You may have noticed that COILHOUSE is down one writer this week. Where’s Mer? Did she run away? Did she join the circus? Actually, kind of. Resident musician Meredith Yayanos is in The Old Country right now, touring with a band called Faun Fables as opening guest performers for Sleeytime Gorilla Museum. Faun Fables’ sound is difficult to nail in the written form, especially for someone like me, a person whose daily music vocabulary is limited to phrases like “uber” and “truly epic.” I love music passionately, but I don’t want to torment you with my caveman language when it comes to describing this band’s unique sound. This is where my eloquent friends CTRL+C and CTRL+V come in:

“FAUN FABLES is DAWN McCARTHY’s vivid imagination come to life in song and theater. Dawn is a composer, singer and theater artist whose work is a sea of gorgeous elemental nitty gritty; haunting melodies, breath, stomping, and natural theatricality led by the voice, rooted in the physical body. It is a crossroads where ancient ballad, art song, physical theater and rock music meet. Her lyrics speak to people of all ages about things like rugged housekeeping, street kids, growing old, sleepwalking and exiled travelers returning home.”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/pNF7jcUq-yM" width="400" height="330" wmode="transparent" /]

More about the tour, Mer’s whereabouts, and a bonus horror film clip (!) by Faun Fables after the jump.

Hey guys, it’s the future! Motorola uses the image above to announce their new RAZR2 phone, partying like it’s cybergoth circa 1999 and brandishing a phone that looks it doubles as a light saber dildo. There’s a kind of sadness to this campaign, an aching desperation to make you feel the cutting edge of what’s basically just another souped-up fliphone, aged forever by the likes of OpenMoko and the iPhone.

Apparently, in Motorola’s perfect future, ladies will have disproportionate mutant man-hands. Or maybe it’s just an old trick for making cell phones in pictures appear more sleek and thin. In the future, the clothes get shinier, the cheap tactics stay the same.

Three Graces with a Knife by Natalie Shau

23-year-old Lithuanian digital artist Natalie Shau has created a new set of images influenced by Greek Mythology.

This piece above is called “Three Graces with a Knife.” According to Shau, illness the women in the image are Alecto the Implacable, advice Megaera The Jealous One and Tisiphone, tadalafil the avenger Murder. In Greek Mythology, these three sisters were known as Erinyes (or in Roman, the Furies), and they were the female personification of vengeance.

Vogue Italia October 2007
Photo: Richard Burbidge
Model: Alana Zimmer
See the rest on: foto_decadent

I used to get furious when I saw gothic-inspired shoots in magazines like Vogue. In my mind, the designers were capitalizing on a scene that was not theirs to own, tauntingly improving on certain fronts with their $70-a-yard fabric while raking in the cash for their soulless, safe interpretations while the real designers starved. Of course you had your occasional unique voice such as Vivienne Westwood, but for the most part what I saw looked like pure thievery. These days, I can enjoy an image like this without such malice. In today’s high-visibility networking culture, the most talented alt designers are fully capable of producing such high-fashion images on their own and getting published; just check out these impressive press pages from alt designers Atsuko Kudo and Cyberoptix.

And the ripoff factor? Well, there are a lot of anecdotes about how Jean-Paul Gaultier used to frequent London’s fetish clubs and stalk around Camden Market to subsequently fill the runway with directly-inspired, uncredited designs in the 90s. But when he turns around and comes up with something like this or this, is all not forgiven? A whole new generation of alt designers now finds inspiration in Gaultier’s work, completing the cycle. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one that’s healthier today then it’s ever been.

Previously:

• W Magazine Goth Spread
• More High Goth in the Mainstream Fashion Press

Every time I reach into the Magic Bucket o’ Reader Submissions, I discover something I’ve never seen before. I want to thank everyone who’s sent something in (except for you, submitter of furry porn – you almost got me fired at work). We’re never at a loss for new art and weirdness to cover, and it’s thanks to you guys!

DestroyX of the industrial duo Angelspit sends along a page is called Dreaming the Industrial Body, which features drawings from 20’s and 30’s of various bodily processes represented in terms of industrial society by artist Fritz Kahn. The drawings illustrate the inner workings of our bodies in terms of conveyor belts, telephone wires, electric projectors, locomotives, engines, refineries and switchboards manned by busy workers. It’s uber, ja!

The Dreaming the Industrial Body online exhibit is part of a series called Dream Anatomy, hosted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. There are many interesting sections – some other ones I enjoyed were Dissection Scenes and Fancies, Show-off Cadavers and Anatomical Primitives. The entire site is a must-see for any student of anatomy or fan of body horror.

This month Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine, claimed victory in Ukraine’s national elections, forming a new coalition government with President Yuchenko. Yulia Tymoshenko was at one time named one of the top 3 most powerful women in the world by Forbes Magazine and could be a serious presidential contender in the year 2010. But the question on the minds of both Tymoshenko fans and detractors is this: behind all the party rhetoric, is there a secret goth agenda? Coilhouse conducted a special investigative report. Our exclusive findings, after the jump.

Halloween is great because everything in stores has skulls, pills bats and the spiders on it. Most of it is too cheesy to be taken seriously, health but there are quite a few diamonds in the rough, sickness especially this year! The best place to scour morbid decorations for your home is The Hostess Blog, which has a delightful Halloween section for spooky dinnerware, candles, chocolates and more. My favorite is the “Last Meal Flatware Set” by Urban Outfitters. WANT!

The Muse. Photo by Viona, outfit and jewelry by Elisabeth.

Elisabeth and Viona Ielegems are two sisters from Belgium with an incredible talent for fashion and photography. Golden-haired gothic princess Viona is a world-famous alt photographer who appears in many of her own images, and her younger sister Elisabeth is a fashion designer who makes gorgeous necklaces, rings, earrings and other filigree items for your inner woodland fae. Together they collaborated on the following shoot for Elisabeth’s graduation project, a series of designs revolving around different feminine archetypes. Seen above is The Muse. Click on the titles below to see more:

• The Winter Bride
• The Courtesan
• The Widow
• The Muse
• The Fetish

The links are to Viona’s site, and the project can be seen on Elisabeth’s Flash site as well with poetic quotations describing each.

It’s past 1 AM, I’m munching on a buttery, cheesy bruschetta, and listening to Miss Platnum’s “Give Me the Food.” The song has an unusual theme for an R&B tune: a celebration of eating! “I like my coffee with a lot of cream, I like to eat late at night, I like scrambled eggs after a sweet dream, I like potatoes – deep fried,” sings Miss Platnum.

The Romanian-born, German-based singer laughs off dieting: “I don’t care what people say about my weight, so if you want to take me out for a date, make sure there is enough food on my plate.” In addition to the great message and fun music video, it’s just a ridiculously catchy song. Miss Platnum’s powerful voice and witty delivery instantly make their way to the heart, even if you (like me) generally don’t listen to R&B. Watch the video, after the jump. Via Gala Darling.

Model: Dita. Designer: Gaultier. Photographer: Perou.

I love lace! I love it so much. I believe that people who wear lace tell less lies, cars with airbrushed lace patterns on them are less likely to break down, and that the first nation to put a lace pattern on its flag will come to rule the world. Here are my five favorite lace things du jour: