrca4s

YouTube Videos:
How to make a Krampus Costume like the one in the movie!
https://youtu.be/n9rQYIGlIUM

Gruesome Christmas Monster Showdown
https://youtu.be/wdX3BqF1s9Y

Krampus/Christmas Demon Makeup Tutorial
https://youtu.be/lmavwgiaPUc

Fallen Angel | Halloween Make up Tutorial
https://youtu.be/fccBFoXWiBw

Top 10 Christmas Monsters:
https://youtu.be/2KLPWGMs_lE

Grimfrost Yule
https://youtu.be/y8W4d85IyJQ

Kukeri of Bulgaria
https://vimeo.com/59987528

Krampus B!tch
https://youtu.be/KQ2tpq2Gy98

Gastein Krampuslauf 2015 - Krampus & St. Nicholas in Bad Gastein, from house to house
https://youtu.be/PLBQWk_l_KQ

Podcast: KRAMPUSLAUF PHILADELPHIA VOICES: CLAUDIA LEVIN-DORKO
https://krampuslaufphiladelphia.com/2015/09/14/krampuslauf-philadelphia-voices-claudia-levin-dorko-talking-with-ruby-soffer/


Want to try your hand at Carving your mask?
Where to buy Rough Carved masks: https://www.schnitzeisen.at/?fbclid=IwAR3eEvMxk3Ix6KO25lA4Qkb-KJNYtWDtahp7176V8mnlRZsUbCeF3uBFVWM

Video's on carving:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbBZ9yaDg_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf16-4FS9l8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvQXnvs3Itc
https://youtu.be/66hIxVOAGm8?t=148

Smooth-On Free From Air?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ets07_oF8M0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL4BIs9vCGk

https://youtu.be/ecrYdinyuIM

https://youtu.be/cOV1yV6NPAM?t=158

Krampus FAQ

1. How many people attend? Typically around 10+

2. Lauf means run, are we running? We move through a high traffic area, so we would not be able to run, we also try to stick together so the leader should be walking pretty slow. So we literally get dressed up in costumes and walk around in them for a couple hours in hopes of terrorizing or brightening someone's holiday.

3. How far is the walk? Roughly 6 blocks... Typically we start from Fair Trade and end at Bliss Rebar, usually we walk back the whole way it becomes a 12 block walk. If you wish you can park along the route or at the end... car pooling is encouraged.

4. How long does the walk take? Just for the walk about 50 minutes, we recommend you show up 30 minutes early to suit up.

5. Is the walk a bar crawl? This is simply a walk, some folks might choose to go out after but that is not part of our walk.

6. Are children welcome? They are! Please be mindful that we are walking in a high foot traffic area along streets, with lots of cars. BE CAREFUL and watch your children.

6. Do I have to wear a costume? We would love it if you did, but if you just want to come and take pictures or hang out that's fine too... We have a fine assortments of masks if you would like to wear one.

8. Keep in mind this is Friday night down town you will want to give yourself LOTS of extra time to find parking and get down to Fair Trade Coffee shop to suit up.

Here is the route we typically take^^^

Start point
Fair Trade Cafe
1020 N 1st Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85003

End point
Bliss Rebar
901 N 4th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004

Krampus ate my clothes!

Silly story...

I had noticed I was missing some work shirts... I tend to wear polo shirts to work and I could only find a couple of shirts. Now this went on for about two weeks... I couldn't figure it out... I asked my room mate if she had any of my clothes, you know as if I had left them in they dryer and she had taken them out. Nope... So I went a couple days and then I went to the Waffle and asked if he was throwing my clothes away out of spite for something, not that he would do something like that but I was getting desperate. I even started to suspect that my OTHER room mate got all psycho and was stealing my clothes for some weird reason.

So as I was walking into the dining room, it occurred to me that I had stuffed my clothes into the pants of my Krampus costume and had set it out side as a Halloween prop. When Halloween was over I had set it aside that evening saying I'd get to it the next day... then forgot about it! Yay! found my clothes!

Are you a witch or are you a fairy? Are you the wife of Michael Cleary?

I'm only posting this here for future reference... 'cuz I've spend hours pouring over the Internet to find it and couldn't because I thought it was a case from the 1950's. I also thought it was a child that was killed not a woman...

"Bridget Cleary was a seamstress married to a cooper nine years her senior named Michael Cleary. Around the village she was known to be a polite, friendly, independent woman, well respected but little understood by her neighbors. The couple had no children after eight years of marriage, which was unusual in those days, and they lived in one of the finer cottages in town. The well-dressed Bridget was known to take long walks by herself to deliver eggs to her customers and often stopped by the old “Fairy Forts”, medieval ring forts outside of Clonmel.

One day in March of 1895 during the hardest winter so far on record, the 26-year-old Bridget fell ill, and the events that followed are still shrouded in mystery and folklore. The doctor was summoned, but he took almost a week to show up, so Michael grew impatient and visited a “fairy doctor” who prescribed herbs for Bridget. By this ime, Michael had become convinced that the fairies had replaced his wife with a sickly changeling. Most likely the idea was planted in his mind by a relative who visited Bridget and thought her “much changed and not herself"."

http://www.burningbridgetcleary.com/bridgets_story/

My Descent into Goth

As I was laying in bed this morning trying to get back to sleep, I was considering the recently debated topic among some of my favorite YouTubers.

