Category Archive for Alternative Canada
Celebrating 10 years of blogging! Perturbator concert review: synthwave outrun retro wave music, Akade 80s fashion.
Back to the future, baby!
I’m currently obsessed with synthwave / outrun / retrowave — the music genre that pays tribute to the synthesizers, video games and night driving soundtracks of the 1980s. If you’re in the same boat (or Testarossa), then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this story about Perturbator’s concert and Akade fashion.
This is a flashback post for another major reason… Believe it or not, I’ve reached my 10 year anniversary of blogging! That’s correct: I began this La Carmina blog a decade ago, on Sept 14, 2007.
We’ll celebrate this ten year milestone with a ride down memory lane, through Neo Tokyo and the Future 80s.
Let’s start with the present: I’m currently in love with all things shiny and chrome. Since I was on my way to a futuresynth concert, I wanted to wear something along the lines of this aesthetic (imagine electric neon cityscapes and Miami’s midnight highways, circa 1983).
Unfamiliar with synthwave music? Here’s a dark gaming mix to get you in the mood. Think John Carpenter soundtracks x eighties nostalgia against pulsing, dark, spacey dance beats.
Some of my favorite synth artists are Carpenter Brut, Gost, Lazerhawk, Dan Terminus, Dance with the Dead… and Perturbator, who I was about to see live.
I was “dressed to kill” in Akade Wear, an indie clothing line inspired by the retrowave revival. I’m wearing Akade’s New Retro Wave tshirt, which is unisex (I got size XS and tied the end in a bundle, as I did in the early 90s.)
I paired it with this Iron Fist silver skeleton skirt (available here), and a Spiral UK bum bag (which comes in holographic and glitter versions too). Fanny packs rule — why on earth did they go out of style?
I finished the look with a silver hair ribbon in my high sideways ponytail, silver heels, and a bomber jacket by Disturbia. It has a spider on the back, similar to the scorpion jacket in the movie Drive.
The Akade Wear fashion line is a branch of New Retro Wave, the online hub for all things outrun. They’re passionate about the musical genre and associated culture, and bring fans together with articles, streams, events, and now clothing. As they put it, “the sound, drive and sheer passion of the 80’s-90’s is one of the most refreshing sounds to hit the music scene, and has been long overdue.”
Closeup on my NRW t-shirt logo, Dark Tropics leggings, and chrome nail art. The print of palm trees and toucan birds has a rainbow sheen, matching the holographic reflections of my Iron Fist skirt.
I’m having fun “living the 80s dream” in streetwear from Akade! They have a large selection of nostalgic, high-saturation designs for both men and women, and ship worldwide.
(If you’re looking for synthwave streams, check out these YouTube channels by Gelbar and NewRetroWave. I listen to them nonstop.)
Synthwave has gained ground in recent years, and the leading artists are now touring worldwide. Interestingly, a lot of my Goth friends have independently discovered and fallen in love with the genre. Many metalheads and geek-types are also drawn to the retrofuturistic sound, bringing together a fanbase from various subcultures.
Those with a Gothic disposition tend to be fond of France’s Perturbator, who creates futuresynth with a dark edge. The pentagram posters are spot on: “Satan is a computer.” “If machines could feel the way we do, would they believe in a god?”
I was excited to see Perturbator live, at the Rickshaw Theater in Vancouver (he’s currently touring North America, with tour dates in major US and Canadian cities). The concert was close to sold out; I spotted lots of guys in long hair, girls in platform boots, and pentagrams on everyone.
“The Legend Says He’s Half Human, Half Synthesizer” — yes! James Kent (Perturbator) helmed a spaceship pod surrounded by vertical lights, which strobed and flashed blinding colors.
From the moment Perturbator took the stage, the audience never stopped moving. He delivered relentless darkwave, heavy and sinister yet uplifting: one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time.
You can see video clips from the Vancouver show above and here on my Instagram. He played many of his faster, more aggro tracks like “Satanic Rites,” “Neo Tokyo,” “Humans are Such Easy Prey.”
