That is a trend that has been creeping through the costume industry for the past five years, at least. There are a few product lines simply called "Gothic" from a few of the manufacturing houses. Though, these houses being huge and incestuous, it's probably all the same company anyway, which is ultimately The People's Republic of China.

It is sad, in a way.
Woe betide the babybats who actually wear that rubbish out to a show, or club night. Typically, they are snubbed so hard they don't resurface in the cruel glare of the public realm for a year or more, if ever. Sad, sad sad. Some are still too oblivious to notice the sneering, and it is for the best. It is sad to be exploited by the mainstream, to be co-opted by the dominant paradigm. It is sad that "Gothic" is something that can be picked up for a day & discarded immediately after.

But, at the same time... it is kinda neat.
There are probably some people for whom this is the first exposure to the big, bad "G" word.
"Gothic... what's that? It's kinda pretty in a spooky kind of way."
Then, we hope, they dig a little deeper.

& Sometimes there is neat stuff - I found a plastic drinking cup for $1 one year - eight snakes entwined around a wine-goblet, with a little red rhinestone for each of the eyes. Yes! super-cheesy, but I would rather be carrying THAT around CONvergence than a common red kegger cup...

-----------

Drivers of large vehicles - WTF...?
They drove like jerks when the gas prices went so high, presumably because they were so pissed off about the fuel situation.
And now that the price has come back down, they're driving like absolute assholes....? WHY?!

WTF- How do the "smart car" buyers feel now?

Ask again in 6 months!

Smart Car, Schmart Car. I wanna know how those people who bought a diesel-powered car for the cheaper gas feel.

With Smart Cars, as far as I can tell, the appeal doesn't lie in the MPG which isn't very good for such a tiny vehicle. Something like 43mpg I guess.

I think it's just that they're tiny. Some diesel cars like VW get 50+mpg so they're still somewhat reasonable and economical, and the engines last a long time. I've had two diesel Rabbits and they were great cars.

A VW Golf in good condition can get damn near 60 mpg, and can run on vegetable oil.

so eff off, robble

Diesel is not and has not for a very long time, been cheaper than gasoline. However, it has about 30% more energy per gallon than gasoline.

So Vince tells me I should buy some ShamWows, because "you're gonna spend $20 a month on paper towels, you're just throwing money away".

Let's see, 10 rolls of 100 sheets @$2 each would, in fact, be $20. With 30 days in an average month, I guess I'm using 33 paper towels each day (34 on weekends).

WTF kind of dipshit are you, Vince?

He uses them after his shower.

So I'm in the juice aisle at Cub. I used to buy Indian Summer brand apple juice because it was yummy, and also "Made in USA" (not from concentrate), which made the few-pennies-a-gallon higher price worth it to me.

But not anymore!

Now it's "US-grown apples", but from concentrate made in China.

W
T
F
?

How in f***ing hell can it be cost-effective to grow apples in the US, ship them to China to get chopped and squeezed and evaporated, and then shipped BACK to the US to have water added back in and put in bottles?

I really really don't want to believe that all those shipping costs net out to significantly less than our own local minimum wage (and/or the Local392 Apple-Squisher Union's ludicrous wage demands), but why the f**k else would an apple-juice company go through all that extra effort?!? Lower property taxes? Dodge USDA inspections? Government incentives? WHAT??

God this makes me want a beautiful, sweet, homegrown honeycrisp.

I have felt the same way
It seems like it would cost a fuckload to ship (by ship) cars from outside the US a
buy American automakers
I know for a fact that the Fender Mexican (mid price) guitar series is made in the US but assembled and painted in Mexico
Are wages really that low in those countries where it balances out massive transportation costs?
It must be some kind of tariff deal or some other complicated money-shuffling scenario

Anyone?

Many foriegn countries Govt. don't tax biz to oblivion, thats 1 reason... just sayin. But yes, Apple juice from china sounds blarf.

NO JUSTICE NO PEACE!!!!

I suddenly started getting one call after another asking me about my Craigslist ad
I assumed it was my musician's classified but the caller said it wasfor the free baby clothes/crib/diapers

HUH?

I went online and located the post and there it was with my phone number
I asked every caller to flag it
Then the calls started coming in about the ad I placed wanting omeone to come mow my lawn
I located that at ad and started asking people to flag it too
Once again, MY phone number and nothing else (no e-mail/link etc)
THEN I start getting calls about the Ibanez Jem 7 string I have for sale
Once again, I located the ad and it was the exact same thing
My number and nothing else


I started to wonder if someone was fucking with me
It certainly seemed so
The only doubt I have is that someone would go to the trouble of placing these ads with pictures etc....

I think someone was just a dumbass
All in all, I recieved 80 calls (most for the free baby stuff) and 20 messages on my voicemail from the people that didn't get through the barrage of calls

All 3 were flagged until they were taken down
I really don''t think it was on purpose
I haven't had a call in hours

UNLESS IT WAS YOU!!!!!!!!!

