Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 15 to receive wisdom from the Witchy Witches!
As you know, Gothtober is FIFTEEN years old in good ol’ 2017, a bona fide Quinceañera! The Witchy Witches Coven has stirred the cauldron to impart upon us the sacred knowledge we need to keep being our witchy ghoulish selves, so pay attention, and get schooled! You get fifteen, count ’em FIFTEEN birthday blessings from Guy-A Magique LaMarr, Frizzy Fawcett, Lady Ass Majick and special guest, Heather Damage!
There are GREAT tips everyone needs to know (or remember, if this isn’t your first rodeo) about such things as how to deal with Harvest Gods, the meaning of Tori Amos songs, learning how to goth dance, and so much more! After all, Heather Damage has been 15 for over two thousand years! If you can’t learn anything from her, you can’t be helped!
A special note: I, creator of this calendar, identify as a lesbian (and yes, Head Candy Corn.) Thus, there is a lot of queer camaraderie and solidarity in the Gothtober calendar. When the Coven of the Witchy Witches showed up on their brooms five years ago, to join us, I couldn’t have been more overjoyed! These supernatural individuals fight the darkness with ass, class and sass every day. They suit up, show up, and are ready to celebrate and fight for our LGBTQ community in countless ways, something we need more than ever during the times we’re having. A special spell of love and light for the witchy sisters of the coven, from all of us here at Gothtober!
Visit www.gothtober.com and click on Day 14 for the most helpful advice you’ll get this year!
Ian MacKinnan’s coven of witchy sisters are going to guide you toward greatness, if only you’ll listen to their common sense wisdom! Each of them is over 500 years old, so if you think better… Witch Please, think again!
Studies have shown that regular humans like us can gain infinite knowledge from the centuries of experience our dear majikal wimmin sisters have gleaned. If you don’t like what they are saying, don’t be too vocal about it, they can say incantations that make you grow hair on your eyeballs, it’s best that you not explore their wrath! We think you’ll find that if you apply these helpful bits of learning to your life lexicon, you will achieve a level of balance that was thought to be long lost, according to legendary lore.
It’s time for mid terms, or rather, it’s time for 13 teachable moments in the form of three witchy sisters who have a thing or two to teach you about Halloween. Prepare yourself for a list of stone cold snopes-proof fact about our favorite holiday, and yes, there will be a test.
You’ve never seen this much make-up and attitude crammed into one educational presentation, your brain curds are going to leak out your ears, they’ll be so smart! Never fear, these three damsels in excess will make sure you’ve got enough brains for everyday living.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially if you have leftover BBQ sauce.
Ian MacKinnon is a gay based performance activist in Los Angeles, the writer and performer of The Gay Hist-Orgy series of shows that has played all over California. If you haven’t seen his time traveling hot pants, well, please do yourself a favor and let Ian take you on a romp down memory lane as soon as possible.
He teaches workshops, he makes new shows and performances constantly, he’s a never-ending power source of fiery flaming inspirational awesome that will make you feel like your underwear is made out of 5,000 tiny peppermints!
You can also catch Ian at Planet Queer, along with other interstellar performers, it’s the first Monday of every month at Akbar on the corner of Sunset and Fountain.
Which Witch tells Columbus Day to go fly a kite? ALL OF THEM!
Hold onto your falsies, Gothtober Pumpkin DAY 8 (courtesy of Ian MacKinnon of GayHistorgy.com) is about to OPEN YOUR MIND with a fierce and immersive bitchy witchy (PG-13, parents, pay attention please!) ritual aimed at saving the world by helping it “get more gay” while also chasing away the false pageantry surrounding Columbus Day!
Join Witches Lady Guya Magique Oshaughnessy, Lady Mary Juana and Lady Ass Majick in a comprehensive drag-magical anti-columbus observance! As spiritual muses of visibility and bravery, drag queens know a thing or two about the stinkers in high places trying to rewrite history, attempting to shut many of us into obscurity with the purpose of keeping our unequal power structure in favor of existing dominant forces. WELL SCREW THAT! There are no better experts than these three gorgeous glittery enchantresses to lead us away from the curse of complicity and toward getting off our asses to learn the truth about the world and our nation and ourselves, claiming our power and flipping Columbus Day THE BIRD.
Instead, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, which is, coincidentally: October 8th, 2012!
Ian McKinnon as your Gay Historgy Leather Daddy Professor – Photograph by Don Tinling
George Orwell wrote:
“Who controls the past controls the future. And who controls the present controls the past.”
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” This is pretty much what generations of school children, including myself, were told about Christopher Columbus. We were never told anything else about it, and we tucked it away in the back of our minds as one of those “nothing holidays” where we get to stay home from school or work.
(This ad is from Columbus Day in 2010, but it might as well be for EVERY Columbus Day)
If you haven’t already… It’s time to rethink Columbus Day. If you don’t know much about it, or never bothered to really delve into what really happened, take some time today and take a look at these resources:
…of all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity…yet into this sheepfold…there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening beasts…Their reason for killing and destroying…is that the Christians have an ultimate aim which is to acquire gold…
“Rethinking Columbus was never just about Columbus. It was part of a broader movement to surface other stories that have been silenced or distorted in the mainstream curriculum: grassroots activism against slavery and racism, struggles of workers against owners, peace movements, the long road toward women’s liberation—everything that Howard Zinn dubbed “a people’s history of the United States.”
We need to listen to a wider range of voices. We need to hear from those whose lands and rights were taken away by those who “discovered” them. Their stories, too often suppressed, tell of of 500 years of courageous struggle, and the lasting wisdom of native peoples. Understanding what really happened to them in 1492 is key to understanding why people suffer the same injustices today.
In a letter he wrote to one of his Spanish patrons, (about the Arawaks, or Tainos as they were also known) Columbus said: “They are very simple and honest and exceedingly liberal with all they have, none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it. They exhibit great love toward all others in preference to themselves.” But then, in the midst of all this, in his journal, Columbus writes: “They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
“In his quest for gold, Columbus, seeing bits of gold among the Indians, concluded there were huge amounts of it. He ordered the natives to find a certain amount of gold within a certain period of time. And if they did not meet their quota, their arms were hacked off. The others were to learn from this and deliver the gold.”
And that’s just the beginning, if you read Zinn’s book you’ll be rethinking all kinds of stuff, but one thing’s for sure: you will enter into a consciousness that is no longer one of “sleepwalking.” And you probably will think that Christopher Columbus was a Grade A dirtbag and tell his holiday to go suck an egg.
