Morbid Outlook: The Goth is Good

June 12, 2003 7:19 AM

Morbid Outlookis a polished, eclectic Goth magazine with a killer design and content to die for. With hundreds of articles and images in the categories of Art, Music, Fashion, Lifestyle, Fiction and Nonfiction, this is one of the very best online zines I've seen yet. Go to any feature, and you will find a list of related-interest articles accompanying the story, and, usually, a listing of online resources or suggestions for reading as well.
posted by taz (31 comments total)

Just as a "fer instance", here are some of the articles I've been enjoying: The Language of Fans; Memento Mori Animalia; The Many Faces of Ethereal; Hildegard von Bingen; Nefarious Doings in the Literary Milieu of Edgar Allan Poe; A to Z Key of Common Gravestone Symbols; The Cult of Red Hair. There's a lot to explore here; don't overlook the "libraries" of archived material.
posted by taz at 7:22 AM on June 12, 2003

Wow, that's a great resource! I've been looking for something well-rounded and smart since gothic.net lost my interest a few years ago. I haven't gotten a chance to fully skim through it, but it looks like a much-needed break from the purely visual-aesthetic obsessiveness of a lot of the goth periodicals I find.

Now if something like this would come about for industrial/noise afficionados... *sigh*

Anyway, thanks for the link!
posted by sigma7 at 7:41 AM on June 12, 2003

Funny.
posted by sharksandwich at 7:46 AM on June 12, 2003

sigma7: Recycle Your Ears is the best website I've seen for Industrial/Noise happenings, but it's certainly not an e-zine.

It's funny you should lament over the lack of online noise publications, as I was very recently (and very seriously )thinking about starting one...
posted by Jairus at 7:55 AM on June 12, 2003

[rant]

Will somebody please tell me when this ridiculous goth thing is gonna finally die. Oh, wait a minute "dying" would only make it more goth, right. It's and endless fucking cycle huh? Most goths make me wanna drive em to Chuck E Cheese and leave 'em there. And the music? Wake up it's heavy metal for people who don't want to admit they like heavy metal, OK?!

Oh, the hell with it, I haven't deprogrammed anyone I suppose. Just bring me the head of Robert Smith, but first shave it and put a Dee Snider wig on it.

[/rant]
posted by jonmc at 7:56 AM on June 12, 2003

And another thing...most Delta Blues records(hell most country songs) are 'darker" and more "disturbing" than anything the goth pantheon belched up and the didn't have to doll themselves up like depressive circus clowns to acheive that effect.
posted by jonmc at 8:05 AM on June 12, 2003

more evidence that jonmc is, in fact, the one who needs to get laid.

thanks taz, great resource
posted by GeekAnimator at 8:05 AM on June 12, 2003

aw, c'mon, jonmc; I think there's something here for everybody. You, for example, might be interested in The Difference Between Backcombing and Teasing.

(...and, yes, that was "teasing".)
posted by taz at 8:07 AM on June 12, 2003

But what if you're a bald goth?
posted by dhoyt at 8:09 AM on June 12, 2003

Jairus: Yeah! RYE is great. I just wish there were more like them.

jonmc: Hmm, listen to some Black Tape For A Blue Girl or Alien Sex Fiend and then we'll talk. Hey, it might get ya laid. ;)
posted by sigma7 at 8:14 AM on June 12, 2003

Jon, you need to stop ranting. You've obviously overlooked the articles titled "How to Recycle Your Tired Flannel Shirts by Fashioning Them Into Baroque Garlands And Cemetery Adornments" and "How To Bleach Your Skin (For That "I Never Go Out Into The Daylight Look") By Applying Pocky Soaked in Beer to Your Face".

Great fun site, taz - I really love that language of fans article, and the Northern Italian Cemetaries photos, and the link on the art page that led to Captain's Fashion Nightmare.
posted by iconomy at 8:56 AM on June 12, 2003

I like the design and the art, but the writing is amateurish, like something college sophomores might write. Too bad, because a set of nifty articles on funerary practices would be pricless.
posted by elgoose at 9:06 AM on June 12, 2003

jonmc, you really are a barrel of laughs at the moment, aren't you? Maybe you should consider becoming a goth?
However, you are presently more nihilistic than any goth I have met.
This isn't a darkness competition, but whilst I love the Blues, it is not of the same shade of dark as goth. I'm thinking Throbbing Gristle, The Swans, Foetus, The Birthday Party, Wiseblood, Einsturzende Neubauten, Pussy Galore, The Happy Flowers, Laibach, The Butthole Surfers (Pre 1987), Scratch Acid, Big Black, Head of David (need I go on?). None of those bands would be confused with heavy metal by anyone who had heard any heavy metal, probably.
I assure you that heavy metal =! goth. Get your sub-genres sorted out.
Just as cock-rock =! hardcore.
dhoyt, bald goths tend to have pointy goatees, a bit like Cypher in the Matrix (which they can crimp, but need to carefully avoid looking prog/glam in the process). And trilby's.
posted by asok at 9:35 AM on June 12, 2003

Another gem from taz! The art gallery has some fun stuff - I really like the Cemetary Scenes series - some nice photography of cemetary art which can be quite cool. They should add this one in Prague that I visited - some beautiful artwork.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:44 AM on June 12, 2003

None of those bands would be confused with heavy metal by anyone who had heard any heavy metal, probably.