Got invited to a house party where noise musicians were playing
Recieved an invitation from two different people
One even called me a few hours before to make sure I was coming
Once I got there, I found the people who invited me and started to talk to them
There was a guy rapping over a noise track in the back yard when I arrived
Unfortunately, the cops arrived too (maybe you shouldn't have loud activity in the back yard without telling your neighbors)
They pointed out another member of their group so I went over to him and introduced myself
I got a chilly reception
In fact, I got a chilly reception from everyone but the two guys who invited me
The entire evening was spent getting dirty looks from people
I kept to the outskirts of the performance and got a call
I immediately hung up on the person and stepped outside so that I wouldn't be a distraction and called them back
Next thing I know, some guy is asking me who I am and what I'm doing there
I didn't even get a chance to respond when the guy starts ranting at me
-"I don't know what kind of pretense you had coming here but you're not performing"
-"We're really suspicious of people your age"
-"You think you can just come here from the south or wherever you come from and do whatever you like?"

I explained that I was invited and that my intentions were to get to know people from their noise group, give away some free sample CDs and generally schmooze
The whole time, there are guys standing behind him puffing up and flexing like I just showed up without any prior invitation
The guy keeps ranting about some bullshit scene politics while assuring me "I'm not trying to fuck with your head bro" (which is a sure sign someone is fucking with you) you just don't know what Minneapolis is about"
Then the owner of the house comes up to me and asks me what is going on
I replied "I have no idea and this guy isn't clarifying anything for me either" "But, I get the feeling that I am not welcome here so i am going to leave"
I shook his hand and apologized for the inconvenience

What the fuck!?
Do the noise people in this town really take themselves THAT seriously?
They all acted like I was a Narc or something

Name some of the "bands" or whatever these creeps call their assemblages of shit if you can.

That sounds really weird, but most everyone I've met from "noise" scenes are pretty fucked-up.

One of the things I have learned from opening my mouth so much is that naming names in public will come back to bite you on the ass
I learned that the hard way
Be assured that my wrath will come down good and hard on these people once I figure who's to blame
I sent a very stern e-mail to the guy who did all the ranting (he claims to have been drunk and cannot remember the conversation)
It ended with the statement "I don't need your permission or your endorsement to do what I came here to do. I didn't travel 1000 miles to be intimidated by the likes of you"
I don't wanna go burning my bridges with a whole group just because of one or two hyper-fuckasses
The rest of the guys seem excited about what I'mtrying to accomplish

I will say this though
The "noise" community sure does think a lot of themselves
Gimmie a fucking break
I like knob twiddling as much as the next guy but this whole "secret society" mentality is bullshit
One of the guys who was friendly and invited me was talking about some Russian noise DJ that he was supposed to open for
He says there is no information about the guy on the interent whatsoever and people refuse to even discuss him online
If I had a dollar for every noise artist I saw wearing a mask or refusing to put any pictures of themselves on their MySpace then I'd be a fucking millionaire
I'm all for putting your music over your ego but this is just general douchebaggery
Secret shows, suspicion of newcomers, outsider and old guys
You'd think they were some kind of domestic terrorist cell
Get over yourselves
You're not doing anything that revolutionary
Go read John Cage's book and realize people have been doing this since your Grandfather first wound up a Victrola

Knob-twiddlers with towels over their heads, with their backs towards the "audience", (90% of which is other dudes who twiddle knobs). So revolutionary.

WTF? Channels 5, 9, 11, and 45 all went dead a couple minutes ago.

Did the IDS tower fall over or something?

Wow. SOMEBODY needs to work on their associative product relationship algorithm.


Sooo... because I ordered a bunch of GNC glucosamine+chomdritin chewable caramels from you, I might also like a couple of pregnancy tests?

Uhh, is there something else in those caramels you should be telling people about?!?

I had to dodge raccoons crossing the road twice on my drive home tonight. Not unusual with the amount of late-night driving I do-- the "WTF" part was that one of them was crossing University Ave just a couple blocks west of 280. Uhh, that's not an area where you expect to run over wildlife...

I noticed that they have pregnancy tests at the dollar store
Looks like one more sign that the film "Idiocracy" is a documentary on the future

but not condoms.

They have those too

WTF? My fingernails seem to be growing way faster than usual. Is it a seasonal thing (like with hair)? Or is it just me?

Remember when Aqua put out that song "Barbir Girl" and Mattell freaked out?
They even sued the band
I just saw a Barbie commercial and guess what song they were using?
I can't believe a corporation would do something hypocrytical (!?)

That was bubblegum, Rock.



~€~

But on Rockula!'s budget, he can't really afford to make subtle distinctions between "'party' supplies" and party supplies.

After moving from state to state all of my adult life, I have had to take many different driver's license tests
They have all been the same
You don't have to study the manual or any of that shit, you just have to use common sense when answering the questions
You'll get a couple wrong (mostly the ones dealing with space or time incraments) but you'll pass

I just failed my Minnesota driver's test
Here are some of the answers I got wrong
And I paraphrasing because I didn't really take notes

"If you are about to turn left and there is oncoming traffic on a two way street you should"
A- Signal at least 50 feet from the intended turn
B- Nonsensical answer you know is wrong
C- 2nd nonsensical answer
D- Come to a cpmplete stop and keep your wheels pointed forward

Believe it or not the fucking answer was D

There were many questions like this
Then there were the answers that made no sense and were "morally confusing" like ones that involved operating a vehicle under the influence
This was the difference maker that caused me to fail the test
btw
%75 is failing?