I was riveted by the strobe and color effects behind him, simple yet powerful. Perturbator kept his hood on and never spoke to the crowd, but bobbed his head to the driving basslines and gestured with his hands during the climaxes.
I haven’t been out to as many concerts recently, but synth-wave is changing this up. Perturbator’s live was enormously engaging, and he’s an act that you need to see in person.
You can hear more on his future-80s sound on the Perturbator bandcamp page, and check for upcoming tour dates on his Facebook.
During the concert, my friend turned to me and asked, “How long have you been blogging for?” My expression was like above… for I realized we had reached Year Ten!
My “La Carmina blog” launched on September 14th, 2007 — a time when blogging and social media were in their infancy. To put it mildly, a lot has happened since then.
As we reach my blog’s 10th birthday, it makes sense to do a trip down memory lane. I considered recapping the top events, but you can already find my Year in Review summaries here, and all my travel destination stories in one place.
Instead, I’ve recently been in nostalgic mode — and thought you might have fun revisiting these memories as well.
The early days of this blog (2007-2012 approximately) were very different from the current incarnation. Long-time readers will recall that I focused almost exclusively on Japanese subcultures, particularly Gothic Lolita fashion and Tokyo nightlife.
This was a particularly exciting era in Tokyo, especially for the Goth clubbing scene, weird pop culture, and experimental style. You’ll find a lot of exciting subcultures in Japan still, but they aren’t the same as they were in the mid to late 2000s.
Looking back, I’m glad I captured this transformative time. In 2008, I spent part of the year in Tokyo, and met many of the “creatures of the night” that remain my closest friends to this day.
The Gothic nightlife was wonderfully inclusive, bringing together an electrifying group of locals and expats. In particular, Mistress Maya’s club night Midnight Mess and DJ Sisen’s parties formed the heart of the dark subculture (above is the infamous night when Covenant played).
There was the feeling of anything-goes: the freedom to experiment with fashion (even if it resulted in some fails), dive into the dark arts, and dance til morning to cybergoth electro.
I always felt inspired by the clubgoers at Midnight Mess, as well as the stage shows. You might see Akira Death perform robotic metal, the Dark Marchen prance around in Rococo gowns, and Mistress Maya tie up and dominate a Sweet Lolita dolly.
Many Japanese creatives were regulars at these events, always showing up in death-disco ghoul fashion. Above is Goth designer Kenzo A, and nAo12xu of the band †13th Moon†.
The queens of darkness were of course DJ Sisen and Selia, who mesmerized us with her dark operetta vocals. Absinthe, corsets, feathered eyelashes, cyberlox and chains — yes please.
Our personal style has all changed quite a bit since these days… but oh, we had fun!
I went down the rabbit hole, and realized I’d forgotten about many of the events I’d written about in the early days.
For example, do you remember D’s Valentine? He was the master behind Alamode Market and Gothic Bar Heaven, and club nights at venues like Tamachi Cube — I haven’t thought of these places in years.
At the time, Japan’s extreme body modifications were not widely known about. Snake tongue and bagelheads, oh my!
I laughed at the caption I had written under this photo. “Unzipped pants and nipple tape… what more do you need in a boy?”
Department H, the hentai / drag / fetish party, has always been a funhouse and remains this way today.
Some of the people I partied with have disappeared, while others remain in my life… albeit with different hair, makeup and clothing choices.
The old school Tokyo Goth crew, on the way to Midnight Mess after dinner at Hibari sushi in Shinjuku. Ah… I’d love to teleport back for a night.
Two things that always guarantee a good time: the twins Atsushi and Takashi, and a can of Strong Zero convenience store alcohol!
In the beginning of the blog, I was very Japan-focused. Yukiro and I did a memorable trip to Osaka, where we raged with hard rocker Fu-Ki at occult club night Black Veil. Somehow, I was inspired to do KISS makeup that night…
Harajuku fashion remains exciting now, but it was certainly weirder and rave-ier in those days. I remember that people were infatuated with Takuya Angel’s designs, and yearned to take part in his fashion walk.