I've listened top more metal than you've ever looked at myfriend. What I meant by that is that goth performs the same aesthetic functions (noise, volume, rebellion, "darkness") for a certain type of person as heavy metal* does for another type of person. At least Metal is frank about it's "I'm a pimply 16-year-old packed with rage at the world and I'm grooving on all the noise, volume and violence" orientation rather than dressing it up in pseudo-arty trappings - "I'm all scary and shit because mommy didn't buy me an EZ-Bake Oven." Not to mention, the aging goths who insist on maintaining "the look" past age 30 look even more ridiculous than aging hippies.

* by Metal I mean real Metal: early Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Raven, Judas Preist, Sabbath-not the LA Hair bands, just to be clear
posted by jonmc at 9:55 AM on June 12, 2003

taz--thanks for the interesting link.

jonmc, seriously, why are you commenting in this thread? So, you don't dig the "goth scene"--that's fine. But to start making claims like metal is "legit" and goth isn't, and that people who dress a certain way look "ridiculous" is really a conversation best left to the parking lot at your local Denny's.
posted by witchstone at 10:23 AM on June 12, 2003

jonmc, seriously, why are you commenting in this thread?

Because, both online and IRL, I know lots of otherwise intelligent, normal people who are into this stuff and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
posted by jonmc at 10:54 AM on June 12, 2003

a conversation best left to the parking lot at your local Denny's.

LOL!
posted by homunculus at 11:20 AM on June 12, 2003

Because, both online and IRL, I know lots of otherwise intelligent, normal people who are into this stuff and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

Why don't you ask them?
posted by jpoulos at 11:22 AM on June 12, 2003

Why don't you ask them?

Cause this is more fun.

I dunno I hate threads where everybody just sits around congratulating eachother on their good taste. Make 'em explain themselves, I say...
posted by jonmc at 11:29 AM on June 12, 2003

You're right. I much prefer threads where people bash each other for the music they listen to.
posted by jpoulos at 11:43 AM on June 12, 2003

very cool links taz. I really liked the Cult of Red Hair article.

jonmc, what's particularly funny to me about your ire is that most goths that I know couldn't care less what other people think. It's not like they're out there, pushing their goth-y ways on people.

(Honey, who's that at the door? Oh no, it's those people again. Who, the Jehovah's witnesses? No, those damn goths with their chants of "Come ooooover to the dark side" . . . . ).

And the music is clearly a genre of it's own that has fans in and out of the lifestyle. Whether you like it or not is up to you.
posted by synapse at 11:54 AM on June 12, 2003

Oops, and I almost forgot. Those who liked Morbid Outlook might enjoy Opi8 . They have a ton of art and original webcomics / graphic novels. My favorite set is the drawings of their "mascot" SOMA .
posted by synapse at 12:08 PM on June 12, 2003

jonmc, what's particularly funny to me about your ire is that most goths that I know couldn't care less what other people think.

Right. That's why they spend hours in front of the mirror making sure their dreadlocks are just the right shade of black and that their black leather dusters hang just right. And this is to say nothing of the make up budget.

Ire? C'mon. I'm just here to deflate pretensions is all. If there was ever a group who needed to lighten up goths are it.
posted by jonmc at 12:16 PM on June 12, 2003

jonmc, you seem to be mistaking the appearance for the purpose, and the stereotypes you're drawing from sound like they're at least fifteen years out of date. Goth is an aesthetic principle, and the subculture around it is no different than any other. People wear the clothes because they like the look. They listen to the music because it feels good. They go to the clubs because they're fun. Or they don't, if they aren't, and that's OK too. I don't know anyone out of their teens who takes it as seriously as you seem to think they do. (I do know of a few, but that really can't be helped; there are tedious, uncreative people everywhere you go, and they're best avoided no matter what they're wearing.)
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:35 PM on June 12, 2003

Goth is an aesthetic principle,

...and that principle is what exactly? Look like a corpse? Mope? Be responsible fro the proliferation of hot topic stores? the scorge of blacklipstick on men?

Sounds worth promoting to me.

Y'know what their no worse than punks, hipsters, Deadheads or any other so-called "alternative" culture. No matter how inclusive and embracing they claim to be they're really nothing but another goddam clique and I hate that shit.
posted by jonmc at 1:49 PM on June 12, 2003

jon, in all honesty, why are you so very, very angry?
posted by kevspace at 7:17 PM on June 12, 2003

So, jonmc, I gather you're still sort of fence-sitting on the goth question?
posted by taz at 12:17 AM on June 13, 2003

This site seems like a homage to Opi8 (Opi8.com). Especially when you look at the comics section and see "Writhe and Shine" -- which used to be on Opi8. I don't know what the story is there... hmm.
posted by mkn at 1:35 AM on June 13, 2003

mkn, from the "about" pages, it appears that Morbid Outlook predates Opi8. I hadn't seen "Writhe and Shine" before now, but I was interested to see that the artist is in New Orleans, my old home town.
posted by taz at 2:51 AM on June 13, 2003

Eh, live and let live. Banal and tired, but it rings true. I can't figure it out either, but know some people who may or may not be considered goths, and they are actually pretty nice people. Besides, any subculture that produced Johnny the Homocidal Maniac deserves a little credit.
posted by adampsyche at 6:32 AM on June 14, 2003