A Vampire Defense Kit

For my birthday my daughter surprised me with a vampire kit. It contains wooden stakes, holy water, a cross, a couple of garlic bulbs and some vampire literature. I hope I never have the chance to use it, but I thought it was a pretty cool gift and now I have my own doctor's kit - Dr. Van Helsing, that is.

Gothic Birthdays: Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte, born July 30, 1818. She's is my favorite writer as author of Wuthering Heights,which is my favorite Gothic Romance. Her poetry is wonderful as well. Suffice it to say, she was a literary genius. A very petite literary genius.

According to the Norton Anthology, Literature by Women: The Traditions in English, Second Edition (1996) Gilbert and Gubar,  the carpenter who made her coffin had never made such a small one for an adult. It was five feet six inches in length and sixteen inches in width. I'm sure she was a little larger before becoming ill and wasting away with consumption, but she still would have been petite in my opinion. As far as I know consumption doesn't reduce height. She was a shy person, only comfortable at home and felt most liberated walking among the heather on the moors. I can relate to that! Gilbert and Gubar also state that she stubbornly got up and dressed the day she died and refused to see a doctor. I don't blame her as the doctor probably couldn't do anything but stick leeches on her anyway in those days.

Even though she died at the young age of 30, with the encouragement and posthumous promotion of her sister Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), she made such a huge contribution to the world with her passionate prose and poetry. I for one am eternally grateful.

Gothic Birthday: Eva Green is Thirty-Five

Until I saw Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (2012) my life was unfortunately deprived of Eva Green. Like so many fans of the original Dark Shadows gothic soap opera, I was a little disappointed in the movie as I was hoping for an emphasis on the eery drama, but instead got extreme camp. I do love camp, black humor and gothic silliness, but Barnabus Collins, played by Jonathan Frid in the original TV show, was a dark, intelligent badass who knew how to rock the guyliner, not a bumbling misfit with bad make up. 

However, the movie wasn't all bad as it included a great cast and introduced me to the excellent Chloe Grace Moretz (Carolyn Stoddard) and, of course, the wonderful Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard. Although Lara Parker will always be Angelique, Eva Green brought Angelique into the 21st Century with the charm, strength, power and style that I think only Eva Green can.

Blown away by her stellar performance in Dark Shadows, I was compelled to see movies solely because she was cast in them. Well, maybe not solely, but she was a huge draw for me. One such movie was Sin City: A Dame to Kill For which was deemed by every critic a sad sequel to the original, which I not only like, but own. I had to agree with the critics, but Eva Green made it worth the price of admission. After all, she was The Dame to Kill For!

Another movie that I was extra excited to see was 300: Rise of An Empire in which she played the ruthless and powerful Artemisia. Like Sin City, I am a fan and own the original, but the addition of Eva Green to the sequel made it all the more necessary to experience it. 

And then came Penny Dreadful on Showtime. As one of the most frugal people I know, maybe the most frugal (I've been referred to as Mr(s). Krabs), I was tempted to order Showtime just for Penny Dreadful and Eva Green. However, strong will prevailed as I told myself it's way cheaper to wait and buy the DVD than pay for Showtime, not to mention cable or satellite TV (which I gave up as wasteful spending) just for one show. Delayed gratification is a virtue and the experience can be sweeter for the wait. 

A very happy birthday to Eva Green. May your successful career bring gothic joy to your fans and personal fulfillment and joy to yourself for many more years.