Marilyn Manson has been using vintage aesthetics for a very long time - from 50's high camp horror, to 1920s medical corsetry. His latest shows were very much a burly bonanza, albeit in MM's own special way.

I've seen Marilyn Manson live a few times during his Grotesk Burlesk era and I was blown away. Goth and Burlesque do mix, theres no question! Particularly in his very Vaudeville acoustic 'Golden Age of Grotesque' number, where he stalks around singing, accompanied by scantily dressed siamese twins in corsets seated at a grand piano
x x x

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"Basically, I'm the girl your mother warned you about" ~ Dita Von Teese

I've been a fan of Manson since I saw a picture of him and the band in Select magazine in 1995 aged 16 (oh god that ages me!)
I saw some of his earliest UK shows and every tour here since and I've always thought he has had an element of the burlesque - of course the later stuff is more obvious, but the crucial burlesque idea of parody (religion and popes, horror/childrens films, victoriana etc etc) and high theatrics has always been there.

I love that one from the Golden Age of Grotesque called (funnily enough) "Mobscene" where there's a fantastic kickline of military looking chicks who have make up to make their faces look torn. Dita's in that one too, splashing about like a martini olive.

Be obscene! Be be obscene!

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"Sometimes things that look like things often look more like things than things." - Esmerelda Weatherwax.
http://www.myspace.com/effsix
http://www.effsix.com

I mix both of these elements myself I was a goth way before getting interested in this genre and I believe it shines through no what I'm doing. Whether that be by the music I chose or the props I use or if its just the make up there just always tends to be a darker spin to my creatity. The only thing I have found so far is my imagination outshines my ability at the present time. I will think of some grand act I would love to put together and have to either abandon it at this stage because of money constraints or lack of ability to do the act properly as I first pictured it!

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Angel LaVey - Naughty But Nice

Thanks so far for replying,on obscured writers I have read the works of Elpis Levi and Alester Crowley
for a starter and over the years I have listern to some music that would fry your
brains like Fused.I listerned to artist like
Bill Nelson and to a range of gothic artist and industrial metalist to electric folk bands like Blackmorre's Nights.

So I have been about.I have links into the
past into the free jazz sence and I used to perform in those areas in the 80's but that died out a long time ago.

My style is gothic,being a Drag Queen this is unusal because most people here the word drag queen and think squins and taffita. Well I am not moulded that way!.
If you are curious,just try the link! Thanks for the replies.

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http://empressm.uboot.com/

Ooh a gothic drag queen, now im intrigued! What link should we click? Im dying to see photos!

Personally I have a taste for all things gothic, but im not a goth, i have a taste for all things burlesque, pin up, retro, kitsch, you name it, but i probably dont fall under any banners like 'goth' or 'rockabilly' , and im not a performer etc.

I think its when things start to get mixed up and swirled around is when it gets truly interesting, original and exciting! Anything can go hand in hand with anything else if you want it to, thats how things stay fresh.

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Charlotte Thomson Art & Illustration
www.charlottethomson.co.uk
www.myspace.com/charlottethomson

Oh and.if youre the only one doing it, surely thats all the more reason to keep it up ! Its good to be unique!

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Charlotte Thomson Art & Illustration
www.charlottethomson.co.uk
www.myspace.com/charlottethomson

Empress M is certainly not the only gothic drag queen. The fetish scene is inundated with gothic drag queens and we even auditioned a couple on Monday!

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Castlist - One Site To Rule Them All!

It depends on what you mean by Goth.

If it is the new romantic/ Gothic Horror and vampire influenced genre then there is indeed an overlap of frills and corsets as well as literary irony, subversive culture and parody. Vampire/Goth is so pastiche and has so much humour and fun involved (other than those few who take it so seriously).

If however, it's the more 1980 essence of the word then leather trousers, ripped 'Ramones' t-shirts and crimped hair have bugger all in common with Burlesque. Unless of course those 'two sizes two small lederhosen' are worn 'ironically'. :P

I suppose ultimately it's all about attitude. If you bring stereotypes in to it, then Goth and Burlesque are polar opposites. One is about joining a miserable clique to publicly declare your dissastisfaction with other people. Perhaps this is out of sheer vanity, sheer self loathing or because of feeling rejected by other more common cliques, and so the only option is to actively engaging in an obsessive delusion about whether or not black and purple winklepickers/crushed velvet drapes-come-cloak actually suit your body frame (never mind the make up); where as the other is about fun for fun's sake.

Perhaps the dividing line in the two 'cultures' is in attitude and why you are out at a burlesque club - whether you are dressed up to have a good time for it's own sake or dressed up so no one suspects you of silent mind-bashing all others around
deciding why they don't suit 'the look' and must be more 'norm' than you, etc etc. blaaaaaaaa

I don't mean to rant. I've just been there, live with it and burnt the t-shirt. :WALLBASH:

If done well, the gothic look is beautiful. IF.

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Kittie Klaw - The Ministry Of Burlesque
"Together We CanCan".

Find out more at.
www.kittieklaw.com
www.ministryofburlesque.com