Gothic Lolita fashion was thriving. My friends and I loved to gawk at the frilled fashion in Laforet, and hunt for secondhand bargains at Closet Child.
Many of the brands have now closed or downsized, and Lolita style no longer feels fresh to me — but at the time, it was a joy to wear.
I took this snap on Harajuku bridge. Youths still dressed up and hung out here; this is a rarity today.
I was also a huge fan of Visual Kei / J-Rock music at the time (now, I never listen to it — I gravitate to Italo Disco and retrowave). I saw many of my favorite Japanese bands perform, including Versailles and Moi dix Mois (above are Mana cosplays and tributes at the concert).
I forgot that I saw Deluhi live. VK hair and styling though… still so good.
How can anyone resist a host boy with bleach-blonde sky-high hair, and velvet joggers with a leopard print top?
I remember that readers were fascinated by the Japanese pop culture oddities I reported on, such as maid cafes. Today, these are common knowledge, and you can find theme cafes (such as cat ones) worldwide. Times have changed…
While you can’t go back to the past, you can certainly revisit it… 10 years is a long time! I know some of you have been reading this blog since MySpace days, and I am enormously grateful. Thanks for growing with me through some bad point-and-shoot photography, dubious style choices, and epic adventures with friends.
I hope you had fun reading this “old school La Carmina blog” retrospective. Do you have any favorite “member-berries” from Tokyo, or thoughts on how things have changed?
PS: you can find old blog posts in the right-hand sidebar of this blog, under Archives (there’s a drop-down menu that filters by month and year). You can also see all my Tokyo, Japan stories here, from 2007 to today.
PPS: What’s coming up in the future? Only time will tell… fasten your seatbelts, and stay tuned for more wild rides!
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A Roadtrip in Remembrance of Rose. A beautiful BC Ferries trip to Sunshine Coast, Langdale, Sechelt.
As you may have seen on my social media, I recently lost a close friend — Rose Schwarz.
Many of you have followed our Gothic adventures over the years. Rose’s passion for life and artistic talent (especially her bold style) resonated with everyone who met her, or even just got to know her online.
This post is in tribute to Rose — but let’s not make it a sad one. We’ll dress up, have a road trip, visit her family, and marvel at her incredible collection of treasures ranging from freaky to kawaii. Life is short, so let’s live it as fiercely as she did! I can think of no better way to honor Rose’s spirit.
I’d like to first thank all of your for your kindness throughout Rose’s long battle. As you may have heard, Rose was battling undiagnosed Lyme disease, gastroparesis and resulting complications for over a decade. She was in constant pain, yet kept on fighting hard and looking to the future. Despite her family’s unwavering efforts to get her the best treatments and doctors, the disease had progressed too far. Rose passed away gracefully on Jan 11, 2017 at age 28.
I’m honored and grateful that I had Rose in my life. She inspired me to be myself to the fullest. She fearlessly expressed her passions, personality and creativity, regardless of what anyone else might think. Rose made friends everywhere she went; I’ve rarely seen such a magnetic, positive spirit. Above all, she was a wonderful friend to me, and I’ll miss her.
I know her parents well, and they put absolutely everything they had into Rose’s medical care. I’d love to help them get back on their feet again, after the loss of their only child.
● How you can support: You could donate directly to her family on Fundrazr. Alternately, I’d love to send you anything from my shop — come see my available items here and email me (gothiccarmina att gmail dot com), letting me know what you’d like. All proceeds this month will go direct to Rose’s family.
It’s a win-win — you get some fabulous fashion (I priced everything to clear!), and this will help them out enormously. You can browse my shop here and I’m happy to answer any questions.
As long-time readers know, I’ve had many incredible road trips with Rose over the years. We got in all sorts of shenanigans with like-minded, Gothic spirits! I know she’d want us to give her a send-off in the same fabulous style — so that’s what we did.
Rob and I are two of her best friends, and we met up to attend her celebration of life in Sechelt (on the Sunshine Coast, a 45 min ferry ride from Vancouver). It was an easy drive to Horseshoe Bay, the ferry terminal in West Vancouver. I hung an absinthe necklace from Rose on the rearview mirror; we played Garbage, Marilyn Manson and Sopor Aeternus CDs — and it was like old times.