I complained to the guys behind the counter (and made sure to be polite because I don't theink they made up the test themselves) and they said "You and about 60 other people"
They explained to me that their supervisor told them it would be too expensive to compose a new test

The upside is that I get 5 more chances to test
At least I didn't have to pay for the test
I would have been waaaaay pissed if that had happened

I can vouch for that one; I remember if from Driver's Ed class in high school. The teacher asked (aloud) whether you should have your wheels turned or straight while waiting for oncoming traffic. Everyone in class replied "turned" except me.

Not that I can claim to be a driving genius or anything; I only knew the correct answer because I had a distant relative who'd been killed in a firey head-on collision after being rearended by a drunk while she was waiting for oncoming traffic... with her wheels turned.

I feel you, Rock. While I didn't fail the MN touchscreen test, I was shocked at my 1 wrong answer. The picture showed a 2-lane road with a single, dashed center line. On the right were two cars going "up", and on the left was one car going" down this vertically aligned street. The question was "Is it legal for car [on the bottom right] to pass?"

I took one look and saw there was clearly oncoming traffic, so I answered "No" as this would endanger the oncoming car, the passing car, and possibly the car being passed. MNDOT must only care about the center line, because I was somehow wrong.

its 100 feet, therefore B is incorrect.

i didn't pass mine by much, but i aced it when i was 16.

Having your wheels turned indicates you are on the verge of actually making the turn and probably aren't paying attention to the fact that there is oncoming traffic which might inspire said oncoming traffic to make a sudden and panicked swerve which could cause an accident.

I'm actually more well-versed in these sort of things since UPS driver training is about 60% more intense than any other driver training. I know every answer to everything, along with the top ten reasons why it is the right answer and why most people will get it wrong and why they will most likely be involved in 2.3 accidents over the next five years.

I have been thinking about it and sub-consciously, I keep my wheels forward anyways
I'm not saying the test is impossible, it is just different from any other test I have taken in that they use the less obvious answer a lot more in this one
Just frustrated that I failed
I read the manual and am going back again today

yeah, there are definitely some bizarre answers to the questions in there. i seems to be worse every time i take it. i understand the whole misleading idea on multiple-choice tests, but whoever is doing the proofreading on those tests tends to overlook real-life scenarios in the graphical representations and leaves a LOT of subjectivity in the answers they give where more than one answer is actually right, but one is more right than the other.

Awesome

Finally got a NEW birth certificate (my regular one wasn't good enough for the state of Mn) and took my driver's test again
Got the question right about keepimg my wheels pointed forward during a turn but failed this question (paraphrased)
"You are approaching a school bus with the red lights flashing and the stop sign extended" "Which of these should you NOT do?"
Then proceed to figure out which of the 4 answers has the most wrong statements in it
HUH?
Plus, there was the question of "How fast are construction vehicles with (insert pic of orange triangle sign) displayed allowed to travel?"
Who fucking cares?
You yield to them, slow down and watch their behavior is all you need to really know

How the hell do people who can barely speak english get liscences in this state when the test itself is so convoluted that someone driving for 30 years has problems with it?

MN have the worst driving tests out of any state I know. Like me, they are designed to fail!

It makes me wonder if the convoluted wording of the test might be affected by having to translate into so many different languages
The guy behind the counter says he thinks it is ridiculous too but has been told that spending money to re-write the test is un-neccessary

All I had to do was remember the squirrely questions from before, study the manual and then take the test again
My mistake was my cavalier attitude about the test itself

I heard that when you get a new birth certificate that is a clear indicator that you are a foreign-born Muslim. And I thought I knew you.

~€~

I think it automatically makes you a socialist too.

I will gladly become a socialist for some health care
Oh wait
I already am

WTF? The Fonz is pimpin' reverse fuckin' mortgages now. Ayyyyyyy?
https://www.onereversemortgage.com/

So I'm standing around at the NYE party listening to Dissociate, and out of the blue someone asks me, "Are you zom-zom?"

WTF?

I took a moment, wondering whether it was someone who knew who we both were and was trying to insult me or something (heh), but he seemed sincere, so all I could think to reply was "Not even close".

Yeah
you weren't barrrrffff-ing

You should be so lucky..


On the other hand, nobody's ever asked me if I was "rskm1", Count Rockula or the Hamburglar.

That's because no one can possibly confuse me with anyone else
For better or worse, I am a singualr entity

Honey Nut Chex Mix doesn't have any nuts in it.

I waited FAR too long to remove our x-mess tree this year and fought long and hard to get all 3 strands of lights of. The dried needles stung like glass and the brittle branches kept snapping off and dropping to the floor.

When I finally completed stripping the lights off the tree I could hardly keep still I was laughing so hard at the morbidly disfigured, Charlie-Brown-esque tree that was in our living room. I would have taken a pic for everyone had I been able to hold still.

Spammer removed.

What about people who ask you if you're Meat Loaf or Count Chocula?