Can you be goth if you don’t listen to goth music?

I have to say that I leaned more towards yes-ish than a no, most likely due to my goth origin. I’ll get to why I’m a NO on this in a few.

I was “darkly inclined” before I ever heard goth music, at 12 I was reading Poe. I loved Vincent Price, and the Poe based movies he featured in, including The Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death and my favorite The Comedy of Terrors (although I don’t think that is Poe based).

Just as an aside, perhaps my first goth album was the Alan Parson’s Project: Tales of Mystery and Imagination. All the songs were based on Poe’s works.

I wasn’t allowed to watch Freddy or Jason, but I was allowed to watch all the old black and white horror movies I wanted. So Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula were top favorites. Of course I loved Vampires… and Werewolves… I think I might have loved Werewolves first…

Growing up in a small town in Arizona, back in the early 80’s we were pretty isolated, cable didn’t come all the way out to my house, so we had three network channels. Radio reception wasn’t that great either.

My folks listened to an array of music, but they mostly listened to country. Of course, all my peers listened to country, thus I listened to it as well. I always gravitated towards what I think now were darker or more supernatural songs. Such as Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean… yes, the sausage guy.

First, what I still love about country is that it tells a story. Big Bad John is about a man that may or may not have killed a man over his “Cajun Queen”. So, this man with a questionable past takes up working for a mine, of course he’s a big strong strapping lad. One day a beam gives way in the mine and John steps over and holds it while the rest of the miners evacuate. Unfortunately, John can’t escape the cave in, in time.

The second song “The Cajun Queen” is about how his lady love comes to find him. When she does she simply resurrects him and leaves town. I can totally see this as a goth song, revised as New Wave… Well maybe… If big goth dudes were miners…

I liked other songs like “Phantom 309” by Red Sovine. Phantom 309 is about a ghost semi. The driver, Big Joe,  dumped his rig and died to save a bus load of children, but his ghost picks up the occasional hitch hiker and delivers them safely to a truck stop.

In a small town with no radio and no cable, you have to find out about new music somehow… So I would buy the sound tracks to movies I liked. You also had to rely on friends who might be interested in other types of music to open your eyes to new bands.

Now I always maintained that Type O Negative was the start of goth music for me. I came to a startling realization this morning as I was laying there in bed… I was listening to the Cure a year before TON, and I was listening to Depeche Mode a couple years before the Cure. My friend Jenny was always listening to something different. She was playing Depeche Mode in her car one day, and I fell in love with it and…

Thus my first official goth album ever was “Songs of Faith and Devotion” by Depeche Mode! Okay, I concede that lots of goths think Depeche Mode is a throw away, but I’m not so sure about that. Then again, I like Depeche Mode more than the Cure. I know, take my black lipstick away.

So back to the soundtracks… I know that I was listening to the Cure before TON because I learned of the Cure from the Crow soundtrack. The movie came out in 1994. The following year Mortal Kombat came out and TON’s re-mastered version of Blood and Fire was on that album.

I had bought the sound track to Mortal Kombat and we were listening to it in my friend Jenny’s car. Funny thing as the first notes of Blood and Fire played we skipped the song because it sounded, “to 70’s”. Then when I listened to the full album at home, I fell hopelessly in love with Peter Steel’s voice. 22 years later, I listen to TON almost every day. I light a cigarette for Peter every Samhain.

Now back to “Can you be goth if you don’t listen to goth music?” and my now resounding NO.

You know what a metal head looks like, usually long hair, metal band t-shirt, battle vest, spikey cuffs, jeans, wallet on a chain and boots? Wouldn’t you be shocked as shit if you asked them about their patches and they said they didn’t listen to any of those bands, the patches were just “cool looking” and they only liked rap?

The goth appearance is about the music, it’s our “battle vest” if you will.

The only problem I can see here and it’s a big one… metal has a huge body of work to pull from. There’s death metal, power metal, speed metal, death core, folk metal, baby metal (if you count it) and the list goes on and on. New metal bands are coming out every day it seems, while yes it’s a specific type of music it’s still a fire hose of new music.

Goth has only post-punk, darkwave, ethereal wave and neoclassical. When you start diverging into death rock, gothic rock, industrial and goth metal you get more and more goths saying NO, that’s not goth. From what I can see the well of music, in comparison to metal, dwindles down to a drip.

You can’t expect kids getting into the scene now to go back and listen to Joy Division, Siouxie, Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. They just aren’t going start off doing it, they will never have heard of those band, much like myself at the start. We as a community (if there is one) need to make sure we embrace the new bands and new versions of the music or goth will die when our elder goths die out. For fucks sake most goths are artists? We need to make the music for our future.

Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination (full album)

https://youtu.be/HrFeBavjPL4

Depeche Mode songs of Faith and Devotion full album

https://youtu.be/gsh08PgYNAM

The Cure - Burn

https://youtu.be/lzbRSD_rM1A

Type O Negative - Blood and Fire (out of the ashes remix)... I can't find the other version, but it's on the Bloody Kisses Album

https://youtu.be/oOz8Q22hCnQ