I was excited to sail once again with BC Ferries. I don’t do enough exploring in my own backyard, yet there’s so much to see on the coast of British Columbia.
Rob and I had advance ticket reservations for the Langdale route, so we rolled right in to this scenic spot. (It’s easy to reserve on the BC Ferries site, and they have a lot of useful travel information). While we waited a short time for the ferry to open its gates, we took in views of the ocean — and snapped some photos of my Hello Kitty shoes. (I’m letting them go on my shop, with proceeds to Rose, in case you want to snatch them up!)
All aboard! This ferry is one of the smaller ones, but it has picture windows all around for stunning views of the Pacific Northwest coast and islands.
I can’t believe this was my first ferry ride to the Sunshine Coast. It’s only a 45 minutes journey: an easy day trip from Vancouver, and a way to escape the city and enjoy the wildlife.
Rose lived in Sechelt, and rode this ferry often. I felt like she was with us on the entire journey.
I’m wearing the pink feathered headband that Rose made for me — she was a natural talent at making accessories. My velvet body-con dress is by Black Milk — a bloody bleeding mummy design that she would have adored.
Rob and I went out onto the ferry deck. The view was mind-blowing (get it?). We’re lucky to live by the ocean, and surrounded by nature.
Tis a Pirate’s life for us! We enjoyed the ride so much that we’re already planning future getaways.
In April, BC Ferries is launching a new Salish Orca route from Powell River to Comox (from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver Island) that sounds like a fun and scenic sail. The Salish vessels are also designed to reduce emissions, as they use either natural gas or ultra-low sulphur diesel.
Along the way, Rob and I reminisced about Rose. I’m glad I documented so many of her outfits, handmade accessories and makeup from these fun times.
I took a snap of Rob’s “Genuine Monster Parts” patch and spooky pins. Rose’s story is a sharp reminder to see your friends and family, and make good memories while you can.
My stylist, Stephanie Hoy at Sugar Skull Studio, dyed my hair rose-colored in her honor. The undercut in the back is leopard print, as Rose used to do (see photo further down in this story). My bloody bandages dress is by Black Milk.
Getting close! We got back into the car, and drove off the BC ferry. Then it took about 30 minutes to reach Sechelt, where Rose and her family live.
I had never been to Sechelt, which has a population of 9000, and a peaceful hippie vibe. We stopped inside this Oracle store and browsed Buddha statues and tarot decks.
Many Vancouverites have vacation homes or summer cabins here. Even in February, the rocky beaches are some of the most beautiful in the region.
Secluded beaches and rugged coasts, framed by old-growth forests and the towering Coast Mountains — wow! We stopped to take in the panoramic ocean vistas.
This is Davis Bay: a long pebbled beach coastline with a wooden fishing pier jutting out from the shore.
We wandered down the wooden planks, towards the water. There was recently a lot of snow and rain, but the sun arrived for us.
Next to the pier, I noticed a statue of a fisherman casting a line. You’ll see lots of fishing boats around here year-round. In the summer, vacationers take part in kayaking, sailing, scuba and swimming.
There’s a reason they call this “Beautiful British Columbia.” I had also recently visited Victoria (on Vancouver Island) by ferry — here’s the post in case you missed it.
The blue sky blends into the mountains and ocean. It’s hard to make out where each one begins and ends.
The name “Sechelt” means “land between two waters” in the Coast Salish language. Double mind-blowing.
I asked for rose colored hair, to remember my friend. My stylist Stephanie Hoy at Sugar Skull Studio delivered.
She re-did my undercut… with leopard print spots, just like Rose used to rock! Stephanie buzzed off the lower layers, then painted the animal print pattern in blue and dark purple with her fingers.
Rose and I always loved funky, kawaii shoes (as you’ll see if you keep reading). She’d go crazy for these Sanrio booties.
