by Scott Hefflon
Unlike the Hot Topic mall punk style of Goth mopers, buying poor-quality knock-offs of teen rebellion, test-marketed to their pleasure (and preying on their ignorance of quality dark goods available worldwide, but evidently those companies aren’t myspace whores, so yet again the cheap knock-offs clutter up the joint), the 2006 Gothic Calendar is older, based more on the Romantic style of blood, roses, and leather corsets, not cartoon fangs and eyeliner on emo boys. It’s a calendar, it hangs on the wall and you look at it to see what day the 17th is so you know when your phone will actually shut off. As a calendar, it functions. It doesn’t have the “lead in” and “lead out” dates from previous and next month, nor does it have a “year at a glance” at the bottom which I always like, but perhaps I’m too demanding on my calendar, eh? The 2006 Gothic Calendar is far prettier than the Staples calendar I used last year. Some of the photos are too low res or poorly cropped or use cheesy Photoshop tricks, but Hot Topic has proven the kids don’t know or care much about high quality goods, and judging from the number of people who’ve already remarked “wow, cool, I want one!,” this is a winner, it seems.
(www.gothiccalendar.com)
(Historical note: Fetish goods, by nature, are usually harder to find and more costly than “mainstream crap,” and the items “go further” than the casual fan might be comfortable with. Getting a pleather zippered mask off the shelf at K-Mart, er, Hot Topic, is not quite the same experience as having a hand-sewn, custom-fit leather mask made by Lars in his creepy workshop. A fetish is a hobby taken to extremes. To shortchange the quality and sacrifice of collecting the materials needed for your kink/fetish/interest is to shortchange the experience. Which means you’re lame, and a poser.)