Later that afternoon, Rob and I went to Rose’s celebration of life. The Sechelt community gathered to share slideshows, music and thoughts about her.
However, we first visited Rose’s parents at home to catch up in privately, and in person.
We arrived bearing Gothic red wine and roses. It was great to see her parents again, as we’ve known them for years. Around the home, they had framed photos of us and Rose.
Her parents had gone through the heartbreaking task of sorting out Rose’s belongings. I always knew Rose had a keen eye for collectables — but I was amazed by the mountain of cute Japanese stuffed animals! The lazy bear Rilakkuma is one of her favorite kawaii characters, as you can see. There’s also Doraemon and Disney’s Marie in there.
Rose had a knack for finding intriguing taxidermy online, and customising the pelts with her signature flair. Rob took home the taxidermy kitten and white mouse that she gave devil horns.
In the last few years, Rose was unfortunately unable to even leave her home, as she had gotten too sick.
However, she never lost her passion for vintage / Japanese / cute design. She surrounded herself with collectables that reflected her personality and made her smile. If you shake the table, these cat bobble-head dolls will nod their heads in agreement.
As you know from our outfit posts, Rose lived for fashion. She experimented and combined styles, and rocked them all — from sweet pastel Japanese Lolita, to punk corset deconstruction. Many of her accessories were DIY original pieces.
Rose’s dad built a rack to hold her clothes. I see rainbow unicorns, Goth horror stripes, and tops from her favorite Japanese underground labels Hellcatpunks and Sex Pot Revenge.
Her family will be selling her clothing, although it will take some time to figure out the best way. If you’d like to contact them about purchasing something that belonged to Rose, you’re welcome to via their Fundrazr (but please be patient, as it may take some time before they can properly list all the items).
I’m sure you will recognise the pink hat from our wine hotel trip (there’s also a photo at the end of this post).
Rose and I always bonded over our love of cute meets Gothic fashion. Those cat shoes were tempting, but I ended up with the unicorn slippers instead.
There were tables upon tables of her belongings… in this Instagram video, you can see everything from antique bunnies to Sailor Moon jewellery.
Rose was fond of taxidermy — her interests and hobbies were wide ranging. She typically put a whimsical twist on them, such as the Cracker Jack box the paws.
When it came to retro kitsch, Rose knew her stuff. She had My Little Ponies from the 1980s, and this obscure Rainbow Brite plush cat from 1983!
I could imagine Rose having a successful online shop, or curating vintage, or designing… so many possibilities, if only she had time.
Rob holds up a 1960s Rushton rubber face doll. Hard to believe that children would have these in their rooms! The creepy panda would give me nightmares… I’ll stick to Miffy.
Rose was motivated, intelligent, talented… there was so much she wanted to do, and would have excelled at. She did well in both arts and sciences, and dreamed of studying forensic pathology. She and I made plans to visit Japan and other destinations worldwide, but she never got the chance.
It’s tragic that her Lyme disease went undiagnosed, and I hope we can increase awareness so that others don’t slip through the cracks. I encourage you to learn more here about Lyme’s cause and symptoms, and the ways that we can help those who are suffering.
I hope you might consider helping out Rose’s family — this month, ALL proceeds from my clothing sale goes to them. (It’s also possible to make a contribution to her fund.)
1) Browse the available items in my store here, and email me (gothiccarmina att gmail dot com) letting me know what you’d like. No need to use the app, you can simply tell me what interests you.
2) I’ll send you a care package, and funds go direct to Rose’s family. I have cute accessories, makeup, clothing, Lolita dresses, scarves and much more. Thank you everyone for your kindness
I’ll leave you with dozens of old photos of Rose, which I uploaded to this Facebook album. I’ve changed a lot over the years, but she’ll continue to be one of my dearest friends, and inspire me for the rest of my life.
The last words go to Rob: “Rose was my sister and even when things were getting worse, I never thought she wouldn’t be there. Now that she’s gone, I’ve lost a small piece of myself. All I can really say is: I miss my friend.”
Thank you for reading, and lots of hugs.
LA CARMINA
